Originally posted to Tblr under a different name. Enjoy.

Another pause.

"Isn't it obvious?"

"Maybe to you, but if this keeps up we'll be married and pregnant without so much as a word."

A light press struck her in the middle of her forehead and on cue a familiar heat bloomed across the kunoichi's face. The simple act a recurring gesture she found Sasuke using on her time and again. Whether it be in greeting or a goodnight she'd find his fore and middle finger stretched out towards her yin seal, he'd even done it when he first got back.

"I'm home, Sakura."

Tap*

Things had certainly changed between them since he returned. All for the better in her mind, the slow steady progression she'd witnessed through tears and whispered thanks seemed to finally be on the fast track. That was a relative term by their standards she knew. Sakura could still remember Ino congratulating her on at long last graduating from snail crawl and achieving mach tortoise.

She found the playful jab rather amusing until the following evening, when she discovered the newlywed Uzumaki on her doorstep with ointment for the 'severe case of whiplash' she'd been told the medic was experiencing.

Ino lost confidant privileges for three weeks.

Sasuke was sitting up now, vacating the space once occupied on her lap, the warmth and the comfortable weight of his head missed. Sakura resisted the urge to smile, this was one of those changes, physical contact for the sake of it. No more feigned ignorance as shoulders brushed on walks or elbows bumped at Ichiraku's. It was a cherished new reality of their evolving dynamic and yet…

Much of this progression was happening wordlessly if not deliberately. And while it wasn't as though they didn't talk, Sasuke was surprisingly good at conversation when given the space to do so. Sakura couldn't shake the feeling of bemusement.

For all the milestones she saw them clear: regular lunches together, letting her in enough to begin talking about his family unprompted, the increased physical contact; there was never a moment to stop and smell the roses for as far as they'd come. Wasn't the whole point of the journey of falling in love, well the journey?

Sakura felt as though she had stepped onto a train with a clear destination, however none of the stops were being announced along the way. It bothered and battled with her common sense. She was well aware that this could simply be her once again over thinking and needing to fulfill the traditional obligations of coupling. And considering the man she loved, Sakura could not deny it sounded sillier each time her mind brought it up. Romance with Sasuke Uchiha was never going to be conventional by any stretch.

Goodness, it had taken six months just to drop the pretense of 'team' from their weekly dinners because she and Sasuke kept forgetting to invite the others the last three, and were quite guilty of using them as decoration for the first. Naruto and Sai finally deciding to call them out on it played no small part in abandoning the charade. Their loud-mouthed teammate maintaining that neither of them were sufficiently remorseful.

They probably weren't, Sasuke definitely wasn't.

Still, as Sasuke eased back into village life and they eased back into one another's lives. Sakura found herself wanting even more than she was getting. Knowing full well genin Sakura would have accused her older self of being greedy. Hand holds unmistakable in their purpose, looks intentional with their expression, did she not understand how good she had it?

She shook her head at that train of thought. There was something deeper beneath the surface that ached for satisfaction, beyond the conventional trappings of relationships. Not that she thought those things were bad in themselves. In fact, her heart lept in her throat, she hoped to be saying things like okaeri, Sasuke-kun many more times in her life.

"Sakura," a firm hand cupped her face, Sasuke's touch pulling her out the corridors of her mind. "What do you think I'm hiding from you?"

Sakura's breath caught as he held her gaze. The consuming nature of his eyes holding her fast, speech tumbling from her lips before her mind could sanction it. "N-not hiding…but I…" the sentence dangled unfinished.

"You?" His hand moved further up and into her hair, the shell of her left ear lobe fitting neatly in the pocket of his forefinger and thumb.

"I just want––" Sakura's head bowed to meet her left shoulder in response to the pleasurable shudder now rippling through her spine. Sakura's immediate and visceral reaction amusing the instigator. It was quite by accident the Uchiha learned the effect a firm tug to either of Sakura's earlobe could garner.

"Sasuke-kun," she straightened with a huff. "I'm being serious." Sakura shot Sasuke a sharp look while recovering, apparently nowhere near as intimidating as she desired. Visible blazes of mirth clearly playing behind his eyes.

Sasuke's hand fell to his lap as the medic smoothly brushing it from upon her shoulder where it'd been resting amidst her provoked fit. The laughter in his eyes died down then, acknowledging Sakura's sincerity.

Reaching out and grabbing his hand in both of hers, she pulled it between them. Hovering in the space, her right thumb drew steady circles into the center of his palm. The weight of what Sakura wanted to say conveyed in the taut pressure she applied to Sasuke's remaining appendage. With a shallow exhale of breath she spoke. "Everything that's happening now with Sasuke-kun, with us, I've dreamed about it for so long."

Sakura's eyes were still on their clasped hands, thumb still smoothing the callouses she found there. "But it's better than a dream, my heart almost doesn't know how to take it." Voice cresting higher, she sought his gaze, willing to connect these next words deep inside the man she loved. "You make me really happy."

The beaming smile she sent with that truthful statement doing curious things to Sasuke's insides, things in this tender moment she couldn't see because she pushed forward focusing on the words yet to come out.

Sasuke gently curled his hand around the hands that held his—reassuring her. "But I don't know if I make you happy, you've never even told me once."

"All of this," her eyes shifted back and forth between them, "could just be because I'm comfortable. I-I'm familiar." Finally it lay there exposed in the open, her unvoiced fear. The enveloping wave of silence disconcerting with it's lack of protest, but she had more to say.

Furrowing her brows in search of those next elusive words that would hopefully make sense of the inner-depths malestroming inside her, Sakura's forehead relaxed immediately at the sudden feel of light pressure against it. Surprise, not emotion, easing the tension there. Their hands still joined, the place her eyes returned after that last confession, she completely missed Sasuke leaning forward to close the gap with his temple now resting against hers.

"Sakura," he breathed low. "Naruto's stool at Ichiraku's is familiar, you're not just some inanimate fixture I hang around to take up space in my life." Sakura's face flushed as shades of ink black and lilac purple searched her features for understanding. And Sakura wondered, not for the first time, if he knew how easily it was for him to melt her resolve with those eyes.

Strange that it was that same ease which made it so important not to give in here. "I know you just want me to understand—like before, but I won't offer it to you on a silver platter like back then."

Sakura watched him stifle an almost knee jerk recoil at her words. The practiced wall of stoicism had briefly gone back up before forcibly being brought down. It made her wince to see it, but it seemed he had learned not to shut people out who he potentially wanted in—even if it still took effort.

"I'm not good with words…on those types of matters." The heft of his brow leaned back off of hers, face turning to cast an imperceptible look over his left shoulder. So much of the innocent Sasuke of her youth settling into his posture and it softened Sakura to see it.

"Sasuke-kun," she placed a hand under his chin affectionately guiding his gaze back to her. The inadequate genin Sasuke who continually warred within himself when any defeciency was exposed still there.

Well that wouldn't do.

Sakura closed the distance and sealed their lips together in a tender kiss. As it was her self-appointed duty to beckon him towards the light during the years darkness and shadow sought him on every side. She also felt called to beckon forth the man who she knew was sure and had conviction; and tentatively expressed through actions, not words, there was a future between them.

The smooth caress ended just as quickly as it'd begun, just as Sasuke was beginning to reply—mild irritation glaring back at her, but his insecurity had vanished. Sakura smiled, fingers alighting on his jawline, ignoring the small 'tsk' of his annoyance because he leaned into her hand. It was then the slippery sentiments she sought at last, leaned into her mind like two shining bells.

"I know we're not going to be like every other couple Sasuke. How could we be?" She shook her head. "But I deserve to hear how you feel about me, even if it's just once." Sakura declared, pressing further. "After all the times I—if you're serious about what's growing between us you'll try and give me at least this much." Green-eyes set with her firm resolve, she ended, "I won't accept any less."

Sasuke's features were blank as they searched the others face, the small tug of a smirk hastily abandoned as the only almost sign of his thoughts. Small comfort that it was, whatever he'd say next Sakura knew he at least respected her for speaking her mind. The finality of her decree echoing through the living room.

"I told you before, I'm not good at expressions like that."

The response was so flatly leveled it made her throat tighten. Her hands, which had all this time been joined, slowly disentangled from his. A calculated maneuver to help suppress the stinging prick of hot tears that were wanting to form.

Respect she decided didn't feel so great, acknowledging with a jolt of pain, it was his decision not to sugarcoat things which belied the respect he carried for her. There was no denying the last words she offered him had been an ultimatum, and since she'd been truthful he'd been. It didn't matter how beseeching that request was delivered. Sakura felt her lungs shrivel up and her heart descend in her chest—follow through felt 10x worse.

Nails digging into her thighs where she sat, she tried to collect the words that would not betray her devestation. The increased contractions of her vocal chords made speech untrustworthy. So she simply nodded her head and waved off his response as if to say she understood.

Leave.

Leave.

Sakura's mind berated, the strong impulse to flee overriding the fact they were in her apartment. She just needed to get some distance before everything in her collapsed right there in front of Sasuke.

Springing from the couch in the next instance proved difficult as a large masculine hand gathered around her thin wrists and kept her in her seat. The Uchiha male sighed, "are you done deciding for me what my words mean or would you like to continue your meltdown?"

Sakura blinked away the liquid blurring her vision. "But you said—" she begun.

"I said I'm not good at it, not that I wouldn't try."

Sakura's mood visibly perked and a half-smile graced Sasuke's features before relaxing into a neutral expression. "With all I've lost, don't you think I know what things like this are worth?" He paused, watching her face to make sure it sank in, "you know as well as I do I can't change what I've come from, Sakura."

She nodded in silence, knowing better than to interrupt a loose-lipped Uchiha. Sakura gathered his hand back into the cradle of her own palms and looked expectantly, a pensive depression across his brow when something struck her. "Nee, Sasuke-kun. That's not just you, that's all of us on Team 7." She was looking down at his hand again.

"None of us chose our starting place, yet somehow we arrived back here together; we traveled and trained and struggled. We opened up new paths to become more than what we were. We—" she stopped short.

Sakura peered up to see Sasuke's eyes were closed, but it wasn't in concentration. It was the look he had when he arrived at the right answer. In one smooth motion he freed his hand and his arm snaked around her waist to pull her closer. Once again mismatched eyes stared back and sent her heart racing with the intention behind them.

"Sakura," her name was velvet on his tongue, "The only new paths I want to break open involve you and I."

The startled gasp and disparate breathing that followed signaled his words had the desired affect—it had been enough for today.

Good.

A surprised squeak escaped Sakura as Sasuke pulled her the rest of the way onto his lap. "You interrupted me earlier," he chastised. The remainder of Sakura's evening became a blur of hot kisses and even hotter embraces.

Note: I wanted to write a thing so I did. Read it, add it to your favorites, tell me what you think. Also, if for some reason it was unclear the summary is actually the beginning of the story.