abovej0y- Thank you and thanks for re-reading! :D

The rest of the week seemed to fly by in a happy blur. We grew close to the family that ran the Inn and had even taken to sharing meals with them instead of at the restaurant, by the time our last day arrived we couldn't imagine wanting to spend our next holiday anywhere else.

A day of heavy rain made the journey back to Konoha feel much longer. The weather seemed like it had even dampened Yoichi's usual enthusiasm, he was trudging alongside us with a scowl similar to the one Sasuke was also wearing.

"Come on you too, it's not that bad!" I giggled but I was hardly in high spirits myself, only because I knew that once we were back in the village I would go back to waiting around for Sasuke to come home.

"But it was so fun!" Yoichi shouted looking back over his shoulder, hoping for a glimpse of the sea he had loved swimming in so much.

"I know...but I bet you can't wait to get back to your friends, right?"

"I made friends there…" he mumbled.

At that point I gave up, there was just no convincing him and Sasuke wasn't being much help, in fact he hadn't said much since leaving the Inn either.

"Sasuke?"

He stopped walking and pulled both me and Yoichi into a hug. For a little while he didn't say anything, he just held us close as the rain pattered down relentlessly around us.

"Thank you." He finally said, then continued walking with a content smile.

Despite my reluctance to sink back into a routine that often lacked Sasuke, I was happy to be home. The smiles that greeted us back from the people of Konoha, the comforting familiarity of our house and the lure of my own bed were all things I had sorely missed. The sun was casting its last few rays into the sky as it slowly sank behind the wall that ran around the village. Both Yoichi and Sasuke's stomachs grumbled, their bodies alerting them that it was almost time for dinner.

"I'll go and grab something." Sasuke offered, eyeing up the bikini I was unpacking from our bag.

I set Yoichi's gifts aside and made a pile of clothes for washing later.

"No, I'll go. You can make sure Yoichi has his bath." I grinned.

Sasuke groaned, his face a picture of despair. Yoichi loved having a bath once he was actually in the tub but that was the challenging part- he never wanted to get in! He would run around the house and utilise his ninja skills to hide in a variety of hard to reach places, like up in the branches of the tree in our garden, on the ceiling or even on the roof. The thought of Sasuke, instead of me, chasing around after him kept me smiling all the way to the nearest shop. After buying some chicken and a couple of other ingredients for dinner and breakfast the following day, I added a tub of ice-cream to my shopping. Sasuke wouldn't be able to resist what I had in mind!

When I got back I was greeted by an exasperated Sasuke, he had a towel in his hand and his top was completely soaked through.

"I'll cook dinner." He said, taking the bags quickly from my hands before I had the chance to refuse. For him to offer to cook, bath time must not have gone well.

I cautiously followed a trail of wet footprints upstairs and into the bathroom. Ignoring the puddle on the floor around the bath for the time being I proceeded to Yoichi's room. It was the most obvious place to look which made me think he might not expect me to check there first. I looked under his bed, behind the curtains and even stuck my head out of the window to make sure he wasn't running down the side of our house to escape from his nice, warm, bubble bath. As I was leaving his room I heard a noise. My ears recognised the sound but when I got to mine and Sasuke's room my eyes took a while to register the sight. Yoichi was bouncing up and down on our bed in his pyjamas, looking very pleased with himself.

"It's bath time." My serious tone matched my expression, I had to let him know that I wasn't messing around. I was in parent mode.

"But-"

I uncrossed my arms and pointed to the bathroom, refusing to utter another word until he did what I had asked him to do. It wasn't often that I was strict with him but it had been a long day and I wasn't in the mood to argue about something that would literally take him ten minutes. He stomped deliberately towards the bathroom, I was feeling quite proud of myself until he paused, the breeze from his room had alerted him to an open window. The possibility of preventing bathtime for a bit longer as well as winding up both of his parents was too much to resist.

"Go ahead but you can forget me making another cake for your friends tomorrow."

Judging from the look on his face when he spun round I had just discovered his weakness. It wasn't a threat that I would have followed through on, I wouldn't have been able to forgive myself if all of his memories of turning six weren't happy ones. Thankfully Yoichi hadn't quite yet realised how empty my threat was, he was already in the bathroom.

I don't think Sasuke appreciated the triumphant look on my face as we joined him at the table for dinner he had cooked for us. His brow furrowed as he eyed up Yoichi's wet hair, he was trying to figure out how I had successfully achieved bathtime and he hadn't. We talked about the following day over the delicious meal Sasuke had cooked for us, Yoichi was excited for the academy and he couldn't wait for the second celebration we were holding for him so that our friends could celebrate his birthday too. I couldn't help but notice, even though he was still participating in the conversation, Sasuke seemed a little distracted. Because he had a habit of overthinking things, I just assumed he was still trying to figure out the type of parenting I had learned before him but his mind was actually preoccupied with thoughts of the frozen desert he had unpacked from my shopping bag. He knew that I was planning on securing my victory with ice-cream, he was trying to think of a counter attack so that he could just win and go back to 'appreciating' my body every single night he was home.

When I climbed into bed next to Sasuke that night I had no idea what he had in store for me.

"Want to know what I think about when I'm away from home?"

His reference to the conversation I'd had with Sakura wasn't a good start to the mood I was planning on creating but I really did want to know.

"Is it me?" I replied hopefully, pulling the duvet over our bodies, we weren't naked but it was still a chilly night.

He smiled, moving my long hair aside and running soft kisses over my bare shoulder and neck.

"I think about Yoichi too but you, Emi, would consume my every thought if I let you. It's a battle to keep you out of my mind when I'm on a mission."

"What sort of things do you think about me?" I asked, grinning from ear to ear.

"Well, when I'm trying to sleep I think about when I'm home and I'm lucky enough to have you in my arms but when I wake up and realise we're so far apart I think of other things."

"Other things?"

"Like the first time I saw you."

Memories of that amazing day swam in my mind, there wasn't a thing I would have changed about the way the two of us had met. I had fallen for him in less than a second and fallen onto the floor with him in less than two minutes!

"It was an amazing afternoon." I gushed.

"No, I meant before that."

"Huh?" I blinked, rescanning those precious memories. We had definitely met in the afternoon, so what was he talking about?

"I was there in the morning. I saw you but you didn't see me."

No way! How was that possible?