Title: I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream
Prompt: Lick
Rating: K
Author: Fuzzy1594
Summary: Sakura purchases an ice cream cone not thinking should would be sharing.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Sakura smacked her dry lips as she picked up her lawn chair. She had been spending her day off at the beach, and as the sun was beginning to set, she was ready to head home.
She pondered wether or not she should go straight back home or satisfy her dry mouth. She looked around and saw an ice cream vendor making his way across the beach her and decided on the latter. She skipped towards the man and ordered a chocolate cone. She handed the man money, but he held his hand up. "On the house," the man chuckled. "It's the least I can do to give you thanks for helping Naruto save our village."
"Oh, I really didn't do much," Sakura protested.
The man shook his head. "You've done a lot," he began pushing his cart away and Sakura blushed at his thank you.
She licked her ice cream slowly and began to leave, kicking sand as she went. It was time to go back to normal. Back to work, back to ceiling-high paperwork, backing to aching muscles, and back to...
Her eyes drifted to a man sitting on the sand staring at the sunset while the waves lapped his feet. She slowed to a half and gave her ice cream a thoughtful lick.
... Back to Sasuke... She gave a small smile as she still couldn't determine wether or not that was a good thing. She loved him, but she was still uncertain about their friendship. She redirected her path and made her way to Sasuke. She sat down next to him. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye in a way that was meant as acknowledgment. Sakura looked out at the sunset and sighed. "Beautiful. It's like a rainbow everyday that fills the whole sky."
Sasuke glanced at her again while she thought about how beautiful creation was. He couldn't agree with her about the rainbow, but he could agree that the sunset was pleasing to look at.
He watched as she absentmindedly licked her ice cream cone."What brings you here?" Sakura asked turning to him.
He shrugged and Sakura frowned slightly. He never did like using sentences to answer questions.
"Just thinking," his response caused her to jump as she hadn't been expecting it."What about?" she knew she shouldn't pry, but the question left her mouth without thinking. She buried her toes in the wet sand trying to ignore the awkward silence that had been left by her question.
"About how unnecessarily messy sweet things are," Sasuke responded sounding annoyed and Sakura looked at him questioningly. He didn't have to respond as she began to feel chocolate ice cream ooze onto her fingers. She grimaced and began licking it off.
"Don't knock it till you try it," Sakura teased letting out an unnecessarily loud "mmm" noise as she took another lick.
"I have," Sasuke responded.
"Recently?" Sakura asked.
He shook his head and his eyes seemed to say, "so?"
"Everyone knows your taste buds change as you get older. I used to not like tomatoes, but now I do," Sakura felt a blush color her cheeks as he looked intently at her. She knew that it wasn't her tastebuds that allowed her to like tomatoes now. It was more like her taste in men. If it was the man she loved's favorite food then she would like it.
For lack of anything else to do she gave her ice cream another lick in hope of alleviating her discomfort at his stare.
"You used to not like tomatoes?" he asked as if he were secretly shocked anyone could not like tomatoes.
"Used to," Sakura emphasized. "Like I said, people's tastes change."
He looked at her as if calculating his next move. She didn't know why he would even need to calculate some move. He was always treating everyday situations like they needed a battle strategy.
He hesitated slightly before leaning slowly forward. Sakura froze as he inched closer and closer before dipping his head down to her ice cream. He looked up at her. His gaze seemed to say, "You're a witness..." He then licked the ice cream.
Sakura couldn't stop the blush that rose to her cheeks - an indirect kiss. She was suddenly tempted to lick her ice cream again, but would Sasuke find that weird?
He sat back up and looked Sakura in the eye. "Not all sweet things are bad."
Sasuke stood up and brushed the sand off his pants. He shoved his hands in his pockets and began walking away.
Sakura stared blankly in front of her before scrambling to her feet and chasing after him.
Maybe going back home to where Sasuke was wasn't a bad thing.