Kisses didn't have to lead to something more. Erskine would have been perfectly content to leave it at that, a kiss here and there without the expectation of something more to follow--truthfully he'd never even given thought to what that might be like--but he was still too enthralled by the notion that Hopeless returned his feelings to be truly upset about it. Having Hopeless close like this was more than he'd ever dreamed he would have.

"Too late," he whispered back, too happy to be wry about it. His eyes slid shut at the feeling of the thumb on his temple, that comforting gesture Hopeless had used so often toward the end of the war, after Mevolent. How badly he'd needed this, so many times over the years.

"I should have realized sooner," he said eventually, his voice still low. His eyes opened again, his gaze moving up to search out Hopeless's while a note of sadness crept into his thoughts, just behind the elation. "I look back on it now and I know I felt this way back then, I just... I had no idea. I wasted so many years. I'm sorry."