I Don't Know How You Get Over Someone As

Dangerous, And Tainted, And Flawed As You.

You're Screwed Up, And Brilliant,

And Look Like A Million Dollar Man

So Why Is My Heart Broke?

"What are you staring at?" Suigetsu spoke loudly, eyes only slightly narrowed at the waitresses outright open stare.

"Why do you look like a shark?"

To this day now, Aiko still had no knowledge of the fact that she had been the first person to cause Sasuke Uchiha to crack some form of a smile for the first time in months on that day. Suigetsu glared at their waitress, not offended by her question, but more annoyed with her audacity. Her green eyes held within them nothing but curiosity, and when she realised she would receive no form of an answer from the missing nin she continued with taking their orders. At this point she had barely even looked at the Uchiha boy, choosing to flicker her gaze between Suigetsu's unnaturally sharp teeth and her notepad.

Looking back on it she supposed it had been some twisted form of fate that they had taken a seat in her section. She was sixteen at that time, living on her own and working as the youngest waitress in the small restaurant. Naïve to the workings and ways of ninja's, not that she ever wanted to be one, for even she knew she hadn't the stomach for their job. It was during the summer when he had stepped in, with his companion, white hair and teeth as sharp as a shark.

What you must understand is this; the people of Aiko's small town had no knowledge of clans, it was a remote place, consisting of very few villagers. Their town so incredibly small that barely enough people occupied it to solicit town gossip, their stores and restaurants were prone to be a common stop for missing nin. People in Aiko's village kept to themselves in that sense, for they had no business in meddling with ninja politics, they served their customers and continued with the day.

He supposed that was why Aiko had struck him so much upon their first encounter, for when she eventually looked to him expectantly, awaiting his order, the look she gave him was not one of fear for who he was, or admiration, or respect or lust. The look she gave him did not affiliate with his heritage or reputation as a missing ninja at all, she looked at him plainly. That was it.

Her gaze was simply expectant as she waited for him to mention his order, and once he had, in his concise and monotonous voice she had turned away from him. Smiling at the both of them as she tucked a stray strand of brown hair behind her ear, and recited her mandatory lines of how their wait wouldn't be too long.

That was the first time Aiko Akiyama and Sasuke Uchiha had met, and it certainly wouldn't be the last.

The fifth time Sasuke returned to the restaurant was several months later, their customers beginning to filter away as their nights came to an end. He would never admit it, but he enjoyed the feeling of anonymity within Aiko's village, the feeling of being treated normally. By then Aiko had expected him to appear at least once a month, and upon seeing his mass of black hair and cloak at the back of restaurant she didn't bother with taking his order, and instead placed it on his table silently, smiling softly towards him before walking away.

That was the second thing about Aiko that caught his attention; she didn't pry. Not just with him, but with anyone who came in. She didn't make unnecessary conversation or nosed around, she left you to your devices, almost as if she could sense when people wanted to be left alone. He couldn't remember the last time someone had simply let him be, no questions asked and no following. Orochimaru was prone to doing both, almost as if he enjoyed irritating the young Uchiha boy.

It wasn't until two hours later, when they had begun to shut the lights off that Sasuke had realised it was their closing time. He looked up to Aiko blankly, noticing her apologetic smile as she begun to speak.

"Sorry to disturb you, but we're gonna close in a few minutes – do you want me to wrap that up for you?"

"No, thank you."

He shook his head in refusal as he murmured quietly, lifting the plate and handing it out to her. Taking it with a small thank you, and walking back to the kitchen, it was the second of a long list that she had unknowingly managed to cause from Sasuke; politeness. He was gone when she returned from the kitchen, the entire restaurant now deathly silent as her and one elderly waitress begun locking up the place.

"See you tomorrow Hitomi," Aiko said softly, tucking her small hands into her winter coat, smiling brightly towards her superior.

"Goodnight dear, have a safe journey." It was a farewell that the elderly woman always gave Aiko, despite their small town being absolutely harmless, but the woman worried for her like a grandmother would.

She could see her cold breath in the night air as she walked, predicting in her mind that snow would soon begin to fall in the next few days. She continued her walk in a daydream, imagining her footprints become present in untouched snow, feeling the incredibly small flakes land in her hair and the tip of her nose. Aiko had always loved the winter.

Despite the lack of trouble within Aiko's village, along with the fact that Sasuke could feel no threatening chakra of the sort within the vicinity, he still continued to follow her home in the darkness. Just in case.

"You always get Donburi here; don't you want to try anything else on the menu?"

It had taken almost a year, but somehow Aiko had found herself attempting actual conversation with Sasuke, although she still didn't know his name. His onyx eyes stared at her for a moment, noticing how she stood a little away from his table, as if sensing his dislike when his personal space was invaded. She spoke with that ever present smile on her face, not too large or small, but the just the perfect size to make you feel comfortable. It was merely friendly. He appreciated that.

He sighed quietly, before staring back at her blankly, "what would you suggest?"

She hadn't expected him to actually take her up on her offer; he had constantly come across as the type who did not appreciate being bothered. At all. So as she stood there for a few moments, attempting to actually think up a response for the silent man, Sasuke took that small moment to actually assess her features.

The girl was far from average looking, her eyes such an incredibly bright shade of green it brought back unwanted memories of an old team mate, images of pink hair and petty fights between team seven invaded his head. He forced them back to the deep recesses of his mind, baggage he no longer needed to hold onto. Aiko had a habit of always pulling her hair into a clumsy bun atop of her head, strands always coming loose around her neck, ones that she usually didn't care to tie back up. To him, Aiko seemed like the type of female who cared for her appearance the least, her bland colours of clothing and lack of make-up had proven that a long time ago for him.

She was a subtle beauty, one that should she have been born into a different clan, with money or even a slightly more respectable name she would have appeared vastly different. She would have attracted several eyes, she would have dressed fare more feminine and would have been trained to be the perfect housewife and partner. Sasuke preferred her exactly how she was though.

"Uhm, well – our chef, Akira, he makes really good Yakizakana. How about that?"

Sasuke retorted with a curt nod. Truth be told he hated Yakizakana, it was something his mother had made for him whenever he felt sick, in turn the memory filled him with so much anger that he preferred to not indulge in it. However, the thought of voicing his dislike for it to Aiko almost made him feel guilty, and he hadn't felt guilty in a long time. It made him uncomfortable, and he wanted to scowl at her, but he failed to understand why. People like Aiko were always beneath him, that's how he had always thought of normal civilians. Too weak to even make usage of chakra, too scared to even try. Yet somehow Sasuke thought nothing of the sort for Aiko, it was annoying. She seemed so incredibly fragile all the time, and the type of nice he knew would have usually annoyed him.

She was just too good.

So instead of telling her no, he remained silent, and let her smile at him once more before dashing to the kitchen.

It wasn't until later, when she had come back to collect his plate, that she attempted to speak to him once more.

"What's it like? Being a ninja?"

The question startled him, for the curiosity in her eyes was so incredibly evident that she almost seemed excited. She wasn't even looking at him in that moment, but at his katana, he had shed his cloak the moment he had stepped in that night. The heavy rain he had been travelling through had soaked it, and so it rested upon the stool beside him. His katana was placed in between the ropes of his attire, shirt slightly agape and revealing his chest. Even in that moment Aiko still hadn't paid a single glance to it, her green eyes were completely transfixed on the katana.

He was silent for a long time, mostly because he didn't know how to answer it. How did you answer a question such as that? It wasn't fun, it wasn't tedious, and technically he was no longer a ninja. There was no way to describe it, he had lived his whole life with just this one thing, and it was all he knew. He didn't particularly choose it; it was simply bestowed upon him.

He settled for the only answer he could think of.

"Eventful."

She made an inaudible sound of agreement, easing down to take a seat opposite him. She placed her chin into her hand, voice sounding like that of an eager child, and Sasuke couldn't help himself but to find it endearing.

"I can imagine, what's the most dangerous mission you've had? If you're allowed to say that is."

Sasuke kept details to a minimum, his answers short and concise. The only real stories he had of missions was when he was in Team 7, so sitting there and re-telling stories about that brought on one the most unwanted form of nostalgia. Aiko had begun to form an unintentional habit of that, arising emotions that he had thought he buried. He briefly spoke of the mission in the mist, leaving out his sharingan activation, and the details of his team mates. His eyes flickering back to Aiko's at certain moments, her interest never ceasing, and at no point did she ever seemed deterred or offended by brusqueness. Sasuke deemed her as possibly one of the most patient women he had come across, though his experience was limited.

It continued that way, her firing questions and Sasuke answering simply, only ever so often rambling. It made him feel nervous slightly, and almost disgusted with himself, he was becoming comfortable around Aiko. That behaviour wasn't allowed, becoming comfortable meant allowing your guard down, and allowing your guard down meant creating bonds. Bonds were something he could not afford to have. At least not until Itachi was dead; they would do nothing but drag him down.

He felt completely stupid, he didn't even understand why he had bothered, and it was so pathetic that he could hear Suigetsu mocking him for the rest of his life. It wasn't as if he'd thrown any particular effort into it, he had overheard Aiko talking about her birthday – her 17th, to be specific. It wasn't as if he had planned on actually getting her anything, which would have been beyond a joke. Uchiha's were not the sentimental type.

It was on a simple whim. Orochimaru had sent him on a job, kill a clan due to a traitor in their family. It was simple enough, and Orochimaru was not one for mercy when people did not meet their end of a bargain. Especially when he had invested a fair amount of money into something. The necklace had been there, on the dressing table, untouched and small. The chain was silver, and the centerpiece a small sapphire. It was nothing extravagant, yet simple enough to suffice as a gift for Aiko. It wasn't as if anyone would be using it either, and in his mind it would have gone to much better use should she actually like it enough to wear it.

She had reacted more positively that he anticipated, which in turn made him feel embarrassed and out of place. He hadn't even wrapped it up, simply handing it over to her, murmuring a "for your birthday," as she took it from him.

The grin that graced her plump lips was so incredibly wide that her entire set of teeth were present. She was even bold enough to envelope him into a hug, one that had taken Sasuke so off guard and made him so uncomfortable that he hadn't returned it. Not that she expected him too; she had gathered that he wouldn't be one for physical interaction. Hell, he was barely one of social interaction. Nevertheless she hugged him, and tightly at that, before letting go and thanking him. She stared at the sapphire, her voice in slight awe of the gift.

"I've never had anything this nice before."

Her words caused a stir in his stomach, though he let no indication on, but it made Sasuke feel slightly guilty. For what exactly? He didn't know. It almost saddened him to witness someone so incredibly good and soft say that, feeling as if she deserved better. That she deserved better than all of this, than her job or her home, and she deserved a far better gift than what he had offered her. Yet she remained grateful, and it annoyed him.

Aiko put on the necklace then and there, wearing it almost proudly as she continued on with her shift. Sasuke would never admit it, but it pleased him.

"We have a debt to collect," yelled one of the men, swiping the entire contents of one of tables onto the floor, he proceeded to flip over the table, scaring customers and the staff as he did so. "And we're not leaving until we have some help with it."

One of the waitresses trembled in fear beside Aiko, the both of them seated on the floor as they had been ordered to. Three men, clearly from the same clan, all with visible scars on their faces, distinct features of their noses and chins let on they were related, small in size and flat chocolate hair. The largest of the three held up a copy of the bingo book, proceeding to open it and rip out a page. His assailants dragging random hostages towards their leader would shove their faces into the paper, and Aiko watched as they were each probed on if they recognised the ninja they were searching for.

"My sources tell me you have a frequent visitor to this village, so someone better speak up – or you'll all be losing your tongues."

Aiko's eyes drifted to the spilt contents of the table beside her, the smashed plate in the perfect shape for a weapon. She hadn't exactly been thinking ahead with the plan, only that she would have felt more secure if she had it hidden in her grip. She squeezed her friends hand softly, before quietly crawling towards the plate, which was less than a metre from her. She was hidden amongst the other smashed and turned tables around her, the restaurant now an unrecognisable mess. The little money the owners had put into it now a complete waste.

Her hand reached for the shard, fingers gripping onto it and wrapping around it. She was startled, a small yelp of pain emitting from her lips as a boot slammed down on top of her hand. Making it slice into her skin as the plate cracked into smaller pieces, she looked up in shock, seeing the youngest of the three grinning sadistically.

"We have a feisty one here," he laughed out, grabbing her by the roots of her hair and dragging her out into the open, "thought she was slick."

He crouched down to his knees, nose burying into her hair, making her skin crawl. She was afraid.

"Pretty too," he commented, "maybe when we're done here, we could have a little fun."

She involuntarily let out a pained sob, from the pain of his grip on her hair, and the dread of what he was insinuating. No man had ever touched her before, and at that thought she felt his free hand trail her collar bone and into her shirt.

"Please stop," she sobbed out, attempting to fidget out of his grip.

"I like them scared," he muttered darkly, chuckling with his brothers as the eldest walked towards her.

"I take it you're local," he said, holding up the paper from the bingo book and pushing it into her line of sight, "do you recognise him?"

It had taken her a beat too long to realise the face of the criminal on the paper, his face was recognisable even as a young adolescent. Uchiha Sasuke, that was his full name, it was strange how she had never wondered what it was until she actually knew it. To her he was just Sasuke, the ninja who sometimes stopped by, who sometimes allowed her to sit and talk to him. He was the quite boy who had gotten her the very first piece of jewellery she'd ever received, who had caused an onslaught of butterflies in her stomach the very moment he had given to her. Never would she have imagined that he was an S Class criminal.

And when she had forced herself to not give a visible reaction her hair was tugged on, the hand of her captive still buried in her shirt. Making bile rise in her throat and feat constrict her entire body, she was unable move. Frozen in place.

"Answer him."

She looked up into the criminal's eyes; her voice trembled with the fear from his penetrating gaze. A gaze so incredibly sadistic and enraged she failed to form words for a few moments; whatever Sasuke had done … she knew it was unforgivable.

"No," she whispered, "I've never seen him before."

He stared at her for a long moment, glaring, as if he were contemplating whether he believed her or not. He almost stepped away, almost uttered from his lips for his comrade to release her, until his eyes caught the shine of the jewellery around her neck.

Everything happened in slow motion then for Aiko, ripping her away from his partner's grip to wrap both hands around her neck. His strength was unfathomable to her, for a few moments she was in the air as he raised her up, before smashing her back down into the already splintered table beneath her. The pain and gravity of the impact momentarily dazed her, and it took her far too long to come to her senses and realise she had begun bleeding from her head. The criminal never ceased his choke hold on her, causing tears to spring from her eyes in the pain, fear and the fighting need to breathe properly.

"WHERE IS HE?!"

"Wh- who?" She choked out, feigning innocence despite her incontrollable trembling, which only fuelled the anger of her captive.

"UCHIHA! THE MURDEROUS BRAT WHO GAVE YOU THIS!"

Tearing the necklace away from her, he held it in her line of sight for a brief moment, the third and quietest member coming to stand behind him. He took it from the eldest calmly, examining it in a childlike manor before his eyes narrowed towards Aiko.

"Hitoshi, this was mothers. Father had it made for her when they were engaged. There are no others of its make. She knows where the Uchiha is."

Hitoshi's face became so unbearably close to Aiko's that his alcohol drenched breath filled all her senses, suffocating her and blinding her. Still she begged, and still she persisted that she had no idea of who Sasuke was, taking beatings to the face with the loudest screams she had ever emitted from her lips. It wasn't until Koushun, the most disgusting of them all, pulled his brother away, a sickening amount of glee evident in his voice.

"I'll handle this," he chuckled out, watching in amusement as she attempted to crawl away from them, barely moving an inch due to her weak nature. "And I'll make her talk."

"I don't know anything," she sobbed out, her eyes widening as her eyes caught the shine of the kunai he withdrew from his pouch, "please – please I don't-"

"SHUT UP," he shouted out, his hand darting out to cover her muffled screams, grinning callously towards the slightly older waitress across the room, her face contorted into horror as she sat there. Frozen.

This wasn't supposed to happen; it had supposed to have been like every other night. The rules were always the same, for closing there was always two waitresses; one to lock the door and the other to clear the tables. The only chef they had, Akira, spent that period cleaning out the kitchen. It was routine, it was always the same. This sort of thing just didn't happen; trouble was never brought to their town. Rukia wasn't like Aiko; she wasn't brave enough to even look at a way of escaping this. And she certainly wasn't brave enough to lie about knowing who they were looking for. She couldn't understand it, failing to comprehend why Aiko was enduring so much to simply protect a clear criminal.

She watched in horror, tears streaming down her face as the kunai Koushun had withdrawn from his pouch was used to cut Aiko's dress apart. It was clear what they all expected to come of it, only Koushun seemed to be far more sadistic than she initially thought. For the moment her dress was ripped apart, exposing Aiko's bare stomach and underwear, he begun carving into her skin.

The screams that had escaped Aiko's lips was one that could have awoken the entire street, the agony in what he was doing evident.

He had begun carving words into her skin; things he deemed amusing yet degrading, jagged letters that pierced the skin deeply, scarring her in a way that brought him joy. His belief that if his family should suffer great lengths, then so should the Uchiha's.

"Keep still! This takes a lot of concentration." He laughed out, though his words were drowned out by her pained cries.

Aiko could think of nothing, say nothing, and do nothing but scream as the pain evaded her every thought and being.

"I'm sorry." Sasuke murmured, dabbing the blood stained cloth on the wounds on Aiko's face. And Sasuke attempted to convey in those two words that he meant so much more than just a simple apology.

He was sorry for giving her the necklace, he was sorry for getting her involved, he was sorry for putting her in harm's way. He was sorry for getting there too late. He watched her silently cry for hours as he cleaned up her wounds, wrapping her in gauze where he could and placing ointment on the wounds that were etched across her stomach, wounds that would permanently scar.

She had been unconscious when he arrived; mostly likely passing out due to the amount of pain she had been in. It had become a bloodbath from then on, slaughtering the brothers in the most gruesome and painful way that he could imagine in his rage. It was a type of rage he hadn't felt in a long time, a rage that consumed every vein in his body and every muscle and piece of him that he attacked in frenzy. He hated to think that if he hadn't of cut his training early, if he had stayed instead of giving into the urge to go to the restaurant that far dire consequences would have happened to Aiko.

He used the cloth to wipe away some of the tears, unable to offer any other forms of comfort, for Sasuke wasn't one for physical interaction, nor was he one for words. Sasuke had never had to be the one that others emotionally depended on, so now as he sat in the bathroom of Aiko's apartment while he cleaned her wounds, he found himself at a loss of what to do.

Aiko hadn't looked at him since she had awoken, choosing to remain silent as she curled in on herself, eyes remaining on the cold floor. She was startled for a brief second when she realised that Sasuke had brought her to her home, for she had no idea how he would have even known where her home was. Her fear was cut short by the knowledge that of course, he was a ninja, and the affection she has guessed her harboured for her would have had a hand in where she lived.

She would be the first to admit that she had no idea who Sasuke really was, she didn't even know if that was his real name, but she had trusted. She had trusted him based on his actions regarding her, she had always lived by the philosophy that if people were good to her then that was enough, only she learned on that night that it wouldn't always be enough.

"Who are you?" She whispered, wincing as the gash above her eyebrow stung her, still unable to look up to Sasuke.

Sasuke faltered in his movements, hand remaining still and above her eyebrow for a second. His hand then dropped, and stood from his kneeling position in front of her. He took a few steps back, his face stoic and making it impossible for her to decipher what he was thinking, or if he was going to say anything at all to her. He simply stood there, staying down at her, and the silence remained between them for what felt like hours until his lips parted and he finally spoke.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, and I'm an S-Class criminal, I've been a missing-nin from the village of the Leaf for almost five years now."

The silence that descended between them after that was palpable, and though his face remained unchanged Sasuke's breathed remained hitched in his throat as he awaited some form of a response from Aiko. He was almost anxious, almost, of whether she would allow him to explain himself further.

"Go on… tell me everything." She eventually said, her voice low and soft. She trembled slightly, and Sasuke perceived it to be out of fear, so he took another step back from her before he carried on.

And that was exactly what he did; he told her everything, from the slaughter of his clan by his brother, to the choice he made to leave Konoha in order to become stronger so he could destroy Itachi. He deliberately gave as little detail as possible when mentioning Naruto and all of Team Seven, not wanting to expose himself any more than he already. It scared him to be able to speak so freely, to openly tell someone so much of what he had withheld inside for such a significant amount of time. Only he felt as if he owed it to Aiko, she deserved the truth, especially when she had suffered so much punishment when trying to protect him. Something she had no obligation to do, but she did, and she had endured imaginable pain because of it, and yet here she still was attempting to hear his side.

When he finished he almost wanted to take a deep breathe, reluctant to admit just how liberating it felt to have unloaded all of what he had just said, as if he were allowing someone to shoulder the burden with him. It was a terrifying concept; trusting someone. It left you open to so many dangers, you were allowing yourself to trust that if you fell at any point, that they were dependable enough to catch you, that you would have someone already waiting there. That's what he was doing know, falling in the vain hope that Aiko would open her arms for him. He supposed to she had done the exact same, because she wouldn't have allowed herself to be put in that amount of danger if she didn't.

When she finally did look up to him, eyes clear of tears and with a new found confidence on her features she spoke evenly. Her voice quite yet confident and he knew she wouldn't repeat herself.

"From now on, if you ever want to see me again, you need to be completely honest."

Heyyy, I don't know where this came from really - but it's just going to be a simple two shot spanning over the time that Sasuke was missing from Konoha. It'll just be a small few scenes here and there pretty much showing the progression of his and Aiko's relationship. I hope you guys enjoy, I really loved writing it!