Chapter 2

"NOO!"

The raw desperation in his voice...at least I could imagine he cared.

An iron grip locked around my wrist, stopping my fall and holding me dangled over the edge of the cliff. I looked up into furious sapphire orbs.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?!" he screamed.

I matched his fury with my own.

"Executing myself, because you won't!"I screamed back at him.

His face hardened. "If I wanted to see you die, I would have done it, Sasuke! Give me your other hand!"

"No!" I felt my mask weakening, the flood of emotions leaving tiny fissures over its so carefully constructed surface. "Do it, dammit! Let me go and end it! So you never have to chase me ever again!" I begged.

He gritted his teeth against the effort of holding me for so long. "NO! Give me your hand!"

Waves of emotion crashed against the hard mask, threatening to bring a breakdown. "WHY?! Give me one reason! After all I've done to you, HOW CAN YOU STILL CARE?!"

"Because I LOVE YOU, you selfish, arrogant, ASSHOLE!"

What…? Naruto loves me? Out of all the reasons he might have given, this wasn't on the agenda.

A single treacherous salty drop betrayed him as it landed on my face, shattering my mask completely. A single tear of my own slid down alongside his.

The shock snapped me back to our predicament. Naruto strained to hold on to me, which wasn't aided by his tears.

"Naruto, take my hand," I said and reached up to him.

He gladly did and pulled me up. His arm remained wrapped around my waist from pulling me up. I found my own arms wound around his shoulders, fists clutched in his jacket. I dropped my head to his shoulder, letting his orange and black sweatshirt hide the tears I couldn't let anyone see.

"Don't ever pull something like that again. I won't lose you again," the blonde murmured, his arm tightening around my waist.

I only nodded, not trusting my voice at the moment.

After a moment, Naruto pulled back, his arm coming to rest on my shoulder. "Sasuke, look at me."

When I didn't move from his shoulder, I felt his warm fingers along my jaw line, gently raising my face to meet those infinite sapphire orbs.

He was perfect; the golden strands falling into the brightness of his eyes looked like rays of sunshine on a sparkling azure sea. Yet despite this, the grave expression seemed wrong on his usually sunny face.

Those lips… I wanted to see that breathless smile, the one that melted the ice walls around my heart.

I found myself moving forward until only a breath away from him.

"Sasu-"

My kiss cut him short, my fingers coiling into the golden spikes. At first he pulled back in surprise but then leaned into me, the smile I'd been waiting for curling his lips. I deepened the kiss, pulling him closer, needing the heat of his body against mine. How, in the intensity I felt now, had I survived without it before?

I broke the kiss, my lips tracing the whisker lines on his cheeks before moving down his jaw line and neck. I let my tongue slip out and flick lightly over his heated skin, a smile only he would ever know teasing my lips.

A low moan rumbled deep within his chest and the pulse I felt under my lips jumped and quickened.

"Sasuke…we should go back….where there's more privacy," he managed.

I stopped kissing, letting my head rest on his shoulder again. I kept my arms firmly around him.

"Naruto," I whispered against his neck. "I love you." The three words that had terrified me for so long came easier than I had thought and something in my heart seemed to click into place.

He tightened his arms around me and buried his head in my shoulder.

I have come upon a new purpose in life; to protect this person I held in my arms…this irritating, frustrating…perfect, precious person. I would stand always by his side…my prince of light.