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.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwi1Win5pVV
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Title: midnight talk524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSW27AYa0mb
By: Kanae (Goth-Punk88 @ ff.net)524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVTVEqPIKKv
Rating: T524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN6G0g6D1zc
Word Count: 1.462524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd9GkFgSQxO
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.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpnQzxKsuHH
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“Sasuke…?”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ95lA0AniHD
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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.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlND6A1ztze
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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?”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw3dIp3xpsF
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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.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX6Lo45owbr
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“Why would they hate you, Sasuke?”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk3JsrJsKzI
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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.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQwRg9RHVDf
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“… I almost killed their mother, didn’t I?”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY7FT5jW4MY
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So this is what this was about, huh?524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfLvU8ySGXo
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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.”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvFS1X3cmYX
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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…”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKRnKF022Fu
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“Sasuke—”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZsDkZ8Fsox
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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?”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ91ohevGbn
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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.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ18eyLG3Kr1
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It makes her frown, her hand slipping down his hair and to his neck.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWQ6rd1zpRp
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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.”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcyeJtF2uRf
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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.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkt1NqonjvP
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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.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyqWn2AFwId
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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?”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7ccX6rcboS
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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.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxxbjb9yKII
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“No,” he agrees thoughtfully, voice soft. “You are not, Karin… But you are no devil, and I—”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKAoNYCxqzG
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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.”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiGZynP8rAa
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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.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSNVyyXOJhM
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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.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKKcwDLZ9Gn
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Not when she had already forgiven him a long time ago.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZmHttSBjiE
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She would not play his game.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl1DbVJn531
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“If you feel that way, then why are you with me, Sasuke?”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4hiFI6NpJV
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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.”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡllZoqP5dSf
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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.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjspGc9Siqt
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“Is that all this is to you, then? You not wanting anyone else to have me?”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDbWeSPCS6Z
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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.”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyvw4WcABN7
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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.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmjfmHEWud0
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“Then let me hear it, Sasuke.”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDWDp3IYD2X
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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.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQp6sjEzK6m
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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.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9CqafCv1AM
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“Karin…”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1oqSs1gacy
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And so, she does not back down.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqZo5yyrjCK
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“Say it.”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmgbrR6KEUV
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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.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCd0zStBPok
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When his obsidian eyes open again, what she sees in them steals the breath right off her lungs.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ290i7DzlIY
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“Karin, I…”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡA46xuA7N9m
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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.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW8waRlqNgl
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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.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuy5UB35SSk
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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:524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuVtOUBNt8k
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“It’s the same for me,” her voice an intimate whisper meant for him and him only. “Always.”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOS5vpUBh2R
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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,”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgnIA2OlIeG
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“… How can you know that?”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOAdfqeMzAz
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“Don’t you trust me?”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXkTcxUGKsC
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Sasuke says nothing; he does not need to. Karin smiles. “Then trust me on this, Sasuke.”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSoGgkNUiEW
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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.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgRV4gG5Rwi
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“…Alright.”524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHbQecfOzGZ
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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.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBHD6MxCFjM
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You idiot, Karin thinks, fondly. They love you, already.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7p0SjyPQ5x
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As did she. And that was all she needed to know to quiet down her own fears; her own insecurities.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7ozC2hthdY
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We will be fine, she knew.524Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgd07E8phaB
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They would be.
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tags: fanfic, karin, naruto, sasukarin, sasuke
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