The pale ghostly moonlight filtered through the light pink curtains. He quietly stepped onto the balcony, closed his eyes, and listened. He could hear his own heartbeat thud with a dull ache in the silence of the night.
"I know you're there." he heard a familiar feminine whisper.
"Please don't do this, Gaara." she whispered as he heard her voice break, sending a jolt of pain through his heart.
Pale fingers ran through crimson hair as he pressed his back against the wall, inhaling deeply and closed his eyes trying to ignore the stinging sensation in them.
"Gaara come in." she said in a slower, steadier voice.
He quietly came in, only to see her sitting on her bed wearing a crumpled pink and green ceremonial Kimono. Her mascara ran down her face in thick streaks, her lipstick was smudged and her nose was slightly red but she was still the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. He slowly exhaled as the pressure built up in his chest. The blue diamond on the left hand glinted in the moonlight like a star in the vast, dark sky.
"Sakura." he whispered as he stood across her, refusing to meet her eyes. His fingers dug into her wooden wardrobe as tears threatened to spill from his cyan orbs.
She held her hand in front of her as an expression of anguish overcame her features. Another black tear rolled down her cheeks.
"Are you happy now, Gaara?" she cried bitterly, " I said yes. I told him I'll marry him, even though I-"
"Sakura, please." he begged her, in a pained voice.
She glared at him as she got off the bed and walked towards him. She gently stroked his temple. Love. Gaara shut his eyes tightly as he tried to memorize the feeling of her touch, her last touch.
"Tell me, Gaara, why?"
"He's loved you longer, and he deserves you more." he reasoned, more to himself than her, "He will treat you like a princess. He will even die for you, Sakura."
"But-"
We already talked about this." he shot back coldly with an air of finality.
Green orbs blinked back the hurt as she withdrew her hand from him.
"Sometimes I wonder if you ever loved me at all." she retorted fiercely, instantly regretting it, as she wiped her eyes.
Gaara's eyes snapped open as turquoise eyes stared intensely into the other's green ones.
"I loved you all along, ever since I said I did. But he has loved you forever." he managed to grit out, before disappearing with a swirl of sand.
He let his tears flow freely as the wind cut his cheeks. Where he was heading, he didn't know, but anywhere was okay as long as it was far away from Konoha and Suna.
Perhaps he would never go back to Konoha again, even though he knew it would hurt the Hokage, who he considered a very good friend, and one girl, who he considered the one, he knew he could never look at them again without breaking.
Although he would never move on, his aching heart found a little comfort in the knowledge that the blond would charm his way into her broken heart.
Two broken souls that fit perfectly.
The thought almost made him smile through the tears. He had finally done something for the people he loved. His two most precious people would be happy.
And that's all that mattered.