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.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqLtCc1p25W
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Title: midnight talk562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHU00m0QNgl
By: Kanae (Goth-Punk88 @ ff.net)562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMvhxJ4rzTC
Rating: T562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7RtDEw5sLp
Word Count: 1.462562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡThLpla8Z7V
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.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd8xJwpL5BD
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“Sasuke…?”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcc7KguneOx
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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.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6QHdeD5SmJ
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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?”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSiPc31p2gb
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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.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡneS1P6BdHw
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“Why would they hate you, Sasuke?”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡREuw00l49q
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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.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS0Te8VcRAU
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“… I almost killed their mother, didn’t I?”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb9xMx6uEk9
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So this is what this was about, huh?562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGqDGiZCpf2
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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.”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaue4WgIaUk
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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…”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLZscOuDpYF
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“Sasuke—”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNcSDEpXWWA
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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?”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSNsN6xGRUm
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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.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOqqlPANpoC
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It makes her frown, her hand slipping down his hair and to his neck.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYHBndn3wzS
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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.”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ92xKTnnmrl
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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.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡReT5K1zi1i
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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.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqALWhxxfrI
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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?”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3qfhDu08Vm
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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.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEcFpKUlCrh
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“No,” he agrees thoughtfully, voice soft. “You are not, Karin… But you are no devil, and I—”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbeSeDKVXxm
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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.”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡooAOWz6RoV
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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.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTI9X6AyJmd
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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.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIkI5tEl3Aq
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Not when she had already forgiven him a long time ago.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpE0vSQNUjU
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She would not play his game.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3cMqiSX7nQ
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“If you feel that way, then why are you with me, Sasuke?”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Izj0Lr5jp
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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.”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyvtWorb8XJ
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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.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9UYW6sApn6
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“Is that all this is to you, then? You not wanting anyone else to have me?”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ81mizEf5l8
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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.”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDq5KLRGmjN
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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.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHi9OK5ZTnV
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“Then let me hear it, Sasuke.”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ594dF3vMHM
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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.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUmgiqADten
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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.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIE5cGSHlPp
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“Karin…”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡccUHJFDJoQ
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And so, she does not back down.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8NFXOWwg2H
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“Say it.”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqXGLalXaHj
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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.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡckovN8fopm
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When his obsidian eyes open again, what she sees in them steals the breath right off her lungs.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDE0Sy7xIJI
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“Karin, I…”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFYYiMBtMEh
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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.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgIzeE83n4Y
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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.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmVz1hkdwqK
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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:562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyNWxGlwALK
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“It’s the same for me,” her voice an intimate whisper meant for him and him only. “Always.”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6JU42MmDPg
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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,”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbcUFDtH52v
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“… How can you know that?”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW2Rz1KnkpA
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“Don’t you trust me?”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGN5LlqCZDq
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Sasuke says nothing; he does not need to. Karin smiles. “Then trust me on this, Sasuke.”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJpewnWn33v
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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.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzLGsW8lQgP
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“…Alright.”562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGY73BIxEFd
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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.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg7Z2I2Lg5F
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You idiot, Karin thinks, fondly. They love you, already.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhAXQStwUH1
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As did she. And that was all she needed to know to quiet down her own fears; her own insecurities.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡurcZQb62W9
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We will be fine, she knew.562Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo8KXuStBN9
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They would be.
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tags: fanfic, karin, naruto, sasukarin, sasuke
ns216.73.216.143da2
