Chapter 21

"Don't be so hard on yourself"

As with all things that pass in life, even the night of the demonic, deadly spiders were left to the past. The store was closed for 24 hours, to allow the spiders to die in the climate they couldn't tolerate. The shriveled carcasses of the exotic beasts were found after the quarantine was lifted (not by Madara, he refused to enter the store to find out). There was an inquiry from corporate about how the situation had been handled, with everyone interviewed and all footage from the security cameras reviewed. A lot of raised eyebrows and some loud laughter could be heard during those hours in the conference room.

Aside from bearing a permanent facial twitch at the mere thought of spiders, Madara did bounce back. It took a few days to recover, and, given the nature of that night, he was offered counseling on the company's dime; Madara being Madara, however, he refused. "Nothing a bottle of whiskey can't fix, now leave me alone," He had said when they called him with the offer.

With the spiders gone, and the store cleared by specialists to reopen, it was business as usual; minus the occasional thick web found in the storeroom. Sakura welcomed the return to normalcy, and as she got out of her car, she took in the warm and bright sunlight with joy. Blue skies as far as the eye could see, and she looked forward to the summer weather ahead. Madara disagreed with her on what weather was preferable, he liked colder weather more, as he stated "When its cold you can just put more clothes on, but when its hot, you either have air conditioning or you're just screwed."

He's so "practical" about everything.

Even though she loved the weather, and even though she was happy to return to work, there was a small gloomy cloud over her head. The last few days had been speckled with arguments between her and Madara. She'd been so irritable, and biting towards him. Many times he didn't even do anything to start it, but she couldn't help herself; even to the point of a mere glance in her direction could set her off.

She recalled the last spat they had was outside his house. She was angry, because Madara wasn't "paying attention" to her, she thought. She could still recall the heated words.

"What the HELL do you want from me?" He yelled, running a hand through his hear in frustration and controlled anger.

"I'm trying to TALK to you and you're just zoning out and you don't even care!"

This was met with a "scoff" from her boyfriend, which made her face feel hot with indignant wrath. "What? Is that all you have to say to me?!" She yelled from the bottom of the steps. Madara eyed her with his a sharp gaze.

"You know what? I tuned you out because all you've been doing is BITCHING at me. If you want to act like a brat, go do it somewhere else. I've been more than patient with you, and I need a fucking break. Just go home and deal with your own shit, I'm done with it."

—

Yes, she did start that fight. She owed him an apology, and she knew it. Today would be the first time she'd seen him since that day. She missed him. How he would react to seeing her, she didn't know.

She waited for the doors to slide open and and stepped into the store, the much cooler air a welcome feeling to her face. Obito spotted her from the time clock and waved with his ever-present grin.

"Ah, Sakura, how are you this fine day?" He asked, tucking his clipboard under his arm. Sakura smiled and punched in her number.

"I'm doing alright, Obito. How are you? How is Rin?"

Obito grinned even wider and sighed, "Oh she's got morning sickness still. But she's really happy. We find out the gender of the baby next week!"

Sakura patted him on the shoulder and laughed with him. At least someone was in a good mood, even though she was just humoring him by sharing his joy. Inwardly she couldn't really feel his happiness. She parted ways with him, and headed up the stairs for the break room to put her lunch away. When she packed it this morning she only added crackers and a bottle of water to her bag, everything else in her fridge just made her feel icky.

After trying to fit her lunch bag into the over-full fridge for a good five minutes, she gave up and stuck it on the top, and made her way to the manager's office. Even though Madara made it clear that no personal stuff should be discussed at work, she knew that if she didn't apologize, her day would just be awful. When she reached the door, which was closed, she inhaled deeply and summoned her courage.

As she opened the door, she was met with a pair of dark eyes peering at her. Madara sat at his desk, looking over an endless pile of paperwork, his eyes met her without moving his head, though his pen stopped writing and he placed it down on his desk. Sakura stood there for a little while before realizing that he wasn't going to speak first.

Of course he won't make this easy on me.

"I…I just wanted to say…I'm sorry, for the other day. I don't know what came over me."

She said in a small and quiet tone. Madara sighed and leaned back in his chair, folding his arms in his typical way.

"Its not just the other day, Sakura. You've been emotional for a while. Either too clingy, and then switching to beast mode in the same instance. First you're like, "I love yoooouuu" then you turn around and rip into me like a monkey on a cupcake! What the hell's wrong with you?"

Sakura bit her lower lip, unsure how to answer that question. "I don't know, I haven't been feeling well lately… I just feel on edge all the time."

Madara unfolded his arms and got up from his desk. He walked across the room and quietly shut the door behind her. Sakura felt two big arms envelop her from behind in a tight embrace. The sudden warmth made her heart flutter, and she leaned into his chest. He exhaled softly into her hair, making her feel tingley.

"I'm not mad at you, but seriously, I have limits. If you're not feeling well, go to the doctor and get checked out. Are you stressed out?"

Sakura was surprised that Madara was showing affection at work, but she was relieved that he was not angry with her. She pondered his words for a minute before speaking.

"…Maybe I'll go after work tomorrow...I'm still sorry about treating you like crap though."

She felt his chest move as he let out a deep and husky laugh. "Yeah, as soon as possible, okay? Its hard to hug someone who wants to kill you half the time."

She shared his laugh and turned around to wrap her arms around him, burying her face into his chest and relishing the scent of his cologne. "Okay, I will. Um…I should get to work downstairs. I'll see you later, yeah?"

"Sure, I'll be down there soon." He replied, releasing her from his embrace and returning to his desk and to his endless paperwork.

She shut the door behind her and head down the stairs, feeling a weight lifted off of her; now she could try to enjoy her work day, she thought.

Her shift started with helping Kiba in the cold box unloading dairy. He had his headphones in and sang along with the music (very badly, no wonder he only played guitar). Sakura tried to tune him out but after an hour, she felt her patience wearing thin. She walked over and yanked one of his AirPods out of his ear. "Stop…Singing!" she snapped close to his ear. Kiba stared at her in surprise and held his hand out for his AirPod, which she dropped not-too-gently into his hand. "Yikes, who pissed in your oatmeal this morning?" He mumbled as she turned away to resume shoving milk into the racks.

Kiba gave her a wide birth after that. There were some instances where he would start humming and then he felt the burn of Sakura's gaze behind him and he stopped immediately. When his phone's alarm went off for their lunch break, he left the cold box much quicker than normal, leaving to heave door open for Sakura to close.

Sakura hung up her jacket and gloves and walked out, shutting and latching the door behind her. She made her way to the time clock and on her way she heard a familiar voice call out to her. "Hey Sakura!"

It was Ino. Sakura was about to ask if she was doing her shopping and then remembered she and Ino had lunch plans today. She opened her mouth to speak but was stopped by the overwhelming force of Ino's hug. "GIRL! Its been a week! What's up with that?" She stepped to get a good look at her face, and noticed Sakura's face looked a little pale.

"Hey…are you sick?" She asked, following Sakura as she reached the time clock. Punching out, Sakura turned to her blonde friend and nodded.

"Actually, I was going to say I've been feeling a little ill lately…and bitchy. I don't know, I've just not been hungry and I've been feeling sick in the morning and-"

"Shut up" Ino interrupted. Sakura looked at her confused, but she saw her eyes were wide as dinner plates.

"What's with that look?" She asked, perplexed. Ino waved her arms animatedly and then grabbed her, pulling her out earshot of anyone nearby.

"Hey…have you gotten tested?" She whispered warily.

"Tested for what?"

"You know…um, pregnancy?"

A thousand tons of anxiety came crashing down on Sakura's head like she was standing in the middle of a demolition. Lightbulbs began flashing all over her mind. Her irritability, her nausea, biting Madara's head off when he sneezed…

"Oh my g-…INO, WHAT DO I DO?"

Ino grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the bathroom. "You take a test, that's what!"

"But I don't have a test!"

Ino reached into her bag and pulled out a thin package. "Just piss on this and you'll get results in two minutes. When was your last period?"

Sakura followed her in the bathroom, trying to count back. "I don't know, my cycles aren't regular."

"Ugh, fuck your hormones." Muttered Ino, shoving Sakura into a stall and shutting the door. She could hear Sakura call out to her.

"Wait a minute, why do you have these?"

Ino examined her nails daintily as she leaned on the stall door, replying back behind her, "Meh, you never know, right? Lucky for your dumb ass. Are you done yet?"

"Almost! Let me pull my damn pants up! Sheesh!"

After another minute, Sakura came out and held the pregnancy test aloft, with a pale and anxious expression etched all over face. "What does a line mean!?" She asked in loud whisper.

Ino grabbed the instructions on the package and looked at the key. "Okay, so the first line means that test has worked…no lines means you're off the hook, and one line means…." She paused and looked at Sakura with equally wide eyes.

Sakura grabbed the test and frantically waved it in front of Ino's face, "WHAT DOES A LINE MEAN!?"

"uhm..hrr…maybe you should start price checking for carseats?" Ino said meekly.

Sakura head started spinning, and all kinds of emotional crap was running through her head like a marathon of panic. "What do I do What do I?" She started repeating until a light slap on the face from Ino brought her back to the present.

"You tell Madara, that what." She said plainly. "It IS his, right?"

"Why would that be a question? Of course it is!" She spat back. "How do I tell him? We never discussed having kids, we never even discussed getting married." Sakura began pacing the bathroom like a caged cat. "Ino…ah, Ino, Madara's texting me asking me what's going on! He saw you drag me to the bathroom! How do I tell him, I can't say it!"

Ino, a fast thinker, grabbed Sakura's phone and the test and snapped a photo of it.

"Wh-What are you doing?!" She exclaimed, trying to reach for her phone, but Ino was taller than her and held it up out of her reach.

"I know you, Sakura, you're going to push this off until the last minute and make it worse, if you just CAN'T tell him face to face, then at least tell him somehow, and then let him think on it for a bit." Sakura didn't know that while Ino was talking, she was writing a text and sending the photo of the test to Madara. By the time Sakura got her phone back, the text was sent.

Sakura sputtered and tried to speak but all that would come out were curse words mushed together incoherently. Finally she managed a sentence, "He's going to hit the roof…"

—

Up in the office, Madara was being regaled with all of Obito's stories of domestic bliss. His eyes were glazed over, as his brain had completely zoned out as Obito enthusiastically went on and on about how beautiful Rin looked being pregnant and how they had painted the baby's nursery.

"Thaaaat's nice…" Mumbled Madara, nearly letting his head hit his desk out of sheer boredom. The ding of his phone caused him to leap up and snatch it from the table, eager to move the topic away from Obito's fantasyland. Before he could read the text he did look up and reply to him though.

"Its nice that you're happy and all that, but kids are no joke and if you want my honest opinion, there's a reason I don't plan on having any for a while. Getting all my ducks in a row is not quick or easy, and I'm pretty sure you only have one or two in your row right now.

Obito folded his arms and smirked at his boss, "You just can't stand to share someone's joy, can you?"

"Shared it. Gave it back. Let's move on." Replied Madara opening his phone and looking at the text. Obito watched as his face went from placid, to confused, to confused/panicked. He shoved the phone in Obito's face, "WHAT IS THIS?"

Obito leaned back to actually see the image. "Oh, that's a preg…nancy….test." His voice trailed off and went quiet as he saw Madara's face cycle through several different shades.

"WHAT DOES A LINE MEAN!?" He shouted, panic surging through him. "WHAT DOES A LINE MEAN, OBITO!?"

Obito pushed his chair back to grant him some distance and let out a small chuckle. "Well…that means Sakura…is pregnant."

Madara's face cycled through more shades and about ten different expressions, before he just straight up started laughing like a crazy man. Obito stood up and slapped him on the face. Madara shook his head at the sudden jolt and eyed Obito. "B-but…where am I going to put it?" He asked. Obito raised his eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

"A KID, Obito! Where do I put a KID!?" He was swaying slightly, and Obito reached out to steady him, but Madara's voice trailed off and his eyes rolled back in his head; he passed out on the floor with a "thud".

Obito took a piece of paper from the desk and starting fanning Madara's face, all the while slightly chuckling to himself. "Maaaan…I've never seen Karma come back around this fast."