An Hour With You
It was 11.30 p.m. A young girl of 12 poked her head out of her bedroom doorway to see what her Otou-Sama was doing. She had mid-thigh length dark pink hair, nearly red. Her eyes were a dark emerald colour. She was wearing a soft dusk-coloured nightgown.
She quietly approached the man busily typing away at the computer. The man had messy red hair that looked as if he had never bothered to comb his hair. He had hazel brown eyes with eyelids that drooped down, making him look sleepy. His name was Akasuna no Sasori.
There he goes, the pinkette thought bitterly with a hint of sadness. He's always busy working. Can't he play with me for a while? Or read me a bedtime story?
She knew it was quite childish to still have someone read you a bedtime story before you went to bed. As well as still having a stuffed toy. Hers was a white bunny with one ear straight up and the other flopped down.
She mustered as much courage as possible and tugged on the man's sleeve. The man immediately turned, a flash of annoyance flickering through his eyes before disappearing when he saw her standing behind him with her head bowed down while clutching her bunny.
"Yes, Hime? Did you need something?" he asked.
"Otou-Sama, I... I have a q-question," she whispered quietly.
"What is it, Hime-Chan?" he asked again, his eyes encouraging her to tell him.
"A-ano… How m-much do you earn? Y-you know, per hour I-I mean…" she murmured embarrassingly with pink cheeks.
"Why do you need to know?" Sasori asked, annoyed that he was interrupted from work for a silly question.
Sparkly leaf-green eyes looked at him with desperation. "I really need to know, Tou-Sama!" she exclaimed.
The older man sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, successfully making it messier. "Fine. If you really need to know so desperately, I earn $30 per hour okay?"
She made calculations in her head. 30 dollars minus 23 dollars equals to… Eto… Ano… 7 dollars! "Otou-Sama?"
"Yes Sakura? What do you need now?" the redhead asked, getting annoyed.
"Umm… Can I borrow $7? P-please." She whispered her request.
That was when the redhead turned to his only daughter, a slight scowl to his face. She whimpered softly and immediately cowered under his intense gaze. "I thought I told you clearly that I don't like it when you borrow money from people?" he said sternly with hints of anger. "I-I really-y n-need it, Otou-S-sama!" she replied urgently. "And why do you need it?" he snapped and without waiting for a reply, said harshly, "Go to your room!" Sakura gasped in surprise and with tears in her eyes, rushed back into her room.
After she left, Sasori continued typing away at the computer. He couldn't concentrate as the thoughts of him being too harsh on his daughter infiltrated his mind, preventing him to focus on working.
Five minutes had passed and with a frustrated sigh, he quietly made his way to Sakura's room. He opened the door and after a few seconds of silence, asked, "Sweetheart, are you awake? It's Daddy."
His reply was quiet sniffling coming from the bed. His heart squeezed and he felt guilty as he knew he was the cause of the sniffling. He sighed inaudibly and took out 7 dollars from his pocket. "Sakura? Look at me Sweetheart. Please?" He heard the rustling of sheets and two bright green eyes peered at him from the dark.
"H-hai O-otou-Sama?" she whispered meekly.
A flicker of guilt immediately flashed through him as he knew that his little girl was probably scared at him. He closed his eyes for a brief moment and took a deep breath, before letting it all out.
He looked at his little pinkette under the covers and let a soft smile grace his features. "You needed 7 dollars, ne, Saku-Hime?"
Her eyes widened at the nickname. Her Otou-Sama has not called her that since she was 6! She let out a very big smile of happiness before rushing out of bed to hug the, now, shocked redhead. Sasori chuckled and wrapped his arms around Sakura. He pulled away slightly, and when she pouted cutely, he held out the 7 dollars he still had in his hands, to her.
She took it from his hands quickly and scurried to her closet. He peered over her shoulder to see what she was getting out from her walk-in closet. He saw that she was taking out a small jar. Inside was money. If she wanted to get money, why can't she just save from her daily allowance? Wait, why is she taking the money out of the jar?
His observations were true. Sakura took out all the money from inside the jar and added it with the 7 dollars given to her by her father. She proceeded to count the money quickly.
Alright… Let's see here. Two, four, six, eight, ten… Plus five? Fifteen. Sixteen, eighteen, nineteen… And she counted the whole thing to be exactly 30 dollars. It's enough! He noticed that her face lit up in happiness after counting the jar of money. Just imagine his shock when she shoved the whole bill into his hands. When he looked at her with a questioning look in his eyes, she smiled happily at him, her eyes crinkling.
"That's 30 dollars, 'Tou-Chan!" she chirped softly to him. Then, she continued, "Since I gave you 30 dollars, will you spend a total hour with me instead of working at the computer now?"
He stared at his daughter in shock. She looked at him with such longing in her eyes with other emotions. Desperation, need, hope but the last one crushed him completely. A preparation for rejection. Now, he could totally feel the guilt on his shoulders. What kind of father was he? A bad one. A very bad father. How could he not notice that all his daughter wanted was to spend time with him? Sakura missed him. She missed her father.
Shifting a bit so that he could look at Sakura in the eyes, he whispered softly to her, "I'll always spend time with you Sakura-Chan." And with that, he wrapped his arms around his only daughter. And his reply was a tight hug from his cute little pinkette.
"I miss you, Daddy."
It's been a long while since she called him that.
"I miss you too, Sweetheart."
There were a few moments of silence until…
"I'll forever love you, Daddy."
…
"I'll forever love you too, Hime."
When there was no reply, he looked down to see that she had fallen asleep. Looks like he'll just have to spend time with her tomorrow. Sasori tucked her in and left as quietly as possible. He sent a quick glance over his shoulder before shutting the door behind him.
~The End~
Alright, my first attempt at a one-shot. Hope you like it! Please leave a review to tell me how it was. Good? Bad? So bad that I should stop writing stories?
-SakuraChanInnerChanRockz