Thanks to my imouto-chan and beta, Anh D-ao. Much love to you, chica.
Space Heater
Sakura tugged the blanket tighter over her shivering body, adjusting it further when she pulled her knees up to her chest in an attempt to trap even more body heat. It wasn't the most comfortable position, but it offered warmth and that was her main concern. Not that it would help much. She was always cold at night and no matter what position she contorted her body into, or how tightly she pulled the blankets over her, she always awoke shivering and sore.
To Sakura, the nights were long and, more often than not, sleepless. Sometimes she could fall asleep after listening to her teammates' rhythmic breathing. Naruto's quiet snores and Sasuke's occasional sighs could lull her to unconsciousness but only until the next violent shiver that woke her with a start.
She was so cold… Sakura heard a sound like a whimper and it took her several minutes to realize that it had come from her own mouth.
Naruto and Sasuke never had this problem. The two boys were furnaces during the night, their bodies creating enough heat to make them kick off the blankets before the night was half over.
She would know, she'd been awake to listen often enough.
At this point, she would give anything for a space heater.
Her limbs were already aching and her groggy mind fixated solely on the idea of warmth. She could curl up beside Naruto, he wouldn't mind, but he would also grope her during the night. And Sasuke… If she tried sleeping beside him he might think she was clinging to him again as she had when they were twelve and he would push her away. The two boys never slept more than two feet apart anyway. What if…
As her sleepy mind could not find another useful idea, she clung to the wisp of hope and struggled weakly out of her blankets and into the freezing air, crawling toward the boys until she knelt at their feet.
Her movements seemed to have awakened Sasuke and he watched her through one half-lidded eye. Sakura gazed back for a long moment before a shiver wracked her body and she didn't care anymore. Let him push her away. She was cold.
Sakura wormed her way between the two boys – who were closer tonight than usual, but that only worked to her advantage – and wriggled until she had worked herself beneath Naruto's arm. In his sleep, the blond turned to embrace her fully against his chest, his warm breath hitting her nape in soft puffs. His skin was wonderfully hot, but her front remained chilled. Sakura shivered again and curled her arms up against her chest, fingers brushing against Sasuke's shirt. The dark-haired boy shifted until she could grasp his shirt, her head tucked beneath his chin. She felt more than heard his soft sigh, the burst of air ruffling her loose pink locks as his free arm pulled the blanket he and Naruto had kicked off earlier up around her.
The arm around her waist tightened and she snuggled in, for once not minding the close contact. Sakura smiled against Sasuke's chest, basking in the delicious warmth that completely enveloped her body. She didn't even protest when Naruto shifted again, entangling his legs with hers and, somehow, with Sasuke's.
Sasuke's body relaxed as he drifted back to sleep and Sakura, warm and comfortable at last, was lulled to sleep listening to the sounds of their breathing just as she had in the past.
None of them, not even Sasuke, woke up again until the first fingers of dawn had spread across the horizon.
- fin -
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