note: Annnd here we have chapter two. WRITING THIS WAS SO CATHARTIC. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorited, put this on alert, etc!

Her flight is delayed.

And, judging by the way all the seats in the boarding area are crammed, so are possibly half of the other planes at the airport.

Sakura is never one for melodrama or dramatics, has never thought the world revolved around her or ever wanted to be the hero-that's always been someone else's job. But this, this she has an inkling might just have something to do with her.

Pursing her lips, she hauls herself and her luggage to her feet and makes for the information desk.

"Excuse me, do you know why the flights are delayed?" The woman standing behind the desk takes a few moments to respond, eyes focused on whatever was behind the raised ledge of the counter. When she finally looks at Sakura, her gaze is cool, impersonal, disinterested.

"I'm sorry mam, but I'm not allowed to say. Security reasons." Eyes back on the desk.

Sakura bites back a scathing reply about shitty customer service, but she can't help but linger for a few more seconds, glowering, before turning and lugging herself back to her mercifully still unoccupied seat.

She hates looking the way she does sometimes, short and slight and bubblegum pink. Her appearance means she can never command attention like Ino or even Hinata does. The only time she's ever felt in charge was in a starched white lab coat, clicking heels lending her height, her knowledge and her skills lending her authority.

She had felt the same way about Sasuke. Feel. Felt.

Sasuke, who she's known since she was a kid and who'd been her rock, her goal. Who'd defined her before her intelligence or her medical degree. Loving him, loving him had been the one part of her childhood that she couldn't let go of. Everything else-the vanity, the shame, the insecurity-had been banished a long time ago. Everything except Sasuke, whom she's never given up on.

And when he'd said he wanted her, wanted if not loved, she'd been...overjoyed, overwhelmed. They'd dated for a year. They dated for a year and in her opinion anyways, it'd been great. It'd been phenomenal because he was finally looking at her in that way of his, with soft eyes and a half smile. He was doing it all the time, in public even, and she was finally allowed more than the occasional tentative touch.

She'd been so happy.

Then one inconsequential Monday afternoon he'd dropped by her apartment, weary curves shaping his shoulders, and he'd said-

"Sakura."

Her eyes snap open-when had they closed?-because that voice is too real for her memories. Uchiha Sasuke stands in front of her, still wearing the black cashmere sweater he'd been sporting in the cafe, reading glasses sticking haphazardly out of a pants pocket.

Sakura frowns, her earlier suspicions now confirmed.

"Sasuke. What're you doing here?"

She can tell by the slight twist of his lips that he is displeased by the absence of the familiar suffix. She smiles thinly, glad.

"You're not leaving."

The people immediately around her are watching the quiet exchange, riveted; the women in particular seems to find Sasuke extremely fascinating. Sakura doesn't blame them. Even in the aftermath, she still finds his face (and body hands eyes) devastating. It hurts worse now, because she knows what it's like to be able to call him hers.

"I don't believe that's your decision to make. Were you the one that delayed all the flights?" He doesn't answer, but that is truth enough for Sakura.

"You're not going to Suna, Sakura. I won't allow it." His voice is even, calm and matter-of-fact. It makes her nostrils flare, and when the words come, she doesn't bother to disguise the anger.

"Excuse me? You're acting like you still have some right to dictate what I do. You gave that up months ago, Sasuke."

He shifts, those long fingers of his clenching once, twice around his mobile. "I changed my mind, Sakura. It was...a mistake. We can try again."

Sasuke's admission nearly breaks her. But it'd always been like this, hadn't it? She'd centered her world around Uchiha Sasuke. Pursued her studies to prove to him that she wasn't useless. Made most of her decisions with the thought of him in the back of her mind.

The speakers come to life above them and someone announces that "all problems are now resolved" and all flights should be up and running. The people around her start getting their things and making their way to their departure gate, generating a buzz of relief and impatience.

Sakura stands up too, gathering her one, bulky bag, and looks Sasuke in the eye.

"I'm sorry." And she is, but this feels good, too. Liberating.

This time, it is Haruno Sakura who leaves Uchiha Sasuke with his heart in his throat and his head in hands.