Ch1.
[In Southern California, being caught in gunfire isn't as uncommon as people think. The more desperate people got, the more ruthless they were, or they just didn't care. This is what it came down to for her. A simple task for buying food to feed her kitten had turned into a nightmare. ]
As she walked out of the market with a bag of kitten food, her soft humming was overcome by two groups of people getting into a heated argument. They are popping the trunk open and more people are getting out of their cars. As she passes by, her back is to them and she does not see that the people getting out of the cars are armed. Their argument has escalated to yelling and threatening. People on either side are ready to shoot at any moment.
As she passes the commotion she sees a police car pull up, and not just any police car; it is quite the eye catcher, to say the least. It is a shiny black on black s.u.v. with an engine that roared with altered power. Through the tinted windows she can barely make out a figure holding something and talking. She can only guess that he is calling for backup as gunfire begins behind her and she panics.
Second later, she is frozen to the spot as an officer steps out of the car and runs straight towards her in rapid speed. She is simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, standing directly in front of the only police officer at the scene.
The officer is just in the nick of time as he grabs a hold of the pink haired woman, spinning her around and shielding her as bullets stray in all directions. Gunfire rings loudly in the open space.
The officer holds her has his head turns to face behind him. He is shooting as he tries to take her to his car for cover. His arms and his whole body jerks as he is shooting with one hand, the other one surrounding her. She is looking over his shoulder to the gunfire directly. She sees that one of the men is aiming a gun at the officers back and panics. She shakes his shoulder but it's too late. His body slumps over her as he is shot in the back.
For a second she is filled with a mix of terror and dread as she feels the weight of his body against hers. She is about to shake him, scared that he may be dead, but he speaks.
Turn me around and start moving towards my car, he grunts. Hesitating for a second, she turns him around so that his back is against her chest. He tightens his body in pain as she begins to drag him to his car, her bag of cat food long forgotten. She doesn't thinks twice about moving him with her regardless of his heavy weight, refusing to leave someone who just took a bullet for her.
The officer continues to shoot as he grunts in pain from his gunshot wound. His aim is off and his movements are sluggish, but he never gives up. As they finally get the car relief only lasts for a second before she notices blood oozing and seeping onto the ground and on her clothes. He is losing consciousness fast.
She is frantic. She grabs the walkie talkie in the officers car that was left hanging onto the floor and screams into it. She gets a response that backup is on the way but she is afraid that it will be too late. His blood is seeping into her green summer dress and smearing over her arm as it clutches him close to her.
The sunlight hits her shoulder as a strap of her dress falls and his brows scrunch together as he gazes dazedly with half lidded white eyes. That's when he notices for the first time how beautiful her green eyes are- funny how he notices this in the chaos that is around him. Noises are droning out and the world around him is blurring as he becomes numb from the pain.
There is a halo of soft pink hair as she looks down at his. He thinks he is dying and going to heaven.
As the officer slowly slips from consciousness, he barely registers the sounds of multiple sirens and knows that his colleagues are showing up. He thinks it's finally okay to let go, and his world goes dark.
As other officers arrive at the scene, they pull their guns out immediately, using their doors as a shield. An ambulance screeches to a halt as paramedics rush out to take the dying man in the girl's arms.
Officer down, she hears someone scream. As the ambulance takes off to the hospital the situation is calming down. The officers are winning in a three way shooting for a change.
When the last of the bullets are shot and the smoke clears, Sakura looks out from her hiding place and feels…devastated. Bodies are scattered around the ground while others are being arrested. A crowd is forming in the aftermath as she is being approached. An officer helps her up and begins to speak to her, but she doesn't hear a word. She is being gently dragged away from her spot.
Hospital, she hears him say. Something about all the blood on her dress and being checked by a doctor but she cuts him off. How…did she end up here…she asks him? He is at loss for words, his breath caught short. He doesn't know what to say but he doesn't have to try because her world fades to dark as she passes out.
Strange, how some things work, isn't it ? It's only when the commotion is gone and relief sets in that the human mind allows for one to let go, be overwhelmed …finally. The officer catches the falling girl and immediately has her taken to the hospital.
Sakura slowly opened her eyes to a bright, white room. She looks around and realizes that she is in the hospital. She notices that someone is in the bed next to hers…the same officer who saved her life. She is relieved to see him breathing and sleeping peacefully as she is briefly invaded with the feeling she had when he was dying in her arms. As she shuffles to get out of bed, a nurse enters.
Please lay back down, the nurse urges. It must be uncomfortable sharing a room with a man but they were short on rooms, the nurse informs. Sakura doesn't know it yet, but the nurse has woken up the ever cautious Hyuuga Neji whom was now feigning sleep.
Sakura inquires about the officer's health. The nurse is quick to tell that Lieutenant Hyuuga is a lucky man, that the bullet in his back had barely missed his spine… that he's stable and should make a full recovery in due time. Sakura thanks the nurse as she repeats the name the nurse stated. Lieutenant Hyuuga, she says softly to herself. The nurse leaves, scribbling notes in a folder.
As the door closes, Sakura dangles her long legs out of the bed and goes to the officers bed side. As she sits on the chair next to his bed, Sakura realizes just how good looking he is. Long brown hair, tight muscles and aristocratic features….she thinks back to when he had grabbed her and pushed her to him. It had been effortless and graceful, even in the face of danger, she realizes. Her heart skips a beat as she thinks about it.
Watching him sleep gave her the urge to touch him…to be connected to him….to relate to how she felt when he had saved her…to feel safe, cared for…..by a stranger.
Hesitating for a second, she reaches her hand out and feels a strand of his soft hair. A big, warm hand gently grabs her wrist and pale, white eyes open.
Gasping softly, Sakura is both started and excited. The officer is awake and she feels curiosity rising, suddenly very interested in learning about the man who saved her life. He studies her for a second before letting her wrist go. He notices her hospital gown and asks if she is hurt. His brows furrow as he remembers backup being present at the scene before he has passed out.
She looks into his creamy white eyes for a second and is captured by the intensity of them. It was a strange sensation, one that made her stomach loop around, to be the focus of such concentration, of a heated, burning stare.
She stutters before she asks how he feels, ignoring his inquiry. When he grunts that he's sore but okay, she is relieved. She hugs him and buries her face in his shoulder, calling him her hero. She is so thankful for him to be alive and well that she doesn't realize how awkward it is for the lieutenant to be so suddenly touched.
He winces but does not push her away. He relives, a moment not too long ago when he was bleeding and dying and a pink haired angel had her arms around him…an angel he hadn't thought twice in saving….it had been a split second reaction, completely natural-and strange.
When she pulls away, she looks at him with those big, sparkly green eyes and swears that she is going to take care of him until he fully recovers and was only going to leave him to feed her kitten whose food she still hadn't gotten. Last time she tried, she had planted herself in the center of a horrific mess.
He notices the adorable way her face conveys a multitude of emotions before she settles on a pout, no doubt probably thinking about how long her kitten has not had food while she was in the hospital.
A nurse enters again and upon seeing the lieutenant awake, hurries over to check his vitals. She asks him a string of questions. Satisfied with his condition, she begins to leave after she tells him to rest.
When the nurse leaves Sakura begins to fuss. Leiutenant Hyuuga, she calls him. While she concerns for his recovery animatedly, he stops her mid speech and requests to be called Neji.
Neji…..she says, and smiles. His name at her lips is like sweets to a child. Sakura, she says, Haruno Sakura.
Sakura, he calls, in a calm and deep rumble, how about going out to dinner once he gets out of the hospital, he suggests. It was bold of him, like blindly asking a stranger on a dinner date and hoping they'd agree…except this was Hyuuga Neji and he wasn't the youngest Lieutenant in L.A. for nothing.
For a moment he realizes his mistake and hopes she doesn't feel obligated to go out with him.
She smiles, one that reaches all the way to her eyes, and agrees. He is enchanted by her smile- but in truth he had been enchanted from the moment he set his eyes on her. Watching her smile made it completely worth being shot. How silly of him, he thinks, like a damn lovesick puppy. In all his years in the field he had never felt so carefree and relaxed than with her. It felt…..nice. Then again, it also seemed troublesome to be so unguarded.
As they look into each others eyes, they are unaware of the time that flies by. Sakura asks him about his job and what he does, her mind ever the curious cat. He tells her stories of his experiences in the field and finds it easy to crack a smile from his usually series occupation. As the week goes by, Neji is visited by nearly everyone in his profession whom he knows within a 2 hour distance. It's not everyday that one of their own lieutenants is shot and bleeding to near death, only to escape so easily as he did.
Sakura is faithfully by is side everyday, even though she was released a day after she awoke. She is there to keep him company until he is released a week later. Everyone agrees that he is amazing- not only surviving the catastrope but recovering enough to leave a week later as well.
Sakura is there when he is released, offering to take him home, noticing how just about everyone he knew had visited but she had not seen any family members visit. She figures it is a sore topic and decides not to probe it.
He is grateful for her company, her contagious mood always light and carefree. Her presence is like a light in his dim life.
As he sits in the passenger side of Sakura's Honda civic, he begins to look around the car, capturing her essence in how and what she places in her car. Her car is very well kept, clean, with a few placed personals and a light pleasant scent of strawberries; she is careful yet easy going, orderly yet vibrant- a well balanced personality.
She turns on the stereo, volume on soft. Amos Lee is playing, a song titled "I'm not Myself,",…
If you wanna leave me,
Baby, go ahead.
I know you don't believe me
When I finally say,
I'm not myself when I'm with you
It takes and breaks my heart in two.
Neji turns his head to gaze at Sakura who is following the directions he gave her to his home. She is good with directions, he notices. She does not once take a wrong turn.
When they finally arrive, Sakura is both impressed and awestruck. His home is beautiful and the yard is well kept. It was certainly bigger than her small apartment and she didn't have any greens to cherish. She tries not to gawk, choosing to simply smile and state that his home is nice.
She offers to carry what little belongings he had with him but he declines. He is capable himself. As he thanks her for the drive and for taking care of him, he leans over the open window of her car and states that he will be at her apartment to pick her up at 7 later that same evening. He gives her a hint of a small grin ..or was that meant to be a smile? …before he walks up the driveway to his door.
He turns around for a second, glancing over his shoulder and nodding once. As she drives off and arrives to her apartment, she realizes that she has not informed Neji where she was currently residing. She thinks about turning around and going back briefly before realizing that it would take him all but one phone call to find out all the information the government had of her. She is slightly peeved that it is so easy for him but excited deep down inside, for dinner later.
As she walks through the front door, she is greeted by a black kitten. He mews and rubs against her. Yellow eyes look up to its owner and Sakura dips her arms to hold the kitten as she closes the door and drops her purse. She holds the kitten lovingly in her arms, scratching his belly. The kitten purrs in return and closes his eyes, relishing in the presence of his adopted mother.
Sakura thinks back to when she first had the kitten- it was quite the cliché, she thinks. It had been drizzling lightly and dark. Being unaccustomed to rain, she had not been expecting it…and neither had the people who were walking a bit faster than usual down the street to avoid the moisture. A particular set of hasty feet had kicked a rather large cardboard box straight into her path. Coming to a halt, she surveyed the box before deciding to move it aside when she chanced a look inside. A pair of beady yellow eyes looked back at her.
This is how they had met, Hatji and Sakura. Someone had left a tiny kitten in a box too big for him to get out of, in the rain….a black kitten in a dark box in the dark.
Enjoying peace and quiet for a few minutes before Sakura had to clean up and get ready for dinner, she sits down on her sofa with Hatji in her lap. For a second, she wonders if Neji had meant to ask her where to pick her up before deciding that in case he had really meant to ask , she would wait to see if he showed up and go find him at his home if he didn't.
Calling to her sleeping kitten softly, she lays him down on the couch and gets up. He immediately notices the lack of warmth and gets up. Looking ahead curiously, he sees Mother moving to the bedroom and quickly follows after. She is going into the bathroom and quickly slides through the closing door before it is closed all the way. Hatji decides to wait for Mother to finish showering and prepping on the sink counter.
As the water turns on, Hatji is not alarmed. He's been stuck in the rain before and water was nothing new to him.
Sakura relaxes under the sensation of hot water running down her nude form. Her mind is blank for once and all she can do is feel. The shower is over too soon when she is done cleaning up. Stepping out of the shower wrapped in a towel, she begins to dry her hair and put on light makeup for the evening to come.
As she looks through her dresses to figure out what to wear, anticipation and excitement builds in her stomach, and she giggles to herself.
As she decides on a simple black dress and straps on her shoes, there is a soft knocking at the door. Sakura bolts to the door and smoothes herself before calmly opening the door.
_______________________________________notes:
1. I realize that the transitions between Neji and Sakura is a bit awkward but I left it as is …because this is how I saw it in my head
2 also, I realize some things just don't happen the way I wrote them anymore. Bare with me! I'm trying to get to the fluffy parts b/c that's what I like!! (barf)
3. Hatji the black kitten is actually my black cat. I found him the same exact way I described it except not in L.A. I also do the exact same thing Sakura did with her cat every day I get back from work. I just wanted to add here for people who are willing to read into the notes that black cats are the least likely to be adopted, and it's not uncommon for a black cat to be abused or neglected, especially during Halloween, just because of the color . It is also illegal where I live to just…abandon a helpless animal in the streets.
Love is blind, especially color blind.
Oh yeah, I know Hatji is a dog's name….but I had a ferret named NANA and she died so I named my next pet Hatji….he just happened to be a cat.