Promises Remembered

Chapter 20

A/N  I hope you like this chapter! Let me know what you think! It's kind of short, but the next couple are longer.

Chapter 20

Sakura

Six-hundred and forty-five days into the past

Sakura woke to a dark room, a thin beam of moonlight filtering in between the curtains. At first, she was confused as to why she was awake. Nothing seemed to be amiss and she didn't have to pee—the usual cause of her nightly waking.

Then she felt it. Kakashi wasn't in his usual spot beside her. He had scooted down the bed so his face was level with their son. Both of his hands were cupping her stomach, fingers lightly following the movement she could feel their son making. His Sharingan almost seemed to glow in the moonlight, spinning lazily as he watched Kazuki turn and kick.

She kept her breathing even and didn't dare move lest he realize she was awake and stop. It was so precious, Sakura had to bite her tongue to fight the tears. Did he do this often when he couldn't sleep? Unless she had to pee, she had been sleeping deeply. He could have been doing this all night long and unless he didn't notice her thrashing before she woke to waddle to the bathroom, she would never notice.

During the day, he had gotten increasingly affectionate. He had always been when they were alone together, probably partly due to a life largely starved of the easy kind of intimate touch they shared. But ever since she had told him she was pregnant, Kakashi didn't seem to be able to keep his hands to himself. If they were together, he was touching her somewhere—even holding her hand or wrapping an arm around her shoulders when they were in public, which was new for him.

This had only increased once she started showing. She wasn't entirely sure if he was feeling protective or if he just wanted to be close to them both. Catching him now, she thought it might be the latter.

Suddenly, he started speaking. It was so soft she had to strain to make it out. No, he wasn't speaking, he was singing. Words to a song she'd never heard, sung in a raspy, even tone between a hummed tune. It was lovely.

Eyes fluttering closed, Sakura listened to her husband sing to their unborn son, imagining him singing to a pink haired little infant. In her imaginings, Kakashi was happy. Pacing around their home in the middle of the night, singing to a restless Kazuki, he would soothe their son with a gentleness no one else would ever know he possessed.

Feeling him press a kiss to her stomach as the singing ended, Sakura ran a hand through his hair. They lay like that for several minutes in the dark, holding one another, his arms circling her waist. Eventually he spoke, voice just barely louder than his singing had been.

"I don't remember my father clearly... I know I was happy until the day I found him. I know I look something like he did, and... I remember that song. He said—" Cutting himself off, he cleared his throat and pressed his face into her stomach. "He said my mother sang it to me before I was born. He would sing it to me when I was little." A breathy laugh tickled across her skin. "The two of you would have made quite the duet."

Sakura huffed, smiling. "He had a terrible voice too?"

"Yeah... but it was his and I remember it more clearly than his face."

"Kakashi?"

"Hmm?" He reached up to pull one hand from his hair, bringing it down to kiss her palm.

"Will you sing to our son too? After he's born?" When I'm not here? When he needs comfort and you're probably feeling inadequate and alone? Will you love our son enough for both of us?