Tobirama:

It was true, the part about me and Emil planning.

Didn't tell Izuna the entire truth, though.

Didn't tell him how we actually planned.

Gave him the picture that we laid next to each other, talking.

I really had Emil a sweaty, whimpering, SQUELING mess underneath me.

Look at me.

He refused.

I grabbed his face harshly, and he obeyed.

Good boy, I cooed.

Having Izuna underneath me was the best sensation in the world; he was so giving.

But there was something having a reluctant man like Emil underneath me that made my mouth water.

The way he strained himself to not give in.

The way he FAILED.

Hehh...

I'm going to top you both after that. Remember, eye contact with me.

He nodded, looking up at me shyly.

I'll top you both. Izuna will already have gotten my cock, so it's your turn.

A whimper.

I'll finger-fuck Izuna meanwhile.

Tobirama...

Yes, baby?

Put your tongue in my mouth.

I did, for an hour.

Izuna:

What surprised me the most was how enormously stable Tobirama was.

There was hardly any trace of all he'd been through.

The rape, the torture, the manipulation, the crimes, the constant fear...

During the coming months, he was an absolute rock in my life as everything came back to me, once again. Emil's death, watching him being tortured, me being raped, finding out truth after truth about Tobirama...

The night after we slept together again for the first time since our time apart, Tobirama stayed over, and we laid huddled together, naked bodies pressed together, him holding me so close to his chest it felt as if though a meteor could come crashing down on me and I would be protected even then. But I woke up in the middle of the night by Tobirama calling my name.

"Izuna... Izuna, wake up. Come back to me, baby, it's just a dream. It's just a dream..."

I realised I was screaming then, my waist-long hair glued to my sweaty neck and back, clawing at Tobirama's back.

"Izuna, my love, you're safe... You're safe..."

I burst into tears then, hid my face in his safe chest, curled up into a ball, let him cocoon me in the sweet sensation of reality.

"It was him", I croaked. "I dreamed he was shot, but he didn't die instantly, and I tried to call an ambulance but it didn't work! And I couldn't remember how to stop a bleeding!" I wailed then.

And the nightmares continued like that.

Tobirama slept at my place every single night then. And he was always there when I woke up in panic. He never said anything negative about it. Not even once. He didn't show even an ounce of jealousy, of finding it hard to take that I still obviously loved Emil.

He just ploughed through it all, always there to love and support me, to ask me about my day and to tell me about his. He seemed to have developed an immense excitement for life that was contagious, and after years of depression, I felt I started to enjoy life once more, the black thoughts I'd suffered from slowly whithering away.

We were on a hike trip, one year after I'd met him in the house for the children for the first time. We were staying in a vast, amazing timber cottage with a splendid view over a lake and its surrounding forests, the mist engulfing it all in an exquisite scenery. We were laying in bed, naked, sweaty, skin like pearls as we looked over the view from the floor-to-ceiling glass windows that surrounded three sides of the bedroom hovering above the lake, and Tobirama entwined our fingers, created a braid. It was just the two of us in the entire world that we had created.

"Izuna..." he said "We never really talked about when we became a couple."

I looked at him. "I never thought of that. But I've been exclusive ever since I saw you that time."

He smiled warmly. "Me too. It's not that..." He looked away, suddenly nervous. "It's just... You've been so good to me." He looked up on me, tears in his eyes.

"God, Tobes..." I whispered, putting my little hand on his cheek. He leaned in, closed his eyes.

"I raped you. Killed the man you loved. Forced you to watch him being tortured..."

"Tobes, we've talked about this-"

"We really haven't", he protested, and I realised he was right. We had avoided it. "Don't you... Don't you feel any remorse?"

"No, I-"

"Izuna, please!" He raised his voice, but the quieted it down: "Think about it before you answer."

And I did.

For his sake, I did.

I thought about the playful smile in Emil's eyes whenever he flirted with me.

The fire in his eyes when he pushed himself inside me for the first time, the immense relief that he was finally as close to me as he could physically be, just as he desired.

The flaky feeling of his scar underneath my fingertips.

I thought about watching that tape, which was the worse thing I'd ever endured.

I thought about Tobirama's cold voice as he ordered Emil's killing.

His incredible acting skills, conjured up in desperation to have me believe he was a criminal.

I looked at him, and shook my head.

"No", I said.

"No, what?"

"No, I don't feel any remorse. You've made your case clear, and it's entirely plausible. If you hadn't done what you did, everything would've happened anyway, except I would also be dead. And I wronged you, too. When I tortured you. And I had no reason to, other than anger. The only one who's completely innocent in this is Emil. I wish..." I took his face between my hands. "Tobirama, look at me. I wish I could say I would be brave enough do the same as you did for me. The mental stamina needed to do what you did is insane."

He kissed me then, forcefully, putting his hand behind my head to press my face towards his. With his other hand, he took my left one, and entwined our fingers.

"Then it's..." He paused, breathed against my lips. "It's not too early for this?"

And I felt it.

Cold metal against my left ring finger; the hand which he was holding. I broke free of his lips, and stared down.

In my left ring finger was a beautiful, thin, twirled golden band laden with diamonds.

It was the most beautiful ring I'd ever seen.

"Izuna, will-" He swallowed. "I-"

He couldn't speak.

Neither could I.

So I answered the best way I knew how to.

With my lips.

With my hands.

With my body.

And the answer was clear.

And we made love until the mist disappeared, apologising to each other with our bodies, as words weren't enough.

And never would be.