Disclaimer: OwnageZIP.

Author's Note: I wasn't planning on making this into a series, but this idea struck me today and I had to write it. So look forward to upcoming NaruHina drabbles and feel free to request themes or ideas!

Airborne

Falling was a talent that belonged to her, never him, for he did not give in. She tried, bleeding her fears and hopes and wills into hard flashes of blue swimming towards strength, but she could never reach it. The streams always grew longer, her own doubts dragging her backwards and slamming her into rocks. And their voices never failed to echo in chills through her spine and leak into her core, burning in ice cold sulfur the thousand deadened wrongs that could never fade away.

"Trying only leads to tears and tiredness where we curl up in bed and vow to forget everything we strive toward. And we succumb to foolish dreams, blurred mirrors stained with futile wishes of who we could be and not be."

Her reflection is a jagged black line, scribbled over a thousand times in wasted attempts to become something worth beating blood into.

Her lips have long been sealed by harsh words, casting pure eyes to the ground and locking her into the feeling that she could become nothing but dust. A weak, useless frame, with nothing to hold and nothing to give. But she has so much more than that.

He can feel it.

How does she not know that?

He told her, but as it turned out he was not the one who had to make the first move towards the sky.-

In the evening rain, inbetween the tiny faint gaps of the fresh scent of wet grass and the morning fog still lingering from a lifetime ago (or maybe just rising again), he waits, staring at the blurred sky with confident eyes, not lost like so many others clinging to their windowsills. He knows what time it is. The blazing summer waves have burned streaks of pink across his face where he lifted it towards the sun for too long, and so he welcomes the cool with a rare content smile.

That doesn't make the steaming bowl of ramen and beef chunks plunked down at the counter beside him any less welcome, though, or the tiny cute girl that arrives rushing with splashes of raindrops sprinkled across her hair and an apology with fewer stammers than usual for being late because of training. He accepts it with a grin, smacking the seat next to him and telling her the ramen's already hot and waiting. He doesn't mention the bright pink streaks mirrored across her cheeks or the mentally grunted hope that her dog-loving teammate kept his hands off her during practice. She's already happy just to be next to him, a brighter glow lighting up the empty spaces of her eyes as they eat their dinner, enjoying the aroma of beef broth and musky wood between their bowls and laughter. Her hand trembles towards his across the table, flickers of red repeatedly flashing on and off on her face visibly growing tighter with indecision. He notices and asks with a friendly grin if she wants his ramen.

She doesn't answer, only increases the blood pressure of her face and snatches his hand before she can take it back. Her hands shake harder than ever and the red is visibly rushing into her cheeks but she looks at him with firm eyes, set with determination he's never even seen that bright during battle.

His eyes widen in shock and his mouth pops open like the sun dawning over the horizon just realizing its existence.

"Ooh." A spark flashes back in his face and he grins, a little tinge of nervousness lining his face but he grips her hand harder and the light in his eyes is more genuine than she's ever seen it before. "So if that's what you wanted, why didn't you just ask?"

The blush darkens, if that is physcially possible, but she doesn't look away, only pouts and the unusual expression is so cute he has to touch it.

With his lips, of course.-

Flying was a talent that belonged to them, for they did not let go of their wings.