#sohhngs

“Yeah, all those hidden traps are really clever,” I say, because you did save me from that humongous snake earlier. And I really do think they’re amazing, I’ve never seen anything like it. I can’t tell if it’s the light of our campfire that paints your face pink or if it’s a blush, but I can see that small, secret smile from here. I’m used to catching things like that, too.

“Granny Chiyo is a good teacher,” you consent, but I see the hesitation in your lips, the shift of your eyes, and I wonder what has happened to you before we met.

You radiate a mournful desperation like my teammates, something so deep I can’t even begin to fill. Maybe that’s what drew me to you, nevermind that you saved me.

Ino always says I have a soft spot for hopeless cases.

You note that I’m shivering with all the sternness of Iruka-sensei and I want to laugh. You’re so far beyond your years, you may as well be twenty instead of thirteen.

“It’s fine,” I say, even though I know for a fact that I lost everything in my pack when we made our escape, including my jacket. And my sleeping bag.

I expected at least a ‘you can have my jacket,’ but I should’ve known you’d be more subtle than that. Instead you walk around the fire to sit next to me, tentatively pushing your shoulder against mine. I can’t help but lean in because my arms are bare and the night is chill and you’re just so warm.

“Sakura,” you say, and it sounds like flowers blooming or the sun rising or things that don’t have sounds in general, but you sound like them. Like a million different beginnings.

“Yeah, Sasori?” I can feel my heart in my throat and I wonder why I even trust you, why you saved me. Too many questions, not enough answers. I feel I could find the answer if I just leaned in a little closer…

I was stunned to feel the softness of your lips on mine. My first kiss and I hadn’t even seen it coming. So sweet, so overwhelmingly gentle, of all things, and I let it whip past me.

“I—I’m sorry,” you said, but you wouldn’t look at me. “I wasn’t thinking straight. It won’t happen again.”

You tried to retreat but I wouldn’t let you.

“I liked it.” My words are all jumbled together and I want to sink into the ground with all this embarrassment. If your reddening face is any indicator, I can tell you feel it a hundred times over. My hand is shaking and I hope you don’t feel the tremors in my body as I fold my hand over yours.