Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it.

XXIX.

- Pillowtalk -

He opened his eyes with a desperate need for air and heaviness that came with it, pressing down his chest with a tangible force. He attempted to take a breath, then he tried a second time, a third, he couldn't manage, fighting for it with all the strength he had. It got better after a few long seconds, though the darkness didn't help at all. His first thought was to stand up to a sitting position or walk, to cast that heaviness away, as he did in the prison cell. Yet another vivid nightmare.

The softness of the blankets was different, the mattress too. It wasn't the rigid, thin one with metal lattice beneath carving into his skin every single night. Such punishment was missing here. He tried to calm his breathing, sitting up after all. That was a new one. He had plenty of strange dreams during his weeks in prison, all of them awful, but that one was new. The panic, the fear, the despair have never been so clear and so intense before.

A switch of a soft reading-light made him flinch and he turned to see Sakura looking at him, with bloodshot eyes and tears running down her face. At first, guilt struck him but then he thought he couldn't possibly be the reason for those tears, she was... so happy a few hours ago. She looked as if she's been crying for at least an hour in the silence. and not out of happiness.

She sat up too, hugging the blanket close. With a few small gestures, she wiped the still flowing tears from her eyes. Her body shifted closer to him on instinct. "What is it?" Sakura whispered in his ear, her voice like balm for the pulsing ache that nightmare left in his head.

She must've heard his not-so-quiet struggle with that nightmare. It gnawed at him that her first reaction was to seek how to comfort him instead of talking about her own tears. It was so… her. He didn't know how to explain because he didn't remember action, he only remembered a feeling. Horrible, a monster of a feeling that haunted and suffocated him.

Sakura backed away, her hand gently turning his head toward her so that she could read through him like she usually did. Her eyes now serene and focused, stared at him in wait. Those eyes, like jewels of their own, always waiting, always patient, and always caring.

He reached for her face, caressing the pale skin. That was it, the reason he acted like that all this time. He turned furious because she reminded him of those damned cherry trees he grew up with. Blossoming every spring no matter if they were surrounded by death or life, war or peace. He hated them for that. He hated them because they still blossomed even though he kept losing everything he held dear. Even though his world was falling apart.

She didn't move but he was almost sure she couldn't, too fazed to do so.

"I couldn't find you," he finally found the right words to describe his most vivid fear as his hands surrounded her waist, pulling her closer. "I couldn't return."

Sakura seemed relieved at his answer and proceeded to meet his lips, touching them only to receive his fervent reply. She was so delicate and so fascinating for him that he couldn't help it. He found himself desperate to kiss her, her lips, her neck, everywhere. He didn't think much, amidst the staggering fit they had fallen into when his hand slipped down her underwear and remained generally surprised to find the matter moist.

"I've been thinking about you," she gave him a sorry smile.

There was a tumble in his stomach at the confession but then the afterglow came with a rather unpleasant taste, "...and crying?"

Sakura parted her lips to say something but she stopped herself, letting out a quiet, tormented sound. Her brows came together and she turned sorrowful within seconds, in front of his very eyes. Tears formed at the corners of her eyes anew and she hurried to brush them away, ignoring his concerned look. "Uh, I th— I…" she chuckled nervously, smoothing her hair back. "It's just…" Sakura looked up to him for a second and then cupped her face helplessly.

"You don't want this?"

"I do," she wearied, gathering the courage to face him again. "And I don't. I've just been thinking and I realized you won't stay and I'm gonna hurt until the rest of my life," she paused, struggling to take a breath, "because I'll remember the way you look at me now."

"You think I won't stay."

"Why would you?" Sakura shrugged. "People like us… they don't usually have a future. With that job and… always on the run… different partners." She opened another pause. "T-that's the truth."

Her words pierced through him like swords and he sank deeper into his muteness. She was so certain that he'd hurt her. How did he let himself end up like that in her eyes? True, he wasn't a light burden and he certainly wasn't nice company either. But he could've been different and show her it was all different with her. All of it.

"I'm sorry," he said, leaning to kiss her. "I'm sorry, Sakura," the words rolled out of him as a sigh and he pressed her closer, begging, "don't give up on me just yet."

Sakura hugged him, letting his head lean on her shoulders. He's never been guilty through her eyes, he suddenly realized, and it was like a whiff of emotion that skimmed over him. Emotion most tender. She backed away a tad, clearly having something in mind. Sakura slowly reached for the ends of her t-shirt and stripped it off. Then she did the same with her underwear. He could see her hands shaking as she enveloped herself and dared not face him. Her small form appeared so fragile and weak when she curled into herself like that.

He never took a moment to think about what it cost her a lot to be so vulnerable. Frustration burned her face red. Her message was clear enough to him, she wouldn't do any of this for anyone else and the thought only fueled his selfish desire to have her. She gave herself to him. All of her, and let him watch as she did it. He neared and reached for her hair, pushing it aside to reveal the delicate skin that it hid. A shiver ran through her when his lips skimmed over the soft spot under her ear, her chest heaving up and down.

"Sasuke," her eyes almost fluttered shut when he continued down her neck and let her head fall back. She was so cold, she was always so cold and he wanted to have her skin on fire and pressed against his so badly. Now.

Her skin was toned to perfection but still with the basic, beautifully feminine shape and he caught himself admiring her for longer than she perhaps anticipated; she opened her eyes to observe him with curiosity as his eyes studied her with the same admiration he was filled with the last time she was in front of him naked. The curve of her waist, the flat stomach, and those shapely hips. He could feel the throb of his own blood hazing his thoughts at the sight of her. Her mint-green eyes stilled on his for a second before they fell to his lips. The single look forced him to remove his own clothing as fast as he could.

Sakura was first to reach for him, wrapping her legs around him and entwining their tongues in a deep, bold kiss; one that he didn't know she would ever take a lead of. The feeling of it, her impatience, was deeply arousing to him. He was about to lay them on the mattress but Sakura abruptly joined their bodies before he could do it. Her hips rolled into him with a single, sharp motion, to take all of him at once and a protracted sound fell off her lips. She stared at him with a consuming look in her eye, breathing heavily. He recognized the fire that burned in her eyes and reconciled with it, slowly relaxing back on the pillow.

His breath hitched when she leaned forward to reach his lips. She was so tight that it drove him insane, every supple motion she made. Her cold fingers slid up his chest slowly, leaving icy trails that teased and tensed him. His patience ran low but he decided to let her enjoy herself a bit more, she was an absolutely bewitching sight: her darkened eyes glimmered mischievously, mouth half-open, taking in shallow breaths of air; her hair disheveled and allure in her touch.

He didn't want to close his eyes, for the vision of beauty could disappear if so, but he did, unprepared for the electrifying pleasure that coursed through him when she started moving again. It wasn't even into a rhythm yet and he said her name out loud. Any thought he tried calling to mind had now disappeared, sinking in the stunning zest of her needy motions against him. Sakura was unhurried in her streak of excruciating withdrawals and supple thrusts, her core pulsing and clenching delightfully around him, and he couldn't comprehend the feeling to its fullest, taking half-breaths and uttering half-curses. Swearing didn't really help him explain how essential her body was to him at the moment and she didn't seem to mind either, bits of moans and whimpers shedding off her lips at the end of every lunge. Damn this woman, he wasn't that easy.

"You okay?" she gave out a breathy chuckle, seemingly affected by the various physical sensations that attacked him after her slow tempo. Sakura had transformed into a sensual, nocturnal goddess and he couldn't believe her sweet benevolence was brought down to him, he was the one she had chosen. Her leisured but precise grating against him severed through all the notions he's had for with his own endurance. Shudders ran through him and gathered as a delightful ache in his lower stomach.

He almost begged her to not stop out loud, hands digging into her flesh. His groans grew harsher and less controllable when she intentionally slowed down her pace even more but, to contribute to his rising discomfort, deepened the thrusts. Morphed into one sensitive bundle of nerves, he was fully subservient to her and pleaded for mercy or release from the anguish she brought. He didn't want to finish before her. He wanted to return the favor. All the more, going that slow was killing him.

Sasuke grabbed her and reversed their places, lifting her leg up to his high waist with one hand while the other held her nape up when he pressed her body against the mattress without giving her time or a chance to object. He didn't know which he longed more for, in all this time they spent apart, her melted cries when he was inside of her or the feeling of home she gave to him, hands and legs wrapped around him as if he was welcome and urgently needed. It wasn't supposed to be this way, he wasn't supposed to attach to anything or anyone, much less grow addicted, but he couldn't help it.

She writhed beneath his touch, molding like a pliable clay, warm and soft. A softness so maddening that he wanted to possess it for as long as he could, him and no one else. The painfully familiar pulsing of the slithery velvets between her legs cut him loose. It was better for her to not know the failing weakness that he became when he was with her in those ultimate revelations of theirs, hopeless and relentless.

Their lips met briefly as Sasuke didn't want to miss an inch of her, caressing the exposed pink of her flaring skin, her sensitive nipples, the swells and lows of her form, while she sighed in loud tides. His needy thrusting had her head was thrown back and her spine tensed into an impossible arch along his body like she was a part of it. He usually held his breath, overpowering all frailty, but now she had set that thrilling rhythm of hers again. Her fingers gripped and marked him whenever he hurt more than pleased, her hips heaving, and thighs grinding eagerly against his, stealing and thinning his sanity away.

She loved it, he could tell by the way her whole entity shivered with pleasure and her skin prickled. She loved him chanting low in her ears with frantic need, quivering every time the desperate tones reached her. She incandesced to the pressure he applied, moaning with a clarity he hadn't heard before, and he tried to focus on it, discarding the slight fatigue that started to bother him. He lost track of time but time mattered a little now, he wanted only to extend it, wade deeper and satiate in this ecstatic indulgence, and only take and take and take.

His point of breaking hit him like an avalanche and he could do nothing about it, his voice trembling with the dazing weakness and effusing in descending snatches. Words fell off his lips, he couldn't really define them because there was a throbbing white bliss spreading across every nerve in his body, one that devoured everything else. He nearly stopped, but Sakura absently urged him to continue, his body driving into hers several times, and her muscles contracted at her own peak, the purely physical sensation making him collapse into that absorbing, pleasurable ripple from before all over again. It felt so damn gratifying and it was unfair that it lasted only a moment.

"You're welcome," Sakura exhaled a reply in his ear, the air vibrating with her silent chuckle. Breathing heavily, he found her mouth and started kissing her again, in desperate need to prolong the heavenly fragment he touched whenever she allowed. He adored her. He adored her as much as a man can adore a woman. Sakura was smiling while their kiss still lasted. He had mixed feelings about that smile, it was her ultimate dominance over him and it was a blessing too. "You couldn't let me… be in charge for… more than two minutes," she spoke with pauses, amused. "I thought you'd like it."

"You thought wrong," he parted from her only to reply and leaned to kiss her again. She giggled, making him change his target.

"Liar."

Sakura pursed her lips tight, trying to keep from laughing when he gently sucked on the skin of her low neck. Her right leg slid and wreathed around his, dragging up and down his calf in a few slow, smooth motions. He soon pushed himself up a little, to meet her eyes with irritation.

"What?" she asked, innocently.

As much as he was prone to fall victim to his own susceptibility, he really needed to sleep.

"Stop."

She did stop, maybe deciding to not overdo it the first time. Maybe he was too harsh with her, that's why. Because he was just way too tired and not admitting that to her for the world. Did she realize she didn't even have to move to turn him on? Probably not. Her calm eyes wandered somewhere over the frame of the bed and she sighed when he used the pause to detach from her and lay beside her.

"Way too early," Sakura turned to him, her fingers starting to play with his hair. Was she talking about the time? Anyway, he closed his eyes, exhaling slowly and relishing in the softness of the blankets.

"Falling asleep after the first round. He's lazier than I thought," he heard Sakura's quiet voice, close to his face.

Sasuke opened his eyes and looked at her, offended. Then proceeded to turn to the other side and relax on the pillow. Sakura shifted on the other side right away, laying right in front of him once again. Her labored breathing made him open his eyes but this time she laughed, for his gaze was pure wrath. She didn't see it coming when he started tickling her and she opened her mouth, squeaking sounds coming out of there. Sakura tried to stop him but he had focused on torturing her and as much as she twisted and pushed him away, he always found a way to reach and punish her.

"Alright!" she breathed out through laughter. "You win." Sakura was almost on top of him when he stopped and stared at her with the same judgmental pout as before; waiting for her to realize her sinful actions. She squinted and stole a quick kiss on his neck, and it irritated him all the more because he didn't predict it, which in its turn brought out another fit of laughter from her. "You're such a bore," Sakura used her most ruthless tone, shaking her head. She perhaps intended the phrase to be a part of the play but the words affected him deeply and he withered, ignoring her eyes. Why did she always have to be so right? Sakura tilted her head, trying to find his eyes. "What is it?"

"Nothing," he slowly parted from her. His voice didn't sound convincing at all.

Sakura forced him to look at her, demanding an answer. He feared she'd be able to exert her powers upon him at the moment he let her sleep in his bed. Just as he predicted, that curious pair of green eyes could only soften him. Also, getting away with that type of answer was not satisfying her so he guessed he'd have to change the way he spoke to her. Let her in a bit.

"I've always been a bore. You don't deserve a bore."

The confession must've resonated with her because she found herself on the edge of crying in his stead. Again. Where did she store all these emotions? It was so phenomenal that it stupefied him every time and he didn't know how to respond.

"I suffered enough," she leaned in to hug him, with a whisper. "You better stay with me or I'll chain you to the bed's frame."

Sasuke scoffed at her suggestion and hugged her back. "You are so kind that you don't even see I'm using you."

"You are so broke that you don't have a choice," Sakura slid down next to him, a content smile on her lips. "You'll have to stay here for now."

She closed her eyes and silenced, allowing him to watch her without any more distractions. Her youthful face was all he ever needed to see now and all he wished to see for the rest of his life. It wasn't much to ask, right? He knew his mother would've loved her, his father too. As for Itachi…

Sasuke pulled the blanket over Sakura's bare shoulders and she swept closer to him with an absent movement. His heart nearly stopped when she took a deeper breath and her small hand relaxed over his.

Itachi would've been happy for him whatever his choice was. Although knowing him, he would've either fallen for Sakura or end up trying to steal her from him just for fun. The notion amused him at first, but then he furrowed, his fingers closing around Sakura's hand. Like he wouldn't shoot anyone who dared to get close to her.

He didn't realize he had fallen asleep until Sakura didn't wake him up with a peck on the nose, awake and active. That alone was solid proof the two of them just lived on different batteries. How were six hours enough for her when he could sleep for sixteen more? Moreover, she was supposed to be quite sore after their eventful midnight rendezvous. As he began to think about it, he owed it all to Sakura's drive to the very last second. He was so tired that he wasn't sure he'd pull anything through.

"Are you hungry? I was going to make pancakes with chocolate," she smiled at him warmly, but her smile faded when he grimaced. "What?"

"I don't like sweet things."

After she passed the phase of bewilderment, Sakura proceeded to give him a disapproving look, eyes scanning him up and down. "That's why you're so tired all the time." Come on, would she rather have him fat? He opened his mouth to defend himself, but she raised her hand to stop him, assuring him everything was fine. Normal pancakes were fine too. She had wrapped the blankets around her, holding a book in one hand.

There was something that bothered him since yesterday but… he never gathered the courage to unfold. Something tucked in the back of his mind, nagging at him since he saw those sedatives in her bathroom. These thoughts turned him restless and created intrusive images that infuriated him as never before. Because he hated the mere thought of it and because he was helpless to change it. Sakura left her book on the sheet and raised a brow, in pure wonder. They looked at each other for a while and he knew she'd wait for him to speak first. So he did.

"Did you sleep with him?"

Sakura was taken aback by the question, blinking in response. This time the pause between them prolonged, with every second the storm raging inside of him gathered strength. He had learned how to subdue it to measured levels, though he wasn't sure what his eyes showed.

"Kakashi. Did you sleep with him?"

Sakura was pursing her lips, bubbling amusement threatening to come out of her in various forms, and that angered him even more. How could she do this to him? He was intensely scowling when she tore her gaze away from him, her expression turning serious in an instant. Which was like a bullet to his heart. It wasn't like her to not speak her mind.

"I see."

Sasuke decided to drop the subject. It's not like he could do anything about it. It's not like he was there when she needed him.

"I didn't," her breath shimmered and his eyes fixed back on her. "I had a close call once, though."

"It's not funny," Sasuke murmured. "It's not funny," then once again, with an emphasis, to deafen Sakura's low snickering. She was quaking with laughter.

As bitter as he was, her answer eased him vastly and what was left for him now was only to pretend he disapproved of her laughter. It took her a while to calm down and take a few breaths, ending her outburst with a sigh. "Well, what is funny to you? There's gotta be something that makes you happy," she pondered on the subject for a while before beaming with an idea. "Oh! You did smile once when I embarrassed myself."

He furrowed again, failing to call such a scene to his memory.

"I'll go trip on the shower bank or something," Sakura concluded.

"On purpose?"

"Yes. Then I'll fall and break something and when they ask me what happened, in the hospital, I'll say he didn't remember how to laugh."

Sasuke traced the waterfall of her words until its end, carefully following the line of her thought as his gaze rested on her lips most of the time, but the ending was unexpected and he looked up to her eyes in surprise. Sakura waited for him to respond in some way. After a minute of silence, she surely decided the conversation wasn't going to get any more gripping. "I'm going, you know," she announced and heaved up as if hurried on her way to the shower.

"Don't," Sasuke warned her, but his voice was flat and indifferent and didn't affect her in any way.

"You can't stop me."

Sakura stood up but then froze and returned to the sheets at lightning speed, wrapping herself. Her face became a crimson hue in the process. Sasuke raised a brow at her illogical behavior and she caught his expression soon after. "I forgot to pull the curtains last night and now my neighbor saw me completely naked!" Sakura's voice gradually raised its intonation to a squeak. She covered her head with the sheet too, leaving only the horrified expression on her face visible. "He saw everything."

There was a dramatic pause in which she stared at the window — the source of her inconvenience — and then her mouth dropped open because Sasuke was laughing. It was brief and quiet, but it was laughter. Sakura probably didn't realize she was holding her breath until her lungs demanded it because her face changed a few nuances while her eyes were nailed to him with astonishment.

"Oh my god, it works!" she breathed out. "I am going to that shower now."

"Sakura," Sasuke sighed, covering his eyes for a second. Her vigorous motions and words brought him a headache. He then revealed his eyes, holding two equal parts of concern and amusement in them. "No need to break your bones for me, ok?"

There was a small smile that altered his admonishing tone, a smile that was sincere happiness, or rather something that closely resembled it, he wasn't sure how happiness felt anymore but that was probably it. Sakura was more than content with it, by the look of her. He even heard her moan at the sight. She neared and climbed on top of him before she slammed her mouth against his, perhaps the motion a little too furious than anticipated because she backed away a bit, frightened by her own excitement.

Her skin was ablaze already. His scrutinizing gaze over her body left her on fire, darkening her face with a pretty blush. He leaned in, fooling her that he reached for her lips but instead pressed her closer, lifting both of them up and out of the bed. Sakura laughed in his ear.

"You're gonna shower with me?" she asked, cautiously, and he turned to give her a pointed look. After hearing about her strategic bone-breaking, he doubted he'd let her go in the shower on her own ever again.

A/N: Thanks for reading. Оk. I hope I made it as artful as I wished it to be. They have some things to talk about more and some things to do together too so I'm not sure when this fic is gonna end exactly. Probably soon. Truth is, last three nights I've been obsessing over an idea that came to me, I'm tempted to make it into a fic. Anyway, so glad to have that many people reading me, thanks again! I'm totally gonna have thousands of typos in this one, was in a hurry to publish it because I promised an early update. Don't laugh too much.