"Itachi! Wait!" The child version of me screamed for my brother, screamed for him to come back, to stay with me. "Don't leave!" I yelled, but the shadow of his figure had already disappeared, leaving me with the dead bodies of our parents, blood pooling around my feet. "Please...don't go," I cried out, tears falling from eyes with each word I uttered, like talking was forbidden.

I knew it was a nightmare, but I couldn't escape, I was forever bound to this dream world, to this eternal nightmare, to this hell. It felt like I was already dead when I visited this place, like my very life was sucked out of me, replaced with a black hole. I tried to move and run after Itachi, but my feet refused to budge, keeping me frozen in a puddle of blood belonging to the people who raised me and gave birth to me.

"Mom," I cried out, reaching my hand out and touching her long, black hair with it. She was always there for me, consoling me whenever I cried or got hurt, making me my favorite food, watching cartoons with me and paying attention whenever I explained something to her, even though I knew she was only doing it for me.

"Dad," I whispered, shaking his shoulder and trying to wake him up. My father would always come home from work and sit down with me, asking what I did in school and laughing when I told him me and Naruto got in trouble for doing stuff we weren't supposed to. I remembered how he always sat down at the foot of my bed and waited for me to fall asleep before leaving, how he would always get me and Itachi games and toys to play with. He would join in too, even after long shifts at work, he would dedicate his free time to his family.

My feet started moving, they were finally unbound from whatever shackles had them, but I didn't want to move, I was too scared. I looked in the direction that Itachi had ran off to and called out to him. "Itachi! Itachi, please come back!" I wanted to shout, but no noise came out of my mouth.

Itachi was the best big brother I could've ever asked for. He would calm me down when I got nightmares, watch movies with me, take me out and not tell our parents about our secret adventures. I remembered when he turned down his friends who were going to the movies because he didn't want to leave me alone in our house, whatever was happening around us, Itachi's first thought was always to make sure I was safe.

Now, it was just me, alone, trembling, no one here, just me and my tortured soul. Just me. I woke up in a hospital bed with aching bones and tired eyes. I looked around my room to see some get well cards and flowers, all from my friends at the station, Jugo, Suigetsu, Kakashi, and Naruto, though I was a little surprised to see nothing from Sakura, but I vividly remembered her holding my hand and telling me to sleep.

The moonlight shone through my room's window, providing a brief bit of light so that I could see a person walk through my room's door. I didn't need to see her though, once that cherry blossom aroma hit my nose, I just leaned back against my pillow and inhaled her addictive scent, why did she have to be so perfect? Why couldn't she be ugly and smell like Naruto? It would make my life so much easier, but then again, when was luck ever on my side?

She walked in, looking as flawless as ever, her bright green eyes shining in the dark, like a speck of hope fighting off the cold darkness, that's some symbolism right there.

"You're awake…" she whispered in slight surprise before her expression morphed from shock to fury.

"Sakura?" I had to admit, the sight of her emerald eyes glowing with anger was kind of scary, not that I would admit it. "What the hell!" She whispered harshly so the other people wouldn't be woken up from her rant.

"All I wanted to do was watch a movie and I get a call saying you were almost blown up! What's wrong with you?! And then you call me annoying, you fucking asshole!" She tried taking deep breaths to calm herself, but she was still a little upset. I watched her sink into the chair she had pulled up next to my bed and put her head in her hands. "I was so scared when I got that call, you have no idea, Sasuke, you scared the hell out of me," she murmured softly, not daring to meet my onyx stare. I reached out my hand and brought hers into mine. She looked up at me and I smiled at her and she smiled back. It was rare, as in me smiling, in fact, before I met her, I couldn't remember the last time I genuinely smiled at someone with as much warmth as I could. I pulled her into me and she wrapped her arms around me gently. I dug my face into her shoulder, not daring to move, I was too comfortable, and from the way she sighed and buried her face into my neck. I heard a muffled sound come out of her, as if she was trying to say something.

"What?" I asked.

She pulled her head out slightly and muttered, "If you didn't want to go the movies with me, you could've just said no, you didn't have to try and blow yourself up." I paused for a second, before laughing really loudly and clamping a hand over my mouth to try and stifle it. She backed up and looked me in the eye for a few seconds before we both burst out laughing like kids. The sound was foreign to me at first, I mean I basically never smiled, but laughing? I knew for a fact that I hadn't done that in at least 17 years, that was a guarantee. Have I chuckled? Yeah, but laugh? I thought I had forgotten how to do that, and I'm not even kidding. So while I sat there laughing my ass off with the pinkette, I started to feel something churning inside me, something that I had tried so hard to throw away and forbid myself from ever thinking again. We stopped laughing and I slumped back into my bed, still smiling slightly.

"Why was that so funny?" Sakura asked. "I have no idea," I responded honestly. She smiled and took my hand in hers again, intertwining our fingers. We stayed like that in the darkness for an hour, silently looking at each other with our hands joined together. She put her head down on my bed and closed her eyes, her hand still safely in my grasp. Her pink hair spilled onto the bed, some of it brushing my sides, it's softness only comforted me more. I watched her silently as she breathed quietly, lips parted and eyes closed. Most would've thought it was weird that I was staring at her like this, but I didn't, because I knew what I had felt earlier in my stomach, I knew what I had felt this whole time, I knew why I behaved so differently around her, why I was so happy around her, like the darkness wasn't drowning me anymore, because she was my light, she was changing me from the cold person I was to the person I wanted to be. So I looked at her and closed my own eyes knowing with certainty, that I was in love with Sakura Haruno.

I slept like a baby. No nightmares, no haunting images of my parents, only pink. All I saw was pink trees, petals bristling in the wind, some brushing against my face, sending waves of euphoria through me. She wasn't there when I woke up, probably because she had to go to work or Ibiki would have her head.

I sighed and turned on the TV to watch the news.

"The police have not found any trace of the person who left the bomb at the AMC yesterday, which wounded an FBI agent named Sasuke Uchiha. He is recovering right now, but his heroism should be-" I changed the channel so I didn't have to listen to their heroism crap, that stuff made me sick, I didn't even disarm the bomb.

"Hey," Kakashi knocked on my door, alerting me to his presence. I nodded at him and turned my attention back to the TV, which was playing Goodfellas. "Two broken ribs, another one cracked, no internal bleeding, though, a couple of cuts, but no debris snuck into your flesh, you're one lucky boy," he told me.

I snorted at that, "Am I?"

"Fair point, got me there," he replied, casually leaning on the wall.

"You guys find the perp, yet?" He shook his head.

"Its weird, there's no missing camera footage, yet there's no sign of anyone placing the bomb." I leaned my head back against the bedframe and thought about it, the theater cameras have 24-hour surveillance, so there would have to be something in the footage showing something, unless...I turned to Kakashi and thought about the only possibility there was.

"What if the footage was on a loop? As in the perp messed with the cameras and set them on a loop so that when we reviewed the footage it would only show footage of regular moviegoers?" He tapped his fingers on his chin, a sign of Kakashi being deep in thought, before looking back at me.

"You may be right, I'll call my guys, be back in a minute," he said before taking out his phone and walking outside. I turned my attention back to Goodfellas to see it was on commercial break, awesome.

"Damn advertisers," I cursed, those damn Dawn and Toyota commercials were sent from the devil himself, fuck off Satan. 2 more ads. A whole minute of ads passed by, torturing me, laughing at me, so cruel. I watched in disgust at some lady using a new Swiffer product to clean up her living room, I had Swiffer too, but I didn't need to see a commercial about, especially when I wanted to see Robert De Niro. The ad finally finished, and the AMC logo flashed before me, signaling the return of the movie.

"Fucking finally," I muttered.

"Why do you have to curse? It makes me seem like I raised a jerk," Kakashi scolded, walking in from his call.

"Jerk? What're you 10?"

"I'm trying to be a good role model, Sasuke," he protested. I smirked at him and turned my attention back to the movie. Kakashi pulled up a chair and sat down with me, more engrossed in the cup of pudding he was divulging in than the movie.

"I wish you had good taste in movies," I teased.

"Scooby-Doo movies are legendary, kid, never forget that," he responded. When I was younger and Kakashi had just taken me in, he would sit with me and watch movies like Scooby-Doo. We would stay up until really late watching movies and stuff, Kakashi knew that those movies would distract me from my nightmares, especially since I used to love them, we made some good memories over those films.

"I'll never forget the Loch Ness Monster one and the Chupacabra one," I reminisced.

"Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster was my favorite because you almost cried you little wuss," he snickered at the memory. I scowled and looked away, cheeks tinged in red from embarrassment. "Uh oh, he's remembering," Kakashi teased.

"It came out of nowhere and I was 8!" I shouted at him, only making him laugh at my despair. I scowled at him and crossed my arms in defiance.

"You're still scared of that monster, aren't you?"

"You wish."

"Prove it."

"I'll fight the motherfucker."

"Sasuke! Language, damnit!" I smirked in amusement at him, enjoying how annoyed he got whenever I cursed. He sighed in frustration and shook his head before checking his phone and sighing even more. "I gotta go, the job calls," he declared while getting up. He ruffled my hair, messing it up, and left while I screamed obscenities at him. I turned back to the movie and continued watching until I got really tired of just sitting still. I dragged myself out of my bed, ignoring the pain that seared through my abs, until I realized something...unfortunate.

I was in a hospital gown. I groaned in frustration and settled back in my into my bed, growling in annoyance at my current predicament. I didn't know how long I would have to be here, which was even more annoying because I would be missing out on work and the freedom of walking around in actual clothes.

"Fuuuuuuck," I groaned, dragging the word out for as long as my breath allowed.

"I didn't know you were that disappointed to see me, asshole," Naruto's voice resounded through my room. I got up and frowned at the box of snacks he looked to be holding. "Its not sweets, stupid, I know you better than that," he said before dropping the box on my lap. I opened it and found a bunch of sliced tomatoes, all assorted nicely with a note from Kushina in it.

"Get better, Sasuke! Try not to blow up!" it said, bringing a small smile to my face, Kushina was too nice of a lady. I threw some of them into my mouth and closed my eyes in satisfaction as the tender tomatoes satisfied my hunger. Naruto chuckled and opened up a candy bar he had gotten from the vending machine, an expression of delight covering his features as he took a bite of the chocolate, covering his face in brown residue.

Like shit.

I ate my tomato slices with the TV on in harmony, finally I could actually eat something good instead of the crap the hospital tried to feed me.

"Thank Kushina for me," I told Naruto, who was still completely engrossed in his chocolate bar to notice anything going on around him.

"What?" He turned to ask me at least a minute later. I rolled my eyes at him and repeated myself, this time louder so that he could definitely make out what I was telling him. We sat there and watched Goodfellas all the way to the end, at least a couple of hours had passed and Naruto had to go back to work. "I've gotta help them find the bomber, but the guys at the station are already giving up! No perseverance!" Naruto complained. He was right though, for once, it had only been a day, how could they give up so easily? I checked the clock, seeing it read 3:40 PM, making me shift in my bed and lay down. I was getting restless with all this sitting, so much so that I had to take some medicine they gave me to help me sleep better. I popped the pill into my mouth and silently prayed that I could get out of my white-room prison soon and back to the real world, there was work to do. Drowsiness soon tackled me about 10 minutes after I took the pill, thankfully, and in no time, I was sleeping.

I awoke to that cherry blossom scent that I was so attracted to filling my nose and sending signals of euphoria to my brain, I was going mad.

I rose from my bed into a sitting position and saw her with her back turned to me. She was going through her bag. Which was on the ground. And she was bending over it.

Putting her ass right in my view.

Damn hormones and sexual desires and whatever else took over my body.

I averted my gaze quickly to my hands and coughed to get her attention. She turned around, hair flipping in the most picturesque way. She was wearing gray sweatpants and a green sweatshirt, along with a headband that pulled her hair back and revealed her forehead.

"Hi," she whispered, sending a smile my way that I tried my hardest not to return.

I failed.

She grabbed her bag and walked over to the chair that was next to my bed.

"So the doctor said you'll be released tomorrow, and since its a weekend, you can recover and Ibiki said he wants you in on Monday, otherwise he'll come to your apartment and pummel you." I sighed and looked at her.

"Please protect me," I pleaded, earning a giggle from her.

"Our next case is going to be in Brigham City, so be ready for that," she explained.

"Sakura?"

"Yeah?"

"Go home and sleep, you don't need to be here, I'll be fine."

"Did it ever occur to you that I wanted to be here?"

"I mean- um, well…" I trailed off, not knowing how to reply to that. She giggled prettily and got up from her seat.

"I'll go get you something not sweet to eat, don't go anywhere." I watched her leave until she was completely out of my sight. I sighed and sank into my bed, wondering if I would ever get used to having a girl around me that didn't come onto me every time we talked. It was easy to be around her, maybe in a perfect world I could have her, but this wasn't a perfect world, and I was far from the ideal person for her. She doesn't truly know me, and I prefer to keep it that way, because then I might lose her for good.

"Something wrong?" I looked up to see the subject of my thoughts standing there with something wrapped in paper shielded by her hands. I almost lost it, I almost lost that sliver of control that I held onto when I was with her, I almost told her that she drove me insane, but I held onto my sanity and masked myself behind an expressionless face.

"It's nothing, I just want to get out of here," I lied, and surely enough, she saw right through me, like always, and like always, she kept quiet. She handed me the item which turned out to be a sandwich filled with tomatoes. I smirked at her and proceeded to devour the sandwich, ignoring the churning feeling in my stomach. We sat there in silence, staring off into space and at our hands, both not knowing what to say.

"So, how are you?" She asked in a feeble attempt at breaking the silence.

"Seriously?"

"What?"

"That's what you're going with?"

"I tried, Sasuke!"

"Hn," I grunted before smirking at her, causing her to blush under my gaze.

"Seeing you like this is actually pretty funny," she remarked, smirking teasingly at me.

"You think me suffering in silence as the hospital's deathly atmosphere slowly sucks the life force out of my very soul is funny?" She looked taken aback at my vivid answer before laughing and shaking her head.

"So dramatic."

"Hn."

"Sasuke!"

"Hn." She growled angrily at me before her face morphed into a devilish smirk. "Sakura?" I asked. She grabbed the remote for the TV and switched channels quickly, the evil smirk still present on her face, scaring the shit out of me.

"Don't worry, Sasuke, you'll see soon enough," she chided in a singsong voice. When she finally stopped switching channels, my eyes widened in horror at the show she landed on. "What's wrong, Sasuke? You seem frightened," she teased in that creepy singsongy voice.

"You…" I trailed off, not able to find the proper words to describe the cruelty she had just exposed me to. It was Dads on Fox, quite possibly one of the worst shows ever made in existence, and that wasn't a joke. "Sakura, please," I pleaded, but she smirked at me victoriously. I scrambled for the remote but she snatched it before I could.

"I'm a little hungry, so I'll go down to the cafeteria and get something to eat, enjoy the show, Sasuke."

"Wait! Sakura!" I yelled after her, but it was too late. She disappeared with the remote stowed away in her bag, meaning I had no way to change the channel. The next half an hour was nothing but pure, unbridled, unadulterated horror. When Sakura walked in, I was curled up on my side, hiding my face under the blankets while covering my ears to keep the shitty jokes away from me. I looked up at her when she walked in to see her erupt in laughter, she literally fell to the ground, clutching her stomach while laughing at my horrified state. I uncovered myself and waited for her to stop laughing, but it was taking really long for her to stop, so I threw a pillow at her. That drew her attention, as well as her ire. She took the pillow and her face exhibited that devious smirk from before, which caused me to shiver in my bed. She raised the pillow over her head while I took cover beneath my blankets to protect myself from her impending assault. She hit me with the pillow a couple of times before deciding that I had suffered through enough between her hitting me and making me watch Dads, the witch.

"Maybe you'll stop saying 'Hn' now," she told me while taking a seat on the edge of my bed.

"Yeah, that's not gonna happen," I responded with a smirk on my face.

"True," she agreed with a giggle.

"You must be bored at work without me," I told her.

"Don't get me started, all the papers I've had to fill out and read, I'm so tired from it."

"Yet, you still won't go home."

She looked at me when I said that before asking, "Do you want me to?" I shook my head slightly and matched her smile with my own before grabbing my pillow and slumping onto it. She got up and turned off the lights so that the room was only lit by the moonlight from outside.

"Hey," she whispered, drawing my attention to her illustrious figure. Even though it was fairly dark, I could still see her face. Her glowing eyes lit up her face, which required no makeup to capture me in her spell, in fact, she might look even better without makeup. She reached her hand out and ran her fingers through my hair, massaging my scalp. "Is this ok?" She asked. I nodded my head, not trusting my voice. She began to hum something, some lullaby, I think, because it sounded soft and sweet, luring me into sleep. I closed my eyes, the last image being Sakura, her pink hair tumbling down to her chest while her face was illuminated by the moonlight.