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mooryomi_gaeru as a gift for yomi_gaeru after all the wonderful inspiration she has provided over the years![Part One] [Part Two] [Part Three] [Part Four] [Part Five] [Part Six] [Part Seven]
At Fifteen [Part Two]
The Deliver to Rear Entrance sign was back up in the kimono shop window.
Her parents had been out visiting a sick friend when Sakura arrived home several evenings ago, and she’d never been so relieved in her life. She scrubbed herself clean from head to toe twice before bursting into tears and finally calming down again once she was back in her room, obsessively combing her hair.
Ever since the incident in the garden, however, messengers in Uchiha livery stopped by three times a day with letters or gifts for Sakura. Often both.
Mebuki had frowned at the renewed garbage train but accepted it with a sigh.
Then Sakura fainted when her father teased her about young love. She nearly threw up her breakfast when she came to, a moment later. Mebuki’s eyes narrowed.
It was when Sakura skipped two regularly scheduled visits to the Uchiha in a row without notice or excuse, however, that her mother’s worries officially took root.
A fortnight after Sakura’s change in behaviour, Mebuki knocked on Sakura’s bedroom door after work. She leaned against the doorframe.
“Is everything alright with Uchiha-san?” asked Mebuki gently.
“Mmm-hmmm,” said Sakura from behind her book.
Mebuki glanced around Sakura’s romance novel-infested room. On Sakura’s nightstand were piled more than two dozen unopened envelopes with very familiar handwriting.
Sakura adored Madara’s letters. Even the ridiculous ones he’d sent along with all those souvenirs. Mebuki knew Sakura had kept every one, and Sakura spent just as much time reading and re-reading his letters as she did the novels he’d sent her.
Fear lined Mebuki’s brow.
“Sakura,” she said softly.
“Mmm?”
“Lower the book,” said Mebuki gently.
Achingly slowly, Sakura lowered the kimono pattern book to her lap in bed. Without her long-sleeved kimono to hide them, the bandages wrapped around her wrist were obvious. So it hadn’t been Mebuki’s imagination. Sakura had been favouring her arm recently.
Even without the book as an excuse, Sakura refused to meet her mother’s eyes.
Mebuki’s motherly instincts tingled.
Ah… This was a very sensitive matter for a young woman. Mebuki knew it would come someday after Tajima’s eldest took an interest in Sakura. She had just hoped it would take a little bit longer.
“Would you like to take a longer break from the boys?” asked Mebuki.
Sakura shrugged.
“Would you like to take a break from one particular boy?”
Sakura bit her trembling bottom lip. And nodded.
“Are you worried about any consequences?” asked Mebuki delicately. “We can see a doctor. These things… happen.”
Sakura shook her head.
“Okay. We don’t have to talk about it right now, but we can later, if you want.”
Sakura nodded.
“Sakura? I love you and I’m proud of you no matter what you do or what happens. Your father and I both are.”
Sakura nodded tersely as a tear ran down her cheek.
Her heart swelling, Mebuki swept into Sakura’s room and hugged her precious daughter. Sakura clung to her tightly.
Certain changes were coming, it seemed, thought Mebuki, comforting her daughter. Sakura would make it through; but if she needed to rest, Mebuki would give her her space. She had raised a fine daughter, and she meant what she’d said to Sakura. She would always be proud of her and love her.
“And friend of your father or not, I will [Dutch word] up Tajima so badly if any of his sons ever do this to you again,” cooed Mebuki, stroking Sakura’s hair.
Eyes wide, Sakura swallowed very quietly.
###
In his clan haori, Madara stood outside the kimono shop.
He closed his eyes and took a calming breath.
The staff knew. Or thought they knew.
None of the maids would work in the same room as him.
His father had yelled at them to quit being ridiculous, but of course, his father didn’t know the truth.
His brothers were confused. Izuna was suspicious. His father was grouchy. And Madara…
Madara was ashamed. And a great many other… things.
The chime rang above Madara’s head as he entered the shop. His luck ran sour from the get-go when he saw the many individuals waiting to be served. Sakura helped one couple at a counter while other staff assisted other customers. So he moved off to the side, deciding to wait for a more opportune moment.
Or that was his plan—until Sakura’s mother spotted him.
In her elegant kimono, Mebuki excused herself politely from the customers she was helping to approach her daughter and pull her away for a moment. Across the room with their heads together, Madara knew they were discussing him. He held himself aloof and away from the other customers, though more and more turned to look at him. It wasn’t often that he was seen outside the Clan walls these days.
Also, his guards were still stationed outside.
Hn. Perhaps it was just his guards.
From the back of the shop Mebuki opened a door and summoned several more staff to assist out front. Once the rest of the customers were seen to, Madara was left in his corner, alone. It was then that Sakura calmly approached him, smiled politely, and ushered him to the back—more staff saw him and stared—where they climbed the stairs to her family’s home on the upper level.
It was all accomplished without a word spoken to each other.
When Sakura closed the connecting door behind her home and the shop, she sighed with relief.
“Would you like tea?” she asked, heading for the kitchen before he could answer.
“Anything is fine,” said Madara. He looked around, unsure where to stand.
“You can sit at the kitchen table,” said Sakura, filling the kettle and turning on the stove.
Folding his hands in front of him, Madara nodded and sat.
They said nothing more until Sakura poured tea for each of them at the table. She sat across from him, but where before she would have met his eyes at least fleetingly, now she stared at the tea set between them.
“How are your brothers?” asked Sakura.
So this was how it was going to be.
“They miss you,” he said.
“I miss them, too. Please give them my regards,” said Sakura with a polite smile.
“I came to ask for your help,” said Madara when Sakura didn’t pursue the conversation. He wanted to. He wanted to tell her to ignore him and at least come back for his brothers. But that wouldn’t win him any favours at the moment.
“Mmm?”
“I need you to hit me so hard I forget the last two weeks,” said Madara.
Sakura coughed, setting down her cup.
“I don’t know if anyone can knock that much sense into you.”
Her smile was weak. The silence stretched again. Outside the sunny, late April breeze tickled a chime that rang through the kitchen every so often, when it was strong enough.
“You didn’t answer any of the letters,” said Madara, lifting the teacup in his slender, long-fingered hand.
“I haven’t opened them.”
The cup paused at the cusp of his lips.
Madara stared at Sakura, lines of hurt deepening around his eyes.
“I see,” he murmured. A muscle worked in his cheek.
“Are you, um… okay? After… after,” mumbled Sakura, unable to look at him.
“What do you mean?”
“You were very, mmmm… Not yourself, after,” said Sakura.
The muscle in his cheek ticked again.
“Do you mean after I came so hard I forgot my name, or when you ran off while my pants were still down?” asked Madara smoothly.
Sakura flinched, her shoulders rising up to her ears.
“Both,” she said.
Madara stared at Sakura’s warming cheeks.
“I didn’t want you to go,” he said.
“I didn’t want to kiss you while you were drunk,” said Sakura.
“Was that the problem? I was drunk?”
“You weren’t yourself, Uchiha-s—”
“You’re really going to call me that after what we did?”
Sakura’s lips pursed. Her jaw worked as emotions flashed across her face.
“You forced me down, hurt me, tore my clothes, and made me touch you while you were drunk,” stated Sakura, and she did look up at his eyes, then. “Had you been anyone else, I would have gone to the police.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
“You know why.”
“So you’re going to avoid me, my family, for the rest of our lives?”
“I don’t know,” muttered Sakura.
“What do you know? Because I know I didn’t have to force you to do some things,” said Madara. “Is it because I was drunk or because I was too forceful?”
“It’s because you acted like an entitled molester. If you had just asked, when you were sober, I just….”
Sakura looked away from him again with her hand over her mouth, her breath thready.
Madara swallowed.
Did that mean...
“I don’t know if I can pretend it didn’t happen,” said Sakura quietly. “It was a lot.”
“Hn.”
Madara cleared his throat.
“If…”
Sakura looked at him sharply.
“Under other circumstances,” rephrased Madara. “Not drunk. Less force.”
“No force?” suggested Sakura icily.
“Much less force,” continued Madara. He looked up to find her watching him. “I… I would not have been completely rebuffed?”
Sakura squirmed.
“Maybe not,” she mumbled. “If our clothes weren’t torn. And there were doors and privacy,” she added. “And I didn’t have to run through your house with cum in my hair and my shirt hanging open trying to avoid your little brothers.”
She rubbed her temples at the memory.
Madara had the good sense to flinch.
“To ensure I have this correct for future reference,” said Madara, studying Sakura. “No alcohol. More walls. Less bodice-ripping—”
“You thought that was bodi—”
“Focusing on the topic at hand,” interrupted Madara, his goal in sight. “And more patience. That would be more appealing and acceptable?”
Sakura looked at Madara shrewdly.
“And no cum in my hair if there’s no shower nearby,” she added, squirming uncomfortably. “And no… walk of shame past people. I don’t want to feel like…”
Her words drifted off.
“Like?”
“Like I’m being used for that purpose only,” sighed Sakura. “That’s not what I want for my reputation or my life. And it wouldn’t reflect well on the shop,” she added, frowning. “I’m more involved here now. I don’t want my parents to lose face.”
Madara was quiet as he considered Sakura’s perspective. Their positions in society were not polar opposites, but there were specific things that he could do that she could not, whether it be due to their gender or due to their class. All he had to do was look at his own staff to see that while they would fear him, they would also keep his dirty secrets from his own father. As he watched Sakura, he knew that it would have been a very different result for her.
“I had never seen or touched… one… before,” said Sakura, blushing as she tried to hold Madara’s eye. She squirmed again. “It was strange. Not bad,” she clarified at his wounded expression. “Just new-strange. I’m not ready for more than that.”
Madara very, very much wanted to ask another clarifying question about that matter but thought it best to stop while he was ahead.
“We’d like you to come back,” he said.
Sakura turned her cup around on the table several times.
“It won’t be weird?”
“It will improve,” he said.
“Do we pretend it didn’t happen?”
“No. I won’t ask you to hide it. I would appreciate the chance to right it. And improve on it in the future,” said Madara.
Sakura arched a brow at him.
“You’re suddenly quite interested in this topic.”
“I have been for a while. I’ve been waiting for a… an opportunity,” said Madara. “I squandered my first,” he said seriously, looking at her. “I won’t waste my second.”
“Squandered it all over my face and hair,” muttered Sakura under her breath, shaking her head with resignation.
“Hn?”
Sakura flushed and bit her lip.
“I’m busier now. I really can’t come over as often as I used to,” said Sakura apologetically.
“I’ll take whatever you can give,” said Madara.
“And you’ll share with your brothers?”
“Your time, yes.”
Sakura gave Madara a look.
“I’m not sharing you with anyone,” he said firmly.
“And you’re not drinking?”
“Only in moderation,” said Madara.
Strangely, Sakura looked around the room, searching for something. Not seeing it, she collected the tea set and moved it to the kitchen counter.
“And no more tearing clothes,” she repeated, coming to sit beside Madara.
“I will replace your damaged shirt. And there will be doors. With locks.”
“And we happen to have closed doors here,” remarked Sakura thoughtfully.
Madara’s brows furrowed.
What was she getting at—
Sakura looked meaningfully at his lips.
… Oh.
Something languid and heady stirred inside Madara’s lower body as he pulled Sakura across his lap. She smiled at him shyly. Then she cupped the back of his head, stroking his thick hair. He didn’t think he would ever tire of her petting him.
He purred and closed his eyes, enjoying the sensation.
When he leaned forward, Sakura met him halfway, slanting their mouths against each other sweetly as they shared their first kiss.
###
Sakura returned to the Uchiha residence after another week of reflection. As she had anticipated, however, her work life with her family began to occupy more and more of her time. As the year progressed, she focused on her trade, design, craft and kimono style. Fine workmanship, embroidery, the many dying techniques, Sakura came to master them all. As her own designs became more popular, she soon began to teach others. Sakura’s own name rose to prominence in the artistic and innovative aspects of the kimono industry. She managed to eek out visits to the Uchiha every two weeks or so. The boys complained—one in particular—but they understood.
And the loudest complainer would occasionally show up to take Sakura out to lunch.
Meanwhile, Tajima had Madara focus on building his understanding and connections in business, politics and martial arts. Tajima still brought the boys around to the kimono shop to be fitted for proper European suits every so often, though, which they all enjoyed. (Especially the one who couldn’t contain his smirk when Sakura knelt between his knees and measured his inseam.)
###
Sakura and Madara dreamed of each other. They didn’t realise they shared the same dream, but it was one that required both of them enduring cold showers when they woke. Neither spoke of it.
Sakura blamed it on the romance novels. She read the racier ones now (that her mother hadn’t confiscated). And there were just certain passages that made her hot and bothered. Instead of imagining the characters, she imagined herself and Madara. Standing behind him, sliding her hand over his muscled abdomen, kissing him as he slowly began to pull his shirt up in invitation…
###
Sakura was deeply engrossed in one particular chapter of a book one night. Her imagination easily filled in the details as the author wrote about a dark-haired rogue cornering the main heroine in an alley at night, pressing her into the stone wall as he raked his teeth across her throat—
The book dropped to Sakura’s lap.
This was more than familiar. It was as if the author had pulled a memory straight from Sakura’s head.
The answer came to her then and she wanted to groan.
Why that little…
Briefly she wondered how many of her romance novels Madara had combed over for seduction tactics. She wasn’t sure whether to be embarrassed or impressed.
Then again, as Sakura read what followed in subsequent chapters of that particular novel, she was kind of curious about whether he had also studied what happened later in the book.
She had her answer a few chapters later. As she read a particularly sensual scene, Sakura’s mouth fell open as her breath escaped from her in a rush. He absolutely had.
Her cheeks burned any time she remembered it, even weeks later.
TBC
no subject
Date: 2022-01-17 09:30 pm (UTC)Thank you for Mebuki's reaction author-san, I didn't expect her to react that way knowing what she knows now, especially given the era. Knowing that sakura's mom knows and that she has Mebuki's unconditional love is incredible to read.
“I need you to hit me so hard I forget the last two weeks,” said Madara. Of all the things I thought Madara would ask for, I didn't think he'd ask for this.
Part 7
Date: 2022-01-17 09:43 pm (UTC)And MADARA!! I appreciate how clearly he understands how horribly he botched their first encounter, and how invested he is in not squandering any more opportunities with Sakura. I can't wait to see how their relationship progresses now that they've established this mutual attraction to one another! This was such a fun read, and as always - thank you for writing and sharing another fantastic installment with us. Happy New Year!!
Re: Part 7
Date: 2022-12-22 02:56 am (UTC)Birk, it feels like you just *get* this story from every facet. <3 I actually anticipated backlash from potential anon readers for Sakura 'forgiving' (or, holding accountable) Madara for his actions. But you understand the agency and why I gave it to her, and why her mother *trusts* her and supports her in her decisions. (And who absolutely would have taken it out of Tajima's HIDE if Sakura had avoided Madara, I think.)
And yes, Madara. Our boy understands that he did something absolutely shameful; but also, that if he wanted another chance he would need to own his actions and take responsibility for them and communicate that he knew he did something wrong... but also that he also recognized that while the circumstances were far from ideal, there had been an element of dubious consent and curiousity shared between them, too.
Their saga continues into another year and hopefully it remains as entertaining as it has been. ^_^ Thank you for reading and happy 2023 to you, lovely Birk! <3
What I love most about your writing
Date: 2022-01-18 01:18 pm (UTC)Many times when I'm reading fanfic it's easy to more or less predict how a character will respond and what events will unfold, but refreshingly (no matter what story I read) you always keep me on my toes. A good example is the 'garden scene' from Part 6. That was an easy opportunity to introduce a world of angst and superfluous drama, however Sakura was strong, albeit conflicted, and understandably distanced herself to heal. When the time came to confront Madara, she was honest, held him accountable, and scored a makeup kiss ;) I'm curious to see how their relationship develops as they age up. Madara has become much more direct and open about his affections (physically - especially after learning Sakura enjoys romance novels lol + monetarily) and I wonder how this affects his relationships with his brothers, particularly Izuna. While reading, I had so many other thoughts and questions...
What about Hashi? Did Madara and him meet yet and will there be some competition for Sakura between them? Shoutout to older Naruto, will he return and is there an older Sasuke in this world too?
Woo for Sakura becoming a badass kimono master. She's expressed not being important enough for the Uchihas, does this insecurity effect her work ethic? Is she working to make a name for herself to feel 'worthy' and how will that play out as the story progresses?
Dayumm, Madara sent a ton of gifts - how wealthy are the Uchihas? Is it all legal or is there a dark, dirty side to their money that will introduce conflict later on? And what's with the red eyes??? Is there a supernatural element at play?
Sakura returns to visiting the Uchihas after making up with Madara. Did there happen to be any stolen moments behind 'locked doors' during her visits? And will we hear more about those encounters later on? ;) ;)
I have many more thoughts and questions, but this is already becoming such a long post so I'll wrap it up. Thanks for writing and I look forward to the next update!
Re: What I love most about your writing
Date: 2022-12-22 03:07 am (UTC)1) Thank you for the compliments <3
2) Unpredictability is something I strive for! (Some are hits and some are misses, but I keep working at it!)
3) The Garden Scene: I honestly expected a LOT of heat for that chapter overall (and this one, too) for the dubious consent aspect; and yet, I feel like I wrote it very honestly? I think young people do sometimes get caught up in their curiousity and carry on too far before they completely realize all the consequences of their actions, and the water is muddy. It's muddy from both their perspectives--and yet they talk it out and set their boundaries and then play within them (to both their delight). :)
4) HASHI. Oh man, I want to add him, and I don't want to add him, because he tends to steal scenes when I write him, hahaha! For now, I don't have any further specific scenes planned for him, but he may put in an appearance for silliness/competition later to rile Madara. ;)
5) Sakura's insecurity: Absolutely, yes, she is intimidated by the Uchiha prestige and definitely works herself way too hard in order to build her own reputation and that of her family so they remain respected--it's why she and Madara are so very careful about some things later on. : )
6) Think of the Uchiha as the richest, most powerful family in Japanese industry and politics around the turn of the 20th century. They have their hands in everything, are embracing Western industrialism and technologies, but are constantly mindful of their own culture and traditions. There are no strictly illegal dealings at this time in their business overtly.
7) Red eyes are a signifier of Madara's emotional state. ;)
8) Stolen moments behind locked doors: YES. I have debated writing a few in, but I'm not sure how much to add? (Yes, there's reference to them later on, hahaha!)
9) I hope this helps answer a few questions (and gives a bit of a temperature check on the progress of the story). :)
Thank you SO MUCH for reading and for letting me know what you thought, Vegmeg! <3 Have a wonderful week!