ANGST. Beware of the angst. I'm depressed, you see.

SILVER LINING

because things will never be the same

not anymore

It was a beautiful, beautiful day.

The sky was a light blue hue, covered by thin snippets of clouds that were barely even there. Birds littered the place above, they chirped and sang and made beautiful, beautiful sounds. Soft and breezy was the wind that caressed them, it enveloped each and every person in a warm but cold embrace that seemed to take their minds off of the turmoil they both felt inside.

Trees swayed softly along with the wind, their sturdy branches flinched ever so slightly to follow the direction it was blowing them into, like loyal puppets being pulled at their strings by their favorite master. And because they were just that – puppets, they willingly, willingly obeyed.

The flowers, ah… their breath taking petals and their smell that wasn't too strong for the nose overwhelmed them all, it enveloped the clearing in this beautiful feeling of peacefulness and love, and it emitted an aura of pleasantries and subtlety.

Heat from the sun was emitted off in various directions, its rays pierced the thick leaves and branches and peeked through just a bit to give a subtle amount of light. It was seven a.m. in the morning, you see, and it wasn't really hot yet nor was it very cold. It was just right, just right. Just right. Balanced. Perfect.

It was a beautiful, beautiful day.

A girl – pink-haired, tall but petite took in her surroundings, her viridian green eyes traveled ever so slowly from the trees, to the flowers, then to the sky. She breathed it in, memorized it, dared to imprint it onto her bright mind.. never to be forgotten.

Like the boy she used to come here with all those years ago.

'Where is he now?' She wondered.. 'Does he still come here? Has he… forgotten about me?'

'Does he still remember, does he still think about me.. like I think about him?'

Questions like this plague every inch of her mind as she looked at the familiar haven spread out in front of her. She took a step, then back, as if unsure if she should go forward, if it was right or wrong. If it would change anything or if it would just be a failed attempt to make things right.

A hand suddenly touched her shoulder, and she flinched slightly, her head turned to the direction of the person who touched her. She let the hand linger, until she realized that she knew this boy.

Viridian green instantly drowned in onyx pools.

Sasuke Uchiha – the boy she's loved since she first laid eyes on him. He was her first love, her true love. The one she loved (yes - loved) with all her heart. Too bad, this boy, this beautiful, beautiful boy didn't feel the same.

No. This handsome boy, man, before her did not return her feelings. Because for him, love was a weakness. A liability. He doesn't believe in love, in happy-ever-afters, in endings that were anywhere near happy, pleasant, good, right.

Her eyes were full of longing as she glanced at the man beside her. His grip on her shoulder still lingered and his onyx orbs held hers in an unwavering stare. Words they couldn't ever, ever say hung thickly in the morning air, the tension so thick you could slash through it with a knife. A kunai wouldn't do the trick.. no, it had to be a knife.

Like the knife painfully embedded in her heart ever since that day. It never left, it was never pulled out. It simply stayed there, bleeding her out, cutting through her veins and making her feel all the pain she knows she didn't deserve.

But of course, that wasn't true. What an exaggeration, neh? Because if that was true, then she wouldn't be here now. She would be dead, and she wouldn't be able to see his handsome face ever again. She wouldn't be standing beside him, relishing the feeling of having his calloused hands grip her shoulder tightly.

She wouldn't be able to look into those onyx pools, overwhelmed by the feeling of love and longing.

But the pain, she felt it. She felt it all. And it… hurt. Even now. Even after all those years. Six, to be exact. It had been six agonizingly long years. And it surprised her somehow that her heart didn't beat erratically when she saw him, nor did her stomach flutter with snakes and butterflies. Her hands didn't shake with nervousness, nor did her body shiver or react to his touch.

Numb. That was all she felt.

The pain, it was there. The longing, it was there. The love was still there, somehow. But the excitement? The rush, the pleasure? Gone. It was all gone.

And at that moment, she didn't even know whose fault it was. All she knew was that things…. were not like they were before. Things have changed. For the better, or for the worse, she didn't know.

"Sakura," he had called out softly, tenderly, with that deep, velvet voice of his. Eyes that belonged to the man softened slightly as he called out her name. "what are you doing here?"

The girl, no, the woman sighed and brought her hand up to touch his hand before she shrugged it off her shoulders. "What I should've done all those years ago."

She replied with a firm tone, all the stuttering she used to have in his presence completely erased. The girl he remembered, the one who stuttered, fidgeted, shook with uneasiness and nervousness whenever she was with him was now gone. Replaced by this woman he barely knew. Someone more confident, mature.

Her eyes didn't shine the way they used to. And he didn't like it, not one bit.

He broke the eye contact and chose to remain silent as he gazed at his hand.. the one she touched. Now, he was the one feeling it. How ironic.

Minutes that passed felt like hours to them, but it was neither awkward nor uncomfortable. It was just… weird. "Do what, Sakura?" he finally said, and he found himself being afraid of her reply.

She brought her left arm up and showed him her hand as she flipped it slowly. Something glistened where the sun hit, something that was clearly placed on her ring finger.

A diamond ring.

Sakura Haruno – the girl he went here with all those years ago, the girl who was madly in love with him.

Sasuke Uchiha - the avenger who threw that all away for a mission that never once made him happy.

The girl who was willing to do everything to be with him then, was now showing him the one thing that made it impossible to be with him now.

She's married. She's fucking married. He was too late… six years too late. And the fact made his heart sink low in his stomach.

No words were exchanged, both just stared at the ring on her finger that glistened under the sun's rays. They both looked at each other, and the gaze she held suddenly made him aware of the identity of her husband. (It was sad, so sad, and it was saying - it's him, Sasuke. Him.)

"Move on, Sasuke-kun. I should've moved on right away." She brought her arm down to rest at her side. She slowly turned her body to face him and he did the same. His eyes never left her petite form. "But I didn't. I couldn't. I just… couldn't do it. I didn't want to."

His mouth parted open, then closed, as he realized that there was nothing he could say in reply.

"I waited, Sasuke-kun. For six long years. I thought you'd come back, sweep me into your arms and we'd live happily ever after. But you never did believe in it, didn't you? You never believed in love, even though I was there, right in front of you, making you feel all those things that I'm sure you can still feel now."

She was right, but he didn't acknowledge it. He just stared at her and brooded silently while he patiently waited for her to continue.

"I know.. I know all of this because I still feel it, too." She sighed heavily, and she clutched her heart in a way that looked so agonizingly painful and heartbreaking. If her actions didn't make that clear enough, the tears present on her pale face made it crystal clear. Her heart was breaking in front of him.

And it made his heart break, too.

"But you're too late. You're six years too late. Everything… everything I wanted you to be, everything I wanted you to do.. he was the one who did it. He became who I was looking for. And even though he wasn't you, and I know, never will he be you, it's enough. Naruto is enough for me."

She paused and looked him straight in the eye unflinchingly as tears continuously poured down her cheeks.

"Because unlike you, he never left my side."

They stayed like that, eyes on each other conveyed emotions they felt in those six years they were apart. All the choices they made, whether good or bad, played out in front of them as they gazed longingly at the one they wanted to spend their forever with. And as they came to the realization that it would never happen, they saw each other break into tiny little pieces.

And for the first, and possibly the last time in Sakura's life, she saw a tear fall from Sasuke's onyx orbs.

With that, she turned on her heels, walked away from him and never looked back. His unsaid words hung thickly in the morning air, and it came to her in barely a whisper… reassuring her that things will never be alright again. Because things were not the same.

Not anymore.

"It never occurred to me that someday, I would feel this way about you. But I have, I do, and I will."

It was a beautiful, beautiful day.

Tell me what you think. Go and press that little button there that says 'Review'. It would make me happy. Very.

-A