Damaged Pieces (SasuSaku AU)

XVIII. Home Is Where The Heart Is

DAMAGED PIECES:

I have two homes, like someone who leaves their hometown and/or parents and then establishes a life elsewhere. They might say that they're going home when they return to see old friends or parents, but then they go home as well when they go to where they live now. Sarajevo is home, Chicago is home.

Aleksander Hemon
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"Papa, everyone has a mumma. Why don't I?"

Sasuke gulped. He hated this question. He feared this question. More than anything, he hated lying to his daughter. It was a task, tackling the question without hurting her or lying to her.

"Sara, your mumma is out somewhere. So, she can't see you right now."

Her face fell. "She doesn't care?"

"I.."

"When will she come back home?"

"I.."

"Does she love me?"

"I..y-yes."

A mother must love her child, right?

In a way, Sasuke was glad it turned out to be Sakura who was the mother of Sarada. She was everything he had wished her mother would be, should a woman ever show up at his door to meet Sarada.

In another way, he thought Sakura was not who he imagined her to be. She wasn't a bright ray of sunshine or the filtered shade of a cherry blossom tree.
Her shadows had been cast by a past she successfully hid from Sasuke. Her past consisted of a newborn child she'd left abandoned. Her past consisted of the phantoms of prison cells, of peccant inmates, of accusations, of stripping of respect, of loneliness and pain. Yet, he still couldn't bring himself to change his feelings toward her. He tried to, but, the attempt itself felt sickly wrong.

Sasuke was willing to change her present though. He was willing to offer her what her past may have been missing or at least, what her present right now was. Looking back on it, he'd often caught her seated alone in the backyard, gazing out at stars. She had a different look then. Now, he wondered if he had ever observed her at all. Maybe if he had, he would've seen past her eupeptic facade and seen her as she truly was.

He had all varities of doubts in all the time since learning her truth. Doubts about her, about himself, about what they were. There were so many moments flocked into one year, it was obvious, even in his denial, that they had been more than friends. And somewhere between all the mess, was where he had begun to fall for her.

And that was perhaps why, he was always edgy these days. He refused to accept anything other than a 'she-is-coming-back'. Also, he wasn't registering hunger most of the time but, allowed Sarada to drag him to meals anyway. That was when he first realized, facades must be kept up by him too.

How on the earth was Sarada taking the information accidentally tossed at her so well, escaped him. But, he kept reminding himself of the innocence of children and their ability to accept things. That was why the Uchiha household was now seeing a role reversal, as Sarada Uchiha consoled her father.

"Papa, she's coming back. I know she is. My mumma is coming home."

And Sasuke knew one thing for sure in all this uncertainty. His daughter's smile was infectious. As was her hope.

*

Green eyes focussed onto the task at hand. Sweat dripped down her forehead. Bruises were visible on her skin. But, no haze was distorting her mind tonight as she protected the brunette following behind her. Her training and strength, though compromised from lack of nutrition, helped her fight past the guards that did manage to see them.