Sasuke glared at the white powder that covered the countertop. It would be the death of him. The vile substance made him sick, though many other people enjoyed it, said it gave them a jolt of energy. A high.

"Isn't this fun?" Sakura asked. Her eyes were bright, a smile pulling at the corners of her lips. Some of the powder had gotten on her face.

"Hn."

Taking it as a 'yes', her smile broadened and she grabbed a pinch of the white substance, sprinkling it over the dough on her cookie sheet.

"Thank-you so much for helping me with this," she said, for the twenty-second time that day (he had been counting). "My soccer team really needs money for this trip, and a bake-sale seemed like the best idea. I would've asked Naruto, but he would've have eaten everything or done something stupid like spit in the batter, or try to make ramen cookies," she wrinkled her sugared nose in disgust. "Ino's doing her own fundraiser, and..."

As Sasuke listened to her go through the list of people who had been unable to help her, he tried to remember why he had agreed to this. After all, wearing an apron and a hairnet and baking sugar-coated sweets wasn't exactly his forte. So, how on Earth had he been dragged into this?

"Sasuke, could you please help me with my fundraiser?" Sakura asked, lips pouting and green eyes wide.

Oh, right. He had suddenly developed hormones, resulting in all logical thought process being utterly destroyed. Damn.

Seriously, though. When had she gotten so cute and why hadn't he noticed until that inconvenient moment? And since when was 'cute' a part of his vocabulary outside of mocking?

"Sasuke?"

Snapping out of his thoughts, he met Sakura's worried gaze.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "You look sort of... red."

"I'm fine," he muttered, pressing a heart-shaped cookie-cutter into the dough.

A cool, grainy hand was suddenly pressed against his forehead as Sakura said, "Are you sure? You feel kinda warm. Maybe you've been around the oven too long."

He had no idea what made him do it. Maybe it was the proximity and having her hand touching his face, or the memory of her asking for his help repeating in his head again and again and again, or being surrounded by the scent of sweet, heart-shaped cookies. Maybe it was just complete loss of sanity. Whatever the reason, he found himself leaning down and forward, closer to her face and white dusted lips, and kissing her.

Sugar had never tasted so good.

Author's Notes: Okay, I'm pretty pleased with the way this one came out. It's a bit of an AU (obviously), but I like it. I actually got to have a little fun with Sasuke's thought process, which is always nice.

I hope you guys like it!

Disclaimer: 'Naruto' and all its characters are property of Masashi Kishimoto.