Ah. Thankies to Nicole for prompting! :3 Hope you like.

title: contemplated collisons

genre: friendship/hurt/comfort

pairing: none

word count: 847

prompt: she doesn't like to think/dancing around under highways/ smiling through the rain/reunited doesn't feel so good/looking at them with a sense of wonder, how is he so lucky?/ (for Nicole)

disclaimer: don't own. might in the future.

Reunited doesn't feel so good, Sakura thinks.

Everyone expected her to run into her boys' arms when she saw them walking side by side towards the medical tents of the Joint Shinobi Forces.

Naruto expected it. Sasuke expected it. Even she expected it.

But when she sees her once-upon-a-time teammate, flashes of a hand gripped around her throat and mocking crimson eyes make her feel empty.

So when her boys finally came back, she simply nodded in greeting and turned away, walking towards the next patient in need of healing.

Now, when all three are in the same room, the tension is so thick that even Sakura's monstrous strength cannot shatter it. It's akward, it's uncomfortable, it's filled with silent accusations and disappointment.

She doesn't want Sasuke back, because he's broken her perfect, perfect story of how she's moved on, of how she's living and being crazy, dancing around under highways with Ino when they're both dead drunk and singing opera under people's balconies, jumping into the freshly raked pile of autumn leaves and rolling around in snow just for the heck of it. She forgets him when she's crazy like this, and when she forgets, she feels so alive. And alive is good for her.

Sakura doesn't want him back, because he's not Sasuke-kun. He's not the stoic boy who cared at least a little bit, the boy who made her want to prove herself to him, the boy she fell in love with. He's only a lookalike. Uchiha Sasuke. Messed up. Twisted. Angry. The one who looks at her with bottomless eyes and blank stares.

And she hates it.

Naruto binds them all together, she muses. He's taken over her role of the One Who Keeps Us Together And Sane, the smiling buoy who cheerfully extends a hand to the ones drifting helplessly in a sea of malice.

Sometimes, when they're leaning against the railing of the bridge, now rusty with the paint peeling off (so reminiscent of their genin days), Sasuke opens up a little and they see remnants of who he used to be. Sometimes, when Naruto and Sasuke bicker like old times, and Naruto is complaining loudly to Kakashi that Sasuke is being an ass, he doesn't notice Sakura looking at them with a sense of wonder, how is he so lucky? she asks no one in particular.

How is it that Naruto, who has no parents, a demon sealed inside him, once looked down upon, how is it that he is so happy and caring and compassionate and forgiving? How is he so lucky that he has the abiltiy to forgive what the boy he calls his best friend has done? How on earth can he forget what sort of insanity Sasuke became?

It boggles her mind.

Nowadays, after six months, she doesn't like to think anymore. Naruto's helping her believe that there is still some Sasuke-kun left inside Uchiha Sasuke, and she believes him, because Naruto is definitely the incarnation of some benevolent god, with all his sagelike qualities. She doesn't like to think, she likes to believe.

Sakura's seeing it herself, her Sasuke-kun! slowly, slowly coming back to life within his eighteen-year old body.

And she finds that her perfect, perfect story of how she's moved on is a lie. She finds that being alive has nothing to do with thrills anymore, but with Team 7 and imperfection. Flawed human beings, with forgiveness and laughter and acceptance bound together tightly with string that's bound to snap any moment, are what makes Sakura feel alive. Malfunctioning, reunited, and small smiles Team 7. Because, in the end, that's all they are, isn't it?

Alive, alive, alive. It's what she is now.

"Hey Sasuke-kun, do you want to come for dinner at my place on Friday? Kakashi-sensei and Sai and Naruto are coming too. Just saying. Call it a proper reunion dinner, because having ramen at Ichiraku's made me want to cook anything but ramen for you guys. Will you come?"

It's been years since she's asked him something akin to these lines, and Sakura notices shock flicker across his face, as if he expected her to be the last one on the planet to ever ask him to have dinner at her house, especially. Confusion filling the once-empty black void that are Sasuke's eyes, he nods, slightly bewildered.

Just as he does, a gentle drizzle begins to fall, causing both to gaze upwards at the rumbling, gray storm clouds.

"I'll drop you home," he murmurs, heading off in the direction of her apartment.

Sakura feels the familiar tingling feeling and her heart beats a little faster as she catches up to him and they walk together, because this is just like Sasuke-kun, and both of them know it.

Along the way, Naruto somehow winds up next to her, and the rain pours faster and harder and both Sasuke and Naruto begin to squabble, unaware that Sakura's fondly smiling through the rain at her boys, all three not noticing Kakashi sitting on a roof, eye crinkling as he watches pink and black and yellow stand out in the faint sunshine that peeks through the clouds.

OMGZ IT'S DONE!

I timed myself, and finished it in HALF AN HOUR!

Yayyy. Muffins to reviewers! Remember, reviews are lurve. :3