A/N: Written for 20truths. The claim hasn't been verified yet, but I really, really wanted to post this up, so let's just say until then, it's inspired by the 20truths community challenge.
About the fic itself: if it doesn't make much sense, that's okay. Mostly, SaiSaku makes no sense, but we love it anyway, just because it fits, and clicks into place. At least in our delusional minds. I've tried to delay as much as possible the real 'romance' in this fic. I sincerely don't consider anything that happens before number 17 is really romantic. More like 'what if it really happened in the manga', or something like that. Bah. It makes sense to me!

1. On many occasions, when out in town, people would note that they made the cutest pair. Sakura, who would be at that time busy explaining correct social behaviour—"No, idiot, you don't call people fat just because you think it's nice to be honest."—, wouldn't notice those comments. Sai, who would be at that time too busy trying to avoid a smashing fist—"And don't call me 'ugly' just because you think I can handle it, either, imbecile!"—, and besides, he didn't really care about what the banal people would say about them.

What did they know about cute, anyway?

2. When Sakura mentions that she's been kissed before, Naruto starts a poll, and it becomes Konoha's favourite pastime, 'find out who's the fucking bastard who dared kiss my Sakura-chan'. Of course, what Sakura will never say is that Sai was the one who kissed her. After all, he'd only done it because "I wanted to see if you'd shut up."

3. She's more surprised when he starts kissing her afterwards, not with need or desire, but just a simple peck on her lips. "I wasn't talking!" she would say. "You were about to," said he.

4. Sakura is a woman who likes to make lists, because it puts some order in her life. So in the second drawer of her night-table, on top of the 'Reasons Naruto Has To Be Maimed For' and 'Kakashi-sensei's Top Ten Excuse For Tardiness', she has one called 'Ways Sai Kisses Me'.

There are only three elements on that list, but her favourite is the third one: 'with honesty'.

5. Neither Sai nor Sakura stop to think that they're expanding their relationship from team-mates to something that might become something else. They're rather good at ignoring some facts—regarding themselves, especially—so it comes as a big surprise when Sakura starts shivering whenever he touches her, or when Sai's kisses stop being a simple act to substitute hugs, or compliments, or the like, and start happening because he feels like he needs them.

6. The day he invites her to his home—although 'invite' is a big exaggeration, since she bursts in all by herself—she dryly tells him he needs a comfier couch. The next time, he makes her sit on a pillow on the floor, and she never comments on his artistic decoration sense ever again.

7. Sai would never, ever admit it, but he loves to sit on Sakura's comfortable, fluffy, impossibly orange couch.

8. After she finds him asleep on it once, he doesn't need to admit it anymore. The next day, said orange couch is in his apartment, clashing wildly with basically everything that's there. Sai loves it.

9. It's sad because even Naruto realises the two are obviously in something with each other, but neither Sai nor Sakura realize it themselves.

10. On her seventeenth birthday, Sakura is brought home from a B-ranked mission, unconscious and wounded. When she wakes up, he's there, smiling his stupid fake smile. He doesn't say 'happy birthday', instead he wordlessly bends down and kisses her. This will be the fourth element on her 'Ways Sai Kisses Me' list, and her newest favourite--'with urgency and need'.

11. They've never been on a real date, unless you count that mission in Waterfall village, where she had to act like a yakuza member, and he as her…'companion'. Somehow all their get-togethers end up with a third—or fourth, too—person butting in.

12. Sakura suggested once that they should just give up trying to date for good. Sai took this as a challenge, and two days after, they had their first date: dinner for two on the rooftop of his building.

13. Many have speculated that after the date, they also had sex for the first time. They were all wrong.

14. Their first time is during a mission, just after killing their targets. He takes her against the muddy grass, and her screams cause the birds to fly away. It's not pretty, nor is it especially romantic, but the fact that he notes aloud how beautiful she looks when she's under him, makes it worth it.

15. Strangely enough, they don't repeat the deed again until four months later—missions, hospitals, lengthy times of separation—. This time, it's on his own hospital bed, and Sakura tops. The door may be locked, but she still has to bite on his shoulder to muffle her moans. The marks take two weeks to fade, and Sai mildly remarks afterwards that "Next time, we could try in a real bed."

16. Having sex in Sakura's bed proves to be insufficient, and Sai's bed is too full of brushes and paint. They start to wonder if they only get turned on when doing it in public places. However, that night, he uses his brushes and paints on her skin, and she finds out, when she falls asleep—afternoon of the next day—that it's not the thrill of getting caught what moves them, but the creativity.

17. They're twenty years old when Sasuke returns. That night, Sai takes her just outside the traitor's prison cell, and in a strange display of emotion, he says "You're mine". In Sai language, this means 'Don't leave me.'. Sakura's answer never comes, but then again, she never leaves him.

18. Five days after the traitor's execution, Sai finally barges into her apartment, and pulls her out from bed, stating calmly that "That's enough of crying over him." He takes her out, and gets her drunk, which proves to be dangerous for Konoha's wellbeing. However, when a drunken Sakura finally slurs a sleepy 'I love you, you utter bastard' into his ear, Sai decides he couldn't care less about Konoha's wellbeing.

19. The next day, Naruto bluntly asks when they'll finally make him babies. He's rendered unconscious for a day, courtesy of Sakura.

20. He doesn't say it for some time, those three magic words she wants to hear. Then on her birthday, he gives her a painting: her portrait and the words 'I love you' scrawled on the bottom.

"That's all nice and wonderful, Sai," she says. "But it doesn't excuse you from having to say it out loud."

That is one order he won't be afraid to obey.