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.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW9RpVLIKhw
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Title: midnight talk534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvuMZGsXwFm
By: Kanae (Goth-Punk88 @ ff.net)534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnQpDQQpr2h
Rating: T534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUMnh1oU5Vc
Word Count: 1.462534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3HptDinV7Z
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.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwY3GWjuCJp
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“Sasuke…?”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiQpThpM8AG
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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.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡap2QAh2Wi7
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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?”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5hnt5gE3pa
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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.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTvqtV1iLrT
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“Why would they hate you, Sasuke?”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAlXHHykYpj
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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.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoRoetP3Anq
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“… I almost killed their mother, didn’t I?”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7sDxn8PvAo
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So this is what this was about, huh?534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCakjFNNI9x
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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.”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ31hnHg6IUZ
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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…”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwsUTuQFNHD
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“Sasuke—”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWT82TBAtgp
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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?”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB2JyBb0EG9
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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.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdFkrsX6225
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It makes her frown, her hand slipping down his hair and to his neck.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCglfWq6Mlm
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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.”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE1drLfX0Na
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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.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ2uYZZmL3u
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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.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyTnWdY4oDM
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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?”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4l9l8Kwgmo
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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.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzjn6d5TFpX
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“No,” he agrees thoughtfully, voice soft. “You are not, Karin… But you are no devil, and I—”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGxqA9D9tIh
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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.”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL1GzUU3wBv
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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.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0kqC8x2yd1
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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.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8s5Y29pTX1
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Not when she had already forgiven him a long time ago.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9n8yK2Aqvg
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She would not play his game.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGV8DHDtuQF
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“If you feel that way, then why are you with me, Sasuke?”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpH8NiJqYqA
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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.”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDxxMxJUJVd
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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.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFYngSOPT6d
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“Is that all this is to you, then? You not wanting anyone else to have me?”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbdrQRuYaF4
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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.”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ53waId6WEz
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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.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUnDGltxz56
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“Then let me hear it, Sasuke.”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo05eIlNWJl
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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.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0jrzsPskxe
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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.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtLtYX9bdZT
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“Karin…”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPIONrY7OX0
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And so, she does not back down.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡauEZDOQzCr
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“Say it.”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrr7MSZJPON
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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.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3uhZXZT1RQ
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When his obsidian eyes open again, what she sees in them steals the breath right off her lungs.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuovNpDgpjv
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“Karin, I…”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvqp7qF0liF
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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.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX9Drx9Sha7
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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.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLsJtJNCipr
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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:534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDCBMl50Op2
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“It’s the same for me,” her voice an intimate whisper meant for him and him only. “Always.”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA1r3K5Na54
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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,”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDnGrQWUnHs
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“… How can you know that?”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ35WquJkEDf
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“Don’t you trust me?”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLrRmAFWEek
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Sasuke says nothing; he does not need to. Karin smiles. “Then trust me on this, Sasuke.”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs3bHtXjdtt
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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.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdwQ01erauH
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“…Alright.”534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjuhqJ3merY
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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.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbnvBDM4Vth
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You idiot, Karin thinks, fondly. They love you, already.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSmoZqYvByd
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As did she. And that was all she needed to know to quiet down her own fears; her own insecurities.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlqBBNblLrd
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We will be fine, she knew.534Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAoVohd4Udk
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They would be.
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tags: fanfic, karin, naruto, sasukarin, sasuke
ns216.73.216.176da2
