*****Finally a new story from me. I blame CynChick's amazing Sakura x Deidara stories for inspiring my latest pairing obsession and Initial D for some subject matter inspiration. The story is decidedly AU, so you've been warned. My husband also suggested smugly I should call the story "Initial Deidara." Har har. His sense of humor is almost as bad as mine. I'm not sure how long it will be yet. So we'll see how much steam it has! Enjoy :)*****************
Chapter I: The Meet
Another Wednesday dead and gone; from the start of her 12 hour shoot-me-in-the-face shift at 8am this morning, Sakura was already burning the day's funeral pyre. She need a change and she needed it bad.
The drive home from work that night was just like most other Wednesday nights when she got off late-uneventful and repetitive. Considering the viral crowding of the area, coming home late had only one blessing: less traffic on the roads and much more room to accelerate. Sakura knew better than to speed-not too much at least-on the major roads when the night was still young. But what fun was there in driving if she couldn't enjoy feeling her turbo spool up as she pushed her rpms just a bit?
She adored her little 6 speed VW GTI. It certainly wasn't the fastest car on the road, but with its short gears and beautiful engine purr (especially with the stage 1 work she'd managed to afford for it thus far) she was positive it was the most fun to drive.
And after that shift, she couldn't wait to punch it and bob and weave a bit on the highway. But first, to navigate the now fully dark parking lot, which she noted as she exited her building.
"Cheap bastards. Couldn't they at least wait until the last shift is off before they skimp on paying the electric bill?" She muttered at the dark lights. She thanked the universe that she opted for flat boots today instead of some heeled monstrosities. Comfort please and ease for driving-fashion could eat her ass. She'd always been bit of a tomboy anyway. She smirked as she neared her gunmetal grey little car. As she unlocked it the lights winked happily at her.
"Hi Baby." She smiled at her car.
The small hatchback fit her well as her best friends Ino and Naruto loved to say: tough, petite, loyal, beautiful, and polite from a distance, but listen to her purr or try and handle her temperaments without the right touch and she'd punch your lights out. It was too bad she wouldn't have time to race the mountain passes with her friends until the weekend. They usually met up on the twisty-windy roads just outside of the city on Friday and Saturday nights to let loose. Naruto would show up with his orange Subaru WRX and Ino would roll in with her corked-albeit faithful-blue little civic SI hatchback.
One of the few thrills Sakura had time for with her long shifts were those nights: the feel of the engine and the gearbox; her connection with her car and the road making her come alive-pulling her out of the mundane and frustrating career that left her largely disappointed. Best of all, she could share it with her lifelong friends who had their own career woes. Occasionally, some other friends would join in. It wasn't exactly a 'street-racing gang' like her work friends called it; but, it bordered on that sometimes.
For now however, it was stupid old Wednesday and she had another shift of paper pushing tomorrow (instead of actual work helping people). The irony of her medical degree made her head go boom.
She was in the car and punching in the shifter for reverse. Residual Daft Punk played from where she'd last left her ipod plugged into her sound system.
"O that is way too upbeat for right now." She shifted the tunes a bit to some DeadMau5 and kept the volume high as she swiped her keepass at the exit gate for the lot.
She did her usual-very careful-slow leak out and hard look at the blind curve on the exit turn from her parking lot. She hated this turn, but she prided herself on not ever coming close to a wreck because of how gingerly she exited. Low speed limit or not, people were rich morons around her office.
No one was in sight. She started to take her foot off the clutch to engage first gear and roll out when: ZOOOM. Out of nowhere what appeared to be a bright red Ferrari Enzo flew down the road in front of her office at what had to be close to a 100mph. Right. RICH. MORONS. He then proceeded to run the very red light at the nearby intersection. Luckily there were no other cars nearby to cause an accident.
"ASSHOLE! SLOW THE FUCK DOWN!" Sakura screamed through her closed and tinted windows at the car-that she knew couldn't hear her-as she slammed back on her clutch and brake. She thanked the universe again that she reacted in time.
She checked again and pulled out without another descending missile zooming in front of her first.
"Who the hell gets a Ferrari anyway? Overpriced formula-one piece of shit. Ferraris are for people who love paying other people to tune their cars and don't actually understand them. Tons of cash doesn't make it the best dickweed." Her private rant thoroughly over, Sakura turned more calmly onto the direct road to the highway on ramp. She didn't run the light; she thought smugly.
"I might be a bit of a street racer, but I'm not a dumbass." She sighed.
One more light and she could merge, get up to highway speed and finally blow off some steam. She drummed her fingers on her steering wheel as she slowly felt the stress leaving her, even with the near death experience with Mr. Important Ferrari just a few minutes ago.
Green. Finally, she could go. As she merged on, she took a cursory glance at the usual spot she knew the police would often sit and gun for speeders as they merged on; seeing none, she risked it a bit more than usual and pushed her speed to 90mph as fast as she could.
As she pushed her usual shifting point well past 4000 RPM, her head slammed back into her seat as the turbo engaged. She was smiling now.
She knew the goosebumps would be next. Things were so much better when she could be out of her stuffy office and free like this.
She only saw a handful of family sedans and mini-vans minding their own business in the two most right lanes. She was cruising in the far left lane-a wary eye out for cops. But, for some reason tonight, she didn't care quite as much if she landed a speeding ticket. Something was telling her to keep it up tonight.
Things didn't seem so bad now that she had some perspective in her wonderful car: only two more days until some play time with her friends; at least she was still making decent money, even if her job sucked, and she could go home and relax now. Maybe she'd finally give her mom's insistence that she date the Uchiha family heir, Sasuke, a chance and check him out.
Sakura hadn't had any relationship prospects since her and Naruto had a brief go of it a year or two ago. It didn't last, but it was a good thing because it proved that they were much better as best friends than as lovers and it got rid of the questions that lingered between them for so long. Plus, Ino would stop her comments of 'would you two shag already.' Sakura smirked at that thought. Although her and Naruto just didn't have that spark for each other, the sex between them was still fairly stellar. Hell, she remembered how she nearly broke Naruto's legs when he sheepishly suggested they become friends with benefits just so their sex lives didn't have to suffer.
Nope, Sakura had no prospects and for as much as Ino fawned over how attractive Sasuke was, Sakura just couldn't put her finger on it, but she just had this vibe that Sasuke was the biggest closet asshole the world had ever seen. But, he was so polite thus far it was hard to disprove.
"What the hell?!" Sakura was snapped out of her reverie and pleasant speeding as she caught a fast moving pair of headlights behind her in her rearview.
She had a mini-panic attack that it belonged to a police cruiser until they came closer and she realized they were both the wrong shape and much too low-set to the ground to belong to a cop car. He kept coming, with no signs of relenting his speed. He was doing an easy 105 or 110mph to her steady 90.
She pondered making way and moving over to let him pass and being polite, but after Mr. DouchNozzle Ferrari earlier, she wasn't exactly in a giving mood. Her eyes narrowed as he came closer.
He rolled up on her aggressively and smoothly, like a very experienced driver who knew exactly how to tailgate at high speeds without losing control. Sakura made out that it was clearly a white import from the body shape in her rear view.
"Hmmph." She smirked.
"Ok fancy ass. Wanna play?" She speed up slightly and he hugged her ass. "Gotcha." Downshift! She dropped her engine from 6th into 4th as her engine braked in protest. Rather than creeping closer and almost hitting her like a less-seasoned driver might, he anticipated her action and downshifted too. He had maintained the perfect gap on her ass. She felt a tingle of excitement in her gut.
Just as Sakura was starting to wonder if would stay back there forever and follow her home, he was no longer in her rearview. Her eyes widened momentarily until she saw his very low-profile headlights in her right side mirror.
"Passing me finally? Sorry kid, can't be your teacher all night, I have work tomorrow." But he wasn't passing her. He was pacing her-literally. With the road predictable and her field of vision far off that their were no cars or dangers, she turned her head to look. Her jaw dropped and her goosebumps were back.
The fucker was driving the only make and model she ever loved more than her beloved GTI; it was a white Toyota Supra, with a sleek body kit, dark tint, the biggest spoiler she had ever seen, and a decal on its side that looked in the darkness like a hand, open-palmed, with a mouth in its center with its tongue sticking out.
"A hand mouth?" That one must have a story.
Regardless, the rims weren't too gaudy and it was well-cared for and properly balanced from the way it road. Sakura felt her pulse quicken and it had nothing to do with the speeds they were going. A Supra in and of itself was hot, but something about the way this car was done made her think of pure sex.
And then he did it. He let off his gas so he lagged back just enough to let his front end slip back to align with the middle of her car and then accelerated a bit so his nose was back even with hers. It was an invitation. One predator asking another for a challenge. She knew he would have her beat at the top end like this. Her baby's power was best demonstrated in the 0 to 60 range (hence her penchant for a good downhill race on a winding road), not at high ranges like this-especially if he had any significant mods under there like she had a feeling he did. But, Supras were very rare these days as they weren't made anymore and this one, well, it was bordering on unicorn status.
"Accepted," was all she said before she took off.
A few exhilarating minutes and several exits later, Sakura had lost-as she knew she would. But, she had never had a race that felt this good. Strangely enough, he didn't just have his fun and speed off like most other fellow racers did after they had clearly won. He did just enough to show her he had her, but he never fully dusted her, almost like he enjoyed seeing the lights of her baby GTI in his mirror, behind him.
Camaraderie maybe? Sakura had no idea. She had never done anything like that and never had someone do it to her. It didn't tick her off either; besides, she didn't think he was doing it to be a dick, there was something friendly about it-although it was hard to describe.
What was even stranger, was that he got off of her exit in front of her. So to him, it might look like she was following him, but in truth this was her exit too. She lived fairly far out from the city and closer to the mountain passes and her friends, which was better for her financially and for her sanity.
"You live out here?" She wondered aloud to her car.
"How is it I haven't seen you around out here before then, unicorn?" Sakura mumbled in thought. He rolled to a stop at the red light on the off-ramp. Sakura knew this light was long and it might be her only chance to see the driver of this amazing machine. So, why was she so nervous?
"Stop being such a wimp, Sakura. Besides, knowing my luck it's probably a girl." She could talk herself up like a champ. Committed to the farthest left-turn lane beside him now as he sat in the lane that went straight through the intersection toward the mountain passes, she rolled her GTI to a stop and simultaneously put her in neutral.
The Supra's driver's side window rolled down simultaneous with her passenger side window. The driver was most definitely not a girl. And he was gorgeous. Sakura's face filled with color despite herself-like she had never seen an attractive guy before.
What Sakura noticed first were two impossibly blue eyes staring at her and long, shiney, and thickly beautiful blond hair tied back into a topknot as a large pierce tumbled over his face and partially obstructed his left eye. Never mind how could he see like that, but even Ino, who had beautiful blonde hair herself, would be jealous of this guy's hair.
The femininity of his features ended there, however. He had an angular jaw that jutted out daringly, like a subtle challenge. His lips were full and sensual. Perfect for kissing, Sakura's mind supplied unhelpfully.
He leaned forward on his door and rested his chin on his hand as he took her in. The barest hint of a smirk played on his lips. It looked arrogant, proud, and obnoxious-all things Sakura couldn't stand-but his smirk was also so decidedly and undeniably attractive that Sakura was thunderstruck with nothing to say.
He didn't say anything for a minute either. Hold on. Was he checking her out too? Now Sakura was smirking as his own smirk deepened like he had just been caught red-handed.
"That was fun, yeah." The smirk quirked up into an even sexier half-smile.
"It was." She agreed and met his eyes again. Thankfully the light was still red and the crosswalk signal hadn't started blinking yet either.
"You live up here?" He gestured to the air with a nod.
"Yup. You?" He shook his head at that.
"Nah. Just up here scoping out the downhill mountain pass for the weekend. My team and I are looking for some new driving places and some new talent." He emphasized the last word as he eyed her.
Ahh. So that's all it was. That makes more sense; a driving challenge she could handle-this pompous albeit incredibly attractive owner of one of her favorite car models ever coming on to her-not so much.
"Gotcha. Well, my friends and I usually hang around up there and drive the downhill and uphill tracks for fun on Fridays and Saturdays. You're welcome to come chill with us and check it out." Although he was pompous, she could tell he was a good driver and knew his car, which meant he couldn't be all bad and new cars and new drivers were always welcome-as long as they respected what it meant to take care of a car-and this guy clearly did. Plus he hadn't bailed on her before when he totally could have, so he was polite to boot when he didn't have to be and that was saying something these days.
"Yeah? I'd like that. I'm sure my friends would too." Then he leaned into his car and seemed to be fumbling for something in the glove and then he took out a pen and wrote down something on what appeared to be a business card. He leaned across the lanes with his arm outstretched and handed her the card.
The card was totally black and had one red cloud with white outlines in the center on each side. On what she assumed was the front of the card was the word "AKATSUKI" in all black letters in the cloud.
"Akatsuki is the name of our team." He anticipated and explained her unspoken question.
"My name and number are on the back." Sakura turned the card over and saw another red cloud with a hastily written Deidara, his name, followed by a scribbled number underneath. She must have grimaced slightly at the card-which Sakura thought she only internalized-because he chuckled and spoke again.
"It's my personal cell number. It's not some business line or something, yeah."
The crosswalk signal had started flashing again-they were running out of time. He glanced at it and for a split second she thought she actually saw worry on his face. Does he want to keep talking to me? Thinking she just saw wrong-it was dark after all-she smiled at him.
He smiled that gorgeous half smile again.
"Listen, I would love to see you again-with or without the car." Well, that definitely changed things. Sakura blushed again.
"Sakura. My name is Sakura." The countdown was down to 20 seconds on the crosswalk signal. "And, since I have your number now, I'll text you mine when I get home." The smirk was back-the smug bastard.
"Sakura. See you again soon, yeah." With that, the light turned green and they both took off. She kept her window down so she could listen to the crying purr of the Supra as it cried down the road to the mountain until she couldn't hear it any longer. It had been so long since she had seen a car that amazing. Or more importantly-her mind supplied, unhelpfully again-a man that attractive.
The weekend couldn't come fast enough.