Burning bright as the ultimate jewel of the heavens, flecks of powder danced through the sable night sky, swirling in a tremulous dance of unfathomable beauty and grace. Flowering in blooms of the daintiest milk and egg, the clawing limb of a dying branch reaching for the sky one last time. Caught on the knotted branch, a lone snowflake twinkled in the light cast from the radiant moon, revealing in its bliss before being snuffed out, fading into oblivion as it melted...
Tenderly, his lips brushed against the star-lit flesh of her bare shoulder, her light umber orbs cast up at the sky above, "Hikari?"
Closing her eyes, Hikari Aino shook her head, the dusky length tumbling over her other shoulder to swing at her back, "I was just thinking about my mother."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow at that, "Your mother? Isn't that a little strange?"
Maybe it wasn't normal to think of ones parents after making love for the first time, but it was less of her parents than what her mother had told her so long ago...
It was eight years ago, but she could still feel the cold snow drifting in through the open door, the special weave left torn from its hinges, a body crushed beneath, the blood oozing out in a shining puddle. The initial attack had been so sudden that there had been almost no time for any one to prepare for it, but thanks to the tensions running throughout the clan, they were not completely unprepared. Hikari was just a little girl at the time, but she could still feel in that last week that there was something terribly wrong...
The Village Hidden in the Snow was a small one, struggling to be recognized, so fighting was not uncommon, and so it was not unexpected when another fledgling nation had declared its intentions to expand. The Village Hidden in the Sound had gone to the leaders in the Snow, but the leader of the Aino clan was not so quick to agree to a treaty, seeing nothing in it for the good of his peoples. The Sound did not like his response, and the matter quickly escalated to personal levels.
Naturally being a child, Hikari had no knowledge of this at the time, but her mother knew the full extent of every word, every action, expecting what was to come. As a former kunoichi of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, it was impossible for her to not know, and so for the sake of her dear daughter, the fruit she had shared with her beloved Yuki, Fumiko Kuribayashi had sent word on to the Leaf.
But they never came...
"Hikari?" Drawing her closer, Sasuke could tell that she was a million miles away, lost in her own memories, her own tragic loss. It was a loss he understood personally, although when she originally told him of it, he had never dreamed in a million years that he would have experienced much of the same. It was that very same loss that had brought them both to this place...
She smiled at him apologetically, "I'm sorry, I was in the middle of telling you why I was thinking of my mother..." She kissed his cheek, shuffling around the blankets torn from the heavens, blankets that covered their sweaty, naked bodies, "I was just thinking of how she told me about she met and fell in love with my father."
Knowing her since before the loss of his own clan, Sasuke knew the story of Yuki Aino and Fumiko Kuribayashi, that they had met while she had been on a mission to the Snow, that it had been love at first sight. He even knew the song that her mother used to sing to her when she was sad, that the blue ribbon forevermore in Hikari's hair was truly a gift from her father. There was probably very little that he didn't know about the girl wrapped in his arms, despite how shy she was. Ever since their time at the academy...
Leaning her head to the side, Sasuke kissed her once more, letting his feelings pour out in an endless moment, lips pressing into hers without any trace of roughness or urgency, just caressing her, letting her know how much he cared for her and her alone, "I love you, Hikari."
"More than the stars in the sky?" She inquired gently.
"More than the stars." He embraced her so tight that it felt as if their bodies would turn into stardust, "More than the power, more than the peace I helped to bring with this power, and more than Naruto loves ramen."
She chuckled, thinking of her other teammate and closest male friend, "Impossible. No one can love anything as much as Naurto loves ramen."
Sighing as a sign of a laugh, he brushed stray hairs back into place, out of her glowing face, "If I didn't love you that much, I never would have asked you to marry me."
That was probably true. Sasuke was as focused as they came, rarely ever acknowledging anything outside of his immediate goals, so she must have meant a great deal to him. Even without him saying it, she knew, but all the same, it was what Hikari needed to hear, to know that she hadn't disappointed her clansmen by her choice...
Sure, Sasuke was easily the most poplar boy in her age group, and from a linage that anyone would die to be a part of, but as the not only the last remaining descendant of the Aino clan but as the daughter of the former head, it was her duty to chose the most worthy of candidates. Honestly, before he had shown up and saved all of their lives in that final battle, it was looking grim for his case, that he was nothing but a no-good traitor, and no matter how much she had wished to believe otherwise, the end of an otherwise honorable name. Already in love with him even before his defection, she would have gone with him if had asked her to, but it would have been at a price too high to fathom...
"Do you remember the day that you joined our team?" It was mostly rhetorical, but it made her think back.
It was the Chuunin exams, during the second test, and while Hikari had personally missed the events that had transpired, the accounts were gruesome enough to haunt her even to that day. Sakura Haruno, the original part of team seven, had been brutally murdered while defending her teammates. Ironically, her own team had been massacred in a manner similar to her own family, but she had fought on, despite the fact that the rules had stated that all three members must be together to pass.
"The rules only said that there had to be three, and even though Ino and I both came to a stalemate, Kakashi still offered me Sakura's spot. He said that teams change all the time on the battlefield, so it would make no sense to leave it it between you and Naruto." It was a decision that had changed her life, that much was for sure. "Why?"
He closed his eyes, taking a moment to honor his departed comrade, "Sakura never worked for anything. She was weak, and spent so much time chasing after me, and you were the only one to work hard every day to attain your goals. You would even stay all night at the training grounds. That wasn't what made me realize it, but that was one of the reasons I fell in love with you."
Even from the very first time he had seen her at the academy, he knew that he had liked her. When some boys had teased her about being an orphan from another village, he had wanted to stick up for her, to say that no matter where she came from her merit was determined by skill, but someone had beaten him to it - a certain blonde that happened to be a very close companion to loneliness. But she had seen not only her hero but would-be-hero's actions. Going up to him after school to thank him had been the ignition to a very steadying friendship that had been one of the few things keeping him sane since his brother's sudden exit from the Leaf.
"Speaking of Ino, do you think that she's going to forgive you so easily?" He raised an eyebrow, more concerned for her own personal relationship with the flower-girl than anything else.
Ino, alongside Tenten and Hinata, was her best friend, and since they both had feelings for Sasuke, it wasn't going to be the easiest thing in the world to break the news to her, but if they were truly friends, then it shouldn't matter which of the two had ended up with him, so long as they were happy. Hikari would have felt happy for Ino if it had been her, even though it would have stabbed at her so fiercely that it felt as if the blade was always twisting inside, bleeding her dry at every waking turn. But she still would have been happy.
"The question should be more along the lines of how many attempts at my life there will be when we formally announce our intentions." It sounded as if it had been a joke, but she was serious as could be.
Thinking of the first person that they had told, who just had to butt in as he was asking her at the anniversary of the Last Great Ninja War, Sasuke shook his head, "By tomorrow, the whole world will probably know - not just the village."
Standing up for their teammate, even though she whole-heartedly agreed with her fiancée, Hikari gently reminded him, "Naruto can't help it if he's so excited by the news to let it leak to a few people... Really I can only think of a handful of people that he'll tell..."
Sasuke rolled his onyx eyes, "A pretty big handful."
Probably, but she had faith that the first person he told would try to prevent him from just declaring it to the world, if she could, "Hinata wouldn't let him write out a letter to the nations... She might be his girlfriend, but she is my best friend too."
The faith she placed in others, especially her friends, was something that had always astonished him, if not irked him during their childhood, but now that they were older, it was one of her best qualities, "You always did have faith in the impossible. In me."
Pecking his cheek, she beamed at him, "How could I not? You were such a sweet boy."
That's right, he had been a nice kid, and she was always so kind-hearted, so it was more than likely that their children would be the same, "That could be dangerous for the children."
She blushed at the very thought, "For someone else... With your passion and drive, it would be impossible for them to be pushovers."
He took her hand in his, rubbing his thumb across her knuckles, "It would be a shame for them to all be like me."
"Hey!" She sounded affronted, but he could read by the smile on her face that she wasn't, "I'm not a pushover!"
He kissed her neck, "No, but you aren't inherently stubborn, nor are you rash; you at least consider all of the possibilities before acting." Moving his hand from hers, he cupped her cheek, kissing her with the same passion she had just commented upon, "Besides, you agreed to marry me so easily."
Breath stolen for a moment, all she was capable of was blinking at first, "I agreed because there was nothing to think about. My heart has been yours from the very beginning."
Breaking beyond understandable expression, he could only hold her tighter to express what was in his heart, her natural breasts being crushed into his, pelvis meshing to shape against him. Moaning in the back of her throat, Sasuke deepened the kiss as his hand trailed over her thigh, gliding to her hips.
"Are you ready?" Consideration was nothing he had been shown as a lover, but including earlier, this was only going to be her second time, and he wasn't of the mind to break her the way that he had been broken.
Taking his other hand in hers, the one not preparing for intercourse, she pressed his fingers to her lips, kissing the tip before drawing the nimble length into her mouth. His busy hand twitched just as he slid one slender digit into her wanting womanhood. Not really experienced at what she was doing, somehow he really didn't mind, because he was satisfied to know that they had the rest of their lives to be together to work on this kind of thing.
"I love you," he whispered, voice lost in hers as she she let out a low moan, body tightening as he rotated in a plunging-type motion.
While it wasn't the loudest sound in the world (that probably went to Naruto on any given day), he was still slightly surprised when she replied, "I love you too."
Even with her mind altered and twisted by the growing anticipation of pleasure, she was still a very talented kunoichi, and that only made him want her more at that moment, if that were even possible. With slight reluctance, he removed his hand from her mouth, running it alongside her arm as he reached for her hand, leading her down to his stiffening manhood. Still practically a virgin, he used his experience to guide her, helping her to discover what he liked best.
Face a bright red, she was practically blushing the color or exposed blood, "Umm, Sasuke... Don't you like it better when I use my mouth?"
But she already knew what he liked best. Nodding, he allowed her to slid herself down so that her mouth was hovering over his throbbing member, his own arm twisting behind him so that he could still help her with what was to come. Very slowly she extended her tongue until it met with the tip, and giving herself a second, she flickered her muscle back and forth, rhythm eventfully quickening to match with Sasuke's. Spinning circles, Hikari opened her mouth wider as she took the head, hands back on the shaft.
Feeling so good, his body now ready, Sasuke grunted a happy little grunt as his bride-to-be went to work to please him, already succeeding in the most fantastic of ways. Granted, he had had better, but her willingness was definitely helping to gloss over her inexperience. Catching her eye as she gazed up at him, he nodded for her to stop. As good as it felt to have his cock sucked, he didn't want to blow his load in her face, so he backed off, bringing his hips parallel to her own, extracting his finger as her hips began to buck wildly against him of their own volition, skin slick with her juices.
Kissing her neck, trialling up her jawline, he inquired, "Are you ready?"
"Please?" She was breathy, already very eager to have him inside.
Nodding, he lowered himself until he was touching her, but instead of plunging into her waiting want, he rubbed the tip over her slit, teasing her before penetration. Moaning loudly, she accepted him, lithe form bucking against his hardened muscle. Bouncing slightly, he thrust himself deep inside her, pushing further and further with each pass he made. Her hands grabbed at his wrists for support, thumb brushing over years of hardship, voice growing so loud he was suddenly very glad his residence was not in the heart of the village.
"Sasuke... Ah, Sasuke..." Left hand dropping to the floor, she curled inwards ever so slightly, inadvertently delivering to him her g-spot, "There, oh, right there!"
His own climax approaching, Sasuke very simple took her face in his hand, cupping her cheek so that he could steady her face enough so they could gaze intently into each other's eyes. Raw and animalistic as their love making was, it was still making love, and neither of them lost sight of that for a second. How could they, when their very beings were merging into one perfect, arguably divine entity?
Watching with wide eyes, their bodies trembled as the cosmos unfolded itself there in his living room, souls falling down from the highest of heavens, sending them shattering back to earth. It was truly a magical moment as they released some of what they felt for each other, the white nectar of life spilling forth from his loins, flowing through her body, gushing every which way as he pulled out of her.
Collapsing on his side, Sasuke pulled Hikari close, holding tight as their breathing slowly returned to normal, breathing in the scent of her hair, wafting up from the breeze blowing through the open window. It smelled wonderful. It was a smell that she would always carry with her. It was a smell that he would take with him upon his deathbed, reflecting on his life.
A life well-lived. A life that meant something not only to his family and friends, but to everyone he worked alongside, and to those that would grow up in the world he helped to reshape. It was a life his brother would have wanted for him, and a life that even his parents would have approved of. Sasuke was positive that his parents would have approved of his wife, especially his mother. They would have gotten along famously. His father probably would have liked her too, and something told him that he would have adored the children.
The first of which was already forming inside of Hikari's womb as they laid there, basking in the pure love that they shared, celebrating in private their engagement...
Author Notes: So this is my first request, like ever, so I'm super stoked for that! First off, I'd really like to thank .Hime.1993 for coming to me and asking for this, and for letting me play around with the amazing idea you came up with! Secondly, I'd like to thank all of you who read this for reading, and for reviewing, and faving, and whatever it is that you do! So thanks, to everyone!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the characters, nor do I own Hikari and her family. That lovable bunch of Snow nin were created by .Hime.1993 with zero input by me.