title: lover's knot
pairing: SasuSaku
for: I'm writing for anyone who reads this, and knows it all too well.

summary: SasuSaku. He's never made it very easy to stay. But, that's all right. She's never been very good at walking away.

notes: Inspired by Grey's. The scene of reference fit so well it hurt.

Also, this is the second fic I've written in two days featuring a bed. Clearly, I need sleep.

I think I should make a Bedroom Series—in any case, this would be the second installment, after yesterday's ShikaIno. Also, it would be my fiftieth piece on fanfiction! Yay!

disclaimer: decidedly not mine.

"I care about you."

The words seemed to echo within the four walls of his room, the reverberations sounding off the rumpled black bedspread, the whitewashed walls, the antique dresser in the southwest corner. Her feet were startlingly pale against his polished hardwood floor, her toes painted a coral pink that had long since chipped off at the tips.

Sasuke wondered why he was looking at her feet—wondered why they were tapping against his floor, why the curve of her hip was casting shadows on his wall, why her pale shoulders, exposed by the asymmetrical neckline of her ridiculous grey shirt, were leaning on his open door.

Wondered why she was looking at him with such soft green eyes.

"Get out of my room," he said tonelessly, his dark eyes looking at her with unforgiving blankness. He was too tired for this—for her.

For her nonsense words, for her soft hands, for her small pink mouth.

He was too tired for this.

"I mean it, Sakura," he said again, throwing his discarded shirt aside, and lying down, his back to the girl at the door. "Get out of my room."

She didn't respond, and for a moment, Sasuke entertained the notion that she'd done as he'd asked, and walked away. He felt a small stab of something inside his chest at the thought, a feeble attempt at resuscitating whatever he had left in the space inside skin and bone. She was always doing this—looking for a sign of something from him. What, he wondered. When would she realize that he wasn't what she needed? That he wasn't what she wanted him to be?

He had enough on his shoulders without her expectations to add to the load, though a microscopic part of him could not deny lamenting the fact that he was not the sort of man who would ever make her happy.

It fled swiftly at the feel of his bed dipping underneath her weight.

"I care about you," she said again, no louder than before. "I care about you."

"I heard you the first time," he said snidely, imbuing his words with as much vitriol as he could gather. He did not want to do this with her. "Now, get the hell out of my room."

Instead of obeying, Sasuke felt her lift her right hand, felt the shadow falling on his shoulder before her fingers could touch his skin. Her green eyes went wide as he grabbed her wrist, and grasped it firmly, hard enough to bruise.

He did not relent at her soft gasp. Maybe this would show her that she needed to stay away.

Maybe this would make her leave.

"Get the hell out—"

She interrupted him, looking into his narrowed eyes, touching her fingertips of her free hand to his mouth. They flitted over his lips once, twice, before coming to a stop, just lightly resting on the line between.

Sasuke loosened his hold on her wrist in surprise, but she made no effort to free herself. Instead, she moved her hand, and intertwined her fingers with his, holding on tightly, even when he made move to pull away.

"I care about you, Sasuke-kun," Sakura said, like a mantra, a maxim she could not—would not—deny. "I do. And, I'm sorry for it a lot of the time," she said haltingly, "because you don't make it very easy. But, I can't walk away—I can't."

He said nothing, only looking at her, her fingertips still hovering on his boundary. He wondered what this was—why he was letting her take such liberty with him, why he hadn't pushed her away.

He wondered why she was still here.

"I can't walk away," she continued. "I care about you, and I can't—I won't walk away. I've tried," she said, almost helplessly, as though she were angry at her inability to forget what he had been—what he still was—to her. "But, I'm not very good at it. I can't leave you. I care about you."

She looked at him, watching as the anger left his eyes to be replaced by something softer—almost sorrier.

"You're an idiot," he said, but there was no condemnation in his words—only weariness, and a guilt she wanted so very badly to wash away. He stopped fighting her hold, and surrendered to the feel of her rubbing circles on his palm.

"Probably," she said softly, her eyes unwilling to leave his face. They were so close now, their faces separated by inches, their breaths almost mingling, but she did not make any move to close the distance between their lips.

It was too soon, yet.

Instead she allowed her eyes to flutter shut, and removed her fingertips from his lips, sliding them down to rest against his arms. She leaned forward, moving slowly enough that he had ample time to pull away. When her brow touched his own, she released a deep shuddering breath.

At the feel of her, the tenseness seemed to leave him, and he slumped, sliding down to rest his head at her shoulder. He turned his face into her neck, almost hesitantly, and she trembled at the feel of his warm breaths on her skin.

"I care about you," she said again, softly, trying hard to breathe him in. "I care about you. I care about you."

Sasuke shut his eyes, and relaxed in her arms.

He hoped she understood.

Quiet. No kiss. I really wanted to write one in, but it didn't seem to work. This Sasuke and this Sakura aren't quite ready yet.

Soon, though.

Even though this is a oneshot, and will stay a oneshot.

Reviews would be lovely, thank you.