Summary: Arranged marriage in the twenty-first century might be uncommon, but is not unheard of. "Do you mind?"
Notes:
i) I wrote flowery smut. Someone please shoot me now.
ii) The very last legs of this journey. Only one or two chapters left.
x
Come Cinderella, let's take the next pumpkin outta here!
x
Sakura was coming to realize that Sasuke's choice in music was extremely bad, but he was undeniably, irritatingly cute when he subtly bopped his head along.
"He likes country pop," she gushed to Ino, "Which is like, what teenage girls like to listen to but oh my god he bops his head along when he thinks no one is watching!"
Ino positively cackled with glee. "Oh, that munchkin!"
"You can't even imagine," agreed Sakura.
They laughed, and then suddenly, Ino stopped, losing just point five lumens of that megawatt smile. "I'm glad you're finally happy, Forehead."
"Oh, Ino," said Sakura, around a smile, "Me, too."
x
Sasuke, Sakura was coming to realize, was severely lacking in the romance department. Once, she caught him rummaging around for clothes with a towel around his waist, and unabashedly ogled, slightly slack jawed.
It had taken him quite a few moments to notice her heated gaze, and when he had; he'd blushed furiously, averted his eyes, looked anywhere but at her and asked, "Do you mind?"
She'd smirked insolently and with the universal carry on gesture of spread hands, said, "Not at all."
He'd been very careful not to be caught in such a blatant state of undress, since.
x
"Sasuke?" she asked one day, "I want you to be romantic."
He sputtered in astounded silence.
"Not always," she quickly backtracked, feeling the slight burn of a blush on her cheeks, "Just—when I ask, okay?"
For a moment she thought, he'd turn his nose up arrogantly, but he surprised her by saying, "I don't know how."
So she took it upon herself to teach him.
"Put your arms around me," she instructed, turning around so that her back was to him.
He did, and she lead his head down so that his mouth was in the crook of her neck. "Now kiss me here."
He did. It was soft and lingering and not at all innocent and she had to clench her thighs to stop her legs from buckling. She inhaled a shuddery breath. "I can't believe I have to teach you how to be romantic," she whispered, eyes closed, leaning back into his chest.
He pressed her closer to him, dragged his lips to the other side of her neck and kissed her there just as slowly, deliberately.
Then he let go and turned her around, laid a hand on the slim column of her throat, feeling the rapid pulse beating there and with a thumb, lifted her chin until her eyes raised fully to his. "Not everything," he said hoarsely, as his hand slid downwards over her breast and around her waist, then slowly up her back, gently pressing her closer to him.
She looked at him, saw the flicker in his eye and barely had time to blink before his mouth was on hers.
She didn't even pretend to resist or protest, not when it was exactly what she needed. The warmth, the steady hand, the skilled mouth. Instead, she slid her arms around his neck, pressed into him and let all the sensations wash over her.
He felt the need he'd kept carefully reined, strain at its tether. The sweetness of her, the arousing pliancy, the little licks of heat that hinted passion simmering beneath innocence.
The combination came close to snapping that tether.
So, it was he who drew back and she who protested. Struggling to temper instinct with sense, he shifted her again and settled her head on the curve of his shoulder.
She felt his heart beat fast under her hand, heard her own pound in her head. She was beginning to like this feeling of being stirred up, to feel that simmering coil in the pit of her stomach.
"That was pretty romantic," she whispered in his chest.
"Aa."
x
She was learning—all the nicks and bumps and the tiny little things that made Sasuke—Sasuke. She was learning and she was embracing.
Sasuke worshipped Itachi, his favorite pair of boxers was green and ratty and worn out. He wouldn't bother to make the bed but his shirts were always immaculately pressed and buttoned. When he slept, he curled into himself and that his eyes were color of angry thunderstorms about to burst the skies open. He had to subtly leave the room if animals started killing each other on the discovery channel.
She knew a hundred little things about Uchiha Sasuke, but when he kissed her, she could barely remember her own name.
x
Sakura, Sasuke had long since realized, had no sense of personal space.
At night, she wrapped herself around him, about him, and in the day, she wrapped herself around and about his thoughts. He found it absurd and annoying.
It was especially distracting when her face was two inches away from his and his mind still had trouble knowing if she'd be mad if he'd turned his head and accidentally kissed her.
She never did.
x
They lay down one night, in the rare moments when their schedules matched. He leaned against a pillow, going through one of his bland, undecipherable files while she lay on her side, looking at him; the gentle, protruding curve of his bottom lip, the high, noble, arch of his cheekbones, the slight fluttering of his lashes.
"You have no idea how beautiful you are, do you?" she asked, amazed at his naiveté.
She saw the slightest flicker of confusion pass over his features, before he finally registered her words. He turned and gave her one of those rare, charming smiles that could lure the unwary to their doom.
"No," he told her. "Not until I met you."
Not a few months ago, he would have shied away and locked himself in the bathroom. So she was grateful when he turned back to his report, the smile still there, just barely. There was a dimple in his left cheek, not deep, just a slight dip in the curve of his cheek. So very rarely did he smile that she'd never had a chance to properly admire it.
She leaned up on her forearms and pressed a gentle, lingering kiss into his dimple.
Startled, he turned his head. "What are you doing?"
"I like it when you smile," she told him knocking the file out of his hand and straddling him. "I always wanted to kiss you here when you do." She pressed her lips into his; melded, moved, put all that she was in it. She kissed him again. And again. Until he pulled her back by the hair; eyes searing, glittering like coals.
Then he closed his mouth over hers. He kissed her slow and deep. Her heart circled giddily in her chest, then seemed to plop over and thud to bursting.
When they broke apart, he was the one straddling her waist.
x
Sasuke was Sasuke, and Sakura was learning that being Sasuke meant that some part of him would always be the tiniest bit shut out. She found that she wasn't quite as patient as she should have been.
"How did you end up in a gang?"
He stiffened imperceptibly and she noticed. When he didn't reply, she nudged him with her foot. "I wouldn't judge."
"Drop it," he told her tersely.
And she did.
Except she didn't.
For the next two days she almost but not quite bit his head off on every little thing.
"Could you pass me the salt?" he asked politely.
"Go get it yourself," she bristled.
"It's right next to you," he sighed tiredly.
She sputtered indignantly. "W-well—that high horse you're riding on? That's just a camel with its hump up your ass!"
x
"Be patient."
"Patient?" Sakura's eyes widened. Patience wasn't the advice she'd been expecting from Ino. "Yes. Just let your anger mellow inside you, aging like a fine wine. Then when Sasuke does something that really pisses you off, let him have it with both barrels."
Sakura blinked. "Um, I got lost. Are these wine barrels?"
"Pay attention, Forehead. These are barrels of anger!" Ino sighed, thumping the table. "The problem with men is, you can't tell them every time something annoys you. If you complain every single time Sasuke isn't holding your hand, you look feeble and whiney and desperate. So you have to hit him with all his flaws at once. Which means…" she paused for dramatic effect, "Waiting until he does something that he knows is bad and having a tally of all your complaints ready in your mind. Be patient, but be prepared."
Sakura shook her head, absolutely stunned by Ino's crazy. "You dimblub," she said a little dazedly, "There's a huge difference between holding hands and having a serious conversation."
"I'm just saying, right now, it's one bullet in your gun. Wait for a few more."
x
Sakura immediately apologized the first chance she ran into Sasuke. "Look," she said, "I know there are boundaries we don't cross," she looked at him carefully. "But I hope that is not always the case."
He accepted her apology with a kiss and she was grateful for Ino's nonsensical gibberish. Marriage was work, not an unlimited supply of flaw bullets in your barrel.
Patience was a virtue, but not the way Ino had intended it to be.
x
It was eight months and ten days into their marriage when Sakura decided to take the final step. She dressed herself in her wedding uchikake, and under that, she wore white, lacy undergarments.
She knew now, what she could do to Sasuke with a word, a look, a touch; and her heart thudded with the anticipation of it.
She knew as his eyes landed on her that she'd got him.
Sasuke, for his part, was caught completely unaware. Standing in the doorway, a hand on the knob he felt his breath hitch. She was standing in front of the bed, kimono wrapped loosely around her, a sliver of leg showing through the slit and the side of the tassels hanging loosely on one end, baring a shoulder. He knew, in that moment, what she had planned. His heart pounded as she came toward him with a smile designed to melt honey from any comb. He came to his senses in an awkward scramble, ignoring the briefcase that spilled onto the floor.
"Sakura," he said, a warning in his voice.
"Sasuke," she noted, casually disregarding his caution with a small tilt of her head.
"Stop," he said, and she did. "What is the meaning of this?"
He saw something flicker in her face before she lowered her eyes from his questioning gaze and stared at the floor in self conscious confusion. When she lifted her eyes to his again; they were guarded, her smile looked bracing, almost like a grimace, like she was preparing herself for bad news.
"Don't you want to touch me?" she asked, her inflection daring, teasing, but also something else. Something hesitant and uncertain.
Sasuke exhaled. He knew he sounded resigned and a little pitiful. "Yes…"
Her gaze thawed as it dropped to his lips. "Then you should…because I want you to."
He opened his mouth to say something, anything, to maybe take control of this rapidly uncontrollable situation, but she was already gliding away, with one smoldering look back over her shoulder. He could have sworn he heard his brain cells die. He took two steps, stopped, and tried to be sensible.
The hell with it, he thought. He hadn't been sensible since he'd married this complete and utter stranger and made her a part of his life.
He reached out and caught her wrist and she turned around and whirled in his arms. Before he could fathom what was happening, she was pressing her lips to his throat, and he tilted her chin up, her face aside and kissed a trail along her jaw.
She grinned and unbuttoned his shirt and he tilted her head again and kissed her softly, twice and then her head dipped, and her mouth closed over his heart. A shock shuddered through him.
She shrugged his shirt from his shoulders, and he made quick work of the sash keeping her kimono from sliding off, until she stood on her bare feet with the lace that barely covered anything. Breathing hard, his hand reached around her waist, pressed into the small of her back and pushed her to him.
She shivered at the delicious sting of his jaw as he trailed kisses down the dip of her neck, arching her back to kiss down, down, his tongue flicking into the dip of her navel.
Sakura's world was painted in feeling. Soft, muted, dreamy colors first—ochre and umber and rose with his tongue. Her breath caught, and she moaned.
He thrilled at her rising, aching, swelling as he drew back and kissed her on the mouth again, drawing out every kiss. Her muscles tightened and trembled and as he unhooked her bra and pushed her on the bed. She grasped the sheets and looked up at him.
She was wild and soft and beautiful and his breath caught as she threaded her hands into his hair and pulled. She drew him up against her, into her, and before he knew it, his hands were slipping under her panties, pulling them away, teasing and testing and not hesitating in the least.
She drew his pants down, moved and arched until it was all he could do not to plunge inside her. "Now, Sasuke," she whispered, her voice taut with strain and before he could think, before he could question and second guess and make himself stop, he positioned himself into her core and slipped inside.
She gasped, and in her world of colors was a pinch of scarlet.
"Are you alright?" he asked, his voice gentle in a way she'd never heard.
"Yes," she breathed, as the color softened and faded. She pulled him closer.
He slid his hands up her back and her ankles locked around her waist and she took him in with her eyes. She kissed him and it was sugar on his tongue and champagne in his blood; he wanted to drown in her taste and scent and sound. He nipped, pulled, teased and tasted. He moved and she stretched with him, about him, encompassing him in a vision so tunnel, the only thing that mattered was him and her. Her and him.
He stroked slowly and intricately as they blended and feathered and blushed into something radiant.
The colors glazed into something bold and bright.
The echo of her pleasure hit his blood and took it with him. Sakura was unstrung, unbound, unleashed and in his arms.
After, she lay against him, twined around him like moss on limb. Around them, the world was still, muted, almost silent.
He felt content.
x
Sasuke woke up with the first rays of light slanting through the ruffled bedroom curtains. He was laying on his back on the bed while Sakura lay sleeping, draped across his chest, her hair fanned across his shoulder.
With each of her soft breaths, he could feel the fullness of her breasts, remember the way they felt in his hands…
He felt the heat crawling up his neck, the steady rise and fall of her breaths, her nipples pressing into his chest, the softness of her thighs between his leg, the silky feel of her skin against his own. He also, very distinctly, felt the slow, deliberate hardening of his nether regions as he was assaulted with sensation after sensation.
In addition, he had the sudden urge to bury his face in her thighs, suck and nip and tug until she hurtled over the edge again. And again. And again.
Caught with the sudden need to move, to get the hell away before he could do something stupid, he tried extricating himself away. At his sudden movement, her lashes fluttered. Her eyes opened. They were green as sea foam and leaves and met his with sudden and impossible awareness. A smile curved her lips, parted them as she lifted a hand to his cheek.
"Hey," she said, and with a sigh closed her eyes. Her hand slid away from his cheek to fall onto the mattress. "That wasn't so bad."
It really wasn't, and he was only going to indulge occasionally. Now if he could just—
"Is that—"
"No!" he insisted, almost vehemently.
As always, she ignored him and under the sheets, reached out—
"Sakura, stop!"
A slow, lazy smile tugged at the corner of her lip. "Well, look who it is."
He slowly inched out of her reach, "Go back to sleep."
Something flickered on her face, so fast he barely had time to register anything before she was jumping into his arms, legs around his waist and lips inches away from his own.
"Stop holding back," she told him.
"Aren't you sore?" he asked, cautiously optimistic.
"You have no idea," she told him, leaning closer.
"Then maybe—"
"Maybe," she cut him off, "You should make it go away."
And she kissed him.
x
"How many—um, times have you done this before?" she asked that evening, parting from a particularly steamy kiss.
"Hm," said Sasuke, blinking away the hazy after effects of desire.
She laughed. "How many times—have you not been a virgin?"
He blinked, then looked away, but his arms stayed locked around her waist. "Once," he mumbled awkwardly.
"To whom?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know," she repeated, deadpan.
He shifted uncomfortably, unwrapping his arms from around her waist. "I was drunk. And in a very bad place. I didn't know when or how."
At her alarmed look, he said, "I got tested. I'm clean."
"Right," she said dubiously.
"Look," he said, "I understand what it's like. To not remember. To be scared. That's why I didn't push."
She cocked her head to the side, then leaned back into his embrace. "You're kind of adorable."
"Aa," he admitted without remorse.
x
Sakura liked having sex, and Sasuke—he was a little scared.
He knew that having a lot of sex messed up relationships. It made you feel things that you weren't ready to feel. And when Sasuke found an aspect of life he couldn't quite agree with, it made him angry. He had known for a while now, that slowly but surely, she was going to worm her way into his heart and she was going to make herself comfortable there for the rest of their lives.
He was preparing for it. Nudging away doubts and uncertainty. Given the fast track their relationship was quickly taking, it scared him, to fully let her in.
Because once she was in, he was afraid he would never be able to let her go.
So, one fine night, when she returned home late, he cornered her at the door, reached out, caught the tops of her arms, and hauled her towards him.
Sakura blinked at him. "Something wrong?"
He held her immobile, their bodies nearly touching. "No," he lied.
There was something in his expression; a slight franticness of his eyes, she noticed. "Liar," she berated gently.
Those fierce black eyes bored into her. His arm slid down, wrapped around her waist, and he hauled her the last few inches between the, pressing his body full-length against hers. "You annoying woman," he said heatedly, and kissed her.
His mouth was hard and insistent, as if he were staking claim in some way. Then the ruthless kiss softened, turned into something almost tender and in less than a heartbeat Sakura was engulfed in a white-hot blaze. She moaned as she melted against him and her arms slid around his neck. He took her deeply with his tongue and the hot, slick feel of it sent tremors crawling over her skin.
One hand slid into her hair, while the other pressed her into him from behind. He kissed her one way and then the other, kissed her as if he couldn't stop himself.
"God, you stupid, annoying woman," he said again, between hot, drugging kisses; nipped the side of her neck, trailed kisses down to her collarbone, kissed her madly again.
"Why?" she managed a hoarse whisper, and in ture Sasuke fashion, he completely ignored her in lieu of better things. She let it go, if only for a few moments. She didn't know what it was, she only knew she was as wildly on fire as he was. The kiss went on and on. He took her mouth again and again, plundered it, flooding her with heat and as her knees went weak, his hands found their way benath her shirt. He shoved it up, unfastened the clasp of her bra and palmed her breasts. She gasped at the feel of his fingers molding the fullness, stroking over her nipples.
She heard Sasuke groan.
Sakura clung to him, kissing him just as fiercely as he kissed her. she tugged his shirt out of his jeans and began to work the buttons up front with trembling fingers. He dragged her shirt over her head and tossed it away, slid her bra straps off her shoulders and the lacy, black cups fell into a pile at her feet.
Hot, wet kisses followed. Deep erotic kisses that drove her insane. His shirt hung open. She shoved it off his shoulders, ran her hands over the hard planes of his chest. He was lean and solid, covered with a layer of muscle that bunched and tightened when he moved. The ridges of his muscles went taut beneath her hands.
Sasuke reached for the snap of her jeans, popped it open and buzzed down the zipper. "May I?"
She stilled, looking into his eyes, breathing hard. "Go ahead."
He kissed her again and the next thing she knew she was lying beneath him on the couch. His hand skimmed urgently over her body, but there was gentleness too. He cupped her breasts, teased her nipples, then bent his dark head and took one into his mouth.
Sakura moaned as sensations flooded through her. Sasuke nipped at her other breast, sucked it deep into his mouth and a shivery burst of heat slid into her stomach. His hand moved lower over her belly, inside the open zipper of her jeans, beneath her panties into the soft juncture of her legs. He parted the folds of her sex, began to stoke her, and she thought she would die of pleasure.
Sakura moaned.
She wanted to feel his hands and his mouth all over her, wanted him inside her, wanted to be so close she couldn't tell where one ended and the other began. Every time Sasuke nipped she felt as if she had morphed into someone else, as if her body were some alien, newly unearthed part of her that she could no longer control.
She didn't notice when he slid her jeans and panties down over her hips. Her hand reached out in a frenzy and guided him between her parted legs.
With a single deep thrust, Sasuke buried himself inside her. for a secong their world stilled, and then he moved, thrusting in and out, burying himself into her, letting her take a part of him until she cried out her release.
His muscles went rigid. In some vague corner of her mind, she realized he was fighting for control.
Sakura cried out his name and clung to his neck, unable to believe how quickly she had reached her peak. She knew the moment he gave up his struggle to hold back, felt him begin to move, felt the deep thrust and drag of his shaft against the wall of her passage. She felt him and a saturating pleasure and so much more as a second climax shook her.
Beneath her hands, hard muscles tightened and Sasuke groaned. The sinews of his hips flexed and moved as he empties himself inside her, his body going rigid, his shoulders glowing with a sheen of perspiration.
For a few long seconds, neither of them moved. The only sound in the room was the soft humming of the city below, their labored breathing and the soft thud of their heartbeats.
Sakura swallowed, turned and faced him. "What was that about?"
He didn't answer; stood up, gathered his clothes and started pulling on his shirt. Miffed, Sakura pulled herself up and grabbed him by the shell of his ear. "I asked something," she admonished, not unkindly.
Scowling, he tried to pry his ear away, avoided looking her in the eye, gave up eventually and let out an irritated sigh.
"Are you—," he started, stopped and looked away. "If you don't get an in with Senju, are you going to file for a divorce?" he asked bluntly.
Immediately, she snatched her hand away, and when he turned around with guarded eyes, she was looking at him in stony silence. Her state of undress didn't go unnoticed and scowling, he tossed the afghan on the couch at her face. It caught in her head and stayed there; she didn't move to push it away or pull it around her and suddenly he realized that he'd slighted her in some way.
In the same moment she reached out for his hair he realized that he'd made her really, really angry.
"You stupid, idiot!" she cried, latching on to a fistful of his hair and tugging painfully. "You stupid, selfish, brainless, idiot!"
Sasuke had too much dignity to cry out in pain. So he grit his teeth and tried to pry her hands away, while she shook him painfully.
"Why would you even think that!?"
"You sai—,"
"I was joking!"
"I didn't know—would you let go of my hair?"
She shook him harder and he felt a few of his hair spring free of their roots. Eventually, she did let go and he turned around, rubbing his sore noggin to watch her angrily pull on her clothes. He knew she was blinking away angry tears, so he reached out and pulled her back and pinned her to himself until she finally stopped struggling.
"I'm sorry," he told her solemnly.
"Apology not accepted," she flung back. "You just had angry sex with me, believing I would leave you the moment you can't give me something stupid."
"You married me for something stupid."
She looked like he'd slapped her. "I guess I did," she replied, terse and cutting, "But did you know that I care about you?"
He inhaled sharply.
"And when you care about someone like I care about you, you never leave them hanging dry."
He squeezed his eyes shut and exhaled. His hands were digging into her wrists—not painfully, but hard enough to leave shallow prints.
"Sakura," he started, swallowed and finally looked her in the eye. "I care about you, too."
She studied him, then slowly nodded. "Good. That means we spend the rest of our lives together. For better or for worse."
"For better," he insisted, loosening his grip on her, but never letting go.
x
tbc