In hindsight, two months with Sasuke may have been a bit much, even for her. If she ever wanted an idea of what their life together would be like, she now had an accurate picture. In fairness to him, his company was appreciated for the majority of the time, however it was moments like this that really tested her patience.
"You're annoying me." Mei scowled.
"I happen to be great company." Sasuke replied with sly grin.
"I won't disagree with you, but now is not the time for your company."
"I'd argue that it's the perfect time."
Mei narrowed her eyes at him. "Are you just purposely saying the exact opposite of what I am to be even more irritating?"
"No, I'm accidentally-" Sasuke almost squeaked as he narrowly avoided a small stream of lava that Mei sent at him. She could only watch as it ate away the floor of her office and spilled down to the level below.
"Fuck. Can you please do something about that?" She sighed. Sasuke nodded and did a back flip down the newly formed hole.
"Showoff." She muttered. Looking at the destruction she just caused, Mei couldn't help but want to do the same thing to all the paperwork, maybe her desk. Actually the whole office was giving her a headache. The Mizukage had just gotten the horrendous job of attempting to create money from nothing to narrow down some of Kirigakure's debts. Wasn't there a treasurer or fund's manager to do this kind of job? They probably killed themselves when they took one look at the numbers, she wouldn't hold it against them.
This seemingly impossible task was only made harder by Sasuke's company. Though unintentional, he could be rather distracting. Jumping back up the very same hole, he landed elegantly in front of her.
"Anyone hurt?" She asked.
"You killed two people, melted them down to the bone."
"What?!" Horrified by her actions, Mei stood up and went to run to her destruction, before Sasuke grabbed her arm and spun her around to face him.
"I was joking."
She groaned before burying her head in his shoulder. "You're an ass."
"I know, sorry for vexing you."
"For what, my floor or making me think that I accidentally murdered two people."
"Either or, really." Mei chuckled before sighing again and moving back to her desk. "How goes the budgeting?"
"Poorly." She muttered.
"I'm sure you'll figure it out sweetheart."
Mei stopped and looked at him slowly. "I know you're doing it just to annoy me, but if you ever call me that again, I will shove that sword so far up your beautiful behind that you'll choke on it."
"I'm pretty sure I'd die before I choked on it." Sasuke mused, causing Mei to groan loudly and put her head on the desk. Sasuke moved behind her before he began to rub her shoulders. Hearing her almost purr under his ministrations brought a cocky smirk to the Uchiha's face.
"Do that for twenty more minutes and you're forgiven." She moaned.
"Maybe I should open up a massage shop to make this place some more money."
"Your first problem is that it's not called a 'massage shop'. Although that's not a bad idea."
"You sure you wouldn't be jealous? Me, touching the plethora of women from various lands who want to see if the last Uchiha can live up to his name."
"Sasuke, I would sell you as a sex slave tomorow if I thought it would help clear our debts, and if I thought you were worth that much."
"Glad you place such a high value on me." He grumbled.
Mei was very tempted to drift off while Sasuke relieved all tension from her body, however she had important work to do and procrastinating would not help her in the slightest. Taking one of his hands, she gave it a small kiss of gratitude before straightening up and resuming her work. Sasuke sighed before laying down and sprawling out on the leather couch Mei had in her office.
"Do you mind taking your feet off my couch."
Sasuke responded by taking off his sandals, causing Mei to shake her head. Time passed and other than the sound of Mei occasionally putting pen to paper, the room was silent. Sasuke yawned, closed his eyes and before long he had drifted off.
Looking at mission reports was starting to burn her eyes, so taking a break she decided to go over to Sasuke and wake him up. Opening his eyes, Sasuke sat up to give her some space. She sat beside him and laid her head on his shoulder.
"Are you going to do anything aside from eat, sleep and mate?" Mei asked.
"You're making me sound like an animal."
"Even animals have to occasionally hunt for food."
"You wanted me to stay with you for two months, what do you want from me?" He asked.
"Anything! I enjoyed the first month, you were entertaining, full of life, about as full of life as you normally are, and you didn't get on my nerves anymore than usual. Now, all you do is laze about and wait for me to finish work. You need to... make a new friend or something."
Sasuke scowled at this. "That's... not going to happen."
"Alright, tell me then. What do you for fun?"
"I could think of a few things we could do for fun right now." Sasuke smirked, as his hand creeped its way up her leg.
"Stop it." Mei said irritably, slapping his hand away. "Other than me, what do you in your spare time?"
The moments of silence that followed made Mei's jaw drop. He couldn't? It was not possible? Even he had to have a hobby, something he did in his spare time.
"Don't give me that look."
"Give me an answer then."
"Y-You fucking know what I do. I do missions for Konoha and you, I wander around and try to avoid the people who want my head for my past actions, or my eyes for their gain." His defensive and flustered tone told Mei that she must have struck a nerve.
"We'll find you a hobby yet, Sasuke."
"I don't want one." He pouted.
"Stop sulking, it makes you look an extremely adorable child."
"Heh, that's the last thing I ever thought you'd try and compare me to."
"Travelling, that's a start." She said optimistically, ignoring his jab.
"Mei, just leave it." He sighed.
"No, I refuse to let you just wither and laze about. I need to work and you doing nothing is incredibly boring, not to mention making it difficult to maintain conversation with, which I might add, is difficult enough already. Now, tell me, what were some of your favourite pastimes as a child?"
"Training to kill Itachi."
"Wow, you are you just the worst. Why do I like you again?"
"My dashing good looks, intelligence, wry humour, power, status as last of my clan, exceptional sexual prowess?"
"You're egotistical, I'll give you that. Your dashing good looks make you look borderline feminine. You're nowhere near as smart as you think you are. Your humour is only notable because it occurs so rarely. I'll be damned if I need you for your power. Your clan was wiped out by two of it's own members... congrats. Well, I won't disagree with you on that last part."
Sasuke laughed before sighing. "I, enjoyflying." He mumbled.
"What?" Mei asked curiously, a smile breaking its way across her face.
"I like to fly occasionally."
"What do you mean by fly?" Mei raised an eyebrow.
"It's a long story, involving the Sage of the Six Paths and Naruto and I being descendants of these two guys, it's not that interesting. Bottom line is I can fly."
"Since when?!" Mei exclaimed. "Also, did you just mention the Sage of the Six Paths?"
"I did. Good ol' Hagoromo was nice enough to give me a lot of power that I have not used too recklessly and this purple eye. Anyway, originally I could only fly while using my Susanoo-"
"You mean that great Uchiha power that I melted." Mei interrupted, causing Sasuke to tilt his head and grit his teeth.
"After seeing that Naruto could pretty much fly at will, I set my mind to it and basically practiced until I could fly without using my Susanoo."
"Really, and how did you go about that, flapping your arms really fast like they were wings?"
"What is wrong with you? You ask me what I enjoy, then just mock me when I tell you."
Mei sighed. "I'm sorry, it's just that this nation is worryingly in debt and mocking you gives me no endless source of joy to distract me from that fact."
"How bad can it possibly be?" Sasuke asked incredulously. Mei leaned over and whispered the figure into his ear. "How do- How have you possibly acquired that much debt?"
"The Seven Swordsman were a blight on trade here and with uh... what his name, Tobi?"
"Obito."
"Your cousin?"
"I don't know, the family trees for clans are a mess."
"I hear the clans themselves aren't much better." That was either an incest or massacre joke, actually it could be a dig at a lot of aspects of the Uchiha clan, either way Sasuke said nothing. "Anyway, when Obito was manipulating the previous Mizukage, I fear he was using Kirigakure funds for the Akatsuki."
"I don't really know how much of that is true, I mean when I was with them, they seemed to be living in squalor."
"Are you telling me those Akatsuki cloaks are cheap to make?"
"They may as well be, they're quite itchy actually, I took mine off at the Five Kage Summit."
"You mean that time when I-"
Sasuke placed a hand on her mouth to prevent her from saying the same tired thing she always said when the subject of the Five Kage Summit came up.
"Now where was I, ah yes, I got the old man's power boost and this cool new eye."
"Is it cool though? It looks... cumbersome."
"Cumbersome?"
"Like, the way you have to cover it all the time."
"I cover it because looking through it takes some getting used to."
"Why, is what you see all purple or something?"
Sasuke laughed at this. "Not exactly, it's difficult to explain."
"Well, you're a verbose individual, I'm sure you'll have no problem."
"You don't like it, do you?" Sasuke suddenly realised.
"What gave it away?" Mei muttered.
It was ironic that she was afraid of his eye, when her eyes were his favourite part of her. Sasuke could find himself lost in those emerald eyes all day. At first, he was surprised that he made no comparison to his pink-haired teammate's green eyes. He realised, that those eyes have shed too many tears for all the wrong reasons over the years, leaving them lachrymose.
Mei's eyes are a richer green, far more mature and confident. There's something almost predatory about them that gets Sasuke's blood pumping everytime he looks at her. It's not often that he feels like he's being sized up and hunted, yet he feels that way the second that Mei makes eye contact with him, and he loved it.
"You shouldn't be afraid of it, it's like, looking at an x-ray except with chakra instead of bones?" Sasuke stroked his chin, trying to find a better way to describe it.
"Did you just confuse yourself?"
"It's very possible." He murmured
"Alright, so you got this ability to fly and you enjoy doing it. Speaking of which, why haven't you taken me flying if you enjoy it so much?"
"You're too heavy."
Mei raised an eyebrow. "Care to rephrase that?"
"I'm only slightly exaggerating, flying takes a lot out of you, and that's with one person. I wouldn't be able to last long while carrying you."
"That's not the only thing you don't last long at."
"What can I say, when I'm confronted with such beauty I get easily excited."
Mei laughed and stretched out on the couch, laying her head in his lap. "If you actually were that mediocre in bed, this relationship would've ended a long time ago."
"I doubt that."
"Oh?"
"You're at a point in your life where you were desperate enough to love any man, which I might add, I still find it ridiculous that you had such a difficult time to find a relationship. Anyway, I think I was a blessing in disguise because you could have done a LOT worse than me."
"I know. I know I say a lot of stuff to mock you Sasuke and to generally antagonise you, but I really do care about you. You've brightened my life significantly in the short time you've been in it."
"I've grown fond of you too." Sasuke replied, while casually twirling a strand of her hair in his finger.
Mei rolled her eyes. "You know, just when I start to feel bad for insulting you, I then realise that you deserve it."
"It's very possible." Sasuke repeated. "Look, you don't need to go into some speech about how you care about me and profess your love or any of that. I've heard enough of those speeches to last me a lifetime, plus I think you're above that. Subtlety is highly overrated."
"Noted. So tell me, what do you see when you're flying above us all?"
"People."
"Yeah, I kind of figured that, Sasuke."
"No not- What I mean is, when I'm travelling it's interesting to see the people of the various lands. Living their lives, interacting with each other, it's... nice. It makes me feel like there is something out there still worth fighting for, that people don't need something to fight or hate in order to stay together. No need for a revolution or more destruction, there'll be exceptions of course, such is the way of the ninja. Violence is our livelihood and all, but still, the world is doing alright under that blond idiot."
"You're not getting soft on me, are you Sasuke?"
"Maybe I am. Maybe these two months have mellowed me out and I've finally grown to terms with this land and my place in it."
"You could be a poet at this stage I reckon."
"I don't think so, I'd probably confuse myself again."
Mei laughed before closing her eyes and enjoying the warmth that Sasuke provided. They sat their in a comfortable silence, Sasuke entertaining himself by fidgeting with Mei's auburn hair. It always amused him how easily she could move without it getting tangled or caught on something, the length of it was truly astonishing.
"Shall we head to bed, my Mizukage?"
"It's three o'clock in the day, my Uchiha." She replied.
"I think we both know how much we'd enjoy crawling into bed right now."
"While that may very well be true Sasuke, some of us don't have the luxury of that. Now while you're enjoying finding your identity and place in the world, some of us have jobs to do." Mei said, opening her eyes and standing up. "Now, I'm afraid you're more of a liability than an asset when it comes to work. You're a distraction, and I mean that in the best possible way."
"You mean I'm better company than paper work? I'm flattered."
"I knew you'd see it my way." Mei said cheerily, as she kissed him on the cheek and led him to the door.
"What am I supposed to do?" He asked.
"I'm sure you'll think of something Sasuke, go write some poems about my beauty."
"You're too perfect to put into mere words."
Mei blew a kiss at him before closing the door on him. She enjoyed his compliments too much to call him a hypocrite on the whole "love speech" thing.
It was almost midnight when Mei received a knock on her door. Long after she had finished work, came home, had a nice, long bath, ate dinner and still there was no sign of Sasuke. Her greatest fear was that he had left without saying goodbye to her. He had about a week before he planned to travel the world he now apparently loved so much, Mei couldn't believe he would leave without the passionate night of love making they tended to have whenever he was about to depart. Her fears were quickly dispelled when she saw his rucksack of clothes laying untouched.
Opening the door, Mei was surprised to see an Anbu member standing there. It was Shin, the Anbu whose arm Sasuke broke two months ago. Now Mei's greatest fear was that Sasuke had gotten hurt or worse. First, because he was her boyfriend. She eventually just settled on calling him that, it was the easiest way to describe his association to her and she had gotten sick of trying to explain the intricate details of their relationship. "Boyfriend" kept things nice and simple. Second, and arguably more importantly, if there was someone or something out there strong enough to hurt Sasuke, then it did not bode well for everyone else.
"What is it?" Mei asked.
Shin gestured to a passed out Sasuke, Mei sniffed and discovered what that scent was. It seemed Sasuke had gone and got himself very drunk. Mei walked over and threw his unconscious form over her shoulder.
"Lady Mizukage, allow me to carry him inside for you."
"I wouldn't be much of a Mizukage if I couldn't carry a 20 year old bo- man. Go home Shin, take the night off."
The Anbu member nodded and vanished out of sight. Mei sighed and began carrying her lover up the stairs. Well, there went her use of the term "boy"friend. Sasuke stirred slightly as she carried him up the stairs. This was the first time she had seen Sasuke properly drunk. They had often enjoyed sitting outside on the balcony with a couple of cups of sake, but never anything to the extent that Sasuke must have gone to today.
Walking into their bedroom, Mei set him down gently on his side of the bed. Looking at the steady rise and fall of his chest, Mei realised that he was fast asleep. Rolling her eyes, she set about undressing him, a task which was generally more fun when he was awake. Placing the covers over him, Mei began to prepare herself for bed.
"You know, you're not helping our age gap here by having me tuck you in. Also, I don't think I'll be referring to you as my boyfriend anymore, while you may be at a suitable age, I believe I may be a bit old for it, what do you think?" Complete silence. "You know, I think I prefer you like this. It's a nice change of pace from our normal bedroom talks, you're much more agreeable like this."
Climbing into bed, Mei curled up next to Sasuke and wrapped her arms around him, she would enjoy being the big spoon for a change.
"Tell me then Sasuke, if not boyfriend, then do what do I call you. Husband? Hell, I'd even settle on fiancé." Mei sighed. This was a conversation that they were going to have to have eventually. Not this time, she didn't want it constantly weighing on his mind while he was gone. When he came back though, she would bring the matter up. These past two months had shown her that he was everything she could have wanted, while she may mock him for one reason or another, there wasn't a lot else she could ask for in a man.
Would he feel the same about her though? Mentally, she scolded herself. Questions for another time, she was determined to enjoy her last week with him before the dynamics in their relationship, shifted dramatically. Leaning over, she placed a goodnight kiss on his forehead and soon she too had fallen asleep.