Title: Nightmare (Finished)
Pairing: Sasuke + Sakura
Genre: Friendship / Slight Romance
"Shhh, it's okay. You're awake, Sasuke-kun, everything is okay." Sakura's calm and soft voice was, together with Sasuke's ragged breathing, the only noise that disturbed the silence of the night. Sakura sat next to Sasuke on his bed, hugging him from the side. She masssged his scalp with her fingers and whispered soothing words into his ear. His eyes were wide open, starring into the darkness of his own bedroom. Sakura continued to let her fingers comb through, letting small droplets of her chakra flow through him, calming his tormented mind.
As the time passed, Sasuke eventually relaxed into her touch. He sighed and put his hand over Sakura's. She stood up from his bed and smiled at her team-mate.
"Come on, let's get you some tea." She said and went to his kitchen. She knew that he was following her.
While she prepared the tea for the both of them, she thought back to the first time that 'this' happened.
It was a maybe 3 months ago. Sasuke had been back for a few months already at that time and Sakura was the medic that had to keep track of his vitals and pay attention to his health, additionaly to being one of the Anbu's assigned to make sure he stayed in the village. The night she first witnessed his nightmares seemed to be like any other night in Konohagakure. It was 11pm and Sakura was sleeping peacefuly when she felt his calm chakra flare up drastically. She was completely thrown off and even though Neji was assigned to Sasuke during the night she still ran to Sasuke's house. When she saw Neji standing awkwardly in Sasuke's bedroom, Sasuke a complete mess, breathing hard, eyes wide open and not even aknowledging the two of them in his room, she knew that running there was the right thing. Neji turned to Sakura and explained the situation and left the still-not-calm Sasuke to her, knowing any of his doing would be in vain.
Sakura smiled as she remembered how awkward it was at first and how nervous she was when she felt him tense up at her touch.
She still didn't know what he actually had nightmared about but knowing his horrid past she had a pretty good guess. When she heard Sasuke's feet trudge over the floor into the living room, Sakura shook her head to get rid of the thoughts plaguing her mind, along with the fact that she was sleep deprived. She took the two cups into the living room and sat next to Sasuke on his couch. He took one cup from her but didn't drink anything at first. Sakura on the other hand was glad about the tea and took a sip.
A comfortable silence settled around them while they both enjoyed the others presence. With the time they had drank their tea, sleep started to catch up on them. Sasuke was the first one to sleep and used Sakura's lap as a pillow. The fact that Sasuke was comfortable enough around Sakura to let her into his personal space was something she aknowledged as gratitude. Sasuke was not an emotional person but to Sakura's amazement Sasuke seemed to actually appreciate that she helped him with the plagues of his mind. Not once did they speak about what occured between them at night. It was nothing to be discussed. Sakura was a person that wanted to help, she wanted to be needed and she was seeking someone she could care about. Sasuke wanted to find peace, to forget the memories of his past that still haunted him. He needed someone that could protect him fom the horror of his own being. They found the person that they were searching for in each other.
And all the while Sasuke was sleeping, Sakura guarded him, giving Sasuke his well earned rest.