Title:
Time
Author: Winter Ashby (rosweldrmr)
Disclaimer:
Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto & Challenge ©
kakasakudrabble at LiveJournal
Rating: K
Word Count:
500 - exactly!
Summary: Time is constant and yet, ever
changing. It can tear lives apart, and put them back together, if
it's so inclined. Time is the glue that held them together and pushed
them past their pain and regret. Time has a way of fixing mistakes.
(Kakashi & Sakura)
Authors Notes: Week 17 Theme: Time.
This is the first time that I've tried out one of these themed
challenges... I don't know what made me do it. I guess I just liked
the idea of 'time' as a connector - especially for these two. But
Drabbles are soooooo easy to write, in fact, the hard part was
keeping it UNDER 500 words. I had to edit this down. I hope you all
like it.
Time was a passing breeze that caressed his face and lulled the ache in his heart. Time healed the wounds left behind in the wake of wars past and lives lost. Time was what brought him to her. On an empty street corner, abandoned, crying, broken. But unlike him, the passing time couldn't heal the hole in her heart.
Time brought new seasons, new masters and missions. Time brought her strength and an infallible ability to heal. But she couldn't heal herself – and time couldn't heal her either.
So he gathered her in his strong arms and let her cry, because he knew she needed to.
He brought her home, and let her sleep; because he knew she wanted to.
He made her breakfast and watched as she gathered her pride and ate his eggs, because he knew she would let him.
And when she stayed another day he said nothing, because he knew she wouldn't want him to.
And when she curled around his lanky body in the dead of night he pulled her closer, because he wanted to.
And time seemed passed them by, unaffected and unhindered. The seasons changed, and she was her own master and followed him on missions. Perhaps, time had changed them more than he could see, more than the passing days allowed him to understand. It was gradual, and slowly swept the pain under the rug of years past and hearts broken.
Time was no longer the shadow of a past that bound them together with grief and regret – time had become a companion to the story of their lives. The more time passed, and the further he pulled her from before, the closer she was to him.
Time was the bearer of pain and joy. And in the sunset of their days, he found that she was appealing in the most destructive ways. Until one day he woke with her in his bed and was quite sure that time had stolen his sense of decency.
Time, once again, had conspired against his stony heart. Because when she twisted her fingers with his and lay with every inch of her tempting body against him, he could see the ghost of another girl he'd failed to protect from the passing time so long ago.
He recognized that this was his chance for redemption, at the happiness that time had stolen from him all those years ago. And he was sure when she looked closely at him, and his past time, she saw the cold black eyes that streaked crimson in the shadow of the night. Because they were too similar, too familiar – he reminded her of him just as she reminded him of her.
And they were meant for each other, separated by time. A generation apart, they finally found home and comfort in the reinventions of the ones they'd lost along the way. New names and different coloured hair gave way to a shared life and the distant promise of love previously denied.
So, what did you think?
If you liked it, I'll think about going back to past weeks' challenges and doing those as well.
-Ash