Morsel
Chouji/ Sakura Haruno
It started not as all stories start,
Not with friendship or heart.
It began with a gentle push from the wind,
And helping hand of a chef in the making,
A breaking from the normal lens,
Of a chance worth taking.
It begins not with love in sight,
or happiness no matter how hard sought.
Tumbled words spew from lips,
from the mouths of babes without a thought.
It changes between glances and unforgotten gestures,
Of days spent sore with rare leisures,
It starts just how it ends,
Good and Fine are all that's spoken
But friendship, perhaps acquaintanceship is won over with just a token.
My friends, it begins perhaps as many or too little have begun,
with a crumb, with a morsel, given to a friend.
On the first day - all she can remember is being sad. Her days were to forever be gloomy and dull - just like life without Sasuke.
The very thought of him gone from Konoha has almost sent her wailing to her room, but she plastered on a fake smile.
Looking at herself in the mirror, Sakura wondered why she hadn't been enough for him to stay, her once vibrant eyes grew glossy with unshed tears the longer and longer she thought of Sasuke's departure.
Before she could sink into the depths of sorrow and lock herself in her own room for the rest of existence, she struck her own face - twice and resolved to try to find closure.
The rational side of her kept arguing, there was nothing that she could of done. She was just Sakura - and just being Sakura Haruno was not enough for Sasuke to stick around and drop his ambition of killing a certain man.
However the other sides of her cried and cried, for surely Sasuke was gone from their lives forever, and she would never get the chance to see him alive again. After all what was logic and rationalism to emotion, but a desperate attempt to hold together the shattered pieces of her heart?
Shaking her head Sakura Haruno jumped out her window as if she could run from her thoughts if only they'd let her.
Running wherever the road took her, she dared not look up from the ground, as if the whole village would know that Sakura was not enough for Sasuke to stay if she had decided to lift her head.
The wind gently swayed her pink locks - once too heavy for a small breeze to sway and the scent of something heavenly came her way.
Her stomach not done complaining for the food it never got, Sakura ducked her head and walked toward the scent with all she could.
There he sat - alone with a steaming bento looking towards the sky.
Silent and picturesque as if happy he could die.
Their eyes locked once and it felt like only once was what they both needed, she sat shyly on the wooden bench, moving her hair behind her ears.
His eyes for all the little that they knew each other were riddled with concern, his voice so soft the wind could hush it away, but still she heard him, his only question, "Good?"
In the moment it seemed like they were out of time itself, away in their own little bubble of shyness and hesitancy. Sakura spoke quickly, as if she didn't believe herself, smiling timidly and said, "Fine."
He did not arch his eyebrows, or nag to know more about all she felt. Instead, he extended his newly separated chopsticks, looked to his bento and offered her a piece.
As if the earth itself was waiting for a chance to deeply breathe, Sakura Haruno took the morsel of food and popped it in her mouth. He stomach, barely satisfied - as if it could eat entirety of Fire Country, but her heart? Filled to the brim with an emotion she cannot name, feeding the embers in her heart.
When Sakura first woke for the day, she felt she would never be happy again - but the wind blew stronger, the earth letting go of its' breath and thanks to a morsel, feels like she made a new friend.
