Disclaimer : Once upon a time I owned Naruto, but then I woke up and realized that it was just a dream.. sigh..
:A Love to Remember:
-Chapter 2 : The Right Person-
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Dark. It's very dark. All that my eyes can see is just darkness. I can't even make out a single thing, not even my own hand. Nothing, none. It's pitch black here. I'm swimming in the endless darkness. I can feel nothing, just an overwhelming numbness.
'Where am I? What am I doing here?'
The questions have been whirling around inside my head, but somehow, I can't answer them. Like something blurry and hazy is creating a thick substantial wall between me and my mind. I just can't think clearly. And after this nothingness that seems like eternity, the very first thing my body can make out is pain. My eyes. They're burning from the blinding light shines through my eyelids.
'Stop!' I hear my own sound screaming inside my head. But I can't really shout it aloud. My throat feels parched and dry. So I just groaned. Please, somebody, just turn off the goddamn lamp! I let out another feral growl and turn my head to side, burying it in my pillow.
"Sakura?" I hear a voice. A male's voice. It was deep and husky, the kind of voice that will make you all curious and yearning to see the owner of it.
I brace myself for the blinding light and open my eyes. Winced a little from the pinprick pain attacking my eyes, I try to see the guy who talked earlier. But my sight is like a buzzing old cheap TV. My eyes haven't adapted to the light yet, and blotches of neon colours started to stain my vision. In this state of temporary blindness though, I still can hear the sound of shifting clothes and foot steps. The man must be walking over to my side and leaned forward against my bed since I can feel slight pressure on the mattress at my right side.
As seconds tick by, I can finally see the person at my side. Flaming red locks that looked so soft—it takes all of my will power not to jump on him and run my fingers through them—, pale skin, jade eyes with faint dark circles around them. I blink my eyes for a few times. His appearance fits his voice just perfectly. Sexy.
"Sakura?" he frowns at me, creating creases in between his non-existence eyebrows.
I frown too upon hearing this, he maybe has those good looks, but he surely is impolite. Aren't people supposed to greet and get to know each other when they first meet instead of putting on a frown?
"Excuse me, do I know you?"
---0---0---
"Ngh..!" a groan of discomfort can be heard from the bed. I immediately straighten my sitting position and throw my head to her direction, it must be Sakura. After a few seconds, again she groans. And this time, she tries to hide her face in the blanket.
"Sakura?" I call to her. I watch her as she struggles to crack open her eyes. She blinks several times and shakes her head as if trying to clear her vision. I walk to her side and lean forward against her hospital bed, trying to see what's wrong with her. At that moment though, her eyes come focused on mine, and it feels like she's… staring at me.
"Sakura?" I call her again, more urgently this time. I feel uncomfortable with her act of silence. Did a cat steal her tongue or something?
"Excuse me, do I know you?" she frowns back at me, looking annoyed.
What the hell is this? A sick twisted joke? For hell's sake, it's not the perfect time to joking around okay, so cut it off. Cut it off. I deepen my frown.
"Sakura, if you're angry, just tell me. No acting like this okay? I'm serious." I warn her. This is just not the right time to play around like a 3-year-old.
"So do I!" she protests. "You keep calling me Sakura. Is that my name?"
My mouth hangs open and I can only gape at her in disbelief. What. the. fuck. is. going. On?
"It's me, Gaara, and yes, you are Sakura. What is wrong with you?" I emphasize the last sentence. This is not funny. Not funny at all. I grab her shoulders and start to shake her body back and front. I know it's wrong to do it to her, knowing that she's in the hospital and all, but my heart is now pounding like crazy inside my chest. I can feel a drop of perspiration rolls down my cold temple to my chin.
Sakura cringes from my stronghold and try to shove me away. "Gaara who? Let go of me! Let go!!" she struggles and wiggles away. Screaming at me with fear in her emerald eyes. "Let go you freak! I DON'T KNOW YOU!" she shrieked.
It's all that I need. It's all that it takes to change me to a frozen statue of human. My grips on her fall limply to my sides. I stare at her in utter disbelief. My mind a tangle of tethered emotions. Sad, angry, confused, annoyed, and above all, pain. What is this sick joke? What is this sick fucking crap of a joke?
Just when I'm about to open my mouth to say something, the doors of her hospital room slammed open from outside. Mr. and Mrs. Haruno run to their only daughter's side and hug and kiss her with teary eyes and hoarse voices.
"Sakura! Thank God!"
"What happened, dear!?"
"You scared the hell out of me!"
"Never! Never do that to me again!"
The two of them keep crying their hearts out in relieve. Showering their daughter with questions and statements. Oblivious to the confuse written all over the pinkette's face.
"Uhhh…" she started warily. Both of her mom and dad stop their ramblings to look at her intensely.
"Uhh, I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude… but, do you mind to do me a favor?" she asks carefully.
"Anything, dear…" Mrs. Haruno cups her daughter's face with both of her hands and looks at her with teary eyes.
"Great, umm… mind to explain to me who am I and what was going on?" Sakura cracked a nervous smile to her parent.
Mr. and Mrs. Haruno looked at their only child in disbelief then at each other, that is before Mrs. Haruno's eyes rolls to the back of her head and then she faints.
Oh, great. I think sarcastically. I'm still petrified at my spot 3 meters from the bed. Still too busy trying to fit everything in into my mind. I'm too preoccupied I can't even roll my eyes at the dramatic scene that plays in front of me. Something is really wrong here. And it's going to be bad. Really, really, bad.
---0---0---
The two of them were now sitting on a bench on the hospital's rooftop. Sakura was gazing at the blue sky while enjoying the breeze that whipping her face and her pink locks. She sat in silence, carefully listening to this Gaara's explanation about herself. The doctor had given Gaara the 'privilege' of recounting to Sakura, her own basic memories while he and Mr. Haruno took care of her fainted mom.
"—so that's how you end up here, losing your memory." The red-head completed his last sentence and let out a weary sigh.
Sakura frowned, deep in thought.
"So… I'm Sakura Haruno, you are Gaara Sabaku, and I'm losing my memory because I hit my head on the side road when you saved me?" She absentmindedly traced the bandage around his forehead.
"Hn" Gaara nodded shortly. Before adding slowly to himself "It's all my fault." He shook his head in anger and buried his head in his intertwined fingers.
"Huh?" Sakura tilted her head in confusion upon hearing it.
"How could it be? I suppose I even should—no, I must— thank you for helping me. Have I thanked you?" She smiled and offered her hand forward to him.
Gaara eyed Sakura's hand for a moment of hesitation before shook it with his own.
"Oh! And sorry for calling you a freak earlier." She added, her smile went wider.
"Hn" Gaara shrugged indifferently before shoving his hands back to the pocket of his jeans.
Sakura could feel a scowl made its way to her face. Her eyebrows met in a delicate V line. This man sitting beside her had never really made real eye contact with her since the time he knew that she was losing her memory. Had she done or said something wrong?
"Umm, you know quite a lot about me, so I take it as you're not a random guy who saved me just because you were coincidentally standing near me when the accident occurred, yes?"
When she heard no reply, she continued.
"So… tell me, what our relationship was?" she asked carefully. She knew by asking the question, it would just embarrass her. And though she didn't know why, it felt like it was a rather delicate matter. But she really couldn't help herself. She really needed to know what exactly was her relationship with this perfection personified sitting right at her side.
Gaara averted his eyes from his knees to the view in front of him—the top of buildings around the hospital. He concentrated his ears to listen to the blaring honks of the cars on the busy roads below. He took exactly 3 deep breathes before he turned his gaze at her. To the emerald spheres staring at him in curiosity.
Sakura almost gasped at the sudden contact of their eyes. His jade orbs were breathtaking to say the least. Gaara said nothing, but Sakura swore, she felt like she could read everything from his eyes. She wasn't sure though, but she felt like she could see… love? However, what took her attention the most was the look of hurt and pain. Not just in his eyes, the emotion was stretched along his flawlessly-stunning face like an ugly burnt scar.
Suddenly Sakura felt like she would do anything, anything, to wipe the pain away from him. She leaned towards him and slowly brought her hands upward. Gently she cupped the side of his face with one of them, while the other brushed his messy red bangs out of his eyes. Her thumb absentmindedly drawing small circles on his high cheekbones, marveling at the softness and coldness of his skin.
Sakura could feel him leaned to her touch as she felt a big warm hand rested on her small ones, holding it firmly, keeping it stay in touch with the side of his face—not like Sakura would remove them anyway, she loved the feel of his skin against her fingertips— as his eyes slowly drifted shut.
Through shaky breaths from the new found excitement and at the same time relaxing presence, Sakura whispered to him. "Would you mind to give me the detail of the day when it happened?"
"Hn" Gaara hummed with his eyes still shut and their position unchanged. "You were waiting for me at the coffee parlor alone for an hour, because I was late. When I finally arrived, we started to fight. I lose control because you wouldn't listen to my explanation for my lateness, so I yelled at you." He stopped to take another long breathe. Sakura move her thumb in circles against his cheek again, urging him to continue. "And then you ran. You ran across the crossroads without noticing the traffic lamp, and that's why you were almost get hit by a car."
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He whispered breathlessly. His hands tightened around hers as his expression changed to those in deep pain.
"Sssh…" Sakura pressed her index finger against his lips softly. "No, I am sorry for not listening to you back then…" she laughed slowly, humorlessly. "Why were you late?"
Slowly Gaara opened his eyes and straightened his bent frame—making his face out of Sakura's reach—both of them slightly shivered from the cold at the lost of their skin contact. He reached one of his hands inside his jeans pocket and took out something from inside it. It was a tiny blue velvety box. He put it on his palm and opened it with his other hand. There, inside the box, planted on the small black cushion was a tiny silver ring. The perfect size of Sakura's ring finger.
Sakura stared at the tiny band of silver dumbfoundedly.
"It was your birthday; I was late because there were some problems at the jewelry store." Gaara looked at Sakura's eyes—still staring wide-eyed at the ring on his hand. A ghost of smile lingering on his face. He liked her reaction. He took the ring and put it on Sakura's left ring finger. "Happy belated birthday…" he muttered and put her hand back onto her lap.
After what seems like eternity, Sakura's gaze darted to his face. She looked flustered. Her mouth opened and closed, then opened again and closed again for a few times, but no sound came out.
"I…" she finally stuttered after gulped down some of her nervousness. "T-thank you… thank you, so much…" she blushed a deep shade of red. How on earth she could casually put her hands upon him earlier? What had possessed her? For a moment back then, It felt like she knew him dearly. Like she was really close to him. Like she remembered him. But a heart-beat later, everything vanished. For Sakura, he was back to a drop-dead gorgeous stranger who helped to tell her some little part of her lost memory.
"Glad you like it." Gaara shrugged and righted his sitting position again. "And… Sakura?"
Sakura's breath hitched upon hearing her name being called by him. She like it, to be honest. The way her name rolled of his tongue felt so… different. So sensual. "Y-yes?" she turned her head to him, a little bit too fast though, it felt like she almost snapped her neck.
"Don't worry, I'll help you remember." He promised.
Sakura's features were all of sudden relaxed. It felt like, in this new universe full of strangers to her, she finally had something to clutch to. Someone she knew she could rely upon. Her heart felt warm at the thought of it.
"Yes." she whispered almost dreamily. "Thank you…" Sakura smiled softly in gratitude. His words had thrown all of her uncertainty and the feelings of vulnerability away. She didn't mind it at all if he wasn't doing it on purpose, she really felt grateful to him.
"Hn" was his short reply. But even though the short hum maybe heard a little cold for other people, but she didn't mind. Especially after she saw the corner of his lips tugged to a small crooked smile. His first genuine smile in front of her.
Sakura smiled back and sighed in contentment. Suddenly, the world felt different. The sun warmer, the colours more lively, and the breeze blowing past her brought the scent of fresh grasses. She didn't know how, and she couldn't explain it. She just knew, and really, every fiber of her being knew it clearly.
She's with the right person.
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Well, second chapter. How was it? I hope you weren't confused about the POVs, the first part is Sakura's the second is Gaara's and the last is third person's POV. I hope you guys like the story so far :D well, if you're confused on something, feel free to ask me through your reviews.
I beg your pardon if you found any grammatical errors and typo, I don't have the time to proof-read it. And… umm, I'm really, really sorry I haven't had the time to reply your wonderful reviews (blame my older brother for using the computer too often. I almost don't even have the chance to upload this chapter!) but really, I greatly appreciate all of them. Please keep reviewing because reviews are the reason that keep an author alive, lol xD. So REVIEW guys!! ;D
With all the love of the world,
:Gentle Breeze of Spring: