Hello! To my old readers - welcome back! To new readers - thank you for clicking on this story! Please do check out my other stories, The Nightingales and The Girl on the Streets! They're both finished! :)

The update cycle for this story will be longer than before because it is still Work in Progress even on my end. :P

Pairings: ItaSaku, SasuNaru, ShikaTema. Side characters will of course make appearances. If you know me, you'll know Sai is definitely in a brand new whacky personality! XD

Summary:

"How could I re-fall in love if I never got over him?" Sakura snaps, her irritation flaring up.

Temari smirks back, almost lazily. "Looks like you're managing it just fine."

PROLOGUE

Uchiha Itachi.

The man she had once loved, deeply, senselessly, is now staring back at her with surprised black eyes that she has not quite managed to forget even after five years. In fact, now that she lets her gaze study him – quickly and hopefully without him noticing – she realises that he has not really changed all that much. Of course, that is beside the obvious ones. That is to be expected. The last time she had seen him, it was when they were both nineteen years old, barely into their adulthood, and still very much in college.

Itachi still wears his hair in a bun. The glasses are new, though. Maybe all that time in front of the screen finally caught up with him.

He is currently donned in a snug black hoodie and blue denim, white shoes. He looks nice, she decides. And then curses herself. Nothing wrong with acknowledging his appearance, of course, but she knows herself enough to realise the wrong direction those thoughts were headed towards.

Not the time.

Itachi is waiting for a response, tanned fingers loose around his cup of cappuccino. The sight of the coffee brings her back to her surroundings and the volume of the casual chatter around them increases until Starbucks makes itself known.

A small part of her brain makes a mental wry joke about coffees and Starbucks and accidental reunions with long lost lovers.

"I work at Senju Academy as a teacher."

Itachi is definitely surprised. His eyebrows shoot up instantly at her answer. "Really?"

Sakura shrugs self-consciously. "Yeah. You don't have to look like that."

Itachi barks out a laugh that has her insides twisting at the sound. He shakes his head slightly before saying, "I do. I never would have pegged you a teacher. Your temper is not exactly a secret."

"I don't get as angry anymore. You make me sound as though I had a serious problem." She frowns at him and takes a sip of her coffee.

Itachi smirks. "It wasn't a serious problem. Although, you always did lose your patience way too quickly. Excuse me if I recall things correctly."

Sakura rolls her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Things have obviously changed."

The air around them charge, and Itachi gives her a deliberate look. "Yeah. I suppose they have."

She turns her head to the surrounding tables. There is a couple on their right, holding hands and leaning forward to speak in hushed tones. On her left, there is a group of three friends – two guys and one girl – laughing loudly at something they have clearly just shared. She lets this pointless assessment of the tables continue until she feels confident enough to return Itachi's steady stare.

"What are you up to?" Sakura finally asks. He had been accepted into a college for a design degree.

Itachi frowns slightly. "I'm working at a firm currently."

"How's it going?"

"Good. Fine. It's fairly new. I'm still adjusting."

"That's to be expected."

Itachi shrugs. Doesn't say more.

Sakura tries not to sigh. It's a Sunday, and it was apparently her bad – or good – luck to have run into Uchiha Itachi of all people at a Starbucks that is nowhere near her apartment or her place of work. She had only decided to duck in because the weather outside is horribly cold, now that they're entering winter, and she couldn't stand the chilly whips of air on her exposed face.

Itachi was sitting at one of the tables already, when Sakura had seen him after picking up her coffee from the counter. It had taken her a few minutes of internal debate to finally approach him and ask if the chair is taken.

Now, here they are.

It's confusing and painful and she feels strung out. They had fallen out for reasons that she rather not dwell upon, and she knows that Itachi has already moved on from what Temari had told her, yet, yet, the urge to spill everything out to him is so strong that she physically has to bite her lips to stop the words from tumbling out.

It's been way too long for explanations, she reminds herself firmly. It won't matter anymore. He probably doesn't even care about it. About her.

Fisting one hand in her lap under the table, she takes a deep breath to steady her thoughts.

"Do you stay around here?" she asks him, hoping it doesn't come out suggestive in any form.

Itachi's face is carefully blank and she knows she messed up her tone. "Yes," he replies slowly. "This is my regular place for coffee. I've never seen you here before, though."

The question is in there, she knows. Are you here because you knew I'd be here?

Sakura shakes the irritation away. She's not some stalker to know these things. Besides, who the fuck is he to put himself in such a position to even imply that Sakura would stoop to such low levels just to speak with him? Looks like his ego has not abandoned him yet.

Wonderful.

The anger is easier to deal with. So she focuses on that, and not the way his eyes are still immensely captivating, or the way his fingers are long and lean and strong, or how the hoodie fits his broad shoulders, because that's the harder bit about this whole thing.

"I was on my way home. Stopped for a quick coffee." Nice and curt. That will show him.

He raises one pointed eyebrow slightly, but doesn't comment further. Sakura decides to fuck it all to hell. If he's not interested in holding a proper conversation with her, she's not going to bother, either. A small part of her tries to remind her that, from his point of view, he has every right to ignore her existence if he so wishes, but Sakura tamps down on it.

We're not young and petulant teenagers anymore, she thinks harshly. He is perfectly capable of being an adult about it.

"Well," she clears her throat and gets to her feet, smoothing down one hand on her jacket for no reason, the other hand picking up her cup of coffee. "I should get going."

She shouldn't get going, actually. It has barely been twenty minutes since she entered the café and the cold is still very much real outside the walls. Which is absolutely fine, she thinks viciously, better to rattle my bones than be in this stilted conversation.

Itachi stands up but doesn't pick up his coffee. He simply holds out one hand. "It was nice to see you."

For a moment, she positively struggles. She really wants to slap his hand away.

His hand is warm from his coffee-cuddling and Sakura holds it, counting three seconds in her head, and then retrieving immediately. "Yeah. Nice to see you, too. Good luck with everything."

"Thanks. You, too." Then he suddenly smirks and smiles at the same time. "Try not to damage the kids. I'm sure their parents will not appreciate it."

Despite herself, she rolls her eyes fondly at his tendency to lighten things up with a mere well-placed remark. She kind of envies it.

"Sure. I'll try my best."

He holds up his hands in defence. "That's all we're asking, ma'am."

She has a strong urge to throttle him. "I'm blown away by your confidence in my abilities."

Itachi properly smiles, his expression turning softer within a second. She swallows discreetly. "For what it's worth, I'm proud of you."

Her answering smile is wide. "Thank you. I'm glad to hear you're doing well, you know."

Itachi dips his chin a little. "Thank you."

Hesitant stares.

"Well. I should leave."

"Okay. See you around."

She pauses. "Yeah. See you around."

The cold air outside Starbucks doesn't bother her much for the first five minutes. It takes even longer to stop from replaying every little moment in her head, just because she can.

Please review! I'm a little nervous about this setting, to be honest! I'd love to know what you guys think.

Update cycle, I'm afraid, is one week this time. :)