A/N:: I AM ON A ROLL! here's a non-pokemon piece, haha.
stain the world red
.
• I •
"Don't talk." The whisper cracks open the silence between them as she opens her mouth to speak.
Her eyes scream, staring up at him—he can't help but notice how they sparkle like trapped starshine, bottle green and curious and war-tainted. She smiles as his eyes sweep her form—she is always smiling, even in the grimmest of circumstances.
They stand in the dark of the alley and wait until danger passes (in reality it never does but don't think about that now don't think don't think—)
Then they run.
• II •
They breathe in filthy air, filled with smoke and the smell of alcohol. Sasuke stands in the shadows and sticks the white cigarette in his mouth again. He doesn't know much about clubs but this isn't one—it's a makeshift room but it's all they have.
Sakura dances in the middle of it all, laughing and smiling—Sasuke doesn't know how to smile anymore. Not many people do. His eyes follow her movements and he thinks maybe that he could learn how to.
The stench is overwhelming—piss and blood and rot—but it's all they have.
• III •
She wisps her hands over the bodies, feeling for life even when she knows—they both know—there is none. A single tear rolls down her cheek and stains one of the pale faces. Sakura watches death and causes death and undoes death but she cannot stomach death.
"Sakura." he says, the name rolling off his tongue like a prayer. She turns and nods, hair falling in her eyes.
Sasuke's pupils flicker up to the horizon. the sun is stained red (the first day it turned that color was when they first realized there was no turning back. you can't turn back, you can't turn back—) and the ground is bare until it disappears. Most of it is covered with bodies. There is no end to them.
Her fingers grasp air inches from his, trying to find something to ground her but there is nothing.
There is never anything.
• IV •
The walls are peeling back around them, the apartment empty except for a mattress. He is bleeding—oh god so much blood—and she is crying and this is how they live.
Sakura's hands glow green over his wounds and Sasuke's lips are curving in a failed attempt of a smile. The light bulb above them flickers—on, off, on, off, on, off—until it goes out and then the only light is from her chakra, illuminating her face and the crimson liquid pooling on the ground.
"You'll live," Sakura promises, closing up his wounds. "You'll live."
Somewhere under her words is a desperate plea—live live live live i need you to live please—and Sasuke almost smiles at her words.
Sakura laughs, crying and they're in the middle of a war, an apocalypse but in their little apartment things are perfect for a moment.
This is perfection.
"I won't die." Sasuke chokes out of his cracked lips. "Not tonight."
She kisses him, and it is perfection.
This is perfection. You are perfection.
• V •
The world is stained ruby—the walls are smeared with blood and dirt and the ground is gritty under Sakura's worn shoes. She sighs, inhaling air contaminated with drugs and filth. Next to her, Sasuke stands silently.
"Another killing spree," he mutters, as his companion fingers the gloves sticking out of her pocket.
The street is littered with dead bodies. The carnage is usual—a constant reminder of The War.
They pick through the corpses until Sakura gasps. "Sasuke, it's Lee." the man under her feet wears green and Sasuke recognizes him—another shinobi gone down.
Somewhere in the background is a noise.
"Shit," she whispers and jumps up. "Did you hear that? They're still here."
His eyes crack open. "Come on." he grabs her hand and they run.
They're always running.
• VI •
Naruto returns with new scars and his head hung low. They are in one of the makeshift clubs again, taking one night off. Sasuke still wears his shinobi gear and Sakura has her gloves in her pocket.
"There are so many bodies—" Naruto says between drinks. "So many, Sasuke."
Their faces are grim. "We saw Lee the other day." Sakura murmurs. "Dead."
"God," the blond curses into his glass. "God, I wish it would stop. Any others?"
Sasuke shakes his head. "Not that we've seen."
"Akamaru went down on the mission." Naruto sighs. "Kiba hasn't talked in days."
Sakura stares at the table, tracing the names carved into the wood. "You should go and give a mission report."
"What, and tell the Hokage we failed again? It's useless, Sakura. Fuck, they don't even want to know anymore."
Naruto's eyes are dull and Sasuke can barely remember the days when they were hopelessly optimistic—no mountain too high—and Sakura laughed constantly.
He wipes a hand across his forehead to get rid of the grime he knows covers it—they barely bathe anymore—but all it does is leave a trail of blood. Their hands are constantly covered with the liquid and Sasuke doesn't know where it's from—him or Sakura or Naruto or a dead body or an enemy.
Sakura downs another glass of some burning alcohol and stands up. "We need to get at least a little sleep."
The three of them share the same mattress and Sakura smiles when she feels their warmth.
Just like the old days.
• VII •
When Sakura wakes up Naruto is gone and Sasuke is standing by the window.
She walks silently over to him and peers out of the dirty glass. "Where's Naruto?" she asks, watching the few shinobi walking through the streets, glancing this way and that and picking through the dead bodies.
Sasuke grunts. "He had another mission."
"Of course." Sakura whispers. The city outside the windowpane is monochrome, dead. Outside of the gates the grass is brown and the trees are bare—all the vegetation killed by chemicals and stained with the fluids leaking out of corpses. "He's always leaving. Stupid Naruto." she pauses. "Remember when we first started out as ninjas?" Her laugh is hollow, parched and her smile doesn't reach her eyes. "God do I miss those days."
"We all do," he mutters, voice void of any emotion.
They learned not to care. To be stoic. (don't blink don't smile just fight kill serve your country serve Konoha—)
A sigh breaks the quiet of the room. "Come on, Uchiha. Let's go."
• VIII •
The two sit in one of the old training fields—the one where Team 7 used to train. The ground is hard, compact dirt and the trees are black and scraggly. Sakura tries to smile, but it is hard.
Her lips are cracked and she's hungry and tired and thirsty and what is there left to smile about, anyway?
She grasps Sasuke's hand and cranes her neck toward the sky.
There is no Team 7 anymore—Kakashi is dying somewhere they can't see and Naruto is always on missions and only Sasuke is left with her. She grips his fingers tighter to make sure he's still there and steals the cigarette he's holding in his other hand.
Sakura blows circles of white smoke and drops the cigarette onto the dirt. Next to her, Sasuke grunts, and she knows that he's thinking the same thoughts—Kakashi Naruto once upon a time we were a team—as she is.
She leans against him and smiles a desperate smile.
Sakura's smiles don't reach her eyes anymore.
• IX •
It's midnight in Konoha and Sakura stands outside. Her arms are bare and ghostly and shivering.
She tilts her head up and watches the sky. It's black—not blue—and blank. The moon is hidden and the stars are all gone. The smog covers it all.
Sakura remembers the stars glistening above her when she was younger—she remembers the nights she stayed awake watching the sky, navy blue and dotted with those pinpricks of light.
Sasuke walks up to her and tries to smile at her. They're standing on decomposed people—people they might've known, might've seen every day—under a lightless sky and Sasuke is trying to smile.
She finds the whole picture heartbreakingly sad.
• X •
The rain is coming down in sheets, onto the entire city and cries of joy come from every corner.
They stand in the middle of it all and Sasuke swears she looks like an angel. Her hair sticks to her face and blood is running down her arms and staining her clothing and her feet are bare and covered with crap and dirt but she's smiling, genuinely smiling and her eyes are shining.
She looks at him and he looks at her and she laughs, loud and long. "It's raining, Sasuke," she sings. "It's raining."
And it's like they're twelve again, dancing in the rain—it's beautiful.
"There's no way we can't win this." Sakura declares and Sasuke nods—for once he's convinced.
For a moment neither of them care about anything—there's no way they can't win this.
Sasuke smiles.