prompt: AAA and kyou, koi wo hajimemasu (I didn't like AAA though, so I never finished it…) oh, and the Chinese song super number one by Genie Chou!
rating: T
summary: There's more to being number one, Sasuke tells Sakura. But she doesn't care. She'll do whatever she can to defeat him. He doesn't want her to act like this, and takes pity. Can't she see that he loves her?
Super Number One
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"Test scores are back," the teacher said as he began handing out the graded papers. He walked to each desk and handed the students their works back, some groaning as they looked at their grades, others shrugging while they thought they did well enough, and some who cheered when they got theirs.
The teacher walked up to Sakura's desk, who sat next to Sasuke. She waited eagerly for her test, which she thought she did well on. He handed her the test back, and Sakura took it, looking for the grade. It was a big red 99. She frowned.
"Sasuke-kun, what'd you get?" she said, looking over to see his grade. He shrugged, putting his paper face down so that she couldn't see. Leaning over, she reached for his test and saw his grade, her eyes averting back to her own.
"A hundred? Seriously?" Sakura groaned. "I thought I actually beat you this time! But you still manage to one-up me. How is that possible?" she said. She twisted her lips and Sasuke took his test back, shrugging again. "I don't know."
"You don't even study, do you?"
"No."
Sakura groaned again, her face on her desk and her arms stretched out in front of her. "That's so not fair! I study my ass off in order to try and be better at you in something, and yet you always beat me. I don't understand!"
He shrugged again.
"Can you do something different than that, please?" she said, still angry at herself. "It's annoying me."
"Hn."
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"Sakura, don't be angry. It's just a test. You did well," he said as he caught up with her after class. She didn't wait for him like she usually did. On the "I'll hand back your test" days, she refused to walk with him to their lockers because she was always frustrated that she would always be number two.
"But not well enough!" she snapped. Her bag was slung over her shoulder and he attempted to catch up with her through the crowd of kids.
"Sakura, stop it. So it's one grade, alright? Don't be upset."
"I'm not upset!" she said, more forcefully this time.
"You seem like you are." He reached out to touch her shoulder. "Sakura—"
"Leave me alone, Sasuke." She hmphed and left him in the middle of the hallway, trying not to get hit by other people who were walking past him. Sasuke sighed, thinking that he should just let her cool off a little bit, and then try talking to her again at lunch.
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"Hey," he said as he took a seat next to her in the library. She waved him off with her left hand impatiently as she continued to write with her right hand. She even had her glasses on for reading, which he always thought was cute, though he'd never admit it. "I'm busy," she said. "Go away."
"What're you doing?" he asked. Looking over the textbook she was copying exercises and notes from, he said, "You need to use this formula, not that one."
Sakura stopped, checked her work, and realized that he was right. "Sasuke, just go away. Let me work by myself, alright?"
"It's lunch break. Aren't you hungry?"
"I'm fine. Leave me alone." She didn't erase the wrong formula she was using, because doing so would have made her feel even more of a number two than she already was. Sasuke, seeing that there was no use in trying to make her feel better, said, "Do you want anything from the cafeteria?"
"I'm fine," she repeated.
Sasuke took one last pitying look on her and sighed. He knew that he wouldn't be able to change her opinion and doing so was like asking a stone wall to move. It wouldn't happen.
"Good luck," he said.
"I'll need it," he heard her mutter under her breath. He left the library, walking towards the cafeteria to eat by himself, thinking how awful it was to be Sakura and to experience the jealousy and envy that she was feeling.
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She was still in the library even after lunch, using her free period to continue to study. Sasuke came back to sit next to her, but she didn't say anything. He was going to point out another one of her mistakes, but thought against it. Instead, he pulled out a book from his backpack and picked up where he left off.
Sakura stopped. She tapped her pencil and pulled up her glasses over her head. "What're you reading?" she asked.
"Stephen King."
"I like him. Which book?"
"The Dome."
Sakura peered over his shoulder. "It's pretty thick."
"Yeah," he said, not knowing what to say. Sakura put down her pencil and read over his shoulder.
"Do you remember when we were younger how, in our class, nobody but us two could read yet? I was starting some chapter books, but you were already flying through Harry Potter."
"Yeah." He didn't say anything, watching her words carefully. Could it have been a trap?
"I envy you," she said, flat-out completely. The truth was told, and though he knew it, it was coming directly out of her mouth. "You don't need to study at all. You get good grades and you're the star student athlete. You always win awards for academics. You're always the MVP for sports and captain of every team. Everyone loves you. And yet, you don't even try. You just are."
He put his book down. "Sakura…"
"No, I'm serious. And here I am, working my ass off every day before school for two hours when I wake up at five, and after school for another six. Sometimes I work during dinner, just because I want to make sure that next time I'll be the best. I'll be number one. I always think that it'll be next time, or the time after, but it never is." Sakura felt as if she was going to cry, but she held back. "Sakura's always number two."
Sasuke didn't know what to do. He wanted to hold her in his arms and tell her that she shouldn't worry about it. That he loved her and it would be okay. She didn't need to be the best. But, as a guy seeing a girl cry and not dating this girl, he couldn't do it. So he put a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry," he said. He truly meant it. Sakura spent most of her youth in textbooks and homework, not having fun or times where she could just relax. It was always studying. And he hated himself for it, for being the cause of her pain.
He walked away, carrying his book under his arm while his backpack was slung over his shoulders. "I gotta go," he said. But he wouldn't. He'd be watching her from far away, understand how much pain he caused her every night, and then fix his mistake.
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It was at least eight o'clock, and from the corner of the library, he still saw Sakura working, using her iPhone illuminator app to see as she continued to get up to retrieve book after book after book. Sasuke saw that that was the only time she actually got up from her seat. Not even to eat or to use the bathroom. She didn't even have a snack with her.
And Sasuke really didn't hope that she went to really drastic measures, like taking caffeine pills and Ritalin to help her study. But he knew Sakura wouldn't cheat, and that she always played the game fair and square. He continued to watch as she worked and worked, and then suddenly dropped her pencil, stared at her work, and stopped. He saw that she was just looking at what she had done, and how her jaw dropped open at everything she wrote. Suddenly, she took everything that she had spent so much time on and ripped it to shreds. Each paper with meticulous handwriting was torn up, and all her books were shoved off the table. He saw that she just stood there, angry, her shoulders heaving up and down. Then, she sat back down and cried into her arms.
Sasuke realized how much pain he caused her. How much he took for granted. Unable to see any more of this, he left quietly, wishing that he could ease her of some pain. Then, he realized he had a test the day after. And smirked to himself as he left the school.
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"Most of you did alright," the teacher said as he had a stack of graded tests in his arm. "But two of you were incredibly exceptional. As always," he said. The class already knew who they were. "But," the teacher added. "This was certainly a surprise."
He walked towards Sakura first and handed her back her paper. "Miss Haruno," he said. "Number one."
Then, he turned to Sasuke, his own paper back in his hands. "Uchiha-san. You're number two."
The whole class gasped as Sasuke tried not to show his emotions. He took his paper, looked at the grade, and shrugged. He waited for Sakura to look over to see what he got, but instead, she was still not understanding the fact that she was finally number one. That she finally beat Sasuke.
He would never tell her, of course. He liked her too much. Her happiness was worth everything, and if he just did this earlier, he could have saved her the pressure and the tears.
From the corner of his eye, he could see that Sakura was crying, though she tried not to show it. She excused herself as she went to the bathroom to dry up her tears, and Sasuke couldn't help but smile.
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It was a big thing for the school to hear that Sakura had finally beaten Sasuke. Everyone was talking about it, especially the teachers. They all pointed at him as he walked down the hall nonchalantly, wanting to see the smile on Sakura's face at lunch. She had not come back from the bathroom, and he suspected that she was so happy that she had to have called all her friends and family, who must have been proud of her.
He wished he'd done it sooner! Poor Sakura. He didn't know how hard it actually was to be her. Though his parents pressured him, too, it was nothing like what she put on herself.
Sasuke sat at the cafeteria, eating his lunch while he waited for Sakura to come sit next to him, happily skipping in and telling him how proud she was of herself.
But she never came.
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There was no way she had that many people to call, Sasuke thought as he continued to search for Sakura. Her locker still had her backpack in it, so she didn't go home (they shared stuff all the time), but she was nowhere to be found. It was nearly 3 o'clock, and time to go home, but he still had no idea where she could have been.
Under the desk, he texted without looking, Where are you? And waited for a response. It didn't come. Cursing as the bell rang, he waited for Sakura at her locker. Everyone already knew that they were best friends and nothing more, though some people had some predictions. But because she was so caught up in trying to get where she had gotten today, they never thought more about it.
"Sakura!" Sasuke said almost excitedly as he saw the girl walk up towards him. Her steps were heavy and she grabbed his wrist and led him to the library.
"Get your ass over here," she said. People watched as she dragged 160 pounds of muscle into the library. She was only 110.
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"So," Sakura said. She looked uneasy. Sasuke had his hands in his pockets and shrugged. "So."
"Why? Why did you do that?" she asked.
"Do what?"
Sakura held her test in front of his face and then reached into his bag, digging through binders and folders for his own test and held it alongside hers.
"Why, Sasuke? I know that you knew this stuff. It was the exact same formula that I screwed up on yesterday. And then you decided to use it incorrectly. I know that you could have gotten it right. Just…why? I don't understand."
Sasuke shrugged. Inside, he was panicking. Sakura may have been dense, but she wasn't that dense. He cursed himself.
"I don't know."
Suddenly, he felt his cheek sting and quickly turn warm. He put his right hand on his cheek and stared at Sakura in disbelief as her hand was still in the air, her eyebrows furrowing and her eyes tearing up.
"You bastard. Unbelievable. Am I really that stupid? Do I need your pity? I don't want to earn this because somebody helped me. I want to earn it because of my own hard work." Her tears fell down her cheeks and she tried hard not to break down completely. "I want to be the one to do this by myself! I appreciate what you did, but to be honest, it's making me feel even more dumb than I already feel like!" she now began to sob in her hands. "Sasuke, please…" she didn't even know what she was begging for. But she stood there in front of him, crying into her hands as the tests fell to the floor.
Sasuke honestly didn't know what to do now. He felt awful and ashamed for tricking her. He should have known that his good would soon turn on him. He put one arm around Sakura, dragging her towards him. She fell into his chest, sobbing at his shirt. Sasuke continued to rub her back for a few minutes as he massaged his own cheek with his left hand.
"Don't cry, Sakura. Please don't cry," he said, pleading in his voice. She pulled away, finishing her last sniffles. She wiped her eyes and bit her lip before slapping him again.
"I said I was sorry already!" he said, rubbing his other cheek. Sakura frowned, before she hugged him again.
"I'm sorry, too," she said. "I spent so much time on grades, on homework, on studying…I never had enough time for us. Besides school, where else did we see each other?" Sakura looked up at Sakura, who continued to rub his jaw.
"You pack a punch," he muttered. He winced as she wiped her eyes again, giving a small laugh. She picked up the tests and ripped them in half.
"I'm still going to fight you," she said. "And I will win. Just you wait." Sakura held Sasuke close to her, squeezing his waist. "I promise one day soon!"
He gave a small smirk before he winced again. "Ow," he said. Sakura looked up at him and held his cheeks in her hands. She stroked them with her thumbs. "That'll bruise."
"Yeah."
Then, he pulled her close as his arms wrapped around her waist. He kissed her hard, waiting for this moment for so long. She had no idea what was happening, but put her arms around his neck and her hands in his hair. Tiptoeing up so that she could kiss him better, he turned his head to an angle and held her waist tighter to him.
Pulling back for air, Sakura bit her lip nervously and played with her hair, like she always did when she was embarrassed. Sasuke scratched the back of his neck nervously. "So," he began again.
"Yeah."
He gave her a small smile and she smiled back. "Don't think I've forgiven you, though," she said. "Because I haven't."
"Not even a little bit?"
"No." But she still smiled, and Sasuke gave her another grin back. Kissing his cheeks, she said, "I'm still waiting for the day where I finally become number one."
"But you are!" he said. She tilted her head in confusion. "How so?"
Sasuke looked down at his feet and put his hands in his pockets again. He muttered, "You're my super number one."
"Oh, Sasuke…"
"I'll tutor you," he said.
"No." She took his hand in her own. "I'm going to do this. Remember, I play the game fair." She looked like she wanted to hug him again, but instead, she put her hand on his forearm and said, "See you tomorrow."
"Bye."
Sasuke watched her leave as he took the pieces of the ripped test and thought about throwing them away. Instead, he put them in his pocket and packed up his stuff. He thought twice about bringing a textbook home to study for the test tomorrow, but didn't want to put extra weight on his back. Shaking his head and continuing to massage his red cherub cheeks, he left school, noting how nice it was to see the library table empty and free of books and a girl.
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"Haruno-san," the teacher said, handing out the test. "Congratulations."
Sakura looked at her test. It was a solid 100 percent. She smiled and then looked over at Sasuke, who shrugged at his test like he always did.
"Can I see?" she asked.
"Sure."
Sakura nearly gasped at his grade. He had gotten a 99, and she looked through the staples to see where he had made his one fatal flaw.
"You didn't do this to piss me off, did you?" she asked.
He shrugged. "I really didn't know the answer."
"Oh." Sakura gave him his test back and leaned back in her chair. She let out a deep breath. "Wow."
"Good job," he said, noting her grade. He gave her a smile. She returned one. "You deserve it."
"Thanks." She leaned back on two legs of her chair and gave him a small kiss.
"Do you want to go somewhere after school with me?" she asked. "I've studied too long. My eyes are sore."
"I'd like that."
Sakura smiled again before she took out her notebook. Sasuke tapped his pencil against his loose-leaf paper. She may have always been number two in everyone else's eyes. But in his own, she was always number one.
Slight changes!