𝙲:\𝚄𝚜𝚎𝚛𝚜\ @survyve \ 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚝>
𝚌md> SASUKE. > a kiss while being reunited after a long time :^)
here's the way the romantic in mail's head thought it would go: mail would spend all his time working on bringing the uchiha compound back to its old glory, sasuke would come home, they would embrace -- maybe even kiss.
here's the reality: mail didn't do this for that. mail didn't bring this compound back because he thought he'd get something out of it. he did it because he didn't want sasuke to come back to yet another project on his hands. he didn't want sasuke to come back and still have to look after his home. to have to see the damage, the destruction and--
and no one else was doing it. no one put him up to it. he replanted the tomato plants, he nursed the feral cats back to health -- he even sat and asked ino yamanaka for help with the plants, and hana inuzuka with the cats. he never asked for help for himself, and yet, for this--
he wanted it to be perfect.
so they don't have the movie embrace. they don't kiss, they don't hug -- it's a lot for sasuke to take in. mail knows well enough how he is, he knows this like he knows breathing. he wonders, distantly, if sasuke expected to come back and see him with his rebreather on.
he looks different, of course, because it had been some time since he was back -- some time spent figuring out his own life, his journey. mail looked different, too, his hair had grown out and he was a bit more filled out musculature wise, like he'd had time to do physical labor. of course, taking care of the compound was labor enough on its own.
here's the reality: they don't kiss when sasuke first returns home. they don't kiss for days, weeks, months. they don't kiss and sasuke goes away for another mission -- this time, one actually sanctioned by the hokage. he's got to prove he's worth being back in the village, after all.
here's the reality: it seems like their first kiss should be some big, grand gesture. like a new thing both of them had been wanting all this time, like fireworks, like everything in their lives had changed at once.
here's the reality: sasuke comes in the door after his mission, he's aching, tired, and this time? he's not surprised to see mail in the small living room. he's not surprised to see mail stayed, or to see the plates in the sink, the towel thrown over the back of the drying stand by the back porch. the signs mail had been living there for weeks.
and mail is so relieved to see him -- because he'd heard sasuke had finished his mission early, and he wasn't expecting him back for a couple days. sasuke is standing in his -- their home. and before matt can think about what he's doing, he's stepping into sasuke's orbit, and as simple as breathing, he's reaching up to cup his hands around the sides of sasuke's jaw.
when he pulls sasuke down into a kiss, a sweet, tender movement, he finds sasuke returning it, and this? this felt more like home than their first reunion did. this felt more right than anything mail had felt in the world.
mail finds himself grinning into sasuke's mouth, and this was what he was secretly hoping for the first time.
here's the reality: when he pulls away, he says two simple words, the same he said all those months ago.