ONESHOT - SASUKARIN; MIDNIGHT TALK
Fellow SK shippers and I have been discussing how do we envision Sasuke and Karin as parents; and while I was thinking about that I was hit by a sudden mental picture. And so, this little drabble-turned-one-shot was born.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA4YzPATxEi
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDma2CvNl1D
Title: midnight talk444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiNipQ56Wi1
By: Kanae (Goth-Punk88 @ ff.net)444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDELAqywDQ5
Rating: T444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4efpAtUQUa
Word Count: 1.462444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTSURRw63AH
Author's Notes: Takes place post-series.
midnight talk;
A spark of alert flashes through her consciousness, briskly pulling her back from slumber. For a moment, she is disoriented—but then she feels it. That ghost of a caress, his finger absentmindedly tracing that particular spot above her left breast. The spot that was buried underneath bite marks but that he somehow never failed to find.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrlD8YP8olU
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1XlilXlnQM
“Sasuke…?”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMdJlvvNbJv
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrmZVHYuZUw
He does not reply straight away; rather, his body speaks for him—the hold of the arm circling her waist strengthening, his fingertips pressing against the tender skin of her hip and his toes coming to rest against her ankle. But when his voice joins his body language, it is nothing more than a mere murmur.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCqPS3FC4Xh
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxLZQRghq83
“…What if I’m not a good father, Karin?” he inquires, his breath tickling her bare breast. “What if… they hate me?”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLIfSExPjlD
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLVCogBb9G4
His free hand travels from her collarbones to her swollen belly, and Karin has to resist the urge to swat it away out of annoyance at his insecurities. Letting such a thing get to him, this was so unlike him.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgCor2I2FTm
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4RuOYR8KjF
“Why would they hate you, Sasuke?”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5OTgssb3EA
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPpsa2A1exd
His fingers move up, up and come to lightly trace the tear-shaped scar that both of them knew only too well, and she feels it again, then—that fluctuation in his chakra. That drop of mud that had sent ripples to what used to be a peaceful current and that had pulled Karin back from her own rest.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1DEmpuO5rV
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbsejzQiWNG
“… I almost killed their mother, didn’t I?”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhIdcvSAkNQ
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtxqiT94ifw
So this is what this was about, huh?444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdxaf2so0pu
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3rO8CKJaza
Karin sighs, raising her hand and letting her fingers entwine with locks of Sasuke’s jet-black hair. “We’ve been over this before, Sasuke.”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQQ6kp57LDN
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDifiLH44WJ
“I know,” he acknowledges, but his chakra is still stirring and his voice is still a strained whisper. “I know, Karin. But…”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡas067te7qc
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡklOcn30Qey
“Sasuke—”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjL2hcT9M1Q
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgaZXWqkkbu
“—What I did was… still is unforgivable,” he says, his voice gaining strength in order to overpower her complaints. “What right do I have to be the father of your children, Karin?”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1wmW7BdE17
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡghYzl47c5u
Their eyes meet, then. Karin’s glasses lie discarded on the nightstand, but she does not need them—not when he was this close, with his head lying on the crook of her neck. Not even the darkness of the room could prevent Karin from reading the look in his eyes as clearly as she could read the turmoil swimming inside his chakra.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡROTIuxN9qD
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPIB4wfGssY
It makes her frown, her hand slipping down his hair and to his neck.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS5T0IUWQIZ
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrq1W9wOKHu
“Don’t be stupid, Sasuke. This isn’t about rights—you are the father of my children, whether you like it or not. It’s too late to turn back, now.”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqWTcAIojDZ
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZWdxpwxZoK
I wouldn’t turn back even if I could, is what remains unsaid, but Karin hopes Sasuke will be able to pick it up from her gaze, from her touch. It is an undeniable truth that Sasuke should know well by now, and Karin is not going to indulge him by voicing it aloud.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVt52Jy3iw8
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjjq0pe0hbD
So focused is she on her thoughts that she misses his movements. When his warm fingers come to lay against her cheek, delicately, as if afraid that she would disappear with the lightest of touches, Karin finds her breath leaving her in the form of a stifled gasp.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSgD4SdoEL4
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrwAksnoHeR
“Why…?” he asks, his eyes boring into hers, and Karin finds her edges rounding and becoming cotton-soft under his touch and the urgency behind his gaze. “Why did you give me a second chance, Karin? Why… why do you allow me to stay by your side, despite everything I’ve done?”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3lLZxTjY2c
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6vuALGw1Mq
“I’m… no saint myself, Sasuke,” Karin finds herself muttering, but anything she may have added slips through her mind and remains forgotten, as Sasuke pushes back the bangs from her forehead and begins to trace the contours of her face.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaHJNxNnFyo
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcHFUspL1w2
“No,” he agrees thoughtfully, voice soft. “You are not, Karin… But you are no devil, and I—”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhuT0IEJfpt
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpWKFeRXUwa
“A man,” Karin cuts in, firmly, and Sasuke’s fingers halt their ministrations. “You are nothing but a man, Sasuke. And men make mistakes.”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOqYRKKGJaG
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK641xMgD9z
“…Mistakes that could’ve cost your life, Karin,” Sasuke reminds her, his eyes narrowing. Karin’s mirror his look, faded annoyance beginning to come back to life yet again.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHGSyqKX0fh
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiq4RKN4Ehj
How many times would they have to go through this before Sasuke let it go? When would he learn that clinging onto the past never did any good? All his mistakes—all the pain he caused himself and those surrounding them steamed from that stubbornness of his, from that apparent incapability of living the present for what it was. And Karin—Karin refused to let him continue to chastise himself in her name’s sake.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVipyJiVWj5
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI5PCTg03Jz
Not when she had already forgiven him a long time ago.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVDwsYU702c
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7VPIc0bU0v
She would not play his game.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLuAX7FMZit
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxiQqhoHI8X
“If you feel that way, then why are you with me, Sasuke?”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSDAC5y1CHD
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX9p8d3F7L1
“… Because I’m selfish,” he replies after a breath, and his fingertips are tracing her lips, now, “I’ve always been selfish, Karin. You know that well.”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZRyynoela0
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFyD7bRrT5n
A ghost of a smile curves the corner of Karin’s lips, but she forces herself to hide it before he could have the chance to notice it through his touch. It was no time to humor him; not yet, at least.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7tdXQ77O4v
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs2XIUtPJoS
“Is that all this is to you, then? You not wanting anyone else to have me?”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzmocG61sVU
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB5p0cW1WVp
“No,” Sasuke states, and he is frowning, as if indignant by the suggestion alone. “You know that’s not how it is, Karin.”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq3oWwzgUdS
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsJ76zuA7t5
Oh, she knew. Of course, she knew, she would not be with him otherwise. But Sasuke needed to learn how to say it; because while she did not need to hear it, his children would.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4izN4qdETZ
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA2rzA7wZtW
“Then let me hear it, Sasuke.”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDIJEVCz6k0
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI0YgMSK9oU
There is hesitance showcased in his eyes and expressed through the way his fingertips linger, unmoving, ghosting over her cheeks; but Karin did not allow herself to feel like she was being unfair to him, asking him to say words that she had yet to say aloud herself. But the difference was that Karin knew how to do so; she had not forgotten.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqtAoSGUwfc
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfzdtc3t1jj
But Sasuke? Sasuke had. And Karin knew that was one of the thorns that kept jabbing at him whenever his eyes flickered across her swollen belly. A thorn embodied by the scar that remained as a memento right above her heart.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMeYWU0bFPv
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0zuZy58Y10
“Karin…”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkhY8xfYp20
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZgTDbA3RUu
And so, she does not back down.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6e5gFEQHHx
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXb7fRMAzcu
“Say it.”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtuQduVNuUY
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQZc9mf4AsS
Sasuke heaves in a sigh and closes his eyes for a long moment, defeated. Karin reaches out, then—reaches out and traces his face with the same adoration with which he had been tracing hers, using her warm touch as encouragement.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6GXERJoc8B
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡurqxbLywqw
When his obsidian eyes open again, what she sees in them steals the breath right off her lungs.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3UNVm7Ooc5
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEaNSKDM7em
“Karin, I…”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS3oPqvzIYh
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZUbqvnRjJj
His voice fades into silence as the words stumble over each other inside his throat, inexperienced, alien to his lips but overpowering in their truth—and so Sasuke leans in and lets his lips speak wordlessly directly to Karin’s own, which answer their call with a hunger that would never cease to set his very veins aflame.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0UDOKwoorl
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH1FuZKmX4r
When they part, Karin’s arms, which were circling his neck, hold him in place; and so he lets his forehead lay against hers, his lips lightly brushing her own with every word he spoke.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOYhlLYVmWQ
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡroSQY2ZM6a
“I want you, Karin,” are the words he says aloud, but Karin hears beyond them and into the feelings he expressed through his kiss—through his gaze, through his touch. And it is to them that she replies:444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO4t1I4DRgG
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpb2VfRSKGk
“It’s the same for me,” her voice an intimate whisper meant for him and him only. “Always.”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAFFz9EKlay
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMJQ5TcttXM
Her name leaves his lips in the form of a shaky breath, and Karin holds him close, gives him solace in the modest curve of her breasts. “They won’t hate you, Sasuke,”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsriXA5s2EL
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ07f661RInA
“… How can you know that?”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPFmYUZNvoG
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHTbrPwhDyZ
“Don’t you trust me?”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyKLqz6GeUv
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCVe64eIU8S
Sasuke says nothing; he does not need to. Karin smiles. “Then trust me on this, Sasuke.”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIJAzpth15A
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmOFlLhIaCU
There is no way they will hate you, is what Karin tells him without words as she plays with his hair. Not if you look at them the way you looked at me just now.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlelVxngYiH
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡubSuiXLC7d
“…Alright.”444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT1s2WYjlkn
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyKQ9lDIix9
Karin’s gaze darts to his face, and she is pleased to see a peaceful expression taking over his features and reflecting on his chakra. The sight softens her smile, and she feels a surge of warmth expanding through her body as Sasuke unconsciously places his palm over her belly, the chakra of the two beings resting inside stirring to answer his call.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0aPfyy7kfb
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs11A82IJpP
You idiot, Karin thinks, fondly. They love you, already.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm1FKXEYeuv
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk9jFk5n0a8
As did she. And that was all she needed to know to quiet down her own fears; her own insecurities.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTEypI6niy1
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoASXeBHISl
We will be fine, she knew.444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqCH95G1sVz
444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhVyDKWfy36
They would be.
—444Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJOPcIGd7Tg
.end
tags: fanfic, karin, naruto, sasukarin, sasuke
ns52.15.72.156da2
