Nothing
justcontinue
Sometimes she wondered what he'd look like with a different shade of eyes.
Lavender, perhaps?
The pictures faded them into white.
The frames cracked with time and the sun bleached them with new tomorrows.
And the darkness didn't make too much of a difference.
"Tenten?"
Her fist curled reflexively at the sound of his voice, an unfamiliar timbre that echoed through the emptiness of the white walls.
Shadows couldn't hide what you couldn't see.
Her fist unclenched.
"Nothing," she said after a while.
Could you forget the sound of someone's voice?
A damp stretch of ground, blinded by the scent of dew and summer moss, salty tears that wouldn't stop, just… wouldn't stop… Words tumbling out that sounded something like promises. Promises of never forgetting a face, a lingering whisper of last words, a warmth that set her nerves on fire and lit a spark in the coldest of nights.
Had she broken that promise?
"Never," she whispered to herself.
How could one single person carry her hopes and dreams and aspirations, every little fragment of her secrets and sins, know her inside and out and still want her as much as she desperately, desperately wanted him?
"What did you say?" That voice again.
"Nothing," she said again.
Nothing, truly nothing.
Why did it matter, when her little one pattered around in bare feet and shockingly red hair, carrying school books instead of a kunai, wearing a smile instead of a headband, singing ditties instead of reciting jutsus… Why did it matter, when she would never, ever let her little one feel the pain of death, taste the horrid essence of regret.
A gravestone would never mark the her little one's undeclared love and unsaid goodbyes.
I should've been there would never be forever the phrase on her lips.
"Come back to bed," was the suggestion.
And she did, because there was nothing more to think about.
He did to her what they did a million times before, in that white room, haunted by memories of a past seventeen year old girl.
A million times, but nothing was different when there wasn't any love.
Nothing, truly nothing.
Neji, only once. With scared eyes but breathless faces, under torn fabric and quiet starry skies.
Everything she ever needed was in the touch of his palm.
Perhaps details faded a little more everyday with the rise and fall of the sun.
But promises never did.
A/N: Mrrreeehhh KISHI WHY.