Daylight

Spark

A/N: Turns out this isn't the long awaited chapter I've been waiting to write. ...Maybe next time?

The stillness of the night is captured by two foreheads touching, and tips of noses nestled against each other. Hands are interlocked whilst an air of love clouds them, so much so that it even radiates from the neighbouring room where a child sleeps soundlessly. Hearts are connected, and so are dreams. In one, a child sits in the lap of her father whilst her mother watches, her smile gleaming down on them like the sun. In another, a wife waters tomato plants whilst her husband smiles fondly at her, their daughter sitting on his lap. Lastly, a husband tells stories of his wife to their daughter, as she holds a cherry blossom; he can feel his wife's smile blessing them with her presence. Dawn breaks out into the sky, and the earth is glittered with tints of pink and orange. The blue sky is grateful for being painted in such bright colours, even if it can only meet the other colours with the flow of time, as short as it may allow. A choir of birds tweet their good mornings to the tranquil world, and a woman lazily stirs as her beloved kisses her lips. 

"Are you going tonight?" The woman asks with a yawn, as her hand unclasps from her husband's and begins it's ritual stretch. 

"No. Not tonight. I heard a ferocious woman took care of the area I was manning," the smirk was evident in his voice. 

"Hmm. I wish I could meet that woman and thank her for allowing me to spend some precious time with my husband," she responds. 

A soft chuckle can be heard from the right side of the bed.  

There is movement under the blankets, and it can only be presumed that one leg bends over another, if nothing else. Satisfied sighs and moans can be heard if you listened closely, otherwise, the only sound that is clearly evident is made by the shuffling of sheets. 

A few more moments pass before the man sits up and stares down lovingly at the woman lying beside him. "Today my duties will be to my wife and daughter," he announces with conviction. 

"And tomorrow?" comes the response. 

"Tomorrow..." His voice falters. 

The woman sits up and stares at her husband, her hand caresses his perfectly chiselled face. "You'll have to leave again won't you?" 

He struggles to meet the green pool that lays before him, his eyes instead averting towards her other slender hands resting against the blanket. 

"It's okay, Sasuke-kun," she assures him, voice soft as her skin. "As long as you come back to us. It's okay." 

And that is enough for him to take the hand that holds him and kiss into it, whilst matching her glance. She is always enough. 

***

He regains his duties as a house-husband, if only for a day. He accompanies his wife to cook up breakfast, and then takes on the responsibility to do the laundry when she swats him away. His new name is heard from upstairs, and he follows the cries to find his daughter standing up in her cot, her raven mane spiked up at the back. 

"Papa is here, Sarada," he soothes his daughter. "Let's get you washed." 

Freshly bathed and newly clothed, he holds smaller hands as he brings his offspring down the stairs to eat with her mother. 

"Mama?," their daughter asks, avoiding the spoonful of food her Papa is holding out to her. "Are you going doctors?" 

"Oh, no, honey," the mother responds. "I won't be at the hospital today. Lady Tsunade insisted I take the rest of the week off. So I can be home with you and Papa today. Is there anything you'd like to do?"