Midnight Rendezvous


Summary: They met at midnight. In a world separated from everyone else's.


Their love was like a scene out of some old romance movie.

They met in the dead of the night. At a forgotten lake in the Uchiha compound. On the little platform that extended over the shore of the lake. There, the emotions bottled up inside them surged out in tidal waves, each one engulfing the other.

The two people that met there at night could never be found in the day. The girl was just another one of the boy's fan-girls. Miles, no, light years away from each other. Yet their midnight selves could never resist a few glances now and then towards the other. Assuring themselves and the other with a silent, 'I am here' and 'the night will come'. Their days may be long, tough and at times all but bearable, but they still always managed to hold back their need and desire till the night.

At their lake, in the pitch-black darkness, the boy would speak about his past. About betrayal, about revenge, about the nightmares that plagued him in the day. The girl would listen but never comment.

Together, they shared his pain and burden.

He needed to know that someone still cared about him and for him. He needed constant nudges of emotions to ensure that he did not lose his mind to the claws of insanity constantly snapping at his ankles. Her presence itself reminded him that he was indeed still human and not a deranged child whose life purpose was to commit fratricide. That he still had control over feelings.

'I dreamt… that he took you away… that I was too late to save you… that…that he tortured you… till…till… you died…, that…that… I failed… to avenge you…'

He was sitting in a cross-legged position. Head in his hands, fisted and twisted in his hair. He could never be caught looking so… vulnerable in the day, with tears pouring down and sobs racking his frame. It was only at this time would he expose the weakness and pain of his.

'He stabbed… you... again… and again… and laughed… All I could do… was cry… and hear you screaming... And...And..He took…your… your...Your screams...' at this he could no longer go on and his cries took over. No one would imagine him to be a child; the cries had tones of baritone in it and a quality of pain so deep that could only belong to one that has seen suffering their whole lives.

His stuttered words further muffled by choking sobs almost rendered his words undistinguishable but still she heard him.

His tears were falling into the lake, creating ripples that disturbed the calm stillness of the water. His sanity flowed away with them, falling into the water and swirling away.

She reached over and pulled him into her lap. At this he turned and like a child, put his arms around her neck, drawing her closer to him as she was drawing him closer to her. His face in the crook of her neck tears soaking her dress. He enclosed as much of her as he could in his arms, needing to know that she was there and not dead. That she was still with him in his world where darkness ruled the sky.

During all this, not a word did she mutter. All she did was to stroke his hair softly, just the way he liked it, rubbed his back with the soothing touch only she could give, giving the physical touch he craved as his language of love.

She held him till slowly and gradually his cries died down and his breathing calmed, tears freezing in their tracks. He had cried himself to sleep, soothed by her touch and presence. She felt something warm and sticky soaking through her clothes that were not tears and gave the barest hints of a smile imagining the world's reaction when they found out their precious Uchiha child drooled.

She carried him like one would carry a child. Step by step back to his house but not his home.

In the short yet long walk back, he shifted in her arms, just once, to cling to her arm, snuggling into her warmth and murmuring her name.

She nearly dropped him in her surprise.

She let herself into his house; it was unlocked, as always, as no one in the right mind would come to this part the village unless they had monsters on their heels.

Gently, she laid him on his bed, pulling off his shoes as she did so. Pulled the blanket over him and turned to go. Just as she put on foot our of the door way, he muttered, 'don't go', she turned to look at him, uncertain if he was just muttering in his dreams. Seeing what she thought were closed eyes, she decided to go. But, then, he said, 'please'. His eyes were now open a barest of fractions but they were looking at her, even in that little bit of his eyes that she could see, she knew that they expressed his tiny plea.

That night was the first of the many that they slept in each other's arms.

Her name was Haruno Sakura.

And his was Uchiha Sasuke.