Let Go
The chill of the autumn wind rushed through the tall, dry grass. The clearing was painted a delicate silver in the moonlight, a soft melancholy winding its way through the air.
A soft sigh escaped her lips and she shuddered. She stared wide eyed in fear up at the full moon, her eyes as wide and bone white as the very thing she looked upon in horror. She hated the moon…It had taken away everything precious to her.
She heard a quiet rustling, soft footsteps purposely made heard. Her heart lurched and she felt the gaping wound where love had once reigned begin to close a little.
"Sasuke-san." She said a bit breathlessly, the barely restrained joy in her tone causing him to stop just a few feet behind her.
"What are you doing out here?" He asked gruffly, his hands tucked into the pockets of his dark shirt.
Quick as a moonbeam, she slipped past his guard to press herself a little closer to his warmth.
"It was here." She muttered quietly, clutching the loose fabric of his shirt like a lifeline.
Sasuke flinched, a feeling of resentment welling up like bile in his throat. Who would be his lifeline? Who would keep his sanity intact in the face of all that life had thrown at him…It couldn’t be Naruto…not anymore.
He grit his teeth, almost physically feeling the fraying of all that bound him to reason and stoicism. And he felt her weight against him, making him feel as if he was a drowning man trying to save a drowning girl.
"We need to stop this."
She didn’t answer, just continued to stare at the same moon with an eerie kind of impassiveness. Her hand clutched him tighter, a little more desperately and a certain kind of lunacy seemed to shift into her pearlescent gaze.
"I…I can’t. You and I…we’re the same."
"…"
"Lost without him."
They stayed for a while, facing the moon with a kind of defiance. United in their fear and regret and sorrow. Sasuke felt the thread fraying as he remembered his only best friend…his smile fading and his promise to protect this tiny girl after he was gone…And as he always did when he felt that he would go insane from the loss, he pulled the Hyuuga closer.
He buried his face in the crook of her neck, shuddering and fighting against the heavy grief that weighed him down. And she didn’t break under him, she bent despite the fact that they were both broken and suffering. She bent and grew stronger for them both, standing tall in the silver light of the moon.
Sasuke grew surprised because how could the moon still shine when their sun was gone forever. He wondered how the sunflower knew where to face when there was no more sunlight to shine down on her. He wondered how the darkness could be saved from itself without the sun…
He hugged her tighter to him, and he realized that their twisted relationship was unhealthy, the darkness leaning on the sunflower.
"We need to stop this…You need to let him…let me go."
And the words he said made all the sense in the world to her, despite the fact that he was the one clinging onto her, his embrace suffocatingly warm in the chilly air.
"Sakura-san lost him too." She said plainly. But the words rang a bit hollow, because Sakura couldn’t possibly understand what it was like to lose the one who made you the person you were, to lose the light when you needed it to live and breath…but Sasuke and Hinata…they did.
He exhaled softly, his warm breath fanning her against her skin and causing her to redden slightly. He lifted his head from her shoulder, gently pushing her away.
"Sakura-san is waiting." Hinata reminded him, turning away to continue looking at the moon.
Sasuke stood torn between the lonely figure bathed in silver and wanting to return to the comfort of habit…to Sakura and mind-numbing missions and dull life that seemed opaque in the aftermath of his loss.
"I think…that you’re right." Hinata continued. And for a second, he thought she would begin to cry. But then she turned back to him, the saddest smile upon her face and a fierce kind of insanity in her eyes. It was the look of one who was dying, someone wanting to rest in dignity and pride despite the pain.
"Please go."
He had no choice. Not when she looked at him with those eyes…the same eyes he was sure he had.