A.N.: Only slight spoilers for chapter 181, I swear…Brought on by too many of Rin's fics and Uzumaki Addiction. Oh, implied shounen-ai, all that.
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I stare at our picture for what must be at least an hour, until the sun is past set and I can see nothing more than a shadow sitting on the window sill. Even then, I look until the after image fades from my eyes.
I bet you thought I didn't bother with little things like that, didn't you? But I kept it, despite my better judgment at the time. It was the last thing I saw before I went to bed at night.
Things like that, they aren't important anymore.
I leave only after I can't justify staying a minute longer, and take my time, walking with my head down, my hands shoved in my pockets, like I wasn't leaving the last bit of you shattered on the table in a pile of broken glass and other things. Of course Sakura came, of course she did. But why did my stomach flutter in that way when, for the first time since I can remember, you weren't with her, following close at her heels?
It doesn't matter.
Maybe I imagine someone else there and let her, for just a little bit, tell me everything I already know. I'm silent because I'm saying all the things I think I should say to the you in my head. All I can manage is a Thank you. Would you smile? Or would that catch you off guard just long enough for me to say what I really mean?
So I don't care that I finish my journey alone. That's the way it's supposed to be, in the end. I'm better off without you, any of you, especially you.
I'm a wonderful liar.