Hate to do this to you lovely people, but this is the last chappy of Saturday. I talked it over with Inner Aitu (my muse) and we agreed that it would get boring if i dragged this out any longer. So, i really hope you like this. I am actually quite satisfied with it. So...enjoy!!

Several weeks after realizing that I could love Lee-kun, I also discovered that I wanted to. I wanted him to be able to look at me and know that I, too, would always come home to him. I wanted to hold him close to me, not because I was sad or even just happy, but because I wanted him near me. Sasuke-kun's love hardly mattered anymore—if he'd had any interest, he would've taken me with him to Orochimaru. No matter what Sasuke-kun was thanking me for, he didn't want me.

But Lee-kun did. In fact, I think he might've needed me. Well, at least that feeling was always mutual.

As I began to realize this, even my pain started to feel habitual. Sasuke-kun's name was just a taboo for my systems…my lungs, especially. My lungs really seemed to hate that boy's name. I guess it was because of the rest of how insistent my body was on not breathing whenever my mental watchdog slipped up on her guard duty and allowed his name to slip through all my defenses.

On that note, I think my lungs really liked Lee. Maybe that's because, around him, I didn't have to remind myself to breathe. I didn't have to remind myself to do anything. Everything just came naturally, easily. That was always how it was with me and Lee-kun.

The year after that went by much too quickly for my preferences. I unwrapped my heart a little more each Saturday. The bandages looped around more times than I'd originally assumed. I didn't realize it at the time, but during that month where Lee-kun was gone and I thought that I was healing because of it, I was really just wrapping up my heart so tight that it would no longer ache to be alone. But…those bandages also worked to keep Lee from getting under my skin, just so that on the off chance that he ever decided to leave me for good, it wouldn't hurt as bad as when Sasuke-kun did. Those bandages are the things that kept me from truly loving Lee-kun, and I wanted them gone, fast.

It was easier to take them off than I thought they'd be, too…as long as I took them all while near Lee-kun. If I got hasty and tried to remove them alone in my bedroom, they took on the characteristics of band-aids. Meaning, if I tried to remove them, it hurt like the dickens. They would stick to my heart and tug at my heartstrings, refusing to come off without causing me immense pain. So, I kept that little healing process to Saturdays, when it was easy and natural.

I remember everything about that wonderful year, but at the same time, I don't remember everything. I remember feeling dull for long drags of time, and then suddenly being surrounded by warmth and irresistible happiness. At the time, it was the happiest year of my life. (Though I have had happier.)

But, that being said, there is one day that will never be erased or dulled from my mind. That day that I took off the last bandage and blurred the last line, changing the both of us past all recognition. The day he'd given me white heathers instead of the usual daisy, the day I finally had the inner strength to let go of the dark-haired, black-eyed boy that had broken my heart so long ago and just tell Lee-kun that I—

"Sakura-chan?"

My darling beau's voice pulls me out of my favorite memory. I look into his dark, adoring eyes, waiting patiently.

"Zoned out again?" he murmurs, poking me in the forehead.

I smile sheepishly, blushing. "Yeah. Sorry."

He turns his face towards our lake. "What do I have to do to keep you with me…?"

His unintentionally seductive purr causes the omnipresent warmth in my chest to flare up in a sudden burst of pleasure that is very nearly painful. "I'm always with you, Lee-kun. You know that."

"Even in your mind?"

"Both of them."

I remember the first time I told Lee that I had two minds. I think he was about two steps away from scheduling an exorcism for me. Now, though, he just takes it in stride, like the rest of my flaws.

You think I'm a flaw?

A term of affection, nee-chan. Pinky swear.

"Sakura-chan?"

"I'm here, I'm here," I say, purposefully meeting his warm gaze.

"Sakura-chan…I wanted to ask you something."

His serious tone catches me off-guard. This place, this sacred lake of ours where I first opened my heart to him, is a place where neither of us has to be serious. This is our sanctuary from the outside world. Surely he doesn't plan on jeopardizing this.

"Uh, go ahead."

His words come out in a barely intelligible rush. "Do you love me?!"

What an incredibly stupid question.

"What an incredibly stupid question. Of course I do."

"I know, but do you love me?"

Somehow, despite the countless times I've told his that I love him more than the rest of the universe combined, he's managed to hold onto the idea that he'll wake up at any moment…or worse, that he is just a replacement for Sasuke. I really have to fix that little glitch in his brain.

I grab his chin and crush my lips to his in a desperate, urgent kiss. Lee-kun gasps a tiny bit, giving me the perfect opportunity to deepen the kiss just a bit. He kisses me back for eagerly a minute or so, and I can feel his disappointment when I pull away.

"Lee-kun," I say, still holding onto his chin so that he is forced to look me in the eye. Slowly, I break from his worried gaze and move my face to press my lips to his ear. "You mean the world to me. Nothing will ever take that truth away."

He envelops me in his arms, pulling me dangerously close to him.

"So…that being said…Sakura-chan, what would you say if I…asked you to m…m…marry me?"

The question doesn't exactly catch me off-guard. I've been wondering when he would finally gain the self-confidence to ask. Still, I pull away from his embrace and scoot to his side, leaving a foot of space between the two of us. I stare at him for twenty-seven long seconds before finally deciding on my reply.

"That depends. What would you do if I said…no?"

He looks up at me with just the ghost of a smile on his lips. His eyes are filled with understanding and just a little sadness. I hate to see his eyes like that, so I'm a little relieved when he averts his gaze to look up at the sky. "Well…I would be a little hurt at first…but I would accept it immediately. I would stay with you and keep loving you and protecting you…and I would wait until I thought you were ready. And then I would ask a second time." He moves his eyes to look directly into mine, the unrelenting force in them sending sizzling tingles up and down my spine. "And if you refused, I would start over. I would keep asking until you agreed…or left me."

"I would never leave you," I say sharply, making a bit of joy light up his dark eyes.

"But you understand my point."

I nod and break from his gaze by looking at the Creatures' Lake. "That is a very good, well-thought-out answer." I paused for just a couple of heartbeats. "And what you do if I said yes?"

His pause is only a few seconds long. After the small silence, I hear his low, throaty chuckle. "I would give you this."

I look back at him to see him holding out a small back box in the palm of his hand. Without thinking or meeting his gaze, I take it from him and pop the lid back, impatient as always.

Waiting to greet me is a thin silver ring with a medium-sized, rounded emerald at the top. Etched in the silver are intertwining lotuses and cherry blossoms. Whoever made this must've had to give hours and hours of undivided attention. And the person who bought it…I send a sidelong glance towards my Lee-kun, who gazes at the ring in my hands with and odd mixture of hope and pride in his dark eyes.

Carefully, so carefully, I take the ring out of its box and hold it in front of my eyes, watching the sunlight glint off of the smooth emerald, sending shimmering streaks of green onto my pale hand. I smile. If Lee was still a chunin, he wouldn't have been able to afford this. Maybe that's why he was so pumped when he got summoned to the Konhagakure Jonin Exams…

"That's a very good, well-thought-out answer, too," I say without facing him. I sat there, silently staring at his gift for another minute, before I finally turned to face him full-on. Well? my eyes ask him silently.

He nods, taking the ring from me. He looks deeply into my eyes, and I find it quite difficult not to get lost in those dark, adoring circles.

"Sakura," he says, dropping the affectionate suffix in this deathly serious moment. "You are my all and my only. You are all I ever wanted and the only one I ever wanted. Just looking at you makes my heart feel warm and light. Being with you makes me happier than I ever thought I would be. But…Sakura, it would make me a thousand, no, a million times happier if I every time I heard your name, I knew that you were mine, and that no one else could look at you like that. Please…Sakura, will you marry me?"

He holds out the ring to me. I look at it, and then Lee, and then the ring again. "Lee," I murmur, looking up to meet his gaze, tears in my eyes, "Nothing in the world would make me happier!"

I throw myself at him, knocking him onto the ground. By now, tears are flowing down both our faces. But at the same, we're laughing harder than we've ever laughed, almost hysterically. I kiss him, letting his laughter into my mouth, laughing back with him. I doubt that either of us has ever known happiness like this. I can't even explain how plain and simply happy I am when he slips that little ring of his onto the fourth finger on my left hand. I'm pretty much blind because of the tears, but I can still see his grin. And my favorite sound in the world, his laugh, still rings in my ears.

Rock Sakura, eh? Got a nice ring to it.

Much better than Uchiha Sakura. How lame is that name?

Absolutely no character. I can't believe you ever wanted that name.

Me? You were the one who loved him!

Did not!

Yeah, yeah.

It really doesn't even matter whether or not I truly loved Sasuke. He's gone. I'm not even sure why I thought of him in this moment. He doesn't matter, not now of all times.

I look at Lee-kun, my sweet, lovable fiancée, and smile. I know where I belong. It is not in the past, and it is not with Sasuke. It's right here, beside my Lee. From Saturday to Saturday and every day between.

Gah! The cheesiness! It's too much!

Well, guys, this has been fun. I set out to give Lee and Sakura closure, and that is waht i think i accomplished. If you think i ended this fic much too quickly, well...sorry. I like it. Besides, 15 chapters is more than i ever planned on doing, so there.

See you next Fic.
Miyazaki A2