Sasuke smirked in the moonlight. "You look exhausted." he said to the back of Sakura's head.
Sakura rolled her eyes, still refusing to turn around and face her former love interest. "You come back after all this time, and that's all you have to say to me?" She continued to walk towards her apartment, not knowing if he would follow her or disappear into the night.
He silently began to follow her. Together, they walked through town, passing dark houses full of sleeping families and bars full of drunken partygoers. Sakura tried to act uninterested in Sasuke's sudden appearance, but to be honest, she was dying to know what had brought him back to Konoha this time. She knew that a year wasn't nearly enough time for him to complete his exploration of the world; he must have had a reason for returning. Sasuke followed her up the stairs to the upper level of her apartment building, and he waited while Sakura unlocked her door and stepped inside, turning on the light in the hall as she did so. She laid her things on the hall table and turned around to finally face Sasuke.
But he was gone.
Sasuke's return to Konoha went largely unnoticed by the majority of the village. Sakura certainly hadn't told anyone about his mysterious behavior, mostly because she knew he was very likely to leave just as quickly as he had arrived. She didn't want to raise a fuss about nothing. But as the days went by, she began to wonder if Sasuke was here to stay. He had not said anything to Sakura since that first night, but she felt his presence every time she left the hospital late at night. He followed her home wordlessly, sometimes keeping his distance, and sometimes following her all the way up the stairs.
And every day, there was a new orchid on her desk. By the end of the week, she had seven beautiful purple flowers in a vase at home. It didn't take long for her to connect the dots and realize that Sasuke was the one giving her the orchids, but she still didn't understand why. Perhaps this was his way of apologizing for the past?
Another week passed. Fourteen orchids.
On the fifteenth night, Sakura left the hospital a little past midnight, carefully balancing her usual stack of paperwork (with a single orchid on top, of course). She barely had time to register Sasuke's presence before he had silently taken the stack of files from her arms, being quite careful not to upset the orchid.
The gesture made Sakura smile. This was proof that for reasons known only to the Uchiha himself, Sasuke was purposely going out of his way to be kind to Sakura. His act of following her every night was to make sure that she made it home safely, not because he was stalking her or needed something from her.
When they reached Sakura's apartment, she opened the door and walked inside, expecting Sasuke to follow her. However, when she turned around, her pile of paperwork was sitting neatly on her doorstep, and the man was nowhere to be found.
"I just don't understand." Sakura lamented to her former sensei one day in his office – the office of the Hokage.
Kakashi had his nose in one of his favorite romance novels, but Sakura knew he was listening. She knew that Kakashi was probably one of the only other people in the village who had noticed that Sasuke was back, so she had come to him to vent her frustration.
"I mean, he shows up out of nowhere, follows me home every night, hardly says anything to me, and he always disappears. Right when I think he's going to finally speak to me or at least come inside my home, he's gone! It's almost like he's acting shy…" Sakura pondered out loud. But she knew better than to think that a dignified person such as Sasuke would be shy.
"Awkward, perhaps." Kakashi said thoughtfully. "Our dear Sasuke is a bit socially awkward." he said with a masked smirk.
Sakura thought about it, and it made a little bit of sense. But she still had one question. "Why does he have to be awkward around me? Why can't he go be awkward and confusing around somebody else? You'd think that aside from you and Naruto, I'm one of the only people he shouldn't have to be awkward around." she said with a hint of irritation. When she was younger, Sasuke's fleeting behavior would have enticed her and made her swoon. But now, as a grown woman who had moved on from her childish feelings, it was beginning to irritate her.
"I think the problem is that Sasuke is trying to apologize for years of pain that he caused you, but he's too prideful to show up on your doorstep with a bouquet of flowers and say 'I'm sorry'. So he's taking baby steps. Give the man some credit." Kakashi suggested.
Sakura frowned, trying to imagine Sasuke ever needing to take baby steps to do anything besides actually learn how to walk as a toddler.
"Let me know if his behavior changes, and I'll keep an eye on him from my end until he reveals his motives. He's got to have a reason for being here; he'll tell us all eventually." Kakashi reasoned. "Meanwhile, keep this a secret from Naruto. Sasuke obviously has his reasons for not revealing himself to his best friend, so we should respect that decision."
Sakura nodded and thanked Kakashi for his listening ear and helpful advice before she left his office and closed the door behind her.
"She's losing her patience, you know." Kakashi said quietly.
Sasuke appeared, crouching on the window ledge. He had been eavesdropping the entire time. "'Socially awkward'? 'Baby steps'? You're killing me, Kakashi." Sasuke said monotonously, leaning against the window frame and looking out at the mountain with the Hokage face carvings.
"That's what you get for not being honest with her yourself."
Sasuke did not look the Hokage in the eye. "I'm not sure what you mean. There's nothing for me to say to her."
"You could start by explaining why you follow her home every night. You could explain why you send her a flower every day. You could explain your feelings for her."
Sasuke glared sharply at his former sensei. "I don't have feelings for her. Not in any way different from how I feel about Naruto. We're teammates. I want to make sure she's getting home safely every night, that's all. I check up on Naruto, too. But even he's not stupid enough to drain his chakra every night to the point of almost passing out on his way home." he said defensively. "And if Sakura didn't have such strong chakra senses, she wouldn't even know I was around. I didn't intend for her to realize what I was doing; Naruto still hasn't."
"That's quite a defensive explanation for something that you seem to think is so simple." Kakashi noted slyly.
Sasuke scowled and looked away. "I just wanted to make sure we were clear on the subject." he muttered.
"That still doesn't explain the flowers."
And with that, Sasuke disappeared, leaving Kakashi smiling to himself for reasons that had nothing to do with the book in his hand.
That night, Sasuke was at odds with himself while he made his way toward the hospital to escort Sakura home. He wasn't very good at voicing his feelings, but he knew that Kakashi was right, and Sakura would be losing her patience with him soon if he didn't say something. For the past few nights, he had continued to carry her things for her, and he always laid them neatly on her doorstep before disappearing into the night before she could invite him inside. Truth be told, he wasn't sure what he would do if he was invited inside. Casual conversation skills weren't exactly something that he excelled at, no matter who he was with. But he had to admit that if he was going to talk to somebody, it might as well be Sakura. He had to start somewhere, right?
Sakura exited the building and Sasuke quickly made his way toward her, taking her workload from her arms. This time, however, he noticed that something was missing from her usual pile of things. Her daily orchid was nowhere to be seen.
"Where's the flower?" he asked bluntly, trying to act casual and uninterested.
Startled by his sudden speech, Sakura smiled. "I knew it was you."
Sasuke ignored her. "Where is it?" he repeated.
"I brought a vase to my office and left it there for the night. My apartment is now full of flowers; I want to keep some in my office, too." she explained.
Sasuke nodded, continuing to look straight ahead as they walked through town.
Upon reaching Sakura's apartment, she opened the door and turned around, expecting to see a neat stack of papers on the ground. This time, however, Sasuke remained on her doorstep, avoiding her gaze.
Wow, this is progress, Sakura thought to herself. She cleared her throat and nodded toward the table in the entrance hall. "You can put those there, if you'd like." she said nonchalantly, walking into her home. She noticed that Sasuke followed her inside and indeed set her things on the table. Then he just stood there with his hands in his pockets, waiting for her to say something else.
"Would you like some tea?" Sakura asked, walking into her kitchen.
"No."
Sakura tried not to frown. "Do you need something from me?"
"No."
"Do you want to talk about something, perhaps?"
"No." Sasuke replied for the third time, staring at the floor.
A few moments of silence stretched between them before Sakura spoke again.
"Sasuke, why are you here?" she asked gently. Her tone did not demand an answer; rather, it implied that Sasuke himself needed to figure out what the answer was.
Sasuke went from staring at the floor to staring at the wall in front of him, his thoughts hard at work.
That's odd, Sakura thought, He's never had problems with eye contact before. Sakura shivered slightly at she recalled the numerous times that the Uchiha had given her icy glares of anger or frustration in their genin days. No, Sasuke had never been one to shy away from eye contact.
Finally, Sasuke seemed to make up his mind to speak. "I don't need anything." He began quietly, still staring blankly at anything except Sakura herself. "And I don't want to talk." He seemed to be struggling with something internally. "I just want…to be here."
If Sakura wasn't mistaken, this was Sasuke's way of admitting that he was lonely and wanted some company. She couldn't say she was entirely surprised; after the massacre of his family, all those years in hiding with Orochimaru, and then a year of solo travels, it was to be expected that Sasuke would finally admit to himself that he wasn't exactly fond of complete solitude. He may be introverted, but even introverts appreciate low-key companionship.
She smiled kindly, walking past Sasuke and toward her bedroom. "Well then please, make yourself at home while I take a quick shower. I'm covered in other people's bodily fluids, and I'd like to be clean before I go to bed."
Sakura took her time in the shower, enjoying the hot water as it washed away the stress from the day. She vaguely wondered if Sasuke would still be standing awkwardly in her entrance hall when she was finished, or if he would accept her invitation to make himself comfortable elsewhere in her home. She shrugged; she couldn't very well force him to sit on the couch and put his feet up on the coffee table, now could she?
She stepped out of the shower and wrapped herself in a fluffy white towel in preparation to enter her cold bedroom in search of pajamas. She opened the door, squeezing some of the water from her hair as she noticed that Sasuke was sitting on her bed rather stiffly. She froze, becoming very aware of how naked she was underneath her towel. However, she was an adult, and was therefore above such childish things as being embarrassed to be caught in her towel. It's no different than a very short dress, she thought to herself as she recomposed her face and confidently walked toward her dresser to retrieve some clothing.
"When I said to make yourself at home, I hadn't expected this." Sakura teased, grabbing a red pair of pajama shorts and a black tank top from her pajama drawer.
Sasuke scowled, deliberately staring at the wall again. "Would you like me to leave?" he asked with a hint of irritation (and possibly embarrassment).
Sakura shook her head, water droplets flying from her hair. "No, not at all. I'll be right back." she said, walking back into her bathroom to get dressed. When she reemerged, she found Sasuke in the same position, sitting very stoically on her bed and staring at the wall. Sakura turned on her bedside table lamp and joined him on the bed, sitting cross-legged and looking up at Sasuke curiously.
"You know, you can relax a little bit around me. You don't have to act so serious." she reminded him, laying a hand on his shoulder.
Sasuke flinched ever so slightly at her sudden touch, but then he relaxed. "I know."
"Good, because friends don't sit so stiffly like that on each other's beds." she explained, scooting back towards her pillows and dropping onto her back with a soft thump. She patted the pillow next to her, inviting Sasuke to join her.
After a moment of brief hesitation, Sasuke scooted back towards the headboard, but remained in a sitting position as he leaned against the pillows. Sakura yawned beside him, and he could see her eyelids beginning to flutter as she tried to fight off sleep.
"Go to sleep. You're exhausted." he said bluntly.
Sakura looked up at him curiously. "But that's not a very polite thing to do when I have company."
"Don't worry about me." he told her, reaching across her and turning off her lamp. The room became bathed in darkness. "Go to sleep."
Sakura knew better than to argue, so she crawled under her sheets and laid on her side, watching Sasuke in the moonlight that streamed in from her window. "If you say so." Within ten minutes, she was fast asleep, her chest moving up and down rhythmically with her breathing.
Once he knew she was asleep, Sasuke shifted so that he was able to watch Sakura as he leaned against the headboard of her bed. He watched her with a soft intensity in his eyes. Indeed, he had not come into her house to engage in conversation. He did not mind one bit as the young woman beside him drifted off into the land of dreams. In spite of himself, he smiled. She looked so peaceful, and that peacefulness was contagious. Sasuke began to relax, and he closed his eyes for just a minute, enjoying this long-forgotten feeling of contentment.
When Sakura awoke the next morning, the place beside her was still warm, but empty.
A/N: After returning to Konoha, I imagine Sasuke wanting to make up for lost time with his teammates without really knowing how to do that. I quite enjoy writing about an awkward Sasuke who doesn't know how to handle spending time with people.
