When The Day Comes
sequel to Sweet Balls and Ramen

Pairing : NejiNaru
Rating : PG/PG-13
Warnings : Yaoi, mild angst, very mild lime
Disclaimer : Naruto belongs to Kishimoto Masashi and associated affiliates. Not me.
Summary : Naruto and Neji are figuring out their lives, thinking things, asking their teachers dangerous questions about kissing, waiting for the day they really grow up.

A/N : Since this is a sequel, you do have to read the prequel first. ;; In this fic, I'm just basically mapping out a potential NejiNaru relationship, and trying to fit it within the canon timeline. There will be future sequels, but those would have to wait until the manga gives a clear indication as to how the plot would progress.

Hyuuga Hiashi nodded at the young girl standing quietly by his side. "Bring him in."

Hinata returned, her head still respectfully bowed, but her eyes, although downcast, were obviously shining. Hyuuga Hiashi didn't need the Byakugan to know that Hinata's delight had much in part to do with the youth who followed several steps behind her.

Hyuuga Neji. Clad in his formal gear of khakis, he was stony-faced and stern-lipped, seemingly no different from his usual self. But Hyuuga Hiashi smiled inwardly when he noted the startling warmth that resided just behind his austere veneer. Just two weeks ago, Hiashi first noticed the lack of vindictiveness that Neji usually projected towards any Main House member. Then Neji and Hinata started talking again. Cursory monosyllabic greetings graduated to whole sentences, and then to awkward smiles and nods of heads. And Hiashi knew even without Hinata saying it, that in bits and pieces, her Neji-nii-san was back.

"Hyuuga-sama." Neji bowed deeply, before straightening and meeting Hiashi fearlessly in the eyes.

The older man's gaze strayed briefly to the strap across Neji's forehead that obscured the seal. Then his eyes were as expressionless as usual. He nodded once. "Prepare." Behind him, Hinata retreated to the side.

Neji's opalescent eyes narrowed in that dangerous, thrilled expression that both worried and exhilarated Hiashi. Here was the most promising Hyuuga descendant in too many generations, a raw gem that as rough and uncut as it was, already sparkled so brightly. And this same gem was a Branch House child. How far could Hiashi polish him, sharpening him to a keenness that would be incomparable in lethality, without endangering the Main House lineage?

It is worth finding out, Hiashi found himself already answering his own doubts as he stood up gravely.

The boy was already in stance, palms out, Chakra gathering at the tenketsu points.

The moment their palms met, Hiashi felt the difference. Neji's strikes were efficient; he never wasted a single blow, but Hiashi felt the difference in the Chakra flow. It was hard to detect, perhaps Neji was unaware of it himself, but the flow was just subtly unstable, like something was impeding it.

Hiashi parried a blow effortlessly, skidded back just a step, watching Neji carefully. No doubt about it. There were extra lines of tension on the boy's face that weren't just from concentration.

Easing his stance, Hiashi straightened. "That's enough for today, Neji."

There was stunned surprise from Neji, then the boy rounded on him, all manners forgotten. "But why? We've barely started!"

"There would be no point," Hiashi replied firmly, indulging the boy. He would look into arranging some lessons on the finer points of behaviour when Neji was less volatile. "You are distracted today."

Guilt flashed across Neji's eyes, but then the stubborn anger was back. "Even so, Hyuuga-sama, I was fine! There is no need to stop the training!"

"I have spoken, Neji," Hiashi chided sharply. Then he noticed the disappointment in the boy's frown, and he thought that perhaps he had spoken too harshly. He was a good teacher, but not as well a father figure as Hizashi was. Sighing inwardly, Hiashi remedied his tone. "You know as well as I do, Neji, that a lack of concentration would disrupt your flow of Chakra and possibly cause injury."

The boy opened his mouth like he was about to protest further, but he closed it suddenly again, cheeks colouring. "Pardon my insolence, Hyuuga-sama. It was not my place to argue. Hyuuga-sama." Neji continued, his tone growing uncertain. Very unlike him. "May you on something?"

Hiashi raised an eyebrow. This was new. He could not remember a time Neji had ever approached him for anything not related to training. He nodded his assent. If there was any way he could, in his capacity as an uncle, teach the boy, he would. He owed Neji that much.

Now Neji seemed at a loss, like he hadn't actually prepared how to go about consulting Hiashi. He stood stiffly, hands fisted by his sides, mouth working several times.

"Hyuuga-sama..." Neji tried again. After several more moments, he finally looked up again, this time, unwaveringly.

"Speak, Neji."

"...What is the acceptable age to...kiss, Hyuuga-sama?"

Hiashi coughed gracefully.

"I do not recall any mention of it in all the teachings and training that I had received. Why is that so? Had there been proper guidelines, I could deal better with such an issue, and I am sure I am not just speaking on my own behalf."

Not speaking on his own behalf? Acceptable age? "Neji, there is...no one acceptable age."

Neji's eyes grew wide, those pale depths at once confused and dissatisfied. "Is thirteen all right then?" He demanded seriously.

Absolutely not. "It..." Hiashi closed his eyes. "...would depend on how strong your self-resolve is." What am I teaching him? Hizashi, forgive me.

"I see." The frown cleared from Neji's brow, and he bowed his head deeply. "Thank you for your advice...Hyuuga-sama. I will follow your guidance."

Guidance? What guidance?

Hiashi's eyes remained closed for a long time after Neji had left the dojo. He could feel the onset of a headache that threatened to overwhelm his mind. It couldn't be helped. Neji was at that age, after all. Children grew up, and they would all reach that age. He had growing children too, his daughters Hinata and Hanabi. Neji was a year older and a healthy boy, it was no wonder he would have asked...questions. He had long known that when the day came, the children would grow up.

It couldn't be helped.

Umino Iruka rubbed his head tiredly. Was it the weather, or the stress, or that strangely ominous feeling that had been dogging his every thought and movement since morning? Whatever it was, it was affecting his concentration and he had a feeling that his class of pre-pubescent brats knew it.

Twenty pairs of bright, intelligent eyes grinned back at him when Iruka tried to refocus on his class. Yes. They knew, all right.

"Class dismissed!" Iruka declared, but before the kids could even rejoice, he continued, "That'd leave everyone time to prepare for the test tomorrow!" He closed his ears to the chorus of whines and groans resounding around the class. Maybe he was a little high-strung today, but a test was due anyway.

He was soon left alone in the class as the kids disappeared from the classroom faster than he could blink. Iruka shook his head wryly. Year after year, batch after batch, students never changed. Always looking to get out of class as early as possible. The loud clattering outside the window shook Iruka out of his reverie. He glanced up in surprise.

"Yo, Iruka-sensei!"

A wide smile appeared on the Chuunin shinobi's face. "Naruto!"

Uzumaki Naruto grinned just as brightly as he popped into the classroom through the window. He was all bright orange and warm cheer as he glanced around the classroom. Iruka went up to him and ruffled his blonde spikes. The boy grinned, half in embarrassment and half in sentimentality.

"Brings back memories, huh, Iruka-sensei?" Naruto's blue gaze turned wistful as he stared at the very spot where he had once performed a transformation that almost knocked Iruka-sensei out.

"Sexy no Jutsu," Iruka recalled dryly.

"You still remember, Iruka-sensei!"

It's just a tad hard to forget, Iruka muttered inwardly. "Yeah," the teacher glanced out of the window. "Isn't it a little late for lunch?" Sometimes Naruto would visit him to wheedle a free lunch out of him. Iruka didn't mind, not really, and seeing Naruto's beaming face over a bowl of ramen was the least he could do for the child. Teaching meant that the students would move on, leaving the teachers behind, and Iruka couldn't deny he always felt a pang after each graduation. And Naruto was growing up so fast Iruka really couldn't catch up at all.

"Naaah, Iruka-sensei. It's not about lunch today!"

"No?" Iruka was genuinely surprised. Naruto passing up on free lunch?

"But can we put that offer on hold first?" Naruto rejoined without missing a beat. His face was scrunched up in that impish grin he used when he was at his wheedling best.

"Ah sure, sure..." He knew Naruto would never pass on food. "So, what is it you have to consult your esteemed sensei?" Iruka finished with a sagely smile, crossing his arms solemnly across his chest. So there were still things he had left to teach Naruto. He waited patiently as Naruto plopped himself onto a desk.

"Na, Iruka-sensei."

"Yup?"

"Can you tell me ALL about your experiences with kissing?"

There was a moment of silence, before Iruka leapt about three feet into the air. "WHAT?!"

"What?" Naruto blinked innocently.

"W-WHY did you ask such a question?!"

"Why not? Iruka-sensei has never kissed before?"

"Yes - NO!" By now Iruka was a quivering mass of impossibly bulging eyes and scandalised reputation. "NARUTOOO!!! Don't ask questions like that!!!"

"Eeeehhh...so Iruka-sensei has kissed before but isn't telling!"

What do you know, Naruto was far sharper than he looked. Iruka was finding that out the hard way. He crossed his arms even more tightly, as though that could help fend off innocently evil questions. "Naruto, if you're asking...does that mean you've..." He couldn't continue, heaven knew he tried. Maybe he didn't really want to know.

"Yeah. Two persons! But they're both different, na, that's why I ain't sure which one's actually better."

Iruka's mouth opened and closed for several moments, before a croak finally wormed its way past his throat. "T...two..."

"Yeah, two. TWO." The boy held up two fingers to better illustrate his experience. "What, has Iruka-sensei kissed more than two persons?"

"NO, just one!" Oh shit. The words came out by themselves. Without Iruka's bidding. The teacher sank his head into one hand. His reputation as the esteemed teacher of the academy would be in tatters by the time this was over.

By now Naruto had bounded off the desk and was bobbing up to Iruka with huge, rounded blue eyes. "WHO did you kiss, Iruka-sensei?"

A sudden recollection of a low, mellifluous baritone, warm hands under his shirt and warmer lips covering his own. Iruka's teeth were practically grounded together. The vein in his temple throbbed fiercely. Like hell he was going to answer Naruto. "Well, who did YOU kiss, Naruto?" It was starting to feel surreal, the entire conversation. What was he doing, exchanging stories of sexual prowess with an ex-student?!

The boy rubbed his hair with an almost-awkward grin, like he was caught doing something that wasn't quite right but he didn't think it was wrong either. "The first was Sasuke, that guy." His face wrinkled in instinctive distaste. "I was SHOVED into him! Ugh, I'd still CANNOT believe I've done that!"

Sa...Sasuke... Iruka stared at Naruto, feeling his own face drain of all colour. This was the end of innocence in children.

"The second...hmmmm..." The melodrama abruptly seeped from Naruto's stance as he cocked his head, as if seriously pondering over his 'second'.

"What..." Iruka closed his eyes briefly to gather his wits together. After all, he was still a teacher, even if...even if sex education wasn't quite his forte. "What about it?"

Naruto's wide eyes were already screaming the answer. If anything, Naruto had never been able to hide his emotions. They brimmed from his eyes, his actions, his very self in unrestrained waves. Yet at this very moment he seemed...

"Secret." Hands went up to blonde spikes and adjusted the Konoha headband in a gesture that had become more habit than necessity. A gleam entered cerulean eyes and Naruto's grin that was directed at Iruka held more than the usual playfulness. There was something grown-up in it, something that was not as childish as before. "Iruka-sensei keeps his secret and I'll keep mine. When the day comes, we'd tell each other, ne, Sensei?"

Iruka could only stand there stumped as Naruto tossed a "Next time, Sensei!" at him and slip out of the window from where he had came. Finally, after what seemed like a length time, Iruka's lip curled into a wistful smile. Secrets, huh? Dark eyes focused almost absently on the sky outside. The sun was already setting, setting the horizon afire with blazing hues of autumnal colours.

It'd be night soon.

Filtered through curtains of cloud and night, the moonshine was wan. Yet, it cast enough of its weak glow to weave past the wood of the age-old structure. It was hard to tell it was a bedroom, so spartan in its furnishings. Crinkled scrolls bequeathing the teachings of ancestors were hung on the walls. A single miniature plant, a picture of simple beauty in its pot of clear-glazed ceramic, brought a touch of nature into the painfully austere chamber.

Elegant dark brows drew together as an unconscious frown hovered on the sleeper's face. A fine sheen of perspiration glistened on his forehead, although the night was cool. What dreams, no matter good or bad, he was having appeared to grow more unsettling by the degree as the frown deepened. Yet that childlike innocence in sleep did not leave the young face. Instead, the frown grew more and more peevish until it became a most sullen pout.

At the same time, the sleeper bolted awake. His eyes flew open, their translucent, pupil-less depths registering shock, confusion and the last vestiges of a sleeper too-suddenly awakened. Heavy breathing filled the room.

After several moments had passed, Hyuuga Neji rose to his feet and folded his futon carefully. It was still several hours before dawn, the time he usually awakened, but if recent trends proved true, he would not be able to return to slumber. There were too many thoughts in his head these days. Jumbled, knotted strands of thoughts that hounded his mind when he was unconscious, and lurked in the background when he was awake.

He thought about Lee and his impending operation. Would Godaime be able to cure him? Would Lee wake up from the operation? And the village. It was still reeling from the aftershocks of the war. He had seen the Jounins and Chuunins, all returning from missions fatigued and battle-weary. What about the Genins? Could they not help out with the difficult assignments? And...his clan...Hyuuga Hiashi, his Uncle and the Head of the Main House, had told him, quite out of the blue one day, that should he ever wish to join Hinata in training, the door would be open to him. Neji had accepted, knowing it meant that Hyuuga-sama was actually willing to personally oversee his training. Was it an act of reconciliation? Or just leftover guilt from his father's death? The great divide between the Main and the Branch Houses would not be resolved overnight.

Neji sighed inwardly as he lifted a hand to his throbbing temple. The Chuunin exam had left him with disclosure, with revelations, and also something which he wasn't quite sure yet he appreciated - discovery. With the burden of his father's death suddenly eased from his mind, the vacated space had been assaulted by discoveries of people, and of happenings that might or might not even include him. It was like he couldn't stop thinking!

Then there were other things. Uncle Hiashi had said that there was on acceptable age, but that it depended on one's resolve. But he still kept remembering things like...the texture and startling softness of another boy's lips, the strange taste of someone else in his mouth, a voice as bright as light itself resounding again and again in his mind. It was a voice that sounded free, and perhaps...Neji was jealous of it. Just a little. Freedom was within his grasp. Every day he got a step closer to it, that bright voice like a beacon, and every other element that made up the person behind the voice as well.

Unpredictable, wild, passionate, colourful. Uncomplicated, guileless, true. Everything that was at the opposite end from Neji, everything Neji was not.

There was truly no going back to sleep.

As silent as a ghost, the boy leapt from his perch. A flutter of white robes against the black of the night sky and Neji landed on the tiled roof of the lower-storeyed building where the servants slept. Lifting off with the effortlessness of a bird, Neji glided across the rooftops, the tiles becoming stepping stones for his feet as he left his residence behind and settled lightly onto the packed dirt of the village streets.

Naruto reached up and adjusted his nightcap snugly around his head. It was warm, fuzzy and had been a comforting weight with him at night for years, coaxing him back to sleep when the nightmares hounded him. Squeezing his eyes shut, he made his little bedtime wish.

To become stronger...to become Hokage...to protect the village...everyone to be happy...and more ramen...

Satisfied with that wish, he flopped back into his bed, accidentally kicking his covers off but not like that mattered. Naruto turned noisily onto his side, eyes slipping close. They opened just a moment later. Naruto lay still on his bed, blinking in confusion. He didn't what it was that kept him awake. Usually he would have fallen asleep even BEFORE his head touched the pillow.

Just that tonight, it felt as though...

Leaping from his bed, Naruto waded through the clutter littering his quarters. After nearly tripping to death over a long-unused rag puppet, Naruto finally reached the large window that bordered his room. He stuck out his head, feeling the wash of cool night air against his face. But he was more interested in the street that ran right outside his little abode.

It was as though there was someone...

No, the street was empty, save for the breeze that stirred the dust in little fits and starts.

Naruto yawned widely. He was sleeeepy...He withdrew his head, then he saw it, out of the corner of his eyes. The drowsiness in cerulean gaze sharpened. There was a FIGURE standing motionless right below his WINDOW.

There was a yelp as Naruto nearly tumbled out of his window in startlement. The figure was still there, seeming almost an illusion the way it blended into light and shadow. Skin as pale and translucent as the moonlight itself from where it was not covered by the thin, white robes of the yukata, and hair as dark as the night sky that surrounded the moon.

Could it be...no...a GHOST?! No...wait...huh....that was no ghost...that was...

Naruto stuck his head out again. "HYUUGA NEJI!"

Naruto could wake a whole graveyard if he wanted to. That was how goddamned loud he was. Lifting his head and catching the other boy's wide blue gaze, Neji raised a finger to his lips. His first instinct was to snap at Naruto, but that would probably awaken the other half of the village who was not already stirred by Naruto's unearthly yowling earlier.

There was also the consideration that it would of course, appear really suspicious with Neji roaming the streets in the middle of the night and ending up below Naruto's window. In valiant self-defense, Neji reasoned that it wasn't as if he had chosen to appear there. Yes, he had been roaming the streets, carefully avoiding the shinobi who were on patrol at various points in the village. But no, he hadn't expected to find himself right here.

Glancing around him, Neji was relieved to find that there were no patrol shinobi arriving in packs. Then he looked up, noting the narrow ledge that ran below the window. It'd do. A light tap with his foot sent Neji up and onto the ledge. He drew back his feet under his legs lotus-style, making sure he was comfortable, before casting a blank look on the furiously-gesticulating Naruto just a metre away.

"Be quiet," Neji finally said, and Naruto actually did shut up. That made the blonde a little more tolerable at night. Without his garish orange getup and the sunlight that always seemed to reflect too brightly off his hair and grin, Naruto actually looked normal.

The silence didn't stay long. "Oi! What the heck are you doing outside my bedroom?! What do you want? Are you looking for a fight?!"

Neji's lip twitched. Even at his most combative, Neji wouldn't go around looking for a fight dressed the way he was at the moment. Nor would he go picking on little boys dressed in pajymas and a fluffy nightcap. They would have looked quite a sight if they even threw a single punch. No...the reason he was here...

"It's too quiet." It surprised Neji himself the moment those words left his mouth.

Silence. Then eruption again. "Of COURSE! It's bedtime!"

In the day, there was always something to do, another jutsu to learn, a comrade or sensei or villager around. It was too quiet. Neji like quiet and solitude but not when they left him at the mercy of his own confused whirl of thoughts. Naruto was noisy enough to shut out those thoughts, and he was probably the only person around whom Neji didn't have to think. He didn't even notice Naruto had climbed out of his window, but the next moment, the blonde boy was sitting himself without ceremony right next to Neji.

It was quite something, this night. Who would have known Neji and Naruto could end up being a foot away without actually exacting violence on each other?

"You're weird," Naruto declared huffily.

There was an imperceptible shrug from Neji's shoulders. He could deal with being called weird. He'd been called worse things.

"You look different."

Naruto's gaze could be disturbingly intense when he was concentrating on something. Neji shifted as cornflower blue eyes scrutinised him from unbound hair, to robes, to whatever else he was eyeballing.

"Oi. Does that hurt?"

It took Neji a moment before he realised with a start that Naruto was now staring intently on the cursed seal on his forehead. The sudden reminder of the seal made Neji's head ache, and he turned his face, letting his hair mask it. "It doesn't," he replied tersely. Just don't...talk about it. I don't want to think of it...

"Maybe it doesn't hurt in the head?"

It hurts in the heart. Always in the heart. "Are you quite finished with your babbling?" The anger was sudden, almost bewildering Neji himself. He was not supposed to be thinking when it was Naruto he was facing. Too late he remembered that Naruto was the greatest surprise in the entire village. There was nothing predictable about the blonde boy. Neji almost wished he hadn't left his residence. Being so close to Naruto dredged up a whole new set of memories that Neji wasn't quite ready to deal with again so soon.

"Your attitude still SUCKS though."

Lips on his...soft...ramen...the lightest sucking pressure against his mouth...

Neji could feel his cheeks flaming as he tried to shut out those thoughts from barraging his mind. What the hell? He was thinking even more now than when he was alone! "Naruto," Neji said in a tight voice. "Shut UP."

"Che!" Naruto, having now obviously gotten over whatever drowsiness he was feeling and getting right into conversation mode, continued his spiel. "I don't get you at all. You hit me the other time. And now you show up on the street looking some scary ghost. And then you come up to my window and made me totally unsleepy. It's YOUR fault I can't sleep now! And I need to train tomorrow morning!"

"Naruto." Neji was clenching and unclenching his fists, his temples beginning to throb.

"And daaaaamn, I'm hungry now. All I wanna eat is a bowl of nice, hot SPICY ramen. Oh, do you feel like eating sweet balls too? You - "

The rest of Naruto's babbling was ended prematurely in a gasp as a pale hand wound into the front of his pajymas and hauled him forward. "Hey - HEY!"

Shinobi patrollers and ANBU be damned. Neji didn't care even if Godaime was a spectator at this very moment. He tugged Naruto close, his opalescent gaze bearing down on the younger boy like daggers. "I DID tell you to shut UP." He hissed, punctuating each word with a shake of his hand.

They were so close. Neji could feel the shallow spurts of breathing from Naruto, and he thought he could drown in those impossibly huge blue eyes. There was no fear in them, but there was a lot of apprehension. At the back of Neji's mind, the voice of logic was already rationalising everything. Here was Neji, showing up at Naruto's place without reason or warning, and there was Naruto, obliging Neji's moment of insanity. And here they were, Neji with his hand fisted into Naruto's pajymas, displaying not-so-uncharacteristic ill-temper.

I didn't want to think...I told you that...

Neji hated surprises. He hated the unexpected playing tricks to his life. He once had hatred to drive him, and there was none now. And somehow, it was all Uzumaki Naruto's fault for bringing that element of unknown into his life. He stared wordlessly down at Naruto's face. Without the usual cockiness and brash, Naruto looked almost...adorable.

Neji's eyes flared. Yes he was remembering the kiss, and how it was a result of surprise on Naruto's part again. Neji was not going to accept that without a fight. He was Hyuuga Neji. Things had to be done right, whether or not he had received proper guidelines. Plus, he was REALLY going to kill someone if Naruto DARE utter another word.

Neji leaned down and kissed the boy.

It wasn't planned. He just...did it, partially out of anger, and partially out of sheer reflex. He surprised himself, and he had the vague realisation of the irony of that, but it was smothered by the absurd thrill of surprising Naruto, starting from the electric friction of their fused mouths, and coursing through every one of Neji's veins from there.

Naruto made a soft, gurgly noise against him, which Neji silenced with a jerk of his hand that crushed their mouths even harder together. The younger boy's eyes went even wider. Neji could see; his own eyes were open and he watched the flash of emotions in the other boy's rounded gaze. Shock, alarm, anger, confusion...reciprocation.

Neji broke the kiss, pulling away abruptly just as he felt the answering tug of Naruto's lips. He let out his breath, not knowing he had been holding it all the while. His heart was pounding with the adrenaline. Was Naruto going to hit him for this? It'd hurt, that thought struck Neji. Naruto had quite a punch.

"What - " Naruto finally ground out. "WHAT the HELL was that ALL about?!"

Neji gave his non-committal shrug again, and shot a cursory glance at Naruto's twitching fist. The punch would come anytime. He probably deserved it, and he'd probably be called more names too, and he'd deserve that too. But he didn't regret it. The buzzing of thoughts in his mind was gone. He had felt them dissipate when his mouth was still meshed with Naruto's. There had been sweet silence then.

"You're SUPPOSED to give me a WARNING first! Don't surprise me like THAT!"

The older boy looked up sharply, mouth going somewhat slack at that unexpected response. "I surprised you..." he repeated softly, not quite believing that a day would come when he would actually surprise anyone. Then it struck him. Naruto not socking him, but actually...agreeing...?

"Yeah you DID! And..." A strange look crossed Naruto's face, replacing the peevishness. He paused, before his eyes lit up with a defiant gleam. "That'd be the last time though."

Neji smirked openly at that challenge. He welcomed it, in fact. "Oh?"

"Just wait. I'd TOP you the next time!"

"When the day comes," Neji raised an elegant brow. "I'd be ready."

Testosterone-sated, both boys lapsed into silence. For once in many days and that night itself, Naruto kept his mouth shut.

"When the day comes..." Neji breached the silence, turning so he wasn't looking at Naruto but at the lightening sky. "I'd change the Hyuuga Clan myself."

"Heh. You'd better do that before I become Hokage though. Or I'd have to change it FOR you." Came Naruto's smartass retort.

Neji smiled inwardly. The both of them had days to wait for, and so many things to do. As he watched the sunrise, he thought it looked like the boy next to him with his sunshine hair and blue-sky eyes. He knew that when the sun was up, they'd go back to their daily lives. It had been a strange night, one that would be shelved into his memories, but also one that made him look forward to the day.

Neji shielded his eyes as the first ray broke the horizon. His fingers drifted down to his lips. They still tingled.

When the day came, maybe there'd be more.

fin
December 2004