Forced Paths

Unforseen

As expected he was sick the day after. Even when the third day of his illness came and night fell he was still not well. He felt better with every hour that passed but even he, could understand that getting up was still not an option. The improvement his health showed was largely due to her caring. She spent most of her time with him, making sure he ate, drunk water or hot tea and slept well. She never complained about his crumpy attitude or the habit he picked of him saying how bored he was. His mother passed by again but he pretended he was asleep. He could hear her voice from his bedroom even when she tried to speak as low as she could.
His privacy was nonexistent because his wife refused to close the door at the rare occasions she was out of his space in fear that he would be worse once again and she would not notice. He had noticed by now that she took her bath, cook and ate when he was asleep and she was sure he would not need her for anything. He kept repeating at first that he was fine but as he saw that she was adamant on his care no matter what he told her, he stopped and let her be. She could be more stubborn than him and that was as rare as well as an annoying feature of her.
He heard the water on the bathroom next door closing and he knew she would come within minutes. He was bored, more bored when she was not here. She didn't talk much in an attempt not to annoy him more, he suspected. But still the hours passed more quickly than when he was alone.
She came as on cue, a towel on her hands, brushing her hair. Her surprise was evident when she saw that he was awake.
"I thought you were asleep." She said and let the towel on the chair.
"I am sleeping all day." He answered with his irritated voice. "You don't have to run in here." He said as he noticed her still wet hair and the messy way her nightgown was tied on her stomach. "I am already better."
She just smiled and took her book. She walked to the bed and sat beside him. It was less awkward on her behalf since Sasuke never cared about it. The repeat of it made her less shy. She was not scared anymore that she might touch him accidentally or that was how she let it seemed.
She layed next to him with a book on her hands. A light on the small table on her side was kept open so she could read. He didn't mind, he was always asleep before she blowed the little candle and closed her book. He didn't know what face she had on her sleep since he never saw her in the morning. She was on her feet before the light of the day reached his eyelids.
"What are you reading?" He asked and she turned her gaze from the page that had a tint of yellow marking its old age.
"A story about a woman cursed to petrify everyone she looked." She said a little reluctant.
"Is it good?"
Her eyes questioned his sudden interest yet her mouth responded on his words.
"Yes, I like it very much. Thank you."
"Read it to me." His tone one of command.
She stayed still, looking straight at his eyes, like she was waiting for the mock to come. When he stayed silent her head fell to the side.
"I'm bored." He explained even if she didn't ask.
That seemed to satisfy her as she turned her gaze back to her book. But this time her voice filled the room. For some time he followed the words she spoke, of the jealous gods and the punishment the woman had to suffer for an act she didn't make and wasn't her fault.
Slowly his mind fled as he observed his wife more than the story of her book. She put her hair behind her ear for the second time and he saw how white her neck was. It was probably because she had lived in the cold weather of the north all of her life and the sun rarely touched her skin. Her clothes were slightly wet as small drops of water run from the end of her hair. She was focused on her task and her eyes moved from word to word as he saw from her side. She tried to read as clear as she could and he could trace the vein on her neck disappearing when she stopped.
She spotted his gaze and turned to him.
"Do you want me to stop?" She said softly.
"No."
"Okay." She offered a quick smile before her eyes were lost again on her book.
He focused on her reading once more. An hour passed before he stopped her. The moon was visible to the sky from the open window.
"Why do you like this story?" He asked genuinely.
"What do you mean?" She put her finger on the page before she closed it and hold it on her lap.
"It's depressing." He said marking the obvious fact he was seeing.
"It's a sad story, it's true." Another finger placed on her lips. Her stare in the direction of the window. "Yet sadness is a part of life. Sometimes so much that is easier to relate."
"So are you sad? That's why you read it?" An irritation coloured his words.
Her gaze returned to him.
"Sadness is easier when it's shared."
Her face was calm almost serene. It was one of a person that knows a secret that most ignore and in the whisper of the night she let it reach few selected ears.
"It's already late. Let's sleep." She dispersed the aura that hold him glued on his spot.
The candle died out with the air of her lungs. He heard the noise the book made on the wood when she left it. He saw her eyes widen when she relaxed under the covers and turned to his side. She was not used to him been awake. She began to turn around when he grabbed her hand. There was no logical explanation for his action. If she asked he could not give it to her.
She tensed for a brief moment, yet she stayed in her place. He was afraid that he might had scared her. Then angry because she should have known by now that he would never hurt her. But anger didn't feel the right way to describe it. It was something else. Disappointment perhaps.
He let her hand go. But she still stayed put, her eyes glowed to his as the moonlight casted away the shadows.
"I won't hurt you." Sasuke spoke.
"I know." She responded.
"Why are you scared then?" He said more roughly now.
"Because I believe you." Her voice barely a whisper.
She placed her hand on the small space between their faces.
"Why?" He let his thought escape his mind.
"Your actions speak more than your lips." She said. "I respect that. I like that." Then she smiled.
His mind went blank and in the next moment it filled, until the thoughts became inseparable.
He viewed her hand and imagined that with a small move it could touch him. Her words pained him in a way he could not understand, yet her smile seemed more beautiful than what he had ever seen. He cursed himself for giving her half of his bed and then asked why she seemed so far. He tried and failed to solve the mystery of how he spoke to her more freely than anyone else. He wondered how her lips that offered that smile, tasted.
Then in the haze that his mind was in, he uttered his next words, unnable to find the trace of logic in such an act.
"My brother is alive."
He saw only for a second her smile to freeze and then fade away on the seriousness of his tone.
He turned around before she spoke. He shut his eyes with force, realising only now the stupidity of his action. He waited for her questions to pierce his ears but the light breeze on the curtains was the only sound.
Then he sensed her movement on the mattress. He waited for her to get up and come to his face , demanding answers on his crazy statement.
He only felt her hand on his waist and her breath on his neck.