A/N: Change of POV again. This is also the last chapter, but there may be more in this series coming.

Sonny's hand was numb. They'd been sitting for a long time, in the dark and quiet of Barba's office. He knew they should move, but he didn't have the heart to disturb the peace. He could tell from the rhythm of his breathing that he wasn't asleep, but he probably wished he was, and that was more or less the same thing.

His heart hurt when he thought about how sure Barba had been that he would leave. He knew better than to take it as a personal insult, and he wanted to hurt all the people who made the ADA feel like he was any less for being human.

When he thought of the look on Barba's face as he struggled to hold himself together, his stomach twisted. He could see so clearly behind his eyelids the way he struggled to hold himself up as the weight of whatever this was pressed down on him, threatening to crush him.

He wished that his desire to take his boyfriends pain away was enough. He wished he could crawl inside his heart and pick up all the pieces. He wished he could fill the gaping hole of darkness with his own light. Because he knew, instinctively, that where he was all light, the darkness only in the corners, crowding him during tough moments, Barba was a black hole, and he was constantly creeping around the edges, performing a well-practiced balancing act.

"Let's go home," he whispered against Barba's ear.

Barba didn't move for a while, and Sonny was patient. Eventually, he lifted himself from the lounge, scooping his briefcase up off the floor, forcing his spine straight. The smile on his face didn't fool Sonny, but he smiled back anyway.

"I'll see you tomorrow?"

Sonny blinked, his mouth going slack with confusion. His brain quickly caught up, but not quick enough for Barba to not see it as rejection. He watched the ADA's face fall, and he looked so tired and so vulnerable, and Sonny felt himself hurrying forward, ready to physically hold him together.

"Right," Barba muttered, moving for the door, but Sonny reached out, entwining their fingers as he dropped his head to meet his boyfriend's gaze.

"You're an idiot," he said gently, smiling as he squeezed Barba's hand. "I meant, come home with me."

It was Barba's turn to blink in confusion, before he nodded, a small smile forming on his lips as he pulled Sonny towards the door.

In the back of the cab, Sonny kept a hold of Barba's hand, his thumb rubbing a soothing pattern. When they got home, he lead Barba to the bedroom wordlessly.

Because what could he say? He wanted to have the magic words to ease his partner's pain, but he knew no such words existed. Anything he could say would come out wrong. His actions were better than his words, and his actions felt like not nearly enough.

It took all his strength to not ask Barba to talk. It took everything in him to not question or probe or prod. It took strength not to start on a tirade of insults and threats at the faceless people who had worn Barba down to a point where he felt like he had to hide from everyone. Because how could he possibly think Sonny would just walk away when the person he loved was drowning? How could he think he would turn the other way and want nothing to do with him after seeing a glimpse of his darkness. How could he think he could find him ugly simply because he wasn't perfectly put together?

His heart ached with the weight of it all, but he said nothing. He just undressed them both, put them both into bed, planted kisses across his lover's forehead, before folding around him protectively, just as he had the night before.

The next morning, Barba didn't flee, and Sonny took that as a good sign. In fact, Barba was up first, and when Sonny came out of the shower, breakfast awaited him. Bacon and eggs and fresh coffee, presented as an apology and a thank you, neither of which were necessary, though Sonny took them anyway, because he knew that's what Barba needed.

They ate in silence. Sonny wanted to say so many things, but he worried anything he had to say would be unwanted. He knew enough of trauma and mental illness to know that the whole thing was a balancing game, and while he was surprised to find it in the ever-composed ADA, he knew, sadly, that's often where it hid. He didn't know exactly what this was, but he knew it fell loosely into that category, somehow, and so he knew not to push.

"Thank you, Sonny."

Sonny froze mid chew, running the sentence through his mind multiple times, before looking up to meet Barba's tentative smile. He called him Sonny. For the first time in the entire three-and-a-bit years they'd known each other, Rafael Barba called him Sonny.

He felt it warranted a 'Rafael', in return, though the name felt more formal than 'Barba', somehow. He wanted to call him 'Raf'. To test the name he'd used countless times in his head. The name he'd almost said out loud too many times to count, always catching himself at the last moment.

He knew he'd been too silent and too still for too long when worry crept into his partner's face. He shook his head, his mind catching up to the fact that his boyfriend called him Sonny. It didn't sound like much, but to him, it meant the world. It meant they'd crossed a line that he'd been too scared to cross himself. It felt like such an intimate thing, because despite his insistence that everyone call him that, no one ever did. The smile blooming on his lips was damn-near face splitting, and he knew it, and he didn't care to reign it in.

He watched as Barba's worry turned to relief, then a smile. A small one, nowhere near as large as his own. But then, Sonny figured he could smile enough for both of them, if he had to.

"You called me Sonny," was all he could manage, and he ducked his head, feeling slightly embarrassed and all-too giddy.

Barba laughed, and it was like music to his ears. He'd heard Barba laugh before, many times, but the low, barely there sound that reached his ears that morning was one he planned to lock away forever. It was unexpected, unprepared, and Sonny had forced it out of him. Through the darkness, Sonny dragged some unexpected light, and that memory he would hold onto forever so he could learn to perfect the action, and repeat it endlessly.

"I did," Barba acknowledged, tilting his head a little to meet Sonny's eyes.

And Sonny beamed at him before taking his partners face between his hands and kissing him. Dry, but warm, and tender, and full of every bit of love he could find within him. And he knew the look on Barba's face when he pulled away would stay with him forever, too.

"I love you, Raf," he tested shyly.

Barba's face twisted slightly, followed by an eye-roll, though Sonny could see the smile behind it, and it warmed his heart.

"You jumped on that pretty quick. I'm not sure I like it."

But he was barely restraining a grin now, and Sonny was back to grinning in full, leaning into Rafael's space. And didn't it feel good to be able to freely think of him as something more intimate than 'Barba'.

"I think you do," he said softly.

"Yeah, I do."

Rafael's eyes were serious now, the ghost of a smile barely visible as he took Sonny's hand. He felt a flutter of nerves form in his stomach, but he made sure to keep smiling.

Rafael just stared at him, his eyes the most open and honest they'd ever been. So Sonny stared right back, drinking in every detail. He could see every apology, every thank you, every bit of guilt and worry and self-hatred and sadness, and though it made his heart constrict, he felt privileged to be able to see all of it.

He didn't realise he was crying until Rafael brought his hands up, wiping the tears from Sonny's face. He ducked his head, embarrassed, but Rafael caught his lips in his own before pressing a kiss to either of his eyelids.

"This is who I am," he whispered, his voice shaking slightly, and Sonny wanted nothing more than to tear all of that worry and fear out of him.

"I love who you are," he whispered back. "Even if it makes me cry like a fool over breakfast."

Rafael laughed softly at that, but it was a wet sound, full of too much emotion for so early in the morning. Sonny laughed too, sniffing slightly. He never would have thought of crying as romantic, but he thought this might have been the biggest declaration of love he'd ever been a part of, and despite his wishing for Rafael to be nothing but happy, he wouldn't change it for anything in the world.

It was their moment, and theirs alone, and that made it perfect.