Author's Note : I came back to edit an error because a tiny, but important, bit about marking was missing.
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The Alpha awoke to the greatest feeling he had ever obtained in the longest unassuming part of his life. He had slept on his bed—the very same bed he hadn't touched in weeks. There wasn't any inevitable awakenings due to the usual nightmares, since he hadn't had any… and it didn't seem to be any impending ones on sight. He didn't even remember if he had any dream at all that night.
Sasuke, very much awake but feeling incredibly restful, closed his eyes in his attempt to absorb everything—the reality. He still couldn't comprehend of its possibility in the first place. He had slept on his bed, so soundly and peacefully, without the help of alcohol, and without interruption in the rest he never knew he needed. A feat he much doubted he alone could achieve.
The soft tingling on his neck told him everything that had been inhabiting his mind rent-free was all true. All of it had happened. The woman in his arms was as real as his own naked body under the duvet. As real as what had transpired between them throughout the day and night. As real as possible consequences brought in the morning—or midnight—of the aftermath; the talk.
When she looked up and her glimmering eyes met his own, as if entranced, he thought, maybe… he should just continue doing what he really wanted. He should only do what he wanted.
And he wanted her.
So he relented, telling himself it was alright. It was alright to do more. This was what he wanted. There was nothing more he wanted, nothing but her.
First his lips landed on her expecting ones, softly, lightly, but lingered. She complied easily and kissed him back, softly as well, but there was something about the way she kissed him. She always exhaled when she kissed back, slowly and measured, and he always ended up inhaling her breath, which… he unexpectedly took immense pleasure from.
Sasuke didn't understand. It didn't require much to kiss her—just the lips claiming control, tongue divulging further, and teeth having a role. So he shouldn't have received much in return, supposedly.
Yet, his body was all in favor to receive whatever of hers that could be savored. His chest wasn't in contact with her, but it was burning for her. His eyes were closed, yet he could picture her perfectly in the darkness. His stomach had survived those years of atrocious feeding, now it churned relentlessly as if overstimulated just by the flick of her lashes against his cheeks. His arms were his alone to control, yet they reached all the right places on their own accord as if possessed.
His mind soared to the highest place, his body nestled onto the deepest comfort of her warmth.
In his mind, there wasn't anything more important than to take hold of her everything and at whatever cost.
He went further down, tracing her skin with his lips. Her chin, her jaw, the crook of her neck, the prominent notch between her clavicles, the valley between her breasts, the areola of her left, the underside of her right, her stomach…
Said part erupted a growl that brought him awareness of just how much he must have tired her.
How selfish he had been.
"We've skipped lunch and dinner…" Always so subtle.
He had received the rest he needed… all thanks to her. He should give her the rest she needed as well.
Sasuke looked up, targeting at her lovely nose. He surely wouldn't be able to escape this endless loop of insatiable need had he caught sight of her ethereal stare.
"Of course. Let's eat," he agreed, pulling himself from her rather heavily.
For a moment she blinked once, twice, then her lips curved in a delayed smile. Smirking himself, Sasuke made his way to the wardrobe, fishing out a fresh boxers, a loose black shirt and shorts. He was facing her as he dressed. She was blushing prettily as she picked her clothing piece by piece, which wasn't an easy task since he'd managed to scatter them all over the place and she had to use one arm to secure the blanket she desperately utilized to cover her state of undress.
Sasuke had the urge to chuckle, but decided against it.
Because, he had seen everything. What was left to cover?
"What do you want to eat?" he said casually, slipping on black shirt over his head.
The Hyuuga froze in the middle of strapping back her bra, eyes wide, cheeks scarlet. "W-what do you have in the fridge?"
Sasuke didn't reply right away, trying to recollect pensively since the last time he went to buy grocery was … weeks ago. At his silence, she bit that succulent lip.
"I can make something…" she offered, then added quickly, "if you'd like."
For a moment he just stared unseeingly at her, slipping in an arm into short sleeve, then the other arm. He thought he saw eggs some days ago … after his drinking session with Naruto, so could be the blonde's doing. The Hyuuga was in the middle of pulling her long hair out the collar of her blouse when she noticed that he was still staring at her. She quickly diverted her eyes as her arm reached out to pull the zipper on her back.
The room around his groin felt tight, little by little, at the thought of having her in his clothes instead. It would be a good thing to offer her some fresh clothes anyway, would it not? Not that she could walk in them outside … with his clan insignia on the back and all. She would have to get changed in the end. So he decided nothing to comment about it. Instead, after long, he finally said. "Eggs. I think I have eggs."
The Hyuuga nodded absentmindedly as she put the last leg to her stockings. "I'll see how I can make use of them."
Sasuke too nodded, feeling rather at a lost on how… simple their conversation had been. He always thought he didn't enjoy talking about the simplest things, simply because there was no use of it. So he always refrained voicing out his concern if he could help it. But this … this felt nice. He enjoyed it more that he should have and he could even see himself enjoying it more in times to come…
He caught himself in time.
He had to stop. It wasn't him to be thinking about this at all. It had to be stopped before it derail away even further. Refraining from raking a hand through thick locks, he started heading out towards the kitchen, dismissively saying he would see what he could salvage from his fridge as he walked. He told himself he was giving her privacy—for whatever she had been wanting to do but couldn't in his presence. But all in all, he just wanted to take a breath away from her. It was growing on him, being with her. Too much, and when he was late to recognize it, it'd started squeezing in ludicrous ideas he didn't think would ever pay a visit to his mind at all—at least not in this lifetime.
It didn't take long before she entered the kitchen in appreciable silence, he acknowledged her presence also without words. She took the lead promptly and he assisted her the way he could, chopping, whisking, anything she asked for, which wasn't much.
Uchiha Sasuke treasured every second of it (a surprising finding for himself)—this silence, the one adorned with sprinkles of clinking and sizzling, with just the two of them in his kitchen. He had a deep partiality… a growing fondness to the view of his kitchen with her in it.
The food, although as simple as it could get with just the necessary (limited) ingredients, was delightful. He couldn't recollect the last time home-cooked meal was served on his table, let alone the last time he sat down on his dining table to eat.
At the thought, he struggled to swallow.
Sasuke offered to wash the dishes since she practically had done all the cooking. With a subtle smile on her face, she backed away to give him the space needed, her—still glimmering—eyes scanned over his kitchen. His eyes too swept over the overhead cabinets when she did, involuntarily curious to know how she thought about his kitchen, about this … impersonal space he called home.
He caught himself again, just in time.
He had proctrastinated things enough. It was time for business.
Tea. Tea should do the work. Tea could help him.
Tea should help him.
He unintentionally cleared his throat before revealing his idea of trying to keep her here without sounding too determined—for the talk.
It certainly did the opposite.
"Brew us some tea?" Barely a question, if not at all.
"Would love to," she responded, he could sense her smile even though he didn't make a move to look.
He exhaled inconspicuously.
Now, how to start?
Sasuke shut his eyes once he was seated back to his side of the table, fingers interlaced below the nose, concealing his lips and lower half cheeks from view, both thumbs settling comfortably under his chin, with only the sound of whistling kettle on the early stage in the background.
He had planned to muse on how to appropriately address the matter at hand, to sort out his thoughts, to plot his next actions, to put closure to whatever this was. But somewhen along the way, it spiralled around wildly to something counterproductive altogether.
About how good it was… how it only got better with repetitions, how… even now there was this pulsing need to do more—
Sasuke shook his head slowly.
How many times had they done it?
Was it three times? Four times? Was it… six?
Creases formed between his eyebrows as he racked his brain.
How?
This kind of sex is … not ordinary.
Did he even try to control himself?
How could he….
When she always got off halfway—Sasuke tried to shake the image of her gaping lips and contorting brow that stormed in without invitation off of his mind—which did nothing to lessen his hunger but did the opposite.
She wasn't even in heat… it stopped after they had sex the first time.
He kept doing it and she complied along… even taking equal share, if not dominance, in most of their sessions.
Sasuke wasn't a devout, but now he prayed to Gods that this warmth he was feeling on his cheeks was nothing to worry about. Nothing was put on show. Nothing.
Looking back, the need to bite her neck… to mark her had struck the most potent compared to prior occasions. It was a close call before he acted on his honed reflex and quick thinking to counter it by covering the source of trouble with whatever he had on possession at the time.
To his surprise, or not at all—since the weight of the matter had completely deserted his mind somewhen along the way—throughout the night, the need to act on what was supposed to be a dominating call had been easily overwhelmed by the sensations he was experiencing of them having sex.
But for future instances, he can't just casually coerce her to have sex with him, and to this extent for that matter, just for the sake of avoiding marking her.
Besides, what would happen if he marked her without intention… just because he lost control?
The consequence would be permanent.
He might have succeeded dodging the bullet the last time, but even with his flawless records all throughout his career as an Anbu—all except the last one that he refused to acknowledge up until this moment—he wasn't at all confident for future occurrences. He couldn't guarantee he would be able to control himself if it were to happen again even if he didn't bet on anything.
He still didn't even know the extent of marking. What consequence would it bring? What would change between them? What would be limited? What would be unbound for life?
The best he knew about marking is that once marked, an Omega can only mate with the Alpha who marked her, while said Alpha can still mate with another. Once marked, an Omega will no longer triggered to heat by other Alphas, only her Alpha mate has the power over it.
In hindsight, it might look like a solution to Hyuuga's predicament… But it would take two for it to work, so the question would be, was he ready for it? Would she be willing for it?
Even if he knew—or that his heart had no doubts to the idea that she was his fated partner, his brain was still disagreeing with this groundless and out-of-nowhere belief. He needed to spare no room for extra doubts, heart and mind, before he could resolve to proper conclusions.
Soft clinking of porcelain told him the only woman who had singlehandedly managed to dismantle his mind to pieces with her existence alone was coming to the table. Sasuke slowly opened his eyes and he really couldn't ignore the demanding call to lay eyes upon her, to note any miniscule details and carve them to memories—the way she brought herself before him completely rid off her walls and trusting him fully, the way her face smoothly morphed to expressions he discovered for the first time and found himself yearn to see more, and the way her eyes pulled all of his attention with little to no effort. He wondered if she really was the same competent Anbu he first met weeks ago because in this short time inside his apartment, she had revealed too much, had disclosed too much of the qualities an Anbu wasn't supposed to have.
Yet, with the way she handled the pots with ease and controlled speed as if calculated, he knew for sure that she really was the very same person.
The very same person, whose face was usually behind mask, was now showing such hopeful gaze, innocent smile.
Would there be a possibility that she might have had the same supposition as him—or that they already were trudging on the same standpoint? She might… but since he didn't know any better, he couldn't—didn't want to risk it. It wasn't so unlike gambling and he harboured uncontainable disgust towards the affair of odds.
His eyes regarded the way her hands move as she poured him a cup but they easily returned to her face. She didn't look like she knew something was off, didn't look like she sensed any of his turmoil that thrived on their problematic situation.
What kind of superior would spare this much time and energy to waste on a subordinate? She wasn't even aware of it since he did all the work internally.
No subordinate would even give up this much for their superior.
The irony.
Did she even know—had it ever crossed her mind that it would only take so little to destroy the career… the life that she'd been building with only the most exacting sacrifices?
It was just so easy to provoke him—them. Just being in the same room and self-control easily comes out of the window. One more thing to take into consideration is the fact that they would never know—or even if they knew it would be already much too late—if an Alpha within the vicinity caught sniff of her pheromones or sensed his oppressive aura.
Then, in a way, he had found the solution… Hadn't he?
He refrained the need to scoff by curling his fingers around his cup instead, bringing it closer to put under his careful inspection, of the little ripple on the center and the steam that wafted off upwards in torpid intervals.
Being together in the same room is the core, the root, of the problem.
To put an end, or to allow only the opposite to happen, is the solution.
It really was the only option he could think of in order to preserve everything they had worked for all their lives since the key to expose her vulnerability, in and of itself, was himself.
With them on their separate paths, there wouldn't be any heat, there wouldn't be any risk of being found out, and the need to mark her wouldn't arise.
It was a win-win solution.
So he tried to swallow the aftertaste of his tea that tasted much too bitter, much too uncaring.
"Hyuuga."
Her name had never tasted this wrong on his tongue, never this heavy.
However wrong it might be felt, or heavy the rest of the words that would follow, only one predominating thought that felt right in his mind;
she needed to stay away from him.
Author's Note : Sasuke's pov is growing out of control. I think I still have one chapter left with his pov. I am so sorry.