Despite the fact that I swore I was done. . .

This takes place a few short months after 31 Days Hath December ended. Tax season is fast approaching, but a more important 'holiday' is as well. No, it isn't Valentine's Day. We'll assume that passed without Sasuke being too big of a dork. Heh.

While I paid close attention to days of the week and calendrical (not a word, I know) correctness for 31 Days, I didn't want to make a calendar all the way up to March and April for the corresponding year. Sorry, but know that I'm aware of the disjunction.

This was done on request for a friend.

If I do anything more with this it will be a Neji/Tenten piece. Short. Maybe 1st person for the sake of something different. Never wrote them before so I have to think hard about that one. Haven't been too inspired lately.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Heavens no. I'm just playing with the character types. Isn't that quaint?

Sasuke felt like he was drowning in a sea of paper. It stacked up dangerously high on his desk, all the files and notes that he had demanded or made or forcefully had pulled to aid him as he went over the tax forms for Konoha Inc. This was what his department practically existed for. This was what made him his bread and butter. This was what was causing the ulcer eating through his stomach. He didn't bring up that last bit around Sakura these days at their apartment lest he get another scoffing remark about how it was more likely his disgustingly dark coffee as opposed to stress. However, when he had actually begun to stress, she had done her best to relieve it. That had been a good night, even if neither of them had slept. Maybe especially because neither of them had slept.

But three days ago his stress had redoubled.

The hints had been coming for a while: loaded pauses at dinner when he hadn't been paying close attention, Sakura's preoccupation with how much time they could spend together, the vaguely annoying manner in which Naruto would make broad winking motions while talking to Sakura during lunch (always in the office these days, since no one in accounting could afford a full lunch hour). It all added up to something, and while he was sure he knew what it was, taxes were more important.

Numbers, clauses, rules and regulations, penalties and write offs. . . this was the whole world. He even forgot to shower until Sakura ordered him to when he came home distracted and holding on to more paperwork. For some reason she had gotten more stormy over the past few days. Something not unlike a convulsion would transform her face as he passed by Kakashi's assistant's desk, making her look more like a wrathful goddess than his Sakura. The woman had a temper and, for some reason once he passed, it just, well, ceased. No, that wasn't correct. Her face became the eerie calm before a tornado.

It wasn't as if her work had gotten any easier, because she was nearly as buried as he was under jobs that Kakashi merciless shoved her way in addition to her normal duties of placating those unfortunates who thought a scheduled appointment actually guaranteed a meeting with the evasive head of the department. No, the bleak scowls that she had been darting at him when she thought he was too busy to notice became something else entirely. When Sasuke figured out what she was doing, he could honestly say he preferred the scowls.

"I swear to you, I'll have them on your desk before the hour is over. I swear." The balding man who couldn't have been a day over thirty sweated profusely under Sasuke's cold gaze.

Sasuke folded his fingers into an arching tent before him, elbows on the desk, and let the disapproval he was feeling roll off of him in waves. "I need those figures. Delay was not an option. Setting terms is not an option. The longer you're in here giving me excuses, the more time you're not spending getting me those figures."

"Yes, sir. I'm sorry, sir. I'll get right on it, sir." The servile manner in which he spoke made something mercilessly predatory rise in Sasuke's soul. It was as if some little white mouse were squeaking and running in circles in front of a cat.

"Now!" Sasuke demanded, not lifting his voice but putting enough emphasis into the word to actually get a startled shiver from the mouse-man in front of him. He turned and fled the office without any more chitchat. That display of force might have been a bad idea. The man's nerves were rattled as it was, and if he made mistakes then Sasuke would be the one expected to correct them. He'd just added on to his own duties again. What a horrid day.

Through the door that the mouse had left open he caught a glimpse of glossy pink hair and he leaned over to see a little more. The woman who Naruto had lost no time in labeling his "good half" was speaking on the phone, flicking her pen in the air absently. When asked as to why she was his "good half" instead of the more common "better half", Naruto had predictably replied that Sasuke didn't have a good side to begin with so calling her "better" wasn't much of a compliment. Everyone at the table had thought that to be hilarious at the time. Sasuke didn't see the humor.

It wasn't that he was callous or unfeeling, it was just that he would rather not get involved. Getting involved was part of a wide range of terrible emotional volunteerism that had passed him by at an early age. It didn't do to go around spouting what you feel all the time. He would have ended up like Naruto, if he did that. What a horrible thought. Not that Naruto himself was bad for being the way he was, but Sasuke wouldn't have been himself if he felt loose enough to act like his blond friend. An orange can't make itself an apple by peeling off its protective skin. It was bad enough that Sakura had gotten as deep as she had.

Since she was in so deep now, beneath his defenses, it made the treatment she had been giving him all the more mystifyingly hurtful. What had he done? The few nights in which he wasn't working late, and had enough energy for intimacy, she had claimed to be too tired herself. It had seemed plausible enough until the weekend rolled around and magically she had gotten a headache. This headache, coincidentally, didn't prevent her from painting the town whatever color with Hinata and Ino the next night. She was angry at him, and in typical Sakura fashion, she expected him to guess what it was. A poor game of twenty questions that would make.

"Yes, I think we might have an opening in his schedule on the 8th of next month. Just let me take a look." Sakura spotted him, her green eyes going from the dullness of boredom to a flashing defiance that made Sasuke frown in confusion. It didn't take much to make him frown, most any emotion did it, but Sakura had gotten better at reading the cause beneath.

Instead of simply grabbing the planner from the other side of the desk, Sakura picked herself up from her chair with the phone to her ear and walked around to where the planner sat. Taking pains to arch her back as well as bend over, Sasuke got rather an eyeful of something that made him wish very much that there was a far more strict policy on hemlines. She was an inch shy of indecent! What if someone else could see her? This was inflaming him in every manner possible, both positive and negative.

Why was she still here, even? That other girl, Tenten he thought he recalled, was ready to give notice at the law office that she and Sakura had worked at together and step in any time the word came. They had talked about this around the same time they had talked about moving in together. It would dramatically lower their income once Sakura went to medical school, (put it in the negative numbers if they pooled it in with the loans she had been arranging) but Sasuke had more than enough to keep them going. He was glad to help support her when the time came, almost relishing being able to do something for someone who wanted to do everything for herself. However, she wouldn't be able to start anywhere until next fall, and she had insisted on staying through tax season in any case. To do otherwise would be selfish when so many people needed her at Konoha Inc.'s formidable accounting department. Kakashi had been so grateful upon finding out she wasn't going to quit he sent her a rather gaudy fruit basket.

If Kakashi had been truly grateful to her then he would not have put so much pressure on her. One time, with a broad wink from one of his lazy eyes, he had said he was training her for the stress of being a doctor on call. Even if it was a joke, the reality wasn't far from the truth, Sasuke thought. At the same time he was aware that Kakashi's neglect was creating a haze of paperwork that justified promoting either Sasuke or Shino by this time next year to a position with more authority or higher pay. This kind of sneaky default promotion was a chance that neither ambitious young man could turn down so they took hold of their extra work with both hands and forged ahead. In the middle was Sakura, who ran paperwork to and fro and managed calls coming from all manner of person besides. She said many of them were crying. It felt like an informal counseling hotline for Kakashi's appointments.

Sasuke wondered if that was the reason she had started her little game. It was stressful true, and this could be a way to let off such stress, but if so then why did she deny him time and again when they met at his apartment or, more frequently, hers? She found a thousand ways to torment him: wearing shirts a little too sheer for the slightly chill weather of late March, coming in to give him orders from Kakashi with innuendo laced words and gestures but never following through, or the ever popular sensual eating of lunch in Sasuke's office while Sasuke was trying to do work. How she managed to make him jealous of a salad, he would never say.

They would have been playful enough games, if annoyingly distracting from his number centered purpose, except for the undercurrent of forceful anger and the lack of any action whatsoever, just suggestion of action. If he hadn't been so darned busy he would have cracked down and demanded an answer long before the game had progressed this far, but taxes had a way of being as un-sexy as anything could be and his mind was as engaged as his body wasn't.

But as soon as he got a break. . .

Stop it! Sasuke's brain scolded as his eyes bobbed up and down to the motion of her foot itching something on the back of her leg. The high glossy pump, so impractical and unlike her, was a quick resting place for his eyes before moving back up to her delectable derriere. A finger twitched as if he were close enough to touch it. Not that he would do such a thing in public view, but desire and logic rarely coincide. She flicked her hair, seeming to grow more still and purposeful as the call ended and she noted something in the planner. Sakura's hair was starting to get a bit long. She had talked of cutting it, but Sasuke didn't care either way. At the moment, seeing it soft and full around her shoulders, he liked it just the way it was. He'd like it better sweaty and framing her face on his pillow, but this was nice too.

Something interrupted eye contact with his luscious girlfriend and Sasuke didn't know whether to growl in irritation or thank the person for releasing him from her siren's song. He did neither, composing himself for whatever it was that had entered his office. As it turned out, he didn't need to assert that professionally blank stare that unnerved even stout members on the board. It was Shino and Shino's own passive stare could rival Sasuke's in frostiness.

"There were more mistakes." Shino did not pass judgment on the pile of forms Sasuke had handed over to him, he simply stated a fact to act as a future warning.

"It won't happen again."

"You said that last time."

Talking with Shino was always to the point. The rivalry they shared for a better job did not cause any ill will between them, as each pursued their course while ignoring the other. Large projects such as these which necessitated contact and cooperation did not suit either man. They had no small talk to make. There was no familiarity of private lives that could have created even polite questions. Their state of health was apparent because if they were at work then they were healthy enough. Sasuke fumbled for something to say, thinking on Sakura and how easily talking to people seemed to come to her by comparison. Oddly, Shino beat him to the punch.

"Take this." He held out a hand; there was a stack of forms with a few highlighted spots which Sasuke would need to fix and re-submit and on top of that a small navy colored paper box with a white ribbon tied around it.

Sasuke felt the lightness of the box even as he began to evaluate the damage of the highlighted marks to his workload for today. "And this?" He held up the box.

"Give it to her tomorrow." Shino briskly turned on his heel and only turned his head to say, as he adjusted the glasses on his nose, "Tell her 'Happy Birthday' for me."

Careful to set the box down before he crushed it in his slowly tightening grip, Sasuke felt the blood go cold in his veins. If he had been Naruto half of the office would be trashed already. What Sasuke did was far more deliberate, and even a little scary for all those people who had worked with him over the years. Forms lying on the desk, computer on, the world of his office in an array of careful chaos, Sasuke drained the cold and rank coffee from his mug and walked out of his office with coat in hand. Shino's box was in one of his pockets.

"If anyone asks," He told a Sakura who for once since his week of punishment began actually seemed concerned for his blood drained pallor and stiffly marching body, "I've taken the rest of the day off."

It was so simple! He was a dead man.

Tomorrow, what had looked like an ordinary day to him, simply what had to follow after the 27th of March, had become a day of prime importance. It was Sakura's birthday and he had completely forgotten it. Truly it was unfair, because it wasn't as if it were greeted with a million visual clues like every other important day he had dealt with up until now. Valentine's Day couldn't be ignored, even Mardi Gras or St. Patrick's Day somehow found their way into his memory banks when they peeped their heads as the new year got older.

Sakura's birthday, however, was a sneaky day that had caught him by surprise. Sasuke didn't really like surprises, remembering the one time Naruto had thrown him a surprise party. The real surprise was when the guest of honor at that particular event had looked around at all the expectant faces who had invaded his apartment and then had promptly left to go find somewhere quiet until they got the idea and left. Somehow, Sasuke had needed to see that Sakura esteemed her natal day quite a bit more than he did his.

Why hadn't anyone reminded him? He understood how foolish a question that was, even to ask rhetorically. What person on his entire floor, even among his social circle, would dare presume to think that Sasuke would forget his own girlfriend's birthday? Sasuke was the kind of person who would be perfectly happy to let people assume he was all knowing and all seeing but just as reproachful as any of the vengeful old gods. No, not even Naruto would bring this up. More likely, at this point, they had opened up a pool as to if he would remember or not. Sakura's antics likely clued everyone in but him that something was up. The only question was who had bid for him remembering? Maybe Naruto, out of loyalty, or Hinata out of good faith.

Feeling the outside of the box that Shino had handed to Sasuke, he instinctively knew that not even jewelry was going to make up for the mess he had found himself in. He needed something personal and touching and he needed it now. His very relationship might depend on it. He wasn't sure if he wanted to thank Shino or punch him. Punching him would be more satisfying.

Jewelry was out of the question, he understood that somehow. It might have been an option weeks ago when he could have assured his girlfriend that he understood her broad hints. And now that he thought about it, he realized how dense he had been. It was even circled on the calendar in her living room, the one with pictures of botanical gardens. March was something pinky, or yellow, he hadn't given it much of a glance.

Wandering out into the world without any idea how he was going to fix things, Sasuke took on the mission to find a present so serious he even forgot about taxes. It had to be true love.

The jerk had just run out on her. Perhaps she had finally pushed him over the edge and she was slightly sorry, but mostly she thought he really deserved it. Again and again, ad nauseum, she had tried to more than hint that her birthday was coming up. It was maybe a week ago that it had become perfectly obvious to her that not only had he forgotten but he didn't have a clue that there was something to remember. Sakura had asked him over dinner, a quick whip up of pesto pasta and spinach, if there was anything he had planned for the 28th. It was as close as she had gotten to straight out demanding he take her to dinner. Honestly, she didn't need a present, she would have been happy with a meal at a nice place and some fun activity afterwards. Sasuke, unfortunately, failed this test answering: 'I assume I'll work late like I do every Friday, and stop by if I'm not too tired.' If! If it isn't too much trouble!

There had been a moment when she thought she would go ballistic. That night, that first one when the anger was solidifying into positive revenge seeking glee, she had a legitimate headache. Rather than pull the skillet from the stove and bash him in the head until he remembered what he had forgotten, as her hand was itching to do, she listened to something rational in her mind. If he was too busy for her, then she would simply become too busy for him too, but in a way that would make him very sorry that she was. Without any chance to really talk to him at work, or interact over much, the only thing that left her with were visuals. Oh, would she ever supply visuals.

Knowing Sasuke's fondness for blue, she started her experiment by wearing a royal blue skirt and jacket set that would draw his eye. It was the one he had peeled off of her delightfully a few weeks ago after work, and when he saw her his back stiffened too suddenly in his chair for it to have been coincidence. They were in the elevator later, standing towards the back of the thrall, as people looked up at the numbers that lit above them. Moving a floor at a time took a long time, and was tedious, but Sakura livened it up for both of them by sticking her hand in Sasuke's pocket. She didn't do anything but rest her hand on his thigh, but that was enough. At first the color drained entirely from his face, and then it found it again in a hurry as he looked down at her as scandalized as she had ever seen him.

They were interrupted by arrival at their floor, and Sakura exited, leaving her dazed boyfriend behind. He took the stairs down the four extra floors the elevator had carried him before he had gotten control of himself. Keeping his head down, he had avoided eye contact with her, but that was only the grand beginning to the game. She had told Naruto, Hinata, and Ino about it so that they would not tell Sasuke about her birthday. He had to remember on his own, she decided. If he forgot entirely she had decided she would consider this just punishment exacted in advance. It would be too cruel to continue it any longer with taxes coming due. Sakura was reactive, but she wasn't mean.

Naruto, who had dragged Hinata through store after store looking for the perfect gift for his favorite pink haired assistant, thought this new bit of excitement the height of hilarity.

"Sasuke's always been like this. Sometimes I think he doesn't even remember his own birthday half the time." Naruto bit into a sandwich, pulling out the entire leaf of lettuce that had been in the middle and somehow managed to fleck mustard onto his suit.

Hinata handed him a napkin automatically, used to his messy eating after a month of dating and much longer observing him from afar. "It just seems so. . . unfair. He doesn't even know why you're doing it."

"I did everything but write it in huge letters on his desk calendar." She paused, tomato slice quivering in front of her lips. "Maybe I should have written it in huge letters on his desk calendar."

Ino had graced them with her rare presence for lunch. No doubt she was on her cycle. She never wanted to be in public when she felt ugly, and about every month she started to complain about feeling fat. Sakura tried not to comment, knowing that pointing out that she looked the same as she always did would only net her glares.

"Well, I think it's a fabulous idea. It's like training a dog. Hit him with some negative reinforcement and he'll never forget. This will be branded into his memory forever. I'll bet he even remembers before your birthday."

"Ha!" Naruto had abandoned the yellow stain that he had blended into a smudge on his dark brown vest. "I'll bet you ten bucks he doesn't."

With disapproval shining in her eyes, Hinata shook her head and packed up her garbage to throw away. "It isn't right."

Sakura watched Naruto and Ino shake on their bet and smiled. Really, Sasuke had an amazingly good memory. She knew that if he had not been distracted by tax season then he would have been entirely prepared for her birthday, no question. A slightly more disturbing possibility eased into her mind that he did know her birthday was approaching, but in fact did not care. Even though she shrugged it off, knowing it was a long shot when she had told him those stories over the holidays about how important birthdays were in her family, no he wouldn't do that to her.

But some lingering fear of neglect must have remained because her tactics suddenly became a lot nastier after that lunch.

Too expensive and she'll know you're trying to buy your way out of this mess. Too cheap and she'll think you didn't take it seriously. What moderately expensive item is out there that would be useful? I don't want to buy her random junk.

Sasuke wandered through the department store, trying to figure out his problem. Various sales ladies watching him look through the women's department with mingling admiration and disappointment. Men who skated through this section with an eye to buy either had a girl already or they were shopping for themselves and it was better not to ask questions. Eventually, a sharply dressed matron found him and took pity.

"May I help you, sir?"

"Hm. Yes. I suppose."

They stood there, staring at one another until the woman asked with a sigh. "How may I help you?"

Sasuke didn't want to admit to anything. This was so painful. And he hadn't even made it into lingerie. He had decided not to buy something like that for her because it would seem more like a gift for him, and while he was a tinge desperate for what she had been teasing him with, he wasn't suicidal enough to make that mistake. Enough mistakes had been made already, and he just wanted this situation fixed and forgotten.

"I need something nice, expensive but not too expensive, for a woman about this high, and sort of shaped like this." He tried to make motions with his hands, feeling silly. Why would he know her sizes? It hadn't seemed like vital information up until now.

"If you do not know the lady's size, then that is a problem. Can you call someone who would know?" The matron examined his face as if she could see the panic, but thankfully didn't respond to it.

Who the hell would have information like that when he didn't even have. . . Ino. Could he swallow his pride and call her up? At this point it probably didn't matter. He would take his chances with what Ino told Sakura at a later date. It was better than buying her something too big and having her assume he thought her fat or an equally ridiculous accusation.

There was a payphone outside, at the corner near the department store. Ignoring traffic he deposited coins and waited for the phone to ring in Ino's office. There was no reason she would be gone yet for the day, though he somewhat hoped that she wouldn't pick up. With mixed feelings, he heard her haughtily professional tone introduce herself and ask him his business.

"Ino, it's Sasuke." He didn't pause as he forged ahead. "What's Sakura's dress size?"

There was a pause. "I wouldn't tell you this, except that you just made me ten bucks: don't get her clothes. Too impersonal. You'll have to think of something else. Good luck." He hung up with her parting laugh still ringing in his ears.

On the main level, feeling totally useless, Sasuke sat down on a bench near the entrance and watched people enter with perking expressions of interest and leave with bags clutched in their hands. That was it. Game Over.

Something tickled his nose and he looked up after a violent sneeze rocked him. He blinked some moisture out of his eyes from the sneeze and looked at what had been right in front of him from the beginning. Yes, this might work. It would be touchy, but he had better faith in choosing something like that then a dress. There was hope yet.

Fridays were killers these days. They contained frantic scrambles to finish up what hadn't been done that week but should have. If anyone was behind they could gum up the works further down the road. The entire floor of the building that contained the department was filled with the smell of coffee, sweating bodies, and stress. Kakashi, and Sakura didn't know whether to bless him or curse him for this, was there the whole day and she was seeing people in to meet him and then taking information from them as they exited.

Sakura didn't have a chance even once to see Sasuke let alone continue her personal mission to remind him of her birthday, (i.e. torture him). Because of the backlog in Kakashi's appointments, she was actually out of the building later than he was. Kakashi promised her a fat bonus for the end of May, and wished her a happy birthday before she dragged herself back home. He handed her an envelope and she gave him a quick hug in thanks, since there was no one around to think anything of it. It was a gift card of some type, simple and useful, and she was grateful he had given her anything at all. At least Kakashi had remembered, and she barely saw him even though she worked for him.

There would be a party, a small one, tomorrow when she saw Hinata, Naruto, Ino, and Tenten plus a few people from the old office that missed her. Tenten hadn't said who they were, but she trusted that Gaara wasn't going to show up. She had heard he had thrown himself back into his work with single-minded devotion. Whatever worked for him, Sakura didn't hold any hard feelings. Or none that she would admit to, anyway. Maybe she would cave in and call Sasuke, ask him to come over, and then casually mention it was her birthday and watch for what his reaction was.

No, she shook her head, why torture herself. It would be a night of TV movies and a bar of dark chocolate that she had saved away for just such a pity party. Tomorrow, among friends, she would rant about her terrible birthday and garner love and presents aplenty. The thought brought a smile to her face as she turned the key to her apartment. Once inside, she swore that something seemed different, then shrugged it off and dropped her purse.

"You're late." The voice was sudden and startled her.

"Fire!" She yelled, hands coming up in a self defense pose. If she had given it half a second of thought she would have realized she knew that voice almost as well as her own after so much time spent in its presence over the past four months. "Sasuke, don't DO that!"

"Fire?" He questioned, entering the main room entirely, something clutched tightly in one palm.

Sakura stripped off her coat and deposited it over the back of the nearby couch and she went forward to meet him, smiling slightly self-consciously. "Yeah, well, a person told me once that people don't respond well to people crying 'help', you know, that they are more likely to pass by and think that someone else will take care of it. But if you shout 'fire'. . . well. . . people will at least look and once they look then maybe you can get them involved."

She had crossed the room while making her explanation but Sasuke simply held his position, face as mild as usual with those slight bags under the eyes that had begun to develop recently again after a few month absence. Really, it was too much for her to hope, but the box he seemed to hold made her optimistic.

"What's that?"

"Oh, Aburame gave this to me for you."

It was like someone had popped a balloon inside of her. She felt deflated at the very least. Taking it with tight lips and an alarming wetness growing behind her eyes Sakura watched Sasuke sail into the kitchen area while she sat down heavily on the couch and opened her present. The present that wasn't from Sasuke. The present that Sasuke had handed to her without even a hint that he understood what it was for.

Shino's gift was there, at least, and to keep that moisture from gathering or, even worse, spilling over from her eyes she decided to open it. There was some tissue paper inside and from within she withdrew a pretty little pin, a miniature monarch butterfly done in some sort of enamel-like substance. Really, it was quite pretty. The lack of adornment to the box or any card to say why he gave it to her seemed very Shino, but the delicate beauty of the gift was strange enough in comparison with her mental image that she smiled despite herself. She would wear it on Monday and thank him even though he would probably be confused that she would take up precious time from both of their days to do something so inconsequential, but she wanted to acknowledge the thought.

At least he had given her a thought.

Self-pity met her rising temper with a clash and temper overruled it, dashing that wetness from her eyes. She marched into the kitchen area, first setting the pin down on the table in the living room area, and got ready to confront Sasuke with the full force of her fury.

"Why are you here tonight? Weren't you too busy?" The unhidden venom in her voice should have netted her at least a raised eyebrow, but instead he shoved a spoon with something on it at her. She pushed it aside and he shrugged, continuing to stir whatever it was he was making.

"Today of all days, you should have something to say to me. After all, this week hasn't been easy for you. I know! I saw it! Hell, I was part of the cause of it!"

Sasuke spared her a glance this time. "Yes, I know."

It was too much, she couldn't hold it down no matter how much she didn't want to be the one to say it. "Damn it all Sasuke! Today is my birthday!"

He looked over at her, face still a practiced mask in contrast to her contorted one. "Of course it is. Why else would I be making this monstrosity of a dessert? I hate sweets. The smell is already making me sick." Sakura finally examined what he was making and saw melting chocolate in a pot above another pot of boiling water. Even if he had an inelegant way of saying it, he was making something for her. Bless him, he was a terrible chef, but at least he was trying. A recipe book was lying out, and she dared a small look of happiness before she found the rage again.

"Why the hell didn't you say something if you knew? You put us both through all that for nothing and I'll have you know—"

"I didn't know." He didn't speak often and he interrupted people even less, so this interjection actually caught her off guard.

"You. . . you didn't know?"

Sasuke shook his head, concentrating on the heat of the chocolate he was stirring, backing his head away from the sugary fumes with a twisted look. "Not until yesterday. Your present is on your bed. You might as well lie down. I ordered take out which should be here soon, and this goop takes more attention then I would like, but it shouldn't be all that long, really."

Not knowing how to respond, other than opening and shutting her mouth with unvoiced curses and questions in turn, she decided to go to the bedroom and find out what he had gotten her. On those covers, with the little pink flowers, that she habitually turned down every morning with a regularity that had scared her mother when she was a teen Sakura saw an off-color bundle.

No note. She didn't expect there to be. No real wrapping. That also was no surprise. The ribbon around it didn't hide what it was but she wasn't sure about it all the same. After all, you never knew what perfume smelled like until you opened it up. The stopper took some jiggling but she got it out and a delicate waft of something floral made her close her eyes and appreciate it. She knew what cheap perfume smelled like, and the metallic tang it left in the mouth after invading the sinuses. This was clearly not cheap perfume.

"It reminded me of you." Sasuke stood in the doorway as she whipped around. "I went to six different counters and smelled about a hundred or more of those horrible testers before I found something right. I was nearly sick after that, and I don't think the suit jacket I wore that day will ever be the same."

Sakura replaced the stopper, knowing that the gruff manner in which he was speaking to her was probably hiding his nervousness, and maybe even a hint of guilt. She knew these things because she was starting to feel a healthy portion of her own guilt for the childish way in which she had acted.

"Look, Sasuke, I'm sorry. . ."

"Let's just forget all this. The food's here and the dessert will be done soon."

Amazingly, that was enough. She felt more at peace than she had in weeks, and the relief of not carrying that emotional burden anymore was fantastic. Everything seemed better tonight, even the undoubtedly greasy Chinese order out that he had had delivered would taste great even if her intestines complained later. Happy birthday indeed.

Sasuke turned around with a slightly mournful turn to his face and the devil in his eyes. "And you won't have a headache tonight, too, will you?" The laughter Sakura gave followed him out of the room as he rushed to rescue the boiling pot of water threatening to toss the chocolate pot to the floor.