"Brownies are brilliant on their own, but they're so much better eaten with friends you love." Ita-ta
He sat with her again at lunch. Except this time, all of his friends crowded onto the same table as well. Sakura was highly alarmed when the rambunctious blonde, Naruto she remembered his name being, slapped Sasuke on the back in a sort of congratulatory way. The blonde had grinned very brightly at her as he sat down.
"So you're the lovely lady that Sasuke has been talking about!" A new voice had come into the ebb and flow of conversation and Sakura was greeted by a doggish-boy on her other side. "I'm---"
"Inuzuka Kiba, I know you are. I would say I'm pleased to meet you but we have been in school together since Kindergarten and these are the only words you've said to me to date." Sakura expelled a breath of air in a sigh, her face completely blank. "So I'm not pleased to meet you." She finished brusquely and turned back to her lunch.
The whole table had gone quiet until Naruto burst into laughter. "Oh, Kami that had to be the funniest thing I've seen since Lee tried to eat Chouji's last chip!" He chuckled.
"Yeah, you were owned there." Shikamaru drawled lazily, the corners of his lips quirked up in amusement.
A stony voice added, "It is not surprising coming from this little Neko." Gaara had come to sit beside Neji, looking very imposing as he crossed his arms over his chest.
Sakura merely ignored him, chewing methodically through her sandwich and moving every so often to sip from her juice-box. Idly, she wondered if everything would have been easier to have just walked away when those girls had threatened her. That way, she wouldn't be in the situation she was now. She thought that Sasuke was an adventure waiting to happen, but Itachi... she didn't know what she felt for him. The pinkette was oh so confused over what she felt for the elder Uchiha. She didn't think it was just platonic and that was what worried her. She was pulled away from her contemplations when Sasuke's baritone voice sounded by her ear.
"You're quiet," He murmured, his voice soft and gentle.
Sakura didn't turn her head but she did reply. "Hm, generally I'm used to a quieter crowd." Her tone was a little sardonic, amusement alighted in her eyes.
"I thought it was because you had a lot on your mind." Her gaze snapped to his in surprise, not realizing that he had been observing her.
"Perhaps," he grinned at the begrudging tone in her voice. She looked at him with a puzzled expression, as if she wanted to say something but didn't know how to.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" He asked, reaching over and sliding a finger along her jaw line.
His touch seemed to snap her out of it because Sakura blinked and her expression blanked, becoming clueless. "Like what?" She asked, returning to her food. She folded up the remains of her garbage and leaned back to take aim and throw it---successfully---into the trash can.
"Like you want to tell me something, but you don't know how to phrase it. Like you're unsure of how I'd react." He calmly cupped her cheek with his hand and looked imploringly at her.
"It's nothing." She held his gaze unblinkingly, a trick she'd learned from Itachi when lying to someone. She carefully made sure that her eyes remained blank, quickly smothering the pang of sadness at remembering Itachi.
It'd been one of those days when she and Itachi were lollygagging about, being late to a meeting with Akatsuki. Leader had been grumpy and had demanded to know where they had been that made them so late. Itachi had covered up their lateness so easily that Sakura had to know how he'd done that. It was only once that Itachi had ever lied to Pein and the next day he and Pein seemed to be sharing an inside joke. She supposed Itachi told Pein the truth.
She was glad Itachi had taught her how to lie so fluently, as it was useful to know in a situation like this. Her emerald gaze held his steadily, until Sasuke blinked and appeared to retreat for the time being.
"Alright," He conceded his tone soothing. He kissed her cheek and leaned back, watching as she let a small smile settle onto her features and fold her hands onto the table. She was quiet for the remainder of lunch and spoke when they walked to her locker together.
"You're really not playing around, are you?" Sakura spoke with purpose, looking up at Sasuke's expression to see if anything wavered there.
"No, I'm not." He turned his head to look at her the same time as his hand reached to encircle her waist. It was a possessive motion, to emphasize his words.
She wanted to ask, why me? Why would the most popular and sought-after boy in her grade want to out with her? But she didn't, knowing that he would see it as a sign of weakness and attempt to give her pity. Her former stubbornness around him was still present, a habit not to break. Sighing, she turned in his arms to her locker, twirling her combination in and letting the door pop open with a squeaking sound. It was an odd little sound she mused, the metal against metal.
"Come along now, we might be late," Sasuke whispered by her ear and startled her out of her musings. They'd been standing there longer than she'd thought; the people that filled the halls were rushing to class, afraid of the punishment for tardiness. Nodding absently, she retrieved her books and together, they set off to class.
The day moved on quickly and it wasn't until Sakura was startled out of her musings did she realize that she'd been standing in front of her locker (she seemed to find herself musing a lot there), holding her jacket, for a fairly long time. It was a smooth lilting tenor voice that Sakura would be able to place anywhere.
"Sakura-san." His formal address of her seemed like a slap to the face when her head snapped to look at him. He appeared the same as always, but Sakura wasn't fooled; the twin lines of stress and lack of sleep that were always faintly on his high cheekbones stood out more darkly against his too pale skin. His shoulders were tensed and she could see the muscle on the side of his jaw jump out stressfully. "You should get going; the school will be closing up soon." His tone was flat and unfeeling, controlled to utter monotone.
Sakura wanted to say something witty to make him laugh, but her eyes shuttered instead and she shouldered her bag, discarding her jacket on the locker floor. She shut the door with an abrupt snap and walked stiffly by him; head held high, dull emerald eyes reflecting Itachi's unfeeling coal ones.
There was a fleeting emotion in both their eyes when their gazes met, each quickly looking away as Sakura walked out of the school. Immediately, she turned the opposite direction of her house, feet slowly trudging and then slowly gaining pace until she was full-out sprinting down the streets, navigating her way to a house she had only been to twice. She slowed when she approached the walkway, calming to a brisk stride as she made it up the flagstone path to the worn but lovingly used front porch and knocked three consecutive times and waited one, two, three breaths and knocked once.
The door opened and she didn't give him a chance to say anything as she threw herself into Sasori's arms and promptly burst into tears.
- - - - -
After spilling all of her guts out to Sasori, she finally took a sip of the tea that he had made her and bit her lip as she realized that he'd made it the exact way she liked it. She was still a little wobbly from her outburst earlier but so far she was keeping steady. Her verdant emerald gaze sought out dark maroon eyes that seemed to have a tinge of charcoal flecks in them. He was brooding, his eyes clouded with thought, but he seemed to be digesting the information rather well, all things considered.
"So what you're saying is you've gotten a little lost along the way here." He stated after a long while, eyes clearing and pinning her down with his look.
She nodded mutely, unsure of what to say. She felt as if she had just unloaded a heavy book bag off her shoulders and talking with Sasori about it was a good thing.
"Well then, judging by what happened in the hall today," He paused as he watched her eyes darken in sorrow, "Itachi has closed himself off from you." He said these words very gently, as he had had to pry that story out of her. He watched as she flinched, and mentally curled in on herself, her knees already having curled to her during her recollection. Her eyes shuttered and she attempted to hide her face behind her knees. Sighing, he got off his armchair and sat with her on the couch and let her crawl into his lap and his embrace.
"Which means," He started again, letting the rumbling of his voice in his chest act as a soother, allowing her to lean her head on his shoulder, forehead to his neck. "He will probably be emotionally distant, avoid you as much as physically possible and definitely get in a few fights with Deidara. Which means more pouting for me---" He broke off as she let out a sad little snort, "and general grumpiness from Itachi. You have to give him room. Itachi isn't like other people. You can't fight and then make up with him. He won't allow for you to get anywhere near him for the next while." He started to rub soothing little circles into her back, calming her slowly increasing breathing.
"So, with that, you could just ...explore with Sasuke. See how everything goes. Not to use him and learn and just dump him. Figure out why he makes you feel like he's an adventure. Work out the details."
Sakura looked up at him uncertainly and he pecked her cheek affectionately, reassuring her and shooing away the vulnerability in her eyes. "If that's what you think..." She trailed off, unsure of what else to say.
"Trust me darling, whether you think so or not, you'll make it through. Dei and I will help and support you along the way. Just don't get snot in Dei's hair; he only lets me do that." He smiled a small, silly little smile that he would get on his face when speaking of Deidara.
She was a little jealous of Sasori and Deidara, for them to be together against such odds and for her to be so lost on what to do. It made her think of Pein and Konan and she realized that she wanted to be like them. To be confident in what she did and how she felt. A resolve was forming in her mind, her emerald eyes flickering to life and vibrancy as she gained confidence from said resolve.
Sasori watched as dear little Sakura came back to her usual brilliance and he knew that his work here was done. He congratulated himself and figured he could brow-beat Deidara into making him and Sakura his specialty brownies in celebration of cheering her up. With that thought in mind, he nudged her up and stood himself, grabbing her hand and tugging her along.
"Where are we going?" She asked bewilderedly.
"To get some brownies." He answered shortly, both smiling as they made their way to his boyfriend's apartment.