Notes: Hello day 12 of ssmonth, "lights out, words gone". Writer's block the last six days unfortunately means six missed prompts and even this short thing was rather forced. But it's done, it's gone. Time to move on.
Instincts never rest and even in the haze of deep sleep, Sakura felt the sheets around her shift.
Moonlight framed by the night flooded her vision. The first thing that splintered the fog of sleep was how the luminous moonlight highlighted the ripples on the bedsheets beside her, casting harsh shadows in the depressions left behind. The seemingly unending illusion of lights and shadows weaving together in the space beside her sent a shock through her veins. Her heartbeat pounded inside her head, reverberating through her limbs.
Sasuke was gone.
Numbs hands stretched and tangled themselves in the creases of used bedsheets. They didn't feel warm against her skin but they didn't feel cold either. Sakura tenderly ran her hands along the entire expanse of her reach. A part of her knew that no matter how far she stretched or how tenderly she caressed, an empty bed was an empty bed. But a part of her heart hummed beneath the harsh palpitations that if she kept going, maybe she'd be able to feel him again.
A noise in the distance shook her free from her thoughts. Her kunoichi instincts flared, making her immediately and incredibly aware of the stillness around her. Eyes now cleared, scanned her perimeter, lingering on the opened bedroom door. The glowing edges of golden artificial light lay splayed on the floorboards of her hallway.
Her mind sighed, 'Sasuke-kun..,' as it eased to a relaxed state, no longer hyperaware. Her body, slowly following, sagged out of its previous rigidity. Sakura stared at the subtly faded edges of light stretching towards her, catching itself on the spaces between floorboards.
She knew that Sasuke was just down the hallway, most likely relieving himself in the bathroom. But she laid awake, carefully listening for any further disturbances. Even knowing that if she fell back asleep, everything would be fine, Sakura couldn't bring herself to close her eyes again. She laid there, staring, waiting.
The soft click of an opening door was followed by a rush of bright light, intensifying the previously barely tangible glow. Just as quickly as it flooded her hallway, the shockingly vivid burst of light disappeared with another quiet click.
Knowing that Sasuke was done, Sakura glanced at her outstretched moonlit limbs before silently retracting them back into her warm embrace, freeing up the space beside her. She closed her eyes and took slow, steady breaths in the hopes of successfully feigning sleep before Sasuke came back to bed. Having mostly lulled herself to sleep once more by the time she feels the bed shift again, Sakura barely had enough energy to crack her eyes open to watch him slide into bed.
Sasuke silently slips back under their sheets but remained facing the filtered moonlight. With blurry eyes, Sakura watches his illuminated silhouette, her eyes unsteadily tracing the curve of his neck to his shoulder and down the slope of his back.
Lying sideways, he slightly leaned towards the uncovered window, letting the moonlight wash over him. Sakura's gaze lingered on the highlighted sections of his side and back, the bright moonlight seemed to glow on Sasuke's white shirt. She breathes a slow breath and then another. Then the light suddenly became too compelling to resist and her body shifts closer to his until her face rests gently against his shoulder blade. Her pale arm reaches over again.
This time, it finds purchase against Sasuke's still form. The moonlight blending her pale skin into his white shirt as Sakura draped her arm on his body, her limb notching itself in the dip of his waist. Feeling his warmth against her skin, she exhales the easiest breath she's taken since she woke up and settles into the lull of sleep. She swiftly fell asleep, the fatigue of the day pulling her away. Sakura wasn't even awake long enough to feel Sasuke tenderly grasp her draped hand.
Smiling into the moonlight, Sasuke soothingly brushed his thumb back and forth across the back of her hand until he too could no longer fight against the lure of sleep.