They stood in a standstill after that, like the sun and the moon, caught in an orbit exactly opposite one another.

They said nothing. The wind said nothing, just howled and whistled around their bodies. Tobirama breathed slowly, a frown on his face that Izuna couldn't see. It suddenly dawned on him, the many years he had lived without Izuna, the time he had had to come to terms with things, to accept things the way they were, to live with the fact that Izuna had died in vain, believing Tobirama had had any form of interaction with his brother after that first kiss with Izuna.

Seconds passed. Minutes. The sun set, and a warm, ruby glow engulfed them. Still, nothing. Tobirama thought then that he would have to be the first one to speak, thought it only right, and he cursed himself for taking so long to figure out how to even begin to explain the situation.

But to his surprise, it was Izuna who finally spoke first.

"How..." he swallowed as his voice trembled. Tobirama had never felt a desire to go hold him so strong, but he stayed put, feeling as if there was only one correct way to act every second and terrified to do wrong and lose everything. "How old were you? When you died?"

"So you figured out we're reanimated?" Tobirama asked softly.

"Answer my question", Izuna demanded curtly.

"Forty-one." Izuna didn't say anything. "Does that bother you?"

"I was afraid it would be worse."

"Do I dare to ask you what you would have made of me if it had, indeed, been worse? If I had been sixty?"

At this, Izuna laughed, and it was a genuine laugh, and it was the most beautiful thing Tobirama had ever heard.

"I missed you", Tobirama said before he could stop himself, definitely throwing himself off of the only right path. Well, it was too late now. "Izuna, you have no idea..."

And Tobirama broke down crying. He landed on his knees and wept, hating it, terrified Izuna would see it as the albino trying to manipulate him into forgiving him.

Izuna stepped closer, his light dancer's feet whispering over the sand that covered the top of the cliff. He softly put a hand on his armoured shoulder. Then, his hand whispered to in between his collarbones, undid the clasp there. Tobirama gasped as Izuna freed him of the shoulder part of his armour.

"Tell me about it", the black-haired beauty demanded.

"Your brother-"

"No..." Izuna murmured, going down on one knee, feeling with his hands over Tobirama's armour until he found the side clasps, undid them too, leaving Tobirama in only his trousers and his polo and his heart and soul in his hands to offer to the blind Uchiha. "Tell me about after I died."

Tobirama closed his eyes, somehow feeling closer to Izuna when they were both unseeing.

Tobirama took a deep breath, gathering his thoughts. He tried to feel the essence of what Izuna meant, to truly understand it.

"I know why you tried to kill me", Tobirama said, carefully, as if trying to feel if what he was saying felt right, feeling with one foot before him before he took a step. "And I would have laid down and died for you immediately. The only thing scary about death to me was the absence of you, which I would have had to endure no matter if I was killed, or if I killed. So, I'd rather you have the remainder of my life. But I had promised my brother." Tobirama looked up at Izuna, still standing tall, as he himself was still on his knees. Izuna reached his hand out, placed it beneath Tobirama's chin. Tobirama leaned against it. "I had promised my brother I would do my best to survive, or he would go under. I do not love my brother more than I love you. But one-"

"One cannot break such a promise", Izuna continued with a whisper. "I know the extents to which you can go for a sibling, Tobirama. I donated my eyes to my own. Not for the sake of the clan, but for the sake of him. I do not blame you for killing me in a battle where it was clear what the outfall would be had you not."

Tobirama was quiet, putting his entire soul in the area of skin that Izuna touched.

"It was agony", the Senju continued. "Living without you was agony. I know what they say about grief, that it doesn't go away but that life grows around it. Mine never did." He looked up at Izuna, grabbed the wrist of the hand that was holding his chin. "How could it grow when you were my life and you were dead?"

"Tobirama..."

He thought he could feel the slightest movement of Izuna's thumb on his chin. The small caress did all sorts of things to his body, to his mind, to his soul.

"Izuna."

"Is it true? You were in a sort of relationship with him?"

Tobirama didn't need to ask even once who he meant.

"I was. And it did not discontinue when I befriended you. But it did after we kissed. Izuna, I do understand that me meeting Madara even after the two of us had started bathing together might be unforgivable to you. I take responsibility for that."

Izuna was quiet. Tobirama had a sense of doom looming within him, and he knew that this moment would decide whether he could die in peace again or not. The silence dragged out, the stars becoming visible closer and closer to the west where the sun had just set.

Then, Izuna broke out into a smile.

"I didn't even understand I liked you before you kissed me, silly!" he said.

At this, Tobirama stood up, lifted Izuna up in his embrace and spun him around. Izuna laughed, and Tobirama laughed with him, a sensation so strange he was convinced it sounded foolish and unnatural, but he didn't care.

"Izuna, Izuna, Izuna..." he murmured as he stopped spinning, burying his face in his neck, where his soft hair cushioned him deliciously.

But when he turned his face to kiss him, Izuna started crying again.