Ice and Fire

I

Karin glances at Sasuke's face. His face are dark and motionless, but she remembers perfectly well how warm and soft he can be. And she remembers how her lips, frozen in silence, spread out in an awkward but good-natured smile. Carefully stores it in memory.Karin smiles at her memories, and starts on the bag, pulling out various products.

Sasuke manages to intercept her unusually thoughtful, but at the same time gentle look. It's so annoying, because she visits him almost every day, looming before his eyes with red shades. Then he will whip his hair, then he will come into his house and bring tomatoes.

"What are you doing here?" — Sasuke throws out irritably, carefully watching how Karin puts her order in the old Uchiha house. She turns on the faucet and washes the tomatoes, then moistens the sponge and you can hear the cups clinking. 

"What do you think?" — Karin quips in response, without looking up from her occupation. As if it's a natural thing for her to do — wash dishes and break into the life of a sinking, even a loved one. "You can't be left alone, otherwise you will get moldy and die of guilt and loneliness".

"I didn't ask you to do this" — Sasuke wearily closes his eyes, feeling a real conflict brewing in the air. Karin visibly frowns, pursing her lips in a wounded way. It seems that it is about to explode, but it looks straight, defiantly. Sasuke does not intend to play pity and care with her or with the former seventh team. He was tired, and he also fully deserved their hatred.

Karin is still glaring at him, and such directness makes you want to hide as soon as possible or push an uninvited guest out of the house. But Sasuke is in no hurry, because something stops him.

The girl herself feels the tension hanging in the air, as well as in Sasuke himself. His chakra is visibly fluctuating, shrouded in cold and despair. Sasuke is really tired.

"Don't think about it, I don't expect reciprocity and your "thank you"" — Karin almost exhales, switching her attention to the faucet and turning it off. From the guy's words, an unpleasant, stabbing feeling spreads in his chest, and his heart seems to be beating under his own throat. But she's stronger. "But it hurts me to look at you. I want you to be happy, to put yourself on your feet, and not shut yourself off from the whole world in four walls.

Sasuke looks down at Karin with an unblinking gaze, trying to maintain an external chill. But it already seems impossible, and time seems to mockingly stretch into eternity. Every girlish word, filled with sincerity, reaches him, hitting right on target. In his callous and closed from everyone heart.Something remotely warm lights up inside Sasuke, under his ribs, but at the same time it covers him with a wave of shame. They're taking care of him again, and he's behaving like a rare goat.

"Just try to be ashamed and hide from me," — Karin hisses, feeling a strong desire to beat her head against the wall. The guy's sense of guilt, which eats him from the inside, drowns him with a suffocating wave, is reflected on her. As if she herself is experiencing these emotions. "I will punch you".

"Yes, I wasn't going to" — Sasuke quietly draws out, looking at her a little mockingly.

Karin raises an eyebrow, as if saying an ironic "Yes, well?", but when Sasuke's chakra calms down, becoming warmer, she noticeably softens. Finally, this cretin will slowly allow her to bring a little color into his life.