colour me green
x
He sits on the porch of his house. When Sasuke was little his mother lit a candle for the longest night of the winter, for fireflies and night-butterflies.
But in this town, on the longest night of the nights, it never gets dark.
Every window is lit, torches frothed and spit along the streets, their flame fickle against the rush of wind.
Sasuke wonders, for a mere second, if he should just let it all go and create a flame of his own – blue and vindictive and slaughtering – his personal lighting; but that would be too cruel to the children, and he does not want to upset his little ones.
"Are you coming in?" his wife asks.
His wife is tall, thin, blonde and beautiful; he met her after the war, in a large village and it too quite some time to court her, but he would never back out of the challenge and she certainly was one. A challenge. Not a ninja – no, no, Sasuke swore he would never marry one; never a ninja, never again – but a young bright thing with fair skin and dewy look; perfection in every way.
His wife reminds Sasuke of the many people he knew in his past life. She is like his best friend because of the pure cobalt colour of her large eyes; she is like his cousin, forever shy and timid; she is like his dead comrade, loyal to a fault and too, wears glasses; she is like a girl he once knew, with her pretty smile and sharp mind, a ghost of his past.
Sasuke left Konoha when he was thirteen and never came back; during the war he was on the neither side, not a foe not a comrade, just a man who wants to disappear in the mist of his memories. But he saw his team – not the new one with sharp teeth, orange hair and attitude; but the old one with cheesy moments, silly smiles and porn books – the boy was still the same, it was a good thing too, someone had to be the old self after all; the man turned into a shadow with silver hair, not a word and if mute, as if numb; the girl was lankier, prettier, harsher but did not change all that much.
Sasuke caught the stares, like years ago, but this time she did not hide, but boldly walked on the moonlight with him, fearless and wonderful. There was magic about them; beauty of unspeakable sort.
But Sasuke caught the stares.
It was a triangle of sort. She looked at him, he looked at her, and the best friend was in acute pain– all of them were brilliant liars; she told words of deceiving love to one while chasing after the other from the beginning of time; Sasuke built an armor, made of lies and arrogance and power and all he could master; the friend kept the promise and slowly his shine dulled.
So he did the only thing he could. He disappeared like the nightmare he is – from her life but not from her mind – and let her go. Because it was the right thing to do. He owed Naruto at least that much.
As the snow starts falling Sasuke as-if smiles – perhaps it wasn't a smile, but just a twitch – he is not a fire anymore, there is no war and he no longer is a shinobi, there is no need for burns; and somewhere a girl from his past smiles at the sight of the fallen show and Sasuke knows that that moment is just for them.
"Sasuke?"
He turns his head, his wife still and cold and beautiful, and he answers as the flame of his candle twitched, "In a minute. Give me time."
x
the ending note: think Love Actually for this one. Remember the part when that guy - well, we all know him I just forgot his bleeding name! - let's Keira Knightley marry his best friend even though he loved her too but the best friend saw her first. Well, this is sort of like that. And the blonde woman is not Ino. Just so you know.