Sasuke was beside himself with worry as the doctors and nurses rushed Sakura through the hospital. The moment the ambulance had arrived, Sasuke had gone back into Sakura's apartment to find her cat. Call him crazy, but Sasuke couldn't just let the little animal die. He had Naruto and Hinata with it at the vet while he stayed at the hospital with Sakura. She wasn't conscious yet, but the doctors said she be fine.

Knowing that he was lucky she hadn't been in the gas filled apartment for too long, Sasuke still berated himself for taking so long to notice she was gone and for taking even longer to go after her. Now he hated himself for kissing her the night before. If he hadn't done it then she wouldn't have gone home before morning and they wouldn't be in this mess. Sakura wouldn't have almost died.

Pushing that thought to the back of his mind, Sasuke focused on the present. Sakura was fine. She was going to be fine. The doctors were already pushing fluids into her body via IV and she was getting the proper meds to make the toxin levels in her blood disappear. Obviously, she wouldn't be going back to her apartment any time soon, but Sasuke looked at that as a positive.

Sitting by her bed for the remainder of the day and well into the night, the blue haired boy silently waited for the pinkette to wake up. Sometime in the middle of the night she did.

Sasuke waited patiently as Sakura began to slowly move her arms. He figured they'd feel heavy to her so he let her test her limits on her own. It wasn't until her golden eyes fluttered open that he opted to speak. "Hey Sakura."

Blinking hard, Sakura tried to get something within her brain to work. So far nothing was complying. Although, even without the use of her thinking machine, Sakura knew something was wrong. Why was Sasuke next to her bed, waking her up? Hadn't she gone home? "Sa-Sasuke?"

Backing up from her so that he wasn't invading her personal space, although all Sasuke really wanted to do was hug the girl now that he saw for himself that she was fine, the relieved man sat back in his chair. "How are you feeling?"

Limbs as heavy as granite and a splitting headache to boot, Sakura wasn't sure if she wanted to know what had happened. She asked anyways. "What happened?"

Giving the girl a small smile, Sasuke patted her hand before delivering the news. "Well, you left my place sometime early yesterday morning and returned to your apartment. Luckily, I came to check up on you because, well, you did sort of leave early for no reason and you wouldn't answer your phone. Anyways, I knocked on your door but you didn't answer so I figured you were mad at me, but when I was leaving I noticed notes on the other doors that said there had been a major gas leak in your apartment building at that no one should enter any of the apartments."

Most of what Sasuke said flew right by her. Sakura didn't even try to understand most of his words since her brain still felt extremely muddled. She did catch the gist, however, of what he was saying. "Gas leak?"

"Yes, you didn't notice the note on your door and went into your apartment filled with gas and slept in there for a while before I kicked the door in and brought you out."

Lifting her hand to her head, Sakura felt it a little easier to process some of the words being thrown at her. "You kicked my door in?"

"Someone had to save you."

Sakura couldn't help but smile at that. Sasuke had saved her. He had known that she was in danger and risked his own health to save her. She couldn't help but feel loved. "What about Phantom?"

"I got him out as well. Hinata and Naruto took him to the vet. The little guy was in there a lot longer than you were, but I found him next to a slightly open window so it looks like your cat knew something was wrong with the air and was keeping himself alive."

Nodding her head and regretting that she had, Sakura attempted to sit up a little. Lying down was nice and all, but she felt the need to not be talking to Sasuke from such a weird angle. Her mind might not be working the best quite yet, but apparently the naughty part of it was working just fine. Images of Sasuke climbing onto the hospital bed with her would not stay away.

Seeing what Sakura was attempting to do, Sasuke helped his secretary accomplish her goal with a push of a button on the remote that controlled her bed. In no time at all she was sitting up and speaking to him.

"How long have I been out?"

Smiling a little at the disheveled look of the girl before him, Sasuke couldn't help but think that even like this, Sakura was cute. "Well, I don't know what time you left my place but I found you a little after eleven this morning. Now it is about three thirty A.M.."

Taking in that bit of information, Sakura brushed some loose locks of hair out of her face as she mentally tried to recall what time she'd gone home. It was a little less than twenty-four hours ago that she'd been sneaking out of Sasuke's mansion. "Should we call a nurse and let them know I woke up?"

As if suddenly remembering that they were in a hospital and Sakura was very sick, Sasuke scrambled out of his seat into the hallway. In a very short amount of time he was returning with a couple of night staff nurses on his heels. "No, she just woke up."

Sakura smiled to the nurses as they began checking her vitals and asking if she was okay. Nodding and smiling all the while, Sakura stayed polite as they asked her for a fourth time if she felt nauseous or if anything else felt off. "Besides a bit of a headache, I feel perfectly fine. My body feels a bit heavy, but that's it."

The nurse returned a smile and patted some of the pink hair that was quite messy down for the girl. "Good. That means that the medicine that the doctors gave you is doing its job. You should have no lasting side effects from this incident. You are awfully lucky that Sasuke-sama saved you."

Seeing the laser heart beams shoot out of the nurse's eyes and directly into Sasuke's face, Sakura kept her smile in place. Not being able to help but wonder, Sakura suspected that the man had been hit on for most of the day. Obviously not all women could control themselves like Sakura could around her boss. "I'll let you know if I need anything."

The nurse frowned a bit at the dismissal, but quickly fixed her smile before leaving the two alone in the hospital room once more.

Frowning openly at the door now, Sakura scoffed a bit before mumbling under her breath. "Sasuke-sama is so kawaii!"

"What was that?"

Startled, Sakura shook her head. "Nothing. So, what have you been doing this whole time?"

"Waiting for you to wake up."

The answer was so blunt and yet it made Sakura's heart skip a beat. Something the heart monitor shamelessly announced to the room. "The whole time?"

"Yes."

Damn monitor needed to keep what her heart was doing a secret. Stupid machine.

"Are you okay?"

Sakura nodded, not daring to look at the other as she took a couple of deep breaths and got her heart rate back under control. "Fine. I'm fine."

Shrugging, Sasuke forced his smirk to stay off his face. "If you say so."

Sakura wanted to point out that she had said so. She also wanted to ask if Sasuke had managed to snag any numbers from any of the nurses or if any had attempted to rape him, but she kept those questions to herself. "Have you heard anything about my apartment?"

Shaking his head, Sasuke couldn't say that he had. The message on the note wasn't really something he'd read carefully at the time he'd seen it considering his mind realized Sakura was in danger and everything else just wasn't important. "I don't know anything about it, sorry. I could make some calls for you in the morning if you would like."

Considering Sakura needed to know-it was her house after all-she agreed to Sasuke finding out for her at a more decent hour. "That would be nice. I need to know what the extent of the damage is and if I have to find somewhere else to live for a while."

Scoffing, Sasuke threw his arms over his chest and crossed them there. "You'll obviously be staying with me."

"Wh-what?"

"You work for me, Sakura. It just makes sense. My house is plenty big enough for the both of us. You'll be staying there and that's final."

"B-but."

"Nope, it has already been decided."

"By who!?"

"Me."

Seeing that she wasn't going to be able to get her boss to change his mind about this, Sakura resigned herself to the torture that would be living with this beyond beautiful man. "Ugh, fine. Do you at least know how long I have to stay in the hospital?"

Not being able to help but feel smug about the fact that Sakura had given in and was going to be living with him for a while, Sasuke settled into a more comfortable position in his chair. "You can leave whenever you like. I have the money and power to set up a hospital in my home if that's what you want. Don't worry about work, recovering is what is important."

Having momentarily forgotten that Sasuke was extremely rich, Sakura felt blood rush to her cheeks. The man was willing to do anything to make her more comfortable. Really not wanting to read the situation wrong, Sakura attempted to gather any courage she had within her. "Sasuke, why did you kiss me?"

Not really expecting that question, Sasuke felt some of his good mood slip away. This was a conversation that he would have rather had in a more private location and not at a hospital where the nurses were salivating over him. "Honestly? Because I like you."

Sakura felt her face burn at the confession. It wasn't love. Sasuke didn't say that he loved her, but liking her enough to kiss her was something major. Something that she sort of felt in return. Sure, the sexual attraction was most definitely there, but that didn't mean that she had feelings for him romantically. Though Sakura could really see them building. "Wh-what?"

Sighing, Sasuke ran a hand through his hair before he took Sakura's hand in his. "Look, I'm not asking you to marry me or anything, but if you want to give a relationship with me a shot, then I'm willing to try as well. I mean, I'm not very good at this sort of thing. My history with women isn't exactly pretty, but you're different, Sakura, and I like that about you very much."

All her efforts of keeping her libido in check were paying off. Sasuke wanted to try to have some sort of relationship with her. "How about, we wait until I can actually move and then we figure this out? Whatever this is."

Having no choice to agree, Sasuke nodded his head. "Sure, Sakura. We'll wait until you get better and then we'll figure this out."

---

xTsu