She still felt it,even now. Even now she still felt the way his hand pierced right through her chest. She struggled to breathe as his cold fingers wrapped around her now slow beating heart. He clasped it tightly,letting it beat in his hands,blood trickling down his wrist. She looked him in the eye,hurt and terrified,he looked back,emotion absent.
There they stood in the aftermath of the war,locked in a silent stare. In the midst of it all,she found a morbid humor. He had always held her heart in his hands,this time, should really be no different. After all,she knew loving a man like him would kill her eventually.
She wakes up with a jolt,her chest heaving as she takes in deep gasping breaths. Her eyes,wide with fear, adjust to the darkness of the room. Nothing is there except for her and him. Slowly she looks at him,fear dissipating as she sees his sleeping face.
He looked so peaceful in his sleep,so calm. So much unlike his face during waking hours. He was so guarded. Years spent with him and still she couldn't really read him.
"Sakura?"
His voice jars her and she jumps slightly,a bead of sweat rolling down her temple.
She speaks not of her nightmare,of the fear she feels towards him for the brief moments she forgets that her dreams are not,and will never be reality. She merely lays back down,snuggles close to him. He welcomes her with his only arm,pulling her close to the warmth of his body,muttering an apology into the mussed tresses of her hair.
She never told him of the fear she feels towards him in the brief moments when she forgets her dreams are not reality,but something about his words makes her think he knows.
"It's okay."she answers"I love you."
He says nothing but she knows better than to think that he's asleep. He'll be awake the rest of the night holding her tighter and tighter until she's practically suffocating and it'll add to the list of his transgressions. Sasuke Uchiha was his own worst enemy in the night more than ever. He blamed himself for so much,carried so much burden that even now,with his curse of hatred lifted,he still couldn't breathe easy.
If she had to name something that she hated about him,it would be his conscious. The awful thing that took the light from his eyes,the terrible demon that kept him from being truly happy.
"Hey,"she beckons,hand upon his cheek. It takes him a moment to register her call,his gaze lowering to find and hold hers in the darkness. "I love you."She says firmly. He says nothing and she narrows her eyes in frustration. "I love you."she says again,louder this time.
"...I'm sorry."
"I don't want your apologies."she sits up but he doesn't follow. It annoys her;his insistence to stay smashed under the weight of his guilt.
His gaze meet hers almost shyly,like a guilty child afraid to look their parent in the eye. The guilt makes her angrier. Everyone has forgiven Sasuke Uchiha,except for Sasuke Uchiha.
They sit in a long silence,growing more uncomfortable by the second. She sighs and flops back down by his side. He rolls over,his back facing her as if he could no longer stand to look at her. For a moment,all is quiet and Sakura almost thinks he had fallen asleep reaches out,hand tracing scars that she had long since memorized by now. Her fingers slide across each one,criss crossing and weaving across the expanse of his flesh. It isn't until her wandering fingers come across the edge of where his left arm used to be that she stops. His flesh is sensitive there still and he flinches ever so slightly. It is her who mutters an apology this time and he says nothing.
"Sasuke?"
Silence is her only answer,as is usually the case.
"Why can't you forgive yourself?Let the past stay in the past."
"...I hurt you Sakura..."to her surprise,he rolls over suddenly,piercing charcoal eyes boring into her own. "I put you through so much and for the longest time I never even realized that I was. You had loved me for so long and all I ever gave you was suffering."
"I don't care about all that!"she insisted,hands cupping his face. "All I care about is you! All I care about is if you're okay,if you realize how much I love you!"
He didn't answer her for what seemed like eternity as she searched his eyes for some kind of answer. He reached up,placing his hand on one of hers.
"I know."he slid his hand from hers and placed it gently on the back of her head. "I know that you care." She let him pull her towards him,her hands leaving his face to be trapped between his chest and hers. She let his warmth calm her and make her forget about the point she was trying to convey to him. She felt safe in that moment,she felt loved.
Sakura let it lull her to sleep,eyelids heavy and drooping,consciousness slipping farther and farther away.
"I love you too, Sakura."
She wasn't sure if she really heard him say it,or if it was her own imagination on the cusp of realities and dreams,but she was happy none the less. She no longer resisted sleep as it try to lay claim to her. She just let it happen,falling into a slumber free of nightmares.