A/N: So apparently, I started this last July but never finished (along with all the other unfinished stories in my computer pffft). Here it is finally completed at last though.

Story type: One-shot

Pairing: Sasusaku

Genre: Romance, Drama

Rating: T for adult language

She was his and he was hers. Their hearts connected by strong feelings of love and the Uchiha crest on her back to show the public where she belonged. When the proposal happened, he didn't get on one knee or have a ring in his pocket or do anything that would dare scream "this is a proposal." Instead he just came up to her one day when they were in Sakura's apartment. She is doing dishes and he is reading a scroll until the daily question dared to intrude his mind once again for the seventh time. After Sasuke came back from his journey, Sakura insisted he stay with her or if he just wanted to stay temporarily that was fine too. Weeks and months passed, but he never bothered looking for a place, so it was like they had a little agreement going on though no words of this confirmation were never spoken. A certain question lingered for months in the Uchiha's mind and it seemed like it was never going to go away for him. His legs swung over to plant his feet on the floor, breaking his position of lying down on the couch. He stands as his fingers unconsciously smooth out his shirt.

"Sakura," he calls as he enters the kitchen.

"Yes?" she responds.

In this setting it almost seemed as if this was the normal routine in this fantasy married life. The husband walks into the kitchen to see what his wife was up to and she replies with when dinner will be ready. He decides at that moment to wrap his arms around her slender waist and whispers he loves her into her ear. She giggles and tells him she loves him back and he says nothing more. A single peck on the lips was all they needed, and they would go on with their evening. Sasuke wanted that simple life…he wanted that with her.

"Turn around," he speaks.

He doesn't want her doing anything else at that moment. He wants her full attention and she senses that. She stops the faucet and puts the plates down to turn around and hear what he has to say. In the back of her mind it intrigues her what the topic could be about, but she focuses as he slowly reveals his words.

"I can't offer you eternal happiness or good fortune, I can't assure you that I will make every day a fairytale for you, I can't always promise that I'll be a good man to you because I, especially, am not perfect," he sighs.

Even as he says all this, her smile only grows at each excuse he gives her to pardon his flaws.

"I don't have a ring for you, but I want you to wear something more meaningful and important. Something that is a big part of me and I want to share it with you. I want you to wear the Uchiha clan crest on the back of your clothes for the rest of your life. Sakura, will you marry me?" He asks.

At first she does not speak and allows a moment for his words to truly sink in. When the answer comes to her she nods and embraces him, a tear rolls down her cheek out of happiness. At that moment they share a kiss, but it wasn't like the few awkward ones they shared in the past. It was noticeably warm and soft. The way their tongues danced with each other and the instinctive passion that kicked in from both parts. He already realized he loved her long ago, but he didn't know what to do next before this. Well maybe dating would've been a good start, but he could never muster the courage to formally ask her. At most they might have thought of each other as love interests after a few awkward kisses in the past and that was as close as boyfriend and girlfriend he could get it to. Oh, but their first kiss with each other was a moment to remember.

…

He first kisses her one night in their apartment and it isn't what both of them expected. The heater broke and the house was extremely cold that winter night. Sakura's room was cold but it was still the warmest so she welcomed Sasuke for the night. They sleep with their backs to each other and not a sound is heard. He has trouble sleeping and dares to look over and find her body rising and falling at a steady breathing pace. As soon as he turns back around to face away, her body shifts and he finds that she is snuggled up against his warm back. This isn't the first time he's slept along side her. In their genin days, she always chose the spot next to him in the woods and she always had the tendency to snuggle her partner. He welcomes this and has no problem. Still as the night progresses he cannot find sleep and sighs at this obstacle. He then gets the urge to slowly turn his body and allow the girl to snuggle against his chest. Though minutes after the shift, she starts to make sounds that cause his heart rate to accelerate and his cheeks to slightly flush. He thinks the way she makes those sleepy moans is adorable and wishes he could always hear them.

"Sasuke-kun…" she mumbles tiredly.

The man looks down at her, confused as to whether she's calling him out in her sleep or if she's actually awake. Her delicate hands slide up to place her palms against his chest. He feels this and tenses incredibly at the action and even more so when her eyes slowly open and she's awake. The kunoichi was awake but not alert enough to realize what position they were in. She looks drowsy and on the verge of falling back asleep at any moment. He watches her sleepy facial expressions, the way her eyes struggle to stay at least half way open, the way her soft lips are slightly parted. His lustful side, dormant for so long, awakens with an urge to feel those lips. It is a terrible temptation and he knows it. What if she woke up horrified or even disgusted that he would take advantage of her sleeping state?

The next thing he knew their lips were touching and once he tasted the heaven in her luscious lips it was hard to stop. This had only ever been his second kiss and the first time won't be mentioned again. He pushes himself closer to her and gives a simple kiss that lasted a decent time for him. There is no tongue, no entrance into her mouth or his at all. For whatever may happen next made this moment worth it. Now she is fully awake and aware of what was happening, but she doesn't say anything. She didn't know what would be more awkward than to speak or not to speak? The only thought that crosses her mind is to give him a peck on the lips and hopefully that would tell him that she liked that or at least accepted it. He is shocked at her response, but ultimately happy. They end it there and finally he was able to sleep. After that the moments they kiss were always in private of course, but they clearly felt inexperienced. Sakura has kissed a couple of boys in her life so she was decent, but he was a mess. Sometimes he did it sloppy or he would forget to press back and move or wouldn't know whether to turn his head left or right. Sakura never minded it since it was temporary.

…

When they finally marry it doesn't seem like much has changed. They still live in the same home and live the same life with Sakura being an Uchiha and his kissing techniques tremendously improves since their first intimate contact. She works at the hospital and he does the daily missions Kakashi assigns him. When the mission occasionally gets complicated, he sends her a letter to tell her that he was going to be home later. As long as she knows he is safe she feels at ease. Even though she knows her husband is one of the strongest shinobi to walk the earth, she will always worry for him and he knows very well how much she does when she gives him an earful at home.

When he walks through the door one evening she is there reading a scroll sent by Sai's ink bird. He throws off his cloak with curiosity growing in his thoughts.

"What's that?" He asks casually.

"Kakashi sent it. He needs to see you," she tells him.

"How soon?" He asks.

"Now."

When Sasuke meets Kakashi at his office, Kakashi is reading his inappropriate novels. Even as the hokage some aspects about him never change.

"I have an assignment for you," he begins.

His former sensei explains the seemingly easy task, but it would take a few days to complete. Sasuke understands what he needs to do and is also told he must leave that night. He heads home with thoughts of not wanting to leave so soon, but he promised his hokage that he would complete this task without a hitch.

Sakura watches him as he prepares everything he needs and helps him with whatever he asks, which isn't much.

"Why don't I travel with you this time?" she asks.

Such a question catches him off guard and at first he doesn't know how to respond. It is an easy mission and he's doubtful something should go wrong.

"If it's dangerous I don't mind it I just…I haven't really seen you as much as I wanted to lately and I thought this could be a chance to spend some more time together," she explains.

He thinks it through and her reasons sound logical. Though he does not voice it, he misses her often and wishes to spend more time with her as well. He knows she is strong and that he doesn't need to carry anyone's weight when she's with him. And so he agrees and she starts preparing what she needs as well. They head off into the night and to the mission location. The mission takes almost two days but it was no trouble at all. That night on their way back to Konoha, they travel to Suna as their resting point. He finds the inn while she gets the dinner.

"Hey pretty lady~ Looking for a good time?" A tall skinny man with a prickly looking beard comes up to her with a cigarette in between his two fingers.

Seems like she stepped into the wrong part of town, noticing the trend of motels that ran down the block.

"I'm fine thanks," She speaks kindly but firmly to show the man that she is not interested and pushes forward with no issue.

She makes it out of the poor district with that one encounter and makes it to the inn Sasuke was said to be at. She asks for the room number at the desk and walks towards it with a bag in her hand. When she knocks he opens the door and allows her to walk through as he takes the weight of the bag off her hands.

"Did you have any trouble?" he asks.

"I accidentally walked into the prostitute district and some guy walked up to me, but don't worry he wasn't trying too hard for money tonight," she lightly joked.

Sasuke sighs at this and places the bag on top of the small table. "You need to be more careful where you walk into," he warns, but is grateful that she is unharmed. He mentally decides that he would escort her more often from then on to prevent something like that to happen again.

"I actually want to go bathe before I eat," she announces.

"It'll be cold by the time you get back," he informs.

"That's why I bought myself something prepared cold," she smiles at him before exiting the room.

Sakura noticed before how they have a small bathhouse and decides to take advantage of it. One sign indicated women on the door and the other for men. When walking into these, she always expects to see her own kind, her own gender and would make sure to look twice to make sure it wasn't unisex before going in. She undresses and places her clothes neatly in her bin and wraps a towel around her body. When she enters through the last door it is not expected when she sees people of her opposite gender and looking quite malicious. She could not make a sound at that very moment but when she is able to it resonates through the building, stretching like an echo. Sasuke immediately hears this and his heart and breathing pause. He knows it's her, he feels it's her and like a lightning bolt he was there. She was naked and pinned down by force. The men were shinobi who casted a jutsu to keep her still so that they may get on with their evil actions, but he stops this just in time.

"Get the fuck off of my wife," he growls with his red sharingan already spinning over his onyx eye.

They notice how he possessed a sharingan and a rinnegan, which was enough to scare them off. It seems as though they knew were not of rank to deal with an Uchiha. If Sakura knew this was going to happen they wouldn't have had the chance that they did, but when it was a completely unexpected surprise in a setting like that then she was vulnerable. Sasuke does not allow them to get away with what they were about to do. As soon as they release her, he uses genjutsu to torture them with a cruel illusion and then renders them all unconscious. He makes his way to Sakura who is lying on the floor with wounds inflicted on her body and finds that she is not conscious herself. He thinks they may have tried to roughen her up in order to weaken her so that they could get on with their intentions without a fight. But still how could this have- he swears she had only left the room five minutes ago or was it longer or-

"Sakura wake up," he holds her close to him and shakes her body to get her to become conscious, but it doesn't work. Sasuke notices blood staining her cherry blossom hair and sees that she has a not so pretty head injury. The Uchiha panics and at first doesn't know what to do or where to go.

"Shit…" he curses and decides to wrap her in his cloak before taking her to go find some help because he knows she may be badly hurt.

He does not care who or what is around him at that moment and speeds off to the nearest hospital he can find. By the grace of what is holy, he finds the best hospital in Suna and rushes through the doors to be met with nurses who saw him through the doors from a distance. She is then placed on a gurney and is taken from him. He does not remember the last time he was so scared like this, but all that he knows is that he wants to take back everything he said that night about what he couldn't do when he asked her to marry him. He wants to work to give her good fortune, he wants to make every day a fairy tale for her, he doesn't want to be a good man to her he wants to be the best goddamn husband there is. There has to be more than just simply the Uchiha clan crest on her back. It can't be what's only special to him he needs something to give that is special to her. Was it the ring? Did he need the ring?

It feels like an eternity of waiting until a doctor emerges from behind the two doors and seems to be looking for someone. Sasuke stands and looks at him with hopes that he is the one he needs to speak to.

"You're the one that came in with the young woman?"

Sasuke nods as the closed the far distance between each other. "I'm her husband."

"Well I came to inform you that the good news is that she is going to be fine, but she had a small brain bleed. The head neurosurgeon and I took care of it, so she is in recovery at the moment."

When the Uchiha hears brain bleed he feels dizzy for a moment but believes when the doctor says that she is fine now. He almost wants to go back and beat those men up until their bodies are black and blue and they can't move. It is then when he makes his resolve to ask her what is special to her.

…

When they discharge her, Sasuke brings her home immediately and sends a message to Kakashi of the situation. Sakura spends a few days in bed to finish recovering and he is stuck to her side. No missions or even stepping outside unless it was for food or supplies. On the fifth day home, he is the one washing the dishes after dinner while she is on the couch hugging a pillow. When he finishes, he dries off his hands and finds himself next to her. He wants to ask, needs to ask.

"Sakura."

"Yes?"

"Remember what I said before? When I asked you to marry me?"

"Of course."

"Well… I take it back."

"What do you mean?"

"I want you to have fortune, a fairytale life and I want to be a better husband."

She places the pillow behind her and sits up, her eyes never daring to look away from him. She figures he's only acting like this because of the incident and smiles.

"I don't need fortune and my life is already like a fairytale because I have the best husband I could ever ask for."

She slides herself closer to him and places a hand over his lap. Her cheek leans against his shoulder and she feels his warmth transferring over to her.

"Don't you want a ring even?"

He looks over at her and sees a head full of pink hair. He wants to see her face, so he uses his fingers to gently take her by the chin and lift up.

"Why do I need a ring when I have your crest?"

"That can't be enough."

"It is to me."

Sasuke looks at her, unable to take that answer. It couldn't be enough she was only saying that because he told her how much it meant to him.

"I know that look in your eye."

Sakura lifts a leg and tucks it under her to give herself some height. Her hand gently falls over his cheek with her eyes looking into his as if they were telling him to stop overthinking,

"All this time has passed, and I don't think… I've ever told you I loved you."

He raises as eyebrow and thinks that he hasn't said it either and knows that he should because they are married now but thinks there hasn't been any good timing.

Sakura smiles at his expression and knows exactly what he's thinking. "You don't have to tell me, I already know."

She was just settling. She knows just how he is, she's just accepting the terms and he feels awful for that. She deserves to know, deserves to hear it loud and clear. And so Sasuke leans forward and kisses her the way a husband should kiss his wife in the privacy of their home. He may have added a little too much weight because he finds himself on top of Sakura as she lays under him on the couch, but at least it shows that he his passionate. After a heated tongue dance, he is the first to part from her with only a string of saliva keeping them connected for a brief moment until that breaks. They look at each other, both with heated cheeks and stunned eyes.

And then he finally tells her, "I love you."

She grins and simply grabs his face to pull him back down for another heated kiss and somewhere she mutters against his lips that she loves him too.