#ratedk

My very first artwork reveal, for SasuHina Month 2022, I present Amae (Rated K)...

This is my Day 1 and Day 13 submissions with the following prompts:

Day 1

Aienkien (Japanese)

“A mysterious attraction that unites two people.“

Amae (Japanese)

“To fall into the arms of your loved one.”

and

Day 13

Kyoka suigetsu (Japanese)

“Subtle and profound beauty that cannot be described in words.”

Mamihlapinatapei (Yagan)

“The wordless, meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something, but are both reluctant to do so.”

I felt like this drawing really captures all the elements from these two days but they specifically focus on a meaningful look after falling into the arms of your loved one. I hope you enjoy!

“Sophie! Sophie, wake up!” A voice said. “Mom!” 

Sophie’s eyes opened, slowly. As she opened, them, two faces were leaning over her, a panicked look on their faces. “Where-what-wh-wha- what happened?”

“You fainted,” One said. Calla. The girl’s name was Calla. Like, Calla that died? No, that couldn’t be right. She didn’t know anyone else named Calla. 

“Oh.” Then she remembered something one of them- Belle- had said when she was still unconcious. Mom. They’d called her mom. “Did you call me mom?”

“Yes. Well, that is who you are, to us.”

“What?” She exclaimed, her eyes widening, and her cheeks flushing red.

“Yeah, mom. Although, you don’t look much like her. She’s got a nice face. All I can see on yours are those dark circles,” Calla told her, bluntly.

“That’s not very nice.” Sophie looked around the room. “Well, how did you get here, then? Did you lightleap?”

“Time travel.”

“Excuse me?”

“Yeah. It’s my ability. I guess something about your weird genetics and dad’s super powerful ones merged together, and made this. A time traveler.”

“Oh. Who is your father?” Belle and Calla looked at eachother, and then whispered something. Sophie caught bits of it. “Influence” “Forkle” “Silveny” “Aunt” “Biana” “Grandma” “Evil” and “Mom” but they didn’t make any sense. 

“We don’t know if we should tell you or not, after all, it might influence your decision. So, we’ve decided, why don’t you get all the crew over here, and we’ll go from there,” Calla informed her. 

“No, no, just tell me. Please, I have to know.” Something in her gut told her she knew who it was. He was always there for her. He was cute, handsome, even. There’d even been moments when- maybe- she’d thought there was something between them. But she didn’t know for sure. 

“Sorry, mom. We can’t.”

“Please?” She felt her mind aching to reach into theirs, read theirs, have them tell who she was going to marry, have these kids with. 

“Not yet. Later, we promise. Now get all our family over here.”

“Are you all related?” 

“We, mom. But yes, techinically. I’ll tell you who Aunt Biana, Uncle Tam, Aunt Linh end up with if you listen carefully and promise not to tell.” 

Sophie nodded. 

“Well, Uncle Tam and Aunt Biana. They’ve got a son. We call him Ken, but his whole name is Kenric Forkle Song.” 

“Really?”

“Yeah, really. They love eachother so much-”

“No, no. I mean, Tam came back?”

“It took a bit. After the war. He was a spy, though. Tried to make everyone think that he was with the Neverseen, except you, mom. You guys talked all the time. Sometimes you joke that if dad wasn’t so into you, and you into him, you might’ve fallen for Uncle Tam.”

“What?”

“I know, right? I can’t picture it either. But I guess a war and a lot of late-night talks build a relationship, even a friendly one.”

“Mmm. How about Dex?”

“Well... I don’t know...”

“Is he your father?”

“No! No. Just, we already said a lot about Uncle Tam and Aunt Biana. We might’ve changed everything too much already.”

“I won’t tell. I promise. Unless it comes up in our cognate training.”

“Okay, fine.”

And so the two girls began to tell her about everything that happened, excluding their father.

@pianocoat held a special writing session recently on the SasuHina Month discord server where participants learned about the “essential scene” in writing. Part of the class was to create an essential scene in 20 minutes. Aside from giving me high anxiety from the surprise exercise, pianocoat was an excellent instructor. 😜 Thank you, pianocoat!- And with that, I present my contribution.

Essential Things

Background:  After Sakura breaks up with Naruto, Hinata attempts to provide him some solace. Although in a stable relationship, Sasuke allows his jealousy to get the best of him, and he starts an argument with Hinata. It has now been days since they’ve last spoken...

~~~~~~~~~~

The silence in the large, empty room is only broken by rhythmic ticking of the second hand of the old grandfather clock.

Sasuke sits on the couch, staring blankly at the tv screen where nothing plays.

He hasn’t seen her in days. Hasn’t heard her voice in so long he begins to hear her in his mind.

“Come eat your dinner, Sasuke,” she breathily whispers in his ear, except she’s not there.

RIIINNNGG

The noise is blaringly loud, interrupting his sulking.

By the second ring he picks up.

“Hello?”

“Sasuke!” The urgent voice on the other end calls out.

“Naruto?”

“Yeah! It’s Hinata. Something’s happened.”

His heart speeds up and fear seizes his body and floods his veins with ice.

“Where is she?” Sasuke demands.

“She’s at the hospital Sakura works. She…”

Sasuke released the phone. No more words needed, and he was gone in a flash.

He drove in a blaze of panic and fury in the dark of night. Blowing past red lights with screeching tires, ignoring the pissed off drivers who cursed and flipped him the bird.

Parking at the entrance of the hospital, uncaring of it being a tow-away zone, he ran through the entrance. Cutting off several other customers in line, he slammed his palms on the receptionist’s desk and gruffly stated, “Hinata. Hyuga.”

“Sir, you’ll have to wait your turn.”

“Get me the room number for Hinata Hyuga or so help me I will-“

“SASUKE!”

Turning abruptly, his anger and panic melted seeing the very person he sought. Rushing to where she stood, all he wanted was to wrap her in his arms, but at the last minute he refrained. Remembering how they left things.

Stopping a comfortable distance away, his eyes scanned her from head to toe, noting nothing out of order.

“What happened?” He asked.

Her eyes turned soft at the thinly veiled worry in his tone. “I was staying with Sakura, and I have not been eating well. Naruto came over to apologize to her and while I was cleaning up, I fainted.”

He let out a deep sigh. “Are you okay?”

Her unexpected caress to his cheek left him feeling undone. She asked, “Are you?”

Relenting, he admitted, “I’ve missed you… and I haven’t been eating well either.”

She smiled.

He grabbed her hand from his face and kissed her palm.

“Sasuke?”

“Mm-hmm…”

“There’s one more thing.”

Pulling her into his arms he said, “I don’t care. I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“Mmm.” She hummed. “Sasuke, we’re going to be parents…”