[closed] Maybe then I'll fade away and not have to face the facts

[eternalscorpion]

Who: Sasori (eternalscorpion) and Sasuke (earned_my_eyes)
When: A little while after this thread.
Where: Folkehaven Library, to start with
What: Sasori brings Sasuke a memento of his brother.
Format: Paragraph
Warnings: Angst

Comments

[earned_my_eyes]

Sasuke didn't as much avoid the library lately as he had found other things to do, other places to be, other actions screaming for attention. Research was a dull and uneventful task, and more questions seemed to be answered with fists rather than on biased lore. Everything could only be taken with a grain of salt here, and in a place like this, resources could conveniently not be found for verification. After the first month of this hellhole, he had given up any hope on the books.

At least, until Itachi was gone. Then the questions came, hard and fast. Needs for correlation with the others that had disappeared. Hints and clues. Why him? What was it? Was it the ones that came from their world dead? Was it something more?

But, even more important, how could he get him back? Wasn't that the most important question of all? What it would it take? What ritual, what blackmail, what murder, what soul would he have to sell to bring him back?

Dead should stay dead and he's gone you have said goodbye he's gonegonegoneNumerous books surrounded

[eternalscorpion]

"So I see," Sasori said, his eyes scanning over the spines of the books the younger man had piled up on the table. He recognized what the younger man was looking for. "Find anything of note?"

He'd never been particularly empathetic, but the lack of feeling he saw in Sasuke's expression he recognized intimately, was all too familiar with. The same state he'd fallen into the day he'd found out the truth about his parents' deaths, and when the strings had snapped. He'd spent much of his life in that state of perpetual emptiness, even before he'd hollowed his own body out.

And after an all-too-brief respite of warmth that had been provided by Deidara, he'd edged back into that state once more. Itachi had been one of the few people whose companionship kept the chill from completely consuming him when he'd been torn away from his partner. And now, Itachi was...

[earned_my_eyes]

"No." No answers. Nothing of note. No hints on how to bring back the brother he had killed. It was frustrating, a dull nagging ball that rolled restlessly inside, but he locked it in a closet and kept it at bay. The numbness was better, clearer, easier to work with.

The book shut with a cliche final sound, a baritone clunk, before he tilted his chin up to completely face him, unabashed, unflinching. He offered part of his attention out on a silver platter; the rest was locked away in books and rumors, in plans and plotting. Sasukee wasn't all here, and it only took several seconds of anyone to notice.

Which was why he avoided the apartment. He trusted Sasori not to tell him that feeling was natural, that it was all natural, that it was coping and right. Dead should stay dead.

But they shouldn't. Not always.

"Sit? Or go somewhere else?"

Come Sasuke, let us cope together unhealthily.

[eternalscorpion]

"I'm not particularly inclined to linger here at the moment," Sasori said. "I don't know about yourself, but I'm rather in the mood for a drink and a cigarette."

He wasn't feeling nearly numb enough yet, but he didn't feel like drinking alone, either. And perhaps Sasuke could use the drink just as much as he did-- and the company of someone who wouldn't judge him if he chose to withdraw into himself to make the situation bearable.

Withdrawing one's emotions, crushing pain down, numbing oneself. Those were the tactics Sasori was well familiar with, and he saw nothing wrong with that. Emotions were weakening impulses, better suppressed than allowed to fester. He had no doubt that Sasuke's teammates didn't see the reality of this truth.

"Care to join me?"

Let's go partake in massive amounts of alcohol.

[earned_my_eyes]

A drink. Sasuke wasn't one to drink, certainly wasn't one to smoke, but at the moment, the former sounded rather tempting and good. More than good, really, but necessary. After all, he had been at this from the moment he felt Itachi disappear and all the words were starting to blend together, blur around the edges, make less sense. Perhaps calling it a night was the best thing at the moment, the only thing. And besides, the library would be closing soon

Booze makes everything better.

[eternalscorpion]

Sasori moved into step with Sasuke, pulling a cigarette out as soon as they were outside and heading down the steps of the building. "There's one not too far from here, in the Market area. Quiet place with enough outworlder clientele that we won't have to endure too many sour looks."

And also one of the places he happened to meet his aboveground job contacts from time to time, but there was no need to bring up that particular point.

He puffed on his cigarette thoughtfully as they walked, until he remembered the reason they'd agreed to meet to begin with.

"Oh yes, I may as well give you the item you wanted now," he said, reaching up into his sleeve and pulling out a small scroll. "I stored it for you, so it'd be less...conspicuous to carry around."

His expression grew more subdued as he held out the scroll to Sasuke. All either of them had left of Itachi were these little mementos. Sasuke, the toy stored in the scroll, and Sasori a slim volume on omens that Itachi had picked up during that damned bird infestation.

Mementos, and