Sasuke was many things. He was ambitious, a little reserved and calm. He also was intelligent in his own right and extremely competitive. Despite all that, the one thing he was completely sure of at the moment was-
He was absolutely livid.
It had been exactly three hours, eighteen minutes and forty-seven seconds in counting since he was supposed to meet Kushina, in the park for 'an evening stroll' as she put it yesterday, and even though he just quirked an eyebrow at her eccentric ways, he did not object- MEANING SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO MEET HIM AT SEVEN AND SHE DIDN'T!
With his jaw set in a way that she only caught was him not getting what he wanted, and his hands balled at his sides, he stomped all the way home. She knew how to use a phone if she ever decided to kiss up to him.
After he took a much needed shower, to cool himself down, he felt inclined to at least text her and make sure she received a piece of his mind. It was like her to be tardy, but this was just too much.
His finger hovered over her contact, moving closer before retracting repeatedly, until he gave up and threw the comforters over his face.
The Uchiha stood with his hands in his pockets, in front of his girlfriend's house. He rang the doorbell a while back, and she still didn't answer.
"Sasuke dear wake up," his mother chimed as she pulled the blinds apart and let some sun into his otherwise dark room. "It's already noon. Are you not going out with Kushina today?"
He groaned while pulling his covers closer. He didn't want to be reminded of that traitor anymore.
"Did you break up?"
He snapped his eyes open, before sitting up with a comical expression, while his mom folded her arms and narrowed her eyes.
"I will absolutely not accept anyone else Sasuke Uchiha."
"She stood me up yesterday," he admitted bitterly, still not believing it. How could she?
"Without notice?"
"Yes."
"You should go check up on her; maybe something happened."
Now, after he had pushed aside the pain of rejection, and decided he should at least see if she was alright, she does not answer her door.
With gritted teeth, he dug in his pocket and pulled out a copy of her keys he had without her knowledge and inserted it into the door. A sadistic smile crept up on his face as the door creaked open.
Sasuke slammed the door to her bedroom open, fully intent on scarring her with his words as soon as he laid eyes on her when he recoiled abruptly. Kushina was fast asleep, between a lot of used tissues and an uncomfortable frown marring her now pale face. All the fury he felt flew out the window, and his face softened, as he quietly sat on the edge of her bed.
"Kushina," he whispered, as he shook her gently. "WAKE UP YOU STUPID BITCH!"
The girl groaned as she rubbed her eyes, before stretching. He only noticed then that her nose, as well as her cheeks were red.
"I'm exhausted!" she exclaimed while rubbing her cheeks. "How did you get in?"
"That doesn't matter, just like me."
Kushina stared at him, expression set to I'm tired so I ain't guessing anything.
"What the fuck happened to our evening stroll?" he spat the last words venomously, his arms folded against his chest.
"Yeah it's called an evening stroll, because it's in the evening smartass. What time is it again?"
"What are you getting at? You stood me up yesterday!"
Kushina blinked, before pulling out her phone from under her pillow. She replaced after a second, trying to avoid Sasuke's scrupulous gaze, as she sighed slowly.
"I fell asleep after our afternoon date, and….have been asleep since…." She said quietly. "But, honestly, I am sick so what the he-" she sneezed into a tissue, before pointing at herself as if to prove the point. "You thought that I'd intentionally ditch you without calling?"
Sasuke spluttered; how could she easily flip this onto him? He was about to point out that it was her own fault for sleeping in, before he saw her dejected form. She really looked innocent when she was sick, and her sniffling was not helping the situation. He caressed her cheek gently.
"You really are sick?" he asked, before sighing when she nodded. She would've answered wittily if she wasn't.
Kushina had a flair for noticing Sasuke's expression changes without a sweat, and therefore had noticed when he switched from angry to annoyed to….guitly-oh no!
"Sasuke don't-" she tried; raising her arms, but was too late. He lunged at her and she screamed, which was really surprising since her throat felt like she ate a lot of metal and didn't think she was capable. He wrapped his arms around her after seating her on his lap, before initiating the I'm sorry I didn't know kisses all over. She had experienced this only two other times in the two years they've been dating, and had promised herself she would be careful since he was a ticking bomb when it came to it. Obviously, after dealing with a cold for just two days, he shouldn't be anywhere near her if he wanted to keep his health, which now seemed like he didn't care for after pecking her thrice.
"Sas-mmm-calm the fuck dow-don't kiss me there- I am sick dam-mmm-"
He knew she was sensitive to touch, and just the slightest brush of his lips can trigger a great reaction, and yet it never crossed his mind that these kinds of apologies that were wordless and gestured only by actions always sets her body on fire. She had to make him stop before this really got out of hand.
"I LOVE YOU SASUKE!"
He froze against her neck.
Well, that's one way of grabbing his attention.
Now he removed himself before facing her with an interested expression, meaning he wanted to be elaborated. She sucked up her pride; this was long overdue anyways.
"I was beginning to wonder why you loved me," he admitted before smirking. "Inflate my ego."
"My first impression of you was-" she choked with widened eyes, before sprinting out of the bed with energy she didn't know she had and disappeared into the toilet. Sasuke's smirk dropped when he heard her puking, before he grimaced.
Are you fucking serious right now?!
"I'm alright! Thanks for asking!" she yelled as he heard the tap running, but he was too preoccupied with thoughts of her almost-confession and how he'd never get her to say it.
Kushina shuffled out of the bathroom after gargling mouthwash and collapsed onto her bed while panting. She felt his hand on the back of her head as he curled his fingers in her red hair and massaged her scalp.
"Sasuke?"
"Hm?"
"I'm getting a headache."
He immediately retracted his hand.
"Was that supposed to soothe me?" she teased before giggling. He rolled his eyes and looked away.
Kushina pointed to the door. "Go make me some chicken soup and get me some more tissues. Can you do that for me love?"
He scoffed with indignation before striding off to her kitchen without another glance. He called his mother and told her he wouldn't make it for lunch and most probably dinner, and she squealed with delight once he told her the reason. Sasuke rolled his eyes before hanging up, when he was hit with a new realization-
"How do you make chicken soup?" he mumbled to himself.
Sasuke found the tissues easily, but he was still stumped on where he could start with the chicken soup. He thought of asking her since she was proud of her own cooking skills and could train a fool to make good noodles (i.e. Naruto), but an image of her smiling smugly at his shortcoming caused him to swerve back into the kitchen and stare at the contents of her fridge once more.
Seeing as staring into the fridge would not produce the soup, he slammed the door shut before looking around the kitchen.
Kushina's kitchen wasn't as big as one would presume if they knew her by her culinary skills, but all her appliances and cutlery looked high in quality and she had at least five different aprons and oven mitts for a person who lived on her own. She had a knack for baking pastries most of all, and even contemplated opening a bakery if she had the time.
Sasuke was at his last resort when he decided to call his mother again-even she was a little surprised to receive two phone calls on the same day. Once she realized he was trying to cook for the redhead did she squeal and pour out all the necessities he needed. Sasuke grunted as he wrote everything down on the last page of her pastry cookbook before thanking his mother and hanging up.
"Chicken….onions….celery…..parsley…..garlic….."
Sasuke dumped all the ingredients into a pot before pouring some water and starting the fire. He stared at the contents for a while slightly confused since he added all that his mother asked him to but no progress was showing. He increased the fire. A thought crossed his mind before he grabbed a stirring spoon.
Once he was satisfied with the change in colour, he got a bowl and a ladle before filling it almost to the brim and turning off the fire.
Kushina was tapping on her phone when he opened the door before she looked up and tilted her head questioningly. He sat down and passed her the bowl and a spoon, and placed the box of tissues on her nightstand.
"I…didn't think you'd make it.." she admitted as she stared at the bowl uncertainly.
She smiled when he grunted, and took a spoonful into her mouth happily, before she cringed.
"It tastes horrible," she took another spoonful and swallowed it quickly. "It's almost tasteless and too thin."
He stared at her as she tried to finish it with record time despite it tasting as bad as she said it did and caught her wrist before she could take another spoon.
"Don't force yourself if it's bad," he reasoned, slowly lowering her hand. She smiled grandly at him before responding, "It tastes crappy yes, but you made it out of love and not to cause food poisoning so I'm going to finish this-"
He smiled a little, as he pressed his lips to her forehead fleetingly.
"Unless you intended to food poison me?"
Sasuke elbowed her side playfully. "Why are you questioning my motives?"
"Because."
"Because is not an answer."
"It is if I don't want to validate your question," she said as she leaned against him and sighed. A moment later and she sneezed while he the realization finally struck him. She was sick.
Kushina stared at him as she blew her nose when he jumped away suddenly.
"You're sick," he stated pointedly.
"Well you couldn't figure that out when you were practically molesting me before?" she snapped, feeling a little sad as she folded her arms and looked away. She thought for a moment before facing him again. "You should go home Sasuke."
"No."
"Yes. You should."
"No."
"I mean it dude; I plan to sleep this cold away so there's no point. I'll come by tomorrow."
"No."
"Are you broken or something? Why don't you tell me why you want to stay?"
"No."
"Fucking asshole-" she started coughing before groaning dramatically. She threw the box of tissues at him with as much power as she could but it glided towards his chest and bounced off lamely, before she slid down and went under the comforter.
Sasuke could hear her sniffling as he looked through an old year book after pulling out a chair and making himself comfortable. He didn't remember how Kushina got her hands on his copy (he knew it was his since her signature was the only one there and she basically forced everyone to sign hers), nonetheless, he read the overly-familiar message and smirked a little in nostalgia.
I'm not really sorry I got used to borrowing your stuff. Hope to see you next year!
P.S. the gel pens are life.
He heard the doorbell and perked up, all the more furrowing his eyebrows in concern. He didn't want to leave anytime soon if it was any of her friends, but ignoring them would cause way too much regret on his end if she ever found it.
He tore the door open as soon as the rings became more frantic, and frowned when he saw an unfamiliar guy.
"Where's Kushina?" he demanded, glaring at him with his brown eyes, and it took all his self-control and will power to not burn his tongue.
"Who the fuck are you?!" he snapped back, and he was almost certain that his girlfriend would scold him for his rudeness.
"Her boyfriend!"
Sasuke's eyes narrowed dangerously.