The time to reveal everything in public would be at the next awards ceremony, the two of them decided. It was in early February, the second big music awards show of the year, and guaranteed to have the biggest media presence.

In the meantime, the band was releasing the first song off their new album, a collaboration they'd recorded almost a year ago with the rapper Killer B. Luckily, it didn't involve anywhere near the amount of promotion it would've required two years ago; people were hanging onto every bit of news that leaked out about the band. They could've released a link to the song, cold, and it would probably be at the top of the charts in minutes.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the way things were done. There were radio agreements, and scripts to go by when announcing new things over social media, and careful advertising. Normally it wouldn't even be that big of a deal for Sasuke, who stayed as far away as he could from any publicity efforts. But the release was coming in the middle of their sessions for the new album, which meant additional and unnecessary stress.

Though his joint appearance with Sakura was extremely important to Sasuke, figuring out the specifics was not. And that was all the publicity team wanted to talk about, once the band's single was out and getting airtime. Sasuke declined meeting after meeting, irritated by the way they were dissecting minute details. The whole process didn't make him want to go back on his decision, but it was a total pain in the ass.

The band had finally finished writing the new songs, and was now immersed in demos and the official recording process. They were in the studio for hours at a time, usually as long as Shikamaru could hold up his vocals. It was the shortest production period they'd ever had for an album, out of necessity. Recording multiple tracks a day was not the way Sasuke would ever have chosen to go about it. He felt good about what they were putting down, sure, but a recording process this fast left no room for editing if they found anything unsatisfactory.

In fact, he'd probably be completely miffed about the whole thing if it weren't for Sakura. Starting over with her had created a whole new feeling in Sasuke's life. Things that angered him before suddenly didn't seem nearly as important. Part of him wasn't sure how to feel about that, but letting go of his reservations about their relationship had released a knot of giant tension in him that Sasuke hadn't even realized was there. He wasn't exactly eager to expand that feeling and bust out of a shell, or something ridiculous, but he felt better now than he had in…Years.

Sasuke had told the publicity people that he and Sakura would be taking the same limo, and (to his surprise) they'd accepted that. Probably because it would generate the most noise in the media.

In the weeks leading up to the awards show, some kind of rumor was purposely leaked to make the news outlets suspect that the two of them might show up together, which generated even more buzz. "They'll already be prepared," Kakashi said, with a slight shake of his head. It was two weeks before the show, and he was visiting the apartment to make sure Sasuke knew the plan (as if he hadn't heard it a thousand times already). "I have to say, Sakura Haruno's team is efficient."

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"I'm also surprised that you would agree to do this," Kakashi said.

"We agreed on it together," Sasuke muttered, frowning.

"Good," Kakashi said. "You know, this is a big step for you. I'm happy you're making it."

Sasuke shot him a look and left the room immediately.

"Don't forget, you have to be in the studio at eight tonight," Kakashi called to his back.

"I know," Sasuke said, going to his room to get his guitar.

He got to Sakura's past midnight that night, and felt guilty as soon as she opened the door. "Sorry," he muttered. "It's late."

"Don't worry about it," Sakura said. It looked like she'd gotten back recently too; she was wearing a tight skirt and lacy top, not at all the kind of outfit she wore when she was at home. Her guitar case was lying open on the coffee table, next to a few sheets of paper. "I got back fifteen minutes ago."

"Writing?" He indicated her guitar.

"Sudden inspiration," Sakura said. "I had to write it down before I forgot. Which explains why I'm still in business clothes." She grinned.

"Meetings?" Sasuke asked her.

"Meetings about us, actually. They were making sure I knew the plan."

"Hn. Don't even want to talk about that," Sasuke said.

"Neither do I. Give me a minute to change, okay? This skirt is too short to sit comfortably."

"Nothing I haven't seen before," Sasuke said, smirking.

"Shut up, you," Sakura said. "I'll make you pay for that comment some time."

"Tch," Sasuke said. He went over to the coffee table to wait for her.

He picked up her guitar from the couch so he could sit down, and then weighed it in his hands. He'd never touched her guitar before, and it was impossible to resist running his fingers over the frets, getting the feel of it. He didn't play it out of respect; you didn't just pick up someone else's instrument and fiddle with it.

"You can play it, if you want."

Sasuke jumped. He hadn't heard Sakura come out of her room. "Sorry." He started to set the guitar down again.

"I'm serious," Sakura said, coming over and sitting next to him on the couch. "You're probably the only person I could trust with my guitar, and it's not because of our relationship status."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and Sakura grinned. He picked up the guitar and strummed a bit, just getting a feel for it. Sakura kept it in top condition, unsurprisingly.

He played a few chords, not really going for any particular song.

"So are you ready for the awards show?" Sakura asked him.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Sasuke muttered.

Sakura nodded. "As much as I'm kind of dreading it…I don't know. It'll be good not to have to hide something like this from people anymore. Especially people I care about. I've got enough stress to deal with." She sighed.

Sasuke nodded. He hadn't even thought about the fact that Sakura probably hadn't told most of her friends about their relationship. She had people outside of her immediate music circle that she really cared about, unlike him, and he hadn't given a thought to how hard the whole thing must've been to hide.

He set her guitar down on the table and leaned back into the couch. Sakura joined him, curling her legs up under her.

"Do your parents…Know?" Sasuke asked, knowing the question would sound like it was coming out of nowhere.

"About you?" Sakura raised her eyebrows, looking amused.

Sasuke nodded.

"Yeah," she said. "No details. But I told them a few weeks ago that I was seeing a guy, casually. My mom asked what his name was, and then was very surprised."

"Why?"

"Because getting involved with some idiot in a ridiculously famous band was not something I ever had in mind," she said, rolling her eyes.

"So she knows who I am."

Sakura sighed and shook her head. "Sasuke," she said in a faux-condescending voice, "I'm sorry to be the one to break this to you. But many teenage girls, myself included, experienced some angst during their high school years. You may also not know that 'Night Drive' is an iconic breakup song of the alt-rock variety. To conclude, considering you have a very large fanbase, I'm pretty sure most mothers with kids vaguely interested in music know who you are."

The look Sasuke gave her just made Sakura laugh. She switched back to her normal tone. "Granted, my mom might not have known what you looked like, because I was never a poster kind of girl, but I'm sure that's been remedied with an Internet search."

"Okay, okay," Sasuke muttered.

"You asked," Sakura said, giving him a sweet smile. Sasuke rolled his eyes. "So are you staying over?" She asked him, raising her eyebrows.

"Not if you don't want me to," Sasuke said.

Now it was Sakura's turn to roll her eyes. "You don't come over at midnight with plans to leave an hour later."

Sasuke shrugged. "I can leave if you want to sleep."

"I don't want to sleep yet," Sakura said. "I'm going to be swamped for the next two weeks, which means we won't see much of each other."

Sasuke got her meaning immediately.

The next night Sasuke spent at Sakura's apartment ended up being the day before the awards show, and mainly out of necessity; the plan was to get ready at Sakura's apartment, and take the limo from there. They had fallen asleep without doing anything, exhausted from their respective workdays. When the crowd of people arrived, he and Sakura were both still in their pajamas, and completely unprepared for the onslaught that came through the door.

Immediately Sakura was pulled away into the bathroom for prep, which seemed ridiculous considering it wasn't even noon. Sasuke, however, was left to his own devices. He stayed as far away as possible from the buzz of activity. Sakura's apartment didn't feel right with so many people in it; the sense of safety and comfort that was always there with the two of them was completely gone.

Later in the afternoon, someone handed Sasuke a bag with his suit inside. He used Sakura's bedroom to change and came back out to find several people waiting to intercept him. They had it down to a science, apparently. Sasuke always refused, point blank, to let anyone put makeup on his face, but the band's stylist sprayed stuff in his hair before he could dodge it. He figured Kakashi had told them to back off, because they didn't change anything else about his appearance other than one person approaching tentatively to straighten his tie.

Sakura came out an hour and a half later. She was wearing a blue-green dress that brushed the floor; her hair was pulled half up and she looked nothing like herself. Her eyes were dark; he could tell she was wearing false eyelashes, even though she didn't need them, along with a shit-ton of eye shadow.

"Well," she twirled. "How do I look?"

He raised his eyebrows. "Uh…"

"Don't even say anything," she said. "It's bad, isn't it." She smiled and he saw a hint of her under all the makeup.

She looked gorgeous, obviously. But to him, Sakura always looked the most beautiful sitting on a stool with her guitar; it didn't matter what she was wearing or if she had makeup on. The glamorous, awards-show Sakura wasn't one that he knew, and that was slightly unnerving.

"It's not that bad," Sasuke said.

"You're lying through your teeth, asshole." Sakura said. Makeup and fancy dresses didn't really change anything about a person. "Come on, let's get this over with." She grabbed his hand and led the way toward the limo. "You realize this is our big reveal, right?"

"Crossed my mind." Sasuke muttered, opening the car door so she could climb in without falling (her heels were ridiculously tall).

Sakura took the hand he'd offered to help her get in, but paused for a second to give his suit a once-over. "You clean up nicely, you know," she said, shooting him a slightly mischievous grin, and then ducked inside. Sasuke would've smirked if her comment hadn't sent a rush of heat through him. Instead he just shook his head and followed her in, wishing he had better control (and at the same time, not being able to resist the effect she had on him).

The minute they got out of the limo, the screams got a hundred times louder. Sasuke realized how much bigger this had become just because of the two of them were showing up in the same limo, while the rest of the band was arriving separately. He hadn't really thought about the effect it would have.

Flashbulbs went off from every direction. There was a frenzy of photographers pushing up against the barriers on the street, and the reporters on the carpet were craning their necks to see what was going on.

Sakura held onto Sasuke's hand for the majority of the time on the red carpet, even during interviews.

"Wow. Wow!" The first reporter said into her microphone as Sasuke and Sakura were guided up to her. "I'm here with Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, who just arrived…Together!"

The camera panned (in a ridiculously obvious way) down to their linked hands. Sakura, however, put on a bright smile. "Hi!"

"Sorry, I think I might need a moment to take this in," she said, looking at the camera and putting a hand over her heart dramatically. It took all Sasuke had to keep his face neutral.

"Take as long as you need," Sakura said amiably, though she looked slightly embarrassed.

"I suppose I have to ask the question everyone watching is dying to know," she said, "...Is this official?"

"I would say so," Sakura said. She glanced at Sasuke.

"Aa," Sasuke said. "Not obvious enough for you?"

The reporter laughed, and then the publicity people were signaling that they had to move on. And then followed a typical series of interactions with the press, the annoyance levels multiplied by one hundred.

"So I have to ask, since I've got you both together: was it love at first sight?" One interviewer asked with a horrible confidential smile.

Sasuke had been letting Sakura handle the majority of the questions, because they made him seethe. Somehow, she could make up cordial responses to any question she was asked.

"Um…Not really. The first time we met it was really quick. I mean, we knew about each other. But we didn't really get to know each other until later." Sakura said, smiling.

"Tch. Yeah," Sasuke said involuntarily. He was thinking about the night they had first met. And what had happened.

"Well, you certainly look great together," the interviewer said. "Rumor has it you've already won Gossip magazine's Sexiest Couple title."

"Wow. That's…flattering." Sakura said. She glanced at Sasuke and he smirked at her eye roll.

"Yo, teme! Leave Sakura alone for one sec so we can take photos!" Naruto yelled from across the carpet.

"Alright, I should let you two go," the interviewer said. "Have fun tonight!"

"Thank you!" Sakura said, ever polite.

"I'll see you inside," Sasuke said to Sakura. This was part of the plan, after all; the publicity people were worried he would seem distanced from his bandmates if he was with Sakura all night. Making sure that didn't happen meant yet more photos, this time with the rest of the band.

"Okay." She reached up to kiss him and Sasuke felt the cameras go crazy (not that they'd stopped since he and Sakura had arrived). This was the moment they were all hungry for, and Sakura had given them exactly what they wanted.

Still, she was also the one who pulled away first and let go of his hand. Immediately she was swept off into another series of interviews, and Sasuke joined his bandmates.

"This is ridiculous," Sakura muttered to Sasuke when they found each other inside. "I got two question on my music. That's it. The rest were about you."

"Sorry," Sasuke said.

"Don't apologize." Sakura rolled her eyes. "I knew what I was getting myself into, didn't I? I've been reading magazines since I was a kid, and that's all they want from the girl." She sighed. "It's just how the world works." Bitterness had crept into her voice.

"You okay?" Sasuke asked her quietly.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. I can't let this stuff get to me, can I?"

Sasuke shook his head. "And you won't." He put a hand on the small of her back and they entered the theater, which was peacefully free of flashing cameras and TV network microphones.

A/N: Sorry for the unreliable update times. If the next chapter isn't up until the end of the month, it's because I've gotten sidetracked by school and nanowrimo (which probably isn't the best idea considering how hectic my schedule is...but I'm going to do anyway).

Reviews appreciated; thanks for reading.