Midnight moonlight barely escaped the crack in between the dark maroon curtains that hid Sasori's room away from the outside world. Slow, soft breathing was all that could be heard as Rukia began to awaken from her long and comfortable slumber in the heap of sandy brown and blood red blankets on her best friend's bed. An exhausted groan escaped past her lips as she rolled over, only barely noticing the absence of warmth on her torso. Sasori must've gotten up to use the bathroom, she thought, opening her eyes in a squint as she reached over to pull up the blankets.
But wouldn't she have heard him flush the toilet or hear the loud swirl of dirty water exit through the drain? The doorway to his bathroom was only around the corner from the puppet-decorated wall, after all. So where'd he go?
Rukia sighed softly, pulling off the red down comforter with her skinny arms, swinging one slender leg over her side of the bed, the other following after the first. She made a mental note of every move she made as she made them, trying to me more aware. Now standing, she looked around, observing the wall full of puppets, the entrance to the bathroom, the messy bed and its last remaining traces of warmth.
"Sasori-danna, Where are you?" she muttered, her eyes flitting every which way in search of an indication her friend was here. There were none. With an irritated sigh, she headed towards the bathroom, one slow step after the other. The door for the bathroom was located on the left side of both the puppet-wall and the bed.
Rukia was beginning to feel concerned about her Puppet Man. Where was he? He wasn't in his room and most likely not the bathroom. She closed her eyes as she stepped into the bathroom, a hand outstretched and searching for the light-switch. The fluorescent lights created an intense orange in her eyelids until she opened them.
She let out a blood-curdling scream, forcing her lungs to create that terrifying sound.
Sasori was tethered down to a chair tightly with blackened chains and bandages wound around his severely injured, naked body. No gash or broken bond was treated. His skinny, muscled body shuddered and shook as he drew in icy cold, gurgled breaths. Quickly did his chest rise and fall. The ribs encaging his heart and lungs were easily visible through the poor man's skin. He created friction against the black metal chains as he breathed and struggled against them, inevitably causing even more damage to his already broken body.
Red hairs had fallen out and slowly fluttered down to touch the gleaming red surface of a pool of blood encircling and gushing from Sasori's feet and legs, becoming sticky and soon sinking into the deep red pool. His arms were nailed to the wall -which his ever weakening wooden chair was pushed up against- all along his hollow bones. Thin streams of blood spilled and smeared through the hair and his skin from each hole in his arms.
His red mop of messy red hair flowed over his face as he stared down blankly at his deteriorating thighs, nothing distracting him from his pain. It was almost as if no one existed to him.
And yet another blood-curdling scream.
~*~*~*~
"Rukia, Rukia! Stop screaming!" Sasori howled, trying to pin down the wildly thrashing limbs of his dear friend. She was obviously having a nightmare and it must be a pretty horrible one from what he can tell. She was losing her fragile mind. What was scaring her so bad? He noticed tiny droplets of a clear liquid exit through the corners of Rukia's pink-lined eyes. Now she was crying...
Somehow, he managed to slam down her arms against the headboard of his now messy bed, having to straddle her waist to keep her torso under control. He was breathing a bit roughly, which wasn't like him to be doing. The girl beneath him had stopped moving so violently, shaking and crying like a child in her sleep. Her eyes squinted as she cried, the pink seeming to smear with each tear.
Sasori crawled off of her, rolling over to her left side and sat up, leaning forward on his hands and knees to stare down at the poor girl. 'Why are you scared?' he questioned silently, lifting a hand and smoothing out her hair. 'You silly girl.' Another little sniff from her and he gently wiggled his arms under her back and knees, steadily picking her up off the bed as he slid off and onto his feet. He felt her shiver in his grasp, sensing her fear and small drop in body temperature. The look on her scared face made him almost sad.
Rukia nuzzled his chest, wiping her tears on his skin. She was still asleep. He could tell by her slow, shallow breathing. Sasori gave a sigh, trying to chuckle at the cuteness of her actions.
A look towards the door and he began walking, step, step, step, step. The wooden flooring was oddly splintered, he decided, picking up his feet so as not to get a small sliver of wood in his foot. Not that he really cared. He'd get someone to fix up his flooring when he had the time and money to. Unfortunately, the last assassination mission he had gone out on didn't pay him much money. After he worked so hard on assassinating that idiot Turk in Nibelheim and that stupid ninja claiming to be from his home village Konoha in Wutai... Truth is, he didn't really try. At that thought, he smirked, padding out into the hallway with his teenaged girl friend in his arms.
"S-Sasori…" Rukia whispered against his skin. He was taking her somewhere, that much she knew. Her face was wet and her eyes stung. She tenderly wrapped her arms around his neck and shoulders, feeling him hold her close. 'So it was only just a dream…'
"What is it?" the man replied monotonously. He just kept walking, carrying the girl into a room decorated in traditional Japanese furniture crossed with futuristic technology. Rukia didn't know what to make of it, so she kept her eyes shut.
"Thank goodness you're alive," she mumbled, turning her head to face his, slowly opening up her bright red eyes. She stared deeply into his amber-nectar irises, searching some kind of emotion- amusement, happiness, anger, anything. She found nothing.
"Why would I be dead?" he mused, averting the girl's gaze. Sasori gingerly padded up to a set of cushions and leaned over, gently setting the clingy girl down. He knew she had dreamt of him. That's the only explanation to her question. He held down a small chuckle. He had to keep up his emotionless appearance. Otherwise, Rukia would be royally screwed.
She shook her head, giving a low breath of relief, but still, she held onto Sasori as if she would die without him. She probably would.
Her body language suggested that she was still scared, Sasori decided, letting out a breath of his own before tentatively sitting down beside her. She had her arms tangled around his waist, her face rubbing up against his toned little eight-pack.
"S-Sasori…?" Rukia stuttered shyly, sniffling again as she came to a realization of sorts. There was a certain flutter in her heart, which ultimately shocked her, but she had to address her feelings, her emotions. It was the only way to really get things across and off of her chest. It kept her from fearing things.
"Yes, Rukia?" Sasori asked. It was hard to tell if he was asking a question when his voice was monotone. She knew he kept it that way for a reason, but still. She wanted to be able to see him come out of his shell and not hide himself from everyone else.
Biding some time, Rukia tried to figure out a way to explain how she felt and what she wanted. She thought he'd appreciate what all she had to say if she knew how to say it. Maybe. She didn't quite know how Sasori worked. To some extent, she did. But any further than 'somewhat', she was lost.
Well, so far so good.
"I have something to tell you," Rukia started, fiddling with her fingers as she held him close to her.
"Go ahead and tell me."
"I-I… I want you to be able to tell me anything, even if you might find it embarrassing or weird. I-I want you to be able to come to me for emotional stuff… 'cause… well…" Okay, so she didn't quite know how to tell him. But maybe she was getting through to him. Maybe. She crossed her fingers inwardly.
Sasori blinked once or twice, taking in what the poor redheaded teen was mumbling to him. She wanted him to come out of his shell. That's basically the gist of what she was saying. He could understand. He knew how he must seem to her. Quiet. Monotonous. Powerful. Withdrawn. Distant. Oh, he knew.
"You what?"
She bit her lip and pulled away, jerking her knees up to her chest and hugged them tightly. How was she going to say this? 'Aw, man… What if he blows it off? What if he stops talking to me? What if…what if he leaves again?' The poor girl was worrying herself to pieces.
"Rukia." There. That powerful tone of voice should snap her out of whatever storm of worry she was putting herself through, he decided.
"S-sorry… Anyways, Sasori-danna…"
He mentally smacked himself a few times. Why did she always call him that? It was bound to get even more infuriating as time goes on. 'Silly girl. Stop calling me that,' he thought.
"Well, I-I… I love you. There, I said it!" He watched blankly as she curled into herself, mulling the words over in his head. She what? He watched distantly as she cried into knees, continuously mulling those words over in her own mind as well. He watched almost sadly now as she shied away from his outstretching hand.
He knew what she was thinking. He now fully understood why she cried every time he would leave her alone. He now understood why she started a drinking problem. He now fully understood her. It took him all of twelve years to figure it out. With a little five second shove, of course.
She sat there, curled up into a ball, and cried till her cheeks grew sore, till her eyes began to burn. And when she started to uncurl herself, Sasori decided to break out of his little shell and full on pull her into his arms for a bear hug. He was going to show her every little cheesy bit of himself because he couldn't stand to see her so sad. Even if he didn't have a heart, he still had a brain. Every thought in his head was mostly angled towards her happiness anyway.
He traced her lower jaw with his fingers, sweeping up any tears that had made their ways down her cheeks, and looked into her candy red eyes for a moment, finding her emotions to be sincere. He tilted her chin up more, and, without difficulty, gave her an honest yet small smile.
His smile… It almost gave her a heart attack. She wanted to kiss him and kiss him hard. She wanted to hug him tight and tell him she loved him multiple times. She had never seen him smile. And just for that simple action, her unspoken wish coming true, she felt yet another tear slide down her cheek.
"Silly girl," he said, "you have no need to cry. I won't leave you alone anymore. I won't reject you. I will show you how I am with feeling. I will not lie to you. I will keep you safe. And… I will love you." With that last sentence, the one he truly felt he would do, he leaned his face closer to hers and gently kissed her soft, pink, surprised lips.
