Warning: language. sex. violence. Rating is mature.
Disclaimer is on my page.
...Wildest Dreams...
Part Three: Endless
61 days left.
Sakura woke expecting to find Sasuke next to her, but he'd been gone so long his warm spot had faded. It made her stomach twist and for one miniscule moment she worried he'd bolted. Then she smelled breakfast and got out of bed, slipped on her pajamas, and walked in on the sight of Sasuke flipped pancakes while music played from his cell phone.
"So you can cook," she remarked and leaned her hip against the counter next to him, mouth watering at the sound of sizzling. "Do I smell cinnamon?"
"Aa." He turned another pancake, revealing a perfectly golden brown side.
"Didn't even know I had it." She chuckled and started digging out plates, silverware, and cups. "Going through my stuff now, are we?"
"I started with your underwear drawer," he shot back, smirking at her sound of horror, and grabbed the plate she'd left for him, piling up a huge stack. He was about to head for the kitchen table and then remembered it was occupied. Turning, he found Sakura already sitting on the counter, legs crossed, waiting with a smile and a fork in her hand.
He joined her and they dug in, pouring chocolate syrup on their plates because Sakura didn't have any regular syrup.
Sakura moaned after the first bite, dramatically clutching the front of her shirt as she moaned again.
"Jesus Christ, keep doing that and I'm going to feel worthless in bed," he said between bites.
"Well, if you didn't make such damn good pancakes you wouldn't have anything to worry about," she teased and went back to looking at her plate. There was this fluttering feeling in her stomach at the way he made it sound like this wasn't just a one time thing. It sounded wonderful and terrifying at the same time. Her eyes found the calendar hanging next to the sink, still on last month, and the food in her mouth turned to ash.
"I'm very surprised you can cook," she said to take her mind off the future and shoveled another bite into her mouth to wash out the acid in the back of her throat. "Not gonna lie, I expected you to be the kind who ordered food to be brought in or something. People do that, right?"
Sasuke snorted and gave her an are-you-serious? look and swallowed before answering, "Lazy asses do and those who don't know how to cook, neither of which I am."
"Do you enjoy it?" she mumbled around her last bite of food, running her finger around to get the remaining chocolate syrup.
"Cooking? Yeah." His eyes zeroed in on her finger as she sucked on it and then released it with a pop. She smiled, a small smear of brown on her front tooth, and he could think of nothing else in that exact moment. Whatever he was going to say next fizzled out into the shrinking space between them as he dropped his plate with a clang and pressed forward until they were kissing. It was sweet and she let him into her mouth, shivering as his tongue ran along her teeth and then twisted with her own.
Breaking apart, he regained his breath as he continued, "It makes me feel useful in some way, gives me something to do to break the silence in my apartment."
"You're CEO of a company, you probably live in a million dollar bachelor pad and I can't even think of what else," she said behind her fingers, tracing her tingling lips. "You're far from useless. You've accomplished more than most people."
He shrugged and focused on his plate. The mention of bachelor freaked him the fuck out because he didn't know if the term still applied to him. Judging by the way Sakura was looking at him from under her curtain of hair, he knew she was thinking of the same thing. His eyes noticed the calendar next to the sink, one month behind, and counted quickly in his head. 61 days left until he had to leave. The flight home had been booked before he even left.
"Let's have a picnic," Sakura suggested out of the blue and then pointed at him, "but you have to cook the stuff. I'll help."
So they got ready, Sasuke in his clothes from yesterday and Sakura in clothes she assumed were clean. They spent the day in the sun in her backyard, lying there talking and napping and eating. She didn't feed him with her fingers and he didn't throw compliments her way. They sat cross legged across from each other, the epitome of friendship, except for the times they thought of last night and the times they couldn't help but kiss.
48 days left.
Sasuke always managed to be in her driveway when she got home so she eventually gave him a key so he could go inside. It felt different, like she was coming from work to a real home. Sometimes he stayed the night and sometimes they slept. She didn't care what they were doing, as long as he was there.
One day, she invited him to come to work with her. So they went and he helped her clean Pippin, one of the elephants, and they both got soaked and she heard him laugh for the first time, really laugh.
"Shit!" he yelled as she got him again with the hose, right in the face. Then he was after her and they ran circles around Pippin who was waving his trunk and spraying water everywhere when he could.
"Pippin, help me!" Sakura laughed and got rained on with water. "That's not helping!"
Arms caught her around the waist and she playfully fought his grip before giving up and settling down in his arms. She turned in his arms, smiling up at him and out of breath, and leaned up to kiss him before pulling away and getting back to washing off Pippin.
After, they went back to the locker room and dried off as best they could before he caged her against the wall near the showers, lifted her wet shirt and dragged her bra down below her breasts, hoisting her nipples up so he could suck on them.
"Sasuke," she breathed and weakly tried to push on his shoulder, instead finding herself fisting his shirt to pull him closer, "we're at my work. We'll get caught."
"Then let's make it quick," he murmured against her skin, feeling a fire coil in his stomach at the sheer insanity of what he was suggesting. He'd never been this scandalous before, not with everyone always watching his every move, waiting to judge him or criticize him or gossip about him, but now he wanted Sakura everywhere. On his desk, in the open in her backyard, in his car, at her work. He wanted all of her, not just the wet spot between her legs that he felt when he rocked his hips against hers, but her laughter and fucking pink hair and the way she rolled her eyes while rocketing off some sarcastic remark.
Her hand in his pants gave him the green light and he spun her around, pulled down her shorts and underwear with one hand while unbuttoning his pants with the other, slid on the condom, and entered her with a groan.
"Shh," she said through gritted teeth as he pinched her nipple and ran his teeth down the back of her neck, over each vertebrae he could reach. Her hand ran down her body and found his curled around her hip, anchoring her to him. She grabbed his wrist, but didn't make him stop, instead tightened her hold like she was working hard to make him stay.
There was a thud as her forehead fell against the wall. She bit at the skin between her thumb and forefinger to hold back her moans and when she finally came, she felt his lips pressing into her shoulder hard. He rumbled as he came a moment later.
"That was..." she shuddered as he pulled out and watched him pull the condom off and pull up his pants. She stepped closer and kissed him with tongue while her hands went for the zipper of his pants.
"Round two?" he asked with a devious smile, but she shook her head as she zipped up his pants and buttoned them before moving on to her own.
"Later," she whispered and stepped away.
"I'm gonna hold you to that."
28 days left.
Sakura knew they had less than a month left before he had to leave so she suggested he stay with her for the remainder of his trip.
"It'll be easier," she reasoned, twisting her fingers behind her back nervously, "and you'll be able to save some money."
She wanted to kick herself the second she said that because come on, seriously Sakura? he's a fucking billionaire.
"Save some money," he repeated with one raised eyebrow. She knew he was about to say something sarcastic, his eyebrow was his tell. "Or is it that you just want me around so you can have me whenever?"
She rolled her eyes, but played along. "You got me. I just can't get enough of you."
He came around the kitchen table like a predator and grabbed her hips, pulling her flush against his body.
"Do you want me right now?" he whispered against her lips.
She swallowed thickly, heart beating so hard he could probably feel it, and whispered, "Always."
"Fucking hell." He kissed her hard, hands raking down her back and grabbing her ass in an effort to pull her closer. Then he swept everything off the table and hoisted her up. His hands hooked under her knees, dragged her to the edge, and spread her legs as he dropped to the ground and buried his head between them.
"You're—" Her words cut off in a mix of a heavy exhale and cry as she fell back against the table in a boneless heap. His hair was soft under her hands and she realized he hadn't even taken off her underwear yet and was already making her come undone.
"I'm what, Sakura?" he said against her inner thigh, nipping it lightly as he waited for her to come down a little so he could fire her back up to the edge again.
She whined, tugging on his scalp, and then leaned up on her elbows to glare at him. "You're a fucking ass—"
He gave one long lick to shut her up and then peered back up at her with a smirk. "I'm..."
"Amazing. You're fucking amazing," she whispered and looked him in the eye with such clarity, such a mix of desire and happiness and sadness that he momentarily forgot what he was doing.
"And you want me to stay, here, with you," he said and she nodded, biting her lip. They both knew she meant for more than just the night, more than just until the end of the month, but neither said it aloud because then it would be real and so much fucking harder to have a clean break.
Swallowing back all those emotions coming up his throat in the form of bile, he went back to work. He hooked a finger under her underwear and pulled it aside so he could taste her and give her release. It didn't take long as he scraped her clit with his teeth and sucked at her juices and entered her with his tongue. She rocked against his mouth as her moans became louder and more drawn out until her body bent like a bow and she spasmed under his mouth and hands until she came down from her high.
He stood and waited for her to sit up. When she did, he kissed her so she could taste herself on his mouth and she pressed back hard, filling every crevice she could with her smell and personality and body. She stood, sliding against his body until her feet touched the ground, and then started to walk to her room while pushing down her underwear.
Before she could get far, he grabbed her elbow and swung her around.
"No, wear them," he demanded.
"They're wet," she said but her fingers pulled them up anyways.
"Wear them and remember that my tongue was there," he continued in her ear even though they were alone in her house and no one would hear him anyways. "Imagine it there with each step you take, the dampness rubbing against you."
His fingers came down to lightly circle the spot under her dress, the same green dress she'd worn when they first met, and her knees nearly gave out. She was ready for another round, but he stepped back with a smirk and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" she asked. She crossed her arms, trying to block out her desire with anger, but it wasn't working very well.
"To get my things from the hotel," he said over his shoulder and then closed the door behind him.
15 days left.
"Let's go somewhere," she said and when he asked where she shrugged and said they'd just drive until they found some place they liked. So they threw some clothes in the backseat and split up driving, switching off every two hours while the other kept a look out for some place to stay.
She watched him from behind her sunglasses drive her Jeep, the windows down and the wind rustling his hair like her fingers did when they had sex. It was a heavenly image and she grabbed her camera, snapping a shot before he realized what she was doing and could close up like he often did when there were others around.
"It's just for me," she promised and tucked her camera away again before resuming sticking her feet out the window and dozing. She didn't mind the pockets of silence, she was used to them and it came natural to both of them. When she was younger, she'd always been a talker, but with age brought maturity for her, which was more than she could say about her best friend Ino.
She smiled as she thought about Ino. Next time she was in the States, she swore she was going to visit her. Would she visit Sasuke too? Or was there an impending storm on the horizon waiting to tear everything down?
They stopped at a little market to eat, but Sasuke had to take a business call halfway through so they got back on the road. He was getting more of them lately, like the world back in the States was falling apart without him, and she chewed on her thumbnail as she drove. She was growing more and more anxious with each day.
"No, I'm not coming home," he paused, chest heaving like he'd just run a marathon instead of fighting whoever was on the other line. "Fine, give me a week."
More silence.
"Bye," he muttered into the phone and hung up. "I'm guessing you heard all that."
"Considering we have less than two feet between us, yeah."
"I've got a week," he informed her, staring straight ahead like a statue, "and then I have to fly back. You'd think they'd be fine on their own instead of needing me there to babysit them."
"Guess not," she said and couldn't think of anything else to add so she left it at that. She felt his hand on her thigh.
"We're going to have the best fucking week," he promised her and she smiled. Usually she was the optimistic one, but here he was trying to make her happy.
"Fuck yeah we are," she agreed and stepped on the gas. They didn't have any time to lose.
14 days left.
"I can't believe you went back after that," he said as he traced the four long scars down her back from where Scruff had gotten her a couple years ago. It'd all been a misunderstanding, she claimed, and Scruff had only been like that for a split second. She still couldn't figure out what had triggered it and probably never would, but it she refused to let the unknown scare her away from what she loved.
9 days left.
"I'm never eating anything again," she swore as she leaned over the toilet's rim and heaved. Sasuke sat next to her, holding her hair and rubbing her back simultaneously, unable to do anything but be moral support.
"Eventually you're going to have to," he commented, leaning his head back against the wall. They were talking in circles. She'd swear off food, he'd remind her she needed it to live, she'd call him an asshole. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
"Asshole," she muttered into the toilet water, delirious. "I'm sorry, I don't mean that. I'm sorry this happened on our last night together."
He wasn't sure what to say. Was it their last night? Did she expect him to go back to the States and them to never see each other again?
Instead, he said, "Don't apologize. It's not your fault you got food poisoning."
She groaned and heaved again. Something came up and she lifted a weak hand to flush the toilet before pushing a damn piece of hair off her face. "I fucking hate this."
"I know," was all he could offer.
"I fucking hate this," she repeated and he thought they were going to start the cycle all over again, but she surprised him by saying, "I don't want you to leave."
And then she was crying. He had never seen her cry before, if he could call it that since her face was in the toilet and all he could see was the back of her neck. She stopped when she started to throw up again and after another three hours she flushed for what he hoped was the last time. He grabbed a pillow and blanket from the bedroom while she brushed her teeth and then they crawled into the tub and fell asleep, her head on his chest and her body nestled between his legs. He expected her to get up and empty her stomach some more, but she slept from 4 a.m. until 10 when her alarm went off in the other room and then they were off, back to her house and then the airport where she stood at the security check and waved goodbye feeling like the last two months were a million years away.
94 days after.
He could hear his secretary arguing with someone outside his office. The walls dulled the noise a little bit, but after another five minutes of screaming from whoever it was, he grew annoyed and got up to check it out.
"What the fuck Karin," he snapped when he saw who was making all the commotion. "Get out of my office. Get out of my fucking building."
"But, sweetie, I wanted to see you," she whined and she tried to come closer, to latch onto him, but he held out a hand to stop her. She wasn't as annoying as he lead on to believe, but lately she seemed to have figured out he wasn't as emotionally or physically available as she'd have liked anymore. There must've been some internal radar telling her he was interested in someone and it made her all the more desperate.
"Well I don't want to see you," he said, low enough so that the secretary couldn't hear from her desk. She'd gone back to her work, but she still kept one eye on Karin and one hand on the phone to call security if needed.
"But, I don't get it," she muttered, wiping at her eyes like she was about to cry. "Ever since you came back from Africa, the first time, it's like you've changed. I just want us again."
"There was no us," he told her, like he always told her, and saw the determination spark in her eyes. She just wouldn't listen.
The elevator dinged and he hoped it was security, coming to relieve him of this splinter that he just couldn't seem to get rid of. There was the sound of heels and he grew annoyed with Karin as she rambled on. He didn't want a scene, not in front of clients or co-workers who would later gossip about it until it was all over the city and in the tabloids. Front page spread.
He glared at Karin, about to tell her to leave, but saw something pink in the corner of his vision. Whoever it was passed by the door and he would've ignored it except something in his gut told him to go check it out.
"Jesus Christ," he muttered, ignoring Karin as he stepped around her and out the door, spotting the familiar pink hair, but the unfamiliar pencil skirt, dark green blouse and black heels that made her legs go on forever. "Sakura?"
She turned, eyes wide, and then she smiled that bright fucking smile and was coming at him full speed. While she was wearing the dressy clothes, she was still the same as she jumped into his arms without a care of who saw them or how it wrinkled their clothes. She still smelled of sunlight and lemons and tasted even better than he remembered as he kissed her.
"We're you doing here?" he asked against her lips. He realized he was smiling like a schoolboy having found out his teacher was female and hotter than hell.
"I missed you," she admitted, looking up at him through her lashes as she ran her hand south and dipped her fingers underneath his waistband. And then she was kissing him again like they weren't in the middle of the hallway of his business where anyone could see them.
He pulled away, still smiling. "You came here for sex?"
"And other things." She grinned and gave him another peck, this time on the corner of his lips. "Show me your office?"
They walked past Karin. He nodded at her, her face white and her mouth gaping open.
"'Bout time," his secretary muttered while trying to hide her smile as Sasuke and Sakura disappeared into his office.
98 days after.
"What the fuck is this?" she asked as she waved the magazine in his face like it was a baseball bat meant to do harm. There was a wildfire in her throat and she swallowed to keep it down until the time was right.
On the front page was a photo of her with Sasuke and then one of Karin with Sasuke. The caption read 'Which one's the fiancée and which one's the mistress? Turn to page 15 to find out!'
"They always do this, twist things around. I'm not involved with her," he explained and ripped the magazine from her hand. She watched him look at the cover, read the headline, face going from slack to pure rage between one blink and the next. He threw it behind him so that it hit the wall and fell in a heap to the ground. And then he was hovering over her, hands cradling her neck so she had to look up at him, a complete opposite of the rest of his body language.
"Were you with her?" she asked, all anger gone as she tried to calm herself and think rationally. She hated how he made her go insane, even when he wasn't around. "At one point?"
He nodded, slowly, wishing he'd never was but knowing he could never take it back. Her fingers tightened in his shirt and he watched her throat bob as she swallowed.
"But not now?" she asked.
"No," he said.
"I trust you," she concluded and looked up at him, bringing their faces so close she could feel the ghost of his nose against her cheek as he tilted his head, drawn to her, needing to kiss her. "Did you love her like you love me, Sasuke?"
This was it, the moment that turned everything from lighthearted to passionate. He leaned closer and admitted against the corner of her lips, "I can never love anyone like you."
She grasped the back of his neck like she was never going to let go and turned her head an inch to press her lips against his, soft like a summer breeze and then hard all at once like waves crashing to shore. That night they made love and in the morning he made her breakfast and while it reminded him of their first night together, so much had changed that he really couldn't compare the two. Now, he was in his non-bachelor apartment that he'd moved into after coming back from Africa the second time around and they were in love.
122 days after.
"How's it going bro," Itachi asked and sat down across from him at the conference table. They were scheduled to have a meeting in half an hour and the two of them had shown up early, as usual, to finish up some last minute deals.
"It's going," Sasuke replied without looking up from the file in his hand. "The Nexon company hasn't replied yet about their order, but it shows a wire transfer—"
"Sasuke," Itachi started, steepling his fingers together and resting his chin on them. He studied his brother when he continued to talk, seeming not to have heard him.
"And I'm thinking we should place the order anyways to get that in motion before Google locks in their own order. They're sending over some people to play around with some of our new gadgets to see how it'll work into their designs so either you or I could accompany them unless you're gone by then. When do you leave?" Sasuke looked up from the file, completely oblivious until he saw Itachi's raised eyebrow and amused face. "What?"
"Your girlfriend's hot," Itachi remarked and chuckled at the way Sasuke's face morphed from businesslike to annoyed in half a second. All time record, right there. "But I'm sure that's not why you're with her, is it."
"The fuck you getting at?" Sasuke asked, letting the file fall to the table as his fists clenched.
"What I'm getting at," Itachi started slowly, drawing things out for his own amusement, "is that you're in love."
Sasuke made a noise that sounded like disagreement, but Itachi knew him better than that and read the emotions clear in his eyes. Loneliness, longing, sadness.
"I can tell you're miserable. You don't want to be here, it's obvious," Itachi continued and dug around in his suit pocket. He pulled out a folded piece of paper and tossed it onto the table in front of Sasuke. "So go be where you want to be."
Sasuke unfolded the plane ticket and stared at it for a long, hard moment with lips pressed tightly together. "I can't just up and leave. I'm the fucking CEO."
"I've already conducted interviews for someone to take your place," Itachi told him and smiled. "I hear there's a growing market in Africa these days anyways. It'd be good for the company and you."
"I'm not 18, Itachi. I have a life here—"
"Work is not a life so don't give me that bullshit. Stop being stubborn," Itachi cut him off and then sighed, looking truly sad in that moment for what this business had done to his brother and to him. He hoped he'd made it in time to save his brother from giving up everything for his father's legacy instead of making his own, but now he feared he'd been too late. "Look, I pulled a lot of strings for you so if you don't take the offer, I might just have to kick your ass for all the wasted effort I went through."
Sasuke stared at him and then down at the plane ticket he was still clutching in his hand like a lifeline. His thumb traced the destination printed in small, bold, black letters and one image flooded his senses, knocking the present out of his mind for a moment.
Sakura was lying there in bed, right after they'd slept together for the first time. Sasuke had woken in the blue strip between night and dawn and watched her sleep, head on his chest right over his heart. For one fleeting moment, he felt infinite. It was too late to go back now. She would remember what he had with her forever as would she. And he was okay with that because he was happy around her and if it came down to it, he'd fight for her.
Against all odds, he'd do it. Without thinking, he whispered into her hair, "I will never give up on you."
125 days later.
Sakura sat down to eat dinner. She was starving after a long day of work and so she sat there in the silence and the clinking of her fork against her plate. In her left hand was a book that she was almost through with and refused to put down.
And then there was a knock on the door and she swore under her breath, promising death to whoever it was if it wasn't life or death important.
"Sasuke?" she breathed because even though he'd shown up on her doorstep out of the blue before, it never ceased to surprise her. "What're you doing here?"
"You once told me you wanted me to stay here, with you," he started and she saw the suitcase in his hand. It sent her heart flying. "I'd like to do that, for good, if the offer still stands."
Sakura pressed her hand to her mouth because goddammit she wasn't going to cry. She nodded and hugged him, pressing her wet eyes to his shoulder and smiling so fucking bright it hurt.
"Yes, of course," she said and clutched him tighter. This wasn't a dream. "Yes, yes, yes."
206 days later.
She pulled him by the hand through the waist high grass with so much strength he thought she was going to wrench his arm off.
"Hurry your slow ass up," she demanded and they continued to climb, him grumbling the entire time. He hiked the blanket under his arm up higher and lengthened his strides so he wouldn't feel so stupid being unable to keep up with his girlfriend.
His heart pounded and not from the trek up the hill.
They were almost to the top, their boots crunching along and the grass feeling like whispers against their legs. When they finally crested the hill, he saw what had first sold him on the idea of freedom. The sky was a lighter shade tonight, more pink than red because they'd caught the beginning of the sunset. Sasuke set down the blanket and they sat there watching the colors change as Sakura rested her head on his shoulder. In the distance, they could see Scruff and Prince and Nagi roaming, but he wasn't afraid. Sakura had worn his clothes around them so they could become acquainted with his smell and he wore things that smelled of her when he first met them. They still kept their distance, but they were smart and seemed to understand he was part of her life now.
He smiled, playing with the tip of her braid, twirling it around one finger. Almost without sound, he whispered, "We need this."
I'm kind of sad this story has ended, it was one hell of a journey writing it. I feel like I experienced some of these moments just with how invested I was in writing it and so I hope some day I find even a sliver of happiness like these two did. This is the kind of writing I'll look back at and be like wow, I wrote this, this is why I write.
Thanks for reading everyone!