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.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvaulrf6ncR
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Title: midnight talk371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5E02dzL29E
By: Kanae (Goth-Punk88 @ ff.net)371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2muWnStNmc
Rating: T371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7vVvro4mf9
Word Count: 1.462371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOeZ21Zd2r0
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.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiEjVlfjW6o
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“Sasuke…?”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS5IIJF6wh9
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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.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe38ZScsZwH
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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?”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSaPCbBQQGx
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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.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOP9d8PLJpI
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“Why would they hate you, Sasuke?”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMNoR4AVA7J
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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.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxSvQSkyUya
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“… I almost killed their mother, didn’t I?”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrgjrLScSN9
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So this is what this was about, huh?371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBiVMcTcsDg
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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.”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCnL4FAahNc
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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…”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfQExNpSIZr
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“Sasuke—”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXnjSV2gwUn
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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?”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwvY83MDTvM
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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.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGuaVtIPcCZ
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It makes her frown, her hand slipping down his hair and to his neck.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx6oVFiJ6N9
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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.”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTqK5deOX0Y
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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.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU7BkX6SI7S
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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.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEaUx8QuZtk
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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?”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOCh2Jbl1YU
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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.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3tVz0ZfjDT
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“No,” he agrees thoughtfully, voice soft. “You are not, Karin… But you are no devil, and I—”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzX3evd0L9J
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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.”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEvswjnBpGq
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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.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxAIMURXz6F
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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.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaGxq0pwBp3
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Not when she had already forgiven him a long time ago.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvaHBMefRWH
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She would not play his game.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPiiZrkFLhK
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“If you feel that way, then why are you with me, Sasuke?”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhaFpTQAtrr
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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.”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXfBzUljpcR
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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.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSYvDIWcMu9
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“Is that all this is to you, then? You not wanting anyone else to have me?”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2eLYHZ00jU
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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.”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡao5FbOHWpZ
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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.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIYCXLCrYdl
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“Then let me hear it, Sasuke.”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmD5hJKlirL
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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.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV2hbccwrcP
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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.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3NmQJWvz1Q
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“Karin…”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0NdsMpqkcm
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And so, she does not back down.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZCraQtDcNP
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“Say it.”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVZnuRdL1W2
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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.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy5UMSzEvx5
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When his obsidian eyes open again, what she sees in them steals the breath right off her lungs.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ23T6vRSLNN
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“Karin, I…”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCJp9BSP6KI
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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.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8mEp0mVd08
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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.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxxxnC49Do6
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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:371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd7NxKQNArP
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“It’s the same for me,” her voice an intimate whisper meant for him and him only. “Always.”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIkanPG4o0a
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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,”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNjj6qfPQJa
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“… How can you know that?”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ0xIzhSytF
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“Don’t you trust me?”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbnmtpXCygc
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Sasuke says nothing; he does not need to. Karin smiles. “Then trust me on this, Sasuke.”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQvstpLc0cY
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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.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsLB8zjqINK
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“…Alright.”371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡULZDFQbxGc
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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.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcwAky61zUj
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You idiot, Karin thinks, fondly. They love you, already.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF1TVMqST6o
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As did she. And that was all she needed to know to quiet down her own fears; her own insecurities.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvVCmInSbD0
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We will be fine, she knew.371Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2f5MeK7M53
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They would be.
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tags: fanfic, karin, naruto, sasukarin, sasuke
ns 15.158.61.43da2
