A/N: Random drabble I wrote about Sakon and Tayuya, back when they were kids, just because it happened in my mind.
Title: The Un-Promise Promise
Summary: They're bittersweet memories, even when things are much worse. Even when you're lying on the ground waiting to die. //: Sakon and Tayuya as kids. Soundfic oneshot.
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He was waiting for her there, at the gate, the day she was supposed to leave; maybe she was supposed to find it sweet, even charming, but it was just him, so she didn't.
"Hey."
"Hello."
"What're you waiting here for?"
He smirked a little and pushed off the wall, the movement beginning in his hips and rolling in a wave upwards through his body until he was standing on his own. "I juat wanted to see you off."
"Oh."
They stood there for a moment; he didn't know what to say, and she didn't mind the silence, so silence it was, until he looked down, scuffing with one shoe at the dirt of the road beneath their feet. "You're gonna come back safe, right?"
"Yeah."
"Promise? Because last time you sasid you would, but you broke some ribs and stuff and Kabuto wouldn't let me see you and that's not really 'safe', is it?"
She blinked slowly. "...Promise," she said at last, not really meaning it, and he knew she didn't but didn't mind, because they had this exact conversation every time she went on a mission without him. It made them feel better.
"Okay." His arms jerked up and he took a step forward, but then he caught himself and stopped. They didn't hug anymore. Ninja didn't hug. "Good luck."
She nodded, hefted her bag on her back, and turned away.
He stared after her even after she was out of sight, not really watching, as the wind reached its fingers through his hair and reminded him he still existed.