Hahaha so this is actually NOT what I planned to put up for Nevermore chapter four...but it kind of wrote itself over the last two days! So I went with it. Has anyone noticed a dearth (lack) of kisses in my ItaSaku drabbles? I HAVE! I think I'll contrive to put one in the next drabble...or possibly any of the other fics I might be putting out if only the muse would get her butt in gear...
Anyway, hopefully you guys enjoy this cute, funny little thing!
Disclaimer: Nope, still not mine...
theme: lonely (non-mass)
Title: Through an Open Window
"Day…eleven?"
Sakura sighed and frowned at the moonlit vista of the village, feeling more than a little irritated at herself. When was the last time she'd been this…this silly?
"At age thirteen, with his brother," Sakura told herself with a wry twist of her lips. "What is it with me and Uchiha boys?"
It was a question people across the shinobi nations asked themselves, though perhaps not with the same sort of sentiment as she did. After all, Uchiha were renowned as some of the deadliest shinobi in the world with their katon techniques and Sharingan. It was only women (and yes, occasionally men too) in Konoha that generally found romantic reasons to be interested in the dark-haired men of the family.
And Sakura thought, occasionally and when the mood took her, that she had more reason than most to feel so.
She'd had a rather obsessive crush on Sasuke during her pre-genin and genin years until a wake-up call in the form of a mission that put her into the hospital for a month (and, she found out later, had almost put her in a coffin had it not been for the timely arrival of Konoha's new Godaime Hokage a week before her mission) had forced her to realize that, between Sasuke and her life, she'd choose life. The relationship they had now was all the better for the lack of romance between them.
Itachi on the other hand…
"Is the current problem," Sakura groaned, finishing her own thought as she fixed her aspen-leaf eyes trained on the moon outside her open window.
He had just been "Sasuke's older brother" most of her life…until a few weeks after her sixteenth birthday when she had been called in as part of the emergency medic team needed to perform a very tricky, touch-and-go surgery on an ANBU.
She hadn't known until later that the ANBU operative whom she had kept from death was Sasuke's cousin Shisui, and Itachi's best friend.
Even now, nearly two and a half years later, her cheeks still heated when she recalled the emotion in Itachi's deep-cobalt eyes as he had quietly thanked her for saving his cousin's life the next day. To someone else, it would have seemed like the concern of a friend and family member, but Sakura had been well accustomed to the nuances of Uchiha behavior by then.
She could tell how relieved Itachi had been, the look in his eyes the equivalent of someone as vocal as Kiba having an emotional breakdown.
He still occasionally stopped by her office at the hospital to say hello on his way to visiting injured teammates, and had shared a few good conversations with they ran into each other at teashops by chance.
"And now it's been eleven days since he left on that solo mission, not that I have any reason to keep couth," Sakura muttered as she finally turned away from her open window and slipped into bed. She was not counting down the days until Itachi's two-week mission was up; not at all.
"I hate being this…silly," she mumbled as her eyes finally fluttered closed.
…
It was…kind of warm. Comfortable. She couldn't recall having closed her bedroom window before falling asleep though, the early autumn nights being rather warm of late.
With a sigh, she rolled over towards the warmth at her side…and shot up into a defensive crouch at the touch and scent of a male.
Moonlight from her still-open window spilled into her room, illuminating the deep-cobalt eyes of one Uchiha Itachi, casually remaining seated on her bedside in spite of her sudden wakefulness.
She gaped in surprise, her emerald eyes widening as she tried to understand (with a mind still sluggish from sleep) just what Sasuke's brother was doing in her bedroom. Or even in Konoha. He wasn't due back until that Friday.
"I-Itachi-san? Is something wrong?" she asked, her gaze sweeping over him to check for any obvious injuries.
But there didn't seem to be any marks on him, no bloody gashes or pained looks, not even any large bruises, which begged the question of why he was here.
"Itachi-san?"
"Even in the confines of the village, it is not so safe to keep one's bedroom window open."
At this, Sakura's lips parted, her jaw dropping in utter surprise. She could hardly believe that the Uchiha heir who had just now returned from a solo mission (rather earlier than expected, too) would really be stopping by at her apartment at some bizarre hour before dawn to teach her the dangers of not keeping a window closed and locked. Her viridian eyes slowly narrowed as she let herself relax from the defensive crouch to a cross-legged seat on her bed. Considering the flimsiness of his excuse, she felt a little suspicious wondering why he was really here.
"I doubt someone will stage an attack on the village tonight, and I think I would have woken up if they had."
"You did not awake when I came," was his bland response.
A tiny frown furrowed Sakura's brow, even as a part of her silently thrilled at the fact that Itachi was back in Konoha, obviously unharmed, and unexpectedly playing guest at her apartment.
"Your chakra signature is familiar to me; I would have woken up if you were someone I didn't know," she reasoned in reply, rubbing a hand across her eyes as she forced back her sleepiness to better face her nighttime intruder. "Seriously, Itachi-san, why are you really here?"
The petite, rosy-headed medic was obviously losing her patience; it was actually rather adorable considering she seemed to be struggling against her body's need to sleep to politely deal with him, her unexpected guest. Had he been a little less polite himself, he would have succumbed to the temptation to capitalize on both her exhaustion and the resulting loss of reserve due to the former. It would have been just one more capitulation on his part, after all. Hadn't he already snuck into her room in the dead of night?
Still, it had been impossible to resist, and he had started off with the best of intentions.
Famous last words, indeed, considering what the path to hell was rumored to be cobbled with.
But, with all the consideration of a friend, who aspired to one day be more to the petal-haired girl than that, he had noted her open window on his way home from reporting to ANBU headquarters and gone to close it for her. Autumn nights were warm enough, but it got chilly right before dawn and could leave the room's occupant with an unnecessary sore throat the next morning.
And at her window he had caught sight of her, bathed half in moonlight and half in shadow, with long lashes resting delicately on smooth cheeks, her hair splayed out over her pillow, and his first thought wasn't that the vision was titillating but rather…romantic.
It was that strange-and-getting-more-prominent-by-the-day feeling he had when he saw her; that somehow inexorable need to have her by him.
He had found himself sitting on the edge of her bed with his fingers skimming the ends of her pink tresses without realizing it, or even consciously meaning to.
Around her he felt so much at peace, and without her…there was that tightness in his chest that reminded him of the circumstances under which they'd met. Hard to believe as it was, without her by him, living in that strange uncertainty of feelings gone too long unacknowledged until there was always a low hum of tension wondering if someday she would be wholly out of his reach and someone else's made him feel the same kind of dull fear that had gripped him the night he had believed his best friend might not make it off the operating table alive.
It was confusion, bewilderment, and loneliness, all prompting this unwarranted visit at three in the morning.
Words that begged to be said slipped out before his rational mind, or even just an instinct for emotional self-preservation, could stop him. "I wanted to see you."
And then he was gone, out the window that had started it all, like a flicker of shadow and leaving behind him a bewildered and blushing Sakura alone in her dark apartment with no idea how close she had gotten to being kissed.
owari
Yeah, see? Look at that! No kiss! I'll remember to put one in the next one...XD Sorry about how confusingly long-winded Itachi was. I think he was feeling in a rather introspective mood this morning...oh and check out the nice new poll on my profile please ^^
The muse says she definitely likes reviews, and I thank you for your indulgence in reading my stories!
Aria, out.