Title: starfire
Summary: They had hopes and dreams when they went on this mission, Sakura knew. Now, she isn't so sure if Kakashi has any of those left.
Notes: I have a secret love for AUs. Especially space AUs. Even if I'm terrible at writing them. :P
There is nothing quite like space travel, Sakura muses to herself as she lifts herself off her bed effortlessly in the small bedroom. In zero gravity, everything takes just a bit more effort than it usually would. She brushes her teeth with toothpaste and rinses her mouth with a floating bubble of water. Sasuke and Naruto are still kept asleep, in the cabins left and right to her, respectively. They won't wake for another few years. Occasionally, she is woken up to do mandatory check ups on members of the crew. She's the resident nurse, after all.
The vitals of all teams look fine; she can read that from the computer that keeps track of their heartbeats, always steady, never faltering. Just to be sure, though, she commands it to draw some blood from everyone. When she exits her own room, she checks everyone else's one by one. They all seem to be doing fine as well.
Kakashi's cabin is empty when she passes it, and she sighs. The last time she spoke to him, he claimed he couldn't sleep. Sakura guesses he hasn't been able to sleep for years now. She can see it in his graying hair; the blindness that has set in in his left eye.
She pulls herself to the compression room. The front and centre of the ship are the only places where the gravity does hold, and seeing as her body isn't used to it, she has to adjust first. Thankfully, it's not as bad as the gravity on Earth is, but there does seem to be a weight pressing on her shoulders, after she has spent a considerable time decompressing.
Kakashi isn't in the control room, however. Nor is he in the engine room. She finds him eventually in the auditorium – a room designed for the recruits to be familiarised with each other, with a fairly large glass expanse at the front of it. Unbreakable, of course. The stars are still as impressive as they've always been, as she's always remembered them being.
Kakashi startles slightly when the doors behind him open with a soft hissing noise, and close after her with a soft click. He looks older, more tired. He's taken to convering the eye he lost that night with a spare bandana he must have found lying around. "Sakura," he acknowledges her, then sits back down to continue gazing out of the window. She sits down next to him, unsure of what to do. The age difference that hadn't been there when they started this mission makes her uneasy for a bit. Kakashi had been – is – the team leader for their specific unit, but when they had boarded this ship, they had been young, and carefree. They had hopes and dreams.
Sakura isn't sure if Kakashi has any of those left.
One day (or one night), she had woken up. Not mandatorily, but manually, and she'd found him, remnants of tears on his cheeks, hunched over the body of Uchiha Obito. (Who, incidentally, happened to be Sasuke's second cousin. Sasuke didn't know. He wouldn't know for many years to come. Nor would he know how his brother- Sakura distracts herself by shaking her head.)
"Are you coming back to sleep today?" she asks, knowing the question is futile. He shakes his head, silently.
"I'll be fine." His voice is raspy from disuse. "You go." She stays with him for a while, because he has been alone for so long that she can't bear to leave him by himself again. Mostly because she's not sure if, when she leaves, she will ever see him again. Not sure if he will still be alive.
So, this is a fic I'd consider expanding on. Would anyone like to read more? Any other thoughts? Any exploding brains because my science is just that bad?