A/N: Ch. Something is wrong with 's uploader... So the title and chapter title aren't centered because of the error. Will edit someday. This isn't long, okay? It's just an epilogue of sorts.

Say it Again
December: Scrapbook of Memories

"Say cheese!"

Funny how almost everyone says that same line whenever they have a camera in their hands and wish to take a picture.

"Say cheese!"

See what I mean?

"If someone else takes a picture, I'll go blind."

I smiled at my boyfriend-now-fiancé, and hugged his arm. "You're just not used to it."

"No, seriously," he muttered. "The lights and flashes are making me dizzy."

"Maybe we better go somewhere." I pulled him away from the crowd and out into the open. "I hope the few stars won't blind you."

"Hn." He rubbed an eye with his other hand and turned to me afterwards.

"What?" I asked when he was staring too long.

"It's nothing." He shook his head and eyed the garden of his father's mansion. "Anyway, sorry for the last minute invite."

"Don't worry about it." I said. "Your mother was too excited, and my mom couldn't wait to come either."

"Yeah well, I didn't think my parents would throw this grand of a party for our engagement." He sighed. "It's only been about a week and a half since you answered."

"That's long already." I told him with a scoff. "Normally, they'd throw a party the next day."

He raised a brow at me and smirked. "Like what Ino did."

"Don't act as if Kiba wouldn't have done the same thing!"

He shrugged, so I just left it at that and leaned my head against his shoulder. "It's cold…"

"It's winter."

"Yes, I can see that."

"Hn…"

The normally green grass was covered in a thick blanket of snow, and the snowflakes were pouring on at a slow pace. It was such a beautiful sight, and I couldn't help the smile on my lips.

"What's on your mind?"

I glanced at Sasuke and grinned. "I'm just happy."

"Why?"

I narrowed my eyes at his stupid smirk. "I don't know, maybe because some guy who turned out to be a former soldier saved me from my ex boyfriend. He became my friend, and then suddenly, my boyfriend. And then he was called back by the military, and I thought he wasn't coming back, but then he turns out to be back.

Afterwards, he made me think he was proposing so many times just to keep me from suspecting his real date of proposal – wherein he wore his military uniform and told me of his promotion, and then makes his guy friends pretend to kidnap me or something, but then turns out it was all part of his plan and-"

The stupid jerk kissed me! Can you believe that?! He cut me off from my rant!

"You are such a rude-"

He cut me off again with his lips!

…though they're very nice… and the kiss is- Ah screw it! I'll kiss him back, it's getting harder to resist with the way he's holding me and pushing his tongue in my mouth.

"Merry Christmas!!"

I can sense that raised brow of his even if my eyes are not on him.

"Happy Holidays!!"

"Sakura, you're not on drugs, right?"

"Eh?" I swiftly looked at him. "What made you say that?"

"It's only the twenty-first of December, not to mention that you're greeting a dog and a cat."

"Yoru and Bolt aren't just animals! They're our little babies!!" I struggled to carry both the babies in my arms – ugh. Bolt was heavy.

Sasuke just gave me an unsure smile and stepped aside. "Come on, you're going to catch a cold."

"Thanks, I was freezing!" I immediately entered his home and set both Bolt and Yoru down while shivering. "Whew! I don't know if I can't wait for the summer heat or if I should be glad it's a cold winter." I almost yelped when Sasuke's arms were around my waist from behind while his nose and lips were on my neck.

Good thing I had a turtleneck sweater on – otherwise, I would have shivered for another reason.

"Do you still think it's cold?"

I flushed when he whispered against my ear, and I didn't know how to react when he started to kiss my jaw, and then cheek.

"Um… a bit..?" I answered while still rubbing my arms with my hands. "I'm not trained to be immune to the climate like you are!"

"Heh." He was smirking – I'm sure. "I'm not immune to it; I'm just not that bothered."

"It's almost the same." I said with a huff while removing my gloves since I already took off my coat upon setting foot inside his place. "How can you stand the freezing weather with just a dress shirt and jeans?!"

"Socks."

"And socks!"

"For one thing, I'm hugging you. For another, I just ignore the cold."

"HOW?!"

"Wearing dark colored clothes seems to add warmth." He shrugged, probably unsure of his statement.

"Uh… I think that works when it's summer."

"It works for me right now."

"Whatever…" I pulled away from him and walked into the kitchen. "Hot chocolate, here I come!"

I don't know about his reaction, but I was sure he was finding my antics funny.

"Sakura, why don't you just wear pants instead of a skirt?"

"It's a long skirt," I said. "And I'm wearing boots! And black stockings underneath. See?! I'm wearing dark colors too!" I stood in front of him and turned around, letting him see the dark blue top I had on and the green below the knee skirt. "I figured you'd be wearing black – again." I went back inside the kitchen when he shook his head in amusement.

"It doesn't hurt for you to wear jeans you know." He switched on the stove to boil water for my cup of coco.

"I love wearing skirts…"

"And boots."

"And shorts!"

"And my shirts."

"Yes." I grinned. This top I'm wearing happens to belong to him when he was still a teenager. "It's either you were really thin back then, or I'm just fat…"

"You just grew." He told me. "You can't stay in your teenaged body forever, you know? And I don't mean your figure, but rather, height and growth of your bones, etc."

"I still think you were really thin or I'm just fat."

He sighed and hugged me from behind yet again. "If you were, I don't think you'd fit in my arms so perfectly."

I had to stifle a giggle. "You can be so cheesy."

"And yet you love it."

"It's sweet." I said. "Especially since I didn't think of hearing such lines from you…"

"Why is that?"

"I thought of you as someone too cool for such things."

"Pfft." He pulled away. "Looks can be deceiving."

I grinned. "Not really, I mean, I also thought of you as someone polite or at least someone who has courtesy."

"Uh-huh…"

"You don't believe me?"

"Dunno…"

I pouted at his small grin.

"I hate you…"

"That," he said. "I don't believe."

I didn't think my parents would agree to letting me move in with him, but I was glad they were cool with it.

It gave me a chance to help him out in his monthly cleaning, and I was pretty much glad to have located a thick envelope which contained a lot of pictures printed on photo papers.

"Hey, why do you have these?" I asked him upon seeing a lot of snapshots of us. "You don't plan on using them for target practice right?"

"...Target practice..?"

"Just answer the question."

"Hn. It's nothing. I just haven't picked which ones to put in a frame for display."

"Really?"

"Yes." he told me while taking all the pictures back. "So, let's get back to cleaning, shall we?"

I just grinned at his raised brow and smirk before picking up the rag I had earlier and proceeded in wiping the center table of his living room.

"So, what do you plan on doing for Christmas?"

"I don't know." he said. "At least, I don't know yet."

"It's only three days away..."

"I know."

I just decided to leave him be for now, since he wasn't very cooperative in talking right now. Why? Maybe he was too preoccupied in cleaning.

"Merry Christmas!"

He smiled at me and took the small box from my hands.

"Open it, open it!" I said excitedly while jumping.

"Calm down Sakura, I'll open it." he said, and I can detect a hint of amusement from his tone.

I watched as he pulled off the ribbon and the lid of the box, and I smiled brightly at his small grin.

"Come on, our ranks have to change you know!" I took the dog tag from the box where his rank was now Captain, and removed the chain around his neck to replace the original one. "I even have mine too, see?" I showed him the same identical tag.

"Hn." he had that rare smile of his on his face again, the kind of grin that I love seeing.

"I don't want to change the one you gave me from White Day." I confessed with a hint of a blush on my cheeks. "It's too-"

He cut me off by kissing me lightly. "Thank you."

I just smiled.

"Merry Christmas." he whispered against my hair while handing me a rectangular object. I slowly tore open the wrapper and gaped at the scrapbook.

"Sasuke..."

He shrugged. "Bet you weren't expecting that from me."

"Seriously..?!"

He smiled at me.

"Thank you!" I tackled him to a hug. "It's the best present ever!"

"Hn. You sure about that?"

"Okay, the best present yet!"

"Heh." he smirked. "You haven't even browsed it yet."

I laughed and undid the silk ribbon that served as the seal of the scrapbook, afterwards, flipped through the pages. Each turn had t least two pictures of us together, with a few descriptions written below in a familiar calligraphic handwriting I know too well.

"You finished all this in three days?"

"A day and a half actually." He said. "I had to wait until you were sound asleep, which didn't happen too often."

I giggled at a certain picture that was taken by Ino. It was a photo of us playing Time Crisis.

I read what he wrote underneath: Never underestimate what a nurse can do.

"Really now?"

"Hn. I didn't think you were that good."

I continued to look at the other pages, and the last one brought tears to my eyes.

"Fairytale come true." I read beneath the photograph of us during his birthday, wherein he was riding the carousel horse behind me – the picture Hinata took.

"I planned on using the part I proposed to you, but it didn't really leave behind a good impact."

"Oh come on! You're still bitter about that?! I still gave you my answer!"

He just smirked and pulled me to his lap, since we were on the floor next to the Christmas tree.

"You ruined my plan."

"Bet I'm the first one to ever counter you, huh?"

"Hn." he kissed my cheek. "Yeah, you would have aced Strategic Studies in NDA."

"Maybe, but I can't beat you in your game all the time," I kissed him on the lips this time. "I mean, you're still always one step ahead of me."

"Sometimes," he said while leaning back with me over him. "But most of the time, you're two steps ahead."

"Am I?"

He smirked and soon reversed our positions. "Not always."

I twitched. "You are such a bastard!"

"A bastard you seem to love." and he kissed me to calm me down – something that always works.

Four years pass...

I never pictured this kind of life back when I was still a soldier.

I always thought that the future, for me, was nothing but more blood and more deaths.

"Daddy..! Hurry up!"

Who would have thought I'd see a future filled with so much life?

Heh. When you've been in the battlefield for years, it's the only time you actually stop and appreciate life. It's the only time you slow down and live it.

"Sasuke, seriously, don't make me go there and get you!"

"Alright, alright!"

Seeing Sakura and Sayuki, our four year old daughter...

Living this kind of life is something I didn't expect to happen. So even if this is all a dream, or if this is what it feels like when you're in heaven, then I guess I'm through being a soldier.

This is what I've been looking for all my life.

Fulfillment.

The End.

A/N: Brain dead. __ Don't ask me for a sequel, please. I'm dying! As much as I love this story, it has to end at some point. Hehe.