A very, very quick author's note: I'd advise listening to the song 'Again and Again' by The Bird and the Bee while reading. If you want. x3

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Warmer Climate

She hated him.

He'd killed someone she knew, tried repeatedly to kill her best friend, tried to kill her- he and what he stood for opposed everything she'd ever lived and fought for, for crying out loud, for eighteen years and god be damned if she was just going to throw that all away for a stupid, stupid thing-

And he just stood there. Smug, misplaced confidence radiating from his sorry being as he waited just a few feet away, tattered black cloak with those almost-comical clouds, the ones that made her want to snort in derision every time she saw it if it weren't for the murderers that wore them, hanging loose across his shoulders.

She hated him. She hated him-!

"Sakura."

-Especially that stupid, ridiculously deep voice that completely defied his lithe appearance, always seeming to rumble through to her very bones and making these stupid butterflies start bouncing around her stomach of all things-

"Why are you here?" She bit out through gritted teeth, glaring bright, jade eyes at the cloak, the clouds, and generally just avoiding meeting the dull blue gaze that just made the stupid butterflies worse, damn it-

She crossed her arms tightly across her chest, attempting to stamp out her treacherous thoughts, nearly missing the carefully blank way he watched her as he copied her movement.

"I could ask you the same thing, yeah."

She just couldn't understand it– she knew what this man was capable of, seen with her own eyes the brutality he dealt freely, gleefully- so why was she here? Without back up, without a word to anyone, with barely a kunai and only her chakra-enhanced strength- this was not the Sakura she knew. This was not herself. She was a cautious, law abiding, and above all loyal shinobi to her friends and her village, so why had she come here?

Why had he?

"Shut up," she growled, resisting the urge to bury her hands in her hair and tear at it in anger and instead taking a shaky breath, trying to calm herself. Control. She needed self control. Control yourself and you control the situation. She repeated the rule like a mantra in her head as she tried to squash the warmth that had fluttered up again, bugger it all, against her will.

"Why, yeah?" he questioned, tipping his head to the side and sending dun strands slipping across his shoulders, a stark contrast to the dusty black as his eyes focused on her own. She angrily avoided his gaze and then he smirked, shifting his weight to his other foot. "You scared?"

Her head snapped up in fury, fists clenching.

"No!"

She cursed herself mentally as he finally caught her gaze and held it, his single, visible, somehow smirking - she had no idea how – with-some-sort-of-sick-triumph-that-his-ploy-had-worked- blue eye holding her there and seeming to pierce straight through her, just as she knew it would, the bastard-

"Then why, yeah?"

"I despise you," she hissed, gathering her will power to drag her eyes away, fighting her rampant emotions as she tried to glare at him. She shouldn't have come, she knew this was going to happen- She wasn't a naïve little school girl swooning over her first crush, she'd recognised the signs, understood the meaning; so why couldn't she control it? Why did a single stupid word from him, of all bloody people, have her blushing and stuttering like a love-struck imbecile-

"Really, yeah?"

-A crack in the wall, water trickling then flooding through-

She couldn't take it anymore.

"Just shut up!"

She stomped forward and grabbed him by the collar, all of her emotions and thoughts whirling around her in a chaotic frenzy as she dragged him down and crashed her lips onto his - screw the rules, for christ's sake- this was what she needed, this was the release- pouring all of pent up feelings, frustration and anger into the almost savage kiss. He froze for a second in surprise before responding with equal force, a hand rising and running through soft pink curls to grasp the back of her head as the other tugged her closer. Her head swam from a bout of unexpected light-headedness as he slanted his mouth further over hers, pulse pounding in her ears but she held on anyway, embracing the feelings with open arms.

Breaking free when her lungs couldn't take it anymore, she slumped forward onto his chest and closed her eyes, for the moment ignoring all of the doubts and fears that had plagued her over the last couple of weeks and just enjoying the gentle warmth that emanating beneath her cheek as she caught her breath from the… surprisingly nice –but it shouldn't have been, it should've been as horrible and as cold as his heart was supposed to be- kiss. He raised a poised eyebrow at the oddly subdued gesture, surprise still flickering across his features but he clasped his arms almost affectionately around her anyway, resting his chin lightly on the top of her head.

"I hate you," she whispered into his chest, all of the anger from before gone, leaving her to fight off her impending fatigue as she almost clung to him to keep herself steady. He laughed lightly at that, lowering his head to whisper lightly into her hair, the act making those condemned butterflies that was the whole trigger for this stupid situation start fluttering in her chest once more.

"I hate you too, yeah."

End.

…xD;

Yeah.

'Twas an experiment. Tried to find the right emotion. Probably failed. Feel free to shoot. xD

Reason for author's note- that was originally going to be the song for this, it was what I was listening to when I got the idea, (The 'I hate you, I want you," and 'Say my name, say my name, say my stupid name' parts in particular. :x) - but the music was too distracting, so I only listened to it before I started writing, and Warmer Climate got stuck in my head instead. So. I changed the song. xD;

Writing song: Warmer Climate, Snow Patrol.