It was a perfect evening.

In the simplicity of Izuna's home, I found I had the time of my life. I had always believed that having the time of my life was about partying, or travelling, or performing other acts of unnecessary extravagance in order to tick off boxes a list. But it seemed as if I had been wrong in that. Right now, sitting in front of the fireplace in the darkness, feeling his soft head against my shoulder and the taste of grapes in my mouth, I was happy.

"I really, really like this", he whispered next to me as if frightened speaking out loud would burst our bubble or scare it away.

I smiled, turned to him and placed the back of my fingers against his face. God, he was soft.

"Me, too", I murmured.

Izuna reached out and took a cookie and started putting things on it. I saw he did it the way I'd done it most times, with goats cheese and fig jam and just one grape on top.

And soon, I understood why he made it the way I liked it as he turned to me with the cookie, offering it to me.

"Tobirama..." he said, and his eyes were two pools of darkness I would gladly give my life to drown in, the flecks of blue a lifeline for me to hold on to, his soul making me strong enough to hold on forever.

I opened my mouth, and without releasing him from my gaze, I took the indulgent cookie into my mouth, getting the tips of his fingers into my mouth as well, which was the most delicious taste of all. He didn't remove his fingers, and I began kissing them, nibbling at them, fucking them with my mouth.

Until he leaned in and kissed me.

"Mmm", I said, opening my mouth to his moans with a hand on his cheek, tasting cinnamon and grapes and lust.

He climbed over me, and I laid down on my back. I realised he was desperate for me as he started grinding me, still fully dressed, moaning, and I chuckled warmly.

"Easy, gorgeous", I purred. "We've got all night."

And that calmed him down because he slowed down, kissing me deeply, untying my belt with ease, pulling down his own trousers, unbuttoning my shirt.

I love him, I realised. I love him and I would gladly die for him, and I know exactly what that means because I'm the best pilot in the entire fucking Air Force. I know what it means to die.

But I was wrong in one thing. We didn't got all night because right then, the air raid alarm went off.

For a split fraction of a second, a dangerous thought flashed through my mind, telling me we shouldn't stop, that the risk of the bombs hitting exactly this spot was low, and even if they did, it would be a good way to die and I would finally, finally be free of the guilt that held me prisoner.

But I didn't want Izuna to die.

And I realised I wasn't in those planes, and that I had no control over where the bombs would drop.

All of these thoughts happened so fast, they hardly even existed. But that didn't matter at all, because just a second after the air raid alarm had begun it's eerie fanfare, the bombs started dropping.

And they started dropping very, very close to us.

"Izuna..."

"This has never happened before", Izuna said and there was fright in his eyes. "There is always time."

There was clearly no time now.

"Izuna, run!!" I screamed.

And we stood up and ran, me holding his hand and pulling him with me, as the building started to shake around us. The sound of the bombs detonating so close-by was painful, it was so loud, and the shockwaves from them was transported to the ground and made us lose footing, over and over as we fought our way out. We fell down the stair causing bad bruises, and our hands were sticky with blood after we had tried to ease our fall because the stairs were full of shattered glass. We pulled each other along, never forgetting the other, out of the toy shop.

When we got out, the thing that struck me first was the familiarity of the fire and the heat. I recognised it from all of the trainings we'd had. It had always been followed by an intense lecture about how much of a danger we were in had we already found ourselves in this situation, and that the only thing that must now occupy our minds was to leave. To flee the field and get into safety.

I had taken the lesson.

The bombs were showering around us. I was focussed on one thing only, and that was to get myself and Izuna away from this. I pulled his hand, quite harshly seeing my legs were much longer than his, but he was fast.

And suddenly, something hit me in the back, and I fell forwards so fast my reflexes had no time to interact with my hands so they could soften my fall. I hit my chin harshly in the ground, and stars started to swim before my eyes as if they were trying to distract me from the pain.

"Tobirama!!"

I tried to rise up, but I was buried in gravel, and I knew that this was bad; that this was it for me.

I saw Izuna in front of me then, among the stars where he belonged, and he was pulling my hand.

"Tobirama, help me!!" he begged as he tried to get me up.

I opened my mouth to speak, but it was fruitless; I was too weak. The bombs were getting closer. The heat from the fire started burning my feet.

And that pain woke me up so I could finally scream at Izuna.

"You fucking idiot, leave me!!"

"No!!" he screamed, almost inaudibly among the bombs.

"Get yourself in shelter!!"

"NO!!"

He's going to die with me, I realised. We're going to die together.

And suddenly, I realised I didn't really want to die. I wanted to live for just one more day, just to finish what we had started in front of the fireplace. I begged for only that one thing.

But I couldn't move. I believed I must have broken some ribs because I couldn't get free from beneath the gravel.

But Izuna could free me. In a moment of clarity, he stopped trying to pull my hand and lifted off some of the biggest chunks of rock and concrete off my back. And once he was down to only gravel, I could stand up. The pain was tearing me apart, but if I screamed, I could plough through it.

"Tobirama, you can do it! Come on!" Izuna screamed.

And together we ran to the shelter in the building next to his toy shop that was now all but destroyed, opened the doors, and closed it behind us...

Just as the bombs hit right above us.

Have Izuna ever been worried whether the shelter closest to his home would hold for the bombs, he got his answer now. They dropped, one after another, for what felt like an eternity, yet the shelter held. Finally, finally they stopped.

The silence that followed was deafening. There was a noise in my ears that prevented me from hearing even our breaths. It was almost pitch dark but not quite, so I could see we were alone in the shelter. My eyes longed so much after seeing the details of the man who's silhouette I could see in front of me, it felt as though my heart would burst.

"Tobirama, I'm homeless", Izuna whispered.

I hadn't even thought of that.

It was too much. I hated myself for it, but this man had lost his home and it became too much for me.

I threw myself into his arms and burst into tears.