Chapter 8: Shifting Sands (4)

AN: Your patience knows no bounds! Thank you so much for sticking with me! I hope you enjoy~

"I had a feeling that staying up last night to finish the chapter I was working on was a bad idea. I felt fine in the morning, but by the time we got to immigration my energy was gone," Sakura murmured as she dabbed a slice of tonkatsu into her dipping sauce bowl. "At this point, if they haven't started on the room yet, I'd definitely prefer that they wait until we are gone to the beach tomorrow to make the adjustments," she continued before biting off the end of the slice. She looked too tired to eat.

"I'll check," Itachi replied simply, taking his last bite and resting down his chopsticks. "Excuse me," he said, rising from his chair and making the relatively short distance from the food court to the lobby. The receptionist looked up with a polite smile when he approached, but her eyes were apologetic.

"Uchiha-san, my apologies. I managed to get in contact with the maintenance manager, but the maintenance team is currently handling an urgent situation in the boiler room, so we haven't yet managed to get a team over to adjust your suite," she said before he had a chance to ask.

"In that case, we will use the room as is. Please send our luggage up and have the adjustments made when we are out of the room tomorrow instead," he instructed.

"Thank you very much for your understanding, Uchiha-san," the receptionist said with a grateful bow. I will instruct housekeeping to provide your room with a complimentary bottle of whiskey. Have a wonderful stay," she finished with another polite bow. Itachi nodded in acknowledgement and headed back to the food court. Sakura looked up as he came closer and gave him a tired smile.

"How did it go?" she asked.

"As you suspected," Itachi returned when he reached their table. She seemed to be done with her meal, so he lifted her purse and looped the strap over his forearm. "They will make the adjustments tomorrow. Shall we head up now?" Sakura rose from her seat and joined him as they headed to the elevators. They stopped in front of the elevator doors, Sakura mere centimetres from his side. Itachi was acutely aware of her proximity. He became even more so when the elevator doors closed behind them and they began to ascend. It stopped at the fourth floor to admit a group of friends, and Itachi instinctively clasped his fingers around Sakura's hand and pulled her closer to him in order to make space for them.

They nodded at each other in greeting, but as the group of friends chatted together, Sakura didn't release Itachi's hand. Instead, she stepped closer to him and leaned her head against his shoulder. Was she really that comfortable with him? He supposed that they were… friends, of a sort. Was she this comfortable making physical contact with all her friends? Even the male ones?

Before he could properly arrange his thoughts, they arrived at their floor and the elevator doors slid open. Sakura leaned away from him and her hand slid from his.

"Are you coming?" she asked. Itachi blinked, dragging himself back to the present and stepping out of the elevator. He strode ahead of her towards their room door, feeling a growing sense of annoyance building within him. He opened the door with their keycard and stepped to the side to allow Sakura to step past him.

It took them a few minutes to get situated. The suite was as large as a small apartment, featuring a spacious living room containing an 85" flatscreen, a high, plush, king-sized bed, a personal pool, a skylit dining room and a massive luxury walk-in shower. After giving the suite a cursory inspection and finding it more than adequate, Itachi moved the bags that the hotel staff had neatly placed in the foyer to the bedroom.

"The living room is suitable for me for tonight," Itachi said as Sakura put her suitcase on the side and zipped it open.

"I was just about to say I could go there," she replied, pausing to look up at him. "Your legs are much longer than mine, so you would be far more comfortable on the bed." She was right, but Itachi rankled at the thought of sleeping on the bed while she took the couch. Apparently, his thoughts were clearly expressed on his face because Sakura gave him a dry smile.

"I'm not going to fight you over it," she said with a small chuckle. "But if that's the case, then I insist that you shower first." When she saw him start to object, she quickly added, "After I shower, I'm going straight to bed. You wouldn't want to disturb me, right?" Unable to argue with her logic, Itachi opened his suitcase and was about to take out his clothing for the night when Sakura made a sound of surprise.

"I didn't mean to be inquisitive, but I couldn't help but see how you pack your suitcase. Kami, are you always this organized?" She motioned to his clear ziplocked clothing organizer bags with her chin. Itachi glanced down at the bags, each of which he'd packed with specific outfits, and was unsure of whether he should feel self-conscious about them. This packing style was the norm for him, but the amusement in her eyes made him wonder if he was perhaps a bit strange in her perspective.

A glance over at her suitcase solidified that notion. While her suitcase was packed relatively neatly, it still looked chaotic in comparison to hers. Obviously too curious to care, Sakura ambled over to his side and peered into his suitcase.

"It looks like a clothing store packed this. How are you so neat?" The awe in her tone made him realize she was more impressed than amused, and that made him inordinately pleased.

"My butler showed me when I was much younger," Itachi said. Sakura looked up at him before chuckling softly.

"Your butler. Of course." She turned her attention back to the suitcase, but it looked like she was trying to hide a smile. "You should teach me sometime. My suitcase looks like a mess in comparison, and this way looks like I'd be able to fit so much more clothes. No wonder you were able to travel so lightly," she mused. Itachi showed her a few more of his packing strategies, which included his daily planner that outlined his schedule and the required clothing so that he didn't bring unnecessary items, and a specific folding method that allowed him to both maximise space and see all the items he was carrying at a glance.

At one point, Itachi looked up to realize that Sakura was not looking at what he was demonstrating in his suitcase at all. Instead, she was staring at his face with a soft, bemused look that he didn't understand and therefore was unsure of how to react to. It made him feel acutely self-conscious, so he withdrew the clothing he had packaged for the night and closed the top of his suitcase.

"Well," he said after clearing his throat. Sakura inclined her head towards the bathroom and gestured for him to go ahead. When he closed the bathroom door, he leaned against it, his thoughts racing.

What was the meaning of that look she had given him? How did he really feel about this… about her? He had to face the fact that he wanted to know more about her. How was she able to seem so comfortable around him, when inside he was beginning to feel… distinctly tumultuous?

Trying to shake the thoughts from his head, Itachi stripped, mindlessly folded his dirty clothes and stepped into the shower. The water was immediately perfectly hot, and it pounded against his chest and shoulders with a pleasant intensity. Stepping further under the spray, Itachi allowed the water to course over his face and hair, hoping it would help him to clear his head.

He didn't remember soaping up, but around the time he realized that he was rethinking every moment she had made physical contact with him either by holding his hand or leaning against him, it occurred to him that he had probably been in the shower for a very long time. Quickly rinsing off, he dried off, applied his antiperspirant and body spray and packed up his dirty clothing. Pulling on one of the robes that were hanging from a rack on the wall, he exited the bathroom, only to find that Sakura had fallen asleep on the couch next to the bed.

Quickly packing away his things and carrying them to the lounge, he returned to the bedroom and gently shook Sakura awake.

"Mmmn?" she murmured blearily, her eyes heavy-lidded with tiredness. His heart gave a heavy thump at her sleep-fogged expression. "Oh right… my shower," she sighed.

"Good night," Itachi said when she stood and started looking around the room for her things. She turned and gave him a sleepy smile.

"Good night. Sleep well."

Roughly two hours later, Itachi found himself wide awake, staring at the ceiling of the lounge. The sounds of the shower and Sakura's pre-bedtime shuffling had long ceased, and the quietness of the suite made Itachi fairly certain that he was the only one awake.

His brain cycled through the events of the day, no, the past few weeks, trying to make sense of where he stood.

He was developing a tendre for Sakura. That much was pretty certain at the moment, and while such an outcome was not necessarily undesired, it was somewhat ill-advised at this stage. She clearly had no such feelings for him, if he considered her casual, comfortable attitude. She didn't treat him like someone she was interested in as a man. It felt as if she viewed their relationship as… platonic.

While their kiss at the ramen restaurant had shaken him and irreversibly changed the way he viewed their contract, it did not seem like it had the same effect on her. What was it she had said after she had kissed him?

"Not a robot."

Just thinking of that kiss made him feel like something was winding and tightening in his stomach. Additionally, the mere thought that she was not nearly as affected by that moment made him feel uncharacteristically anxious. Still, it seemed that she had no intention of backing out of the contract. This trip to Suna was really the last event before things began to move more quickly and certainly.

He supposed that eventually, given time, he could change things.

'Am I seriously considering seducing Sakura right now?' He had to admit that he was. But first, he had to know more about her. He had approached her as a means to an end, but now he was thinking of her as… a woman. His woman. He was definitely interested in her in that context.

He wanted her.

Maybe it was the time of the night. Maybe it was being faced with so much physical contact throughout the day from a woman he was interested in. Maybe it was finally allowing himself to think the thoughts he had kept at bay for weeks now. Maybe it was being conscious of the fact that Sakura was just a room away.

Whatever the cause was, his head was full of her, and his desire for her and attraction to her were swirling in his stomach and heating his blood. Itachi covered his face with his hand and willed himself to go to sleep, but sleep didn't come for a few more hours.

Sakura woke up the next day to the smell of coffee and the feel of the plush comforters snuggled around her body. She was ensconced in pillows, and the only thing powerful enough to get her to move was coffee, which apparently Itachi-san was using to lure her from her cocoon of comfort.

Her phone vibrated on the stand next to her, and Sakura reached over blindly for it, pulling it under the covers with her before unlocking the screen.

ㅡ Good morning. Are you awake?

Peering at her screen with one eye, Sakura fumbled to type a response.

ㅡ Ohayou. I just woke up.

A reply came shortly after.

ㅡ I ordered breakfast.

ㅡ I'll be out in a moment.

Pulling herself from bed, Sakura used the bathroom and had a quick shower. She put on her bikini and pulled on a white summer dress over it. Roughly forty minutes later, she and Itachi-san had eaten breakfast and were making their way down to the beach. Although unintentionally, they had colour coordinated again. Itachi-san was wearing a navy beach shirt and shorts combo patterned with tiny white sailboats, and Sakura's bikini was brightly coloured but had patches of a blue that was so similar it was almost identical.

As soon as they got off the elevators at the beach level, Itachi-san slid his hand around her waist.

It was only Itachi, and they had done this yesterday, but somehow, today, it felt different.

They were surrounded by friends almost immediately after appearing on the beach. Sakura fielded comments about her and Itachi's status with aplomb. Truth be told, his steady presence and her rapidly developing comfort around him made it easy for her to relax into the facade of their relationship. At this point, it felt less like a facade and more like a budding relationship with a wonderful person. Sure, it was not passionate, but she felt… secure.

The more time she spent with him, the more he began to show his cute sides. A few months ago, when she had just met him, she would never have thought he would have cute sides, but last night when he had been (in his particular way) enthusiastically showing her his packing method, she found something about him undeniably adorable.

Was that why she felt so unbalanced today?

Or was it the gentle circles he was absently tracing on the patch of skin on her side that her dress exposed?

Or was it perhaps his scent?

She was pondering that when a familiar voice caught her attention.

"I hoped I would see you here, but I hadn't counted on it."

Sakura grinned instinctively. "Shisui-san?" Shisui joined the group, a cocktail resting loosely between his fingers. He had apparently already been on the beach for a while because he was already shirtless and his skin was showing the early signs of a tan. He pushed his sunglasses up on top of his head and beamed at her.

"You're here with Itachi? I'm sure you could have found someone more interesting," he joked. Sakura chuckled, partially at his playful jab and partly at Itachi's response, which was to subtly pull her closer.

"Stop it. Itachi-san is adorable," she returned, looking up to grin at Itachi. She could have sworn his cheeks reddened, but he looked away in the direction of the bar.

"Do you want something to drink?" he asked softly, choosing to ignore Shisui.

"Just a fruit juice," Sakura responded, feeling somehow bereft after his arm slid from around her waist. While he was gone, the group of friends chatted, reminiscing and getting to know the ones who were unfamiliar. Itachi returned shortly after with her drink. As members of the group left and new people joined, Shisui slowly made his way to Sakura's other side and began engaging her in conversation about her books.

"If you had to recommend just one of your works, which one would it be?" he asked.

"Mmmm, I would have to say Peril's End," Sakura mused. She continued to describe the fantasy thriller and loosely broke down the relationship it had with the other books in the series. At some point in the conversation, she realised that he had not taken his eyes off her.

"Well, I definitely will check it out and let you know what I think," he said, and while Sakura got the sense that he was attracted to her, she felt like he was genuinely interested in her work. The conversation drifted and flowed for a bit before it somehow ended up at her nail polish. Shisui reached over and took her hand in his so he could inspect her nails.

"Well, the white definitely looks great. I'm sorry the nail tech pushed you into the colour, but I can't argue with her taste," he said. The words were innocent enough, but something about the gentle way he held her fingers made her stomach flutter.

What even was this?

She had known Shisui for ages, way back from when she had been dating Sasuke. He'd never given her the vibes he was giving her now. If he had, at least, she hadn't noticed. If she were honest, she would have to say that she didn't hate it. She was rarely wrong about things like this, and Uchiha Shisui was definitely interested in her.

What was with her and Uchihas of late? Apparently, if it was not one, it was another, or several at a time. She was beginning to catch vibes from Itachi-san as well, even if they were not as strong as Shisui's were right now. Could that possibly complicate matters? She didn't know, but she was pretty determined to just have a good time on this Suna trip. She would re-evaluate when the trip was over and she had some time to herself.

What was happening?

At some point, Itachi had begun to feel distinctly forgotten. Even when almost the entire group had begun to talk enthusiastically about some mutual acquaintance that he had yet to meet, or when they all laughed at some inside joke he was not privy to, Sakura's fingers looped through his had been enough to ground and satisfy him. As long as he had been touching her, it hadn't seemed to matter, and although she had not expressly said that they were dating, she had inferred as much, and the other people had taken that at face value and treated him like her boyfriend.

Now, however, his arm was still looped around her waist, but somehow her conversation with Shisui made him feel like an interloper.

An outsider.

As if they were sharing a private moment. It was all he could do to refrain from yanking her hand out of Shisui's grasp. Something about Shisui's presence and behaviour was making him very uncomfortable. Shisui had not taken his eyes off Sakura ever since he showed up, and he didn't seem to be taking the hints Sakura had thrown out that she was dating him. But even so, Shisui knew that Sakura was dating him, so why was he showing up now, behaving like this, and potentially complicating matters? Even though his cousin had not made any moves overtly, Itachi couldn't shake the feeling that Shisui was very interested in Sakura and was currently making a move on her.

'She is mine.' The thought screamed its way through his mind, but something told him that vocalising it would be a mistake. And so instead, he tugged Sakura closer and put his lips close to her ear.

"Should we head to the yachts now?" he almost whispered into her ear, feeling far too satisfied when he successfully distracted her from whatever she had been intending to say to Shisui. If Shisui wanted Sakura, he should have made a move weeks ago. As it was right now, Itachi had absolutely no intention of giving her up.

So, things are moving forward, albeit slowly. Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think and what you are looking forward to seeing in the upcoming chapters!