-Sakura's POV-
My eyes shot open with a start and my body instinctively tried to sit up, but something swiftly landed across my chest to force me back down and my hands instinctively shot up to grasp it.
The nightmare I'd been having was terrible, but now that I'd woken up, I couldn't recall what it was about or why it scared me so much. I panted for breath and quickly realized it was someone's arm across my chest. I turned my head to the side to see that Sasuke was laying next to me with a glare on his face, but it was directed at the ceiling rather than me.
A blazing headache suddenly cut through my head from temple to temple and a cry of pain hissed past my lips, making me reach past his arm to press a hand in between my eyes to try and lessen the throbbing. The warm limb slid from my grasp as he pulled it back to rest against the bed between us.
Through my migraine I looked over at his face again before recalling the last time I'd seen him and shooting upright. His arm came back across me and I was, once again, pressed back against the bed.. My brow furrowed as I looked over at him with a look of confusion.
He finally turned his head to look at me, eyes angry and a frown on his lips, "Overexertion."
I took in his response slowly before shaking my head, "How's your injury? Let me-" I moved to try and get up for a third time, but his glare hardened and stunned me into cutting off my words and ceasing my actions.
After getting over my initial shock of his odd reaction, my eyes narrowed, "What's with you? I just want to make sure you're healing properly." I pushed his arm off me and moved to sit on my knees beside him. When I reached for the blanket, though, His hand grabbed my wrist.
I gave him a look of disbelief, "S-Sasuke! Are you naked? Is that it?"
He shook his head, "No, I'm not naked," he sounded annoyed that I'd even consider asking him that.
My face warmed slightly as I tried to tear my wrist from his grasp, "What's your problem then?"
The Uchiha boy kept stopping me from helping and after a few more moments we ended up wrestling until, finally, I ended up pinning his arms against his sides with my legs as I straddled his torso like I had when I was trying to remove the bullet on the dining table.
"Do me a favor and don't hit me in the face this time, okay?"
The boy beneath me was seething as he tried to free his arms. I was lucky he couldn't see my face because it was burning cherry red as I moved the hip of his boxers out of the way and slowly lifted the bandage atop the "v" muscle there. My adrenaline had been so high when I did this before, but I was just annoyed with him this time around and the emotion wasn't strong enough to distract me from the fact that I was sitting on him and touching a part of his body he clearly didn't want me to.
The injury below was in a similar state as how I'd left it and I frowned before closing my eyes and forcing myself to press my palm against his bare skin. The familiar sensation of my healing spread across it and I focused on taking deep breaths to calm my nerves. He was so warm beneath my hand, only making my blush burn hotter.
"Sakura, stop. I'm serious," The boy under me growled out in an angry voice.
I spoke through grit teeth as my migraine flared up, "Will you shut up already? I'm almost done." He obliged and stopped talking, but kept trying to free his arms.
After another minute or two, I blinked as my vision blurred and a ringing started sounding in my ears. My free hand shot down to the mattress outside his leg when I nearly fell forward. Suddenly, I recalled fainting after leaving Hinata's room and felt stupid for going right back to work upon waking up. It was too late, though, and my limbs trembled slightly before I felt myself falling forward.
Sasuke, finally able to overpower me, pulled his arms out from his sides and I felt him grab a handful of my shirt, between my shoulderblades, to hold me upright, "Idiot."
A breathless laugh slid from my lips, "Yeah…"
He tugged my shirt so I'd fall backwards and I gasped when my lower back hit his upper chest. God, this was embarrassing. Strong hands gripped my hips and he lifted me slightly to move me downward and slightly to the side so my head would fall onto his shoulder.
It was only for a second, but for a moment a wave of something came through me. Fingers were tight against my skin, firm muscles were pressed against my back through both our shirts, and I could hear his breath. As quickly as it occurred, it ended because he rolled onto his side and let me fall to the mattress before moving back so we weren't touching anymore.
I sensed him moving and immediately knew he was fixing his boxers because they'd likely lowered even further amidst all that movement just now. My eyes opened half-way, but I had to close them again because they were so heavy. I looked at my hands and saw that the one I'd been using to heal him still had blood on it, but didn't have enough energy to get up and wash them so it'd have to wait.
A thick, warm cloud had taken residency in my head and it lulled me in and out of consciousness for a bit, I'm not sure how long, before I woke to someone grabbing my wrist. My eyes shot open to see Sasuke crouched by the bed cleaning his blood from my palm with an annoyed frown.
I struggled and tried to get up, "You shouldn't be-"
He rolled his eyes and barely pushed my shoulder, making me fall back to the mattress weakly. Letting out a defeated sigh, I watched him finish before walking across the room to toss the towel he used into a hamper. By the time he came closer, I managed to muster enough energy to finish my earlier complaint, "You shouldn't be moving around with that wound."
Sasuke came back to stand by the bed facing me and sighed with a hateful glare directed at my face. Without warning, he lifted his shirt with one hand and lowered the band of his boxers with the others so I could see that the only thing left of his injury was a pale scar. My relief wasn't as strong as my embarrassment and I squeezed my eyes shut and brought a hand weakly to cover them.
He scoffed, "You weren't this shy ten minutes ago."
I groaned and shook my head as I listened to him walk around the bed, "That was different."
He got back under the covers and laid down, still sounding irritated, "Whatever."
The room got silent for a few minutes and I eventually fell asleep once more. I woke up next in the middle of the night and would've panicked and moved if, once again, a strong arm wasn't holding me in place.
My head was on Sasuke's shoulder and I had a leg tangled lazily between his with my arm resting against his chest. He was on his back with an arm around my waist holding me against his side, the other arm up under his pillow. My instincts were screaming that I should be terrified. This guy was holding me like this while I was asleep and my instincts were desperately trying to convince me that I was in danger because of that.
Tears rose in my eyes and I watched his stomach move steadily with his breath and tried to push my initial shock away. The hold he had around me was iron-like. Without having to turn and look, I sensed that Ino and Sai were on the other side of the bed and I couldn't risk waking them up by struggling against it. I'd be mortified if they saw me like this.
A few minutes passed and I finally got a hold of myself by successfully pushing the terrifying intrusive thoughts away. A soft sigh left my lips and I forced my body to release its tension and relax against Sasuke. With my anxiety gone, a small blush rose to my cheeks as I stared down at my body pressed into his side and found myself unconsciously snuggling closer.
He was so solid and warm. The feeling was new to me and even if it made me feel a bit timid, I liked it. The issue was, I couldn't discern whether I liked it because it simply felt nice or if I liked it because it was Sasuke. Was I fond of him or just what it felt like to cuddle him?
A frown on my lips, I moved back slightly to look at his face, only to jolt in shock to see him looking at me with tired eyes. Somehow, I'd managed to wake him up, but I didn't move that much. Maybe he was a light sleeper and I just never realized until now. My blush warmed slightly at being caught enjoying myself and I let my forehead fall against his chest in humiliation.
Nothing happened for a moment, but then he slid his hand out from under his pillow and brought it down at the same time he lifted me up on top of him with his other. I grit my teeth to stop from making a sound. I pressed my hands against his chest so I could lift my upper body up and give him a bright-faced glare. He looked a bit amused, to my surprise, and expertly manipulated my body so I was straddling his hips.
It would've been easy to overpower him, but for some reason I couldn't muster the strength. His hands slid down from my hips to rest atop my thighs on either side of his body. I hesitated, unsure of what to do, but my eyes widened when for a fraction of a second, out of nowhere, I could feel what he was feeling: amusement, curiosity, excitement. It disappeared as quickly as it happened and I took in a slow breath to keep myself from panicking.
"Did you just…" Sasuke's voice was unsure as he whispered.
When I looked at his face, I realized he almost certainly experienced the same thing. I nodded, not sure what to make of the fact.
"If you two are gonna hook up, go downstairs and use the sofa." Both he and I turned our heads to see Sai and Ino staring at us with annoyed, tired expressions.
I frantically struggled off of Sasuke and lay with my back to him and a blazing red face, "W-W-We're not!"
Sai deadpanned, "It sure looked like you were."
Ino just glared at me, "I don't care what you guys do, but stop moving around. I'm trying to sleep." Come morning, that girl is going to bombard me with excited questions and never let me live this down, but my best friend is very much not a morning person. She's one hell of a grouch if she gets woken up.
I returned her glare, "We weren't doing anything so go back to sleep."
She rolled her eyes and turned her back to me as she laid back down, grabbing Sai's arm and pulling it over her side as she did. After being caught in such a questionable position, I didn't have the courage to turn back and face Sasuke again, so I tried to get comfortable where I was with my back to him. Thankfully, he didn't try to tease me any further and let me rest without interruption.
Not only would I have to face him and Ino tomorrow, but what was that weird sensation we both just felt? Was that what Naruto and Hinata felt? If so, why were we just now experiencing it? The biggest question should be how it was happening at all, but I knew that answer would be impossible to find so I tried to focus on the others.
Sleep drifted over me as my mind raced.