a/n: this has not been proofread, my bad


chapter s i xt een

Sakura's heart pounded in her chest as Sasuke followed her into her office. It's been his modus all school year, offering to carry her things to her office from his classroom. It had been a shock to the class the first time he did it, but at this point, nobody batted an eye anymore. But still, she couldn't help but feel paranoid. Like everyone would be able to tell what was really going on between them if she so much as looked in his direction.

She jumped when she felt his arms wrap around her waist from behind, and she chastised herself for her reaction when she felt him retract and take a step back from her. Turning around, she found him looking at her apologetically. Eyes soft and understanding, he took a step closer to her again and cupped her face gently in both hands. "You have nothing to worry about," he whispered reassuringly, to which she could only chuckle humorlessly.

She wondered if he could still believe every word he just said if he were the one in her shoes, or if he'd been the one to bump into Itachi and Shisui at a convenience store two nights ago… it was awful. She couldn't stand being in either of their presence–Shisui was awkward and fidgety around her, while Itachi remained oblivious and awfully trusting.

"Could you be any more suspicious?" Sakura had hissed at Shisui when his fiancé was out of ear shot, several aisles over.

"You're secretly dating his little brother, Sakura," he hissed back, a pained expression on his usually jovial face. "It's not really a fact I'm comfortable knowing!"

"Keep your fucking voice down!"

"Do you love him?" he asked suddenly, looking her dead in the eyes, catching her off guard.

She stared at him for a long moment, mouth opening and closing like a lost, confused fish. "Yes."

"You hesitated."

"This is very new and it's very complicated, and–"

"Whatever you have going on," Shisui said, leaning closer, his quiet voice almost threatening, "it better be worth lying to the love of my life for."

"It is." This time, she didn't hesitate. "We are."

Sakura reached for Sasuke now, pulling him into a hug so she could bury her face in his shoulder, unable to take the way he looked at her anymore. With so much sincerity and conviction in his eyes. She remembered that shine–being young, feeling invincible, and feeling like that invincibility would last forever.

But she was an adult now and it took her a while, but she has grown up some.

"Please go back to class, Sasuke-kun," she murmured, pushing him away gently. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Come over tonight," he said, almost whining. "Itachi's staying over at Shisui's," he explained quickly when she gave him an exasperated look. Rolling his eyes, he continued, "For once. Finally."

"Fine," she relented, with a grin she couldn't fight. Pulling him towards her a final time by the collar of his uniform, she gave him a small peck on the lips before sending him back to class.

**✿❀ ❀✿**

This wasn't what Sakura was expecting when Sasuke invited her over. She thought maybe they'd fuck, make up for the time they lost over finals and the winter break when she had to leave for home almost as soon as his scheduled freed up. But he was always surprising her, in a way that made her chest warm and her knees weak and filled her head with the realization that yes, she actually was falling for him–and she had been for a while, but much much faster now.

He set a table for two and prepared dinner, even popping open a bottle of wine that his older brother was saving for a special occasion, though she was sure that touch was just to spite Shisui. They had dinner and they talked–she told him about Ino possibly accepting a job opportunity abroad and he reminded her it wasn't fair of her to be mad because she left first, she gushed over Kiba's litter of newborn puppies and laughed over Sasuke's obvious effort in not reacting to the mention of her ex-fuck buddy and the friendship she's maintained with him, then he whined about how insufferable the engaged couple he lived with were and he looked to be in actual physical pain when he told her about the prom their class would be holding, and they kept it short on the topic of his going to university… it was refreshing.

Dinner and a conversation seemed like the bare minimum, but it felt very novel to Sakura. He even bought her dango for dessert and it was while she was munching on that last piece and he was washing dishes that it occurred to her. That she's never had anything like this before. They were complicated and it terrified her, but it was all also very rewarding. And this was why she could tell Shisui, with her whole chest and without hesitation, that she and Sasuke were worth it.

Rising from the dining table, she brought the last of her dirty dishes to the sink. With his back turned to her, she wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her forehead between his shoulder blades. "Thank you," she murmured, "for everything."

For loving me, like this. For being understanding, for being patient…

They both needed this. She'd been afraid and she'd kept her distance, and she knew that couldn't have been easy on him. Worse, it probably hurt him. Sasuke only shrugged.

Then he turned to face her and blew suds into her face.

**✿❀ ❀✿**

"This is so nice," she said, nuzzling her cheek to the soft cotton of his shirt, as he clicked on their second movie of the night. Sasuke responded by resting his head on top of hers.

And it was nice. They were cuddled up in his bed, all fluffed pillows and warm blankets and his laptop on their laps, soft kisses and light touches here and there. The whole thing filled her with warmth and butterflies. He just had a way of making her forget who they were and what they really were to each other when it was just the two of them, like nothing else mattered.

The movie was one they've seen a million times before, and it didn't take long before it was just background noise. Didn't take long before soft kisses became needier and light touches grew hungrier, and the laptop was pushed aside so that he could lean over her. His fingers slid up her shirt–well, his shirt, really, because she'd changed into his shirt after he'd gotten her clothes wet when he'd started a war by the kitchen sink.

Sakura sighed softly as he moved his knee between hers, parting her thighs. She'd missed this, missed him, missed his touch, and she could tell that he did, too. From the way he parted her lips with his tongue and palmed her through her bra and ground the bulge in his pants against her thigh.

It all felt fevered, frantic, and needy, but at the same time, it was unhurried, like they were savoring their time with each other, like there was no rush at all because the world would wait and the universe was letting them have this. It felt like hours before they actually started undressing each other and they didn't even fully take their clothes off. Sasuke only pushed his shirt over her chest and her panties to the side before sliding his fingers into her slick center.

"Sakura," he whispers hotly against her neck. He raised his head and brought his face right over hers, and she could see his eyes boring intensely into hers through the dim light of the opened laptop. She couldn't help the squirming of her body as he curled his fingers in her cunt.

"I love you," he said, just as he raised her back in an arch with the unforgiving thrust of his fingers. She wanted to say it back, she really did, but the words at the tip of her tongue were pushed aside by a loud moan as he continued his unrelenting assault on the sensitive spot inside of her.

Then he was kissing her, drinking her moans into his mouth. She kissed him back fervently, grabbing his hair and pulling him even closer. She could only hope that he could feel the words she couldn't say because he didn't even let her catch her breath before he was shoving his pants down to his thighs, then he was inside her, fucking her stupid and rendering her unable to form a single coherent thought.

**✿❀ ❀✿**

Sasuke was an animal. He didn't stop until he couldn't move anymore and she couldn't come anymore, until his sheets were damp with sweat and other things. But the stamina on him probably shouldn't surprise her, he was a teenage boy in the midst of a sexual awakening, after all. Sakura had to pause and collect herself as he closed the front door behind her, after sending her home at 2 in the morning, still reeling in the afterglow with a goofy grin on her face.

Taking a deep breath, she fished for her car keys in her purse. She was stumbling down the driveway on shaky legs, shaking her head at the sight she must be, when a slam of a car door stopped her in her tracks. Suddenly, she was sobered up, her heart pounding in her ears louder than the unhurried steps coming her way.

She was a deer in the headlights before he even saw her.

"Sakura?"

She felt the breath stolen from her lungs. There was a lump in her throat and her tongue felt heavy in her mouth, and she felt sick, she felt like throwing up. She searched her head for an excuse, that it's not what it looks like but what it looked like was that she was swimming in Sasuke's clothes, her pink hair was a wild mess and her legs could barely hold her up from the thorough fucking she'd just had.

She opened her mouth and I can explain but she watched his expression morph from surprise to confusion to disbelief, and finally, to outrage. Then all she could say were those three syllables, choked up with tears: "Itachi…"