in for the kill
note1: I love Kakuzu. He's awesome. And attractive.
note2: Listened to the album The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi by The Receiving End of Sirens while writing this. Very chill album.
note3:OHMYGOD OVER 100 REVIEWS! I'm in love with you people, that's for sure.
arc one: dawning
chapter: storm
Sakura rubbed her eyes and groaned. This was the third time she woken up that night (morning now. The sun would rise and try to shine through the thick cloud cover in a few hours to no avail). The wind was screaming, rattling the windows of her room. Even after staying in Amegakure for months now, she still couldn't get used to these sudden storms that seemed to try and blow the steel city away. (She knew Pein would intervene before that would ever happen. He loved his village too much to let it be destroyed by a mere storm, but that didn't stop these hurricanes from tearing through every now and then.)
She sighed and slipped out of bed. There was no sleeping now that she had awoken, not with this wind. Silently shutting her door behind her, she ghosted down the hall towards the lounge. Maybe staring at the storm in the face would help her be more at ease with it.
'Or not. You'll probably just be more terrified than you already are. You never liked storms,' her Inner chastised.
'Thanks for the fucking vote of confidence,'she mentally hissed. God, sometimes she hated that voice. Why couldn't it just leave her alone?
She was surprised to see a light on in the lounge, and even more surprised to see Kakuzu, sans mask, sitting on her favorite couch. He was reading something, probably invoices, and had a cup of steaming tea on the coffee table. He looked, peaceful, she decided. (Probably due to there was no Hidan swearing at everybody and everything, no Sasori and Deidara arguing over true art, and nobody putting holes in walls.) He seemed unaffected by the storm raging outside, and for that she envied him.
He looked up at her when she entered the room, gave a nod of acknowledgement, then went back to reading. Sakura made her way to the couch and sat next to him, returning the nod. He raised an eyebrow as she visibly flinched when a particularly strong gust of wind screamed past, making the windows groan at the sheer force of it.
"Can't sleep?" he rumbled questioningly. He never took her for one to be scared of something as simple as the weather, but there were much stranger things. (He was one example, as was the rest of the Akatsuki. Shark-men, zombies and immortals! Oh my!)
"No," she mumbled, "I never liked storms much. When I was little I used to hide in my parents' bed until I fell asleep." She looked outside and winced. "In Konoha they were never this bad. I feel like we're all going to be blown away." He nodded and went back to his reading, she back to flinching every time a particularly strong gust blew by. After a few more minutes of this Kakuzu sighed.
Sakura almost screamed when she felt tendrils gently lift her up and deposit her in Kakuzu's lap. She looked up and gave him a confused look. (That had been unexpected, to say the least.) He looked down and raised an eyebrow.
"Better?"
She sighed and snuggled into the warmth Kakuzu exuded.
"Much."
He chuckled, a deep, rumbling sound, and wrapped one of his arms around her while he sipped his tea. His rhythmic heart beats drowned out the sound of the wind, gently lulling her to sleep. She hadn't felt this safe in a long, long time.
'Maybe,' she thought as her eyes slipped shut for the final time that night, 'maybe storms aren't so bad afterall.'
note4: I love storms actually, but this was just in my head. Had to have her afraid of something. I, personally, am terrified of snakes. I love to look at them at the zoo, but outside of that? I tend to run away. Fast.
note5: I know I write a lot of night scenes. And storm scenes. I need to branch out. But anyways, this happens after last chapter by like a week or so. And yes, there is a semblance of a plot in there somewhere. Maybe I'll start making arcs? IDK. But it will end, kinda.