somedays lover
chapter 3. skyline storms
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Having finally reached the podium of Conference Room 2 on the 7th floor in the Icha Icha Broadcasting Station after more trouble than she'd like. Sakura is at a loss for words.
Here I thought my day couldn't get any worse.
Snow White skin. Ebony hair. Onyx eyes. He had always been the epitome of her crazy love for happily ever after lies.
She didn't think Uchiha Sasuke of all people would have been her co-star. And from the look on his face, he hadn't either.
It was almost funny how annoyed he looks as he glares down at the microphone. One would have thought that a singer would enjoy hearing his own voice, but Sakura knew that Sasuke is... Well, Sasuke. He only likes hearing it when he's singing. Or arguing. Speaking is difficult for him. Or maybe he's judging the mic quality and he found it lacking. He's always been such an audio equipment snob.
Absently she thinks back to the fact that they were alone for the first half of the day and briefly wonders what he would have talked about - only to come up with nothing. Sasuke had never been the vocal type. He was a bottomless pit of ideas that never leaked to anyone - anything - outside the lines on a notebook. She'd thought that she broke through once, but looking at the smirk he wore for the media she realized once again - what a joke she must've been.
Walking over to his side Sakura can feel the subtle heat radiating from him in the cold room. Despite how frigid his personality was, Sasuke had always been warm, not the way someone might radiate heat, but just warm. The strapless dress she was wearing doesn't help and she suppresses a shiver as a stifled sneeze escapes her. Sasuke must've heard her over the bustling commotion because he drapes his jacket over her shoulders, careful not to brush his fingers against her.
The cameras have a field day and the situation makes her feel dizzy in a still second.
Giving the briefest, most sincere smile she has smiled the whole day to him. "Hey." Is all she manages to croak out. It comes out soft and feminine despite her efforts to seem strong. Like she had been well. Sakura can only hope her voice didn't shake.
Sasuke musters a small 'hey' back. An almost-smile type of smirk that she remembers all too well gracing his handsome features. It's the same almost-smile type of smirk she's always tried to imitate, never got quite right and always associated with him. The one that send shivers down your spine, and skims across your skin until it sinks in and finally tries to get to your heart. She envied that kind of soul-sucking charisma she would never be able to achieve but would always fall prey to.
Neither expected their co-star to be each other. But to Sasuke, Sakura didn't strike him as the type to be able to act like she was in love with someone. But then again, he had never saw her as an actress either. The Haruno Sakura he knew wore her heart on her sleeves and couldn't tell one decent lie.
In fact, the Haruno Sakura he knew brazenly declared that she loved him back when they were in high school - right before he cruelly rejected her confession with the largest pair of metaphorical scissors.
Despite it only having been a few years, it feels as if a whole decade has passed. Standing on the opposite sides of each other, barely touching, posing with false familiarity for cameras even though they knew nothing about how the other person has been living past their seventeen and barely-eighteen birthdays. They had both gone our separate ways only to be reunited in the most superficial method.
He knows that he had been careless with Sakura's heart once and it wouldn't surprise Sasuke if she hated him. But the way she looks at him implied otherwise. She looked with nostalgia; as if he was the favourite lost toy she'd given up trying to find as a child - only for it to fall into her reach as she packed and prepared to move away.
There's anger present in her gaze. Unsurprisingly. But the longing overruled it. Nether-less, he was not going to to be the one to bring up any buried memories that she doesn't want revealed. She probably gave up on him long ago, and he wasn't going to hold her childish teenage confession of love against her. Not when he was the first to break so many unspoken promises.
It's a familiar slap back to reality as they hear a 'clack' to signify the start of filming. "Ladies and gentlemen! Please take your seats! The conference will be starting now!"
The magic is broken once again. And stranger-Sakura who has met stranger-Sasuke for the first time settles on a bright expression she's been schooled to permanently keep. Sasuke turns away from her, standing a little behind Sakura while remaining by the length of her skirt as he poses for the cameras. Seeing each other again. They're sure they can't be the only one that feels miles apart from the person standing next to them as they both wear our respective masks.
*Snap*
"Could you please tell us why you agreed to join 'We Got Married' Sakura-san?"
"Well, I've heard that it was referred to as a 'dream show'. They said I could do everything from going on oversea vacations to sleeping on set. Apparently I can even..."
Sakura had always been good at giving the required answers for whatever questions sent her way, but it also painted her as being somewhat vapid. The press loved it. Lapped it up like cats with spilt milk. She was going to be their stereotype for the young starry-eyed actress.
They were to be their youngest couple ever. Perfect.
"Of course I'm hoping that this will give me some semblance of a proper dating experience." She giggled to hide the bitter tone that had revealed itself.
*Snap*
"And Sasuke-san? How about you?"
"To be honest, Orochimaru signed me on without asking me first. I guess the company pres knew that I would never have enough time to find a girl myself." He throws in a canine baring smirk to seal the deal. They eat up the bad boy act. They always do. The company team spent a year giving him a fitting public face and he can see the gears in their heads working.
Pneumatic replies were all they would extract from them and twist to their own liking for whatever baiting titles they wanted. It was just another day's fishing expedition to them.
*Snap*
"According to reports, Sasuke-san and Sakura-san have met each other before prior to this meeting? Is that true?"
Sakura has trouble maintaining her sunflower facade at this point. Inwardly weighing the consequences of outright revealing their past against denying it and having someone dig it up later. Sasuke, on the other hand was not one for internal debates as he steadied her shaking hand under the table.
"Sakura and I used to go to the same school. So you could call us -"
Classmates. Friends.
Lovers?
"- schoolmates? She used to be the school idol. Pretty and..." He paused, looking for the right words.
Looking at her. Looking for her.
The sole person that saw me for who I was. The girl that I treasured beyond logic.
The one I abandoned when I was too useless and immature to protect us.
"Very smart." Is what he settles for. Because Sakura was – and still is – smart. Always had been. Always will be. Letting his eyes drift over her briefly, he thinks perhaps - he just failed to see the potential in her as an entertainer.
"All the guys wanted her." He could already hear Naruto snickering when he watched this on broadcast later. "I just didn't think I'd be lucky enough to film 'We Got Married' with her."
Turing away, he doesn't look over at her to see her reaction, but Sasuke feels her whisper something akin to 'bastard' under her breath as she snatches her hand out of his grasp to lock them.
*Snap*
"I see! Sakura-san, you were popular! You must have had lots of opportunities to go on dates... fall in love?"
"Sasuke-san-"
Sasuke-san. Sasuke-san. Sasuke-san. Sasuke-san. The syllable following his name bothered him more than he'd like to admit.
"- was just pulling my leg. Unfortunately, I've never properly been in love with someone." She waves her left hand back and forth as her right hand shoots up to cover her face in what Sasuke thinks is an actress' version of an abashed expression. "I thought I liked one of the boys back at school, but... Well, let's just say that later on I realised that it couldn't have been love."
Sasuke does his best to keep himself from questioning her on the spot. Was she trying to not compromise the innocent image her company had tried to build for her? Or did she mean it? He knew that she had loved fiercely, so if she meant it - the only reason would be that she'd fallen out of love.
*Snap*
The questions continue for another half hour before the reporters finally decide they have enough dough to put in the typography oven, and bake for the next day in whichever gossip column they worked for. Following Sakura backstage, Sasuke trailed her back to the dressing room.
Despite her short height, she's always been a fast walker and when he eventually gets there, she's waiting for him in front of the large mirrors with her arms crossed and she looks beautifully livid, green eyes glowing as the CRI lights stain her pink hair in sunset shades.
"Sakura." Her name is rasped out as he reaches for her to unlock her arms. Swinging at him when he tries to grab onto her and successfully knocking a chair down. It almost stings. Because they really did used to be close enough for her to have hooked her arm around his own on dim lighted midnight strolls, escaping the stress of school and expectations of parents. While he would have placed his own over her shoulders on the streets, heading for the basement karaokes, dreaming rockstar dreams.
Despite the dull ache in his chest, Sasuke wanted to laugh. Funny how now that we're apart - I'm living exactly what we both wanted for me.
"Don't touch me! I don't know you!" She glares accusingly as Sasuke stares bank, his gaze equally strong at her rejection. "How could you say that? Was that all we were? Schoolmates?"
'Was that all I was?' is left unsaid, but its loudly echoing between them.
He shouldn't be angry at Sakura, and Sasuke knew he didn't have the damn right to be. She doesn't know his reasons for hiding their past relationship, nor did she understand why they couldn't have been together once upon a time. However, years of bottled up regret overpowers that of rationality and the ugly emotions bubble up when he felt his eyes narrow at her betrayed act.
"And what about you, Sakura?" Dragging out the syllables of her name mockingly. "I thought you said you loved me? Why the sudden change of heart?"
"How was I supposed to know Sasuke-kun?" The honorific is scathingly said. A taunt. Both using their names against one another. "You were never there. You didn't say anything." Water gathers on the corner of her eyes as tears threatened to fall.
"Tch. You should know better than anyone my actions speak louder than my words."
"Oh. What were you trying to tell me by leaving then? I needed you and you weren't there." The tears are actually rolling off her face in thin streams of crystals now, the type the group would write about in their lyrics. "Was I supposed to wait, Sasuke-kun? For you to come back and explain to me? How long did you want? A year? Two years? Another year after that? If so, why didn't you tell me?"
The door to the waiting room opens at that exact moment as one of the senior producers walk in, an eyebrow disappearing his hairline as he sends a questioning look their way as if anticipating a reason for the raised voices. Neither of them look like the friendly co-stars they are expected to be, nor do they seem like the infatuated pair of newly weds they are written to act.
Sakura - ironically clad in a pale turquoise affair modelled after bridal gowns - has been backed towards the long makeup table; and she's crying, frail hands supporting her slight build, the knuckles white are with pressure. For good measure, one of the chairs - the one Sasuke is standing in place of - has been thrown a good distance across the room by her. Anyone who sees the state of the current scene is unlikely to think that Sakura was the one that hurled it away; since Sakura, with her fairy princess pixie stature looks unlikely to have Godzilla strength.
They can't even begin to imagine how this looks for the PD, and the two stay silent, posture rigid, fearful of what might be spread. But the intruder only shrugs as if this is a normal occurrence and tells them that the cameramen are coming in soon and that they should prepare for filming, handing Sasuke the same pink envelope as before. Simply closing the door to leave.
With the door firmly shut, Sakura snatches the envelope from him and begins opening it. Her face perfect once again, no remaining redness, no strained voice. Nothing to serve as evidence that she had been previously crying.
When did you learn to hide your feelings so well?
"I know you can't stand me, and I won't say that I'm happy about this arrangement either." Having read the mission card, she shoves it back at Sasuke. "But we have to compromise... At least act like what a couple on screen."
"Of course." He was going to ask the same thing of her. He was not going to risk his public image and neither would, or should she. Sakura has never needed or wanted his help with sorting out her priorities before and he doubted she was going to start today.
Apparently, it's the only right thing he's said the whole day as she visually brightens. If only by a shade. He scowled as he is reminded of how easily she used to forgive once again. He wished that the girl - woman - in front of him was the same Sakura he knew, but she wasn't. And he knew he had no right to want her back - but she was so so close.
But the fact remained that this was a new beginning. That they were connecting on some sort of level, however little – even if only professionally – was a first step.
Turning away from him to fix her shoulder length hair, pushing a stray strand behind her ears. She then drags her curled fingers from underneath the sockets of her eyes up to her temple, a habit she used to have back in school. It messes up her eyeliner slightly, but she barely seems to care - only patting around her face with her palms repetitively, smudging out the ink mottled pale skin.
Sakura than repeats the same process for her new husband, her thumbs working above his cheeks, pressing down under his eyes with her face inches below Sasuke's own. Breaking down the physical barriers that she previously put up by a fraction. Making him remember times when she did this to help with his supposedly incurable dark circles.
"Anyway." Her tone shifts to something a little lighter, a smidgen brighter; as she falls onto his shoulder to come down from the table she's on, clutching onto his arm for support.
"I'm glad it's you, Sasuke-kun." She whispers in his ear, and Sasuke hates the little spark of happiness it lights in him. Giving him false hope to see that she still cares, still remembers the promises they offered one another.
"With you... I know we're more than capable of giving them a good show."
Just in: Uchiha Sasuke Haruno Sakura join cast of 'We Got Married'
'We Got Married' (WGM) has announced its plans to renew its lineup once again!
With the departure of the much loved Suigetsu-Karin pairing due to conflicting filming schedules. The program's decision to cast its new couple - its youngest pairing yet - may well attract higher viewership. According to a number of broadcast associates, it was decided and confirmed that Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura will be joining the line-up of Icha Icha broadcasting service's long running variety show where two celebrities are brought together in a virtual marriage.
Confirmed by a WGM staff, they will join the two other existing couples on the 19th of August. "We hope they will bring to the show the realistic experiences that couples in their 20s would enjoy in their married life. We think Sasuke and Sakura will bring a refreshing take with their youth." says Icha Icha representative Maito Gai, conveying the words of director and producer Jiraiya.
Their segment will be included in the August 25 broadcast of "We Got Married." In the meantime, here are some of the most liked comments:
1. [9342,-152] A pretty girl and pretty boy combo. Guess they needed some pretty faces for them to use as endorsement models again. Brace yourselves, you're gonna see them all over the subway in a bit.2. [8424,-146] They're what? Not even at their quarter life crises? What were the staff thinking casting them for a 'realistic experience' of married life?3. [7352,-148] And Icha Icha trolls us again4. [6591,-336] Nooooo! Not Sasuke-Kun! Sakura Is So Ugly! Her Forehead Is Too Big!5. [3838,-48] I'm actually pretty excited. Both of them are variety show rookies right? So we might actually get some genuine moments.
note.
Re-upload of edited chapters 1-3 as there were too many grammatical mistakes. As chapters have been shortened, I can also update more frequently.
