Title: everything changes but beauty remains
Summary: Sakura never realized how much Sasuke let her get away with until she lived with him.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Prompt: Accidents Happen
Rating: K
Warning(s): OOC a little, probably?
Comments: CONTINUATION OF DAY 5 (Flood).

The building had sustained too much damage, apparently. They had to take down most of it on the damaged floors, and the reconstruction was proving to be incredibly complicated. What was first an estimation of a couple of weeks turned into a couple months, which then turned into half a year. She was surprised when Sasuke told her she could stay, as they were moving whatever the workers saved from her apartment down to his. She told him she would think about it, but really she was thinking she would probably be better off with Ino or Naruto—Sasuke would probably get annoyed with her pretty quickly, she concluded. And then he'd probably be a prick to her so she'd eventually leave by herself and he wouldn't have to feel back about kicking her out.

But Sasuke was a pleasant person to live with, much to her surprise. He cleaned up after himself, never snored in the night, never made a noise in the morning when he woke up, always put the toilet seat back down—he had only ever left it up the first few days she moved in, out of habit of living alone—without her having to ask him to, never let his wet towels lying around the bathroom floor, and occasionally he would prepare coffee before or after her shifts, despite the fact he never drank any.

At first, Sasuke didn't want her to be doing house chores, either. Something about her being basically a guest in his house, and to him 'guests did not do house chores'. She started doing them anyway, much to his annoyance. Despite not being happy about it, he gave up reprimanding her pretty quickly. Now, nearly five weeks later, he hardly bothered her when she did laundry for him or found her vacuuming the floors. In fact, Sakura noticed that he seemed to have grown used to it—that it had become normalcy to him.

On some days, she couldn't help but to think of how they lived in a similar way couples did, and it made her belly flip anxiously. She blushed as she remembered the all-too-common times she had fallen asleep on her desk working on hospital research and legal papers, only to wake up the next morning safely tucked inside her bed. Sakura was by no means a light sleeper but she was sure that being picked up would have woken her up, and the fact that it hadn't meant that Sasuke was always particularly gentle as he put her to bed.

The way he got off the couch without hesitance or lingering when she asked for his help, how he never asked for money back and often tended to refuse when she offered to pay, and also how he bought her favorite food when he went grocery shopping without her having to ask him were all moments that reminded her all too well of a couple's behavior.

Oh, there was also one last thing: he let her get away with basically anything.

Not that she took advantage of that, of course, but it was an odd behavior for him considering his hot-blooded and impatient persona.

.

.

.

The first time she thought Sasuke would get mad at her, it was when she took one of his family pictures off the wall to examine it, only to lose her grip on the frame and drop it on the floor, effectively breaking it, as Sasuke called her name and scared her out of her wits. The way his eyes widened and narrowed fractionally for one single second, before his trademark boredom slipped back, made her body stiffen in horror. She ground her teeth in worry, waiting for him to explode—but nothing.

"You're not angry?" she had asked him, her voice noticeably an octave higher than usual. She winced as Sasuke noticed the change and raised an eyebrow.

"No, I'm not," he eventually answered, looking at her almost suspiciously. "Accidents happen, Sakura. Besides," he drawled, crouching down and carefully brushing the broken glass away from the picture, before he gently took it and straightened himself back up again. He looked at it, for a moment, fingers tracing his mother's figure fondly. Then, he looked at the woman in front of him, eyes soft. "You didn't rip the picture, did you?"

He looked so pleased—it was a rare sight to see. "No," she finally replied, a smile gracing her lips. "No, I didn't."

"Then no, I'm not mad." He looked down at the mess between them. "It's just a frame, Sakura. Frames can always be replaced."

She was shocked at his complete nonchalance, and how he didn't even seem remotely annoyed. If Naruto would have broken it, she was sure his reaction would be entirely different. "Ah—of course," she mumbled, blushing. "I'm glad I didn't damage it. Your family picture, I mean."

He nodded. "Just give me a new frame and clean up your mess," he said with the lightest tinge of amusement. "And I'll pretend it never happened."

Sakura nodded, too, mouth tightening in determination. "Of course!" she said, giving him a resolved look. "I'll buy you a new one! A really nice one too! I swear!"

He gave her something like a half smile—barely even there, really—and tapped the photo almost nervously against his hand, before he turned around and walked out of the room, slipping his precious memento in his pocket with great care. A silly blush carefully slipped onto her determined face as she watched him.

.

.

.

The second time she thought he would be mad, she had spilt ramen all over his couch. She winced when Sasuke sprung from the couch, expecting him to scoff or growl or do something unhappy, only to have the surprise of her life and when he simply chuckled—chuckled? Since when did Sasuke chuckle?—and made his way to the kitchen, saying, "I'll get us cloths and some cleaning products. We might spend a while on that one."

"How do you know?" she had asked him, suspicious all of a sudden.

"The idiot spilt ramen once, and I was the one left to clean it up," he replied. But the lack of annoyance and presence of a certain embarrassed twinkle in his eyes told her that it wasn't Naruto who had accidentally stained his couch.

"Accidents happen," Sakura muttered to herself, smiling.

She was certainly learning a lot from him, but she knew Sasuke far too well to know that had Naruto really been the one who spilt ramen on his couch, that day, Sasuke would have made him scrub at it all night all by himself.

.

.

.

The third time, she broke his kunai during an all too rough spar. She didn't think much of it until she noticed the Uchiha emblem carved into the handle. Gasping, her head snapped to look at him and she cringed when she saw him grumbling to himself, seemingly irritated.

"I'm so sorry!" she quickly said, bowing her head low. "It wasn't my intention!"

"What are you talking about?" came Sasuke's gruff voice. He really did seem disgruntled.

"Your kunai!"

There was a mild pause. "…what about it."

She narrowed her eyes and gritted her teeth. "Don't play dumb with me!" she said. "It's broken!"

"I see that, Sakura." He paused. "Accidents happen."

It took her a few seconds to realize that his annoyance was gone.

Slowly, almost hesitantly, her head tipped up in his direction. She blinked when she noticed he only seemed mildly confused. "If you're not…" She paused. "Why were you mad earlier?"

Sasuke went defensive. "I wasn't mad," he retorted, crossing his arms. She gave him a pointed look and he scoffed. "I was mildly irritated."

"Why?"

He looked away, refusing to answer.

Sakura bit her lip. "Because I broke your special kunai?" she asked, a little gentler this time.

He looked at her weird, before muttering, "Special kunai? What makes you think it was special?"

"Because on the handle, there was the Uchiha emblem." She was beginning to get a little confused, now, from Sasuke's growing perplexity and lack of anger. Hadn't she just destroyed what could have been the only kunai he had kept from his clan? "I thought it was important to you."

There was a shift at Sasuke's mouth, like he wanted to smile and had trouble keeping it at bay. "Sakura, I carve the emblem myself every time I buy a new set. It's nothing."

Sometimes Sakura wondered if Sasuke was just being too nice to her because he had a soft spot for her or something. Because really, not one once of irritation that she broke a kunai he must have spent an hour carving his clan emblem on? If it would have been anyone else, he would have given them the silent treatment no question.

"It's not like you meant to break it," Sasuke added, rolling his eyes at her while they were collecting their things.

Well, that was true.

.

.

.

She was dead. She was dead. She was so dead.

Getting angry with his sink was one thing. Breaking his sink after she got angry with it, that was another. But this… this was not going to stand with him.

Oh god, she was so dead.

"I'm so sorry," Sakura said again, a furious blush on her cheeks. "Oh my god, Sasuke, I am so sorry—"

"Stop saying you're sorry," Sasuke growled out, gritting his teeth. His back was turned away from her as he sat on the ground and rubbed his sore head. "I already said it's fine. Accidents happen."

Sakura bit her lip and blushed deeper, recalling what had just happened moments ago.

She had been desperately trying to stop the water from spraying everywhere immediately after she'd broken the sink, and had resorted to calling out Sasuke, who was in the basement likely doing some reading on his clan's jutsus, for help. He had quietly come up the stairs and walked in, completely unprepared, on a beginning of a flood in his kitchen.

"What happened?" he had asked, astonished and not one bit infuriated at the state of his kitchen.

"It's my fault!" She had to yell, due to the loud noise of the water spurting furiously. "I got angry with it!"

"You got angry with it?" She hadn't heard him this amused since they were kids, laughing and scheming to trap their teacher into revealing his face.

"Of course I got angry with it! You have the stupidest sink in the world!"

"Just because you can't understand how to switch types of pressure, doesn't mean that it's complicated."

"Oh shut up and help me—"

A gasp cut her off as she slipped on the water, having been too busy arguing with Sasuke to adjust her chakra to fit the changing flow of the flood, and grasped the closest thing to her… which turned out to be her distraction. Out of pure instinct, Sasuke shifted his position so he could take the brunt of the fall, adjusting his arms around her to hold her tightly.

And then, their lips collided. A bit brutally, to be honest, but it was an accidental kiss nonetheless. One that made her scramble off of him when she had realized in what position they were in, too frantic to have noticed the way Sasuke's hand had been reaching to grasp the back of her neck.

They looked at each other, then, breath knocked out of their lungs and disbelief written all over their faces. Trying to take in what just happened between them. Completely unaware of the water continuously running, starting to flood the dining room.

And then Sasuke abruptly turned his back to her and buried his face in his hands, clearing his throat a few times as if this was the most awkward moment of his life.

Thus began the endless deluge of apologies, which led to their current situation.

"I'm really sorry I kissed you, Sasuke-kun…"

"Would you stop saying that?!" Sasuke finally snapped, turning his head to look at her with an emotion that startled her

He's embarrassed? Sakura realized, catching her breath. She caught the way his ears were colored a deep red, next, and how agitated he seemed overall.

"Oh my god," she said, after being hit by another realization. "Oh my god was that—"

"I'm going to shut the water!" Sasuke interrupted, stalking off towards his backyard, while his face was flushing a shade deeper.

Oh my god.

Sasuke had never kissed a girl before.

A/N: Sorry this didn't come out sooner, it came out way longer than I originally intended. That, and my stupid internet could not stop disconnecting (way too much interference in my room these days, it seems) and I couldn't upload it. Ugh.

And to anyone who is asking, yes this will be continued again. I'm suspecting two more prompts. Obviously things are going to change between them! After Sakura is beginning to wonder what she really means to Sasuke, and after having just kissed him, their relationship are going to take a little tip.

I hope this lived up to the first prompt, too. Like, I hope it was a good follow-up and not something that seems off-tangent.

See you tomorrow, hopefully! Let's hope my internet doesn't act stupid again.

P.s. if you see any mistakes, please try to ignore them. I'll go through the drabbles when I'm done with the month and fix em' all. But you can point them out to me if you want to.

DeepPoeticGirl