Getting Lost on the Roads of Life - a KakaSaku Story [CONCLUDED]

Interlude

"Do you want this?"

Kakashi's breathless whisper went straight to Sakura's belly, fluttering around in it like an army of butterflies.

Did she?

The answer was yes, yes, yes, her body was ready, there was so much want! But could she pretend she wasn't afraid giving in to that would change everything about her life in ways she did not want? She knew herself well, too well maybe. Despite her massive temper that flared up with no warning and managed to even scare herself sometimes, she was a most level headed person, one who thought about all aspects of an issue for hours and planned every step meticulously before she acted. She had no experience with risky, impulsive actions because she had never taken any.

"I do," she said, her voice shaking, "but..."

It was pretty dark in the bedroom, but a light had to be on outside somewhere, sending a faint glimmer their way. And yet, it was like she could see his face and the silver of his hair better than she should, almost as if her eyes had developed a sudden ability to augment what they wanted to see even in the dark. The troubled expression in Kakashi's eyes did not help with her own confusion, but it made her heart swell in a rush of tenderness, having her reach out her hand to cup his cheek.

"Do you want this?" she echoed him, following the arc of his brow with her thumb. He put his own hand over hers and briefly closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.

"Yes," he exhaled, "yes, I want it a lot - but what I really want is for you to be happy and I fear..."

"...it could make me happy now, but very unhappy tomorrow," she knew how to finish his sentence, her heart in her throat.

A lot. He wanted it a lot, he had said.

"...that applies to the both of us," he added.

This was it then, wasn't it? They both could not and did not want to forget who they were, they both could not simply act on their needs as if nobody else was going to be affected by it. But Sakura felt a tingling sensation where Kakashi's hand rested on top of hers, it was clearly chakra, and by the rippling and twitching feel of it, it was his lightning chakra nature, a telltale sign of how affected he was - she knew him to be a master of hiding his chakra signature in the field if he paid attention to it.

That she would have such an effect on him...

They were sitting fairly close already, but she could go even closer and that's what she did, putting her arms around his neck and pressing her cheek against his.

"Thank you," she whispered into his ear, "thank you."

He smells so, so good, she thought, pressing her nose against his ear, good and strangely familiar, as if she had noticed his scent longer ago than she had consciously realized. It did suddenly make her curious to what he tasted like. She had woken up to a body humming and the aftertaste of somebody's lips on her own, but she had no recollection of kissing other than kissing in an illusion and that seemed... a waste.

Let me at least kiss him goodbye, she thought. And then we'll part ways and... we will be responsible adults, later feeling a little sorry that we are, but overall feeling we made the right choice.

She moved her lips to his cheek, to where his mask divided his face into a visible and an invisible part, gripping it with her teeth and at the same time hooking her fingers into the fabric on the other side. It was far more daring than anything she had ever done to a man and she actually expected him to get angry and to stop her, but no such thing happened. Instead, Kakashi moved his hands to her hair and gripped it, briefly rubbing his nose against her cheek.