My One and Only

Chapter 13

Sakura drowsily blinked awake. She hadn't even realized she had fallen asleep. Her nose felt stuffy and it felt as though someone was banging on the inside of her skull. She realized a wet towel had been placed on her forehead. Sakura tiredly sat up and held the towel in place with her hand.

The black sheets pooled around her waist.

Her body was covered in a light sheen of perspiration. She looked down at herself and saw she was wearing a light blue nightgown. Weird. She didn't remember getting dressed either.

The door opened and Sakura groggily turned her head to see Itachi strolling into the room, "You're awake. You should lie back down." He strode over to her and gently pushed her back down onto the bed by her shoulders, "You caught a cold." He explained.

"Did you put this nightgown on me?" Sakura asked.

"I did" Itachi responded as he carefully arranged the blankets back over her and all the way up to her chin. Sakura nodded. That made sense she supposed.

Itachi placed a hand to her forehead, "You should go back to sleep if we ever want your fever to break." He continued on accommodating her pillow and replacing the towel on her head.

There was a dull aching in her head and she softly groaned before pressing her hand to her forehead similarly to how Itachi had done earlier, noting how it was indeed warm.

"My head hurts," She complained childishly. Maybe the fever was affecting her, but she wasn't acting with her usual reservations.

"The maids are preparing a soup broth that will make you feel better." Itachi sat on a small sofa that had clearly been placed there while she had been asleep and she wondered if Itachi was scared of getting sick.

Her throat suddenly felt parched. "I want water." If it hadn't been for her nasally voice and the loud sniffling right after, it would have sounded a lot like a demand.

Itachi grabbed a glass of water on the nightstand she hadn't noticed before and helped her sit up to drink it. He made her get right back into bed once she was done. Not that Sakura was complaining. The pounding in her skull seemed to only get worse when she was sitting up.

Sakura wasn't quite sure when she fell asleep again but she knew she did when she was awakened by Itachi trying to give her some medicine. She spent the day slipping in and out of consciousness. Sakura remembered Itachi rubbing a wet towel on her; probably to get rid of the sweat.

 Her hazy fever-induced brain also blurrily recalled Itachi shoving a spoonful of porridge into her mouth which made her wonder if he was taking care of her all by himself.

She also felt like she had awoken to Itachi eating Dango at some point. She couldn't really remember what she had said, but Itachi had responded to it with something along the lines of "I will never share my Dango with anyone. Not even you."

Then again, it sounded uncharacteristic. Maybe she had just imagined it after all.

The next time she woke up, the sun was setting and Itachi calmly read a book by her bedside. Maybe it was that she wasn't thinking straight due to the fever, but the empty spot next to her where Itachi usually slept suddenly felt very cold.

Clearing her throat a bit, she tried to sound as nonchalant as possible when she said, "You can come to sleep next to me."

Itachi raised his eyes to her and with a barely imperceptible smirk said, "I might catch whatever you have." There was a slight teasing lilt to his voice, Sakura noticed.

She turned away from him in a huff, "Fine then. You can just sleep there on the uncomfortable sofa." She closed her eyes and brought the blanket up and over her head before settling to fall asleep again.

She ignored the deep, masculine chuckle that followed right after. 

It was only a few minutes later that she felt the bed dip and sturdy arms wound around her. The blanket was pulled down to her shoulders and she was pressed into a muscular chest.

She would also write it down as fever-induced delirium that caused her next actions. Sakura snuggled closer to the steady heat source and nuzzled her face into the crook of Itachi's neck. She sighed in satisfaction as Itachi pet her hair and she fell back asleep.