It had been at least a week and a half since their not-a-date and everything was... completely the same. Kisame was true to his word, taking her to a cozy coffee shop where they could sit and chat on comfy chairs. He bought her a blueberry muffin and, grudgingly, a vanilla latte. He insisted that it wasn't really coffee and she insisted that she didn't care. They talked solidly for what seemed like half an hour, while it was actually closer to two hours, until the annoyed barista started sweeping around their table, not so subtly letting them know it was closing time.
He drove them home in his little blue car, the smell of coffee clinging to their clothes. She could only marvel at the fact there were no explosions, there wasn't copious amounts of alcohol that made her make a fool of herself, and she hadn't managed to hurt herself either, so this not-a-date had gone better than all the times combined that Sakura had seen Kisame out of the apartment. In the back of her mind she had wondered if she would ever see him under normal circumstances and if that was even possible. Sakura could handle a little bit of chaos, but she didn't think she could live in a constant state of fear that something was about to go horribly wrong. This quiet evening gave her hope.
"I had a great time," Sakura said as they pulled into Kisame's designated parking space.
"You better've," he grumbled, turning the car off and taking the key out of the ignition. "Do you know how overpriced those stupid specialty 'coffees' are?"
"Hey," she threw up her hands in mock surrender and rolled her eyes, "You're the one who wanted me to forgive Itachi. That was the agreed upon price." He just continued to grumble in response, as they walked through the building entrance. He paused when they reached their floor, just before they turned to go their separate ways.
"So, you are going to forgive him, right?" He asked, serious and concerned. "I really hate seeing him like this. He really values your friendship, you know. Although, he'd probably be grateful to anyone who was friends with that brat Sasuke for so long."
"Of course I am; I gave my word, didn't I?" She decided to ignore the quip about Sasuke. Truthfully, she couldn't deny he was almost always a brat.
"Good." He cracked a half smile, melting away the worry that was there seconds before. It was so sweet it made her heart ache. She almost felt intimidated by the bond he and Itachi shared, even if they weren't together in a romantic sense, they had something that was probably infinitely stronger. Sakura wasn't sure she would ever be able to compare, or even come close to something like that with him, but she'd never know unless she tried. "It'll be nice to see you around the apartment again. Kuro misses you."
"Wait, wait, wait," Ino interrupted her story, trying to get the facts straight. It had been far too long since she had talked to her best friend so she had decided to skip over the fine details of Deidara's exhibition and why she was so mad at Itachi, giving only a rushed synopsis of events. Thankfully, Ino hadn't pressed for that information and jumped right to the key points. "So he's not gay gay? And you went on date and he said he missed you?"
"No, he said Kuro missed me," Sakura sighed back; sometimes she only heard what she wanted to, "and it wasn't a date. I kind of forced him to go anyway."
"Well, I think it counts. Just the two of you, mutual attraction, romantic cafe rendezvous; that's a date in my book, whether he knew it or not. Just a sec," Sakura could hear an annoyed customer in the background as her friend put down the phone, helped them quickly and got right back to their conversation. "Anyway, you said he's self conscious and oblivious, right? Obviously when he says Kuro he means himself."
"How does that make any sense?" She asked, exasperated by the leaps in logic Ino often made. She had to admit she was better at dating than her so maybe she was right. It sounded awfully loud in the flower shop as far as she could hear. Because she worked at her parents store, Ino didn't have to worry about getting fired but Sakura didn't want their business to suffer because of her. "Are you sure you can talk right now? It sounds busy..."
"It's fine! It's so dead here right now!" It didn't sound dead from the chatter she could hear over the line, but Ino moved right along into her explanation. "He's using Kuro as a way to tell you he missed you without putting him in a place of vulnerability. He might not even be doing it on purpose, it might just be his reflexive response. Do you really thing the cat noticed you haven't been around? I don't think so. He missed you and he just could bring himself to say it outright."
Sakura thought it over and supposed it did make a bit of sense. "I guess you're right."
"I am right." The sound of peeved customers was getting louder. "Unfortunately, it sounds like you're going to have to make the first move, so march right over there and kiss the fool, okay?"
"Sure thing, Ino," Sakura drawled, rolling her eyes, "I'll go do that right now."
"Good." Ino said, sounding pleases and then huffed. "I have to go. Customers." She hung up with a click leaving Sakura to think.
Ino was right of course; like she had been telling herself for weeks, she needed to just tell him point blank she was interested in him rather than dancing around the subject. It was clear by now subtly was lost on him. But, it was easier said than done. Kisame wasn't the only one who was worried about rejection. The only other time she had confessed to someone she was met with cold, hard refusal which left her a bit timid on the subject.
And then there was the question of when was the best time? Was she just supposed to tell him when they passed in the hall? 'Hey, how's it going? Do you think the super fixed that dryer yet? I'm in love with you, by the way.' That just didn't seem right to her, but she also doubted there was ever going to be a perfect moment either. Sakura groaned and buried her face in a couch cushion. Why was this so hard?
She pulled herself out of her wallowing when there was a hurried knock on the door. Itachi stood nervous and tense on her doorstep.
"Have you seen Kuro?"
"No," Sakura replied, "Did something happen?"
"I had the door open for a second and he managed to escape," Itachi explained, worry etched in lines on his forehead. "I've searched the whole building but I can't find him. I'm concerned the landlord will find him first, or maybe he's not in the building anymore."
"Hold on, I just have to get my keys and then I'll help you look," she hurried back to her kitchen to grab her keys and cellphone off the table, and after a second thought, grabbed her jacket just in case. "We'll find him, Itachi." She put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed reassuringly, coxing a tight lip smile out of his still strained face.
"Thank you, Sakura. I'm afraid if I found him I wouldn't be able to get him back to the apartment by myself," he sighed. "Kisame's outside looking for him already. I'm going to start from this floor and work my way down again."
"I guess I'll look outside too. There's more ground cover out there." Itachi nodded and headed in the opposite direction of the stairs. "Text me if you find him!" Sakura called after him.
Once Sakura was outside she started to worry. It wasn't terribly late but it was already getting dark and looking for a runaway black cat at night sounded like an impossible task. If it were normal circumstances she would have just waited for Kuro to return on his own but if they did that it was almost guaranteed the landlord would find him first, especially if Kuro was still in the building. She didn't want to find out what would happen if he spotted the same cat a second time.
When she didn't see Kisame anywhere she assumed he had already move on to the next street over so she started looking around the perimeter of the building to the right. As an indoor cat, she imagined he might be drawn to the small grassy field that was already overgrown now that the snow had melted. The tall grass was probably filled with small critters he could pounce on. After a few steps off the concrete of the parking lot she was already regretting her choice of shoe, light pink flats, as they sunk into the wet mud. It was too late now, Sakura pressed on, feet already cold and wet.
"Kuro!" she called, not really expecting that to work. "Here, kitty, kitty!" She continued to wade through the mid-shin high grass as quietly as she could, gently calling out his name. A few times she swore she heard a quiet meow from somewhere close by, but every time she paused to hear where it was coming from she didn't hear it again.
The early evening light was fading fast and the street lights were starting to come to life but their glow hardly reached the far corner where Sakura currently found herself. She reached for her phone again, making sure she hadn't missed a text from Itachi. Nothing. It was fast approaching 9 o' clock and she didn't want to give up, but she couldn't stay out all night.
"Maybe I should go back inside now..." Sakura muttered to herself. They needed to find him, but this seemed futile.
A large hand descended on her shoulder without warning. She shrieked and spun around, fists draw and landed a sucker punch right in the solar plexus of a surprised Kisame. He grunted and doubled over, clutching his stomach with one hand.
"What are you doing!" she blurted out. "Don't just sneak up on people!"
"Sorry," he groaned. "Has anyone ever told you you have a wicked jab?" He tried to laugh but it came out as more of a wheeze. She felt kind of bad now, but before she could apologize she spotted the amused looking cat tucked under his other arm. "Look who I found."
"Where was he?" she asked, delighted, and look him off Kisame's hands so he could recover. Kuro purred blissfully.
"Just a block down that way," he said, nodding his head in the direction. "The little shit was taking a nap on someones car."
"Itachi will be so relieved," Sakura sighed, scratching the cat under his chin. "Ah, are you doing okay?"
"I'm fine," Kisame assured her, standing back up to his full height, "I'm used to getting the wind knock out of me, but usually I'm expecting it. We should get back inside now."
She nodded in agreement and they both turned to make their way back to the front door, navigating the dark and slippery terrain with some difficulty. They walked up the stairs, Sakura trailing a few steps behind after whipping her ruined shoes off on the large door mat when Kisame looked back at her, shaking his head a little bit and then started talking to someone, making her stop half way up the flight of stairs.
"Hey, how's it going?" She could hear Kisame's voice boom.
"I've been hearing reports of someone sneaking around outside," the nasally voice of the landlord replied. "You don't know anything about that, do you?" Sakura made a hasty retreat down the steps. She could still hear their voices.
"Yeah, that was me." Kisame could barely restrain the annoyance in his voice. "I thought I heard an injured animal out there, so I went to check. Whatever it was, it's gone now."
"Right," the landlord muttered, apparently unconvinced. She had heard that Kisame didn't get along with him and she didn't have to guess why. "Next time, just call animal control." She could hear his footsteps getting closer so she hurried around the corner out of site, hoping that he didn't decide to go in that direction. She could hear him scuffling down the steps and passed her, off to bother someone else. She waited another minute to be sure he was really gone and hurried back up to meet Kisame who stood seething quietly. They made it to his apartment without further incident.
A/N: I am so, so sorry that it took this long to update. I hope it was worth the wait! I kind of thought this was going to be the final chapter, but obviously that isn't the case (I couldn't realistically end on the 11th chapter, what a gross number to end on.) Rest assured, there will be at least one more chapter.