𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐄 | sasuke uchiha

15

"Ah, don't you two make an adorable couple?"

[Name] forced a smile as family member after family member greeted her and Sasuke, walking up to where they were seated to offer their congratulations. As the night went on, the food kept coming, and the celebrations kept going, meaning that she and Sasuke were surrounded by a raucous lot for the duration of their stay.

"My, my, Madara-san! You sure know how to drink!" roared Akinobu from his table, egging on the Uchiha to drink more. On either side of the two, [Name] and Sasuke's parents both looked as equally unenthusiastic as their children.

"Do you know when we can leave?" asked [Name] under her breath, already tired of doing nothing.

"Maybe it's best if we stay," replied the Uchiha, noticing both of their family members' antics. "They're well on their way to getting so drunk they'll start a fight and turn our clans against each other."

"True," sighed [Name], wary of where these celebrations would lead. However, as the night progressed, nothing seemed to be going awry, so she tried again.

"Sasuke, can we leave?" she asked, genuinely just wanting to go to sleep. The emotional and physical drain of her wedding and impending departure had taken its toll on her body, and she wanted to at least be able to sleep in complete peace, if even only for a few hours.

"Well... your uncle and Madara both seem too drunk to care about anything, so if you want, let's go."

Getting to his feet, Sasuke held out his hand to [Name] and helped her up.

"[Name] and I are off," he announced to whoever wasn't drunk off their face or stuffing their mouths with food. "It's been a long day for both of us."

"Of course! Goodnight!"

"Consummating once wasn't enough for you, eh?"

"Ichiro!"

With a sigh, [Name] turned on her heel and began to follow Sasuke off of Akinobu's property and towards her own house, holding on tightly to Sasuke's hand as she did so.

"You really are down about this whole marriage, aren't you?" mused Sasuke as he led [Name] out into the street.

"Yes," she sighed. "I just want to sleep."

"Understandable."

The remainder of their walk was in silence, and stayed that way until they made it back to [Name]'s room. When they entered, they saw that the futon's sheets had been changed, and her traditional white kimono and headpiece were nowhere to be seen. Glumly, [Name] trudged in after Sasuke had lit the room lamp, and shut the door behind her.

"I know you'll probably say no, but can you help undress me?" asked [Name] in a downcast voice. "Usually Mai would help, but I'm pretty sure she has to stay around the reception to help clean it all up when they're done."

Raising an eyebrow at her, Sasuke nodded nonetheless.

"I can't imagine your lover would be very appreciative of this right now," he joked as he began undoing [Name]'s carefully tied obi, carefully putting it aside before moving onto her other layers.

"Right now, I don't care," said [Name] tiredly, all her inhibitions having vanished in the past few hours. "I just want to go to sleep."

"Alright, alright."

Closing her eyes as she allowed Sasuke to strip away layer after layer and then hang them on the frame they had originally been on, [Name] remained oblivious to the fact that Sasuke was treating the whole thing as some sort of ceremony. Truthfully, he did felt a slight unease at having to undress the Kouhage, fearing that every layer he stripped away would be the last, and he would be facing her bare body. However, he didn't need to worry about that, because as soon as he reached out to remove one more layer from her, she gently grabbed his hand.