note.
I adore this chapter - and I hope you do too. 'Eventide', which is the chapter title, means the end of the day.
track 41.
Sakura and Sasuke sink into the tribal patterned couch at the patio cafe, sipping on saffron infused chamomile tea, enjoying the clear sunset as they wait for Naruto to come back to them from the shop vendor (having offered to go return the camera). It's colours are evenly divided, and the horizon is in plain sight from their seat in the cafe. Neither of them are looking at the scenery, but the warm tones were clear amongst them.
Once again, Sakura is caught in vesper eyes.
Sasuke compares the Sakura in front of him to the Sakura he saw under the street lights so many nights ago. From the fluorescent sheen of her hair to the rosy glow of her cheeks. How long has it been since he's first walked her home, and admired her under the shaking yellow lights?
Sakura is lovely both ways, he thinks. But in natural light - it is too fitting. While the current situation blesses her with a candlelit persona; he thinks that it is a pale comparison to when he sees her alone at night. In the dark streets that only the two of them walked, she was the center of everything, a hidden city waiting to be discovered. The contrast proving to be infinitely more striking than the picture before him.
The two of them are both so caught up in their own thoughts that neither seem to notice the other is staring.
Oh. Sakura first thinks as the shades wash over him as a sheer veil. Though Sasuke is taller than her, his hair makes him seem unaffected by the setting sun initially.
But... oh. She realizes.
Yellow renders Sasuke-kun's pale skin molten amber, orange casts a mahogany sheen over his spikes, red reflects off his eyes as a spark of fire, and purple gives all his dark features incandescent definition.
And...
"Sasuke-kun," Sakura thinks. "Can I kiss you?" She wants to do it so badly that she accidentally says it out loud. It's barely a whisper. But it rings in the silence. And it takes him a moment to wonder whether what Sakura said was an illusion. That perhaps, his imagination had finally begun its invasion on reality.
"What?"
"So-sorry! I don't know why I said that. It's just that... You're very good looking, Sasuke-kun. Your lower lashes are full and thick, the type any girl would be jealous of. And even though your hands aren't very wide, your fingers are long and slender. And even though your eyes look almost black, they're actually a stormy mix of gray, and dark blue, and the edges are a really dark red brown; which is so weird. And you're a complete weirdo- I mean- when you smirk, there's also this little crinkle near your eye. And-" she paused in her rambles, catching his gaze. The tiny twinkle of amusement on his normally stoic face. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
Taking aim, Sasuke flicked her forehead. Then, he followed up the attack by leaning back on his chair to avoid any bodily harm that may come to him. The small coffee table a safety zone.
"Are you writing me a love song?" He laughed, and Sakura thought that he looked even more beautiful. Impossibly so. It couldn't be fair, that Uchiha Sasuke was to be so beautiful. His icy features suited the warm expression. A smile on such a handsome face.
Everything he did made her blind with love.
The way he shook his messy midnight bangs out of his eyes. How his laughs lasted only seconds in sound, but forever in his eyes. To the way the gap between his arm and torso was a perfect size for her to hold onto.
They all just made her fall a little more for him.
"No," She smiled. "I'm not writing one." Her secret still hidden. Sakura already had a love song dedicated to him, but he didn't have to know that. "Let's go, Sasuke-kun. We still have some time to waste before Naruto gets back."