A/N: I made myself a promise: I promised myself that I would not post another chapter of this fic until I was completely done writing it. And guess what? I have finished, my dudes. The rest of this story is completely written out and formatted, ready to go!

As always, please disregard any grammatical errors. I have not improved in any way over the years in that regard. Also, I finished typing this story on Google Docs on my iPad because I no longer have a laptop, and last time I posted a fic from here the italicized words didn't transfer to . I'll try to catch all of them, but apologies if I don't.

Heeded

You're the message I was heeding,

Would you stay?

Would you stay the night?

She remembered every second—every moment.

Memories of that night would stay with her, ingrained in her being completely.

Once he closed the door, all joking and light-heartedness vanished. They were both tense and anticipation coated the air.

He smelled amazing, she realized, as he came closer to her slowly, like he makes his home somewhere in the deep leafy greens of Konoha forest. His eyes were dark, hooded and hungry. But also…

Hesitant.

Sakura knew he still held on to his reservations about what they both wanted from each other, about what they were about to do. He wouldn't push her away again, though, at least not tonight.

She thought of that fact as she closed the distance between them in the semi-darkness and made the first move because she knew he wouldn't.

Sakura reached for him, molding herself to his body, wishing they were already undressed so she could wrap her legs around him and move. She moved her lips to place them gently on his neck, tasting him, salt and male. She felt him stiffen, body tense and hot.

Her skin prickled, not uncomfortably, and she felt goosebumps rise on the surface of her skin as she sucked gently, kissing his neck. He watched her through the dark as she released him and leaned back against the door. Sakura felt his gaze on her skin like a comforting weight.

Only then did she appreciate their height difference as her face rested against his chest. Kakashi didn't move initially, but he shifted only a second later to rest his hands on her hips, moving them back and across the small of her back, pulling her even tighter against him. His hands left a scorched trail wherever they touched.

"You can pretend it's not me," Sakura offered in a murmur.

But that wasn't the right thing to say.

Kakashi's hands pushed her tighter against him and she almost gasped.

He sounded angry when he spoke and the tenor of his voice reverberated through her body, "If we're going to do this, I don't want it to be anyone but you—imaginary or not."

She wasn't quite sure how she should feel about that declaration, so she settled on happy—because it does make her happy, that statement.

She kissed him once, a deep lingering kiss before pulling back. "Good. And does that mean you're not saying no anymore?"

"I got some very good advice today," Kakashi said, kissing her briefly again. "And I'm tired of saying no when we both know what we want." Sakura nodded slowly, feeling fervent and more aroused than she thought she could ever be. She was practically throbbing.

This feeling was overwhelming. This desire that rushed through her is almost unreal with its intensity. Sakura had never felt this type of compelling force towards anyone.

Suddenly the urgency coursing through her was too much and Sakura snapped. She quickly reached her hands to run through his soft silver hair and tugged Kakashi fiercely against her until their lips met again. It was hot and desperate, their kiss. They move their lips in tandem with each other, tasting and claiming one another. She longed to take her irksome dress off so she can more satisfyingly feel him against her.

He seemed to share her thought because, pulling away, Kakashi slowly lowered the strap of her dress until he brushed past her entire breast, thumb grazing over her hardened nipple.

Sakura arched against his touch, it wasn't enough, not enough.

Sakura grasped his hand and placed it more roughly against her breast, asking him for more. He granted her request and kneaded her chest, rolling her nipple in between his thumb and index finger. Kakashi leaned forward and placed his forehead against hers. Their breath intermingled as they both exhaled shallowly.

She felt him against her abdomen—hard and aching.

Again, Sakura wished to be naked, so she stepped out of her high heels first, and then wiggled out of her dress. The action was a little difficult with Kakashi pressed thoroughly to her, but she managed.

Standing only in her panties, Sakura thought a funny thought: she wasn't worrying about the normal things girls worry about when baring their body to someone they love. She wasn't worried about Kakashi seeing the small stretch marks on her hips, the scars that were few, but to her unseemly, scattered on her back: she wasn't worried about feeling chubby in places she shouldn't be or in contrast, chubby in places she should be.

Kakashi pulled his body away slightly to let his eyes roam over her body. She couldn't help but notice that his eyes darkened even more the longer he stared. His hands moved rest on her abdomen, before he trailed one warm, large hand down, coming closer to the apex of her thighs.

Sakura was practically panting as he kept going. Kakashi held her gaze as he made one precise movement with his hand between her legs, back and forth, cupping her. Her legs buckle and her breath hitches into a moan at the friction against the top of her sex. She doesn't even care that she was already soaked through her panties and that Kakashi no doubt felt it.

Before Sakura could sink further to the floor, Kakashi had her aloft and pushed her to the wall. Arms clutched her legs around his waist as he grabbed her rear and pushed himself against her hips. Once. Twice. She loses count after the fourth time.

Oh, oh, oh. That release that she so desperately sought was so achingly close.

Kakashi knew, and had known ever since evening had set, and they had been left alone with each other, that they would finish the night tangled in each other and still he had brought her. He was playing with fire because she had no idea how he felt about her, which in some part of his mind he reminded himself was very selfish of him, but he was tired of denying himself what he wanted.

He had smelled her—wet and musk— and knew she was ready and aching. He couldn't batter away the images in his head now of burying himself within her, releasing the years of restraint while she surrounded him.

All he knew had become Sakura against him, meeting his upward thrust with her downward ones, making a low needy moan in her throat every time she did.

A fierce pleasure filled him when he thought that she had come to him for this—that she had barely protested when that boy had run off that day that seemed so long ago and had come with him willingly so he could give her this instead.

Kakashi stared at her flushed face through the darkness of the room, breath shallow with her legs clamped around his waist and her heat pressed to his hardness and realized he was a goner.

…but not here, not against the wall. He wanted to take her in his own bed first.

Kakashi stopped and pulled away from her, a new jolt of pleasure traveling downward at the way she protested and tried to bring their bodies flush together again with her legs.

"Not here," Kakashi rasped, arousal coloring the tone in his voice.

Sakura frowned at him, annoyed. "Why?"

He only shook his head and kissed her again, to which she reciprocated immediately. He savored her soft lips for a moment longer before pulling away again. "On the bed first," was what he replied, brain muddled with her scent and the feel of her skin.

Heavy-lidded eyes regarded him, processing his request before she released her hold on his waist and lowered her legs to the ground. "Okay, on the bed first."

Sakura didn't much care where they had sex so long as they did, but she complied anyway.

Kakashi turned away from her and started heading to his bedroom, expecting her to follow.

And so she did.

They reached his bedroom and he flicked the light on before turning to face Sakura. In the dark of the living room, he hadn't gotten as good a look as he'd like at her bare body, but when he faced her again, at the sight of her bare round breasts, now only clothed in white lacy underwear, he had blanched, needing to look away for a moment if he was going to make this last more than a few moments.

Kakashi turned again to face her, actions more controlled now, to see her studying him, no abashment upon her face at her nakedness and biting her lip, looking him up and down. "Won't you take off your clothes, too?" she asked him, a look of subtle innocence in her eyes.

"Will you stop looking at me like that?" Kakashi asked, voice strained as the bulge in his pants.

Sakura blinked at him with wide eyes, surprised. "Like what?" she asked.

"Like you've never had sex before and are really impatient to start," he answered as he did as she wished and started with removing his dress jacket.

Sakura grinned wickedly at him behind his back.

Sakura decided that Kakashi didn't need to know that she was still a virgin. What if he decided not to? She was sure she would spontaneously combust if he stopped now.

Just from how aroused he had gotten her from his few touches and caresses, Sakura was sure that she wanted him to be her first. She was also calmed, unlike she'd been with the other men she'd dated before, by the fact that she knew this man and trusted him implicitly with her body.

Sakura watched, mouth dry, as he removed his dress coat and undershirt, revealing hard muscles and scarred skin that she ached to touch. Next came off his shoes, socks and pants until he was standing in his underwear like her.

Sakura paused at his underwear and the bulge beneath them, eyes widening with apprehension. That was, uh…rather large.

There was no way she was going to back down now, though.

Sakura tilted her head, watching him watch her with fire in his eyes meant only for her. She got a huge kick out of watching the range of expression across Kakashi's face, without that mask always covering the expressions behind it: Strong jaw and pale lips now complemented dark eyes. No one had ever looked at her that way, especially not a man.

He took two steps towards her, so his chest was almost pressed to hers, but not quite. Sakura had to crane her neck to get a good look at his face.

Large, warm hands rested at her waist before traveling upward to gently cup her breasts. Sakura sighed in contentment, bringing her hands around Kakashi's neck as she stood on her tiptoes to kiss him again.

Her breasts ached in a most heightened sensual way, as did between her thighs and just everywhere—ached to be touched by him.

Kakashi carried her towards the bed, her legs wrapped securely around his waist and prompted her to lie down, which she did before removing the last bit of her clothes and he his. Sakura watched as his member sprung out, unconsciously clenching her thighs together at the sight. She usually thought penises looked very ugly and, well, gross, and she'd certainly seen a lot due to her medical background, but his seemed to just fit him. There was nothing ugly about him.

Sakura barely had time to register this though, because Kakashi's movements became frenzied. In one moment he had exposed, and sheathed himself in a condom as she just lay, a bit overwhelmed, against his shuriken-patterned sheets.

A strange burst of hysteria bubbled within Sakura when she saw that it was one of the condoms she had thrown at his chest those few weeks ago.

Kakashi was moving towards her again, spreading her legs wider and settling snugly in between them.

He didn't stop moving—and he was pressed against her—and everything was a little too fast—and…

"Kakashi-I," Sakura started, harried—

—Kakashi entered her with one quick thrust.

Sakura gasped sharply and her mouth hung open in a silent yell as she was stretched painfully in one harsh swoop. Her body stiffened and the sensation of being filled was secondary to the strange ache.

Blinking her eyes, bewildered at the feeling, she realized Kakashi was staring at her in horror. "Shit, Sakura, are you a virgin?"

Sakura glared at him. "Obviously not anymore, you bastard. Keep going!" she commanded, gasping because she had placed her hands on his ass to urge him to keep moving. He slid deeper into her and Sakura closed her eyes again and scrunched her brow.

Sakura had startled Kakashi back into action, so that he groaned in pleasure and ground his hips into hers.

Sakura tensed even further. Damn.

Kakashi sensed her discomfort, because he forcibly stopped his movements. "Sakura, slow down," he said, tone serious, but breathless.

"Just go," Sakura hissed, eyes squeezed shut and waiting for him to start again.

"No," he protested, "you're in pain."

Sakura turned her head to the side and kissed his palm, encouraged by his kindness. "It's okay, Kakashi, it sometimes pinches the first time. It'll pass."

He kissed her, open-mouthed kisses that relaxed her stiff spine while she sagged back into the bed, trying to get more accustomed to the feel of him inside of her, and sure, she was aroused enough, but having her muscles stretched in such an abrupt manner was difficult to say the least.

Kakashi laid his forehead against hers and panted harshly above her. She knew he was holding back, which made her kind of angry because that wasn't how it was supposed to go, no matter that she was hurting. She closed her eyes and focused on his breath against her neck and the feel of his chest against her heaving breasts and tried to force the discomfort away.

"It doesn't have to hurt that much, Sakura. Just slow down," he murmured. He moved his hand to touch her in between her thighs again, touching and rubbing the bundle of nerves there until her body tightened in pleasure once more. "Does that feel better?" Kakashi asked, body tense at the way she squirmed under him.

"Yes," Sakura half gasped and half moaned.

He started thrusting in and out of her then, taking the motion in slow undulations of his hips against hers, moving faster and deeper once he realized she was more than enjoying herself.

The pain had mostly disappeared, thanks to Kakashi's patience and no thanks to her own impatience. Once again, she was glad she was doing this with him, because he was making sure she felt good, too, which she totally, absolutely did. She decided to tell him that. "Kakashi?" she panted, moving her hips to match his speed, "This feels really good." Her back dug and ground back and forth against his mattress as their body's met and separated again with harsh thrusts.

His only response was to groan and increase his pace until his movements were almost erratic.

Sakura watched his face, contorted in pleasure, eyes squeezed shut in concentration, and she felt her inner muscles clamp down around him again, coming ever closer to her release when she comprehended that she was the one making him feel this way. Having known Kakashi for many years as an aloof and basically taciturn man, seeing other expressions on his face, especially one of undiluted pleasure, was becoming her undoing. He barely pulled out of her now, reduced to only shifting his member inside her with how close he was.

Kakashi's hand had moved away from in between her legs so he could rest it beside her again, and gain more leverage so he could thrust deeper and harder into her yielding flesh.

Kakashi rocked sweat-slicked hips into her once more, and Sakura cried out as her orgasm climaxed and rolled inside her, all the way from her head to her toes that curled at the sensation of coming undone over and over again.

Kakashi growled and uttered a quick "fuck" before she felt him twitch inside her, coming to his own release with harried juts of his hips.

They lay panting against each other as they came down from their high, before Kakashi sluggishly rolled off of her, coming to rest on his back on her right side.

Sakura closed her eyes, feeling her inner muscles still twitching and relishing in her mind the past few moments as the sound of their breath evening out became the only sound in the small room.

Sakura, thinking that men usually fell asleep fairly quickly after sex, turned her head to see if Kakashi was already sleeping only to find him staring at the ceiling, eyes blinking slowly.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked softly, voice quiet so as not to disturb the calm in the room.

"Tell you what?" Sakura asked, confused.

Kakashi turned his head to look at her with mismatched eyes, a crease between his brows. "That you were a virgin."

Sakura wiggled until her whole body was turned to face him. She frowned. "Does it really matter?"

Kakashi snorted cynically, smiling without humor so it looked more like a grimace, "Yes, I might've gone a bit slower."

Sakura pursed her lips, considering this and then she answered, "I didn't need you to go slower. It was perfect the way it was."

Kakashi arched one silver eyebrow and smirked, self-satisfied. "Perfect, huh?" He reached his hand over to brush some stray pink locks from her neck, leaving his warm hand resting there.

Sakura grinned. "Yes, in its own way."

Kakashi paused at this. "That doesn't sound as good as the first time you said it."

Sakura smiled, moving her hand and running her thumb across his bottom lip, realizing she liked to see him talk quite a lot. "It's good," she said.

"What do you mean?"

Sakura yawned and shook her head to shake off her sleepiness so she could explain. "Well," she murmured, "you know how things sometimes happen the way you don't expect them to and only after they've passed you realize you wouldn't have had them happen any other way? This is like that. Now that it's happened, I wouldn't have it any other way. So it was perfect in its own way. Do you know what I mean?"

Kakashi smiled at her. "Yes, I know what you mean."

Kakashi watched as Sakura scooted closer to him, already half-asleep, with a deep-seated doubt in his stomach.

He knew even before he had taken her to his bed, that what they were about to do was a bad idea on many fronts, but he had crammed that little voice in his head telling him not to all the way in a corner, and did what he wanted to anyway. And he knew now that there was no possible method he could try to tear her from his being. She didn't even know how he felt and he would try his hardest to keep it that way because he loved her too much to tie her to him in that manner. Even now as she struggled to stay awake against him, he was withdrawing.

Kakashi eyed her, thinking of her words. It had completely surprised him when he'd realized she was a virgin, and he wondered why, if she had waited so long, she had chosen him.

He tried not to think of the fact that he would have to tell her that they couldn't do this again.

Kakashi started when Sakura sleepily opened her green eyes from her cuddled position against his chest.

"Do you want me to go?" she mumbled.

Kakashi's heart twisted. What he should answer her is 'yes', but all his concerns could keep until the morning.

"Stay," he answered her immediately, "it's late."

Sakura nodded her head once, eyelids already closed and breath evened out into a calm tempo.

Somewhere between sleep and consciousness, Kakashi couldn't keep his mind off where Sakura was pressed against him, her back to his front, and so felt himself hardened again…

…And because he was a bastard and going to hell anyway, Kakashi gently woke her with soft kisses to the temple before reaching down to rub his finger pads against her until she was panting, though not yet fully awake.

Kakashi waited 'till she had opened her fluttering green eyes completely and met his then started responding more fully to his actions before flipping her fully onto her stomach. He hastily grabbed a condom from his bedside drawer, slipped a pillow under her hips and rocked into her with slow, deep thrusts, until they both reached what they sought for the second time that night.

Kakashi decided not to think about his actions and the consequences thereof for once in his life, making this night as separate from his life as the other planets were from the earth.

Sakura lay next to him again, now fully awake as she blinked at the window, looking out at the stars.

Kakashi studied her, lying on his arm, pink hair splayed in countless directions from their heated coupling.

Sakura started talking to him—inconsequential tidbits that floated away and blended in the night as unassuming as the crickets' song outside the window. Kakashi listened, content to let her voice wash over him and then finding himself talking, too, nothing important, just talking and listening. Sakura fell asleep again, watching his mouth move as he formed the words to his sentences.

Afternoon light greeted Sakura as she opened her eyes, squinting at the unfamiliar objects and furniture around her.

Oh, she knew exactly where she was, seeing as the first thought that entered her mind was a query to last night's events.

Did that really happen?

Sakura glanced down at her bare chest, bottom half covered by a shuriken patterned sheet, before she turned her head to regard the sleeping man next to her.

Kakashi lay on his back, mouth slightly agape as he breathed evenly. Sakura studied his peaceful face, moving her eyes to the gentle rise and fall of his chest, feeling a swell of adoration fill her chest at the sight of his peaceful slumber. Sakura smiled, glad to have the chance to observe Kakashi when he wasn't trying to fake any emotion behind that mask he always wore.

Sakura lay back against the sheets and sighed, thinking of last night and how it really had happened…twice.

And just wow.

The sex had been a bit rough-going at first, but after? And the second time which she hadn't been expecting, but completely welcomed nonetheless?

Sigh her up!

Though…

Sakura eyed Kakashi again, startled to find he had woken and she hadn't even noticed. He was back to showing no emotion.

…he probably wouldn't let it happen again.

Sakura blushed despite herself, when he turned to meet her gaze.

Feeling she should say something Sakura awkwardly cleared her throat, "I should probably go." No matter that she had absolutely nothing else to do the rest of the day, but since he didn't tell her otherwise, Sakura brushed the sheet from her body and made to stand on her feet.

Though she was completely naked and realized this once she got to her feet, Sakura trudged on, not wanting to tear the cover from Kakashi. She felt his gaze follow her as she fished her panties from the floor and quickly put them on. Remembering she had undressed out in the general area of the apartment, Sakura quickly opened the door and gathered her things from the floor, donning her dress, but leaving her high heels hanging from two fingers on her right hand.

Sakura then paused, debating whether she should just go or head back to Kakashi to say…

Say what? Thanks for the fuck? See you next therapy session?

Still, Sakura found herself heading back to the room, soft footfalls the only noise making a dent in the silence. She pushed open the door to see Kakashi sitting with the cover pooled around his waist. He looked to her when he heard her enter.

"I'm leaving," Sakura stated, not finding a better statement.

Kakashi nodded. "Sakura? We shouldn't do this again."

He said those words with such finality that Sakura wilted a bit. She nodded her consent "I understand", and turned to leave. She paused and before she could give what she was about to do much thought, she marched over to Kakashi and placed her lips softly on his, and encouraged by his reciprocated response, but then she pulled away. She looked him directly in his mismatched eyes, "Thanks, Kakashi."

Sakura left through the door, stepping out into the blinding afternoon sun.

A/N: This fic is just over 88k words, more than I have ever written for a fic, scholarly paper, or otherwise original fic in my life. So there are eight long chapters left.

I thought I would post one every week, but with everything that's going on right now, I think I'll post one a day until we run out of chapters.

Thanks for reading! Nice or constructive reviews are always appreciated. Until next time!