Deep inside the cave, the light was even dimmer.
Sakura curled up in Goten's arms, covered only by his loose black training jacket.
Her eyes were squeezed shut, her long eyelashes still trembling slightly. She dared not open them.
Everything that had just happened, wild and utterly overwhelming, kept replaying in her mind, leaving her so embarrassed she wanted to crawl into a hole.
Yet with that strong, powerful heartbeat beside her ear and those warm arms wrapped tightly around her, she felt more grounded and secure than ever.
Everything was different now.
"Stop pretending to sleep if you're awake."
Goten's lazy voice sounded above her head.
His hand refused to behave, roaming freely over Sakura's smooth, delicate back.
"Let me check how well you've recovered."
He spoke with a perfectly straight face.
"Mm... your skin's nice and springy. Looks like all the poison's gone."
Sakura's cheeks were hot enough to fry an egg. Embarrassed and annoyed, she reached out and pinched his waist.
But her feeble pinch felt more like a coy gesture.
"Don't... don't move your hands around..."
Her voice was barely louder than a mosquito.
"How am I supposed to check without moving?"
Goten sounded entirely justified, but his hand grew even bolder.
Sakura trembled slightly beneath his caresses as an unfamiliar tingling spread through her body.
Biting her lower lip, she gathered all her courage and asked quietly.
"Goten... what... are we now?"
The moment she asked, her heart leaped into her throat as she nervously awaited his verdict.
She feared this was nothing more than an impulse born of a life-or-death crisis, that once the dream ended, everything would return to where it had begun.
Goten stopped moving.
He pinched her cheeks, taut with nervousness, and grinned.
"You're the wife I've chosen. Think you can