S smiles at that, weak but indescribably fond, still holding onto J in turn. As much as he hates seeing J so upset, and he really does, there's something sweet about J like this, all soft and clingy. Despite how long they've been here now, and on so much steadier ground than before, there's always some relief, too, in being able to talk through something like this without it coming to a fight. They misunderstood each other at first, but they said what they needed to and they've wound up better off for it, or he thinks they have, hopes they have. Somewhere in the back of his head is the possibility that this could still go wrong — reopen old wounds, rekindle the sense of competition that came between them before — but he hopes it won't. That has to be enough. Like J said a few moments ago, they were happy together for much longer than they weren't, and music was part of that. It used to be something they shared. Even if neither of them ever feels about it the way they once did, even if they don't play together like they did when they were younger, there's no sense in letting the time when it went wrong negate the time that it was right.

"I love you," he echoes. "So much." It's a love big enough that he'd have been more than willing never to touch a piano again if it would do them any good, though he sees no need to point out that hypothetical now. While he thought until not very long ago at all that it might come to that, or should have, he knows now that he was reading everything all wrong. The last thing they need is to go back to talking themselves in circles over it. "Even when we're both messes."

As true as it is that he tends to start crying when J does, in this case, it wasn't even what set him off. Being told that J missed hearing him play is what did that, the very fact of it still leaving S slightly stunned, so at odds with what he's spent all these months believing. "Will you sit with me for a minute?"

In spite of his offer, he's not sure he could play quite yet, all sniffly and bleary-eyed. He does want to get off his feet, though, and regain his bearings, as long as he can stay close to J while he does so.