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23raccoons · 3 months ago

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in the jack-o-lantern's glow - Ao3

Sasori x Sakura

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, Pumpkin carving, Jack-o'-lanterns

“It’s pumpkin carving Sasori, not brain surgery.” Sakura says as she uses her hand to scoop another blob of pumpkin goo into the bowl, not even minding the sleeves of her oversized sweater that are pushed up past her elbows don’t come into contact with the mess. “It’s supposed to be fun.”

Sasori thinks they might have vastly different ideas of what is considered to be fun. He’s made it as far as cutting the top off his own pumpkin. They’re not fully jack-o-lantern-sized, but it’s hard to find things like that in Suna, whose residents don't particularly participate in all the traditional holiday festivities. Sakura likely paid a pretty penny out of her own pocket to get the little pair of pumpkins in front of them now.

He frowns at that, he would’ve bought them had she asked. But she’s often stubborn, insisting her money is just as good as his. It is technically, but it’s the principle of the matter. And the fact that he’s inherited a good deal of his own wealth, and Sakura works very diligently for her money at the little hospital in Suna.

He also just enjoys spoiling her anytime the opportunity presents itself, to buy her whatever little snack or trinket that she looks so longingly at.

Sasori looks inside his pumpkin again, at its slimy guts. Sakura has given him a large metal serving spoon to scrape the seeds and stringy bits out. It takes a few attempts to get a good scoop, plopping it in the bowl with Sakura’s. The second scoop comes easier, and he does his best to not touch the messy insides, but he gets it on his hands nonetheless.

Sakura finishes emptying hers first, sorting through the slop bowl to pull out all of the seeds. Once he’s finished, she washes her collection, patting them dry with a towel and laying them out evenly on a pan. Tossing it in the oven and kicking the door shut with her foot.

“Now the fun part,” she says with a smile, holding up a collection of sharp tools from his woodworking collection he had deemed acceptable to use on her pumpkin carving foray.

Sasori raises a brow. “I thought the first part was supposed to be fun.”

“Yes,” Sakura leans in to press a kiss to his cheek. “But you’ll like this part the best.”

She has a few markers, handing one to Sasori. Who takes it skeptically.

“I just carve a face?” Sasori clarifies, looking at the bumpy leather-like surface.

“You can carve anything you want, baby.” She pauses, scrunching her nose a bit. “Well within reason of what the pumpkin can support, of course.”

He must be giving her a look, because she rolls her eyes and stands right beside him at the little table of her apartment.

He watches her type out ‘jack-o-lantern ideas’ into the search bar, scrolling through the pictures of the carved orange vegetables. Some of them are not faces, but cats or ghosts or any number of other misunderstood nocturnal animals.

“I’ve seen enough, thank you,” Sasori tells her. Sakura slips her phone into her pocket, stepping between Sasori and the table to lace her arms around his neck.

“Sasori, it is something children do. You’re overthinking it, okay? There’s no wrong way to carve a pumpkin.” She kisses him for good measure. “You make spooky stuff all the time.”

“I make art, not mutilated vegetables. Let’s get it over with. Then we can do something else that's fun.” He barters, giving her a kiss back.

“Deal.” Sakura steps around to the other side of the table from Sasori. “No peeking though.”

Sasori does peek, not at her pumpkin but at the face of concentration she makes as she traces out lines with the marker before carefully working the blade through the pumpkin flesh. The way she bites her lip as she works. She gets up every so often to wash her hands and shake the pumpkin seeds around, removing them when they have reached the appropriate level of crispiness.

She feeds him a few, a crunchy, lightly salted, and a little nutty. Sakura is ecstatic when he deems them 'not bad'

They are nothing like the sugary pumpkin caramel marshmallow latte monstrosity she had ordered at the trendy coffee shop on their way here. Taking a single sip when she offered, much too sweet for his double shot of espresso tastes. He had upsized it after she ordered—paying for both—and had sat through several rounds of selfies with her and their respective to-go cups.

Sakura knows he doesn’t like having his picture taken much and is always sure to only post his face to her ‘close friends’ and not her main feed. She calls the pictures that get posted on there where his hand or back is in the shot a ‘soft-launch’. He tells her she can post whatever pictures of him she likes, and she always tells him ‘she knows’. But a small part of him is always glad that she doesn’t, that she keeps him private, and he gets to keep that part of her world all to himself.

She had also helped him set himself up a private account to follow her, a handful of his friends, and a few puppet-making accounts.

Sasori carves a ‘spooky’ face. Sharp, harsh angles and a mouth of jagged, craggily teeth. He hates to admit, once he gets the hang of it, that it actually is not the worst thing he’s ever done. It would be much better if his hands weren’t so sticky from it, but he does always enjoy working with Sakura around to share the space with.

He steps back to admire his work. It is not wood. It will rot and mold and crumble, gone before the start of winter. Nearly a waste of his skill. He frowns at the orange face.

“I’m done!” Sakura cheers. Smiling brightly at her pumpkin, excitable at the outcome, it’s enough to have his Sasori’s lips quirking up before he remembers he’s being grumpy about all of this.

“Oh, are you done, too?” Sakura’s looking at him now.

“Yes,” He would really like to wash his hands now.

“Okay, we’ll show each other on three?” Sasori nods, placing his hands on his pumpkin, suddenly feeling a bit self-conscious at the thought of showing her. Sakura counts, “One, two, three!”

They twist them at the same time, revealing their faces to one another.

“Ahhh!” Sakura screams in half mock horror and half delight. “I love it!”

She moves to go wash her own hands, presumably to get her phone out to take pictures of their jack-o-lanterns. But Sasori can’t take his eyes off the face carved oh-so-carefully into Sakura’s.

It’s Hiruko. The most beloved piece of artwork Sasori’s ever made. A large intricately carved wooden puppet, a demon scorpion with a complex joint system controlled marionette style. He spent years and years perfecting him and still enjoys tinkering on him from time to time. Sakura had carved the likeness of his toothy face into her pumpkin.

He’s speechless. He had expected something cutesy, not the sneering face of the main art fixture on display at his own house.

Sakura's finished washing her hands, noting his silence has stretched well past the normal contemplating he does. “You hate it.” She frowns.

Sasori never enjoys spoiling Sakura's bright moods.

“Oh no, darling.” Stepping over to slip his arms around her, taking care not to touch his hands to her clothing. “It’s perfect. It was simply unexpected.”

“Really?!” She perks back up immediately. “I wanted to surprise you, so I spent all morning practicing drawing him, and I was so nervous I’d mess him up.”

Sasori kisses the top of her nose before moving to wash his hands. By the time he’s finished, Sakura has set the two next to each other, candles firmly in place as she lights them up. The lids go on top, and Sasori reaches for the pull cord on the fixture to turn off the light.

The horried faces glow, and Sakura takes entirely too long taking pictures, but she looks so lovely in the orange light as she moves everything just so. And he doesn’t even complain when she sets the little timer for a few pictures of them standing together, holding their ‘art’. And if he’s looking at her in all of them instead of the camera, that’s fine with him too. He always finds pleasure in watching her enjoy herself, even if it’s something he finds to be silly.

After eons of him patiently waiting, Sakura blows out the little fire hazard in hers, and Sasori flows suit.

He picks Sakura up, despite her squirming as she locks her legs around his waist, carrying her down the short hall into her bedroom. Laying her out on top of the fluffy duvet he has purchased for her after she had admitted how much she liked the one on his bed.

“In a hurry, Sasori?” She giggles, already flushed across her cheeks as he crawls over her body. Poised like a scorpion ready to strike.

“Mmmm, you had me waiting,” he says, pressing his lips to hers. Again and again and again. “And I am especially impatient when it comes to you.”

“Did you like it?” Sakura asks when he comes up for air again. Nose to nose with each other.

“Did I like what?” He feigns ignorance.

“Carving pumpkins?”

“I liked carving pumpkins with you,” Sasori tells her truthfully.

Sakura pulls him in for a kiss this time. “I knew you would.”

Sasori’s cleaning Hiruko the next day when his phone dings, Sakura having sent all the pictures she’d taken from the evening before. She posted a picture of their jack-o-lanterns last night, garnering a mass of likes and comments praising their skills.

Sasori saves them all to his camera roll. He doesn’t even have to scroll to find the ones of them holding their pumpkins together, faces a little dark and blurry, the glow from the candles messing with the focus. He picks one where their timing was off, neither looking at the camera. Sakura’s smiling down at her pumpkin, and Sasori’s smiling softly right at Sakura.

He opens the menu to click the little share button. He frowns at the screen, unsure what to type in the caption box. Sakura would tell him he’s overthinking it again, so he scrolls through the emoji to find the little jack-o-lantern and the teeny black heart. Taking the time to tag Sakura’s handle so it doesn’t cover any of her up when it’s clicked on.

Sasori hits the post button before he can doubt himself out of it. Locking his phone and setting it down on the workbench. It lights up again almost immediately, the notification banner informing him Sakura has liked his post.

#sakura haruno #sakura x sasori #sasori #sasosaku #halloween #jack o lantern #pumpkin carving #fluff #sasori x sakura #fanfic #naruto fanfiction

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