It was thirty past two in the morning when Sanae's heart stopped.
Sasuke had woke up out of a dead sleep very suddenly, immediately sussing out the surrounding chakra before his eyes even opened. He knew himself well enough to know that he didn't wake up with his heart-racing if nothing was wrong.
Everything felt fine, familiar. His neighbors' chakra was the only source he felt besides his own and Sanae's.
Then, his eyes flew wide open and the muscles of his heart squeezed so tightly that he almost grasped at his chest because of the pain.
Sanae was asleep on his chest, though, like she always was. Only, she wasn't moving at all. Her body was limp and her chest didn't rise or fall—she also wasn't whining or making little sounds like she usually did while she was sleeping.
"Sanae," Sasuke hissed, sitting up immediately and making sure to keep a good grip on her. "Sanae!"
Cradling her in his arms, sweat started to trickle down his forehead and he looked down at her face.
She looked peaceful, like she was sleeping. Except, she wasn't breathing. Her little heart wasn't beating.
THUMP!
His heart would burst through his chest any minute—he knew it for sure. Hell, he could barely breathe, barely move. All he could do was stare down at her.
"Sanae," he whispered, voice breaking halfway through her name.
It was like his body was moving on its own, as he was too upset to think, or consciously move. In his head, repeated over and over, were five words that pieced together the most desperate chant he'd ever thought:
'I have to save her.'
THUMP!
'I have to save her.'
THUMP!
'I have to save her.'
THUMP!
Completely acting on instinct, Sasuke held Sanae close and body-flickered until he was where he knew he needed to be: the Haruno residence.
The nighttime breeze was chilly against his bare chest, but he was warm and held Sanae tight, as if she could notice the cold in her technically dead state. Houses, buildings, and trees flickered by, blanketed by the thicket of darkness that had fallen over Konoha like a blanket slowly suffocating him.
He didn't bother with the door. Instead, he went in through Sakusa's window: it was locked, but it was nothing to break into. Then, he was standing in her dark, warm room with his dying baby in his arms.
It wasn't a second after he broke in that Sakura flew up, looking at him with wide eyes that were first filled with outrage. She saw the blank, autopilot look on his face, though, and then the unmoving baby in his arms.
"What's happened?" she demanded immediately, paying no mind to the fact that she was in a short, red night gown. Standing, she took Sanae from Sasuke and placed the baby on her bed.
"She's not breathing," Sasuke said numbly, staring as Sakura's hands became shrouded in green chakra.
She hovered her hands above Sanae, brows knitted together in concentration as she moved them up and down her small frame.
"Her heart's not beating," Sakura said to herself, and then began doing CPR immediately.
Sasuke gulped.
Watching Sakura tilt Sanae's head up—the baby's expressionless face—and beginning to do CPR with two fingers felt to him like it was happening in slow motion.
Sasuke felt like he was somewhere far away, simply looking through some sort of barrier at what was happening. There was buzzing in his ears and he couldn't blink, couldn't twitch, couldn't move. His eyes stayed wide open and burning for as long as it took—Sasuke couldn't say how long that was.
Maybe seconds, maybe minutes, and maybe hours, he stood there, an outsider looking in through a blurry window at a nightmare.
Then, Sanae coughed, tears welling in her eyes as she sprung to life, wriggling and wailing on Sakura's bed.
And suddenly, Sasuke could feel his body again, could blink again, and was back with them. He, himself, jerked as he came back, heart still running wild and eyes still burning.
"Get her to the hospital as quickly as you can. I'll meet you there," Sakura told him firmly, handing over Sanae to him.
She was wailing, screaming in pain, and it was the worst sound Sasuke had ever heard.
"And turn off your Sharingan before you get there," Sakura commanded, rushing towards her dresser. "Go!"
It seemed his Sharingan had activated itself. Sasuke hadn't even noticed. He deactivated it after holding Sanae close to him and body-flickered through the village once again, all the way to the hospital.
The whole time, Sanae screeched and kicked and cried. It wasn't an attention cry, or a cranky cry, or a hungry cry. No, it was a pained cry. She was in devastating pain.
And Sasuke didn't know why, or what had happened, but it felt like he was the one in devastating pain every time it reached his ears. And he was helpless.
He couldn't do anything to stop it.
Sasuke ended up rushing into the ER, barely even noticing all the doctors, patients, and nurses rushing around. There were cries and people spitting out curses around him, the smell of blood iron-like as it floated through the big, white building.
"S-Sir, what's—" a nurse started, making sure not to get too close to Sasuke. She motioned towards the baby.
"She needs help," Sasuke said, eyes wide and desperate.
"Um—"
"Sayuri-san, she's mine," Sakura said, suddenly appearing by his side in a t-shirt and some pants. A serious expression—eyebrows pinched together, lips tilting downwards—was etched into her face. "Get a room ready."
"Yes, ma'am," Sayuri said immediately, dropping everything she was doing in order to scurry around to the receptionist's counter. After going through a few documents quicker than Sasuke would expect a civilian to be able to, she called, "Room five in the PICU is ready."
"Great. Come on, Sasuke," Sakura said, taking Sanae from him and body-flickering around the hospital.
He followed, ending up in a waiting room for the pediatric intensive care unit.
It was full of parents who were either crying, staring at the wall with dead expressions, or holding their head in their hands. He'd always been told by his mother that this was probably the worst place in the world to be.
Now, he understood.
"Naomi, room five," Sakura told the receptionist, not even looking at her as she power walked through two, large double doors that led to a hallway with smaller doors lining each side.
"Yes, ma'am!"
Sasuke followed her into a small room with a couch, a chair, a medical bed, a bathroom, and a counter with cabinets. It was all white and soulless, with tiled floors and one small window.
"Sakura," Sasuke said quietly, standing back as Sakura lied Sanae on the bed.
She looked so little, too little to be in so much agony.
Still, she kicked and screamed, little body writhing around like she was possessed. It was horrible.
"It's Hashirama's Disease," Sakura said, hands alit with chakra and hovering over Sanae's mid-section.
"What does that mean?" Sasuke demanded, still standing back and staring.
"It's bad, but I'll do everything I can," Sakura told him, abandoning her medical ninjutsu in order to rush over to the door.
A nurse was there with a cart full of supplies, which Sakura looked over for a moment. "Get her an IV and a drip," Sakura said.
"Anything else?" asked the nurse, grabbing a needle and walking over to the baby.
"Just fluids," Sakura replied. Again, she was using her Ninjutsu to heal Sanae, this time focusing at her heart. Her eyes were closed and clenched, sweat forming at her brow. "Damn it."
"What's going on—Sakura," Sasuke called, eyes wide. His skin had lost so much color he looked dead.
"Hashirama's Disease has spread to a lot of her body," Sakura said urgently, sharing a look with the nurse. Then, she looked over her shoulder at Sasuke with
eyes he hadn't seen on her since the war: the green twinkled and shone with fierce determination. Seriously, she called, "I won't let her die."
Sasuke gulped.
From what Sakura had said about Hashirama's Disease, it seemed likely that death was in Sanae's future. She was so little, so helpless, and she was in so much pain right now.
The cries rung out around the room, breaking Sasuke. It was all he could focus on. To him, it sounded like a call for help. His baby—because that's who Sanae was, his baby—was begging him to help her.
But he couldn't.
He just couldn't.
"Fuck," he whispered, eyes becoming glassy as he clenched his hands into fists by his sides.
"Sasuke?" Sakura called, still focusing entirely on the baby.
"Fuck," he repeated, voice breaking towards the end.
Sasuke needed to get out of this room where Sanae's cries were a near constant reminder of how he'd failed her. He needed to leave, so he did.
"Sasuke!" Sakura called out from the room, but Sasuke couldn't stop.
He needed air. Right now, he was finding it incredibly difficult just to take a breath, like his lungs were rejecting the oxygen.
Sasuke didn't think as he raced past doctors and nurses in the hallway, didn't know where he was going. He ended up flying up some stairs and coming to a closed metal door, which was easy enough to break through with a solid punch.
It went flying off its hinges, making a crashing sound as it collided with the cement of the rooftop, where Sasuke had ended up.
Panting, he walked through the doorway, welcoming the cool breeze that ruffled his hair and chilled his still shirtless body. He'd been sweating.
He looked up at the stars above, the darkness of the sky. The moon was long gone, and the twinkle of the stars were barely even light, leaving everything dark and vague. All Sasuke could make out was the railing around the roof, which he walked to.
Still looking up, images flashed through his head, and it was like he was suddenly in the worst moments of his past:
"Maybe later, Sasuke."
"Mom! Dad!"
"Forgive me, Sasuke. There won't be a next time."
"Don't move, Karin."
His parents, dead and bloody. His home, now barren and empty and lonely. His brother, now his worst enemy. His team, who he ran away from to join a terrorist who did experiments on children. His brother, now dead. Him betraying a friend who had dropped everything to help him.
All his people, gone, whether by force or choice.
Just like Sanae would soon be gone, dead and gone, never to learn to walk, or talk, or make friends, or eat on her own, or grow up, or go to school, or find love of her own, or find her own people, or—
She'd never know what it's like to have a father she could trust if she left now.
"Damn it," he whispered, falling to his knees and gasping for breath. His heart—it hurt, god, it hurt. It stung like when he'd seen his parents get killed, like when he said his last goodbye to Itachi. His lungs, too. They hurt. Sasuke couldn't breathe.
Maybe he'd die with Sanae. He felt like he was about to die, and maybe that wouldn't be so bad.
Why should his baby die while he lived?
He was on his hands and knees, a few, small tears slowly trailing from his eyes, to his cheeks, to his chin, to finally drop on the rooftop.
'Why is this happening again?' he wondered, feeling like he was an idiot for ever thinking anything would get better for him. 'Why is she going to—'
"Take a breath, Sasuke," said a deep, calm voice, along with a heavy hand resting on Sasuke's shoulder.
His head snapped up. Through his dark bangs, his eyes met Kakashi's.
Kakashi was crouching down in front of him, looking at him with some sort of deep understanding in his eyes. "Take a breath," he repeated.
Sasuke took a deep breath in—it hurt—and let it out slowly, swallowing thickly. "Kakashi...?"
"Sakura had a clone tell me," he said quietly.
That did sound like Sakura.
Sasuke didn't really consider Kakashi much of a sensei—he'd only taught him for six months, after all. However, in that moment, looking up into his black eyes, Sasuke felt like that same twelve year-old Genin who was every kind of lost that there was no finding.
"What do I do, sensei?" he asked slowly, breathlessly, clenching his eyes shut.
"You go back," Kakashi told him gently.
"I can't—"
"You have to." His tone was firm now, eyes slightly narrowed. "You have to." There was a finality to it that made Kakashi sound like a sage.
"What if I go back and she just—!" Sasuke's eyes were wide and panicked, his heart so loud in his ears that Kakashi's voice barely reached them.
"You either go back and get to tell her that you were there every step of the way when she gets older," his voice lowered, "or you get to hold her while she dies. Either way, you have to go back."
"I'm terrible at this," Sasuke said, shaking his head. "I'll make it worse—"
"You're her father whether you feel like you are or not," Kakashi cut in with a no-nonsense tone. "The only way you can make it worse is by abandoning her when she needs you most."
Abandoning her.
Sasuke had been abandoned by many people and had done his fair share of abandoning, too. He'd been alone and hurt, lost with no one there to guide him. When he finally found people to do just that, he either left them or chose the worst scum imaginable.
He didn't know if he could live with himself if he abandoned anyone else. After all, Kakashi was right: whether he felt like a father or not, Sasuke had claimed responsibility for that baby—his baby—and she was undeniably his.
His chance to make it right was Sanae.
This might be his last chance to make it right.
Sasuke stood up, Kakashi following his lead. "I won't abandon her," he said as resolutely as he could, though his voice was laced with pain.
Kakashi stared into his eyes, giving a firm nod. "Ah," he agreed, and then followed Sasuke back down the stairs and into the hospital room.
Sakura was still trying to heal Sanae, face grimacing with effort as the nurse stood by the bed and watched Sanae's vitals on a screen.
Sanae was still crying so hard.
"Sakura," Kakashi said.
"I'm trying to eliminate all of the foreign chakra in her system that I can, myself, but she'll have to clear out the rest when it gets so minimal that I can't feel it anymore," Sakura told them, still focusing on Sanae.
"What will happen to her, Sakura?" Sasuke asked, quietly sniffling.
Her voice became quiet and slow. "If she makes it through the next few hours, she'll be just fine. And she will."
Sasuke took a shaky breath, walking backwards and falling into the couch on the wall across from the bed.
"What are her chances, Sakura?" Kakashi asked calmly, placing a hand on Sasuke's shoulder.
"For a normal baby? Thirty percent. For a baby whose family name is Uchiha and father's name is Uchiha Sasuke? Sixty. Her chakra is strong."
Kakashi nodded.
Sasuke put his head in his hands, feeling his world crumble around him.
"I've got it from here, Megumi-san, you can go," Sakura told the nurse, who nodded silently before scurrying off. Afterwards, she looked over her shoulder at the two. "I'm gonna put her under so that I can heal her more precisely. She'll be still."
Sasuke really didn't want to see Sanae being still.
"Okay," he said.
Sakura touched Sanae's forehead with just the tip of her index finger, a green glow around it, and then the crying stopped, the wiggling stopped, and Sakura got back to healing.
The silence was deafening, much more nerve-wracking than the constant screaming was, which came as a shock to Sasuke.
Now that she was quiet and still, he just wanted her to start kicking and screaming again.
"Hey," Naruto exclaimed as he bursted into the room, eyes wide as he looked around at his teammates. "What the hell happened?"
"Naruto," Kakashi chided, sending a look to Sasuke.
Naruto grimaced, walking over to sit by his friend. "Right. How's she doin'?"
"Okay for now," Sakura said.
Naruto squeezed Sasuke's shoulder. "She's a lot like you, and you're a tough bastard... so she is, too." He looked over at Sakura. "Is there anything I can do?"
"No. The problem is internal."
"Will Hashirama cells help?" Sasuke asked, preparing to cut off his prosthetic arm and give it to Sakura if she thought it would help at all.
"No," she sighed. Sakura looked at them over her shoulder, sadly saying, "Hashirama cells would make it worse. This disease originated from him, after all. I'm eliminating as much of the foreign chakra as I can. What happens from there is up to Sanae-chan."
Naruto frowned, eyes downcast. He fell into the couch beside Sasuke, looking at him with something solemn but hopeful.
Sasuke returned the look, an unspoken understanding shared between them.
"I'm sorry, Sasuke," Naruto whispered.
Sasuke didn't reply.
—
The next two hours, until almost five in the morning, Sakura stayed by Sanae's bedside. Her hands glowed green with healing chakra the whole time. As the time passed, she got paler, sweat began dripping from her brow, her arms and legs trembled, and her expression became even more of a focused grimace.
The other three all sat and waited. Kakashi read Make Out Paradise, Naruto laid back with his hands behind his head, daydreaming while he stared at the ceiling, and Sasuke... Sasuke didn't think about anything.
The whole time he sat there, watching with anxiety-ridden eyes. His leg started bouncing after an hour, an old habit he'd kicked. But, hey. Old habits die hard.
He was so nervous he was sweating, but freezing cold. His sight never left Sakura's hands, trying desperately to heal his baby.
'Uchiha Sanae.
'Uchiha.
'No.
'Sanae.'
When Sakura finally stepped away from the bed, panting a bit and with bags under her eyes, the three immediately directed all of their attention to her.
"I've done what I can," she said, looking down to Sanae with sad eyes. "I'll do more if I need to, but she'll hopefully be able to fight the rest of this on her own."
"We know you did your best, Sakura-chan," Naruto said.
"Yeah..." Sakura frowned. Then, she looked at Sasuke.
He looked at her, too, immediately seeing the bleak look in her eyes. Usually, they shined green. Now, they were dull.
Sasuke tensed up.
"She'll wake up in a little bit," Sakura said gently. "She'll be crying and screaming because she'll be in pain. Her body will be trying to fight off the foreign chakra. You should hold her close, make her feel comforted. She'll end up exhausting herself and fall back asleep after a few hours...
"However, it will take hours. And it will be hard. And when she goes to sleep, she'll either wake up hours later and be in the clear... or she'll pass," Sakura ended.
Sasuke choked back some tears, merely nodding. "Ah," was all he could get out.
Naruto looked at him, worried. "Sas...uke?"
Kakashi, also, was looking at him. Though, his look was grimmer than Naruto's.
Sasuke stood and walked over to the bed. His hands on the railing, he looked down into it, seeing his baby, pale and tiny, with a little tube coming out of her little veins.
She was too small to already be in this position.
"Hang on," Sakura said, carefully moving in front of him. She disconnected the IV from the fluids, quickly turning off the beeping machine. Then, quietly, she watched as Sasuke gently gathered Sanae up in his arms.
He held her close, but not too tight, afraid to hurt her. She looked so fragile in his arms, breathless and still. Her lips twitched into a pained frown now and then.
Sasuke hated it.
He took her and sat down on the couch. The whole time, all he could do was stare at her. And, for the first time in a long time, he prayed. He prayed that she would recover; he prayed that he wouldn't have to go shopping for a little coffin; he prayed that he wouldn't be the last left like he had been for so long.
Sasuke prayed that Sanae lived.
Everybody was quiet.
It took around thirty minutes for her to wake up. She awoke slowly, blinking up at him, and then he watched her face turn red as she let out terrible, pained wails.
Kakashi kept reading his book like he didn't notice; Naruto looked near-to-tears at the sound, so he left the room for a little bit; Sakura sat beside Sasuke with a bleak expression.
Sasuke, well... He felt Sanae's pain right along with her. He held her close, feeling his heart cracking at the terrible sound of his baby in agony.
It would've been awful if she wasn't his, but the fact that she was made it all the more horrible.
"I'm sorry," he whispered to her, rocking her gently. His lips brushed along her hairline as he squeezed her a bit tighter. "I'm sorry. I'd take it if I could," he said, anguished.
Sanae kept crying and crying and crying, breathless and hurting. Sobs wracked her small body until Sasuke was worried she couldn't breathe anymore, but then she cried more.
Kakashi was on the chair pretending to be asleep, sitting upright with closed eyes and his book beside him.
Naruto was up on the roof.
"What is she feeling right now?" Sasuke asked Sakura quietly, not looking away from Sanae's tear-filled eyes.
"..."
"Sakura?"
"It's painful," Sakura said simply.
"Tell me."
She frowned, lightly placing a hand on his upper arm. "Sasuke, why do you—"
"I just do," he cut in. "Tell me."
Sakura sighed. "Her chakra is fighting off the foreign chakra. In order to do that, it's molding itself into different shapes everywhere around her body—shapes her tenketsu aren't ready for. When chakra fights, it's painful."
"What does it feel like to her?"
"... It probably feels something like having nails rip you apart from the inside out," Sakura said somberly, squeezing his arm. "Hashirama's Disease is impossible to catch in babies, Sasuke."
"How did I miss it?" He kept staring at Sanae, kept rocking her.
She kept crying.
"It's hard to catch in children able to verbalize their symptoms... In babies with Sanae-chan's circumstances, moodiness, fussiness, and trouble sleeping aren't really that strange. They just also happen to be symptoms of the disease."
"How long has she been in pain?" Sasuke asked through clenched teeth, eyes narrowed now.
What had he put Sanae through because of his carelessness?
"Probably not long. Her chakra was restless because it knew something was wrong, but it couldn't take action until the foreign chakra made contact. It didn't make contact for weeks. When it finally did tonight, her chakra's immune system decided that eliminating the invaders was more important than keeping her heart beating. That's why it stopped," Sakura explained evenly.
"I see."
She sighed, moving to crouch down in front of him.
For a moment, he broke his eyes away from Sanae and looked at Sakura.
"If anyone should have caught this, Sasuke, it was me. This isn't your fault," she told him softly, sincerely.
Sasuke shook his head. "It's not your fault."
"Then it's no one's."
He stared at her for a beat, simply nodding once before looking at Sanae again.
Sakura nodded back.
Soon, Naruto returned with red eyes and sniffling. "How is she?" he asked, sitting beside Sasuke on the other side and leaning down to look at the crying baby. Naruto frowned at the pained look on her face.
"She's... fighting," Sakura said.
'Please, keep fighting, Sanae,' Sasuke thought in his head. 'I know it's hard. I'm sorry.'
Then, not long after, she finally fell quiet. Having exhausted herself, Sanae's eyes closed as she fell asleep. Her head was lying on his chest as she slipped off into her dreams.
It made Sasuke feel better that she wasn't going through so much pain anymore. It scared him to death because this was the part that decided if she got to grow up or not.
Sanae might not wake up; Sasuke knew it was a possibility.
"Sakura?" Naruto asked after the baby quieted down.
Sakura placed a glowing hand over her for a few seconds before retracting it. "Only time will tell," she said.
There was suddenly a weight on their shoulders, tension so heavy it felt like an S-rank mission just being in the hospital room.
"You'll make it, Sanae-chan," Naruto assured the baby before looking up at Sasuke to add: "She'll make it."
"I agree," said Sakura.
"Me, too," added Kakashi, watching them all from the chair.
Sasuke didn't look up from her face. God, he hoped his teammates were right. He really did. If it meant Sanae would live, Sasuke would do anything.
He realized that now.
He realized what being a father was—what it meant.
Being a father meant that come hell or high water he'd travel to the ends of the Earth, to space, he'd be a good law-abiding citizen, or even a terrorist again—whatever Sanae needed from him, he'd do. Whatever kept her safe, he'd do.
Being a father meant his life was no longer his own, but instead of feeling stifling like it had at first, it felt like redemption and a second chance.
Sanae was his second chance and she couldn't die here. She just couldn't.
—
The sun was starting to peak up through the window, the village's morning crowd beginning to fill the streets. Soft, yellow light came in through the closed curtains, only slightly darkened.
Sasuke still held Sanae, who was asleep. Naruto was asleep on the couch, head tilted all the way back and snoring. Sakura was also on the couch beside Sasuke, looking off into the wall with a pondering expression.
Kakashi stood from the chair, walking over to Sasuke. "You need to eat something. It's been hours," he said.
"Not hungry."
"..." Kakashi sighed lightly—they were all so stubborn. "I'll make you coffee. Sakura?"
"Black," she said.
"Okay."
With that, Kakashi left the room.
"You guys didn't need to stay," Sasuke told Sakura while gently rocking Sanae.
"Yes, we did," Sakura said, looking at Sasuke like he was an idiot. "We love you and you're our teammate."
Sasuke eyed her long and hard. It still surprised him how open she was with her feelings. Honestly, it always had. Sakura wore her heart on her sleeve.
Sasuke appreciated it. He didn't have to study her; reading her was like second nature.
Feeling a little leg twitch in his arms, Sasuke looked down immediately. His eyes widened when he saw Sanae slowly awakening.
When her eyes opened all the way, she stared up at Sasuke. "Dada," she mumbled sleepily, tired-looking and pale, but alive.
Sasuke felt the weight lift. He hadn't realized exactly how much Sanae meant to him, but the absolute joy and relief he was currently feeling was like nothing he'd felt before.
Sanae was alive!
"Dada," she repeated, tone whiny.
"Yeah," Sasuke said, pressing her against his chest and kissing the top of her head. His bangs covered his face as he buried it in her hair, tears springing to his eyes. "I'm here," he whispered.
"Thank god," Sakura laughed in relief, standing with more energy than she really should have had left. "Naruto!"
Naruto awoke, squinting around in confusion before his eyes landed on Sasuke and Sanae. "Sanae-chan!"
Sasuke lifted his head, a small, gentle smile on his face as Sanae smiled up at him.
She made grabby hands at him.
Kakashi walked back into the room holding three paper cups. When he saw Naruto and Sakura smiling brightly on either side of Sasuke, he dropped it all and appeared behind the couch, ignoring the coffee splashing to the floor behind him.
Sure enough, Sanae was giggling—Naruto was making a funny face at her.
When she saw Kakashi, she chanted, "Dog, dog! Dada, dog!"
"We're right here," Sasuke said quietly again, a peaceful look in his eyes. A relieved look.
He didn't know if he'd ever been more relieved in his life.
"Dog!"
"Sensei," started Naruto.
Kakashi hummed, running through the Summoning Jutsu hand signs.
Sakura was practically jumping for joy, smiling brightly at the baby. Naruto did the same thing. Soon, Kakashi held Pakkun in his hands, holding the pug up so that Sanae could joyously pet his ears.
Sasuke looked at the scene, looked at his daughter and teammates. His daughter. Sanae was his baby. It didn't feel scary to think about anymore—it was just the truth.
Sakura played peekaboo with Sanae.
Naruto talked Sasuke's ear off, bragging about how Sanae would like him better when she got older.
When she got older, because she would.
Kakashi watched it all go down quietly, a small smile on his face, like Sasuke.
"I love you," Sasuke whispered so quietly that no one but Sakura heard as he kissed Sanae's forehead.
Sakura smiled at him, eyes gentle and kind and happy.
He held Sanae close.
'I love you so much, Sanae-chan.'