The Flower Shop [A Gaara Love Story]

15: How to Breathe

They stood at the edge of the field and just watched for a moment: the way the breeze plucked and carried petals from the flowers, the calmness of the evening as the light finally died out. Fireflies had started to make their way out into the open, and she watched the way they danced through the tall grass and replaced the light of day with their own illumination. The last time they had been here, it was morning and the sun was bright above their heads. This time was different, though. Everything looked and felt the same, from the blooming flowers to the warm breeze, but there was something off that Momoko couldn't quite place.

Naruto stepped in front of her and offered her a smile she hadn't seen in years, and held a hand out for her to take. She turned her eyes from the field to him, to that smile that had painted her memories and then to the hand she had long since memorized the touch of. It must have been the fondness of this place, or the tenderness of the memory, because Momoko slid her hand into his and let him pull her through the tall grass.

She watched the flowers that passed them by, and when she closed her eyes she could remember the feeling of the dirt beneath her feet that day. In her ears she could hear his voice, and when she turned back to look at the edge of the field as Naruto guided them through, she could still see him standing at the bottom of the hill, just a little beyond the wildflowers. It was only a memory, she knew, but she could see him there as clearly as she had so long ago. He was staring at her, that look in his sapphire eyes that she knew so well. She stared right back at the memory, daring it to follow like she knew he had, but when he took his first step the breeze came through and carried the memory away. No one was there, and Momoko was brought back to the present with the feeling of Naruto's hand in her own.

They stopped at the top of the hill, right beside a large stone that had always been there, and Momoko remembered that the flowers in her basket had fallen in front of it when she had dropped everything. She could remember the way he had lifted her feet from the ground when he took her into his arms, the basket and blooms long forgotten.

"Do you remember this place?" He asked, and it wasn't until then that she realized they had stopped walking.

She looked away from the stone, from the phantom images of spilled flowers, and looked back at him.

He was remembering everything, too. She could tell by the tenderness that clouded his eyes and the way he still held her hand in his own. Naruto was never one for silence, but here in the field of their memories, he was quiet, soft.

"I do." She said, barely above a whisper as she held his eyes.

They stood there for a moment, letting the warm breeze bellow through their hair and dance with the skirt of her dress. She remembered the feeling of his lips against hers for the very first time, as he lifted her from the ground and held her closer than she could ever remember being held. The warmth of his hand in hers was comfortable, familiar, but it was cold in comparison to the embrace they shared that day.

She hadn't thought about it much since she left Konoha. Her mind had pushed away him, this place, and every moment of affection they had ever shared. It was easier to leave him behind when he was in the past, but now he was here, with her hand in his, and it became incredibly hard to forget the way he always used to make her heart feel.

They sat in the field side by side for a while, their hands still clasped together as they lost themselves in a time that had long since passed. It felt like they were kids again, like nothing had changed at all in the time apart. She had pushed him away when they met yesterday in the street, but now the world around them almost seemed to encourage them to take a moment and remember who and what they were. And that was exactly what they did.