prompt: scent
words: 509
summary: It's the small moments in life that make a difference, he thought.
note: I love Spring. And the scent of wet asphalt on a sunny day. Isn't it just beautiful when raindrops are falling and the sun is shining brightly at the same time?
I think these are more like drabbles, but oh well. I like writing these. (:
w e t
asphalt
"It smells like spring…"
His eyes focused on the person next to him, her pink, shoulder-length hair bobbing up and down as she walked. She smiled up at him when she noticed the look he was giving her. "What, don't you smell it?"
"Spring doesn't have a 'smell', Sakura."
He heard her overly-dramatic gasp and rolled his eyes on instinct. "Plants smell, people smell, animals smell. Seasons don't."
Her cheeks puffed. "Sasuke-kun, spring smells like earth. Like the smell of rain on asphalt on a sunny day. It's the smell you can feel in your heart. I can't believe you're saying it doesn't have a scent!"
Sasuke shrugged, changing the conversation to the task they had at hand. Sakura easily went along with his change of topic, reading out loud from the scroll she had been carrying. After listening for a couple seconds, Sasuke's attention began to wander back to their former conversation. His eyes grew darker. There was no such thing as a season having a scent, he thought.
The only scent he knew by heart was that of blood.
He was covered in it, the color staining his clothes, clinging to his skin. His teammates lay at his feet, cuts all over their bodies, blood oozing out as his hand formed into a fist. He could feel the blood drying on his palms, on the handle of the katana he held in his hand. It took him a moment to realize he was laughing, his eyes staring at the lifeless forms of his friends, at the empty, open eyes of his pink-haired teammate—
His eyes snapped open to find bright emerald eyes staring worriedly at him. "Sasuke-kun, shh, calm down, it's okay." He laid down slowly, putting a hand over his eyes. His breathing was uneven, his skin shining with sweat.
"It's okay, Sasuke-kun, it was just a dream." She cupped his cheek softly, murmuring reassuring words until his body relaxed and he found himself slipping into a deep sleep once again.
Stroking his hair softly, Sakura rested her cheek on the bed Sasuke was sleeping in. She curled up against the bed, tucking her legs up against her chest. She was half asleep when she felt a light touch on her shoulder jerk her awake. "Sasuke-kun…? Are you okay? Did you have another nightmare?"
His eyes were hard to read in the dark, as black as the dark side of the moon. She jumped slightly when she felt his arms circle under her arms and pull her onto the bed, placing her in the empty spot next to him. "There's plenty of room on the bed, Sakura. You don't have to sleep on the floor."
"…Mm. Thank you, Sasuke-kun."
He reached out a hand, placing it inches away from hers on the bed.
The scent of cherry blossoms that came from her gave him a sense of peace that nothing else had ever done before. Speaking out loud, he voiced his thought to the sleeping Sakura, "It's the scent of Spring, isn't it."