TiMER
theeflowerchild

chapter two


Sasuke's birthday falls on the hottest, most dreadful day of year yet. He wakes up twenty with his bangs caked to his face and his undershirt soaked through. He scrubs stinging, pink shoulders in a lukewarm shower and dresses himself in his swim trunks and a tank top. He nearly turns away his mother's hot, sticky pancakes for ice cubes.

"So," she starts, with a smile on her face and another hotcake on her spatula. "What are you and Naruto doing today?"

Sasuke finds the pancakes edible as long as he's sitting in front of the fan. He'll have to convince his mother to have another talk with his father about how the electric bill won't matter anyway if they die of heatstroke. He shrugs. "Beach, maybe."

"Will you bring Sakura?" she asks.

His swallow is nearly audible. "If she'd like to."

"Why wouldn't she?" his mother asks. "She's your soulmate."

"She's fourteen," he insists with a frown. "She probably has nails to paint, or sleepovers, or—"

"Or maybe she wants to spend time with her soulmate," she insists. She sits across from her son at the kitchen table and steals a pancake off of his plate. Sasuke feigns annoyance, but he's glad he won't have to power through any more heat than necessary. "And you still haven't had her over for dinner."

He rolls his eyes. "She has other things to do, like her homework."

"I'm well aware." She takes a large bite, chewing carefully. "I hope she's more fun than you were in middle school."

He snorts.

"Or at least more fun than you're being right now," she finishes with a teasing smile. "Take her to the beach, teach her how to swim," she rattles off. "Buy her some damn ice cream."

"Maybe," he says. "Thanks for the pancakes."

"My pleasure, birthday boy." She gathers his plate with a wink. "One day, Sakura will be making these for you—"

He cuts her off with maybe the loudest groan he's ever made.


Naruto picks him up in his obnoxious, orange SUV with a shit-eating grin on his face and a six pack in the passenger seat. Sasuke places it carefully on the floor with a smirk before turning around to welcome the newest addition to his birthday traditions.

Sakura greets him with a pretty smile and a wave, hair pulled back in a neat braid. Her impossibly green one-piece and her impossibly long bermuda-shorts make her look impossibly young and it nearly makes him laugh. "Happy birthday, Sasuke!"

"Thanks, Sakura," he says with a nod. "And thanks for coming."

"Thanks for inviting me!" she replies with a winning grin.

Naruto pulls onto the highway, mumbling something about having to share his best friend, and they ride with the windows down until they smell the salt and hot dirt deep in their nostrils. Sakura looks at the ocean like it's the most beautiful thing in the world, round sunglasses perched on her little nose, bangs flying in her face as they cross the bridge. When they finally get to the lot, she makes sure they're sitting as close to the tide as possible. She tells Sasuke that she hopes it gets so high that it touches their toes.

When she puts sunscreen on her shoulders, he sees the scar on the outside of her wrist where her timer used to be. They'd both had them removed less than a week after her fourteenth birthday. He looks at his, an angry red on his impossibly white skin. What could be something as insignificant as a cut binds him to the girl next to him for the rest of his life.

When she notices him staring at the perfectly straight, short line on his wrist, she says, "It seems almost silly to have gotten it in the first place, just to have it removed a few days later."

He almost tells her it wasn't a few days for him. Sasuke watched his timer for nearly seven years: ugly, blue zeroes flashed at him patronizingly, haunted his every thought. He nearly believed he'd be alone forever. Now he bares a scar like his parents, like her parents, like couples he sees sitting around them on the beach. It doesn't go over his head that this little line links him to the woman he'll one day marry.

Instead, he reminds her, "It was worth it," which earns him a pretty pink blush that makes her look all the more childish.

Sasuke learns that Sakura already knows how to swim, but this doesn't surprise him with how enamored she is with the water. She floats, and sinks, and jumps on Naruto's back. She splashes Sasuke, so he dunks her and flips her until she's giggling, braids falling apart. Naruto watches him all too carefully, so Sasuke dunks him, too. They drift until their cheeks and shoulders are painfully hot. They hide under their umbrella just to run back into the water again.

Since he can't teach her to swim, he buys her ice cream instead.

Sakura eats vanilla with rainbow sprinkles in a cup and Sasuke finishes his beer. It still manages to make her hands sticky, so before he knows it she's running right back into the water again, Naruto trailing after her. When they're all done, they wrap themselves in fluffy, sandy towels and pack up.

It's a short car ride home with a bad playlist Naruto chooses. Then sun makes him tired, but the prospect of his birthday makes him childishly excited. Finally, he turns and asks, "Want to stay for dinner, Sakura?"

She looks terminally exhausted. Her cheeks are as flushed as her hair is pink, which is down in a curly, mangled mess. She smiles at him with lazy eyes, swimming in her brother's orange t shirt, and tells him, "Sure, I'd love that."

"Really?" Naruto sighs, but Sasuke shoves him a little less than gently and he doesn't say another word.


His mother is thrilled to say the least.

"Sakura!" she cheers, wrapping the girl in a giant hug. He sees Sakura wince and knows it's her sunburn.

He brushes his mother away. "She's burnt."

"I'm sorry, dear," she says, winking at her son. "So protective, Sasuke!"

He rolls his eyes. "Yes, how chivalrous of me to not want to see anybody in pain."

Sasuke knows exactly why his mother is teasing him. He's heard it time and time again that soulmates have a sense when it comes to their partner: when one half is upset, overjoyed, in pain, or anything in between, the other half can feel it. A kind of empathy you can't pass on as kindness. He knows the sunburn hurts because he can feel it, and it's a sensation he's been having trouble dealing with since he first saw her cry. He knows when Sakura is under duress. If he's being protective, he can't help it.

Sakura laughs them both off. "It's fine," she says. "Thank you for having me, Mrs. Uchiha."

"Mikoto, please," she insists. "You can come here anytime."

Sasuke is painfully aware of how obvious his mother is being, but he smooths past her, anyway. "Itachi's out back?" he asks.

"Of course." His mother clasps her hands together. "Go enjoy the pool! It's beautiful out."

She's right about that, at least. The hot summer sun is now a dim halo over the mountain peaks, the sky a warm painting of purples, and pinks, and yellows. He can walk on his deck barefoot without the heat licking the bottom of his feet. Itachi is by the grill in jeans and a t-shirt, hair pulled back and enjoying the lukewarm summer night. Sasuke greets him with a clap on his shoulder. "Hey, man."

"Sasuke," he greets with a small smile, ruffling his hair much to his chagrin. "Happy birthday."

"Thanks," he says, only to be interrupted by the loud splash of his best friend catapulting himself into the pool. "Naruto says hi, I'm sure."

"I'll get him later," he quips with a raised eyebrow, before turning back to the grill. "Is she here?" he asks, casually.

Sasuke knows it's anything but casual. "Yeah, she's still talking to Mom."

"Can't believe you'd leave her alone with her," he says,

"Neither can I," he agrees with a small grin. "It's just Sakura," he adds.

"She's not just anything," he reminds him. "Not anymore, anyway."

Sasuke shrugs, but he knows the tips of his ears are pink—luckily, not any pinker than his sunburn. "You know what I meant."

Sakura trails in a few moments later with his mother's arm around her shoulders, and Sasuke knows without even having to look at them that his soulmate is, justifiably, overwhelmed. So, he swoops in as kindly as he can, and reminds his mother that the cake won't be nearly soft enough if she doesn't take it out of the freezer exactly right now.

"Thanks," she says with a warm laugh. "Your mother suddenly likes me more than ever."

"I wonder why," he says with a little smile of his own. "Do you want to wash the sand off in the pool?"

She shakes her head. "I think I'm all watered-out for the day."

He nods in agreement. "Me too."

While his mother bustles in the kitchen, and Itachi tries his hardest to focus on the grill (he'll have to thank his brother for that, later), Sasuke finally finds a moment alone with Sakura. Naruto is splashing too loudly for anybody to hear what they're talking about, not that he has much to say. His mother was just exactly right; he wants to spend today with his soulmate. Even if they don't talk much, even if she's fourteen, it's soothing just to have her near.

"Thanks for coming," he says, again.

"Thanks for having me," she replies, again. "I know it's kind of lame to be hanging out with your best friend's little sister—"

"Sakura," he stops her, and puts his hands gently on her shoulders. It makes her jump, but he knows it isn't because it shocked her. He knows it's because it tingles. Touching Sakura makes his fingers nearly spark. He wonders if this will ever get easier. "You're not just my best friend's little sister."

She swallows. "You're only saying that because you're my soulmate."

"Well," he can't exactly argue with that, "I guess I am, but that doesn't mean it isn't true." He drops his hands from her shoulders with a tiny smile. "I don't want you to feel like a third wheel."

"I don't," she lies, too quickly. She doesn't have to, though; Sasuke already knows she does. She feels second to Naruto, she feels like a child, she feels like a forced invite. And perhaps, right now, she is some of those things.

He knows, though, that one day, it will be Naruto that's the third wheel. She won't be second to Naruto much longer; she barely feels like that now. Sasuke isn't sure how his protectiveness for her happened so quickly, but he realizes in that moment that he's sure it wasn't instantaneous at all. He knows it's been building up, boiling until it erupted like a volcano on her birthday only three months ago. He's been safeguarding her since she wobbled into his life ten years ago. He might not love her just yet in the way he will one day, but he's already protecting her the way he will for the rest of his life.

"You aren't," he assures her. "I'm glad you're here. I don't want another birthday without you."

He can't see her blushing, her cheeks are just too hot and flushed, but he can feel it. "I don't want one without you, either," she replies.

"Then there won't be," he agrees.

At that, Sakura begins sifting through her bag. "I got you something," she says, before correcting herself, "Well, I made you something."

"Sakura, you didn't have to," he insists, but Sakura is already shoving a thick, blue lanyard into his hands. "A bracelet?" he asks.

"For your left hand," she explains. "I'll tie it for you," she insists, and takes his arm without even waiting for a reply, and if she notices the tingle, she doesn't say anything. She wraps the thick bracelet around his scar and ties it tight. "You have to wait for it to fall off."

He raises his eyebrow with a small smile. "And what happens when it falls off?"

She shrugs. "It's supposed to be good luck, but you can't force it!"

"I won't," he swears. He fiddles with the bracelet, thin blue yarn weaves with green, and Sasuke realizes it's their favorite colors. "I love it."

"I'm glad." She smiles triumphantly. She's perfectly innocent and Sasuke decides he'll protect that, too.