Yay! It's my first request fic completed! Dedicated to child of a fallen angel who requested this summer-themed story, I hope you like it! It's a little ambiguous as to whether it's a non-massacre or AU story, as is the relationship between Itachi and Sakura before this incident (though it's implied that they're close and have been for a while), but I had fun writing it and I hope you guys have fun reading! It's just a little incident on a hot summer day that brings this pair together ^^
Please, enjoy!
Disclaimer: Yup, still not mine...
Watermelon Drums
"Watermelon!"
The heat made it too much work to sit up and leave the porch's cool shade to greet the guest, but her voice was almost ecstatic as she uttered the delicious word. The melon's waxy green rind beaded with moisture, beguiling with a chill she could practically feel. With a soft moan of longing, she forced herself to sit up, her hands reaching out for it like a child half her age.
A low chuckle reached her ears over the incessant mating calls of summer cicadas. "Okaa-san thought you might want it."
She tore her eyes away from the watermelon then, to the face of the gift-bearer, his obsidian eyes narrowed slightly against the sun's pitiless glare. For a second it was as though the very sun dimmed, a spark of something leaping between them like a tangible thing… And then it was gone, water in the desert sand, as she grinned.
"But my parents are away on one of Tou-san's…expeditions," Sakura said with a laugh, tucking a stray lock of petal-hued hair behind an ear. "I can't eat it all by myself, even if it is summer."
Offering her the watermelon, net basket and all, Itachi took a seat on her porch as comfortably as if he'd owned the place, flashing her his usual mysterious smile. "You won't have to. Okaa-san sent it over for you and Naruto and my otouto. And me," he added, almost as an afterthought.
"I haven't seen Naruto or Sasuke all day; there's no guarantee-,"
His soft laugh cut her off. "You'll see them, Sakura; they are some of your most avid admirers."
"Admirers!" and even she couldn't tell if the color in her cheeks was from the day's sweltering heat or a blush. "Naruto and Sasuke can't be my admirers, as you put it, Itachi-san," she corrected him with a lazy smile, going limp as she curled up in the porch shade. "They're my best friends. It's different."
Itachi said nothing.
She was heat-drunk, he could tell, reaching that placid state where everything felt just a little bit surreal and words started coming out in a slightly sleepy singsong tone. It was almost July and, in the hottest part of the day, the eighteen-year-old looked as though she was about to go to bed. Sweat-touched rosy hair splayed out over the wood of the porch as she lay by his side, her body encased in a flimsy spaghetti-strap top and short shorts that she usually wore to sleep.
She came awake when her fingers found the cold flesh of the watermelon rind, still wet. Sakura could only imagine how it must have been like for it, sitting in ice-cold water out of the fridge as it chilled until Mikoto-san deemed it ready to bring over, using her eldest son as the delivery boy.
"Watermelon…"
This time the word was a dreamy sigh, and Itachi found himself fascinated as Sakura propped herself up on one elbow and brought her head down to rest a cheek against the fruit's tough rind. With her free hand, she gently rapped her knuckles against it, grinning at the hollow tolling noise it made, like a small-scale taiko drum.
He found himself leaning forward, both surprised and amused by the memories that sound evoked. It was as familiar to him now as it had been the last time he'd heard it, ten years back.
…
"Mmmm, watermelon!"
The eight-year-old had her cheek pressed right up against the waxy rind of the large fruit, her emerald eyes scrunched up with pleasure, as she basked in the cold radiating off the melon. Seemingly unperturbed by her audience of one, she let out a contented sigh; for someone who was named after the spring, she definitely didn't take well to the summer.
Itachi knew her well enough to realize her usual cold-seeking behaviors when he saw it.
"Is it ready to eat?" she asked plaintively, catching his attention once more, and those innocent, emerald eyes of hers said keenly how much she wanted it to be so.
If it had been his little brother asking, he might have just shrugged off the question or replied to it with a customary 'Hn' but the girl staring up at him with such soulful, pleading eyes (admittedly because she wanted confirmation that her favorite summer fruit was ready to eat) made him feel…indulgent.
Strange.
"We can find out," slipped out before he had a chance to change his mind or recall the words, and with a mental sigh of resignation at having opened his mouth in the first place, he motioned for the girl to scoot back a little. Checking to make sure the watermelon was ripe wouldn't work if she sat there, covering most of it with her body.
As the little girl scooted backwards, her eyes trained on him, he leaned forward and smartly rapped on the rind with his knuckles.
The sound was a dull, hollow sort of thumping noise not unlike a drumbeat, and Itachi found himself smiling at the curious gleam in eight-year-old Sakura's eyes.
"It's ready."
…
"It's ready," Sakura told him, smiling with a heavy-lidded gaze that was so much more mature than the wide-eyed fascination he remembered from a decade ago. "I suppose we should wait…"
"That would be the polite thing to do, especially since Okaa-san believes you will share it with Naruto and Sasuke."
She nodded reluctantly, glanced at the condensation beading the dark-green fruit rind, and flicked a pleading gaze up to Itachi.
They shouldn't, but, "We have no idea when they'll be here," he told her, hefting the watermelon as he led the way into her house and to the kitchen. They might as well take advantage of his mother's gift while it was still chilled.
Sakura cheered, practically radiating bliss as he cut half of it into slices and carried them back to the porch, storing the remainder in her fridge for her friends.
The watermelon was ice-cold and sweet as she took a large bite and hummed her appreciation. It was so characteristically Sakura that Itachi found himself smiling, and didn't let the expression fade even when she caught him at it.
Her eyes widened in delighted surprise, her lips grinning, and he wondered if the flush in her cheeks was the summer heat or something more.
'Something more,' he hoped when she went back to nibbling on her slice of watermelon before turning to him with a shy, sheepish look.
"What did you mean before? By admirers," she clarified curiously, gesturing with her half-eaten slice.
Itachi was saved from having to answer just yet by a mouthful of fruit, though the intent look in Sakura's bright, viridian eyes said she would want him to talk as soon as he swallowed.
The light clenching in his gut and the pounding in his chest was something he'd come to accept over the last year, but as he chewed he forced himself calm. Nervousness wasn't much of a good idea; he had held out on speaking to her about this for long enough.
"You have quite a number of them, Sakura. Naruto and Sasuke are just two of many."
"I have more?" the tone was teasing but she couldn't hide the subtle, incredulous gleam in her eyes.
"I could name a few; Lee, Kankuro," his obsidian gaze didn't waver, "me."
Her gasp was loud, a sound he could hear above the mating calls of summer cicadas, and the color from her cheeks changed from crimson to parchment pale back to crimson once more in under then seconds.
She looked…shocked.
For a second he wondered if he had been too subtle with the eighteen-year-old this past year, if perhaps she hadn't had even an inkling of his regard for her, and then she was leaning over the platter of watermelon slices he had cut up for them, bottle-green eyes shy.
"I…I'm really okay with just…one admirer," she mumbled, her ears growing visibly pink, her air one of someone imparting state secrets. State secrets that made his stomach knot and his chest grow tight, this time with pleasure.
"I…" he replied, gently teasing by mimicking her pattern of speech, even as he felt a warm, genuine smile touch the edge of his lips, "had hoped so."
She tilted her head, her intent a kiss on the cheek like she used to give him back when they were just children, but he turned at the last minute and her lips met his.
Aspen-leaf eyes widened as she froze, stunned by the touch and turn of events.
Long moments passed as Sakura's brain tried to comprehend just what was happening. But it was as though the neurons in her head refused to fire until Itachi's fingers gently touched her cheek, and then she was relaxing and melting as her eyes fluttered shut.
He made a quiet noise of contentment against her mouth, she could feel his smile against her lips, then his tongue darted out to coax her into something more and her mind went blank.
She tasted like summer and the watermelon they'd been eating; just as sweet but deliciously warm on his tongue. She seemed to concur with his sentiments, her slim fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt as his tangled into her strawberry-cream locks. Cupping the nape of Sakura's neck, he angled her face so that he had better access, and lost himself in showing her without words where she fit in his heart.
Summer heat, background noise, it all evaporated away as the watermelon slices lay forgotten between them.
Her eyes were glazed, her breath coming in soft pants, when they finally parted.
Amusement, warm and insistent and teasing, tugged his lips as he took another bite of fruit and watched the younger girl get herself back under control. When her eyes finally lifted to meet his, he offered her another slice.
"Watermelon?"
Mischief flickered across her elfin features. "Yes, please," she murmured with a tiny grin, before leaning forward to taste the flavor that lingered on his lips.
owari
It's the first updated of five request fics, using the physical sense of hearing as a theme as well as child of a fallen angel's summer idea. I hope you liked it! I hope everyone liked it! I really had a lot of fun writing in the warm, slightly sleepy tone of this fic, and I hope this reminded everyone of summer! Even those of you living in not-summer-season-right-now regions! XD
The muse loves your reviews, and don't forget, if you can fave the fic, you can drop the happy muse a line! ^^
Aria, out.