Shrug.

Hug. And petting.

Jackson sags in his arms and sighs.

Yeah.

"Do you think it's likely you or Mason will come to love each other?"

"I thought I loved him..."

"Mmhm," he murmurs.

"I dunno how I'd tell, really."

"Do you typically look forward to seeing him? Other than the sex."

This question seems to confuse Jackson, but not so much that he doesn't eventually say, "No."

"That may not be a sufficient condition for being in love with someone but I'm pretty sure it's necessary."

"Oh."

"So, you don't love Mason, he doesn't love you, it's not very likely either of you will start. I personally think that would be sufficient for me to want to break up but you might prefer to remain with him for other reasons. But you unambiguously prefer being with someone who loves you and whom you love back, right?"

"...yeah."

"Now, suppose you found out right now that, one, other doms than Mason can, in fact, be interested in you, and two, Brian in particular was. Would that be enough for you to want to break up, never mind whether you'd be able to go through with it?"

"I wouldn't want to break up I just want to be broken up."

"...okay. Alright. So, you want to be broken up, and you want to be with someone else who loves you and stuff. What are the bad parts of breaking up? Like, what's keeping you from doing it?"

"It's scary and I'm not sure I'm allowed to."

"...allowed to?"

"Yeah. He never said."

"Jackson, you don't need permission from the other half of a relationship to end that relationship."

Jackson does not look as though he is prepared to take this as fact.

"Look, just like a relationship doesn't start if only one person wants it, it oughtn't go on if only one person wants it."

"You can stop telling me stuff like that like I'm stupid, you know."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to imply you're stupid, I don't think you are. I'm just—failing to find a way to say what I mean."

"The problem isn't that I don't know what you mean."