Merry Christmas everyone (or, Happy Non-denominational Winter Holiday)! :)
Now, I wasn't going to write anything new for this Christmas, given that I thought I'd already exerted all the holiday WAFF-iness I had when I wrote The Gift of Christmas Present last year. But then my dear friend sha La La. oh my-my (to whom this is dedicated!) surprised me with the most adorable little ficlet in a comment on my Livejournal, and... Well. Apparently I was wrong. So, you can blame her for this entirely. ;)
I wrote this really speedily, as I'm supposed to be writing college application essays... But, in any event, this is my humble gift to you all. Happy holidays!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Thankfully, for all of your sakes. I unfortunately also don't own the gorgeous "Winter Song" by Ingrid Michaelson & Sara Bareilles.
Connection
This is my winter song to you.
The storm is coming soon
it rolls in from the sea.
My love a beacon in the night.
My words will be your light
to carry you to me.
Is love alive?
—"Winter Song", by Ingrid Michaelson & Sara Bareilles
The world hangs in a state of suspended animation around him. Each moment drags by impossibly slowly, time hovering between one day and the next. The terminal is bathed in darkness, like a photographic negative to the world of white outside the huge window typically overlooking a sea of tarmac. The snow swirls down, somersaults sideways and back-and-forth and shows no signs of ceasing or showing mercy for the weary.
While the clock strikes midnight on Christmas day, Sasuke's fellow passengers sleep curled up on uncomfortable airport terminal seats, stranded and dreaming of home. He wonders somewhat detachedly why he isn't doing the same.
(before he remembers that there's nothing and no one to come home to)
The bench of seats he's claimed for the night the closest to the window, Sasuke watches the flurries fall, his face reflected blankly back at him in the glare of the glass. There's a silence that pervades and permeates, the kind of silence that seeps in through every pore and burrows straight down to the bone marrow. The kind of silence in which it feels like he is the only person awake in the entire world, to the point where it seems his breathing thunders loud enough to wake the whole airport.
It's a miniscule airport at best; the kind where five planes a day is an overload and the handful of restaurants and gift shops close at eight. Sasuke doesn't even recall the name of the town it's located in, this place he should have left nearly seven hours ago. He tries to summon the last dregs of his irritation, but finds it eroded away and replaced with the same damnable silence.
"Can't sleep either?" comes a whisper from directly behind him, making Sasuke nearly jump out of his skin.
Stretched out on the bench that is back-to-back with Sasuke's lounges a blond young man Sasuke had assumed was sleeping like everyone else. Sasuke narrows his eyes in a squint-slash-glare, the lack of adequate light making him unable to fix the stranger with a proper look of loathing. But then the stranger sits up, moves forward into the faint light offered by the reflection of the white, white snow against the glass and—
Oh.
(Sasuke will deny it to the end of his days, but something melts inside him, like a handful of freshly fallen snow.)
Too preoccupied with fighting down the feeling, Sasuke fails to vocalize the No, it's impossible for me to get comfortable enough to sleep in public places. It doesn't matter much, anyway, as the guy keeps talking.
"I feel really bad for them," the stranger says softly, gazing at the sleeping people all around them. "Especially for the kids waiting for Santa, you know? I heard a little girl crying to her mother that Santa wouldn't be able to find her, and it was heartbreaking. The mother kept trying to assure her that Christmas finds people wherever they are, and that Santa won't forget their house even if they're not there."
Sasuke realizes that this guy is the type who always feels the need to fill up even the most fleeting of silences, and tries to be aggravated like he usually would.
(before he remembers that this is exactly what he was longing for on this most lonely of nights)
"What about you? Trying to get home for Santa too?" The guy's eyes are so blue they almost glow in the dark, and the amiable gleam in them is astoundingly genuine for it to be offered to a complete stranger.
"No." It's one of the few times Sasuke can ever think of actually giving a damn about his lackluster communicatory skills. "I mean yeah, I'm going home, but there isn't really anything important to return to." Inwardly, he winces, berating himself for how pathetic that sounded and—
"Yeah, same here," the guy nods, to Sasuke's amazement. "It can be an awfully lonely time of year."
(the handful of snow solidifies and melts again, over and over, in a ceaseless new candence)
The guy glances around again, taking in the sight of all the sleeping people. Turning back to Sasuke and leaning forward slightly, he murmurs, "I'm sorry if this sounds weird but, doesn't it kinda feel like we're the only two people awake in… the whole world or something right now?"
Sasuke's breath catches.
(and slowly the universe expands, atom by atom, until it consists of two)
The heat that rises to his face causes him to turn away. This time, there is someone reflected in the glass with him.
(he doesn't want to think about just how right it looks)
"Yes," he agrees, the whisper almost imperceptible, as their eyes meet. Those eyes are devastatingly blue, even at a distance.
"Well," the guy grins, and gives a muted chuckle that Sasuke can feel resonate through every one of his vertebrae, "I can think of far worse ways I could be spending Christmas Eve than sitting here, talking to a handsome stranger."
Sasuke's mouth is dry, but he turns to face his newfound companion.
And starts to talk.
Sasuke awakens to a commotion. With a jerk he sits up, uncurling from his position stretched across the seats. The sky is still dark outside, but clear, allowing the airport to enter a state of reanimation again. It takes only a moment for his sleep-dazed mind to register that the other passengers are boarding the plane before he is up, gathering his possessions and rummaging for his ticket.
With a start Sasuke turns to look behind him, but all that meets his sight is an empty seat.
(If he were the sort to have completely asinine thoughts, he'd have worried that the plane would be weighed down by the sudden heaviness of his heart.)
Once seated on the plane Sasuke searches for a glimpse of blond hair, but the flight is packed. He has no idea if the guy is even on this flight, or even where he was headed to. He searches through snippets of their whispered conversation as they drift back to him, but realizes that, though he'd opened up more to the stranger than he did to people he saw every day, he never even once asked for the guy's name.
He doesn't recall when he fell asleep, but curses himself for doing so.
(he doesn't allow himself to analyze how he was comfortable enough to fall asleep in public)
Closing his eyes and releasing a huff of frustration, he tries to steer his mind in another direction, to focus on the short flight separating him from finally going home.
(it nearly kills him to realize that it feels absurdly as though he's leaving it)
"So, was there anything you wanted for Christmas this year?" his companion asks genially with a lopsided grin.
"No, nothing. As a kid I got all that I asked for, but it seemed to matter less and less as the years went by. And now…" Sasuke shrugs, "Why ask for something I don't need, just for the sake of asking?"
"Yeah," the guy smiles, eyes bright. "Even as a kid, I never knew what to ask for. I mean, the toys would always make me happy for a few weeks or whatever, but I always wanted something a bit more…meaningful. Something I'd cherish forever, you know?"
"Hn." He knew.
Sasuke steps out of the airport entrance into the chill of the early Christmas morning. The sun is only just rising, kids having yet awoken to see what Santa had brought.
Pulling his luggage with one hand toward the parking garage, he stuffs his free hand into one of the pockets of his sweatshirt to warm it, but comes across a piece of paper.
There's a phone number scrawled across it in unfamiliar handwriting. Uncomprehending, he can only stare at the message that lies below it:
You were smiling in your sleep. –Naruto.
He stops, stock still, on the middle of the sidewalk, ignoring the people milling about around him. Naruto… Hands shaking, he takes out his cell phone, enters the number, and begins to write a new text message.
Where are you? It is only after he's sent it that he realizes he forgot to sign his name. Biting his lip, he quickly types another, pressing Send before he can talk himself out of it:
I think I was smiling for you. –Sasuke
A few sparse flakes begin to spiral down. Though he is freezing, he remains rooted in place, all but counting the seconds as they tick by. After a short eternity, his phone chirps.
Making another connection, comes the reply.
And with those words, his heart plummets down past his feet and into the snow. His hand snaps the phone shut and clenches around it. Head bent, he grits his teeth, feeling every bit the fool he is. He had been a fool to hope, and an even bigger fool to fixate so much on a stranger he had shared a single conversation with. While he was here, Naruto was high above the clouds, jetting off to who-knows-where.
(away from him)
He feels someone place a tentative hand on his shoulder. Stiffening instantly, he shrugs it off and whirls to snarl at—
Oh.
The hand that had been on his shoulder rises slowly to rest on his cheek, strikingly tan against Sasuke's pale skin. Dimly, Sasuke wonders how the snow hasn't started to melt under the combined force of Naruto's eyes and bright smile.
(he, however, doesn't fare quite as well)
Naruto's warm breath fans over Sasuke's face, visible in the freezing air. "I'm beginning to think that you're what I should have asked for." His thumb rubs against Sasuke's cheek in tiny circles. Sasuke can see that Naruto is just as wonderfully, blissfully terrified by this as he is, but doubts Naruto's heart could be beating even half as fast as his is.
—Strike that, he knows no one's heart could match even a fraction of this tempo.
"All this time," Naruto exhales, "All this time, I think maybe I was waiting for you."
"Me too. But," Sasuke inhales, "I think we've had enough conversation already."
As their lips meet, the universe shrinks again. And this time, it's the perfect size.
(Ah, he thinks, maybe this is home.)
AN: Can you tell I'm really a sap when it comes to Christmas? XD
(...Apparently I couldn't resist the "strangers meeting randomly at Christmas and falling in love ohemgee" plot again. Let's pretend that this isn't a vague, lesser imitation of The Gift of Christmas Present, shall we?)
I hope you all have a peaceful, happy holiday! Please review!