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“Hold me back? Mina! If anything, it is I who would hold you back! Is that not how it has always been? Do not think I did not know you so often waited for me to catch up on your adventures, your patience at my reluctance to test boundaries. You free me, while I…I am a ballast. An anchor.”

Mina shook her head vehemently. “You were always my counterbalance, never a hindrance.”

“Then why can you not believe you are the same for me? I am better for your presence in my life. Who knows what I might have become without you.”

“A good man, Harry. You were always going to be a good man.”

“A man can perform good acts, but still feel unfulfilled, uninspired, hollow for the absence of love. Do not deny us both the opportunity to feel fulfilled by knowing this love. I am begging you to place your faith in me, to trust that I will do everything in my power to spend the rest of my days showing you just how loved you are.”

Mina ran her hands along the span of Harry’s back, tracing the tense lines as she swallowed her heart and prepared to speak without being overrun by her emotions.

“If you insist,” she sighed dramatically, though she was unable to completely mask her joy. Immediately, Harry’s lips crashed down onto hers, stealing her breath and making her feel as if she were floating all at the same time.

By the time their kiss broke, both of them were breathing heavily.

“I love you,” Mina breathed.

Harry pressed his forehead to hers and whispered, “Will you never cease to drive me mad? Nothing will ever be simple, will it?”

Grinning, Mina murmured, “Never,” before tilting her chin and capturing Harry’s mouth once more.