1.5
Sakura loves mornings the best, when the sun's still low and the light is just beginning to peek through the heavy drapes in their room. She gets to study Sasuke then, without reservation or the distraction of his hands, his mouth, his eyes.
He always manages to wake up a few minutes after she first moves, no matter how early it is or how late they stay up the night before. But there's a moment—just a moment—where he's asleep and she can press a quiet kiss to his forehead or the jut of his cheekbone, and imagine that this is what their life will always be like: the dawn, the sound of the waves, the brief brush of her lips against his skin. Even amid their clashes of teeth and tongue and his hips rocking down against her own, these are the things that she will take with her. These are the things she will remember.
—
—
"What are you reading?"
"O—Sasuke-kun! I thought you were out on your walk?"
"I came back early. What are you reading?"
"Welcome back. This? It's called The Little Prince."
"I've never heard of it."
"It's about…it's about a lot of things. Loneliness. Love. Ino bought me a copy last summer, and it's my favorite book now. I wish I could read it in French though; you always lose something in translations. You know, it's strange that it's categorized as a children's book, but it's still so sad and you don't really appreciate everything the author's trying to say until you're an adult—ah, sorry, I'm rambling again."
"…no. Tell me more."
"Really? Oh, ok. Well, sit down then and have some tea with me."
"Aa."
—
—
Other times:
She stumbles in the loose sand, and his arm is around her waist in an instant. He steadies her, and even when she regains her balance the heat of his hand doesn't leave her hip.
And:
On a particularly clear night, she drags him up to the roof for stargazing. They're lying on an old blanket she'd found in one of the closets, and she's halfway through explaining all the constellations to him when he quietly takes the hand she has been using to point out the different stars and moves it a little to the left.
"That's the third star in Orion's belt, the one you were pointing to doesn't belong to a constellation."
Sakura blushes, because of course Sasuke's right and the whole time she thought she was showing him something new, he'd known everything all along. She falls silent then, unsure of how to proceed.
"Keep going."
She can hear him even over the break of the water below, and smiling, Sakura begins again.
And another:
It's market day at the local village and they're in the thick of it. Sakura loves the bright colors, the clamor of vendors haggling with potential customers and the smell of good food in the air. She loses Sasuke for a second in between one crush of people and the next, but before she can begin to worry there's a tug on her wrist and he's beside her again.
He keeps his hold on her hand loose, but he never once lets go.
—
—
They leave the house on the cliff after two weeks, even though Sakura wishes they could stay there forever. She doesn't know what to expect when they're in Japan again, especially with Fugaku around. Sometimes, she's still not sure if he's just going through the motions. Maybe even as a sort of apology for what their marriage will become once the honeymoon is over.
But there are marks from him on her thighs, the juncture of her neck and shoulder, and she owns the scratches on his back; that's proof that will last beyond the plane ride back. She has a conch shell too, that he'd found for her on the beach. Sakura doesn't know how he'd done it, the only shells she'd found in the sand were broken, their edges too sharp to handle. The shell isn't perfect, and there are chips along the edges of the whorls, but she keeps it anyways, because he's the one who had given it to her.
And later, when she takes it out from time to time, she'll press it to her ear to hear the ocean and remember the warmth of his fingers as he handed it to her.
It will be a reminder.
—
—
She takes his hand in the middle of the car ride home because she wants to see if he'll let her. He does, but just as the limo reaches the driveway, pulls away.
That, Sakura thinks, tells her all she needs to know.
