[He's quiet for a good while after this. Thinking. Instinctively balking in response, then walking around his own distaste at the idea, looking at it from all sides. Truthfully, he's too tired to do this. Truthfully, he doesn't want to talk about it. Truthfully—]
[He sort of wants to tell her again, how it wasn't. How he could never have been that happy growing up unless he was an entirely different person. It just wasn't possible. But he doesn't want to make her sad, either. It's difficult.]
[But also, ultimately, very easy.]
I think the thought of being friends with someone like you in a more normal place was the best thing to come out of the entire experience, for me.
[This is unequivocally true. If he had known someone like Riley before, it probably wouldn't have changed much, but it would have changed enough. It would have meant something. He envies the strange Haruno facsimile that much. They understood each other, he and Riley, in a way that he never did with anyone in his life back home who wasn't a career criminal.]
[Another beat or two, and his smile goes a little wry.] Did you say I was sweet?
no subject
[He's quiet for a good while after this. Thinking. Instinctively balking in response, then walking around his own distaste at the idea, looking at it from all sides. Truthfully, he's too tired to do this. Truthfully, he doesn't want to talk about it. Truthfully—]
[He sort of wants to tell her again, how it wasn't. How he could never have been that happy growing up unless he was an entirely different person. It just wasn't possible. But he doesn't want to make her sad, either. It's difficult.]
[But also, ultimately, very easy.]
I think the thought of being friends with someone like you in a more normal place was the best thing to come out of the entire experience, for me.
[This is unequivocally true. If he had known someone like Riley before, it probably wouldn't have changed much, but it would have changed enough. It would have meant something. He envies the strange Haruno facsimile that much. They understood each other, he and Riley, in a way that he never did with anyone in his life back home who wasn't a career criminal.]
[Another beat or two, and his smile goes a little wry.] Did you say I was sweet?