benediction (across your brow)

rating: g
genre: friendship/romance
pairings: pre-kakasaku
POV: Sakura
other notes: prompt fill for KakaSaku Month, Week 1: Summer Rain
word count: 938

Sakura watches Sasuke walk out of Konoha—again, yet again, one more time, never the last time, he's always leaving and never staying, he's forgotten how to stop running from all that he has done and all that has been done—and for the first time, she feels free.

She watches as he gets farther and farther away, until the distance and the trees swallow him up, and she aches—of course she aches, it's Sasuke and all she's ever wanted for him is to feel like he could stay, like he was welcome, like he was loved—but it isn't a sword through her abdomen, a hand around her heart. She aches like a fading bruise when you press too hard, blooming sunset on your thigh. She aches, but it's manageable and she can breathe through it.

Ten years is so long to be waiting, waiting for a boy to come home, a boy who maybe never was and, she can now accept, was lost to her long ago.

Sakura reaches up and touches her cheek where Sasuke had smoothed benediction along the bone.

It does not tingle for his touch.

Hand still to her cheek, Sakura tilts her head back and breathes, a soft smile tucked into the corners of her mouth.

Above, a summer storm threatens, the black clouds so completely contrary to her mood that Sakura has to laugh.

"What's so funny?"

Of course.

Sakura keeps her head tilted back, waiting.

"Hey," she says.

"Hey," Kakashi says.

He stands at her side and Sakura resists the urge to lean into him.

He's too far away to manage it, anyways.

"So," Kakashi continues, "what's the joke?"

Sakura laughs again. "Me, I think."

And, just like that, the clouds open.

Sakura's laughter gets louder, settling in her stomach as she shakes with it.

Yes. Maybe she is a joke.

She feels like a punchline.

She's just so happy that doesn't feel like a tragedy anymore; it feels like a gift.

Sakura can feel Kakashi's eyes on her, but she just keeps her head tilted back, her laughter blending with the rain on her tongue.

She likes to think that, just maybe, he's laughing too, laughing at how ridiculous she's being, laughing at the rain, laughing because they are alive and here, together, and oh, ten years ago Sakura never thought she'd know happiness like this again.

Eventually, her laughter falls off, leaving her warm and sore for it, cheeks stretched wide.

Sakura links her hands behind her back and sighs, a soft content thing with giggles still riding its edges.

"You're okay?" Kakashi asks.

Sakura cracks one eye to look at him.

There's something almost wary about the set of his shoulders.

"Yeah, Kakashi. Just…"

He doesn't look away from her, eyes fixed on her face.

They're standing shoulder to shoulder, but Sakura has the strangest feeling that he's pulled close, incapable of pulling away.

"Just, happy," she finishes.

Then she smiles.

Kakashi's eyes widen briefly.

Lightning cracks the sky open and Sakura turns back to it, another delighted laugh on her lips.

The thunder booms through them, drowning out any response Kakashi might have made.

They stand together in the rain, getting soaked to the bone, but Sakura has never felt warmer.

"Hey, Kakashi?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm glad you're here with me."

Another roll of thunder follows.

And yet—

"No where else I could be," she'd swear Kakashi answers.

The rain kisses Sakura's face, and the future stretches out before her, just waiting for her to reach out and take it.

For now though, Sakura keeps her head back and lets the last of the past wash away.

("Be happy for me," Sasuke asks, orders.

Sakura doesn't take offence. He's trying to be as soft as he remembers how.

"No," she smiles at him, "no, I'm going to be happy for me."

Something startled flashes through Sasuke's dark eyes, quicker than a lightning strike. And then a wry smile cracks over his face, something like the awe of dawn breaking held in the corners.

"You really aren't in love with me anymore, are you?"

Sakura takes his hand gently in her own.

He lets her.

"I'll always love you Sasuke. But no, I'm not in love with you."

Sasuke squeezes her hand, a press of fingers lighter than the flutter of a butterfly's wing.

"You should tell him."

Sakura cocks her head. "Tell who what?"

That wry smile turns ever so slightly mischievous, the boy Sakura once knew and thought lost peeking through.

"You'll figure it out. You're smart."

"Sasuke—" Sakura starts to warn.

He cuts her off, dropping her hand to smooth his thumb over her cheekbone.

"I'll see you around, Sakura. Try to keep Naruto out of trouble for me, will you?"

Sakura looks up at the infuriating man in front of her.

Oh, but she never thought they would make it here.

"I'll do my best," she swears.

"And take care of yourself."

"I'm not the one about to head out again for parts unknown," she reminds him.

Sasuke just looks at her.

"Yes, Sasuke-sensei," she sing-songs, "I'll be careful."

Dark eyes look right through her, measuring the weight of her promise. Then he nods.

His hand drops.

Sasuke shoulders his pack and stars walking off.

"I'll need advance notice if I'm going to make it back for the wedding," he calls behind him.

"What wedding?" Sakura demands.

Sasuke just salutes and keeps walking.

Sakura rolls her eyes, but she knows he'll never give her a straight answer if he doesn't want to.

Oh well.

She's sure she'll figure it out.)