Pairing: SasuSaku, NaruHina
Theme/prompt: Unprompted. A short oneshot about life after the war, and the ways in which several pairings cope.
When the war finally ended, and the four of us dragged ourselves, bloody and beaten, from Madara's ashes, the sky began to cry. Rain fell in sheets, and mixed into my tears, and Naruto's tears, and Kakashi's tears... and Sasuke's tears. I took his hand, then, and he let me. He held mine just as tightly as I held his; we clung to each other by our fingertips.
It was weeks before we could finally go home, after the battlefield had been cleaned up. We didn't talk much in those weeks - we didn't need to. I would cry a lot, or find myself shaking in the middle of the night. He would go for long walks by himself, and I'd find him hours later, sitting beside some tree or rock or river, staring at nothing. We held onto each other every time.
When we did get back to Konoha, Naruto and Hinata moved in together straight away, as did Sasuke and I. Where they were joyful and talkative, spending their days in the forest, in the sunshine, we were quiet and fragile. Once, Naruto invited us out for dinner with him and Hinata; I think he was worried that we'd been spending too much time training together and ignoring our friends. He was probably right.
We honestly planned to go with them. I wore a new dress, and Sasuke waited for me by the door. It was as he locked it behind us that I broke down. It happened a lot, in those early days after the war. Sometimes, the images would hit me again, and Sasuke would take me home, wherever we were, and sit with me. He never said a word. This time was no different. He held me up with one arm and unlocked our house again, and took me back inside. That night we made love twice, once the crying had stopped.
I wondered though, the next day, when I saw Naruto and Hinata in the grocery store, whether what they had was better - happier, cleaner. He held her hand as they shopped, and she beamed as if he was the sun himself. I remembered the nights where Sasuke's nightmares had kept as both awake for hours as he gritted his teeth and cried his brother's name, and the mornings where he'd found me sitting on the shower floor, the water long since run cold.
I felt as if it should be easier for us - how did Naruto and Hinata come away from that war as full of happiness as they were? Why weren't we like that? Was there something wrong with us? The thoughts whirled round my mind mercilessly.
Then I remembered the soft look Sasuke had given me that morning; they way he'd cut my hair so carefully after we arrived home; the flowers he'd left, without a word, on the kitchen table. I remembered the way he made my skin shiver in the night when he made love to me, and his hand in mine the day the war had ended.
Maybe we weren't perfect together. We both had too many memories to just bounce back like Naruto and Hinata. Maybe some days would be harder than others. But if Naruto was Hinata's sun, I knew Sasuke was my moon and stars. I'd always preferred the night sky anyway.