Serendipity
By TwinEnigma
Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto series or characters. I am doing this purely to amuse myself.
Codes: AU, mild NaruSaku, SasuSaku friendship
Characters: Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha
Sakura Haruno was a happily single, if a little lonely, medical student and had been contentedly so for several years until the day Sasuke entered her life.
Dark-haired with a pale face, the arrogant prince imposed himself on her plain little world with all the graceful authority he possessed, acting like he'd owned the place from the start.
It wasn't so bad – he didn't mind her late hours or long shifts and he largely took care of himself, coming and going as he pleased. And though he may have had a surly attitude, he always seemed to know when she was troubled or feeling down.
They hardly got any visitors, so it was quite a surprise when one afternoon there was a knock on her apartment door. Sasuke glared at the offending noise from the window with all the venom he could muster and Sakura, still shuffling in her housecoat and pajamas, made her way to the door.
"Ah, hello, miss," the blond man said, blushing a little. "I didn't mean to wake you. I'm your new neighbor, Naruto Uzumaki."
Oh, that was right. Old Mrs. B from downstairs had moved out a couple of months previously.
"It's okay," Sakura said. "You didn't wake me. Would you like to come in for some coffee?"
The blond man opened his mouth to say something when his cell phone started to ring. He looked at the number and gave her a sheepish, apologetic grin. "Can I get a rain check on that coffee?"
She agreed – after all, he seemed a nice enough guy. Sasuke merely gave her a disapproving look and ignored her until she left for work.
Sakura made a little niche in her work week to accommodate her new neighbor. After all, Tsunade kept saying she needed to get out more and stop hiding away in her apartment with only Sasuke as company. Sasuke, naturally, would disagree if he knew, because in his mind, he was all the company Sakura could ever possibly need. Naruto was, ostensibly, just what the doctor ordered. Then, she realized she'd forgotten to get his number and nearly kicked herself. Instead, on the way home from work, she marched up to his door and bravely left a note saying when she'd be available.
The next day at four-thirty in the afternoon, a somewhat disheveled Naruto arrived for coffee. "I caught a cat in my terrace garden," he said, by way of explanation. "The little bastard knocked over and uprooted all my plants."
"Yikes, that's terrible," she said, honestly. Sasuke and plants hadn't mixed well at all either.
Naruto took a sip of his coffee and suddenly gagged, his eyes going wide.
"Are you all right?" Sakura asked, immediately shooting to her feet. Her coffee wasn't that bad!
"YOU!" Naruto cried, pointing an accusing finger at the bobtailed tuxedo cat that had just hopped up on the couch.
Sasuke yawned and curled up in a ball, shooting them both that look of complete superiority that only cats were capable of.
Sakura sighed, sinking back into her chair. "You should have seen what he did to my tomato plants when I first got him."
Author's notes:
Actual cat Sasuke Uchiha.