title: news

summary: welcome home.

notes: I wrote this while sitting in my dorm lounge listening to violin music. This piece is completely unedited.


As soon as he stepped inside their house, Sasuke knew something was wrong. It was dusk, and he knew that around this time, Sakura would normally be in the kitchen doing dishes or sipping a glass of wine while relaxing in the living room. She was in neither room, and the house was dark, devoid of all forms of artificial lighting.

Normally, he would have assumed she was away, gone to a friend's or to see her parents. He could feel her chakra, pulsing with gentle life, coming from their upstairs bedroom. Sasuke frowned as he stepped out of the genkan and into the house, making his way towards the stairs.

His foot settled on the bottom stair when he noticed it.

Sakura's chakra felt strange. All chakra fluxuated, depending on the person or their state of being, and Sasuke had gotten used to the gentle and almost wave-like quality of Sakura's chakra. Tonight, however, it pulsed more like a rapid heartbeat than the gentle lolling of an ocean.

With this realization came the thought that something could be wrong, so Sasuke raced up the stairs and slammed open their bedroom door in a panic, eyes wide, searching for any sign of a threat.

He found Sakura pressed up against the headboard of their bed, curled into a ball with her forehead resting on her knees, hiding her face. Her hair, maroon in the darkness, fell around her shoulders and arms, which were wrapped around her shins. She didn't glance up at Sasuke's intrusion. She didn't even flinch at the slam of the door against the wall.

Cautious, Sasuke approached his girlfriend until he sat on the edge of the bed next to her. Carefully, like he feared she might startle if he used any force, he rested his palm on the back of her neck, stroking it with his thumb gently.

"Sakura," his voice was low, quiet. "What's wrong?"

Her head lifted slowly, and she looked at him with glazed eyes, like she wasn't actually seeing him. It took her a moment to focus on Sasuke's face and when she finally did, she gave him a wan smile.

"Okaeri," she whispered, not moving from her curled position. Sasuke shook his head, confused.

"Tadaima. Now tell me what's wrong," he commanded gently, using the hand on her neck to pull her gently towards him so she was curled up against his side as he shifted so he sat against the headboard with his legs outstretched on the bed.

The petite woman relented her stiff position and molded against her boyfriend, her head resting in the crook of his shoulder. She closed her bruised eyes – had she been getting enough sleep while he was away? – and sighed deeply.

"You were gone for a long time," eventually came her reply, which wasn't an answer to his question, but it was a start.

"Three months is a long time. A lot can happen in three months," she continued, almost in a monotone. Sasuke was growing increasingly worried.

"Sakura, what happened? Are you hurt? Is anything wrong? Talk to me," Sasuke picked up one of Sakura's limp hands and kissed her palm, letting it rest against his lips as he watched her, black eyes darkening with worry.

Sakura seemed to rouse herself at his touch, and she shifted so she was sitting up a little more. She turned to face her dark haired boyfriend and looked him in the eyes.

"Do you remember the night you left?" she asked.

Of course he remembered. It was a night he was probably never going to forget. His last mission had been the longest the two had ever been apart since they had started their relationship, and they had both been heavy with the impending separation. Their last night together had been a promise to return, a promise to wait, and a promise of a future. It had been beautiful.

He nodded his head, unsure of where this conversation was going.

Sakura turned her head and groped around on the bedside table next to her before her hand settled on something. In the dark, Sasuke couldn't tell what it was, but she handed it to him so he could inspect it.

At first, he had no idea what it was. Then he saw the small screen on the little stick with the two pink lines and his entire body froze. His mind stopped working, unable to process the meaning behind the thing he held in his hand.

Sakura was studying his face with intense green eyes, and for a minute Sasuke found he was unable to meet them. His brain was working furiously to figure out what this meant for him, for them.

"I went to the hospital and did a blood test. It's not a false positive. I'm… Sasuke, I'm pregnant."

"I…," Sasuke started, and then he cleared his throat and looked at his girlfriend of four years as the news finally settled in his brain and a small, slow smile started to spread across his lips.

"We're going to have a child," he whispered, staring at the woman in front of him in awe.

The dark cloud around Sakura seemed to begin to dissipate and she smiled a little in return.

"We are. And you're… okay with that?"

"Okay? Sakura… this is… I can't… I love you," he replied, unable to put the correct words to his emotions. But Sakura seemed to understand. Her smile widened, and she shifted to she was straddling Sasuke, her hands on his shoulders, his resting on her waist.

"We're going to have a kid," she said, her eyes glowing now.

Sasuke leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers gently and Sakura could feel his smile.

"We're going to have a family," he replied, pulling her closer.