"If you want, I can punch the wall and break my hand," his replied as he stood, his tone both joking and serious. Shifting his weight from one leg to the other, he tested his ankle, looking for any faint twinge of pain. Sakura was good at what she did.
Too good.
She'd gotten him to open up and talk when, as a general rule, he preferred to keep to himself. She'd made him remember things he wasn't sure he wanted to remember. She'd made him feel things that his mind had to file under "Things that are weird to think" in order to keep from doing something incredibly stupid. She'd gotten rid of a pain that he knew there was no logical reason for him to have.
And not once did she ask anything of him in return.
Stay. Oh god, please stay. I don't know why I want you to, but I do. He wanted, -needed- to say it. Instead, he moved toward her and pulled her into a tight hug. "Sakura... thank you."