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.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQAW9CZGjLb
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Title: midnight talk451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSKLFLkIJeA
By: Kanae (Goth-Punk88 @ ff.net)451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEUr3LI592O
Rating: T451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH4HfowwWli
Word Count: 1.462451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEjEHEUcCEt
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.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcsG19k755S
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“Sasuke…?”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQFfEwK9gPt
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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.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpaVmZ7K8bk
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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?”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6BnW8rJUDM
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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.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6G3B8lfsMb
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“Why would they hate you, Sasuke?”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyHYi4emqRx
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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.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7DZHfsiupO
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“… I almost killed their mother, didn’t I?”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ574sWkIg6m
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So this is what this was about, huh?451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPomluoGCMu
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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.”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlG94I66HOw
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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…”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl6IH1zHXSZ
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“Sasuke—”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBCTRaIty82
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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?”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd3uq3ubmdW
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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.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLDZYsSFIll
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It makes her frown, her hand slipping down his hair and to his neck.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9sxFyhfOCu
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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.”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRsFLPIGDs1
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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.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOIahPsaHQp
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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.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVaTPpo0YBV
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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?”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqGyRXDbPcs
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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.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYEltUdQDcz
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“No,” he agrees thoughtfully, voice soft. “You are not, Karin… But you are no devil, and I—”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡenkxtpJRLD
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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.”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu7n35zkWNP
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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.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8ccmoW38xO
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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.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXsJ9XMIrSI
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Not when she had already forgiven him a long time ago.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnKYr7fzceZ
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She would not play his game.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyWHyDu8DXN
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“If you feel that way, then why are you with me, Sasuke?”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMdnYGZt1hg
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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.”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC6crwhnpmA
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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.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡglGCNiM70w
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“Is that all this is to you, then? You not wanting anyone else to have me?”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYhD5EvVmkX
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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.”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ17krQ0DT0q
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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.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM0ZhYapaLj
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“Then let me hear it, Sasuke.”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5H8WCKyFSe
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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.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQJsLy81B71
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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.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfmBR9u1z73
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“Karin…”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL9NfM3pjLL
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And so, she does not back down.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc8cl0uECr1
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“Say it.”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv4rCWTcFPL
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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.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3E0gVJoYi9
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When his obsidian eyes open again, what she sees in them steals the breath right off her lungs.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtnmPDUacE4
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“Karin, I…”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrQN2luhbIC
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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.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMPkxJ1t1LT
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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.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYGy4XijVJ9
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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:451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ87ZaTQk3nl
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“It’s the same for me,” her voice an intimate whisper meant for him and him only. “Always.”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMT2A40Shwg
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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,”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvBZOQynyXC
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“… How can you know that?”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRm1YefQb1p
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“Don’t you trust me?”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡduDidWYlN2
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Sasuke says nothing; he does not need to. Karin smiles. “Then trust me on this, Sasuke.”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX20q8INCQX
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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.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDvD9d0uL98
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“…Alright.”451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFWWIoHzERs
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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.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLv5BnotBSe
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You idiot, Karin thinks, fondly. They love you, already.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡepBglDLJQr
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As did she. And that was all she needed to know to quiet down her own fears; her own insecurities.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡREwPoSeRYw
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We will be fine, she knew.451Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBUkliqrWxU
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They would be.
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tags: fanfic, karin, naruto, sasukarin, sasuke
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