an: I don't own Naruto. Quick fluff story for Valentine's Day.

The Question

"Did you always love Mama?"

The question came from nowhere, and he looked up at his daughter with slightly raised eyebrows, and impossibly dark eyes.

It was a look that has frightened many, but to her was Papa's 'Go on/Explain/Oh?' face.

"I mean, I know you love her now," she pushed her glasses up her nose, "but when did you start loving Mama?"

Sasuke held his daughter's gaze steadily, noting how the eye color might be his, but the shape and the inquisitiveness in her look was absolutely her mother's.

"When did you meet Mama," his daughter elaborated, used to having to fill in her father's silences with more specific questions to get a response.

"Academy," he said, although she already knew that.

"You were in the same class" she stated.

"Hn."

"Did you love her then?"

Sasuke paused.

He had been told that daughters liked to hear that their fathers and mothers had always been in love and together. Sasuke, though, knew that 1) he didn't have an ordinary daughter 2) he would never lie to her.

"No," he said honestly, then added, "not yet."

She pursed her lips and thought about that. "I guess you would've been really little when you started there, so that makes sense. Did she talk to you much?"

Sasuke thought back to that brief window of time when he was at the academy and his family was still alive. He remembered his brother sometimes walking him home from school, or sitting with his mother while he did his homework or…well. It hadn't been very long, but he had many memories from that time. Sakura was no more than a quiet pink-haired girl then – it was before Ino had shown her to act with confidence.

He sometimes suspected that his wife might have learned that particular lesson a little too well.

"Not at first," he finally answered.

"Why?"

Sasuke shrugged. "She tells me that she was shy."

Sarada looked at her father with a skeptical expression straight out of his arsenal. "Mama. Shy," she repeated flatly.

Sasuke smirked. "Ah. That was before your Aunt Ino got a hold of her. She talked more after that."

"Oh, I know that story," she said dismissively. "That is the ribbon one. I still can't see Mama being shy, though," she narrowed her eyes at him.

"It didn't last long," he said dryly, and they shared a knowing smirk.

Truth be told, Sasuke knew that even if insecurity was no longer an issue for her, his wife had a shy streak. The people currently in her life were either from her village or met when she was under the pressure of war, or worked with her at the hospital, so Sarada had never seen her mother at a disadvantage with others. But Sasuke knew that she could still be shy when meeting new people or approaching others for the first time. When they had first married – when people still whispered, and eyed him distrustfully, and lamented her fate with knowing sighs, and questioned her judgment while passing their own - she had been the first to step in and stand up for them both in no uncertain terms.

She was definitely not shy then.

"So when she stopped being shy…?"

"She talked too much," he shrugged.

"What about?"

"Nothing, really," Sasuke sighed. "She tried to get my attention."

"Did it work?"

"No."

That wasn't strictly true. He paid enough attention to know who she was and that she was smart. And annoying. That was when he first thought of her as annoying, but not as he later thought of that word as it applied to her.

Then again, he had worked at ignoring her – didn't that mean she had caught his attention?

"Why not?" Sarada frowned, feeling defensive of her mother.

Sasuke thought about that. "I was focused on other things."

That was the simple explanation – and much quicker than 'I wanted to kill my brother for murdering our family and that was my one and only obsession for years?'

"Well, what about when you were on your genin team?" Sarada asked. "What then."

"Still annoying," he said, "but better. And not as bad as Naruto"

"How better?"

"Genin don't know what it is to be a shinobi. It takes time."

Sarada arched an eyebrow at him. "All genin?"

"Yes," he admitted. "All genin." Sakura didn't understand the sacrifices that would come, or the loneliness or the pain. Naruto didn't know that he could be accepted and excel. Sasuke didn't know he could work as a team or care for anyone the way he had for his family. They all had things they didn't know.

"Was Mama strong?"

"Not the way she is now," Sasuke answered. "That came with training. But…" he thought about it. "She always had the strength inside. She just had to find it."

Sakura had been the balance between him and Naruto. As formidable as it became, her greatest strength wasn't in her fists. It had been somewhere much deeper than that.

"Training with Tsunade-sama," Sarada said. "While you were gone."

"Hn."

He ignored the dull ache between his ribs that always accompanied that particular phrase. 'While you were gone' covered a lot of territory in his life, even now.

"So when did you fall in love with Mama?"

Sasuke arched an eyebrow at his daughter.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Just curious," she shrugged. "I wanted to know if your answer was the same as Mama's."

"And was it?" Sasuke asked smugly, knowing full well that Sakura had always loved him.

"Yes. She didn't always love you, either."

Sasuke wondered why Sakura had lied to their daughter. Perhaps it was to dissuade her from putting too much attachment on any feelings she might have for anyone at this point in her young life; especially feelings for any blond-haired-blue-eyed-mini-baka-clones of the just-as-baka-Hokage.

Sarada had abandoned her interrogation shortly after that, but it replayed in Sasuke's mind several times.

His daughter had been in bed a full two-and-a-half hours when the familiar creak of the front door told him his wife was from the hospital. Even after what he knew when she left was going to be along shift, and he learned when she returned had been a particularly grueling one, she still greeted him with that smile she saved just for him.

She sank into her chair at the table, gratefully, and wrapped her fingers around the mug of tea he put in front of her. "Thank you, Sasuke-kun," she sighed happily. "I needed this after today. Well," she flicked a glance at the clock, "technically yesterday. Which I guess," she fished something out of hiding, "means I can give you this."

She handed him the box, and he opened the lid. "I know you don't care for sweets," she sipped her tea, "but I made that batch more savory."

He looked at the Honmei-choco in his hands, and the corners of his mouth titled in mischief.

"What?" she asked suspiciously.

"This isn't like the time you tried to make the chocolate healthy, is it?" he asked blandly.

"No," she smiled wryly. "I learned my lesson after that giri-choco disaster a few years ago." When Sasuke looked like he still didn't quite believe her, she sighed. "Alright, fine. I asked Chōji for help, okay? And you should count yourself lucky," she added. "I can at least cook. Karui almost killed Chōji the first time she made a meal." Sakura put a finger to her chin. "Come to think of it, she has never had to cook since. Maybe that was less of a mistake and more of a brilliant tactical decision."

"Not so brilliant that it didn't land them both in the hospital," Sasuke observed.

"Good point," she agreed. "But to address your concerns, no, that is normal Honmei-choco made to be less sweet. I'll make your onigiri tomorrow," she yawned before correcting herself. "I mean today." She blinked rapidly and dabbed at her watering eyes.

"Did you always love me?"

Sakura was quiet a moment, taken aback by the sudden shift in topic more than the question itself. Even tired, her mind was quick to catch up.

"Been speaking with Sarada?" she asked knowingly. He didn't need to answer – she could see it in his face. She took a long sip of her tea and put her chin in her hand.

"No," she said thoughtfully. "I didn't."

She knew the edges in his silence and how to navigate them.

"I thought I did," she admitted. "I thought I knew a lot of things when we were genin. I knew I was a great, full-fledged kunoichi. I knew Naruto was an idiot. I knew I loved you and someday you would be wildly in love with me and sweep me off of my feet. I knew Kakashi-sensei was a lazy pervert."

She chuckled and sipped her tea before leaning back comfortably in her chair and looking up with an amused sigh.

"And then we actually started taking missions. I learned I had a hell of a long way to go before I became anything close to resembling a great kunoichi. I learned that Naruto could be smarter and stronger than all of us. I learned our Sensei was one of the most skilled shinobi to ever come out of Konoha." Her eyes roved over him. "I learned that you were darker and angrier and lonelier than I could ever understand. We all had things to learn, and we learned them together. Somewhere along the line I learned that I didn't love you. Not then. Not really."

Sasuke arched an eyebrow, clearly recalling her many advances and requests for dates, and attempts for his attention, and that confession….

"Love is so much bigger than I thought it was. I didn't know what it was to love anyone," she said holding his gaze.

"When?" he asked.

She furrowed her brow. "I'm not sure exactly" she admitted. "The night you left," she stared into her teacup, "I felt my heart breaking. I must have loved you before that night, but even then, I had so much to learn." She looked up at him. "I was learning what it was to love you, Sasuke-kun. Even when you were away." She held his gaze. "It was a much harder and longer lesson than I could have ever anticipated."

Sasuke didn't know he was gripping the back of the chair until he released it to take her outstretched hand and sit beside her. "It was a long road to walk, Sasuke-kun," she thumbed over his knuckles. "For both of us. I learned to stand up and be strong. I learned about you and not the idea of you. I learned to be lonely." She reached for his cheek, caressing it gently. "That might have been the hardest lesson."

Sasuke understood the depth of that sentiment far better than anyone but she realized.

"I didn't always love you," she admitted, "because I had to learn who you were. You were so desperate to keep everyone away." She dropped her hand to his, and smiled patiently at him. "You were kind of a jerk," she teased.

"And you were-"

"Annoying," she interrupted, eyes dancing. "So I've heard. And now?"

"You're still annoying," he smirked.

"And you can still be a jerk," she smiled, "but you can also be pretty wonderful." She tried to hide her yawn, but had to press the back of her hand to her mouth.

"Hn."

Sasuke stood and took her teacup before ushering her to the shower. He washed the few dishes and tidied up. He padded back to their room, and was waiting for her when she came to bed. She slipped under the covers and snuggled up to him, burying her face in the crook of his neck.

"I love when you are home," she murmured happily, smile widening when he kissed the seal on her forehead.

"Sakura."

"Mm?" she asked, eyes drifting closed.

"I love you."

"I know, Sasuke-kun," she laughed lightly. "I love you, too. Maybe I didn't always," she wrapped her arm around him, "But I will always. I promise." She yawned widely. "I'll show you first thing in the morning before Sarada has to be awake."

He smirked, absently trailing fingertips along the satin of her arm. "I look forward to it."

"Sasuke-kun?" she asked, sleep settling heavy over her.

"Hm?"

"Happy Valentine's Day," she kissed his throat. "Be mine?"

"Always, Sakura."

His wife snuggled into his shoulder and was soon deep in a pleasant sleep.

As Sasuke drifted off to sleep, he realized he never really answered Sarada's question.

He didn't know when he had first loved Sakura.

He didn't know when she had first loved him.

It didn't matter.

From the moment he held his wife and his new daughter in his arms, Sasuke stopped looking to the past and started looking to the future.

His wife.

His daughter.

His family.

They were what mattered.

And he loved them both.

Always.

Thanks for reading, friends.
Be my Valentine? I have chocolate!
-Giada