note.
If track 32 was a prelude - this chapter is the turning point you've all been waiting for; and will likely be the longest chapter of this story.
Not sure if anybody read my last note, but I've opened an Instagram account dedicated to art for my stories and general SasuSaku fangirling, and would love to get your feedback over there! It's: bubblegumshavedice
I also have a safety deposit box for all my fics (just in case, since I do write some R/M rated stuff), where I reblog a bunch load of different fandoms (SasuSaku, NaruHina, Gajevy, Gerza, etc.), and that one is on tumblr under the name: fille-etrangere
Next update will be the start of a new arc =]
track 33.
Very much equal parts embarrassed and proud at herself for being able to see this rare side of Sasuke, Sakura wasn't entirely sure how she felt. The mask he normally wore around her still hasn't completely formed in the mist of morning and he seemed to be more open with her, his motions a little more lazed and reactions less armoured.
It rendered him weaker - a little more human - and she found that she loved this side of him. He seemed attainable for once. Like she actually had a chance of reaching him.
At the same time, it worried her that she might not get to see this part of Sasuke again. She had come to him in a moment of weakness, and she knew that as a friend, he had offered his solace. For her to think only of her one sided feelings towards him and to use his kindness as a way to make him like her wasn't fair. On neither of their parts. She didn't want his pity nor was she sure Sasuke was would be willing to spoil her this way if he knew what she was feeling.
I can show you the world~
Feeling Sakura stare at him, equally open mouthed in the paralleled amazement. He wasn't sure what he would have done if her phone hadn't played its jingle.
Sasuke studied her from the top of her pastel pink hair down to the socks she was pulling up, the bend of her neck as her captured her phone between her ear and shoulder, and the crinkle of her nose as she heard something she didn't agree with.
He had been absent minded. Sucked into her little game. They're close. In fact, they're really close. And Sakura is good company.
But he didn't like her that way.
He didn't. He couldn't.
It was a simple problem of lust that he would be free of, and her unburdened with - within a day or two, now that he was aware of the problem. They have been in a few too many situations wherein he had seen a little too much and he should be able to control himself.
There was no way Uchiha Sasuke was falling for Haruno Sakura.
He may know about her face palming tendencies, that stupid habit of her's where she knotted her hair like in Pantene commercials just to watch it unfurl, the nude tights she wore under the sheer black ones for extra warmth, her 'secret recipe' of adding extra miso paste into instant ramen, the scaly little writer's bump she didn't care for on her right hand, how she skid her fingers along his skin before they linked arms, the way her green eyes glowed under yellow lights and pink hair would become dyed by the sunset, the bounce in her walk when she's happy, the way her lips mashed together and cheeks puffed when she didn't want to cry, gods forbid - the little things to watch out for when she was on her period, like how she broke out over her chin and-
Sasuke stopped. When had being with her become so natural?
One thought was paramount. Over the months, he had somehow become so accustomed to her, so fearful of hurting her, that such a simple explanation escaped him. Through her quiet acceptance, and the allowances she has made for all his weakness, their friendship had unknowingly developed into something more. He had fallen for the girl he had rejected.
I like Sakura.
Turning off her phone, she pushed it deep into her skirt pocket. "Kaa-san said that she convinced tou-san to let me go to the school trip." With you guys was the part she refrained from mentioning. Sakura had told him the majority of the problems between her and her parents; but had left out the parts that concerned Sasuke as to not make him worry. "But that I have to go home to apologize. As well as promise to do well on my studies." She sighed, getting ready for some early morning tree climbing.
"Does she know you're here?" He absently asked.
"I told her I slept over at Ino's." Her mother had too much pride to call the Yamanaka's just to ask whether her runaway daughter was with them. She wouldn't check. Sakura glanced over to see his blanked face, waving her hand over his face in window wiper motions. "Sasuke-kun? Are you okay?"
"Yeah."
I like Sakura.
Sasuke looked through her waving fingers. At her face. Memorising the gentle spikes of gold that struck through the eau de Nil of her eyes in starburst shapes. The type he could write songs dedicated to. He wanted her to be the first thing he saw in the morning and last thing he tasted at night.
He was okay. He just really liked Haruno Sakura. It would be even more than that, he thinks. Maybe even-
Love.
"Yeah." He repeated. Staring at her. Trying to decipher out how it all worked.
It wasn't that he didn't believe in love, nor did he think he wasn't ever going to feel that way for someone. Not when his mother spun him the tales of her childhood love story so often. He just... hadn't expected it. Not at this age. The girls at school had threw such words around so easily, it hadn't occurred that he would be able to experience something like this. With someone like Sakura.
Sasuke had always thought love would hit a man like thunder. Take aim and strike down. That one day, you'd be loitering about on the street, bored to death, and then you'd see that person walk by, and you'd know instantly that your life would changed forever, that your heart would belong to them. Just like the songs played on the radio. If what he felt for Sakura was love, what had he been singing of before this?
With Sakura - it crept up on him. A change so slow it was almost lethargic.
It didn't make sense. Everything about Sakura didn't make sense. Shouldn't he have known if he was going to fall in love? Had an earth shattering realisation - like an arrow through his heart - at that moment?
I love Sakura.
As Sakura walked close enough to see the hairs peeking through his skin in his unshaven state, admiring this person who kept her company through the night, giving up his own comfort to make space for her in his life, she was rendered into a worried state by his unusual behaviour.
Touching her hand to his tentatively, she let her palms lay over the back of his hand. No grip in her touch. Only a quiet reassurance. Just as he had given her.
"It's calming, isn't it?"
He turned his own hands around. So that they were palm to palm. "Hn."
A small smile caused her left dimple to be revealed as she saw that normalcy had returned. Instead of asking what was wrong, she would only stand by his side as long as he allowed her to. "Thank-you for letting me stay last night. For giving me a helping hand."
Her smile was contagious. Just like her kindness. And her gentleness. And those were the things that he loved about Sakura.
His love hadn't been a thunderbolt from the heavens, nor was it a hair-raising type of adventure ride. It had begun with a smile, then every word, and maybe a few shy teasing glances. Every second he spent in her presence, she embedded herself a little deeper into his life, until he reached this.