title: can we dance?
summary: because blames the alcohol, his friends, and his pride to back down from a challenge
genre: friendship/romance/and a teaspoonful of humor
rating: K+
notes: AU.i enjoyed this one, i hope you do too!
chapter four: can we dance?
I talk a lot of shit when I'm drinking, baby,
I'm known to go a little too fast
Don't mind all my friends, I know they're all crazy
But they're the only friends that I have
I know I don't know you, but I'd like to
Skip the small talk of romance, girl
That's all I had to say, so baby
Can we dance?
Uchiha Sasuke don't socialize outside his friendship circle, (he believes it to be waste of time, and most people are obnoxious pieces of dirt anyway), but when he does, it's because alcohol started running his system, and the person he converses to is slightly better than the rest. Slightly.
Sasuke don't go to parties his friends throw, but when he does, he dances. All his friends' parties involve going to bars, if not, just staying at home. Anywhere, really, as long as there's some booze.
But that's not the point. Uchiha Sasuke and dancing had never been put in the same paragraph, much less the same sentence. Uchiha Sasuke dancing? Unheard of.
But that was exactly what happened at the night of his best friend's birthday. Some things were still blurry to him, even now, two days later after that . . . that event. He doesn't even want to remember it. Not that he does, but there was something he couldn't seem to forget. Pink hair. He knew he danced with a girl with pink hair. He hoped that she doesn't remember any of it. Forget the face, at least. To be remembered in such a sinful act is a serious wound to his pride.
"Teme, hey Teme! No, you don't go away. Sasuke!" Sasuke's best friend (a title up for serious reconsideration) caught up to him. "Sasuke-teme, you told me you'd stay!"
"And you told me only our friends will be here. Our friends." Snapped Sasuke.
"Well, other friends found out, and I didn't think it would be right if I don't— no Teme!"
Sasuke sighed. "What time will this party end?"
Naruto grinned.
The first one was quite embarrassing just to think about it, so why go to another? Because it was a dare. No, not by that dobe, no. It was a dare by another . . . associate. Sasuke decided it would be more mortifying to lose to Kiba.
When he entered the bar, the place was already vibrating. Whether it was because of the basslines, or the people grounding the dance floor, he was not sure. He sat at the barstool and looked around. His friends were still here, and though they let him have his "alone time," he still wanted to leave. The looks he had been receiving was starting to creep him out, but the voice behind him nearly made him jump. Nearly.
"No way."
"Sakura-chan! Meet Teme. Teme, Sakura!"
"Hn."
The girl just raised her eyebrow at his reply. The girl, Sakura, was probably a foot lower than him, but her heels made her high enough for him to not stare down. She had pink hair ("Pink!") and a glass of vodka in hand.
"Naruto—" Sakura started as she turned to Sasuke's best friend, but the dobe already left. Sakura's gaze returned to him just as Sasuke turned back and decided to leave. He took a step, but stopped when he heard her mumble, "Oh gosh, rude. Nice to meet you too, Teme."
Sasuke turned around. "Did you just call me Teme?"
"That's your name, isn't it?" the edge of Sakura's mouth was twitching, a curve fighting its way up. But Sasuke just glared, took down a gulp of his own beer, then said, "Sasuke."
Sasuke didn't want to turn. He just wanted to continue facing his back to unwanted memories, but sadly, his body disagreed. He faced the source of the voice.
"You." She said.
"Me," he replied. If he pretends to not remember her, would she leave?
"It's funny. I heard that the first time you actually went in a bar was that night, and yet I see you here, finishing another bottle of beer."
"Someone told me I needed to get out more, after all" No. No. He did not just say that. He already conditioned himself to pretend not to know her! Instead, he spouted out the words that she had told him that night. And during that time, despite the fact that he only started drinking when they already met much later on, the only moment that he could remember were the minutes he spent with her.
But he had no intention of letting her know that.
Sakura smiled. "You don't interact much with other people, don't you? No, let me rephrase that," Sakura continued, ignoring the growing frown on his face. "You don't interact much with women, don't you?"
"Do too." Sasuke didn't know what made him answer so childishly, but the comment somehow struck his ego. Maybe he really needed to get out more.
"Do those 'interactions' involve actual conversations? Or frowning and monosyllables?"
Seeing (and ignoring) his glare, she brought the rim of her glass to her lips, gulped, and let out a giggle.
"You really should get out more."
Sasuke looked down, and when his eyes returned to her, it wasn't the hard eyes that she had been graced earlier. It was now challenging.
"Are you offering?"
She pretended to think, then smiled and flounced away.
"And what brings you here tonight?"
His forearm was on the bar, leaning as he faced Sakura. Her fashion was different tonight, but she still had the same aura that caught his attention that night.
"Oh, it was Kiba. Told me something interesting might happen. I don't know what he was talking about, but I thought, 'why not?'"
Under Sasuke's expressionless face was an intent to murder the Inuzuka. He should have known.
Sakura waved her hand at the seat next to his. "Is this seat taken?"
He faced the bar again, shrugging as he did so. Sakura took the seat and ordered her own drink.
"What brings you here? You're looking pretty, tonight." Sakura said, then snorted, "as if you don't look pretty two nights before. I'd assume you're just always handsome and hides because the world might not handle it."
Sasuke stared at her. "Are you always this talkative?"
"Are you always that quiet?" Sakura asked, then faced her cocktail and muttered, "Why did I even ask, of course you are."
"You talk as if you've known me long enough. I take it you remember that night?"
Sakura grinned up at him. "You were quite the dancer."
Sasuke tried his best not to groan out loud.
After Sasuke's encounter with Sakura, he spent the next few hours sipping at his drink and sulking at the corner. No, he doesn't want to go to the middle and socialize. No, he doesn't want to scream out his lungs. He certainly doesn't want to grind his body along with others on the dance floor. He wanted to go home.
After ignoring unwanted invitations to dancing (and more), he scanned the room for the nth time, and immediately spotted the girl with pink hair, dancing with someone. He frowned. Does she really want to lower herself down for something they call fun? No, not literally lower herself d— he couldn't even think of it.
Of all the people who exchanged words with him, she was the only one who had the nerve to smirk at him. To be amused of him. To assume that he does not have enough social skills. The nerve of that woman!
Sasuke allowed himself to smile. He had to admit, she sure was something.
He doesn't even know anymore if the thoughts were his own, or if the alcohol is influencing his train of thought. Did he care? At the moment, not really. Was he aware that he was approaching the girl? Barely.
"Look, I'm sorry, I had enough alcohol to spout out some shit—" the rest of the sentence was drowned out by the remix of the DJ. Actually, it was interrupted by multiple factors.
One, the sound of the remix blaring through the speakers, yes.
Two, the sound of footwear bouncing to the beat of the music, with their hands stationed in the air (and some places he couldn't see). Seriously, is that what they call dancing?
Three, the memory that he and Sakura were in similar position two nights ago, and a reenactment of the said night suddenly seemed to appeal to Sasuke's mind (and body).
Sakura slightly turned her head to the side, exposing the bare space between the neckline of her top and her tucked hair, her ear almost facing him. Her lips parted as she did so, an indication that she wanted to hear what he was going to say.
Sasuke looked away. He never bothered to ask a girl to dance before, why should he give attempt now? He never asked to dance, it's the other people who ask him. Why should this be any different?
"We should dance," he said. And he knew that in the days to come, he would blame the alcohol for what had happened.
But Sakura just slowly blinked and let out a breath of amusement. "I've heard better invitations than that one."
"Oh?"
"Yes."
Sasuke lowered his head without taking his eyes of her. He raised an eyebrow in challenge as he said, "Care to show me?"
"Sakura"
The pink-haired girl turned to Sasuke and smirked, "decided to join the fun?"
Sasuke just stared back at her, then said, "Dance with me."
It turned out the people who surrounded them that moment were all his friends. No, he wouldn't call them friends, those assholes. But he knows them all, and worst of all, they all know him. And when they heard his demand, they all screamed, and teased, and shouted. And, of course, Naruto was the loudest of them all.
"Finally, Teme!"
"Someone finally cracked Uchiha!"
"Wooh! Did someone take a video? This is not something we should forget!"
"He's drunk, isn't he?"
"Ooohhh Uchiha Sasuke finally decided a girl— no, someone is worth his time? The Uchiha Sasuke?!"
"Who are you and where is the real Sasuke?!"
"Guys, a picture at least?"
There were so much more, so much that Sasuke could only process several comments, but he was pretty sure he heard a "No! The ever so youthful Sakura-chan is being taken away by another blossom of a lover!"
What the hell?
But despite the commotion, Sakura seemed to ignore them all, and just raised her eyebrows at him.
"Seriously? Is that how you really ask a dance from a woman?"
"Is that really how women respond when someone wanted to dance with them?"
"Only to those who had an unusual way of asking, or in your case, demanding."
Sasuke frowned. What has he been saying? Of course that's not how you ask a girl to dance! His mother would strangle him if ever she heard of this.
He took a breath, and asked, "Can we dance?"
Throughout the night, he had his hands on her waist, and hers around his neck. They swayed gently to the music that clearly doesn't matched their pace. All around them were their friends, hooting, shamelessly laughing, and chanting their names.
He never imagined that sometime in the days to come, they would be in similar fashion; forehead to forehead, arms in near embrace, with his voice that hummed a deep "Can we dance?" and a chuckle for a reply, followed by a, "You need not ask."