bittersweet betrayals
020. sins

(au~)

The wife knows. The wife always knows. She can pretend that she doesn't know, but she does.

She's the one that does your laundry. She's the one that sleeps beside you at night. She can tell when you come home with another woman's perfume on you, when there's a long hair on your clothes that doesn't belong to her.

She knows.

It begins six months into their marriage. Six months is how long he can hold out for. He begins coming home later, with the stench of smoke and alcohol and sometimes sex clinging to his suit. She never says a word though, so neither does he.

It would be a lie if he said that he doesn't care for his wife. He does—just a little, he supposes. Just a little. Not enough.

"Have you ever thought about having children, Sasuke-kun?" she asks lightly one day, and he wonders if she even knows what words she's spewing out.

"Children are a pain," he says simply.

She smiles sadly. "Or do you just not want to have them with me?" His eyes flash towards her, narrowing imperceptibly. "I mean, you wouldn't want children with pink hair, right?"

He looks away, carefully avoiding the subject that she has carefully probed. "My dominant genes would give them dark hair."

"Ah." She nods once, returning to her meal.

—

On a Thursday evening, he decides that he will return straight home for once. He will help his wife make dinner. For once, he will come home and see her surprised and smiling face—not her fitful slumber because she fell asleep on the couch, waiting for him to come home.

When he opens the front door, though, it's him who's surprised.

His older brother is sitting on the couch (the couch she's fallen asleep on so many times), reading a magazine with his legs crossed. He looks up, and Sasuke can only detect the moment of panic flit across his features because they're brothers, and they know each other like the back of their hands.

"Sasuke," Itachi greets. "You're home early."

He nods curtly. "I had very little work today." He hears soft footsteps, and he knows, just by the sound of them, that they belong to his wife.

"Sa—Sasuke-kun?" Her damp hair is down, droplets of water trailing down her skin, wrapped in nothing but a small towel. "What are you doing here?"

It's a moment before he answers. "I live here." It's not hard to make the connection. He glances at his brother, and sees the way he glances at his wife before looking away. He can see the blush spreading on Sakura's cheeks. "How long has this been going on for?"

There is a pregnant pause, and all he can hear is the humming of the generator in the basement and the beating of his own heart. Then she says, very quietly, "Not as long as you, Sasuke-kun."

And he cannot argue with that.

A/N: Since it's summer, do you guys want me to update this more often? If I write enough, I could post once every couple of days, or so…

(I remember me spamming those who had me on alerts last year by posting something once every couple days. I think they hated me for it. :P)