"You make me happy."

Four words spoken with such simplicity, you'd mistake them for something that didn't hold much. But they did. They held Sakura in a way that was both similar and different to how Shisui's arms were wrapped around her. Said with a smile against her neck, they made a warmth wash over her that made her feel full.

The sun was shining a soft light on the bed through the window and Sakura could hear birds chirping outside in the break of the morning. Shisui was always like this in the mornings he got to wake up with her. Clinging to her like she'd escape if he didn't and breathing her in like she was a field of flowers. Sakura had never seen someone so happy before she started waking up with Shisui. He wasn't grumpy or complained about lack of sleep. He just smiled when he opened his eyes to find her still there, sighing against her skin in contentment and showering her with affections. It still threw her off guard sometimes, that someone could treat her like she was a gift.

Sakura placed a kiss into his messy hair and hummed back, "Not as much as you make me."

Shisui chuckled and leaned up to kiss her chin. "Not likely."

Sakura didn't continue the argument and just enjoyed the sweet morning while she could. She knew he had a mission later and wasn't looking forward to him being gone. He'd become such a constant in her life, when he wasn't with her, she always felt a little off.

A few minutes later, he asked her, "Have you got around to reading Icha Icha? I know Kakashi loaned you the series."

"Why? Is he hounding you to get me to hurry up so he can have them back?" Sakura joked back, glancing at her bedside table where a couple of the books lay.

She could feel him grin against her. "No. There's this passage in the third one…Have you got there yet?"

"Not yet," Sakura answered, lazily playing with the ends of his hair and wondering where he was going with this.

"When the protagonist is head over heels for the girl, this old man tells him, 'True love isn't about finding someone who makes you feel complete. Someone who fills the holes you think are inside of you. True love doesn't fix you and make everything right in your life True love isn't a perfect fantasy.' I feel like I never fully understood what that meant until this moment."

"Are you saying you know what true love is then?" Sakura asked in a soft voice, her skin tingling where Shisui was tracing shapes on her stomach.

Shisui moved to lean over her, his eyes staring into her. All Sakura saw and felt was adoration and love as he told her with a soft smile, "True love is you giving me the key to your apartment even though I could just as easily slip in through the window. True love is me working harder on my missions and being more careful, so I can come home to you in one piece. True love is the way your voice is my favorite sound. How your arm reaches across the bed over my side even when I'm not here. True love is someone who makes you feel comfortable enough to be yourself. Someone who encourages you to be better without even saying anything. True love is someone who makes the hard times easier to get through, not makes them nonexistent. True love is how I look at you in the morning."

Sakura's throat felt tight as her hand moved to hold his face. She felt breathless and relieved. About what, she couldn't tell you. A smile stretched across her face and she'd doubt it'd ever fall. Flowery words and over sentimental expressions floated through her mind, but none of it really did the situation justice. But she knew Shisui understood how she felt. She didn't need to explain it to him. It wouldn't sound as beautiful if she even tried.

So, she said simply back, "Yeah, I think I have an idea of what it is, too."

The brightness in his eyes and how he kissed her as the words left her lips told her he'd heard her loud and clear.