31 Days 7/10

[AngelOfDeath]

Next chapter is the lemon. ::finally:: And at least I know now how many chappies this monster is. Seriously, I did not want this to be this long. Blarg. Move faster plot, I command and force it!


Disclaimer: (see Ch. 1)


Chapter 7

*
*
*

Sasuke jolted himself into a sitting position. The small bed creaked under him as he moved his legs to the side and faced down at the cold uncarpeted floor. The shadows under the shifting lights did nothing to ease his mind even if they engaged his senses. His rapid heartbeat pounded in his brain, drowning out the noises of the occasional late night car. It had been years since he had been awakened like this, sweat pouring from his body, and his mind buzzing with images.

With a groan he tried to shake the fading sights and sounds of his dream out of his mind?s eye. They seemed so real. Shockingly, disturbingly real. Sasuke couldn?t help but wish, just a little bit, that the dream had been his usual nightmare. That one he has memorized:

He?s small again, small enough that the world looks like it was sized for a race he?s not part of. Elementary school is the only place that feels right, then, because it is big life in miniature. Coming home, he knows every tree on the way and he counts them softly to himself. It bleeds into the math he had done that day in class. Math is comforting, associated with parental praise. He and his parents live in an idyllic suburb, built just far enough between old and new that the houses don?t all look the same even if they feel the same. The dream jumps at the same place, with his small hand turning the handle to come in the back door. No one uses the front door, only guests and his older brother.

Everything is quiet, and there is a tea kettle whistling. Sasuke yells for his mother, but she doesn?t seem to hear. The sound is grating, painful, and he wishes that she would come and fix it. To his responsible child?s mind, he knows he shouldn?t touch the stove, but he can see and reach the dials to turn the burner off and he does that much. The whistling continues, but as he walks into the house it dies down, following him.

?Mom!? his child?s voice is unsure but still demanding.

Through the kitchen, dining room, living room. . . he drops his book bag somewhere and doesn?t think about it. There is homework to do, but he has time to play before his mother asks him about it and he takes to it dutifully. His father might check it later, glancing at the page and knowing exactly where the mistakes are without a second thought. Sasuke wishes he was already at that level. They always comment on how his brother could do this kind of work on entering school. Sasuke feels uncomfortable when they say this but instead of complaining he works harder for their acknowledgement.

Here is where the dream slows down. Every iteration of this dream it becomes harder to approach his father?s study and makeshift filing room. He walks through molasses, helpless to stop what he half knows he will find. Tears already burn in his eyes, but they aren?t his eyes but the eyes of the Sasuke of the present who cannot turn away from the macabre scene in front of him. The half open door has not been shut, but then it couldn?t be with that foot in the way. . .

Inside of this room is the stuff of real life nightmares. Blood all over the wall, splattered from the gunshot. Slumped over the desk, blood dripping off the edge, his father?s dead body looms large in Sasuke?s child mind. Too choked by his fear to scream, he steps forward. The foot blocking the door from closing belongs to his mother, her head is trickling blood from where it collided with the shaped marble block on which Sasuke and his brother used to play chess. The pieces are all over the floor now. She is motionless, and he shakes her while screaming for her to wake up.

The noise attracts his brother, Sasuke didn?t even hear the front door open and close. Why would he, when he was screaming himself hoarse?

?Sasuke be quiet.? His brother slides through the room, the only bit of sanity Sasuke can imagine there being left in his small world. Itachi will take care of everything somehow. Itachi will undo it. Itachi is a genius, invincible, impervious to change.

The note Itachi picks out of their father?s hand interests him vaguely. He smiles, then frowns, then lets it drift to the ground. Sasuke watches, his hands on his mother?s shoulders and tears drying on his round child?s cheeks.

?Help me.? Sasuke?s plaintive whine breaks the silence again, followed by his soft sob.

Itachi looks at Sasuke, cold eyes examining the situation, calculating. He was a genius at math, Sasuke had often been told, brilliant and efficient and cold. Itachi?s eyes burn into Sasuke?s and after long minutes he walks out of the room.

Desperate, Sasuke follows. ?Where are you going??

?Good-bye Sasuke.?

?What?? He doesn?t understand, but the dreamer does and anger turns the white living room walls red. This is hell.

Then the door closes with a hitch.

Sasuke wakes up.

Only later, when he called 911 and the ambulance came did he find out that his mother was alive but that the blow to her head was a serious one. Years from that first horrible day in the hospital, when she still hadn?t awakened, he came to an acceptance about the fact that he was an orphan. Kakashi, a distant cousin on his mother?s side, and the only relative who was willing to deal with the problem child who had passed from family to family, had never been a complete replacement. Kakashi was more an uncle than a father.

Itachi. The cause of it all. The one who had embezzled the funds from his father?s business and ruined not only the Uchiha family name but had driven at least four other moderately sized businesses that had counted on them into bankruptcy. Only the life insurance had saved them, from his father?s suicide, and that had largely gone to paying for his mother?s exorbitant hospital bills.

But Sasuke would get revenge on the sibling who ruined his life and the lives of so many others. The private investigators he had hired, and there had been many over the years, would find him someday. Sasuke?s money, if he had enough of it, would get him an address instead of another dead end.

And the day he found Itachi would be the day he killed him.

These thoughts were unpleasant, painful, and entirely what he would rather focus on because it was not that dream, in fact, that had woken him up all in a sweat.

Sakura?s body couldn?t look like that under those skirts and blouses of hers. Then again, his mind was prone to a degree of realism that was startling and that dress of hers had dipped so low on her back. All that skin had dazzled him, smooth and soft looking. His imagination had run away with him. This was a hormonal cycle he was going through. This was stress from the holidays. There was no way he had had a dream about illicit erotic adventures with Sakura Haruno because that?s what he wanted. Sasuke had spent years getting rid of excess wants and needs.

If he was lusting after someone like her then it must have been a long time since. . . ok it had been a very long time in general but that had never been a problem before. He had run the gamut of his hormones in record speed and buried under the brunt of his anger at his brother and the world. What girls there had been were blips on his radar. They had been discarded when they tried to get too comfortable in his life. Once he had been taken on in Konoha Inc. women had become an annoying side effect of having a pretty face. They got in the way. They were not what he wanted.

But Sakura wasn?t just any woman.

Sakura was Naruto?s crush, Gaara?s object of obsession, and everyone?s friend. Hell, even the office holiday party?a huge event that had been planned weeks in advance for all the departments?was something she had managed to get involved in. Sakura was useful. The way she twisted into people?s lives was insidious. Gaara had intimated that he wanted her partially for her mental power, and though she wasn?t a people person exactly she certainly had a good mind for details and organization. People trusted her. Sasuke trusted her.

He had to trust her, otherwise he wouldn?t have made a damn fool of himself sitting in her bathroom oozing blood and practically spilling his life out to her while she leaned against a sink less than three feet away from him.

That was an exaggeration, as once he had mentioned his mother he had clammed up. It had been a tactical retreat mentally if not physically.

*
*
*

?Um. I. . .? Sakura gaped like a fish at Sasuke?s absolutely emotionless delivery of such shocking information. What was she supposed to say? ?Sorry? didn?t seem to cover it. He looked so strangely vulnerable and proud at the same time. Naruto?s words to her earlier rang in her head and drowned out the buzzing feeling in the back of her mind that she was supposed to be mad at him for something. Ah yes, fighting with Gaara. Well, a tragic past trumped a silly fight any day to her poor sensitive heart.

?Look, you will not see him again and I?ll do what I have to. . .? He towered over her, then wavered on his feet. Days of stress, of lack of sleep, of overwork and emotional confrontation were catching up to him. Such a display of weakness upset him and he clutched at the counter behind her, partially pinning her to the sink. Her hands grasped his waist, helping to steady his body.

Sakura made a sound in the back of her throat, an admonition. ?You don?t take good care of yourself, do you?? Questions were buzzing in her head, but Sasuke was not the type to offer answers so she held her tongue. He seemed to be so helpless right now. The perfect time to strike, a voice crowed in her head.

?Humph.? Sasuke didn?t want to dignify that assessment with a response. Her words were of little consequence to him when her body was pressed so tightly against his that he could feel her soft curves cushioning him. For a second he almost let down in front of her, almost let his head rest on her shoulder and his lips press against her bare neck. Then, he saw himself in the mirror. His vanity pricked him, and he suddenly didn?t want to be in her presence anymore or let her see his bruised face.

?Stay here tonight. The couch folds out into a bed. Not the most comfortable of beds, but. . .? She wasn?t sure why she wanted to reach out to him. Part of it was that she didn?t want to spend another morning waking up to her empty apartment, but part of it included a rough thrilling impulse that she shoved down hard to the back of her consciousness. She wasn?t that kind of girl. Then again, she seemed to want to be that kind of girl for Sasuke.

?Why would I do that?? His words were harsh and dismissive, but he did not draw away from her partial embrace. Her body was so warm, so pliant. Would it be so bad to stay. . .?

She had been insane to even offer. ?You?re right. Why would you do that.? The usual animosity in her voice had returned and the moment had been shattered. Less gently than she had intended, she pushed at his shoulders and prompted him to stand. ?I?ll call you a cab.?

The bathroom was much roomier without her in it, but also colder and not the kind of cold measured by thermometers. Sasuke swore under his breath. He had failed again, and he wasn?t entirely sure how it had happened. At some point you had to throw in the towel, you had to raise the white flag and admit that maybe you weren?t as smart and strong and aloof as you thought you had been. The blood caked on his face and the bruising all around his nose were proof enough to him that he was in deeper than he had cared admit to before. It didn?t mean he had to like it.

He opened the medicine cabinet rather than continue to examine his reflection. New and interesting snooping lay this way, however, distracting him. Everything was arranged so neatly, beauty products on one shelf, cold and flu medicines on another, and on the bottom. . . Sasuke shut the cupboard quickly. Some things a guy just didn?t need to think about.

*
*
*

?Let me in loser, its cold out here!? Naruto?s annoying voice came over the scratchy speaker system. Naruto had buzzed him eight times before Sasuke had bothered to get off of his couch.

No one should have to deal with a battered face, a battered ego, and Naruto all in the same day. If only Sasuke could work seven days a week. It was going to bad enough when he went in on Monday and everyone saw him like this.

?I?m dying of frostbite! Sasuke, you?re a jerk and an as??

*BUZZ*

It was easier to let him in than to fight him today. He was going to go get Sasuke?s car for him today after all, still at the restaurant parking lot and safe thanks to a good word from Ino. Damn, now he owed her. And that woman would use it at the worst time, knowing her. Probably make him do her taxes for free this year, or something equally annoying. Sasuke?s fondness for his car, the only thing he had been willing to part with any of his precious revenge money for, was a well known feature of the taciturn man. Ino would know and would expect him to be properly grateful.

The knock at the door was too loud. Everything about Naruto was too loud. Even his clothes, it seemed, as the bright orange winter coat burned its way into Sasuke?s retina upon opening the door.

?Hey! Holy. . . You look like you got hit by a truck!?

Sasuke shoved the keys at Naruto and went back to lying down on his couch. ?Don?t wreck my car or I?ll kill you.?

?Seriously, I mean, I saw Gaara when he came back in after the fight and he looked pretty pissed but not messed up. I totally thought that you won but obviously. . .?

?Why are you still here??

Naruto shuffled over to the kitchen and began to rifle through the contents of the fridge. This always happened. If the boy wasn?t eating he was talking. Sasuke wished suddenly that he kept more food in his apartment.

?You?re like a machine, not even any milk or anything. You can?t live off of condiments and old cheese. . .? Naruto slammed the fridge door shut and leaned over the open counter that exposed the living room area to the kitchen area. ?So, did the lovely Sakura nurse you back to health? Heal all your wounds? Put you to bed and. . .?

Sasuke didn?t like the suggestive tone Naruto was taking. ?You can shut up before I give you a face to match mine.?

?I dunno. If I get to be nursed by Sakura, I might just go for it.? Naruto put his hands behind his head as he circled out of the kitchen leaned over the couch to look Sasuke in the face. ?Admit it, you love her. You want to marry her and give her like a zillion kids.? He followed his purposefully childish comment with a laugh.

Then the laugh died. ?That?s supposed to be the part when you say ?you?re an idiot? and at least appear to disagree with me.? Naruto?s expressive face scrunched up into a sour frown. ?Sasuke. . . Not fair! I saw her first!?

?You?re leaping to conclusions, idiot.? Then, he added without thinking. ?And I talked to her first.? He groaned, wishing he had let the subject drop without getting like this. Naruto brought out his competitive side, rather like Gaara did but with less murderous intent.

?Nope! You considered it! Can?t take it back now.? Naruto crashed onto Sasuke?s feet rather than asking to sit on the couch with him. He knew Sasuke would have refused. The joggling forced Sasuke to hit the armrest with the back of his head and it caused an answered ache in his nose. Damn but it hurt. ?She gets under your skin, doesn?t she? I wouldn?t mind to get under??

Sasuke sat up and smacked Naruto on the back of the head. Not too hard, but hard enough to get his joking friend to stop with his annoying lines of thought. He didn?t love her. He was. . . involved. . . with her. It was friendly. The time they had spent in the bathroom, until that last part, had been kind of friendly. And the hug she had given him when he had left her apartment had been surprising but not unwelcome. That was friendly too.

That dream you had was very friendly, a voice in the back of his head snickered.

?Hinata said that you wouldn?t last long. She seems to think that Sakura is about the most glorious person on the face of the planet, and I have to say I agree. Hinata told me about how she managed to convince Kakashi to come to an appointment on time for once, and how Tsunade said it must be one of the signs of the apocalypse. . .?

?Then why don?t you go see Hinata and talk about her, since that seems to be all you?re good for today.? Sasuke grumped. Everyone was closer to her than he was. She had a better relationship with his adoptive father after a little more than two weeks than Sasuke even had after nearly two decades. That he was feeling jealous wasn?t something he was willing to admit to himself yet, but the bilious green was tangibly tainting his mind.

Naruto stuck out his tongue and twirled the keys on one finger. ?Maybe I will.? He walked over to the door and paused on the threshold to put on a serious expression. ?You?re the most stubborn person I know Sasuke. Don?t mess this up.?

?I don?t know what you?re talking about.?

?She?s worth it, Sasuke. You?re a lucky bastard.? Naruto disappeared, keys in hand, and Sasuke forgot to give one last parting comment about the safety of his beloved car as new thoughts chugged their way through his logical and analytical brain.

Lucky, Naruto said, and Sasuke snorted. He was lucky? Looking around his dim, bare apartment he wished he had had last night back. What would have been the worst thing that could have happened? He would have slept poorly on that couch of hers and then they would have had uncomfortable conversation over breakfast (he usually only had a cup of black coffee and some toast) and she would have tried to get more information out of him about his family. The curiosity had burned hot in her last night after he mentioned his mother. It sounded preferable to waking up in a sweat and not getting back to sleep, instead opting to listen to infomercials while his nose throbbed.

His mother. . .

The visit. . .

He tightened his lips, thinking, steeling his resolve. Sasuke was a man of his word and he would take her with him to visit his mother. Maybe he would finally accept Kakashi?s long standing but unspoken invitation to have dinner on Christmas. The man didn?t have any family he spoke to anymore except for Sasuke. She would like that. Dinner wouldn?t be the two men sitting in silence and contemplating microwave turkey meals if she was there. That?s why he had given up on the dinners years ago, they had been a depressing waste of time.

Sakura complemented him. That?s what it was. That?s how she got her in. She found the thing that someone couldn?t do for themselves and then she did it for you without asking or judging. Sasuke, who felt like he needed nothing, naturally would be threatened by her. She exposed his weak spots, even if he had never considered them weak spots. Sakura had become his weak spot.

No, he argued to himself as he got up and headed towards the kitchen to see if his refrigerator was really as bare as Naruto had claimed, she was his obligation. An obligation was something that you didn?t want, and he knew that he didn?t want her because he had never wanted anyone in the past like he wanted. . . damn. He swore again. He was swearing a lot today.

It was even more galling that Naruto had been right. Sasuke threw out the moldy piece of cheddar and sat down to wait for Naruto to get back with his car so he could go to the grocery store. Sakura?s comment last night about him not taking care of himself still stung. He?d prove her wrong. He didn?t need her.

A stray thread of compassion for Gaara tapped at the back of his mind. So this is how he had been caught. Like Naruto had said, she got under your skin, crawled under your defenses. She was perceptive without knowing it, then ruthless. With all that, Sasuke thought as he gently rubbed at his nose, you?d think she wouldn?t need protection from Gaara. It was more like Gaara needed protection from Sakura.

*
*
*

?Take one.?

?What?? Shino never came into Sasuke?s office unless there was a project so large the whole department had to work on it. The subtle but respectful rivalry they had going over who would get the next promotion was enough to keep both men working as individually as possible. It was easy to forget that Shino was even there some days.

?You have to draw a name. It was her idea.? There was no need to specify who ?she? was. Who else would take the initiative to organize a gift exchange three days before Christmas? She got too excited about the holidays, or so Sasuke assumed judging from how she had been wearing green and red and a Santa hat all week to work. Not that he had really been examining her closely. No. He was just observant. Really.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. ?Why??

Shino shrugged. ?Why not?? And it had been that easy. She practically had disciples spreading her holiday cheer, even if Shino was a rather indifferent one. He was probably the only one who would be fearless enough to ask Sasuke participate. It galled him a little that she hadn?t come herself.

?Tell her I refuse.? That would teach her for using a third party in any of her dealings with him.

With a nod, Aburame retreated to continue his distribution of names. If Sasuke wanted to be a humbug then that was his choice.

Sakura was chewing on the end of a mechanical pencil, sitting at her desk, and answering questions from people panicking about everything from the usual Kakashi troubles to the many planning committees she had become part of. At the moment frantic decorating was happening. At least eight different men and women had been wrangled in as ?volunteers? by her to participate in her plans. It may be an accounting department, she had said, but it doesn?t need to look like one. However, the mismatched and gaudy decorations were starting to make it look like a Christmas themed window display executed by three year olds. The pre-school look was not the classy and sedate sort of decorations she used to arrange to be hung in the law office, but in its own way this had far more character and fun to it.

Kakashi was certainly surprised. So surprised that he gave her almost a day?s worth of extra work because she had so much free time to do all these decorations. It was at that point she went pleading to Shino to help her. The mountain had miraculously come to Muhammad and now the stoic accountant was gathering support for the gift exchange while she continued to multitask at an insane rate. She?d have to pull a Sasuke today and not take a lunch.

Speaking of Sasuke. . . he was acting weird. Weird for Sasuke meant that he was acting unpredictable. He had been so harsh upon coming back on Monday and confronting the shocked stares of people taking in his battered appearance that he had been an extra harsh task master. Sakura thought that they would have to hire a therapist just to deal with all of the people Sasuke had mentally crushed in that first day alone. Then, the next day, she had caught him smiling at her.

It was Sasuke, Sasuke Uchiha, and he was smiling. The giddy girl in her heart did a backflip when she spotted him. His smile was. . . sexy. It wasn?t cute like Naruto?s, and it wasn?t sly like Kakashi?s or sinister like Gaara?s. Sasuke?s smile had something hidden behind it, a promise, and she had almost had the guts to get up and talk to him about it when he had suddenly flashed back into the devil he had been that week and she decided to wait for another time to talk to him. She had assumed all his talk to her about protecting her and other such nonsense was the product of a fevered mind and too many hits to the head.

There was more weirdness. Kakashi slipped her a note in with her piles of work asking if she had any food allergies. It was a strange question. Maybe he was going to give her a fruitcake for Christmas so something along those lines. He was overloaded with sweets, gifts from women all over the building, as it was so if he passed on some of those she wouldn?t be surprised.

Then Sasuke had walked up and demanded to know if her family lived close to her. She had said no and he had nodded and walked off, having decided something in his mind that he didn?t see fit to share with her. All of this was getting too suspicious. She was ready to brave his bad mood if she had the slightest chance of enlightenment, but then someone had rushed over screaming about how some lights had caught fire and she was wrapped up in more work and more decorating before she knew it.

It was the end of the day and she was crashed down into a chair. Kakashi had appeared to pick up notes she had typed for him. It looked like a grocery list.

?Ah good. I can never seem to read my own handwriting by the time I get to the store. . .?

It was a grocery list. She felt used.

?Is there anything you want in particular?? He spoke low, leaning in to ask her with a smile.

Sakura?s mind went blank. ?What do you mean??

?I get guests so rarely. . .? Kakashi waved a hand and stood up again. ?Then again, I?m sure you?re not as picky as he is. Have a good night, Sakura.?

?Good night.? Her automatic response allowed him the time he needed to escape and her internal questions remained unanswered. Frustrating. And why did she have a feeling that she had Sasuke again to blame for her turmoil?

Shino was about to leave as well and passed her the list of who drew who drew what names. She hadn?t expected a list, but Shino was too thorough to allow such an oversight. Scanning it quickly as he stood over her, she gave him her profuse thanks and watched as a slow smile edged at his mouth.

?Was there anyone you didn?t get to??

He shook his head.

?That?s good.?

?Only you and Uchiha aren?t on the list.?

?That?s. . . what? Why isn?t he on the list?? She didn?t want to be on the list because she had never been on the list. In a way she had always felt like an outsider wherever she had worker. A planner was rarely part of activities. Hosts managed guests, they had to be on a different plane of thinking and acting. It was part of her life, and she was used to it. Sasuke was merely individualistic and irritating, he had no excuse.

Shino seemed to be waiting for a cue. Sakura jumped up on tired feet and gave him a quick hug. ?You were great, Shino. I couldn?t have done it without you. Don?t you worry about Sasuke, I?ve got unfinished business with him anyway.?

Sakura stuffed the list into the folder full of lists that she had been keeping about the nearing holiday party.

?Come the holiday party,? She said, a glint of mischief in her eyes, ?Sasuke?s getting his.?

[Pikachu]

ahaaha.. "Pull a Sasuke" XD;;; ahahaha... that's a good one. I might start using it.... XD

?Admit it, you love her. You want to marry her and give her like a zillion kids.? He followed his purposefully childish comment with a laugh.

Then the laugh died. ?That?s supposed to be the part when you say ?you?re an idiot? and at least appear to disagree with me.? Naruto?s expressive face scrunched up into a sour frown. ?Sasuke. . . Not fair! I saw her first!?

XDDDDD;;;; I love that part, too. It's so funny.

Anyway, I acn't wait for the lemon >D bwahahaha... T_T post post psot post

[nightkat01]

*crawls out of shadows* Um...hello...

I have to say it agin, I am loving this story. *snickers* The thought of Sasuke rummaging through someone's medicine cabinet is funny in itself. I felt so bad for Sasuke in his back story though. I like how you were able to "modernize" it so it fits with the time. Poor Sakura, she gets no love from Kakashi. At least she'll be getting some lovin' in the next chapter. Mmmm, lemon...

Anyway, I've learned that if you poke the plot with a big stick it might move. Either that or it'll attack you and beat you back with your own stick.

Later!

[Lauren]

Naughty dreams, huuuuuh?

Sasuke: ::blushes:: Shut up.

Lars: Y'know, you gotta wonder about a guy who would rather dream about homocide than sex.

Itachi: I know. I mean, I'm all about the ladies, but that Sasuke, he just can't let go of the past.

Forum 0_o

Sasuke: YOU BASTARD! I'LL KILL YOU!

Itachi: See what I mean? Tons of willing female flesh and he doesn't even bat an eyelash. Now, Wicked my dear, I believe you were talking to me about a little 'idea' you had ::grins sexily::

Wicked: ::swoons::

Cheryl: So...Itachi's a pimp?

Lars: Guess so.

Wicked: He can do amazing things with his jutsus!

Cheryl: 0_0

Lars: ::sly:: Looks like you have A LOT of catching up to do Sasuke.

Sasuke: ::blushes again:: I hate you guys.

Sorry, I get carried away ::dies:: AoD I love you! You seem to have some sort of Lars' timer that causes these chapters to come out right after a bad day at work. It's remarkable! Can't wait to see what Sakura's planning for Sasuke at the X-mas party!

PS: Let's be livejournal friends! <3

[rina_craft]

?Sasuke?s getting his.?

oohhh... that sounds very promising...

can't wait for the next chapter. as always, great work!

[Oyuki]

hahaha. this is funny. the holiday planning is hilarious. and the dinner they're having... i can only imagine it.