Title - Somniloquy
Rating: "T" for implied sex
World State: Normal
Word Count: 1036
Summary: Ino talks in her sleep, Sakura tries to shut her up.
"No, you're the f-frog, I'm not..."
The plaintive statement has no obvious source, but Sakura doesn't question it. Not when Naruto, in full queen regalia, is in the middle of declaring Sakura mentally unfit for the trials of the toaster oven. Sakura distresses over the condemnation; she had studied for years on the proper way to make toast out of chakra induction paper. Sasuke and Kakashi titter in the corner over mugs of beer, whispering mean gossip behind their hands while they blow bubbles with silly straws.
"It was one time. Goddamn frogs..."
Sakura cracks one sleepy eye open as Ino mutters right in her ear and proceeds to steal the rest of the blankets.
"What's your problem, pig?" Sakura grumbled with a yank on her half of the bedding. Ino had already been cuddled up to Sakura's side but when Sakura reclaimed her portion of blanket, Ino banded one arm around Sakura's ribs like an iron band and threw one leg across her thighs.
"I'm not," Ino sighs around a soft snore, "a frog..." Ino nuzzled against Sakura's shoulder in a way that makes any lingering annoyance at being woken up at two in the morning disappate. Sakura rolled onto her side and slipped an arm around her girlfriend, rubbing small circles on her back; the most sure-fire way to help Ino into a deeper (and hopefully less-talkative) sleep.
Though the mind was more of Ino's forte, Sakura knew enough to realize that Ino's somniloquy was likely caused by stress. Her recent promotion to the head of T&I couldn't have come sooner, but for the things Ino had likely seen done to rogue nin should have been too much for anyone, especially for someone as sweet as Ino.
Sakura pressed a sleepy kiss to Ino's forehead and quickly fell back into a dream about Lee in a purple tutu dancing the cancan while Neji and Orochimaru waltzed circles around him.
The next day, Sakura took Ino out for a picnic in a quiet meadow and rubbed chakra into tense and knotted muscles.
"Mmm, rum ham..."
Sakura had been on the very edge of sleep. Liberal application of back rubs and hair strokes had put Ino out like a light. Unfortunately...
"Charlie lost the rum ham," Ino grumbled, eyebrows meeting in a disappointed knit. Sakura squinted up at the ceiling, puzzling over this newest line of non-sequiters. The rum ham was obvious; just soak the ham in rum and, boom, rum ham. But...
What the hell kind of name is "Charlie?" Sakura wondered.
"Who is Charlie, pig?" Sakura asked after moment as Ino continued to bemoan the lost alcoholic treat.
"He makes spiders and...cats talk to each other," Ino snuffled.
Ah, a perfect explanation. Either a certified genius or a raving lunatic.
"Does Charlie know why you talk in your sleep?" Sakura ventured. Ino was quiet for a long while, her only response the quiet huff of her breath. Sakura felt her eyelids grow heavy when Ino finally responded.
"It's 'cause he lost the rum ham..." Ino whined before burying her face in her pillow.
The next morning Sakura brings Ino breakfast in bed before the blonde has to depart for T&I. Fried tomatoes on toast, eggs and coffee. A slender glass flute on the corner of the tray holds three flowers. A blue iris, a yellow lily, and a red rose; serenity, appreciation, and love. Ino had grumbled at the early hour Sakura had roused her, but her eyes widened at the gesture.
"You're being awful nice lately," Ino accuses suspiciously around a bite of tomato though her mouth is turned up at the corners and her eyes are glittering.
"What? I can't be nice just for the hell of it?" Sakura asks as she steals a bite of egg.
"I think you're just after all of this hot bod," Ino says with a gesture at herself like it's the only real conclusion. Sakura rolls her eyes.
"Please. Like I couldn't get it anyway."
Ino polishes off her breakfast in bed and presses a kiss to Sakura's cheek before getting up to start her day.
"Well, you're definitely getting it tonight," Ino tosses over her shoulder before vanishing into the bathroom.
Sakura wonders if an exhausted Ino is a quiet Ino and bets that she isn't.
"Sakura's the best, yanno?"
Sakura sighed. Her plan to completely wear her partner out had failed. She looked over at Ino, knowing that she was the only one to ever be treated to such a rare sight. Hair mussed, tiny love bite bruises on her neck, a line of drool from the corner of her mouth to the pillow.
"Is she?" Sakura asked after herself. She was beginning to wonder if it was true. She couldn't even de-stress her most precious person. Ino's voice was tiny and loaded with drowsy fondness.
"Yeah. She's...really the best."
Sakura felt her heart swell even as it sank a bit. She was just going to have to try harder. Maybe they could swing a trip to the hot springs in Yagakure; she knew Ino would like that. She reached out and brushed a few stray strands of hair from Ino's face.
"You know how much Sakura loves you?" she asked, feeling only a bit foolish for referring to herself in the third person. For a change, however, Ino had no further somniloquist ramblings this evening. She only nestled further into the blankets and made Sakura cringe as she nosed into her own patch of drool.
Sakura stared at the ceiling, plotting out the budget and when both of them could get time off for the trip as she drifted off.
When Ino was sure that Sakura was asleep, she cracked one eye open and wiped the drool from her cheek with the corner of the blanket. It had been an admittedly genius plan, but she felt a little guilty for the deception. All the same, she reveled in the extra attention Sakura had been showing her. With a quiet vow to pay her back in kind for all she had done and likely was planning to do, Ino turned over and fell into a deep, and silent, sleep.