Work Text:
BEGIN AGAIN
All love ever does is break and burn and end.
Autumn leaves scrunch under her boots as she walks aimlessly around this foreign city. The air is crisp, signaling that winter is just right around the corner, and she wraps her scarf around her a little tighter.
It's been almost 8 months since she's lived here and she couldn't get enough of these little coffee shops she always finds when she needs them the most. Her book is almost finished making her editor grunt in glee over the phone halfway across the world.
"Thank fuck, Sakura," Tsunade breathed earlier. "Your publishers are demanding to get updates because they think you didn't need to get out of Japan to get inspired or some shit. The audacity! As if they funded your trip! These old geezers get on my nerves, really."
"You're an old geezer too, remember?" she teased.
"Shut the fuc-"
The conversation went entertaining as usual, with her harmless insults and Tsunade's profanities all over the place. She misses her, but she needed a change of environment. She needed it after all the heartbreak.
She exhales a breath when she felt her heart constrict a little. No more thinking about him, she scolds herself. No more tears.
After being lost in her thoughts, she notices she's in a part of the city she hasn't been before. She sees a small café in between two large buildings, its exterior looking like a traditional Japanese establishment and its name in bold kanji plastered on their door with a spiral logo, Konoha.
Sakura tilts her head to the side. Why does it sound familiar?
She shrugs and moves towards the entrance. Well, doesn't matter. I need coffee.
That's the 4th time now, she silently counts in her head.
Ever since she stepped foot inside the café and sat to enjoy her warm cappuccino and strawberry shortcake, she noticed eyes on her—specifically from a man on the other side of the shop.
He's very subtle, she can give him that. But what gives him away was his boisterous blond friend that attracts the attention of the customers, even if they're only a few of them. If not because of her fantastic beverage made by a very handsome barista named Itachi, who is also the owner of the shop, she would've gone off.
It was a nice surprise, really—finding a Japanese café in Paris. She was greeted with a soft and melodic irrashaimase by Itachi who was not too far from her age that has silky hair tied at the base of his neck. His black orbs were warm and welcoming, and his coffee was even warmer and more welcoming as well. It's unfair, truly, to have a talent like brewing a good coffee.
The said man approaches her table and gives her a glass of water that she thanks him for. Then he speaks in their mother language, "Please excuse my brother for staring. I know it's rude, I'll talk to him."
Oh, his brother, she muses inwardly. Hence the identical dark aesthetic. "It's fine," she says with a small smile. "Maybe it's the hair."
He smiles back, "My brother just likes mysteries." Then he leaves to go to his brother's table and flicks his forehead before heading back to his work.
His last statement got her wondering, What does he mean?
Two days later, she is back in the café. This time, with a laptop and a lot of work to do. She feels so cramped in her apartment and an email from someone she wanted to forget made her want to get out and just breathe. And so she's here in her messy hair and dark ripped jeans, but with a strong black coffee to feed her veins.
She's stuck in writing the next line, stuck in writing the rest of the chapter to be completely honest. She was doing well earlier until she received that goddamn email from him.
He really was an ass.
"Excuse me," she hears someone say. She looks up and sees the guy from the other day. Itachi's brother, her mind provides for her. The guy who kept on staring at her since she got there the other day.
"Do you mind?" he nods towards the seat across from her. His eyes are as dark as his older brother's but sharper and clearer; like he can see everything. It is intimidating up close, unlike when he was a few yards away two days ago.
In a normal day, with her current mood, she would've told him to fuck off and leave her alone because she's busy trying to write about fictional characters she wishes she is sometimes. But today, she shakes her head no and says, "Go ahead."
Sakura hears a small thank you and he seats himself across from her. He is really handsome, just like his onii-san, but somehow different too. Maybe it's because he knows what he looks like and he's proud of it, unlike his brother who doesn't really do anything about it. It is just her hunch.
He has a great profile—chiseled jaw, angular cheekbones and aristocratic nose. Thin pink lips and perfect brows (just like his sibling, too. Is it genes?), and midnight pools behind unfairly long lashes. The only difference is that he has dark hair that sticks up in the back like a chicken's ass. It's quite funny in her head.
She then realizes that she stared for far too long to notice all these, and so she trails her eyes back to his eyes and sees them amused and also quite shy at the same time. She feels like blushing all of a sudden.
"I'm Sasuke," he starts. "I'm the barista's younger brother."
She nods her head, "Yeah, I know. Itachi told me."
Sasuke's eyes widen a little and he whips his head to look at his brother from the counter. She didn't see the look on his face, but she hears Itachi chuckling so I guess Sasuke gave him a deathly glare. She thinks that with his eyes, he's very capable of doing it.
The glare is because of the fact that she's on a first-name basis with Itachi, but she really doesn't need to know that right?
Sasuke faces her again and clears his throat, "Right. I just want to apologize for the last time you were here. I know it was creepy and rude, and I'm really sorry if I creeped you out."
She sips her coffee, "Thanks. I reckoned it was my hair though and I get that a lot, so no harm done. It's not every day that you see pink hair."
His eyes travel from her eyes to her hair, his lips tugging in a slightly upward direction. He goes back to her eyes and asks, "You're Haruno Sakura, right?"
Her eyes widen with the inquiry. This is the first time someone knew her identity in this place. She chose to go here anyway because she knew the chances of someone recognizing her were slim.
Alarm is probably written all over her face because he quickly says, "Don't worry! I'm not a stalker! I-… I'm just a big fan of your books. I have always liked mystery books and your Hidden Villages series is so good. That's why I was looking at you yesterday because I knew it was you."
'My brother just likes mysteries', Itachi said the other day. So this is what he meant.
Sakura exhales, "Thanks for clarifying. I was about to run actually." She laughs dryly, her words half-meant.
"I'm so sorry if I made you uncomfortable," Sasuke murmurs again. "I just can't believe you're here in Paris. Are you writing the last book for the trilogy?"
Interestingly, she feels relaxed now. "Yes, I am. It's slow, but it's coming," she answers, leaning back against the soft cushion of her seat.
He grins—a boyish one. She couldn't help but store it in her memories to come back to once she comes back home. It is silly, really, to try and remember this guy she met only a few minutes ago.
Minutes turned to hours. The rest of the afternoon was a blur, but it was questions after questions not about her work and his love for it. It's not about Haruno Sakura the author, but it was about her and her record collection that he wants to see and her love of high heels. Just her—Sakura. It was about him and his likeliness for tomatoes and his fascination about reptiles. Just him—Sasuke.
She didn't write a single thing. She went back to her apartment and stood in the middle of it, wondering what changed. It was the first time she spent her day not thinking about work or the past or him at all. There was no staring blankly into space nor mending an aching heart. Today was fresh and new and a breath of fresh air, and she felt suddenly alive. She felt for the first time, what's past is past.
Her phone lights up with a new message, and she sees her newest contact who sent her a good night text.
Oh, she is so screwed.
They were walking along The Seine when she knew for the first time.
It's already been a month that passed since she met him but this is the first time he asked her out on a date. She agreed instantly, not knowing why she did. Until now.
The moonlight is bright, illuminating the city and the river below them. She feels like they've gone everywhere today; from a small oldtown library to the Louvre, to his favorite classic movie theatre and they recently just got off from the ferry that toured them around. He gave her his scarf now wrapped around her neck and she can smell him, with a hint of coffee and cigarettes.
She has always hated the smell of smoke because he smoked too much and gave her so much shit for making him quit. She was cussed out, mocked with her own work, and even slapped once. But Sasuke...
Sasuke is different. Even now, just as she's thinking about someone from her past, his voice talking about his mother's favorite Christmas movie grounded her to the present instead. She was about to talk about her painful past and her toxic relationship, but Sasuke's here with his warm voice and warm eyes. She feels warm all over, and that's when she knew.
She's in love.
He notices that she stopped walking because of her realization. Sasuke goes back to her side, "Are you okay? Are you cold?"
Sakura continues to look at him in awe, wondering what will happen now that she has finally admitted it to herself. Does he even like me back?
It was maybe the look in her eyes, but it made Sasuke pause. And apparently, he had a realization too.
"I have always liked mysteries, and now I've learned that you're far more mysterious than the books you write," he whispers to her. He's looking at her, eyes roaming around her entire face, as if he couldn't believe she's real. He is trying not to smile and shaking his head a little.
Then he says, "I like you. Not because you're my favorite. Well, technically you really are my favorite. But you know..." he trailed, his eyes wandering around but her.
Sasuke finally had the courage to look back at her expecting green eyes, "I like you more than my tomatoes. No...! That came out wrong... it's more than that." It's so cute, him babbling like a little kid but his eyes gleam under the moonlight in Paris as he softly confesses, "I like tomatoes, but I love you."
Sakura wants to laugh. Or cry. Or do both at the same time. She smiles, a watery smile because damn it, her eyes are leaking because he loves her. Sasuke loves her.
"You don't have to say anything. I know it's all of a sudden and it's only been a month, but please know it's true. I really like hanging out with you and being with you and I want you so much and I lo-"
"I love you, too."
The autumn air carried her confession with the wind as it reaches him. His eyes are impossibly light for something so dark, his ears a deep shade of red and cheeks dusted pink. Sakura pictures it in her mind, storing it in a special drawer she made just for him. "I love you too, Sasuke-kun."
His boyish grin comes out again and she feels like a little girl. Sasuke takes her gloveless hand, kisses it, links it with his hand, and puts them together in his coat pocket.
"It's a beautiful time to do a midnight stroll. Don't you think, Sakura?"
They kissed in the front door of her apartment that night and he left her with the taste of coffee on her tongue. An email with a cancelled plane ticket back to Japan forgotten with only Sasuke running inside her head as she went to sleep.
It was a mess of limbs and sheets. She woke up to a warm pair of arms around her and ghost of kisses on her neck. Sakura smiled as the kisses went up to her jaw and slid across to find her waiting lips.
"Good morning," she greeted him. He only answered her with an even deeper kiss. The morning was well-spent, with her under him and him inside her. It was the best, he said. Lazy and slow and so goddamn good. The smug grin on his face said so.
Now she faces her computer and opens another email from Tsunade asking when the hell is she coming home. Her fingers hover on the keys and she's stuck again. She's been canceling the plane tickets Tsunade has been sending her and avoiding her calls. She's two weeks late and Tsunade is going feral on her, mentioning that their publishers are demanding her to come home now or else the deal is off.
She can't seem to decide. She wants to do her work and finish her job. But she wants to be with Sasuke, and stay here longer. She doesn't know what to do.
"You're leaving, aren't you?"
She whips her head to look back at him standing against the threshold of her bedroom door. His shirt is off and he's holding two mugs of his coffee (which is even better than Itachi's). She continues to stare at him and doesn't know what to say.
Sasuke slowly walks to her and puts the mugs on her computer table. He squats down in front of her chair and kisses her knees. His arms grips the sides of her chair and looks up at her.
He is so beautiful, with his mussed-up hair and his sleepy eyes. She reaches out and touches his cheek, Sasuke leaning automatically to seek her touch. "I won't stop you."
Her eyes sting, "I don't want to go."
"But you know you have to. I know you have to."
He tugs her head down to meet his forehead with hers. "I'm always here. I will wait."
"I won't take too long."
"You better."
As soon as she got her physical copy and her freedom, she was gone.
It took her a year to finish her work, settle her past, and take legal matters to start her life somewhere else and now, Haruno Sakura is finally free. As she smells the crisp air of fall, it took her back to the time when she walks the streets of this city and found her liberty in a coffeeshop hidden somewhere.
She stands by the entrance and looks at the familiar logo outside. A phone call with Itachi let her knew that he would be here, expecting his best friend Naruto instead of her. She didn't contact Sasuke at all for the past three weeks, and an email from Naruto said that "teme is going berserk here, sakura-chan. PLS SEND HELP!" led her to do this surprise.
Now, she wouldn't want her boyfriend to burn down Japan. So now she's here on a lovely Wednesday afternoon to finally see him.
She enters the shop and immediately notices that there are no customers at all, except for that one extremely moody person sitting in the corner. He doesn't notice her at all because he is busy looking at the window looking so gloomy with his chin on his hand. He is absentmindedly stirring his coffee too and she wants to chuckle. She opts to come to him instead.
Sakura approaches him and softly says, "Excuse me."
He whips his head so fast it might've given him a whiplash and he gapes openly. She fights hard not to laugh and asks, pointing at the seat across him, "Do you mind?"
Sasuke keeps looking at her, his eyes never leaving her face. It goes from her eyes to her lips, down to her chest, hips and legs, as if caressing them with his eyes. She shivers with her coat on. He nods his head as he got back to her eyes, still speechless.
She takes her seat and looks at the face she missed the most. He has a light stubble on his jaw, small dark circles around his eyes, and his ever-messy hair. She wants to touch him and she wants him to touch her. It has to wait.
"You're Uchiha Sasuke, aren't you?"
He finally smirks, remembering the first time they spoke. "I am," his voice gruff, as if unused for so long or have been used to screaming his lungs out. Maybe both.
She smiles, "I've been wanting to see you. See, I wanted to surprise my boyfriend. I wanted to give him this."
She takes the book out of her bag and slides it across the table to him. It is the only copy of the book about to be released next year. After pulling some strings and with the help of Tsunade, she got an advanced copy of the book she finished because of him.
Long fingers open the book and his eyes drink her words dedicated to them—
"To Paris and coffee shops and you; for you have completed this work and my heart."
She watches his face attentively, greedy with every little emotion that comes across his face. A slight tilt of his head, a small nip of teeth on his bottom lip, the beautiful softening of his eyes—she drinks it all. She drinks it like her favorite coffee of his and pumps it into her veins to keep her alive for a long time.
Sasuke raises his head to face her again, and with his eyes warming even more, "I told you not to take too long."
"I'm sorry. I had to tell the national government sayonara."
His eyes widen in response, the implications of her statement hitting him directly on the chest. She couldn't do anything but respond back when he abruptly stands and reaches across the table to grab her neck and kiss the hell out of her.
He pulls back and says, "If you pull that shit with me again, I will make sure to drag your ass back here and burn that country if need be."
She laughed as she pecks his lips, "I'm home now, Sasuke-kun."
He runs his hands along her face and holds it close as he closes their distance once more, "I am, too."
All love ever does is break and burn and end.
But on a Wednesday in a café, I watched it begin again.
~fin~