Some background knowledge: We've been together for over a year now and we've never had sex at all, figuring that they were a virgin meanwhile I had experience I decided that ultimately it would be up to them for when they would be ready for anything to do with sex and the like. Very minor things like jerking off between us and general dirty talk over text but no sex at all.

For me though, sex and being intimate is a very integral part of how I deal with relationships and with myself (past trauma and other issues had hardwired me into this sort of mentality) but of course I don't move forward with anything unless I get some sort of confident yes, but I still masturbate to a lot of porn and roleplay smut to get off as well. My partner knows all of this about me and has said that they don't mind that I watch porn or roleplay smut, in fact they encourage it so that was one sign that they were asexual.

Only recently did they come out to me saying how "they weren't sure how to come out and say it but been thinking about it a lot and they're asexual". It felt a little out of the blue so I asked why they were saying it now only to be responded with "I didn't want to make you upset because I know sex is a big deal for you". It is a big deal but I really care about my partner so I figure that I can go without sex that just so I can still be with them, but the day after I started to really think about it and I'm just a little worried that my partner is always going to feel bad about coming out to me now and I'm not sure how I'm meant to move forward with being able to support them and reassure them that sex isn't the only way that I can show that I care about them a lot.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated and if anyone that is ace could relate to how my partner might feel in this situation then I would gladly hear from that side, thank you!