Disclaimer: Of course I don't own Naruto.

Sai didn't protest when she sat down beside him. He largely ignored her, more focused on his painting. He knew by now that she wouldn't try to interrupt him, since she gained most of her entertainment by watching him work. He knew that the only reason she was near him was because he reminded her of Sasuke.

He didn't protest when she leaned against him, though his shifted his arm to better accomodate her. Not for her own comfort, but for his. She had some sharp shoulders.

"Do you ever wonder what you would do if you had emotions?" She asked him in an abstract tone.

"Yeah."

"What do you think it would be like?"

"I don't know," he smiled slightly, that fake smile that irritated everyone so much, though it was the best he had. "But I hope it will help me understand people a bit more."

She said nothing for a while, twirled grass between her fingers. "Do those books help?"

"It's like reading a foreign language," he had to admit. "But they're the only thing I have."

She seemed to absorb the information. Every thing he told her, she took in, learning him thoroughly. Sometimes he wondered if she did it for him, as a teammate, or because he looked like Sasuke. He read somewhere that what this was called jealousy, this discomfort at not knowing.

Eventually, he moved her aside. "You're heavy," he said.

Immediately, tears filled her eyes, and she wrapped her arms around him and held on as she cried. She'd moved his painting out of his reach in the process, so he put his brush away, knowing that she wouldn't move unless he put up a fight, and Yamato had told him to stay out of trouble.

Sakura cried too easily. He wished that she'd stop. Crying make her face look ugly.

Note: I wanted to write something vaguely Sai x Sakura today. I know I should be working on my other Naruto fanfic. I'm going to get right back to it. The chapter's about half-way finished, anyway. Not sure if I'll be able to finish it today, though.

In any case, when I was thinking about the SaiSaku pairing, I realized how much it was like Rue x Mytho (from Princess Tutu). Mytho is a character without a heart (and therefore no emotions), while Rue, well, I don't quite know how Sakura's like Rue. But she's definitely not like Ahiru. Anyways, when I made the Sai/Mytho connection, I had this strange thought of Sakura going Princess Tutu and returning pieces of Sai's heart to him.

Sakura in a tutu is...a strange image.