It was late evening in Konoha, and despite the sun's disappearance, the hot summer air seemed to have no intention whatsoever of clearing away anytime soon. The atmosphere was humid and charged with the potential threat of a rainstorm, which had forced most of the inhabitants into their homes—or into any other building that happened to have an air conditioning facility—much earlier than usual.

At the Uchiha Mansion, everything was quiet. The rooms—once flooded with natural light—were now basking in the darkness, the entire house empty, save for one particular room, where a lamp was turned on and two chakras could be sensed pulsing contently.

Uchiha Sasuke was lying on his king-sized bed, his back propped up against a stack of pillows, one of his legs stretched out before him, the other bent at the knee. A scroll was in his hands, and its contents seemed to hold his attention for the time being.

Haruno Sakura, Konoha's cherry blossom and his girlfriend of two years, was sprawled beside him on the bed, dressed in only a dainty set of lacy underwear, her hair still wet from the shower she—or rather, they—had previously taken. Her legs swinging occasionally in the air, she lay comfortably on her stomach, munching on a slice of chocolate cake she had found in her boyfriend's freakishly empty fridge.

Green eyes suddenly redirecting their gaze towards said boyfriend, she licked her spoon clean as she took in his appearance. Despite being slightly damp, his raven hair still managed to stick up and defy gravity just like it had always done; his handsome features were twisted in subtle concentration, his beautiful onyx eyes fixed on the scroll he was holding in his hands.

And the best part of it all? He was shirtless. A shirtless Sasuke was always a sight to behold, she mused quietly as a smirk turned the corners of her mouth upwards. She just loved his six-pack… And other parts of him, she concluded after a moment, her smirk slowly turning into a sly grin.

Mischief blurring the edges of her usually rational mind, Sakura slowly dragged her index finger over the chocolate icing of the cake. Then she giggled and promptly reached out towards her unassuming boyfriend, swiftly spreading the sweet substance all over his mouth. Under normal circumstances, he would always be faster than her, but what with him letting his guard down whenever she was around nowadays, the pinkette found sneaking up on him to be extremely entertaining—she was actually considering the idea of taking it up as a hobby. No matter what she came up with, his expressions were always priceless—even for the brief few seconds that they lasted.

Throwing her a glare that was supposed to be threatening—but that, after two years of dating, Sakura had come to interpret as an unspoken nuance of his famous "you're annoying"—the Uchiha grabbed a napkin from the nightstand and efficiently removed every last trace of the chocolate icing in one move. Then he glared at the napkin for good measure, and promptly threw it across the room and directly into the trash can that resided in a corner.

By the time his gaze had returned to the scroll in his hands, Sakura's mouth was hanging open. "You are such a jerk," she declared after a moment of stunned silence. "You could have just licked it off!"

"I hate sweets, Sakura," he replied monotonously, obviously unaffected. "You know that."

The pinkette rolled her eyes. "And yet, you have chocolate cakes in your fridge. Hell, they're the only thing you have, aside from freaking tomatoes!"

"Hn," he grunted. "Because you eat them."

"You're very sweet, but that's totally beside the point!" she exclaimed, trying to sound unaffected by his unexpected answer. Sasuke smirked—it had not worked. "And it doesn't change the fact that you're freaking abnormal!" she proclaimed heatedly after a brief moment of contemplation.

The Uchiha did not need to glance at her to know that she was blushing, but he did anyway, because he actually quite liked it when she did that. After so much time and so many things they had done together, one would think that the effect he had on her would have diminished—at least a little bit. He was secretly very pleased that it had not—and every time he came across proof, he just had this sudden urge to ravage her. Sakura never understood, but she never complained, either.

"I mean, who the hell doesn't like sweets?" she continued, and he stopped to admire the way the light pink of her outfit of choice complemented her pale skin and made her look much more innocent than she actually was…before he heaved a sigh and returned his attention to his scroll. She was about to become annoying—he could feel it.

A moment passed in silence, and when he looked up to check on her, unsure of why she had stopped teasing him so suddenly, he was met with a mischievous smirk that he knew—he just knew—meant trouble.

"I dare you," she said when she was convinced she had his attention, green eyes locked confidently with onyx.

Sasuke merely raised an eyebrow in response.

"I dare you to taste it."

"You're being stupid again," he warned.

A small whine escaped her full lips. "Please, Sasuke-kun!"

"No," he answered simply.

"Coward!" she accused childishly. "That's what you are! A grown man—an ANBU at that—who can't even take a light dare…" her ramble died off as she threw him one last glare before redirecting her attention towards the abandoned slice of cake, angrily shoving a piece of the sweet dessert into her mouth.

At that point, Sasuke wasn't sure what possessed him. Be it her useless babble that always seemed to have an effect on him—because, even in her stupidest moments, he still cared about what she thought—or the way she pouted with those full, luscious pink lips of hers, he couldn't know for sure. All he knew was that he had bent his head and pressed his lips to hers before his brain could fully process the action.

Sakura gasped as she realized what he had done, presenting him with an opportunity that he always took, no matter the circumstances. Shoving his tongue into her mouth, he kissed her passionately, thoroughly exploring her sweetened cavern.

He pulled back when he felt that the point she had raised was one he no longer needed to prove—or prove wrong, it depended on how you looked at the problem—leaving her breathless and slightly dazed. He watched as she recovered slowly, taking great pride in rendering her incapable of thinking. When her green eyes finally rose to meet his, he threw her a smug look, before returning to his scroll—and scowling. Too many interruptions had weakened his concentration, and now he had to re-read the damn paragraph.

Before he started on that, he took one last glance at the pink-haired woman beside him. She rolled her eyes, and then smiled in a satisfied manner.

It was easy to make her happy, he concluded as he watched her quietly resume her eating.

That was one of the things he loved most about her.


Pictures on my profile, as per usual.

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