Chapter Text
to make me dream of you
-
This was a mistake.
A single bead of cold sweat travelled down the back of Sakura’s neck. She hovered at the doorway of the bedroom, clutching the strap of her backpack like a lifeline.
Uchiha Itachi lounged in all his perfect glory at the end of his low table, idly flipping through a textbook. This was the first time she saw him in casual clothes, not that she saw him often. He looked...soft and comfortable and relaxed, rare - she knew even in the few times she did manage to get a glimpse of him. His hair was up so she could appreciate the the strong line of his jaw, his neck, down to his collarbones bared by his v-neck, and the hint of his toned chest -
Sakura snapped her eyes back to Itachi’s face and found him watching her.
For one tremulous, heart-clenching moment, she thought, He knows.
“Come in, Sakura,” he said, and she fairly trembled at his tone. Sakura gripped her strap tighter and stepped into the spider’s parlor.
“You need help. With math,” Sasuke had drawled.
“Derivatives,” Sakura waved a hand in the air, careless as can be. She concentrated on her lunch affecting ease. Sparing a glance through her lashes, she had seen that Sasuke was frowning - nothing new - but there was a sort of cunning in his eye that Sakura didn’t care for. Naruto hadn’t paid any of them attention, and instead heckled at Kiba from across the lunchroom.
“And you want Itachi to tutor you,” he had said, but it more to himself than anything, as if he were turning the idea around his head, analyzing the possibilities.
Really, she should have cut her losses and ran the moment Sasuke narrowed his eyes in her direction, but she was curious and a little in love. The moment she saw Itachi Uchiha laugh, she knew she’d chosen. She told herself she’d do anything to get him to laugh like that again, to smile like that at her. Even if she had to pretend that she was struggling with one subject she knew she could ace no problem.
Swallowing down her bite of food and her fluttering anxiety, she replied, “Yes.”
Definitely a mistake, Sakura thought as she kneeled at the opposite end of the table from Itachi. She could feel his eyes tracking her movement. If he wanted to make her feel like prey and self-conscious, he was doing an astounding job.
“Thank you for taking the time to help me,” she murmured. She wasn’t brave enough to meet his eyes yet, but at least she remembered her manners.
The silence that greeted her almost made her look up - and she did - but he wasn’t there. A shadow cast over her, and then he was beside her - close beside her, enough to feel his body heat sear the right side of her. He sat down with natural grace, his thigh pressed against her own.
He definitely knows, Sakura panicked, but then a second later thought, how can one man smell so good?
And he did, like something spicy and warm, heady and full like the scent of newly split sandalwood -
Itachi leaned a shade closer to Sakura than what was considered polite, elbow and fist supporting the side of his face. He regarded her through heavy lashes, strands of his hair falling loose from his bun caught in those same long lashes. She decided right there that the amount of appeal Itachi Uchiha held was incredibly unfair. Had she ever really stood a chance from tangling into his web?
“Sasuke tells me you’re having trouble with...derivatives.”
That’s not all he told you, apparently . It was clear by the way Itachi enunciated ‘derivatives’ that he didn’t believe her pretense of needing help at all. She was going to murder Sasuke - slowly - but first she needed to somehow come up with a plan of retreat with her dignity intact. Sakura berated herself for being foolish. Of course he would see right through her, and she hadn’t even taken out her notebook yet...even going as far as to tease her with long glances and lingering touches.
Before she could open her mouth to splutter apologies, Itachi tangled his fingers with hers and brought her hand to his mouth.
“Sakura,” he damn near purred, his breath washing over her knuckles and setting every tiny hair on her body alight. His gaze was warm. “If you wanted my time, you need only ask.”