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.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC4tgUefXBb
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Title: midnight talk449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjjXfbl0BB9
By: Kanae (Goth-Punk88 @ ff.net)449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9egszO46BZ
Rating: T449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3JsPiiA7YM
Word Count: 1.462449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfa4nWwtMvY
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.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUcCdSGm18J
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“Sasuke…?”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNlWAvDMedc
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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.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYUH4xYQva5
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“…What if I’m not a good father, Karin?” he inquires, his breath tickling her bare breast. “What if… they hate me?”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2CTgiEHnUS
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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.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQPlVjELWms
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“Why would they hate you, Sasuke?”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEfydmAo1Mf
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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.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡanlcYbzAHO
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“… I almost killed their mother, didn’t I?”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡofhZBjcG6x
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So this is what this was about, huh?449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCgZiRKZPS5
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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.”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8mBBriGEUH
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“I know,” he acknowledges, but his chakra is still stirring and his voice is still a strained whisper. “I know, Karin. But…”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOc2OxiMzbM
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“Sasuke—”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS6Z3Zvtx0Y
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“—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?”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ59KXC6fReJ
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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.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv5loXQ0fJS
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It makes her frown, her hand slipping down his hair and to his neck.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0U7ZRWeKfb
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“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.”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb5SkG8Zz02
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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.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHz8UCxksXq
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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.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxCzKxuFied
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“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?”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsBrQengZPT
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“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.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYfNqkTbhNr
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“No,” he agrees thoughtfully, voice soft. “You are not, Karin… But you are no devil, and I—”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Ft30ED3HQ
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“A man,” Karin cuts in, firmly, and Sasuke’s fingers halt their ministrations. “You are nothing but a man, Sasuke. And men make mistakes.”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSmx0xnDc1o
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“…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.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkvwR6VJf9a
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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.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqWPrFirheX
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Not when she had already forgiven him a long time ago.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUiyOdqNSFa
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She would not play his game.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSrQyj7JfW8
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“If you feel that way, then why are you with me, Sasuke?”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡemcppoIW0p
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“… 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.”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB7VniMKeS0
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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.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKdLeQXIN1z
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“Is that all this is to you, then? You not wanting anyone else to have me?”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyU3B6w1Vgz
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“No,” Sasuke states, and he is frowning, as if indignant by the suggestion alone. “You know that’s not how it is, Karin.”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8KIcgIKXD7
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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.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGnixB7YBVe
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“Then let me hear it, Sasuke.”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBvAQgO1Twl
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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.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3984uP37NX
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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.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ855vCnczuZ
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“Karin…”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwv2uYablna
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And so, she does not back down.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYijNGegyRv
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“Say it.”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4agni2neIp
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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.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1JpBZlWDX5
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When his obsidian eyes open again, what she sees in them steals the breath right off her lungs.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCMlJTzY39F
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“Karin, I…”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV8ASCtvhDt
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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.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVJDZjqmvEg
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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.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEdqyHwRIQF
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“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:449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQU5NHP0dVg
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“It’s the same for me,” her voice an intimate whisper meant for him and him only. “Always.”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Ls4aODh0p
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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,”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiRBGB2lrS5
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“… How can you know that?”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTNKNz1L4Sw
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“Don’t you trust me?”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6n19Bu3pRU
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Sasuke says nothing; he does not need to. Karin smiles. “Then trust me on this, Sasuke.”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIwMEy6RqGV
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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.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcHNLcbdo1P
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“…Alright.”449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFFvwlH0LSX
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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.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3pUMDxUIcw
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You idiot, Karin thinks, fondly. They love you, already.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYrvxQfJjRi
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As did she. And that was all she needed to know to quiet down her own fears; her own insecurities.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN3qmdqiGYn
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We will be fine, she knew.449Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjo8W5FRjv4
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They would be.
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tags: fanfic, karin, naruto, sasukarin, sasuke
ns3.145.200.8da2
