7. When I had a nightmare and he stroked my hair until I fell asleep.

“He takes me seriously even if what’s upsetting me seems ridiculous. My favorite example: I suffer from nightmares, not just regular bad dreams, but nightmares that are terrifying irrespective of the contents. The first time I had one of those while we slept together, he woke up as I was crying next to him. He took it seriously even though what I explained had made me sad and scared me in the dream made no sense (If I remember correctly my dragon had traded its wings for butterfly wings and had in the process lost the ability to hear. It was sad and I couldn’t comfort it and for some reason I knew this thing would lead to its death and it scared me shitless). I had trouble going back to sleep and he started nodding off. He caught himself falling asleep and didn’t want to leave me alone there. So he sat up, put my head in his lap and stroked my hair until I started falling asleep. Then he lay down again, which woke me up a little bit so he would hold me and stoke my hair again until I fell asleep in his arms. Never before did I manage to sleep so well after one of my serious nightmares.”
—FrellZilla

8. When he bought me an adorable little stuffed animal frog because he knew I liked it.

“When we first started dating I went out with a friend who needed to buy a gift for a kid for a party. We picked out an ADORABLE little stuffed animal frog. I mean really, this thing was so fucking cute. I couldn’t help but want to carry him around the store until the check out.

So later that night when I was telling my then boyfriend what I did during the day I included an offhanded remark about this adorable little stuffed animal frog. Then just carried on the conversation. It wasn’t a hint. It wasn’t something I was fishing for. It was just a highlight of my day.

The next day when I came home from work (he had the keys to my place) I came into my bedroom and found the little frog sitting on my pillow.

And to me—it meant he listened to me. Actually listened to me. Picked up on the stupidest little thing I said. I thought the stuffed animal frog was cute. And he heard that and remembered it. I still have ‘Froggy,’ 9 years later. Still have that man too. :)”
—VikingHedgehog