Cinderella at the Grave
By anna
All general disclaimers apply
two
--
"I am because you are,"
--
The woman on the couch sighed and opted to spread her lithe body across the soft leather. Her shirt was somewhere on the floor and she could see the pink underwear peeping from behind the legs of the table. Licking her lips lightly, she could taste the saltiness of her sweat. Her delicious red mouth twisted when she noticed him putting on his pants.
"We've done it everywhere in your room except on your bed. I mean, I get if you like to keep it kinky, but my back can only handle the couch and the floor and the wall for so long," she said, her hand smoothing her disheveled silver hair.
He didn't answer and began to gather up the pieces of her attire on the floor. She sighed again knowingly, he always ignored her after, not that he was much of a talker before it or during the middle of it. The young woman smirked mischievously; she got up and made her way toward the deliciously comfy white bed. She gasped when and arm shot out and held her wrist.
"You're hurting me," she complained at the strength of his grip.
"Don't ever sit on my bed," the Hyuuga said monotonously, his voice was low and threatening.
Droll knocking on his door made him turn his head, and Neji let go of the woman's wrist. He opened the door revealing the pink haired medic. His silver eyes narrowed slightly and nodded. Turning back inside, he motioned for the naked woman to put on her clothes.
"Get out,"
After the delectably beautiful woman left his room, Sakura sauntered in.
"So drop dead gorgeous is your type, figures," she commented with a slight tone of jealousy and plopped herself down on his luscious white bed.
"No, the unattainable is my type," the ANBU captain corrected and began to put on his shirt. At his action, Sakura pouted in mocked displeasure.
"You'll forever look for her then, because that woman does not exist. Once you have her, she'll no longer be the unattainable. A nasty catch 22 really." Sakura began snuggling under his sheets as per her habit.
"A woman whose mind I can never conquer," he said and raised an eyebrow at the medic who was currently burying her face in his pillow, "you're here because you want food, don't you?"
She pulled the white sheet off of her head, revealing a sheepish smile. The Hyuuga moved forward and brushed a few strands of pink hair from her face.
"Get up, I'll make something,"
It was almost unfair really, a mind with an affinity for insanity is, unfortunately, an unattainable mind.
--
The tension in the air was undeniable. Somewhere in the room, someone coughed. Sakura watched the scene in front of her unfold with slight amusement and a lot of fear. The two men had not broken eye contact in a very long time, red and silver locked in a battle of determination. Finally, Sakura had enough of men and their testosterone.
"Honestly, this is the fifth argument in a week," Tenten said, her fingers tugging at the loose bun in boredom, or indifference.
"It's almost as if they have an urge to get confrontational every time they see each other," Ino supplied.
"Well, Sasuke-kun can either indulge his "masculine" urges with Neji or with me," Sakura stood up and prepared to leave.
On her way out, she dragged a grateful blond man with her.
"Who gave you permission to walk out during a meeting?" the deep voice of one Uchiha Sasuke shot out irritably at her.
His intended stopped and placed a hand at her waist challengingly, "Oh? I didn't realized we were having a meeting, it seemed more like a private rendezvous with Neji,"
Yea! Why don't you just marry him? The childish voice inside her supplied mockingly.
His dark eyes narrowed dangerously, wearily warning her that she was treading on hazardous ground. Behind him, the other Anbu captain was sitting in silence. Today's argument had been particularly heated; the Hyuuga could vaguely pinpoint that the source of the Uchiha's irritability stemmed from one Sakura Haruno's disappearance last night.
"Sit down Sakura," Neji commanded, his voice was firm with the authority of a superior.
Sakura's annoyance mounted to new heights when she found herself the object of the two Anbu captains' angry glares. Upon realizing that a nasty scene was in the making, Sakura opted to submit. Naruto shot her a comforting look and pulled the chair out for her.
"A plague, on both your houses," she muttered.
"You live with me,"
"And you constantly inflict yourself in my house,"
Sakura groaned.
--
"You didn't come home last night," he said simply, the infuriatingly beautiful dark eyes pinned her in a smoldering gaze.
Sakura blinked in slight confusion. Sasuke knew about her pet peeve of being left alone- he was also aware that she continually seek Neji when Sasuke wasn't there to keep her company. Sakura knew that her intended did not ask questions he already had the answer to- so what fresh new info he was trying to get from her, she found it difficult to play along.
"I didn't like being alone…"
"…And so you decided to seek another man's company," he opted to complete her sentence.
Sakura narrowed her brows at the comment reeked with innuendo, "The way you say that isn't very nice,"
"Because I'm the one on shaking moral ground,"
"Are you jealous, Sasuke-kun?" she asked, her finger tracing the table's surface idly.
"Do I have a reason to be?" he retaliated quickly.
"Absolutely none, but you should be anyways,"
"Oh?" he raised an eyebrow in curiosity.
"Your jealousy makes me feel desired,"
He seemed to mull over her comment for a while and nodded his head in understanding. Sakura sighed, Sasuke was rarely jealous. When he was, it was always disappointingly anticlimactic and lacked passion. He approached the emotion with the calmness of an aristocrat and the precision of a strategist. But when his arm snaked over her waist to pull her closer, Sakura decided that it didn't matter.
--
She draped herself over his body and breathed him in. His lips curved into a slight smile and drew her closer. The ANBU mask hanging by his side poked at her waist, a reminder that he needed to go. Sakura frowned in his neck, if she couldn't handle a day without him- how was she going to survive with him gone for a month?
Neji watched the scene calmly and tried not to turn away when Sakura delivered a small kiss to her intended. He only cleared his throat when the small, singular kiss threatened to bloom into something less chaste.
"Your team in waiting Uchiha,"
Giving her hand small squeeze, the aforementioned man nodded politely to his co-captain. Walking toward the expectant teammates, the handsome Uchiha made a small detour to the stoic Hyuuga.
The two men shared a look of mutual understanding and averted their gaze to the woman who was currently fussing over a blond haired man. Naruto pouted but his sparkling blue eyes showed obvious pleasure at being the center of her attention.
"Keep her safe," he said firmly, it wasn't a request; it was a demand.
--
Neji kept his promise to his colleague. His vigilance, however, was almost at the same level as Sasuke's . Sakura found out within a week that Neji was as much of a worrywart as Sasuke was. When she got off her shift at the hospital, he was always there waiting for her patiently. Their walk back to her home was comfortable with a few laughs and jokes littered here and there.
Neji's companionship simply did not stop at walking her home, it extended beyond the plain "keep her safe". He cooked for her and even succeeded in teaching her how to make eggs. The feat made the pink haired medic jumped up and down in excitement like a child.
One day, after a sparring bout, the ANBU watched as Sakura sprawled herself across the grass in exhaustion. He raised an eyebrow in inquiry when she began giggling.
"That was…fun," she said, her head propped up under an arm to look at him.
"If bleeding and bruises give you pleasure, then be my guest," he answered, his side throbbed dully. It was going to be a nasty bruise tomorrow
Her attention was no longer directed at him, green eyes watched in fascination at two small squirrels on the tree adjacent to them.
"Look! Aren't they adorable?"
He smirked, Sakura was a capricious woman and he was more than willing to indulge her various whims.
"It's love," she sighed wistfully and squealed again when the squirrels began to tackle each other playfully.
Suddenly, something internal throbbed, and it wasn't his side.
"What is love?" the Hyuuga asked.
The question was rhetorical, but he still looked at her expectantly. Sakura gave a small smile and he half expected her to tell him all about her idea of girlish romances. He thought she would tell him that love was something indescribable, and the heart does that silly jumping thing when the eyes see the soul's beloved. He waited for her to tell him that her relationship with the Uchiha was the epitome of love.
But Sakura did something unexpected, she shrugged.
"Why are you here Neji?" the pink haired woman asked.
"Because the Uchiha made me promise to look after you," he answered, unable to decipher where her train of thought was trying to lead him. Maybe she led him nowhere.
"Sasuke-kun is a terrible worrywart," she agreed with a light chuckle, "but what did you promise him exactly?"
"I promised him that I would keep you safe," he answered.
"Nothing else implied?"
"There might have been small implications that I would feed you,"
Sakura's smile turned into a pout at the jab at her culinary skills.
"You didn't have to help me buy and carry the groceries or teach me how to cook you know? You could have just given me a box of instant ramen,"
"And leave you to boil your own water? I promised your safety, remember?"
She stuck her tongue out at him and he smirked in return.
"Is it alright for you to neglect other Anbu hopefuls?" Sakura asked, referring to his training.
"It's fine, Shikamaru can take care of them. Upon your request, I promised you my full services."
"Do you think I'll pass?"
"I have been training you for more than a month now. This past week, I'm constantly by your side; if you don't pass, that would be more of an insult to my skills." he said with an air of arrogance.
"I heard from Hinata that for a week Hiashi-sama has been requesting your presence at the main house for some clan business,"
"Yes he has."
"Why are you here Neji?" she echoed her earlier question.
"I am because you are,"
Neji Hyuuga was a genius. Geniuses understood innuendos. Belonging to Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno understood geniuses.
… Ah… Sasuke… the dead ringer
--
tbc-
