ii.
day two
on the second day of Christmas
my true love gave to me
a glimpse of how Christmas should really be
rated T for mild language
genre: friendship & romance & family & humor
college au verse
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Sakura huffed as she threw more of her clothes onto her bed, rummaging through her closet. God, she knew she should have packed earlier! Everyone in her suite—and probably everyone in her dorm—was probably already on a nice, safe flight back home while she was stuck here, more than likely to be a little bit more than late for her flight due to her three o'clock final.
Well, it was probably more than partially her fault, considering how she decided that it would have been a phenomenal idea if she took just a teeny, tiny nap—you know, as a reward for having studied so hard during finals week—before she started packing for her flight tomorrow. Her bed was so warm, the weather so freezing cold and her body so physically exhausted that it didn't take much for her to pass out on her bed.
Of course, she didn't account for her nap to be almost thirteen hours long.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid," she muttered to herself, throwing her pink hair into a messy bun before searching once more for her overcoat, shivering a bit from the cold.
Her cell phone rang from atop her bedside table.
Sakura groaned and fumbled across the rug to her phone. Without even checking the caller ID, she clicked a button and held the phone to her ear, squeezing the flesh between her eyebrows with a sigh. "Okaa-chan—"
"Sakura—"
"—look, I know I said I was coming soon, but—"
"Sakura—"
"—well, you see the thing is, I kind of overslept and—"
"Sakura!"
She clamped her mouth shut.
She heard a sigh on the other line. "I just called to ask you if you were okay. I saw on the news that you were snowed in where you are."
Sakura jolted upright. "What?" she croaked. She scrambled over to the TV, looking for the remote, overturning some of the cushions.
"What do you mean, what? Aren't you watching the news?"
Sakura, having found the remote control, balanced her phone between her shoulder and her ear. "Yeah, gimme a moment, I'm turning it on right now." She flipped through the channels until she found the local news, her eyes widening at the blankets upon blankets of snow that covered most of the screen.
"—to the severe weather conditions, officials mandate that all residents of Kyoto must stay within their homes. Airlines and freeways have been closed off due to the hazardous weather conditions."
Sakura gaped at the screen, her head still leaning on the phone shouldered to her ear. "No way…" She fumbled with the phone in her hands, her hands shaking. "Wait, Mom, does that mean that—that I won't be home for Christmas?"
"Oh, sweetheart, I know, this is awful, but I'm sure it'll go away by then. Christmas is in three days, right? Do you have food supplies to last you until the snowstorm clears?"
Sakura sighed through her nose. "Yeah, I got the ramen cups you sent me. It's enough to last me another month, even."
"Hang tight, Sakura. Make sure to call me if anything goes wrong, alright?"
"Yeah."
"Good luck, sweetie."
Click.
Sakura sighed once more, placing her cell phone back onto the nightstand before crawling back into her bed, shivering and cursing her stupid luck. Weakly punching a pillow, she whined. "Damn it."
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Sasuke's eye twitched when he stared at his face in his cup of coffee.
What.
The.
Hell.
First, he pretty much failed his organic chemistry final, which wasn't surprising because he was relatively sure the final average was going to come out to be around fifty- to sixty-percent. Sasuke saw that foreboding sign when a kid came in late, sat down, stared at the material for ten seconds, and got up and left.
Then, he comes back, starts packing for winter break, all excited about going home (well, as excited as he'd ever be), his clothes all neatly folded and tucked in nicely into his luggage—only to find out that he'd been snowed in. He was relatively certain that he was probably the only person left in the dorms, and probably the only person left on campus.
A sneeze erupted from his face. He sniffled miserably and groaned, shivering from the chilly air. Not to mention that I'm sick as a dog and I don't even have any food or medicine that can pull me through this, he mentally grumbled, taking another half-hearted sip from his mug before setting it down and sighing.
It was a good thing his floor had the dorm's kitchen, which always seemed to have coffee and crackers.
He could live off of those for a couple of days, right?
His growling stomach said otherwise.
Before he could bang his head upon the dining table, his ears perked up at the sound of the kitchen door opening.
Sasuke whipped his head around, ready to fight off some hobo who had found his way into the dorms—which was probably a testament to how delirious with fever he was because there was no way a vagabond could have gotten into a protected place like the dorms—
Only to find a girl with pink hair holding a ramen cup at the door.
Neatly bundled up in a sweater with her hair up in a messy bun, she stared at him and blinked for a moment before her eyes widened. She clutched her instant ramen cup to her chest and pointed at him with an "Ehhhh?" before making an X with her arms as if to ward off evil. "If you're some kind of ghost angel thing, you aren't welcome here!"
Sasuke blanched. "What the hell are you talking about?"
The weird girl with pink hair clutched at her head, her mouth agape. "Holy shit, it even talks!" She looked at her hands and then under her ramen cup. "Does this mean I'm cursed?"
"I'm a person, you weirdo."
Lowering her ramen cup shield, she blinked at him and grinned sheepishly. "Oh."
Sasuke hmph-ed. "You are one noisy girl."
He watched in mild amusement as she fumed. "Hey, I'm not the one appearing in other people's kitchens pretending to be ghosts!"
"Tch, I wasn't pretending to be a ghost, I'm just—"
A swift coughing fit took hold of his speech.
It froze the girl in her tracks. She stepped toward him tentatively, placing a hesitant hand on his shoulder. "Are—are you okay?"
Sasuke waved her off, attempting to nod only to choke on his spit and spiral into another coughing session.
He didn't stop her when he felt her cool hand upon his forehead, so drunk on feverish drowsiness and hunger he could barely keep his eyes open.
The last thing he heard was the sound of a feminine gasp and a soft thud.
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Sasuke felt warm and cool at the same time. It was almost a pleasant sensation if it weren't for the annoying pangs in his stomach. Was he home? Did the flight pass that quickly? He vaguely wondered if his brother would mind if they stopped by a fast food joint on the way home. Stirring underneath what he felt to be very warm blankets, he rubbed his face and brushed his matted hair from his face before looking around with groggy eyes, his eyes narrowing when he saw green quilts with pink hearts over them.
These were definitely not his blue and black blankets.
"Oh, you're awake already?"
He glanced up to see the same girl with pink hair he had seen earlier, watching her as she stared down at him with green eyes and walked towards him with some towelettes and an extra blanket.
When he stared at her questioningly, she said, "You fainted back there. I had to drag you back to my place." She put the extra blanket on a chair she had nearby and dunked one of the small towels into a bowl before taking it out and wringing out the excess water. "Which, conveniently, is right across from the dorm kitchen."
Sasuke watched as she tucked her interestingly colored hair behind her ear and reached over to place the towelette on his forehead. Feeling like he overstayed his welcome, he gently rebuffed her hand. "What you did was unnecessary. I'm okay now." Hoping he wouldn't embarrass himself, Sasuke pushed himself up, only to dissolve into a coughing fit again.
She rolled her eyes at him. "What is it with you guys?"
Sasuke glared at her, goading her to go on.
Staring right back at him, she continued: "You know, with being macho and stuff. I swear, all the freshmen dudes think that just because they're in college and stuff, they just have to live up to being the man they have to be."
Sasuke scoffed. "I'm a sophomore with junior standing."
"And so am I."
They glared at each other for a while.
Not wanting to take any more of her sass and summoning all of his stubbornness, he managed to push himself out of bed and brush himself off, knowing that he probably looked like shit at the moment, and that only with sheer willpower was he standing before her. "I can take care of myself."
"Fine."
"Fine."
Sasuke made his way to her door, grabbing his shoes, almost too glad to get out of there. He reached for the door knob, sweet freedom almost in his grasp—
The sound of a disgruntled stomach interrupted his movements.
His fingers twitched. Then, he dropped his hand, let his forehead fall against the door, and sighed before he turned right around and plopped himself in front of the girl who was already smirking and blowing on her ramen noodles.
"I'll have one of those, too."
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"So how'd you get stuck here?" Sakura asked as she stared up at him from her early morning breakfast of—surprise—instant ramen.
He shrugged. "Late to pack, I guess."
Sakura gave him a wry smile. "That's ironic. And here I thought I was the only one."
"Same."
Rolling her eyes at his one word answers, she studied him carefully.
He looked better now with a bit of color in his face and his cough slight. Though his hair was matted and unruly beyond belief—it almost looked like a chicken's butt to her—his dark eyes seemed more alert, his thin lips pinker, and his cheeks less sunken in. With a bit of health, she actually thought he was—despite his earlier rudeness—pretty good-looking.
She traced her absentminded gaze up the curve of his lips and the bridge of his tall nose to his sweeping eyelashes—only to find herself locking gazes with strong, dark eyes.
"What?"
She shrugged. "Nothin'." Sakura blew on the ramen noodles between her chopsticks, thinking about what to say to make at least a bit of small talk. "So what do you normally do for Christmas?"
He stiffened for a moment before retaking the task of slurping up his noodles. After a while, he said, "My brother and I don't do anything for Christmas."
Sakura stared at him for a moment, watching him as he seemed to almost avoid all eye contact with her. "Wait, but what about your parents?"
She watched as he twirled his chopsticks into the cup of ramen, as if he were searching for something in the broth. "They passed away a while ago."
Sakura recoiled. "Oh, man," she whispered. "Sorry, I didn't mean—"
"It's fine," he said back. "I just don't do Christmas."
He glanced back at her, looking as if he was hoping this would be the end of the conversation, but almost flinched when she stood up and grinned at him.
"Well," she said, rolling up her arm sleeves, "I guess you may not do Christmas at home, but if you're here, why don't we do Christmas together?"
His eye twitched. "What?"
"Don't worry," she said with a smile. "I'll show you how I prep for Christmas."
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step one:
get a tree
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She couldn't stop laughing.
He scowled at her. "Shut up. That's the closest thing to a tree I could find."
She nearly howled. "A car freshener?" she said, pointing at the green, pine tree shaped air freshener he held in his hand.
"I knew this was a bad idea," he said, mumbling under his breath.
She wiped the tears from her eyes and managed to stifle most of her laughter, the occasional giggle slipping through. Walking up to him, she took his hand that had the car freshener in it and pried it open, plucking it from his palm. She smiled up at him. "Thank you for getting the tree."
When she pinned it up, she turned back to grin at him. "It's pretty representative of college life, don'tcha think?"
He stared at her for a moment, a little stunned, before he gave her the most stunning smirk she had ever seen.
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step two:
make a christmas card
He scowled at the thing in his hands.
"Dude, don't look at it like that. You'll burn the sweater."
Good, he thought as he unfolded it to stare at the tacky design and grimaced.
She rolled her eyes at him, wearing the exact same sweater she gave to him. "Just put it on. The sooner we take this Christmas card, the better."
He struggled into the disgusting thing and waited for her to set up the camera. They posed as the camera counted down.
Just when the camera flashed, he thought about who on earth in their right minds would send such a horrific looking card to another person in order to dissipate the lingering thought of how sweet the girl with pink hair smelled next to him.
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step three:
celebrate christmas with a christmas dinner
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"I now present you with this year's Christmas dinner!" she said with a flourish as she waltz into her dorm, two cups in hand. "Instant ramen!"
She handed one to him before they sat at her kotatsu, sliding their legs under the quilted fabric for warmth as they enjoyed—for a lack of a better word—their Christmas dinner.
As he blew on his ramen noodles, he stared at her. "Well," he said, "this has been a rather… enlightening experience."
She laughed, stirring the ramen noodles around. "I only gave you a slice of what Christmas should be like. There are other traditions as well."
"Do tell."
"Well, people give each other presents on Christmas—"
He scoffed. "That tradition I do know of."
"—and some people go around singing Christmas carols—"
"A tradition I'm glad we didn't get to."
"—and…"
Her abrupt stop in conversation made him look up from his noodles. He stared in fascination as her cheeks glowed pink, never knowing that pink on milky white skin could be so alluring. He watched her sudden shyness grow as she fiddled around with her chopsticks and bit her bottom lip before her eyelashes swept up from her cheekbone to lock her green eyed stare with his.
"A-And there's also the mistletoe thing."
He raised an eyebrow. "Mistletoe?"
She nodded once, slowly. "It's… a tradition where if you and another person happen to be standing under mistletoe, you have to, um…"
He stared at her expectantly.
She avoided his gaze. "You have to… kiss."
There was a pregnant silence between them.
"I'd like to try out that tradition."
Her gaze snapped up to his. "What?" she croaked. "B-But, it should be between people who actually know each other!"
"Sasuke. Uchiha Sasuke."
"W-Wait a minute—"
"It's polite to return introductions, Pinky," Sasuke said with a smirk that ruined her whole thought process.
She fumed, feeling heat rush to her face. "It's not Pinky, you jerkwad!" She put her ramen cup down. "It's Sakura. Haruno Sakura."
Of course she'd be named after a flower, he thought with a twitch of the corners of his lips.
He leaned in closer to her, his dark eyes lowering in fascination as he watched the heat spread in her cheeks. "Merry Christmas, Sakura."
She didn't notice him lean in closer. "M… Merry Christmas, Sasuke."
She felt him cup her face, close the distance between their lips, and tasted the broth of ramen on his lips.
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Itachi sat on the couch, reclining with a stack of envelopes on his stomach. He rifled through the pile, setting aside letters entitled to his little brother when he came across a gaudy red envelope addressed to him.
Ripping it open, he blinked in confusion before opening the card inside.
His eye twitched.
"Those are the ugliest sweaters I've ever seen."
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author's note: hope y'all enjoyed this one. XD this one was inspired by a dialogue in one of sarah dessen's novels, lock and key and also some of my own experiences with college and christmas.
reviews are like presents to me! c: