A/N: ...
Wat.
... s... sakura x sai!
My gosh, who'd have know.
Was gonna be narusai at first XD
Im on writers block for Ciao, Cupid and Memories D:
Enjoy, (I don't own characters, etc)
-/-
They are all faceless. Sometimes he wonders if this is a dream and The Other is a reality. At least that's what he hopes. Because if this is the reality then life will not be happy, in fact, it will just plain suck. They all have faces in The Other, that's why he can show his emotions there. Because if nobody has a face in this, then why should he? And if he doesn't have a face, how is he supposed to show his emotions? Sure, body language; but the same pose can be used for happy and angry, so it doesn't help much. But he can tell that Naruto is probably a lot angrier at him than he is happy – he always is. They all like him so much in The Other, but not here.
"Sai, will you draw me?" Sakura asks him. Sai isn't even sure how she's speaking since she has no mouth.
"Sure" He says, even though he prefers abstracts. It can be quite hard to draw people when you have no idea what their faces look like. His brother had a face, though. A smiling face, a happy face. He had a kind face; the same face that the people in The Other have.
Sai pulls out his sketchbook and a pencil. He decides to draw her head and body first, and then figure out what to do about her face. She sits down on a rock in front of him and puts her hands on her lap, head tilted to the side. It's a nice pose, and Sai starts sketching in the guidelines. He has just finished her body and is shading her clothes when Naruto walks over.
"Hey!" He wails. "You're drawing Sakura-chan, but you never draw me!"
Sai just smiles, but he doesn't know if Naruto smiles back. Hell, he doesn't even know if he's smiling properly. It's hard to find anything reflective in The Other, which is the only place he has a face, so it's pretty difficult for him to practise a smile, and although none of his smiles have ever felt right, this one feels the best so far. There's no more reactions from Naruto, and he just sits down next to Sai and bends his neck, looking at the drawing. Sai cross-hatches the clothing finely so that it looks like fabric, and then he starts drawing in strands of hair, gently lightening some with a flick of his rubber, so he can capture the light shining on Sakura's hair. He doesn't know if she has a pretty face, but she has pretty hair; he puts a lot of effort into it, which earns him and admiring whistle from Naruto. Sakura is quite a fair girl, and she doesn't require much shading on her skin, just a little in the shadows and a faint blush on her cheeks. Funny, he can see her cheeks and the shape of her face, but she has no nose or mouth or eyes. Sai moves his pencil to the bottom of the page and roughly shades in the rock she is sitting on, then he draws tiny blades of grass surrounding it and spreading out.
"Why haven't you drawn her face, Sai?" Naruto asks.
"I'll draw it last" He replies.
Naruto nods and Sai rubs his pencil on the index finger of his right hand until it is dark grey. He smudges the lead over the page, more of it near the grass and less around Sakura and the top of the page. Once he is satisfied with this pale sky, he licks his finger and then wipes it on his shirt to remove the last of the grey smudge. Then he flips his pencil rounds and rubs out bits of it for clouds. But then he doesn't know what to do. He has finished the drawing; however the face is still blank. He can't just show her it if he hasn't drawn her face, can he? But he's never drawn a face. And everyone's face is different. He hasn't seen Sakura's. Maybe he could draw in a face of one of the people in The Other, but he's never tried to draw them before. They are always keeping him too busy to draw. And Sakura's face is probably different from their faces. He doesn't have a clue what her face looks like.
"Aren't you going to draw her face?" Naruto asks, pointing a finger at the blank place on the drawing.
"I-I can't draw faces" Sai says simply; after all, it's true.
"Just try. Her face is like her personality. Like an abstract!" The blonde announces, proudly. "You like abstracts, right? Faces are like an abstract of the personality!"
Sai is surprised. Maybe Naruto knows what it's like to only see emptiness where there is supposed to be a face. Maybe he managed to fill in the blanks. Sai thinks about Sakura's personality. He decides to start with her nose, since that will be pretty easy. Based on the fact that she has quite a small face, and he can see the ridge of her brow where the nose begins, he takes a guess and gives her a small, pretty nose like one of the girls in The Other.
"Oooh, you got her nose just right!" Naruto gives Sai an encouraging pat on the back.
"What should I do next?"
"Her mouth. I like Sakura-Chan's smile"
Sakura giggles, and Sai looks down at the drawing. He knows where mouths go, and what mouths look like, but he doesn't know what Sakura's mouth looks like. Well, Naruto likes Sakura's smile, which must mean she has a nice smile. Her smile always makes Naruto calmer, so her smile must be comforting. Maybe Sakura's smile is like Sai's brother's smile. His smile comforts Sai, and makes him feel happier when he is sad. When Sai feels off, he just needs to remember his brother's smile and he will feel happier again. Sakura's smile must be like that, so he draws a gentle, kind smile that looks like his brother's, only more feminine and sweet.
Naruto leans over and laughs. "You're doing a pretty good job there!"
"Her eyes are next?"
"Yeah!"
Sai can remember his brother's eyes. He can remember the eyes of the people from The Other, but he has no idea how to draw them. Their eyes are all different, more different than noses and mouths, so how can he draw Sakura's eyes? He looks at her face, where her eyes should go. They wouldn't be very big eyes, but not very small. She has average sized eyes. How helpful.
"I don't know how to draw eyes"
"Sai?"
Sai looks up at Sakura. She hasn't moved an inch, keeping her pose perfect. "Yes, Sakura-chan?"
"I'm not very good at drawing, but I like to think that eyes are like windows into your personality. Draw them how you see my personality"
Sai smiles his not-right smile again. "Thankyou"
"No problem!"
Sai thinks about Sakura. She is a kind person, and treats both him and Naruto well... mostly. But he knows her to be a genuinely sweet and caring ninja, so he draws the shape of her eyes softly, gently curving and quite wide. He knows that she is pretty. Even though Sai can't see her face, he thinks she is prettier than any of the girls in The Other. So he frames her eyes with long, sweeping eyelashes. He draws her pupils, and then stops before he shades in her irises. Sakura is fierce, and fiery, so Sai makes tiny little flames in her eyes, blending them in so that they just look like a part of the shading. But as well as being fiery, Sai knows that Sakura is vulnerable, too. He adds little cherry blossoms above the flames, floating delicately. Then he makes a tiny little sun to shine in each eye and illuminate the petals from above with a bright white light while the flames illuminate the underside of the petals with a greyer, shaded light.
"That looks great Sai!" Naruto exclaims. "One day, you have to draw us all, okay? I'll see ya'"
He walks away, and Sakura watches him leave before turning back to Sai. "Can I see it?"
Sai nods, and walks over to her with his picture in hand. He kneels on the grass next to Sakura and shows her the piece of paper. He hope she likes it. Naruto said it was good, so that must mean it at least slightly looks like her. She's looking down at the paper, examining it. Sai wishes that he could see her face so that he can know if she is smiling or frowning. He looks at the emptiness where her face should be, but he can't see anything. She strokes the edge of the picture with her finger and laughs.
"And you say that you can't draw people!" She puts a hand on his shoulder. "Sai, this is amazing"
"Really?"
"Yeah! It actually looks like me"
Sai looks at her, and she lifts her head to look at him. He smiles, happy that he managed to draw her well enough. She smiles back at him, her eyes glittering in the sunlight.
She smiles? Her eyes glitter?
Sai can see her face. Since his brother died, he has never seen anyone's face until now. But he can see hers. Her smile is kind and sweet, just like he drew – only in real life it is even more compassionate and loving. Her eyes are full of fire and strength like he drew, but they shine with beauty and love and power as well, and not only that, but they glitter with life. They glitter in a way that not even the eyes of the people in The Other do. He can't stop staring at her. She is more beautiful than any of the people in The Other, and so much more real. So real that he finally knows that this isn't a dream.
"Sai... why are you staring at me?"
He is awestruck. If he can only show emotion in The Other, where he can see people's faces, does this mean that he will be able to show emotion to Sakura, since he can see her face? Does this mean that he has a face now, too?
"I-I didn't realise you..." Sai is lost for words. He can't believe that something changed. Something allowed him to see her face. "... Were this... this beautiful"
Her jaw drops in shock. He eyes are wide and unbelieving. Sai thinks that this must be because he never normally shows emotion. Or maybe because he doesn't usually compliment people.
"Sai? Did you just call me... um..."
"Yes." Sai takes a deep breath. "I didn't realise until now"
Sakura takes his hand and smiles at him. He still can't believe he can see her face. What changed? That's what he wants to know. If he can see her face, does that mean he can see the faces of other people, or is it just her? Will he still visit The Other?
"Then what changed?"
"I couldn't see your face before. I don't know what changed... but now I can"
She looks confused. "You couldn't... see?"
"After my brother died" he squeezes her hand. "Everyone turned faceless. The only people that I could truly see... and that I could show emotion to... they were in my dreams."
"But you can see me?"
"Y-yes... I couldn't before. I don't know what changed. Even I didn't have a face"
"You do." She reaches out with her other hand and strokes his cheek. "See? I can see your face"
Sai continues to stare at her. He cannot stand this. What changed? That's what he wants to know. He has never been able to see Sakura's face before, so why now? Can he see everyone's faces, or is it just Sakura's? He thinks back to before his brother died; before his brother died, everyone had faces. Then he lost his brother, and everyone else lost their faces. Because he lost the one he loved. Love. If they lost their faces when he lost his love, does this mean his love is back?
"What's wrong, Sai?" Sakura asks.
"I think I'm in love" He says simply, still captivated by her face.
She smiles at him again. She smiles because she knows. "Can I keep the picture?"
"No" He chuckles, and he face falls. "Because I want it so I can always see your face"
She laughs, her face brightening again, and then her eyes light up mischievously. "I think you always will."