A Series of Annoyances
By: Caliborn
AN: This is a oneshot and actually little more than a PWP, and my attempt to get inside Sasuke's head. It was actually a fun experiment because Sasuke's inner thoughts are perfect for my dry, misguided sense of humor.
Set in the future when the characters are older. It is slightly AUish in that Sasuke's come back to Konoha and things are... mostly... back to the way they used to be. Please tell me what you think; I love comments and constructive crit!
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He looked when he thought he wouldn't get caught, when the teacher was hiding behind his porn and pretending it was all he deigned to care about and when the dumbass was off making a fool of himself for the sake of love or justice or ramen or whatever the hell currently had his attention. Sasuke would catch her smiling or daydreaming, looking so similar to the girl she'd been years before, and for a moment he'd almost feel twelve again and secure in the middle of those three. For a moment he'd remember the days when she'd loved him unabashedly and he'd shrugged her off—then looked back when she wouldn't notice.
Old habits died hard.
Nowadays, sometimes she caught him looking, though he always managed to look away with a huff, playing it off until he saw her face fall out of the corner of his battle-ready eyes. It was easy enough to make her believe that he had merely discovered something else about her to find annoying.
And she was annoying. The most goddamn annoying thing in his life, the way she ran around in his head like she belonged there day and night. When she was beside him she annoyed him to the point he couldn't think straight, and when she was gone, the lack of her annoyed him. Sometimes when he closed his eyes he saw her. Sometimes when he slept, he felt her.
She was an aggravation.
He made a point of telling her this in no uncertain terms whenever she started to press his buttons. Sometimes she wouldn't shut up about something he didn't want to talk about, or she would lean too close and he'd find promises in her eyes that weren't really there. That's when he would stop her. That's when he would use the one barb he knew could still drive her back, since she was getting so immune to all his others.
It wasn't helping as much as it used to. She'd move away like he'd wanted, but she'd do it in a way that would make him wish he hadn't said anything at all.
It was getting worse with each passing day. Pink danced in his mind when he wanted his blue solace. Her voice tickled his ears in the whisper of the winds, even when she was miles away. It was the worst when he slept because then his mind knew her without remorse, imagining every inch of her body and how pliant she would be beneath his touch, imagining the way her hair would fall on his pillow, imagining the sounds she would make while he--
So frustrating.
Logically, he knew he should just avoid her. They were all jounins now and rarely assigned to the same team, and so, save for the rare occasions when they actually were partnered up for a mission, such a thing wouldn't be too hard.
Naruto and Sakura had an annoying habit of popping up at the oddest times, however. He'd be ready for a perfectly happy day in the solitude of his own home when one or both would show up to drag him outside, claiming it was good for him, it wasn't healthy to be as anti-social as he was.
He had no idea why he allowed it, sometimes.
That was what had gotten him out today. Sakura had perfected or discovered some medical jutsu of some sort—she'd explained the details to him, but he hadn't been listening—and so to celebrate they had all gone out to dinner. Even the old teacher had been dug out of his hole of an apartment to join them, though he had brought his orange, hard-backed security blanket. Naruto had, of course, suggested Ichiraku, because even at age 20 the man was still a boy who would give up half his soul for a bowl of ramen, and the other half for a pair of chopsticks. Sakura had shot that idea down, though, and the four of them were now snuggled in a small but quaint restaurant near the outskirts of town.
Naruto was babbling on about something or other, and Kakashi was not-so-subtly reading the book he had partially hidden by his dessert dish, so Sasuke thought it safe to let his eyes slide sideways to regard the young pink girl—well, woman, rather. She was absorbed in the remnants of her sundae, one elbow propped up on the table to let the spoon dangle carelessly from her fingers.
A short red dress clung to her body. It was off the shoulder with pretty white flowers trailing up the side. It somewhat reminded him of the thing she used to wear when they were younger, except this time there were no green shorts to preserve her modesty. Red had always been her favorite color, it seemed, and more than once Sasuke found himself thinking of how well red suited the color blue.
The outfit was suggestive without revealing too much. It hung to below mid-thigh when she stood, and the front dipped down to barely began to reveal the shadows of her cleavage. Nonetheless, she'd been an utter distraction since she'd stood up to hug him when he had gotten to the restaurant.
His eyes suddenly followed as the spoon rose past her chest and made it to her lips as she delicately licked away a bit of hot fudge. She seemed distracted but mostly happy. She always seemed mostly happy. When the spoon sunk back down he found himself wishing she had more hot fudge. He didn't like sweets for himself, but watching Sakura eat them was just fine.
It took a belated moment for him to realize that at some point her eyes had turned to meet his straight on.
He tensed, about to hop into his routine when she looked away first, the vestiges of a blush brushing her cheeks. He looked away quickly as well, his mind wondering what sort of thoughts she could've been entertaining to produce that rosy glow.
Naruto, for a rare and blessed moment, shut his mouth. He seemed to realize he had lost the attention of his two teammates as his gaze swung between Sakura and Sasuke. A small pout dusted his countenance.
Kakashi left the comfort of his book just long enough to smirk, the crease in his one visible eye seeming to say he knew the end to some very funny, very secret joke involving them. Sasuke glared and seethed at the amusement in that smile at his expense. Kakashi didn't even have the honor to acknowledge the challenge, idly flipping to the next page in his little orange fantasy.
After a moment, Sakura slowly slipped out of her seat. "I should be getting back."
Deigning not to look at her at all, it startled him when Kakashi murmured, "Perhaps Sasuke can walk you home. It is somewhat late."
Said boy's glare snapped right back to his former teacher, but Kakashi looked surprisingly benign and innocent and despite the NC17 material under his hand. Sasuke was sure he hadn't imagined the tease in his voice, though.
Somewhere to the left of his gaze, Sakura hesitated a moment, then replied softly, "I don't need someone to walk me home."
Sasuke scoffed, finally glancing back at her. "It's fine." He needed to get out of there anyway. He put a hand on the table to push himself up.
Sakura turned and actually narrowed her eyes at him, a small frown pulling those pouty lips downward. "No, it's not. I'm a big girl. I can get myself home."
Something inside him bristled, affronted. He had said he didn't mind walking her home and she had just brushed it off?
His eyes darted to the side at the hint of a snort, but Kakashi was looking as innocent as a newborn babe … reading a porn book. By the time he looked back, Sakura was already halfway out of the restaurant.
He got to his feet and began to follow after her, damned if he let her just shrug him off like that.
As he was leaving, he caught the loud beginnings of what was no doubt about to be another long, dumbass tirade: "Oi, Kakashi-sensei… what's so funny…?"
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At some point, it occurred to him that he was going far out of his way to follow her.
She always kept several steps ahead of him, though he knew she knew he was there. But rather than turn and wait as she normally would, the distance between them only seemed to be increasing as she stubbornly kept walking and he refused to speed up his steps anymore than necessary.
Years ago, he thought dryly, she would've been ecstatic to have him walk her home. She would've stopped and nearly bounced in excitement as he reached her side and then become semi-permanently attached to his arm the whole way.
And years ago he would've scoffed and turned in the other direction long before now.
As he followed her around the corner, he was on the verge of doing just that, ready to retreat to his own home and muse all night over how annoying the girl was. He shoved both hands into his pockets and readied his will, but as soon as he had rounded the bend he found something very disconcerting: there was not a pink head of hair in sight.
He froze in the middle of the road. It was late, so there were no crowds to obscure his vision; only a few people out and about or store owners closing up for the night. On a hunch, his eyes flickered skyward to the roofs, and it was only by luck he caught a flash of night-muted red disappearing behind a chimney.
Sasuke blinked. Stared. Blinked again as if this would magically place his former teammate back on the road in front of him where she belonged instead of hopping around on rooftops.
Was she avoiding him?
The answer seemed obvious and yet he still couldn't comprehend it. That she would so deliberately try to ditch his presence…
His eyes narrowed and he grit his teeth. A moment later he himself shot to the rooftops, taking an alternate route. She was obviously trying to lead him astray, but that was pointless since he knew exactly where she was going to end up anyway.
Her apartment house came into view quickly, him managing to arrive even before her. Hopping down to the street in front of the building, he paused, hands sliding into his pockets. The only thing that gave him pause now was that he was not quite sure which apartment was hers. She'd moved in recently and he'd never been inside.
So instead he waited under the eave of the entrance to the building, sulking into the shadows. It didn't take long before she appeared, landing sharply on the ground somewhat out of breath and glancing over her shoulder. The landing did fascinating things to the hem of her dress.
Turning with somewhat of a self satisfied smile, she had made it past him and all the way to the door before she paused. Watching her reflection in the glass, Sasuke saw that satisfied smile disappear from her face and allowed a smirk to wind around his own as he stepped forward out of the shadows.
Her head turned slowly to face him, an unreadable look in her eyes. He paused just behind her, enjoying his victory—until the sudden thought assailed him that he had no idea just what, exactly, he had been in a contest with her over.
She finished turning her key in the lock and pushed the door open, her eyes still locked with his the whole time. Finally, she broke away first, shaking her head and slipping inside. When he made no move to follow she paused and glanced over her shoulder again.
"Are you coming up?"
No, he wasn't, he felt like saying, except that would mean denying that only a few minutes later he had been trying to figure out which window was hers.
"Ah," he finally said, following her into the hall. He wanted to have a few words with her anyway.
They were silent as they moved up the stairs, Sasuke's eyes attempting to drill through her back. Or rather her lower back, as the current angle of her above him on the stairs had him looking a little lower than was proper.
It seemed to take forever to reach her apartment, though as it turned out she lived on the very next floor. The lock clicked as it opened and she led him inside, and his eyes glanced around the small space carelessly.
Even though it was dark, he could see it was very clean, very pink, very feminine. Very her.
"Sasuke-kun," She began softly, her hand reaching for the light switch on the wall. Her fingers never reached the switch, though, as his hand shot out to grab her wrist and spin her around to face him.
Cornering her against the wall with his body, he placed both hands on either side of her shoulders, staring down at her with an unhappy look.
Her eyes widened, and she pressed deeper against the wall. "Sasuke-kun?" She whispered uncertainly.
He kissed her.
There was no thought to the action, no premeditation, just the sudden pressure of her lips against his. There was no denying his desire to claim them anymore. There was no denying how much he had envied the fudge on her spoon, of how much she had been annoying him all night.
She gasped at the sudden barrage, a muffled sound that he paid no heed to. It was only when her hands came to his shoulders, seeming torn between clutching him closer or pushing him away, that he finally regained enough of himself to break the kiss.
He pulled away quickly, drawing in breath, somewhat surprised at how hard he was breathing. Staring at her with widening eyes, he could think of nothing to say, no way to play this off. He couldn't move his hands from the wall and he couldn't think, watching her bathed in the dim moonlight against the wall.
After a moment of silence, she began to move away from the wall, the motion somewhat hesitant. She seemed to slowly gain determination though as she pressed her body up against his, carefully wrapping her arms around his neck. He could feel the caress of her fingers tickle the sensitive hairs at his nape, and he didn't move.
"If you really want me, Sasuke-kun," she whispered softly, slowly, in his ear, "Then stop looking at me and touch me."
Moving back then, her hand rose over her shoulder to cover his, drawing it away from the wall. His eyes widened as they followed her movement and she guided his hand to her body, and suddenly Sasuke found something very soft and round beneath his palm. Her breast seemed to fit his grasp perfectly, and his hand flexed over the mound experimentally.
His eyes rose to her face to find her staring back at him, her cheeks darkened in a heavy blush that he could see even in the dim lighting. But there was a set to her lips and eyes that said she wasn't going to back down and would be disappointed if he did.
Disappointing her was something he was rather good at, but for this moment it was the last thing he thought about.
Her hands left his and fell back to her sides. He looked down again to where his hand was, wondering if he could say no even if he wanted to.
He didn't want to, though, so that wasn't much of an issue, was it?
His second kiss caught her by surprise again, but this time it was not so much demanding as it was accepting and… questioning. She answered him by winding her arms around his shoulders and responding under his lips, her eyes falling closed even as he pushed her back against the wall and his hand began to move over the part of her body she had so graciously offered him.
It wouldn't keep him satisfied for long, however. He wanted to touch her everywhere. He wanted her to writhe beneath him, to experience some of the frustrating, mind-twisting desire she plagued him with daily.
It didn't take long for her hands to begin undoing the ties to his shirt and for his hands to slip underneath hers. Eventually, he felt her guiding him to her bedroom, and they shed what remained of the cloth barriers between them before they slipped under her covers. Hands and tongues moved freely as they moved and touched and kissed and licked each other, both with impatience, both with the sense of finally appeasing a monster that had been growing between them.
He supposed he expected that at some point, the movements would become mindless and they would be able to instinctively merge together and enjoy each other. But the truth was that he was very aware of every touch she gave him, very aware of where his hands were and how he kissed her. There was an uncertainty in his every movement that he combated by surging ahead regardless or merely allowing her to guide him. Heat burned through his body and a consuming need made him want to move faster, but at no point did he feel as if he had lost control, even as he pressed her down onto the bed beneath him and pushed inside her.
But perhaps that was because he had already lost it. Perhaps Sakura had calmly taken the reigns of sanity from him the moment she'd hugged him wearing that little red dress in the restaurant that night.
He didn't know. At that moment, nothing more mattered than the vision of her lying there under him, pink hair splayed out on the white pillow, her body jolting from each of his thrusts. It finally wasn't just a dream. Her hands alternated from his hips to digging into his back, and he watched the expressions flash across her face and listened to the volume of her moans to gauge what she liked best. Occasionally he dipped his head to taste her mouth again, not being able to resist the urge when those perfect pink lips parted in ecstasy.
He could feel himself getting closer, quicker, coming so close to cresting that peak that he could almost touch it if he just stretched out his fingers--
--And she arched into his touch, crying out his name and suddenly he could feel such pressure, her clamping down on him, throwing her head back--
And then he was over, gasping something into her throat; a name, a syllable, a curse; he didn't know or care as he rode out that wave with her beneath him, guiding him.
His head lowered to rest on her shoulder as he balanced his weight on his forearms. Her hands came up to smooth through his hair and press his face closer to her, and he could do nothing but accept the touch and attempt to catch his breath. The muscles in his well-toned arms trembled.
After a moment he had to push himself away for fear of crushing her, settling onto his back beside her in the bed. He swallowed as the sweat cooled against his skin and his breathing went back to normal, and the silence between them began to lose its comfort as it stretched longer.
The moonlight flickered in through her window, but its rays centered on the floor rather than their bed. He couldn't see her as much as sense her beside him, though she hadn't moved since he'd pulled away.
He waited for her to break the silence. For a moment he thought he should say something, but the only thing that really came to mind after all of that was 'Thank you.'
And something told him that saying that right now might not be a good idea. Before he could decide to or not, though, she turned away from him, and he thought he felt a hint of … something unwanted in the air. Frowning, he moved and threw an arm around her waist, drawing her back up against him. She was tense for a moment and then relaxed into his embrace, and Sasuke took the chance to let his hand wander over the skin of her sides and stomach. She softened further at his touch, though there was still the hint of unwanted tenseness.
Finally, "Sasuke…"
"Why didn't you let me walk you home?" he asked abruptly, his hands pausing in their movements.
It took a moment for her to respond. When she did, it was distracted. "What?"
"Today," he explained softly. His hands didn't seem to want to obey his order to stand still, as they had gone back to tracing her skin without him noticing. "Why didn't you let me walk you home?"
"Oh." She shifted, turning slowly onto her back so that she could look at him. "Well, you just sounded so… put out about it, I guess. I'm tired of you always acting like I'm nothing more than an annoying burden."
As she turned, his eyes were drawn to her chest and the two round, perfect breasts made present to his gaze. After a moment, Sakura blushed a pretty, rosy pink, one arm lifting as if to hide herself from his eyes. She stopped it in midair though, then slowly laid it back down on the sheets, a hint of stubbornness tightening her lips.
"You are annoying," He pointed out softly. Her eyes narrowed, but then his fingers graced a particularly sensitive spot and her eyes closed and her lips parted to emit a soft gasp. He made a mental note of that before continuing. "I worry about you when I should be focusing on missions. I think about you when I should be meditating." He drew in a breath, thinking. "Every time I'm with you, I feel a bit lighter. Every time you smile I feel like there might still be a purpose for me in this life. You're distracting when you're around but even more distracting when you're not. And somehow, no matter how much you give me, I still want more.
"Even right now," he continued, frowning. "Even right now when I should be feeling completely satiated, all I can do is look at you and think about all the things I'm going to do to you the next time."
She blinked her eyes open slowly, looking at him with a touch of surprise. "Next time?"
He nodded. "It's very annoying."
"Mmm," She replied softly. The smile he knew her for was returning to those full lips, darkened from his recent kisses. "I guess I can see why. You're annoying too, you know."
"Me?" Sasuke gave her an affronted look.
She nodded, turning towards him fully and tucking herself into his chest, filling him with warmth. His arms came around her securely as she settled against him, fit against him like her body was the other half of his mold.
"The most annoying man in the world."
He scoffed, staring up at the ceiling as her breaths slowed against his chest. Him? Annoying?
He glanced down at the head of pink hair and the body so attached to him. A small smile crawled across his lips before he could stop it, then it vanished.
He was not annoying.