An. Only four chapters left after this one! Brace yourselves, ladies and gentlemen! (But probably ladies, because this isn't a very manly story.)
Reviews are, as always, appreciated.
.
.
He wasn't really sure as to whether or not he should wake her up. For one thing, she was all but strangling him so that he couldn't move - much less reach the TV remote. On the other hand, if Sakura had a hangover, he really didn't want to be there for it.
Two daquiris, and she got drunk. Seriously.
He turned his head to look at her. Her hair was a mess, with random strands tossed all around her head. Her mascara was smeared down to her cheeks, which were colored a light red. She looked as if she had just gotten out of a crazy high school party.
Sasuke looked down to make sure his pants were still on - just because he had a serious fear that Sakura had raped him overnight. They were still on.
"Sa..."
He gulped, not wanting to be slapped across the face or anything.
"Sakura...wake up...I can't reach the remote..."
"Mmmmmmh," Sakura responded, eyelids twitching.
"Seriously. Wake up."
She growled at him and sat up, then immediately regretted it. She covered her face with her hands, using them as a mask.
"Damn, it's bright in here."
Sasuke looked around.
"It really isn't."
"Why are you yelling?"
"I'm not."
Sakura groaned and made her way to the bathroom, never taking note of the fact that she had woken up in Sasuke's bed. She reached for the shower handle - morning showers being her everyday wake-up routine - and put her hand under the faucet. It was one of those showers at hotels with too much pressure and not enough water.
"Damn it," she complained. "It's going to be like bathing with a knife."
If it were at a house of a friends, she'd have simply switched it to a bath. However, her mother had always told her not to take baths in hotel bathrooms, because you never knew who used them. Although that was a fairly stupid thing to say, Sakura was a fairly stupid person (sometimes), and had never ceased to believe in that statement.
So, right foot in first, she eased her way into the shower of torture, and tried to get used to it. All they had was the horrible hotel shampoo, half of which seemed to have already been used.
"I should have just taken a hooker bath."
Suddenly, the water reached what felt like being pelted with hail.
"HOLY SHIT, THAT'S COLD!" Sakura screamed, turning off the water. She stood there for a few minutes, shivering, then opened the curtains to look for a towel. To her chagrin, there were none.
So she kind of sat there, figuring she'd just air dry.
It was very cold.
Suddenly, the door opened. "Sakura, I forgot to mention that the workers were cleaning towels yesterday, so I went downstairs to-"
Sasuke widened his eyes, dropping two off-white towels on the floor.
Both of them just kind of stared at each other for a minute, mouths open in horror.
And then, Sasuke walked backwards out of the room, shutting the door behind himself.
Nothing was said of this incident afterwards, although Sasuke wouldn't even look at Sakura for the next hour.
.
.
"So. Did you read what you wrote last night?"
"Yes. And it was embarrassing. How drunk was I?"
Sasuke looked to his left without turning his head. "Pretty drunk."
"I'm sorry."
"No harm done."
Sakura pulled out a notepad.
"I'm...gonna start writing now."
"Okay."
She tapped her pencil on the paper, trying to think of something funny. She made a few humming noises, then began to write.
"Shirt Ideas, by Sakura," she read out loud. She then made a point to get completely silent so as to not spoil her ideas.
Sasuke continued watching Grey's Anatomy (because it was the only show on), paying no attention to her.
.
.
"They all sucked."
Sakura and Sasuke were now about two hours out of the town, stopping at a bar-be-que restaraunt.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Sasuke replied, too focused on his meal to really be paying attention. It was quite messy, and he didn't feel like messing up his new scarf.
"It's like my sense of humor died again."
"Well, you have four days."
"Blegh."
"It's plenty of time to think something up."
"Since when are you an optimist?"
"I'm a realist, actually."
"I'm pretty sure you're just a hipster," she replied, jotting down Hipster In Denial on her notepad. Regardless of how Sasuke took it, she'd make that shirt for him, as an outside-of-the-contest thing.
"If you say so..."
Sasuke was definately acting weird, and acting weird when you're Sasuke Uchiha basically means you're a total freak. He barely spoke all day.
"So, erm...what happened to us spending the whole time at the beach? The time until the deadline, I mean..."
"Well, I didn't pack for nearly long enough. Today's outfit is my last one. So I'm going to go home and get more. We'll return after the deadline, if that's okay."
"Yeah! Sure!"
Sakura smiled. Sasuke looked back at his food, cheeks beginning to redden. Sakura tilted her head.
"You keep looking away from me - you alright?"
Sasuke nodded. It was getting hard to be around her, for some reason. He couldn't tell if he was angry with her or not.
"Probably just wanna go home, right?"
"Huh? Oh...yeah."
"Could have said you were homesick, dummy!"
Sakura pushed her plate to the side. She was full now, and ready to get back in the car. She wondered how long the waitress would be on bringing her check. Service was slow here.
"Hey..."
"What is it?"
"Don't worry about the payment...I'll take care of it."
"Are you sure?"
Sasuke nodded. Of course, him offering to pay for anything was also unusual.
"Well, I don't know what happened to the old Sasuke, but I like this one!" she laughed.
"Just this once. You can...go start the car up."
He tossed her the keys.
.
.
They pulled into Sakura's neighborhood around seven. She handed him a sheet of paper.
"So, this is what I've written today."
Sasuke looked down the list and smiled. Well, sort of. It was a Sasuke Uchiha smile, so it was really more of a smirk-ish-thing.
But whatever.
"You're definately showing improvement, Sakura. Although, some of these are still kind of weird. By tomorrow, I expect to see the one thing that will win."
"Are you serious?" she asked, taking the list back. "Which one? Which one made you-"
"They're all good."
"Are you for real?"
"I'm not lying."
He got out of the car, made a big deal about locking it so that it wouldn't be stolen in the five minutes he was here, then walked her to her door.
"So, I'll write some more tonight and then you can come back in the morning."
"Okay."
"Don't come back too late, though. Try to make it between nine and twelve, because I plan on going job-hunting."
"Okay."
"Oh, and Sasuke - if something does happen and you can't make it here until after that, come after three. I shouldn't have other plans. And we could have supper again tomorrow."
"Okay."
"Thank you, Sasuke."
"For what?"
She smiled.
"This whole random beach trip...it was very spontaneous, and very kind of you to pay for all of it. Especially with my lack of a job now. And I want you to know that if there's anything I can do to pay you back, I will."
Sasuke was staring at her. No, he was staring into her, as if he were somehow going to read her mind. He raised an eyebrow.
"Er...what?"
He bent over and, before he knew what was going on (much less before Sakura knew what was going on), he had planted a kiss onto her lips.
Sakura's eyes widened, and her face turned a darker pink than her hair.
Sasuke held the kiss for around ten seconds, then backed up. His face turned a shade of red.
"Um...um...uh..." Sakura said, profoundly. "Er...uh..."
Sasuke took a step backwards.
"I...I'm sorry, about that..."
Jesus, what am I saying? he thought. He quickly turned to go back to his car.
"Um..." Sakura continued. Then, she got a grip. "Wait...Sasuke, wait!"
She ran up to his car and knocked on his window. He rolled it down.
They both looked at each other for a while. Then, she spoke up.
"Will you...come by tomorrow?"
Sasuke looked away. "I..."
"Please?" Sakura insisted.
He slowly turned back to face her, then blushed again. "Yeah...I'll come back."
The car started, and Sakura stepped away from it. And there went Sasuke.
She made her way to the door, and unlocked it. She entered her apartment and opened the fridge to pour herself a glass of juice. She was dizzy.
"Holy...shit..." she whispered to herself, completely confused. The shock of the moment just then hit her. She sat down against the counter, and wrapped her arms around her knees. "Holy shit..."
She looked up at the ceiling and cursed at herself.
.
.
notes. For those of you who are mathematically ignoramous, there are going to be eleven chapters in this story. As well, I apologize for the lack of t-shirt ideas in this chapter! Can't be happy every time, I suppose.
SASUSAKU. YOSH.
