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“What’s wrong?”
His quiet inquiry breaks through her concentration like the crack of a whip. Sakura looks up at him from across the fire—this man she has loved and longed for since girlhood. Ah, but Sasuke-kun, she thinks, I don’t know that I can answer that. At the moment, all that she was feeling defies expression; she can only hold his gaze as she tries to get her thoughts in order.
She had followed him on his journey when he asked—there was simply no way she could refuse him. Once upon a time she had promised him she would do anything for him. That has never changed. Why then this choking fear?
Is it that she had been hurt too many times when it came to him? She averts her eyes, fixes them instead on the crackling flames. Am I afraid… that it will happen again? The mere thought of it makes her shiver.
She is called back from reverie when she senses a weight settling on her shoulders. Sasuke has stood from his spot and walked over to wrap his cloak around her. The scent and warmth of it brings a smile to her face. “Thank you,” she tells him, still not meeting his eyes.
Those had been the same words he gave her, when she bared her heart to him all those years ago. A fire blooms in her chest as she thinks, how nice that I get to say it this time around.
It’s not just this gesture, too. It was he who had sparked the courage that sustained her in all the years without him. Because of him, she realizes, I have learned I can be incredibly brave. And because I have that capacity for incredible courage, I also have the capacity for incredible happiness. The realization rings with the certainty of truth, and for the moment she forgets all of her fears.
She turns to him then, and he is taken aback by the brilliance of her smile. “Thank you,” she repeats, with more intention behind the simple words. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”