FIC: << Pink >> [ naruto, sakino ]
Girlcrush, wh33!
Title: [Pink]
Pairing: one-sided Sakura/Ino (Naruto)
Category: PG; angst, drama
Length: short (514 words)
Summary: Ino loves; and hates the color pink.
<< Pink >>
Ino has always disliked the color pink.
As a child, she’d found that frilly, ugly, girly things tended to be pink. She was not…frilly. She was not ugly, and she had never been very girly.
She was a girl, yes, but never girly. Her beauty was natural and Ino never primped. She never used makeup, was confused by the very concept of blush.
Blushing was embarrassing, why would you paint it on? Were you supposed to look shy?
Shy was another thing Ino was not.
Once upon a time, though, she’d met a girl who was. A pink-haired, pink-cheeked little girl who didn’t for the life of her realize how beautiful she was. So Ino tied her hair back - since when was pink such a nice colour...? - and told her not to hide her face.
The small, tentative smile that earned took something away from her that day. She knew because she’d felt it, sudden clenching in her chest.
Something she found herself desperately wanting back every time Sakura looked at Sasuke that way. ‘Cause it had left a hole, and now it hurt…
And every time Sakura blushed at him - pink stain spreading like oil - Ino hated the color just a little bit more.
It was a little too much like something pure and white trying to become attractive and red, she’d thought, annoyed.
It was pathetic and pointless. Weak and bound to fade…..like Sakura’s stupid crush. She hoped.
But the blush didn’t go away, and the crush developed into something more, and the only way Ino could even get Sakura’s attention anymore was to bring up the constant object of it…
Which was perhaps a mistake to do so often, when Sakura became suspicious and - inevitably - ridiculously jealous. Enough to go so far as to declare Ino her *rival*.
And that had hurt more than she could believe, because it meant so many things and all of them bad.
It meant that after all this time, her friend was still threatened by her; that (Sakura, you idiot…) the girl was still so insecure about herself.
It meant that the trust between them which blossomed from day one had now withered and died, but mostly - most painfully - it meant that their friendship hadn't really been that important after all.
Ino was now officially ‘out of Sakura’s life’ as her best friend, and it was all she could do just to remain her rival…
But that was okay, there was nothing to be done, and Ino was never one to cry, but if her eyes and nose got a little pink from too much rubbing, it couldn’t be helped.
She would look in the mirror at faint traces of almost-bloodshot around her eyes and hate the color and hate herself, for the weakness reflected from both.
And that wasn’t so long ago, but it should have been long enough.
Should have been long enough, but “love” and still all she can think of is soft pink blossoms and silky pink hair and the girl underneath them who isn’t weak at all.
Please close your ears and try to look away,
So you never hear a single word I say.
Come in my cave.
And I’ll burn your heart away.
-- Muse, 'Cave'
[ x-posted at naruto_yuri]