disclaimer: disclaimed.
dedication: peace, happiness, glitter & love.
notes: let's watch the rain fall / let it wash away our innocence. LOL IT'S FRIDAY.

title: clarity
summary: AU drabble!series. Ohio in the summer—drugs and dancing, drinking and dying and driving off into the sunrise. Sasuke and Sakura explore it all.

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Sakura stood on the edge of a field of sleeping yellow flowers, arms wrapped around herself to ward the chill of the early, early morning off. The sun was far to the east, a grey-pink-gold glow that was getting steadily brighter as time went on.

She stared out straight, clenched-jawed and sad. She dropped her hands to her sides, and sighed.

"I'm so tired, Sasuke," she said softly. "Like… I'm so, so sick of this. All of it."

He stepped up next to her, hands shoved in his pockets. "Hn."

"And, you know what, god, I can't even take you!" she burst out, angrily. She looked up at him. "I can't take you, because you make me crazy and then I do stupid things, and it's just—it's not even fair!"

Sasuke caught her wrist in his fingers. "I know."

"No, you don't. You don't know at all," she murmured, and her fingers curled through his out of long-forgotten habit. "You don't stay. And I need—"

Sasuke shook his head. No, he knew that she needed someone who would stay.

But.

"I can't promise I won't leave," Sasuke said slowly, measuring.

Sakura wouldn't look at him. She tried to yank her hand out of his, and nearly snarled when his grip remained tight.

"But I can promise that I'll take you with me when I go," he continued quietly, staring straight ahead. "If that's enough…"

He relaxed his grip; Sakura had stopped trying to pull away. She seemed frozen in place, head down, staring at his chest. For a very long time, she said nothing. The gold glow from the rising sun was dazzling as it broke over the horizon.

Sasuke held his breath, and wished.

"I think," Sakura said, looking up with a radiant smile, "that that… I think it's enough."

Sasuke nodded, and slid his arm around her shoulders.

It was okay. It was okay.