Colorful
Summary: His whole life had been in black and white and defined by lines and patterns. She, however, colored outside of the lines.
My first ever one-shot. Yes, I know that I should be updating my other stories but this little thing had no place as an update, and besides, this will at least be one thing that I finish.
XXX
"Life is like a work of art; you've got to paint it colorful."
Sasuke Uchiha was never surprised. It just didn't happen.
That surprise party that Naruto threw him for his nineteenth birthday didn't surprise him.
Getting accepted into one of Konoha's top Ivy League schools when he was sending out scholarships for college didn't surprise him.
Having his father eventually decide that he would follow in his, and his older brother, Itachi's, footsteps, and take on the Uchiha family's very large string of enterprises definitely didn't surprise him.
This, however, did surprise him.
He was standing at the cash register, paying for a book, only to be standing there, staring wide-eyed at the girl that was checking him out.
And, surprisingly, she wasn't checking out his body.
Yes, Sasuke could be cocky and a little conceited at times, but never when it came to talking about his looks. It was just a known fact that girls practically drooled whenever they caught a glimpse of him in passing. He found this fact to be very annoying, but, none the less, he was used to it occurring. This girl simply smiled politely at him and proceeded to scan the barcode on the back of the book he was purchasing.
No drooling.
No ogling.
No nothing.
Frankly, it was sort of a hit to his ego. Then he got to looking at this girl.
She was….well…colorful. That seemed to be the only word that came to mind as he stared at her.
Her hair was pink. Just plain, bright, pink. And it was short and choppy. Her eyes were bright green, almost emerald colored. Her shirt was deep blue with a band name that he didn't recognize stitched on it in bold black letters. Her wrists, he noticed, as she typed in some letters on the keyboard and reached for the mouse to scroll down on the computer screen in front of her, adorned hand-made bracelets with all different shapes and sizes and colors of beads on them. Her nails were painted bright orange, reminding him of his best friend.
"Your total is fifteen dollars and thirty-five cents." She told him with another smile.
He looked back up to her face and noticed that even her earrings were colorful. She had two piercings on each ear lobe; the upper piercings had red hearts, and the lower ones had lavender flowers.
He wordlessly took out his credit card and handed it to her. She took it and scanned it on one of those scanner things and handed it back to him before she clicked the 'enter' button on her keyboard.
He waited for her reaction.
"Sasuke Uchiha?" She asked him. He gave one, short nod to which she returned.
She grabbed a plastic bag from under the counter and pulled it open. She placed his purchase in there and handed it to him with yet another smile.
"Please, come again." She said.
Unbelievable. She didn't even squeal. This didn't bother him or anything, but it still amazed him that this woman could say his name so calmly and still not know who he was. It was pretty refreshing…it did bother him, though, that he was so intrigued by her.
"Um…sir?" She said, keeping her professional tone (even though he was pretty sure that she was his age and shouldn't have to call him 'sir'), and shook the bag, indicating that he still didn't take it from her.
He gave a simple, "Hn," before he did take it and walk away from the register.
He paused at the door before he left, and looked back at her only to see her watching him as he left. She smiled at him and gave a small wave before quickly turning to the next customer in line, not looking the least bit ashamed at having just been caught staring at him.
He smirked. He was definitely shopping for his books here, more often.
XXX
He walked into the small book store with a sigh. His English professor was seriously deranged. He was just here a week ago because he had to get a thick novel for his class, and now he had to come back and get two more, even though he hadn't even read the first one that he bought.
On top of his demanding professor, his father expected him to come to one of his board meetings after his classes were let out for the day. He was not in the mood for sitting between his father, who would do nothing but frown at him, and his brother who would give him a ha-ha-you-have-to-sit-next-to-me-even-though-you-hate-it smirk the whole time. Not to mention shaking hands with at least twenty different people who all thought that they were hot shit just because they had more money than everyone else, and then listening to them gloat about it for the next few hours.
And now he was wet because while he was walking to the bookstore it started to rain.
All in all, he was not in a good mood.
If anyone got in his way, they would die.
He stalked to one of the nonfiction aisles and glared at the shelves, looking for the books that he needed.
"Need some help?" A familiar voice asked from his right.
He turned to glare at the intruder, but froze when he saw Ms. Colorful from the last time he was here.
She definitely lived up to the private nickname that he gave her, because she was still indeed very colorful.
Her pink tresses were tied back in a small ponytail, but since her hair was cut jaggedly, a few strands escaped and framed her face nicely. Her emerald eyes shined with question. She was wearing a purple and black striped jacket, probably in preparation for the dreary day outside. Although, she was also wearing a red and green plaid skirt that looked like it was from a standard school-girl's uniform. She also wore red socks that stretched up to her knees and black Converse with various colored writings all over them.
She waved a hand in front of his face and said, "Hellooooooooooo?" drawing out the 'o'.
He grabbed her hand to stop its movement and looked at her blankly. Before he could come up with something else to say, he spoke the words, "Aren't you the cashier from a week ago?"
It was a stupid question because of course he already knew that she was, in fact, the cashier from a week ago. There was no way that he would simply forget about her.
She blinked and answered with her own question, "Aren't you that Uchiha guy from a week ago?"
They stared at each other. After a minute he realized that he was still holding her hand and released it.
She kept her hand raised for a moment and then pulled it back down to her side, never looking away from him. She said, "Your name is Sasuke, right?"
He nodded and she said, "So, you're from that famous Uchiha family too, right? Or is the last name just coincidence?"
He raised an eyebrow at her. How the hell did she bring that up now, but didn't even show an ounce of surprise at his name when he was here earlier in the week? How was she still not surprised at all and talking to him casually about his wealthy family?
She smiled smugly and said, "I'm guessing it's not a coincidence."
"How does that not faze you in any way?" He blurted out. It came out rather frustrated sounding, but he didn't think that it was fair that she was able to throw him off so completely and not even realize it.
He knew how things were supposed to happen. He was always able to read people to a point where it seemed like he knew what they were thinking. Everything was always simple to him. Everything was always black and white. And here was that one bit of color that confused the hell out of him.
She gave him a confused look, "What? You're name?"
He nodded once, eager for a straight answer. She shrugged and said, "I don't know. It just doesn't."
He just stared at her and she fidgeted under his gaze. "I mean…should it matter what your name is?"
So, she didn't care about his name? That was…a first. Well, not really. Naruto didn't care about his name when they first met, but this was a woman. He hadn't met any woman that didn't have a crush on him at some point in their lives (besides his mother of course).
This pink haired girl seemed to be defying every rule that he had built in his life. And he didn't know whether he liked that or not.
She suddenly stood up straight and put a determined look onto her face. She said, "Well, since I know you're name…"
She held her hand out and said, "I'm Sakura Haruno."
He stared at her and all of the colorfulness that she stood for…and smirked at her.
She smiled at him and he took her hand, shaking it firmly.
This was probably the best thing that happened to him all day.
XXX
"Hey, Sasuke." Sakura said from behind the counter as soon as he walked in.
He walked over to the counter with an agitated look on his face. She quickly caught on and said, "The company again?"
It had been five months since they first officially introduced themselves to each other, and now they knew quite a few details about each of their lives. Like how she knew about his father's expectations for him and the company, and how he knew about her going into the medical field. Who knew that she was actually going to the same college as him and he never noticed?
She looked around the store. It wasn't busy so she walked out from behind the register, took his hand, and dragged him to the nonfiction section where they first met (well sort of).
She claimed that it was the most deserted section in the store and had sat with him in this aisle several times in the last few months, just talking about pretty much anything. She said that no one ever went into the nonfiction aisle because no one wanted to read those 'boring books.' He argued her statement, but she only responded with, "You are so bland, Sasuke." (He found it ironic since he was now friends with one of the most colorful people he had ever met.)
They sat across from each other in the aisle now and he proceeded to tell her about how his father was trying to take over another large company, and was doing that by using him to get close to the CEO's daughter.
Sakura was sitting with her legs folded under her and her hands clenched on the knees of her paint-splattered jeans. When he finished she shouted, "That asshole!"
They heard a chorus of "Shhhhhh!" coming from the next aisle over and she shrank back a little while he held in a chuckle. She crawled over to sit next to him. Her side was completely pressed against his and he hated that he seemed to be hyperaware of it.
"He has no right to do that! Whether he's your father or not!" She shouted in a whisper.
He couldn't agree more. His own father was expecting him to seduce some guy's daughter just so that he could get close to her father and then completely take the company over.
Sakura was ranting about something now but she stopped with an angry noise and her head slumped against his shoulder. She wrapped her arms around one of his and whispered, "You can't do it Sasuke…it isn't right."
He sighed and pulled his arm out of her grasp to wrap it around her shoulders. "I know, Sakura. But he's my father…I honestly don't know what to do about it."
She gripped his shirt and said forcefully, "Tell him no Sasuke. He may be your father, but he doesn't have a say in this."
He pulled her up to look at him and said, "Sakura-"But she cut him off.
"It's not right! You're a grown man now, Sasuke! You have your own life, and he doesn't have to be a part of it!"
She had that same determined look on her face that she always had when she argued with him. "Sasuke…you can decide this for yourself. It's not just black and white like your father tries to make it," She smiled now. "You have more color in your life than he does."
Sasuke could only stare at her and say, "Yeah…a lot more color."
XXX
Sasuke sat behind Naruto in the funeral home. This just wasn't his week. He was still contemplating whether or not he should say no to his father and Sakura had been telling him to just say no all week. Now, his friend Shikamaru invited him and Naruto to one of his old teacher's, Asuma's, funeral. They couldn't exactly say no; Asuma was really important to Shikamaru and they didn't want to hurt him anymore than he already had been.
Sasuke looked around as the people filed in and found a familiar pink head. He looked at her but she was turned around.
He frowned when he saw that she wasn't wearing any color; she had on a long, black coat and black heels from what he could see.
He stood and walked over to greet her. She was talking to Ino Yamanaka, her best friend and Shikamaru's girlfriend.
When he got close enough Ino noticed him and smiled smugly at Sakura while pointing at me from over said girl's shoulder. Sakura turned around and smiled brightly at me. And he thought that he smiled back because when she turned around he saw that she was wearing a bright, red dress.
Because only Sakura would wear red to a funeral.
XXX
He sat in his father's office after the memorial service was over. The jacket from his suit was draped over the arm of the chair and his tie was undone and hanging loosely around his neck. He gripped the arms of the chair, waiting for his father to get done ranting. He should have known that telling his father that he didn't want to participate in the take-over wouldn't go well.
"-I don't care what you have to do! If I had asked Itachi to do this then he would have done the entire take-over on his own!"
Ouch. That kind of struck a nerve.
"All you have to do is get close to this man's daughter!"
"Father…" Sasuke started, but he went unheard.
"Even if you have to sleep with her, this will get done."
Sasuke's eyes widened. His own father would try to get him to sleep with some girl that he didn't even know if it was for the good of the damn company?
He narrowed his eyes and stood from the chair. He turned to leave when his father shouted, "Where do you think you're going?!"
Sasuke turned to glare at him and said, "I'm leaving."
"You will not disobey your-"
"Father?!" Sasuke shouted. He was pissed off now. "You don't have the right to call yourself that! You would force me to do something like that with a girl that I don't even know; that I don't even care for…" He slowly trailed off. After he said those last words, he thought of Sakura. When his father told him what he wanted him to do to this CEO's daughter, Sasuke instantly knew that he would have to hurt the girl.
He imagined Sakura in her place. He couldn't even fathom hurting Sakura in any way.
His expression turned to one of confusion. He was lost in his own musings now and couldn't hear his father yelling at him.
She was confusing him again. Jeeze this girl got on his nerves sometimes…but why didn't that bother him?
Suddenly it him. It hit him so hard that he didn't remember how to breathe for a moment.
"Do you hear me?!" His father yelled, turning red with his anger.
Sasuke looked at his father…and smirked. "No…actually I don't." He said, and turned and ran out the door, ignoring his father's shouts.
He had to find someone.
XXX
He ran to the bookstore and sure enough, there she was closing it up. She was still in her red dress but her coat was draped over her arm.
She turned to look at him when she heard him approach.
"Sasuke? What are you doing here this late?" She questioned.
He smirked at her and said, "My father isn't telling me what to do anymore."
Her face brightened up and she launched herself on him in a hug. He wrapped his arms around her waist tightly and whispered, "You were right…I found some color."
She pulled back to look at him with confusion in her eyes.
He stared at her without any confusion at all. He finally didn't question anything about her.
She searched his face, his eyes, and finally smiled knowingly. She wrapped her arms around his neck and said, "You know…you can kiss me now Sasuke."
He gave a short laugh and pulled her closer, pressing his lips against hers.
Every line in his life had been broken, and it was only because he found a girl that liked to color outside of the lines.
YAY! FIRST ONE-SHOT!