Title: Plain words

Fandom: Naruto

Pairing: Asusaku

Rating: R

Summery: It was refreshing with someone as comfortable in their own skin as Asuma, Sakura decided.

Author's Note: Written for Pinkcrack Drabble-a-thon at the (pinkcrack lj-community).

Disclaimer: I don't own anything – the Naruto 'verse is created by Kishimoto Masashi.

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Plain words – Asuma/Sakura – R

He was refreshing, she thought, he never made excuses or looked guilty when he lit a cigarette – chances were he didn't even view it as a bad habit. It was refreshing with someone as comfortable in their own skin as Asuma, Sakura decided.

She didn't know how it all started – how it all really started – going from thinking Asuma-sensei was a nice, solid and laidback sort of a ninja to reflecting on how nice he smelled after he'd drunk sake and smoked a cigarette to being caught up in his sincere eyes or fixating on how sexy his lips actually looked with a cigarette idly hanging from them.

He was equally dark haired and dark eyed as her previous infatuations, but Asuma wasn't mysterious and full of angst like Sasuke or pale and resembling a graceful marble statue like Sai – it was refreshing seeing honest laughter in the eyes and true smiles on the lips of the man she loved.

She can't remember what their first kiss felt like – what their first kiss really felt like – she is sure, however, the world hadn't stopped moving and there hadn't been any fireworks save for the actual ones overhead. It had been during the New Year's celebration – red and gold as far as eyes could see – the Konoha eleven and their sensei, with the addition of Yamato and Sai, had been enjoying the festivities – each of them to the best of their abilities. Sake had been drunk and well wishes made – the group was breaking off into smaller fractions, each leaving in a separate direction, when the two of them found themselves alone walking the same way. Asuma had moved across the street to walk beside Sakura – both enjoying the silence between them as their arms slightly touched every now and then. They had finally found themselves standing in front of Sakura's block of flats – simply standing there half turned towards each other – Asuma had taken one last drag of his cigarette, exhaled and flicked it to the ground before bending down, taking her smaller face in his hands and kissing her full on the lips. Neither one of them had been drunk that night, not really – blissfully tipsy, maybe – she imagined it had been wet and that he had tasted mildly of the sake they had consumed during the previous hours as well as of the cigarettes' sharp, ashy tang she had come to know so well over the years that followed.

He wasn't the first who had hovered above her and felt her legs wrap themselves about his hips as he pushed inside – she was a kunoichi and they had to do their duty to their village slightly differently than the shinobi – but he was the only one she had curled around in the aftermath of lovemaking and whispered three small words to and really, truly meant it.

She couldn't remember how it all had really happened – every twist and turn of their relationship – but in the end it didn't matter because it simply was what it was and they felt no need to explain or justify it.

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