Author's Note: This had to be written. 'Nuff said.

Disclaimer: IDNON, BIDHTOS! That is all.

*-Drabble .004-*

Summary: Because only Sakura could coax him out of bed at four in the morning to come to her apartment and kill a spider.

Categories: Romance, Fluff, Friendship, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Humour, Smut

Rating: M

Wakeup Call

The shrill trilling of his cell phone cut through the peaceful fog of sleep that had settled over him, inevitably pulling the drowsy male into consciousness once more as he blindly felt for the shrieking piece of technology. His face still buried in his pillow when his fingers curled around the cellular device, Sasuke groaned loudly in protest. This was such a rude awakening.

If it wasn't life or death, he would see to it that he would be the first person to successfully crawl through a phone line and strangle his caller into an early grave. Sliding across the delicate touch screen to accept the call and cursing at the brightness of the light against his tired eyes, the raven haired man pressed the phone to his ear, murmuring grouchily into the receiver as he bit back a yawn. The panicked wail of an all too familiar pinkette flooded into his system, snapping his senses awake like ice-water had been injected into his bloodstream intravenously as he pushed himself up onto his elbows.

"S-S-Sasuke-kun! H-Help! I need y-your help! P-P-Please…!"

"Wait, Sakura…? What's wrong?" Sasuke exclaimed in surprise, cold dread coiling in his gut as he took in her broken sobs and hyperventilating with increasing concern. His eyes blearily settled on his alarm clock, the angry red numbers flashing harshly in the natural darkness of his room. 4:03a.m. What could possibly be happening at such an ungodly hour? Had someone broken in? Was she being held hostage in her own home?

Sasuke's thoughts raced with increasing gravity, and he jerked into a seated posture as he prepared to call the cops and bust down her door and fucking murder her intruders—

"S-S-Spider! T-There's a spider in my bedroom!" Sakura shrieked hysterically down the line, the young Uchiha tumbling to the floor in a tangle of blankets as he face-planted very literally in response to her less than grave situation. He sighed. On any other day, and had they been anyone but Sakura, Sasuke would have hung up with a few choice swear words in the caller's direction for being a fucking moron.

Fortunately, this was his best friend, who had been there for him in his desperate times of need with open arms at all times of the day and night, and thus he took her extreme phobia of eight-legged creepy-crawlies with a grain of salt. To her it was a matter of life and death, and it was in his imperative to humour her in any way he could; he wanted to be there for her when she needed him, even if it meant waking up at four o'clock in the morning and driving to her apartment on the other side of town to kill her greatest nemesis.

And thus Sasuke soon found himself in his car, taking the twenty-five minute drive to her place in his pyjama bottoms and one of his old shirts, hair mussed up with sleep as he rubbed his eyes in an attempt to wipe his lingering exhaustion away.

Sakura's house was dark except for the dazzling lamplight flooding out through her bedroom window, and he cursed his luck that she lived on the top floor. There were no elevators in her complex, as the buildings were more than seventy years old, and thus only had creaky stairwells to clamber up every time he visited. She had told him that it was all she could afford given her low wages as a full-time university student.

Given his vast wealth as a part of the affluent Uchiha family, money had never been an issue for Sasuke, and he had offered on more than one occasion to buy and lease her out a nicer apartment in a much nicer area than the one she lived in—Sakura lived in the equivalent of Konohagakure's ghetto, and he was always paranoid about her getting mugged, or worse. Which explained his immediate false presumptions regarding her potentially getting broken into and assaulted. It was hard not to jump to conclusions, when she inhabited a perpetual slum willingly.

He pulled into an empty carpark, switching off the ignition as he stepped out of his car and locked it; checking twice that it was, in fact, inaccessible, because it was the ideal vehicle to steal and sell for a huge sum of money, and he would not have his baby stolen.

No fucking way.

Stuffing his keys into his shirt's pocket, Sasuke bounded up the stairs with a stealth that only he could possess, the creaking of the fragile metal stairs beneath his feet echoing irrespective of his light steps as he made his way to the top landing. Rolling his eyes as he arrived, when two copulating rats fled in terror at his abrupt appearance, Sasuke strode over to her door at the end of the hall, pulling his spare key from around his neck (he kept it on a necklace so he would never lose it) and pushing it into the deadlock.

It opened with a click, and he was sure to lock it behind him as he blindly felt around for the nearest light switch. He found it after fumbling and stumbling in the dark, flipping it on as he rolled up the nearest magazine into a taut cylinder before he swaggered up the wooden staircase adjacent to him. He was incredibly exasperated.

This was not how he had wanted to start his morning.

Sighing, he made it onto the second level, striding with great purpose into her bedroom to be blessed with the sight of Sakura, in nothing but a baggy t-shirt and her underwear, sitting atop her cupboard and cowering feebly at the admittedly huge spider on the floor nearby. Sasuke stifled his laugh when she turned her glassy eyes his way, her expression a permanent stain of petrification as she looked down at him from quite the height. How the short little thing had gotten up there he had no idea, but it was hilarious never the less.

"S-S-Sasuke-kun!" Sakura wailed loudly, her lip quivering as tears filled her eyes, and she curled deeper into herself. He knew that mocking her for her severe arachnophobia was cruel and unseemly, but he was feeling a little vindictive at having been woken up in the wee hours of the morning, and so he couldn't help but to gloat in the wake of her absolute terror.

"Sakura. You are aware that spiders are adept at climbing up walls and furniture, right? Seems a bit pointless to back yourself into a very literal corner." His tone accentuated his clear amusement, and Sakura stiffened at the realisation that had not occurred to her; on the point of having a mental breakdown, Sasuke picked his game up, quickly stepping into the room and squashing the spider with a single vicious downward stroke of his arm.

He had no qualms picking it up and dropping it into the closed magazine, before he slipped into her bathroom and flushed it down the toilet. Even the thought of having a spider's carcass in her bin freaked the pinkette out, as she firmly believed that like cockroaches, they could never truly die, and these musings were the fuel to her fire. Riled up and completely traumatised by its sudden and very unwanted visitation into her bedroom, Sakura had all but clambered onto the top of her closet, taking her phone with her on the way as she cursed every god in existence for making such horrendous creatures in the first place.

Sasuke was the light at the end of her tunnel, and so she had called him knowing that he would come to save her from its clutches no matter what time it was.

She loved him dearly for it.

Having washed his hands and making a show of patting down his hands on his pyjama bottoms for Sakura's sake, Sasuke stopped astride her solid closet, looking up at her with hilarity dancing in his dark eyes.

"Are you quite done staying up there? The threat has been neutralised." He quipped sagely, smiling as he bit back a chuckle at the timid glean in her expression. Sakura was still paranoid, wondering whether or not another little critter of hell would scamper out from beneath her bed and frighten the last bit of life out of her, and thus she stubbornly refused to move; too terrified to do so. Sasuke raised a trim eyebrow in her direction, lips quirked as he opened his arms up to receive her.

"You might want to get down from there. I'm sure that spider has vengeful cousins lurking somewhere up there—" He was cut off as Sakura dove into his arms, her weight and the force of her impact summoning a heady grunt as he shifted her in his embrace.

With her legs wrapped around his lithe waist and her face buried in his neck, Sakura held on steadfast, refusing to let go even as he tried to deposit her on her bed. Sighing once more, Sasuke ran a rough hand through his own hair, before he pressed a comforting kiss to the top of her rosy head and carried her out of her room. Confused, Sakura pulled back enough to look him in the eye as he smiled affectionately at her.

"Let's go back to mine."

Blushing, she gave him a sweet smile and nodded, and it made his efforts more than worthwhile.

Sasuke deposited his car keys in the bowl on the kitchenette, locking the door behind him as Sakura shuffled into his master bedroom without a word. Throughout their entire lives, whenever they had stayed over each other's houses, they slept in the same bed. It was purely platonic, and that had never changed. Sasuke having a girlfriend ensured this. He knew that Sakura had had a crush on him in their younger years, but she had never acted on it because she knew he didn't reciprocate her feelings. He loved her, yes, dearly and unconditionally, but not like that. But that didn't mean he hadn't pondered on it.

It wasn't so much the idea of romance that bothered him; it was how to cross the line between being friends and being more.

They had been too close for too long.

He worried that if they were to step into something more substantial and have it fail, then both relationships would effectively fall apart.

He couldn't lose her, even if it meant keeping their relationship strictly uninvolved.

Shaking off his negative impressions, Sasuke made his way into his absolutely humungous bedroom, noting with a chuckle that Sakura had already made herself comfortable amidst his settee. Closing the door behind him, he switched off the overhead lights, climbing into the sheets that had now gone cold in his absence as he wrapped her up in his warmth.

"Night." Was all he said, quickly drifting off to the soft scent of her strawberry conditioner permeating into his nostrils and easing him into the comfort of slumber once more.

Because of this, he missed her softly whispered, "Thank you, Sasuke-kun…"

Sakura shifted, her slumber disturbed by the ringing of her cell phone. There was something pressing, urgent, about the way in which it pierced into her eardrums, and she jumped into alertness in a state of absolute frenzy. That was Sasuke's ring tone. She had set it specifically because he was so very precious to her, and she had never missed a call from him. She scrambled to grab it, heart in her mouth and molten lava pooling into rapidly hardening lead in her tummy as she answered filled with trepidation. It was 2:30 in the morning, and that meant that something bad had happened.

Having grown up with him, Sakura knew better than anyone Sasuke's unhappy circumstances; so profoundly had they affected him that he was drowning in deep depression, and had tried to kill himself more times than she could count in response to his grief. The pinkette never failed to pick up, because she knew that she was the tether that kept him grounded to life. If she didn't respond, he had nothing. And there was no way that he had nothing, because he had all of her, and she would be damned if he threw it all away because she couldn't pick up her fucking phone.

"Sasuke-kun, what's happened sweetie? Is everything okay? Are you alright?" Sakura questioned quickly, too flustered to remain idle as she threw off her bedsheets and pulled on her winter coat and boots. She was already halfway down the staircase when she heard her parents stirring in their bedroom. She snatched her father's car keys before he could stumble out of his room and stop her, and she ran outside without a word to anyone else but the fragile teenager on the other end of the line.

His harsh exhalations and pained gasps belied the heavy sobs that were wracking his frame, and Sakura felt her blood turn to ice as she started the car up and reversed out of the driveway. The porch light penetrated the darkness, and her parents ripped the door open, dressed in only their robes as they called out to Sakura to stop. She disobeyed her father's angry yells, speeding off down the street whilst the phone was pressed between the crook of her shoulder and her ear.

"Sakura… my dad… he found the pictures."

Sakura froze behind the wheel, before she pushed down on the accelerator, flying down the frosty roads as she parted her lips to speak.

"Where are you now, Sasuke-kun?"

His breaths came out in laboured puffs, and she felt her eyes glaze over with tears when she heard him muttering "so much blood" under his breath.

"Sasuke-kun, please tell me where you are right now!"

Her voice pulled him back from his musings, as he focused enough to answer with a short "At the cliff by Tanami Bridge."

And she gunned it all the way, pulling to a shuttering halt by the park as she threw open the door without even closing it behind her. Her footsteps echoed loudly against the pavement as she bolted across the aforementioned bridge, up the large set of stone steps that led to the cliff he was currently—potentially—bleeding out all over. She soon found the answer to that, much to her absolute horror and grief.

Sasuke was sitting in a deepening slouch, sleeves rolled up and deep gashes marring his pale flesh a ghastly shade of red.

Blood trickled down every inch of his pale forearms, and his face was deathly gaunt, dark eyes drooping as he struggled to hold his phone up to his ear. Sakura burst into tears, dropping her flip-phone onto the light layer of snowy sleet at her feet as she ran to his side. His attention was caught as she sunk down on her knees in front of him, hands curling around the blade he still held in his open palm as she pried it from him with no resistance at all.

Sasuke was drowsy from blood loss, and Sakura ripped off her coat, using the knife to shred the thick material into makeshift bandages that she then used to stem the steady flow of blood.

"Sakura… you came…" Sasuke murmured softly, a worn smile lifting his chapped lips into a broken interpretation of joy as he leaned into her shoulder. He was freezing, his eyelashes fluttering against the bared skin of her shoulder as the wintry chill sunk into her exposed flesh.

"Of course I came, Sasuke-kun. I'll always come for you, no matter where you are or what time it is. Oh sweetie, why…?" Sakura choked on her words, biting her lip as she pulled him into her warmth, praying that it would be enough to keep him aware of her existence.

"He was so angry… Sakura… he hates me… I'm disgusting, and now… he knows it too…"

"Oh sweetie, no! Your father loves you so much! You have no idea how much he must be hurting for you right now!"

Sakura felt her stomach lurch at the distant memory of stumbling upon Sasuke's hidden stash of broken memories, all compiled into a little collection in a box beneath the floorboards under his bed. It was where he had buried the candid photos of his abusive fucker of an uncle molesting him at different stages of his life; the photos that he had left Sasuke as a reminder of his power over the shattered Uchiha boy, who had kept them out of fear of further punishment. And now his father knew what a sick bastard his brother really was.

Sasuke had never wanted him to find out, because it would be humiliating should it ever be exposed to the media that he had been sexually abused since before he could even remember by the vice-president of his father's prestigious company.

His uncle.

Sakura had hated his guts for so long, so whenever he was staying in the Uchiha manor, she would pack a duffel bag filled with Sasuke's clothing and insist that he stay with her for the entire duration of his stay. It had eventually become apparent to him that the pinkette knew what he had been doing to Sasuke, and he had made it a point to leave her with a threat so vile that she had felt compelled to stab him right in that traitorous heart of his and watch him bleed out and suffer for all the pain he had caused for the boy she had loved for so long.

It was a quiet and tentative love, the kind that would never bear fruit; he was too damaged, and she was only his safety net. She kept him sane when nothing else could. But she was content with this state of existence, as it meant that she could always be close to his side without ever being treated as a hindrance; and she clung to the knowledge that he needed her more than anything in the world, especially in moments like this. He was so vulnerable, raw, in times of absolute crisis and devastation, and she would do her best to put his shattered pieces back together again.

"I'll always be by your side, okay? I'll never give up on you, so please don't give up on me. I need you, Sasuke-kun. I know I'm not enough, but I want to be the one to fill the hole in your heart. So don't leave me behind." Sakura sniffled between sobs, squeezing him tightly in her embrace as he melted into her touch without restraint.

"I'm sorry… I promise… I'm not going… anywhere without you… I'm so sorry…" Sasuke responded blearily, nuzzling into her bare throat as she took his phone, ended the call to hers, and sent for an ambulance to collect the two of them.

All the while, she held onto him; never for a moment letting her grip on him waver as the distant echo of sirens grounded them in reality once more.

Sakura woke with a start at the sound of a woman's outraged shriek, vision blurry as she spiralled back into reality. The deliciously familiar scent of Sasuke's aftershave filtered into her senses, warmth filling her to the brim even as he stirred alongside her. Their legs were intertwined within one another, her arm thrown casually over his muscular stomach and her head buried in the raw heat of his chest even as she peeled her gaze away from his disgruntled expression and sought out the source of their unwelcome awakening.

There, in the doorway of his bedroom, stood his fuming girlfriend Ami, her brown eyes blazing as she glared holes into the pinkette's skull. Sleep washed off of her like a slap to the face, and she idly noted that it was ten in the morning even as she nudged him into consciousness once again; Sasuke's outraged glower quickly shifting into confusion as he took in his seething significant other's venomous expression with the coherency of a stunned mullet.

"Ami…? What are you doing here?" He questioned with a deep baritone fogged over with sleep, the beginnings of dark circles forming under his equally dark eyes as he met her gaze without flinching; reclining even further into the comfort of his mattress as he tried to shake off his early morning escapade with little success. He was so fucking tired, and lounging there with Sakura was becoming even more compelling considering how little he cared for consciousness right now.

Said woman bristled in apparent rage, her righteous expression twisting with barely contained vehemence as she spat an unpleasant, "I came because we have a date today! But clearly you were too busy cheating on me with that pink haired whore—!"

As fast as those words had left her lips, Sasuke had thrown the blankets off, posture positively rigid as he stalked his way over to her with devastating wrath in his eyes. Sakura was quick to jump up as well, ready to intervene should he lose his temper and become violent, but she was left speechless when he grabbed his sputtering girlfriend by the arms and kissed her.

"Sakura is my best friend, and that is as far as it goes. I love you, remember? She stayed over with me because she had a rough night, that's all." Sakura felt her heart constrict painfully at his blunt words and his clear affection for this other woman, and she had to bite back tears with a forced smile and an immediate confirmation of his story.

Ami looked dubious, but was easily placated with one of his smouldering smiles that could reduce the world's populace to nothing more than a flustered puddle of nothingness, and she left him with a quick kiss and a promise to make him pay for her misunderstanding before she left to wait for him in the living room; without sparing Sakura a single glance. Sasuke turned to her, looking bashful and incredibly apologetic as she laughed it off like it was nothing, shaking her hand in front of her face for extra emphasis as she shoved him into his walk-in closet.

"Get dressed and go, you dork! You have a lot to make up for, apparently!" Sakura exclaimed with feigned humour, swallowing her despair as he pressed a tender kiss to her forehead before Sasuke made his way out of his room. He threw her a final glance, before he parted his lips to speak.

"Make yourself at home. I'll take you home when I get back, alright?" Now incapable of speech of any kind due to the intensity of her emotions, Sakura merely smiled tightly in response, the strain in that expression leaving an unpleasant lurch in his gut as regret marred his handsome visage.

"I'm really sorry about this, Sakura. Get some rest. I'll see you soon."

The one thing she hated about Sasuke was that when he promised her something, he had a tendency to break it, especially when his lover was in the picture. Sakura had learned over many years of him proclaiming one thing and then failing to deliver to not to take his word for it, because he had essentially lied to her every fucking time.

As usual, she was right on the mark.

And it broke her heart a little bit more inside.

"I don't want you to see that girl anymore, Sasuke. She's nothing but trouble."

"…"

"You love me, don't you? So you don't need her hanging off your arm like spare change, not when you've hit the jackpot with me."

"…"

"Are you even listening, Sasuke? Honestly, I don't even know why you bother with that little homewrecker anyway! She's only ever wanted to get into your pants! What kind of friend lusts over their bestie? Not a very good one, that's what!"

"…"

"Promise me you won't contact her anymore, or we're through."

"…Aa."

Sakura hadn't heard from him in days. He hadn't even returned to his apartment, to which she had scrubbed from top to bottom by means of thanks for having hauled his ass out of the comfort of his bed just to kill one wretched spider in her apartment nearly thirty minutes away. She had cooked and cleaned, done his laundry and changed his bed sheets, and not once in three days had he come back.

Sakura knew that it was that bitch's influence over him.

She had always spelled disaster with a capital D for him the minute he had fallen for her bullshit, but he had been too blinded by the supposed love she had given him. What about hers? Had that not been enough to sustain him over the years? Clearly not, as he hadn't even left her a fucking voicemail letting her know that he was taking an extensive leave of absence from his own fucking home. And so she had pulled on one of his old shirts and a pair of his smallest board shorts (which looked like trousers on her), before calling her girlfriend Karin to come and pick her up.

She had been less than pleased at first, having just been heavily involved in an intensive session of intercourse with her long-time boyfriend Suigetsu, but that morphed very quickly into distress when she heard Sakura's soft crying through the receiver.

"That fucking asshole! I knew he had it bad, but now he's just being an absolute dick!" The boisterous redhead had hollered angrily down the line, and within ten minutes—having broken every speed law known to man in the process—she was at Sasuke's doorstep, absolutely livid as she took the blubbering pinkette into her arms.

"When I see that pretty motherfucker, I'm gonna castrate his ass and make him bleed through his fucking eardrums!" Karin hissed vehemently, gently helping her shaken friend into her car before they returned to Sakura's apartment. Suigetsu had called to ask if she was doing okay upon their arrival, and had valiantly put his lady on loan for the night so that she could work her magic and make the monstrous case of depression better.

Sakura had laughed, already feeling her mood rise for the good of humanity as Karin made herself at home as only she could.

"Bitch, I'm getting something to eat. Want anything while I'm scavenging?"

Sasuke had come to realise something over his one-sided house arrest at Ami's. When he thought about her, he felt nothing. No trickle of warmth, no inclination to go out of his way for her. The only good thing about their relationship had been the sex, and even that was lacklustre and quite frankly unappealing to him now.

He had been so lost in the idea of love that he had completely overlooked the essence of what it meant to be in love, and therefore everything about this sham of a relationship felt disgusting and wrong.

And how he missed Sakura! Her smile, her scent, her touch, her warmth, her laughter, her cheer, her infectious and often childish banter—he missed every little molecule of her being from the top to the bottom of her petite little body, and frankly he wouldn't stand for any more of this faking it.

When Ami had first seen his scars, she had voiced her distaste by saying that they marred his perfection; Sakura had kissed them better, and said that they were his most beautiful asset. They were the proof that he was alive, that he was better than his shitty circumstances and that he had the strength to persist even past breaking-point. They were more beautiful in her eyes than anything else, for what they represented and symbolised was her deep and unrelenting devotion to him, and thus he had come to embrace them as well.

And when he turned to her then, dark eyes free of their turmoil once and for all, he felt truly content for the first time in his life. More so than when his father had taken him into his arms in the hospital and wept into his hair for his suffering, and more so when his beloved older brother had become a father for the first time—when he had become the uncle that Madara had never been to him for that precious little boy.

"Ami, I love you, but I'm not in love with you. That part of me has always been hers, right from the very beginning."

Has always been Sakura's.

Sakura had opened her door, fully expecting it to be one of her insane best friends coming over to comfort her with junk food and trashy TV drama reruns; only to find Sasuke standing there, panting and clearly out of breath.

Her initial instinct had been to fawn over him, to see if he was alright, before his shitty betrayal slammed into her with the force of a speeding truck, and she tried in vain to slam the wooden barricade in his face. Unfortunately for her, he had lightning fast reflexes, and he jammed it open with his hand before he pushed his way inside; ensuring that the deadlock had slipped into place before he returned his sights to her slightly alarmed expression.

His face, always sinfully gorgeous, was contorted with feeling, and butterflies erupted in droves in her tummy as he boxed her in against the back of her couch.

What left those lips she had desperately yearned to kiss for as long as she could remember stunned her into flabbergasted silence.

"I broke up with Ami. Do you want to know why?"

Sakura shook her head, hesitant to listen to his reasoning even when her heart was doing pleasant somersaults inside her chest cavity. He soldiered on regardless of her pointed refusal.

"Because I realised something. When I looked at her, I saw an ideal. I wanted so badly for someone to love me for who I was that I completely took your love for granted. I dated her because you deserved so much better than me, because I was scared out of my fucking mind that I wouldn't be enough to keep you happy. But you know what? I loved Ami, yes. But I was never in love with her, because I was already crazy about you."

Sasuke gripped her upper arms as he said this, dark eyes blazing with an intensity that Sakura had never seen before as tears pooled unbidden in her eyes. It wasn't sadness, because it couldn't possibly feel this good.

"I may not be good enough, and I sure as fuck don't deserve you—not after all this shit. But I don't want anyone else but you. I want you, Sakura. Fuck everyone else. I miss the way you would smile at me whenever you thought I wasn't looking. I miss your laughter. I even fucking miss your whiny-ass calls about spiders at four in the fucking morning, because I miss being needed by you. Please don't shut me out now. I've broken too many promises to you already, but the only one that ever mattered to me was the one about never leaving you behind. I will never leave you again; so please don't leave me." His voice cracked, raw with suppressed emotion as he cupped her face between large hands and bent down to press a careful kiss to her forehead; a kiss that ended up firmly on her lips as she tugged him down towards her with all the strength she possessed.

Sasuke froze for a split second, surprise written plainly on his face, before he pushed back with as much fervour as Sakura was exerting.

He parted her lips, reducing her to a puddle of jittery nerves with his searing open-mouthed kiss as desire rippled through her body. She had never experienced anything quite so spectacular before in her life, and her whole being resonated with a pleasurable thrum as she pulled him down to her trembling frame. She sunk into the back of the couch, bringing him down with her; her heavy eyelids falling to a close and in that one decadent moment, time stopped. Heart pounding erratically beneath her chest, sweat gathering on the back of her neck, hairs standing at attention all over her body—she was every cliché rolled into one, but she loved it.

And as he lifted her up to straddle his waist, hands sliding into place cupping her behind, Sakura realised that being predictably swept up in his tide was as trite as any whimsy she had entertained could ever get.

Sakura could vaguely recall Sasuke stumbling up to the second floor landing, cursing and laughing between heated kisses every time he sidled into something. She could also somewhat remember her spine leaving its imprint on every wall leading to her bedroom, the wooden barricade copping a feel of her arching form as he fumbled for the handle; his mouth still slanted over hers even when he voiced his discontent with a groan in the recesses of his throat.

Sakura broke away for air, a breathy giggle leaving her lips as she tipped herself back so that she could help him open the impeding door with the casual twist of her wrist. He made quick work of getting her flustered, lips leaving a searing trail of nips and bites on her bared neck even as he stepped through the threshold into her room.

She remembered the distinct feeling of him yanking her loose cardigan over her head, and the trickle of pleasure in his eyes as he noted that she only had a bra on underneath it. The smoulder of his gaze could have melted the chrome off of a car, and a deep longing unfurled in the pit of her tummy the more intently he stared at her.

She remembered tumbling in a mess of limbs onto her bed with him atop her, and the way his muscles contracted beautifully beneath her naïve fingertips as she tugged his top over his head with little flourish. It had been a needy gesture that conveyed her desperation to him, and he had responded in kind, sliding her slacks down her legs as she tried in vain to strip him of his own pants. He had laughed then, pressing a chaste kiss to the corner of her mouth as she fought back a devastating blush.

But what Sakura remembered the most was how much she had hungered for his love in that moment, and how there couldn't have been a more perfect man in the world. With scattered scars and broken memories carved into his skin and a fragmented bottled universe contained within those endlessly dark eyes of his, he was the picture of pain and the reminder that true strength existed in the face of the unthinkable.

He was everything she had ever wanted, and more, and he was finally giving it all to her.

His vulnerability was clear, but she had kissed away his anxieties as deftly as he had slipped into his natural skin alongside her. Sakura had never truly felt complete until he had pressed every inch of himself against her, the raw intensity of their naked limbs drowning in each other summoning a watery smile to her lips. Sasuke kissed her softly, fingers dancing expertly against her smooth skin until they were entrenched in a slippery heat that had them both squirming, Sakura's breathy gasps becoming more fervent in volume and in tenor as she keened huskily in his ear for more.

He obliged her, filling her to capacity with two long appendages even as he thumbed her most sensitive anatomical protuberance with a precision that had her whole body bucking up against his palm. She recalled the hazy pleasure that had fogged over her thoughts until they met with oblivion, the earth-shattering suddenness of her coming undone leaving her hips rolling in sensate delight even as he lifted her limp legs over his hips; he settled between them, and whilst she was amidst climbing down from her high, he slipped into her, relaxing his tensed hips only when he felt their pelvises join in perfect alignment.

"A-Aaaaaahhh…" It began as an uncomfortable moan, but it quickly morphed into absolute bliss as he rocked their hips together, sinking deeper into her very being until stars sparkled behind her closed lids. Sasuke set the pace, Sakura gyrating sporadically when he brushed against a particularly sensitive place inside of her, her mouth falling open in a soundless scream as she arched up into his chest.

Her nipples pebbled against the firm musculature, leaving hot tingles against his sweaty flesh as he ran one of his hands over the small globe; what she didn't have in cup size was easily made up for in pertness, and he rolled the peachy nub between two fingers and tongued the remaining nipple bouncing in his peripherals with a sense of gratification he had not felt in a long time.

Sakura shivered, raking her nails down his shoulder blades as she began to adjust to his rhythmic thrusts with measured strokes of her own. He groaned, pressing his lips in a feverish dance against her breasts as he brought them to the brink of ecstasy with anticipation unfurling in his gut. This release was important for the both of them; and he was going to get it right because she deserved him at his very best.

And at this, the art of sex, he would never be a letdown—especially not for her.

Her head thrashed against the pillows the deeper he plunged into her depths, and her breaths were stilted between fervent gasps of approval as she fell over the precipice once more. He followed her into climax moments later, his whole body stiffening as euphoria rippled through his entire being.

Sakura remembered him sinking into her embrace; the feeling of his sweaty locks between her inquisitive fingertips and the strange calm that settled over her as she felt his turgid length soften between the folds of her most intimate place.

She remembered how breathless she was, how flushed his cheeks were as he rested his head atop her breasts.

Most of all, she remembered him chuckling softly into the depths of her skin, running soothing hands down her sides as he came down from the high of orgasm.

"What is it, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura questioned softly, her voice cracking and hoarse from screaming and she blushed at the very evident nuance in her tone. Sasuke raised dark eyes to meet with hers, his smile positively roguish as he parted his lips to respond.

"I was just thinking that we should hold a ceremony for that unfortunate spider I killed the other day. They're the reason I have you now, after all."

Sakura's cheeks darkened as he flicked her closest nipple with idle fingers, that same hand ghosting its way down her naked body even as she shuddered against his touch. Repulsion and fear filled her countenance at Sasuke's teasing suggestion, and he outright laughed at her petulant scowl.

"Laugh it up, Sasuke-kun. You'll get yours one day!"

"Hm." Sasuke hummed thoughtfully, expression playful as he continued on with amusement dripping from his deep baritone.

"I will be getting mine. Right here, right now."

His hand dipped into the crevice between her legs, and as he stroked her to oblivion once more, the pinkette sinking further into the mattress and pulling Sasuke down with her, his last words before he busied his mouth with more practical exercises left his mouth with a residual sense of promise hanging off of them.

"I can't wait for your next morning wakeup call."

Ending Remarks: Rushed, but whatever. I have terrible allergies at the moment, so my patience for writing is minimal at best. I am incredibly uncomfortable right now. Never the less, I wrote this based off of my own arachnophobia, and my desire for Sasuke-kun to bust down my door and kill them for me at unthinkable hours of the morning.

Let me know what you thought!

Until next time!

-x-R i n-x-