"You stupid bitch." Shizu gravely made eye contact with her reflection in a big mirror. Seriously, it's like she is still a teen who doesn't know shit about the way feelings and adult people function.

Her gaze lazily slid over to a bouquet of pink roses on her bed, and her muscles cringed at the sight on their own.

He got divorced, her boss. It's been several months since she heard of it and she was beginning to get curious and slightly bitter because he made no advances to approach her again. And he acted all devastated when she left him after learning he had a wife.

Then, he came to her door, asking about where she had been all that time while missing work and went out of his way to excuse her before his superiors and let her resume working on her usual position! That alone was suspicious enough.

However, this morning, roses were delivered to her door with a movie ticket and a very sweet card. He asked her on a date.

But… She was not excited. Rather than joy – which in normal circumstances this would have been – it made her feel burdened. She didn't want to see him privately that much anymore, yet all the favors he had done her kind of obligated her to at least go and meet him.

Oh, why did she not want him anymore? For rational and healthy reasons, of course: it's just that his hair was too short, his gaze too gentle, his hands too soft and he lacked the ability to kill her with his thoughts at any given moment.

During her twenty-something years she had made many mistakes and hooked up with many people when she shouldn't have, but this thing with Madara had to be her worst case until now.

To make things even worse, yes, it wasn't just the sex. She got accustomed to him, she replayed their conversations inside her head when bored and laughed at them, she found the house to be empty without his presence… and then cherry on top – she fucked him right before he had to leave for good.

Who does that?!

Shouldn't a normal person think well before going to that extent? Ask yourself how you really feel, is this thing purely casual, will you not care if they never speak to you again?

She didn't like her answers to neither of those questions, but, alas, she only thought of asking them now when everything was over. Typical.

Sighing, she got up and moved away from her vanity, going to search for something to wear and go meet her ex-mistake – it might make her forget about the latest one she made.

Bright red was all Madara could see. Red light mixing with electric blue, orange, and many more colors. The sunlight was creating them as the rays landed on his face and closed eyes.

So, he lived. He concluded silently, too weak to even be happy for the fact.

He was lying on a soft surface, yet he was far from comfortable. His entire body felt sore, it ached from the top of his head and all the way to the tips of his toes.

"Dude, you awake?" A voice unknown to him spoke, forcing him to finally blink his eyes open. They squinted and fought to get adjusted to the brightness of the day after being closed for a long time, and ultimately they succeeded, as always.

He scanned his surroundings until his eyes landed on a boy who stood relatively near his bed. A young face full of acne, completely strange to him, hovered over his own when the boy got even closer.

"Man, when I found you I thought your ass was dead, I almost decided to just walk by. You're lucky, bro!" He smiled, and Madara even managed to smile back weakly. This lad was sweet, and he did not have any reason to be unhappy. He successfully reached this world and lived, even though the odds were very slim.

"Imma go now, see ya." The lad waved to him and then plugged earphones in his ears and walked out.

Madara closed his eyes once more, the pain quickly made him very tired again. It was so easy.

His body strained and fought to relax, but his mind was empty – in a wonderful way like it hadn't been in years. It was like a spacious, empty, green meadow and therefore, falling asleep despite physical discomfort was easy.

His suffering was no more, it was all behind him now. He will rest, and when he awakes, he will start over.

Finally, he was able to see himself doing so.

Lying in the hospital bed for over a week got Madara slightly cranky, but at last, the day he gets discharged had come.

He slowly made his way down the street, swiftly ignoring the gawking of passerby's for he wore the hospital pajamas; his own clothes were too ruined so the nurses threw them away right upon his arrival.

As he had no money on him whatsoever, he'd walk all the way back to Shizu's flat, but he didn't mind that either. The day was sunny, and he could really use a stroll after so many days of being horizontal.

It took him nearly an hour to get there, and he was glad to find that Shizu hadn't changed the entrance password. He took his time to be idle, only tidying up a little bit of the mess as he couldn't bear to look at it. Annoyingly, he did it all with contented expression on his face.

This is what he wished for.

He left the adventurous life of a renowned shinobi behind to come here and clean after a messy woman. He didn't even dare imagine what Tajima would have to say about that if he was still alive to see this. The thought made him laugh by himself.

It was still hardly past noon, so he knew Shizu wouldn't be home in another couple of hours.

He prepared some food, shuffled around the apartment to find his things, checked internet news for job opportunities…

If he will live here, he needed to soon get a new job and start earning money. The woman he wanted to get serious with was higher maintenance than he preferred, but he wasn't the one to give up on a challenge. Maybe he should use Sharingan to get another doctor's degree just in case?

Time passed and Madara barely took notice of it, as he was too preoccupied with his thoughts of the future, and if not with them, his attention was glued to the television. The sound of the main door opening got him surprised, so he quickly rose to his feet, almost feeling the need to fidget or perform some other ridiculous act of nervousness.

What was he? A fucking bride?

He straightened up and stood still, waiting for her to reach the living room and see him.

It took a few minutes of her shuffling through the tiny hallway, changing her shoes for house slippers and leaving her things on the hanger. She dragged her feet on the floor in those slippers in an annoying way, which, once again, brought a smirk upon Madara's naturally grim face.

He cursed his facial muscles for not bracing themselves better, but figured that today he should just let himself be. Why was he so angry and embarrassed to be happy? Had he really gotten so unused to the feeling of genuine happiness?

At last, she made her way into the room he was standing in, stopping dead in her tracks as she noticed a figure looming in the dark. She screamed and grabbed the closest heavy object which was a flower pot and lifted it above her head.

Yeah, it would have probably been wiser if he turned on the lights.

"Wait, wait!" He warned, taking a several steps towards the wall to press the light switch.

The room lit up, spacious and white, and he just came to realize this was exactly how they first met. He watched Shizu's expression transform from panic, over confusion, and to surprise.

Blinking the shock away, she watched the pot in her hands as if it was some alien creature before finally putting it away in its original place.

Silent, she speed-walked over to where Madara stood, standing close and simply watching him with wide eyes, letting them circle all over his face as if it would turn out it's not him at any moment.

"You're back." She said simply after a while, and although Madara wasn't sure if it was a statement or a question, he answered it.

"Yes."

"For good?"

"Yes." He answered breathily, never breaking their eye-contact.

Then she kissed him. And again.

And he brought her even closer, deepening their kiss, making it all more intimate and meaningful.

There were a lot of things he wanted to tell her about, and she to him probably, but right now there was no time for words. He took a step or two backwards and felt his back touching the wall, as Shizu advanced forward and pressed herself closer to him.

He let out a hiss as his body still ached in certain places, but he chose to ignore it and continued as before.

They stopped after a little while and without a word walked to the bedroom. He already worked on unbuttoning her business shirt, but her hands stopped his in the midst of it.

"Mhm." She broke the kiss. "Shower first." She smiled, and led the way further into the room and into the bathroom connected to it.

They allowed the hot water to run down their now nude bodies, relax and cleanse them, as they continued to caress and kiss each other just the same. Shizu soothed his hair with her hands as it got more and more damp, and started to stick to his skin. Then, she let them roam his body, and very soon he could no longer handle the delay.

He licked his fingers before letting them slide between her legs, watching and listening as she got more excited. As she soon let one of them caress its way up his own leg and stay at his hip, he knew what she wanted.

Placing his hands under her buttocks, Madara lifted her up against the tiled wall, feeling her legs wrap around his torso.

They shared another lustful, wet kiss and at last, he entered her, drawing sighs of pleasure from both of them.

After making love, they took their time to relax and lie embraced, wrapped in wet sheets.

"What are you thinking of so hard?" He asked after a while, as he's been carefully watching her for some time.

"… I'm thinking of a way to tell you I got a boyfriend." The response came after a few seconds, but it was no less shocking because of that.

"What?!" Madara sat up, making her head leave his shoulder and fall into the pillow.

"Yeah… My boss and I… sort of got back together." She sat up as well, and shrugged her shoulders. "But it's no big deal, I'm just gonna leave him."

How stupid was he, really? Had he turned into a crazy daydreamer or had his problems back at home make him idealize this world he had here with this woman?

How could he have forgotten how crazy and irresponsible she was?

"Had it even been two months since I left? And isn't he married?!" He yelled, even more infuriated by her indifference. "What the fuck?"

"FYI, he's divorced. And what did you expect?! Should I be faithful to you from a different universe? I just moved on with my life.

Also, as I said, I'll just end it with him, and that's it. No need for drama." She unwrapped the white sheets from herself and tapped her bare feet around the room, until she finally got a hold of oversized t-shirt that she slid over her naked body.

"Where do you think you're going? I'm not done."

"I'm going to order us pizza and then call Ryouta to break up with him, and you will get dressed and chill the fuck out. Got it?"

He refused to answer, and instead, sulked, averting his gaze from her.

"Madara?"

"Yes, yes, alright! Whatever." He threw the covers off of himself and went to collect pieces of his clothes with an attitude.

"And you'll also change the sheets."

"Don't push it. I'm not in the mood to tolerate—" She skipped over to him and pecked his lips.

"You do it so much better than me." She said sweetly, and Madara felt his anger flying away, then got angry all over again because it was that easy for her to make him let up.

Then she went away, dialing up a number on her phone and talking to someone on the other line; leaving him alone in the bedroom.

Yes, this is how his life is going to be now.

And when he caught himself smirking again, he knew he loved it. And he loved Shizu, and she him. Finally, everything will be okay.

"Hey?"

He turned around to face her as she stood at the door, cellphone in her hand.

"Perhaps I should wait a little longer before breaking up? You know, I'm this close to a promotion and— Okay! Okay! No need for red eyes! Jesus. It was only a suggestion." She dialed another number and walked away once more.

Fuck.