ZOMG, first fic posted on my new account! So, thirty drabbles in thirty days. Never mind those AS modules in a week, this is the real challenge.
#1 Balloon Animals
Wisps of cloudy breath strung lazily from her mouth as she exhaled. Under the heavy influence of inertia - induced by a particularly hectic day at the hospital followed by a particularly irksome Naruto, followed by a particularly bitchy Ino - she lay down on her back, fingers absentmindedly running through the jagged tendrils of grass as her eyes traced the outline of a deformed cloud.
"Frog," she murmured softly. She moved onto an adjacent cloud, brows furrowing momentarily as she tried to decipher its shape. "Hmmm . . . alligator."
She continued the game in solitude and peace for a couple more minutes, finding some reprieve from one of the worst days of her life. Her half-lidded eyes roamed through the vast expanse of the sky until they lay upon messy spikes of white. Her lips quirked upwards slightly, as she whispered "Kakashi-sensei"
The messy white spikes moved closer to her, at a much faster speed than she was used to seeing clouds move at, until they appeared directly above her. "I think something's wrong with your eyes, Sakura," quipped the spikes jovially. Sakura blinked, a bemused expression etched onto her face, until realisation caught up with her. Her eyes widened.
"Kakashi-sensei!"
'How had I not noticed that was actually his hair?' she wondered fleetingly, 'I must be tired.'
She shot up, her forehead inadvertently colliding with her former teacher's. They both winced at the contact, before chuckling at the other's misfortune, and their own.
"Seriously Sakura, since when do frogs have six legs?"
She rolled her eyes, her cheeks reddening slightly. "I was looking at a different cloud to you obviously."
"None of them had the features typically present in a frog."
"Well, now you're being racist to frogs," she blurted out suddenly, not caring if she made sense or not, "It had a disability-no, don't laugh, that's very insensitive of you sensei!"
He responded with an affectionate ruffle of her hair. "Want me to show you a frog?"
Green eyes narrowed. "I'm not a child; I know what an actual frog looks like, thank you very much."
"No, no, I meant this," and Kakashi handed her a frog. Made out of a balloon. It was a balloon frog.
Sakura's eyebrow arched disbelievingly as she took the frog tentatively. "Oh, well this isn't any more patronizing than giving me an actual frog."
"Glad you like it!" His eyes creased - a testament to his infuriatingly cheery mood. She couldn't stop the grin that spread across her face, and despite her lethargy, despite her confusion as to what exactly her sensei was doing with a balloon frog, she couldn't help but feel she had seen worse days than this.