Sakura had picked up Sarada from school and taken her back to the hospital to finish out her workday. As one of the lead doctors she had been granted a sizable office. Sarada was used to this routine with her parents, always holed up in their work offices. Her mothers office within the hospital she worked at was an organized chaos. While her mother was one of the most brilliant minds in Konoha, her organizational skills and general tidiness typically were lacking. Sarada plops herself onto the small couch in the familiar office and begins pulling a folder from her backpack. Withdrawing papers and working on the small accent table in front of the couch.
The doctor watches her daughter adjust her glasses to work on a math assignment. She can deduce this from the calculator she was operating and punching numbers into. Sakura remembers the illness accompanied by a severe fever Sarada had as a toddler that had caused her to need the frames. Grateful they had caught the illness early. Her vision had only worsened slightly over the years which was a good sign.
Sakura pulls files from her drawer and begins plugging away at updating patient information and looking over charts to figure out solutions to health concerns.
This was a fairly normal routine for them when Sarada stayed with her mother. Her dark haired daughter's stomach grumbled and she glanced at the familiar clock, ticking away in the cramped office.
"Mom, it's almost seven. Can we go home for dinner?" Her mother quickly looked from her daughter to her computer screen clock and began to fumble, logging off and closing up files to lock them back into her desk drawer.
"Of course, thanks for reminding me! Let's go home."
Sakura and Sarada lived in a two bedroom apartment ten minutes from the hospital. The hospital had become the place Sarada was born, her second home, and in more recent years, classroom. Over the years she had figured out where all the secret vending machines were, as well as where the offices with the best candy dishes resided.
The two collected their things and walked side by side to the hospital parking garage. They got into Sakura's small sedan and began the drive home. The apartment was in a more modern area of town with trendy restaurants and locally owned shops. There were always amazing vendors and events happening around the neighborhood.
When the mother daughter pair saw smoke coming from the area their neighborhood was, it wasn't something concerning like it would be for other neighborhoods.
As they drove closer, thick, dark clouds of smoke made it difficult to see down the street. They pulled into the apartment complex parking lot taking in the site of their apartment building engulfed in flames. Sakura tells Sarada to stay in the car while she races onto the scene. A firefighter stopping her from going into the stairwell.
"Ma'am it's not safe. You need to find somewhere else to stay for the time being."
"But all of our belongings are in there!" Sakura said quietly to herself.
Before Sakura can press the fireman further the stairwell collapses and embers are launched in all directions.
"Things can be replaced ma'am. Now please get to safety!"
Sakura nods shakily and reluctantly goes back to sit back in her car.
"Mom? What are we going to do?" Sarada asks from the backseat, still not big enough to ride in the front passenger seat.
Sakura grips onto the steering wheel and stares at her home being devoured by angry flames. Her photo albums, her treasured mementos, and her daughter's personal items all becoming ash and soot.
Sakura feels her daughter nudge her out of her gaze.
"Mom! What are we going to do?" Her child was very intellectual and had always understood things beyond her years.
"Right. For now we need a place to sleep for the night." Sakura says aloud.
She had moved to Konoha when Sarada was still a baby. Having moved her with her now ex husband back when they were younger, happier, and in love. The sour realization hits that all her friends and family were in the town over or more than a few hours away and too far to help tonight.
"We could call dad?" Sarada suggests.
As she goes through all the realistic options in her head, even considering sleeping in her office at the hospital she comes to the conclusion, the only viable option. Realizing calling her ex is the only reasonable answer, especially with Sarada. He had everything Sarada needed because he cared for her every other week with the arrangement they had set up.
Sakura sighs inwardly, trying her hardest not to show too much emotion in front of their child to not give anything away. The emotions she felt for Sarada's father were complicated and she did not like being in his presence for longer than absolutely necessary. It made her lose her resolve and reminded her of happier times.
Steeling herself, Sakura pulls her phone out of her purse and dials up Sasuke.
The line rings three times before a disgruntled voice answers.
"Hey, sorry to bother, but I have a favor to ask." Sakura can hear him typing in the background and papers being shuffled around. Probably still at his office.
"What Sakura?"
She explains the situation and in the background she now hears him shifting things around more frantically.
"I can't leave right now, Sarada should have a key. I can leave here in an hour, max."
Sakura looks at her daughter in the back seat and puts a hand over the receiver of her cellphone, quietly asking if she does indeed have the key to her fathers condo. Sarada unzips a small pocket inside her backpack and jingles the keychain with the key on it, showing her mother the physical evidence.
"Are you sure?" Sakura asks into the phone receiver.
"Ah. Sarada knows where everything is, though, if she's hungry you may need to help her with some of the kitchen appliances."
"Ok, see you in a bit."
—-
In hopes to be in Sasuke's presence for the least amount of time Sakura takes her and Sarada to Sarada's favorite combo restaurant and tea establishment. They eat dinner and Sakura treats Sarada to her favorite bubble tea. While her daughter is busy at the shop's claw machine Sakura calls her insurance provider and files a claim on her apartment. The claim will take time to process and the faster she deals with this the quicker she will be moved back into a place of her own. Maybe she will finally bite the bullet and buy a house for her and Sarada to live in. She had been saving up for one for years, maybe this was the cruel push of fate she needed.
Prolonging their dinner and tea treat for as long as possible she finally suggests they make their way over to Sasuke's condo.
The whole drive over to his condo Sakura's palms sweat wiping them several times on her work pants. And…
Oh god, it was just now hitting her. All her belongings were probably lost to the flames. All her pictures, Sarada's belongings, her books, everything. It didn't matter, things could be replaced. Sarada was safe. That was all that mattered. The fear, the helplessness, the anxiety were all nestling themselves into Sakura's fragile mind.
"Mama, it's this lot." Taken out of her trance when Sarada points out they are at Sasuke's condo and this is the parking lot that she should park in.
Autopilot takes over as Sakura follows her daughter into the entrance of the condo building. Sarada punches in the code to the building, and they ride the elevator up to his floor. The elevator up Sakura feels numbness taking over her, her legs wobbling ever so slightly. Which didn't really make sense, she dealt with high stress situations at work everyday, literal life and death.
But this, this?
What if Sarada was in the apartment?
What if they had been asleep?
What if she was still with Sasuke?
What if this never would have happened if they had never gotten divorced?
The what if's begin clouding her mind like the smoke that had been rising into the atmosphere from her home earlier that evening. The elevator dings before she can fall deeper into the spiral of her torrential thoughts.
"Mama? Are you coming?" Sarada asks from the open doorway of Sasuke's condo a few feet away, down the hall. Sakura looks down at her feet, still wearing her work heels, noticing a light stain of ash from stepping out of her car earlier. She somehow hoped if she stared hard enough at them they would move on their own accord and take her to the doorway.
Her feet don't make the move, but the elevator dinging again, signaling it was closing, spooks her to move. She hops out at the last minute and walks over to her daughter.
Sakura has to remember to be strong and brave for her girl, especially in this instant. Sarada had seen the flames and the smoke the same as she had.
'Girls have to be tough to survive.'
She had been nailing that phrase into Sarada since she was all but toddling about. Sakura needed to reign herself in.
The pinkette steps into his condo, removing her heels, and taking in his decor. Sarada had wandered off to a different area of the condo after making sure her mother had made it inside. Sakura sees everything in pristine condition, from the furniture to the wall art.
What surprises her is the pictures he has chosen for his home. He has framed pictures of his immediate family and a few of Sakura, Sarada and himself back from when they were together and happy.
"Mama, do you want to see my room?" Sarada calls out, poking her head out from a doorway down a long hallway.
"Sure!"
Sakura walks into her daughter's room at her ex-husband's condo and sees a cozy bedspread, cute wall art, and a desk cluttered with different pens, markers and papers. She can tell Sarada had chosen most, if not all the furniture and personal touches in here. One thing Sakura could never fault Sasuke for was being an amazing father. He had loved Sarada before they had even known it would be her. He was patient when she cried as an infant, he was thoughtful when she was a toddler, and he had always paid attention and special care to her.
Now their eleven year old was a whole person and understood most things, having inherited her parents intelligence.
Sakura hears a lock turning and the click of a door opening. Clenching and unclenching her fists she feels her palms become sweaty again and she calls out alerting him of their presence.
"We're in Sarada's room!"
"Papa!" Sarada runs out of her room and goes to her father embracing him in a tight hug in the entryway.
Sakura trails slowly behind, making eye contact finally as she nears the end of the hall. Anxiety and mixed emotions clouding her senses force out how she needs to leave, before she can filter out what she should say.
"I should go. I'll pick Sarada up in the morning to take her to school."
Sasuke and Sarada both look at her as if she had just grown a second head.
"Mama, where are you going to stay?"
"I, well, I was going to go back to the hospital. I have a couch in my office." She says nervously knowing it's a lame excuse.
"Sakura."
She looks up and meets his dark stare.
"Don't be annoying. Just stay in the guest room."
"...or in my room!" Sarada tacks on.
She doesn't know if she should feel angry that her ex called her annoying, or if she should feel grateful he had seen through her lame excuse. He always was damned good at reading her.
If she was honest she was incredibly shaken up. Her home, everything she owned, burnt to a crisp, as well as having to ask for help from her ex who she was on uncertain terms with, had made her day incredibly stressful and traumatizing.
"If that's ok with you?" She asks softly, looking at Sasuke's expression.
"Ah. It's the room next to Sarada's."
Sakura nods and watches as he loosens his tie and asks Sarada if she wants anything from the kitchen. She watches his adam's apple bob as he swallows dryly.
"Did you want anything?" He asks, looking at her. She can tell he has to be as exhausted as she was, his eyes always had given him away.
"No, no, I'm fine. If it's alright, I am going to lie down for a bit." He nods and Sarada is talking a mile a minute about school, and the tea they had today.
What Sakura hadn't seen was his gaze, watching her, as she retreated down the dark hallway.
—-
Sasuke had stared at his personal phone while it buzzed and buzzed. Snapping out of his curiosity, he quells it when he answers and his ex-wife starts talking.
Once their call has ended and she has agreed to go over to his condo with Sarada, does he put his head into his hands. He feels a mix of emotions he had not counted on dealing with today.
Fear, regret, possession, anxiety, and anger.
All from one phone call from her.
Sasuke only had to talk to Sakura when they were making joint decisions in accordance with their daughter. He only had to see her for weekly drop offs and switch offs for Sarada. In the three years they had been divorced he hadn't even entered her apartment and she had never been inside his condo let alone the building it was housed in.
Just from their brief call he could tell she was pretty shaken up.
Sasuke had always been good at reading her facial expressions, voice changes, and body language. He could tell she was straining to put on a show of bravery on.
Trying to think of anything else, he tries to focus back on the cases, the wills, and trusts he has to edit.
After staring at the same sub clause for a half hour he realizes he was not going to be productive the rest of the day. He had done plenty already today, having worked two hours overtime already.
He takes the stairs, in his weird attempt to stay fit, since he did not have the time to devote to any other fitness practices. Uchiha Law occupied the twelfth floor of a downtown office building. Going up and down multiple times a day had to count for something right?
He gets into his car and drives the short distance to his condo. Once parked in his allotted resident spot he turns off his car, leans his head against the wheel and sighs. The street lights illuminating the inside of his car.
This was going to be awkward.
Fuck him for being worried about her right now. Fuck him for wanting to embrace her and tell her everything would be alright. Fuck his emotions.
Sakura and Sarada were both ok, that was all that mattered.
When he unlocks the door and enters he looks around his place making sure he didn't forget to leave anything weird out. Not that he had anything weird to really hide per se but he was still paranoid. He was sure she was going to comment on the pictures on the walls.
He liked the pictures, and they were good for Sarada to see that they had once been a happy family.
When Sasuke finally sees his ex-wife after their daughter has embraced him in a bear hug he can't stop sneaking glances at her. He never gets to see her for longer than a couple minutes for switch offs and she was looking as good as ever. Still tone, and still effortlessly beautiful.
He goes into his kitchen and starts making Sarada something to eat while Sakura retreats to his guest room.
He would check on her after Sarada had gone to sleep.
Maybe they could actually have a conversation without everything falling apart.
Maybe.
TBC…