Date: 7/1/13
Rating: T
Genre: Angst, Drama, Romance
Prompt: Sakura gets a really bad head injury on a mission with Team 7, and the only way to heal her is to have her memories erased. And that's a perfect opportunity for Sasuke to tell her that he always loved her, and at the end she gets her memories back and they'll be together.
For as long as he could remember, he always hated hospitals. The confinement. The beds. The smell: air full disinfectant that couldn't quite mask the stench of sickness and disease. But most of all, Sasuke couldn't stand the wait: the wait for doctors, the wait for treatment, the wait for permission to leave. But this time, he was forced to suffer through a different kind of wait, the kind that left him with doubt, with worry, and with fear.
Naruto, let me carry her.
Another nurse rushed passed him and entered Sakura's room, carrying tools he couldn't identify. The door closed slowly, allowing Sasuke a glimpse inside, allowing him a moment to see what it was like during a real medical emergency—frantic, yet placid; uneasy, yet sure. He saw Tsunade, concentrated, wiping sweat off her brow, yelling orders to anyone who'd listen. It was the only way, she told him. There had no other choice.
Not with that injury, teme. You can't—
Grabbing two fistfuls of his hair and propping his elbows on his thighs, Sasuke let out sigh, a poor substitution for the scream that threatened to escape his lips. His hands clenched tighter, the tug on each hair follicle intensified, becoming the distraction he needed. He didn't even know how long he had been there. Ten minutes? Three hours? It didn't make a difference. There was no sense of time at the hospital, no sense of anything. Just dread.
I don't care.
"Uchiha-san! What are you doing? Has no one treated you yet?"
Rolling his eyes, Sasuke lifted his head and faced the nurse who addressed him. Her eyes were wide, her expression horrified as one hand covered her mouth and the other pointed to his side. He looked down, suddenly made aware of the blood that was seeping through his clothes, creating a stain that stretched from his side to his lower abdomen. Sasuke tilted his head; he didn't even notice. But before he could say anything, he felt the nurse grab his arm, dragging him to the nearest empty room so she could treat his wound.
As the nurse wrapped the bandages around his torso, Sasuke couldn't help but remember all the times Sakura had done the same, chiding him about being more careful. He began to feel sick again, the tightness in his chest returning. "I should go back," he said to the nurse after quietly giving his thanks, "I should wait with the rest of my team."
However, the nurse placed her hand on his shoulder. "No, Uchiha-san," she said gently, "you should rest. I'm going to tell your teammates to do the same. You've been here for hours, and it's still going to be a while before the procedure is completed. So rest, someone will come in and wake you when it's okay to see her. You don't have to worry." She smiled as she passed him a clean shirt. "Sakura-san is not going anywhere."
-xx-
They were told that they could only see her one at time, that they should keep their visits short, that it was possible for her to hear them but not guaranteed. And when it was finally Sasuke's turn to enter Sakura's room, the last one of the group, he immediately felt his heart clench. Her breathing was even, and she looked serene. But she was wrapped in bandages, hooked to countless machines, covered with bruises and scratches—her body telling the story her mind wouldn't remember.
And though it wasn't part of his original plan, Sasuke took a seat next to her bed and began to speak.
"Tsunade," he began slowly, unsurely, saying whatever came to mind as he looked at his lap, "she said that you'd lose your memory, that you'd lose everything, that—that you wouldn't remember who any of us are." He clenched his fist, eyebrows furrowed, gradually losing composure. "Well, I say that's bullshit, Sakura. Complete bullshit. I don't know if you can hear me, but I know you know it's bullshit, too. You can't—you can't just forget us, Sakura. You can't just forget—" Me.
He raised his head and looked at her. "You just can't, okay? So you better wake up. You better stop being so goddamn annoying for once and wake up and remember us, so I can tell you how stupid you were and how reckless you were; so I can tell you how much I want to scream at you, yell at you, and shake you; so I can finally tell you how much—" He stopped, lowering his voice as he carefully took Sakura's hand in his, and said, "how much I love you."
Sasuke paused, waiting for any sign that she possibly heard him—an increased heart rate, a movement of the eyelids, a sudden life in her limp hand. But nothing came. He sighed. "I bet you didn't see that coming," he said lightly, his thumb gliding across her knuckles, "But it's true. I do. I have. For a while now." He gave her hand a squeeze. "So wake up, Sakura. Wake up and remember."
-xx-
But she didn't remember.
And though Sasuke felt a glimmer of hope when Sakura's eyes lingered on him during their reintroduction, her stare was vacant, was one of a stranger. His heart sank. And there was nothing he could say. He couldn't tell her how stupid she was, or how reckless she was, or how much he wanted to scream at her. It was pointless. Everything just seemed pointless.
So he remained silent, brooding, waiting for everyone to stop talking so he could leave. However, before he could follow his team out the door, Sasuke felt a tug at his sleeve. He turned around. Sakura.
"I know you," she said quietly, still in her hospital gown, her bare feet against the cold tiles. "I didn't want to say it before, but, I know you."
His eyes widened. "You do?"
"Oh no, not like that," Sakura said, biting her lip, avoiding his gaze, "I mean, I know your voice. I hear it—in my dreams." She looked up, giving him a weak smile as she continued to hold on to his sleeve. "You're always telling me to wake up because you want to scream at me, and yell at me. And—erm, other things, too."
Sasuke swallowed. "What," he said anxiously, wondering if Sakura could hear the pounding of his heart, wondering if it was possible that she actually heard him. "What else do I say?"
"Well," she said, laughing awkwardly, "you call me annoying a lot."
-xx-
Whenever she imagined herself regaining her memories, though she was told the chances were slim, Sakura always assumed that it would be painful, like a waterfall, pounding gallons and gallons of memories into her mind. But it wasn't like that. It was more like a light switch, illuminating what once was dark, making things visible. Painless.
And she remembered everything. Her parents. Her teammates. The mission. Even the last part of her dream that always seemed to evade her. But while regaining her memories was indeed painless, it wasn't noiseless.
"Sakura, what happened?" Sasuke exclaimed as he entered the room, hearing glass shatter and the tray clang against the kitchen floor. Yet, Sakura was unresponsive, her arms in the same position when she held the tray. He said her name again. And again. Nothing. "Sakura," he said stiffly, grabbing onto her shoulders, "what's wrong?" He shook her. "Sakura, can you hear me?"
She blinked, torn from her trance. "You," she said slowly, "you love me, Sasuke-kun?"
"What?"
"Well, do you?" she asked again.
Sasuke's first instinct was to deny it, to change the subject, but when he looked into her eyes, the vacancy he'd seen in them in the past weeks had vanished. Her eyes were no longer the eyes of a stranger, but the eyes of someone he knew, someone that loved him, someone that he loved back. Sasuke pulled her into his arms. "I do."