CCNote: Tada. Sticking within word limits is hard but I kinda like it.
Love
"I think it's going to rain today. What do you think?"
He had no thoughts.
"Ino wants to know if we were available for dinner tomorrow night. I told her that we would come by. I hope that's okay."
He didn't care either way.
A small pressure on his right hand alerted him to how close she'd gotten. Slender fingers curled around his own and green eyes stared up at him expectantly. Her expectations were insurmountable but he let her continue to hold his hand. It was the least he could do.
Warm lips pressed against his lips, hoping to spark a reciprocal reaction. That hope was in vain but her actions were undeterred. Sakura's fingers slid underneath his shirt, taking liberties that she would have never done before. This was not before. This was after.
After all the power.
After all of the bloodshed.
She was there waiting for him with outstretched arms and hope. Hope and expectations. He had nothing to give her in return. He didn't even have himself. His own vessel was unfamiliar to him when conscious and a nightmare when he slept. Staying in the village gave him no reprieve from his own self-loathing. He stayed though. She asked him to stay. He was here. The roof over his head, the ground upon which he walked was all Konoha.
Yet…it still didn't feel right. This was his home but at the same time, it wasn't. His shirt fell off his shoulders as expert fingers made quick work of its buttons.
"Sasuke." Sakura whispered in his ear, her breath tickling hair that had grown far too long. "I love you."
Love
The word made him sick to his stomach.