Hey, this is part two for you

Prompt is: learned lessons

Thanks for the reviews

Sakura sighed dejectedly as she heard the same melody play for what felt like the umpteenth time. She left the kitchen that she had been lingering in for the past twenty minutes.

She started to head to the living area when Kakashi intercepted her. "Leave him be."

Sakura shook her head. "He's been playing that all morning, and yesterday too. In fact, he's been playing it for three months now! He needs to talk to someone about it, Kakashi."

Kakashi shook his head. "Sakura, you know Sasuke, he needs time. Yes, it's been three months, but, there's no modus operandi here, you just have to let him deal with it however he wants to deal with it."

The rosette bowed her head. "I know, but he's so sad, and this music he's playing," She gestured vaguely in the way of the living area, "This music is so cheerful, I am afraid that he's breaking down."

Kakashi clasped her on both shoulders and led her towards the kitchen, the rosette complied and sat down on a stool.

"Mikoto taught him this piece." The middle aged man stated. "It was the first piece he learned, when he was about five or six."

Sakura's mouth opened but she said nothing, she couldn't find anything to say. "Then…"

"He's dealing, Sakura. He's mourning her, grieving her, in his own way. Leave him be, Sakura. He'll come around on his own."

Sakura nodded, her eyes pricked with tears, and she bowed her head so he wouldn't see. She sniffled. "Okay." She agreed.

She couldn't fool Kakashi, the man was as close to her as he was to Sasuke, Sasuke was Kakashi's ward. The Uchiha's did not reside in Konoha, their business was in Oto, and they let Sasuke remain in Leaf with Kakashi as his guardian.

Kakashi placed his hand on Sakura's shoulder and squeezed. "I know that it was hard on you as well, Sakura, it's ok, it will be alright."

Sakura nodded. "I hope so, Kakashi. I don't want to lose him." She inhaled sharply, fighting back the tears, and the urge to weep.

Sasuke was sitting at the large black piano in the living room, his back was straight, ramrod straight, and his fingers danced repeatedly on the ivory keys of the instrument.

His deep gray eyes did not follow the movements of his nimble and long pale fingers, he didn't need to, he knew the piece like the back of his hand, instead, they were focused on the opposite wall, dead and unmoving.

Sakura treaded carefully as she headed towards him, her breathing shallow and quiet. "Sasuke," She called his name softly, he did not show any outward sign that he had heard her.

"Are you hungry? Kakashi just left, I could make you some pasta, or maybe even-"

"I don't want to eat." Sasuke replied monotonously. "I am not hungry."

She winced at the icy tone. "Okay, then. Would you like something to drink?"

He shook his head again, not pausing once in his playing.

Sakura adjusted her pale red skirt and sat. "Sasuke-"

He cut her off. "Did you know that I couldn't hear for six months when I was six?"

Sakura's emerald eyes went wide. "W-what? What are you talking about?"

The musical piece finally amounted to a crescendo then slowly fell into a smooth end, Sasuke closed the lid and looked at her, his eyes flat, lifeless and cold.

"I fell from the cherry tree back at home, and I couldn't hear, for six months, they took me all the way to the states for treatment."

Sakura's hand, in spite of herself, went to cover her mouth. No, she never knew that about him, she wondered what else she would learn about her boyfriend in his period of depression.

"When I could hear again, mo-" He paused, "She taught me this." He tilted his head to the side, as if thinking about something. "I don't remember that time much, I just remember being happy, that I could hear the music again, that I could hear anything at all, again. I want that again." He announced, and reopened the lid that covered the piano keys. "I want to be happy."

Sakura gasped softly as he began to play again. Suddenly, she understood. Kakashi was right, Sasuke was dealing, in his own way.

He was recreating the factors, the components, of a situation in which he was happy, in which he wasn't broken.

Of course, Sasuke was as smart as he was talented, he was basing his road to recovery on science. Science said, that if you recreated an experiment, in which you keep all the external factors intact, for example, temperature, you are most likely to get the same result again.

She bit her lip. In this case, Sasuke was the subject of the experiment, the external factors were the music, the piano, and the desired result was happiness, or at least, lack of utter and complete despair and emotional torture.

She let the tears that she held back fall against her ample cheeks as her boyfriend continued to play the cheerful, and jubilant music.

Let me know what you thought, stay tuned for part three