Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it.


XXIX.

- Pillowtalk -

He opened his eyes with a desperate need for air and a heaviness that came with it, pressing down his chest with a tangible force. He attempted to take a breath, then he tried a second time, a third, he couldn't manage, fighting for it with all the strength he had. It got better after a few long seconds but the darkness didn't help at all; his first thought was to stand up to a sitting position or walk, to cast that heaviness away, as he did in the prison cell but his senses reminded him he was elsewhere.

The softness of the blankets was different, the mattress too - not the rigid, thin one that allowed you to feel the metal lattice beneath carving into your skin every single night. Such punishment was missing here, this bed was built for something else entirely.

He tried to calm his breathing, heaving up after all.

That was a new one. He had plenty of strange dreams during his weeks in prison, all of them awful but that one was new. The panic, the fear, the despair have never been so vivid through his eyes after seeing and living through those odd and unfamiliar fragments.

A switch of a soft reading-light startled him and he turned to see Sakura looking at him, with bloodshot eyes and tears running down her face. At first, guilt struck him but then he thought he couldn't possibly be the reason for those tears, she was so happy a few hours ago. She looked as if she's been crying for at least an hour in the silence of the night. And not out of happiness. Did she recall unpleasant past-time memories or a nightmare hadn't given her the peace of mind she sought?

She sat up too, hugging the matter of the blanket close. Didn't bother wiping her tears away because they fell and fell, constantly. She tilted her head, a small smile appearing on her lips; then she shifted closer to him, leaning her forehead on his temple.

"What happened?" Sakura whispered in his ear, her voice like a balm for the pulsing ache that nightmare had created in his head.

She must've heard his not-so-quiet struggle with that nightmare if she already knew the existence of it. It stung him that her first reaction was to seek how to comfort him instead of talking about her own tears. It was so… her. Anyway, he didn't know how to explain because he didn't remember action, he only remembered a feeling. Gnawing, a monster of a feeling that haunted and suffocated him.

Sakura backed away, her hand gently turning his head towards her so that she could read through him, like she usually did. Her eyes now serene and focused, stared at him in wait. Those celadon orbs, like jewels of their own, always waiting, always patient and always caring.

He reached for her face, caressing the pale skin. That was it, the reason he acted like that all this time. He turned furious because she reminded him of those damned cherry trees he grew up with. Blossoming every spring no matter if they were surrounded by death or life, war or peace. He hated them for that. He hated them because they still blossomed even though he kept losing everything he held dear.

His own war was over, there was no need to hate anymore; he had to remind himself that every day now.

She didn't move but he was almost sure she couldn't, too fazed to do so.

"I couldn't find you." He finally found the right words to describe his most vivid fear, his hands surrounded her waist, pulling her closer. "I couldn't return."

Sakura seemed relieved at his answer and proceeded to meet his lips, touching them only to receive his fervent reply. She was so delicate and so fascinating for him that he couldn't help it. One thing dragged him most of all – that she wasn't acting, that she knew who she was and what she wanted, in comparison to all these women that claimed his attention. They were all passing and searching and trying. Sakura always treated him as if they knew each other ten lives long.

That alone attracted him in such extreme quantities that he found himself desperate to kiss her, her lips, her neck, everywhere. He didn't think much, amidst the staggering fit they had fallen into, when his hand slipped down her underwear and remained generally surprised to find the matter moist.

"I've been thinking about you." She gave him a sorry smile.

There was a tumble in his stomach at the confession but then the afterglow came with a rather unpleasant taste.

"And crying?"

Sakura parted her lips to say something but she stopped herself, letting out a quiet groan. Her brows wrinkled and she turned sorrowful within seconds, in front of his very eyes. Tears formed at the corners of her eyes and she hurried to brush them away, ignoring his concerned look.

"Uh, I th- I…" She chuckled nervously, smoothing her hair. "It's just…" Sakura looked up to him for a second and then cupped her face with hands.

"You don't want this?"

"I do." She wearied, gathering the courage to face him again. "And I don't. I've just been thinking and I realized you won't stay and I'm gonna hurt until the end of my life," She paused, struggling to take a breath, "because I'll remember the way you look at me now."

"You think I won't stay."

"Why would you?" Sakura shrugged. "People like us… they don't usually have a future. With that job and… always on the run… different partners." She opened another pause. "T-that's the truth."

Her words pierced through him like swords and he sank deeper into his muteness. She was so certain that he'd hurt her. How did he let himself end up like that in her eyes? True, he wasn't a light burden and he certainly wasn't a nice company. But he could've been different and show her it was all different with her. That he did all that until now didn't mean he would do it again. Why didn't he show her?

"I'm sorry." He said, leaning to kiss her. "I'm sorry. Tell me how many times I have to say it until you forgive me." The words rolled out of him as a sigh and he pressed her closer, begging. "I don't want to leave, don't send me away."

"I'd never." Sakura hurried to hug him, letting his head lean on her shoulders. "How can you even think I would ever do that?"

He's never been guilty through her eyes, is what she said, and it was like a whiff of emotion that skimmed over him at the insight. Emotion most tender. She backed away a tad, clearly having something in mind.

Sakura slowly reached for the ends of her t-shirt and stripped it off. Then she did the same with her underwear. He could see her hands shaking as she enveloped herself but dared not face him. Her small form appeared so fragile and weak when she shrank like that.

He never took a moment to realize it cost her a lot to be so vulnerable. It only angered him because his harsh ways only humiliated and underrated her so far. Frustration burned her face red but her message was clear enough to him. She wouldn't do any of this for anyone else and the thought only fueled his selfish desire to have her. She gave herself to him. All of her, and let him watch as she did it.

He neared and reached for her hair, pushing it aside to reveal the delicate skin that it hid. Her slight shaking was switched by a shiver when his lips hurried to graze the soft spot under her ear, her chest heaving up by the sip of air she took.

"S-Sasuke." Her eyes almost fluttered shut when he continued down her neck and let her head fall back.

She was so cold, she was always so cold and he wanted to have her skin on fire and pressed against his so badly. Now.

Her skin was toned to perfection but still with the basic, beautifully feminine shape and he caught himself admiring her for longer than she perhaps anticipated; she observed him with curiosity as his eyes studied her with the same admiration he was filled with the last time she was in front of him naked. The curve of her waist, the flat stomach, and those voluptuous hips. He could feel the throb of his own blood hazing his thoughts at the sight of her. Her eyes were a dim mint but they were stilled on his for a second before falling to his lips; forcing him to remove his own clothing as fast as he could because that look of hers threatened to destroy him if he didn't do something about it.

Sakura was first to reach for him, wrapping her legs around him and entwining their tongues in a deep, bold kiss; one that he didn't know she would ever take a lead of.

He was about to lay them on the mattress but Sakura abruptly joined their bodies before he could do it; not that she didn't have the patience, she just seemed to want a change. It was some kind of madness that obsessed her in that very moment of unity, her expression turned almost festive and after a shattered gasp of pain, her lips curved in a smile.

Thanks to her incredible closeness, she must've noticed his pupils widen vastly at the friction. Unfortunately, he exposed what he tried to hide for the longest of time; she had always had that effect on him. She revealed him, a drug addict who just infused his blood with something highly narcotic. He recognized the fire that burned in her eyes and reconciled with it, slowly relaxing back on the pillow.

His breath hitched when she ground forward to reach his lips. She was so tight that it drove him wild, every supple motion she made. Her cold fingers slid up his chest slowly, leaving icy trails that teased and tensed him. His patience ran low but he decided to let her enjoy herself a bit more, she was an absolutely bewitching sight - her darkened eyes glimmered mischievously, mouth half-open, taking in shallow breaths of air, her hair - disheveled but captivating and her air, dangerously alluring in a way that was only specific for her, not of a temptress but of an enchantress. She was closer to a forest spirit than anything, with that hued skin and inspiring touch.

He didn't want to close his eyes, for the vision of beauty could disappear if so, but he did, unprepared for the electrifying pleasure that coursed through him when she started moving again. It wasn't even a rhythm yet and she got her name spoken out loud, in a strangled absence. Any thought he tried calling to mind had now disappeared, sinking in the stunning zest of that particular collision, where for once she was dominating instead of him. Sakura was unhurried in her streak of excruciating withdrawals and supple thrusts, and he couldn't comprehend the feeling to its fullest, taking half-breaths and uttering half-curses. Swearing didn't really help him explain how essential her body was to him at the moment but she didn't seem to mind either, bits of moans and whimpers shedding off her lips at the end of every lunge. Damn this woman, he wasn't that easy.

"You okay?" She gave out a breathy chuckle, seemingly affected by the various physical sensations that attacked him after her leisured tempo. Sakura had transformed into a sensual, nocturnal goddess and he couldn't believe her sweet benevolence was brought down to him, he was the one she had chosen. Her loitered but precise grating against him severed through all the notions he has had concerning with his own endurance as invisible shudders ran through him and already gathered as a delightful ache in his lower stomach.

He almost begged her to not stop out loud, hands digging into her flesh; his words now switched by labored groans when she intentionally slowed down her pace even more but, to contribute to his growing discomfort, deepened the thrusts. Morphed into one sensitive bundle of nerves, he was fully subservient to her and pleaded for mercy or release from the anguish she brought but then again he didn't want to finish before her. He wanted to return the favor, it was her turn to burn at the stake. All the more, going that slow was killing him.

Sasuke grabbed her and reversed their places, lifting her leg up to his high waist with one hand while the other held her nape up when he pressed her body against the mattress without giving her time or a chance to object.

He didn't know which he longed more for, in all this time they spent apart, her melted cries when he was inside of her or the feeling of home she gave to him, hands and legs wrapped around him as if he was welcome and urgently needed. It wasn't supposed to be this way, he wasn't supposed to attach to anything or anyone, much less grow addicted, but he couldn't help it.

She writhed beneath his touch, molded like a pliable clay, warm and soft as such. Softness so maddening that he wanted to possess it for as long as he could, him and no one else. The painfully familiar pulsing of the slithery velvets between her legs cut him loose and he barely held the façade of keeping the control. She was the one who led in that competition but was never to know that, of course. It was better for her to not know the failing weakness that he became when he was with her in those ultimate revelations of theirs; when he crashed into her the way sea waves crashed into the shore, hopeless and relentless.

Their lips met briefly because Sasuke didn't want to miss an inch of her, caressing the exposed pink of her flaring skin while she sighed in loud tides; especially now that her head was thrown back and her spine - tensed into an impossible arch along his body, like she was a part of it.

He usually held his breath, overpowering the frailties that stormed his core but she had set that thrilling rhythm of hers again, when her fingers gripped and marked him whenever he hurt more than pleased, when her hips heaved and thighs ground against his; stealing and thinning his sanity away.

She loved it, he could tell by the way her whole entity shivered with pleasure and her skin prickled. Loved him chanting low in her ears with frantic need, quivering every time the desperate tones reached her. She incandesced to the pressure he applied, moaning with a clarity he hadn't heard before, and he tried to focus on it, discarding the slight fatigue that started to bother him. He lost track of time but time mattered a little now, he wanted only to extend it, wade deeper and satiate in this ecstatic indulgence, and only take and take and take.

His point of breaking hit him like an avalanche and he could do nothing about it, his voice trembling with the dazing weakness and effusing in descending snatches. Words fell off his lips but he couldn't really define them because there was a throbbing white bliss spreading across every nerve in his body, one that devoured everything else. He nearly stilled but Sakura absently urged him to continue and her muscles contracted at her own peak almost right away, the purely physical sensation making him collapse into that absorbing, pleasurable ripple from before all over again; it felt so damn gratifying and it was unfair that it lasted only a moment.

"You're welcome." Sakura exhaled a reply in his ear, the air vibrating with her silent chuckle.

Breathing heavily, he found her mouth and started kissing her again, in desperate need to prolong the heavenly fragment he touched whenever she allowed. God, he adored her. He adored her as much as a man can adore a woman.

Sakura was smiling, though, while their kiss still lasted. He had mixed feelings about that smile, it was her ultimate dominance over him but he didn't care about that, it was a blessing, too.

"You couldn't let me… be in charge for… more than a minute." She spoke with pauses, amused. "I thought you'd like it."

"You thought wrong." He parted from her only to reply and leaned to kiss her again but she giggled, making him change his target.

"Liar."

Sakura pursed her lips tight, trying to keep from laughing when he gently sucked on the skin of her low neck. Her right leg slid and wreathed around his, dragging up and down his calf in a few slow, smooth motions but he soon heaved up to meet her eyes, irritated.

"What?" She asked, innocently.

As much as he was prone falling victim to his own susceptibility (especially when it came to one woman's touch in particular), he really needed to sleep.

"Stop."

She did stop, maybe deciding to not overdo it the first time. Maybe he was too harsh with her, that's why. Because he was just way too tired and not admitting that to her for the world. Did she realize she didn't even have to move to turn him on? Probably not.

Her calm eyes wandered somewhere over the frame of the bed and she sighed when he used the pause to detach from her.

"Way too early." Sakura turned to him, her fingers starting to play with his hair.

Was she talking about the time? Anyway, he closed his eyes, exhaling slowly and relishing in the softness of the blankets.

"Falling asleep after the first round. He's lazier than I thought." He heard Sakura's quiet voice, close to his face.

Sasuke opened his eyes and looked at her, offended and almost angry. Then proceeded to turn to the other side and relax on the pillow. Sakura chuckled but shifted on the other side right away, laying right in front of him once again. Her labored breath made him open his eyes but this time she laughed, for his gaze was pure wrath. She didn't see it coming when he started tickling her and she opened her mouth, squeaking sounds coming out of there. Sakura tried to stop him but he had focused on torturing her and as much as she twisted and pushed him away, he always found a way to reach and punish her.

"Alright!" She breathed out through laughter. "You win."

Sakura was almost on top of him when he stopped and stared at her with the same judgmental pout as before; waiting for her to realize her sinful actions.

She narrowed eyes and stole a quick kiss on his neck but it irritated him all the more because he didn't predict it, which in its turn brought out another laughter from her.

"You're such a bore." Sakura used her most ruthless tone, shaking her head.

She perhaps intended the phrase to be a part of the play but somehow the words affected him deeply and he withered, ignoring her eyes. Why did she always have to be so right?

Sakura tilted her head, trying to find his eyes.

"What is it?"

"Nothing." He slowly parted from her but his voice didn't sound convincing.

Sakura forced him to look at her, demanding an answer. He feared she'd be able to exert her powers upon him at the moment he let her sleep in his bed. Just as he predicted, that curious pair of green eyes could only soften him. Also, getting away with that type of answer was not satisfying her so he guessed he'd have to change the way he spoke to her. Let her in a bit.

"I've always been a bore. You don't deserve a bore."

The confession must've resonated with her because she found herself on the edge of crying in his stead. Again. Where did she store all these emotions? It was so phenomenal that it stupefied him every time and he didn't know how to respond.

"I suffered enough." She leaned in to hug him, with a whisper. "You better stay with me or I'll chain you to the bed's frame."

Sasuke scoffed at her suggestion and hugged her back.

"You are so kind that you don't even see I'm using you."

"You are so broke that you don't have a choice." Sakura slid down next to him, a content smile on her lips. "You'll have to stay here for now."

She closed her eyes and silenced, allowing him to watch her without any more distractions. Her youthful face was all he ever needed to see now and all he wished to see for the rest of his life. It wasn't much to ask, right? He knew his mother would've loved her, his father too. As for Itachi…

Sasuke pulled the blanket over Sakura's bare shoulders and she swept closer to him with an absent movement. His heart almost stopped when she took a deeper breath and her small hand relaxed over his.

Itachi would've been happy for him whatever his choice was. He would probably be happy even if his brother had chosen a call-girl, provided that he loved her. Although knowing him, he would've either fallen for Sakura or end up trying to steal her from him just for fun. The notion amused him at first but then he furrowed, his fingers closing around Sakura's hand. Like he wouldn't shoot anyone who dared to get close to her.


He didn't realize he had fallen asleep until Sakura didn't wake him up with a peck on the nose, awake and active. That alone was a solid proof the two of them just lived on different batteries. How were six hours enough for her when he could sleep for sixteen more? Moreover, she was supposed to be quite sore after their eventful midnight rendezvous. As he began to think about it, he owed it all to Sakura's drive to the very last second. He was so tired that he wasn't sure he'd pull anything through.

"Are you hungry? I was going to make pancakes with chocolate." She smiled at him warmly but her smile faded when he grimaced. "What?"

"I don't like sweet things."

After she passed the phase of bewilderment, Sakura proceeded to give him a meaning look, eyes scanning him up and down. "That's why you're so tired all the time."

Come on, would she rather have him fat? He opened his mouth to protect himself but she raised her hand to stop him, assuring him everything was fine. She had wrapped the blankets around her, holding a book in one hand.

There was something that bothered him since yesterday but… he never gathered the courage to unfold.

Something tucked in the back of his mind, nagging at him since he saw those sedatives in her bathroom. The reflections turned him restless within seconds and they, on the other side, created intrusive images that infuriated him as never before. Because he hated the mere thought of it and because he was helpless to change it.

Sakura left her book on the sheet and raised a brow, in pure wonder. They looked at each other for a while and he knew she'd wait for him to speak first. So he did.

"Did you sleep with him?"

Sakura was taken aback by the question, blinking in response. This time the pause between them prolonged, with every second the storm raging inside of him gathered strength but he had learned how to subdue it to measured levels. He wasn't sure what his eyes showed, though.

"Kakashi. Did you sleep with him?"

Sakura was pursing her lips, bubbling amusement threatening to come out of her in various forms, and that angered him even more. How could she do this to him? He was intensely furrowing when she tore her gaze away from him, her expression turning serious in an instant. Which was like a bullet to his heart. It wasn't like her to not speak her mind.

"I see."

Sasuke decided to drop the subject. It's not like he could do anything about it. It's not like he was there when she needed him.

"I haven't." Evading the laughter seemed to become even harder when he narrowed eyes, fixed back on her. "I had a close call once, though."

"It's not funny." Sasuke murmured, "It's not funny," then once again, with an emphasis, to deafen Sakura's low snickering. She was quaking with laughter.

As bitter as he was, her answer eased him vastly and what was left for him now was only to pretend he disapproved of her laughter. Took her a while to calm down and take a few breaths, ending her outburst with a sigh.

"Well, what is funny to you? I have to find what makes you happy." She pondered on the subject for a while before beaming with an idea. "Oh! You did smile once when I embarrassed myself."

He furrowed again, failing to call such a scene to his memory.

"I'll go trip on the shower bank," Sakura concluded.

"On purpose?"

"Yes. Then I'll fall and break something and when they ask me what happened, in the hospital, I'll say he didn't remember how to laugh."

Sasuke traced the waterfall of her words until its end, carefully following the line of her thought as his gaze rested on her lips most of the time but the ending was unexpected and he looked up to her eyes in surprise. Sakura waited for him to respond in some way but after a minute of silence, she surely decided the conversation wasn't going to get any more gripping.

"I'm going, you know," Sakura announced and heaved up as if hurried on her way to the shower.

"Don't," Sasuke warned her but his voice was flat and indifferent and didn't affect her in any way.

"You can't stop me."

Sakura stood up but then froze and returned to the sheets at lightning speed, wrapping herself. Her face became a crimson hue in the process. Sasuke raised a brow at her illogical behavior and she caught his expression soon after.

"I had forgotten to pull the curtains last night and now my neighbor saw me completely naked!" Sakura's voice gradually raised its intonation to a squeak. She covered her head with the sheet too, leaving only the horrified expression on her face visible. "He saw everything."

There was a dramatic pause in which she stared at the window - the source of her great inconvenience - and then her mouth dropped open because Sasuke was laughing. It was brief and quiet but it was a laughter. Sakura probably didn't realize she was holding her breath until her lungs demanded it because her face changed a few nuances while her eyes were nailed to him with astonishment.

"Oh my God, it works!" She breathed out. "I am going to that shower now."

"Sakura," Sasuke sighed, covering his eyes for a second. Her vigorous motions and words brought him a headache. He then revealed his eyes, holding two equal parts of concern and amusement in them. "No need to break your bones for me, ok?"

There was a faint smile that twisted his admonishing tone, a smile that was sincere happiness, or rather something that closely resembled it, he wasn't sure how happiness felt anymore but that was probably it. Sakura was more than content with it, it seems, by the look of her. He even heard her moan at the sight.

She neared him as fast as she could and slammed her mouth against his, a tad more furiously than she wanted to because she backed away a bit, frightened by her own excitement.

"Do you even know how beautiful you are?" Sakura whispered in between the multiple short breaths she took.

"Yes," Sasuke replied, making her chuckle. "Enough to not feel bad next to you."

Sakura parted from him, breathing heavily. Her skin was ablaze already but his scrutinizing gaze over her body left her on fire, darkening her face with a blush.

"Perfect." He leaned in, fooling her that he reached for her lips but instead pressed her closer, lifting both of them up and out of the bed.

"That's what you say to all of them, don't you?" Sakura laughed in his ear.

"Shut up."

"You're gonna shower with me?" She asked, in a formal tone and he turned to give her a meaning look. After hearing about her strategic bone breaking he doubted he'd let her go in the shower on her own ever again.


A/N: Thanks for reading. Оk. I hope I made it as artful as I wished it to be. They have some things to talk about more and some things to do together too so I'm not sure when this fic is gonna end exactly. Probably soon. Truth is, last three nights I've been obsessing over an idea that came to me, I'm tempted to make it into a fic. Anyway, so glad to have that many people reading me, thanks again. I'm totally gonna have thousands of typos in this one, was in a hurry to publish it because I promised an early update. Don't laugh too much.