（ obligingly, he nests beside sasuke, slinging a leg over him, resuming that gentle contact for its own sake. his fingers chase up one hip, across to his flank, and then repeat in a soothing repetition of motion. he does kiss him, a slow and tender thing that's more about intimacy than the specific throughput of the touch. ）
I mentioned the teaching. （ it's as good a topic as any. and it's something he thinks sasuke would like to know more about. ） Usually it's math, or engineering or architecture. I don't really teach kids so much, normally it's adults — but every once in a while it's a younger crowd. Sometimes you need that enthusiasm and joy, you know?
（ his voice is just a little faraway as he speaks. ）
It's been a long time since I've done that, though. I miss it — I enjoy teaching for its own sake. Maybe it's because I get to live long enough to see the way that teaching people echoes outwards. You know, you stop off in a little village and teach people how to do basic civil engineering for irrigation and so on and so forth, and then in five hundred years it's a thriving metropolis that leads their nation in the practice.
（ he breathes out, slow. he doesn't need to explain to sasuke, of all people, that he finds peace so much more in the process of creation than in destruction. he's not so naïve to think that he alone can build a brighter future for a person, a place, a culture, a people — but he knows that he's helped. and that's enough. ）
If you could take anything you know now — or learn anything — and teach it to others, what would you do?
no subject
I mentioned the teaching. （ it's as good a topic as any. and it's something he thinks sasuke would like to know more about. ） Usually it's math, or engineering or architecture. I don't really teach kids so much, normally it's adults — but every once in a while it's a younger crowd. Sometimes you need that enthusiasm and joy, you know?
（ his voice is just a little faraway as he speaks. ）
It's been a long time since I've done that, though. I miss it — I enjoy teaching for its own sake. Maybe it's because I get to live long enough to see the way that teaching people echoes outwards. You know, you stop off in a little village and teach people how to do basic civil engineering for irrigation and so on and so forth, and then in five hundred years it's a thriving metropolis that leads their nation in the practice.
（ he breathes out, slow. he doesn't need to explain to sasuke, of all people, that he finds peace so much more in the process of creation than in destruction. he's not so naïve to think that he alone can build a brighter future for a person, a place, a culture, a people — but he knows that he's helped. and that's enough. ）
If you could take anything you know now — or learn anything — and teach it to others, what would you do?