Work Text:
He stared at her.
Blink.
Blink.
Stare.
"Is there something on my face?"
He shook his head.
"No."
"Then stop staring."
.
.
.
Could he take it anymore?
She sought him out--both of them knew it for sure--but the moment she found him, she turned away.
Maybe she just wanted to see him.
Maybe she just wanted the reassurance that he wasn't going anywhere.
Or maybe, just maybe...
She wanted to burn the face of her betrayer into her memory.
Never again.
.
.
.
So when Uchiha Sasuke picked up the phone at one in the morning for a hysterical Haruno Sakura, he knew he had gone soft.
When he found himself at her doorstep at eight in the morning, he knew what she meant to him.
You are... my last grip on sanity.
"I can't believe I was stupid enough to trust him too." She hiccuped.
After everything they've been through (the tears, the fights, the glares, the hugs, the sweet words), he doesn't need to consciously remember why she cries over her broken heart in the first place.
"Why did you take me back?" Sasuke whispered.
She wiped away the fresh wave of tears.
"Isn't that what friends do? They forgive." She answered blankly.
.
.
.
Two years later, he finally understood.
"I love you."
She smiled sadly at him.
"You're too late."
.
.
.
When she found out the news, Sasuke found himself roused from slumber at one in the morning.
He found himself on her doorstep at one forty-five.
As he held her in his arms, he felt his heart cry with her.
Her tears were falling for something other than emotional heartbreak.
What do you do when your spirit is being killed alongside your heart?
.
.
.
He stood before the sea of white.
"Haruno Sakura... was everything to me. She was my best friend, my teacher, my anchor to reality. We've had our differences growing up, but we always managed to find our way past them."
"Her last year battling with cancer was difficult for me, but even more so for her. The day she died, I was going to give her this-"
He held up a brilliant diamond ring.
"But i guess love doesn't bring back the dead either."
The crowd was silent.
Sasuke smiled bitterly.
"She would have said no."
A startled gasp ran through the assembly.
"Because she knew she didn't have enough time to say yes."