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Tossing and turning in bed, Sasori finally throws off the covers and decides to peruse the castle. If he plans on becoming a creature of the night, he might as well start acting like one.
Wandering about, he finds himself outside in the back gardens and his steps slow, taking in the array of flowers shining silvery-white in the full moon’s light. He starts naming all the night-blooming breeds he sees, the scents intermingling in the back of his throat, cloying.
Night Phlox, Moonflower, Evening Primose, Night Blooming Jasmine, Mock Orange…
When he comes across Sakura kneeling by a patch of gardenias, a pair of pruning shears in one hand and the other cradling a bloom larger than the rest, he stops in his tracks. The anxiousness that kept him up starts to lessen and he realizes he’d been unintentionally seeking her out.
“Couldn’t sleep?” She asks without looking up, dropping the flower to inspect another.
“No,” he admits. “I thought a stroll would help.”
“It is a beautiful night for a stroll,” he can hear the smile in her voice, though she still keeps her gaze on the flowers in front of her. “The garden always calms me down whenever I can’t stand the castle anymore.”
“Does that happen often?” He wonders, not expecting an answer.
“It used to. All that space for little old me, I’d feel…a little overwhelmed,” she remarks, surprising him. “Not so much lately.”
At that, she throws a coy look his way and he stiffens, feeling a blush creeping up his cheeks. He looks away, his gaze landing on the pink petals of evening primose, the rare spot of color in the garden of evening blooms.
“Ah, I see,” he manages to say. “That’s…good, isn’t it?”
He hears the click of the pruning shears once before she speaks again, sounding much closer than a moment ago.
“Yes, it is,” she whispers in his ear, her cool breath brushing the sensitive hairs there. When he turns his head, slow to try and hide the fact his heart’s beating wildly and every hair on his body stands on end, he keeps his face as blank as he can meeting her emerald gaze less than a foot away. She’d made no sound, even though she was standing over ten feet away only a few moments ago. His gaze involuntarily drops to her lips which part in a grin, showing off the tips of sharp canine teeth.
Before he can think of anything to say, the creamy sweet scent of a gardenia fills his nose as she lifts the flower she cut up to him.
“For you,” she says, tucking it into the top pocket of his night robe. She takes a step back and Sasori lets out the breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding.
“Thank you,” he whispers, the only coherent thought in his head.
She offers him a charming smile before she walks past him, making her way back to the castle. “Good night, Sasori. Enjoy the rest of your midnight stroll.”
Her leaving his sight makes him blink and he can think clearly again. He turns around, the tip of a reply on his tongue, but she’s already gone. Disappeared into the moonlit darkness like the creature of night she is.
“Good night, Sakura,” he says anyway before resuming his walk. When he hears faint laughter, he only looks up at the full moon.