CONTENT WARNING!: SMUT! BE ADVISED THE RATING HAS CHANGED TO M. If you feel the need to skip this chapter, feel free :) I'll try to put a disclaimer up on any chapters with M rated sexual content.

Eleven

Sakura lay awake, staring blankly at the ceiling. She'd been like that for hours.

She couldn't shake the feeling that maybe, maybe, she and Sasuke just needed to get something physical out of their systems. It felt like more than that but…maybe her hormones were just getting the better of her and having sex with Sasuke would solve all her problems.

Fat chance of that happening, but Sakura was tired and overwhelmed by the tension between them. She figured it was time she do something about it.

Climbing out of bed slowly, Sakura crept past a sleeping Ino, grabbing Sasuke's hoodie on the way out the door. Once in the hallway, Sakura glanced down at her outfit and cringed. She was wearing purple shorts with blue polka dots, and a blue t-shirt that matched the dots. She hadn't thought to grab shoes before leaving the room, and she nearly smacked herself in the head for being so absent-minded yet again. She imagined she must look very enticing, what with her no-makeup bedhead look.

Are you awake? Sakura texted him, flinching as she sent the message.

She was surprised when he texted her back immediately. It was almost two in the morning. Yes, he responded. What's up?

Sakura swallowed before sending the next text, debating on exactly what to say. Can I come over? she asked, choosing to just be blunt.

Her heart stopped when she didn't receive a reply. As the minutes ticked by, Sakura considered she had likely made a huge mistake. What had she been thinking, texting him like that?

Yeah, come on. I'll meet you outside. He texted back.

Thanking all the gods that he had responded, and maybe cursing them a little bit too, Sakura went running down the hall towards the stairs. She tripped down the last two in her nervous eagerness and scraped her elbow on the brick wall, drawing a little bit of blood. "Damn it," she muttered, dabbing lightly at her seeping elbow.

She ran out the door to her building, keeping in the shadows on the way to Sasuke's. No one was out, but she was still wary of anyone seeing her. No one needed to know about this little ill-advised trip to her professor's at two in the morning.

She beat him to their meeting spot outside, and danced back and forth from foot to foot. The ground was achingly cold on her bare feet. Damn no-shoes nonsense.

Sakura didn't have to wait long, however, as the door soon opened to reveal a very bedraggled looking Sasuke. His hair looked as though a family of rats had taken up residence there and his t-shirt was on backwards. Sakura was struck by how adorable he looked in that moment and she swallowed heavily. She reminded herself that this was about lust and nothing more.

This time, Sasuke led her to his apartment by hand, mirroring her own behavior last time she had been there. He didn't release her palm from his grasp until he had shut his apartment door behind him. He stood with his back to her, shoulders obviously tense. She could see the lines of his drawn up muscles through the thin fabric of his backwards t-shirt.

"Um," Sakura began, desperately trying to ease the tension. "Your shirt is on backwards."

Sasuke's head tipped down as he surveyed his clothing. "Hn, so it is. Tea?"

"Sure," Sakura quirked an eyebrow. She hadn't been expecting so much politeness. Maybe he suspected her motives and was trying to let her down easy…

She took a seat on his couch while he made the tea. At one point while he was in the kitchen, he paused his tea-making to flip his shirt right side out, offering Sakura a tantalizing view of the hard muscles of his back. Suddenly, her plan seemed like an excellent idea.

"How much sugar?" he asked from the kitchen, still not looking at her.

"Um, a lot?" Sakura asked sheepishly.

Sasuke snorted at that. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Hey, don't judge," Sakura sniffed, accepting the tea mug he was offering her. "Bitter is gross."

"Tch," Sasuke sat down next to her on the couch. "Whatever."

They sat there on the sofa for some time, neither one of them speaking. Sakura wondered if Sasuke knew why she had come to his apartment. She wondered what he was going to say. Maybe he would reject her…

"Sasuke," she choked out, before she could chicken out. "Um…"

He finally turned to look at her then, eyes dark and dusky. She was taken aback by his beauty. Even in pajamas with his hair in a mess, the man was still devastatingly gorgeous.

She licked her lips and saw his eyes fall to them briefly. "I was just thinking that…maybe if we, well if we…get this tension out from between us, we can get over this and things can be normal."

"Get the tension out?" Sasuke quirked an eyebrow at her, though he clearly caught on to her meaning. "Are you sure – "

"Yes," Sakura replied, not letting him finish. She would do anything at this point to free herself from these desperate feelings of longing. To get herself back to normal…

Sasuke was just staring at her, very clearly trying to read her. "Sakura, I don't think – "

She leaned forward and kissed him then. She had no idea where all this bravery was coming from, but it just felt right. It was just a quick, chaste kiss, but a kiss all the same, and it left Sakura's heart thudding and her cheeks red.

"I just thought we might as well give it a try because this…this, whatever, has started to become…disruptive for me," Sakura struggled through her words. "B-but if you don't want…I mean I know I don't look – "

"That's not it," Sasuke bit out. "I'm just not sure it's a good idea."

Sakura felt the blood rushing in her ears. Sasuke was just scowling at the wall like it had done him a great wrong. She had so not thought this through. She hadn't really put much thought into his actual answer, and now that he had said no, she wasn't really sure what to do.

Standing abruptly and setting her teacup on the coffee table, Sakura bowed lightly and nearly tripped in her hurry to leave. "Forgive me," she muttered, hiding her blush behind her hair. "I don't know what I'm doing."

When he didn't respond, Sakura turned in absolute dejection and mortification for the door, nearly tripping over her own feet in her hurry to get out the door and preferably off a cliff. She stopped only when Sasuke's hand came slamming down on her wrist as she reached for the doorknob. She hadn't even heard him get up.

"Sakura," he breathed from behind her, and the sound sent chills up Sakura's spine.

When he didn't continue, Sakura chanced a timid glance over her shoulder at the man, peaking out from behind her hair. Sasuke was watching her warily. He reached out and tucked the pink strands behind her ear, fingers lingering on the skin of her neck.

They locked eyes for a moment. Two moments.

And then he murmured, "Fuck it."

He pulled her to him, threading his fingers into her hair as he brought his lips to her own once again. He kissed her with reckless abandon, causing Sakura to tremble in his hold as he ran his tongue along the outside of her lips. She parted them for him, and he greedily took full access of her mouth, groaning uncharacteristically when she sighed into his mouth.

A startled squeak escaped her mouth when his hands roamed from her hair, down to her hips, down over her butt and settled to grip the back of her thighs – which he used to lift her and carry her to the couch. He sat down, settling Sakura on his lap with her legs straddling him. She tried not to be overwhelmed by their suddenly intimate position.

His hands roamed over her sides and hips relentlessly, and Sakura felt her ears turning bright red. She couldn't believe how enraptured he already seemed – she hadn't been expecting this from Sasuke. He was usually so reserved and cold…this much of a reaction from him was surprising to say the least.

She could already feel the heat of his desire pressing against her inner thigh. She rubbed against him experimentally, earning a masculine groan and causing him to tighten his grip on her hips. She was certain she would have bruises tomorrow, but she didn't mind.

His hands moved underneath her shirt then, his fingers lightly running over her sensitive, bare skin. He teased the hem upwards and upwards until it was just below the base of her breasts.

Sasuke pulled back, eyeing her cautiously. A little sound of protest escaped Sakura's mouth as his lips left her. He was looking at her with a question in his eyes, seemingly asking permission before he discarded her shirt as he so obviously wanted to. In answer, Sakura lifted her shirt over her own head, and Sasuke immediately leaned backwards, deeper into the couch. His eyes raked over her body unapologetically, and Sakura struggled with the urge to cover herself. She had always thought that her breasts were a bit on the small side… although Sasuke didn't seem to mind.

"You have no idea…how long," Sasuke began with a hoarse voice. "…how many times…"

Sakura blushed deeply then, sure that her face must be bright crimson. She started to bring an arm up to cover herself when Sasuke caught ahold of it, gently bringing it back to her side.

"Please, don't."

The please was what did it. Sakura dropped her arm, and allowed him to draw her to him. He began kissing and nipping her neck and collarbone, and Sakura shivered as a rush of goosebumps broke out along her arms.

When his mouth dipped to one of her breasts and his tongue worked at the sensitive bud, she couldn't help but let out a pleasant, feminine moan. That only seemed to spur him on, and one of his hands moved from her hip to rest on her other breast. Angry that he was doing all the work, Sakura experimentally rocked against him again, this time a little harder. This promoted a hiss from his mouth and a strained utterance of her name.

He stood then, picking her up with him again. He returned his lips to her own as he began carrying her down the hall, presumably to his room. She found that she had been correct when he deposited her unceremoniously upon his bed. He quickly stripped his shirt off and climbed to rest on top of her.

Their lips reconnected in a mess of teeth and tongue, and Sakura shuddered beneath the feel of his bare chest in contact with her own. It felt perfect to be pressed against him like that – she felt like she had been made to fit beneath him.

"I can't sleep, you know," he murmured between heated kisses. "I dream about this every time I try."

"R-really?" Sakura stuttered, unsure if she had heard him right. Apparently, all you had to do to get Uchiha Sasuke to open up was take your shirt off…

"Every fucking night," Sasuke growled into the space between her neck and her shoulder, his warm breath causing her to shudder.

"I-I didn't know," Sakura wiggled beneath him, the heat in her belly growing steadily.

"That's because you're an idiot," Sasuke muttered into her ear before nipping it gently. "A stupid, beautiful idiot."

"Yeah?" Sakura panted. "Well I've been drooling over you for weeks, and which one of us made a move?"

"Whatever," he groaned against her skin, clearly done arguing. He pressed his knee between her thighs, spreading her legs wide enough for him to settle between them. He began running his fingertips along the waistband of her shorts, fingers dipping teasingly below the hem.

Two could play at that game, however, and Sakura began running her fingers along the hem of his pants in a similar fashion. He shuddered beneath her fingertips, and a triumphant smile graced her lips. She was proud to be able to elicit that kind of reaction from him.

Clearly not one to be outdone, Sasuke grabbed her wrists and pinned them above her head using one of his hands, using the other hand to better angle her face to his. She made a muffled sound of protest that only seemed to encourage his actions, as he made a strained sound of his own against her mouth.

The weight of the situation really hit Sakura then – they were really doing this. She was now pressed firmly between Sasuke and his bed, shirtless, being kissed like she never had been in her entire life. She'd had sex twice – once with Naruto and once with a very short-term love interest in her senior year of high school. It had been almost a year, though, and she was suddenly nervous.

Seemingly, Sasuke sensed this, and he backed off from her lips just a bit, making blistering eye-contact with her. He didn't say anything, but Sakura knew he was giving her the opportunity to tell him to stop. He was giving her a way out, in his own stoic way.

Gods be damned, Uchiha Sasuke was something of a gentleman after all.

Sakura answered his unspoken question by kissing him tenderly on the mouth, gently pulling her arms free from his grip and wrapping them around his neck. They kissed quietly, almost sweetly for a few minutes before their lip-lock intensified once more. Sakura knew it was almost time to actually do it, and she couldn't keep the weak tremble from her hands as she assisted Sasuke in pushing her pajama shorts down past the gentle swell of her hips.

Sakura had never been completely confident in her body. Looks had always been important to her – even if she pretended that they weren't. She always felt too skinny and stick-like next to Ino. Puberty had helped quite a bit, giving her at least some boobs and hips. She tried not to contemplate these things as she watched Sasuke stand at the foot of the bed as his eyes drop momentarily to the floor – there was a definite blush staining his cheeks.

Her underwear covered almost as much skin as her shorts had, they were boy-shorts style, but apparently something about them had affected Sasuke in some way. Still not looking directly at her, he discarded his own pajama pants, leaving himself only in his dark blue boxers. Sakura desperately hoped that he wasn't disappointed with what he was seeing, because she certainly wasn't…

That's when he looked at her again.

Never before had Sakura seen such an intense look. Sasuke had locked his eyes on her face as he resumed his earlier position, one hand gripping her hip and the other cradling her neck, forcing her to maintain eye-contact with him.

"Alright?" he breathed out in a strained whisper, still clearly concerned about her desire to go on.

Unable to find her voice, Sakura merely nodded in response as he hooked his thumbs in the sides of her underwear, slowly pulling them down her smooth legs and discarding the unnecessary material on the floor. Next came his boxers and it was Sakura's turn to blush bright red. Thank god there was only a small lamp on, otherwise she would have likely died from embarrassment.

It happened quickly. She was so nervous and excited that all the kissing had been all the foreplay she could handle. She could barely grasp the concept of what was happening – all rational thought flew from her mind after the first roll of Sasuke's hips against her own.

There was no going back now. Not that she wanted to.

She threaded her fingers into his hair, holding on for dear life and trying to keep any embarrassing noises to a minimum – which was proving difficult. It didn't even seem like he was really trying, but this was without a doubt the most pleasing sexual experience she had ever had. His timing was perfect, and his hands and mouth were seemingly always where she wanted them to be.

She felt a little guilty, like maybe she should be doing something for him, but when she went to say something, all that came out was a strangled, "S-sas-u-ke."

That certainly sparked a reaction, as Sakura noted a rush of goosebumps breaking out along his arms as he tucked his face into the nook of her neck and groaned something unintelligible, causing her to arch her back into him.

He practically growled then. "You're…so…"

When he didn't go on, Sakura nearly cursed. She desperately hoped the end of that sentence was complimentary.

"Perfect."

Oh. She hadn't been expecting that.

And maybe he didn't mean it. Maybe he'd said it to every girl that he'd ever had sex with. But in that moment, the word was almost enough to bring tears to her eyes. A compliment had never meant so much to her before.

Sasuke wasn't selfish. He made sure her pleasure was complete before fully seeking his own. As someone who had only ever had sex in high school, Sakura wasn't used to such selfless treatment. To say she was appreciative was an understatement.

Afterwards, he collapsed on top of her into her arms, his hair sticking to the thin sheen of sweat on her neck. He surprised her entirely by pressing a firm kiss to her collarbone. She swore she could've fallen asleep right there pinned beneath him.

He rolled off of her a few minutes later, though, seemingly nearly asleep as his arm came to rest across her middle. She pulled the sheet up to her neck then, embarrassment outweighing her exhaustion. Maybe closing her eyes for a few minutes wouldn't hurt…

Sakura woke with a start. She sat up quickly, grasping the sheet to her chest once she realized that she was still naked. After she got her bearings and recovered from the shock of waking up in Sasuke's bed, she looked to her right to find that Sasuke was gone. There was a light coming from underneath a door that Sakura assumed was a bathroom.

Panicking, Sakura quickly jumped from the bed and threw her clothes on, looking around to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything before fleeing from his bedroom. She had definitely way overstayed her welcome. He probably couldn't wait for her to leave so he could get some sleep. After all, this had just been an experiment to attempt to relieve some tension from between them…

So why didn't she feel any better?

"Tch."

Sakura spun to find Sasuke standing in the hallway, dressed in his boxers and a t-shirt, watching her as she prepared to head out the door. "Oh! Um…" she began, no clue what to say. Not knowing his thoughts and feelings was a huge disadvantage.

"You're going?" he asked simply, his voice not betraying a hint of emotion.

"Ah, well, I…" Sakura stammered senselessly. What exactly was he saying?

He narrowed his eyes at her fractionally, his lips turning downward almost imperceptibly. He said nothing and shrugged, finally averting his intense gaze from her to stare past her at the wall.

Awkward.

She fled the apartment without another word to him. A glance at her cellphone told her it was almost five in the morning. With any luck, she could sneak back into the dorm without Ino ever noticing that she was gone.

If she could make it back, that was. Her head was spinning and her stomach was in knots. What had been a desperate attempt to alleviate her inappropriate desire for her sensei had only served to amplify it, and now she felt more miserable than ever. She would give anything to be wrapped in his arms again – to hear him call her perfect the way he had just hours ago.

She did her best to swallow the sickly feeling of distress as she wrapped her arms tightly around her middle and began the cold walk back to her dorm room.

Sasuke broke a lamp that night. And a mug. And his alarm clock.

What the hell was wrong with him?

First of all, he'd let a student get so deeply entangled into his brain that he'd actually slept with her with barely a second thought, and then he'd let her walk right out the door without even attempting to drag her back to bed. He was an idiot.

He glared angrily at the ridiculous mess he had made, debating on whether or not he felt like cleaning it up before going back to bed – decidedly alone. Why had she left? Was that truly all she had wanted? He had been unable to read her erratic behavior as she had been leaving his apartment. He had wanted to think that she hadn't really wanted to leave…

He pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers and sighed. Well. He had officially committed the great taboo. Sex with a student. Really, had he no self-control? Since when was Uchiha Sasuke so easily melted by a blush and a timid glance over the shoulder? It was like Sakura had grabbed him by the ear and was now leading him around like a naughty child. Not that he particularly minded.

And now she was gone. She'd gone running for the door the moment she had woken up. Did she regret what they had done? If he regretted anything about it, it was only that it would likely never happen again, based on Sakura's reaction, anyway. Scowling menacingly at his ruined alarm clock, Sasuke sat on the edge of his bed and leaned back on his hands. The bed was still warm from where Sakura had been sleeping, he noted.

Hating himself for his own stupidity and swearing to forget the lapse in judgement in the morning, Sasuke laid down on the pillow previously vacated by Sakura and breathed in the fading scent of her strawberry hair.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," Sakura mumbled under her breath as she walked hurriedly through the cold to her dorm. She wanted nothing more than to turn around and run back to the warmth of Sasuke's bed.

But she knew she couldn't do that.

All she could picture was Sasuke's face as she had been leaving. He hadn't tried to stop her, but the hopeful, idealistic side of Sakura wanted to believe that he had wanted her to stay and just hadn't known how to say it.

That, or he really had wanted her to leave and that's why he hadn't stopped her.

For the sake of her sanity and her heart, Sakura forced herself to believe in the latter option. They had done what she suggested they do: they got the tension out. Only now, Sakura was finding that she wanted him more than ever. She was horrified to discover that she hadn't wanted the night to end. She had wanted to lay there, letting him wrap his arm around her possessively as they slept. She had wanted to wake up in his bed and smile at him in the morning when his hair was messy and his smile was tired. She knew that she was deluding herself when she actually pictured Sasuke smiling at her. It was a pipe-dream.

Sakura managed to sneak back into her room without waking Ino. She crawled back into her lofted bed, immediately drawing her knees to her chest like a child. Her heart was pounding and her hands were shaking and damn did she feel like an idiot. She was in way over her head now, that was for sure.

Perfect.

The probably meaningless word was still bouncing around her head, taunting her. He couldn't have meant it. He was just saying it in the heat of the moment and probably had no idea how it had affected her. He'd probably sneer at her if he knew how much she was obsessing over one barely-there, half-breathed compliment.

Class was going to be a nightmare.

The rest of her life was going to be a nightmare.

All because of one little thoughtless indiscretion.

She had just secured her own misery. Images from hours before continued to flash across her mind, taunting her. Maybe if things were different, they actually could have been together. Maybe if he wasn't her professor, if he wasn't older, if he liked her… But he was, he was, and he didn't.

And Sakura knew she had to accept that.

AN: Sorry for the long wait! I'm super busy right now, so updates will probably be slower :/ I threw in a little tiny bit of Sasuke's POV! Several people had asked for it, so I thought I would oblige. I kept it short, because I really like to keep Sasuke's thoughts/feelings a bit of a mystery… ;) Hope you liked this chapter! (For those of you who might be worried that this is "too fast", try not to panic! I know they had sex, but there's still a lot of angst/relationship building to come).