I love drabbles. :) They're so easy to write and I don't have to add pages and pages of detail just to transfer from one scene to the next.

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"Sasuke? Honey, are you okay?"

Mikoto frowned, her mother's instinct noting in an instant the flushed cheeks and wide, frantic eyes of her youngest son. Sasuke stood in the doorway of his room, his hands braced against the framework and his breath coming in deep gasps. Quickly Mikoto set down the tray of tea she had been carrying and knelt to his eye level.

"What is it, Sasuke? What's wrong?"

Sasuke's lack of response frightened her. The tea forgotten, Mikoto set her hands on his shoulders and shook him gently.

"Sasuke, look at me. Look at me, sweetie! It's okay!"

Without warning Sasuke launched himself into her arms, gripping her as though she were a lifeline in whatever dark and terrifying dream he must have been experiencing. Mikoto shushed softly as sobs began to shake her son's tiny shoulders.

"It's all right, Sas-kun*," she continued to reassure. "It was all just a bad dream."

Sasuke shook his head adamantly. As abruptly as they had appeared, his tears vanished. Solemnly he stepped back and traced his fingers over Mikoto's face as though remembering.

"It wasn't a dream," he said in an eerily stoic manner. "It was real." His eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. "But, this must be a dream, too. It couldn't be that..."

Sasuke turned to Mikoto, his eyes dark with worry. "Wishes can't come true, can they?"

Her anxiety reaching a new peak, Mikoto pressed her palm against Sasuke's forehead. "No fever," she muttered under her breath. "Sasuke, do you feel sick?"

"I'm not ill," he replied in that same unnatural tone. "This isn't right. Something... this isn't real."

"Itachi, I'm going to get a medic," Mikoto called over her shoulder. "Look after Sasuke until I get back; make sure he stays in bed."

Sasuke visibly paled and the alarm bells began to ring in Mikoto's mind. Itachi appeared behind her, his entry as silent and graceful as the cat his ANBU mask depicted. Mikoto watched Sasuke's expression carefully, noting that he had withdrawn into a fight or flight instinct upon seeing his brother.

"Itachi, go fetch a medic," she ordered in a low tone. "I'll look after Sasuke."

Itachi nodded once and was gone. Mikoto couldn't miss the fathomless hatred that flashed momentarily across Sasuke's expression. Something ill had taken place between her two sons, and she was going to get to the bottom of it if she had to pull Itachi from his missions until he gave her some answers.

"Come on, Sasuke," she said warily, "Fever or no, I don't want you going to school until I know you have a clean bill of health."

The hostility vanished from Sasuke's eyes only to be replaced with a look so heartwrenchingly hopeless it stole Mikoto's breath.

"This is all a dream, isn't it?"

Mikoto made no immediate reply, her dark eyes flashing with concern. That does it, he really is sick.

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* This is a form of nickname Japanese parents use for their kids. You take the first part of the name and add kun for boys or chan for girls. Little bit of trivia I looked up online. :)