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bit·ter·sweet·

adj· arousing pleasure tinged with sadness or pain

.

She feels him before she sees him. Not his chakra, no, of course not, that his carefully hidden so that nobody would know of his presence here but she feels him, his presence that is as familiar to him as her own hands. She feels him.

She pretends she doesn't though (it's a game they play sometimes, a twisted, nerve wrecking game to see who lasts longer without acknowledging the other and she always loses, of course) and walks straight to her desk, takes off her shoes and plants her bare feet on the top of the desk. Only, today she doesn't want to play, she's been missing him for far too long so she looks up to the dark corner he decided to hide in today and she smiles.

"Hi." Sakura greets the owner of her heart and is met with silence. That's alright, tough because it's familiar. It's normal.

"I worry for you sometimes." She says, still smiling. "Are you going to spend your life on the run? Hidden in dark corners?"

There's a sadness in her that she dares not to show, not to him for fear he might leave. He never does though, not before it's time and he always knows.

Sasuke moves away from the wall then, uncrossing his arms and walking up to her. Sakura's heartbeat increases rapidly as she watches him kneel before her. Her mouth goes dry when he lightly touches her ankles and brings her feet down. A soft gasp leaves her mouth when he rests his hands on her hips and her eyes tear up at the sight of him laying his head on her lap.

Sakura's hand automatically move to his hair, first pulling at it and then, as she relaxes and her tears stop, she caresses Sasuke's soft dark hair slowly.

This is their ritual, he can never stop needing and she can never stop giving, no matter how much pain it caused her because Sasuke needs her now, really needs her and she knows, oh how she knows that she could easily take advantage of that and take for herself what he refused to give all those years ago. But she doesn't, because she's not that kind of person, because he's messed up, because she'll scare him away, because he's fragile, because, because, because…

…because he doesn't love her.

Because Sasuke needs her but he doesn't love her.

Sakura starts counting the minutes, soon, he'll be leaving again and she never knows when he'll return, if he'll return.

Sasuke breaks their carefully established routine then by raising his head to look at her and then moving closer and closer and closer until…

Until he stops, a few inches before his lips meet hers he stops, his eyes going back and forth between her own eyes and her lips and she realizes he's waiting for her. She's the one who'll make the final decision. The one who'll take the final step.

Should she shorten the distance and take what she always wanted? Where would that leave them? What effects would it have on him and his emotional stability that is so fragile?

Should she kiss Sasuke?

Sakura does. And she sees fireworks, butterflies, rainbows and sugar and candy and and and…

And she sees love. And she knows then that they might not be together publicly, that he'll always be on the run and that he will never settle down but they will always have this.

And it's enough.

It has to be.

.

You know when you get something in your head before you go to bed and you just have to write it? This is it for me.

I might turn this into a series of drabbles (like fifteen minutes). You guys are welcome to send me prompts or requests for anything you want me to write here or on my tumblr page.

xoxo