Author's Note: Alright. Just gonna get this out. Britney Spears makes me write really weird things. Like that last scene between Sakura and Sasuke. They don't kiss. They aren't kissing for a long time yet. But seeing as how I got my SasuSaku inspiration back for a little bit, I managed to squeeze some fluff into this chapter. It was originally going to be Sasuke dissing her and leaving her behind, but I figured Sakura deserved some love, since I've been ditching this story as of late. And the reason for that is the crossover I started that no one seems to like. So, please, if you like my writing, please read and review it, even if you don't know the shows. Anyway, I just wanna repeat something. They didn't kiss. They won't kiss. They haven't kissed. Present, future, and past. All the tenses, so hopefully that clears things up as far as the reviews go. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or Inuyasha. Or anything else except for Kimura Akira. Arigatou.
"I'm going to kill him. I'm seriously going to kill him. It's all his fault I got a detention," I muttered as I stomped out of my second block class. Akira sighed from beside me, and face-palmed.
"You do realize that he has nothing to do with the fact that you got in trouble, right? And you're not the only one with a detention. I got one for 'provoking you'. What kind of reason is that?" she replied, shaking her head. I huffed, and folded my arms over my chest.
"A pretty good one if you ask me," I snorted, sticking my nose up into the air. "You deserve it."
"Shut it Ms. Kagome," she shot back. I smirked, and sighed, slinging my ridiculously annoying black bag over my shoulder. I would be tempted to use it as a weapon, you could be sure of that. "Besides, how are you going to handle Uchiha?"
"Why does it matter to you?" I asked, throwing her a sidelong glance. She shrugged, and blinked her sapphire eyes. I sighed, and shook my head. "I'm going to kill him. That's all you need to know."
"Fine. Fair enough. By the way, how would you go about fighting Yamanaka?" I sighed, and shrugged. I had no clue how I would go about fighting her because I'd never fought her.
Unless you count that one time when I supposedly stole her crayons and hid them in Naruto's back pocket back when we were in kindergarten. According to Ino, that experience had opened her eyes to the world of boys and, dare I say, sex at a very early age. And that was gross. It wasn't like she had to go reaching around Naruto's butt in order to get her crayons. I'd left them in the box, after all, and shoved them into the left side pocket where Naruto tended to lean on when he sat on his chair. How I knew this, was because he'd made it a habit to sit on my lap after nap time and catch his sleep on the surface of my thighs. The only thing I remember out of that one experience was that I realized that I never wanted to have a boyfriend. And to never let Naruto eat miso pork ramen before nap time. And if you did, make sure that you have some peppermint on you. Or else the entire room will smell like Ichiraku Ramen. I'd learned that the hard way. And the hard way was indeed very hard. But as for Ino, I had no idea how to go about fighting her. We weren't 'ninja' back then. We were children, so we didn't have ninjutsu. And even when we talked to each other after school all the time (Before Sasuke started passing out on my couch at exactly 4:00 in the afternoon), we'd never discussed abilities and techniques. I was clueless.
"Akira, I can honestly tell you that I have no idea how to go about fighting her. You're on your own," I answered, shaking my head. Akira sighed, and tapped her fingers up to the side of her glasses.
"You're so useless, you know that? Maybe that's why Uchiha made out with Yamanaka the other day," she shot back, narrowing her eyes. I sighed, and kept walking.
"Yeah, keep talking," I muttered back, continuing forward. Akira fell in step beside me, as we walked through the hallway, my mind finally at peace. Thinking about Sasuke wasn't exactly one of the things I wanted to do at the moment. Because once I started, I couldn't stop. And since he didn't seem to be around, that was even better.
"Sakura, I hate to break it to you, but Uchiha's around the corner." I swung my head toward her, and narrowed my eyes.
"Why does it matter to you?" I asked, tossing my head. "You said that you were happy that you didn't have to worry about me getting in your way of ending up with him, didn't you?"
"Well yes, but it's obvious that you're pining away for him. Just that look on your face just now," she started, scratching the side of her face nervously. I blinked.
"Who cares about the look on my face! Just because I had a faraway look in my eyes doesn't mean that I was thinking about him," I argued. She smirked.
"You're a liar," she muttered back. I snarled, and balled my hands up at my sides.
"I AM NOT!" I screeched in reply, slamming my right foot into the floor like the little brat that I was. Akira noticed this, and yawned.
"You're so boring. No fun, no leash, no control. You're no fun to mess with," she pointed out dryly. I sighed, and swung around.
"Was I really that obvious?" I asked in a tiny voice, much to Akira's satisfaction. She put her hand on my shoulder lightly, and nodded. I resisted the urge to face-palm. This was getting ridiculous.
"Yeah, you were. Anyway, what were you thinking about?" I blushed, and jerked my head back. I honestly didn't think of anything other than his normal 4:00 to 6:00 napping times. And the peaceful look on his face whenever he slept on my couch during those two hours. And the urge to reach out and touch it.
"Oh nothing, just…Thinking about how I'm going to kill him," I replied. She lifted an eyebrow.
"You're still mad at him, aren't you?" I nodded in response. There was no other answer I could give. I was mad. I was jealous. And as much as it hurt to admit, I wanted to cry.
He was intoxicating. I thought about him all the time. I saw him all the time. I heard his voice all the time. It was annoying, and poisonous. He was slowly becoming addicting, and at the rate at which I was falling, I wouldn't be resurfacing for a long time. Just how much longer would I be able to resist the venom in his veins? Just how much further could I go before I gave in? My limits were swiftly approaching, and the burden was weighing down on my shoulders, threatening to crush me under its unreasonable weight. Gravity wasn't my friend at the moment. And neither was Sasuke. He was making me weak. I detested weakness, I detested vulnerability. But hating something that was a part of me wouldn't get me anywhere. I had to accept it. Accepting how I was and the workings of my own weak heart would make the burden easier to carry. Wrong. It wouldn't make anything better. And giving in to the burden wouldn't make anything easier either. I just had to keep going. I had to deal with it without making any more unexpected moves. I had to wait. I had to be strong. I could do this, because I was Haruno Sakura, the spitfire of Konoha. Not that it meant anything. He was still toxic, and that was never going to change. I would never become immune to the poison he bore. That much I knew. I was already infected, infatuated, and intoxicated.
I sighed, and leaned my face forward, sighing again. "I'm not mad at him. I'm angry at myself, mostly."
"Do you want to talk about it?" I shook my head, and continued walking down the hallway.
"I'd rather not. It's between me and Sasuke. Just us two." I broke away from her, and shoved my hands into my pockets.
It was lunch time, luckily. I would be able to go to the library and be alone with my thoughts as I ate, instead of sitting at the same table as Sasuke, Ino, and Akira. The only issue was the locker encounter that swiftly approached. I didn't know how to face him. Should I be coy and meek? Should I be loud and obnoxious? I had no clue. Now that I'd thought about my feelings, I could easily accept them. I knew now the depths of my feelings for him were deeper than I'd originally expected. I was in far deeper than I'd originally thought, and it was too late to pull back. The surface was too far away, and the only thing I could do was sink into the blackness. The onyx blackness that was his eyes. I couldn't do anything else. I was trapped, crucified in their depths. But what else could I do? Grin and bear it? Or should I admit to him how I felt? But if I did that, then Ino, Karin, and Akira would be angry, and I'd be the most hated girl in the school. And Sasuke had told me to wait. Wait? He was regarding my question, not me. But I couldn't just come out and confess after this morning. I had a lot to apologize for.
And I was aware of that as I neared my locker, and him as well. I lifted my eyes, and blinked at him. The window beside our lockers was bright with sunlight, but I couldn't see it. The stillness that I drew closer to, radiated power and darkness. He was angry. The way the planes of his face tensed. The way his jaw was locked. He was furious. Not at me, I hoped, but he was angry at something. But then again, so was I. I took a few more steps as his anger and rage enveloped me, wrapping me in the silkiness of his tension. Dancing would heal him. Holding him would heal him. But I couldn't do that. I couldn't reach out and hold him. He'd push me away. He wouldn't accept comfort, and I knew that. But my feet were moving faster now, picking up speed as the thought crossed my mind. I blinked, and parted my lips, as Sasuke turned toward me, pausing for a second. His eyes held the same anger that tightened around me. Bitter, sparking like flint, he was pissed. He was furious, but for what? A bad grade? A fight? An argument? I could feel the electricity of his rage crackling through the air around him as I approached, and it was potent. He needed comfort. He needed it. All of it. Anything I could give him, he would take. My bag slid to the floor as I hesitantly wrapped my arms around him, lying my head against his shoulder.
"Sasuke," I murmured faintly, holding him limply in my arms, my hands lightly placed upon his shoulder blades.
He could pull away if he wanted to. He could push me away if he wanted to, which I was sure he would. All of the hurt I'd been suppressing began to tremble. His heart was so close, beating against the side of my chest. I could hear it. I could feel it. I could barely see it. But it wouldn't matter. I would never hold it in my hands. Not like he held mine. I would never be able to have him to myself, and I knew that. It was hard just cradling him like I was. He wasn't even holding me back. He hadn't even moved. No response. Nothing. My eyes drifted closed, warmth pooling at the corners before sliding along the rims, impatient to spill. Tears. I hated them too. I hated anything that had to do with being weak. So why was I holding him like this? Was I really protecting him? Was I being selfish? I knew that I wanted to be loved, and I also knew that love wasn't for me, but why was it so hard? Why was it so hard to be human and let go of my desire to be strong? Why was I the way I was? Why was I so difficult? The pain blossomed in my chest, pulsing through my body with each of my wary heart beats, carried by my sluggish blood stream. As a result, I sank even further into the black. Was that it? Was I destined to sink further and further into the blackness without any hope of resurfacing? Was that all that lay in wait for me?
"Sasuke," I breathed, my arms tensing against his rib cage. He made no move. But I could barely hear his breath tremble. His voice quivered. "I can't bear it anymore."
"What are you talking about?" he answered softly. I held him tighter.
"All of it," I replied, closing my eyes. "I can't take it anymore."
"You can't take what, Sakura?" He was angry. Tension flowed through his words, underlining them with black sharpie. He was furious. But why?
"You're angry," I pointed out, loosening my grip on him. Sasuke snorted.
"None of your business," he replied. I gritted my teeth, the tears beginning to spill. Why couldn't he see me? Why didn't he understand? My tears slid down the sides of my face, heedless of my desire to hold them back. My entire body began shaking.
"Why, Sasuke?" I whispered, forcing my voice to remain calm. I could hear him blink expectantly. "Why won't you let me in?"
"Because it's none of your concern," he answered irritably. I flinched. "Keep your nose out of my business."
"So I'm supposed to sit by and watch you tear yourself apart? You're in pain, Sasuke. I can see that. Why won't you let me help you?" I murmured back, my voice breaking. Sasuke snapped his teeth together.
"Tch," he spat out, grabbing my shoulders in his hands roughly. "Just leave me alone."
I let my arms fall to my sides, and lifted my tear-streaked face angrily. "WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO PICK A FIGHT WITH ME? WHY CAN'T YOU JUST SHUT UP AND LET ME HELP YOU?"
"I don't like repeating myself," he retorted, narrowing his eyes. "Leave. Me. Alone."
"THIS IS ALREADY HARD ENOUGH!" His eyes flickered as his hands fell from my shoulders. Just once. Only once. One single time. I looked back him with quivering irises and tears falling to the floor, my heart beating in my chest. He was silent. I took that as a chance to escape.
I turned from Sasuke, and walked back down the way in which I came, leaving him behind me. Walking away was the only thing I could do. I was already in tears. There was nothing else I could do. He wouldn't explain anything to me, and I was already hurting. So why did it matter so much? I'd wanted to ask him if the rumors were true, and rail him about not trusting me, but it turned into something like this. Why was that? Was I truly that weak? It seemed like every time I tried to talk to him, all I ever did was cry and sob. That was because that's all that's happened the past few times I'd talked to him. But this wasn't what I wanted. I didn't want to retreat from him. I didn't want to give up. I wanted to talk to him about how I felt, instead of hiding things from him. If he really was my friend, I should trust him as well. Was this pain because I was hurt by the fact that he didn't trust me? Or was it because I was agonizing over my feelings for him and the potential that he might already like someone else? And the fact that that 'someone else' could be Ino? I knew that I was tearing myself apart over this, but I couldn't stop myself. I was still alive, despite the storm that had passed. I could hear his heart calling me, its voice echoing through my skull. My concrete heart wasn't beating, long dead in the wake of the storm. He couldn't reach me. Then, a hand caught mine.
My eyes widened, but I didn't speak. He did though. "Sakura…"
"Why Sasuke? Don't you trust me?" He blinked, and his grip on my hand loosened ever so slightly.
"Hn," he sighed, and blinked again. My heart pounded in my chest, as his hand fell from mine.
Burning. My hand was burning. My hand was on fire, blazing warm. I could feel the flames burst to life from the center of my palm before enveloping the rest of my hand in a sweep of heat. Trembling. My body was trembling. Quivering breath after quivering breath passed, and yet, the shaking that had bent and contorted my entire form for the past circles and knocks of the sand turner in my heart hollowed as Time continued rushing by. His fingers were so close. So close. I could reach out and touch them, hold them, weave them together with mine. But the speed of my heart rate wouldn't take them where they had to go. Carrying the pieces of my heart on my fingertips was no easy task. Each trembling second that passed, the burning grew worse. So silent, quiet. I couldn't hear anything. I couldn't feel anything. His chest was against my back, and I couldn't hear anything. Feeling anything was mute. So silent, voiceless. Even if my heart could move to speak, make a sound, it didn't come. It wouldn't come. My heart had become concrete once again, forever more. Eternal as the flowing river of Time that cradled us against each other. The future wouldn't wait. The present wouldn't heed to my reaching fingers, our inertia. But the past would remain so silent, so deathly hollow. My pink hair billowed around the sides of my face with the sudden rush of wind, my jade eyes struggling to grasp the frozen reaches of my dying heart. I would become bitter again. I dropped my chin, and smiled ever so slightly. With the last flicker of light within me dark, I de-transformed.
"So this is how you want it to be then?" I asked softly. A choked noise came from behind me. "This is already hard enough."
"I," he started, "can't let you in."
"Why?" I answered simply. No hesitation. Just a straight-up question. Whether he wanted to answer it or not now, it didn't make a difference. Wouldn't make a difference. So silent.
His heartbeat pleaded against my shoulder blade. "It's none of your business."
"Don't shut me out, Sasuke," I soothed, my voice light, soft. Angelic. "Let me help you."
"Why does it matter to you?" he asked weakly, clearly tortured. I'd crucified him in the softness of my voice. Held his arms outstretched, completely and utterly helpless to me now. My voice, he would obey my voice.
"I'm your friend," I replied. He shook his head.
"We're…Not," he answered softly. I fought back the rush of tears, and took his hand back into mine, my heart pounding in my chest.
"Then what are we, Sasuke? Answer that question for me. What are we, if we aren't friends?" The scent of apples washed over me as a soft breeze whispered through the open window behind us. My words hung in the air, hollow, sorrowful notes of bittersweet music. He needed to bring them back to life. Never before had my voice sounded so dead to me.
"We're…Not anything," he whispered, his voice drifting across my left ear. My jade eyes widened as his words slapped me upside the head. "We're not friends, enemies, allies, comrades. We aren't anything."
"And why is that?" I asked softly, dropping my head. I could hear his lip curl up.
"None of your business," he answered. Tears slid down the sides of my face.
"S-Sasuke, please," I pleaded, my voice beginning to break. His breath billowed across my rain-streaked cheeks, urging the tears into flight. My voice shattered like glass in the shallow space between us, the string holding our hearts together beginning to decay. "I want to be…Your friend."
His breath trembled for a split second, soft and slight against my cerise hair. "Friends are, hindrances. Loneliness suits me just fine, Sakura."
The sound of my name upon his lips brought more tears to my eyes, sent them spilling down the sides of my face. Oh how I hated being weak. Oh how I hated how my voice broke, how the tears tapped across the piano keys along the floor as loudly as they could, how the strings in my heart tugged and pulled along with the fingers his words bore. The burning in my heart, the tightness of my jaw and face, the tears that streaked across the flushed flesh of my cheeks. They were destroying me, my voice of reason. Urges played inside the empty expanse of my head, desires wrapped my heart in chains bearing black lace, needs burned through my veins as fast as they could, combusting every available cell in their path. My body was a disaster, a tornado of emotion, a hurricane of despair, a tsunami of longing. Pieces came together in my clenched hands, my fingers stretched taut before curling into tight fists at my sides. My left hand held onto his tighter than ever before, as the pounding against the binds of black lace pulsed pain into my chest cavity, the tears hot and wet upon my cheeks. I knew that deep down, deep, deep down inside my loveless soul, the heart I'd thrown aside still beat strong. The heart of the lonely girl who'd only wanted to be acknowledged, to be loved, to be held, to be waited on. The heart of Haruno Sakura. Me, my heart. How foolish had I been for these years past? How long had it been since I'd felt a desire this strong? How long had it been since my heart had beaten this hard, this painfully? I couldn't take it anymore.
"Sasuke!" I swung around, tear-streaked face and all, my eyes meeting his for a split second. I sprang forward and wrapped my arms around him as tightly as I could, holding him up into the sunlight behind us. "Don't give me that crap! You know as well as I do that friends are the only way you can survive in this world. The lonely path is one filled with pain, and suffering; one I've walked for these past eight years. Don't you see me? I'm here, I'm whole, I'm warm. You aren't alone anymore, Sasuke. What's it gonna take to make you realize that?" He didn't hold me back. He didn't move, breathe, sigh. Nothing. "I'm here for you, Sasuke. I'm not leaving, I'm not abandoning you. I'm holding you, and I won't let you go."
"Sakura," he paused, my name lingering between his parted lips. Soft. Gentle. Angelic. Celestial. When he spoke it, my name was beautiful. So quiet, so silent. His voice was…heaven. So melodic, it brought pain to my heart again. The cross was growing harder and harder to bear as the seconds passed, my teeth coming down onto the corner of my mouth as harshly as they could. "Let go."
"Why won't you let me in? Why won't you let me comfort you? Why won't you let me hold you? Why, Sasuke? Why? Why won't you realize that you need this?" His eyes widened, but he didn't speak. I pulled my arms back, and held them at my sides, shutting my eyes as tightly as I could. "You're hurting, Sasuke! I can see that as plain as day, and it's obvious that you need healing! Just let me do my job, and heal you! I am a woman, Sasuke! I can feel, I can see, I can hear, I can…touch. I'm not asking you to let me in completely. I'm just asking you to open that door just a little. Just enough for me to comfort you. I don't want to let go, and I never will. I've been through so much, and only for what? To lose you as a friend because of my incompetence? My lack of humanity? My vulnerability that every female has? Friends help each other, Sasuke. Why can't you see that I'm trying to be your friend, trying to be there for you?"
"I can see you," he murmured back. I jerked my head up, my pink hair swiveling beside wide jade eyes. He blinked his onyx irises, and averted his eyes for a fragment of a second before turning them back to me. "But I don't need your help. I've been…Alone for so long that I don't need to rely on another for solace and comfort. I don't need those things. Confiding in you would be…A burden."
"I'm just like you," I murmured brokenly, my voice shaking. Onyx eyes met mine, sparkling with a faint light in their depths. Distance once covered expanded again, twin halves of a shield meeting in the center of the broken bridge; blocking my advance. "I'm dealing with something I can deal with only on my own. It's my own fault that I'm hurting the way I am, and I know that."
"What could possibly be hurting you?" I shut my eyes.
You.
"It doesn't matter now, does it? Neither of us will confide in the other. I won't tell you my secret, and you won't tell me yours. Don't expect me to fess up unless you're willing to do the same. That's a double-standard." He lifted an eyebrow.
"I never said anything about a secret," he answered quietly. I didn't flinch.
"Mine's a secret, and I won't tell you. It's none of your…" My voice trailed off. That was a lie. It was his business. It was about him, for crying out loud. I shook my head. "Forget I said anything. I'm going to lunch. Want to…Come along? Put this all behind us?"
"I thought I said I wasn't your friend?" I rolled my eyes, and pursed my lips as I opened my locker, picking my bag up off the floor and shoveling the books out of it.
"You're a liar."
"I never lie."
"Well, that's bullshit, and you know it. Need I explain the two hour naps you take on my lap every other day?" His face flushed ever so slightly. This shocked me. Sasuke never blushed.
"You're the liar," he muttered back, turning his head and face away before I could catch his deep blush. I smirked, and crossed my arms over my chest, my lunch money in hand, leaning toward him.
"You want to run that by me again, Miss Alice? It'll be off with your head next, if you take one more step in that direction," I warned playfully, shutting my locker as he shut his. He snorted.
"Just try to kill me. You wouldn't even be able to put a single scratch on my forehead. Just like Naruto," he answered. I pounded my right fist into my left hand.
"Is that a challenge, Chicken Butt? If so, then I'm all for it," I shot back, hunching forward with my right fist to the floor, flickers of blue fire dancing up and down my wrist. Sasuke gave my stance a one-eyed look.
"You're so annoying," Sasuke muttered. I straightened back up, and lifted my two fingers to my forehead, shutting my left eye playfully.
"I try, Sasuke. I try." I reached out with my hand, and took his in mine, Sasuke's eyes widening. I swung around, and jumped forward, running down the hallway. "Let's go!"
"HEY! Sakura, don't pull!" he ordered, his voice hard and cold. I looked back at him from over my shoulder, throwing him a smirk. A sly one.
"Just relax. I'm not holding onto you all that hard, so quit your whining," I answered. Sasuke's eyes softened ever so slightly. My lip curled up again. "So, what are you going to do about Akira and Ino?"
"Nothing." I smirked. Still not talking about girls, are you?
"You've got to find at least one of them attractive," I pressed, holding an index finger under my left eye, lolling it along the bone lightly. He blushed again. Intensely.
"Sakura!" he exclaimed, his entire face red. I stopped, and spun on the balls of my feet, holding my leg out beside myself limply, daintily. He slid to a stop in front of me, pulling his hand free from mine, and taking a small step back. I smirked, and slid my hands up the sides of his face as I often did, and leaned forward.
"Don't you scoff at me, Chicken Butt," I murmured, my forehead touching his. Sasuke's eyes widened again, the warmth of his face pulsing against my parted lips. Feverish. Hungry. Desire. Uncontrollable. My chest bumped against his as I came even closer, closer than ever before, even though I was only just teasing him. But one of these days, my restraint would come crashing down. But not today. "Just answer the question, like the wimpy gentleman that I pray you are."
"S-Sakura!" Tripping you up is child's play, Sasuke. I've already won. Give it up. "Get off me!"
"Oh c'mon, have a heart, would you?" I drawled, cocking my head. My arms wrapped around his neck loosely, but the lack of distance between us didn't break. "I wasn't kidding when I said that I'm vulnerable, like every other female on this planet. There's one thing we want the most, and a dim-witted male like yourself, Chicken Butt, is too dense to figure it out."
"Maybe this dim-witted male doesn't care to find out what annoying females like you want the most," he shot back. I smirked, and tilted my head for a split second.
"Funny, I've imagined this conversation before," I mused, blinking crystalline jade irises. "And I know exactly how it's going to end."
"Whatever," he answered, shutting me out. His walls always went up at times like these. When he felt vulnerable. It was true. Temptation was his Achilles Heel.
My index finger traced the shape of his upper lip lightly. "You're not even the slightest bit interested? I have 'dreams' like this all the time."
"You dream about conversations you and I have? That's weird," he muttered back, ignoring the fingertip on his lip. I smiled, and cocked my head.
"Not only that. I also dream about you snoring in my ear while you nap at my house after school. Oh wait, that's not a dream. It's reality," I shot back. Sasuke's face flushed.
"What the heck is your problem, Forehead?" he demanded, jerking his head back. I smiled, my eyes narrowing in anticipation.
"Have you figured it out yet?" His eyes widened. The tip of my nose touched his lightly, my lips barely a centimeter away from touching his. "What women want the most? It's painfully obvious, at least from my side of the fence. You're not stupid, Uchiha Sasuke. Just think about it for a second. I'll be a good girl."
"You're too close," he pointed out smoothly. That was his standard response whenever things like this happened. But I didn't pull back this time. "Back off."
I smirked. "Don't start with that, Sasuke-kun; I'm just playing with you."
"Don't," he answered, narrowing his onyx eyes. "I don't like being teased."
My heart started racing in my chest, my lips sliding across his cheek lightly. "Have you figured it out yet? C'mon Sasuke, it's really very easy. Just watch and listen, and you'll figure it out in no time," I replied, holding him closer, my forehead touching his gently. Sasuke's eyes remained still, smooth, placid. Uninterested. I was going to kill him.
"I don't care," he retorted, grabbing at my wrists that clung to the back of his neck loosely. "Now let go."
"You don't mean that. After all, you want to know what women want the most in life, don't you."
"…Hn." I smirked, and leaned my face forward once more, his eyes soft and vulnerable. His walls hadn't gone up yet, which was a good thing, I guessed. I could mess with him a little more then.
"Alright, Sasuke. This is what I want you to do," I started, holding the left side of his face in my palm gently. He watched, silent as a hawk. "Listen to what I'm about to say, and close your eyes. Don't talk. Don't open your eyes. And don't even think about pulling away. I'll show you what we want the most, understand?"
"Sakura, just tell me," he answered, his lips centimeters from mine. I smiled, and cocked my head, a soft breeze ruffling my pink hair around my face, my blushing ivory face. "S-Sakura?"
"You won't hear anything out of me, except this one thing," I whispered, mouthing my words against his ear softly and slowly, reaching into my pocket for a stick of pocky. His eyes trembled. "I've been longing, like the princess in my dream."
"S-Sakura, you've said that already. What does it-" A light tap of my stick of pocky on his mouth stopped him.
"I told you. Don't talk, don't open your eyes, and don't pull away," I repeated, smirking against his lips as I withdrew the pocky stick and bit down on it, finishing it quickly. "Now, what was I going to say? That's right. What a women wants the most in this world, is…" I leaned closer, holding his face close.
His eyes began closing, as he held still, slowing his breathing. My tongue danced behind my lower lip, anxious as the scent of apples washed over me again, taunting me into making another move, to just take that one step that I didn't want to take. I fell into the familiar rhythm effortlessly, taking my good old sweet time in bringing my lips closer. The scent of apples became stronger and stronger, intoxicatingly strong, as I slid closer and closer across the thread that held us together. Our lips touched, barely brushing against each other, but the contact was enough to set my body on fire. Apparently it had the same reaction with Sasuke; his hands took my head into his palms, clamping down on it as tightly as they could as he pulled my face toward his, his resolve of remaining still breaking within seconds of my mouth caressing his. But he didn't have any ground to stand on, not like I did. Even as he held me as close to him as he could without hurting me, even as my entire body melted against the strength of his, even as his arms wrapped around me, his hands resting on my lower back lightly, his lips barely touching mine, I still had the high ground. I wouldn't lose to him, not now, when I had him so close, on my playing field, no less. But that thought didn't make abstaining any easier. The thirst, the need, the lust…They were unbearable. Part of me wanted to close the distance once and for all, but I knew I couldn't. It was Sasuke's move now.
His lips were soft against mine, barely touching them across the pitiful span of distance. "This," he started, lifting his left hand from my waist to my chest. To the 'noble heart within my breast'. "Right?"
"So you're not stupid," I whispered as my heart pulsed against his palm. Our foreheads brushed against each other's, our lips unbearably close. "You figured it out."
"Hn," he snorted, his lip curling up. "You're so irritating."
"I wonder why," I murmured back. Sasuke brushed his fingertips across my cheek for a brief second.
"Whatever," he answered, his voice laughing. "It doesn't matter to me."
We pulled apart, Sasuke turning his head from me almost immediately. I wasn't sure why he'd do such a thing; we hadn't kissed. Our lips had touched, sure, but we hadn't actually kissed yet. I wouldn't count that scarce lip contact a kiss. Not in the least. I glanced over at his onyx eyes, noticing the rosy red blush that sparkled at the patch of skin just under the bottom rims of those ebony orbs. Much as he was trying to hide it without making it obvious, I could see the scarlet flush that painted his normally pale and fair cheekbones in crimson swirls. The urge to reach out and trace those crimson swirls was staggering. Having been weakened by being that close to him, my resolve of staying well back from him broke in my chest, my fingertips drawing hopeless circles across his cheeks. His eyes flashed toward me, narrowed, but not at all angry, or threatening me to take a small step back. Not like usual. He wasn't like himself today, of that I was sure. I was absolutely sure that he was lightheaded; his face was growing dizzier and dizzier looking as I came into an even closer proximity. But he didn't push me away. He let me come closer to him, as close as I had been just seconds ago. My hands longed to hold his scarlet face; my fingers begged for it. My heart throbbed in my chest; my lips pulsed, my tongue dancing in the center of my mouth, his scent of apples blowing across my taste buds. Everything about my body was dirty. Lust, lust, lust. What the hell was wrong with me?
"Sasuke, lunch is almost over," I whispered into his right ear to break the silence. He jumped, turning his head toward me. My hands tightened behind my back, my teeth snapping together on the corner of my bottom lip. "If we don't…Finish up here, we're going to miss it completely."
He shoved his hands into his pockets with an annoyed expression before brushing past me. "Yeah, whatever."
"Sasuke!" I turned toward him, following him with my eyes as well as my body. His shoulders tensed up. His legs stiffened. His arms trembled. His hands shook. His feet ceased movement. "Sasuke, wait up!"
His head didn't move. But I could see that I made him nervous. Or creeped him out. "What?"
"I said wait up, you stupid jerk!" I fell in step beside him as he continued moving forward, grabbing a pocky stick from my pocket, and popped it into my mouth, holding one hand on my hip as we walked down the hallway toward the cafeteria.
Sasuke blinked, and turned toward me. "Uh, Sakura. About what happened earlier?"
"What is it, Chicken Butt?" He blushed again. This time redder than those tomatoes he eats at my house after school before he takes his naps.
"Don't tell anyone," he replied, giving me a narrowed-eyed stare. "And don't bring it up ever again."
I tilted my head, and winked playfully. "Of course!" He managed a soft and faint smile. One that brought one to my lips as well.
"Thank you."