Flower 06: Lavender

Devotion

"Darling," she started, head slightly angling to see her front.

"Hn," he answered, not moving an inch from his position.

She squinted her eyes at him. "I trust you, you know that, right?"

His head shot up and his eyes met hers for a moment. For a second, she thought she saw his eyebrow arch at her. And as soon as his disbelieving stare went on, he soon went back to focus on the task at hand.

"I don't want to sound like a broken record—repeating myself over and over again," she cleared her throat for emphasis as she shifted a little to her right for better angle. "but I do love you very, very, very much."

There was a contemplation before answering. He recognized the underlying tone she was starting to use. His hand started to stiffen at the pressure she was imposing him. Every stroke he made felt heavier than the previous. "Hn," he muttered softly albeit in a happy short sound for the nth confession she gave him.

"So," she trailed off. "How's it going?" she asked trying to check if he could give him a better view of his new masterpiece.

He sighed and withdrew his hold on the brush he was holding and moved his head away from blocking her view. He sniffed as the foul yet hypnotizing aroma almost made him high. He tried his very best. This was his third attempt already but he felt he had already gotten the hang of it. There were no mistakes this time and as much as he credited himself for being a closet artist, his work can be ranked A+. He shot her a smug look, awaiting for her to affirm his fabulous work.

Uchiha Sakura wriggled her toes playfully in deep thought. Something didn't feel right. "I'm sorry darling," she pouted. "I don't think I like this hue of green." He froze in disbelief. The long hour he poured his heart and soul was clearly shot down in an instant. She grabbed a new bottle from the box beside her and handed it to him. "Let's try this one!" she exclaimed excitingly. Begrudgingly taking the nail polish from her hand, he slightly scowled. He put the small bottle on his lap and searched for some cotton balls and some acetone inside the small 'beauty box' she so-often refer to.

It wasn't exactly how he pictured he'd be spending his day off—painting and repainting his wife's toe nails—but when he started hearing her hum delightfully at his attempt to make a swift clean color on each nail without air bubbles, he thought it wasn't a bad day either.

"Darling," she started, her voice mellow.

"Hn."

"Darling,"

"Hn."

"Nothing," she laughed. "I just want to call you."

"Hn."

"You better answer me always." she demanded. "And I mean—always."

"Aa,"

"Oh," she gushed. "The perks of being your wife are... endless!"

"Hn,"

"Darling," she said softly. "I love you with all my heart."

"Aa."

"Darling,"

"Hn?"

"Can you please go get the laundry now?"

"...okay."

"Darling," she started, rubbing her eyes, adjusting from the bright rays of fluorescent light. Her hair wasn't brushed yet as evidence of how often she turned and rolled in the bed proudly stuck here and there.

"Hn," he acknowledged her while munching a tomato on one hand.

She yawned and looked at the clock. "What time are you leaving?"

"4 AM." he answered coolly. He was preparing his bag which was on top of their living room table while taking a bite of his favorite snack in between. He watched her sluggishly walk towards him. She claimed the spot beside him and laid her sleepy head on his shoulder like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"S'—too early." she managed to say in between yawn. She closed her heavy eyes. "When will you be back?"

"In about 4-5 days." He was now scrutinizing the scroll he was holding.

"S'—too long." she inched closer for body warmth as she snaked her arms around him.

He put his hand over hers, overwhelmed by the sweet gesture. "Hn,"

"I mean," her eyes pop wide open in realization. "I don't have enough money to last me 5 days in Konoha Lucky 777!"

Sasuke took a mental note to put their bank book safe and away from her clutches.

"Darling," she started in a sing-song voice.

Sasuke's head looked from left to right in search of where the sound came from in panic. His tense muscles eased up when he felt a familiar tug on his back. With his defenses down, a swift move was all she needed to land a quick peck on his cheek.

"Tee-hee." she giggled like her twelve year old self.

A little surprised and a lot more scared, his nose tingled. "You're drunk."

She placed her hand above her mouth as she gave another childish laugh. "Yes, sir!" she gave him a salute. "I sure am!" She animatedly showed him her hand as if holding a cup. "I had loads of fun!" she practically screamed. "Sakura went—" she put the ghost cup to her mouth. "—Chug. Chug. CHUG!" She then burst into fits of laughter.

He stared blankly at the woman in front of their porch, the Uchiha emblem decorating the walls. "Good for you." he nonchalantly played along. "Now, let's get inside." He grabbed her arm and started guiding her haphazard footsteps toward their door.

"No." she said softly at first. "No." and then firmer. "NO." She took her arm back. Her green eyes lit in a malicious idea. "Sakura-chan will have more fun!"

Sasuke's eyes furrowed. "You've obviously had enough." He tried to grab her again. "Come on."

"I said NO!" she strongly resisted. Sasuke felt a pang somewhere on his wrist. An unpredictable pink-haired walking disaster with monstrous uncontrollable strength right now was all he saw in front of him. She pouted. "Why won't you let me have fun?"

All he could do was raise his eyebrow. "Wife—"

"Why's it so hot? I swore I turned the cooler on!" Clearly unaware that they are not in the confide of their humble abode, she started rambling. "You're such a cheapskate! You turned it off, didn't you? You always do! Paying extra for the electric bill wouldn't even put a scratch on your inheritance!" As if on queue, she started undressing—something his Sharingan didn't even see ahead of time.

A few broken bones, tattered clothes, bruises and cuts here and there later, he finally managed to knock her out cold. As she snoozed her way to lala land, Sasuke stared at the hollow ground she wonderfully created in their land. He scooped her in his arm with an obvious perplexed face knowing that he'd still be the one to end up fixing it tomorrow.

"Darling," she started, smiling sweetly.

He stared at the despicable thing in front of him and then gave her a questioning look.

"Eat." she ordered him.

He eyed the black burned poor thing called fish atop a similar brownish overcooked rice. To it's left was hot water with three pieces of leaves and a clove of garlic. Her salad rendition composed of a single piece of corncob with the kernel corn grazed off. Even his tea was not spared. His cup laid there devoid of any content. He analyzed his situation and looked back into her eyes, careful not to create a sound from his seat.

"I said I was sorry."

She rested her head on her hands as she sat down. "What did you say?" she happily chirped.

He stole another look from the dinner set up in front of him and cleared his throat. "I said I'm sorry."

Her eyes perked up. "I seem to be rather forgetful lately, darling. Pray tell, what are you sorry about again?"

Uchiha Sasuke twitched. "I'm sorry I ate your lasagna last night."

"Oh," she cooed. "Are you?" It was either emotional or physical torture when it came to his beloved wife. "Really, really sorry?" It was only the start of their week and he was already getting whipped. "Hm, darling?"

Sasuke started feeling empathetic to a certain orange fat tubby who hated Mondays.

"Darling," she started with a pained look. "please?"

He gave nod in defeat knowing that arguing with her wouldn't do him much good. He let go of the scroll he was reading and proceeded to where she was seated. She had been spending a lot of time in the hospital lately due to a certain building collapse which involved a lot of people needing medical care. And a few of them needed her expertise, attention and strength more than her small body could handle in the past few days.

He carefully started massaging her stiff shoulders, soothing her.

"Darling," she stared, coaxing him. "come out and play!"

He didn't move an inch from his spot and concealed his very presence as if his life depended on it.

"Come on!" She tried to walk straight but miserably failed. "Are you afraid of playing with little Sakura-chan?"

He kept silent as sweat started forming on his face.

"We'll have lots of fun!" she yelled, her head kept moving from left to right. "I won't hurt you this time!" she giggled as if saying she didn't believe her own words. "I swear!"

Sasuke knew better not to believe the same trap she lead on before. Ninjas learn from their mistakes.

"We'll drink lots of sake! We'll drink like there's no tomorrow! We'll eat all the crabs I love and shrimp and otoro and sushi and more crab! And then we'll go place our fate in luck and bet all we've got and laugh at our lose because you know, I somehow take after Tsunade-shishou and we all know she sucks at gambling— and then we'll cry in the end because we will end up poor and we'll loose your family's hectares of land and then you'll get mad at me because it's you home and I gambled it all away and then we'll go to the streets to earn money and—" she stopped her rambling and then her footsteps became faint by the minute. "Ino! Hinata! Temari! Let's carry on!"

He squinted his eyes to see her shadow disappear in sight. Sasuke let out a sigh of relief.

"Are they gone?"

He turned his head and saw Naruto, Sai and Shikamaru crouched just behind him. They all wore the same emotion—petrified of their drunk wives.

"Darling," she started.

"1000." he answered swiftly.

"Cheapskate!"

"1000."

"Give me more!"

"1000."

"That is not enough! Higher, please!"

"1000."

"But I love you so, so, so much, darling!"

"1000."

"I'll do XXX things to you tonight!"

There was a pause of consideration. "Oka—" But he caught himself before gave in completely. "No. 1000."

"What?" she cried in disbelief. "But why turn that down!?"

He bit his lip promising himself to earn that reward in a different time. "Only 1000."

"Naruto! Give me the divorce papers!"

"Wife." he was clearly putting his foot down. "Only 1000."

Sai entered the room and witnessed the two members of team 7 who wed one another bickering as if they were fighting legendary sannins. "Seventh," he handed his report. "What're they arguing about?"

The blonde tall man gave a sheepish grin but his eyes were dead. He somehow ended up a little sympathetic to his sworn rival slash brother reincarnate. "They're debating about how much spending money she gets for shopping."

Sai's eyes turned dead as well as his own experience flashed before his eyes. "Once they start opening their wallets, there's no stopping them."

And Sasuke for them in that very argument, represented them in a fight they both knew too well.

Not all heroes wore capes.

"Darling," she started excitingly.

He followed her line of sight and frowned. They were walking towards Ichiraku to grab a quick lunch. The street was bustling with noise and people and those fancy modern lights which the city was being swept with. "Hm,"

"It's been a while." she fidgeted. "I mean, I know you hate it but I'm not going to force you anyway." she corrected herself. "Well, I might've sometimes force you to. But you know, I kind of like it and there are times that I just want to..." she trailed off and looked longingly at his hand again. "...touch you and hold hands."

He found her twelve year old self emerge from her adult appearance. Her neediness and cute ramblings was something she had never grown out of. Her genin days voice would echo softly and lovingly in his head,chasing him wherever he went.

Sasuke-kun!

Sasuke-kun!

Sasuke-kun!

"Wife," the sole word was given emphasis. He stopped and flicked her forehead lightly with a playful smile. "What's stopping you now?"

Taking it as an affirmation, she happily intertwined her fingers with his and her inner self exploded in delight.

"Darling," she started calling him from the kitchen.

And being the good husband that he was, he started heeding her.

"Wife, if you don't stop drinking and stripping, I'm going to take matters into my own hands."

Raised eyebrow. "What's the video camera for?"

Takes out sake bottle. "Chug." It was time for that XXX fantasy series number 12. "Chug. Chug!"

"Darling, your nose is bleeding!"

NEXT SHOT!

Yellow Hyacinth

Jealousy