Sakura awoke with the first rays of dawn shining in through the cracks of the windows, which cast fiery orange across the bed sheets and the opposite wall. The room was silent as was the town, and it mirrored her acceptance. Hesitantly, she lifted the sheet she was under and lightly stepped across the wooden floorboards to the dresser, where she began a hunt for something suitable to wear. Settling on her formal clothes from the night before, she lifted them with deft fingers and tied them on as best as she could without her personal maid.

She allowed herself one last fleeting look as she exited the room; one look to forever soak in the rich details that the sunrise was creating across the bed and one last look towards her lover who lay deep in sleep molded around a smaller form that was now absent. The scene looked incomplete without her in it, and she forced herself to turn back around and leave, while holding back her tears. Through the store and down the street she walked, quelling her emotions and locking them away as she came to meet the dark stranger. With a curtsey and a bow and formalities done with, they set off into the distance to a place where nothing would be quite right, but nothing would ever be so wrong.

Sakura's hand trembled as it held the quill she used to write with, tapping unsteadily on the parchment beneath it. The eloquent words that normally poured onto the page were replaced with the tears rolling down her cheeks; displaying all of the unwanted verbs that she couldn't speak out loud. She didn't try to stop it, and merely sat as still as she could, as her emotions alone filled page after page. Just like her heart, the paper would heal, and the water and the wound would dry. There might be a mark left over, but that would only make her stronger and she told Sasori as much, who watched from his chair a foot away.

"And here I thought you didn't like poetry." He said his voice wry. Concern highlighted the corners of his eyes and the set of his mouth, but his words betrayed nothing. "Switching fields of study on me?"

Sakura only smiled at him; and what a mournful smile it was. Sasori knew too well that losing her writing was akin to losing a brother or a sister. How many nights had he watched her in silence as she poured her very essence into the work she did? How many mornings did he awake to hear her humming blissfully as she made her way up to her dear material? How many times had he watched her run through the spectrum of emotions as she experienced trial and error, and how many times had she been oblivious to the emotional turmoil that she caused him? Sasori had to hide his feelings now because he was in agony as well. He was losing the woman he loved, and what a fool he had been.

They were both momentarily pulled from their deep thoughts as they heard the third member of their group ascend the staircase. Sai arrived at the top, with his short black hair, commoners work clothing, and narrowed artist's eyes that caught everything. While nothing escaped his vigilant observations, he rarely commented on it, as he wasn't a very social being and despised drama. For an artist, that such combination was rare.

He had his supplies with him, and gave them a nod before heading over to his corner of the room to begin his work. For a long time, he stared directly at Sakura, but she dismissed the action as one of his many oddities. Sasori walked over to him, and whispered quietly to the young man about what had happened. He gave a quiet reply, and looked towards Sakura once more, and then began his work.

Sasori came back over, and this time he had stopped at his desk to pick up a small package, which he examined, and then tossed into his waste-bin. He then looked Sakura over thoroughly, assessing her mental and physical state. She had said she just wanted to write, but she wasn't getting anywhere, and this only seemed to be making her more upset. Coming to a decision, he placed one of his large hands on her, and drew her attention.

"Why don't we go sit in my room, and I'll play you some music. You've always wanted to hear me play my violin, right? And I'll let you change your clothes." Sakura simply got up and followed him, without replying. Her hand held his in return, tighter than she normally did when he was so bold to make such a move.

Sasori faced the wall about to take down the instrument, and blushed as he heard the laces of her outer dress being undone. He had never been in the room when she changed, but she had never been so distressed before. The male part of him wanted to stay while the gentleman in him wanted him to leave. He settled for staying as he was, facing the wall, as he then picked up the bow and waxed it. Once ready, he began to play the song he heard her sing every morning. He didn't know the name, but he had practiced it at night many a time after she would leave, trying to get the notes just right.

Slowly, ever so slowly he started in on the low notes that hummed sweetly on the fine instrument. Grace filled his every movement as the sunlight from the window highlighted his slightly arched form, with his chin resting lightly on the violin. His bow strokes flowed in a sensual way over the strings, and Sakura's breath caught in her throat. The song had always been one of the most lovely she had ever heard, but street performers would never do it the justice Sasori could.

Soon enough, Sakura's light melodic voice joined in. It soared with his notes in serene harmony and as he swooped low she climbed high and intimacy was born and embers were cast in their hearts. There was no reservation, no holding back. It mattered not to them that there was no audience, for they were playing solely for each other and the passion that had been subconsciously ignited. As the song finished, on a note that could have only been brought by God, Sasori tilted his head just enough to lock their eyes, and Sakura shuddered from the smoldering passion she saw staring back at her.

She couldn't hold that stare, and had to turn her head away and down as color rose bright to her cheeks. Softly, as if scared of breaking the beauty they had just created, Sakura answered one of his unspoken questions. "The song is called Ave Maria."

"Quite beautiful, it always pulls at the strings of my heart" He replied lightly. Sakura didn't think there was anything light about what he had said, as she drank in the moment. His soft amber eyes were half closed, weighed down but his sudden emotional state and his long lashes rested dark and delicate.

Clarity had wrung true as she sang, just as it always did when she brought Ave Maria to her lips when she was troubled. She knew what she had to do, and what tomorrow would bring and she sincerely hoped Sasori would understand her decision.

"Thank you, Sasori. Thank you for everything. I know now what I knew not before in my state of confusion. Like always, you have shed a light on my conflictions and I do not know what I will do without you." A sad smile graced her lips. Sakura didn't want to say this, but she was a strong woman and she would do it anyways. "Tomorrow I will leave to start a new life with the man I do not know. I will put aside my pride, and I will do what is required so that my family and my brother may live in peace and prosperity."

He nodded, as he put the violin back up on its stand. Sasori had figured that she would come to this conclusion. She was, after all, an intelligent and selfless woman. She always placed others before herself. Her next words took him by surprise, as it was certainly notin her nature to be so bold.

"Sasori, I thought for sure that I would have more time-" She had to stop and work her words out again. While the situation had emboldened her in this area, she still found it difficult to talk of matters of the heart out loud. "I love you, Sasori. I love you, and I have been a fool to have done nothing with those feelings. If you do not detest me, please, show me what true love is before I have to give it all away."

Silence. One beat, then two. Slow steps as he made his way over to where she perched at the foot of his bed, wearing his overly large white blouse. The laces hadn't been done up on the sleeves or at the neck, and she hadn't bothered to put any pants on as his garment came to rest at her knees, so small was she. The soft mounds of her breasts were visible through the thin fabric, and as she used one delicate hand to scratch lightly at the itchy lace that covered the neck of the shirt, he could make out the shadow where her cleavage was.

It was so incredibly enticing, and so incredibly wrong.

"Sakura, you are about to be the lover of another man." He said through hooded eyes, his lips going dry as she licked her own in fear and anticipation. "My feelings aside, what right do I have to take you when you are not mine to have?"

Frustration nipped her eyebrow, and she took a deep breath. She knew she was asking a lot of the older man. "He may end up my husband, but you are the only one I will ever love. Can you deny that you feel the same towards me?"

The bond that had formed between them over the years and only grown stronger had finally manifested itself through this turmoil. Sakura refused to give her life away for nothing. This one night, if she could have it… then perhaps, maybe just then she could turn her back and leave it all behind without doubt.

"Will you regret it?" He asked her, worry clearly evident as he brushed aside some of the pink wisps that had fallen in her face.

"My only regret will be not having loved you." And her voice was clear, and there was no hesitation, and there was strength and most of all there was love.

That was the deciding factor.

"How long I have waited," Sasori whispered in her ear as he finally bent over her and leaned in so that his breath was tickling the sensors on her lobe. "May you never forget me."

One large lithe hand came to rest on her chin while the other slid to the back of her hair to settle amongst the cherry locks that he so loved to stare at. He tilted up her face then, to look him straight in the eye so he could observe her beauty. He watched with mild amusement as her jade eyes clouded over and became hazy, and as her cheeks thrummed a warm red.

Her lips were small and sumptuous, often seen wearing a pout as she worked out a particularly difficult piece of information. He closed his eyes fully and sank his own mouth onto hers, and the connection was flooded with warmth that sent a heat racing inside each of them.

Sakura's once stilled hands were shocked out of their dormancy and they sprung to life, reaching up and entwining in his ruby silk hair. Unlike him, she kept her eyes partially open, wanting to burn every image of him that she could into the back of her mind so that she would never be without him.

This action spurred the man on, and as their mouths pressed together harder with more passion and less hesitancy, he slid his lips apart and licked the outline of hers and he devoured her. Finally, he tapped gently on her bottom lip for access.

She opened her mouth letting him in, and felt her world leap out from under her as something warm and smooth glided around the inside of her cheeks and over her teeth. It licked her tongue and the roof of her mouth and with another burst of heat in her center she realized that this blissful thing was his tongue against hers.

The urge became stronger and she followed his movements as they fell back into his silky cream sheets. He made no further advances but carnal urges had been awakened in Sakura, and she tangled herself up in him wrapping her legs around his torso where they lay.

He smiled against her lips, proudly thinking that she had always been a fast learner. One of his hands came down from where it rested in the sheets to press against the flat of her stomach over the shirt. She gasped against his lips, never realizing that the spot would be so sensitive.

Taking it as an ok to move forwards, Sasori then brought his other hand down to rest on her exposed thigh, causing an electric heat to move down through to her core. Sakura started to breathe heavier, arching her stomach towards his body in wonton lust.

Now his eyes were filling with something akin to hers, and he paused her movements to pull his shirt off. She stared in amazement at his finely toned skin and well defined muscles; sculpted muscles that she had never known he possessed. She ran her soft hands over them, exploring which spots were tight and which were soft.

Sasori responded by trailing kisses down her cheek and neck, and then along her collar bone. Some kisses were soft and some were rougher, but each one elicited a soft moan from the woman beneath him, and she in turn pressed her mouth to the corner of his neck by his ear. He groaned softly and she suddenly had the urge to nip at his earlobe.

He groaned again, this time bringing his lip right to one of the sensitive rosy buds that was showing through the thin fabric. He closed his mouth around it and the wet, smooth sensation against her nipple caused her to cry out loud. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew she should be embarassed, but she was to wholly caught up in the moment. With a wet pop he released her and sat back to look at her.

Her cheeks were on fire and her eyes were heavy with lust. One of her hands was now wrapped around the sheets and the other was curled in her hair. He smiled at her and she smiled shyly back. An erection had sprung hard and fast on him a while ago, and he ached to take her and feel the slickness of her inside. He was trying desperately to keep things slow, but when she sat forward and drew the white garment up and over her head, to reveal herself in only her panties, he had to physically stand up.

"It's alright Sasori, I want this. I asked for it." She said softly, from where she now sat naked on the bed.

He watched her as she lay down and decided he was going to hell. "I'll try to be gentle."

And those were the last words spoken as his pants fell to the floor and he joined her on the bed, to spend is one and only night with the woman he loved. She would never forget this, he swore. She would never forget him.

The walk home was long enough that the pain in between her legs had faded, and with a little makeup she had purchased down the street, she had covered up the love marks on her chest that were just slightly too high to be hidden by her dress. She would tell her mother that she had stayed with her friend Ino Yamanaka who lived on the other side of town. The woman would be angry and spiteful, but she would move on just like she always did with Sakura.

As for Sasori; the love nips would fade with the days, but he would always hold her heart, and although Sakura would marry Sasuke Uchiha, she would never love him.

-Fin-