Work Text:
Tremors at the Fault Line
And sometimes you turn me into miso soup. The weight of your embrace is shattering, so heartwarming it sends shivers up my spine from the most unused corners of my heart. It moves through my fault lines, sifting the hardened earth away, making space for all the tears I’ve stuck under my skin. It takes just a single break - a sob in your arms - and the water rushes in, swishing my rough exterior and making decades’ worth of sediments dance.
Hours later when the surge is over and my turbulent heart settles, my mind preemptively mourns. It is midnight and your coat is on my floor. Your sandals are scattered by the door. Somewhere amongst the mess of clothes, my loneliness burns. Your pink hair fans out against one of my pillow. Bedsheets ablaze and the echoes of my name in your gasp still ring in my ears. You are finally mine and I mourn it all. I mourn for when your waves no longer meet my shore. When you don’t crash through my door. When you don’t knock anymore and my whole life is ruined.
Thoughts of your safety and your hug and your kiss will haunt me now that I know what it’s like to be held together. The distance awaiting my next departure spits at my hesitation, calling me weak. I’ve mastered space and time and gods and legends without worry, but I lack haste at the thought of forgetting your taste and your warm embrace. Now that I’ve had you, I can’t lose you. I didn’t know anything like this could sprout deep within my soul. I didn’t know when my lands healed. I didn’t know when the skies parted. I didn’t know when the seasons changed. But there you are, everywhere all at once like the advent of spring.
When dawn breaks through your dreams, you gather your clothes and I gather my courage. You’re quiet this morning - more shy than I’ve ever seen you before. Are you scared of my cruel honesty? Are you scared to look into my eyes and not see the depth of your love reflected back at you? Are you scared of my gnarled touch, crackling with lightning instead of soothing with a sweet caress? Everything can be misinterpreted; every single past mistake can come back to rip apart my future as you walk away.
You say my name to bid me farewell and everything stops. You say something about a shift at work. You say just the right things to let me sweep last night’s events under the rug. You give me an out.
“You were probably just exhausted, Sasuke-kun.”
“I’m glad you were able to get some stress relief.”
“I’ll see you when you’re back in Konoha?”
Bullshit. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.
The electricity surges through me and my fist pummels through the dam bottling my feelings. Our lips meet again and it’s just as sweet as last night. Maybe even better because your face isn’t stained with my tears and your grip is confident weaving through the roots of my hair.
With your lips only a few centimeters from mine, I can feel the moment you stop breathing when I tell you, “no.”
“No?”
“No. You’re coming with me this time.”