Blinking red digits read the time to be midnight, but she knew that was false. She'd fallen into fitful, uncomfortable sleep to no power in the sweltering mid-July weather only a few hours before, knocked out by the fierce thunderstorm still raging outside. Thud, thud, thud went her brain against her skull, begging for aspirin, but she was too sluggish to move. The hum of rain against the window, the groan of her air conditioner as it tried to cool the room, became the only distinguishable sounds.

Thud, thud, thud.

Her eyes snapped open as she realized the intruding noise was not in fact her splitting headache, but someone at the door. For a moment she struggled, the sheets wrapped around her like a vice, until they finally landed in a heap on the floor. When her bare feet touched the hard wood, a shiver coursed from her feet to her scalp, rising chill bumps all over. She was covered in sweat and now freezing.

Still, endless scenarios of trouble ran through her head as she sprinted for the door and threw it open. A passing glimpse of the clock told her it was two in the morning. Her azure eyes clashed with a pair dark as midnight, just as the lightning flashed and fearsome thunder cracked through the silence. The eyes dropped from her face to her body and with a sickening lurch of her stomach she remembered she had stripped to her undergarments earlier to battle the intense heat.

When he raised his eyebrows, she scowled and dove for the bathroom, emerging moments later tying a bathrobe securely around the waist. The harsh expression softened as she examined the youth standing just inside her front door, his gaze shifting uneasily around the room.

"Sasuke?" His expression tensed and she crossed the room, placing her hand on his arm. He was frigid and soaked to the bone from the rain outside, and she had to withdraw her hand immediately. "Are you in some kind of trouble?"

"Usagi, I just need a place to lay low for the night. If it's too much trouble, I will leave." Her lips thinned into a perfect line and she pointed toward the kitchen. It was a wordless exchange, but he understood and took a seat at the table while she moved back to the bathroom. She returned, dumping towels in his lap and then started a pot of coffee. He dried off, watching her move around the kitchen and push her locks of blonde hair out of her way.

Finally she deposited the steaming mug in front of him, straight black as he preferred it, and took the seat across from him, stirring cream into hers until it turned into a light beige color. Gathering her mane of hair, she slung it over one shoulder, mostly out of her way and took a long sip, not looking at him. "Are you going to ask what I'm doing here?"

"Would you tell me if I did?" Usagi sent him a wry smile, her endless blue eyes flickering with an emotion he could not identify. He had to turn away from her stare, but he heard her derisive snort of laughter anyway. "Don't worry, though, I won't run and tattle to Lady Tsunade. We aren't children anymore."

Certainly not, Sasuke thought, turning his dark eyes on her again, her pale, slender neck and the womanly curves she'd acquired. Above all that, her eyes that stared out the window to the persistent rain told the tale best. Usagi was not the same girl now that he had known in school, before everything, before he left.

The air was palpable, and Usagi imagined all the things she could say to Sasuke now. Why would he show up here, a ghost from her past, now of all times? She wanted to cry, to get angry and shout at him, to hug him and make him stay. So many emotions battling in her heart she felt she could drown in them at any moment, so she said nothing, not trusting herself to do so.

"You didn't come." She jerked in alarm at his sudden decision to speak, and appraised him with her inquisitive gaze. Realizing she had no intention of retorting, Sasuke continued, "Sakura came, I expected that. I didn't expect you not to, though."

Usagi emitted a strange noise, something feigning resemblance to a wounded animal, but he realized it was a mix of laughter and tears. "What should I have done? Should I have chased you down, threw myself in your path and begged you not to go? I have some pride, you know. Besides," she fixed him in place with a surprisingly sharp gaze. It pierced right through him, made his breath catch, "I knew I had lost you long before that night, Sasuke. I vied for a place in your heart at one time, but there was no room for me with all that vengeance."

"Usagi," he began, but stopped. There were no words he could think of to say. She was right, and painfully so.

"If I had come and you rejected me," Usagi paused and trembled, not wanting to say it but unable to stop herself, "Well, you had already broken my heart and I couldn't afford to let you crush me completely."

As soon as the words spilled form her lips she rose and dumped her coffee in the sink, trying to ignore her trembling hands as she rinsed the cup. "I'll get blankets, you can sleep on the couch--"

Her words ended with a small squeak as he whirled her around. Their faces held there, inches apart, the small of her back pressed none too gently against the counter. Usagi swallowed, shaking all over, but was surprised as his free hand stroked her cheek with a gentleness she didn't think he possessed.

"I waited," her blue eyes searched his for some meaning to this, but found none before he explained, "I waited for you that night. Maybe if you had come, it would have turned out differently. I'm sorry."

Usagi froze when his lips covered hers, tender yet demanding. Her heart may have stopped beating in her chest, the world stopped turning beneath her feet. It was more than she had ever imagined it could be.

Just like that, he was gone. The kitchen rang with silence. She clutched her chest knowing what piece of her heart she had managed to protect was crumbling to dust. Somehow you managed to do it anyway, didn't you? I hate you, Sasuke Uchiha.

She gave a start as someone pounded on the door for the second time. This guest was more brazen than the last, they threw open the door and pounded into the kitchen, looking around frantically. Her azure eyes met with a pair almost the same shade, and in an instance Naruto was across the kitchen, pulling her close, wrapping his arms around her and protecting her like he always did.

"Usagi, I was just getting back and I saw the lights." He was breathless, how fast had he run when he saw? Usagi nearly sobbed, but she couldn't figure out why, "You're shaking, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost." Another wry smile touched her lips as she wrapped her pale arms around him and let his strength support her.

"I did."

xXx

Well. This one-shot has been bouncing around my skull, demanding to be written. I tried to resist, honestly. I will now withdraw back into my hole and continue working on my other stories currently vying for attention.

Please review.