Hi. For the people wondering about my lack of updating, I've been getting a major lack of sleep. I've been dozing off in classes and I barely have time to eat while I keep up my grades for when I apply to college next year. In short, blame chapter outlines.

Slight lemon in this chapter, but don't get excited.

Ch.9: Valentine's was always A Lost Cause Anyway

A faint shuffling sound could be heard on the carpeted floor of the dorm hallway. A light flickered above two figures as the male moved the female towards her room. She groped blindly for the doorknob, knowing her roommate would leave it open at this time of day, even if she was gone from the room. Pushing the door in, the red-head pressed his hand to the small of her back and walked her to the edge of her bed.

Plundering her mouth, he leaned forward after feeling the slight pressure against his legs from the edge of the bed and the two landed onto the bed.

He moved his lips from her mouth, the lingering taste of her still fresh on his mind as he trailed kisses from her lips to her jaw line and lower. Hearing her moan in approval as he licked and nipped at the long column of her neck, he moved the hand cradling the back of her head to her shoulder.

Slowly, he peeled the fabric from her skin and marked her there as his other hand slid under the hem of her shirt and slowly moved upwards, seeking its prize when he felt her stir against him. "Sasori?" The man decided to ignore it and decided to move his attention back to her lips.

"Sasori, no."

A kiss on cheek.

"Sasori, wait."

The corner of her lip; his hand moving steadily upwards towards her flesh.

"Sasori, no…wait…"

He leaned his head down to kiss her lips as his hand cupped the flesh under her bra, his fingers seeking her nipple. He could just taste her, but as his lips made contact with her lightly-tanned skin, she turned her face away and pushed up on his shoulder. "Stop!"

Sasori pulled away quickly, now standing halfway between the bed and the door as she sat on the bed, her chest heaving and her lips swollen from his attention. Her clothes were crumpled and her hair disheveled and eyes once glazed with lust were now wide with fear and shadowed by guilt.

Megumi reached her hand to him. "Sasori, I'm sorry. I—I—"

"Hn. I'm out of here," he said grabbing his jacket and slamming the door behind him.

The time was 3:30 p.m., February 13th.

Megumi bit her lip nervously as she paced in the hallway, the events of yesterday replaying in her mind. It was February 14th, Valentine's Day. The dorms were mostly empty seeing how it was a Saturday and most people were taking their boyfriends or girlfriends out for a date. Temari and Shikamaru were some of the people who stayed back. Temari, because she was concerned for her younger cousin and Shikamaru because he said he had a visitor coming today.

Last night had sucked. Temari wouldn't stop with the worried questions and when Megumi told her to stop, Temari just climbed into bed and shot her worried glances over the top of the book she was supposedly reading when she thought she wasn't looking. It was around 3:30 when Temari left to spend some time with her boyfriend and when Megumi snuck out of the room.

Megumi was on one of the upper floors of her dorm building. Sasori lived up here and she flicked her gaze nervously at each passing door, watching the numbers decrease consecutively as she got closer to his room. What was she going to do? What was she going to say? Maybe she should apologize. After all, what Sasori wanted was perfectly natural and even if she was uncomfortable with the idea, she could let him do it. After all, she loved him and he loved her, right?

'Right,' she thought with conviction. Looking up, she noticed she was at his door. Timidly, she raised her hand to knock on the door when she heard moans coming from the other side of the door. 'Is he sick?' she wondered. She knocked on the door.

"Sasori?"

No answer.

"Sasori?" she asked slightly louder.

Again, no answer.

"I should check on him." Biting her lip with worry, she reached forward and twisted the knob, noting with slight surprise that it was unlocked. The door slowly opened and what she saw rooted her to the spot.

"Ah, Sasori!"

The man just grunted as he loomed over her, looking into her eyes which were glazed with lust.

"S-Sasori?" Megumi stuttered.

Sasori looked up and his eyes narrowed at her. He got up from the bed, his boxers hanging off his hips as the blonde in his bed tried to sit up, her eyes glazed and her chest rising and falling with her pants. "Sasori? Why'd you stop? You never stopped before, so—who's that? Girlfriend?"

Sasori didn't answer her. Instead, he walked over to the door and looked down at the girl whose head followed his movement, staring up at him with unbelieving eyes and watched as he closed the door in her face, the sound of his feet padding towards the bed coming through from under the door.

Megumi stared, unmoving, at the door in front of her. Had that really happened? But the sound of keening moans from the other side of the door brought her back to reality and she could only stare at the door as tears stung her eyes. One slid down her cheek and landed, soaking and staining a small area of carpet. Why did that have to happen to her? God, she wanted to cry and…No.

Her legs began to carry her away, away from the door and down the stairs. Her footsteps echoed around her in the small stairway as tears stung her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She wouldn't let him see her cry. She'd save that for when she got to her room.

"Alright, alright; I'll tell her that. See you later, Shikamaru."

Kakashi walked down the hall, one hand in his pocket as he looked at the watch on the other. It was roughly five o' clock in the afternoon. His meeting with Shikamaru had taken longer than expected.

He looked down the hall, a long stretch of blue carpet that seemed to go on forever meeting his eyes. It was strange. This had to be the emptiest he'd seen this dorm since he started visiting. As he mused what lay just behind the confines of each door, a faint sound caught his attention.

'Crying?'

He turned to the left where he heard the sound coming from and looked up at the dorm room. He knew this room; this was Temari and Megumi's dorm and since Temari was still with her boyfriend and Megumi had the only other key, it could only mean…

He knocked on the door. "Megumi?"

"Go away!" came the muffled reply.

Kakashi chuckled. "College is making you less lady-like or do you only treat your friends like this?"

"Oh. Kakashi. Hold on." Her footsteps were muffled like her voice and Kakashi looked down as he heard the lock drop and the door open and Megumi step in the opening to look at him.

Her eyes were red and puffy along with the rest of her face. Her nose was slightly red and her hair clung to her face as her cheeks shined from the paths of her tears.

"How long have you been crying?" he asked stepping inside.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she said walking to the bed and sitting on it.

Kakashi closed the door and looked at her. "Megumi, don't lie to me. You can't even lie to me right now. Look at you. It looks like you just stopped crying."

"Not true. I stopped crying twenty minutes ago," she said bitterly, feeling the familiar urge to cry well up inside her once more. She felt fingers lift her chin up and stared into his eyes as he sat on the bed. When had he moved? She hadn't heard him at all. She felt him rest a hand on her leg as his other hand still held her chin. "Megumi, what happened to you?"

At the worry in his voice, she broke down and flung herself at his chest.

"I—I—yesterday, Sasori was kissing me and he put his hand up my shirt and I pushed him away. He l-look-ked mad, but—but I t-thought it wasn't—wasn't a big deal and today—and today, I went to go apologize. I—I—I was g-going to l-l-let him d-d-do it because that's what girlfriends do. They let their boyfriends do that to t-them and I h-h-heard these sounds coming from the room and I opened it and—and—and—"

Kakashi moved one hand from her back to brush away the hair that clung to her face. "And what?" he asked gently.

"And I saw him! I saw him in bed with t-this girl and I just stood there like an idiot. I just stood there, staring and he shut the door in my face and I couldn't believe it and I wanted to cry, but I didn't want him to hear and I ran here and—and—Oh, I'm such an idiot, Kakashi!" she moaned, sobbing into his chest.

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am. I'm such a fucking idiot. I mean, I loved him and I should have realized that he was cheating on me, but I thought he actually loved me too and that he didn't care that I didn't want sex with him and he went and cheated on me with this girl and I let him lead me on like that! What couldn't I see that?! Or—or—"

"Or what?"

"Or maybe if I could've said yes when he asked me to the first time…maybe if I had just given him what he wanted, then maybe this wouldn't have happened and maybe he wouldn't have cheated on me. Maybe—maybe if I tell him yes right now, we can get back together!"

Kakashi looked up, alarmed as the girl headed for the door. "What?! Megumi, no!"

"Yeah, he will," she said murmuring to herself like a mad woman, "he'll take me back and everything will be fine and—"

She was cut off as she was tackled to the floor. She looked up to see Kakashi. His shirt was open at the top three buttons and his mask was pooled at his neck and his eye patch was around his neck too. Why hadn't she noticed that before either?

"Megumi, snap out of it! You don't need him! You're better than that!"

Megumi stammered helplessly. "But, Sasori…I—He—"

He shook her shoulders. "Megumi, you don't need him! Look at what you're doing!"

Megumi sat up slowly, her legs tucked under her as she lifted her hands up to look at them. "Oh…my…"

A frustrated, anguished cry left her throat as she buried her hands into her hair. "God, what did I let him do to me?!" she shouted at herself.

Kakashi watched as she looked at herself in shock. Slowly, he helped her to her feet and helped her to the bed, making sure she wouldn't slip off the bed before watching her blink a few times. Her body became tense before she cried out again and began tearing at her skin. Kakashi instinctively caught her arms. "Stop it, Megumi!"

"No!" she cried petulantly.

"Stop it!"

"No!" she screamed, banging on his chest with her hands as she tried to get him to release her.

"No! Megumi, why are you doing this?!" he shouted in frustration.

"Why? Why?!" She tore her hands from his grip and pulled on her shirt collar, buttons popping off and rolling onto the floor. Hot tears stung her eyes as she pulled away the fabric of her white shirt, exposing the red marks marring her fair skin. "Look what I let him do to me! That person—that thing put these on me! He was just going to take what he wanted and then throw me out and I was actually thinking of giving it to him!"

"Megumi, I—"

"What was I thinking? Giving myself up to him like that! Like some whore! What happened to me?! I used to have more pride than this. I used to care about myself more!"

"Megumi—"

She looked up, her features suddenly sobered. "I should go kill myself."

His eyes widened. "Megumi, what are you talking about?"

"I'm going to go kill myself," she stated, rising from the bed, her tail of her black skirt falling off the bed behind her.

"What? Megumi, no!" he said grabbing her wrist.

She tugged on her arm, her eyes firmly holding his. "Don't try to stop me, Kakashi."

"No."

"Let go!" she snapped.

"No. Megumi, why are you doing this?"

"Because I've brought shame and dishonor upon myself and my family."

"What?! Megumi, calm down. You're not in the right state of mind."

"On the contrary, this is the clearest my mind has ever been. Now let go," she ordered.

"No."

"Why?"

"You tell me," he replied.

"Because I was going to offer myself up like a piece of meat. I've hated guys like this all my life…and…and when I was finally presented with a situation with one of them, I was going to throw my whole life away for him! What happened to me? I would've never done anything like this. What did I do wrong?"

"You didn't do anything wrong. He did." But she plowed on as if she never heard his words. He doubted she did.

"I'm like a whore. No, I'm lower than that. I'm lower than him"—tears fell from her eyes—"I was going to stoop to his level. I'm such an idiot! I'm such a fucking idiot! I'm—"

She looked up as Kakashi pulled his lips from her forehead, her eyes wide. "Kakashi…?"

He lowered his head once more, his lips brushing against her cheek as he kissed away a tear before repeating the action on her other cheek, the touches like butterflies, soft and fleeting.

As he pulled away, she looked up at him. His legs, encased in a pair of black slacks, hung over the side of the bed. His right hand was on the bed, supporting his weight and his white shirt was crushed and rumpled against his chest, hers probably looking no better. His lids were lowered and his features were softened by the grey light outside the window, the faint patter of raindrops falling coming from the world outside.

She lifted her head up slightly higher and found herself staring into his eyes. She wondered how they could be so piercing and so clear. As she looked into them, she felt her own lids lower, her body soothed by a lullaby that her ears couldn't hear, but her soul could. A hand brushed her jaw and tangled in her locks as it tucked a strand behind her ear. She leaned into the touch. Had he always been this warm or had she just always been cold?

His head moved towards hers slowly and she found herself moving towards him. She tucked her legs half under her as she braced her weight on the bed with her left hand. Her lids became heavier and they fell slightly lower as they came closer. She noticed his did too. His thumb brushed against her cheek and tilted her jaw slightly upwards as he lightly pressed her lips with his own.

She did nothing for a few seconds, just sat there with the warm pressure against her lips when she hesitantly pressed back and he responded, covering her lips a bit more and pressing his a bit firmer than before. The hand intertwined with the fine tendrils of her hair tilted her head back and she placed her right hand on his shoulder as she moved her lips against him. It was strange. The feeling that shot through her toes wasn't like the one Sasori gave her. There were huge differences. While his kisses were always hurried and bruising, this one was gentle and had no raging sea of lust behind it. It was just a kiss.

Her hand held onto his shirt as his fingers buried themselves deeper into her hair. She felt dizzy, but the sensation wasn't unpleasant as much as welcome. She could hear the blood thrumming through her veins and she could hear the faint beating of a heart. Whether it was hers or his didn't seem to press at her.

A faint shuffling was heard outside the door when there was a sudden crash. He quickly pulled away and she found herself missing his warmth.

Kakashi panted heavily as he looked around the dim light room with a half-lidded gaze, the only light coming from the world outside through the openings in the blinds. His breathing was ragged as he tried to fill his lungs once more and he looked down to see her. Her face was still turned to him and he watched the flutter of her lashes, then her eyes as they slowly revealed themselves to him. Her eyes were still clear, but there was a shadow of fog. They were unfocused, dazed as if coming from a dream. He watched her blink. Once, twice, then she looked at him from under heavy lids. "Kakashi?" she asked.

Her voice was tinged with the lingering haze that fogged her mind and he felt a coldness chill his body. "I have to go," he murmured, more to himself than to her.

Grabbing his coat from her nightstand, he grabbed the knob and threw the door open. As he ran down the hall, his loud footsteps echoing back to her, the door bounced off the wall and she blinked before raising her fingers to touch her lips hesitantly. As she dragged her eyes away from the door to where he just was, a painful twisting was felt in her chest. If she didn't know better, she would've thought her heart had been broken twice that day.