A/N: Sue me all you want, I couldn't update before. Yes, I am aware of the fact that I wrote many oneshots recently, but I had inspiration for them, not for this. There will be a lot going on in this chapter, so you might think it's kind of rushed, but a lot of the action in there is somewhat useless. As much as I love this story, I can't wait to start another one, so I'm speeding it up a bit so I'll finish it sooner.
Enjoy!
--
Sasuke slowly opened his eyes, not quite ready to welcome the (painfully too bright for 7 am) sunlight that was creeping through the curtains of the hotel room he had been sleeping in a minute ago. Not entirely awake, he didn't notice the emptiness of the space beside him on the bed or the soft trickle of the shower. No, he was still very much asleep and in his own thoughts, making him miss the fact that the door of the bathroom was closed and that perhaps he shouldn't enter.
So he entered.
--
Sakura had woken up very early that morning. She had noticed how sticky and sweaty she had gotten since her last shower. With a slight face of disgust (which had resulted of smelling her armpits), she climbed out of bed and had dragged herself to the bathroom. She hadn't bothered sniffing Sasuke off, but she was convinced he smelled just as bad and promised herself not to leave the hotel room until he had taken a shower as well.
She took off her clothes (that would make her stink again after her shower) and walked to the shower after closing the door. Sasuke was still asleep, and he would probably hear the water running anyway, so she figured she wouldn't need to lock it.
Ahem.
She turned the water on, waited until it was warm enough and stepped in. She let the water run through her hair and down her back in delight and closed her eyes. It was such a good feeling that she almost fell asleep. It was the clicking of the door that took her out of her dizziness. She listened carefully, wondering if she had heard right, but when she didn't hear anything else she shrugged, pushed the thought away and closed her eyes again.
The dizziness came back and she didn't notice when the curtain of the shower was pushed aside. However, she did notice when someone stepped in and when that someone turned out to be Mister Sleepy Emo himself.
"Sasuke!? What the hell are you doing in here!?" she shrieked.
"Mntakin'ashowerng," he muttered.
"Wha- You can't! I'm taking a shower!"
"Hn. MnIcantoohm."
"No you can't! Get out!"
"Mno."
"Yes! Get out! Get out this instant!"
"Mn."
"Sasuke. Get. Out."
Oh. No answer.
"Uchiha Sasuke, you'd better get out of thisshower before I do something drastic!"
Silence.
"Sasuk-…!"
Weird enough, that was not how she planned to get her first kiss. Not in a shower with a missing-nin who happens to have emotion problems and who needs to brush his teeth really badly. No. But that's how it happened. As she lost control over her body and felt herself kiss back, she figured it could have been worse. She could have not known the guy, while on a seducing mission and about to have sex with said unknown guy. Now she was just kissing a guy who used to be her teammate while on a (not-so) simple mission and was in a simply compromising position as if they were going to have sex (both naked in the shower. You get the idea.)
So, yeah.
It wasn't that bad.
Oh, wait. Yes it was.
Where were that prick's hands headed?
Oh God.
Sense came back to her along with her body control, so she "humpf"-ed, put her hands on his (oh-so-firm-and-muscular-and-strong-and-every-other-adjective-to-qualify-a-wonderful) chest and pushed with all her chakra-less might.
"Oof," was the jolly answer of the mighty Uchiha as he slammed into the wall.
That seemed to wake him up alright.
"Sakura? What's going on? What are you doing in the shower with me? And why do I have a-…"
BAM.
"OW! SAKURA!? WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!?"
"That was for almost being gross."
SLAP.
"OW! SAKURA!"
"And that was for kissing me. Now get out."
"No."
"And why not?"
"I deserve a shower as much as you do and you already had yours. You get out."
"I'm not getting out! I was here first!"
"Yes. Now it's time for you to leave."
"No it's not!"
"Yes it is."
"No it's not!"
"Fine, then. Stay here. I don't care."
"Hmpf!"
Sakura huffed out of the shower, outraged. How dare he? How dare he come in the shower while she's there, kiss her like he has a right to and make her leave before she's done? Oh, that man is going to get it when he comes out.
--
Of course, he had to take all his time and stay in the shower for forty-five minutes. He probably had anticipated that Sakura was going to do something related to not fun to him. Either he was mentally preparing himself to get the beating of his life, or he was just waiting until he felt it was the right moment to come out because she had miraculously calmed down.
Either way, it wasn't very useful.
Sakura had just spent the last forty-five minutes falling asleep again, sitting (and eventually lying) on the bed, clad in her towel (she had forgotten her clothes in the bathroom). Her long pink hair was lying around her head, wetting the bed sheets, her eyes were closed and her face was peaceful, as if she had been safe at home, back in Konoha. When Sasuke came out of the bathroom, his black hair dripping and sticking to his face, he noticed the kunoichi's expression and felt something pinch in his chest.
Not because he might have thought she was incredibly pretty or devilishly sexy in her very short white towel, but because it was the first time he had seen her genuinely peaceful since he had left the village five years before. Two years ago, when they had all met in Orochimaru's lair, he wouldn't have cared one bit about her being peaceful or not, but at that moment, being the subject to a whole damn lot of contradictory emotions, he found it hard to ignore.
However, he did (manage to) take control of himself, put boxers on and put Sakura under the covers, intending to stay there and wait until she woke up.
--
Sakura opened her eyes slowly, wondering where she was. She sat up and took in the picture of the hotel room, the window with the shades open and the Uchiha avenger asleep next to her. She stretched her arms and yawned, feeling the bed sheets slide down her bare chest and create a puddle of soft fabric on her lap.
Wait, what?
Bare chest?
With a start, Sakura pulled the covers over her head and discovered, much to her greatest horror, her completely naked body. She instantly hid it under the sheets again, fearing Sasuke might wake up and see her.
Then it struck her.
The guy was sleeping next to her, on the bed, clad only in his boxers, and she was stark naked. They hadn't… had they? She tried to remember anything from the morning. Much to her relief, she could remember everything she had done until she fell asleep. She had been thrown out of the shower, had mentally cursed Sasuke to death, then had laughed at the fact that what had just happened was almost exactly how they had met a dew days before, then she had felt drowsy, had lain down on the bed only in her towel and had probably fallen asleep then. In that case, why was she now naked and under the covers?
Unless…
No. He couldn't possibly have…
Could he?
Sure, Sasuke was a missing-nin and somewhat a murderer, but he had principles, didn't he? He couldn't have abused of her while she was asleep, could he? He was far too considerate to take a girl's virginity without at least asking her before and far too inclined on rebuilding his clan, for which he had to be legally married to the mother of his children, to just have sex with any girl that crossed his path.
Wasn't he?
Then, out of the blue, she regained control of her thoughts and remembered that if she had, in any way, lost her virginity, there would be a bit of blood on the bed sheets beneath her. Without taking the covers off of her, she slid a bit to the side to look at the spot where she was sitting. Again much to her relief, there wasn't any blood, not where she sat and nowhere else either. Then again, it could have been on her towel, which was nowhere to be seen.
Upon deciding it would be a much better idea to get dressed before the Uchiha woke up, Sakura climbed out of bed. As soon as her foot reached the ground, she felt something that wasn't exactly floor-like. She looked down and saw the long-sought towel. She picked it up hurriedly, hoping to find it as clean as it should have been. Fortunately, it was. There wasn't any blood on it. Sakura exhaled a sigh of relief, wrapped herself in the towel and walked to the bathroom, where she had forgotten her clothes.
When she came out of the bathroom, fully dressed and unfortunately reeking because of the unwashed clothes, she found Sasuke still sleeping on the bed, his back to her. She approached the bed and sat on it, observing the young man. Her eyes went from the waistband of his boxers to his spiked up hair, brushing over his back, until she noticed the lack of the all-too-familiar mark on his left shoulder.
She reached out to brush her fingers over the bit of skin where the curse mark was supposed to be. The skin was warmer than she had expected. It was a lot softer, too. She traced the pattern of the mark slowly, as if she was trying to draw it on his shoulder again, until she felt Sasuke shift. She retrieved her hand with a start as he turned to her, his sleepy eyes half-closed and his hair partially covering his face, which held a rather confused look.
"What are doing?" He mumbled.
"Nothing!" Sakura answered, worried he would react badly.
She turned around and faced the other side of the room. She heard him sigh and sit up in the bed. She waited until he spoke again.
"You know, from my point of view, that was no nothing you were doing. It actually felt like you were feeling up my shoulder."
"No! I swear, I wasn't!"
"Then what were you doing?"
"Er…"
"Yes?"
"I was, er… Iwastouchingwhereyourcursemarkisupposedtobe."
"What?"
"I was touching where your curse mark is supposed to be."
"Oh."
"W-… Why isn't it there anymore?"
"It's just gone."
"Oh."
Sasuke got up and went to get his clothes in the bathroom. Sakura watched him put on his shirt, then his pants and, for some reason, felt tears come to her eyes. One of them slid down her cheek and she started sobbing. Upon hearing her sniffling, Sasuke turned his head to her and came out of the bathroom, a confused and slightly concerned look on his face. He sat down next to her and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Sakura? Why are you crying? What's wrong?" He asked, worried, sounding like a little boy talking to his mother.
Sakura's sobs grew louder and she leaned down to his shoulder. He let her rest her head in the crook of his neck and even put his arm around her. He could feel he tears wet his sleeve.
"It's just that… During the last few days, I-… I felt so… So close to you, because you were… You were letting your emotions out and you actually let me reach out to you. You were almost relying on me. Did you know that it-… That it was the first time that I ever saw you smiling? Not smirking, just… Just smiling. And now, I feel like you're… You're slipping away from me. You're-… You're going back to your old self, the one that didn't care about anything but revenge, and I don't want that to happen."
Sasuke didn't say anything. He didn't know what to say. He just sat there in silence, waiting for her to keep on talking. After a bit more sobbing, she went on.
"I came to realize that… If I wasn't in love with you before, I had just fallen in love with you, and… Now that you're becoming more and more like your old emotionless self, I… I don't think I want to love you anymore. In fact, I-… I think I might hate you. For real, this time."
Sasuke's eyes widened. He leant away from Sakura, staring at her with a look of disbelief on his features. Sakura sent him the most painful, regretful glance he had ever seen and he felt a pain in his chest again. His hand fell limp on the mattress as she stood up and walked to the door. Sasuke watched her open the door and instantly realized that he didn't want her to leave. He got up and followed her out in the corridor.
"Where are you going?"
"Outside. To walk. I need to think some things through."
He saw her turn around again, her back facing him, and walk out of the corridor. He went back into the room, slammed the door and punched the wall, tears streaming down his face. Of all the emotions he had been experiencing in the past few days, the one he was feeling was the one with the worst timing.
Because Sasuke, in his not-really-experienced-with-emotions mind, had found out that he was in love with Sakura.
--
When Sakura came back, he was sitting on the bed, his head between his hands. His tears had dried long ago but he still felt miserable. She didn't spare him a glance, she simply gathered her things and told him to do the same.
"We're leaving in ten minutes." And she went out of the room again.
--
During the next eight days, neither Sasuke nor Sakura said anything to the other, doing their best to ignore each other. They walked in silence, ate far from each other and rented rooms with two beds instead of one. They both carefully made sure that they didn't come in contact with the other. Sakura had found a laundromat where she washed her shirt and had given Sasuke his blue shirt back without a word or a glance.
Although they wanted each other to think they didn't care abut the other, they both knew how miserable they were. It hurt the both of them to spend every single second of the day without talking or touching.
Sasuke craved her touch. Ever since he had realized he was in love with Sakura, he had been wishing he could take her in his arms and kiss her like there was no tomorrow. When he went to bed, he wished she would come in his bed and sleep next to him. She never did.
Sakura wished he would just say something. Just to remind her that he was there and that he hadn't been just a dream for the last eleven days. When he wasn't looking, she would send his back a regretful glance. She missed the nights when he fell asleep next to her and cuddled with her unconsciously. The beds where she had slept had felt even colder than the cold treatment he was giving her. Had Sasuke been awake and looking at her every night, he would have seen tears slide down her cheeks, out of her closed eyes.
Soon enough, they found themselves in Suna, which meant that they were three days from Konoha. As they were setting their things in the hotel room they had rented, Sakura spoke to Sasuke for the first time in eight days.
"I'm going out to take a walk. Don't wait for me to go to bed." And with that, she went out of the room.
Once outside, she found out that it had started raining, something that really didn't happen often in Suna. Sasuke, from inside their hotel room, saw it too and wondered if he should go get Sakura before she got sick. Then he reckoned she would just ignore him, he decided against it.
He waited two hours for her to come back. The rain hadn't stopped and had, in fact, gotten heavier. He looked worriedly out the window, hoping to find her coming back to the hotel, but he didn't see her. Going back on his previous judgement, Sasuke decided to go search for her and left the room.
He walked for ten minutes before he found her, sitting alone on the ground of some empty space, crying. The image made the pain in his chest grow more painful. He stared at her for a few minutes, then spoke.
"Sakura."
She turned to him, her eyes full of tears. She didn't look surprised, but angry. She got up and walked up to him.
"What are you doing here?" She asked dryly.
"I'm here to get you back to the hotel. You've been out here for two hours."
"Why do you care?"
"Because, I-…"
"No. Don't tell me. It wouldn't be true anyway, would it? Just like when you said you didn't want to be like you used to be."
"Sakura, I-…"
"No! You lied about that, and you probably lied about everything else you told me."
"No, Sakura, listen-…"
"Shut up! If you're just going to lie, don't bother. I bet you never planned on coming back to Konoha. I bet your new teammates are still alive and they're waiting for you to make them enter the village."
"No, that's not-…"
"Oh, and when you said I reminded you of your mother. That was a lie too, wasn't it?"
"Sakura-…"
"I SAID SHUT UP! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANY MORE LIES! YOU HURT ME! YOU MADE ME FALL IN LOVE WITH YOU AND YOU USED IT AGAINST ME! YOU LIED TO ME EVER SINCE WE MET IN THAT SHOWER AND I'M PRETTY SURE EVERYTHING THAT FOLLOWED WAS A PART OF YOUR PLAN!"
"Sakura, I-…"
"DON'T YOU DARE TELL ME YOU CARE ABOUT ME GETTING SICK! YOU NEVER CARED ABOUT ME, OR ABOUT ANYONE FOR THAT MATTER! YOU NEVER LOVED ANYONE-…"
"I LOVE YOU, DAMNIT! ARE YOU SO DENSE THAT YOU DIDN'T NOTICE IT? I LOVE YOU! I NEVER LIED TO YOU, I NEVER WOULD! I'D BE WAY TOO SCARED FOR THAT!"
"DON'T TRY BEING FUNNY NOW, IT'S NOT THE RIGHT MOMENT-…"
"I'M NOT BEING FUNNY! I'D BE SCARED TO LOSE YOU! NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS WOULD I MAKE YOU MAD ON PURPOSE!"
"YOU DID! YOU DID MAKE ME MAD ON PURPOSE! WHEN WE MET, DON'T YOU REMEMBER?"
"THAT'S CALLED TEASING, SAKURA! AND IN CASE YOU DON'T REMEMBER, YOU PUNCHED THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS OUT OF ME AND YOU ALMOST RIPPED MY BALLS OFF!"
"DON'T CHANGE THE SUBJECT!"
"I'M NOT CHANGING THE SUBJECT, YOU ARE!"
"NO, I'M NOT!"
"YES, YOU ARE! THE POINT IS, I'M COMPLETELY IN LOVE WITH YOU AND I'M SCARED SHITLESS THAT YOU DON'T LOVE ME ANYMORE! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH IT HURT ME WHEN YOU SAID THAT YOU HATED ME FOR REAL? AND WHEN YOU IGNORED ME LIKE I WAS SOME USELESS ROCK LYING ON THE GROUND? IT HURT RIGHT HERE!" He slammed his hand against his chest and tears started to flow out of his eyes.
"I'M PRETTY SURE THAT MEANS THAT I LOVE YOU! AND I DON'T WANT TO GO BACK TO MY EMOTIONLESS SELF! I NEVER LIED ABOUT THAT! EVEN THOUGH IT HASN'T BEEN ENJOYABLE AT ALL UP UNTIL NOW, I WANT TO FEEL LOVE! I WANT TO LOVE YOU! MOST OF ALL, I WANT AND I NEED TO KNOW IF YOU STILL LOVE ME!
Sakura's mouth was opened. She was speechless. She stared at Sasuke, dumbfounded, tears still running out of her eyes. She watched him as he sniffled, wiped his nose with his wet sleeve and walked towards her. He stopped millimetres from her and whispered:
"Do you love me?"
Something inside Sakura snapped and she lunged at him, locking her lips with his.
--
A/N: Don't hate me! The story is not over yet, don't worry. It's just that it's 1:52 am here and I need to go to bed soon. Also, if I had continued, I would have made this chapter forty-three pages long, so I think it's better if I stop it here. I'll write the next chapter tomorrow (or rather, later today). Just so everyone knows, there are about two chapters left until this story is finished.
Don't forget to review and to check my profile.
See ya!
Queen of Pascalities