Work Text:
It took him a while to verbally say it, and saying it was hard. Not because loving you is hard oh no, loving you is the easiest thing he's ever done. It was difficult just because it was such a big step. Also in his experience, everyone he ever loved left or died. He didn’t want to condemn you to the same fate. The first time he said it was in the heat of the moment and he didn’t even realize he had said it until after…
Now he says it often, but he is first and foremost a man of action so he often shows his love physically.
You can hear I love you in the way he comes home from a mission. How he holds you tight, but not too tight. He tenderly tells you how much he missed you, and asks if you were ok while he was gone.
Before he even leaves on a mission you can hear it when he makes sure that the necessities you'll need while he's gone are there. He stocks the cabinets and fridge. He makes sure the house is clean.
The way he's never been big on PDA but will place a gentle hand on the small of your back to keep you close or guide you. When his fingers slip between yours when you come up on a big crowd. A soft grasp of your elbow. When you go to Ichiraku and his hand rests on your thigh under the ledge.
You notice it when he just knows you want to borrow his favorite shirt. He wears it for a few minutes to warm it up and make it smell like him before giving it to you, knowing how much his scent comforts you. Though even with his incredible sense of smell he is nose blind to it. But you like it and that's all that matters.
You hear it every morning. If you're already up you join him for a morning tea or coffee and game plan your day. If you're not awake, he would have made it for you, but didn’t want it to go cold. So instead he leaves the things to make it out for you. That way you don’t have to rummage around for everything.
He says it in the spring. When he secretly grabs you a jacket and neatly tucks it under his Jonin vest, because it happens everytime. It being that you don’t bring a jacket but shiver late in the afternoon because it isn’t as warm as when you left the house that morning. He hands you the jacket he snuck around half the day. It’s warm, just like him.