I have said it before but I will say it again; this is a fast-paced story! If you don't like that kind of thing then feel free to skip this one! I am working on my writing skills so I KNOW this one isn't that good but I'm trying so please give me a little slack. YES, Sakura is forgiving but that's how I wanted to write it and I'm not going to feel bad about it. Now that my rant is over; here is chapter 5!
(This one is my least favorite chapter overall but I hope you enjoy it anyway! Last update for this one for a while; I don't feel motivated to finish editing the other chapters atm. I'm sorry to those who have actually been enjoying it. I promise to try within the next few weeks to get another chapter out! )
Sakura couldn't believe how enthusiastic both of her parents had been when Sasuke had been the one to exit her vehicle when they first arrived last night. They both really had liked the Uchiha when the two of them had still been dating, but Sakura didn't think that they still had such a high regard for him; clearly, she was wrong. So then, maybe her quick decision to give him a second chance (without actually telling him yet of course) had been the right one. Sakura's father had greeted him like an old friend would do with a firm and proper handshake alongside a strong pat to the upper back. Her mother had asked them about how the two of them had gotten back together, just like Sakura had predicted she would; and so, began the made-up story she had concocted a while ago. The small group had then stayed up for about an hour after the young couple arrived to casually chat before both Sasuke and herself were tired and ready for bed; exhausted from their long journey. Much to her delight, (and her mother's displeasure) her father had adamantly and repeatedly insisted on the two of them staying in separate rooms; considering that they weren't (yet) married, it just made sense. Either way, Sakura had slept soundly and woken up feeling refreshed and re-energized. The young woman was ready to tackle the day and anything that came with it. She was also ready to have 'the' conversation with Sasuke but... that would probably have to wait until later; maybe tonight if possible. She needed answers and she needed to get her feelings about the whole situation out, and soon.
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Sakura stood in front of her parent's countertop that sat beside the stove; humming some sort of Christmas tune quietly to herself while she began to gather the ingredients to make a thick batter. The pinkette was going to attempt to make some pancakes for the family's first 'official' breakfast together this holiday season and so far, it was going well for her; though that would probably change soon because she had never been good when it came to the actual cooking part of making them. Her curvaceous hips were swaying lightly to the beat she was humming and Sakura stood in nothing but her sleepwear; the likes of which consisted of a thin, spaghetti strap tank top and some short shorts. The pinkette was so preoccupied with what she was doing that she failed to notice the new presence that had just entered the room silently.
Sasuke stood in the doorway; his strong arms crossed over his muscular chest and a small smirk was on his thin lips as he watched the woman he loved work. The Uchiha noticed right away that Sakura was still in her bed clothing and had haphazardly thrown her long hair up into a messy bun. Specks of flour and pancake batter clung to different parts of her skin and clothing. He had never seen her more beautiful than she was in that moment; she looked serene... she looked peaceful; she looked joyous and content. Sasuke could tell with absolute certainty that she was happy. 'Gods, I love her so much. The two of us need to talk... and soon. I don't know how much more of this, tip toeing around things with her, I can take. I need to apologize... I need to fix things. I want to let her know what happened and why I did what I did...' After shaking himself from his melancholy thoughts, Sasuke cleared his throat loudly to get her attention and watched with quiet amusement when Sakura startled before glancing up quickly to look at him with widened eyes.
"Oh, good grief Sasuke," she scolded him gently while giving him a half-stern look right before she turned away to continue with her slow mixing. "Honestly, if you were trying to scare me half to death then congratulations because I think you nearly succeeded. We really need to put a bell on you or something," she mumbled as she reached to turn on the stove. Moving around the large room swiftly, she placed some of the dirty dishes into the sink to get them out of the way before returning to the oven. By now she had stopped her humming, most likely because Sasuke had showed up and interrupted her; he found himself missing it, though he didn't speak about it aloud.
"...or something...," the Uchiha whispered under his breath; he couldn't help but to smirk at her semi- flustered state. After a few minutes of silently observing her, Sasuke moved closer, until he was standing right beside her instead of on the other side of the room. He watched her test the pan and rolled his dark eyes when she nearly burned herself in the process. 'Tsk, clumsy as ever when she's in the kitchen. That fact hasn't changed at all over the years I see.'
"What was that you said a minute ago? I couldn't hear you very well I'm afraid." Sakura looked at Sasuke expectantly as she placed a large pan on the stovetop; readying her spatula with one hand while she waited for it to fully heat up the rest of the way.
"Hn. It was nothing." The dark-haired man placed his hands in his pockets as he leaned his back against the counter beside her; eyeing her work space cautiously as he did so. "Do you need any help Sakura?" He nodded his head to indicate the pan so that there would be no confusion with his statement on her part.
Sakura looked at him and smiled softly; a light pink dusted her cheeks right before she looked away. "Sure, if you're up to it. Do you want to do the cooking or the cleaning?" She was assuming that he would say cleaning but she was wrong.
"I'll cook."
"Really? Sasuke Uchiha can cook," Sakura asked skeptically as she slowly placed the spatula in his outstretched hand. "Did you ask me just to be nice or are you asking because you know that my past experience with pancakes hasn't been... the best."
"Yes, don't sound so surprised about it, Sakura. I can cook and maybe I was asking you because of both reasons; I suppose. I can also do a lot of new things that you haven't seen me do yet. I've been reading a lot of...informative books over the past few years. Maybe I can show you sometime; if you want me to that is." The wink/smirk combo that he sent her way caused Sakura's poor brain to short circuit for a few seconds and she had to literally shake her head to bring herself back to the present. 'Did he really just say that? I can't believe that he really just said that. He's just as perverted now as he was back then.' She didn't really know what to say to that; her brain still couldn't think of anything to say so at first, she remained silent.
"Oh... okay...," she whispered; the only thing she was finally able to come up with. Feeling very much embarrassed she moved away from him and placed herself in front of the sink to begin cleaning some of the dishes. Slowly as she worked, Sakura found herself relaxing more and more, while she set about cleaning the rest of the kitchen; enjoying the silent presence of Sasuke by her side as they worked together in perfect harmony.
'How easily we can go back to the way things used to be; it's comforting. It feels like... home.'
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Breakfast had been absolutely delicious, thanks to Sasuke; even though her parents were MIA at the moment so it had been just the two of them... alone... together. She had to admit though that Sasuke was definitely a good cook; and that fact was both shocking to her but, then again, not really at the same time because she had come to realize over the few years that they dated that the Uchiha was always pretty great at practically everything he had ever tried to do. Sakura was in the process of handing Sasuke the last plate that he had to dry, one that she had just finished washing, when their fingertips brush against one another. Sparks of liquid fire shot up her arm and she looked up at him with widened eyes to see if he had felt it too; apparently, he had because the young man had the same look of complete shock written all over his own face. 'Don't panic Sakura; whatever you do...just don't panic. I can't believe after all of this time... that we still have the same effect on each other that we used to. It's strange but also...strangely comforting at the same time. Gods, I want him... so badly.' The two ex-lovers starred at each other for what seems like hours but in reality, was only mere seconds; both failing to see that her mother had just entered the room due to being so caught up with each other. With her camera in one hand, Sakura's mother quickly snapped a photo of the two 'love birds' causing Sakura to startle and turn to stare dumbly at her while Sasuke just stood to the side with a neutral expression on his handsome face as he watched her mother look at the photo adoringly. "That one is definitely going in the wedding album for sure! Good morning, you two. I hope that you both got plenty of sleep last night...," her mom winked at them and Sakura cringed; literally face-palming herself as she shook her head in slight disbelief. 'I can't believe that she's insinuating that we...'
"We both slept just fine mother; in our respective beds, I might add. So, what do you have planned for us today? Anything exciting?" Sakura was trying to divert her mother's attention from the embarrassing comment and innuendo that she seemed to constantly be throwing their way ever since they arrived and thank goodness it seemed to work. Her mother clapped her hands in front of her excitedly after placing the camera on the table; she smiled widely at the two of them before speaking.
"Oh, Sakura dear, thank you for bringing it up. I was going to see if the two of you could help me with some of the baking today. I need to have at least a few more dozen sugar cookies baked and prepared for the party we will be hosting on Christmas Eve. Also, I was going to build some gingerbread houses to place around the house, you know, just as decorations. Now, I have all of the parts for them done already, they will just need to be assembled. So, what do you say? Will you help your poor mother out? I have a bunch of errands in town that I need to run and I'm afraid I just won't have time to do everything by myself this year."
"Well actually I think we were going to...," Sakura started to protest; being unsure of how the boy next to her would feel about it all, but she was quickly interrupted when Sasuke spoke up to the contrary.
"Sure, we would be glad to help." It was her turn to turn around and gawk at Sasuke. The pinkette simply couldn't believe it; she knew that she had to be dreaming, right? There is no way that she wasn't; Sasuke freaking Uchiha had just agreed (without any form of complaint on his part) to help her mother by making sugar cookies... AND gingerbread houses. 'What in the actual fuck is going on? Is the whole world going to end today? I've never seen him so... helpful, when it comes to my mom anyway. Maybe he's sick... or just trying to get on her good side; even though that's not necessarily because I'm pretty sure that she likes him more than she likes me. But...I guess, I mean it has been a while since he's interacted with her so... he really has changed in all aspects; hasn't he. Just as Ino has said that he did... damn, I can't believe she was right all along. I can't tell her that though; she would never let me live it down if I did. No, I'm definitely going to keep that little tidbit to myself.'
"Oh, that's marvelous, Sasuke dear! Thank you. You don't know how much I appreciate this." Her mother smiled warmly at the young man before turning to give her, still stunned-looking daughter a firm look; as if she was silently telling her not to argue and berating her for trying to decline her own mother's request. "The two of you can get started whenever you're ready. I need to go out now and run to the store to grab a few things while they are still open. Your father will be out cutting wood for the fireplace this morning I think so you two young people will have the entirety of the house all to yourselves; isn't that... exciting."
"Okay mom," Sakura sighed in resignation as she fought desperately with herself so as not to roll her eyes in front of her mother; knowing it would only anger the woman and then Sakura would get an earful about how she needed to behave more like a lady or some nonsense along those same lines. "We'll get right on it."
"Hn." It was still a strange thing for Sakura to see that Sasuke would so easily agreed to something like this now; whereas in the past he would have found it far to troublesome. But Sakura had been seeing (in the small span of time they had been spending together) the subtitle changes within him that suggested the young man had matured greatly over the past few years that they had spent apart and even though she was still hurt by everything (mostly because they still hadn't fully settled things), Sakura was slowly starting to forgive him for it all. She just wished that she could explain why, but she didn't fully understand it herself; it was just something that she felt deep within her heart was the right thing to do. Sakura had always been one to follow her heart above all else. 'I know that Sasuke and I still need to discuss things with each other; if we have any hope of rekindle a relationship between the two of us but I know that I'm ready. I miss being with him... so much. I wonder...I wonder if Sasuke feels the same as me?'
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"Sasuke... what is that supposed to be?" Sakura pointed to an odd-looking shaped blob that was in the center of his cookie sheet. She was looking at his tray of 'cookies' with a look of absolutely confusion. The pinkette cocked her head from side to side as she studied its contents closely; trying desperately to make some sort of shapes out of the globs of uncooked dough that looked to be haphazardly scattered across its surface, but she was failing miserably.
His face was neural as he raised a single brow at her before glancing at the object in which she was referring. He made a deep sound in the back of his throat that could have been a scoff but she was quite sure. "It's a reindeer...obviously." He said it as easily and readily as if he was talking about the color of grass or the shape of a stop sign. 'Wow, I hope he isn't serious...'
"No." She shook her head in the negative. "No, it's definitely not a reindeer." Her face was pulled into a weird expression as she crossed her arms over her petite chest and stared at him.
He crossed his own arms in the same manner and turned towards her fully; a single brow raised as if to question her sanity. "Yes, it most certainly is." She simply blinked at him as they stared at one another. 'Yup, he's serious. The poor boy. He does look rather cute though with the way he's... No, Sakura. Now isn't the time for that kind of thinking. I need to focus; there will be some time for that later.'
She tilted her head slightly and sighed. "No. You are wrong. It's definitely not. It doesn't look like anything to me except a blob of goop."
"How would you know," he huffed as he rolled his eyes; though he wasn't angry with her. In fact, he quite liked this type of bantering between them. It took him back... to the old days; to a time before he had messed everything up between them. "I'm the one who cut it out Sakura, so don't you think that I would be the one to know exactly what it's supposed to be. Or am I wrong?"
"Yes, you are. What did you cut it out with though Sasuke... you're left toe?" His thin lips twitched with the need to smile but he refrained somehow; though it was extremely difficult.
"Ha, that's real funny coming from you, Haruno." He was teasing her; she knew it...and she liked it. Sakura leaned into Sasuke slightly as she smiled wickedly; ready to continue this light banter between them.
"Careful Uchiha," she hissed as she stood on her tip toes to be more eye level with him. "I wouldn't mess around with me to much if I was you. I'm pretty strict when it comes to anything sweets related; especially when it comes to my mother's sugar cookies. That's why I was the one who won the prize for 'Best Bakes' back in high school or have you forgotten already." The pinkette smiled smugly at him as he smirked back at her.
"I haven't forgotten anything about you, Haruno." Sakura couldn't hide the small blush that came from that revelation and quickly retreated from him a little before averting her eyes. Sensing that she had become slight uncomfortable; he did the same, to try and give her some space. "Anyways, why does your mother want this many cookies in the first place," he asked to try and distract them both from the now slightly awkward situation. "Does everyone really like them that much that she feels the need to make a few dozen?" He wasn't a big fan of sweets; Sasuke never really had been and so he didn't really care all that much if there was enough of the sweet treats to go around to everyone. But because it was very important to Sakura's mother, and therefore to Sakura herself; Sasuke wanted to show her, the woman he loved, that he cared. That the Uchiha was actually trying to be a better person; for her. Sasuke wanted her to see him in a different light so that maybe someday... someday soon, the young man could win her over again. He missed her, he wanted her... he needed her. 'I love her... so much.'
"They are for the party Sasuke," she said with a shrug. "It's usually a pretty big deal, but I see the whole thing as mostly pointless." The pinkette turned to resume the shaping of her own cookies while Sasuke continued to observe her silently from the corner of his eye as he mirrored her actions.
"Why is that," he finally plucked up the courage to ask after a considerable amount of silence had passed between the two of them.
She turned to him and smile wearily; the look not quite meeting her green eyes as she whipped her hands on a small towel. "It's usually just a bunch of work for how many people we usually invite. We only normally have really close friends and maybe a few of my dad's coworkers and their family's come. That's about it really. We don't need all this stuff; but my mother insists and what she says goes around here if you couldn't tell that already."
"I see. So then... why didn't you ever bring me to this if it's been going on for so long... you know, when we were dating?" Sasuke was curious and watched as a soft blush rose to her cheeks.
"Oh, to be honest Sasuke, I had wanted to spend time with just you during the holidays. Since I could care less about this party in the first place. Also, I didn't want my parents to scare you away from me or anything. They can be pretty... intense at times you see. The few times you did get to meet them was probably enough to last a life time...," she chuckled softly as she placed her tray of cookies into the oven before coming over to help him with his. He remained silent as they worked; listening to her while she began to hum the same tune from this morning as they worked in companionable silence to finish the remaining cookies. "Hey Sasuke," Sakura spoke up softly, breaking the silence between them when they were done and had cleaned up the kitchen. He looked over at her and she continued. "Do you want to go ahead and start on the gingerbread houses?"
"Sure." Sasuke didn't hesitate to answer in the affirmative because he wanted to spend more time with her; even if it was doing something that he wasn't particular interested in doing. He just wanted to be with her; for as long as possible.
"Alright." Her warm smile was contagious and he found his own lips pulling up into a small grin of his own.
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"Um, Sakura?" Sasuke was unsure about what he was doing but he was pretty sure that Sakura was doing something wrong as well because when he looked at her 'house'... it just didn't look quite right to him. "I think you put that piece on wrong."
"No, I didn't, it's supposed to look like that." The pinkette was concentrating extra hard. With her tongue sticking out between her slightly parted lips and her green eyes squinting deeply, she looked... absolutely adorable to the young man. Sasuke smirked softly as he grabbed the piece in question from her small hand before flipped it in the other (more correct) direction; placing it back in her open palm so that it was now the right way up instead of the wrong way down. He watched silently as her bright, green eyes searched this new way of doing it before he saw them lit up with a new understanding and she glanced up at him with an almost sheepish expression on her face. "Oh... oops. Thanks for that, Sasuke."
"No problem." He returned to working on his own house as she turned to do the same.
"Can I ask you something, Sasuke?" Sakura's soft question was spoken while she placed a few candy decorations carelessly onto her house's roof. He nodded for her to go ahead. "How do you know so much about this kind of stuff?" She watched him out of the corner of her eye as he paused for a brief second before slowly resumed his task but at a much slower rate than before; his mind no longer fully focused on what he was doing.
"I don't know that much about it. Itachi, mom and I made a couple of them when I was little. But that was a really long time ago Sakura."
"Oh, even still... that must have been nice; a nice memory to have."
"Hn." Sasuke seemed sad now and it pulled at her heartstrings; she now regretted bringing the topic up in the first place. Sakura swallowed once before lowering her gaze to the tabletop; feeling slightly ashamed with herself for bringing up such a sore and sad topic for him.
"I'm sorry, Sasuke. About what happened to your family I mean...," she trialed off when he placed a large hand over her smaller one. Sakura looked up at him to see a kind but sad smile present on his lips. He squeezed her hand gently within his.
"You don't need to apologize. It's not your fault." Sakura thought that he was being too nice to her, when it was, he who was hurting.
"I know but..."
"Sakura. It's fine. I'm fine. You helped me through it a long time ago. The past is in the past; let's just leave it where it belongs for now, alright." A small message was hidden behind the message; Sakura felt her heart begin to race slightly. 'I know I feel like I've forgiven him for everything but can I really forgive and forget it all so easily?' As soon as Sakura asked herself that question however, she knew the answer. She nodded her head slowly; realizing that he wasn't quite ready to talk about it all just yet and she didn't want to push him.
They could discuss things... later.
Hours passed by before they finally were able to complete everything her mother had asked them to do. Even after the woman had called to add on several more things to their long to-do list, they had still somehow managed. "So, what do you want to do now Sakura?" She looked at Sasuke for a moment as she contemplated his question before an idea formed in her mind.
"How about we just go and relax in front of the fire... you know, like old times?" She couldn't stop the small blush that brightened the color of her cheeks but Sakura refused to break their intense gazing first.
Sasuke nodded his head as he observed her closely; stuffing his hands in his pockets to prevent himself from reaching out to touch her. "Sure, why not."
Sakura wasn't sure why but she felt... happy and grateful that it was Sasuke by her side tonight; by her side for the remainder of the week for that matter. He was much different than she had ever thought he would be... than she had expected for him to be; but that wasn't a bad thing.
'No... it's definitely not a bad thing at all. I think things will work out... in the end, they always do. At least in fairytales.'
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Sakura sat on the wooden floor, cross-legged in her favorite spot that was directly in front of the blazing fire. A large, soft blanket covered her back and shoulders as she started blankly into the red and orange flames; listening to the wood crackle and pop as it burned slowly to a pile of ash. The warm heat was soothing; the crackling of the fire was calming... she felt completely and utterly at ease in this environment; Sakura felt comfortable and relaxed. When Sasuke had stepped into the dark room moments after she had first settled carrying two steaming mugs, one in each hand, she smiled; thanking him softly as he passed one to her before he took his seat directly beside her. She looked at its contents and her smile brightened before she met his dark gaze; which was looking at her over the edge of his own mug as he took a long sip of his drink.
"You...remembered," she breathily whispered as her grip on her mug tightened. She was touched by this; deeply.
Sasuke scoffed at her and nudged her shoulder playfully with his own. "Of course, I remembered. How could I not? You practically lived off of hot chocolate when we were dating. It was one of your favorites."
"Hey," she protested with a soft girlish giggle, "in my defense, it did gets pretty cold at times when we used to live here Sasuke!"
He gave her a disbelieving look. "Is that so? Then what is your excuse for the summer time... huh, Sakura?"
"..." Said woman chose to remain completely silent as she took a small sip of her drink; letting the warm liquid slide down her parched throat while her gaze returned to the flames. 'Damn, he can still make a good cup of hot chocolate. Fuck me... what can't this boy do?' Sakura looked at him again when she felt his fingertips poke her in the forehead, somewhat roughly, and gave him a soft scowl.
"That's what I thought." His wide, knowing smirk was playful and she swatted at his arm lightly in retaliation; only to have him grasp her small hand firmly in his before bringing it up slowly, where he then pressed his soft, thin lips to the inside of her small wrist. Sasuke's dark gaze was now hooded as he stared directly at her...hungrily. 'Holy shit and hot damn.' Sakura felt as if she was in some sort of daze while the two of them continued to stare at each other deeply. Sasuke was leaving a trail of soft, open-mouthed kisses all over the inside of her palm and it made her shiver; a soft blush dusted her pale cheeks as she swallowed slowly.
"S-Sasuke...," she whispered as she felt her heart beating in her throat. She was hot...to hot. 'We... we need to slow things down. W-we need to talk before we take things any further. I... I have to stop him right now; even if that's the last thing I want to do. I have to be the strong one; since it doesn't seem like Sasuke is...clear-headed at the moment.'
"Hmm," he hummed deeply as he continued to (intensely) hold her darkening gaze.
"Uh...w-what are you d-doing?" Her green eyes went wide as his lips began a slow path up to her elbow. Her heart fluttered, her pulse raced, and her gaze was hazy; but before Sakura could say or do anything, he had quickly dropped her arm and she watched as Sasuke's grasp on his mug tightened; his gaze moving to stare into the fire. It was completely silent apart from the soothing sounds of the raging inferno; while Sakura's mind tried to process what just happened. 'Maybe... I won't be the one to bring it up...' It seemed clear to her that he still felt... something for her, but then if he did right now; had Sasuke always felt that way? And if that was the case, then why had he broken off things with her? Sakura just had to know; she couldn't take it anymore. The young woman needed...no she deserved answers from him and so after taking a deep breath to gain some more courage she decided to finally speak her mind. "S-Sasuke..."
"...Yeah." The Uchiha's gaze remained on the fire as he waited silently for her to continue. Sakura swallowed slowly as her emotions began to clog her throat and she had to clear it lightly to help ease some of the discomfort. She shifted in her seat slightly so that she was turned more toward him and took a deep breath. 'Now...do it, now.'
"Why...w-why did you break up with me?" There, she had finally said it. It was out there between them now and the ball was in his court. Sakura held her breath and waited but when he didn't respond right away and an almost eerie silence grew between them, she began to panic. 'Okay, that was a bad idea. I guess that Sasuke isn't ready to talk about things just yet. But if that's the case... then I can't continue in the direction I feel like our relationship is heading. I need to fix this, and fast.'
"..."
"I mean...you don't have to...I'm sorry, I'll just...," she made to rise; ready to leave him be so that she could go and wallow in her own sorrows by herself, but his hand quickly shot out to stop her as he grabbed onto her upper arm firmly but also gentle enough so that he didn't hurt her.
"Don't go... please. I... I'll tell you... everything." He was practically pleading with her now and Sakura found herself nodding her head slowly before she settled back down beside him; hugging her knees tightly to her chest, as a sort of make shift shield between them if things went south. Sasuke held her gaze for just a second longer before he felt compelled to look away; pain, humiliation, and a lot of guilt filled his heart in that moment. "When my parents... died... and then Itachi... I blamed myself..."
"Sasuke...," Sakura's heart broke for him all over again when she heard the pain in his voice; she wanted to take it all away. She didn't want him to suffer...
"Please Sakura, just... just hear me out will you." When the woman nodded in the affirmative, he continued. "I felt and thought that it was all my fault. That I had somehow been the cause; been the reason for all of it. And then when Naruto's parents died as well, right after they had come to check up on me... I felt like I was the reason they did. That I was somehow cursed or something; bringing anyone associated with me only death and pain. I'm so sorry Sakura. I... I didn't want for anything to happen to you. I couldn't stand the thought of losing you in the same way that I did my family. I love you, way too much to see that kind of pain brought upon you; especially if I'm the reason why. I thought that by me pushing you away, that somehow it was the right thing to do. That if I wasn't in your life, you would be safe from all of that. I was stupid. I know that it's not enough; that it will probably never be enough, that I can't tell you how truly sorry I am enough but Sakura... please understand that I am so, so sorry for what I put you through. An apology isn't enough to make up for what I've done to you but right now it's all I have to offer and I hope you accept it regardless. I just, I want you to know that I'm so very sorry for hurting you the way that I did. I was young and ignorant." Sasuke hung his head in defeat and Sakura felt her chest tighten. He said he was sorry; he said he felt like he was at fault, but the biggest revelation that she couldn't wrap her brain around was the fact that he had just said he was...
"Wait...you...y-you love me? As in not past tense? As in right now?" She couldn't believe what she was hearing. 'How am I supposed to respond to that... he can't be serious...can he? But if I really think about it, all the signs were there...this whole time while we have been reconnecting... it's all been there; the truth of his words. I've just been too blind to see it I guess; until now.'
"...yeah." His whispered confession stopped her heart a moment and she reached her hand up to clutch at the thin fabric of her shirt tightly where it rested just above the swell of her breast; as her heart finally began to stutter back to life, though it was in an unrhythmic pattern.
"Oh...," was the only thing she found herself able to say; to stunned was she to reply in a more dignified way. The truth was a lot to process. He must have taken her pause as a bad sign and she saw his eyes widened as he quickly glanced away from her.
"But it doesn't matter now," Sasuke waved off his own feelings as he tried for a gentle smile of reassurance; thinking that he had caused her more pain. "I'm foolish. I shouldn't have run away from you in the beginning. I should have talked to you about my feelings. I'm sorry. I was jus..."
"You're not foolish." She interrupted him as she turned to gaze intensely at him. She watched him closely as his Adam's apple bob slightly while he tried to process her words. His eyes grew slightly wide as he found the courage to look back at her.
"What?"
"I said that you're not foolish, Sasuke. You are an absolute fucking idiot for leaving me like that, especially when we both clearly loved each other so much but... you're not a fool. You did what you thought was right and I can't fault you for that even if I want to. But...that still doesn't take away the pain from losing you. It doesn't change the fact that it still happened. It doesn't... (sigh; it's now or never) it doesn't change the way that I felt about you...the way that I still feel about you. The truth is... I'm still stupidly and hopelessly in love with the boy who broke my heart five years ago; I'm still in love with you... Sasuke. I may have been angry at first; I may have done some things that I now regret (like hitting you) after you broke my heart but... that doesn't change how I feel about you, it never could. I tried to hate you... trust me, I really, really did; but... I just can't." He couldn't help but smile softly at her and Sakura couldn't stop her blush. He tentatively reached for her smaller hand and grasped it firmly within his own; squeezing it gently and reassuringly... and afterwards, he didn't let go like she feared he would. They sat like that for a long time, until Sakura felt the beginnings of sleep taking over. She yawned loudly before covering her mouth with her free hand. "I'm sorry about that," she whispered bashfully as she then blushed deeply.
Sasuke made a sound in the back of his throat before releasing her hand from his. "Go to bed, Sakura."
"But you..."
"Don't argue with me on this, please. It's clear to me that you're tired. Don't worry, I will take care of this," he said moving his large hand to indicate the fire. Sakura finally relented; only easily doing so because of her clear exhaustion. Before the pinkette could even process what she was doing, she had leaned over and kissed him on the cheek briefly before pulling away quickly. With a softly spoken goodnight, she scurried off to her room before shutting and locking the door behind her; pressing her back against it while running a hand through her pink hair in frustration.
'What is wrong with me? Why did I just do that? Just because we've basically fixed things doesn't mean that it was appropriate to kiss him...even if it was just on the cheek!
I'm such a disaster!
I mean my heart is still kind of broken but I... I feel like I should forgive him fully now that we've had a little heart to heart.
It was so long ago after all... and the fact that I am still so in love him... even if I didn't want to be for the longest time. I've come to realize that my feelings... they won't change. Probably ever even if I still wanted them to...
and...he said he loves me too. That's more than I could have ever hoped for...it's just so...
Ugh!
I'm such a fucking train wreck.'
Author's Notes:
(Sasusaku au. Sakura is a very, very forgiving person in this fanfic just a heads up and it is a little fast pace. I hope you still like it anyway. I will most likely go back and improve this short story in the future but for now I hope you enjoy it as is.)
Sakura is very influenced by her love for Sasuke. She is also a very forgiving person so I feel it effects most of her decisions to so readily forgive him; just a little heads up!
If any of these sound like your own writing or another you have read I apologize but I didn't copy anyone's work. This is entirely my own writing.
