[A/N] Prompt 11: a night with no stars. Totally late, but I thought I'd submit it anyway. I really recommend listening to the song "Starduster" as you read this~ it's what inspired the mood of this fic. Kashitarou Itou's version is really good. Mimu's is also very sweet.

inhaling the temperature of empty space
before my senses freeze
give this body a piece of your love

— "Starduster", by JimmyThumbP

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fading into sunlight

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"It's warm, isn't it?" Sakura asked, as she stumbled up the road.

Rocks dominated the ground here. Shinobi were not meant to trip over rocks; with the privilege of chakra, they could glue their feet even to water. But Sakura had just finished up an operation healing a multitude of poisoned patients on a mission gone awry outside the village outskirts, and thus her chakra levels were painfully low. Well, she'd never had that much to start with. She was used to this; she had long ago accepted that some things cannot change.

So the chakra depletion was one problem. The other was that she was physically exhausted from carrying two of the men she'd healed back to the village, despite her bright smile trying to convince otherwise, so she wasn't all that surprised when she found herself slipping on a rock.

She landed ungracefully onto her knees and hands, and mentally applauded the fact she hadn't worn the dress she'd originally planned to wear. She'd decided against it, concluding that she didn't need to impress anybody, and instead had chosen to wear her usual white t-shirt and black shorts. If she'd worn the pretty sundress, it'd likely be ripped at the hem now. With a sigh, she started getting to her feet.

A pale hand appeared somewhere in her peripheral vision. A little perturbed at the fact her companion thought she needed help, she pretended not to have seen the outstretched fingers, hovering by the side of her head, and rose to her feet with her own power. She didn't need to depend on him anymore, and she'd tenaciously hold onto this belief even in situations like these. It was the principle of the thing.

The hand, ignored, returned to its owner's side and slid into the pockets of his dark pants.

"Let's go," she said, and pressed onward, up the mountain's road.

"There are no stars tonight," the man behind her said, the words quiet, sullen. "The village is having a night-time festival right now. The lights from that won't let us see the stars. Why do you still insist on looking at the night sky?"

Sakura paused for just a second, and without looking back, replied, "You know, when your original plan gets ruined, sometimes it's because there's something even better waiting to be seen." Her eyes were turned up towards the bleak sky; he could see the part in her hair. It was so pale. "Have those kinds of thoughts ever crossed your mind, Sasuke-kun?"

"What is there to look at, when it's a night with no stars?"

This time, she turned back to flash a smile at him. It looked a little pained. "Have some faith in me." And then she was again climbing her way up the mountain.

Sasuke watched her with narrowed eyes for a moment before following after her. The cicadas' ceaseless murmur permeated the atmosphere, giving their silence a peaceful melody. Konoha was a village of trees, and summer always became a blindingly green, vibrant affair. Sakura bit back a laugh, a little pleased that for once, Uchiha Sasuke seemed bewildered by what was happening.

"We're here," she announced, after a few more minutes of hiking. As she stepped onto a flat, grassy area, she pulled the blanket out from under her arm, unfolded it with a flourish, and laid it onto the grass as neatly as she could. Sasuke watched her silently as she crawled onto the right side of the fabric, seated herself, and told him with a little smile, "Come sit."

He sat beside her, a few inches separating the breadths of their hips and shoulders. Sakura tucked her arms around her knees, and gazed up at the smooth expanse of blue-black above their heads. Sasuke leaned back, his hands against the blanket behind him and his legs bent in front of him. If he cranes his neck and looked down, he could see the brightly lit village beneath him. The cicadas murmured below them and sounds of the villagers' cheers ringing through the air on occasion.

"I don't understand what we're doing here," he said, interrupting their comfortable silence.

"You don't always have to understand something to appreciate it, Sasuke-kun," said Sakura in reply, and she turned to look at his profile. "You think too much."

He met her eyes. There was no emotion in them, only a question.

She tried to answer it the best way she could. "I asked you to come stargazing with me because the sky is something important to me."

"...You like the stars?"

"I do, but that's not it, exactly. It's the fact that we're under the same sky."

Sasuke said nothing, only looked at her expressionlessly.

"It was always something amazing to me, just the fact you and I were looking at the same arrangement of clouds or watching the sun set, no matter how far away you might have been. Call me simple. Or stupid. Or delusional. But it made me feel better."

Sasuke exhaled softly. "If we're always looking at the same sky, then why did you need me to come with you today?"

She smiled. "Because this time, you're looking at the same sky with me."

His expression became tinged with something almost soft. He quickly turned his gaze back to the sky. "Is that so," he said quietly.

"I'm not asking for a reply to my feelings, Sasuke-kun. Don't be mistaken. I'm happy enough with just this." Sakura closed her eyes, tilting her head back slightly. Her hair slid over her shoulder. "You're home. It's all I've been hoping for. Nothing more, nothing less."

If you're so happy with me back, then why didn't you take my hand when I offered it to you? Sasuke stared up at the black sky. "You've changed," he told her quietly.

Sakura opened her eyes and rested her chin on top of her touching knees. In a soft voice, she said, "You know, it only takes a second for someone to make a decision. A decision that could be as simple as trying out mint ice cream instead of the usual chocolate, or as huge as giving up your life to save another. Just a second." Her expression grew a little melancholy. "And in a minute, there are 60 seconds. And in a hour, there are 60 minutes. A day, 24 hours. And a year has 365 days. Do the math, and a single year has 31,536,000 seconds. 31,536,000 chances to change. And for the twelve-year-old me you used to know, she had five years worth of those chances to change."

She shut her eyes again, and hid her face, pressing her forehead against her kneecaps.

He looked away; she could hear the slight rustle of his t-shirt.

Her voice was slightly muffled as she spoke again. "But in reality, I haven't changed at all, Sasuke-kun. In reality... I'm just wondering if you think I've improved. Have I gotten prettier? Am I less annoying? Are you finally looking at me, for once?"

She lifted her face again, and looked at him with trembling green eyes.

"157,680,000 chances to change. And yet, only these sorts of useless thoughts fill my head. I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun. That's the real reason I invited you here today, and why I pretended not to see your hand earlier."

"I'm not comprehending this, Sakura."

"I love you."

"You shouldn't." He was wearing that expression again, the one where he looked almost angry. But it wasn't anger; it was self-contempt.

"I know."

"That's what I don't understand."

"You don't always need to understand something to appreciate it," Sakura said softly.

"I don't work that way."

"I know that, too. That's why I want to teach you how." She reached out and gripped his sleeve. "Look at me, Sasuke-kun."

He listened. He turned his head and met her eyes, and she determinedly gazed back at him, trying to convey the mess that her heart was in proper words.

"I've probably never understood you perfectly, but here I am, loving you all the same. Is my being here not enough proof to convince you of that?"

And suddenly, a hint of a whisper, and then he closed the distance and pressed his lips to hers.

Their first kiss.

It wasn't anything magical. No sparks, no quickened heartbeats. Just a quiet acceptance, like watching the snow fall, or listening to the murmur of the cicadas in summertime. Sakura was still and quiet against him, and when her green eyes fluttered closed, he pressed his fingers against her cheek. Their kiss deepened, though remaining hesitant; but it lingered in a pleasant way, even after she pulled away.

"I don't think I understand," she said, a little nervously, unable to suppress a smile.

"You don't need to."

"You're right." And she laughed, a soft chuckle that reverberated in the air, and there was nothing more that needed to be said. Because, if she'd heard his whisper correctly, he'd told her, You're enough.

Eventually they lied down on the blanket. It was too short, so their legs sprawled off the edge and onto the grass. Their shoulders touched. In this manner, together, they looked upon a night with no stars. Sakura smiled and chattered softly about trivial, happy things: Naruto's cup ramen, Sai's lack of shirts that covered his belly button, and awkward situations during missions. Sasuke was quiet, but he strained to hear every word.

Timeless. That's how the moments passed; smoothly sinking into each other, and it wasn't until delicate stretches of orange began tinging the blackness that they realized the quantity of hours they had spent here, lying on a blanket, exchanging light-hearted stories and occasionally bumping shoulders.

"Ah, finally," Sakura said. "The sun is rising."

Sasuke quietly watched the streaks of red began spreading slowly across the expanse of the sky. "We've been lying here for hours, now," he remarked.

"Yeah."

"Is this what you wanted to show me?"

"Isn't it beautiful?" Sakura stretched a hand out towards the sky, peering between her fingers at the orange and blue mixing into each other like watercolor art. "Even the blackest of nights eventually fade into sunlight. I thought you might appreciate watching a metaphor unfold right before your eyes."

"You never intended to show me any stars." It was an accusation in his voice, but there was no malice. Only warmth that made Sakura's heart overflow.

"That's not true. I did. It's just that fate decided that stars weren't what we needed to see." Sakura lowered her hand, and tried not to blush when it accidentally landed right by Sasuke's. She could feel its warmth radiating off his skin. "It's just my luck that I only had time today in my schedule, yet had an emergency healing mission that wore me out today. And it's just my luck that I forgot the village decided to hold a brightly lit festival tonight, so we can't see the stars. But it's also just my luck that we get to watch the sun rising together. I'm more than happy with this."

Sasuke turned his head to look at her. She could feel his eyes on her her profile, felt the softness in his gaze. Her hand gently slipped into his.

He didn't move it away.

Encouraged by this, Sakura looked his way and met his inky gaze. "A night with no stars," she murmured, her lips pulled into a soft smile that lit up her green eyes. "Not so bad, is it?"

She saw the edge of his lips lift up into a crooked, pleasant smirk.

There was no fairy tale magic when it came to Uchiha Sasuke, but reality could be sweet, too.