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When the munchies hit, who was she to argue?

Swinging her legs rather enthusiastically, Sakura went to hop out of bed – and was stopped when a pair of sinewy-muscled arms tightened around her middle.

Playfully, Sakura nudged her elbow back into the muscled chest.

"Whaaaaat?" Sasuke's sleep-laden voice sounded downright petulant. Everyone knew the Uchiha was a deep sleeper, and a somewhat reluctant waker.

"I want some chocolate," Sakura replied.

"I want to sleep," he deadpanned back, unrepentant.

"Well I want some chocolate." She squirmed, then giggled when a cold nose buried itself right on that tickle spot at the nape of her neck. A little shiver ran up her spine, and she wiggled to try and escape his grip.

"Why don't I give you a treat instead?" he murmured into the back of her neck, voice suddenly low and husky from something other than sleep. A bigger shiver whirred down her nerves as she felt the low, pleased rumble in his chest at her reaction. Sakura jerked in an indeterminate mix of pleasure-pain when his teeth nipped into the back of her neck. Then, as if to make amends, he laved the stinging pinch with his tongue.

"Mmm, yes, I suppose that couldn't hurt," she giggled – then gasped, and that was the only sound she made for a long while.

=0=

"Whaaat, you still want to go?" he groaned (Uchiha's certainly didn't whine, no matter how whine-like they sounded) as she slid towards the edge of the bed.

"One shouldn't tamper with fate," Sakura recited rhetorically. "I mean, one time I had these irresistible midnight cravings, and while I was at the gas-station, I met a boy…" His eyes flashed in irritation for a moment, but she only smiled and leaned back to place a warm hand on the naked flesh over his heart. "A boy I hadn't seen in a very long time… We re-met, you might say."

He was quiet for a few moments – but his smile was gentle. "Like fate," he murmured. Then, blushing faintly at the cheesiness of his own words, he averted his eyes. "That's what girls like to hear isn't it?" he quickly added – as if to safeguard his masculinity, lest he be accused of being something like a hopeless romantic.

Sakura smothered a giggle, rubbing her hand soothingly on his chest. "Yeah, like fate… or… maybe like…" She hesitated, scientific mind whirring away, trying to find a better way to describe it. "Maybe… maybe like gravity."

He looked back at her, quirking an eyebrow. "Gravity?" he repeated. One of his hands stroked a line from her chin along her jaw line, around her ear and into her hair, fingering along the nape of her neck.

"Yeah," she murmured, shivering as his fingers brushed a particularly sensitive spot. In her mind, she imagined a ball – throw it as hard as you can, but in the end, gravity still brought it back to earth. She had spent half her life running from him as hard as she could – and yet here she was.

Here they were.

"I guess you're like earth – as hard as I tried to escape, gravity always brought me crashing back."

He snorted gently into the top of her head, but she could tell from the languid tone of his muscles that he wasn't truly upset. "Crashing back? Don't sound so excited."

She leaned into him, inhaling a deep breath of his masculine scent; he hummed quietly, clearly pleased that his ministrations had maneuvered her back against him. She felt his fingers trailing a careful, possessive line down her spine. "Maybe it was inevitable… that I fall for you," she reflected slowly, thoughtfully. "Like, given a hundred times to do it all again… we'd find each other every time."

Sasuke made a low mumbling noise that could only be described as a purr. The careful fingers tracing patterns on her back pressed down a little more solidly, and though she didn't look up to see his face, she could hear the satisfied smile in his voice. "I like to think so."

=0=

"Thank goodness for 24-hour gas stations," Sasuke sniped sardonically, stretching his arms over his head in an over-exaggerated pose meant to demonstrate that her faithful Richard the Lionhearted Civic was too diminutive to house his 6-foot-plus-some frame. Or maybe it was to demonstrate his exasperation that after all that passionate bout, Sakura had still persisted on getting her some chocolate.

She leapt out of the car cheerfully – but before she could make her way into the store, she stopped short at the sight of a sharky-looking boy with spiky white hair standing by his lonesome, staring forlornly into the open hood of his car.

Sakura froze, staring – the car was stopped in the exact same spot Sasuke's had been all those months ago, and the irony was not lost upon her. After a few moments, she felt Sasuke's warm hand pressed against the small of her back. When she looked up at him, she could tell by the quirk of his lips that he was remembering, too.

"Looks like there's no shortage of men waiting for a knight in shining sequins," he quipped, fond smile tugging at his lips.

"Aren't you glad your car broke down first?" Sakura teased.

Sasuke tightened his hold minutely; leaned down, pressed his lips to the top of her head. "I'm glad for a lot of things," he murmured – and though his tone was lilting, his body language spoke of the truth behind the words.

"Thank the German engineers," Sakura replied, nudging him and tilting her chin. "Look, it's a VW."

"Do you think it's the flux capacitor?" he teased.

"Hmmm," Sakura drolled, tapping a finger to her lips as if in serious contemplation. "There's only one way to find out…"

=0=

The irony only increased – the car, as it turned out, was just requiring of a little additional coolant. An easy enough 'repair', though the man (Suigetsu, he said his name was) was flustered enough that the simple fix seemed beyond him.

"Oh man, I'm gonna be so late, Karin is gonna rip me a new one," he kept worrying. At her and Sasuke's questioning looks, he explained, "Karin is my girlfriend. She's sort of a pistol… I'm on my way to visit her at college, but…" He gestured helplessly at the car.

A few bottles full of water and a few minutes of idling later and the cheery little Jetta (cute as a button and brand spanking new, Sakura sniped under her breath to Sasuke, who teasingly bitched and moaned about the age of her car every time she asked him to help on any little repair) was back on its merry way.

Sasuke continued to stare after the Volkswagon long after it had disappeared up the on-ramp back onto the highway. "What is it?" she asked.

"Nothing," he replied, shaking himself from the sudden stupor. "I just felt like I knew him for some reason, is all."

"Déjà vu? A glitch in the Matrix?" she teased, poking him in the side. He snatched her wrist mid-poke, yanked her flush against his side, then wrapped an arm securely around her shoulders to hold her there.

"No," he whispered, pressing his lips tightly to the top of her head. He inhaled deeply, and rubbed his thumb back and forth across the nape of her neck. "No glitches here; for the first time in my life, I think everything is just perfect."

"Maybe we've reached terminal velocity," Sakura quipped, pursing her lips expectantly for a kiss.

The Uchiha was more than happy to oblige – though after the kiss, he leaned back and quirked a brow at her. "And if that's nerd-speak for being head-over-heels in love… then yeah, I think I've been there for awhile."

"Terminal velocity isn't 'nerd speak'," she huffed playfully, slipping seamlessly into 'know it all' tone. "It's the term for when an object affected by the acceleration of gravity reaches max speed in trajectory. Or, in other words, when the force of resistance of the medium is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to the force of gravity. Or –"

"Or, basically, in context, what I said," Sasuke interrupted, totally blasé. When she mock-huffed again, he tweaked her nose.

A few bars of chocolate later, and she was leaving the gas station hand-in-hand with her past, present, and future, when Sasuke paused.

"Hey, Sakura?"

"Yeah?"

"I think you might be onto something with having our children drive older cars before graduating on to fancy ones. I mean, you're right – it forces them to learn something more about cars, y'know? I don't want our sons or daughters stuck at a gas station in the middle of the night at the mercy of whoever happens to be around."

Sakura's stomach flipped at the use of the word 'our' – and though she felt her cheeks and ears flushing merrily, she grinned back at him cheekily. "I don't think any Uchiha children will be 'at the mercy' of anyone – between daddy Sasuke and Grandma being fuzz, and Grandpa and Uncle Itachi running Mangekyo Eye security, they'll probably be better off than most."

"For all the good that did me when I was stranded…" he replied sardonically, rolling his eyes.

"I think it worked out alright for you, didn't it?"

"Yeah – but I just happen to be exceptionally lucky," he replied meaningfully, reaching out to tuck a piece of hair behind her ear.

Ignoring the happy blush still heating her cheeks, she twisted her toe on the gravel coquettishly. "So you'll refrain from complaining the next time we have to work on Richard? I mean, if you expect to be of any help teaching the kids, you have a long way to go yourself!"

"Yare, yare, you're a slave driver!" he laughed – but then tucked his arm around her shoulder affectionately. They climbed into the Honda-of-greatness together, and pulled out of the parking lot where they had re-met thanks to a glitchy German-car and midnight cravings for Reeces Stix – and in the end, none of it smacked of 'coincidence' as much as 'fate'.

=0=

That night, tucked in the arms of a man she loved through space and time, Sakura dreamed – and for the first time, the dream didn't feel like regret, but rather, hope. Not of things that had passed – but were to come.

She dreamed of wearing white, and teasingly smearing cake into the lips of the man she loved. She dreamt of smiling children with green eyes and black hair, whining about when they'd be 'ready' for a 'real' car. She dreamed of laughing until her belly ached. She dreamed in not being in any particular hurry, because she had a lifetime and more to get there.

And she wasn't afraid, or regretful, or sad anymore – because even in this dream world, she recognized this love as one for the ages. It swelled, and brimmed, and runneth over –more than enough to fill a lifetime; more than enough to spill into a thousand more.

Somehow, she knew that no matter how far apart they were strewn –they'd never truly be apart. Because fate – like gravity – would somehow always bring them back together.

=0=

Fast forward.

The rest of their lives.

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Epilogue Fin

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A/N: It's been a great ride. Drop me a line and let me know what you thought.

This one has been a pleasure to write – I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing it. I have other Naruto stories up, but they're certainly of a darker variety than this piece. This was my first foray into "slice-of-life romance", so your perspective and feedback = mana to power my work!

Special thanks to everyone who reviewed, especially Miko-chan – your reviews brought a huge grin to my face!