Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or any of its associated characters!
Summary: A second series of ficlet requests - details are on my tumblr. All SNS, both modern AU and canonverse. I'll give a summary and any warnings in the first note above each ficlet!
A/N: And there were six! This one needed a little bit more time. It's not often I go back and revisit an old oneshot! I really hope I matched the vibe of Lost, since I think that one was a more unique sort of style as compared to my other works. Thank you all again for being part of this with me! If you'd like to place a ficlet request, please read through the details linked on ao3.
This ficlet was requested by someone who would prefer to remain anonymous, who wanted a sequel to Lost. I really hope you like it!
Ficlet summary: Canonverse, the sequel to Lost. Present tense, Sasuke's POV.
Ficlet Series 2
6 - Found (Sequel to Lost)
It's a new morning.
Sasuke looks out at the sunrise and gives himself the moment to breathe it in. Naruto is still asleep—waking soon, the way he tends to when Sasuke's weight leaves his side. They have a mutual restlessness, between them—each waking as the other leaves, each resting once they return. Sasuke could think it to be fear, but it feels more like an expectation—
He's grown so used to having Naruto beside him.
And it's these comforts that has him looking out at the clouds, the yellows and pinks and almost blues...there's a break in the trees, and Sasuke's gaze is lingering. His thoughts are slow. Intangible. He isn't trying to catch them, anyway, he's just…
Breathing.
And something in him shifts at the way this morning feels, the same way it shifts when Naruto wakes in the middle of a night. The air is wet in a way that is light where Sasuke's mouth expects salt, cool where he expects warmth—
But the morning is not the ocean, and Sasuke is remembering all the things he never let himself notice before.
The quiet rising of the noises. Flutters in the trees. The world is coming alive with the light, and Sasuke wonders if he's ever noticed that the morning smells this way, or if he's only forgotten. He feels as if he's finding new things—small things, unimportant things—that slow him and catch him and pull him to pause each day. The way the moon changes shape and colour and shadows each night. The lines on a pink petal that indent gently enough to hold a drop of water. The reflection of curving, twisting branches in a deep pool of water—only to break and ripple as a frog leaps from the shore.
He's known all of these things before. But he isn't sure he's ever remembered them.
He breathes in, and feels himself wish, quietly, that the trees opened a little bit more. How nice it would be to take off his shoes. Feel something warm, under his feet. Like small, curious questions in his head—prodding at him. Whispering to him. Sasuke has never had such a small, simple...want. And he's lost track of time over and over again, but something in him is counting, stays counting—must be counting, because it tells him—
It's been three months, since they left.
...It sounds so small, when he thinks of it that way. Short. His heart was sure it had been longer, but then...
He hears a shift in their small shelter behind him.
Hm.
The sun is rising.
He turns as Naruto comes to him, grumbling and barely awake. He shoves himself into Sasuke's side the way he does when they're asleep, and Sasuke readies himself to hold him upright, just in case.
"Morning," Naruto mutters, and Sasuke feels his arm tighten. His throat is tight this morning. His heart...prominent, in his chest. Naruto is a beacon and a reminder—this morning, especially, with Sasuke's head tripping over all of the little things he's catching. He's yet to find a new goal—and they'd left the home to search for more than that, but Sasuke knew he'd be looking, and Naruto had known it too. And yet, no overarching perfection has consumed him. No drive has screamed for him to push forwards, never stop, continue—
But he's found other things.
He's found the way Naruto's smile looks different when it's the first of that day—the first one when it sees Sasuke, slow and lopsided and achingly beautiful. He's found the curves of doors that need to be straightened lest they stop to close, and how easily tools other than weapons fit in his hand. He's found the way a plant can wilt and rise again, if only it has someone to gently coax it to bloom. He's found the smiles of strangers that spark with a fond recognition, and he's found that smile on his face, without ever knowing how it got there—
They're littered around him.
A thousand little purposes to his life.
"You okay?" Naruto asks, because his love is relentless. Endless and instinctive, like a bee building its hive—something deep within Naruto is carved in the perfect shape to love. It comes so easily. It feels like water, light and soft and sticking to him without ever weighing him down—Naruto's love lingers, and Sasuke swims in it as often as he can.
Sasuke wonders if his love feels the same way.
"I am," he answers, and it's honest. It's carefully considered, the way Naruto insists it should be—Naruto demands Sasuke's answers be true even if it means they come jumbled, messy, unclear. He wants Sasuke as he is, not as Sasuke wants to be. Not Sasuke as he was.
Just him.
Just them.
...His throat is still tight this morning.
Naruto's weight on him is a strange—decadence. A luxury. And a part of Sasuke tells him he's so full of debts that this should never have been something he was able to afford, but the rest of him thinks that someone needs to sleep beside the sun. Love it. Stay with it. Walk alongside it and tell it every day is better if only Sasuke can manage to breathe it in.
That's another one, Sasuke thinks. He's found another one.
Naruto looks up at him, eyes narrowed. He senses, Sasuke knows, the way his mind is wandering. Elsewhere. Sasuke is overwhelmed with something, as he often gets, but today…
Today, that something is different.
"I'm thinking," he says, and Naruto settles. His gaze stays caught to Sasuke's, though, and Sasuke is grateful for it. He feels himself looking for an ocean today.
He finds it in Naruto's eyes.
"'Kay," Naruto says, because that is enough of an answer—for now. He'll be asking Sasuke again, sometime once he'd deemed Sasuke's had long enough to think. He settles back against his side, huddling close in the cold morning air, looking out at the sky. Sasuke breathes out and stays a sunflower.
"Where did you wanna go today?" Naruto asks, resting his head to Sasuke's chest. "More north?"
The smile comes to Sasuke's lips again.
"Will you survive the cold?" he asks, nudging Naruto closer. Naruto pinches at his waist without ever moving away, laughing out his offense.
"Asshole!" he huffs. "Just because I like the warmth doesn't mean I can't handle the cold. I've been further than this, y'know."
He did know. And Sasuke knew, very well, that they had anywhere to go. Everywhere to go. Naruto was nothing if not ready and willing and in love with the world—he found wonder in every village, in every small food stand and every new person. And the world, of course, loved him too—making up for lost time, Sasuke thinks, as it should.
Him and the world have that in common, he supposes.
"And we dragged all this cold weather stuff up anyway," Naruto is continuing, the hum of his voice gentle and settling and...another one. "We should use it all, right?"
Sasuke looks over at him. Naruto's too close to him, but he only smiles in response—smiles and leans closer, a quiet little demand—
Sasuke leans in, and memorizes the way Naruto's smile feels against his lips.
"It's whatever you wanna do, though," Naruto says, after they pull apart. The light glitters in his eyes the way the seafoam frames a wave, and Sasuke…
Sasuke breathes out.
"I don't want to go north," he replies, and Naruto blinks with the recognition that Sasuke's made sense of his head. Sasuke knows it, because he's gone quiet—he waits, patient and understanding, for Sasuke to tell him the rest.
"I think," he says quietly, "I'd like to go home."
Naruto inhales. It's quick and surprised, and it's back as soon as it's gone when Naruto follows his breath right onto Sasuke, leaping with the hug, babbling Sasuke's stupidity, dragging them back to pack their things already, come on, let's go—
It's the first time Sasuke's used the word.
He thinks he'll use it again.
A/N: Sometimes, when I'm just sort of messing with ideas, I have less of a working title and more of a working feeling. So Lost's original title was actually "I want to be home, but there isn't one. There isn't one." That's the feeling I tried to revisit, here - but a little bit further past it. What do you think? Did you like it? Let me know!
Still taking things slow, so it will be a few days before the next one is up. But hopefully soon!
Until next time,
- Kinomi