Alright, here is another chappy to my drabble.


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He had been lazing face-up on the bed, hearing the 'beep' of his heart rate though he was near sleep, keeping his eyes closed so that he could maintain the images playing behind his lids. He had been thinking about some sweet little memory that had long ago grown to a bitter taste. He had been so close to falling off the edge of consciousness and into the embrace of so many years feeling like yesterdays that he could even catch small whiffs of it on inhales—all that naïve happiness, that brotherly bond. He had him as his defender, his idol, his purpose to live. He had been lying over his back, resting his head on his shoulder blade and believed- I am grateful.

That's the prominent scene he was grasping for when Sakura entered the room and decided to reel him back to life.

He hadn't even known she was there until she plucked the IV from his wrist. His eyes snapped open to find her looming over him, staring down with perfected disregard. He watched as she deliberately flicked the new needle with some of its liquids spurting out, "I didn't think you'll make it," she said before mumbling, "It's been so long."

"Oh yeah," Sasuke grumbled with a roll of his eyes. "I forgot you and Naruto went all mid-life-crisis while I was gone."

"We didn't go 'mid-life-crises'," she denied tiredly. "Don't have such the ego. We just realized how valuable our bond is, you know… after you…"

"Don't," Sasuke interjected, raising his hand. "Don't you dare go there."

His eyes had pinched closed again and his brow had knotted into something irritated. He struggled not to disturb his heavily bandaged midsection as he tried to roll himself up into a sitting position and grunted as he prepared to stand up on his own for the first time in three weeks.

"Need some help?" she asked, arms crossed, hip tilted, one eyebrow arched high on her forehead.

"Never have before," he answered through the pained groan, straining to stretch himself upright.

"Or have you just never asked for it?" she posed back. She wrote on the tab of what his conditions were and didn't protest for him to get up- after all, he needed to regain his strength.

"Yeah, that's right." He said not finding something as witty and started limping towards the entrance.

"Don't you think about wandering off too far." She demanded. Her head dropped back to her task but still kept her eye on the man slink his way out the door and past the reception desk.


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Sasuke was perched on the roof of the hospital, looking down at the several people walking in and out of the building, still dawdling in that fluffy memory replaying in his head.

What do you feel like doing right now? He was asking him in the memory, his voice as crisp and deep and the scent of sugar and cinnamon dumplings his mother prepared filling his nostrils.

I want to go practice with you, he heard a younger version of himself answering him. That man grinned lightly and lifted his arm with his hand wavering for him to come near. Did you ask father permission for the okay?

His eyes opened then, breaking the reverie and revealing a bothersome bird chirping along with the steady crowd below of hurrying pedestrians who were avoiding the annoyance of bumping into one another. And just like that, the image in his head was lost- just like yesterday, just like his clan, just like Itachi…

"Thinking about jumping off the building? Be careful. It never turns out the way you want it to."

Sakura. She had snuck up on him again. She never used to be able to do that. Plus, she had intuited his spontaneous suicidal thoughts. No one ever used to be able to do that.

"It hurts so bad," he said, never glancing up. His voice came chocked and most certainly upset.

"Well, your brother did filleted you like a fish," she replied. That was something she would have said to lighten up the mood several years ago. These days, neither of them found anything quite humorous.

She strolled up the concrete steps and had a seat on the third to the floor. "You're healing pretty good, but you really had a number done on you, Sasuke. Be patient."

"Not like that," he said. He shook his head and kept his eye on a particular woman seated on a bench with her son playing with the scattered birds below. "Inside… it hurts, Sakura."

She understood that. He knew she would somehow, and maybe that's why he said it. After all, it was he the reason why she knew that pain and if anyone knew what it felt like to loose someone precious to you and how much it hurts inside, well who better than a melted out popsicle?

"I know," she answered gently.

"No one ever told me it could hurt this bad."

"Me neither."

"I'm sick of it."

His eyes closed and he sighed, dropping his forehead down to rest on his fist.

"Me too, Sasuke." She was whispering more to herself if anything, but somehow he was able to hear her over the ruckus of the unusual busy avenue sonata.

"It wasn't supposed to end up this way. If I would have known his true purpose before as to why he did it, then…," he murmured down to the pavement. "It would have been better off if I didn't know he's the one that killed them. I may have been able to stay here in Kohana."

"But you're here now, Sasuke."

He grinned around the optimistic traits she seemed to own then; the first time in a long time that he felt humored.

"You really think you can trust me to not run off again and leave you heart broken a second time?"

"You have no other place to be. Besides, you can't break something again if it's still scattered all over the place from the first drop," She answered.

With his eyes still closed and his grin still there he finally allowing her to be as close as she could get to him.

"Well I guess I'm going to have to pick up my own mess and put it back together then, won't I?"

Unexpectedly, she stood her ground right next to him. Sasuke looked down to find the woman looking back at him, apple green eyes as juicy as could be and a smirk as shiny as the plumpest cherries. Not exactly sugar and cinnamon dumplings, but just as appetizing. She stuck the needle into his arm- an object that she relayed on hiding, and quickly pulled it out just as fast as it went in, never unlocking their gaze.

"Well, out of the three, you were never the type to leave a mess," she said, reaching back for gauze to offer wrapping it around the pinched area of his arm. "And I wouldn't mind to help you out."


Yeah, that's good. Now I hope for the reviews to come in cause I need the cheering up. and if you do, I promise you that you'll end up feeling all fuzzy and warm inside.