title: payback
prompt: #10 - haircut
summary: he could see the flush of his features in the mirror.

By the heart of the summer, Sakura noticed Sasuke's hair had grown out quite a bit. Wisps of his hair dangled at his shoulders when he moved during training, fringe obscuring his eyes, and he seemed to dislike how it got in the way, so she often offered him a hair tie and watched with a smile as he pulled his hair into the smallest of ponytails centered at the back of his head.

Soon, Sasuke's hair grew even longer, calling for the small ponytail to become his usual choice of hairstyle, but when Naruto began mocking him by tying up his own bangs in a similar fashion, Sasuke finally decided it was time to have his hair cut to its former length. Sakura then piped up, offering to do it for him after the day's sparring session, and to her surprise, the boy shrugged and agreed.

She handed him a mirror as he sat on a stool on the porch of her backyard, before pulling out a pair of red scissors. After spraying his hair with a bottle of water to dampen it slightly, a web of dew collected at the crown of his head. She started by thinning out the long bangs clouding his face.

Sasuke watched as hair fell into his lap. He cleared his throat. "Sakura?" he asked, suddenly.

"Yes, Sasuke-kun?"

"Have you ever cut hair before?"

Sakura's hands froze over his head, a portion of his bangs still between her index and middle finger. "Ah...no?" she said, a sheepish smile coming over her lips. "Unless you count the haircuts I gave my dolls when I was a kid. But I did a pretty good job on them, if I do say so myself."

Sasuke exhaled, muttering something beneath his breath. Sakura caught the signature word 'annoying' but from the mirror, she could see that his features held some amusement.

She tugged at his hair, waving the scissors over his head. "Don't worry, Sasuke-kun, I won't do anything too terrible!" she said brightly.

Sasuke winced. "Please don't do that with the scissors," he grimaced, but otherwise let her continue to do whatever she wanted, so Sakura snipped away to her heart's content.

When his head was feeling considerably lighter, he took another glance in the mirror and opened his mouth to tell Sakura the current state of his hair was sufficient enough, but before he could breathe a word, Sakura tapped the blade of the scissors against his head. "Remember when you laughed at me last week for tripping over Naruto's leg?" she asked.

Sasuke paused. "I—I did not laugh."

"Ha!" Sakura exclaimed, now poking the pair of scissors over his shoulder. "You can't fool me, Sasuke-kun. I heard you. You audibly laughed."

She made a few more cuts and stepped back before gasping. "Oh, and remember when you just stood there and stared at me while Naruto snuck behind me and gave me the scare of my life?" she continued. "If I recall correctly, you laughed then, too."

"...I didn't."

Sakura stuck her nose up in the air as if she had smelled something rotten. "You've been hanging around Naruto too much. You even scared me yesterday!" She shook her head, as if she couldn't believe it. "What were you thinking, telling me there was a spider in my ramen?! That was so unlike you!"

Sasuke lifted the back of his hand to his mouth, and Sakura came around to his front to adjust his hair from a different angle. "If this haircut doesn't come out right, you can count it as payback." She almost snorted at his sudden silence.

He edged backward as Sakura cut another centimeter off his bangs, suddenly over-aware of the small distance between them, but she only leaned closer as he pulled away. He felt his ears burning. "Sakura," he said, clearing his throat. "I think that's enough."

Sakura shook her head firmly. "I'm not done."

"Sakura..." he shifted back further, not daring to wonder if his face was reddening as well.

"Hold on a minute, Sasuke-kun."

"Sakura, come on..."

"Just a second!"

"Sakura..."

"No—"

By the time Sakura uttered her last word, Sasuke had leaned a few degrees too far and found himself unceremoniously hitting the floor. He winced as the back of his head slammed against the furnished wood of her porch and sighed. The mirror still locked in his hands, he lifted it above himself to study his new haircut.

Sakura fidgeted, placing her scissors on the stool before bending down to help him up. "Well?" she asked, awkwardly. "What do you think?"

Sasuke grimaced at the flush of his cheeks in the mirror. "It's...nice," he told her, and Sakura beamed.