Title: Take Me Out
Author: desbutterfly
Genre: drabble, yuri, fluff
Pairing: Temari/Sakura
Rating: PG - 13
Summary: Sakura asks Temari out and she says yes. Next comes the hard part.

--

"If you need me for something, just call out. I'll be in the kitchen," Sakura said.

Temari nodded but her face remained depressingly unreadable and the bathroom door closed with a decidedly cool click. Sakura sighed and leaned against the door. The date had been a bad idea from the start.

She didn't know what possessed her to blurt out the request when Temari came over to thank her for helping her brothers out the last time they met, just that she hadn't had anyone to talk to for a very long time. Not since Ino was taken under Anko-sensei's wing for special training, and not since Naruto left to complete his training with Yamato-sensei and Kakashi-sensei. Sakura spent most of her nights sitting at home doing Tsunade's paperwork and reviewing medical jutsus that she already knew like the back of her hand, and she was sick of it.

What was more surprising was that Temari had said yes, and so Sakura had shyly offered to take her out to lunch at a nice little restaurant she knew. Unfortunately, when they got to the place it had been closed for renovations, and they ended up crowding onto the stools of the Ichiraku anyway.

It had gone a little better after that: Sakura talked about her apprenticeship and the way Tsunade would pawn off any work she didn't want to do on Sakura if she wasn't careful, and Temari talked with amused exasperation about Gaara's new fangirls and how she'd had to chase a few of the braver ones off the Kazekage's compound a few times before his guards gave them a scare.

One of Temari's hands tapped rhythmically against her thigh as she talked, and Sakura found her eyes resting there most of the time and wondering if that wasn't the intended purpose.

But then Kiba and Akamaru had bounced their way into the small establishment with their usual enthusiasm, and jostled Sakura's elbow, so that her entire bowl of ramen ended up across the front of Temari's outfit.

Sakura had ushered the Sand nin out of the booth before she could kill Kiba (not that he wouldn't have deserved it) and back to her apartments with many mortified apologies and an offer of a bath and change of clothes. Temari had smiled and said "sure" but Sakura thought that might just be the enticement of a full, hot bath. In Suna, it was rumored that because of their water shortage such things were rare pleasures. Even for the family of the Kazekage.

And now Sakura stood outside the bathroom door trying desperately to think of ways to make the other girl stay just a little bit longer and failing. Was Temari angry with her about the ruined date? Was she amused? She was certainly taking a long time in the bath. Was that because she wanted to avoid talking to Sakura any more than necessary?

Sakura leaned closer to the door and rested her ear against the heavy wood panel. There had been water running but it was stopped now, and she couldn't hear any movement from inside. Temari could have ducked out the window and left the tub and bathroom empty. Her fingers itched to push back the door and check, but she couldn't think of a good excuse to do so.

'This is ridiculous,' she sighed to herself. 'I don't even like her that much, really. It's just that…'

"Sakura?"

Her hands were on the doorknob before the last syllable of her name was voiced. Sakura peered through the steam haze of the room and saw Temari in the tub, stretched out like a cat; long tanned legs lifted up along the sides and lazily spread. Pink foam swirled in the water, clouding the place between her thighs, barely obscuring her breasts.

Sakura's pulse thudded dully in her ears. Temari grinned and beckoned with a soapy finger.

"I need you for something," she purred.

Sakura's feet moved without thought, and her trembling fingers undid the zip of her top and the buckles of her skirt as she crossed the space between them. As Temari pulled her down for a wet, hot kiss, Sakura reflected that maybe their date wouldn't be such a write-off after all.

--

fin.

--