"Naru?" Sasuke barely mumbled it into his lover's neck, but he wasn't surprised when he got a murmured response immediately, Naruto's fingers trailing up the nape of his neck. "I. . . How- Why- How did you never," he paused, swallowing hard, fingertips tracing down the defined muscle of Naruto's arm and . . . over the place where the skin changed, "give up on me?"

"Sasuke," Naruto made a fierce little sound and Sasuke tensed, but Naruto only held him tight, gentle, and nuzzled his face, "it's. . . It was - and is - you," he paused, with a little laugh, and Sasuke shifted enough to look him in the eye; he was smiling, eyes bright as a summer sky, "and it's me. Of course I never could have given up on you," he grinned, "and I never will."