(with the slightest of your presence, please)
dang, the chapter title space isn't long enough. crownverse
.
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"you're not sleeping."
"you're awake."
hashirama looked up from the reports she has been reading for the umpteenth time. she took another candle from her desk drawer, allowing more light to fell on her husband's silhouette. madara just left their private quarter, now dragging a chair to her side.
"go back to sleep, anata."
"can't." he rubbed his face as he sat. "recurring dream."
she took his hand, squeezing it gently. "about?"
"what my sharingan remembers."
"the wars?" she asked, tucking spiky hair behind his ear to see his face more clearly, "the battles?"
"the dead ones."
the paper in her hand creaked. she knew about it, and she realized madara's sharingan was used more often at the battlefield. the sight of bodies falling into their deaths must be clogging his memory, made eternal by his powerful eyes.
hashirama leaned at his shoulder. "talk?"
"not tonight." madara pulled her waist closer to him. "though... you're still reading that mission?" his face peered at the report.
"...i can't stop thinking about it," she admitted, sounding bitter. "the mission was a success, we were praised and paid extra by the client, but it turned too dangerous halfway. from the team i sent, only one survived. his wounds aren't grave, but the yamanaka medic checking him said his mind needs rest..."
madara nuzzled her head.
"the dead ones were children, madara... they're no older than us back then, when we dreamed to build this village..."
for a moment, only the sounds of night filled the silence between them.
"alright, enough moping for me," hashirama threw the report onto her desk, and extinguished the candles.
soundlessly she guided madara back to their bed. still he lay with his eyes open.
"anata, look at me." hashirama caressed his arm. "i know i can't keep the dead ones from coming, but... you can look at me afterwards."
madara blinked at that suggestion before he embraced his wife. "but you have them too."
"i know, my love," she nestled against him. "i know."