&disclaimer applied&
& c a f e &
The wonderful and redeeming qualities of the Station Café are as follows:
1) It is two blocks and around the corner from the Uchiha Company building;
2) It is a private, family own café, meaning
3) That it is small, which leads to
4) Few people, and ultimately,
5) Very little social interaction.
Qualities like these which happen to conveniently exist all in the very same location are what make this place have absolutely no chance at all of warding the Sasuke Uchiha –who will inevitably find this café- away.
Characteristics of said person are as follows:
1) Twenty-four years old
2) Owner and founder of the Uchiha Company
3) Genius/prodigy since childhood, and
4) The sole witness to the "Uchiha murder" that occurred seventeen years ago.
So at promptly 7:05 pm, previously said person is walking toward said café from said company in said direction.
Still shrugging on his dark winter coat, Sasuke Uchiha makes his way toward the same café for the past two years now, just relieved by the fresh air.
And being the extremely controlled person that he is, punching his blond, over-the-top, loud-mouthed friend into a wall, was not the norm.
But after the repeated crimes against a very important thing Sasuke calls "personal space", there was only but so much of Naruto he could take.
So what does his blonde friend do immediately after being punched in the face?
He wails,
And wails,
And wails,
All of which leads up to his excuse that he just has to go to the hospital or his face will just magically cave in.
In reality, the hospital happens to be the working place of "the fair maiden Hinata".
Sasuke could practically see the stars in Naruto's eyes when he says that.
What's up with Naruto's attraction to the medieval times, Sasuke has no clue, but then again, he doesn't give a crap; which is why, instead of needlessly going to the hospital with Naruto, he's going to his routine café.
He always goes to the café right when he gets off works. After a whole day of Naruto, anyone would need their fair share of caffeine.
True to his routine, after a couple minutes for the short walk, Sasuke steps into the small, warm café.
There were even less people than usual, just the regulars; which, happens to be, a very good thing.
There was a girl (wasn't she named after a pig?) who would continuously try –ahem, fail- to flirt with him.
See, if you were to ask the female population, they would say (squeal) that Sasuke is a good looking guy, to put it lightly.
He was about six feet tall with dark, spiky hair; he was slightly pale, but lean.
So, it's not surprising that he had a problem with drooling girls following him around. He was actually thinking about reporting that epidemic.
And while still mentally thankful that she wasn't there, he side-stepped some of the booths that jutted out, and ordered his coffee.
Not a common misconception:
Based on how Sasuke looks, he would most likely order black coffee. Because that is most definitely true.
Having obtained the blessed coffee, he worked his way to the booth way in the back.
Only barely having time to sit down and run his hand through his somewhat spiky hair, he heard the front door open and close, accompanied with loud shuffling noises and a couple of muffled words.
Sasuke didn't even have the chance to turn around to see who it was before a small bundle of winter clothes -that he supposed was a person- flopped itself on the opposite side of the booth, without bothering to look up.
Being a good deal amused at the person (he was thinking it was a girl because of the feminine hands-the only visible part of her), he decided to keep quiet to see when she would notice him.
Sasuke couldn't suppress his small smile when the girl continued to mix in her cream and raw sugar with her head still on her folded arms.
She had the coffee in her hand and she would make a couple of angry grumbling noises here and there, but made no move to lift her head or drink her coffee.
So Sasuke did what anyone would do under the circumstances.
"Keep sitting there, and your coffee's going to get cold."
Her head popped up so fast, the hood covering it flew back, revealing a mass of pink hair.
'She has…pink hair?'
She looked pretty flustered, having just noticed him, but soon took on an angrier tone.
"Yeah well, it's not polite to just sit at someone else's table without asking."
"You're right. It isn't; which is why you're very impolite getting angry at me when I was here first."
She looked confused a split second, but then scoffed slightly while answering, "You were not here first; I always sit here."
"So do I. And did you, by any chance, happen to look up before you sat down?"
Silence
Grunt.
"Look, I've had one heck of a crappy day; I'm late getting off work. I still have to go back to check on one of the nurses because of a stupid idiot trying to harass her to death, and then have to put up with an obnoxious guy trying to kick me out of my booth. So excuse me for not being in the best of moods."
By this point in time, Sasuke had reasonably concluded that she wasn't in a good mood.
Still not exactly sure what he should say, he started off slowly, "Okay…well. First of all, this isn't 'your' booth. I sit here everyday at this time and secondly, I've made no move to kick you out of the booth, thank you."
She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off.
"And I am not obnoxious."
Snort.
"You could've fooled me."
Sasuke furrowed his eyebrows, 'And why was this girl being so difficult?'
He looked across the table and saw her sigh heavily.
"I'm sorry. I'm in a horrible mood. The guy waltzes in making such a racket, the old guy on the third floor almost went into cardiac arrest."
He heard her mumble something like, "Hinata has probably fainted half a dozen times by now, too."
And before Sasuke could register why he shouldn't say what he was about to…
"Oh. You're talking about Naruto."
She looked up at him, and realization slowly started dawning on her face, while Sasuke had the opportunity to notice a few things:
1) A suspiciously large and throbbing vein on the side of her temple, ('should she get that checked?'),
2) A threatening, sinister smile followed by her knuckles cracking ('arthritis?'), and
3) Where did her pupils go?
She let out a shaky breath, and said in a too-calm voice,
"Don't tell me you're the one who punched him."
Still looking at the seething girl in front of him, Sasuke had no idea what to say, but being an Uchiha, let out an extremely intelligent response.
"…Ugh."
Her fist slammed on the table, and half yelled, "Do you have any idea at all of the trouble that he's caused?! He must have broken at least three hospital beds pretending to be in unbearable pain that, apparently, only Hinata can cure; and spilled so much junk that the janitor's probably going to quit in the next hour, not to mention half the staff!"
Sasuke continued blinking with wide eyes at the girl who was pretty much in his face (because a girl being angry with him was not often) before she let out an impatient, "Well?"
Sasuke took one last look at her angry, green eyes before he slowly moved out of the booth and stepped towards the door while replying, "Well then, come on."
She looked at him entirely confused.
"Come on, where?"
"To the hospital."
"Why?"
He shrugged, "So I can make it up to you. I'll at least be able to get Naruto to go home."
She followed him a little unsurely, but once they had walked out the door together, she asked quietly, still embarrassed that she lost her temper so badly, "How long have you known Naruto?"
"A while, probably since we were five."
"Wow, I've known him maybe a year; sometimes, he'll invite me to go get ramen with him. I don't even know how he's alive, inhaling all that ramen."
"It's all he'll eat."
"So…"
He could tell that she was searching for words. She seemed like the type who loved to talk; which was fine, he wasn't in the habit of talking much.
"Do you two work together?"
"Yeah, I hired him. He's a good manager; he keeps people motivated."
"I can see that."
They fell into a comfortable silence and continued walking a few more minutes, when Sasuke noticed that she had stopped to look at his company's building.
He heard her breathe out a, "Sure is big; it must be cool to work there."
"It is."
She looked back at him and asked, "You work there?"
"I own it."
If it had been anyone else, they would have laughed at her face.
"What do you mean you own it?! And you didn't find this worth mentioning before?"
"You didn't ask."
"Right, like I go around asking everybody if they're Sasuke Uchiha," she remarked sarcastically.
She caught his smirk out of the corner of her eye, and she continued speaking (she had pretty much gathered that he wasn't a talkative person), "Man, but you're so…young."
He gave her an incredulous look and said, "You're probably the same age I am."
"No, I mean, I kind of expected an older man owning all that; it must be hard to manage it."
"Well, I would think that being a doctor is difficult. I guess we're all just good at different things, huh?"
"Still," She paused a moment before going on, "I can't believe that I met the famous business tycoon, Sasuke Uchiha, at an old coffee shop; I would've half expected you to have your coffee delivered to you," she teased.
Sasuke snorted at her response. He wasn't some snotty, rich heir to someone else's fortune; he built that company and knew all the in's and out's. Taking all those engineering classes really did pay off.
"You know, you haven't even attempted to give me your name. It's only fair; you know mine."
She turned to look at him, surprised, until answering, "Oh, I'm Sakura….Haruno."
Sasuke looked at her and briefly thought how fitting the name was for her.
He turned his head more to get a better look at her.
She was maybe 5'5, petite, short pink hair, lightly tanned, with clear green eyes.
She must've noticed him staring at her, because she looked away with a light blush across her cheeks.
The corner of Sasuke's lips twitched upwards as he made a mental note to himself to make a donation to the Station Café for the belated Christmas gift…and maybe, just maybe, buy Naruto some ramen.
Please review,
~dances.'