It was a long hard struggle because happily ever after certainly wasn't free. So when he said he'd fight forever, he really wished forever would come soon.

He trudged on and waited and wondered how he still had the strength to breathe.

Watanuki was the reason he could love without bounds and his why to bear any how.

But often he wondered how it was possible to want only one person for all time, surely the effort was more than any normal person could really bear.

Yet he couldn't imagine how to say "I will let him go" because that would be even more impossible to endure.

Because he was selfish and wanted everything of him in his hand.

So he'd let himself drown and be pulled under. Allowed himself to quietly suffer and be publicly scorned.

So when it happened, like the quiet, clear blue skies after the longest storm, he felt like a man who had finally sighted home.

"May I kiss you?"

Watanuki looked at him oddly. "Do you have to ask?"

"No," he said as he casually leaned down, "But I like to hear you say yes."