The rain was pounding on the windows. The lightning was shockingly bright and the thunder was rattling the glass object in the house. The lights were nonexistent with the power out and the darkness seemed to be crawling like a life force in the room. Shadows jumped at the lightning's beck and call. It was dark, creepy. Sakura was just frozen in the room, sitting on the couch. She clung to Sasuke for dear life. Her jaw was clenched so hard it hurt and her hands were curling around Sasuke's shirt so hard that they were becoming stiff.
In the morning, she would reprimand herself and tell herself what a child she had been. However, at the moment, she couldn't think of much besides the feeling of being next to Sasuke and almost feeling safe. He almost drove away her fear. Almost.
The lightning cracked again. Sakura suppressed a whimper but she did move closer to Sasuke. It was an involuntary move and now she was completely squashed against his hard body as he held her to comfort her. She never would have guessed that he would be one to comfort. She would have gone for him being clueless when it came to comfort. Surprise, surprise. Lightning lit up the sky again and Sakura realized that distracting herself with analyzing Sasuke's personality wasn't going to help her win against her fear.
"Sakura," Sasuke called. His mouth was near her ear. She could feel his breath on her skin and move strands of her hair. She shivered, fighting back the blush and fear that was at war inside her. And as always, it seemed fear was winning.
"Hm?" she sounded, not really trusting her voice not to shake.
"We should go to bed. If you sleep, you'll feel better," Sasuke whispered.
"I'm not sure…I can move," Sakura said, mouth barely moving from how tense her body was.
"I'll take you to your room. Hold on," Sasuke requested. He then picked her up under her knees and supported her back with his other hand. Sakura squeaked and but didn't move. She was too tense to move, she needed a really hot bath to loosen her up. As it was, she was still clinging to Sasuke's shirt with no intention of letting go.
Carrying her as if she weighed nothing, Sasuke walked out of the living room and into the main hallway. The stairs that were opposite the door were dark and had no light. Sasuke didn't hesitate as he went up them in complete darkness. There were no windows, but he went up them like it was effortless. And maybe it was effortless to him. After all, Sakura didn't really know much about Sasuke.
Once on the top landing, Sasuke turned left and walked into Sakura's room. She couldn't see much besides outlines and shapes of objects in her room. Lightning struck again. Sakura took in a quick breath. Slowly, Sasuke walked her to her bed and laid her down on it. Sakura knew she should let go of his shirt, but her fingers weren't responding to her brain's command. Sasuke took one of her hands in both of his and peeled off her fingers, one by one. He did the same to the other hand.
"Are you going to be okay?" Sasuke asked. Sakura felt like a child, her embarrassment was starting to equal her fear, pushing the attraction she was feeling to the side.
"I'm fine. You can go back to your room," Sakura said, lips barely moving. Her hands now clutched the bed sheet in a death grip.
"Are you sure?" Sasuke asked. She wasn't going to make him sleep in the same bed with her. Even though she really, really wanted him to. However, that would be even more embarrassing come morning. And it was already pretty embarrassing. She had suffered through nights like this alone before, she would do it again. She was determined to not ask him to stay with her.
"Yeah, I'm sure. Go on," Sakura said. Sasuke nodded and walked out of the room. He glanced back at her as he left. Sasuke only saw her outline, it was too dark to see much else from this far away. He left her door open, for which she was thankful and she assumed that he was headed to his room.
Sakura looked out her window at the pouring rain. She shivered and then grabbed the blanket to cover herself up with. In the morning, this would be laughable. However, as the lightning and thunder mixed together in the night, she was glad that she hadn't wet her pants. Getting enough control of her tense body, she threw the blanket over her head and began to sing under her breath, to distract herself.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
After putting Sakura to bed, Sasuke lay on his back, staring at the dark ceiling. It wasn't the storm that was keeping him awake. It was Sakura. It was how she looked so vulnerable as she clung to him. It was him trying to fight the attraction he was feeling for her. It was him trying to push aside that guilt and knowledge that he lied to her and was still lying to her. Hell, it was a lot of things that were keeping him awake.
The vulnerability and the attraction, he could fight and brush it off for a little while longer. But the guilt was harder to get rid of. After all, he owed Sakura this life he had. She had been his catalyst to run away from his father. Everything he had now, it was because she had influenced his life. Without her, he didn't know what he would be, who he would be. It was something scary to think about.
He would have liked to think, that he would have turned out like this even if he still lived with his father. But he knew that wasn't true. The influence and lessons Kakashi had taught him were a big part of who he had become. Not to mention Naruto, who was very similar to himself. They had shared past experiences and supported each other when the other needed it. Sasuke took in a deep breath, trying to remove all guilt.
Slowly, as Sasuke imaged how he would tell his friends and Kakashi about his lies, the darkness came over him. He woke again in dream world. In his dreams Kakashi and his friends had forgiven his lies. Then in another dream, they hadn't. He had been alone then, more alone than he had ever been in his life. He stayed in that dream until he finally entered the deepest of sleep.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
In the morning, Sasuke woke up to birds chirping and sunlight on his face. For a second he thought that he was dreaming he was in some sort of Disney movie. Then he cracked open an eye and saw the barren room that Walt Disney would refuse to have in his movies. Sasuke lifted himself off the bed and his foot moved something at the foot of his bed. He looked down and saw his uniform cleaned, dried, and pressed at the foot of the bed. Color Sasuke impressed. He got off the bed and changed into his navy blue uniform, thankful for Sakura's mom.
His door had been shut, when he knew he left it open last night. It had probably been Sakura's mother who shut it. Shrugging his shoulders, he trudged out of the room and went past Sakura's room. The door was shut as well, so he didn't know if she was awake or if she was still sleeping. Turning the corner to go down the stairs, he ran into Sakuya.
"Oh, Sasuke. Good morning. I left an extra toothbrush in the bathroom next to your room, if you were wondering. I just came up here to wake up Sakura," Sakuya smiled. Sasuke looked behind him to see Sakura's closed door. He looked back at a smiling Sakuya.
"Thanks. And thanks for the uniform," he told her. If possible her smile grew, making Sasuke a tad bit uncomfortable. He wasn't used to all the smiling faces in the morning. Kakashi never smiled in the morning, he was barely coherent until after he ate breakfast. Which Sasuke had never seen. After living with Kakashi for nine years, he would think that he would see Kakashi eat breakfast on a school day, but he never had. Even the night he came to live with Kakashi, he had been so distracted that he hadn't see the scar on Kakashi's face. But he had seen it on several other occasions.
"You're welcome," Sakuya said to him and walked past him. She was around Sakura's height, he noticed. Sasuke shook his head of the thought and went around the upstairs and found the bathroom. He quickly brushed his teeth and while he couldn't find a comb, he didn't really need to. His hair always stuck up at odd ends and a comb wouldn't fix that, so he left it alone. Walking out of the bathroom, he didn't see a soul, so he assumed, Sakura didn't wake up noisily.
Downstairs, he didn't see anyone either. He was starting to wonder if he was late and Sakura had already left for school. Maybe she wanted to avoid him after how she behaved last night. Sasuke shook the line of thought and entered the dinning room, then turned left into the kitchen. Mother and daughter was sitting at the table by the window. Sakura was eating toast while Sakuya was reading the morning paper. Both looked up at seeing him come in.
"There's another piece of toast in the toaster, Sasuke, that has your name on it," Sakuya said, before she turned back to her paper.
"Thank you," he said shortly. He was really tired of saying thank you so much. It's not that he wasn't thankful, he really was thankful, but all the stuff they were doing for him was making him even more uncomfortable. He suddenly wanted to leave, immediately.
Shaking off the feeling, Sasuke went over the toaster and pulled out the toast. Sasuke was surprised that the toast really did have his name on it. It was spelled in cursive with peanut butter. Sasuke twitched a little. Did families really do this for each other or was it just this one? He had to admit that it was a little weird. He wasn't really used to someone going to so much effort on his behalf. He was beginning to feel unnerved. The sudden urge to leave was rushing back.
"Didn't Sakura do a great job of writing your name?" Sakuya asked, smiling. Sasuke vaguely wondered if there was anything that didn't prompt her to smile.
"Yeah," Sasuke said after only a little hesitation. He glanced at Sakura, but found her looking at everything except him. Mentally, Sasuke sighed. She was going to avoid him.
"We need to get going, Mom," Sakura said, standing. Sasuke was still standing by the toaster, half way through his toast. He looked at the clock. Yes, it nearly was time for them to leave.
"Alright, have a good day, Sakura. It was nice to meet you, Sasuke. Come back again," Sakuya requested. Sasuke nodded.
"Thank you for having me," he said. There was no way he was coming back anytime soon. This house was making him too uncomfortable with the family closeness they had going on.
Sasuke followed Sakura to the main foyer where their shoes and book bags were. She still wasn't looking at him, or speaking to him directly. It was irking Sasuke but he felt no need to say anything. She'd get over it in her own time, and if not, he'd just make her get over it. They grabbed their stuff and went out the door.
Sasuke stuffed his hands in his pockets, ready for a silent walk to school. He ate the toast hands free as he walked down the street, a little in front of Sakura. Suddenly, before they even turned the corner, Sakura's hand came down on his arm and she held him in place. He half turned back to look at her, with toast in his mouth. Sasuke saw a light blush touch Sakura's cheeks but decided against mentioning it.
"About last night," Sakura started. Chuckles suddenly erupted beside them. The people walking on the street beside them were drawling their own conclusions as to what 'last night' meant. Sasuke put the rest of the toast in his mouth and swallowed as he dragged Sakura out of the middle of the sidewalk.
"I'm really sorry about clinging to you. I didn't mean to but I'm really bad about storms, and I didn't mean to put you in a weird position," Sakura apologized. Her face was getting slightly more pink, but she held his gaze nonetheless.
"It's fine. I get it," Sasuke shortly answered. She was having a hard time talking about this, he could tell, so the sooner they got it over with, the better off they where. Short responses would accomplish that.
"Really?" Sakura asked, hopeful.
"Yeah, really. I understand," Sasuke said. He turned to leave but Sakura grabbed his arm again. He vaguely wondered why she touched him so much. Then he realized that her touching him wasn't all that unpleasant.
"Um, can you do me a favor?" Sakura asked. She was still looking him in the face. Sasuke was guessing that it was hard for her to keep up eye contact this long, especially when they were talking about a very embarrassing topic.
"Depends," Sasuke told her. What could she even want? What more could she have on her mind now that she apologized?
"Will you keep last night between us? It was really embarrassing and I'd rather not have people know about it," Sakura requested. Her hand was still trapping his arm, Sasuke realized. He also realized that it wasn't as unpleasant it could have been. He rather liked it when she invaded his personal space.
"Yeah," he told her. That wasn't so bad. He hadn't planned on telling anyone, anyway. It would be kind of hard to bring it up in a conversation.
With that said, the walk to school was still silent, but it was a friendly silence that Sasuke didn't mind. He had them with Naruto a lot, when the blond wasn't talking his ear off. How Naruto could talk about nothing for ten minutes straight was beyond him. It wasn't that long before they reached the school. Sakura told him that her first class was on the third floor, while his was on the first. At the stair way, they said their goodbyes to each other and went separately to class.
In the class room, even though it was so early in the morning, the noise level was too loud for Sasuke's liking. The teacher wasn't in the room and the students were taking time to socialize. Conversation was all around him. Then Sasuke heard his name being called over the commotion. Sasuke saw Naruto waving for him to join their group. Neji and Shikamaru were both suffering Naruto's hyperness so early in the morning. Sasuke almost felt sorry for them.
Walking in between the desks, Sasuke sat his stuff down on the floor and leaned against the desk. Neji and Shikamaru were sitting while Naruto was standing and waving his hands. Even though, Sasuke felt mildly annoyed, the sight calmed him a little from the warm fuzziness Sakura's house had. It was a relief to be around Naruto's normal hyper-activeness. It was something he knew how to handle.
"What is it?" Sasuke asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Where were you this morning? I didn't see you on the way to school, I thought you were skipping," Naruto said, his voice projecting throughout the class. No one took notice though, since they were wrapped up in their own conversations.
"You're like a wife wondering what her husband was doing since he got home late," Shikamaru said lazily. His eyes were barely open and, Sasuke would guess, barely focused as well. Neji chuckled at the insult. Naruto hmphed. He was too comfortable with his sexuality to be tripped up by being called Sasuke's wife.
"Well, if he was going to skip, then he should have called us so we could have fun and not rot in this hell hole while he goes out and dances around in joy because he's not in school," Naruto said, arms crossing over his chest. An image of himself dancing in joy ran through Sasuke's brain, then it stopped immediately because he couldn't picture it. Sasuke dancing in joy wasn't something that was possible. His brain refused to conjure up the mental image because that's how impossible it was.
"I got caught in the storm last night, I didn't make it home," Sasuke said, sitting at his desk, facing Naruto. Neji and Shikamaru sat in front of them, so the four of them had their little corner in the back by the window.
"What did you do? Spend the night at a store or something?" Neji asked, resting his chin in his palm. Shikamaru had half way woken up and was focusing his eyes on him.
"I ran into Sakura and spend the night at her house," Sasuke told them. He wasn't going to tell them about how afraid she was of storms, but he wasn't going to lie to them by saying that he had spend the night in a local shop.
"You work fast," Neji observed, eyebrows raised. Naruto was sputtering in horror at the thought of Sasuke spending the night at Sakura's house.
"What did you do to her?" Naruto demanded. There was a fire in his eyes that reminded Neji of Lee when he got riled up.
"Nothing," Sasuke told him, staring blankly at the blond. Naruto was sputtering again as, Sasuke assumed, his mind was imaging all the horrid thing he did(not do) to Sakura. Naruto shook his head and laughed nervously.
"Of course, you wouldn't do that. You haven't known Sakura for that long," Naruto said, looking away from Sasuke. He raised an eyebrow at Naruto.
"I didn't do anything to Sakura," Sasuke said. He refused to put 'that she didn't want me to' on the end of that sentence because it wouldn't be fair to Sakura. But it would have been fun if he could have baited the blond just a little bit. Something told Sasuke that he'd need to find another subject to bait Naruto with, though.
Before the conversation could continue the teacher walked in the door as the bell rang and the class settled down to hear the lecture, which opened with a reminder about the end-of-term exams. Sasuke was only half listening to Japanese history as he twirled his pencil around his fingers. It wasn't long before Naruto flicked him a note and throughout the whole class, he interrogated Sasuke about what happened last night at Sakura's house. Because they had done this so many times, they were never caught by the teacher. And if the teacher did notice, he didn't care.
The morning passed by quietly and without incident, as long as you count Naruto belching in the middle of a chemistry lab an incident. Nothing caught fire, so Sasuke thought that wasn't an incident. It was finally lunch time and Sasuke was looking forward to not thinking. He was getting annoyed with all the thumbs up he was receiving from some guys and the glares he was receiving from some other guys. It seemed to have gotten around that Sasuke spent the night at Sakura's house. Oh, well, he didn't care about gossip.
In the lunch room, the buzz of conversation never died. As Sasuke and Naruto walked over to their table, that now had a few more girls sitting at it than he remembered, Sasuke over heard the latest rumor going on about Sakura and himself. One that would have made him choke on his saliva if he had been anyone else. One that did make Naruto choke on his saliva.
"You didn't really have sex with Sasuke in that storm, did you?" the blonde, mouthy one said. Sasuke thought her name was Ino, but he was never good with names. Sakura promptly spit out the water she had been drinking and it went all over Kiba, who was sitting opposite her.
"How did that one even get started?" Sakura asked. Her face wasn't even flushing, so Sasuke gave her points for that. Ino shrugged her shoulders.
"Either way, ignore them. Rumors aren't important. Let people think what they want," Sasuke told her, as he and Naruto sat down at the table. This was kind of his fault that everyone knew he spent the night at Sakura's, but it wasn't his fault this was blown out of proportion.
"Yeah, I think I'll take Sasuke's side and just say 'Whatever'," Sakura agreed. Naruto looked at Sakura like a puppy from across the table.
"Don't tell me the Teme defiled you, Sakura," he exclaimed, sniffling. He was getting over dramatic. Sakura laughed at his facial expression and grabbed his hand.
"Sasuke didn't defile me," she told him. He perked up and looked almost normal. Tsh, Naruto should have taken his word for it, Sasuke thought. After that the table quieted down and they were able to eat lunch with a sense of normality. Half way through lunch the quiet, shy one, whose name Sasuke didn't remember, got their attention.
"After the final exams are over with and summer begins, my father has a villa on the beach that we could use for summer vacation," the girl said. She was poking her fingers in a nervous manner.
"She's right. I asked my uncle if we would be allowed to use it for a few weeks this summer and he agreed," Neji said. Ah, yes, Neji and the shy girl were cousins. Now if only Sasuke could remember her name. Hina…Hita…Hinata! That was it. Hinata was Neji's cousin that he used to not like. Now he was as protective of her as a brother.
"Wow, Hinata, that'd be awesome!" Naruto said excitedly. Said girl blushed and poked her fingers together more rapidly.
"The only cost would be a train ticket to get there. From the train station, it's a short walk to the villa. It has a private beach as well," Neji said. Hinata nodded. Sasuke figured that being looked at by Naruto this long was going to cause the girl's head to explode. And what was worse, Naruto was looking at her like she was sick.
"Hey, Hinata, do you have a fever? Your face is really red," he pointed out, oblivious and clueless. Sasuke raised his fist and hit Naruto upside the head. He was surprised when Sakura mirrored his action at the same time. He caught her gaze. She smiled at him. He felt one side of his lips curve in return.
"Ow! What the hell was that for?" Naruto shouted, holding his sore head. The moment was broken as he looked down at a hunched over Naruto.
"For being a dobe," Sasuke told him. Naruto turned in his chair toward Sasuke and raised a fist.
"What do you know, you stupid Teme? I was only asking because I was concerned," Naruto defended. Before Sasuke could reply to that, Kiba spoke up.
"Sorry, Hinata, Neji. My family's going to the Mountains all summer break," he said, leaning back in his chair.
"I'm unable to go as well," Lee said. "My family has made plans too. I'm sorry."
To Sasuke's surprise, Shino and Choji declined as well because Shino's family was going on a cruise and Choji's was going to visit the world and review restaurants as part of his parents' job. When it was all said and done the only ones able to go were Shikamaru, Neji, Naruto, himself, Sakura, Hinata, Ino, and Tenten.
Now that they all had something to look forward to, Sasuke's little sleep over at Sakura's had been forgotten. At least by their friends. When everyone's parent consented and Hinata's father approved of the people going, excitement was starting to hit home. That week passed incredibly fast with everyone cramming for exams that would begin the following week.
Exam week also went by fast. Each individual exam taking up most of the school day and wearing out students. However, the excitement grew as the days counted down to deparature day. Preparations were being made, train tickets were being bought and bags were being packed for the two week vacation by the beach. The villa would be ready a few days after school was out for summer break. Hinata's father insisted on cleaning and airing it out before anyone set foot into it, so Neji and Hinata went a few days ahead of them to take over the cleaning.
Three days after school ended, Sasuke found himself on a train with Naruto, Shikamaru, Sakura, Ino, and Tenten. He was glad that he'd be able to get out of the house for two weeks and not spend it cooped up in the apartment with Kakashi. Normally, he would have gotten a summer job, but he figured he could get one after the vacation. As Sasuke looked out the window to see blue ocean, he realized he was almost giddy about this trip.
And when Sasuke got back, it would be July twenty first. Just in time to celebrate his eighteenth birthday and come clean about his real name. Sasuke felt his almost giddiness vanish in a fit of nerves. After this vacation, he was coming clean.
A/N: School starts tomorrow for me, so I wanted to get this up before then. It's not as long as would have liked it, but I needed to get them out of school and into the summer swing when Sasuke's birthday comes up. The next two, maybe three chapters will be about them at the villa, I want to get in some cute SasuSaku scenes.