A/N: Happy New Year! Lemme just leave this here even though I kinda rushed it a bit and I'm not 100% satisfied with the ending xD I hope you enjoy it though! Reviews are what keeps me writing so much, so plz leave feedback, it's appreciated :)
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21:09
They had been living together for a year, now. Together.
At that thought, Sakura can't dare not to smile internally in happiness and bliss. He's all she's ever asked for and wanted and loved this much. And she's happy with what they have now.
Although she doesn't really see him as much as after the war ended—because he leaves and comes and leaves again just to unwontedly make her wait with anticipation and worry for long periods of time—it's better than she'd ever expected.
The rush of adrenaline that comes when she sees him at their house—theirs, only—can't compare to anything else in the world. And when she wraps her arms around him in a warm warm hug, she knows he's been gone for just too long.
Sakura sighs and steps out of her memories to face a white door open and reveal a face she's come to know quite well over the years. She smiles and stands up from her office chair. "Tsunade-sama!"
Said woman returns the warm gesture and steps inside to retrieve a small, wrapped-up box from her purse. "Hello, kid. I brought you something for New Year's."
Said kid turns her head to the left to gaze at a pile of other presents. She guesses there are at least fourty. She knows she's loved by most people, but she didn't know it was that much...
With a nod, she gives it to Sakura and watches as her eyes shine with appreciation and little surprise. "Well, Tsunade, what a coincidence."
Soon, the green-eyed woman is giving her mentor another present too, and small laughs are shared between them. "I got you something too."
Sakura leaves the hospital early that night.
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21:31
Pacing around the room gave him some room to gather his messy thoughts into one concrete site. Even in the ample space of his living room, he couldn't reduce the amount of chaos inside his head. There was nothing tangible he could grasp; not a single idea.
He always had the upper hand; always knew what to say and what to do; always had everything under control.
But this—this awful thing that had him in the brink of exhasperation—he didn't have nowhere near under control. The more he thought about it, the more ridiculously frustrating it was.
The almighty Uchiha Sasuke props on the couch in defeat and closes his eyes at the sound of the clock signaling a new problem for him.
And as the sun sets down and his brow draws near, his sweaty palm encloses the small velvet case in his hand, tightly. Securely, for he knows it's almost time.
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22:18
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura comes running toward him as soon as she opens the door in the compound. He'd been standing in the same place for little to fifteen minutes, waiting for her, and obviously is not surprised by the sight of the woman reaching to him so eagerly. Even so, his eyes still soften and his heart beats a little bit stronger.
It's late and cold outside. He frowns, disapprovingly, at the lack of a coat from her; at the pink colour in the usually pale, pent nose.
"I missed you so much," she whispers, the sound of her voice muffled by his broad chest. His hands find their place in the small of her back—warm, and oh so delicate. He holds on a little tighter, just to mentally prove that by that act she won't break.
She doesn't.
A little later, she stops embracing him to stare into his eyes with a sudden seriousness that has him clouded with confusion—but that he hides well. "Did you miss me?"
If he didn't know himself better he would say he had something akin to a gape on his face. But he knows himself and he knows that the question just caught him slightly off-guard. It doesn't last long, though, for he stares down at her with the neutral face he has come to master a second later. "Aa," is actually all he can say.
She softly laughs, making him shiver even though the hot fire of their chimney is right next to them. And then she's shifting away and into the kitchen, leaving him with the doubt that she knows something that he does not.
A bottle pops—his ears perk up at this—and Sakura smiles behind the wall that separates them, "ready to open your gift?" He stiffens. "I've got the perfect gift for you!"
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23:28
"Don't make that face, it doesn't suit you," Sakura points out the frown and scowl he wears, staring down at his small gift.
"I'm not mad."
"Sure," Sasuke glares. Sakura dismisses the topic with her hands swaying in front of her face and looks at him, "well? Aren't you going to open it?"
She's met with another scowl and no answer—something she'd been anticipating from the start.
Sasuke fidgets with the colourful, green and red paper, somehow unable to unwrap the damn present. The last time he was in a setting similar to this—with the festivities, decorations, lights of every colour, the single white, large tinsel surrounding the big christmas tree—was when his brother–
But he doesn't let his mind wander any farther in the presence of her mild preoccupation. At least, not now.
Gripping the fragile paper in his hands with more strength, he relaxes with difficulty at the silent question of the woman seated in front of him. Yes, he is just fine. No, he can't tell her. Not yet.
He rips the paper, looks at the object, and looks at her. She bites her lip in the anticipation of what his answer might be.
It's a photo. The delicate designs adorning the frame that envelops it are nothing but gorgeous, and if he wasn't any more of a perfectionist and an observant person he wouldn't have noticed them in the least. But what catches his attention is the image that holds everything together. The photo; them. In it, they're at the bridge they used to wait on for missions when they were still genin. Sakura's smiling with the brightest smile ever, and Sasuke's by her side, close to her and trying to look decent for their anniversary. They were eighteen. It was, dare he say it, a great day.
Sakura stares at him through it all, holding her breath. Waiting. "Well?"
Catching a quick glance at the clock on the wall, he sets his lips into a tight, straight line. When he looks at her, a small smile makes its way onto his face—small, tiny, almost not even there.
"It's perfert," he but almost whispers. She releases the breath she'd been holding and nods in appreciation.
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23:41
"Oh..." Her smile falters for a minute while she looks quickly away, averting her gaze from him, thinking he wouldn't notice. "I see..." His mouth feels dry; throat tight.
"Well, it doesn't matter," she says in a casual matter as she gathers all the courage to stand, "it's just a silly gift to add to the pile at my office."
He looks at her with quiet pity and she notices. "No, really, it doesn't make a difference," she's walking back to the kitchen, almost-full bottle in hand and heart on her sleeve. "Anyway, for you to be here today is enough of a gift," Sasuke sighs apprehensively, muffling his hair to ease the tension in his muscles. All it does is remind him of something he doesn't want to think about anymore. "The best one so far."
He stands up. A moment of silence passes by his stance.
"Sasuke-kun?"
"Aa."
"Did you get what I asked?"
Grabbing said thing—a small, brightly lit and white candle that smells like good things and sweet melodies—he walks back to the dining table and sets it on it. "Aa."
"Great," she appears next to him with two glasses of wine and a plate of food he'd never eaten before. He stares and opens his mouth, "this is unusual."
"I don't," she mutters under her breath," feel like making the usual thing this year, you know?"
He blinks.
"Sit, Sasuke-kun," she offers him a smile that makes him sit right away. It's lovely. "Now let's eat, shall we?"
He shortly nods. Saying the usual courtesies, they start eating for a while. "I heard you're staying for a few more weeks," he nods again. Not glancing in her direction. "Good. Then, maybe, we can do something for a change? I mean, we're always at home when you stay here, coming from your trips, and it doesn't bother me, but," he looks at her hesitant face, "I thought a little time alone—away from everyone and everything—for a few days wouldn't hurt." He keeps on eating, thinking of matters that don't really concern the conversation at hand. He sighs. "Mm?"
He glances at her eyes and nods again, slowly. "I'd like that."
"Okay," she smiles and the room falls into silence once again.
Small talk is something he doesn't abhor, and so he doesn't really mind speaking softly from time to time when they're alone.
But today—now—he can't. He talks, but his mind is in another matter. It disconcerts him greatly.
The clock ticks away the last minutes of the day.
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23:59
Just as the clock is about to announce a brand new day, he stills.
"So, I thought, weren't you supposed to buy the wine?" Sakura exclaims in her silky, soft voice, "But then she said that the wine was something inexorably-"
As much as he likes listening to her small, personal stories, he concludes that he's been procrastinating for too long; postponing what has to be done for enough time already.
00:00
He takes the velvet, black case out from his pocket.
In the back of his mind he can hear the loud bells throughout Konoha sounding at the time. He can see Sakura smiling, counting the numbers left till she gets to twelve.
He himself counts to ten.
He can imagine all the people cheering at their houses. He can feel her getting close to him, kissing him on the cheek in an innocent touch.
"Happy new year, Sasuke-kun," she whispers next to his ear, making him release an elongated sigh.
He quickly recovers, though, and grabs her shoulder in a gentle manner, inching her away. Just enough so she can see where this is getting at.
Her eyes catch sight of the object in his hand being pulled open—being put the same height as where her heart is located, but at a fair distance—and she doesn't make a sound for a long moment. Her eyes widen for the longest second.
"Sasuk-"
"Sakura," he states, looking at her in the eye. Serious, determined, plaguing her mind with answered questions. His hold tightens. She gasps as his eyelashes flutter for a moment, unable to blink away the lump that grows in his throat. Taking a breath, he studies her as he asks the most obvious of the questions, at this point.
"Will you," her eyes water with unspilled tears, he notices. The ring is not from his mother, but from a store. And, as much as he tries to reason it, he knows it's the most reasonable of all decisions: he doesn't want Sakura to wear something of his now dead family member; something that would remind him of tragedy and sorrows every time he'd gaze at it. He wants to start a new life; he wants to get rid of his ghosts; he wants to create his own new family, even if he will never forget his old one. He thinks she understands, "marry me?"
He thinks she understands when she nods after smiling and choking for a moment in the emotion that coils inside her being. He thinks she understands when she whispers a "yes" and so many more soon after.
He smiles. And it's something genuine and happy; something Sakura has never seen before. Tears stain her cheeks at the sight.
Soon she has the beautiful, simple ring around her heart and her finger. Sasuke inches closer until their lips touch, closing his eyes, erasing all the tears with the thumb of his hands at the sides of her cheeks, "thank you," he whispers.
She's the happiest she has ever been, right at that moment, right at that time. Once on New Year's Eve he proposed, and she would never forget the way his hand slightly trembled with hesitation as he held the ring in front of her finger. She would never forget how her heart filled with butterflies and happiness and so much love. She loves him.
She thinks he understands.