title: whisper
prompt: #9 - trauma
summary: she traced into his skin: i'm here for you.

The ground was cool underneath Sakura's back, and she could feel the ghosts of dewdrops against her fingers as she ran a hand over the grass beside her. Around her, it was still and quiet, save for the chirping cicadas and occasional hoot of an owl hidden among the tall trees that pierced the sky from all around.

She rolled over on her side to glance at her teammates, and Team 7 lay sprawled out just a few hands' widths from her: Kakashi, too, was on his side, facing the mouth of the forest in front of them, sleeping soundlessly; Naruto lay on his stomach, his face just barely turned from the tufts of grass scattered beneath him, his features relaxed as sound snores escaped his lips; Sasuke faced the sky, his hands neatly arranged over his stomach, and his face almost pensive, as though even in sleep he was deep in thought.

Sakura smiled softly at the sight, letting her eyes flutter close not long after. She breathed in and invited sleep.

Just as slumber had been toying at the edge of her vision, she heard a sudden jumble of movements, a heaved gasp, followed by a few series of ragged inhales and exhales that gradually evened out, little by little. Her eyes flew open, the potential of slumber drained from her system.

She turned her head ever so slightly to face her teammates again and watched as Sasuke stood up from the forest floor and made his way out of their shelter in the trees and into the night. Even under a shroud of darkness, the pale light of the moon was more than enough to see that his expression was no longer peacefully meditative but more lost in thought than she had ever seen him.

Once Sasuke's back was turned and he had placed a few strides between himself and the rest of the team, Sakura stood up and let quietly placed footsteps lead her toward him. She kept her distance at first, remaining a good two wingspans from his back as he approached the rush of the creek in the distance, his footsteps not quite his.

A few paces later he sat by the water, a hand reaching out for a flat pebble on the ground, tossing it in front of him, perhaps with the intention to have it skid across the creek's surface, but instead it merely sank through the water, swallowed whole.

Cautiously, Sakura approached his side, kneeling a little ways from him, and although he said nothing, she knew he had noticed her long ago. She inhaled softly, the night air she took in cool and dewy.

Sasuke leaned forward to run his hand through the water. "It's cold," he exhaled, his voice only a breath.

Sakura placed her fingertips at the water's edge, wiggling her fingers. "Yeah..."

She glanced over at him as he mimicked her, making a wave of his fingers. There was a certain absence about his eyes, a lack of something usually there. As if noticing her staring, Sasuke lifted his dry hand to his cheekbone, rubbing at the area beneath his eyes.

"Sasuke-kun, are you alright?" Sakura asked, reaching for him as she inched closer.

"Yeah," he said, hollowly, and Sakura pressed her lips into a hard line. "You wouldn't get it."

Her face fell, as she folded back into herself, and Sasuke winced, clearing his throat. "It's just…sometimes I dream of my parents, out of the blue, and they—they seemed so happy. I can barely remember them being like that."

He trailed off, let her come closer as she edged toward him, accepted her silence, and for a while they sat like that, almost a single entity as they breathed in the night together, at the water's edge. I'm sorry, she traced into his skin, just a whisper of her thumb over his arm. We're here for you. I'm here for you.

Sasuke's shoulder pressed against Sakura's as they heard an owl hoot in the distance. "Thanks, Sakura," he said, after a long while.