Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or the invention of elevators...
"Sarcasm is the refuge of losers."
yeah, gotta love Little Miss Sunshine
She had never seen him before. He was not in any of her classes. He never came into the coffee shop she worked at, nor to the library where she spent most of her nights studying. And never had she made any movement to talk to him in the busy elevator rides they coincidentally shared.
It was like he just appeared. Out of thin air. But no one seemed to take notice of this new stranger. Her fellow apartment dwellers just saw him as just another college student or workaholic moving on in life.
But to her, he did not feel like a stranger. Call it déjà vu or whatever you wish. She had this strong urge that pulled her to him.
So she would stare.
And he would stare back.
Neither one of them seeming to remember the manners their mothers had hammered into them as children.
Day after day. Morning after morning. Afternoon after afternoon. They would stare into each other's eyes, but not in the star-crossed lovers kind of way.
Until one day, she broke eye contact.
She stared straight ahead at the elevator door, knowing he was still there. But was he still staring? So she did what she should have done when she first saw him.
"Hello. I'm Sakura Haruno and I hate red lights."
She had no idea how he was to respond to her awkward introduction and frankly she didn't really care.
She stopped caring what others thought long ago.
Hearing no response, she turned back toward the elevator doors. Maybe she scared him off. Ino was always saying she was too blunt for her own good, but Sakura did not really care for sugar-coating things because life isn't handed to you on a silver platter and not everyone was born with silver spoons in thier mouths.
Life was meant to be hard and hard it was.
But she liked it that way. So she learned to go with the flow, as Tenten liked to say. Even if it meant inadvertently scaring off pretty strangers.
The elevator binged, signaling to Sakura that she needed to get off once the door opened. As she was about to walk through the doors she heard his voice.
"My name is Sasuke…"
His voice had that scratchy quality of someone who either smoked a lot or just did not talk much. Smelling no sulfur vapors, Sakura went with the latter. She walked out of the elevator, preparing to go her room, but instead turned around to stare at the pretty stranger named Sasuke.
"Hi Sasuke."
A small smile formed on his face in that uncertain way that informed her he didn't smile often. Raising his hand in silence, he bid her farewell as the elevator doors closed.
Dedicated to all those who know staring is rude, but do it anyway.