The silence was never broken.

Perhaps it was better that way?

Neither knew, and at this moment, neither cared.

All that mattered was the other's presence.

"Sasuke?"

"Nn."

"You remind me of the moon."

The dark-haired man gave his rooftop companion a bemused look. "The moon."

"Mm-hmm."

"And how, pray tell, do I remind you of the moon?"

"You just do."

Naruto reached a hand up towards the pre-dawn sky. Everything was black, still, and silent. His fingers splayed across his view of the moon, and then he quickly made a fist. He did this several times.

"Dobe… what are you doing…?"

Naruto shot him a glare: "Bastard."

"What are you doing?" Sasuke repeated. Naruto opened his hand, spread his fingers, clenched his fist, then turned his head to look at his friend fully.

"Seeing if catching moonlight is as hard as catching you." Sasuke lifted an eyebrow. "You're always ahead of me. Always out of my reach. Unattainable." Naruto scoffed and turned his gaze back upward, dropping his hand. "Just like the moon. Cold, impassive… and so far away."

Sasuke licked his lips and opened his mouth, but no response to that came. Instead, he recalled back several years, to a time when he was nearly thirteen years old. 'Only six years? It feels like sixty…' The things Naruto had confessed. Things Sasuke had tried to roughly shove from his mind. And, for a while, he hated the other boy.

But now…

"The moon, huh?" Sasuke rolled onto his stomach, glancing over at the blond man. "So, what does that make you?"

Naruto frowned. "I never thought about that."

Their eyes locked, and for a moment, the fading night sky was forgotten. But Sasuke kept remembering. The way Naruto was looking at him made him remember.

"Sasuke, I…"

"Well, dobe? Spit it out."

"I… I think I'm… in love with you."

He should have said what he was feeling. He shouldn't have counted such a feeling to weakness. But, he had only been thirteen, almost anyway. And love was a hard thing to recognize. Well, for some people anyway. For the empathetic people—people like Naruto—they could explain every and all emotion to you in great detail. He knew what love was because he had gone without it all his life.

"All my life…" He echoed the dark-haired man's thoughts, "I never had someone to love, or to love me." He looked over at Sasuke, a small smile gracing his full lips. "That's how I knew, you know. That my feelings were real."

He had never given him an answer, and Naruto had never brought it up again. All that time, Sasuke really did hate him. Hated him for being stronger. Hated him for being so open. Hated him for recognizing his feelings first.

They had fought.

Sasuke had left.

When he returned all those years later, Naruto accepted him back with a smile and no questions. The hate had melted away in the absence of the blond from his life. It was replaced by a gnawing feeling that kept him awake long, endless nights. A feeling that generally pulled him back to Konoha; like an invisible spiral, he wound his way back.

Only when he finally saw Naruto again did he understand.

Dawn broke.

The sun stretched and opened its arms wide, brushing away the night and claiming the sky as its own. It was warm, loud, and intrusive. Sasuke smiled.

Naruto gave him a wary look. "You're not planning on pushing me off the roof, are you? I'm sorry if I said—"

"You remind me of the sun."

"—something… wrong?" He sat up and stared at his companion. "Huh?"

"The sun. You remind me of it."

"Um… why?"

Sasuke kept his smile. It hurt his face, and in actuality, leaned more toward a grimace.

"It chases away the darkness and brings with it the hope of a new day." He sat up as well, keeping his eyes on the changing colors of the sky. "It warms and reassures and throws itself into your face; you can't ignore it."

"…thank you?"

Sasuke shook his head and leaned over a bit, his dark eyes holding the others.

"Why did you wait for me?"

"I…" the blond shifted uncomfortably.

"I never gave you an answer. So, why?"

"I don't…know why," Naruto admitted shyly, his cheeks reddening. "I did it because… I wanted to."

"Because you love me?" Sasuke asked. Naruto jumped. "Is that it? Because you're in love with me?"

"Sasuke, I—"

He kissed him. It was sudden and totally unexpected, but not unappreciated. Sasuke kissed Naruto until he couldn't breathe, until he became dizzy with happiness, until the other man started hitting him. Sasuke tore his mouth away and sucked in a breath of early morning air. Naruto did so as well, his eyes wide and his cheeks flaming.

"Well?"

"Well, what?"

"Do you love me?"

Naruto took in a few more shaky breaths before turning his head away: "Yes."

Sasuke gripped his chin and gently turned his face back to his. "Can the sun and the moon be together in the same sky?"

"No…" Naruto moaned helplessly, looking for all the world he was going to break down and cry.

"No, not in this world," Sasuke agreed and stood. Then, after a moment, he turned and offered a hand to Naruto. The other man took the offer, looking incredulous. "But, in our world, Naruto…" Sasuke pulled the other boy into his arms and lay his forehead against his. Black and blond strands fell over each other, mixing effortlessly, as if it had always been that way.

"Our world…?" Naruto shivered within Sasuke's embrace.

"In our world, they can't exist without each other."

The second kiss was like coming home all over again: Naruto waited for Sasuke with open arms and a smile, and the moon wordlessly walked into the sun's embrace.