'Still feeling sick. I don't think I'll be able to make it into the office again today.' Sarada typed the lie into a text message to Suigetsu and hit send. Then with a tired sigh, she dropped her phone onto the bed and reburied her face into her tear-soaked pillow.

It was a completely pitiful scene and yet Sarada just couldn't muster up the strength to pretend she was okay. Her chest physically ached as the memories of Boruto yelling at her in her office replayed in her mind, only worsened by the tiny voice that whispered that she deserved it.

She deserved every nasty thing he said.

Dark eyes clenched shut as a fresh wave of tears threatened to fall. Did she really have any right to feel sad?

She knew how badly those words would hurt him and she wrote them anyway. Why couldn't she just let go of that stupid article idea after she realized Boruto wasn't like that at all?!

Why did she let any of this happen?!

Sarada tortured herself with a million distressing questions as she thought through the last several weeks spent with Boruto desperately resisting how she felt about him and for what?

Was it just some inflated sense of self-importance?! She was convinced her first snap judgment of a man, based on worthless tabloids, was correct even when presented with evidence to the contrary?! Why did she want to cling to an idea she knew was so wrong!?

Was it really so hard to believe Boruto actually had feelings for her?

In her many self-interrogations that followed her fallout with Boruto, that was the question that never failed to elicit a choked sob from her lips. Because when she began to boil down why she couldn't trust him and the feelings he so clearly expressed, the following questions dug into the deep corners of her heart that she wasn't sure she was ready to unearth.

"The truth is just because someone says they love you doesn't mean they'll stay."

It was a fearful sentiment she expressed to Boruto when confiding in him about her parental baggage, but now it seemed more like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

And however self-serving it may have been on her part, Tsubaki reiterated that fear when she warned Sarada that he wasn't the kind of guy who sticks around. With that in the back of her mind, of course, she had her doubts!

So even when Boruto consistently showed he was invested in their relationship beyond sex, she didn't want to believe it.

Because what if she let herself believe it and then he actually did leave?!

Wouldn't she feel just as stupid?!

The vulnerability of real intimacy scared the fuck out of her. So she guarded her heart from someone who might actually stick around over the fear of a million what-ifs. Sarada held on to that scathing article idea like a self-destruct button and justified it in her mind by telling herself this was the only way to transfer to her dream job.

She didn't really want to write it, but destroying her relationship with Boruto before he could ever leave would be better, right?

Right?!

That line of thinking had Sarada spiraling again for the nth time in forty-eight hours. Her usual method of distraction was burying herself in her work, but that felt impossible to do, especially when the work she really needed to get done was her article about Boruto.

She knew she needed to write a completely new cover story, but her laptop was in the living room and her body just felt too heavy to move.

What would even be the point? She had no clue what she would even write anyway. Sarada hugged her pillows tighter against her aching chest as a rush of emotions washed over her. She felt like such a colossal disappointment. She was given this opportunity to shine, prove herself to her boss, her colleagues, her parents, and even the editor-in-chief of The Konoha Times!

So many people expected great things from her and she just crashed and burned instead. And maybe the worst part of it all was that she did this to herself by trying to juggle this attention-grabbing exposé and her ever-growing feelings for Boruto, even when those things were in direct conflict.

She was such an idiot! Of course, this all happened!

Sarada kept mentally berating herself for her inability to decide which was most important to her, especially now that felt like she lost both with no hope of repair.

God, could she be any stupider?!

A firm knock at her front door stole Sarada's attention from her torturous thoughts. There were only a few people it could be, and none of them were the person she really wanted to see.

The knocking persisted even when she didn't make a move to answer it. Sarada felt so ugly and cruel for the way she hurt Boruto that she didn't want anyone to see her.

"I know you're in there!" ChoCho's voice called from the other side of the door. "Mitsuki told me you're pretending to be sick!"

Sarada grumbled, refusing to move as she wondered how Mitsuki had known she was faking. She lifted her head at the sound of the door unlocking; she forgot her best friend knew where she hid the spare key.

Dammit.

ChoCho let herself in, kicked off her shoes, and sauntered into the bedroom with a grocery bag full of treats in hand. "Oh, girl," she sighed sympathetically the moment her amber eyes took in her Sarada's sad state. "Are you okay?"

The simple question was enough to provoke another wave of tears. Sarada buried her face in her pillow and mumbled "no."

She heard the sound of ChoCho dropping her bag on the floor before she felt the bed dip with new weight. Her best friend's arms wrapped around her a moment later and Sarada just couldn't hold back her sobs.

"What's wrong?" ChoCho asked softly. "Did something happen?"

"I'm so selfish," Sarada whimpered.

"Now, that's not true."

"I really hurt Boruto and for what? Because I thought it would advance my career?! That's selfish!"

Sarada filled in the gaps of information her best friend didn't have. The late-night email to Karin and the scathing new article she entertained the idea of writing. The sleeping with Boruto for said article only to fall into this unexpected relationship with him instead. The tenderness he showed her and the guilt that ate away at her for weeks. And of course, the impossible decision between her treasured career and her blossoming relationship.

"Honestly, I know I should've taken the article idea back when I realized it wasn't really an accurate characterization, but I… I just need this cover story to be… I don't know, something. Something that got the attention of The Times, something that mattered."

Sarada really wanted to write something that mattered... She wanted to matter.

After listening to her story, ChoCho sighed sadly and gave Sarada a comforting squeeze. "You might have done a mean thing, but that doesn't mean you're a terrible person. You'll apologize and maybe he'll understand."

Sarada's heart ached as she murmured, "I don't think he's ever going to talk to me again."

It was three days removed from her fallout with Boruto and roughly a week before she needed to turn in a fully polished, ready-to-publish cover story. The pressure of which weighed heavily on her shoulders.

Sarada felt like a zombie as she dragged herself to the office, but at least she seemingly ran out of tears to cry. She knew she couldn't keep calling out without people growing concerned about her health or realizing she was just ditching to wallow in her own sadness. Either way, Sarada was emotionally exhausted as she stepped into the layout meeting for that week's issue.

"Morning," she whispered as she slipped into the chair beside Mitsuki, but his only response was a curt nod.

Karin began the meeting reviewing the article and ad placement for this week's issue. Sarada swallowed thickly as her boss asked for last-minute thoughts and comments on the cover story. Next week that would be her, showcasing her article for everyone's critique. The thought alone made her stomach churn with anxiety.

It was a brutal reminder that she had to start over on her cover story, an article she had weeks to write and now would be forced to throw together in a matter of days if it was to go through the proper editing channels.

But the real question was, what angle did she write about? She couldn't publish the scathing article Boruto tore up in her face. She had already hurt him enough.

Sarada figured could probably make the first idea about his habits and lifestyle work, except for the fact that she definitely couldn't go talk to him anymore. She'd have to work with the information she already collected and that would leave some holes.

The option of a totally new angle felt like the only appropriate avenue.

When Karin moved on to the coming week's assignments, Sarada wasn't surprised she was covering the Kumogakure Invitational but it was still another torturous reminder of Boruto. It seemed thoughts of him were impossible to escape.

She would've had so much to look forward to if she hadn't completely imploded their relationship. Her article would hit the stands the day the tournament began and that thought made Sarada dizzy.

She really needed to get started, to write something, anything, or she would really be letting the entire team down.

Maybe some caffeine would help revive her.

"Hey, Mitsuki," Sarada called as they stepped out of the conference room after the meeting was adjourned. She hoped maybe a quick coffee run with her good friend would get her motivated enough to get writing.

But when he turned around, his usual smile was absent from his face. "What?"

Her brow pinched in confusion. "Is everything alright?"

"Is everything alright with you?" Mitsuki countered with a stern expression. "Because you sure aren't acting like the Sarada I know."

"Wh-What?"

He hesitated a moment, his eyes glancing down at the floor. "Would you step on me to get to The Times too?" he asked quietly.

"Mitsuki!" Sarada gasped. The question was like a knife to her already broken heart, but she had a feeling she knew what it was fueled by. She slowly shook her head, staring at him with wide eyes. "I… I would never."

He sighed before looking up to meet her remorseful charcoal gaze. "Bolt really liked you, anyone with eyes could see that. Why would you write that kind of stuff about him?"

Her face grew hot as moisture began to prickle at her eyes. "It-It was a mistake… a misunderstanding…" she defended weakly.

Mitsuki blinked at her for a moment as if deciding if he believed what she said. "So you're not going to publish it?"

"No…" Sarada shook her head. There was no way she could even consider publishing it because it just became painstakingly clear that it wasn't just her relationship with Boruto that would suffer.

She argued in her mind that an angle like this would give her the reputation of someone who isn't afraid to expose the ugly side of their own industry, but maybe it would just give her the reputation of a glory-hungry backstabber.

And suddenly Sarada realized there was a lot that was more important to her than how quickly she made it to her dream job.

"Then what's your cover story going to be about?" Mitsuki asked, his brow furrowed together, likely because he understood how close she was now cutting it to the deadline.

"I-I still don't know…"

Sarada spent the rest of her workday staring at a blank document, waiting for a brilliant cover story to write itself (unfortunately it did not). So when she went home that evening, she continued to do the same. She couldn't rest until she had something on the page.

Her mind kept wandering back to her conversation with Mitsuki and she began to question what was really most important to her. Sarada had insisted over the last few weeks that her priority was the progression of her career, the one thing that felt constant in her life. But maybe that wasn't true, because as she stared at that document and asked herself the kind of story she wanted to write over and over, she always went back to the same thought.

An article that Boruto would enjoy reading, an honest depiction of her experiences observing him and spending time with him over the last several weeks.

An article that conveyed how she really felt about him.

But what would that even look like?

An apology? A confession? A combination of the two?

She decided she would start by pouring her heart out on the page, get the words out and then try to mold it into a proper article. So in the darkness of her quiet bedroom, Sarada began typing out the title that felt most fitting.

Lovestruck By Bolt: Why Boruto Uzumaki Is So Easy To Fall In Love With.

A/N: thank you for reading! I'd love to hear your thoughts and reactions in the comments!