I once felt no shame in professing my undying love for you nearly every chance I got.
That startled him.
He'd figured they'd been friends as a matter of convenience or maybe just teammates like she'd said they were. Nowhere in that did he get that vibe from her... but then again, it had been part of a past he didn't recall. He tipped his head back, dark eyes fixed on her face as if looking for the "just kidding" that he figured would follow. He hadn't expected her to be serious about it.
His hand came up to poke her in the forehead, much like a certain someone he didn't like to think about had always done to him. "This," he stated matter-of-factly, indicating the marks on his arm before tapping the seal at his neck, "isn't this, if that's what you're thinking. It looks pretty close, and it shows up the same way, but it's... well, it used to be part of the whole 'summoning' pact, but I think I killed Manda which means I don't know if it's even useful anymore. Like I said, I'm probably here because I screwed up."
It was a subject change, but one he was grateful for. The awkwardness of her earlier statement was something he really didn't know how to take, and he wasn't sure whether the past tense was a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand, it meant that she wasn't Karin and he didn't need to barricade his door. On the other... it almost felt like he'd just lost something important. That was ridiculous though! How could you lose something if you didn't know what that something was? Thinking it over had to wait until later, so for the time being, his mind filed that information away under "Things that I don't understand".
"It was supposed to be a spatial displacement jutsu, and a last ditch effort to get as far from Akatsuki as possible before he blew himself up. Basically bend time and space to put me somewhere else. That's... the last thing I remember, and then I woke up here. I'd given a scroll and a few other things to Suigetsu just in case, but if time stops when we come here, I could've done myself in and I wouldn't even know it." His voice grew quiet, his hand making its way back to hers, "...this is actually kind of comfortable."