part one, revised.
To Build A Home
.
.
"It's like a pool of—"
"—blood?"
Tenten frowns at the sudden metallic tang lacing her pink tongue. "No," she says, unsure, reaching for a fallen star. Thumbing the soft, crinkled edges, she's only a tad startled when the raven-haired boy beside her plucks it from her tiny hands gingerly. "Or cherry butter..." he mumbles thoughtfully, lost in the intricate patterns of the bright red leaf.
"Candy-apple..."
"I think—"
Sasuke grins. "It's like the sunset, in leaf form!"
"I think so," she agrees, nodding her head because it is like the sunset. All red and orange hues blending together, pretty, pretty, pretty...
"Tenten?"
The brunette meets Sasuke's curious gaze with eyes as curious as the Uchiha's own. "Is there a reason you don't want to come over today?"
Tenten wrinkles her nose, "no," she says, yes—no, she thinks.
"Then why won't you? 'Tachi-nii wants to—" but his vocals are lost with the sudden breeze and with it, his mother's own voice, loud and firm and just plain...motherly blends in with the chilled air.
"Tenten?" and Sasuke steps in front of the girl's line of vision, onyx eyes curving upwards, and Tenten thinks of her grandmother, for some strange, strange reason.
They share one more smile, and Tenten waves her hello to Mikoto, who's standing at the edge of the dewy grass their bare feet are buried in, and Sasuke places the sunset-colored star back into Tenten's hands. "See you later, dango," Sasuke bids, and Tenten giggles a "later, chibi!" before waving him off, too. As he runs up to his mother, Tenten knows he'll look back at least three times until he can't anymore, and that's when she crushes her tiny hands together, letting the smashed pieces of the sunset-colored star vanish through the cracks of her fingers and away with the autumn wind.
"Is there a reason you don't want to come over today?"
Tenten sighs to herself, to the empty park and chilly gusts. "No," she says, but her grandmother's light, wrinkled hand lands upon her shoulder, and she thinks, yes—no.
.
.