[NARUTO] Team 7 OT3- "Halcyon"
Title: Halcyon
Author: quiet_mccabe
Artist: athelice
Series: Naruto
Warnings: fluff, partial nudity
Pairings: Team7 OT3
Dark Theme: Concept #1 "Blinded by the Light"
Sakura takes most of her pride in the little victories. It's a fundamental
difference between her and her boys - Naruto and Sasuke have to fight all
the time, have to be the biggest, the strongest, the best.
Sakura doesn't.
She'd be inclined to suppose that it's because she's a girl and her boys
are, well, boys, but she's spent too much time with women like Ino and
Tsunade-sensei to believe that any more. It's not that Sakura is mild,
exactly, just that she finds more satisfaction in the smiles of people she
loves than the screams of people she hates.
(Not that the latter's not very, very satisfying occasionally.)
For Sakura, victory is, just sometimes, Naruto not rising to Sasuke's bait,
and victory is, just sometimes, Sasuke not provoking him in the first place.
Best of all, victory is when Sasuke and Naruto drop their angry violence
(the one thing they share that she is so rarely welcome to be a part of) to
turn to her.
Inner-Sakura always did love to be the center of attention.
When Sakura was a little girl, she dreamt of candle-lit dinners and long
walks holding hands and the sunset overwhelming them with orange and red and
purple light. Chocolate and roses and romantic bubble baths, and all the
things that little girls think love is made of.
Sakura couldn't have picked a less romantic pair of boys short of trying to
seduce Sabaku no Gaara or Maito Gai.
Ick.
So, it's the little things. Naruto picking her a birthday bouquet very
obviously stolen from (and in the process wrecking) her neighbor's garden.
Sasuke publicly kissing her on the cheek as he says goodbye. It's getting
them to do things like cuddle, which is relatively easy to do with one of
them at a time, but just try to get Naruto and Sasuke in the same bed when
they're not about to immediately sleep or fuck.
Sakura's favorite thing, and it's sort of embarrassing, is a bubble bath.
There's a certain reassurance in it, a certain soothingness, that always
promises her that everything's going to be okay.
The first time, getting Naruto and Sasuke to even consider a bubble bath
(and one that wouldn't necessarily lead to sex) was hell. It did lead to
sex, of course, and the next time she brought it up there was considerably
less resistance.
It's not a regular thing, not even something that they do very often, but
when they do...
Sakura loves the saccharine scent of artificial strawberries that fills the
bathroom air when she pours the bubble mix into the water.
She loves the way that Naruto throws back his head and laughs, usually at
one of his own bad puns, and then he has to close his eyes because the
sunlight comes in the window and bounces off the white of the tiles and the
white of the bubbles and he is blinded by the light.
She loves the way that Sasuke will relax enough to actually stretch out,
pushing his feet in Naruto's face until Naruto growls and Sasuke's lips
quirk into what would be a smile on anybody else's face. Then he'll rest his
feet on the rim of the tub, one ankle on each side of Naruto's chest in
either an invitation or an apology, and rest his head against Sakura's
breasts and allow her to shampoo his hair.
Sasuke keeps his eyes open for most of it, because the three of them are
relaxed and naked and having fun, which means that they're exceptionally
vulnerable to attack, and it's too soon for Sasuke not to always be
expecting an attack.
(Sometimes Sakura wonders if it will always be too soon, and the thought
feels heavy against her.)
But Sasuke will close his eyes at least long enough for Sakura to rinse the
soap out of his hair, which is to say that, at least for periods of under a
minute, he trusts Sakura and Naruto to sufficiently guard himself, and, more
importantly, themselves, from the inevitable.
Sakura would be content like that forever, with warm water and bright light
and the shifting of pyramids of bubble sculptures and splashing that starts
out gentle and teasing and would eventually lead to a gigantic mess in the
bathroom if she didn't step in and put a stop to it.
The best way to stop it, obviously, is distraction, and breasts are
extremely distracting to Naruto and Sasuke both, though Sasuke can go much
longer than Naruto can glancing sideways at her out of slitted eyes and
pretending not to notice that she's being blatantly sexual.
(Naruto loves it when Sakura or Sasuke initiate sex, because it's a reminder
that they're both horny bastards too, they just act on it less frequently
than he does.)
Then Naruto will stand up halfway out of the bath, enough to fumble around
to pull the curtains down and leave a soapy handprint in the wall, and
Sasuke will start planting little kisses down Sakura's neck and along her
collarbone, and Naruto will decide to just fall back into the bath rather
than sit down like a normal person, and splash soap in Sakura's eyes and
half-drown Sasuke by landing on his back, and of course things only get
better from there.
Sakura wouldn't trade it for all the hearts and flowers in the world.
Author: quiet_mccabe
Artist: athelice
Series: Naruto
Warnings: fluff, partial nudity
Pairings: Team7 OT3
Dark Theme: Concept #1 "Blinded by the Light"
Sakura takes most of her pride in the little victories. It's a fundamental
difference between her and her boys - Naruto and Sasuke have to fight all
the time, have to be the biggest, the strongest, the best.
Sakura doesn't.
She'd be inclined to suppose that it's because she's a girl and her boys
are, well, boys, but she's spent too much time with women like Ino and
Tsunade-sensei to believe that any more. It's not that Sakura is mild,
exactly, just that she finds more satisfaction in the smiles of people she
loves than the screams of people she hates.
(Not that the latter's not very, very satisfying occasionally.)
For Sakura, victory is, just sometimes, Naruto not rising to Sasuke's bait,
and victory is, just sometimes, Sasuke not provoking him in the first place.
Best of all, victory is when Sasuke and Naruto drop their angry violence
(the one thing they share that she is so rarely welcome to be a part of) to
turn to her.
Inner-Sakura always did love to be the center of attention.
When Sakura was a little girl, she dreamt of candle-lit dinners and long
walks holding hands and the sunset overwhelming them with orange and red and
purple light. Chocolate and roses and romantic bubble baths, and all the
things that little girls think love is made of.
Sakura couldn't have picked a less romantic pair of boys short of trying to
seduce Sabaku no Gaara or Maito Gai.
Ick.
So, it's the little things. Naruto picking her a birthday bouquet very
obviously stolen from (and in the process wrecking) her neighbor's garden.
Sasuke publicly kissing her on the cheek as he says goodbye. It's getting
them to do things like cuddle, which is relatively easy to do with one of
them at a time, but just try to get Naruto and Sasuke in the same bed when
they're not about to immediately sleep or fuck.
Sakura's favorite thing, and it's sort of embarrassing, is a bubble bath.
There's a certain reassurance in it, a certain soothingness, that always
promises her that everything's going to be okay.
The first time, getting Naruto and Sasuke to even consider a bubble bath
(and one that wouldn't necessarily lead to sex) was hell. It did lead to
sex, of course, and the next time she brought it up there was considerably
less resistance.
It's not a regular thing, not even something that they do very often, but
when they do...
Sakura loves the saccharine scent of artificial strawberries that fills the
bathroom air when she pours the bubble mix into the water.
She loves the way that Naruto throws back his head and laughs, usually at
one of his own bad puns, and then he has to close his eyes because the
sunlight comes in the window and bounces off the white of the tiles and the
white of the bubbles and he is blinded by the light.
She loves the way that Sasuke will relax enough to actually stretch out,
pushing his feet in Naruto's face until Naruto growls and Sasuke's lips
quirk into what would be a smile on anybody else's face. Then he'll rest his
feet on the rim of the tub, one ankle on each side of Naruto's chest in
either an invitation or an apology, and rest his head against Sakura's
breasts and allow her to shampoo his hair.
Sasuke keeps his eyes open for most of it, because the three of them are
relaxed and naked and having fun, which means that they're exceptionally
vulnerable to attack, and it's too soon for Sasuke not to always be
expecting an attack.
(Sometimes Sakura wonders if it will always be too soon, and the thought
feels heavy against her.)
But Sasuke will close his eyes at least long enough for Sakura to rinse the
soap out of his hair, which is to say that, at least for periods of under a
minute, he trusts Sakura and Naruto to sufficiently guard himself, and, more
importantly, themselves, from the inevitable.
Sakura would be content like that forever, with warm water and bright light
and the shifting of pyramids of bubble sculptures and splashing that starts
out gentle and teasing and would eventually lead to a gigantic mess in the
bathroom if she didn't step in and put a stop to it.
The best way to stop it, obviously, is distraction, and breasts are
extremely distracting to Naruto and Sasuke both, though Sasuke can go much
longer than Naruto can glancing sideways at her out of slitted eyes and
pretending not to notice that she's being blatantly sexual.
(Naruto loves it when Sakura or Sasuke initiate sex, because it's a reminder
that they're both horny bastards too, they just act on it less frequently
than he does.)
Then Naruto will stand up halfway out of the bath, enough to fumble around
to pull the curtains down and leave a soapy handprint in the wall, and
Sasuke will start planting little kisses down Sakura's neck and along her
collarbone, and Naruto will decide to just fall back into the bath rather
than sit down like a normal person, and splash soap in Sakura's eyes and
half-drown Sasuke by landing on his back, and of course things only get
better from there.
Sakura wouldn't trade it for all the hearts and flowers in the world.