[people keep calling him that -- sunny, and he finds it a little disconcerting. it's not a word his mom would have used to describe him, it's not a word he grew up hearing. he doesn't smile nearly that much, he thinks, and it's not like he's bouncing all over the place with cheer. he wonders if what Adam means is how Alex has used the word warm, instead, which he hopes is true. he'd like to be a warm person, even if he doesn't always feel like one, inside]

[earnest, he can't refute. he's too earnest, if anything, and that seems to be a problem he and Adam share, if his next words are anything to go by. Magnus listens, and feels like for the terrifying posturing he does -- Adam is quite young. still figuring out what it means to love and be loved, still figuring out himself, and what's worthwhile about him (if there is anything). he thinks of Hearth again, middle-aged, but still weighed down with the same pain, the same questions; still young, in that way]

[Magnus thinks of Ronan saying, Adam isn't the monster here, his insistence on that fact]

You don't owe me any explanations.

[he pauses, almost leaves it at that, but adds, thinking of Alex, now]

If you can overcome feeling unlovable, I think you can overcome anything else. Including -- [he motions between them, the insecurity Adam feels, the jealousy and paranoia] -- this. This is small-time shit, in comparison, dude.

You're not as stuck in yourselves as you and Ronan think you are.