Chapter Fourteen: The Fall of Shadows, Cherry Blossom
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Trinity Blood or any associated items, characters, etc. The plot alone is the original work of my very, very bored mind. As a college student, I can't afford to have a life and therefore live in FFN.
"Sakura Haruno, you stand tried of treason, murder in the first degree, and conspiracy. A jury of your peers has found you guilty ex concessis of all three."
Her world seemed to crash down around her; she saw Abel lunge forward, his mouth open in a shout of anger, watched Caterina order him to sit down even as Tres held him back, though she heard nothing but the steady thrum of her own pulse. She saw Neji's face twist up in a smile...
A world away, she tried to remember how things had gone so horribly wrong...a normal day that suddenly spiraled into this week of hell. It had started simply enough...
The day after the Orden's attack on the Vatican, she had been called into a briefing with the Professor.
"It seems our foes are getting stronger." Kate had sighed softly as the images projected onto the screen faded away.
"Not stronger," Abel said simply, "Just braver. If this attack had been meant to kill, they would have succeeded."
"I concur. This attack was a psychological one, aimed at only one purpose. They intended to shake our beliefs that we were safe here in Rome, and, consequently, to cause the public and private scrutiny of the Vatican powers." The Professor said, biting on the end of his pipe.
"There is no doubt that this has shaken both the faith of civilians and of foreign political powers." Caterina began, "However, this situation is hardly beyond salvaging; Tres and the Professor have put together a compelling statement regarding the attack that Cardinal Antonio will be releasing to the public this afternoon."
"That, however, will not solve our internal scrutiny problems." The Professor said.
"I will handle those to the best of my ability," Caterina reassured them, "This is not the first time the odds have been stacked against us and it certainly will not be the last. Go, now, and rest. This war is just beginning."
She did, leaving the room with a feeling she couldn't quite understand. For a while after, she wondered the dark gardens looking for an answer to a question she didn't have. And so she stared into the heart of the cosmos before it was covered by the clouds rolling in from the east.
She wasn't sure when it started to rain, only that she was grateful because they hid the tears rolling down her pale face. Try as she might, she couldn't feel the pulse of the nanomachines in her body, and couldn't seem to rally them.
She bit down hard on her lip as a sudden, fierce possibility washed over her.
"I refuse..." She whispered, her voice suddenly rising to a scream, "I refuse!"
She took a deep, hard breath, and softly repeated those words: "Nanomachine Krusnik 05. Power output: forty percent. Activate!"
There was nothing. No pain, no light, no strength or weakness.
Absolute oblivion.
"Nanomachine Krusnik 05! Power output: forty percent. Activate!"
She screamed the command again, falling to her knees to pound the moist earth with her fists again and again and again until finally her scream was nothing but a whisper of defeat.
"Activate...Please..."
She felt herself crumple, a sob rising in her throat, "What's wrong with me?"
Suddenly, a shadow fell across her, a hot weight settling just over her.
"Abel?"
His hand found hers in the mud, his fingers twining with hers, "There is nothing wrong with you."
"I couldn't do it, Abel. I couldn't save them..." She sobbed, "I failed all of them...Even Caterina and the Pope..."
"We are a team so that when one of us falls, the others can pick them back up."
She threw him off with a violent heave, crawling back frantically, panic welling up in her eyes, "I will never be that person again!"
He paused, and then gently took her hand, "And you never will be."
He pulled her close against the sleeting sheets of icy rain and she told him, "I don't know, anymore, Abel."
"There will come a time to ask those questions and get those answers." He told her.
"I'm afraid of what we'll find..."
"The light shines all the brighter for the shadows. There is so much beauty in this world. Let me show you."
She felt him transform beneath her, his wings breaking the sheets of rain as he lifted her high into the sky. They drifted over the black storm clouds, through nets of white and blue lightning and above the clap of the thunder. They flew through misty layers of white-blue clouds and snowflakes that clung to the edges of his wings until finally they were hovering in the velvet night sky. Above them, the moon shone hazy silver across a sky spattering with more colors than she had names for.
"Abel..." She reached up, giddy with emotion and the freedom of flight, and cupped his cheek to kiss him.
She felt the hot flicker of his tongue against hers and the rise of his chest, the beat of his heart. She crashed harder into him, clinging to him as though he held her life, and felt herself growing hotter against the cold night air.
Slowly, they drifted back to the ground, tongues locked and fighting. And all at once she felt the ground against her feet and his silver hair falling against her.
The hallways were quiet, and they drifted down them in a sweet, slow embrace until she felt the edge of her bed against her knees. She submitted to his weight and her need and fell back against the down coverlet.
She felt him starting to draw back and knotted her hands in his jacket, "Don't go."
"Sakura..." He trailed off, and she could see the indecision in his eyes.
"Please, Abel."
"Alright," He said simply, "If you are sure."
She responded by capturing his mouth in hers. His hands drifted along her body, slipping under the snug shirt that hugged her chest to tease her breasts. She arched against the heat of his touch and the sudden ache low in her belly.
She let her hands slide down his hips and to the growing bulge between his legs and heard and felt his moan through their kiss.
He pulled back, his slender hands undoing the zipper on her shirt in one smooth pull and slowly peeling back the edges to reveal her.
She flinched, fear flickering across her eyes, and moved to stop when she found his hand and whispered, "I love you, Abel. Please, don't stop..." She wanted him to soothe away Cain's touch, to replace it with something, anything else.
He nodded, burying his head against her neck and letting his lips find the tender skin across her collarbone. His hands slid down to the waist band of her black pants and she tilted her hips up in submission as he eased them away.
Her hands found his shirt and she unbuttoned it and pushed it away to let her hands wonder his body. In the candle light, he almost glowed with the pale-white of his skin and the silver of his hair. He looked like the angel he was, she thought to herself as she let her fingertips dance across his growing erection.
Very carefully, she pulled his pants down as he undid the simple clasp of her bra. For a long moment, she lay naked and vulnerable below him before he smoothed her pink hair away from her eyes.
"I will be gentle." He promised as his hand slid down her belly and found a tiny pearl of flesh between her legs.
The sudden flash of pleasure wrung a moan from her throat and a bead of moisture from her core.
He massaged her gently, responding to the rhythm and pulse of her body as she writhed beneath him and, judging her ready, slid one slender finger deep into her. In agonizingly slow circles, he teased the bundle of nerves deep within her until he felt her edging closer to climax.
"Are you ready?" He asked.
"Yes." She reached up and pulled him down close into a passionate kiss in the same moment he slipped deep into her.
The sensation rocked her, and she responsively pushed against him, taking more of him into her.
He waited for a moment before thrusting shallowly into her, and, then, more deeply and powerfully.
She cried out his name, breaking the lock of their lips as she knotted her hands in the coverlet.
"No matter what happens," He told her, his voice hoarse with effort, "It will be okay."
She wrapped her legs around him, trying to pull him closer still, and nodded against the promise in his voice and his words and let herself go.
Again and again and again she felt the push of his body against and inside her. Every nerve was a line of white-hot need that shouted against the warmth of his flesh and the expertise of his body.
They languished in that tangle until finally one thrust pushed her over the edge with a shout. She felt herself tighten around him, felt her orgasm shudder even more powerfully and heard the moan rising from his throat as the vibration of her climax shook him.
She arched up, trying to prolong the sensation and felt him suddenly go rigid above her as her orgasm drove his.
He fell back, catching himself on his elbows and panting hard.
In a moment of quiet tenderness after the storm of need, she reached up and twined her fingers in his silver hair and told him, "I love you, Abel."
"And I love you." He whispered back as his arms came around her to pull her close and let sleep claim her.
TBC