Prompt: Just something cute and squishable. It can be romantic, it can be friendship with just a hint of squishyness, or seriously just whatever you think is adorable.

Summary: The Kazekage sees a lot of Sakura these days.

Gaara was just reaching for another stack of papers when he heard his office door click open. He was not entirely unsurprised at the intrusion, despite the late hour.

“Sakura-san,” he acknowledged, and she stepped in and took a seat across from his desk. “What brings you here?”

“I was just passing through, Kazekage-sama,” she said cheerfully. Part of Gaara rather thought that Sakura took missions to allow her to pass through his village on purpose. The other part of him thought that she just pushed herself so she could detour though Sunagakure regardless whether the mission brought her in that direction. Either way, he certainly wasn’t going to tell her to stop coming.

She pulled out a thermos and a cup. The liquid inside the thermos was clearly piping hot, and it steamed as she poured it.

“A new brew?” he asked, reaching out to take the mug from her when she offered it.

“Just a little something I whipped up,” the kunoichi replied, and Gaara fought the urge to snort. He’d made inquiries. Sakura didn’t just make tea for people willy-nilly. She took the time to research and prepare ingredients that would aid the person she was brewing for. She’d been tweaking his personal recipe for months, now.

He took a sip and felt more relaxed than he had in days almost immediately. He could feel his demon-ravaged chakra pathways even out, his frayed nerves settling, his very soul knitting itself back together. It wasn’t easy for him to function without Shukaku, but due to Sakura’s regular visits, he was slowly healing.

“Thank you, Sakura,” he said, his eyes boring into hers, his voice low and husky. And even though it was quite a normal thing to say under the circumstances, something about his tone and expression had the kunoichi blushing.

“It’s my pleasure, Gaara,” she told him seriously, hoping her words rang with as much truth and appreciation as his.

Table of contents for Cherry Popping

1. Cherry Popping #1: Bittersweet

Fandom: Naruto
Genre: General, Vignette, angst?
Pairing: Sai/Sakura
Rating: PG-14
Word Count: 166
Summary: Sometimes, Sakura turns up at Sai’s door.

He remembered the first time it happened. She had shown up on his doorstep, eyes slightly red from crying but determined nonetheless, and struck a bargain with him.

“Sai, if you help me to forget, I’ll help you to feel.”

She had done things to him that nobody had ever done before, touched him in ways that he never would have imagined she would. He had writhed and shivered under her hands and she practically glowed as she rode him, the strain and sadness lifting off of her features.

Sakura had kept her promise—now he could feel, and it was all needing and yearning and bittersweet ecstasy that made his heart tug painfully in his chest with each murmur and caress. Every time she appeared at his door, he desperately hoped that this would be the night where he held up his end of the bargain and made her forget the dark-haired, red-eyed man that had betrayed their village so that she would see only him.