This isn't the new chapter of The Replacement that I promised but I hope you'll like it anyway. I don't outright say it but it's SakuraxSai.
Enough
"You're late," he says, but steps aside anyway, making sure the gap is only just wide enough for her to enter. He wants to smell her as she passes by, breathe in what he already knows is there. She smells just like he expects: of antiseptic and sweat and Sasuke.
She feels awful, smiling up at him as she slides in the door. Pretending that wasn't the understatement of the year. Late, oh so very late. She wants to apologize, pour her heart out and have him scoop it up and put it back together, but instead all she says is, "I know."
He crosses the room in silence and she realizes she's holding her breath, waiting to see if he'll say what they both know. She hopes in vain that things can stay the same another day, another moment. The way they were before Sasuke returned.
"You were with him," his voice shatters her hope. It's not a question, it doesn't have to be. Everyone knows.
She doesn't want to say it. Not out loud. It feels like everything will change if she admits it. It's silly, she knows. Everything already has changed.
"I lost track of time," she says, gently tugging him down on the couch beside her.
He doesn't object. Instead he carefully folds her in his arms and kisses the top of her head. "Okay," he whispers into her hair. And she knows that just for today he'll pretend.
He knows that in the end she won't choose him, never him. She's always been the Uchiha's in heart and soul. He's never had any illusions on that front, never fooled himself into thinking otherwise.
But as long as she'll pretend so will he. Just for today she belongs to him.
But for him, just today will never be enough.
He won't stop her though, won't beg her to stay when she leaves. He has more dignity than that, more grace. He'll stand by and quietly let her go. Always quietly.
And when she smiles at him, he'll smile back. When she's happy, he'll be happy too. He will still draw her and paint her and visit her in his dreams. But it will never be enough.
When she marries the Uchiha he will congratulate her, be genuine, sincere. He will revel in her happiness. He will play with her children, teach them how to wield a paintbrush, but they will never be his. And it will never be enough.
It's as if he can see his future playing out and he knows that from this moment forward he will always have a gaping hole in his heart. He will try to fill it, as any sane person would, but it won't be enough.
It will never dull the pain he will feel when he sees them together. It will never answer the question, why him? Why not me?
But he pushes the pain aside because he hasn't felt it yet, only knows its coming. For now, all he can feel is her steady heartbeat against his own, pulling him back to this time and place. Her warm breaths on his neck reminding him that for this moment she is his.
And that will have to be enough.