AN: This prompt was from the lovely birkastan2018, who requested a "my greencard got denied, let's get married?" style AU. I had a ton of fun with this one! It ended up so long I almost made it a one-shot in its own right.
They're sitting at the local ramen joint when Sasuke comes out with four words that change the course of Sakura's life forever.
"My visa got refused."
She thinks she might be choking to death, but Naruto's there to pat her back and they both stare at their friend with identical incredulity.
"What?" she manages wheezily. Teuchi, noticing her continued distress, passes her a fresh glass of cool water and she chugs it with unselfconscious abandon.
"My visa," Sasuke repeats, slowly, "was denied."
Naruto is the first to explode, throwing his hands up into the air with trademark tension. "But your mum is from Konoha!" he yells, loud enough that the other patrons in Ichiraku turn to stare.
Sasuke pinches the bridge of his nose with his hand, which Sakura recognises as one of the tells that means he's minutes away from losing his temper. As though he's told them the weather will be rainy tomorrow, and they're overreacting.
"But I was born in Oto," he explains, "and Konoha doesn't recognise matrilineal citizenship."
"That's sexist," Sakura comments automatically, and Sasuke throws her a look but continues to sit as though they're blowing things out of proportion.
The three of them sit for a few hot mouthfuls of ramen in silence, while Sakura contemplates life after university at the same time as life after Sasuke. Their plans would be up in smoke; he'd been planning to freelance for his father's company in Konoha, establish a branch in Fire country and continue to live and work alongside Sakura and Naruto. He'd have done the groundwork properly; for the visa to be denied meant there was no chance of it being appealed.
"So what can we do?" Naruto asks, always the planner. Sakura stares into the greasy remains of her lunch, waiting to hear Sasuke dismiss them coldly with an I'm going home or goodbye, then.
"Well," the Uchiha says, hands interlaced under his chin, "I could always marry Sakura."
Time seems to slow down for a moment, and the first thing Sakura notices is not, in fact, the love of her life essentially proposing to her, but rather the way Naruto's eyes go so wide his lashes tangle at the corners.
She stands up. Teuchi grips the counter anxiously, Naruto's face has turned the colour of puce, and Sasuke hasn't even bothered to turn around and face her properly.
When she walks out of the restaurant it's without paying, but somehow Sakura thinks Teuchi will let her off this once.
"I don't think he meant it, Sakura-chan, really I don't. You know how Sasuke gets."
"Sasuke doesn't make flippant comments."
"Yeah, but…"
"But he doesn't propose over half-eaten bowls of ramen, either? With you sitting in the middle? With his hands under his chin and a bored expression?"
"Ah…"
"Because he just did that, Naruto."
It's a week before she sees him again, and though Sakura is tempted to acquaint his beautiful cheekbones with the sharp side of her fist, she simply folds her arms (to curb the temptation) and lets Sasuke speak first.
"Naruto informs me I fucked up," he says.
Sakura shuts the door in his face. Then stands on the other side, waiting to hear if he'll walk away or pull out his phone and request backup. He does neither. She hears a distinct sigh, then the sound of her letterbox being disturbed and Sasuke's voice sounds from somewhere around her midsection.
"Open the door," he commands, and though she bites her lip at obeying him Sakura does it anyway.
"I hate you, Sasuke-kun," she says vividly, stepping aside to let him into her house. He doesn't acknowledge it, hearing it for the lie that it is, and he doesn't stop walking until he's leaning against the kitchen counter at the back of her small home.
"I'm sorry about the other day," Sasuke intones, and it sounds like he's reading lines fed to him by their blonde friend. He probably is. "I didn't mean to say that."
Sakura knocks her head against the doorframe, pink hair sliding from its messy ponytail to tickle her shoulders. "No, you did," she argues tiredly, the fight leaving her all at once.
Sasuke eyes her from across the room, and she watches him assessing her tired posture, limp arms and baggy clothes. He'd dropped this particular bombshell on her in the week after her last exam and she's grateful for it, because Sakura's barely been able to feed herself let alone think, or study, or function in society.
"Hn, I did," Sasuke agrees. "Getting married would make sense," he continues, and because he's looking up at her ceiling he misses the way Sakura's hands curl into fists at her sides. "It would let me establish myself here in Konoha, my family would be able to fund your continued medical education, it would increase our credit scores, and I feel people respond better to married people in a business context…"
Sasuke rarely speaks for so long and even though every item in the list infuriates her more and more, Sakura's a little shamefully glad to just listen to the cadence of his voice. But, she's got to-
"Sasuke," Sakura interrupts. "I couldn't do it."
"Why?" he asks, and her friend sounds so genuinely confused that Sakura feels five years of subtlety slide down the drain.
"Because," Sakura intones with all the finality she feels, "I'm in love with you."
Part of her thinks she'll never see him again after her declaration, but it's less than a week before Sakura bumps into Sasuke at the tea shop on the corner.
"Oh," she says at the same time he mumbles "hey."
Gathering her courage and sitting across from him - after all, despite the disastrous mess they've caused he is her best friend and he is leaving in a few short weeks - Sakura casts her eyes over what he's ordered and frowns.
"You don't eat anmitsu," she declares, pointing to the sweet dessert in front of him, piled enticingly with cherries and her favourite red bean jelly.
"No," he says, "but you do." Taking another bite of the syrupy-sweet treat, Sakura stares in confusion as Sasuke's fine features crumple in stark dislike.
"This is far too- how do you eat-"
He pushes it across the table. "Here."
Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth (or think too deeply about what he'd said), Sakura accepts graciously, and devours the sweet while Sasuke silently cradles his much-preferred green tea.
"So why were you trying to defeat your mortal enemy, sugar?"
Sasuke rolls his eyes but she can see the smile playing the corner of his lips. "I thought I'd try to find out about- about some of the things you like."
"Why?" Sakura says, instantly suspicious. "It's not so that I'll marry you, is it? Because I won't."
Ignoring the way nearby patrons stare at her declaration, Sasuke puts his hands on his temples and closes his eyes, showing her the delicate frown he's been trying to smooth from his face.
"No, it's not for that," he affirms. "I realised after-" and they both colour, "afterwards, that maybe I didn't know you as well as I thought I did."
Sakura feels warm from her fingers to her toes, and tries very hard not to reward him with a smile. She fails, but his answering hesitant smirk makes her a winner anyway.
"But," Sasuke continues, "you can keep your sweets."
Sakura's laughter is so loud they nearly get thrown out of the tea shop, and even though it's her favourite place she finds she doesn't care.
"Sakura," Sasuke says, waiting while she turns in her seat from where she's been checking his bags.
"Hm?"
He fidgets, and though the movement is slight enough to be almost unnoticeable it is so far removed from his usual cool that she pinpoints it instantly.
"Will you marry me?"
Beside her, Naruto drops the glasses he'd been carrying to the table.
"Now?" the blonde asks. "You waited to ask until now?"
Sakura frowns at her friend as he scrambles to pick up the shards coating the airport floor.
"I've been wandering around for like an hour, man. You had so much time."
Blinking in disbelief as she watches Sasuke shove Naruto with surprising vehemence, Sakura holds up a hand when the fight looks like it might escalate. Sasuke has a flight to catch, after all.
"What did you say?" she manages.
Sasuke opens his mouth to repeat himself, but Naruto covers his hands with his ears and takes exaggerated steps away from the table.
"You might as well watch the third attempt, idiot," Sasuke scolds, and Naruto freezes in place.
Sasuke turns back to where Sakura's tearing her napkin to shreds.
"Sakura," he says, "will you marry me?"
She swallows. "But you're going home."
"Yeah."
"But… but I love you."
This time, Sasuke colours, and she's entranced by the way the flush winds its way up his neck.
"...yeah."
"It's too late to sort your visa," Sakura mumbles, and is taken by surprise when Sasuke shrugs.
"For now, yeah," he says. "But you could always get one for Oto."
"Get one for…" she repeats his words, the realisation of what he's asking, offering dawning on her. It's not to stay in Konoha. "You want to marry me?" Sakura queries, tremulous.
"I want to marry you," Sasuke mirrors, and slides a plane ticket hesitantly across the cheap formica of the airport table. And there's something romantic about that, she thinks, but it's topped when he unfolds the envelope with a steady hand and she sees the sparkle of a ring tucked away in the folds.
"Sasuke-kun," Sakura murmurs, and then nods. There's an instant where it's just the two of them and Sasuke is smiling, really smiling. But because since the first day of their friendship it's never been the two of them but the three, the moment isn't ruined, just changed, when Naruto wails,
"Wait, Sakura-chan get a visa for Oto? How will I get one?"
He sounds so morose, though Sakura can't hold back the laugh when Sasuke entwines her hand with his, shrugs with all his practiced disinterest, and says,
"You should call my cousin Hinata back."
AN: Sassy Sasuke gives me life.