Lick

Month Prompt #4

justcontinue

They stood around a steel gray telephone pole in the dead of winter. Snowflakes were swirling around them in a maddening blizzard. Classes were cancelled due to the terrible weather Konoha had been experiencing.

"Never before in the history of this village have we seen such weather," the man on the radio was saying.

So there was naturally nothing better to do than for a bunch of eight year old boys to stand around a metal pole and dare each other to stick their tongues on it, right?

Sasuke was raised as an intelligent child. His mother made sure he never did anything as stupid as he was about to do.

"Awesome!" Kiba hollered as he ran up to the pole, licked it, and came back with a bleeding tongue. "That was two whole seconds! You're next, Naruto!"

Naruto laughed gleefully and made his way to the dreadful thing. He winked at the lot of them and stuck his tongue on it. He waited a very long moment before tearing it off. He did a victory lap around the pole while everyone cheered.

This was dreadful, Sasuke thought, looking on, uninterested. If he had anything better to do, he wouldn't be here.

"Sasuke, it's your turn," Naruto announced in his foghorn voice, already hoarse from screaming and the cold.

"No," Sasuke stated. There was no way he was going to risk his tastebuds for something only losers would do.

"I dare you," Naruto taunted.

"No," Sasuke repeated, glaring at him.

"I triple doggy dare you."

"Ooooh," the rest of the boys chorused. "Do it! Do it! Do it!"

Now his Uchiha pride was at stake. Looked like he had no choice.

Sasuke tossed his head and marched up to the pole. He tried looking for a place where Naruto hadn't slobbered all over, but there was none. Standing on his tiptoes, he licked the searing cold metal pole.

Instantly he felt his saliva freeze over and glued it to the pole. He tried stepping back and tearing his tongue from the surface, but he was stuck fast.

"Heewp!" he tried saying, but all he heard was a unison of laughs.

"Let's get out of here!" It was Choji's voice. The other boys whooped in agreement and he heard the pounding of boots as they all disappeared into the blizzard.

Sasuke remained stuck.

Great. If he ever got out of this alive, he was going to kill Naruto.

A long time passed. His face was getting numb. And his tongue was still not coming off the pole. He must've looked ridiculous to anyone who passed by, if anyone did.

I'm going to die like this, Sasuke thought. He almost cried at the idea of his pathetic death. They were probably going to laugh at him at his funeral.

He was shivering. Maybe he should just man up and rip his whole tongue out. No, that'd be extremely gross…

Sasuke tried to take off his mittens and pry his tongue off, but his hands were frozen the moment he took them off. Sliding his hands back into his pocket, he continued plotting his vengeance against those idiots.

Suddenly, out of the blue, a soft girl's voice sounded from behind him. "Sasuke?"

"Thakura?" Oh no. Out of all the people to find him like this…

Sakura was laughing. "What happened? Wait don't tell me…" She let loose another fit of giggles. "You can't get off of there, huh?"

"Thut upth an' hewp meh," Sasuke growled, feeling his cheeks burn in embarrassment.

"What?" Sakura echoed.

"HEWP. ME." Sasuke repeated, his embarrassment turning to anger.

Sakura sighed. "Okay, okay," she chuckled. "Let me get my camera!"

"Thakura!"

"Just kidding. Here, I'll get something."

Her footsteps receded, leaving Sasuke to stare at the pole once more.

It took her a long time to come back. His face was growing numb again. He was probably going to lose his nose from frostbite at this point. She was heaving with effort and there was a sloshing noise accompanying her steps.

"I got some hot water. I'm gonna pour it and you try to pull back ok?"

"Waaith-"

Sasuke almost screamed as scalding hot water splashed onto his face. He stumbled backwards, free from the pole at last.

"Oops, sorry." Sakura was bundled up in her puffy pink coat and hat, leaning over him in concern. "That might've been a little too hot."

"You think?" Sasuke grumbled, rubbing his face as he got to his feet.

"Hey, don't I get a thank you?" Sakura pouted. "I saved your life!"

Sasuke snorted. "Hardly. You could've killed me."

Sakura huffed and kicked her heel, walking away with her boots storming the sidewalk.

"Okay, sorry. Thanks for saving my life," Sasuke muttered.

Sakura didn't make any sign that indicated she heard him, but Sasuke was sure she already knew.

A/N: Ah this is so short.

Happy 4th of July, my fellow Americans