A/N: Hello! Please enjoy this little piece. Errors found in this piece are all mine. Happy Birthday, Haruno Sakura!
better late than never
Summary:
It was the twenty-eighth—the twelfth minute had passed after the clock struck twelve, and she was still awake.
It was the twenty-eighth—the twelfth minute had passed after the clock struck twelve. The waning crescent was high up its vast dark blanket with the feathery clouds dancing around it.
She was awake. She couldn't sleep. Or rather, she never slept early these days. She blamed her insomnia sometimes. She blamed the coffee machine she had received last Christmas. Or the energy drinks sitting at the newly-installed vending machine two steps away from the door to her clinic.
She blamed her heart.
It was the twenty-eighth and he was away on a mission. It had been five weeks since.
The wind was cold and the stars weren't there.
Oh, how she remembers the stars in his eyes—those stars were always her favorite. It made his eyes glitter like that one night between winter and spring, where the moon was full and glitters of stars had scattered.
That night they kissed.
She had forgotten what they talked about, but she could only remember masked lips on hers and gloved fingers grazing her cheeks and her neck. She could only remember his sighs as if he breathed the air she had given off. She could only remember the heat in her cheeks and the cold sweat on her nape.
She could only remember his trembling lips trailing timid presses against her jaw and her neck as if he was scared he'd bruise her.
And she could remember his head jerking away from her.
And his voice whispering 'I'm sorry' with his lone eye downcast, she almost didn't hear it.
And his slouched back and left-oriented hair that flashed silver under the light of the full moon, dissolving into the wind as he fled.
She had forgotten it was five weeks since then. It felt like a lifetime ago.
It was the twenty-eighth. And he probably had forgotten about her too.
She fell asleep outside her balcony. She knew she did.
So, she wondered why she was in her bedroom, beneath a comforter she had bought a week ago.
Her brows furrowed as her mind spun. She looked at the date on her clock.
It was still the twenty-eighth.
She went on to her day, thinking if she had just imagined the smell of pinewood that filled her senses as she opened her eyes.
Ino and Naruto dragged her to the Konoha bar at five, where the rest of Konoha 11 waited with colored balloons, Chouji's two-tiered homemade cake, and a song. Tsunade-sama had already started her second bottle when she arrived at the bar, and Shizune-san was pulling her haori to let her know that she had arrived. Gai-sensei had his arm around Lee as they opened the song for everyone to follow. Even Sasuke was there, and he made a face as Naruto pushed him to blast the confetti, and groaned when it didn't.
Everyone roared into laughter when it blasted on Naruto's face.
And everyone stopped as tears spilled from her eyes.
Ino was the first to hug her. And her shoulders trembled, and it was painful.
"Let's get you drinking, Forehead."
"Let's!" she beamed as she wiped the wetness stuck in her cheeks. Ino stroked her thumb on her cheeks to help.
Why she cried, she never really knew. All she could remember was that the cake was silver.
She arrived home at half-past ten in the evening.
She never enjoyed her birthday as much as what they gave her earlier. She had smiled for the first time in five weeks. She spilled tears—happy tears, she would think. She ate cake. She drank two bottles of sake with her mentor.
And she pretended not to seek a masked face in the vicinity.
She walked towards her balcony and glanced at the waning crescent that looked the same before she had slept, feathers of clouds still dancing around it.
But this time, the stars appeared.
Stars on pitch-black orbs.
And for the fifth time today, her eyes pricked.
Crouching by her balcony was Kakashi.
His hair was longer, his hitai-ate was off, and his mask was still mocking her. And she longed to touch him but didn't want him to disappear. Didn't want him to crumble into dust. Or dissolve into the air.
She closed her eyes, a lump forming in her throat, as she whispered in the air, "You're not real."
She heard a thud on the floor.
She opened her eyes—slow, head down—and she saw the same worn-out sandals he'd worn five weeks ago.
Her eyes darted up and she eyed him, stepping backward.
"What are you doing here?" she slightly flinched at the firmness of her voice. After the fifth time her tears fell, she didn't think she'd still have a voice to throw. "It had been five weeks, Kakashi."
His flinch was visible from where she stood.
"You could have talked to me instead of avoiding me. You could have told me!" Her voice raised half an octave higher. "It had been five—"
He pulled her by the arm.
"—weeks."
His pull stopped her thoughts and her words, but not her spilling tears. He wrapped her within his arms as she attempted a push—a punch—anything.
But she melted instead as she inhaled a familiar trace of pinewood.
"You left me, Kakashi," she sobbed.
"I know."
"You could have told me."
"I know," the pain in his voice caught her off guard. She whimpered as she breathed wild mint in his unzipped flak jacket.
He tightened his embrace. She leaned her forehead on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry for leaving you."
She didn't look up.
"I needed to know what I felt, so I went away." A pause, and a sigh. "But these five weeks away from you…"
Her shoulders trembled in his arms as his head leaned onto hers, cheek caressing her hair.
"It made me realize a lot of things."
He pulled away from her, thumbs stroking her cheeks as he wiped away every drop of tear. His eyes were welling, but the stars were still there. And her heart thumped as he leaned in, pulling down his mask, his lips hovering over hers.
"And believe it or not," he breathed as he continued, "those things still spell your name."
He pressed his lips onto hers and she had forgotten about the four other times her tears shed. She had forgotten about the way she longed for him to come back. She had forgotten about the waning crescent and the stars that started to twinkle in the vast darkness. She had forgotten the tightness in her chest when she thought about the last time she saw him.
She had forgotten that it had been five weeks since. It felt like it was only yesterday.
Her eyes slowly closed as she parted her mouth—their tongues danced, their breathing matched, and their grip against one another tightened. Lips on lips, hand to his neck, hand to her waist. Gasping. Moaning.
Breathing the same air as him.
She bit his lip, and he sighed and pulled away.
The stars never left his eyes. It became more vibrant—vivid—as she drowned in its swirling depths.
He wrapped his arms around her waist as the heat on his forehead met with the cold on hers. And his warmth embraced her fast, dissipating the cold as if it was never there in the first place.
"Forgive me?" his eyes were closed and his lips barely moved. But she had heard it as if it was the only sound in the night.
"I'll make it up to you, Sakura," he continued, gasping for air, "Please."
She inhaled, at last, and she wondered when she took her breath last. She cupped his cheek, and he opened his eyes. She held his gaze.
"You, being here tonight…" she started, "It's already enough."
His arms tightened around her, and she stroked her thumb against his forming tears.
And she wrapped her arms finally around his neck, leaning onto its crook, and melted into his warmth over, and over, and over.
Then she remembered. It was the twenty-eighth—still, the twenty-eighth.
"Happy birthday, Sakura," he whispered into the crook of her neck.
And she smiled, finally.
It was five minutes before the clock struck twelve. It was the twenty-eighth. And she was happy.
And he was here.
Better late than never.
End Notes:
thank you for reading this little story until the end. ^_^
i actually had something else in mind for Sakura's birthday, but i just couldn't help doing this. it nagged at the back of my head, so this was what i came up with. and i'm actually glad it came out this way.
this is also a reply to kakasakuprompts on twitter for today's prompt~ and i thank them every time for pushing my creative juices out.
let me know what you think.
chat with me on Twitter or Tumblr if you like :)
-ryekiree