The thing with love is that it's the thing that can hurt you the most.

You loved Philip Graves, loved him so much that some days your heart ached for him. And he loved you. Or... well, you thought he did...

You two had been together for years now, shared a home, did so much together. And Graves loved you. He did. You were his darlin', as he puts it. The light of his life.

And then he had to go and screw it up by screwin' some random– god, he doesn’t even remember why he did it. Was he drunk? Needy while on deployment? Or–

It doesn't matter. Graves knows it doesn't, not when he comes home and he sees you. Sees the moment realisations dawns on your face.

You take in his appearance, the apologies falling from his lips.

"Darlin', sweetheart, please," he stammers, regret coiling in his gut. Fuck. Fuck. How could he have been so stupid? "Just– just lemme explain!"