Soulmate au. For SasuSaku month day 25, knots. (Sorry if cliché.)

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto. Poem used in the story is Love Is Not All by Edna St. Vincent Millay.

With midterms approaching, the threads of Sakura's sanity are slowly loosening. She really underestimated pre-med and everything that comes with it. She's barely listening to the lecture. She has to force herself to get a pen and write down the reminders on her arm. Sorry, soulmate. Looks like you have to see my homework on your skin again.

—

Sasuke sighs when he notices what's written on his arm again.

Redo chem notes. Bring stuff for lab. Study for anaphy quiz.

His soulmate should really write more specific reminders. Bring stuff for lab? How is that going to help? But he knows that his soulmate has so much going on already, because it's usually at the busiest times of the semester that his soulmate chooses the arm over the paper.

—

Sakura's soulmate is a very… Honestly, she does not know what words could possibly be a good description. When she removed her jacket after she exited the chilly café – she swears they do it to keep the customers at a minimum – she noticed that her soulmate had written something.

love is not all

Huh? What could that mean? Sakura remembers a time when she was obsessed with ribbons. She was around six years old, and she always wore a giant ribbon on her head. Ino always made fun of her and said that her forehead looked four times larger because of the "dumb" ribbon. But Sakura didn't care. She always drew ribbons on her hands and her arms, too. Not long after, although she was too young to fully grasp what soulmates meant, her soulmate would draw ribbons back, and it ultimately delighted her. It stopped eventually, though, and Sakura felt sad for a few years. Soon she learned to ignore it, and it went that way until she entered university. Sakura was shocked to wake up on the first day of school with a ribbon drawn near her wrist. After that, she'd occasionally find random sentences on her arms.

—

Naruto was staring at Sasuke's arm.

"Hey, idiot. Can you stop that? You're getting creepy."

His best friend just gives him a blinding grin. "Are you ever going to actually talk to your soulmate? Like exchange contact details? Or are you just going to keep writing those random lines from poems?"

"Shut up, dobe." Naruto sticks his tongue out at that. How mature. "How's it going with yours?"

"Oh!" He instantly perks up. And though Sasuke hates his best friends guts, he's glad to him happy. "She's really, really sweet! She sent me a picture, and I sent her mine too!"

"Hn. She's nice. She didn't run away when she saw your face."

"Hey – what is that supposed to mean?!"

—

love cannot fill the thickened lung with breath

Sakura woke up with those words written on her arm, but she momentarily forgot about it as she went through her exam-ridden day. On the way to the café she frequents for her study hours, she stops in her tracks. Love is not all… Did – does her soulmate not believe in love? Was this the way to get her to know? Sakura deflated. She'll admit… Somewhere along the way, she stopped trying. She was content that her soulmate would remember her, although sparsely, even though she never knew what any of the sentences meant. But, this – this might mean that her soulmate wants none of this and that made Sakura sad. Almost everyone she knew was happy with their soulmate – or soulmates, for those who have two. Is Sakura never going to meet hers? What if her soulmate breaks the bond?

—

He wants to say that he's not afraid, that he's only putting this off because he doesn't believe in it. But, the truth is, Sasuke's terrified. He saw how Itachi spiraled into his own demise. How he broke his bonds because he could not bear himself any longer, and with it, he damned both of his soulmates. Sasuke could not understand why he'd done that, or why they'd let him. Did he not love them enough? What if this ran in their blood?

it well may be in that difficult hour

Sasuke writes. He never wrote back during those times, and perhaps his soulmate grew tired. But when he found scribbles on his skin, even if they were not for him, he smiled.

—

Sakura tries not to think about her soulmate, about the consequences of breaking bonds, about the words she has found on her skin. But that proved to be difficult as she stared at her arm as her soulmate writes. She takes a deep breath. Two in the morning. What was her soulmate thinking, at this time? She wants to be desperate. She wants to ask her soulmate to meet up, wants to desperately say that she will do anything as to not have the bond broken. But she can't. Not after all this time that she has respectfully kept distance. But Sakura is so, so afraid.

—

"Sakura-chan!"

Sasuke turns at the sound of Naruto's voice. He watches him wave enthusiastically at the girl he called. Sakura. He knows her, but he's not entirely sure if they're friends. She and Naruto are.

"Naruto, hey!" She exclaims when she's made their way towards them. She's polite when he makes eye contact with him. "Sasuke-kun."

He gives her a nod of acknowledgement before turning away, but something makes him stop. She's talking with Naruto now, and Sasuke barely hears what they're talking about when Sakura waves her hands exaggeratedly to tell a story.

He found her. When he takes another look at her, feels as if he should have known all along.

—

6:00 pm, knots & ties café w/ ino

Sakura had to write it on her body, or Ino would have her head. Her best friend was mad that Sakura was too buried in school work and kind of forgot her. She, unfortunately, got too caught up in writing her lab notes and absolutely forgot the time. She was already 14 minutes late, and was only hoping that Ino was somehow late, too, so she wouldn't be too harsh on her. To her surprise, when she ran into the café all out of breath, her best friend was having a friendly chat with Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke. And with her grand entrance, they had already noticed her, which means she has no time to fix herself. Damn it. At least Ino doesn't look mad, but Sakura's not too sure about the sly glint in her best friends' eye.

"Hey, uhm," Sakura starts, still panting a bit. "Sorry I'm late, I–"

"Oh, it's fine, forehead." Ino practically pulls her down to make her sit.

Sasuke's eyes – was she delusional? – has never left her, and Sakura gulps before opening her mouth to speak, but he beats her to it.

"Sakura. Look at your arm."

"Huh?" She frowns, confused, and Sasuke nods encouragingly.

Feeling shy, Sakura slowly takes her jacket off, hangs it on her chair, and looks at her arm. Her eyes widen in surprise, and she looks back at the boy beside her, only to find him already holding his arm out to her.

i might be driven to sell your love for peace
or trade the memory of this night for food.
it well may be. i do not think i would.