Author'sNote: Her eyou go, naash! One SasuTen. I never thought about it really before, but now that I do, I've found that I LOVE this pairing! Ish so cute! -squeals and makes Sasuke plushie kiss Tenten plushie-
Um, there's mentions of.. 'female' problems. Squeamish males are not recommended to this story. Now,off you all go. Enjoy,please.
This was the single-handed embarrassing moment of his entire life.
No, scratch that. This was the second, single-handed most embarrassing moment in his entire life. The first would have to be the time that Itachi had tacked a pair of his mother's underwear over the Uchiha crest on the back of his shirt, and Sasuke had worn it an entire school day before noticing it.
.. And you, know this one would actually have to be the third. In fourth grade, when Naruto had let the class gerbil crawl up Sasuke's pants, and he had to take them off in the middle of the classroom was pretty embarrassing, too.
Never the less, Sasuke's face was pinned into a snarling scowl as he approached the check-out counters of the supermarket at the twisted, sick duty he was being asked to perform.
He could have said no. He really could have. Should have, even. A man had his pride and his reputation to uphold, and both of those could be decimated by this single errand he'd been begged to run. And as a member of the prestigious Uchiha family, he had much, much more at stake that his jockish, popular standing in the local High School to consider. His family's honor was at stake, and he was risking every Uchiha's place in Konoha society by doing this favor. How he had even considered for a moment, let alone brought himself through the automatic doors of the Food Lion, sent him trekking casually down the aisles until he caught the label of his prize, and was now propelling him at a slightly faster speed than the speed limit on the highway towards the check-out lines, was beyond any principles that had ever been drilled into his brain.
Why could he never resist those chocolate brown eyes of hers, he wondered?
Oh, gods. There was a line halfway to Spain, even in the 10-Items-Or-Less. And, why the hell was only one counter open!? Beneath his cool façade, Sasuke found himself beginning to panic. What if someone from school spotted him, and came over to talk? He couldn't very well hide the pastel blue box in his pocket, now could he? He'd already tried that. It was too unwieldy to fit into the pockets of his khakis, so Sasuke had resigned the crinkling box to a place tucked at his side, nearly obscured by the sleeve of his navy sweatshirt.
Alright, Sasuke. Breathe. Just breathe. He reminded himself, scuffling into place behind a middle-aged woman with a young child gumming it's hand seated on the shelf of her hip. Everyone in school was likely off at the McDonalds, or doing homework back home. None of them- Surely none of them were at this very same Food Lion, and surely none of them, even if they were here, would recognize the princely features of the school's local heartthrob, or his broad, football-hardened shoulders.
Hai, it was something being the most popular boy in school, wasn't it? Everyone knew Sasuke's face, and would likely recognize him from school, if not the box underneath his arm. Indeed, the box would seem extremely familiar to a majority of the teenaged girls that made up Sasuke's (extremely) large fan club.
Well, hopefully, he would be in and out of the checkout before Sakura or Ino spotted their heart's desire among mere mortals in the Grocery Store and decided to swoon and drool over his dark hair and dark eyes, like they did every single week day, and undoubtedly their weekends were spent staring at their yearbook's photo of him, and the bold black characters that undeniably marked him as UCHIHA SASUKE, football team captain and track star.
If only the ten people in front of him would just hurry! If Tenten got that crap on his car- whatever it was; I mean, it couldn't REALLY be that, would it? Wouldn't they bleed to death if it was? He didn't know. He only cared that he had borrowed Itachi's car, and if he brought it back with spots all over the seats, his college-bound big brother would give him the Noogie Of The Century, along with the bill for a cleaner to get the stains out. And after paying off the neighbor kid to not rat on him after Sasuke had accidentally sent a football spiraling through the foyer window, he really did not have enough money to pay for the cleaning up of the mess in Itachi's car. Well, it could have been much, much worse, by Tenten's account. Thank god that they'd had that 'towel' on call- namely, Sasuke's football jersey. But hey, with so much mud and grass stains, a little crimson spot near the collar really wouldn't be that visible to the laymen, would it?
Oh, the things he did for this woman that he called 'girlfriend'. Remind him again of why he was risking life, limb, reputation, and his honor to do this for her?
Yes! He was in the clear! The woman swept her bag onto one shoulder, and trekked with a determined step across the light blue-flecked linoleum, past a bag boy and three men loitering near the security devices.
A smile now crossing his face, Sasuke nearly leapt the next step up. Now he was only one person from the obviously pissed-off Latino girl who was checking groceries and popping watermelon bubblegum obnoxiously between her pearly sets of teeth.
He was almost in the clear. Just one more person, and he could escape this gamble with reputations, and flee with an unmarked bag back to the safety of his brother's car. Than, he could pass the Product to Tenten, and they could be on their way.
Feeling like James Bond slipping past Fort Knox's guards, his onyx eyes followed each of the man in front of him's purchases as they slid down the conveyor belt, before being snatched by the Hispanic girl manning the counter.
Come on, he ticked off, straining his neck to count the purchases as they left the man's basket at a maddeningly slow rate. Sara Lee White Bread.. Cottage Cheese… asparagus.. Pickled pig's fee- Eeewww.. Sweet 16 Powdered Donuts.. Come on, come on, come on, dammit! Come on!
, he ticked off, straining his neck to count the purchases as they left the man's basket at a maddeningly slow rate. Sara Lee White Bread.. Cottage Cheese… asparagus.. Pickled pig's fee- Eeewww.. Sweet 16 Powdered Donuts..And than, just as he was two seconds short of ripping the basket from the old man's grip and spiking all of his items onto the conveyor rather than watch him carefully place them one by one onto the black strip of plastic with a liver-spotted, gnarled hand- the man stepped aside, and Mrs. Spicy Spanish glowered at him to step forward and hand her what he wanted to buy.
Relief washing over him, Sasuke zipped his purchase from the obscurement of his sweatshirt sleeve. Oh, yes. The Uchiha's reputation had been saved, and nobody, nobody in school had seen him buying his girlfriend-
And than, the realization struck him like a silenced 45. Slug to the heart.
Mouth parting in terror, Sasuke watched with wide eyes as the moment began to play out in slow motion, as though it had been torn straight from a horror movie. His hands flew up to stop the counter girl, but to no avail. He saw her painted lips purse as she swiped the cardboard box over the scanner for the third time, only to incur the same angry buzz. The machine wouldn't read the bar code, for some reason. That damned, damned machine- came the mantra in Sasuke's head as he winced, either from taking in the drastic, horrible declaration that was about to be made, or the fact that he was being delayed in that dash back to the car he'd been planning.
But than, the most horrible, terrible, horrific thing that could have ever occurred in the entire history of what was supposed to be this quick run into the store to pick up a quick thing for his girlfriend happened. He caught the flick of the Latino girl's wrist as she snatched the intercom microphone, bangles clacking with the movement, flip her jet-black hair over one shoulder, gasp in to ask a single, solitary question that would end Sasuke's already taxed stealth. Why did this remind him of that Dr. Pepper commercial!? He lunged forward to snatch the plastic microphone from the girl's hands, mouth opening to release a scream of "NO!"-
But. It was too late.
"AISLE THREE, WE NEED A PRICE CHECK ON-"
Oh, oh, oh, oh gods, no.
Sasuke shriveled into a withered husk of his usual, prideful jock exterior as the line of people waiting to check their items broke into chortles and giggles. Oh, dear kami, no- With his hands, Sasuke tried to hide his face from the laughing eyes of the gathered populace, including the now-smirking Miss Spicy Spanish.
That was it. All hope of a speedy escape and his social status remaining in one piece was over. Gone. Down the tubes. Snuffed it. Kicked the bucket. Pushing up the daisies. Now EVERYBODY in the whole damned supermarket knew. There was a boy in Aisle three purchasing- At the thought, he swallowed loudly, and proceeded to flush a shade of magenta akin to the raspberries in the black man two people behind him's basket.
He nearly jumped when he felt a light pat on his elbow, so slight that he wasn't even sure he'd been touched at all. However, when he glanced down and over his shoulder, there was a beaming smile, and a pair of bright, sky-blue eyes glittering up into his teenaged face. A tiny old lady, wrinkled and mottled, with snow white hair and a hand-knitted shawl around her hunched shoulders leaned hard against her walker, and pushed herself as close to Sasuke's face as she could, placing her shopping basket of cat food tins onto the conveyor at their right.
"You done a good thing, Sonny. I hope your mama or sister appreciates it. Not many young men these days would do that for one of us ladies! You must love her something' fierce."
Sasuke muttered something ineligible and rather vulgar about exactly how much he was going to care for Tenten when this was all over, not caring if respected the old pepper pot. He needed toget the hell out of this store, and away from that stupid Chinese guy that was nearly crying from laughter down by the magazine racks.
Feeling his cheeks reach the boiling point, Sasuke whirled back to the counter girl, scowling when she asked if he'd prefer paper or plastic, before throwing his money at her and snatching his bag with an incredible speed fueled by pure panic. A few moments later, the blushing Uchiha burst from the store's automatic front doors, and began running across the parking lot, track shoes slapping the pavement frantically as he tore towards the back of his borrowed Subaru.
When he neared the car, he could see the relief flood Tenten's almond eyes as she spotted the white plastic bag swinging from her boyfriend's pale hand, and the opaque outline of a blue box within it. She was scrunched into the corner of the passenger's seat, her nails digging into the paint of the window frame.
Thrusting open the driver's door, Sasuke leapt into the car and slammed it so hard that the entire car rocked from side to side, finally silencing the noises from the outside world.
Scowling, he placed both hands on the wheel as Tenten squealed, and threw her arms around his neck for a grateful hug.
"Thank you so much, Sasuke! You don't know how much this means-"
"Just put the damned things in so we can get out of here." Sasuke growled, dark eyebrows creasing his forehead into one huge worry line as he slightly strained away from his girlfriend's ginger embrace from across the car console.
Tenten shifted back into her seat a bit, before leaning over and planting a kiss on the stoic Uchiha's cheek that left a rose-colored print of her lips in lipstick just below his coal-colored eye.
"You know I love you, Sasuke Uchiha." the teenage girl said as she clambered into the backseat, her prize clutched between two dark pink-painted fingernails.
Sasuke just looked away, cupping his chin in his hand and staring across the raven of the newly-poured parking lot, feeling like a cat that had been thrown into a bucket of cold water as his girlfriend busied herself with the odious task of stripping off her red-splattered jeans.
He knew he had to say it. She was expecting it, just like she had been expecting this ride home from school, and just like she had expected- no, known- that he would do this for her, no matter how embarrassing and foppish such an errand made him feel.
He sighed, and even brought himself to smile, in spite of the ordeal he had been through.
"Just don't expect me to do this for you ever again."
Her ritual finished, the pleasant girl that Sasuke had crushed on since the fifth grade thudded back into the seat beside him, her sweater firmly sashed around her waist to hide the incriminating spots of drying red.
With a flick of her wrist, Tenten plunked the container into the depths of her backpack purse and dropped the bag to the car's floor between her feet. Into the purse it went, buried in the memories of their relationship forever.
"Oh, I don't expect you to. I know you will. Because you're too infatuated with me to not, especially when there's a Code Red emergency like that."
Tenten's seatbelt clicked, and she nodded in affirmation. She knew where she stood on Sasuke's list of priorities, as his inamorata, and in the position that every teenage girl in Konoha High School wanted to be with him. And moreover, that was one of the things that Sasuke happened to love about her.
Slapping the car into drive, Sasuke grinned smugly, and jerked the wheel to cruise them from their parking place as he felt Tenten's arm knit with the crook of his elbow, making his entire arm tingle with the sensation.
Oh, yeah. Uchiha Sasuke was a man of his reputation. And he would uphold the greatest pride he possessed. The pride of the love he felt for his girlfriend, which was stronger, he now realized, than any pride he felt he had to keep up for the masses who ogled his prestigious heritage and all-around greatness.
He had a repute to keep up, just between them, and he would do just that.
"Yeah, well, just keep some of those things in that purse of yours from now on, okay? I don't know how I would have lived it down if Naruto saw me buying tampons in the Grocery Store…"
Oh, yeah. Sasuke would do anything for the reputation of love. He was such a romantic sap..
A/N: Review, or I'm going to write more crack pairings...