42Please don't pitchfork me! I come bearing a gift!
I know it's short but I just pumped this out and I wanted to give you guys something. I hope to have more soon!
Thanks for your support people,
Rose
xoxo
Love the Way You Lie:
Part III
*x*X*x*
Naruto's hands flex as they clench tighter around his coffee cup. His breathing is strained and I wait for him to gather himself. My story still curls heavy around us, blocking out the rest of the world.
"How..." His voice is low and I can feel the anger and pain he's struggling to master, "How long has he been like this?"
I look down at the table. The varnish is old, the initials of young lovers who've sat in these same seats and left marks of their happiness behind, are scratched into the surface.
"Since you beat him in that duel last spring."
"And you've let yourself live scared for that long? Why Sakura?"
I breathe deep and look back up at the blazing, agony filled blue eyes of my friend. "Because...he needs me. And I love him more than I've ever loved myself.
We're sitting in the middle of a vast, pain filled pause; as if we're both belly cut on the field with no way to heal the wound, knowing that death is inevitable.
Or at least that's how I feel. Because my heart has already made its choice.
"We need to get you away from here. Until we can fix him. We can-"
"Naruto," I stop him gently, "He wants me to marry him."
"...what?"
I pull a folded up letter out of my pocket, the creases are soft from being opened and refolded so many times, and hold it out to him.
"He gave this to Ino a week after I left. I wouldn't see him so he wrote it and waited outside her door for three days until she agreed to give it to me."
I watch Naruto read as he reads over the letter. It's not long and I have the words memorized so I almost feel as if I'm looking at the aristocratic script with him.
Sakura,
I'm sorry. I've made promises to you and broken them. I've hurt you. You have no reason to trust me but I have one more promise that I want to make and I hope that you will trust it.
I want to marry you.
Naruto looks up at me and his face twists in horror when our eyes meet. He knows what my answer is.
"I'm going to tell him today."
"Sakura you can't do this. You-"
"Naruto I want you to be at my wedding. Will you come?"
Naruto is on his feet, hands planted angrily on the table and leaning towards me.
"Sakura I won't let you do this! You don't know what you're doing!"
I stay seated, looking up at him with tired eyes.
"Yes Naruto, I do."
He stares at me. Frantic with fear for one of the only family members he's ever had he can't slow the pace of his breathing and I can see him working to rein in the animalistic instincts that scream at him to seek and destroy the source of the danger.
"Please Sakura" His voice catches on the whispered plea and my eyes well up with regret and guilt for the fear and pain that I'm causing him. For the hurt that I'm forcing on him.
"I'm sorry Naruto."
*x*X*x*
The pool of despair I'm floating in is devouring me. Like acid it works slowly, eating through the skin of my sanity to reach the core of my being, the agony even more intense because it's all I have to hold onto. Because as long as I feel the pain I can feel the hope I'm clutching to my heart.
It's been a week. She still hasn't responded to my letter.
How long? I can't even leave the house now for fear not being here if she comes. Can barely leave the couch where I keep my desperate vigil. Constantly on alert my entire body is rigidly locked in place-I've barely slept in two weeks. I don't feel hunger, I barely feel thirst. I don't have the ability to process time anymore. I only know that, with each cycle of light and dark that filters through the sheer white curtains that Sakura hung in our first week in this house, another day has passed.
Tap...taptaptap.
I'm at the door before the sound of the second knock and I open it with shaking hands.
It's her.
Her hair gleams in the fading light of the evening sun, clean and soft it hides the expression of her face as she looks down at her feet.
Standing here we're both silent. I'm drowning in a sudden flood of magma that sears through my lungs and makes me dizzy with the lack of oxygen. My eyes are searching for something to cling to, something that will tell me why she's come.
There.
An emerald tear rests in the hollow of her throat. Sadness and hope sings with every glint of refracted light and my heart leaps. She's wearing the necklace I gave her.
Thoughtless, I'm reaching out towards the stone. It feels like a promise and I only need to touch it to make it a reality. My hand is slow and hesitant, the air feels fragile and the moment could shatter with a single breath.
My fingers brush against the jewel and then, whisper soft, my finger ghosts over the skin of her throat before I let my arm fall down to my side.
She's opening her hands and I see the folded piece of paper she's holding. Her head turns up and her gaze holds mine. She's watching me and I can't read what her eyes are saying. It's frightening.
What is she saying?
I open my mouth to try and say something but my voice is trapped. I can't-
Sakura's nodding at me and a tiny smile lifts the corner of her mouth.
She's in my arms and there are no thoughts anymore.
Joy needs no thoughts.
*x*X*x*
It's not much but just know that I haven't given up on this story! Life's just been a crazy crazy mess.
Let me know what you think! It's still soooo freaking hard to write this way so I don't feel uperdy duperdy confident about it. :P