I like to hear "I love you," but I don't always need it to know. I see how he loves me in lots of different ways. He can't stand to be away from me for long periods of time. He calls me and asks me, "Aren't you off work yet?" He pampers me and babies me like I've never been babied before. Before we started living together, first thing in the morning when he woke up, I'd be the first thing he "did" - he messaged me before he even rolled out of bed.
Funny - he was very much against falling in love, because he's been through a string of bad relationships, and was terrified of commitment, and terrified to trust again. But he fell hard for me, and was afraid to tell me. Afraid to fall for me.
The first night I knew that he was falling in love with me, we were sitting with friends at a bar, but we were just like so into each other, that it was like there was no one else in the room but us. After a long night of talking, he looked at me for about 30 seconds and didn't look away, and then he said, "**** you," and smiled. At first, I was a little taken aback, but then I thought of what he was doing, how was acting, how he
looked as he said it. I knew right then that that was his way of telling me he loved me,
without telling me he loved me. From that point forward, every time he would flip me off, or tell me "**** you," I knew that that was his way of telling me he loved me.
But as was mentioned earlier, sometimes it's nice to be told. Sometimes you want to know without a shadow of a doubt. You want assurance.
That was in June. Fast forward to October, and we were just laying in bed snuggling, and talking, and giggling, and I said, "I want to tell you something," and he was like, "OK, shoot." I told him, "I love you." What happened next surprised me. He said, "I love you, too." Now he says "I love you" to all our friends, so I said, "No, baby. I
love love you." He laughed and said, "I
love love you, too." I was shocked. I said, "You do????" and he said, "Of course. ****ing idiot."
Unconventional, telling each other to **** off all the time? Sure, I guess. But that's how we are. That's our love language for each other. As long as we know without a shadow of a doubt how the other person feels, that's all that matters.