On The Same Path [SasuxSaku]

Chapter 16: You are Mine

Warning: Rated M for a reason.

~ SasuxSaku

As twilight faded into darkness, the flickering firelight danced across Sakura's skin, making it shimmer like gold dust. The heat building inside Sasuke was becoming unbearable. His hand slid slowly from her back to her waist, his fingers tightening around her as he pulled her closer, deepening their kiss.

Neither of them had ever kissed anyone before, but somehow, it didn't matter. There was no hesitation, no awkwardness. It was as though their bodies already knew what their minds had never learned—how to move closer, how to hold on, how to answer each other without a single word.

And in that moment, neither of them cared to question it. They simply surrendered to the desire that had been buried between them for far too long.

Nobody was coming between them today. They had waited long enough. Both of them.

Sakura, with her years of unrequited love—years and years of loving someone she had never, even in her wildest dreams, imagined would return her feelings like this.

Sasuke, with years and years of pain and loneliness, had convinced himself that he was undeserving of love. He had spent so long believing that keeping his distance from the people he cared about was the only way to protect them—and himself.

He had already lost too many precious people. Somewhere along the way, without even realizing it, that fear of losing someone again had turned into a fear of letting anyone get close enough to lose.

A fear of forming another bond.

A fear of needing someone.

But the walls he had been so hell-bent on building around himself were finally crumbling.

Somehow, Sakura had found her way past them, slipping inside the confines of the lonely castle he'd spent years constructing around himself. And for once, Sasuke didn't want to push her back out.

He was ready to let her in. To let her see all of him—the good, the bad, and the ugly. He was ready to be vulnerable in front of her, and in that moment, he realized just how desperately he'd needed that. How much he needed to lower his defenses, to humble himself before her.

In the middle of their heated kiss, a soft moan escaped Sakura's lips.

Sasuke's eyes shot open. His right eye bled red without warning.

Sakura's eyes remained tightly shut, oblivious to it, as her hands slipped from around his neck and tangled into his wet, ruffled hair, pulling him closer.

Almost instinctively, Sasuke's hand began to travel upward. But just as it reached beneath the curve of her breast, Sakura's eyes flew open.

Sasuke froze.

He immediately broke the kiss and pulled his hand away, his expression shifting as the haze in his mind cleared. For a moment, he simply stared at her, suddenly worried that he'd gone too far—that in the heat of the moment, he'd crossed a line.

This was not part of the plan. Hell, he hadn't even thought he would kiss her like that. He—

Goddammit. He was going crazy.

There were too many emotions crashing through him at once, too many thoughts tangled together for him to make sense of any of them. He couldn't have put what he was feeling into words even if he'd wanted to.

"Sasuke-kun..." Sakura whispered.

One of her hands slipped from his wet hair, reaching down to find his. She curled her fingers around it.