Beaten Black and Pink
An AU Sasuke and Sakura Fanfiction
By Krabby Patties
Chapter 10: Climb Up Your Pedestal to Hang Yourself From It
(formerly known as Purple Plus Brown Equals Pink?)
"Sakura, stop crying right now. You're embarrassing yourself. Stop it."
I tried to tell Sasuke that I couldn't, but it came out sounding like the whine of a hungry dog. I lifted my head to look at him.
"Sasuke-kun…" I wiped my tears away as best I could and noticed that everyone was staring at me again. Tears started to run down my cheeks again, not because of my fear but because I was embarrassed.
"Sakura, are you okay," Kakashi-sensei asked. "Do you need to go to the nurse?" I didn't answer and continued to cry.
Sasuke growled and squatted down to my level. He wrapped his arms around me and ordered again, "Stop crying."
I shifted in my chair and put my forehead on to his shoulder. He let me. I wish more than anything that Neji was the one holding me, not Sasuke. Sasuke was a jerk; he didn't know how to console someone. I didn't feel any safer or calmer with him.
He slowly stood up and pulled me up with him. I snaked my arms around his torso so he wouldn't leave me. Because I couldn't reach his shoulder, I buried my face into his chest like an ostrich that sticks its head in ground to hide itself.
He snapped his finger at a girl near us and pointed at our books. She scrambled over and carried the books after us as Sasuke led us out of the classroom. He didn't say a word to anyone.
Outside of the class, Sasuke had the girl put our books on the floor. After she hurried back inside, Sasuke stepped closer to the wall so that we were no longer in the middle of the hallway.
"Sakura," he said, his voice how and almost sorrowful, "I don't know how to comfort you, so stop crying."
I pressed against him and tightened my hold. My tears were silent now. "Just stay with me," I managed to say.
He sighed impatiently and rested his head on top of mine. The hair on top of my head cushioned his cheek. He copied me by tightening his hold around me. We stayed like that for a while.
I felt like such a loser. I interrupted class to cry about a stupid picture that everyone would forget about in a week, embarrassed Sasuke, and intimately hugged the hottest kid at school. If people didn't think I was a freak before, they did now.
Kimimaru-sensei, our Vertebrate Anatomy teacher, walked by us, twirling his small pocket knife made of ivory between his fingers. Sasuke and I both lifted our heads to look at him. I blushed deeply and expected Sasuke to let go of me, but he didn't.
Kimimaru flipped his knife closed. "What are you kids doing here? Get to class." How could this guy scold us when he was walking around a public high school with a sharp bone weapon?
"Hn." Sasuke let go of me and picked up our books. Then he took my hand and brought me into the empty computer lab next door for English classes. I looked back. If he knew that there was no class in the computer lab that could have been ours, Kimimaru-sensei didn't look like he really cared.
The computer lab was interesting. The three out of four walls were lined with cheap wooden tables painted robin-egg blue. On the fourth wall there was a white marker board behind a teachers' desk. In the center of the room there was an X-shaped table, also painted blue. All the tables were covered with several-year-old outdated computers, wires, and scraps of paper lazy people left behind. The walls were covered with old poetry projects, school newspapers, random pictures of old and current students, lists of students with a study certain periods, notices for poetry and essay contests, and other things I can't find words to describe. I had heard that Kakashi-sensei's English classes would have to move into this room while another teacher moved into Kakashi's room. I figured it would be pretty cool having a computer instead of a desk, even if it was ugly and old.
Sasuke set our books on top of a computer that looked like it might fall apart and sat down in the chair in front of it. I sat down beside him and rubbed my itchy cheeks.
He sighed and watched me. "Go to the bathroom and wash your face."
"I can't," I said in a small, shaky voice. "I don't have a pass. They won't let me in."
He sighed again and got up. "C'mon."
I followed him out of the lab and down the hallway a little. He knocked on the door to a women teachers' bathroom. No one answered so he held the door open for me.
I stepped inside. "But—"
"I'll be right out here. You're not going to get in trouble." He jutted his chin, urging me to go in.
I closed the door and walked over to the sink. It was dirty of course. What part of a public high school isn't dirty? I pressed on the soap dispenser. There was soap! Why did the teachers get soap and we didn't? I checked the paper towel dispenser. There were towels! I couldn't believe this. It was like blasphemy. I'm pretty sure the girl students used the bathrooms more than the teachers.
I'm wasting time, I thought. I went back to the sink and looked in the mirror. I looked horrible. My cheeks were blotchy and my hair was disheveled. I wet my face and dried it. Then I fixed my hair as best as I could without "hair tools," as I heard Ami once call them. What a loser. I thought about using the toilet, but I didn't want Sasuke to bitch at me for taking such a long time.
When left the bathroom, Sasuke examined me for a moment, and then said, "You still look horrible." What a jerk.
"Sorry," I said, not in the mood to fight.
He looked at me for a moment like he was about to override my apology, but he didn't. I followed him back to the computer lab, where we sat down in the same seats. I rested my head on the table.
"You had better not be crying again," Sasuke said in a monotone.
I lifted my head, a little agitated. "You can leave if you don't want to be here so bad." My voice sounded weak and lacked the attitude I wanted it to have. I put my head back down and waited for him answer. He didn't.
I figured he was going to leave and go back to English. Or he would just leave school all together. He wouldn't get in trouble. He was Uchiha Sasuke.
Why was he being such a jerk? Earlier, he was so nice to me, holding me like he did. He tried to comfort me although he didn't know how. I really thought that he was a sweet guy inside. Yeah…right…
I missed Neji. We used to do EVERYTHING together. If Ino never came to our school, Neji would have probably been there trying to tell me something that would make me feel better. He wouldn't tell me how horrible I looked or warn me not to cry anymore. I missed him so much that I started to cry again.
My tears were silent and I hoped Sasuke would either not notice or leave. He sat quietly, unmoving. I wished he would have stopped sitting there and did something.
"Sakura." His voice was very quiet. "Stop crying."
I tried to look like I didn't hear him.
He touched the ends of my hair, so gently that it seemed he didn't want me to notice. I focused my senses on his fingers. I couldn't feel his hand for a second and then I felt it again at the base of my neck. He ran his hand down my hair so lightly I could barely feel it.
As he continued to stroke my hair, he asked, "Why is your hair pink?" I have no idea!
He twirled a bundle of hair between his fingers like he was examining it. "Your mother has deep purple hair, as does your brother. And your father's hair is brown." He switched back to stroking my hair. "Where did you get pink hair?"
I lifted my head to look at him. He quickly pulled his hand back. "Does it run in the family," he asked,
I shook my head and felt the tears drying the light wind. "No one on my mother's side has pink hair that I know of. Same on my dad's side."
"Hn." He looked away. "Are you an illegitimate child," he asked in a straight voice. "Did your mother have an affair with a pink haired man and managed to have your father believe you were his? Or maybe the man your mother had an affair with had normal colored hair and was just a carrier for pink hair."
I doubled over laughing. Every minute I spent with him made him seem less and less like a god. He was a normal teenager who was sometimes a jerk…and happened to be the personification of beauty. Who would have thought that Uchiha Sasuke had an interesting imagination?
When I looked at Sasuke again I wasn't surprised to see no humor on his face. He still had a stoic look. I thought back to when Neji thought the boy in the college advertisement in my magazine looked like Sasuke. That boy couldn't possibly be Sasuke. He never smiled. He was never happy. What was wrong with him?
I rested my head on my arms against the table. I made sure to face Sasuke. After I took a nice look at him, I closed my eyes and planned to take a nap. Seconds later – it seemed like seconds; I later learned that I had slept for 20 minutes and Sasuke had decided that that was enough – I heard his voice tickle my consciousness.
"Sakura," he called.
When I opened my eyes, Sasuke's face was inches from mine. I was so startled that I screamed a little and threw myself back in my chair. My chair decided to be evil and fell back. We, my chair and I, landed hard on the floor. And when my head hit the floor, I thought I would die.
I felt Sasuke pull me out of my uncomfortable chair position and lay me flat on the floor. I opened my eyes and everything was unfocused.
When I could see straight, I blinked at Sasuke. "Thanks…" I started.
He sighed. "You're so annoying."
"Sorry," I said. It felt like my heart had relocated itself in my head and was beating hard in my ears.
"Can you stand up?"
I did. I was okay as long as I held onto his arm. He picked up the chair and then our books and headed out the door with me holding onto him.
"You're so annoying."
A.N: HAPPY belated BIRTHDAY, SASUKE!
So. I really have no news.
Well, actually. I saw one of the funniest SpongeBob episodes a couple days ago: "Boat Smarts." Crash dummy Squidward killed me!
Oh and this weekend I'm going to another anime convention in Hartford, Connecticut -- Connecticon! WOOT! I'm so excited! I better see an amazing Sasuke cosplay by a guy or I'm going to cry. I really wanna see a Vaan from FFXII cosplay too... I was thinking about going as Katara from Avatar (Hah, half of you are like, "BOO! Fake anime!!"), but I never started the costume and I wonder if I can do it in 3 days...
Thumbing through the pages of my fantasies,
ЖЯдβБΨ ۹Ǻ†ŧỊ€ی
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Avatar: the Last Airbender, or SpongeBob SquarePants.
Chapter 11 Preview:
Your Kiss, Your Calls, Your Crutch, Like the Devil's Got Your Hand
"No, listen. I know how to diagnose a head injury."
He raised an eyebrow that said, "So what?"
I continued. "I'll tell you what to look for and you examine me."
He reluctantly nodded and sat me on the floor against some lockers. Then he sat in front of me. I couldn't believe that I had caused the Uchiha god to sit on ungraciously on a lowly, dirty public school floor. I was in awe and disgusted with myself at the same time.
Edited 09.02.08