A/N: In case you're wondering, this is another story that I started, didn't finish, and decided to finish tonight. For some reason, they are all very angsty and dramatic. Sorry for the downer for the New Year! lol. Just me passing the time until the ball drops...
One-Shot #54
Too Late
It was somewhere between seeing Naruto's clone and actually killing Itachi that it hit him. It hit him hard, like a train speeding down a track hits a car on the rails; so quick and so deadly and from the side, where he couldn't see it coming.
He'd been feeling it for years now. Feeling like he's stuck in a whirlpool with no way out. Like his insides were being squeezed until he can't breathe. A feeling he'd had since he could remember, and the feeling that became stronger during the Valley of the End.
Sasuke Uchiha was in love.
Not the normal everyday 'head-over-heels' 'love-at-first-sight' type of love. It was deeper, more sincere and – perhaps – more dangerous. It was the type that brings more pain than pleasure. That was more rough than tender. It was more of a rivalry than a friendship, yet more friendship and friendly competition than rivalry. It was exactly like their relationship always was. It was exactly how both boys needed it to be.
It was companionship.
There was a moment, Sasuke remembers, when he asked his mother about love. How you know you're in love. She answered simply, but truthfully.
It's when you'd go to the end of the world and back again for one person. When you'd die for someone without hesitation. When it pains you to leave, to go anywhere that one person can't go. Sasuke, when you feel it in your heart and maybe a little deeper, than you'll know.
Sasuke snorted and shook his head. His mother was right. He'd missed that idiot every day since he left him, and that pain never let up, not even once. Being the master of deception and hiding his emotions, he'd never let it show. But it was always there. Always prickling away at the back of his head, chipping away at his defenses until he could barely hold onto his sanity.
As the bittersweet release of his Uchiha 'no emotions' mask slipped away, he ran towards Konoha at an alarming rate. There was someone he had to see, someone he had to know still felt anything for him.
He found the blonde lying on the ground outside the gates being fussed over by a crying and nearly breathless Sakura. She felt him coming and looked up, her eyes begging for some form of civility between them. Screw what had happened before, she needed her friend now.
Sasuke's feet hit the ground beside his tanned and orange-clad body, his face smudged with dirt and grime from fighting. There was blood, and lots of blood, but none of that mattered to Sasuke. What did matter was the blonde still had some fight left in him, some form of life, and it was more than enough for him to spill his heart.
"I love you, Naruto." Sasuke whispered, placing his lips against the rough, chapped lips of Naruto.
When he pulled back, the blonde gave a hacking cough before smirking, blood trickling out the corner of his upturned lips. "I love you too, Sasuke." He coughed again, more blood spattering over the front of his jacket. How did he have any blood left to cough up? "At least you figured it out before the very end, bastard."
A tanned hand caressed Sasuke's cheek before sliding off his face and hitting the ground. The rain began to pour down and Sasuke's sobbing turned into a small chuckle. Sasuke knew, then, that his mother had been right about something else, something he should have remembered way back when.
You never realize what you have until it's gone. Then it's far too late to get it back. Cherish your friends and family, even the one's you create. You never know when they'll leave you all alone in the rain.
Why, I don't know, but this damn thing would not keep my italics. I must have re-done them four times. I hope they stay NOW!
