were you waiting at our old spot in the tree line by the gold clock? / did i leave you hanging every single day? / were you standing in the hallway with a big cake? / happy birthday / did i paint your bluest skies the darkest grey? / a universe away / and when i got into the accident, the sight that flashed before me was your face / but when i walked up to the podium, i think that i forgot to say your name
- coney island, taylor swift feat. the national (evermore)
there's an old woman who sits by the bench under the big cherry blossom tree in your small neighborhood park every day at exactly five thirty in the afternoon. you know this because you get off from work around that time and you pass by that spot every weekday. and then every weekend, you walk your dog around the same area and see the same lady on her lonesome.
you know nothing about her aside from the fact that her name is sakura and that she has one of the best gardens around town. she grows these luscious-looking tomatoes by her front yard and you can always see her every morning tending to them when you go to work.
she is quiet, kind, polite— a good neighbor. but mysterious, above all else.
she doesn't go out often aside from her everyday trips to the bench. you rarely see her with a friend, let alone someone else, aside from that young woman with beautiful black hair who visits her every two weeks. you reckon that woman is the old lady's daughter since the shape of their eyes look the same; the young woman with the dark eyes like coal and sakura's eyes as verdant as summer fields.
you're new to town that's why you didn't know but she was originally from here. she grew up in this place. this is where she studied, where she first learned how to drive, where she threw her first punch, where she had first fallen in love.
this is also where her heart died along with the love of her life.
you see her every day at the same old spot where her lover used to wait for her. you see her sitting quietly there, eyes closed with a small lonely frown on her face, and stay. sometimes for minutes; oftenly for hours. when she opens her eyes again, they will look even lonelier than ever but she will slowly get up and go home.
the next day, she'll do the same thing; then the next, and the next after that, and so on. and you'll feel a slight tug at your insides for witnessing such melancholic sight.
you don't know it but sakura and the only man she's ever loved were only teens back then— naive and a little too in love with each other— but they didn't care. she would run from their old house where she lives again now to meet him in the tree line by the gold clock. and every day he would be there, knowing smirk and all, and opens his arms for her.
you don't know it but it was the same spot where he first left her to chase a brighter dream. he held her tighter than normal that night because he's gonna miss her so much and it was the only way he knew how to let her know. and she cried back then, scared shitless and all, and gripped the back of his shirt as tight as she could because she would miss him too.
and you don't know this at all, but it was the same spot where she finally let her tears fall after she got back from his funeral; after knowing that he was clutching her picture when they found his body; after being annihilated over and over by the fact that he's gone.
she wept for the times where she could've said she's proud of him. she sobbed for the missed chance of telling him she's sorry. and she cried for the painful realization that she's gonna have their child and he's not gonna be around to be with her and their baby.
that was when she left this town 40 years ago. she couldn't take all the memories and the history of sasuke uchiha and sakura haruno, and how they tragically lost each other. now, 10 years have passed since she came back and the pain still lingers in the air for sakura. this, you know; you watch her fall apart every day anyway.
nevertheless, you feel a certain spark of empathy for her. you don't get to see someone stuck in time like this; as if everybody's moved on but she didn't. you wonder how it feels, and just when you thought about it, you push the thought away. no one wants to be a sad old lady who waits for nothing and no one at your old lover's spot. no one wants to grow old alone.
but there she was— sakura haruno— alone at their old spot where she waits for the sweet release of death so she can finally see him again. do not feel sorry for her; do not feel sad. just don't forget to say her name, is all.
because she was sakura haruno when she first loved sasuke uchiha, and she is still sakura haruno when she reunites with him again in the afterlife.
the darkest grey sky turns back to its brightest blue, and her wait is finally over.
there used to be an old woman who sits by the bench under the big cherry blossom tree in your small neighborhood park every day at exactly five thirty in the afternoon.
you know this because she is sakura haruno, and she has finally gone home.
a/n: last part for the first 2 prompts. i'm sad now.