[The emotional expense has left him drained, raw, but not in any way that allows regret to lie. It feels clear and washed out, clean. It's how he felt last time too with Cy, a sudden calm clarity beneath all of the difficulty of new experience, of learning behaviors, of confronting his own trained responses. He doesn't know if it will ever be easy, but he doesn't mind that.

It is those kisses that still continue to uproot him, no matter how many times Cy presses them to his skin. Those effortless little expressions of physical affection are so foreign, so unbelievable, a part of him doesn't want to get used to them. To take them for granted.

Sasuke listens, nodding by the end.]

I want to see you naked. [There's interest in the turn of his eyes, curiosity dwelling in a young face.] But I also don't want to give up on this. If I'm going to be here, I need to learn how to do these things. [Brutally pragmatic. He understood the point of Cy gifting him that box, it seems.] Can we try again later?