(Inspired by the song "Pretend" by Lights.)
Let's Play Pretend
It sure was hard having a wedding around here. Sasuke scowled as Naruto's huge, teasing grin loomed up out of thin air, only to be replaced by his mum's harried yell from the kitchen downstairs.
"Sasuke? Are you done cleaning yet?"
Sasuke sighed as he flipped through a sports magazine. "I'm doing it, I'm doing it!" He then lazily staggered off his bed and glanced around the room.
Oh, damn. Sakura would be moving in next week, and the room still looked like it had survived a fairly violent tornado. He couldn't keep his bride amidst a pile of dirty clothes, a recycle bin overflowing with soda cans, a slab of stale cheese upon the desk and a box full of old family junk. She'd probably run out screaming, the perfectionist that she is, he thought fondly.
His mum's voice drifted through the mansion again. "And we'll have to sort all the wedding presents, plus Naruto and Neji are coming over to help out today …"
Sasuke groaned. Who knew getting married would be such torture? Sure, his parents had decided his marriage to Sakura since he was a kid, and he kind of liked her too, but he couldn't stand the guys' teasing. Especially since he was supposed to be the cool, laid-back, unemotional Uchiha.
Getting married at seventeen? To Sakura Haruno?
What rotten luck! You'll be chained for life!
Yeah, she's quite the dominant lady …
Poor Sasuke-kuuun … and I thought he was heartless!
And then there was the "lady" herself. These days, she was being incredibly shy – quite unlike the loud, vivacious Sakura he had known and come to love. He'd probably feel a lot cheered up if she'd just talk once in a while, instead of the usual "yes" and "no" during their brief telephone conversations.
Sasuke vented his frustration by aiming a kick at the junk box, and things came flying out. The boy groaned.
"Oh, great. More stuff to clear up. Way to go, Uchiha," he muttered, stooping to snatch up a tattered old piece of paper.
He scanned it.
His eyes widened.
He smiled, going back eleven years in time, and blushed slightly. Just slightly.
"Sasuke-kun? Do you want to play with dolls?" five-year-old Sakura asked hopefully, holding out a sickeningly pretty Barbie.
The little Uchiha recoiled, disgusted. "No! Yuck! Big brother says dolls are for sissies. You're a sissy."
Sakura folded her arms. "That's not a very nice thing to say to somebody!"
Sasuke threw up his chin, making his raven hair bounce back. "I only play with shuriken. Do you have shuriken?"
"Well, no …"
Sasuke sighed deeply and looked around the little girl's playroom. It was insanely girly. And pink. Strangely, he didn't mind pink. But why did his parents have to leave him here at their friends' place and go out for dinner alone? He fumed silently.
"I know!" Sakura was saying. "Let's play pretend!"
"Hmm?" Sasuke eyed her suspiciously. "What do you mean by pretend?"
"Don't you know how to play pretend?" she asked incredulously. She dug out another small Barbie from her backpack, then whipped out a Ken doll. "She's mama, and he's papa, see?"
"That's so stupid."
Sakura looked hurt. "No, it's not!"
"Yes, it is." Sasuke grabbed her wrist and made her put the dolls away. "They're not real."
"So?" Now she was clearly affronted.
"So it would make much more sense if you're mama and I'm papa," he scoffed, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Sakura liked the idea. "Can Barbie be our daughter?" she suggested brightly.
"No, she's ugly."
"Sasuke-kun!"
He sighed. Quite the dominant lady.
"Okay …"
Sakura beamed. It made her jade eyes sparkle. Pink was definitely not a bad colour, Sasuke decided.
"Let's draw us, Sasuke-kun!" She ripped a page off her sketchpad and grabbed a pencil. She then drew two stick figures with abnormally large heads, one pink and one blue-black, and then a smaller figure with long blond hair.
Across the bottom of the page, she wrote: "Happy family."
Sasuke smiled gently again and folded up the piece of paper carefully, before slipping it into his desk drawer. As his mum shouted more instructions from below, he got to work, feeling more light-hearted. He found his irritation had dispelled in just a few minutes.
Afterwards, he called up his childhood friend and future wife.
"Sakura? Let's play pretend."
He sincerely hoped she didn't play with dolls anymore.