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.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS7sHkWfkx5
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Title: midnight talk486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8UDBdCRxW5
By: Kanae (Goth-Punk88 @ ff.net)486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuEmETwYXby
Rating: T486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1DIxGP4Mrx
Word Count: 1.462486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7Y2LGPYdwN
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.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9UBjinLoE5
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“Sasuke…?”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZMomQFlKOb
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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.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAY6xUAohaW
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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?”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtCMXo6IDx0
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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.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIII0orkOCb
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“Why would they hate you, Sasuke?”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkEtpUJFi4C
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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.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvWlGAjkzYW
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“… I almost killed their mother, didn’t I?”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXTYybUzQbr
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So this is what this was about, huh?486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBSlhbCfBKl
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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.”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡblUjZRD1SX
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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…”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBaTJOmBEiZ
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“Sasuke—”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmesvjSsF5X
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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?”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1AJhfXIcgh
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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.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP3WBmNfV48
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It makes her frown, her hand slipping down his hair and to his neck.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjdcNWrbPFi
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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.”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOcALYnRDsx
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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.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmob3XpRbfu
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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.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzLmyBp1diH
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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?”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMUBxFHpQ5P
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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.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk2kvC1fb9h
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“No,” he agrees thoughtfully, voice soft. “You are not, Karin… But you are no devil, and I—”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUkUxGdii9a
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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.”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB55SxUkCsy
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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.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUswEgaXrlP
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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.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmjPiIraidX
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Not when she had already forgiven him a long time ago.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNBzW9DNNqq
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She would not play his game.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg2LAzE1T2u
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“If you feel that way, then why are you with me, Sasuke?”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeUYlXKUgR8
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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.”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5tRp1KVkKt
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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.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyEV6r9z7fm
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“Is that all this is to you, then? You not wanting anyone else to have me?”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS3bKQjtFcL
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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.”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD8sqolxNkp
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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.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8bfDV8lEod
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“Then let me hear it, Sasuke.”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBJqh8gc302
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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.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVrcCij57fj
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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.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIoJ0LW7bx1
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“Karin…”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIHD5DgAaWr
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And so, she does not back down.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡP1KvI76Yjp
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“Say it.”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmYXGBqVB5l
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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.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8dRXSfqZSM
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When his obsidian eyes open again, what she sees in them steals the breath right off her lungs.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnfEIWLEmkz
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“Karin, I…”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFF5lZoR36S
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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.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuyxQXeAjWe
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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.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdRAgcIDqG4
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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:486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTOjNiWVRx0
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“It’s the same for me,” her voice an intimate whisper meant for him and him only. “Always.”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPeDkkItGh3
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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,”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaEumo6PGVb
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“… How can you know that?”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7IKQNAYFb1
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“Don’t you trust me?”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQG8QbV1TM6
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Sasuke says nothing; he does not need to. Karin smiles. “Then trust me on this, Sasuke.”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz4n9MlvJ18
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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.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhl8UZEvAen
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“…Alright.”486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ81fOmueRR7
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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.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk7fAxekNIS
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You idiot, Karin thinks, fondly. They love you, already.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtmD9pH3TO6
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As did she. And that was all she needed to know to quiet down her own fears; her own insecurities.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHioXl4Y7u7
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We will be fine, she knew.486Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9GPKa39dYU
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They would be.
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tags: fanfic, karin, naruto, sasukarin, sasuke
ns18.218.110.116da2
