Chapter 2: The Forgotten Memory

Rose lay on her bed, letting out a deep sigh. Nothing could be more stressful than having to be stuck in a cabin with her closest friends and the man of her dreams. (Itachi and Deidara don’t exist in her world D: ) His face kept flashing through her thoughts. Nothing made since though, she tried showing herself off to him but he just ignored her. What was she doing wrong?

As Rose pouted, she could hear Saara and Deidara return from their trip outside. She got out of bed and slowly opened the door, just to watch them for a moment. Through the small crack, she could see Deidara arm wrapped around Saara’s waist before Saara leaned into him more making him stumble as he walked over to the fire. They were obviously tired and cold and wanted privacy.

As much as Rose began to fume with jealous, she let it go, remembering that Noelle didn’t have a love yet. She walked over to the mirror and looked herself over. Her hair was a terrible mess from tossing in bed all day. Grimacing, she left her room, ignoring the love birds, and walked down a hallway to the bathroom.

As she kept her breathing even, she saw Noelle standing alone with her eyes closed in the hallway, five feet away from Itachi’s door.

“Noelle?” she asked.

Noelle snapped her eyes open and faced Rose. “Oh, hi.”

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“You answer first.” Noelle commanded.

She decided to play along. “About to take a shower, my hair’s messed up.”

“Uh-huh. Ok, in that bathroom?” she asked, pointing down the hall.

“Yes…Why?”

“Just wondering…..” Noelle answered with a smirk.

Rose began walking and then stopped. “Wait…No, you wouldn’t…!”

“You have to be more specific, Rose.” Noelle said, smiling to herself.

“If you actually do that again, I’ll...I’ll…Kill you!” Rose yelled, marching off toward the bathroom, slamming to door.

Itachi opened up his door and looked back at Noelle, looked at the bathroom, and then shook his head while closing the door.

Rose took deep breaths as she stripped off her clothes. Hoping Noelle wouldn’t do what she usually does. She walked over to the shower and turned in on, testing the hot water with her hand. “Perfect.”

She carefully stepped in and let the water untangle the locks of chocolate hair. She blindly reached out for the shampoo before opening her eyes to read it. Eh, it was Pert Plus 2in1 stuff, which was OK. She poured some into the palm of her hands and lathered it throughout her hair, pushing it into a circular motion. Then let the water wash it out.

“Maybe she’s not going to do it…” Rose whispered as she reached out for the bar of soap. But she had spoken too soon. The once boiling hot water turned ice cold. She yelped and jumped out of the shower, turning it off. Rose grabbed a towel and burst the door.

“NOELLE!!! I’m going to kill you!!!!!! Curse you and your stupid water powers!!!!” she screamed, a dark glow radiated off of her.

But as she turned the corner, she came face to face with him.

“S-Sasori” she gasped.

He eyed her over, before locking his liquid hazel eyes with hers. He swiftly reached up and tucked in her towel in more, then curled a dripping lock around his finger. He leaned into further, tucking her loose hairs behind her ears.

“Soft, like silk…” he breathed into her ear. His other hand grabbed her wrist, raising it to his shoulder. He then put it to her waist, holding it firmly. While their other hands tangled with each other.

“Wha-“ Rose began, but was cut off by Sasori gently crushing his lips to hers.

“Let’s dance.” He cooed.

“But I’m-“ she was cut off again.

“You look beautiful.”

Beautiful. Beautiful. That word kept buzzing in her head. No one had ever called her beautiful. They never called her ugly, but also never called her…Beautiful.

Sasori began to slowly swing to get her going, with no music there was no way to go off beat. But Sasori began to hum a tune, something she never had heard of. It confused her though, it kept changing and rearranging, like he couldn’t make up his mind for the song.

She decided she should break the silence. “Why me? Or really, why now?”

Sasori gazed at her expression. Concluded that he should keep it simple. “Because, I couldn’t do it, I wasn’t strong enough. All I could do is ignore your game of crush. And, what better present for Christmas Eve could be than admit my love to you.”

Rose couldn’t believe it, after all her tries to show him how much she wanted him, he wasn’t strong enough and wanted to wait things out. It was difficult to sink in. She stopped dancing and looked him straight in the eyes with a full heart, and kissed him. He took that one as a surprised, he started to shake a little, Rose wrapped her arms around him, pushing him deeper into the kiss. He wasn’t sure how to respond at first but finally pulled her waist closer to his.

After a moment or two they came back to surface for much needed air. Their gazed stayed locked. She smiled and he smiled, all was good in the world. But then, the mystifying song Sasori had hummed returned into her mind, what was that song? She knew that she had heard it from somewhere…

“Sasori?” she began, gaining more of his attention. “Where did you hear that song you were humming before?”

His eyes scanned her face quickly before going into thought about answering. “You should know it…”

Her right eye twitched a little. “I….should?”

He nodded before pressing his forehead against hers. “Think back about twenty years ago, when you were 14.” He then kissed her eyelids shut, letting her think.

Rose thought hard about the memory before it had finally had come to her. It was like a blurry dream, something that she had stored into her mind to keep locked away forever, but Sasori was able to bring it out…

Lights shown through varies windows as the young girl stumbled across the sidewalk. Rose had nowhere to go on Christmas Eve, no family, no friends, no one. All she could do hope to find a place to sleep for the night. She couldn’t cry though, she stopped crying over little things such as missing loved ones on Christmas….

“Dance, With Love.” he said proudly. “I composed it.”

With that Rose was snapped back into reality. “Sasori…you, that was you…”
He gazed into her eyes his deep compassion. They both knew that this was only the beginning.