"He doesn't want to make it public," Sakura said. She was lying on her bed, talking to Ino late one night a few days later.

"Of course he doesn't. You realize the explosion it's going to cause when you announce it? Because that's what going to happen when everyone finds out that the two most ridiculously attractive and talented people in the entire freaking music world are dating. Total explosion. Kaboom."

Sakura raised her eyebrows. "You actually think so?"

"Jesus, Forehead, do you know who Sasuke Uchiha is? Do you know who you are? You're the dream mates of just about every person out there."

Sakura rolled her eyes.

"You know, on second thought Sasuke Uchiha is probably the only person any of your admirers will allow you to date. Just because of hotness levels. Anyone else would be beneath you."

"Wow, Pig. Thanks, I guess?"

Ino sighed. "You're in for it, Forehead."

"Which is why we're not having any kind of press conference to announce it in the near future."

"Ha ha. All you'd need to do is, like, drop a quote about Firestyle and they'd figure it out immediately."

Sakura sighed. "I think that's an exaggeration."

"Right. But anyway, how's it going? Just in general, I mean."

"I'm exhausted all the time and I'm always going somewhere, but...this is where I wanted to be. I feel like I'm really starting to get there. You know, reaching my goals and everything. It's a bit different than I thought it would be, but I guess that's to be expected."

"That's awesome," Ino said. "And of course you're reaching your goals. You just won a huge award, for God's sake. A bunch of us watched the ceremony back home, we had a party. Also, I nearly snorted out whatever I was drinking when you kissed Sasuke, I thought you should know that." Sakura could hear her grin. "Didn't think you'd be that daring. But I guess it's impossible to resist when it's Sasuke Uchiha."

"Oh, shut up."

"Speaking of Sasuke, how is that going?"

"I'm not giving you any gory details, if that's what you're asking for. It's been...Good. Really good." Sakura smiled.

"Okay, spare me the sappiness. Or sexiness, whatever it is. I should go, we've got an early rehearsal tomorrow."

"Alright. Same time next week?"

"Of course. Good luck with fame in the meantime."

"Thanks," Sakura said, shaking her head. They said goodbye and hung up. Sakura settled back on the couch and texted Sasuke. Ino had been right, just like Sasuke.

"We have to get this. Tonight." Shikamaru said, his voice muffled. His head was resting on his hands, his ponytail coming undone.

"Dude. It's been four hours. We're not gonna figure it out," Kiba said, digging a hand through his hair in frustration.

It was past ten, and the four of them were still in the studio, trying to finish a song that had been giving them trouble for ages.

"We need to finish it," Shikamaru said, and for once his voice wasn't a lazy monotone.

Naruto banged the bass drum. "Then stop trying to give up and let's do it already!"

"Easier said than done," Sasuke muttered, irritated. His guitar felt dead in his hands; nothing was coming to him. They had a full set of lyrics, and Kiba had recorded a bass line, but it hadn't seemed right.

Sessions like this were awful. If they walked into the studio with almost nothing, it usually went down from there. By now they were all exhausted and annoyed.

Naruto started shuffling out an uneven beat, clearly as frustrated as the rest of them. Sasuke's mind turned to Sakura, his fingers dropping away from the frets. She'd be asleep by now, probably; her schedule was crazy and she probably slept whenever she had free time. He wished he was back in her apartment with her, that he'd never had to leave.

The drums filtered into Sasuke's brain and suddenly he was listening to the strange rhythm that Naruto was making. He couldn't get Sakura's smile out of his mind, and the smirk she'd given him when she had showed him her new bed.

"That's it," Sasuke said suddenly. Shikamaru's head came up, clearly surprised, and Kiba frowned at Sasuke. He had surprised himself by saying it, but out of nowhere the beat clicked. This was what they needed. "Keep playing that, Naruto," he muttered. His fingers danced over the strings for a second, nodding to the beat, and then he started strumming a few chords. His feet found the petals on the ground and he messed around with a few.

"Holy shit," Kiba said. "This is good." He started playing along, following Sasuke's lead. Sasuke glanced at Shikamaru, who was nodding along and clearly thinking.

"Okay," Shikamaru said. "I can get behind this. Take it a little lighter, though."

Sasuke nodded, toning down his sound, and Shikamaru joined in with a few chords on the piano. He started singing the chorus a moment later, and Sasuke altered his pattern slightly. Naruto let out a whoop, and Kiba was grinning as he slid his fingers up and down his bass.

They had to pause to figure out the verses, but it was like they'd suddenly started going eighty miles an hour after being out of gas. Shikamaru programmed the recording software to get the chords down before any of them forgot, and Kiba plugged in the microphones.

An hour later, they had four demo versions.

All of them left the studio feeling the giddy high of success. Kiba passed around beers when they got home, and Sasuke accepted one because he was in an unusually light mood. They sat around the living room, not really talking but all extremely satisfied.

Naruto was scrolling through some feed on his phone, chuckling. "Nice couple name, by the way," he said to Sasuke. "Everyone's all over it." He showed Sasuke his phone and an endless scroll of speculation about Sasuke and Sakura.

"You're never going to drop this, are you," Sasuke muttered.

"Nope!"

"They're missing one headline, though," Naruto said, a wide grin spreading over his face.

"What." Sasuke said through gritted teeth.

"'Turns Out Sasuke Uchiha Isn't Asexual.'" Naruto cackled and Sasuke glared at him.

"Would it matter if he was?" Shikamaru said in a bored tone of voice from the couch, where he was lying with his eyes closed.

"No, I'm just saying I think the media thinks he is." Naruto grinned an infuriating grin at Sasuke. "But when they find out he's secretly doing it with Sakura—"

"Some day I will pound you into a bloody pulp." Sasuke muttered, giving Naruto a death stare. "And you will regret everything." He stood up. "I'm going to bed."

"Aw, really, teme? It's not even midnight."

"I'm fucking tired, dobe. Jesus." Sasuke headed for his bedroom and glanced at his phone. There was a text from Sakura from a few hours before.

You were right. We should definitely keep it private.

On a spur of the moment, music-high instinct, Sasuke called her.

"Sasuke?" Sakura's voice was tired, and he realized he'd probably woken her up.

"Sorry," he muttered. "Just wanted to talk to you. Had a good day in the studio."

"That's great," Sakura said. "Don't apologize, I wasn't sleeping or anything. Do you want to come over?"

"What?" She'd said it so naturally, Sasuke didn't think he'd heard her right.

"Do you want to come over, I said." She sounded amused. "You're not too far away."

"Aa. Sure."

"Great."

Sasuke felt a sudden rush of energy. He left his bedroom and passed the living doorway without attracting the attention of his bandmates, sneaking out through the front door soundlessly.

Forty minutes later he was knocking on the door of Sakura's apartment.

Sakura opened the door wearing a sports bra and underwear. "Hi," she said, smiling slightly.

"Uh…Hey." Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"It was comfortable," Sakura said, rolling her eyes. "So. You want to stay the night this time?"

"Maybe," Sasuke said, starting to smirk.

"Cool." For a moment they were just looking at each other, and then they moved at the same time. A minute later they were on her bed, Sakura's hands in his hair and Sasuke's arms around his waist.

It was a good thing she'd already taken off her clothes, he thought a while later.

"So, was the bed up to your standards this time?" Sakura asked, raising an eyebrow. She was lying next to him, one arm dangling lazily off the edge of the bed.

"Wasn't bad," Sasuke said, shrugging.

"Asshole," Sakura said, rolling her eyes. "Plenty of people would kill to be on my mattress, so consider yourself lucky."

Sasuke raised his eyebrows. "Wow. Thought you didn't have an ego."

"Well, it's nothing in comparison to yours," Sakura said. "Don't even deny it." She grinned, and Sasuke pulled her closer and kissed her so he didn't have to look at her (irresistible) cocky expression.

Then they went at it again, until they were both breathing hard and had to stop. "God," Sakura said, falling into the pillow beside him. Sasuke smirked.

She got up a moment later and then disappeared into the bathroom for a few minutes. When she came out she was yawning. "I'm done for tonight," she said, getting back on the bed. "I'm really tired."

"Tch," Sasuke said. Truth be told, he was tired, too. It had to be almost two in the morning by now. But other than that, he felt good.

Sakura pulled the covers up around her, unintentionally putting several layers of blankets between them. Sasuke knocked a few of them away, and she rolled over, moving closer to him. "This is sort of weird," she said. "We've never actually slept together..."

"Yeah," Sasuke muttered. He knew that too well, and didn't want to leave this bed. She didn't say anything else, but then Sasuke mentioned something he'd been thinking about earlier.

"We should write something together, sometime." For some reason it just seemed like the right thing to bring up.

"Hm. Yeah," Sakura said. Her eyes were closed, and she was already half-asleep. Sasuke watched her for a moment, listening to the sound of her breathing getting slower, and then pulled the blanket up around himself. He was asleep a few minutes later.

When he woke up, it took a second to realize where he was. Sakura's apartment was much brighter than his own; his curtains were thick and dark, whereas hers were white and gauzy and did nothing to keep the sun out.

The space in the bed beside him was rumpled but empty, and Sasuke sat up slowly and yawned. He'd slept well, even though it was clearly early in the morning.

The curtains next to the bed were pushed apart and Sakura stuck her head in. "Morning. I made coffee, you want some?" She smiled at him and it almost made him smile back.

"Aa. What time is it?"

"Almost eight. Sorry, I have somewhere to be this morning."

"Don't apologize," Sasuke muttered, getting up off the bed and pulling on his shirt from the day before. He followed her out into the little kitchen and Sakura poured him a mug of coffee. She was wearing a baggy t-shirt and her hair was piled up in a bun; not for the first time, it struck him how young she really looked.

"You are twenty, right?" He asked her suddenly.

Sakura raised her eyebrows at the question and then looked slightly amused. "Yeah, I'm twenty. Makeup does a lot, doesn't it."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Not what I meant."

Sakura laughed. "No, trust me, senior year of high school people would assume I was a freshman. It—" She was interrupted by a knock on the door.

Immediately Sasuke stiffened. "You expecting someone?"

"No, I'm not." Sakura looked worried. The knock came again, insistently, and she sighed. "Hold on." She went over to the door. "Who is it?"

"Oh good, you're up. It's Shizune. Sorry, I know I didn't call ahead but there are a few things I wanted to bring over for you."

Fuck, was all Sasuke could think. Sakura glanced over at him and then back at the door, clearly conflicted.

"Is this not a good time?" Shizune asked, sounding worried.

"I—No, it's alright," Sakura said. "It'll be fine," she mouthed to Sasuke, and he felt his stomach drop in discomfort. But there was no way out and now she was opening the door.

Shizune was holding a large pile of wrapped clothing. "God, I know it's way too early," she said to Sakura. "And your schedule's been so hectic, I was just thinking the other night that maybe we could—" She'd caught sight of Sasuke (still in only a t-shirt and boxers), and her eyes widened. "Oh! Oh."

"Um…" Sakura said, her face bright red. "Sasuke, this Shizune, my stylist. Shizune, Sasuke."

"Hi," Sasuke muttered. He had a feeling his face was as red as Sakura's.

"Nice to meet you," Shizune said, smiling. She gave Sakura an amused glance. "Shall I just leave these on the couch? It's a few options for the dinner tomorrow, you can try them on later."

"Uh, yeah. That'd be great," Sakura got out.

"Excellent," Shizune said. She glanced at Sasuke again but didn't say anything. She was surprisingly calm about the whole thing, Sasuke thought. No exclamations or gaping. Then again, she probably dealt with this sort of thing all the time. "Well, I'll just be going. Sorry for butting in, I had no idea…"

"Don't worry about it," Sakura said hastily. "But it would be great if you didn't…"

"My lips are sealed," Shizune said, smiling slightly. "I'll see you at the fitting tomorrow morning."

"Okay. Thanks," Sakura said.

Shizune left, and as soon as the door closed Sakura let out a sigh.

"Fuck," Sasuke said. This was not what he wanted, not at all. But of course the one night he'd stayed over, this had happened. What a stupid, stupid idea, he should've left hours ago, when they'd finished.

"Don't freak out," Sakura said, planting herself in front of him and locking eyes. "I trust Shizune. If she says she won't say anything, she won't say anything." She frowned at his skeptical look. "I'm serious."

"Fine," Sasuke said. He had no choice but to take her word for it. Her manager already knew, anyway, and any smart person would assume that this sort of thing would be happening. "You trust your manager, right?"

"Yeah...I think so. But I think he's going to want us to go public with it eventually. On his terms. Or he'll get in contact with your manager and they'll figure something out."

"That's not gonna happen," Sasuke said darkly. Not if he had anything to say about it.

"Well, I don't know if you've got a choice," Sakura said.

"I do if Kakashi's involved." Who knows about her manager, though, he thought. Clearly Orochimaru was in a totally different category from Kakashi.

Suddenly Sasuke was struck with an idea.

"You want to write a song together?"

Clearly Sakura didn't remember him saying anything similar last night. "Seriously?" Her eyes were wide.

Sasuke shrugged. "Why not."

"No, I just—Yeah, that'd be awesome."

"You're performing at the Winter festival. We could do it together there."

"But wouldn't that be…I don't know, confirmation of this whole thing? I thought that's what we didn't want. It might make it, you know, a bit more obvious."

"Not necessarily," Sasuke said. "Just having fun." He wasn't going to let Sakura's manager have the say here, and playing one song together wouldn't be concrete evidence of anything for the public.

Sakura gave him a questioning grin, and then she laughed. "Okay. Let's do it."