Third Person POV
He woke up twice that night at Sakura's house. Once because it was in the morning and once because of the scream.
~| us |~
Sakura watched her parents get eaten by a bear the size of a manufacturing store. After her parents were devoured, the bear turned its head and its eyes fixed on Sakura.
It's red, red eyes.
She screamed and did her best to run away from the claws and just as she saw them make their way towards her, she shut her eyes and clamped her hands over her ears and waited for her death to come.
It never came, and she looked up, and saw the body of a little boy not much older than her, holding his arms out in a protecting manner.
Arms that were covered in red.
I can't see your face, Sasuke. Turn around. You're fine.
He turned around and looked at her with those onyx eyes of his.
They were dimmed, no longer the shining eyes of a little boy. No longer innocent. No longer seeing.
No longer alive.
"AGH!" Sakura shrieked as she leapt out from her covers, her heart racing, the blood rushing in her ears. "No, no, no, no."
She rocked herself back and forth on her bed, hugging her knees, telling herself, encouraging herself, convincing herself she was fine.
He was fine.
"Sakura?"
When his voice invaded her thoughts, she looked up, her eyes wide and her mouth open.
She heard footsteps coming up the ladder and suddenly she wanted to run, to run faraway from whoever was coming.
I'm sorry, she wanted to say. I'm sorry.
But she couldn't run, so she settled for hiding under her blankets.
Please, please don't attack me. Leave me alone. Leave my parents alone. Leave everyone I love alone. Leave us alone.
"Sakura?"
She peeked out from under her blankets, her emerald eyes wincing as she took the light in.
"Sasuke?"
The little boy sat on the edge of her mattress, looking at her with a sleepy, tired, worried, confused gaze. He could be feeling a million things right now.
But he's feeling. He's alive. With a muffled sob, Sakura dove under the blankets, leaving only a few strands of her pink hair and her eyes peeking out.
"Sakura?"
He shuffled closer to her and tried to grab whatever body part was wiggling beneath the blanket, when suddenly all he saw was a blur of pink and she was hugging him.
She was hugging him.
"You're alive, you're alive. I didn't kill anyone, no one, no one, no one is hurt, hurt," she whispered, coddling herself in his arms.
Nightmare, Sasuke thought, and he wrapped his arms around her like his mother back at home did and buried his nose into her hair.
"I'm fine," he murmured into her ear. "I'm fine. I'm alive and I'm breathing and you didn't kill anyone and I'm fine."
He could physically feel Sakura shudder while he spoke those words and she seemed to collapse into his arms, sobbing and crying and tearing up and the whole lot.
Sasuke let her cry on his shoulder, patting her back and stroking her hair and whispering non-intelligible things in her ear that only they alone seemed to understand.
They sat there for awhile, hugging, coddling, whispering, crying.
"Sakura, I'm fine."
~| us |~
Sakura's POV
"I'm fine."
"I'm alive and I'm breathing and you didn't kill anyone and I'm fine."
Those words echoed around in her empty space for a moment.
Fine. What does that mean anymore? Fine. Everyone seems to die around me. Fine. Are you really? Are you really okay? Fine. Am I okay? Am I fine?
"Sakura, I'm fine."
It was like a breath of fresh air was released into her dark, dank, cold, and humid empty world.
And suddenly there was light, and all she could see was his face, hugging her and whispering to her.
He spoke something that her brain didn't understand, but her heart did.
He spoke of reassurance, relaxation.
He spoke of peace.
~| us |~
"Sakura? Sasuke? Time to get up!"
The two children groaned, moving about in the bed they shared when Sakura's arm hit Sasuke's stomach and they jolted and looked at the perpetrator and saw each other.
"Why're you sleeping in my room?!"
"Why're you sleeping in my bed?!"
Sakura scoffed. "My parents own this house, you dolt."
