:: CHAPTER VII: SHADES OF NIGHT ::

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::One moment… later, and he would have lost her.

One moment… earlier, and he would have seen her float into the limbs of Eternity.

Existence encompasses every precious memory,

And gives it a meaning to all the faces whose masks have crumbled.

By the tiffany touch of a heartbeat,

A pair of glossy orbs have shared a trembling tear.

One more ardent embrace, and a pair of lips have bloomed into a red rose.

When one attempts to touch the ineffable,

She has to learn how to soar first, because the den of eternal light

Only belongs to the majestic horizon.

But when the moment comes for all the inhibitions to drop,

And intimate feelings to supervene the lullaby of one kiss, one touch,

Then every dove turns into a raven,

As all the birds paint their faces in the shades of the night::

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How many seconds are there in an eternity?

The muffled sinister echo of her sylph form in its implacable free falling, approaching the ground at the speed of a meteor brushing over the starry sky, has resonated with the dreadful anticipation of the cruel contact.

Pain subsided in lieu to denial and Sakura fought the tears that lined along the curve of her eyelashes, as a suffocating silence kept on pounding into her eardrums, muffling her scream of help as words have been petrified along with the anesthetized senses and the only perception that came undone and violent, was the adrenaline rush of her innate reflexes as a mortal, to fear from the clutches of Death.

Although the crystalline tears trembled in frozen drops of apprehension not for her life entirely, but because the last thing that swept against her memories, was Uchiha Sasuke.

Death had a mysterious timing and an implacable power to condense eternity and the span of a lifetime into one single meaningful heartbeat , as it chooses it's time to swallow her entire life within when she least sought to most preserve it.

Sakura didn't want to die at this moment; she was just admiring the suave beautify of nature's gifts, and she found her careless mistake to be the supreme price to pay.

She did seek for the claws of the Grim Reaper, it was just an accident that Sasuke was going to misinterpret before she gets her chance to explain it to him and that thing alone created a laceration into her heart.

The handsome Vampire Prince who was willing to share with her the privacy of his life and even go as far as to promise her felicity in lieu for something so trivial for her –her blood– , will think of her as a woman who wasn't committed to the promise she made; but her word has been sincere and so were the feelings that came along the compass of her affiance.

"S-Sa–"

Save me? Sasuke? What was there latched on those quivering lips?

Her body was surged by the palpitations of her free fall, as the repugnant malicious scent of approaching death made her sway from the road of sanity, flickering to a hollow despair and petrifying mortification.

Sakura was quivering helplessly trying to tame the frenetic tremors of her heart, like a fallen leaf landing on the polished surface of the water, sending fine ripples in languishing circles along the glossy veneering.

It all happened in the span of a nanosecond, as her consciousness was swirling in a synesthesia of despair, denial and lack of power to grasp something to cling on, but soon it has been reduced to an immensurable high pitched shriek into her eardrums, making her go blind and deaf and she shut her orbs, as her mind preserved one last bit of sanity and not allow her to watch her indomitable ending straight in its mocking eye.

A rose haired swan was fluttering its wings across the meadows of the night and she could feel it through every pore; taste it, tape it and swallow it sound and steady –soon, it will be over. One more minute…

One more blink of an eye, her mind had a slow shutdown as it counted the seconds that soon will be fusing with eternity.

Dying… was a funny thing.

Just one less breathing and she will hit the front alley of Sasuke`s complex of exquisite flats, probably making the headlines by the next day.

One last heartbeat, until her deepest wish will be coming true… Suddenly, there was no colors, no sounds reverberating through her ears from the never sleeping town, no fragrances coming to caress her nostrils from the bouquets of white lilies that were planted along the alleys, in a deep symbol of her last road to Infinity and no life.

There was only the evanescent melodic sound of her heart thumping desperately in her pounding chest to pump life through her system obediently and diligently, until the end and keep her hopes high until the very last.

'Forgive me for not being able to keep my vow to you… Sasuke.'

And she found the power to smile.

'Goodbye.'

His memory was the last irreplaceable memory that will soothe her in the next life after her spirit will finally be set free from its carcass and from the world that repulsed her, and no one will miss her or cry for her. Maybe only he, the wielder of Immortality, will find one last tear to shed for her spirit.

A clangorous howl encompassed her silhouette, echoing menacingly as a sinking ship, being swallowed by the cavernous ghostly abyss of the waters and she knew that this was it – her last moments before violently colliding with the ground.

One last heartbeat and she will be…

"AAHH!" A familiar ascertainable bouquet of burnt cedar, razor ocean waves and musk wrapped its overwhelming limbs across her helpless figure, hitting her nostrils like a rippling wave hitting sharp cliffs on the coastline and sending her almost benumbed senses into a frenetic storm, when Sakura found herself colliding with something that wasn't what she would have anticipated.

Because next thing she knows, Sakura found herself landing straight into Sasuke`s insurmountable open arms, that came between Death and her for the second time, as he nonchalantly caught her into his embrace and cupped her into his iron chest, bridal style, like the amplitude of her fall and the force of gravity weighed nothing for his immensurable strength, catching her fall from that height like she was just a tiffany snowflake that landed on the tip of his nose.

It was pure innate habit the thing that leads Sakura to automatically span her quivering hands around his shoulders and curl around his neck in a tight embrace, as he felt the familiar sweltering radiance of his nimble body overwhelm the fear of colliding with the cold concrete, strengthening his hold on her; she knew he did it out of pure concern for her mental state, rather than the need to adjust her into his arms, because he didn't pull a muscle, not even tensing his shoulders to catch her.

The sole token of having a cargo within his arms was the flexing of his sculpted biceps molding sensually on the leather jacket that covered his upper torso.

Her mind couldn't even begin to register what has just happened, but one thing was for certain: Sasuke has saved her life again. "H—H-How–"

It was utterly impossible to summon any fragment of coherence in that moment, because it was only when adrenaline hit her temples full force in a dizzying wave, has Sakura realized that she was trembling like an abandoned kitten in the rain and her rose cheeks were rinsed in the moist tears that percolated in cascades from her shimmering emerald eyes.

How could he have such an amazing timing once again, was beyond Sakura, but she thanked all the Deities around for him to be so intuitive and spontaneous?

Trembling in his arms, Sakura immediately nuzzled her head under his chin, breathing a generous amount of his unique smell, trying to cease away anything that wasn't Sasuke and it was his quintessence of nature`s elements immixed with his masculine fragrance, the thing that washed relief through her like a mantra.

Forest green orbs intertwined with sparkling gold sought for his face; she needed to see his beautiful onyx eyes more than ever, and make sure that she was indeed still alive and not a cruel memory conjured by her sojourn through the tunnel to the Afterlife, but he didn't elongate his stare to her. "S–Sasuke…" Her lips murmured his name in a dance of tears, relief, and emotion, but he gave her no answer.

Instead, Sasuke simply leaped, while his left foot defiled the clutches of gravity and any laws of Physics, arching his long neck to face the lucent halo of the moon, bleeding red and silvery–blue, mirroring into his sapphire irises as he zoomed into it, literarily flying to his large open veranda, without bothering to take the elevator.

Because like Hell will he risk to encounter any of his neighbors or the security guard on his way to his apartment, carrying a woman in a night robe bridal style, while looking like she has just escaped from a sinking ship, in the middle of the Arctic Ocean.

Plus, every single pore of Sakura`s body, as she was encompassed by tremors of sheer horror and made her feel like a lost butterfly with a broken wing, as well as her glossy orbs that momentarily lost life force, screamed to Sasuke that she wanted to be taken home pronto, so he took the fastest way, namely… flying her back from where she fell.

In his mind, it made perfect sense.

Imponderability was an amazing thing, Sakura. Her heart leaped into her throat as she felt the invisible wings carrying them both against the gravity and high to the majestic arcade of the velvet nocturnal starry sky, it was incredible.

Sakura had no idea how, but she could clearly perceive it through the cold shivers prickling along her bare exposed forearms: Sasuke was not pleased of how he found her when coming back home.

In her drunken mind, she hasn't even realized that the flicker that surged through her mind, harbored the title of 'home' and not simply 'house', making its resonance be more intimate and familiar.

Sasuke cupped her against his chest, carrying her lithe form like a bride descending from the sky, floating over a carpet of twinkling stars and, had it been in a less life-threatening context, that short journey would have been romantic.

The Vampire Prince, the embodiment of life-suckling and the wielder of the veil of the night, has returned her last heartbeat back to her racing heart.

Sakura swore that her chest will combust of so many pumps that her poor organ thumped madly and her ribcage barely contained the amount of oxygen that she inhaled. Her lips were wide opened to welcome the fresh air – the taste of life against her lips felt like the finest Ambrosia.

Sasuke landed graciously on the veranda, without making any sound, being agile and delicate like a puma.

She was still clutching him for dear life when they reached the safety of his airy home, but made no attempt to detach from him and thankfully enough, the silent Vampire let her stay cuddled into his arms, before giving her a short gentle tug and she unglued her damp cheek from the hollow of his neck, where it rested.

Slowly, he loosened his left hand that was curled under her knees, as her diaphanous nightgown rippled high along her calves and she tapped her toes against the cool marble. Safety has engulfed her like a cozy fireplace and her skin basked into it.

She hiccupped once involuntarily to draw the fresh tears back, brushing her jade orbs with the palm of her right hand as her left one slide along Sasuke`s shoulder, while he guided her into a standing position. His right hand was barely brushing the curve of her waist like he was afraid that she will fall down any moment and break.

Emerald orbs sought for black sapphire and this time, Sakura indeed found Sasuke gazing right down at her and for a moment, her breath hitched midways in her throat.

No, he could asses her with any look, but not that lackluster glance that was as impenetrable as a fortress. She knew he will mistake her action but Sakura didn't expect him to appear so… discontent, almost… angry with her.

"Sasuke… I–"

The gleaming silver curtain of his ceiling high cut glass windows was fluttering in the serene windblown, as he simply stood before her, motionless and laconic, watching her deeply and irresistibly, as worry immixed with the unreadable expressions that the nocturnal beauty of his onyx eyes harbored.

Before she could assert her mellow explanation, Sasuke cut her speech right from the roots. His agile fingers entwined in the swell of a curl that was framing her cheek, as his knuckles brushed over the fine river of tears meandering along her outline and almost spat to her in a way colder than the approaching Death itself.

"You promised me, Sakura."

She started to shake her head, becoming desperate in her plea. Sakura hated how guilty and shaky her broken voice dissipated to him. "No, I... y-you have misunderstood–"

"I cannot help you if you do not yen to be helped." His touch lingering on her hair, so fragile and so delicate, was not pairing with the ice storm look in his eyes.

When he looked at her like that, Sasuke looked like another person. He wasn't bubbling with undone fury just like when she had a slip of a tongue about his fiancé, so he didn't scare her, but that style of pinning her like an icicle, emblazoned with the lack of emotion –so hollow and merciless– was even worse.

She felt the solitude weighing on her chest like a boulder. There was a miniature of a stilt house inside her, weeping endlessly in cold hard drops.

A silence percolating like drops of steel spanned between them as Sakura was summoning the most intelligent words to explain herself, but that ice block was preventing her from entering in the pits of his heart –where she could communicate.

It was a new face of Sasuke that she hasn't had the displeasure to meet so far, but it was even more frightening than the approaching Death itself. Her spine filled with cold shivers again; Sasuke proved it to her that a delicate touch, could be either charming warm or vapid petrifying. She wanted to slap his hand a way, but somehow she found herself exploding in a desperate kinesics.

"Sasuke!" She supplicated in a tingle of her bell voice that raised two octaves in the stillness of the night, ringing so high for the first time in a pleading scream, and cupping his high cheeks with her sweating palms and her touch alone sufficed in successfully silencing him. "Listen to me please, you have misunderstood it, Sasuke." Her inflection broke to a melancholic whisper, as she sought for patience into the obsidian nebula of his intense gaze. "I wasn't about to–"

Words that Sakura couldn't whisper remained entrapped into her eyes; she knew that Sasuke could read right through them with those beautiful eyes that refused to trust her. She had to try one more time, she couldn't face his rejection; not in this form.

In those two days and a half that Sakura came to spend in Sasuke`s blissful company, she grew to depict something crucial about him: this Prince was a royalty of honor and trustworthiness in the plenitude of his title. To Sasuke, a promise was more valuable than gold.

She knew that he had unpleasant memories of humans –fiancés– who broke their vow and, judging from what Ino has disclosed to her, Sasuke has grown to be quite circumspect in trusting humans and trust their word.

Suddenly, something luminous and magical has twinkled at the corner of her gaze and Sakura`s entire atmosphere turned brighter than the moon`s mysterious rays that showered their silhouettes and she sang to him dreamy.

"I… was just chasingfireflies, when I grew careless and sidestepped. That's all, I haven't tried to j-jump again. Look!" She outstretched her finger to the two approaching twinkling dots of light, as two familiar nocturnal luminescent beetles were designing fractals of light on the purple dark canvas of the night.

Sasuke perked a fine raven eyebrow up, as his gaze passed Sakura`s shoulder, his velvet voice still harboring a hint of disbelief. "Fireflies?" Sakura detached from him abruptly, letting his hands slide along his cheeks and she padded two steps in the direction of the glass railing to span her palm towards the beautiful creatures.

She has been honest with him.

Indeed, two bright fireflies were sewing an embroidery of light above his balcony, raising like golden bubbles of Champagne across the sky. The midnight eyed Vampire couldn't believe that Sakura has almost died in such a stupid way, namely slip past the railing while she did something so puerile.

Innocence…

…was a double edged sword.

But instead of focusing his gaze on such feeble creatures, Sasuke's onyx eyes remained enthralled on Sakura`s balletic silhouette, following the limber motion of her night gown, fluttering in the wind following the motion of her spinning body. The folds molded around her slim bare ankles, creating an evanescent effect around her body.

Now that she wasn't in danger anymore, Sasuke took his precious time to breath this woman in, in all the glory of her beauty and oh… what a mesmerizing show it was.

He was so mentally tired and displeased with the creatures that he has encountered tonight, that Sasuke just looked in anticipation to come home and found his beautiful protégée being clumsy and bright in his lifeless house.

Her welcome surprise was indeed… spectacular. Oh Kami, Sakura was keeping him, a Vampire, on the edge 24/7.

The luminous silvery–blue sapphire blades of the moon's rays were caressing every crevice of her beauty, spanning along the tenderness of her scintillating skin. The fine china porcelain skin, harbored a delicate virgin shade of pink peonies, falling gracefully to the succulent highlight of her full cherry lips that were beseeching to be loved by his mouth, as Sasuke fantasized himself tasting her ravenously and passionately, while Sakura would arch against his body and dance along the embers of his fire.

Her hair was glowing under the splendor of the moon and it looked like being sewed with stars, sprinkled across her locks; she was exotic, evergreen, so ineffable, but at the same time, entrapping a subtle touch of a peculiar sensuality into her atmosphere, that made Sasuke`s chest arch with an ardent tussle to relieve something that was bubbling so nimble inside his heart.

He simply couldn't look away and yet, Sakura was dancing on the night's veil, like a nymph. Something within him told Sasuke to break down his walls, seize the moment of her virtue and bask under the rays of her luminous sun; under the spell of a feeling that he knew long forgotten.

He almost confused the sentiment to oblivion, but he couldn't stop himself from following details unseen for the human eye that enfolded so clear before him.

The motion of Sakura`s stretched limbs trying to catch a firefly into her palm, the grace of her toes tipping on his balcony – so reminiscent to a siren`s magnetizing dance– the vivid child in her gestures… his heart suddenly picked another cadence and his chest clutched briskly.

The feel of her taste still persisted juicily on his lips and Sasuke found it difficult to preserve his steady self-control in her presence, as his natural coldness become upstream and faded through his fingertips, just like her mirage.

Sakura kept on giving him bits and bits, not enough to get him drunk, but enough to be reeling tipsy and become highly addicted for her succulent taste, until he would beg to get completely intoxicated. His mouth felt depleted of taste and dry, while a honey taste still lingered on the tip of his tongue.

When the woman with the most scintillating emerald orbs untangled from his arms she took away the warmth and radiance and, faded into the cold silver-blue night scenery, reminding Sasuke of how absolutely lonely he felt, surrounded by his pedestrian walls; so lifeless and out of light, only enhancing the fact that he was a dead man.

Sakura brought the tenderness of being alive back into his gloomy world. Sasuke could give her immense pleasure, he could lay any diamond at her feet, he was capable to wrap her nights into passion and erotica, and he was willing to try and grant her any wish, and now that he has been enlighten about her real identity, Sasuke felt those encased feelings of affection struggle to be set free for her. He could ultimately give her love; his love –but he was vulnerable in front of an implacable truth: he didn't know if she will accept him, as he couldn't force her into anything that she wasn't willing to consent.

To love her... To be hers during nights like this, securely residing into his strong arms, to pamper her opaline skin with sweet kisses and make her arch against his touches and seek for pleasure that he could give, was all a sweet chimera, worth of being chased.

Sasuke found himself involuntarily elevate his left hand in the direction of her lithe shadow, as Sakura continued to gaze to the sky, admiring nature`s wonders as he was picturing her into his arms, and slowly spread his fingers wide open to her, akin to the folds of an uchiwa expecting the warmth of her breeze to touch him gently, then slowly enclosed his fingers until the distance tricked him into thinking that she fit into his palm.

Oh, how sweet was that mirage, leaving him thirsty and desperate for an oasis, finding himself alone in the scorching dry desert, left to perish into the golden sand without her.

For a moment... just one dreading moment... his heartbeat missed its disciplined harmony and leaped a beat.

Heavens, it has been hundreds of years since he felt that soaring emotion creeping along his spine; it begged to be preserved. Sasuke shut his eyes for a moment… just one moment.

"Beautiful, aren't they?" Sakura`s lullaby voice brought him back to his balcony. He flickered his onyx orbs to her smiling radiance. "It has been such a long time since I used to look for fireflies. They are so hard to find this days… "

Sakura`s voice sounded like a harmonious violin song to his eardrums; emotional, serene, upbeat, hopeful, but still preserving its melancholic solfeggio. "I always liked fireflies."

She told him dreamy, seeming to have lost the adrenaline rush from earlier and it vanished with her fear of dying as well, because she came swaying back to him, stopping right in front of a Sasuke, who was his usual stoic self, but his aura wasn't angered anymore. "If I can catch one, then I can make a wish" A mesmerizing smile bloomed on her rose lips.

Sasuke simply watched her in silence.

Her beauty was like a cold star: a frozen delicacy, embellished by a blue diamond hue, giving her ivory pallor a regal Goddess veneer, so unreachable, so tempting, so untouchable. A dark desire churned within the curve of his lower abdomen as Sasuke was trailing his smoldering eyes along every shimmering detail.

Sakura bore that magnetically mysterious beauty that turned innocent into desire and sensual. Her white-pastel pink nightgown that veiled her body into a brocade lightsome light, looked like a dragonfly's wing around her curves, barely concealing the natural glow of her pearl skin from his hungry eyes.

The folds of her princess garment fluttered along the gentle wind blow's lulling caress and she seemed to be floating on the moonlight's wings. The emerald into her eyes were challenging him and seeking for something that he couldn't decipher.

Sakura expected something from him, but she didn't know how to ask for it. Her look was an enthralling tumult of pleading, searching, longing and indulging into every figment of desire conjured by her darkest thoughts; that much Sasuke could depict.

How easy would be for the mighty Vampire to just pretend that he correctly interpenetrated her subtle messages and make her writhe against him as he rode her pleasure with the fire of his own. How utterly simple would it be to command her body to whimper his name in absolute pleasure as he spilled his quintessence inside her and fill both her body and her wishes with his own twitching one.

A burning sensation unexpectedly started to flicker inside him, a dormant inferno stirred and roared to life, while pumping a visceral desire that could have been translated into a carnal need to cover the layers of her skin with his touches, adorn the sweetness of her taste with his lips as he would fondle her lovingly, and carry her dreams all through the night, dancing together and sway from passion to warmth, palm to palm and forehead to forehead, as one single heartbeat.

How wrong were the ones who begrudge Sasuke for apparently having been gifted to the entire world as he led a fustian life, soaked in luxuries and anything came to him as natural just because Fate has placed the seed of his soul into an Uchiha's infant, that already bore the blue blood of a royalty, seeping through his veins; how derisive those facts were and how sheer insignificant for someone with his concept of the world.

Because in reality, there was indeed something that Sasuke really took a shine to, but unfortunately...

Not able to stop himself, Sasuke`s hand reached for her fluttering hair, and his fingers sought for a wave of her cotton candy locks that shone like million pink crystals of tourmaline sewed into her locks, with a touch so fine-grained, as if he was tentatively feeling dew drops, afraid not to have them perish under his warmth, marveling at how incredibly beautiful she was in his eyes.

His raven eyelashes fell down ever so briskly just to slide open again, fluttering in an enthralling blink, seemingly to adore her beauty inside the intimacy of his memories and heart –a place that no one was permitted to transgress; a territory that has been sacred and forbidden… until now.

Sasuke breathed her in, as breathtaking as she was before him.

...it still seemed so far out of his reach.

"You are right. They are indeed beautiful." What Sakura didn't know, was that Sasuke`s eyes weren't focused on the fireflies, and neither was his mind, but they were glancing at her.

A tranquilizing wind was dancing through Sakura`s long hair, as waves of roseate ringlets were rolling over her shoulders, beautifully crayoned by the night gown she wore, rippling along her body as deep lazy ocean waves, colliding with the natural glow of her fine opaline skin.

"I know, right?" Her giggle molded with the shades of night in a suave harmony. Sakura giggled at her own youthful exuberance, but her laughter reverberated through Sasuke`s senses in waves of warmth. "I am so childish, aren't I?"

The beautiful rosette turned her head from the zooming out fireflies, to her rescuer. "Let's get inside, it's getting kind of–" Her bright smile froze midways as Sakura realized just how close she stepped to Sasuke and what little effort would it take to kiss him, as their faces were basically shadowing one another, but he didn't seem to mind because he made no gestures to step back or show reticence and discontent about their positions and neither did she move; practically the delicious taste of his sweet warm lips was percolating on her own.

She just had to lean forward and meet them in an embrace. "–c–cold..." She finished awkwardly, with a cute flush of her cheeks.

On the contrary, the atmosphere was really hot.

Sakura could feel it stroll all along her skin –the shuddering sensation washing down her spine, her uneven galloping breath, the incandescence electricity unfolding between them; the air felt charged with sparkles of want, lust and yen.

And Sasuke`s eyes… oh, Heavens, his eyes were luscious like polished chrome. A spontaneous confession erupted from the pits of her fluttering heart. "I... am so glad you are back, Sasuke…" Sakura gulped once as feelings that she could depict were knotting into her throat.

"God only knows why but I–I… have m–missed you terribly." What was she talking about? He was out only for few hours but something… she couldn't stop her mouth from saying those things. Sasuke`s eyebrows slide in a ghost of a confused frown.

It was like her heart just couldn't take anymore of that silence and strived for its voice to be heard by him; like she wasn't referring to his little sojourn to a deprived part of the city, but to all the time that they have been strangers –that they were separated, before they met. It was sentiments that Sakura couldn't explain, but nor was she able to stop them from soaring to the surface. "I want to stay here with... with you," She could see his hard obsidian orbs suddenly soften at her unpredicted words and a warmer silvery light melted into his orbs. "for as long as I have left to live in this world–"

She didn't miss the way his shoulders flexed for a moment when she susurrated the last words, but he played in a way that she didn't expect, namely his hand enfolded around her waist and his fingers pressed on the curb of her lower back.

"I apologize for my outburst." He breathed politely to her and thankfully, she found the already familiar grace into his words. "I keep on being leery with you and only present you my impudent side." Sasuke was visibly ashamed of his vulgar approach in the presence of a lady, but he couldn't help himself when he foolishly thought that she wanted to take her life again.

"How disgraceful for a Prince to be so unpolished when in the presence of a lady." Slowly, magnetizingly, his hand traipsed higher along her spine, brushing over her shoulder blades until they reached her shoulders, his touch electric.

Sakura felt her entire body combust and shiver in delight at his contact. The tips of his fingers brushed against her jaw, reaching higher on her oval face, up to the crown of her head, where her silk treads whirled in cascades along her heart shaped forehead, and she lost the touch with the gravity under his genial caress.

This Vampire`s grace challenged the strings of the harps playing in Paradise and suddenly the tumult compiled within her the nest of her heart has dissipated like shimmering dew drops in the wind. Sakura perceived the tickles of his caressing effervescent warmth suffusing through her body as it threatened to deliquesce like steaming chocolate under his touch.

The resonance of Sasuke`s contralto timbre was sufficient to elicit a smothering peace into her tempestuous chest, where her heart ticked away the figment of dread conjured by her free falling, and approaching the claws of Death has never been so dreadful.

Sasuke's elegant tone spread across her shivering skin, making her entire body tremble in anticipation. He was delicious like dark chocolate and velvet lace, even when murmuring to her words of care and apologize, like no one else did before. "Will you forgive me?"

Entranced by the exquisitely of the resplendent handsome Vampire Prince, Sakura had troubles in remembering the core of their small argument.

Why was Sasuke apologizing for when she was the one to commit such a silly mistake, that almost cost her little life? "You have nothing to apologize for." She shook her head and gave him a sheepish smile, nipping on her lower lip so as to not start to smile like an idiot of how good his hands on her felt, or how delicious his beautiful eyes were set on her? "You saved my pathetic life once again, Sasuke. Why?"

It was so ironic that shock only came back resurfacing to her and she just couldn't top a trail of fresh tears to stream down her emeralds.

Oh Heavens, it was in that exact moment when it dawned to Sakura that she truly didn't want to die, yet she has been so close to face that nightmare. "Oh, my God… I am so scared, Sasuke." She squeezed her eyes shut and cursed herself for being so weak before him.

But Sasuke read her like an opened scroll. His bare knuckles rippled on the girl's moist rose cheeks, as his onyx eyes were stealing the apprehension from her gaze. Eyes bluer than a crystalline lagoon filled with pools of tears, while looking and silently imploring him for something she wished for in the name of her entire human kind: a savior.

Unfortunately, he wasn't a hero. He was the solitary anti–hero, whose malice against the crimes of his brothers Vampires were syphoning not from rightfulness and morality, but disgust against the segregated prejudices, flowing through his veins, as he spent every second of his existence fighting it off his system.

I say is all in vain….

Sakura seemed to have been elated by the finesse of his impeccable precise touch, mindful of the meaning behind it – a simple gesture aiming to alleviate the fear, yet it brought Sasuke back to mirror Sakura's sudden fear, when he lost self–control and left her with the false presumption of him being angry with her and ultimately pose as a threat to her, which was exactly the type of feeling that Sasuke was fighting to disavow.

Sakura has been scared by his outbreak, just like the rose haired young woman before him was torn between what to believe and who to trust. It was the most horrifying experience. How could his family –his own inheritance, flesh and blood call– keep on nourishing and bathe into that pool of blood and grotesque?

It was ludicrous and the testimony of how abject it was, was the misery of her tattered seeping trembling frail form, her helpless tears and the desperation of seeking a benefactor in someone as dark as a Pegasus, with his proud raven wings, scattering justice among the mortals and taking the side of a Demi–God.

Sakura was visibly infatuated by his telestic amazing beauty and grace because she stopped trembling and leaned into the comfort of his touch. Being watched at as the personification of succubus represented Sasuke's worst nightmare. If he was to fight against a system segregated into the realm of Vampires for centuries, then Sasuke would do that till the end of his days.

He wasn't a hero. Narutoon the other hand, had the lion heart to rise above the crowns of the emperors of the Vampire's history of blood, and pass judgment which sprung from his the stubborn never giving up warrior, blazing and shining within him, embodying the glory of the peoples' and Vampires' aspirations. He had the potential of making people seek a prophet within, as someone to follow to rightfulness, not Sasuke.

He didn't even want to be someone that the others might follow obediently, and built a temple in glorification of his memory. No, Sasuke would gladly let Naruto be the voice that could make people and Vampires conjoin, unify their ideals and built up a world void of tears of blood.

And Sasuke would gladly remain intertwined into the limbs of darkness and watch from afar, taking care of the ones in need, without revealing his face to them. He didn't need glory and adulation like his father or his clan members.

He only needed their cooperation. And if they weren't willing to open up their minds, then he would–

A side sexy smirk stole Sakura`s breath away, as she too was checking him on in silence, but unlike him, she was not so subtle. "You fell from Heaven, straight into my arms." He asserted as a matter of fact like it was something common for him to save suicide ladies at the last moment.

"You could have... stepped away, you know?" She averted her gaze from him, coming up with a cynic yet smartass retort.

She didn't know why she blurted out something so stupid instead of expressing her gratitude; maybe it was her need for Sasuke to confirm that he indeed cared for her.

"I could have also been too late." He stunned her with so much relief brushing his voice. Sasuke was already so late in winning her heart because they have only met now. If only she would love him back… just for a moment–

One moment…

Sakura was stupefied by how many emotions seemed to spout into the ashy–obsidian depths of his eyes, whenever he interacted with her, gazing through the gleam of her emerald diamonds like peeping through the open windows of her soul, searching, beckoning her to let him in and almost imploring and begging for her light to dissipate the darkness of his solitude.

Languidly, almost tentatively, the crests of his fingertips slithered along the contour of her cheek and stopped at the corner of her mouth, gently brushing over the small lump of her upper lip, that arched sensually like Cupid's arrow, so kissable and luscious, molded into the shape of love. "Losing you–"

Sakura's heart leaped into her throat at the unexpected warmth dissipating through the arcade of her chest at the intimate contact, as she involuntarily parted her lips to make a place for more oxygen to ventilate her lungs. She kissed the tip of his finger as Sasuke had not removed his hand from her face.

Slender digits cupped the curve of her pointed chin in a loving embrace, having the same resonance akin to a mother fondling her new born baby.

"I do not want to conceptualize how it would be like to be impoverished of your presence again." Now that I found you. Missives that Sasuke could not disclose were sealed into his thin lips, but he hoped that his gestures and the flaming passion in his onyx eyes, were reaching to her own heart, pleading to be listened and understood.

"S–Sasuke–" She could depict a nimble knock pounding timidly on the doorsteps of her heart but before she pondered about what it represented, her dizzy mind lead her to make a mistake and state. "I see... don't worry, I will not betray our oath. I will keep," Involuntarily her fingertips brushed over the barely visible markings of Sasuke's vampire fangs, bedecking the span of her pulse. "my promise–"

By casting her head down in what could be depicted as a disenchanted kinetics at his supposed implication, Sakura missed the brisk falter in Sasuke's steadfast breathing and, for a moment, his lithe shoulders bullied and his body went tense. The hand that loved her face in such a caring manner freeze for a moment as he half shut his obsidian orbs. Sakura has mistaken his bona fide gesture, for his thirst for her blood.

She was genuinely convinced of the fact that he found her valuable for her claret essence of life and nothing else, but oh how utterly wrong she was.

Of course, her Lethe was a justifiable reason for she has been deprived of the knowledge about her real identity the entire time, and Sakura didn't share the condemnation to the ones that kept her in the shadows, but it still churned inside his chest in a way that it shouldn't have had.

But it does.

"My vow to you is for eternity, Sakura." His words were so deep and so far out of reach, seemingly metamorphosed in ice butterflies emerging from the shadows of his heart; cold, beautiful, untouchable, and lonely. " one-lifetime promise that depicts my gift for you." And by that his double implication resonated to her understanding of Vampires –to an Immortal, such a promise spanned across eternity, so consequently the ravishing Uchiha heir vouched to grant her felicity forever.

If you will let me, then I will make you forever happy. Forever you… forever me… and forever us.

Lulled by the depths of his promise, Sakura has been transpired into taking a perusal of his lithe form, as he stood there one breath away from her, barely touching her skin. And for the first time since he came back, Sakura realized that Sasuke changed clothes and they were a far cry from his usual meticulous elegant self.

Due to Ino`s words, Sasuke transformed into a silent hero, along with his friends, because she has never would have guessed that she would phantom Sasuke being so rebel and masculine in leather clothes, but there he was, entirely wrapped in slick clothes that augmented each crest of his supple muscles, deliciously enhancing the perfection of his tall and stalwart form.

Honestly, this bad–boy veneering was closer to the dark and dangerous image of Vampires, and easier to relate to folklore… and erotic, but Sakura would never admit that out loud. A leather jacket with electric blue shades streaming along his dark sleeves rode up to his waist.

His deliciously sculpted torso couldn't have been more perfect outlined than in the slick pitch black blouse that seemed softer than any material, molding over his abs.

And those equally skinny pants, ending up in high combat boots, embellished with a simple silver chain where something akin to a holster was wrapped around his thigh, did little to conceal his toned long legs.

Sakura`s mind went suddenly –oh. my. holly. damn. he. is. so. freaking. gorgeous– and she was positive that her orbs were gleaming lust from miles away. Honestly, Sasuke looked ten times hotter with that gothic–rockstyle.

The grace of the moon rays was dancing on his illuminated pristine face, augmenting the sensuality of his strong masculine outlines, tracing along the sharp contour of his oval shaped face and high alabaster royal cheeks.

This Vampire Prince has challenged the mesmerizing delicious definition of beauty`s most supreme elegance, in terms of handsomeness, he was irresistibly beautiful, like he wasn't even real but an enigma that the charmed woman in her has crayoned with the power of her ideal of a man, albeit Sasuke has crushed every fragment of gorgeous in her mind.

An angel he was definitely not, Sakura decided, but his soul was also too principled, noble and moral to belong to a demon, and that was making him a living oxymoron: Sasuke had the features of a cherub entombed in the dark kiss of the moon and darkness, coating him in the royal color of the King of crepuscule, kissing his dark striking features, embellishing his soft raven hair and his black sapphire eyes. Those eyes...

Her digits burned with the ardent desire to sizzle with the outline of his chiseled muscles sizzling under her fingerprints.

A dew of crystalline perspiration was sensually rolling down his carved– in– marble body, strolling in a sinuous path along the peaks and crevices of his sculpted abdomen, and her breath was becoming a ticking pendulum clock trapped in the fascination of his Roman emperor statue like silhouette, as it was dangerously strolling down to the waistband of his black pants –her heart was fluttering like a timid chrysalides metamorphosing into a gentle suave butterfly, seeking for the sun`s warm embrace.

Emerald orbs returned back to his face; timid fingertips brushing his cheek, tentatively so as she was afraid that he was made from sea foam and his beauty would perish under the touch of her hand, akin to the rolling waves washing away the dreams to infinite and ineffable.

But instead of whisking her hand off his person, Sasuke half shut his obsidian eyes, watching her through his velvet curtain of delicate long raven lashes, eyes illuminated with a warm touch of flickering chandeliers and filled with a lustrous sizzling gleam that bore into her and played the strings of her heart in a way that made Sakura`s entire body jitter and her blood to steam like a volcano.

He was his usual peculiar stoic self, but Sasuke definitely looked younger, more masculine and sharp, rougher and arrogant, albeit in a way that was too sexy for her not to whip her head back to ogle him.

Sasuke could feel Sakura`s heartbeat thumping through her fingertips; a crystalline sound of a Stradivarius violin, trying to fall into the tango steps with his own one. The flickering into their eyes embraced into a passionate tango, while her palm fell on his chest, trying to feel something inside him flourishing and striving to come alive again.

There was so much turbulence into those sparkling emerald eyes, that got Sasuke enmeshed into deciphering every line. Sakura was openly inviting him to see into her soul, feel her sadness, leading him through the labyrinth of her heart to the core of her sadness.

Something flickered in the air; the tension between them escalated rapidly and swept its face to something more intimate. They both felt it, unmistakably –it was made of desire.

Slowly, tentatively as if his fingertips were made of fine brocade barely coming to an electrical inexistent distance from her skin, Sasuke let his digits slide along the planes of Sakura`s bare forearms, unhurriedly and soothing, as a new unexpected wave of heat has run along the column of her spine. Her slender long arms were delicate and elegant, he noticed, like Greek caryatids.

His spine was smug and lean, his posture was imposing, regal and dominating, the ample planes of his sculpted back conjoined into the shape of elegant shoulders, as they took form in the outline of two colonnades, revealing Sasuke in all his pulchritudinous Godly appearance.

The silver crown around his irises shone with so many artistry, conveying a message that stole Sakura`s breath away; they comprised so many emotions; she could read the disappointment at her reaction and even if she got lost in the onyx labyrinths of his irises' smoldering shade, Sakura couldn't find fear in the way her heart's steps took a sharp turn to start a new upbeat waltz.

She experienced it every time he looked at her that way: like she meant the world to him. That was the despair of a lover for his beloved one. A filigree intimacy aroused between them, veiling Sasuke and Sakura in an intimate atmosphere.

The sound of the night city has fallen into a whimsical buzz, while the atmosphere paled into a fading distance, and the tangible contours of Sasuke`s balcony molded into a sensual enigma, clashing with the serene tune of the crickets.

Every feeling into Sakura's body dematerialized and suddenly, her senses spiked and went haywire. Magically, the stars seemed brighter and closer illuminating her view on the beautiful Vampire that she couldn't peel her orbs off, refusing to blink in order not to slay that new pleasurable tension between them.

She felt it sound and clear, approaching her heart, brushing over her skin and encompassing her form and ungluing her toes from the cool marble –it was uplifting. Sakura`s breath became laborious, her lips were tickling with a delightful anticipation and every fragment of her skin implored for Sasuke`s closeness.

Time seemed to span to an endless elongation before it turned into ice and stood frozen. A million tingles jittered into the girl`s every pore, creating a divine sound of a choir of jittering bells, as Sasuke touched her in a way that no other could caress her.

Breathing normally seemed like a trespasser into the realm of a fairy world; Sasuke`s gestures were summoning a new dimension of lightening percolating across her skin, as she immediately resonated to his melody; Sakura leaned happily into his touch as Sasuke's fingertips slide along a tuck of the coral hair that he was playing with, until he reached to the side of her face, gently cupping the fine bone of her cheek, in a loving tender caress.

She indulged into the addictive feeling of being touched by the gorgeous Vampire and didn't fight against the fall of her eyelashes, while she closed her eyelids, to connect to the intense warm feeling that crossed through her body in waves of heat, sighing softly when his thumb fondled her cheek.

Heavens, he elicited so many feelings with such a simple gesture. Sakura silently wished for Sasuke to never stop touching her the way he did, and even go as far as to give her more.

If only she knew that every detail from her body language didn't slip unnoticed by his smoldering eyes and Sasuke knew that he was also powerless to deny her silent request.

The air around them charged with sparkles of electricity, getting lukewarm and dizzying. Neither of the two of them seemed to realize that they both fell prey to the spellbinding yen to get closer to each other, as they both took a step forward until their chest brushed against each other.

A ghost of a touch between their tapping chests has been enough for their thoughts to conjoin into an upbeat impulse to drive into the spur of the moment and play along that call.

Sasuke slides his fingers deep into her lucent silk hair and brushed the locks that framed her temple to unravel the heart shape of her visage, and when Sakura opened up her eyes wide and shimmering, he froze for a moment to admire that look in her jewels.

Eyes… that entrapped the purest cut of an emerald diamond, shone brighter than any star as they were bathed in sheer lust and longing, and Sasuke knew exactly just what kind of need: the need for his touch.

She didn't need to form a cursive sentence with those pursed lips of hers, for he was already leading her face up to meet his as Sasuke tilted his head and met her in an evanescent honey coated kiss, that literarily swept the floor away from under Sakura's feet.

But this time, imponderability felt so blissful and free–falling into the taste of his lips, was soaring and got her straight to Paradise.

Anticipation built up inside her slowly, languidly as Sasuke let her enough room for her to reject his daring move if she wanted, but the moment she felt his warmth transpiring through his lips and fusing with her lips, Sakura lost the touch to reality.

That was the most elating feeling of all – the kiss of a Prince was the sweetest elixir.

Sakura didn't waste a heartbeat to rejoin to his kiss. She dreamy parted her lips in a trembling need just enough for Sasuke's own to fit between them and he let her start a wishful rhythm between them. She was still a novice in the art of kissing a man, but everything came as a natural experience with Sasuke.

That was a kiss that brought together two clashing feelings –one`s immensurable gratitude for her dazzling savior and the other one`s relief that she was safe and back into his arms.

And the feelings that sparkled in millions of bubbles –encircling them in luminescent twinkles, akin to a veil of fireflies soaring between them– came undone from their ardent touch.

Their mouths were speaking the same language, and their hearts fought for a perfect harmony –one single heartbeat.

Sakura`s coy hands cupped the planes of Sasuke`s shoulders, digging the crescent moons of her fine nails into the leather fabric of his jacket, desperately crushing her evanescent self into his chest.

A hand encompassed the curb of her waistline, bringing her even closer to him, as their lips brushed against each other in sweet unhurried strokes.

It was timid and tender as a piano violin conjuring a soothing lullaby, but soon enough, it became impossible to resist a building bonfire that burst within them both.

Sasuke himself found it impossible to just kiss her like she was a young girl experimenting with her first crush, playing with the first blossoms of a teenage romance, escaping in secret to a newfound intimacy away from their parents' watching eyes, and he took the lead.

The Vampire Prince let his left hand slant along the flute of her glass body and pressed the small bone of her lower back to get her even closer to him, while his right hand took a fist of her coral hair and silently beckoned her to let her head fall askew and follow his hand as he pressed his thin lips harder against hers, urging the rhythm of their kiss to increase.

Sakura moaned like an Egyptian cat mewling against her golden cushion, as she felt his resolute self-control loosen up to a wilder passion that he seemed to keep it hidden, gnawing on his lower lip like a newborn nourishing from its mother`s chest, enjoying the feel of his skin and the taste of his mouth, lush and heavenly sweet.

Their mouths molded against one another in absolute sync, as their lips grew thirstier and less elegant. A slick tongue swirled upon Sakura`s lower lip, probing and asking for the permission to reside into the hot cavern of her mouth.

Sakura eagerly dipped her lower lip down to give him full access, and Sasuke's sick organ swept against her own tongue twice, filling her mouth to the hilt, and venturing into an effervescent exploration, tasting her entirely and thirstily.

Sakura curled her hands around the column of his slender neck, as she balanced herself on her bare toes in order to try and conquer the barely existent distance between them, suddenly feeling that he was still not close enough to her, fisting her hands wildly into the ink jet spikes that stood against the gravity at the back of his nape, forcing him down to her and he easily complied to her, bowing his head more, towering and shadowing her petite form almost entirely and possessively.

His hands descended to skim along the outline of her spine, dancing over her sides, tickling her ribs and massaging her shoulder blades, lovingly, ardently, fondly, while his elfin tongue was spanning over the row of her pearl teeth sensually, massaging every inch of her mouth that fell within his range, ebbing her cherry taste into his mouth.

Their kiss challenged a new definition of passion as a feral thirst aroused into them both. Their lips became demanding, possessive as they tried to maintain an elegant rhythm. Two greedy mouths became sloppy and sexily wetter.

Trails of milky syrupy saliva glistened between their lips, as their mouths intertwined into a sensual dance, taking turns into licking along their mouths and dipping into each other's cavities and they were both soon fighting for dominance.

There was an unexplainable feeling that overcame Sakura's timid nature and lack of experience, in the form of a refusal to let Sasuke dominate their lip lock and win.

She couldn't explain the feelings that transpired between them, her senses were floating into imponderability, her mind was reeling into a drug induced state and all that she could think about was Sasuke and how to describe how amazingly tasty he felt like a man and Vampire.

But there were no words to phrase it. The feel of his lips kissing her in the way he did, the technique he used to skillfully roll and wind that wicked tongue of his in way indescribable into every corner of her mouth, gliding down her throat and expanding on the arcade of her mouth where that sensitive skin sent an ensemble of hot shivers along the pillar of her trembling spine, was simply too good to be true.

The emerald eyed young woman truly wanted to know how was it possible for a man to feel softer than cashmere, yet so firm and sculpted at the same time?

There was nothing in the world that Sakura ever tasted to start resembling the taste of Sasuke`s lips and tongue. His saliva was lukewarm and seeping into her mouth, glistening her lips and she wasn't sure whether that wet kiss was supposed to be unpleasant or not because it felt absolutely divine.

Sasuke was a cocktail between honey, cognac, velvet and dark mint chocolate and it was indescribable. She found herself sucking and nipping on his lips with a feral thirst that she didn't think it was possible to desire a man.

She had no control over her body or the moans that erupted from her chest, but their feverish mouths and their bold hands and occasional mewls and groans spoke enough for them to realize how much they were enjoying that kiss.

Sakura gasped for air pretty soon as she was still an uncut jewel, and Sasuke, clearly sensing her need to breathe briefly pulled back from her, just enough for her to drag in a large gulp of oxygen but they resumed their kiss with equal ardor, one heartbeat later.

Sakura was relishing in the way their chaste peck turned into that hot unruly French kiss but damn... if she would have a choice, she wished for him to never stop what he was doing.

Sasuke was literarily killing her with the way his lips suckled and licked her own, curling around her tongue to trap her into a wet tango, and made their appendices fuse into his mouth as she wasted no time to penetrate his crevice as well and stroke it in a manner so sensual, that it turned her knees into strings of a vibrating guitar. She vaguely wondered if all the men could kiss like that, but she doubted it.

This Vampire was more than a man and that was definitely more than a kiss; they both felt it. Sasuke was telling her everything that he couldn't voice out loud with words alone, through their kiss. He was using his lips into another form of communication and she wanted to cry at how effervescent his relief sprung into his chest –that she was safe into his arms.

Sakura discovered how beautiful was to kiss. Such a simple caress of the lips was sufficient to set her entire body afloat; it was lighting the need inside and dictated the pace of her touches. Heavens, how bad she started to desire him. Her moans slowly took a more erotic touch.

Her fingers lowered against the edge of his sculpted jawline, slowly, tentatively, in a curious fascination of a child pressing the keys of a Grand Piano for the first time, enchanted by the resonating soft tunes and harmonies.

Sasuke`s hand slid under her palm that was cupping his face, and wrapped around her wrist, thumb brushing against her pumping fine veins. He could feel how effervescent her pulse was; he could feel the frenetic pace of her heartbeat as she enjoyed their kiss –he could feel how much her body was naturally responding to him, wanting him.

Her entire being jittered and resonated with a melodious warmth arranged in a hymn; his presence beckoned her to come closer, to touch and feel, taste and desire, because this man , this Vampire, was someone that she had a claim on.

The wind was playing through their clothes and hair, in a warm floral fragranced lullaby, making them look like an ethereal couple from the fairytales, floating on clouds. Their noses tickled occasionally brushing against each other when their faces switched sides.

When Sakura pulled back from him just enough to see each other's faces, Sasuke suppressed a small smile –an alien gesture that was hardly present o his dim expression, but he couldn't help himself around her.

With her plump cheeks blushing a virgin rubicund shade, the emerald eyed girl looked like the oil painting of a crown Princess; there was so much light entrapped into the luminescence of those aureate rings around her irises, shimmering malachite and gold, hazel of a thick fog of evident lust that turned Sasuke's unfocused stare into a contemplative gaze.

Oh Heavens, what she elicited inside him… So angelic and innocent, and yet so perfectly molding into the curve of his arms like clay in the hands of a sculptor.

She was meant to be with him, he felt that unadulterated calling and Sasuke knew that she felt it too, although she couldn't explain where it came from.

She will soon find out anyhow, for it wasn't something that the onyx eyed Uchiha could keep a secret for long; definitely not with his father reacting so vehemently to the newfound threat and summoned the Council of Vampires, being so fervid into taking immediate countermeasures.

Sasuke let his forehead tap on her own, as Sakura`s hands slide along his neck, nuzzling into his arms. His hands were securely wrapped around her waist, whispering upon her lips as they both panted. "Do not daunt me like this again."

"I-I promise to be more careful. Sorry." Her heart shaped lips curved in a cute pout as Sakura mumbled to him, somehow ashamed by her moment of clumsiness, but for a moment, her inattentive state overlapped her fascination for nature's beauty.

Sakura was an astute woman and her intuition and fine sense for aesthetics developed along her inner beauty and the grace of her pure heart, so naturally she harbored a contemplative side with an inborn penchant for nature and arts.

"There are so many stars in the sky, tonight."

"Aa."

"They say that you should always reach for the stars because even if you do not make it to the sun, at least you will remain in the sky.

But there is such a long distance to reach the stars. So close yet so far out of reach, don't you think?" Sakura hummed serenely to him and, albeit she had no idea of why such musical words echoed from her lips, she couldn't help herself in his presence.

That moment seemed magical, familiar and heavily enchanting; it was all because she felt so safe and warm with him and so… special.

"I think that people are wasting precious time in seeking absolute in utopias, when in reality they can achieve peace and supremacy of their existence here, in the earth."

"You mean… that we always tend to overlook what is within our reach, because we keep on running for things that we cannot have? This is humankind for you." She teased with a small side smirk.

"It applies for the Immortals as well. We embellish our perennial existence with untouchable, when we fail to see the simplicity and the beauty of living like we once did."

"What's wrong with living forever?" She still had difficulties in understanding Sasuke`s complex philosophy over life, and yet there she was, pulled into his filigree wisdom and profound sense for things that would go unnoticed by someone superficial. "People pray daily hoping to reach Heaven when time comes and find eternal happiness in the Afterlife."

"And yet," Even though Sakura was not aware that she was still blushing heavily from their incredible kiss, Sasuke was aware of her body language`s subtle messages, thus she hasn't removed her hands from tucking on his shoulders, and neither did Sasuke removed his hands from her waist. "They are afraid to die."

"Sasuke?" Sakura whispered to him, as if she didn't want to go higher than a breeze and shatter that comfortable atmosphere between them. "What would you do if you had one more day to live?" It was an incredible question for a creature that was forever denied the face of heaven. Sasuke couldn't help but mentally applaud her for how deep she was.

"I would try to be anything I can't now." He graced her with a honest response, while brushing his knuckles along the outline of her rosy cheek, lightly and lovingly, making her shudder. "feel whatever a human feels." Oh, how many lost emotions were denied to him, Sasuke inwardly laughed humorlessly – how did it feel to feel scared again, scream in exhilaration, being free to be himself and make mistakes, get crazy and happy without being judged by anyone.

Sakura made a cute pout, shrugging once as she fought against the pleasurable shivers that beckoned her to delight to his touch. "What stops you?" Such feelings were so common for people like Sakura who had no one and nothing, but a big heart and a penchant for discoveries and wonders.

Sasuke stunned her with a simple, yet such a tremendous concept. "Experience."

"What?" She cocked her head and teased him. "You mean you have become a pro at being wild?" In her haste, she hasn't depicted her innuendo, but Sasuke did and a smirk didn't fail to reach his kissable lips.

"It means I have lived enough to become immune, hence unable to react and feel." And by that, the Vampire Prince wasn't referring to an inability to nurture such sentiments, but to the fact that he needed new ones to touch his heart and make it come to life again. In order for his heart to actually skip a beat and feel a real heartbeat, he needed someone who could awaken those feelings inside his chest again.

And Sakura, in her vivacious character and bright aura could definitely elicit something deeper and bring a new ray of light into his dim existence. And Sasuke wasn't denying himself of those potential feelings.

"This is because you run out of ideas." Sakura concluded as she unconsciously let her fingers play into his hair that stuck at his nape, soothing him in a way that only she could. "I might help you out let loose!"

Sasuke simply couldn't help himself. "Hn. I might come up with some ideas for you to help me spice up this stale existence." He tucked a hair around her erarshell and smirked in a sexy deviant way, as his husky voice went deeper and darker; she caught the sinful meaning of his line and bumped his chest playfully, making him smirk even more and it wasn't because of how her cheeks filled with roses as she blushed heavily, but because of how she let out a silent 'auch' when her mellow punch resulted in her injuring her own hand.

He was hard as a rock and hasn't even flinched at her smack.

"You know... the only way to get to know other things that the ones you are accustomed with, is to get down of your throne and touch yourself. See the world for yourself."

Sakura didn't subtly emphasize the fact that Sasuke was living in his own nebula, without being interested in the others` problems; she has learned it by now that the Uchiha Vampire was deeply sensitive and interested in both his peers and humans` problems.

Problem was, he was that dark hero from the shadows, who only saw the ugliest side of that existence and being forced to live an eternity deprived of colors and laughters, was a frightening thing and Sasuke was an interesting person as both a man and a mystical creature.

It was such a shame for someone as versatile as him to indulge into leading a life of loneliness and be a simple observed.

A strong desire to pull him out of the clutches of darkness grew feral into Sakura. She couldn't explain it, but her body and her heart could clearly perceive it through every heartbeat: she started to look like someone who he has been waiting for a lifetime to stop that pain.

It was percolating on every inch of her skin, pleasured by his every caress, every kiss and every word – Sasuke was genuinely being graceful with her and it wasn't because of his need for his blood.

He has been honest to her from the very beginning when Sasuke made it known to her that the concept of 'match in Heaven' was not a romantic line in the Mortals` vocabulary, it meant more into the world of Immortals.

Sasuke confessed it to her that Sakura was someone very special to him and he could feel it in her blood - the unmistakable taste of ambrosia, but in return, the emerald eyed woman too felt an unexplainable attraction to him. When she touched him, a radiating warmth enveloped her chest like a swarm of bumble bees.

"I like where this is going."

"You are making me embarrassed on purpose." Now that the adrenaline rush and the petrified dread of almost falling from the balcony, Sakura felt a wave of tiredness encompass her, so she naturally leaned into Sasuke`s chest, with her cheek resting on the crock of his neck, inhaling deeply once to feel the fragrance of his intoxicating scent.

Oh Heavens, how bad she loved the way this Vampire smelt, it was so unique, so indescribable and yet, so familiar and spicy – it was Heavenly delicious and very masculine.

"Good," Sasuke`s arms tightened around her frame, as Sakura scooped closer into his arms, folding her limbs around his neck, as the wind was getting colder and she wore such evanescent clothes. "Now I know that I am capable of making you react." He genuinely liked to tease this woman, but it was only because she was an astute interlocutor.

Sakura was deep, poetical and analytical and most likely, shed wasn't dipping into romance without a lifesaver and face the foster storm alone, floating helplessly and fighting windmills like any other superficial woman word do, no.

She wanted to know him before engaging herself into a fray of tumultuous feeling; ones that he could bring to her doorstep if she was willing to let him in.

He could depict the finesse of the mesmerizing woman that she was through her studied -yet very feminine and loving- touches and her warm inquisitive curious kisses.

Sakura let him taste her lips because she felt it was natural and rightful to listen to her heart' s binding, and not only because she was physically glued to him like the majority of the women.

Yes, Sakura found him physically attractive, like every single female -Vampire and human- but she had control and that was vital because it only proved that she won't turn her head and walk away from him in the direction of another pretty man.

She was striving to create durable strong bonds to last a lifetime... and probably even more, but she was finding it utopian to venture that far into the quintessence of a concept that she still couldn't grasp, but she wasn't entirely denying it either.

One couldn`t conquer Mount Olympus without the consent or the blessing of a God, and Sakura was rational and smart enough not to try it in vain and perish even before she had the chance to take her first step towards perfection and that meant his world.

"Jerk." She mumbled as her weak insult came rather weak, being muffled by the way she nuzzled her nose into the hollow of his throat.

It would have been quite comical how she sought for every opportunity to smell his skin and kiss him, as any Mortal would find the taste and the fragrance of a Vampire absolutely delicious, but Sasuke had troubles in controlling his hormones.

Damn her, she was pressed so intimately into him being clad in clothes that only emphasized her softness and warmth and was puffing warm air along his sensitive skin, tantalizing him without even realizing it. That little vixen…

"It is not my fault that you react. It is highly addictive."

"Red wine is your only addiction." She giggled at him as she observed it that Sasuke truly adored that beverage, and surprisingly he chuckled at her. The reverberation of his baritone rumbling into his chest sent hot shivers along her limbs.

"That… among the other things with the same rich honey taste." She nearly moaned when a pair of moist lips latched to her ear shell, breathing boldly words that tightened like a knot into the pits of her belly.

Yes, Sakura realized it that their embrace became a ghost of a foreplay to something more intimate than the kiss they shared, but she felt too good in his embrace to let it go. She could fall asleep into his arms in that standing position.

Oh Kami–sama, how she missed his presence while he was away, even if she barely met him three days ago and he only missed for a few hours.

"True," She decided to accept his challenge and throw the ball into his court, enjoying their playful confrontation. "But you know that such delights are not perennial."

And by that, they both knew that she meant her blood, and consequently the life that Sasuke extracted from her with every drop he had. And it wasn't like Sakura was regretful for that, but it was interesting to see Sasuke's reaction to her nonchalant manner of evoking Death –like he knew that she will live despite him satiating from her very life.

Secretly, her heart almost missed a step when she thought of him truly having feelings for someone as insignificant as her, because it made her soar and feel special –being special for someone was such an uplifting feeling, just as it was to be ardently desired by a man like him.

"Only life is limited." Sasuke let his hands slide up from the curve of her waist, to her shoulder blades, kneading her with his skilled fingers and making her warm, as she didn't seem to notice that her skin filled with goose bumps from the cool air around; or maybe it was pleasure starting to build up like a funnel`s steam inside her body, from his touch and presence. "But happiness is endless."

And love.

"Yeah, but so far," She averted her stare from him as she realized that Sasuke`s onyx ones were set down on her and nipped on her lower lip like she did whenever the topic was uncomfortable. "It has been way out of my reach." Just like a man like him was forever out of her grasp, but apparently, Destiny`s ways were intertwined and meandering in ways undefined and always so unpredictable.

"I wish I was empowered to show you another way," A graze of a light touch scintillated across her exquisite jaw, and tickling the jolly tresses of virgin coral in their ascension to her temple and she melted into the delicacy of his deep poetic lines and the elegance of his touch. "Sakura." Her name caressed by the roll of his tongue sent pleasurable tickles under her toes and fingertips, warming her like a cozy fireplace during a velvet December night.

Sakura fought the need to purr in delight at the invisible million electrical bolts that tingled across her skin whenever he made a ghost of a contact to her skin. "Y–You don't have t–to go that far to succeed."

She knew it from the moment that she has set her eyes on him, that if she was to stay by his side, she will be a goner, but when she has been allowed to catch a glimpse into his personality, her heart thumped in ways that it never did for someone.

Not falling in love with Uchiha Sasuke seemed impossible and Sakura didn't know if she should fight against that natural occurrence or not.

He might have his flaws, but his qualities were undeniable. Even though he portrayed the aura of intangibility, nobility, power, confidence, dominance and aloofness, being a man of few words and appeared to be rather cold in his interactions, very polite but detached and keeping anyone on a comfortable distance, he wasn't at all emotionally retarded.

Which was an astonishing contradiction because he was proving it to her that he knew how to be romantic and what he did and the way he did it, felt so good!

But she knew that it was reserved for very special people and having the knowledge that she might be someone important to him… made her smile widely.

To feel needed… for someone to need her, and crave for her was something worth living for.

For a moment like this… just a moment…

A feral turbulence was rippling through her system and Sakura's threat to touch his skin was growing lupine. There was an animalistic savage primal return to the raw savage nature's call, that Sasuke's Vampire aura radiated through her, summoning feelings within her that Sakura has never come in contact with.

It was appealing to the carnal pleasures that the woman inside her craved for in a natural, simplistic inborn way. It felt both apprehensive and supreme by excellence, and the woman with blossoms blooming along her long wavy locks wasn't certain whether she should fight them or explore the content of her heart.

She learned truths about Sasuke that lead her through the sinuous path of his mysterious intricate personality and Sakura found herself very attracted to his past as he wasn't afraid to stand up and be the ear to her that pure victims` callings of help, defying all the breathing Vampires around him, glorifying his beliefs to the point where he wasn't afraid of fighting with so much ardor to turn his castles in the sky into his aspirations.

The fact that Sasuke was more immersed into preserving his human traits, maneuvering them like powerful weapons, instead of damning them as a weakness that he should get cleansed off, did nothing to overshadow the fascination of his Vampire side.

On the contrary, the fact that he made it easier for her to relate to him and display a very casual and human demeanor, was giving Sakura enough room to get closer to his core as a Vampire.

Sasuke was excelling in terms of sublime, being perfect by nature, but as a human, he inherited flaws and insecurities and those were the ones that were very reminiscent of her own.

Sakura felt lonely -very lonely- and she unraveled the very same turbulence within the solitary casket of Sasuke's home and chest. It was easy to find a connection of pain with him because she couldn't rival the indescribable beauty of his vampire side in any way. Not as a human, that was.

When Sasuke revealed his fangs to her and his obsidian orbs metamorphosed into the color of the blood he ached for, he became someone that left her powerless in front of, and shattered the floor from under her feet, leaving her without support and lose balance along the way.

She was destined to fall for the epitome of dark desires and sensuality, all encrusted around his striking features, and Sakura knew all too well that her construction was bound to lust for him and attract her into a graphic sexual scenery and sizzle by the ablaze flames of his touch.

Vampires, in the people's perception, were unavoidably associated with sex, desire, sultry carnal passion, provocative glimpses and touches, succumbing dark fantasies, unspoken wanton and desirous ministrations and that were simply because their existence depended heavily on suckling blood and feeding on flesh, hence the lewd fetishes and stirring images.

So was Sasuke. He could send her every fiber into a jittering magnetizing tornado and possess her body without restraint because she didn't have any natural weapon or barrier to fight him.

So she was meant to give him what he wanted and that ineluctable power over her was indeed disheartening, but at the same time, Sakura had the chance, luck and pleasure to find a very level headed meaningful and caring Vampire Prince Sasuke, who was very laid back, mindful and rational into having pardon and stay neutral to her, respecting her modesty and refrain from infusing fear inside her and being rebarbative and primal, as the half-breeds and the more conservative vampires.

He wasn't trying to charm her and beguile her into sexually enticing her, no. He was always asking for permission to step into her crystal castle and his onyx eyes always sought for hers, looking apologetic, remorseful, and, at the same time, showing and assuring her that he was in control of his sensed and demeanour and knew exactly what he was doing, and that granted her a safety like she never had before.

He even resorted to blood pills that she learned they weren't that effective and had nasty side effects, rather than drinking her blood and break their truce, even if she gladly agreed to let him bite her.

Sasuke fought with the Vampire inside him for that and, in return, he showed her a human side and kissed her and Sakura know that he hasn't used any spell on her.

She voluntarily -and eagerly- kissed him back, wanting it, seeking and desiring his lips, enjoying how their bodies yearned for each other, to mold, complete and find a single perfect harmony, reaching the stars.

It was a mystifying subpoena that Sakura hadn't submitted to any man before Sasuke. An unexplainable instrumental soft love song without verses was sussuring inside her chest and she realized that she had that sensation from the first moment she met him, from the very heartbeat she was trapped into his arms.

A compelling warmth of protectiveness, understanding, comfort and... something else without a name, but a more overwhelming resonance churned inside her chest, pleasantly, as she gazed deeply into the most secluded obsidian corners of his gleaming sapphire eyes.

Everything she felt when he was close to her, engulfed Sakura into such an intimate nocturnal oasis of silence of their hearts beating in unison, writing the lyrics of the same mysterious song, on the same blank sheet of paper, was epitomized into the aureate crown around her widened pupils, immixing with iridescent whimsical emerald, and Sasuke understand what was going through her heart.

She couldn't even explain it to her reasoning lucid mind, but that was because he wasn't human to begin with, consequently, she couldn't measure her feelings for him, by the standards of a mortal and figure it out all by herself.

She was freely falling for him, but what was more staggering than the rapid descending of the angel from Paradise to the Underworld carried by the carriage of dark desires and passion, was the fact that she wasn't objectifying his irresistibly hot image, but opting to nuzzle closer to the man he was underneath his family name and condition instead, and peel each layer to discover him as he really was, up to the most honest abysses of his persona.

"Hn." She flinched at the loss of his warmth across her skin as he let go of her inviting body and passed her by to step inside him home, but courtly held the door of the balcony open for her to stroll inside first, like a true gentleman. "Come. I do not want you to catch a cold."

She squirmed inside, not daring another peek at him, afraid that the sweating for her palms and the pounding of her sweltering heart will betray the need to close the distance between them once more.

Sasuke followed the phantom of her shadow with a side knowing smirk playing along the curve of his thin lips. He so knew the things that formed explicitly inside her mind, reading her desires up to the darkest figments of passion, that lay dormant into the depths of her inner, without her being aware of them and oh… they all howled to him to come and set her free from her own confinement; penetrate the limitations of her modesty and scorch her with the limbs of his own fire, until she became incandescent under his touch alone.

Sasuke didn't hear the hinges of her bedroom door crack shut as Sakura headed straight to her room, but not having the grace of her nymph silhouette within the reach of his perusal, the Vampire Prince assumed that the rosette has snuck under the sheets of her bed, wordlessly, feeling too dispirited and dreadful by her moment of almost losing her life, to pay her goodnight to him, but Sasuke didn't hold her accountable for being so overwhelmed by the rush of events that he pampered her with, since they met three days ago.

So he shuffled to the privacy of his own chamber, and not bothered by illuminating the obscure space, finding the caress of the pale moon rays being sufficient to depict the door of his shower.

Sasuke padded straight to the inviting steam of his shower, his nose crunching in unmitigated repugnance at the pungent stench of cheap sluts perfume, the sweat, and the blood of the ones he had the displeasure to encounter that night, basking into the providence of the rinse of cool water spraying across the planes of his sheer glistening muscles.

He stepped outside only after he made sure that every single unpleasant mephitis has been washed away, rubbing the wet blades of his raven wet locks with a towel, wearing only a pair of comfortable black sweatpants; only… the Uchiha Vampire froze in place at the sight of a tiffany shadow spanning across the edge of his king sized bed.

"Why are you still awake?" The resonance of Sasuke's velvet baritone brought Sakura back from the apparent nervousness as she whirled hear head around to face him.

The aureate around the emerald rings of her irises stammered as she caught the sight of his breathtaking panoramic naked torso and she shivered in bliss at the mere figments of how his skin would feel under the caress of her digits.

A furious blush bedecked the arcades of her diaphanous face that was bathed in the mystical radiance of the moonlight, concealing half of the impure thoughts and embarrassment that was revealed across her crimson earlobes and tinted cheeks.

"Aren't you tired? I know for a fact that Ino has this quirk to be vivacious and exhausting." Dear kami-sama, that woman never stopped talking and she was competing with the famous Uzumaki Naruto for the title of the most obstreperous member of their mismatched group.

If Sasuke was discontent with her sneaking into his abode, he was a real gentleman in elegantly hiding it from his kinetics and words.

And the perceptive Uchiha clearly didn't let her sudden wave of sadness that rippled through the polished crystal of her jadeite eyes slip past his circumspection, when Sakura pinched her lower lip with the tip of her canines and averted her gaze from him in a void attempt to conceal her feelings from him. "I was... I-I find it difficult to get used to a n-new home, that's all."

Maybe her weak statement would have harbored more credibility if her tone wouldn't have broken like a missed key from a piano song.

A weak comeback, she was aware.

What she hided from Sasuke was the fact that she felt very lonely. Without his presence in the home, she only felt a mild sense of security and comfort because of the luxuries that resided around her, being laid at her disposal, but Sakura was not materialistic.

And it was only when she found the gleam of the silvery moon to be so cold in the way it framed her silhouette and the empty place beside her bed, has the woman with an Orchard of cherry blossoms realized that she might have been missing Sasuke more than she was willing to admit.

She barely met him and yet, those tumultuous moments spent in his elegant company have made him indispensable for her to breathe or live.

There was this circumstantial sentiment that lied dormant into her chest that she and Sasuke had more history together and their encounter wasn't just a flicker of a shooting star among the infinite galaxies orbits ring around.

She felt the unexplainable connection to him that transcended the physical laws and sways to the other side of spiritual. Like Sasuke was someone familiar to her and not just an insanely sexy Vampire with a touching back story and a cultivation that left any woman breathless.

This sizzling impulse to touch his skin and kiss his lips flamed of an ardent passion that Sakura barely controlled and she realized that it was not just sheer lust and physical attraction.

"Ahm… Sasuke," She started edgily on what she will say next. "I–I know that this will sound i–indecent and b–bold, but," Oh great, her start couldn't have been more explicit. "c–can I – eh – just for this once…" She has never addressed a man such a request and definitely not to someone who had pulverized the archetypes of masculine beauty and elegance.

Her eyes cast down and her fingers were fidgeting as she stood up, sliding from his mattress that made no ripple under her form, akin to how an eidolon would pass unnoticed as smoke.

Sasuke behold her stammering beauty, like a lion observing a cornered lamb. Seeing that unspoken words waft between her unmoving lips, Sasuke decided not to prolong the girl's obvious embarrassment and spoke beyond a tremor of a bass guitar.

"You desire to sleep here, in my room." Sasuke finished for her. Sakura was yet to utter a word. She did not, only kept her stare weak and obedient, like averting from his rejection.

Sasuke was not in the bit oblivious and his intuition was fully developed, just like his brain quickly rammed through the shelves of his implacable memory and reminisced about the fidgeting nightmares that Sakura had, when he watched her fight against it.

When he almost… no, he blew that maleficent smoke off his memory, because every single slice of his body, beckoned him not to harm her. But Sasuke knew that this girl, who was not meeting his intense stare, sought for protection and comfort; maybe even more ardently than the wish she has thrown to him amidst the overwhelming spur of the moment of their encounter.

And in that moment, he was the only one who could provide that warmth for her. Only him. Keeping all of the excessive buoyant gestures for himself, including an explicit smirk, Sasuke traipsed to the girl, discarding the wet towel aimlessly on the armchair and came to stand right in front of her, like a specter chasing for the timid light.

"Is this what you endeavor to ask, Sakura?" He stopped right in front of her, towering the girl and let her get dizzy of his freshly showered delicious form, shadowing her. "Do you want to find the peace of your slumber in my bed?"

She nodded once weakly, almost unnoticeable and Sakura thanked all the heavens for Sasuke's reverence for not turning the lights on and confront her about this audacity to step into his private room, without being invited.

What kind of woman would he think she was? Her cheeks filled with red roses in the pattern of an explicit blush, but she has been honest with him. His home felt like a solitary dessert without his presence there and the loneliness was pressing hard against her chest; with only a merciless silence drapping her into its clutches, she could hear the resonance of her own demons ricocheting back to her and she was… scared.

But with Sasuke around, just like the first time that her eardrums have been caressed by the sickness of his concerned voice and when he magically made them float from the giant wheel back to the Amusement Park, Sakura felt untouchable; like nothing could go wrong and nobody could harm her if he was around.

"What about my presence?" He simply couldn't help herself, though Sasuke was aware that it wasn't just the comfort of his chamber the thing that Sakura was looking for.

She came there seeking for something that she never knew the taste of – security and serenity. Which only meant that she was yenning for him, but he wanted no… needed and craved to hear it from the girl herself. "Do you want me to stay with you?"

Oh god, the inflection of his contralto voice fluttered like a phantom against her face as he dropped it to a level that was heavily erotic and exquisite and honestly, the golden bars of the cage in her chest melted as her heart soared from its confinement and leaped into her throat, thumping madly and leaving her breathless.

How could he be so sinfully irresistible and be so elegant in assuming something so heavily intimate?

She nodded fervently thrice, suddenly jolting from the bed as she couldn't remain curled into a ball in front of his tall form, but found it to be a clumsy move because she hasn't calculated how close they were standing like that. "D–Do you… mind?" She stammered timidly, like a schoolgirl.

"Do not waver in being more comfortable around me," Sasuke was apprising her to be more insouciant in his presence, and yet all that she could think of was how downright deep the crevice between them was, seeing it how incredibly sophisticated he was in everything that he did, just like a Crown Prince should be. "If you desire to be here, then you are welcomed to stay here anytime."

Tenderly almost affectionately, Sasuke`s hand spanned across the flute of her wrist, as his fingertips brushed the back of her palm and her breath hitched midway into her lungs when he twined their fingers together, squeezing her hand lightly and gently pressed her down to lean against the softness of his bed linen.

The sensuality of his loving touch spewed against her skin like reflections of nirvana, as the flute within her heart hummed a crystal lullaby and she got enchanted by everything going that Sasuke embodied –from the elegant Vampire Prince, to the personification of amour and protection.

Maybe it laid in the twinkles of electrical jolts that coursed her skin from the breezy contact, or perhaps it was enshrined into the depths of their interlaced stares, as Sakura dared to take a peek into his riveting black sapphire eyes, but, for an outlandish reason, she has found that simple action of his heavily intimate and loving; every of his gesture resembled the intimations of a lover, but yet… she couldn't help but fell captive to his ministrations.

Her emerald orbs remained attached to his limber form as Sasuke encircled the bed and tucked on the sheets of his side of the bed, sliding into them.

Reluctantly and almost shakily, she did the same. The feeling of another body pressing on the other side of the bed she was residing into, was strange but not in an unpleasant way.

She hoped that Sasuke wouldn't perceive the tremors of her hands through the cover they both shared, but she still couldn't comprehend how deeply his eyes could penetrate. Nothing, not even the most insidious gesture could escape those eyes, especially when Sasuke was heavily interested into the kinesics of the owner.

"I hope that my blasé choice of attire is not offending you in anyway, Sakura." He smirked in a way that she couldn't decipher, but it made the tuft of nerves into her belly tie in a dizzying knot. "But a Vampire`s body heat rises a few degrees during the nighttime when we are supposedly more active." What he meant by that, Sakura could only guess as Sasuke let it trail mysteriously and somehow… mischievously. "And since you are here, I cannot use the air conditioning up to a chilling level and have you get cold and sick in the morning." He gave her a side smirk and she couldn't help but smile in apologize to him.

She didn't know that her presence there will make it all the most difficult for him and only felt sorry for her imprudence, but the look in his eyes, so deep like meadows of ink saturating the depths of his irises, made her swallow those words and never voice them out.

The way he gazed at her like she was something that he has… waited for, for so long until they found the missing mortise, was leaving her breathless.

And surely enough Sasuke shouldn't have reminded her of that particular detail because now, those waves of heat started to descend along her spine and limbs and indecent thoughts amassed into his mind, as Sakura tried to brush them off quickly and regain her composure.

The gorgeous Vampire Prince was half naked and freshly showered, so not only she had to keep a leash around her stare that was begging her to allow it a quick perusal, but she could smell that intoxicating scent of his shampoo and his own peculiar scent of nature's elements combined, trailing along the alabaster skin and protruding from the crests of his hard muscles. Heavens, she will burst like a torch by the deeply sensual images that fit into the context.

"Sasuke?" She started as she let her locks sprawl across the pillow ad mattress, tucking on the lush bed sheet and fisting her hands above her heart, facing the wall. "Today… Ino has confessed more things about Vampires and the other Clans and ordeal that reside in the shadow and she has also let me know about your group`s affiliation."

She started on an awkward tone, but she couldn't stop herself. The rosette had to know, even if her curiosity might chase her away from there and might trigger another episode like the previous one when she approached the topic of his former fiancé.

Sasuke said nothing, but a shift of her emerald orbs on her left side where Sasuke has aligned her lithe form with the mattress, assured her that he was listening to her, because his onyx orbs flickered from the half –opened window to her form.

He was also lounging casually on his back, with his right hand curled under his nape and the other one dangling on his abdomen. He most likely anticipated the future rambling of the obstreperous Yamanaka and yet… he didn't stop the two of them to hang together, meaning that he was willing to let her in more.

She went on, nipping on her lower lip and choosing to look at the moon behind him and its fading rays that seeped past the fluttering thin curtains, in a lulling dance. "And so I have found out about… what you did back then, for that… lady and how you stood up against what you considered to be an i-injustition."

She glanced back at him, as Sasuke once again remained absolutely silent and motionless, but his raven eyebrows laced together in a slight frown. She suddenly grew afraid that he would eschews from the awkward conversation, but she collected her courage and went on, seeing that he didn't snarl at her to let the topic drop.

"This is not exactly something that we the Vampires would want to divulge if we want to keep appearing excellent in front of your eyes."

"She didn't let me know about it to impress me, on the contrary," She felt a pang of revolt by his answer. "she did it because she wanted us to bond more. You knew it from the start that Ino will share more of your secrets to me, and yet… you let the two of us spend some time together and talk between… girls."

"I am not vexed by the fact that she narrated you the way we have earned the title of Lambda, Sakura," Curiously, his tone was casually and lacked edginess or sharpness as he spoke, but Sakura could already sense an upcoming awkward situation. "it is just that I do not wish for you to see so many veneers of my brethren`s blood thirst inklings." The fear in their innocent eyes was nourishing his disdain and repulsiveness for his brethren and family.

The mere figment of Sakura being in the same predicament as the purple haired innocent woman once was, with virgin eyes which were mirroring human's ineptitude to oppose them, as they were forfeiting in front of their fears, was making Sasuke hate on the gift of immortality and making it ricochet back as the ultimate curse.

"you… also being human, just like Konan was back then."

"It seems to me that underneath the considerate talk which I don't doubt that it is sincere," She leaned forward a bit to make up his onyx eyes, resting on her elbow. "you don't see too impressed with your own performance. You don't possibly… regret it now, do you?"

For a moment, she didn't miss the hard stare that whirled into his onyx eyes, blitzing like a storm and gleaming silver-ink jet.

The atmosphere around charged and thickened and even though his body emitted and engulfing radiance that invited her to bask in that bliss, she felt cold shivers run along her spine.

Her mouth will be the death of her.

But due to his own word, Sasuke kept his temper on a leash and refrained from being excessive in gestures and language in front of her and scare her. Instead, he looked guarded and slightly tense like the topic wasn't to his liking, but he didn't stop her from asking either.

She looked more interesting about him as a man than his utopic world and the reign of Vampires. "I regret," She almost flinched when those two laconic words rolled out of his mouth, but then she relaxed. "not being more vehement in stating my opposition.

Being young and inexperienced might not always be such a gift… of obliviousness. I should have been wiser and more tactful."

And maybe this way he could have changed the Uchiha –especially his father`s point of view– and gain more adepts.

"It never dwelled on me until now that even you, a Vampire who is an embodiment of perfection by definition, would be so self-critique, Sasuke." Sakura found that absolutely interesting about him.

Sasuke pulverized any archetypes of Vampires and she now understands how lamentable the stories with Vampires were and how shallow. "But I think that you are being too harsh with yourself. You are the voice of ration among the other new generation of Vampires and had the courage to stand up and fight, even before your own family. And I think that this is impressive."

Something into her eyes… the filigree smiles that she harbored for him… Sasuke couldn't place it but her words were soothing and pampering like silk brushing soft skin –so naïve and oblivious, yet so profound, intelligent and beautiful.

"The world you live in Sakura," He graced her with a panoramic side smirk that stole her breath away. "Is so arcadian." Meaning that her thinking was shielding her in a protective bubble and her always so the depths of beauty and rejected grotesque. "It is almost unfair for you to be living in this… nightmare."

'I wish you would let me do something to change it for you, Sakura.' His unspoken words came undone in his irresistible gaze; one so full of emotion that it caught Sakura with her guard down, never expecting to see such a look into a man, especially not when it was reserved solely for her. Had she blinked, she would have missed it but luckily, with a deep halt of her breath, she didn't miss it.

But then again, that idyllic manner of thinking was a courtesy to her undeniable innocence. "A tiffany flower," It was irresistible not to outstretch a hand to her face, gazing at the enthralling mixture of lights and shadows, all ripples of the mystique moon framing the porcelain and ivory of her visage, and touch her cheek delicately, with the paws of his fingertips.

"So pure and so suave," Millions of pleasurable trembles prickled across the opaline veneer of Sakura`s soft skin, courtesy to Sasuke`s cashmere words and enigmatic soft touches.

She fought the urge to purr into his caress and nuzzle her nose into his warm palm, but emerald-aureate orbs wouldn't obey her to drop the veil and peel her gaze from his obsidian eyes. "shall never be left to wither alone… and dolorous."

"Are you happy, Sasuke?" She couldn't help but ask. "I have asked you to make me happy but the question is," Suddenly, Sakura found herself concerned about him and she didn't know exactly why. "Can one who has not found his own felicity, be able to give it to another one?"

Her eyes entombed more emotions than her words, he kept caressing her cheek delicately, yet it seemed more of an instinctual gesture, because his eyes were boring into her very soul.

"Can you give me something that you don't have to yourself?" The look in his eyes erased everything around them in the span of a nanosecond. Oh Kami, his orbs scintillated like sapphires in the light of a candle`s flicker and it was beautiful beyond words.

"I cannot erase your past. But I am more than delighted to attempt to heal your wounds, Sakura. The future is for you to paint in every color." With Sakura, Sasuke envisioned himself having that sort of unadulterated natural love, where every touch would be the epiphany and an exploration of his own desires and sensuality.

Rediscover the beauty of simple yet tender meaningful touches, stolen kisses placed upon her neck, shoulder or cheeks, find the epitome of intimacy into the sweetness of a vivacious intertwining of their fingers, or her head resting on his chest, or in the valley of his shoulder blades, where she would breathe in his scent and he would listen attentively to the rhythm of her heartbeat.

Listen to the spellbound of her call and the language that her body talked, and interpret the need to suave gestures and delicate soft words whispered into her ears, as he would hold her dearly in his arms, carrying her through a night with endless fairytale dreams and unspoken romance.

See less, feel more and explore the untouched with his fingertips. Eyes were a mirror to what the heart was seeing and every heartbeat was the real emotion that lips could convey, because mouths and tongues had but one major drawback –they were biased by the filter of the brain. But the heart was honest.

And Sakura`s ticking clock, was objective and endearing. She was so amazingly debonair and beautiful and unfortunately, so oblivious to her own worth.

A melancholic resigned smile graced her features as she whispered to him words that made his hand stop travelling along her face for a moment. "I don't have that much to live to remember?"

"But you could have." Maybe his answer has been too rapid, but Sasuke couldn't help himself. If she wished to live, then… she will live.

And if Sakura would indeed nurture feelings for him then Sasuke will happily grant her the gift of Immortality; because having her by his side forever, will turn his endless life into a blessing –live an eternity with her.

Due to her wisdom, Sakura understood the implication of his words. Sasuke could turn her into a Vampire and make her live forever, of course, at the price of being his bride forever; be forever bounded to him.

"I don't want to steal a place that is not mine and replace someone else in your mind." And by that, Sakura was referring to his former fiancé. If by any chance, Sasuke saw in her someone that once left him, then Sakura felt deeply insulted.

But her all fibers screamed at her that Sasuke wasn't so adamant in having her by his side, because he missed a woman that left him decades ago. He was not hypocrite.

"I don't want you to be anyone's shadow."

Sasuke understood the source of her distress but so far, his gestures have never given her a reason to be distressed; this is the reason why he didn't like to bring his former lover into discussion. "Maybe I too want to rewind... collect the shattered pieces from the way and build something else... more powerful… durable… stable… and endearing."

It was outré for Sasuke himself to talk to her in such lyrical ways and Sakura herself understood that he was out of his usual pragmatic self here, but it was the only 'weapon' he had to gain her trust –make her see his honesty.

She gulped at his intense stare and the implication of his words. Would he be courageous enough to accept eternity give up Imortality in lieu of love? Was he talking about… her?

Falling in love with Uchiha Sasuke was…

"You do not have to think about embodying the mirage of another woman, Sakura." He slipped a finger under her chin and beckoned her to look into his eyes. "Maybe… there is a place reserved solely for you, as it was written before the day that we have been born."

Like the grace of knowing that you belong to me!

"Why?" The emeralds into her lucent orbs moistened with tremors of luscious tears and an endeavor to cry at his words and the powerful look into his obsidian eyes overwhelmed her like a newfound emotion. "Why did she…"

The same words that prickled on the tip of her tongue slick out of her mouth, even before she could stop herself, but after she has been impaled with the fragment of Sasuke's hectic past, Sakura could not stop herself from inquiring.

"left…? Why did she stray away from someone like you?" For a man who waltzed along the idyllic mirror of grace and sensuality, like Sasuke. Why would someone want to run away from him and leave him behind?

His peculiar laconic demeanor embodied his reticence of approaching the depths of the topic, and the manner of averting his stare from her, gazing somewhere behind her like entrapped into another time and the brisk brush of his fingers through the tuffs of lacquer spikes made Sakura`s words curl into a tight ball down her throat, almost regretful for asking him such a thing.

He surprised her with a gush of velvet words, rolling in a cryptically response after some agonizing moments of sheer silence. "I was ready to die for her but she wasn't prone to live forever with me. Love was not… the supreme sacrifice for love. She wasn't able to dedicate herself a hundred percent"

The meaning behind his words have registered into her mind; even though he had a way with words that might come as Shakespearean, Sakura got the meaning of his words –that woman who was a mortal, was afraid to live forever.

In another words, his former fiancé had the same hesitance as her own, but judging from Sasuke`s words, she hasn't ventured into philosophic analyzes of the concept of Immortality. Because unlike that woman, Sakura found herself more curious than afraid about the concept of living forever.

"You are such an enigmatic man, Sasuke. I would have never thought of you as the type to value love so much. You have a sensible side, don't you?"

She truly hasn't encountered such a man and Sakura wasn't thinking of his Vampire side, but to how profound Sasuke really was. She knew for a fact that men were greedier with words about feelings than women in general, but a real man wasn't afraid to talk about love.

And Sasuke was definitely one of them and hearing those words only drowned her more into his charms. It was fascinating how everything that Sasuke did and the way he acted, didn't effeminize him in the bit on the contrary, he was even more tempting and masculine.

"Are you trying to spot my human weaknesses?" Sasuke gave her a teasing smirk.

She smartly came with a strong comeback which only made his half of a smile stretch. "You told me to never feel ashamed of my human flaws."

"You misinterpret it. I haven't said flaw." Sasuke wasn't a man or a Vampire in denial of the flaws he had; arrogance was not chieftain of his character, just as Sasuke wasn't a Vampire indulging into the complacency of emblazoning with pompous and chauvinistic unrealistic metaphors about his powers and immortal condition.

No, he was a realistic mild modest and pragmatic man, who was trying to pick on the strongest traits of his character and not allow flaws to blind the truth about his potency and skill.

"I don't mind it, in fact, I am glad that you are willing to cling to your existence as a mortal because it is easier for me to relate to you."

"What is the supreme feeling for you, Sakura?"

"Liberation." She answered without any second thoughts.

"Is this why you seek death? This is the easiest way."

"It's not the easiest way per se, but it is the most accessible to someone like me." What Sasuke liked in her hesitation was how slowly but surely, Sakura started to comprehend how stupid she was in so carelessly approaching the topic of death; she started to get a glimpse of how valuable her life was.

Of course, she was being nonchalant about it by foolishly thinking that she was of no value for anyone, and living without a purpose in life or leading a lonely existence without anyone to acknowledge her was similar to being invisible or already dead, so naturally a question arouse in her human mind –what was the purpose of carrying on like that?

And there comes Sasuke, a creature who was thorn from the page of folklore and tempting myths, a Vampire who looked at her, acknowledged her presence and told her how beautiful she was, making her shy away from her own resolve.

"There are other ways to free yourself Sakura."

"Riding a motorcycle, in leather shoes and your hair blowing in the wind?" She pointed to his choice of attire for a midnight escapade and it was her choice to smile tauntingly to him. Well… she wouldn't mind seeing Sasuke dressed like a rebel college student from time to time because… he looked sexy as Hell!

That gothic/rock appearance was very fitting to all the stories with Vampires and nourished any woman`s wet fantasies about forbidden love; even Sakura`s.

"That could be a way."

"Do you think that... love can set someone free, Sasuke?"

"I did pursue that dream at some point of life but the decision is not entirely depending on me." Because unfortunately, one`s happiness depends on the feelings of another, just like his former beloved was not entirely enchanted by the prospect of living forever with him, but then again, he failed to see the reticence in her eyes when they were together, indulging in activities that were part of his existence –like her repulsiveness against him drinking from her blood, unlike Sakura who seemed to truly enjoy it.

"I wouldn`t know. I have never fallen for anyone." She askew her gaze in embarrassment, albeit she knew she shouldn't be so flushed since it was just obvious that she hasn't been with a man before. "but if it is that amazing as everyone says, I don't think I would have a problem in living forever beside yer one I love." She felt Sasuke instantly flex his stance and grow stiff, as if he didn't expect her sudden burst.

She felt a tight knot constrict her throat and the rose haired woman gulped once awkwardly, thinking that she has uttered something that she shouldn't have had; what she failed to notice was the fact that Sasuke wasn't infuriated by her statement, on the contrary he never expected her to be so forward in reading his mind.

Just imagining her being willing of the supreme sacrifice in the name of love, was making Sasuke feel something that he hasn't in a while: hopeful.

Was Sakura really capable of diving into a love without boundaries, no matter the price, with the man she would fall in love with?

"I-I'm sorry," Her tingling voice turned him back into the reality of his dim lighted abode, as she seemed to have misunderstood his silence for an indignant feeling. "I didn't mean to–"

"–do you mean it?"

"What?"

"Being willing to exchange mortality for love?"

"If it helps me get free then… yes. I know you think the low of me because I tend to be suicidal, but I don't actually want to give up living. I mean, deep inside no suicidal person wants to die Sasuke. I have done my research. Did you know that ones who wish to hang themselves have a moment when they kick the chair from under their feet, foolishly thinking that they will save themselves, which is exactly the reason why they die and no one is there to free them and catch the rope for them? I believe that love might be the stretched hand to catch the rope and save me."

Because no one ever loved her not even her foster family or the real parents that abandoned her.

"I am sorry for raising my voice and snapping at you." Sasuke whispered to her after gazing into her emerald orbs for a moment, during which they both went silent, digesting what they have just been talking about. 'I don't want you to be afraid of me. I will never hurt you the way you think,"

A skillful hand was combing her hair backwards, latching through her ivory–rose veil of wavy threads, cupping her temple. " and see the scared look into your eyes..."

He brushed off a lock of her eyes and she melted into his touch. Why was she feeling that uncanny quivering of her heart whenever she was being in his presence?

There was a bitterness that made her stomach flutter and gets queasy whenever she was in his presence, which she couldn't pinpoint. There were an easiness waltzing into the silver crown gleaming around his irises which was making her heart wobble and her mind get dizzy.

Sakura instinctively half shut her jade orbs and leaned into the touch of his palm.

"I know you didn't mean it because you run after me to apologize." Was he still feeling regretful for the way he snarled at her then, or was Sasuke referring to his earlier mistrust?

It was so difficult for Sakura to form a cohesive explanation when she got dizzy with pleasure from his caress alone. He was brushing her pink locks with his palm, lovingly and tenderly in a way that only a lover would do. "I am not used to... have friends. Maybe my inquisitive state can hurt the others."

Sakura stated honestly, as her hand coiled around his wrist, brushing her thumb across his crescent moon tattoo.

Seeing that Sasuke was willing to answer to her questions, she found her courage again. "How was she?"

He knew that she wanted to know about his fiancé, though he couldn't comprehend her insistence, but he promised not to get wrathful again, so he sighed once and racked a hand through his midnight hair, seeking for the best way to show her that he wasn't thinking of another woman when he was with her. "So unlike you."

So it meant that he would never like her? Why did she care if he didn't?

"You mean less annoying, intrusive, blabbermouth, poor and ugly–"

"Superficial." Sasuke pressed his index finger on her lips, silencing her from being so critique over her own merits. Her hand slide along his forearm, brushing over his elbow but his touch was too inviting for her to retract her hand; and Sasuke made it clear that he didn't mind her touching him.

Then she did something very unexpected –she started to giggle heartedly at his response.

"Why are you laughing?"

"Because even though you are immortal, you seem to have run out of time like me, Sasuke."

"The two of us shed similar fates Sakura."

"Why is that?"

"You are alone." She abruptly stopped laughing when she saw the intense look in his onyx eyes. It knocked the wind out of her lungs; the magnitude of his peek bore into her, piercing her and making her lose herself into the silvery–sapphire maze around his irises.

Whenever he reminded her that she had no one, her sadness and sorrow came ricocheting right back to her in turbulent winds and she wished he didn't remind her of that, but he was right –she was so alone in that world.

But so was he and that knowledge brought her an unexpected wave of comfort; not only was Sasuke someone who knew exactly what it was like to be deprived of intimacy and love for so long, but he looked at her in a way that made her question whether they weren't… fated to be together.

"Sasuke? You haven't rescued me just because you needed my blood have you?"

With an indecipherable expression on his handsome face, he responded vehemently. "No." There was no need for him to lie to her even though there were things that were better to remain concealed for now.

"Then why? You don't see me as a prostitute because clearly, you can have any woman you want who is definitely more stunning and from a good family, so what was your reason?"

"I was intrigued about why would you want to do it." He started casually. "Because unlike the others, you looked Death straight into its eyes and mocked it, instead of fearing it. Someone who doesn't fear death..."

"...will not fear to live forever." Once again she astonished him with how easy it was for Sakura to find logic in his words. "Is this what you mean?"

Somehow, she was glad that she could talk to him so easily about what was troubling her and Sasuke never judged her. He, just like her, was trying to understand her motives, without being too intrusive in her privacy.

And he was definitely more elegant than her bold approach but then again, he had experience and education.

"I don't know."

"By making me happy, you hope that I will put an end to your loneliness, is that right?"

"Would you do it if I asked you to?'

"How do you plan on teaching me the real meaning of life, just like you promised?"

"I follow no plan. Happiness is spontaneous and unpredictable. People make plans because they deny unpredictability, but, in reality, they make it out of fear. Because they don't trust their intuition and innate reaction in front of the unexpected and I only promised to try and bring felicity into your life. I am trying to show you the another way." An alternative to being depressed and flirt with the idea of giving up life.

"What about my blood? Why do you say you cannot stop drinking from my blood?" It was not the fact that she was disgusted by the concept. To Sakura it was no big deal, but she was curious about the real implication and the connection formed between a Vampire and a mortal who shared her blood with him.

"You are different." Sasuke simply told her.

"What do you mean by different? It is not that I will take back my word. I am just curious."

"You and I have the aptitude to form a stronger and a deeper bond if we are both willing." Sasuke was positive that he could fall in love with this girl for her beauty and wisdom but could she truly fall in love with someone like him?

Love him for who he was and not only for the way he looked like, for the money and the social status?

"Stronger link? Do you mean... romance? We aren't that cliché type of predestinated couple dancing in the limbs of destiny, are we?"

"I mean that we are free to choose, but nothing is enforced on us, not even Fate can interfere. Destiny means that we have been entrusted with a possibility to partake in a certain possible outcome as if God has given us a direction. But no one stops us from pursuing another path that we deem right. Who am I to make a decision in your place?"

"What if ...by any coincidence... I would... let's say," Sakura tucked a pink strand behind her ear shell, feeling extremely thankful that it was dark inside so she could conceal her heavy blush. She couldn't believe it that she was… well half confessing to a guy!

She has never been asked about her feelings over a man before and it was such a tingling experience. "have... feelings for you?"

"Do you have them?" Sasuke asked her softly, as if he was afraid that he will make her back away from the spontaneous confession. "Feelings for me that is."

"Well, it is easy to fall for someone as perfect as you won't you agree?" She felt warm like a cozy December lullaby, pulled into the embrace of a chatoyant stellar nocturne sky and metamorphosed in the jittery bell laughter of a choir of angels, descending from the Elysium whenever she was in his presence, but it was prematurely to talk about loveyet, when they barely met.

There was a mysterious aura of nobility and kindness enveloping Sasuke in a mantel of sensuality, masculinity and untouchable swell of grace, which was fascinating and appealing her to decipher his character.

She has witnessed his outburst when they had the sinful conversation –argue- about his former lover and Sakura has come to realize that there was much more secluded underneath the veil of his unrivaled self-control and tranquility.

Sasuke was a sparkling bubbling golden bottle of Champagne, ready to burst and fill the aperture of her mouth with honey liquor, yet the side effect of getting drunk in lust and lose control over her senses, still lingered.

Sasuke was a double-edged sword, he was an unparalleled enigma, and the fact that he belonged to the realm of darkness and immortality, was adding to the mystification of his person, but it was also a silent mesmerizing invitation and a challenge to unravel the side extreme personalities of his.

That calloused intense fierceness and the possessiveness to protect the intimacy of his feelings, when she transgressed the thin boundary of friendship and tried to discover more secrets about him, allowed Sakura to take a peek into the maze of intricate emotions that churned inside the Vampire`s soul.

As much as Sasuke was playing finesse and delicacy with the mastery of a gifted pianist caressing the keys of a piano and enrapturing the audience with his spellbinding harmonies, walking on the swell of elegance, refinement, and eloquence, there was also a darker counterpart of his unreachable incredible flawless facade, lurking from the catacombs of his demonic side, waiting to strike and she has come to see the stupefying terrific alter ego of his when he almost lost his cool.

The emerald-eyed woman would never have imagined the fact that such an extraordinary sizzling gorgeous gentleman, could have been so fierce, so full of remorse and disdain and radiate so many negative vibrations.

There has been a volcanic burst scintillating into his indomitable black sapphire eyes, as if they were never polished nor discovered, scaring her to the point where any ambition that she might have to dip into the ocean of death, has frozen inside the depths of her mind and the innate instinct to survive and save herself has been a countermeasure to the potential danger he has represented.

But of course, Sakura came to fully understand that particular thing about Sasuke, namely he was struggling and fighting against the hurricane of his nature as a Vampire, in order to overcome all that he has branded as flaws and disadvantages that tangled along the floor of immortality, such as his need for blood and the realization that he could strike like a swift Python and pulverize the human kind, with a small fling of his eyes or fingers.

He had self-restraint, his morals were keeping the wild demonic Vampire side of his entombed in steel and kept in a comatose state, within the safeguard of his collected logical mind and he was hardly a chauvinistic egocentric arrogant man. As far as she came to know him, Sakura realized that Sasuke was stoic and cold, but respectful.

"I am a man full of flaws Sakura." Sasuke didn't hide that from her, but she could see that he would have liked to overcome them. "More than you could count."

The Vampire Prince was fully aware of his inability to pierce into the soul of the ones who were important to him and be more easygoing in his interactions, but it was his Uchiha nature preventing him from displaying his emotions entirely and open up more.

This was one of the mistakes that he did more than once during his existence up until now – he hasn't paid attention to the others` feelings more and if he wished to become a liaison to peace between Mortals and Vampires one day, then Sasuke understood that this drawback of his stoic nature must be overthrown.

"You are a Vampire and I get that. But… you have called yourself a man." And it didn't slip past Sakura`s astute vigilance that Sasuke rarely referred to him as a member of the creatures of the night. "Why is that?"

"Don't you think I am one?" Sasuke on the other hand decided to taunt this beautiful woman a little bit more and her reaction was immediate. For a brisk of a moment, Sakura averted her emerald orbs from his amused onyx ones and tried to conceal a slight blush, understanding his insinuation.

Instead, she tried to play the offended lady and enclosed her fingers into a ghost of a punch and hit his chest playfully, pouting to the sexy smirking Vampire. "Stop trying to make me embarrassed. I don't know how to respond to this... to this!" Ah, c`mon, she sounded like a little girl with a little crush here.

Sakura mentally slapped herself from muttering and blushing like an idiot. Yes, Sasuke might be delicious looking, the place of his chest where she attempted to land a hit on him might be hard as steel and carved like a Roman Deity statue and yes, those playful smirks and luscious orbs that shone silvery in the moon might be droolicious but… she was a smart woman who was supposed to be more composed.

Well, it was easier said than done, especially when the said fine specimen of a gorgeous Vampire was half naked and she was in his bed... and he was touching her from time to time in ways that stirred very naughty dark thoughts inside her mind, engulfing her body–

Sasuke interrupted her train of thoughts seeing that the girl was mumbling something that he couldn't decipher, seeming to have an inner argument with her conscience and he could only guess about what exactly. "How about you stop trying to find a logic in everything and allow yourself the privilege of feeling more?"

Sakura couldn't help but roll her emerald orbs at him, snorting in an unladylike way at his response. "I heard this cliché more than I can count." She faked a dreamy sight and recited like a famous Orator. "Live your life to its fullest, listen to your heart talking, don't focus on the problems and be happy. It's just a myth." Her mocking features grew hard and serious.

"Every myth has a substance. Isn't this the same with us the Vampires?" Sasuke smartly threw the ball back into her court. He couldn't comprehend how such a young beautiful smart woman could be so dense and pessimistic.

"There is no logic in our existence and yet we continue to live. There is no logic in being happy, yet it is a sentiment that rules this world." Even someone like Sasuke, who hasn't found real felicity, could tell that happiness was supreme.

"I thought that love was the supreme feeling. Can you be sad and in love at the same time?"

"Your inquiry only proves that you are mistaken and contradicting yourself my dear. Happiness is probably the supreme feeling and love is the safest way to reach it."

"It is so odd to hear a man talking about love in such philosophic terms." And Sakura understood that Sasuke was talking from his vast education and not exactly from experience, but then again, he lived more than her and came to learn things from various personalities in history, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing because she could also learn many things from him that were inaccessible to her peers, Mortals.

"But somehow... I have the feeling that you are trying to hide your inner poetic self, Sasuke. This is not a strange thing if it is you the one I am thinking about. I like the way you talk and I am fascinated about your eloquence and your ideas. Is this strange? Because… I mean it as a compliment."

What the heck was she talking about? Sakura couldn't help but wonder whether, in her state of dizziness caused by this magnetizing Vampire and the way she could easily open up to him and blabber for hours about pretty much anything, she truly made any sense.

Sasuke was courteous enough to not bluntly tell her that she was nuts and the way he was absorbing any word that slipped past her lips and looked like he was truly debating what to answer, let her know that he was listening to her.

But then again, he must be a patient man since he befriended creatures like Yamanaka or Naruto Uzumaki because God… those people never stopped talking gibberish. Never!

"Has anyone ever stolen your heart before, Sakura?"

"Heh… like any man would try to approach me." She shrugged indifferently, but Sasuke could depict the bitter tone in Sakura`s voice. "Be serious, they would not even get close to a dirty bum like me, let alone try to know me enough to make me fall in love with them."

There were hot guys back there in high school but it wasn't like they would look like someone unimportant like the orphan rosette and, even though she wasn't exactly ugly –in fact, Sakura was very pretty and had delicate features– her social status was the subject of all the mockeries, along with the nerds of the school.

If she was to be honest, Sakura only had one nerd who went as far as to almost mutter a weak confession to her, but it was just because they were among the ones to be outcasts and paired for different school projects, being hardworking and smart. But that was all that was to it.

"Just because humans are superficial and highly materialistic," Sasuke on the other hand couldn't be more grateful that Sakura remained untouched and unpolished in this field, because this way, it gave him a chance to show her –truly show her– how it was to be with a man and not with some pubescent teenager who barely grew some tuffs of a beard and considered himself a macho among the other machos. "doesn't mean you are not valuable and besides," The onyx eyed Prince reached for her face and combed some coral locks that fell along Sakura`s shoulders backwards, as his knuckles grazed her temple.

Sakura unconsciously felt lulled into slumber by his warm touch alone. It was almost unbelievable for her how amazingly delicate this Vampire could be. "what if I told you that you that your history is way more intriguing than you might believe?"

"If I-I am not the only daughter of the President or a f-famous rock star t-then I don't want to hear it." The rose haired girl half joked and half stuttered, since it was very difficult to focus on talking when Sasuke`s warmth and the silkiness of his voice was reverberating through her body, like a swarm of butterflies.

A brief chuckle made his rich voice sound ten times darker and Sakura couldn't help but laugh along. Sasuke was so easy to talk to and she couldn't believe how incredible it was to find herself conversing to a stranger –and a Vampire nonetheless– in a way that made it look like they have known each other for centuries. "You don't have to act like this in my presence just because we have a promise… a contract." Sakura had to make sure that Sasuke wasn't simply an insanely skilled actor.

"No need to be out of character. I know you don't actually fancy to be so... sweet." It wasn't like Sakura knew about what a man would like or not, but she had enough common sense to realize that one didn't have to change for pleasing her. "At least, you are not like this in the society."

Of course that Sakura would rapidly figure it out that he was being very attentive to her, and this is his exact intention –to show her that he was honest in his approach and his touches were as genuine as his words.

"You don't force me to act differently, Sakura. I am not the heartless cold bastard that anyone brands me." That Fugaku wanted him to be, despite his deceiving attitude. "The icicle ruthless ruler that my father wants to shape me will never be part of my alter ego. It is easy to tell this to you." He dropped that hand that was brushing over her cheek and rammed a hand through his midnight locks, breathing. "You understand..."

She knew exactly what words lingered on the lips that never voiced them:

Loneliness.

It was the worst feeling of all, because it was similar to being a living dead –trapped between two worlds.

Sakura looked deeply into his eyes and she could clearly read that about Sasuke. Those obsidian sapphires were the portrait of a pair of orbs that conjured the same solitude as hers, maybe even deeper.

She could even taste it on her lips and it was painful, freezing and soul piercing, even if Sasuke wasn't whining or complaining about it, keeping it all to himself and taking all that heavy mantle of anguish and melancholy in his bed, during the nights –lonely nights.

He might be surrounded by amazing friends, but at the end of the day, it was only him, his lonely room and the moon above; all alone.

Just like Sakura.

Maybe that was purposely the reason why he refused to indulge in that peculiar human need of sleeping, in favor of guarding the night`s serenity and seek solace from the equally loneliness along the stars and the bright moon.

Sasuke wasn't an antisocial man who pursued isolation, deciding to run away from contact, warmth and ultimately love. But according to from Ino and Hinata's memoirs of him, their Vampire Prince has only opted to withdraw from his family's creeds, chasing his own version of reverie, according to his solid Weltanschauung, and whether they were all approachable and realizable or mere sweet castles in the sky, it didn't matter to Sasuke, for he assumed to take the role of a Leader and be the opposing voice.

Consequently, isolation was something that cling to his shadow along the heavy path and Sasuke hasn't indulged into walking past the suave feelings, unflappable if they stumbled his way.

He was hurt, but in a way that commented to syphoning him with the false chimerical feelings of guilt and self-blaming for not being able to preserve the love of his former fiancé, but Sakura knew better, because, suicidal or not, she was still a mortal and her human side retaliated with that mysterious woman who she has never met.

Sasuke wasn't a competitor to her choice to be gone as she has come into that world -a human- but simply one of the two choices she got, and that woman has picked to die as a mortal and be granted a place into Paradise.

Maybe her religious beliefs were being stronger, or maybe her love has swayed along the way and made her apprehensive in front of eternity, or maybe she reach the conclusion that Sasuke deserved something better, or probably she didn't even supported the idea of eternal love –taking boredom and complacency into account– or maybe she felt used as a mortal –was she granted Sasuke the privilege of having her blood, like Sakura did– or maybe... Ino was right.

She couldn't be on the same page with him and take the chance to live a perilous life, fighting with the ruler of the Vampires –his own father– and give up the privilege of being the Vampire Princess and ultimately, a Queen.

Sakura wasn't stupid and she grasped the secluded interpretation of Ino`s concerns and suppositions. People were beings who naturally sought for wealth, power, and domination.

It was ingrained in their construction, the way their instincts were built and they preserved that trait and passed it to their successors, so what if Sasuke's future bride might have only desired his wealth, his family name and the title of the future Queen, using him, while lusting for his good looks, totally ignoring the vulnerability of his nature as a man and not necessarily as a Vampire?

What if she wasn't interested in or able to pinpoint the sensibility of both the traits that constructed Sasuke as human and a Vampire? Did Sasuke himself came to realize all that? Sakura was flirting with a more romantic and conservatory fictitious amaranthine love.

Even if she never found it, she never doubted that it existed. If she was to fall in love with a man, Sakura was positive that she could love that certain him deeply and immutably, for as long as their souls existed and even beyond that.

And even if Sasuke had the potential traits to be a total player, giving his attitude, gorgeous look, and money, Sakura knew from the wistful, nostalgic and forlorn tone used when reminiscing about his former spouse, that his lover would be a sacrosanct and iconic image for him, a woman to love and desire wild blue yonder.

She could easily see it displayed into his unfathomable black sapphire eyes while he looked at her in a way that melted the glimpses of ice within her heart and made her chest jitter in emotion that Sasuke was trying to reach to someone who understood him –all of him– and accept the fact that he was someone who tried to be happy in a way he deemed right.

Someone who won't change and won't stop ever wanting him, just like he could vow to respond in his own manner to her feelings, the best he could grasp and express them –someone to accept him unconditionally and never try to change him.

From the soft way, he touched her, the way his lips kissed hers, to the manner he wasn't hesitant in breathing soft sweet romantic words to her, Sasuke was a real man and a gentleman.

He knew exactly how to balance the image he presented to the others, be it friends, family, strangers, to the one he preserved for intimacy –a woman. The naturally and spontaneity of his grace or power was fabulous and irresistible.

There were countless men –Sakura was certain that Vampires as well– who strived to be so versatile, but they could never be so smooth and excel in every aspect, like Sasuke skillfully did and even his manner of speaking was dexterous and multifaceted, but the Uchiha Prince was also ingenious to all of the them, be it her or his friends.

He didn't have a choice either. For the other Vampires to follow him, Sasuke had to be trustworthy and sincere, otherwise the world he envisioned would never come to see the daylight.

Sakura would soon find out that Sasuke was hopelessly blunt by nature, despite his scholastic constitution and education helped him refine vocabulary and be more artful, but it was still black or white with him. He wasn't a wanderer in the gray zone.

"You know Sasuke, if you keep talking like, that I might truly fall for you on day, you know?" In her rather playful blabber, Sakura didn't realize it until when Sasuke kept silent and his hand on her hair froze, what she has just said.

"Oh God, now I sound like a total loser and a major creep. I am sorry, I keep on abusing your kindness with my stupid rambling… but damn. Sorry. It is just like you said, this is so crazy but... I feel like I have known you from a long time ago and... it is so easy to talk to you since you seem willing to listen to what I have to say..."

Since no one ever listened to Sakura or has been mindful to her needs, up until Sasuke found her and she fructified any moment she got in his presence, finding it to be an amazing thing to have someone to confess to.

"You are allowed to be whoever you want, Sakura. Just don't talk about suicide again." No, Sasuke will never allow this beautiful young woman to attempt something so stupid as long as he will still exist in this world. Hell might freeze before someone takes her away from him, be it the Grim Reaper itself.

"I promise you that I will not." Sakura solemnly pressed a hand above her heart and vowed heartedly. She sizzled with the need to remind him that it was him the one to kill her slowly with being so damn irresistible, but Sakura depicted it in Sasuke`s beautiful eyes that he was thinking the same as her and was washed away by guilt. There was something she had to do to stop it and make it up to him.

"I feel something deep down in my chest Sasuke," She tucked on the vaporous material of her chemise, where her heart was thumping madly, barely containing a large number of convoluted feelings that she felt in that moment in the nest of her chest and decided to be honest to Sasuke, just as he was sincere with her.

"and it's something that I have never felt before. What should I do if I feel something that I don't have a name for but it overwhelms me and… I need to let it free? Something akin to how I felt when we filed?"

Supreme liberation… Sasuke almost broke into a real smile because what Sakura was describing, that was real happiness. Poor thing, she already had it ingrained into her heart and all that it lacked, was nourishment for it to grow and bloom into the most beautiful flower.

It was the hunch he needed to make sure that indeed, the handsome Vampire Prince will be able to give her what she wanted and even more: a reason to smile for; something to make the rosette soar to untouched universes of felicity, bliss, content, comfort and ultimately passion.

It wasn't like Sakura didn't know how to be happy. Every person had the concept of happiness as a gift of the soul, granted as a blessing from Heavens to the mortals, but the flicker of it was dainty and it had to be carefully nurtured, touched gently and lovingly.

People didn't need to learn how to be happy because that was their inheritance from their ancestors but… what they needed for it to manifest in all its blissful plenitude, was nourishment and the nourishment that sustained the flicker of happiness… was love.

It wasn't happiness the thing that Sakura was missing, but love. Of course, she hasn't realized it so far, but Sasuke did. So her question needed a small change of the concept, because what Sakura should have asked of him was not to 'make me happy', but 'love me'.

"If your heart wishes for deliverance, then let it go." Indolently, his hand slide along the curve of her swan neck, barely touching her skin as he traced chaotic lines along her pulse and the two mounds of her collarbone, like burning her outline into the depths of his memory.

"Set yourself free, Sakura." His inflection descending on the scale of baritone sensually and darkly and it was sheer enrapture for Sakura`s skin; she unconsciously shivered slightly at the resonance of his attitude and words.

As if her body knew the steps of the waltz that Sasuke`s music was evoking even before her mind could decipher its meaning, Sakura`s gaze opened up to openly skim the silhouette of this gorgeous profound man, trying to interpret every shadow that fell on his handsome body and sketch every delineate every sculptured muscle. Her breaths came in staccato puffs when she allowed herself a deep perusal.

His nimber muscles framed the contour of his body akin to an iron armor, cupping his slender shoulders in sharp mounds of carved fibers and wrapping his long arms in delineations of sumptuous biceps, reflecting a vibrant power and the mouth-watering beauty; carved deliciously divine in the form of a Roman deity emblazoned with the paramount of virility and strength, rippling and oozing of sheer pursuance and vigor, Sasuke`s bare torso seemed like the mirage of the most erotic fantasy. He was superb.

Polished jadeite orbs were luminous like the effulgent dust of a shimmering cut diamond as they were spewing in pure adulation along the outlines of his muscular torso, but her gaze alone bore more than chemical lust for his incandescent masculinity.

A timid palm reached for the planes of Sasuke`s sculpted fibers, coming to an insecure halt between their close chests, as her impatient small fingers arching towards him like begging to be left to wander at the content of their fervor along his luscious skin and that almost had Sasuke smirk.

Sakura wanted to touch him, but she was too shy to materialize her figment into intimate caresses. She resembled a majestic butterfly which has just spread it's polished wings towards the velvet horizon learning how to fly for the first time after being set free from its cocoon; she was a precious pearl whose beauty lied dormant within the nest of a shell, on the bottom of the ocean, begging to be discovered by someone special and turned into a precious piece of jewelry and Sasuke was more than thrilled to be her jeweler and refine her.

With a touching that challenged the nimbleness of a dove's feather, Sasuke slid his thumb under her soft palm, enfolded his lithe fingers around her hand sensing how scared she was through her dainty trembles, and gently guided their intertwined hands to his chest, letting her fingertips tap on his skin, just above his heart and he only let her go when her palm pressed against his body more daring, allowing his rich raven eyelashes to fall in a graceful velvet curtain upon his blizzard onyx eyes to relish in the feeling of her delicate warmth against his skin.

Sakura`s virtue and modesty laced with the radiance of her feminine kinetics in an angelic combination and for a moment, Sasuke wished to encrust their moments into a gemstone and capture their beauty into eternity.

No other touch resembled Sakura's finesse and her refinement and not to mention her innocence. A virtue that was so rare to find in girls nowadays.

The crests of her graceful fingertips traipsed across every outline of his sculpted pectorals, and her breaths came in irregular puffs emerging from her parted lips as she felt his slender fibers flex under her unconversant touch.

Princess like digits fondling the diamond hard peaks of his alabaster skin in unshed fascination turned Sasuke`s composed senses into an undone hurricane of sensations. He felt his own self-control started to drift and sway away from the peculiar indifference.

The obsidian eyed Vampire`s own inhales got a sudden spike up upon the meandering skim along his uncle upper body and for a moment, he found himself yenning for Sakura to confront her deepest desires for feeling him as a man under the curves of her nymph body, and give in to the caress of lust and need and arch over the rivers of his ardent touches and kisses, moaning in unadulterated pleasure.

It was almost torturous how bad Sasuke wanted to make love to this woman in ways that he never did before. If only she would let him make her his… if only she felt that she belonged to this stranger even before she was born into this world, Sakura would realize that her very normal reticence towards a man that she has just met was unjustified into this context.

Oh, how he wished for so little, yet for so much.

Something sparked again between them, just like earlier into the balcony and Sakura could limn it too from the charged fragranced air that whirled in electric bolts around their shoulders.

A short gaze into each other`s eyes was enough to beckon Sakura to shift her body closer to Sasuke, studying his face. He was so handsome, so sexy, so rebel and his beauty was raw and untouched as if nature has kept its most masterful piece of jewelry hidden and preserved the ineffable of pure beauty entrapped in time.

"Then… I-If I would w-want to… k-kiss you again… without it to mean a-anything t-than a simple… Would you let me?" Sakura nipped on her lower rosy petal that suddenly felt dry and thirsty waiting for Sasuke to say something but instead he kept silent.

When Sakura felt a muscular arm wind low around the curve of her waist, she momentarily froze.

His obsidian eyes were lustrous and polished. For an entire agonizing minute he said nothing to her as if he sought for any fragment of reticence and mockery in his own emerald diamonds, but then he squeezed her waist gently once as she sunk further into his chest, bringing their bodies even closer and brushing against each other.

"Yes."

He let her?! Sakura actually had to take the initiative and kiss him again but she couldn't help it; it felt so good to kiss this Vampire, that she wanted to do that again… and again. It was like a drug; his lips were sweet and felt like honey and red wine.

As if sensing her reticence, Sasuke beckoned her in the ultimate erotic inflection of his chocolate wind baritone –one that elicited tremors of sheer pleasure along the pillar of her column– to go for it. "Simply act upon your heart`s call.

This is one of the few moments when you are permitted to be wild and listen to your instincts instead of your brain or morality." Sasuke slipped a finger under her chin, leaning slightly forward, shifting and coming closer to her, but stopping until their noses tips brushed against one another.

A heartbeat away from her lips.

Sakura got tingles on her forearms and face, pushing her to wipe away that inexistent distance between them and kiss Sasuke.

Something in Sakura's chest tickled and soared when she gazed at the stunning Vampire in another way than she normally did… more intimate, sensual. She couldn't limn that emotion, for it was not something that was habitual or familiar.

But if she was to depict it into words, then it would be like a once torn red rose blooming to life to its full majestic radiance. It felt amazing, whatever that emotion was.

Her eyes locked to his sapphire ones and she felt washed by a meteor shower all along her spine and limbs.

How could something supposed to be lifeless, be so warm and so tender like his radiating warmth oozing off his alabaster skin? The human side resided in every heartbeat and she felt it now sound and clear. A luminous nimble was flickering timidly somewhere underneath the Immortality's veneering.

She had to touch him. She simply couldn't stop herself.

Sakura`s quivering palm sprinkled wide open to rest upon his chiseled chest, just above his heart, warm, gentle and fascinated.

His skin felt soft, tempting her with the encrusted lithe muscles, every arch of his climber fibers was tantalizing, beautiful, the sharp edges, the elegant contours of his bones, his frame bore the majestic imprint of the sharp rocky peaks of the mountains, splendid and imposing, yet undeniably fabulous and enthralling.

"You are warm." She breathed tenderly to him. The Uchiha`s radiance oozed of sheer strength, tickling her palm of a hotness like a funnel.

His eyelashes lowered and swept with a thin layer of cloud; her touch was even more magnetizing that she praised his touch for. He placed his left hand atop of hers, brushing the curvy crests of her knuckles with a brisk brush.

"There is a soul that resides in everything. Even inanimate things. The line between mortality and Immortality is slim, almost imponderable and imperceptive to the untrained eye," His hand slowly slide along her own bare hand, slowly, tenderly like tendrils of wine vines.

She shivered at the contact. It was like he was sprinkling red roses on her skin. Sasuke`s digits reached for her face and grazed along her cheek. "like a mirage."

He told her before –that death is not equivalent to Immortality. Once death, it means the absence of life. But Immortality meant perpetual of life, so death was just a pawn –a path to access and unlock Immortality.

Once a Vampire, the soul would metamorphose in its perfect form. The paramount of one's existence abided by living forever; truly living instead of being a walking lifeless corpse.

Just like Eternity was not the negation of time, but its epitome. The absolution of passing time meant for it to never end, or ever stop flowing. Negation meant absence, yet there were infinite moments into the span of Eternity. The fact that no one knew of its ending didn't mean that it wasnt real. So Sasuke himself as a Vampire had a soul.

Sakura found her mind reeling in confusion trying to sum up the information she colected so far about Vampires.

All the myths about the immortals being elegant were supeflue. She left out a melodic giggle when his fingertips tickled her neck softly and tilted her head to enclasp his palm between her bony shoulder and chin.

A ghost of a smile found shelter across his thin lips. Everything about this emerald eyed young Mortal was so effervescent, sizzling and poetic, she was stunning; a phantom that he almost trembled in fear not to go like a sweet dream with the first rays of the morning 's sun.

Her palm slid lowers across the planes of Sasuke`s mesmerizing body, to graze the sculptured relief of his abdomen.

A bubbling boiling sensation stirred into her belly and her mouth felt thirsty and suddenly dry. She felt his muscles flex briefly under her touch and he had no idea of where her audacity to touch him like that came from but she couldn't help it; his subtle gestures were encouraging her to feel him up more.

Sakura didn't even realize that both of them scooped closer to one another like seeking for further contact. Her breath became laborious and her entire body became alert and high alive, it was electric. His knuckles were brushing her jaw softly grazing her silk skin, as the tip of his fingertips diffused into her cherry blossom tresses. Sasuke absolutely loved the color and the silky texture of her hair.

The resemblance with a bride's veil fluttering behind her back, following the graceful motion of her body when she moved, and framing the contour of her shoulders and back, was delicate by nature; the light color of the sinful red was melted into a sweeter version of virgin pink.

Sakura was absolutely stunning and her innocence was staggering. It was almost laughable that Sasuke found himself facing one of the greatest challenges of all, namely to keep his hands downfrom pinning her to his bed and show her what feeling alive and on fire truly meant, but he had to restrain himself and abstinence from drinking the very soul of her because he would rather die again for good that to disrespect this woman.

His beauty was stylized in such a magnificent masculine way Sakura noticed; Sasuke`s handsome looks was only doubled by the grace and eloquence of his education. This was a pleasant tangible thing for Sakura to cling on when anchoring to his enigmatic life: a Prince with the same aura of royalty, education and refinement always stayed a noble, be it human or Vampire.

She suddenly felt propelled into a Fairytale world, where she was left to cease the beauty of the beautiful Prince and it was as she was being returned the dreams she lost as an orphan child, who has been denied dreams.

Sasuke was making her float in imponderability; he treated her like a Princess –like his Princess and true to his word, he was trying.

Well... Sakura will never admit it out loud because she suspected that underneath his polished veneer, one huge ego was residing, but Sakura wasn't a man who needed to sweat or break a nail in order to make a woman feel special.

Albeit, she will not blame him for it, because who wouldn't be proud and aloof in his place when having his unmatched set of qualities?

It was such a wonderful feeling to be treated like that –like she was someone very important; to be looked at in such a loving way and feel the protection of someone who cared; she became addicted to that concept in an instant.

Sasuke`s closeness and the anticipation to basket into the incredible intimacy that his presence aroused felt incredible; her heart has never thumped so fervently, so intense and her skin never trembled in anticipation.

If only he could play the music that her body was creating... Sasuke looked like someone who already knew the right notes, and he only had to play it with his fingertips –touching her like she ardentlyyearned for him to do so.

One breath away… one last heartbeat thumping in anticipation and one caress of her hand along the planes of his ripped stomach and Sakura found herself arching her neck leaning towards his gorgeous face, until the tip of her nose brushed his cheek and she opened her mouth just enough to take his lower lip in between his own and gently suckle on it once.

She found herself trapped into a tumultuous fight with the storm within her mind and the queasy flutter of the butterflies swarming fervently into the pits of her chest.

And when Sasuke enclasped her lips with his own, moving in stroll with her, massaging her lips with his own, softly suavely she couldn't help but breath through their kiss and it came as a soft moan rippling on Sasuke's mouth.

Soft lips that doesn't speak can still convey messages tongues can intertwine like music in a dance of memories and speak like millions of ideas that a kiss can convey, whatever words cannot comprise; what mouths cannot depict; desire that burns into the souls but expressions and confessions fail to murmur from those lips but she read them so intently.

Communication... talking to a man of such few words must mean that he was more practical and action–oriented. Sasuke was no poet, yet his mysterious atmosphere was lyrical and graceful, almost melodic, just like his attitude, language, wisdom and elegance.

Sasuke felt even softer than the first time or the second time, based on their previous experiences, he simply parted his own lips and allowed her to set a comfortable rhythm between them – or rather conjured all his willpower not to slip his tongue inside her mouth and kiss her savagely– tasting the need on her lips, as Sakura was still an unsmoothed diamond.

Those pastel pink lips were like quivering pearls of dewdrops nipping on his own ever so gently and soft like cherry blossom petals; her luscious taste was lush and sweet and so addictive.

She smelled like a spring floral garden and a heavy feminine white lilies scent travelled to Sasuke`s nostrils, making his senses jitter with the grace of her affable perfume.

Immediately, the Uchiha Vampire slipped his fingers into her coral rose hair, while his thumb was brushing her temple as his lips played with her own, intertwining their mouths together and inviting her to dance on their nocturnal tango, leading her to euphoria.

The tip of his tongue was rolling along the curve of her lower lip sensually, tasting her without forcing its way inside her cavern, keeping their kiss to a chaste lip lock.

But every drop of lucidity spilled like a broken pearl necklace that rolled along the floor when Sakura pressed herself more into him until she almost straddled his lap and tilted her head on the side to deepen their kiss.

Well damn…

So much for a chaste kiss.

Sasuke happily opened up his mouth more to allow her to slide her slick tongue inside and she responded in an instant.

He took a fist of her coral hair as she brushed past his moist lips and ventured as far as she could physically go, massaging his own tongue and rolling over his set of Vampire teeth that were almost unnoticeably in size since he wasn't in for drinking blood and Sasuke suppressed a smirk.

He so knew that she wished to have a taste of him and it was just obvious in the way she basically suppressed the massaging of her lips on his own and let her tongue arch and span against his pearl dentition, searching for that fascinating Vampire threats; or maybe it was just the effervescent desire veiling the obvious lust the one to urge her to breath a broken moan into his mouth and make his own throat tremble of her feminine sound.

That was definitely part of his concept of erotic. It turned out that Sakura had more surprises up her sleeve than she let it show; it was only that she didn't know how to express them –yet– but the bubbling flame of passion was present and ardent within her.

Oh, Sasuke couldn't wait to be the ignition of that flame and make her burn until she will scream his name…

Meanwhile, Sakura had troubles in keeping whatever composure she had left, but somehow… the strings of her body belonged to someone more else that played her like a harp; she had no control over what she was doing and there was only one single thing that made sense into her mind, namely she had to take more of this man, of this Vampire.

Everything about Sasuke was explosive and elemental in terms of passion, sensuality and taste; he smelt and tasted like Fire and Paradise combined and it was maddening! This wasn't a kiss of relief because she was safe; this wasn't a lip lock of soothing and comfort because she felt afraid, no.

This was a kiss that had the oasis in pure wanting and pleasure. She was kissing Sasuke because she desired him and his lips.

Sakura knew that she shouldn't be so possessive with his mouth and her rather aggressive clumsy way of claiming his lips might seemed desperate and disarray, but she couldnt help the thirst for his lips as if he was the quintessence of the rain, whose sole purpose was to tame down the fire within her, or on the contrary, the Uchiha Prince played as the spark to lighten up her body like a touch.

Sasuke was a duality of opposing forces that Sakura found admirable and fascinating; his touch had the power to both soothe her and make her sizzle like a dormant volcano aroused from its slumber and ready to erupt; he was sheer passion incarnated.

Vaguely she registered that Sasuke has swept his tongue across the outer contour of her diaphanous mouth, licking her lips slowly, sensually, applying a mild pressure that sent jolts of pleasure down her spine and ending into the pits of her lower abdomen, leading her and inviting her to open up to that newfound intimacy and taste him at the content of her heart. And she did just as so.

Timidly, tentatively, almost clumsily but having the typical effervescent curiosity of a baby eager to touch the wonders enfolding around his small world, eager to explore and learn through his small palms and mouth, Sakura tamed her feverous moves and fell in an electric sync with him.

What she really enjoyed in their few kisses that she and Sasuke shared so far, was his technique. Sakura had no idea about how would he normally kiss a woman –she also didn't want to have that acknowledged because her chest would clasp painfully– but with her, he was unhurried, slow and tender, while at the same time, very deep.

Sasuke was nowhere near chaste and cautious as if afraid that she would step back and reject him, no, on the contrary, he still managed to be extremely passionate and hypnotizing.

The pressure of his moist lips was heavy and domineering, almost possessive; his kiss was full, and deep, like inviting her to explore him fully without no boundaries and nothing to hide.

And Sakura learned something about his way of kissing through those few kisses that they shared so far –the Vampire Prince preferred to lose himself into a passionate kiss, rather than a hungry one and it represented everything that he was –graceful, precise, elegant, dominating, profound and very sensual.

His thin lips were wide open, very masculine sketched in a sensual shape of an almond almost the same as his eyes, tasting her in deep ample strokes, praying her own mouth wide open with the tip of his playful tongue.

Sakura fell prey to the enthralling sensation; she nipped on his lips and suckled on them, cocking her head occasionally so as to find the best angle to reach him deeper, his mouths felt hot and sweet as an oasis of honey and vanilla.

There was a subtle infusion of dark chocolate and velvet cognac into his honey taste that left Sakura benumbed to the exterior, but her senses were high alert set on the feelings that he aroused within her.

She would have never guessed that kissing a man would feel so good; Sasuke was so delicious and his taste magnificent. He was such a contradiction in everything –for such a powerful man and a Prince among his kins, a creature blessed with the gift of Immortality– his taste was incredibly hot and very syrupy.

He set a rhythm inside her that made her soar with desire and suddenly just feeling his lips didn't feel enough. She found herself craving for more of him. Sakura was naturally not a seductress but she couldn't help the way her fingertips drummed across his elegant jaw, leaving the marble skin behind as she slides to the sides of his neck and grouped her hands across his collarbones and further to the planes of his chest, palms tickling by the warm feeling that the nature of his hot body comprised.

A low rich growl rippling through their kiss from Sasuke`s throat left her reeling in pleasure. His hands slide down from her hair that he was stroking, to skim along the curve of her sides and her shoulder blades, pulling her flush into his chest. His touch alone was more tempting than Nirvana.

She got lost into his arms as her own fingers were traipsing along every inch of his sculpted torso, occasionally intertwining into his raven hair.

Sasuke absolutely enjoyed the taste of her lips, they were succulent, rich and sweet, popping like black juicy cherries under his nipping as he was suckling on them, while the tip of his tongue rippled under her soft petals, tasting the moist luscious skin, akin to sipping from a glass of sparkling rich champagne and get blissfully drunk.

The fact that Sakura wasn't educated and polished but she wasn't afraid to dive into the abyss of desire so freely and with abandonment, was making the experience more intimate and meaningful.

She was happily inviting him to lead her elegantly as he was initiating her into the art of kissing him. It wasn't just about the act of locking his lips with a woman the impulse that made the rhythm of his heart rate sway, for he has been sharing many meaningless fugitive kisses before with various partners the thing that conjured his inner beast to the light.

It was Sakura's own unique imprint the one that Sasuke craved for. She added an innocent insightful touch to their kiss and Sasuke absolutely loved it.

It was that alternation between a soft kiss which felt like a timid brush over his skin, delicate just like her very core was, it lacked any sexual underneath substance and resembled a rather cute peck of a child, and the newfound sexiness that she conjured now the things that almost made him go feral.

Sasuke clearly enjoyed that kind of kiss just as much as Sakura did. She was definitely bolder and more passionate, but still managed to be gentle. Amazingly how she did that.

The Vampire Prince had to politely stifle a smirk when he cocked his head and sucked her tongue into his own mouth in a way that he hasn't done before to her, and the unexpected wave of electric shivers surging along her spine made Sakura flinch.

But she managed not to break their kiss because Sasuke had his left hand pressing on her nape and the other one curled around her waist, keeping her tight into his chest. Her hands flew around his neck, tucking on his silk locks.

He clearly felt the way her body heat spiked a few degrees up and the scent of her pheromones oozing from her body were making him go crazy. Sakura on the other hand had an internal turmoil about how should she move and fall into sync with him.

Suddenly, she felt totally clumsily at his move, not expecting him to do something that made her feel even hotter than before.

She tentatively let her tongue poke its tip outside to tap on his own, when he leaned forward to slip into the warm cavern of her mouth and explore her again, skillfully and sensually, while she wads stuck in how to respond.

She felt Sasuke grow more demanding and passionate and it was enough to make her fall limp into his arms as his hands around her tightened possessively; she had her emerald orbs shut tight and she found herself expressing naughty sounds that she never thought she would be able to produce, but she simply couldn't stop herself.

This was too much and too heavenly to resist to. There was a bubbling moist sensation of a warm puddle amassing between the valley of her thighs and suddenly, the silky clothes she were started to suffocate her.

There was an amassing bundle of something burning into her most intimate places that screamed for relief, but she couldn't even begin to sketch how to ask for a thing that she couldn't name. And it was all because of his touch and his hands on her.

Oh, Kami–sama…

The funniest and most fascinating thing was that Sakura, the cherry blossom in bloom that he has discovered due to their chance meeting, was taking such a simple loving act of kissing, as something serious that she had to overanalyze and learn, in a similar way that she could learn for a written exam and aim for perfection.

What she didn't know was the fact that the sublime of kissing someone didn't lay in the precision of the technique itself, but rather than to the art of fully indulging into the emotions evoked and the feelings awaken inside her.

Sasuke was sure that she was feeling the deep gap between their experiences and she felt somehow restrained by the fear of not being as good as his standards and expectations might be, when in reality, it was one of the best kisses that Sasuke ever had and it was definitely the most special ones. What lacked from her proficiency, the jadeite jewel compensated through her unique special presence in his arms.

She wasn't being ferocious, carnal, greedy and brutal into trying to dominate and lead him like the majority of the female Vampires normally were when they seemed to attempt to devour their partners, bring more interested in shoving their fangs and taste the hot blood from the lips more than the act itself, totally losing the meaning behind it along the way, leaving it somewhere in the darkness, forgotten. That was arousing and hot enough to coax a drunk Vampire male into a steamy one night stand, but nowhere near to Sasuke`s standard. That kind of approach disgusted him deeply.

Sakura on the other hand was exactly what he was looking for in a woman. The rosette was so debonair, the harmony of her lips brushing and massaging his own was exquisite and delicious, she was soft and peaches sweet, and the warm soft hand that was skimming and playing into his raven hair was lulling and feminine.

The way Sakura was kissing him, one time doing it slowly but steadily getting the timing right, and sometime being wilder and gaining more courage to allow her tongue to span over his own and engage into a very passionate tango, dancing and sliding upon one another, brought an amassing calmness, tranquility and content into Sasuke's mind.

The Vampire Prince was always high alert and tensed to any danger, like ready to strike and never be caught unguarded, but this time, he completely relaxed, letting the weight of his chiseled frame sink into the rich lush mattress of his comfy bed, fully closing his eyes and only moving his lips when she did, silently leading her on the right path, interlacing their mouths and applying just a mild pressure so as she won't feel dominated by him.

Sakura happily leaned into his arms and sunk down with him when Sasuke brought their embracing selves to float atop his airy bed sheets, refusing to depart from his lips yet, even though her lungs were desperate to feel the gush of oxygen.

Who needed oxygen in that moment, when Sasuke was breathing life and pleasure inside her? Sakura clearly didn't.

The feeling of her pressing so closely and dearly to him, while his left hand rippled along the outline of her siren hourglass delicate curves, testing on the swell of her rounded hipbone as he was rubbing her skin upon the silk pure white nightgown she wore had a miraculously relaxing effect on her mind, but at the same time, her body boiled like a furnace.

Every inch of her skin felt like aroused from a deep slumber and even her toes burned like she was walking on hot charcoals.

When she abruptly pulled back from him in a desperate need to breath, Sasuke swore that never in his life has he encountered such a beautiful creature.

Sakura`s ivory skin was sewed with delicate crystalline snowflakes and it felt so soft under his palm, delicate like Chinese silk and mesmerizing like nature`s most brilliant work of art. His fingertips were jittering with the the grace of her delicacy, dancing under his touch.

Her cheeks filled with red roses as she blushed heavily, her emerald orbs were glossy and dancing with lust and her lips were widely parted and bruised from their intense kiss. She arched her spine to look into his eyes, but her hands remained curled around his biceps, nails pressing into his skin.

"…Ahm…" She started weakly between gasps of air; their pants combined into an intimate pound against their eardrums, fanning across each other's faces, as no one pulled back too much, enjoying the warmth of the other spanning across their lips. "D–Do you find me to be a promiscuous woman for… asking such a thing from you and doing what I have… j–just did…?"

It wasn't like she asked him to sleep with her now, did she? Her shyness never ceased to amaze Sasuke, she was so very different from her real ancestors, so unconfident and unpolished, but nevertheless, under the rough diamond, stood encrusted the most shimmering radiance.

He gave her one of his trademark smirks, one that stole her breath away in both sexiness and sincerity. "No." His palms slide along her bare hands, making her shiver. "What I find marvelous about you is that, unlike the majority of your brethren, you seek for something tangible to hold on when in reality, you seem to always be walking on water, Sakura."

She tried to keep a straight road and yet, curiosity and the thirst for knowledge pushed her out of the right path and she found herself swaying on side alleys, in search for the unknown, for darkness and for… sin.

For something… or someone.

She downcast her emerald jewels and brushed a tug of cotton candy hair behind the shell of her ear, mumbling boldly before she could stop herself. "The only solid thing in my life… the only thing that is reliable to me is the ground I walk on."

"It doesn't crumble under the feet of two people, you know? This ground won't even flinch if two people are stopping at the same time, but it is your inner foundation the one that would feel empowered. You don't have to embrace loneliness, Sakura."

Not anymore.

"Sasuke," She breathed upon his lips, whispering like she didn't want to make the pleasant intimacy between them crumble. "you said that your former lover wasn't willing to spend an eternity with you. Is that true?"

"…Yes."

"You say that if she loved you like she has claimed to do, then she would have accepted to spend an eternity together with you, but… were you willing to give up Immortality and die with her if she asked you to?" Meaning that love and that promise between a Vampire and a Mortal went both ways; both should be willing to make the supreme sacrifice in the name of love, unconditionally. "Would you do it for love?"

He twirled a curled end of her cotton candy hair, shifting his stare to her luscious glowing viridian and golden expecting eyes –eyes that were trying to em into his own, eyes that were trying to understand and not miss a flicker of his own silvery raven ones.

"I would do it." There was no hesitance in his husky voice. "For the one I love," His inflection was silk and she felt the velvet words outpouring from his sensual lips, imixing with the shivers of her arms. "I would die for her."

"Unconditionally?" Her emerald orbs widened at his bold response.

"Unconditionally for her," he knew exactly how to touch her body and heart and stir a mysterious fire within her sensual rolls were bubbling like fine champagne along her arms, while he stroked and tucked her hair like that, then caress the outline of her shoulders and arms.

Sasuke was being so gentle, so elegant and so chaste that she simply couldn't look away from his eyes. Sakura wouldn't know but Sasuke absolutely adored her hair –so unusual and so delicate. It bore the shade of innocence immixed into the color of blood.

Sin has been touched by angels, sealing their fate within the glossy fine threads of her hair, descending down the swells of her curbed shoulders. Her hands were laced together in a praying gesture and fell on his chest.

"Why?" Her voice trembled like she was both surprised and afraid that he would rasp at her from pressing him again with that topic, but she was curious and stubborn. "Why would you die for her?"

"Because I want to be with her forever and if I cannot bring eternity to her, then I will personally step into her version of eternity. Even if it means to end up my life to stay with her. If I will reunite with the one I love in the Afterlife one day, then this way, I will be able to hold her hand once again," He did it without thinking; it came as natural as the care for a newborn, or the sunflower seeking for the sun, when his palm that lay sprawled across the mattress between them, brushed over her knuckles. He didn't miss the way her orbs brightened up with a warm lucent that that drown him to her. "then I would not even consider it a sacrifice to begin with, but a blessing."

He knew it now what it meant to be capable of such a sacrifice in the name of love. He didn't know when his fiancé left him, he was too young and too immature. But life was giving him another chance and this time, Sasuke vowed to make things right.

She felt her eyes moisten; he was so sincere that it touched her heart. She knew that Sasuke wasn't talking about his fiancé, but about what experience had taught him –he was talking about the future.

"What if there is nothing there? What if it all ends when we die? No paradise? No hell? No infinite rivers of glory, honey and milk? No faces of the ones we loved the most?" Just as involuntarily, Sakura flipped her hand and let her small palm face upwards, so as his traveling fingers that were caressing her hand so delicately would skim across her opened hand, in a ghost of a hold.

"Then I won't have to bear the imprint of pain that she left me alone for the rest of the eternity. I will still stay committed to my choice because I won't have to live an eternity alone, without her."

Sakura couldn't help but think about how would it look like to live with this onyx eyed Vampire Prince forever? Would eternity scare her because of the uncertainty of not knowing where the End was, or would his presence and love –if she were to fall for him– be enough for her to never grow bored of him?

Never grow over those feelings? Sakura came to realize that mortals concept of love was also limited and superficial. Two people who marry vow in front of God to say united until the Death pried them apart, so consequently they were also counting on a Finale.

On the implacable Death to liberate them from a consensual union who was supposed to transcend Death and continue in the Afterlife -,projected in Eternity, in Paradise, but marrying a Vampire was the supreme test of Love.

Can someone truly love forever, literarily? The concept scared her; but Sakura realized that uncertainty scared everyone, including the Vampires. Ino was scared that she won't remain able to restrain her blood thirst or that her group won't be able to reach their goal; Naruto and Hinata were afraid that their families will separate them; and Sasuke... S

he dared a glance into his onyx eyes and her breath left her lungs in a harsh puff; her heart missed a beat, making her feel light headed. Heavens, they were lucent and gleaming like sapphires; there were so many emotions reeling inside those charcoal eyes, like there were so many things he would like to tell her but couldn't voice through his words; his eyes were encouraging and pleading with her to understand his gestures and read his mind.

Her tears rolling from her eyes were flowing along her hair that was falling across her temple and she didn't realize that she was crying. The dew drops were spilling from her shimmering emerald eyes and moistening the tip of his finger.

Sasuke used his thumb to stroke her cheek and wipe away her tears; they felt warm on her porcelain cold face. He understood how cold she was and he mentally slapped himself.

He didn't need warmth because his blood and body were keeping him warmer during the night and that was the reason why he never left the heater set on. "You sought me out for comfort and here I am making you shed tears." She quickly shook her head and brought the back of her palm to wipe away her tears.

"N-No... it is not you." She stubbornly cut him off. "I understand the implication of your words that's all. I don't understand it Sasuke. Why haven't you told this to her? She might have still been here with–"

"–I only realized it when it was too late." It was his turn to inject to her and Sakura hushed and let him finish. "I was young... naïve, maybe a little bit supercilious in defying my autocratic father who wished for me to step into an arranged marriage... and I have foolishly lived under the illusion of being untouchable. But the realm of wisdom only opens up its gates for the ones who knock on them genuinely, and not to the ones who demand to be automatically welcomed inside, like they are entitled to do so."

Sakura listened closely to his words, because she realized that it was the last time when she will ever steal that confession out of his mouth.

"I haven't paid attention to what she really desired from me. I was charmed by this feelings that I had for her. In time, I came to understand the mistake of not reading through her sad smiles... I didn't understand a human`s limitations, in comparison to my… to an Immortal`s implied perfection."

She understood what he meant by that and so his tenderness and exaggerated care were justified all of sudden –Sasuke has judged a mortal like he would judge a Vampire, putting their needs on the same level, when in reality, they were different worlds, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing; on the contrary, it proved that he didn't think of his race as superior in any way.

He stupidly thought that she would automatically have the same manner of thinking as him, when in reality, the difference between their conditions and limitations turned into dread for the woman and suffocated her, so in the end, she was the one to realize that fairytales only existed on paper, but never in reality.

Sasuke didn't realize it then that he should never judge using the same archetype, because an Immortal and a Mortal were completely opposite creatures, so maybe this is why he was so opened up to Sakura and tried his best to glimpse to the depths of her soul –her mortal soul– finding it that the rosette`s orbs were once again burning with emotions, with tears of realization.

He begged her to open up to him more so that he could look into her heart, read what she truly wished him to do, let him see every thought and read her emotions, so that he will truly grant her any desire and never repeat the same mistake.

He was beyond considerate; he was the perfect lover. Because Sakura realized that no mortal husband or boyfriend would ever be so caring and so selfless towards the one he loves and give himself a hundred percent to her.

And Sakura had an inkling that not even all the Vampires were that self-effacing, on the contrary, they were corrupt and uncaring to the humans. This was only Sasuke. This is his own peculiar personality and oh, Kami–sama, she couldn't help but feel like she was starting to free falling for him.

"Do you hate her for that?"

He shook his head once. "Of course not. Mortals will never win the battle with time but at least, they will bask in the taste of how it would be like to live forever. Then they die with the conviction that they could never reach it. It was her own free choice and I will never resent her for that, but nor will I cling to his shadow like my overdramatic friends think." Those blabbermouths were going to face his wrath someday, especially that blonde dobe Uzumaki.

That kind of presumptuous merits belonged to people like his father and most of the vampires, but not to him. Sasuke belonged to that category of Vampires who were not suffering in silence for their long-gone days as humans.

Being human was a marvelous upbeat gift, granted from Gods to people. Those feelings he could have easily evoked during his days as a human, when, leaving under the implacable threat of having a short lifespan and days to count their days of innocence were over, were full of aplomb as a race with the life itself to see who could elicit the most amazing sensations, was the one to grant the people the luxury of living their lives to their fullest, unrestrained, wild and free, and not scared or ashamed to be wrong and mistaken.

Inadvertences, overestimations, smile chaste gaffes, errors, misunderstandings, and oversights were all part of being MORTAL. One could always limn the uniqueness from another`s illusion and flub. On the contrary, being IMMORTAL came with the rejection of snafu and mistakes.

Fouls and wrong steps weren't permitted to a Vampire. They were an emblem of weakness and that was being on par with being flawed and cursed.

Vampires were denied remission and since they were all running in an infinite loop-hole in search for perfection, a fake impression of absolute, their lives were slowly turning into lifeless boulders chasing their shadows through the centuries, being the silent witnesses of how they carrying on failing their own standards, but they stubbornly kept on going.

Sakura had no idea how lucky she was to draw felicity from the most mystical small wonders of life, yet she was constantly rejecting her destiny, just as Sasuke was repulsed by his own condition. He lost his fiancé as a natural consequence of his own inability to penetrate the wall of the years he could not enjoy and mature as a mortal, becoming a Vampire, so he obviously failed to think of her best interest and read what was underneath the underneath.

He failed to see that she was asking for simple things from him, while he was busy talking about infinity and absolute, as a denial of time and existence, and so he only understood that he was not only eclipsing her but automatically putting her on an inferior to him scale but scaring her as well.

Of course that she ultimately chose to stray and live the rest of her days among the ones that she could relate to. He lost his former love to the specific Vampires` arrogance. A mistake he won't repeat with Sakura.

Sasuke asked the woman he loved to die for him and give up a precious gift that his person wasn't able to balance. He wasn't enough to be used as an exchange for life. But he arrogantly thought he was worth of her dying once for him.

How foolish.

"The memories we have together... this is my inheritance and I will honor her memory. But… I learned to forgive myself for my own limitations. Father thinks that we are the supreme race. The epitome of power, wisdom, wealth and beauty. I do not share that selfish illusory ontology. My eyes are not in the darkness anymore. For perfection… even the most perfect ones should strive."

"Your friends are worried that you are still hurt and you are afraid to get close to the others and form bonds."

He dragged a heavy sigh. "They think I am mourning and sinking into misery, but I do not. I loved her once yes, and that is something that I will never deny because it would be an insult to the both of us. But that is a chapter in my life that I have written the word 'fin' on the file and let the wounds heal. Her memory claims no other power over me, it being just that another past episode in my existence, which has taught me a valuable lesson about romantic feelings. And this is something you cannot learn from books. Just like you cannot be schooled in the arts of pursuing happiness."

"So it means that you are ready to move on?"

"The fact that I have an eternity at my disposal to reflect over what could have been, it doesn't mean that I am going to let the moments that I can treasure slip through my fingers. Contrary to what you might think about me, I am a pragmatic man. She is not the sole passage in my life that remained trapped into my Diary, but this is it,"

He gave her a short smirk because involuntarily, Sakura let her palms rest on his chest and slide in soft strokes while her emerald orbs were absorbed into his every word. "another memory among the others. Precious, but it belongs to the past, while I,"

This is the moment when his chocolate voice dropped to a husky brush against her eardrums and skin. "am only interested into the future."

In those electrical emerald orbs that were looking at him with so much fragility, yet so much astute and interest, absorbing every syllable that fell across his lip, coursed an emotion that Sakura evoked subconsciously – Sasuke recognize it to be hope.

Like those words from him brought her relief. Was Sakura scared that he will forever sulk about a woman who left him and never open up to… someone else in his life?

"Did you tell that to Naruto and the others?"

He shrugged indifferently. "My private life is a topic that only concerns me, but as you could depict from their personalities, my comrades have preserved some very bothersome human predilections and the taste for chitchat is among their favorite." Sasuke finished by quoting Shikamaru.

Yup, he was losing it.

Sakura giggled at that, knowing that he was completely right. Ino and Naruto were an immeasurable oasis of information about anyone and anything and their obstreperous easygoing personalities made it easy for them to open up their mouths and burst out confessions. Especially about someone as enigmatic and alluring as Sasuke Uchiha.

"I am glad to know that you don't bear any grudges." There came a moment when her viridian eyes found his in a clash of polished mirrors, gleaming and reflecting the light into each other`s gazes and they held it into the mist of an intimate silence before Sakura smiled to him in a way that made Sasuke's heart deviate from its steadfast peace. "I wish you to be very happy, Sasuke. You are a good man and a very deep… Vampire."

Without realizing the implications of her words, Sakura fell complacent enough to breathe to him words that she secretly wished to say to a man. "I am sure that you will find someone to love you like you deserve."

The myriads of silver crowns around his raven irises flashed into her own, like a ghost of an eclipse, as the aureate into her lustrous gleaming jade jewel mirrored the tranquility on his luminous features.

He was so gorgeous like that, with the shades and penumbras of lustrous blue and silver reflections of the pale graceful moon, evoking the royalty along the planes and angular lines of his masculine features, and Sakura found herself immerged into that native beauty of that gorgeous man beside her.

A Vampire, a mythical creature whose strong past was rooted into centureis of wisdom, elegance, refinement and supremacy, was a chest of treasures and unraveled mysteries to a snoop speculative shrewd woman like Sakura, and she felt more and more attracted to the feelings he conjured within her, whenever he was being in his vicinity.

Sasuke wasn`t being impolite or intrusive, his touches, caresses and especially, his voice, were serene and lunar and so addictive.

It was more than physical attraction, it was in his general mystical personality and the aura of mystery embracing him, the things which were making Sakura lean closer to his every secret.

"Hn," He murmured his favorite laconic syllable while his fingertips smoothed along her bare forearm in a light touch; it was frightening how fast her body responded to the kiss of his fingertips across her skin, and he was barely making contact.

Sakura involuntarily shuddered and half shut her eyes, but she just couldn't peel off her eyes off his magnetizing beautiful jet ones. "Maybe I should pay more attention around and perceive the things that are within my reach, instead of waiting for chimeras to come alive."

She momentarily froze at his poetic suggestion, as his voice couldn't have been more silk glassed and the low velvet alto tune made his chest vibrate like a piano`s hammer striking its strings, making his broad chest rumble like thunder.

Sakura felt her skin crawl in both sheer delight and dread and she simply couldn't stop her perusal to transcend the veil of his obsidian eyes and fell on the bare junction between his neck and shoulder, pouting comically.

A princess hand, more delicate than the feather of a swan reached for contact, as Sakura pressed her fingers on something that she failed to notice before, fingertips grazing over the intricate tattoo on his neck. "Is this a birthmark?" She followed its pattern on his skin.

Sasuke felt his body temperature boil and his blood howl like a beast; her touch was magnetizing. "Does it mean something? A tattoo maybe?"

She smiled naughtily –or so she tried. "I see," She concluded when Sasuke remained silent and just followed her hand on the side of his shoulder. "you also had your wild teenage days, didn't you?" He might have, she decided.

Sasuke admitted it to her that he was naïve and more haughty than how he was nowadays and also, she could see it from the dangerous way he dotted himself that night.

The Uchiha Vampire could be a rebel if he wanted to.

He smirked to her and shook his head no, bangs falling askew on his cocked hear, concealing his stormy orbs.

"This is the Mark of Sealing that any Vampire has. Despite the contradictory name, it is the Spell that is inherited from our ancestors and it represents the enclosure of the transformation ritual. My father performed the ritual of my transformation into a Vampire and woke up my Immortal side that laid dormant in my human body," He explained as her orbs widened slightly; he quickly realized that Sakura didn't like the gore face of Vampires` darkest side.

"It is only performed by the Heads of every clan and its purpose is to make sure that our spirit, or the soul as you would put it, doesn't leave our bodies when we die as mortals and continues to be entrapped into our bodies that undergo the transformation into Vampires."

Sakura felt a cold shiver run her spine; so basically in the span of the dying of a body and their rebirth, they force the soul that wishes to soar to Heavens, back down to withstand the decaying of its once confinement –the body until their metamorphose is complete.

"We, the Lambda, call it the Curse Sealing Mark for reasons that you have probably understood. It`s the sign that is going to accompany us for as long as we exist and remind us of the fact that we are no longer humans."

It must be a horrific experience. Sasuke smelled her fear through every pore, but what truly took him by surprise was her reaction. The softness in her eyes almost like she tried to steal that suffering torment experience from him and share his dolor was emotional.

"D-Do all the Vampires have this… C-Curse Mark?"

"Of course. Although the ladies are more preoccupied with hiding it for aesthetic reasons."

It explains how come she hasn't seen it on Ino`s skin… or the others around for the matter. It was easy to conceal it with clothes or jewelry but also a way to distinguish mortals from Immortals.

"But," She crunched her nose and askew her emerald orbs, pointing her finger under her chin in a ruminating stance. "even though you can clearly say Vampires from Humans by discovering this mark, it is impossible to pinpoint which mortals are coming from a family of Vampires since they don't have this mark before their transformation."

His cockily smirk in approval, assured her that she nailed it. "Very astute, yes this is correct."

She tapped the contour of his mark and she didn't know whether she did it out of sheer fascination, or because the radiance of his alabaster skin combined with his incredible softness was making her fingertips curl and tickle in delight.

Her slim digits descended along the contour of the comas and indecipherable writtings around the circle, in a diaphanous meandering gesture. "Did you… hurt? Has it been painful for you?"

"You have no idea." She felt bad for him, for the physical torture that he probably undergone and Sakura couldn't keep it from her kinesics; she swallowed the lump in her throat knotted of unshed tears for him before she could stop herself and be so obviously emotional and weak.

"I do not need empathy. This is how it is as a fragment of any Vampire`s destiny. This is part of my existence. There is no use of grieving for something that you cannot change."

"I know you are very strong, Sasuke. " She smiled at him shyly, tucking a falling pink lock away of her eyes. "I will never do something so insulting as to doubt your ability to overcome hardships." Emerald orbs lowered from his coal ones to his chest.

"It's just that I… I am just so frustrated that I cannot do anything to ease your pain, even though you agreed to help me cease down my own."

The exuberant effervescence within her eyes, the disquisitive peeping gazes emphasizing the inquisitive character and the worry that she expressed for someone who she has just met was staggering.

Something resonated within Sasuke`s heart in that moment. He felt his heartbeat tremble like a harmonic romantic string of a Spanish guitar when their eyes caressed each other in a stare more intense than a fusion of energy and they both felt a connection.

That connection.

In a world void of perfection, completion was virtuous and idealistic. Her hand moved on her own free will towards his angular strong jawline, sliding up to feel his raven hair, tucking a flowing longer strand from his temple, around her index finger.

He was so smooth and flawless, and yet, so deliciously masculine sculpted, and Sakura found herself unable to keep those staccato gestures to pound into her heart at bay, and not touch him.

This Vampire was an evergreen beauty and the fact that he won't ever age, but preserve that electrical virility in a clepsydra of time written in the sand, was magnificent and amazing.

She kept on wondering about him loving a mortal woman and how would he feel when she would be kissed by the lips of indomitable time, while he remained unflappable like nature: always young and perennial.

And then the wise rosette`s mind went through a quick reminiscence about what he confessed to her when they first met, about him feeling cursed for being Immortal.

If he were to befriend people –humans– he would inevitably have to go through the pain of losing them to the merciless time one day, and watch them all rot and be buried along with the memories that lingered into their cold marble tombstone, resting atop their graves. What a tortuous price to pay for bonding, she sadly thought.

Sasuke was somehow forced by his condition of Vampire, to the only connect to Vampires and go through the eternity together.

Obviously, it would be placid, boring and lose that intense spark, that only people who live their life under the constant imminence of death lingering above their shoulders. Vampires were lazy by nature, unhurried and always floating, having all the time in the world.

Mortals like her on the other hand, lived at the speed of light and progress, enjoying every day like it was their last one, hence tasting the rush of adrenaline, life, and implacable destiny on the tip of their tongues, daily.

Exuberance was clearly uncharacteristic to a Vampire, while it gleamed into the lucent viridian irises that encircled her pupils like spring's crown of nature's rebirth, attracting Sasuke' inner solitary raven's ones into that night inner just like shadows pursuing light.

He found her jubilance exhilarating, her presence was solar, jolly and tonic, her delicate gestures were innocent, childish, clumsy and cute and her overall inquisitive attitude was calming, warm and refreshing.

In a world of superior races –Vampires– where the borders of sublime of grace, power, wealth and beauty have already been outlined, Sakura comes into his life unexpectedly and jumped right into the middle of the calm lagoon's waters and created sparks, magic, and bubbles.

She was a timid bell flower kissed by the last remains of snow, a ray of light knocking on his window on a lazy summer morning, a beautiful angel with velvet wings, fluttering around him, beautiful, mystical, celestial and ineffable.

He felt something he deemed as forever engraved in stone, an indescribable need toprotect her, have her in ways only known by the passion of a wielder of nocturne delirium and desires, make her weak on his knees and blind to everything else but him, and ultimately, collect his remains of his shattered heart and trust, and nest them to her feet, begging.

He was lonely. Very lonely. But the last two days have been the most fulminant and joyful in the last decades of his exitence.

"You already soothe me, even if you might not be conscious of it."

"Oh," She tapped her neck and a wave of disappointment overwhelmed it, and the way she askew her emerald orbs from him didn't go past his vigilance.

"This… ahm… right, blood," She mumbled before stopping herself and it hurt, not physically, but it was hard to breathe like she felt suffocated by something painful. "Is my blood… the only thing that I am good for?"

He has caught the imprint of dejection, sadness and disappointment into her eyes. And that was why his hand slide down her jaw and snuck under her palm, bringing her hand to the level of his lips, latching them around her wrist, where his lips have fluttered in a suave kiss upon her cashmere skin and the pumping of life through her soft winding veins, making her tremble by the grace of his warmth and delicacy.

"What I have just shared with you, was not a reference to your blood, Sakura." He was talking about her solar energy, the lucent halo of vitality overflowing through her vivacious radiant smile.

Apart from her outrageous request –she started to get the vibe that she was asking more than the world from him and her paying back would never be enough – another sentiment has been sneaking inside her heart, overthrowing the one to end up her life or be happy, and that was do something for Sasuke as in get to know him better.

A mystifying ardent latent yen to get closer to him and… get inside a place that wasn't open to just anyone –his heart– has unexpectedly bloomed inside her own heart, in a way that only Yin was searching for its Yang counterpart to become one again and it was sizzling.

She knew it wasn't love, or lust or physical attraction, although Sakura won't ever deny the physical attraction and mild infatuation for someone so flawless. It scooped far deeper and carved into her very soul, tapping and attaching to her, like a shadow pepping from behind the wall and touch the light.

She ardently needed to touch him, feel his skin under her fingertips, and ultimately press her lips against his one more time, because something whispered to her that, if she did so, she would figure it out what that unfathomable feeling fluttering inside the basket of her chest truly represented.

"Do you really think that I invited you to come and live here in my home, solely because I desire your blood? I could never atone before my own conscience for insulting a lady in such a reprehensible way." Sasuke spoke softly.

"Your virtue and fragility," His voice was sheltering, protective, warm and soft like cotton, yet rich and sensual, without any trace of vulgarity in his sumptuous tone. "I am beyond an unforgivable sinner for trying to taint it… with hands stained in blood."

He meant that he killed with the same fangs that he touched her skin and drunk her blood. Odds were foster to make them chance meeting in such an inconvenient manner, him being thirsty for blood and her in need for a savior.

"Why am I here, Sasuke?" She couldn't prevent Ino`s poignant confessions to penetrate her mind, as well as she was powerless before the words she spilled in between the dolorous tears when she let her know about the scandalous vulgar episode when Sasuke`s group of friends and rebel supporters has come alive. "Why did you really save me? A nobody like me… to a superb man like you…" What was she to him?

Sasuke understood the implication underneath her words: why would a royalty like him, take the risk of falling off the bridge and endanger his own life, just to save a commoner, a pauper like her, if not for free delicious blood that she didn't mind sharing?

It made no sense, and she absolutely rejected the utopic idea of him nurturing real romantic feelings for her, but, for some undecipherable reason, her heart pained whenever she thought of that.

"I find it challenging to comprehend this particular thing about you, Sakura." His words susurred like rivers of chocolate, making her skin trembled in delight and his fine eyebrows slant to the bridge of his nose, as he abruptly stood up, sliding a hand through his rebel ebony spikes, letting them spew tantalizingly along the outline of his temples and brush over his nape and bare shoulders, turning his head to peek at her.

"Why are you disparaging yourself so much? Instead of being cognizant of your value, you just keep on vilifying the person reflecting into the mirror, as you gaze back to see yourself. The critique here is you, Sakura. You fail to see your precious endowment because your mind works against you and present a distorted image of the amazing woman you are."

Sakura had to blink twice, so as Sasuke`s very insightful and mindful words were slipping inside his mind because she has been fighting the knots in her belly when he raised his upper body up and presented her a delicious view of his slender back.

Was Sasuke being so sensual on purpose? Because, seriously, when the Uchiha Vampire rasped a hand through that silk glossy rich hair, with an airy habitual nonchalance worth of a lady killer, all the fine muscles embroidered into his arm and back flexed and rippled in a way that made the crevice of her mouth dry of saliva, urging her to gulp twice to alleviate the knot inside.

Everything that flew out of his mouth, was a sad truth, but where was she supposed to have such a confidence from, since everyone around her, from the beginning of her miserable existence until now, kept on reminding her how much of a failure and an unwanted bother she was?

She stood up as well, curling her fingers around the blanket, viridian grief–stricken hues dropping to her lap, not knowing what should she say and not seem like a total depressive fool.

It wasn't like she was self–pitying herself, because, during the road of her forced premature adult years, she grew to accept her fate, but flirt with other possibilities and outcomes.

Sakura wasn't trying to win the pity of her interlocutors –Sasuke in that case– nor did she enjoy to complain in vain about how unfair the fate has been with her so far. It was simply that she wasn't aware of what or how should she view herself, other than a totally invisible unimportant young poor woman.

An immediate bolt of a really high voltage discharged along Sasuke`s spine at the sight of those eyes which normally mesmerized him with their radiance and joviality, collapse like dying faraway stars and fill with dysphoria, as a consequence of his ventured questions and affirmations, and he mentally cursed himself for the slip of his tongue and lack of tact when addressing such a frail woman.

"I apologize. I have crossed a line I should have never transgressed. You do not have to– "

"You`re right." Her crystalline voice didn't go beyond a gentle wind blow, but Sasuke's high perked up senses caught every syllable, as she dared to lift up her chin and gaze into his onyx eyes. "But I don't know what am I supposed to say, because, even though I know you are right in everything you assume about me… I am still of no value to anyone."

Oh God, she couldn't cry now in front of him and ruin whatever was left from his night, with her childish weeping behavior, so she quickly averted her gaze, facing a rather interesting painting on the wall, muttering a short curse for being so damn weak.

It was just the fact that conversing with Sasuke was so natural and warming her heart, that she couldn't even maintain a polite façade and do what any other normal woman do, when in the staggering presence of an irresistible man like Sasuke, namely attempt a smart intricate conversation and be feminine, but what was she doing instead?

Bringing the baby inside her to the light and inflict more pity to her already melancholic image. Well done in successfully ruining a fascinating interesting atmosphere between them.

But nothing from her body language slipped unnoticed by Sasuke`s unforgiving quick–witted orbs, finally understanding where all of that distress was truly coming from having nothing in a dense, materialistic world, Sakura had the tendency to automatically outcast herself from all the social circles –especially his high–class one– and feel overwhelmed and at loss of how to behave when in anyone`s presence.

Sure, she most likely found it easier and more comfortable to interact with women like Hinata or Ino, because females understood each other better and spoke the same language that would forever be a chest of mysteries to men, so Sakura probably linked and connected to them since neither of the lunar Hyuga heiress, nor the glamorous vibrant Ino were infatuated and inequitable, but the situation took a dramatic 180 degrees turn when she was in HIS presence.

To put it simply, he was overwhelming her, which was exactly something that Sasuke has never intended. The Uchiha Prince wanted to offer her security, shelter and protection, and not another pair of smug eyes to criticize her and put her down.

And that was the reason why his right hand reached for the swell of her chin, cupping it softly, but firmly enough to urge her to turn around and clash her glossy almost lucent with tears she was fighting back emerald orbs and face him. "I am making you uncomfortable. I assure you it is not in my intention. I want you to find comfort and security here."

His thumb caressed the outline of her curled eyelashes, brushing away a gleaming warm tear that aligned with her viridian cat eye and Sakura didn't even have any idea of why she only felt like shedding more tears.

It was in the way his words spilled like pearls from his mouth and embroiled around her neck akin to a necklace of security and comfort, in a similar way that the gift she got from him was latched to her skin, reminding her of him and having his own print and touch.

"You might not realize it, but you are genuinely stunning Sakura. Your superior intelligence and sheer wisdom shine in the questions you ask and the way you talk about poetry and philosophy, you are insightful and logical, yet you are versatile and mindful to the small beauties enfolding before your eyes, just like you treasured the moments we spent at the amusement park."

Sakura simply couldn't help but remain trapped in an intense eye lock, as Sasuke kept on showering her with praises about her own merits –which she didn't think she possessed– while elevating her tarnished pitiful self from the ground, where she left it crumbled to rot, and placing it among the stars.

She also fought the need to melt like hot caramel at the gentles of his touch, and the way his thumb was drawing imaginary circles on her cheek, filling it with roses in bloom. The most mesmerizing thing about his rich vibrating alto voice was that he was being sincere.

"You have an unparalleled jovial way of interacting and befriending people, inviting them to know you and your honesty, and thus rapidly making them like you back, as you did to my friends, and mind telling you, they are really reticent and inquisitive about newcomers into our special circle."

How could that rosy haired woman not be aware of the elegance and refinement that her manner of conduct reflected through every single gesture she did? It was a thing that would forever remain a mystery to Sasuke.

Not to mention the blazing energy that her solar suave innocent smile was inflicting into the casket of his chest, crumbling the concrete walls around his heart, with that immensurable surge of intangible femininity and grace, being the epitome of happiness and love.

"Last but not least," Sasuke dropped his voice an octave, making his baritone vibrate like a low piano key, making Sakura`s heart miss a beat, by the implication of his next statement. "You are so unbelievably beautiful, Sakura." Never in her life has anyone, let alone such a fine gorgeous man, praised her for her beauty and be so serious and not mocking or lewd and libidinous.

And more than once. He kept on telling her that and it made Sakura feel so special and so… desired. Such an incredible feeling that is.

His thumb stopped siphoning her with fine delectable touches, making a pause right above the swell of her heart shaped light rose upper lip, focusing on the way it resembled the tip of a Cupid`s arrow.

"Y–You are being flirtatious again."

"Does my approach seem too ostentatious to you? Am I making you feel uncomfortable, Sakura?"

Flamboyant definitely not! Heavily sensual, lyrical and romantic? Totally. Alluring and incredibly sexy? HELL YEAH! That was the problem, Sasuke was almost too PERFECT and she was powerless to resist him.

Sakura only shook her head no, but a pink show virgin hue tainted her rosy cheeks and she was embarrassed and slightly dishonest to him. He was making her REACT all right! "I feel so small in comparison to you." To how elegant he was and how splendid in eloquence and gentility. "So… unfitting to be here."

"How can a star deny its value on the sky? When it stays in a place that no one can reach, only in their dreams and aspirations?"

She bit her lower lip and didn't prevent a smile. Was that flirting what they were doing? "So cheesy." He smirked at her in a way that was becoming impossible to stop from squirming of the butterflies in her stomach. "Do you mean that I remind you of a planet? As in… so far away out of reach and lonely?"

He shook his head slowly. She followed the motion of drops of water meandering along his chest from his still slightly damp hair. "No, I mean you have your own light."

"But stars don't emit their own light. They steal it from the Sun."

"True, but I have never mentioned what kind of star and the Sun is also a star." He smartly responded, while caressing her cheek and brushing her coral hair. "The most brilliant, incandescent, luminous," Something flipped in his voice when he breathed huskily and his eyes took a sharp detour from their lyrical glow. "And hot."

Oh, dear Kami–sama, Sakura forgot how to breathe for a moment. Those eyes… they were shining in a way that she has never seen before to him.

"I–If that`s so," She couldn't help but stammer again because her lips felt dry. "Then you remind me of the moon, Sasuke." She rubbed the back of his hand absentmindedly.

She hasn't observed the moon embed on it so far, but she was as discreet as possible in searching for their Lambda symbol which surprisingly, she hasn't found. Although Ino made it clear that their group belonged to Lambda and she had the mark. Sasuke on the other hand, didn't.

"You mean that I am brooding and being... emo-ish?" Sasuke rolled his orbs in fake exasperation, trying to mimic to owner of that phrase. She couldn't stop herself from snorting at that. "That is to quote a dobe that you have just met."

"Hehe, well not in the way he put it. I mean that you know how to glow in the darkness and be a silent safeguard during the day. I cannot see you, but I know you are there and this brings comfort."

The lonely satellite was mystery in all its beauty, grace, paleness; it wasn't burning her skin, but it was silently showing the right path, although sometimes it could be fantastic, ethereal, confusing and illusory,.

The pale moon rays showed a sweetened contour of everything, including the most hideous forms, it enveloped everything into a veneering of sensuality, it was the flickering light for lovers to find their embraces through the limbs of night, secluded from the peekers.

Almost immediately, Sakura leaned into Sasuke`s touch as he was caressing the outline of her jaw and cheeks, then brushed along her neck. He could feel his effect on her; her pulse accelerated in an instant whenever he touched her and that was making his whole body react.

He wanted her and craved for her blood more than he craved for anything in this world, but he has taken drastic measures in order to numb that thirst and not puncture her skin with his fangs, namely he took a shot of blood before returning back home.

It was so pitiful that it was him, the Leader of the Rebels the one to have so little control, but it was better than abuse this woman`s generosity.

When pills weren't enough, their group relied on the experimental injection that replaced the regular pills when they simply couldn't hold back their savage Vampire nature calling; the injection was indeed powerful and prolific, but the after effect left him quite dizzy, his chakra levels have dropped significantly and the chakra net was also damaging; and of course, just like any regular drug, it was addictive.

It was already in the moment when it left her lips has Sakura realized that Sasuke had a disingenuous way of stealing confession after confession from her and it was only when his smirk closed with the flush of her cheeks has Sakura realized that she has complimented him in a very romantic way.

Was that considered giving him the eye? It was probably the lust sprinkling, when their gazes lowered on each other's` lips again in a magnetizing covet of juiced desire, longing, needing, wanting, yenning to taste again… and again, insatiable and possessive.

It was Sasuke the one to move first, while Sakura was still spellbound in his charged stare; a gaze so intense and electric, like pure lightning bolts jolting along her spine and conjuring trembles in pleasure all over her limbs.

His hand sought for shelter in the curb of her waist, spanning his long digits along her lower back, claiming possession over her tiffany silhouette, as he diligently lead her to him and she allowed him to guide her into his chest.

Her hands automatically sought for the luster of his skin, reaching for his sinewy shoulders and encompassed the sharp bones with timid fingers, holding him dearly.

She had no idea how loving her gestures felt and how incredibly intimate that moment enfolded, but what truly sent Sasuke`s Vampire senses soaring into Nirvana, was the sound of her pulse and the melodious heartbeat of her racing heart, playing with such a nervous intensity, and percolating under his fingertips.

She felt it clearly; her body hasn't fallen prey to her purity. The wanton needs, the engulfing desire veiling both of them in an erotic moment that they didn't even seek for, sizzling like a bonfire around their interlaced shadows, all screamed compatibility and history.

Sasuke knew the reason for that, because Itachi has enlightened him the first time he called, but he still found it marvelous how impressive the Grand Play of Destiny was, as it maneuvered their fates into such an amorous tragedy.

Sakura belonged to him, and even if she was in the shadows, the jadeite eyed beauty felt it too, transcending beyond physical attraction.

She longed for him in both body and spirit and that reflected into her gestures and the luminous emerald in her eye. Eyes that turned a deeper shade of green with his left hand, the one that was not encircling her middle and slicking along the silk of her nightgown, reached for her cheek and cupped it gently, anticipating another kiss.

An expert digit traipsed down the outline of her pulse, as the Vampire Prince tilted his head to gaze at the vein that pumped life into her lithe body. His mouth went dry and mad with the ravenous desire to taste her again, as his thumb brushed her skin in a tickling fine way, that only him was able to conjure. "S–Sasuke," She murmured his name in half of a moan. "do you want to–"

He surprised her again, not leaning forward to press his lips against hers like she secretly wished for, even thug she did a very cute innocent gesture as parting them briefly in anticipation –or was in the need for oxygen so overwhelming– or drinking her blood again.

"Rest." His baritone echoed more serenely than a choir of crickets. "I vowed to protect you, and not to hurt you." Every fragment of his body sliced like an electrical laceration in arduous thirst for her, but Sasuke vowed to control himself and overthrown that carnal inheritance that his Vampire ancestors cursed him with, until he wouldn't be able to take it any longer.

It was more hideous that reflection of his monster spanning like a Shadow from Hell as he pressed his canines into her swan neck and blemish her while he suckled her life, than to withstand the millions of painful electric endless piercing his skin as he felt his body dry and writhe like a leaf in late fall without her nectar.

"Your nights are already haunted by unpleasant memories. I do not wish to be another stained page in your memory."

Oh, how much Sasuke longed to fill her nights with passion, ardent embraces, and touches against her damp skin, as they would ride the night in each other's embraces, have her cry his name in bliss and slide inside her until every figment of what was horrifying to her will leave her life forever.

Give this delicate cherry blossom flower a reason to look for as many nights with him as possible, making love right there in the confinement of his bed and get lost with him nested firmly inside her. But… not yet. He didn't want to seduce her, he wanted Sakura to come to him genuinely because she truly desired him.

It was so easy to charm her enough to give in to lust… but Sasuke wanted more than this. This was a woman that was meant to be his and only his –in body, mind and spirit.

His voice alone... oh my God, it was sweet aphrodisiac. Sakura`s eyelids were fluttering by the tremors that crept along her forearms and his hand around her waist made her feel so good –wanted and needed.

"You are safe with me Sakura," She let her cheek rest under his chin as Sasuke arched his neck to make a place for her. His hand slides up the sinuous spine, pressing her into his chest, relishing in her floral fruity smell and her timid body warmth. "Safer than anywhere else," He almost smirked when Sakura choked on a gulp of air, inhaling sharply as her small hands coiled around his neck.

She exhaled contently, fighting against the need to purr into his arms. Sasuke was crayoning imaginary circles on her back, adoring the way her pearl skin was rivaling with the softness of her translucent nightgown.

Damn Ino for dotting her new rose haired friend with such a provocative erotic garment. "I will not touch you in any way that will be disgraceful to you. Not as long as I can control myself."

Did that mean that after his tremendous self-control ended, he will ravage her? Sakura wasn't sure whether to feel threatened by that or hot and burning all over.

She felt so natural and so fitting there nuzzled into his arms and cuddled under his bed sheets, Sasuke couldn't help but notice.

She was clearly tired and it was visible from the way her body was lulled into slumber, so he took the chance to observe the tiffany creature from his arms better, taking in her radiance contoured by the silvery blue radiance of the moon.

She belonged to the spring, just like the bloom in her rosy cheeks while her vibrant orbs, reminding him of the gentle leaves fluttering rhythmically in the wind, as her coral hair sprawled on his neck and pillow in luscious myriads of a bride`s veil.

The fluttering of her long curled eyelashes opened up their folds to present him the treasures nested inside, in the form of her gleaming lucent emerald gemstone, as an iridescent feeling upturned along the column of his spine, breathing in the ineffable grace of her solar radiance and the beauty of her sylph gorgeous features.

Sakura was such a beautiful innocent flower, always rosy and floral scented, and so feminine and vibrant, as the strings inside his chest empowered with a suave soft harmonious tone, in canon with the crystalline suss of her voice.

Heavens, Sasuke felt damned to fight every inch of the steady meticulous self-control he had, not to touch her like her steamed to and show her exactly what a wielder of the night could do to her and what level of pleasure would her body be introduced to, if only she allowed him, but Sakura has drawn a fine precise line between their rather complicated relationship, which he was tied to respect and obey.

Deep down, experience and his own manly instincts convinced Sasuke of Sakura's undiscovered lust for him, and he knew that seducing her would be like maneuvering a small clumsy child into tasting from the chocolate he was offering, without suspecting that it was poisoned. It wasn't fair.

And Sasuke would never use such a cheap cliché and stale trick -human deprived trick- like his looks and charms to lure a lady, especially if she was someone special like Sakura and present her a false reality.

Yes, he had valuable cards up on his sleeve and he could artfully twirl the words around his digit and spellbound her with eloquence, subtlety, and wisdom, but he would never. Sasuke was a Prince -even if it was out of his own accord, but still aristocrat- and he lived on the high tide of his reputation.

No noble gentleman, be it from a family of Vampires or Mortals, belonging to the crème de la crème would ever indulge in such sultry behavior and disrespect Sakura's morals, wisdom, and trust in him.

"You... are trying to... flirt with me." Exhaustion started to wrap her in a dizzying mantle, as Sakura felt her eyelids weigh heavy on her half little orbs, as slumber was finally taking over her.

"Is my charm working?" She failed to see the smirk that crept on his face when she tried to shake her head 'no', but at the same time, her sneaky fingers were playing with his slick raven locks that cascaded along his nape.

"It doesn't–" Sakura`s weak lie remained trapped on her lips as she felt herself slowly drifting into Sasuke`s arms, but this time her face was not crested by twisted nightmares, as it was serene and content.

Her skin seemed encrusted with opaline lucent pearls, the scintillating fading blue moon rays were playing along the outline of her peaceful silhouette, as Sasuke`s fingertips skimmed along her flute suave form, feeling the dirty electrical sparkles that his touch conjured on her skin, bubble under his touch and a content sigh, followed by an angelic soft pleased smile intertwined with Sasuke's delighted analytical onyx eyes.

She was so beautiful in the way she helplessly and unconsciously followed the lead of his chaste touch, as a sunflower turning her stare towards her sun, trying to proudly reach the sky, with her aureate soft petals. The same solar rich golden shade as her irises, he noticed.

Has he been one heartbeat slow and late in reaching for her shadow, the Uchiha Prince would have lost her to the God of Death forever and be deprived of the taste of her sweet rich dark cherries kiss dancing upon his own lips forever, realizing ironically that they were, indeed, connected by a heartbeat.

The deep look into her eyes transcended Sasuke into her Paradisiac world, carrying him through an orchard in bloom; Sakura was so floral, exotic, natural and pure, with all her introspective reason and curious innocent personality, that Sasuke couldn't help but want to embrace her tightly and melt her into his chest to cure them both of solitude.

She was the sweetest and most entrapping cure for the loneliness that chased his shadow, as a merciless hangman, being his curse and only companion during his sleepless tormenting nights.

Twilights and sunsets when he longed for someone to love him as he would whisper lulling words of endearment while they would find solace in their laced arms, a special her to find the most excellent intimacy and the installable epitome of erotica together, immersed into the blistering lagoon of their lovemaking, suddenly started to take a form.

He had that once, but the scars he has been cursed with after he lost it, have never fully healed.

Sasuke longed for a romantic affiliation to somebody, he was ready to trust someone unconditionally and love a future her again and even grant her the honor of bearing his family name sometime in the future, but up until then, that woman, who he would cherish and sanctify her, has never shown up and slowly, but surely, Sasuke has started to lose hope.

Ultimately, he encased his heart into a silk cocoon, reminiscent to a chrysalide waiting to reborn again and fly like a majestic iridescent butterfly, forgetting how it was to feel.

And then comes Sakura, a woman oblivious to her ancestors and family affiliations and defy every definition and mistrust of him towards the opposite sex, and unfold the flower blooming on her chest before him, inviting him to feel the softness and the scent of an unadulterated womanhood and smile in a way that pushed sanguineness and faith back inside him.

They were already enemies by default if Sasuke was to respect the hierarchy of his clan and fellow Vampire, but his rebel pipe dream and convictions pulled him back to her, not caring about who she was or if someone opposed him.

Sasuke was positive that his father would instantly sending him to rot into nothingness for bringing such a shame to his clan and surname, but it was even easier for him to defy Fugaku and his world of snob shallow mediocre Vampires again after he did it once.

He will so do that again, he thought amused.

The prospect of finding that precious jewel to treasure and adore in the form of an angelic Sakura, was exhilarating and promising to him. Sasuke found himself exploring his own feelings and he found it really easy and natural to love someone like her, but he refused to be selfish and repeat the same mistake that ceased away his former fiancé.

The woman with the most emerald jewels in her stare would be free to choose what was best for her and tell him no whenever and Sasuke would obey to let her be happy, even if it was without him.

It wasn't late at all to give up on the idea of sucking her blood and shorten her lifespan. She still had a long life unfolding before her eyes so why to take it away from her.

Because she was the one who first tried to give it all up and die willingly.

Something was off regarding their promise and Sasuke couldn't decipher it exactly. Sakura wanted to die, she wasn't scared of it like any normal mortal, she was seeking and pursuing it, but it wasn't right, or fair.

She had to live, she should shine and love her days of bloom and innocence, enjoy her young innocent days and then, find someone to love her and age together, into wisdom, until they would close their eyes to welcome eternity.

She denied all in the favor of living intensely for a short period of time, like an insane person on the verge of dying, spending everything and live to its fullest, as long as he had to live.

It was all wrong. Sakura wasn't faced with the imminence of death, she was free to find happiness and ultimately continue to pursue that dream and find something beautiful.

She wanted him to show it, but how? What exactly did she want him to do? Because Sasuke only knew one single safe road to discover the feeling that ultimately everyone looked for, and that was love. Only love was the key that could open up the gates of felicity.

Softly, and light as a gentle caress of the summer breeze through the viridian blades of grass, his fingers rippled upon the luscious softness of her hair, brushing a fallen lock off her serene face, tucking it around her ear and she nuzzled closer to his chest, curling a hand around his bare carved rippling torso, resting her head in the junction of his neck and shoulder, fanning her gentle breaths upon his bare skin, so intimately and fitting, without realizing what she was summoning inside him.

She was involuntarily cuddling with the image of him protecting her and Sasuke was at a loss of what to do. Yes, he would never back away from his promise, but Sakura didn't know what she was looking for.

If she did fall in love with him, then would she step into his former lover's shoes and walk away or accept to live with him forever, just like she personally confessed to him?

He didn't doubt her words and probably she has been sincere, but she was only speaking hypothetically. What would she do if she was presented with the choice of being with him for eternity for real?

She also had to die -like she wished to in the first place- but then be reborn as a Vampire and become his bride. Could she love him so deeply than give everything up just to be with him?

Was a mortal like her truly capable of giving up on everything just to be with the one she loved, or he should indeed take his family' s advice and only betroth a Vampire like him?

"Don't... l-leave..." She susurred into her slumber, probably fighting the dreams that plagued her mind again, tightening her possessive hold around his upper torso.

The warmth of the sinuous perfect falls and peaks of her curvaceous delicate form, pressing deliciously fitting upon his own body radiated an inviting warmth, and the obsidian eyed Uchiha Prince froze at the next single word that escaped her succulent lips, encompassed into the shape of a heart. "S-Sasuke…"

"Do you truly want me by your side, angel?" His whispered to her in a velvet voice that was perfectly blending into the serenity of the starry night as he filled her sleeping ears and, even if she didn't answer back, her heart was sound and awake, connecting to his rhetorical dearly question, as Sakura sunk further into his chest, stirring so as to fully rest on his chest and shelter into his arms.

He was powerless to resist her in any way, so he simply enfolded his hands around her petite bare shoulders and waist, resting his high chin atop the crown of her head tickled by the puffs of luscious silk coral hair, closing his eyes as her warmth fused with his own and swinging him into the limbs of slumber and dreams.

Sakura was a cherub playing the harp of light and Heaven, to the King of Darkness. Their story resembled the Greek elegies, hymns, and tragedies of love, but they were also free to choose their ending: a happy or a sad one.

"After so many decades of being denied your presence," Sasuke whispered to her, even though she couldn't hear him, tucking on the blanket and covered them both, up to Sakura`s shoulders out of reflex, because his sweltering body boiling like a funnel, provided more than enough warmth.

Sakura looked so fragile and vulnerable - a fluttering delicate snowflake fluttering in the cushion of the gray winter sky - and yet, so astute, so naturally intrigued by his world, fascinated and driven by a meticulous curiosity to find the beauty in the smallest mysteries, that was so uncommon for a mortal.

She was a perpetual living contradiction; and just as she was bring fascinated by him, Sasuke too found so much enigma in her femineity.

There were so many wonders that a young woman embodied and that innate attraction was something that no man could fight against - be it Vampire or man - her grace, the exquisite taste of her sweet lips, the gentle soul, her delicacy, the suave voice, the melodic gesture, her sparkling intelligence, the courage to face Death with so much nonchalance, her affinity to philosophy, the ability to befriend his friends and charm them with her effervescence and innocence, just like she charmed... him.

Sasuke could feel it clear - lust emanating through her pores. It was there in her emerald brilliant, in her innate body language, in the ancestral impulse to nuzzle closer to him, even if she herself wasn't aware of that she was feeling.

And her desire was only fueling his, but unfortunately, he had to channel it in butterfly touches and not make her feel pressured into giving in into him.

But Kami only knew how ardently he wanted her - in blood, in the flesh, in spirit, in the soul in here and in eternity.

She was his by the choice of destiny, she belonged to him... but he couldn't tell her the truth. Not yet because he was not like his ancestors. And definitely not like his father.

Sasuke will never force anyone into following his commands, no matter what, especially not a woman. Ever since Itachi, his faithful brother has dropped the bomb about her real identity, Sakura was present on his mind.

It was almost ironic how they met - on a bridge. The symbol between two crossing worlds. A pathway. The almost ended her life there and he saved her life there giving her another choice.

This is the reason why his behavior was so confusing and questionable to her. He observed that he was too much of anything: too gentle, too loving, too caring, too elegant and too irresistible.

His father is probably boiling like a volcano right now. He couldn't help bit smirk at the thought. Anything to infuriate Fugaku was music to his senses.

Because as much as they loathed each other, they needed each other for accomplishing their own goals. This was the bond between Sasuke and his father: a battle of ambitions. And the winner will be determined by the party whose ambition is the highest and the strongest.

But this girl... this exotic girl with the eyes like the emerald sea, was his. And if she would fall for him in that passionate way that only a heartbeat could unite the souls, then he will show her how his world went by. With her consent.

"Heavens took pity on me and lead me to you… gave you you back to me, Sakura," He couldn't believe that after so many decades of fighting the orgy of being alone forever, Gods have decided to put an end to his solitude. "I finally found you, my love." His voice was, for the first time, melancholic and abnormally suave, encompassing emotions that Sasuke thought has been lacerated from his chest.

Sasuke fought to abide to his morals and principles and respect her integrity, trust, and modesty, even if his body jittered to feel her present against him. He had to restrain himself and prove it that he was indeed superior -it was an arrogance that he submitted to, voluntarily.

Sakura came to him willingly to seek comfort and protection -and warmth- so he couldn't offer her anything more or less if her desires were swaying in that direction.

But he was also a vigorous young male, whose sensuous Vampire genes harbored lustful and carnal longings, especially when such a sublime angel was seeking nest into his bed, sleeping serenely beside him, with a hand curled around his wrist and the other wrapped around his waist, like assuring herself that he was still there, so consequently no one would come to harm her in any way.

He let his unhurried onyx eyes skim across the tenuous features of her sleeping form and the sudden impulse to collect her into his arms and hold her tight grew immensurable, and, as if he was connected to his thoughts around the clock, reading his mind, Sakura scooped even closer to him, until the crown of her head brushed under his chin, nuzzling her nose into the crook of his neck, breathing soundly and softly, blowing warmly upon his skin.

She was basically half lying atop of his chest.

A slender hand was claiming his slim waist, protectively, and tenderly, refraining from giving any sexual touch to her gesture. He followed the softness of her opaline luscious skin, and being trapped by the luminescence in her jade eyes, gracing and calming his soul in a suave flight of a white dove returning to peace and light.

Sakura looked like returning to a naturally pure and unadulterated love, emblazoned with the quintessence of nature's inner rhythm.

She was an infusion of melodies about innocence and she had the ability to conjure a man's internal impulse to protect her, as his half.

The self-preserving innate reflex of caressing her, trust her, possess her and ultimately, love her arouse into Sasuke`s chest.

She understood him, her heart was telling him the same story, she wasn't an unfortunate woman who was looking for the indomitable realm of death, it wasn't even herself the one that Sakura wanted to kill.

It was the loneliness. The inception of her sorrow was alienation and encouragement. She was the same as him. Two luthiers with a broken violin cursed to try and mend the strings together until they find the perfect tune.

Her virtuous feelings were transcending the abode of sorrow. Sakura was the child of the sun and the ray of light into his world. She would never know, but Sasuke was tired of being an atheist regarding the concept of felicity and love.

He wanted to feel how it was to beautify those simple moments in his life, how it was to watch as his happiness was mirroring unto his lady's eyes when he holds her hand when they kissed, when they laced their hands and when he loved her tenderly.

"It was destined for you to find me one day." His hand latched into her coral hair that was spread across his dark sheets, making her look like a metamorphosed swan traped into his world of sin, caressing her silk tresses dearly and adoring how she fit into his embrace.

"I will never permit you to leave my side." No matter what his father said and no matter how might oppose him, he will protect her with his life and beyond.

Sasuke knew that she was the reason for the Council of Vampires to summon, but he wouldn't permit anyone to take Sakura away from him, even though he was supposed to kill her right away.

His obsidian eyes that slowly turned claret wine, as his star-shaped fractal patterns of his Sharingan studied every lucent of light that fell against her ivory porcelain skin; she was so frail and seeking for protection, and yet so intelligent and so unbelievably stunning.

The only one who had the power to make the decision to stray from him was Sakura herself and no one else. As long as she wanted to stay with him, Sasuke will…

He fell asleep with her nuzzling into his chest and purring like a Cheshire cat and unbeknownst to him, she too was floating on the sweetest dreams for the first time in years.

Dreams of hope.

.

.

.

One dizzy olive eye fluttered open to gaze around and seek for the source of the annoying noise. A deep yawn sprawled across Kakashi`s lips as he has been aroused from his slumber in the middle of the night.

He scraped the back of his nape as he let his long legs dangle from the bed and slide on the carpet. Still half asleep, the silvery haired Principal of Konoha`s University let his sole visible eye peep for the switch of his lamp that was resting on his night stand, turning the light on.

Someone has sent him a fax in the middle of the night.

For the love of…

Lazily he dragged his tall form to the beeping machine and tucked on the paper that was printed with whatever message it contained, skimming at the name of the sender. "Sasuke?" His right eye went a tad wider upon seeing the name and the signature of the one and only Uchiha Prince.

Because God… if Sasuke has sent him a message at such a late hour, it was most likely something of a tremendous importance that couldn't wait for tomorrow morning when he could casually traipse into his office –like he always did– and announce him of whatever news he had to share.

"Now what would this student of mine want from me now?" Kakashi let his gaze focus on the few lines that the Uchiha has forwarded to him, almost not noticing that there was a picture that has been sent to him, printed on the other side of the page.

"What the–" He actually had to drag his office chair and get down for a moment because his mind went dizzy upon processing what exactly was Sasuke letting him know.

But when he registered the last lines that the onyx eyed Vampire rebel has addressed to him, Kakashi felt like someone has turned the steady floor from under his feet, into a puddle of lava.

"This… this is impossible!" Quickly almost clumsily Kakashi flipped the page and gazed at the photo of the young woman who was flashing before his eyes in all her avant garde exotic beauty and the most avid fan of the Icha Icha Paradise series actually cursed out loud.

It was Sasuke`s indication –more like demand- for him not to disclose the secret to anyone else for the moment and simply accept his request the thing that made Kakashi hold back and not storm to the phone and make a very important call.

"This is huge!" The middle aged man simply couldn't believe it what he has just found out. His hours or sleep were long forgotten, this was big news! "How did Sasuke learn something like this? It was supposed to be a secret… no one was to find out about it." At least no one from the Uchiha family was supposed to ever found out about that.

"Sasuke wants me to welcome a new student tomorrow, but this girl…"

He gazed to an old sepia photograph that was hanging on a side wall, sketching the silhouettes of a happy family and a newborn baby girl with the most emerald eyes.

"This girl is…"

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.

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A/N: I wasn't expecting to finish this chapter so soon as I am being very busy this week, but here it is as I am done writing and posting it. Well… I haven't been too prolific in the last few weeks so I am guilty for that, gomen gomen, minna sama!

I know what you guys think about: what a boring cheesy and filler chapter this was and you are right. This chapter was nowhere near eventful and Sasuke was actually TOO OOC here, I am aware of it.

But I simply couldn't stop myself from writing something muuuuush and hopefully romantic between Sasuke and Sakura and also I wanted to emphasize the fact that Sasuke`s fiancé is a closed chapter in his life – or not? We`ll see.

Anyways, if you felt like this was an useless, stale and completely cliché waste of your time and space, feel free to completely ignore it. Because starting from the next chapter, there is going to be action and secrets revealed and of course hotter moments between the characters.

This story is still about Vampires, even if I am struggling to give it a more philosophic approach with all my –lame– attempts to define the concept of Immortality, Death and Eternity. You probably skipped those lines as well, but there is no problem. I always tend to blabber like… a LOT!

I promise that the next update will contain fragments from the Council of Vampires and I WILL reveal Sakura`s true identity. You guys have guessed that there is some kind of connection to her and Sasuke and some of you got it right about her family tree, but this is only half of the mystery. I will clear everything up in the next chapter.

I want to thank you all for the amazing feedback and support, you guys are amazing! You have no idea how happy you are making me as I want to repay you for this kindness and try to show it to you how much I appreciate everything you do!

Many thanks to:

hifi

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mannuj

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whenthesheepsaysbaa

A Shadow Away

For sharing your thoughts with me and taking from your precious time to let me know how you feel about this story. I am grateful and thankful for you all!

Also, I will try to respond to some of the questions briefly as I don't have so much time at my disposal but I don't want you guys to be under the impression that I don't read your reviews or that I only skim through the lines superficially and I don't care, because know this: I DO read every review and I digest every single word you write.

I am aware that some of the characters are OCC here, especially Sasuke. The reason why is that is because I want to write him from different points of views and try to bring different traits of his personalities in each of my stories. He is by far my favorite male character of the series so I am enjoying myself trying to write him in different contexts –sometimes rough and dangerous, and sometimes elegant and romantic. I am still pretty new to approaching the topic of Vampires and their mysterious world and I don't want to miss the element of refinement from their character, hence Sasuke is different here from his usual self or from the other stories of mine. I am well aware of it. But it doesn't mean that you won`t be seeing him fighting or lose his cool in this story from time to time.

It would have been a good opportunity to turn Sakura into a Vampire in this chapter and make her die for real but nah… I want her to stay human for now and have this build up connection between her and Sasuke so this will have to wait. I hope that Sasuke saving her in this chapter was not that cliché as I know it is and highly overused –him saving her again- but I wanted to make a parallel between the Manga when Sasuke has rescued Sakura several times in their genin days.

I see that Sasuke`s background story and how their gang was formed was welcomed and I am glad about that. Writing that flashback with the raping scene wasn't exactly something that I am proud of as it repulses me in terms of the concept, but I felt like it was necessarily for the build up of the plot. The woman that he rescued was Konan, Itachi`s fiancé. Have I failed to mention it, because as far as I remember I have disclosed that in the earlier chapters, hm?

About the lemons thing, don't worry there will be lemons as you guys know how much I enjoy writing hot scenes and oh God… this is a story of Vampires, so what other more appropriate set up could it be, than a story about Vampires? Yummy. What I meant in my preview A/N deals with the explicit scenes which I will try to censor as much as I can so it will still be very hot and sexy but remain in the rating. But no worries, I will post the link to another place where I will post it in case that I want to write a more detailed lemon.

You guys enjoy Ino and Sakura`s bonding time so far? ME TOO! Hehe, I adore the friendship between these two girls and I will keep it like this throughout the story. I am trying to make Ino as close to her character as possible, of course, adding a bit of my personal concept of her character. She is my favorite blabbermouth along with Naruto.

I hope that my version of the clans of vampires and the hierarchy isn't confusing. But if there is something that it stirs questions, do not hesitate to ask me. I know that this story is only at the beginning and there might be some things that don't make much sense. I will try to enlighten you as much as I can.

Regarding the length of this story, you know it that I only write long stories hehe. I am glad you guys like this, because it will stay like this.

I told you that some of you guys have correctly guessed about Sakura`s identity, so there is no way the stretch it more and that is the reason why I am going to disclose it in the next chapter. For now, I am still prolonging the… mystery. Plus I need a good cliffhanger, hehe.

The Sound and Orochimaru should suffer, those sick bastards! Well… we need some villains in this story and what better option for half-breeds there is, apart from a man who has wasted a good part of the series conducting sick experiments than Oro himself? Like ElevatedJewel-san correctly depicted, the Sound brings the dark vibe into any context, but they are also interesting and intricate because their ambitions are twisted and they are geniuses. And their group pretty much know how to make things work! Like Madara or Obito.

Yes, a legitimate question since the Vampires are Immortal to ask for the reason why Sasuke is Fugaku`s heir, well first of all think about the pride of a royal family to have a boy being born in the family, as the next in line? A heir means a continuation of the family`s lineage; it represents the new generation, prosperity, health and ultimately power. It is exactly the same with my story since Vampires are having this penchant for nobility. Plus, they can be killed so what would happen if Fugaku gets killed? There is going to be havoc and fighting for the throne, so naturally he needs a heir. Plus, it is convenient for Sasuke`s ambitions to be his father`s successor.

All in all, I am grateful to all of you for reading this story, for all the exquisite reviews of this story and so precise in grasping the concepts that I am trying to bring to the light through every line, correctly interpreting and understanding what I am trying to convey and also, for being so amazing and kind!