The bottle lands squarely between Sakura and Sasuke. The group hoots, teases, and laughs before arguing among themselves who could give the most controversial question.
The newly minted couple glances at each other in awkward shyness that only comes after announcing their relationship to their friends. Well, arriving together at a house party is as close as announcing.
“Who’s your first kiss?!” Kiba shouts amidst the chaotic exchange. The uproar gets replaced with an incessant grumbling of complaints.
Choji slaps the back of his head. “Are you stupid?”
“Yeah, are you stupid?” Naruto repeats. “I am Sasuke’s first kiss!”
“I think that shouldn’t count,” Shikamaru counters. “It’s accidental.”
Sai raises a finger. “Technically, a kiss means to touch someone or something with the lips especially as a mark of affection or greeting.”
“Were you greeting Sasuke good morning back then, Naruto?” Tenten asks in absurdity.
“Shut up Tenten. I was telling him how stupid and moronic he is!”
“I just think you and Sasuke really need to tap into your unresolved issues,” Lee adds to the foray.
“I think you all should shut up,” Shino says, “because we don’t know whose Sakura was.”
The group quiets down for a few seconds which stretch into a minute as they wait for her response. Sakura quickly averts her gaze from Sasuke and exchanges glances with Ino. Her blonde best friend, her trusted confidante, her ride-and-die, refuses to meet her eyes. That. Bitch. Sakura clears her throat to buy some time.
“It’s just Sasuke, guys.” Hinata, beautiful Hinata, comes to her rescue.
Kiba rubs his palms together. “Ooh, what if it’s not?”
Sakura can feel the tips of her ears rise to the temperature. She clears her throat, louder this time, and reaches for the glass of water behind Sasuke. Her throat becomes even dryer. Her boyfriend is not even looking at her.
“I’m sensing we should let Sakura have her privacy,” Lee interjects. He dramatically moves sideways from Sasuke just to give her a big thumbs up. “You can skip this one, Sakura!”
“No fair, we answered all questions.” Kiba waves his arms around, a big gesture of displeasure. “Even Shino had to reply to who was his first kiss and it was a frigging insect.”
“I, personally, think it’s on brand.” Sasuke speaks for the first time. Shino leans across the circle and gives him a high five which the former doesn’t meet. “A hercules beetle though. Really?”
“Ino is being awfully quiet.” Shikamaru the nosy really had to point it out! “You know something.”
She shrugs and scoots closer to Sai to hug his arm. “I’m so sorry, Sakura. Please invoke Katsuyu if you’re feeling up to it.”
Tenten laughs. “So you really know something!”
Choji hands over bills to Kiba and Naruto, a surefire sign that they are betting. Shikamaru looks at Naruto, dumfounded. “How do you not know this?”
Sakura’s other blonde best friend just scratches his head. “I’m pretty sure Sakura told me this, but I, well, I forgot!”
“Dumbass.”
“What about we settle for a true or false if it helps.” Hinata offers a lifeboat. Not really. Sakura senses she will still sink all the same after this.
“So Sakura, is Sasuke your first kiss? True or false?”
She hazards a glance his way, and sure enough, he is staring. His palm under his chin, observing her and all her tells. Sasuke is excellent in guarding his most vulnerable expressions in public. He’s doing it right now, and she can’t read him. And she gets tremendously anxious, not knowing which way this could go.
She chooses honesty at the end of it.
It isn’t bad, Sakura surmises after they left the party. They’re walking back to her apartment, and he’s holding her hand. Loose but held all the same. They stop at the riverbank, and he lets go. She chases his fingers but sees his expression that freezes her cold.
“Kirigakure?” he repeats.
Sakura shouldn’t have hoped for the best. Of course, this is something Sasuke would fixate on. She would very much like to bury this in the past and move on, but goddamn it is tiring to explain the specifics which she firmly chose to leave out earlier. “Fine, since you’re so stubborn.” Yes, she sounds annoyed as hell. “It was a post battle gathering of sorts. It’s the kind of moment where we just stopped an invasion from an Akatsuki member. Later that month, they will come back and ultimately destroy the village we protected. But the Land of Water knows how to celebrate their victories. They live in the present. So there is lots of booze, lots of dancing. I didn’t have Tsunade-sama’s tolerance yet.
“So there’s this guy, like an anbu counterpart of ours. He tells me I saved his life on the field. He was so….in awe. Pupils super dilated, his full focus on you, no care in the world that goes on behind him. When you’re green and so adamant to prove yourself—to exist outside of wanting to look for you and bring you back—to prove that I can be strong and when I am strong, I can definitely bring you back, you tend to bask in this attention. It’s unreal, being showered with graces when I was always the ordinary one out of our team. We danced. We talked. We drank. We held hands. Then he asks if he could kiss me. I said yes.”
Sasuke stands still and takes all of these in. He doesn’t move closer to her nor does he offer his hand to wipe away tears that have fallen on her cheeks.
“Do you wanna know why I said yes?” Sakura fights back another batch that threatens to escape her eyes. “Because I miss you. Because I’m lonely. Because the war is tough and it takes everything out of you, most of the time, you only become a shell. And I’m so consumed by grief, by loss and the unknowing, and I miss you so much and I wonder if we could go back again to the way it was before. Because underneath those dim lights and the rowdy band music and the crowd that anyone could melt into, I could pretend I was dancing with you, holding my hand, and asking me if you could kiss me. So sorry if you are not my first kiss.”
“Are you done?” he simply asks.
Sakura nods.
“I’m not angry.” He bridges the distance and gingerly wipes away the tear streaks. “I just wanted to know if that’s your preference.”
“Fuck you Sasuke,” Sakura laughs-sobs and lightly punches his chest. He pulls her in closer and inhales her shampoo, the fading summer in her hair, the smell of sake. “It is always, always a Konoha boy.”
“I’m not gonna wax poetic how I waited for you…let’s not count Naruto, okay,” he murmurs in her ear, “I couldn’t think of anything outside hate and anger back then. I was too busy trying to be the strongest, and most times, it made for dreamless nights. Funnily enough, despite all that, some came through.”
“Hmm?”
“A dream about you, in the Forest of Death. Somehow, in that version, I didn’t manage to get there on time, and you’re on the forest floor, asleep. You won’t wake up no matter what I do. Your breathing started to weaken, and I was shouting for Naruto, Kakashi, anyone, so that they could help me save you. It’s like an endless genjutsu. Then, I remembered the fairytale trick.”
“A true love’s kiss.” Sakura pulls away slightly to wander in his eyes. “Did I wake up?”
He smiles. “You did.” Only for her, he smiles.
“So you had a wet dream of me.”
Sasuke blushes beet red in the darkness. “That’s not—!”
“I’m just joking!” She laughs still, easing into his embrace, her ribs moving against his limbs.
His fingers trace her spine in the meantime. “I’d just like you to know, Sakura, that it doesn’t matter who the firsts were. Doesn’t matter at all.” He kisses her ear, her forehead, her now dry cheeks, her nose. “Let this one matter for both of us.”
She meets him halfway. A soft, lovely contact of lips, a mutual mark of affection. “Our second first kiss,” she jests in the aftermath.
He leans in again, captures her full on the mouth, a bit heavier. “Our third first kiss.”
And again in the next 200 meters. “Our fourth.” And again in the alley before her apartment. “Fifth.” and again in her house. “Sixth.” Again and again and again.
“Those were a lot of first kisses,” she says. “You’re never gonna stop?”
My first entry for @ssskmonth | Prompts used Glances and Years Past
Evolution
Summary: In the journey of life, they lost and found something along the path.
_
Fixing her red ribbon, Sakura glances at the dark-haired boy. Sakura looks around before looking at him again. The classroom is lively as ever — Naruto and Kiba are fighting, Ino is bickering with Choji while Shikamaru yawns and mutters something, Hinata fidgets uncomfortably in her seat while Shino observes everyone. Sasuke’s elbows are resting on the desk, his chin supported by his interlaced fingers. Sakura’s green eyes wander on his face, and a shade of red stains her cheeks. Lucky for her, his eyes are closed. She wonders what he’s thinking.
The classroom is too noisy for his liking. Sasuke wants for Iruka-sensei to start class as soon as possible, because his 5 year old brain thinks the sooner the class starts, the sooner it will end. Today, he wants time to fly fast because his nii-san has promised to pick him up after school.
_
Everytime Sakura glances towards Sasuke while Iruka-sensei lectures about five basic nature of chakra, she finds him gazing out of the window. Strange, she thinks, because Sasuke-kun is always attentive to lessons. She hears Naruto get scolded for not paying attention, and he grumbles that he doesn’t understand a single word. However, this is not the case with Sasuke. She is confident of that. She nods and tells herself Sasuke-kun is a genius. He already knows what sensei is teaching.
Sasuke doesn’t want the class to end today, because he has been tired of being greeted by an empty house and crying himself to sleep. It’s only been a week, and he misses his mother's lap, his father’s voice, and his older brother’s presence. But he shouldn’t miss his older brother, should he? It’s too hard of a question for an 8 year old to figure that out. He bites hard on his lower lip; he doesn't want to cry in front of his classmates.
_
Sakura glances lazily at the campfire in front of her. Still in slumber, she hears Kakashi-sensei waking Sasuke-kun up for the watch. She recalls they were returning from an escort mission, and they were all tired, especially Naruto, to return back to the village immediately. So they settled to sleep under the open sky accompanied by a summer breeze. Sakura smiles in her sleep, thanking her sensei and teammate for giving her some more time to spend with Sasuke-kun.
Sasuke looks toward the sky. The darkness of the night is fading slowly, and in the distance, he could hear the birds chirping, ready to start their day. Kakashi said he needed an hour of rest before they start again for the village. Sasuke doesn't like that. He frowns, mulling over the fact that he isn't making any progress in his plan of revenge with a lazy sensei and two unskilled teammates. However, the 12 year old genin hums in gratitude because these people protect him from lonely nights.
_
It's been a year since Tsunade-sama took Sakura under her tutelage. Sakura tries to slip into a dream where Sasuke hasn't left the village and Team 7 isn't disbanded. But the pain that washes over her body doesn't let her. Grunting, Sakura glances over the picture of Team 7 kept on her bedside table before she shuts her eyelids again. Her 14 year self doesn't know which was more painful — broken bones or a bruised heart.
_
Sakura glances at her reflection before she punches the mirror. Her knuckles bleed, but her punching doesn't stop. Her short breaths change into sobs while her body shakes violently. While tears overflow from her green eyes, she thinks it's better now because broken shreds can't reflect the dark marks of Sasuke's fingers on her pale neck. She cries harder, realizing that the mark would disappear after some days, but the pain that her love for Sasuke brings won't. Her 16 year self was now wise enough to know that bruised hearts hurt more than broken bones.
_
Sakura wonders whether the examination rooms of the hospital are too small? She presses her fingers gently on Sasuke's left stump, examining it. She applies more pressure and glances at Sasuke's face to determine whether his arm still hurts. Sasuke doesn't flinch, though his expressions are unreadable as ever. The 17 year old Sakura isn't naive to deduce a silly conclusion. Although she can't read his thoughts, she feels a pain stirring behind his mismatched orbs.
Sasuke suppresses a gasp when Sakura touches his arm. It hurts a little when she prods him with her fingers, but he doesn't complain. However, it hurts more to accept that Sakura has forgiven him. He wants to jerk away from her touch and tell her not to treat him so gently. He doesn't do that and diverts his mind to search for answers that trouble him — the definition of home, his loyalty to Konoha, and his bonds with Team 7. His wandering mind is dragged to the present moment when Sakura applies more pressure. It hurts more than before, but he doesn't flinch. Instead, he notes that he should thank Sakura before he leaves for his redemption journey tomorrow.
_
After taking a shower, Sakura settles with a cup of tea beside the window. She sips the jasmine tea and hears the sound of falling rain along with metallic sound coming from the room. Sasuke, on the other side of the room, is busy taking care of his chokuto. It has been months they've been married, but Sakura still blushes on the thought that they share a room together. Perhaps she won't ever stop feeling giddy around him, but the 19 years old Sakura knows Sasuke better than before. She knows some of his past, can tell when he is bothered although she doesn't always know the reason, and has seen the little upward tilt of his lips when he is happy. She steals a glance at Sasuke before closing her eyes, and a satisfied smile creeps on her face.
The summer rain had drenched them badly, and out of habit Sasuke settled on the floor after a shower to wipe off the water from his and Sakura's weapons. He almost smiles when Sakura fumbles with the tea pot and watches her as she settles beside the window. He sighs and wipes his chokuto. He is still amazed by how comfortable he is around Sakura. It's the same feeling he had when he was around oka-san, otou-san, and Itachi; he realizes. His fingers abruptly stop on the blade when he remembers something oka-san had said years before. He looks towards Sakura — eyes closed, smiling — and realizes a rented room to take shelter from rain can turn into home because Sakura is there with him.
_
Sakura is tired. The exhaustion from the hours of labor has seeped deep in her bones. She glances at the dark ceiling of the hideout and clutches the sheet closer to her body. She cranes her neck to see the little human she had given birth to, and she smiles softly. Sasuke is curled on the other side of bed, watching their newborn daughter with awe. She catches something in his eyes that she has never seen before, and she feels tears pooling in her eyes. Sakura has once accepted that she couldn’t give Sasuke what he had once lost, but little Sarada has proved her wrong.
Sasuke watches as Sarada scrunches her eyes and wiggles. Sasuke places his index finger on her little palm and starts counting her fingers. Although he stops when she hears Sakura giggling softly. “She is so small,” he tells her, and Sakura says, “She is only a day old.” He hums and though he doesn’t say it out loud, he thanks her as he stares into her green eyes. Sarada’s little adorable fingers wrap around his index finger, and he realizes that at 20 he has found what he lost at a tender age of 8.
_
Sasuke glances at the clock before he slips under the sheet beside Sakura. It's late, and he almost groans on the thought that he has to leave early in the morning for a mission without seeing his daughter. At the age of 33, he wonders sometimes if he has taken the right decision to spend his life out of the village, working from the shadows, protecting the village. He turns around to face Sakura's back and snuggle closer to her body. Sakura stirs in her sleep and sleepily murmurs, “Okaeri.”
“Aah, Tadaima.” He realizes this way he can always come back to Sakura — and come back to his home.
summary: high school AU— they’re in the middle of biology class when Uchiha Sasuke realizes that there are way more interesting things that deserve his full attention.
[Ao3] [ffnet]
.
.
.
He’s doing it again.
From the corner of his eyes, he can see as she eagerly writes down her notes on her biology book. She uses her small fingers to tug a stubborn strand of her pink hair that has been falling forward since first period, and he watches as the sunlight highlights her soft skin. An absent smile graces her lips, and he supposes it’s because she’s enjoying whatever it is that their teacher is saying. He hasn’t been paying attention to the class for a while now, his concentration completely switched to the girl sitting next to him. Last time he checked, though, they were discussing genetics. Or could it be fungus? He doesn’t know.
Lately, he’s been doing that a lot— the whole staring thing, that is. Though unaware, at first, now he knows exactly when his attention drifts towards her. It happens when he’s at ease or when anxiety is starting to grow inside him. When he’s calm and relaxed; or when he finds himself in need of a familiar face not to blow it all away.
Sakura has this effect on him. Even without really saying or doing anything, her sole presence is enough to warm his chest. It’s as natural as the clouds floating in the sky, and sometimes, when they’re not in the same room, he finds himself missing her figure. With her green eyes and pink hair, she has become a constant presence in his life, and if anything, Sasuke likes constant. Always has.
He also likes her, but that’s not been questioned right now.
He’s acknowledged his feelings for her for almost three months now, and he figures he’s still trying to get used to the idea of seeing her as more than just his best friend. It’s not that their relationship has changed that much from what it was before, but everything around her just feels different ever since Naruto pointed out the obvious. Sasuke has accepted this new side of him, and perhaps, the biggest change in his young life is the fact that he has to constantly remind himself that he no longer needs silly excuses to hide his feelings for her. He has to keep telling himself that it’s not an absurd for a boy like him to consider making a move in a girl like her. He can dare to reach out for her hand or— if he’s feeling bold enough, and the situation calls for it— kiss her lips.
It’s weird to even think about doing that to the girl who has been by his side since they were in dippers. She‘s still the same Sakura, but now that he has allowed himself to picture them together, she’s just different. He’s different, too, and he can’t really say he hates it. Quite the opposite, in fact.
And right now, while he’s still trapped in his thoughts, he also has to remind himself that staring at her is not as creepy as it would be if he was just a stranger.
It isn’t, right?
Perhaps he should stop, then. Or maybe—
His thoughts are suddenly interrupted as a folded piece of white paper shows up on his desk. He quirks his right brow in confusion, and without thinking twice, his eyes drift to Naruto because— well— who else would’ve thrown that at him in the middle of the class, right? However, much to his surprise, his blonde best friend couldn’t have done such a thing, no. He’s fast asleep on his desk across the classroom, and the Uchiha is almost sure he can see drool sliding down his open mouth.
That loser, he thinks. If he’s not going to pay attention to the class, he might as well try to pretend otherwise in order to avoid a future lecture. Maybe he really deserves it, after all.
Still, if the idiot didn’t throw the folded paper, then who did it?
He arcs his brows again, and before trying to reach another conclusion based solely on his speculations, Sasuke decides to read the hidden note. Carefully, then, he unfolds the paper, only to be surprised by the familiar and delicate handwriting in it.
“Shouldn’t you be paying attention to the class?”
A smirk crosses his lips as he reads those words, and he knows he’s been busted. Dark eyes, then, turn to his right only to find green ones already staring back at him. She offers him a teasing smile, using her index finger to point towards the blackboard, to which he simply shrugs. Apparently, Sakura has caught him staring for a little too long, and if he were to be honest, he’s glad she did because now he has an excuse to silently flirt with her.
Now, he has an excuse to observe and to be observed by her emerald eyes.
If he had to pick, that’s probably one of his favorite activities of the day now that he has decided to build up some courage to make a move. He likes to tease her without using words just to see all of her unique reactions flourishing. He likes to see the many shades of red that tinge her cheeks whenever she’s embarrassed and the way she sometimes has to cover her mouth to suppress a loud laugh. He likes when she bites her lower lip whenever she’s thinking about something, and he sure as hell loves it when he sees one of her soft smiles slowly making its way up to her bright eyes.
She really is the cutest girl he knows. Not that he will ever admit that to her.
Without thinking twice then, he grabs his black pen and rips a piece of paper from his notebook. He scribbles around, folds it and expertly throws it so their secret lands on her desk. She spares him a knowing look before unfolding it, and he watches as she silently grows embarrassed at his written words. Her cheeks are flushed pink, and the pout that takes over her lips is enough to tell him his silly message worked. It was just a regular compliment, but he knows she’s never been good with those ever since he called her annoying on second grade.
One would say he’s to be blamed for her complex, but he likes to think he has only helped her develop one of her unique traits.
Sakura shakes her pink head, then, and he watches as she rips another piece of paper so they can continue their sneaky conversation. They certainly look like children right now, especially since they both know they can just pick their phones from their pockets and text each other. It would be easier, sure, but not half as fun.
“Very charming. Still, you’ll need more than, that if you want my notes!” is her answer, with an exclamation mark written with a big dot on the bottom, and he pretends to be taken aback by those words. She’s still blushing, he can tell, and he feels oddly proud for that. Maybe he shouldn’t, though, because he knows she dreams of becoming a great doctor someday and she just loves biology so so much that, perhaps, he should really just leave her to her studies.
But it’s stronger than him. Having her reactions and her attention all to himself makes him selfish, and even if he hates to act differently than what he’s used to, he doesn’t complain one bit when he does that for her.
It’s all for her. All because of her.
He’s but a teenager living his first love, and that alone should give him the right to enjoy this fleeting phase next to her. People say it’s the best moment of life, and even if he doesn’t know wether it’s true or not, he’s ready to, at least, try to make the best of it.
So, yes, Sasuke is going to keep sending her notes during her favorite class if they make her smile. He’s going to keep choosing the right words to make her blush and he’s going to keep stealing glances, hoping to be caught, until the day comes when he doesn’t really have to steal anymore.
fin
——-—
a/n: okay, first of all, HAPPY SASUSAKU MONTH, y’all! Here’s to another wonderful month filled with love and sasusaku! Let’s all have fun and celebrate our beloved ship! Now, to the story... honestly, I hate it so much. I think this is one of the worst things I’ve ever written, but at least, it’s over now. Nothing came to me when working with this theme and I really just wanted to move on with this already. I thought about writing something about Sasuke making amends with his newfound love for Sakura in a high school setting, but it’s just meh. Sorry for that. It’ll get better, I promise XD Still, hope you have fun!
🌸 sasusaku month 2017 day 2: 🌸 S O M E T H I N G M O R E . "sweet sighs, tinged with a slight fever, i was in love with you... in that voice and in those eyes."
