Mine
Sakura examined her reflection in the mirror, heart racing. She was somehow more intimidated by what she was preparing for right now than she had been prepping for Homecoming last weekend.
Her first date with Sasuke Uchiha.
Sometimes it just didn't feel real, that the past few days had been a dream; that he'd kissed her, not once on a whim but twice, told her he liked her, said the words she'd been longing to hear. It was like a week out of someone else's life, and after the spiraling vortex of misery she'd experienced after her break-up with Kiba (who still avoided her), it was too good to be true.
Only it was, and now, she was faced with the monumental task of dressing to impress someone who was notoriously difficult to impress.
He wakes up every day and rolls out of bed looking like a fucking movie star, she thought irritably, loathing the way her once-favorite purple dress fit her as she modeled it in front of the mirror. And I'm supposed to keep up with THAT?
"Everything all right, Sakura?" she heard Kakashi call through the door.
"Yeah!" she called back. "Just a…stupid wardrobe malfunction."
"Ah. Well, let us know if you need any help!"
He sounded way too giddy considering the circumstances. Sakura rolled her eyes and giggled, selecting a black bodycon miniskirt from her closet and tugging it on instead of the dress. It was clear that one of her fathers plugged the Sasuke/Sakura love train hardcore, at least.
The same could not be said for her other father.
"Let us know if you need any mace!" Iruka called. "I know we give you some in your stocking every Christmas but you never even take them out of the plastic, Sakura. What good is pepper spray gonna do you if when you really need it, it's still vacuum-packed? I tell you time and time again to keep it handy, and…"
"Dad!" she whined. "It's Sasuke. I'm not gonna need pepper spray when I'm around Sasuke, he's scarier than anything that would try to hurt me!"
"It's meant to be used on Sasuke, muffin."
"DAD!"
"I'm just saying!"
"Daddy, can you get him out of here or something? I need to find something awesome to wear and I cannot concentrate when he's screaming ridiculousness at me."
She heard Kakashi chuckle from the hallway and guide Iruka downstairs, where he couldn't kick up anymore of a fuss. Sighing, she glanced at her closet and tried to find something appropriate.
It couldn't be too garish or sexy; that would look like she was trying too hard. Dejected, she tossed a sequined blouse into the bottom of the closet in a wrinkled heap. She selected an Argyle sweater instead, only to promptly discard that as well. What am I, his TUTOR? GOD. Why is this such a pain in the ass?
Oh, come on, Sakura. You know what you're doing. This is Sasuke. He's not gonna care what you wear. As long as YOU think it looks good, that's all that matters. And girl, you can never go wrong with a gray sweater.
Slightly heartened, she selected a thin, loose gray sweater that sloped off one shoulder, conservative enough to look casual, but a little daring with the exposed skin and how it fell on her. Giggling, she reflected on how she'd never had any of this trouble when she was dating Kiba.
Black nylons went on next, because it is a universally-accepted beauty secret that black nylons made any outfit sexy and classy automatically, followed by ankle-high boots with a heel that would lift her to maybe Sasuke's nose, if she was lucky.
I wonder where he's gonna take me, she thought dreamily, running a ceramic straightener dazedly through her hair.
She felt like, well, a lady in this situation with Sasuke. Dating Kiba for a year, she felt like a girl; he didn't take her to fancy restaurants, they jumped right into the sexual aspect of a relationship without any proper waiting, she almost always paid for herself when they went anywhere. And there was nothing wrong with that arrangement, but it certainly felt strange to be seeing Sasuke, who despite his bad attitude and terrible social skills, was, surprisingly, a gentleman.
There was something very innocent, very classic, very terrifying about a first date. She'd been a thousand places with Sasuke before, just the two of them, and there was never any awkwardness, any discomfort. Their relationship was perfectly natural, as easy as breathing. But now they'd changed the game completely. What would their dynamic be tonight?
I hope it's exactly the same, she thought with a faraway smile, pulling her blunt bangs straight so they fell into her eyes. I hope he still teases me and I hope I still get on his nerves, and we just add the sexy part in as well.
There was a knock at the front door, and that stunned her. He's picking me up at the door? She thought, eyes wide as she barely remembered to unplug the straightener. A panicked final look at her reflection in the mirror confirmed that she'd done everything possible to enhance her beauty; a quick swipe of peach-colored lip gloss and she was finally done.
Sasuke picking her up at the door was another novelty. It happened in books, in old movies, but never in real life. Kiba honked at the curb when he came to pick her up and she thought that was romantic.
It was impossible to fight the smile on her face as she hurried down the stairs to greet him.
Though he was talking to both of her fathers and partially hidden, Sakura drank him in like she was dehydrated. He looked effortlessly, impossibly handsome, in dark jeans and a black button-up shirt underneath his letterman jacket. There were no flowers or chocolates in his hand, but Sakura was grateful for that; she enjoyed a little of the old-time romantic charm he was laying on, but she was a 21st century girl at heart. That he came to the door to get her was romance enough.
"Hey," she said breathlessly, interrupting whatever terrible threats Iruka was not-so-subtly laying on him.
Sasuke's gaze snapped to her face as she came down the stairs, and the slow smirk that unfolded on his face made her melt. She blushed all the way to the roots of her hair and decided that perhaps he was impressed with her appearance after all.
Iruka cleared his throat, breaking the googly-eyed spell she was under, and she composed herself before continuing down the stairs.
"Hey," Sasuke said, his voice quiet as ever, but there was a warmth in his eyes she'd never seen before.
"I'm ready, sorry if I kept you waiting," she said, even though she knew he'd only been there for about thirty seconds. Still, thirty seconds of listening to Iruka list all the ways he could decapitate a person had to be exhausting, and not necessarily prophetic of a good first date. "All set?"
"Aa," he murmured. "I'll have her home early," he added to her fathers, respectfully inclining his head, something Sakura had literally never seen him do before.
"Not TOO early!" Kakashi said cheerfully, at the same time Iruka snarled, "Sure as shit, you will, if you don't want me to come after you!"
Sakura sighed, half-amused, half-mortified, and kissed both her dads goodbye. Iruka was still grumbling, but Kakashi ruffled her perfectly straightened hair and spared her a crinkle-eyed smile.
"Don't embarrass us," he said, fake-stern. "If you play your cards right, we could have an Uchiha in the family."
"DADDY."
And before either one of her dads could humiliate her further, she snatched her coat, seized Sasuke's hand, and yanked him out the door.
"So where are you taking me?" she asked with a flirty smile, and Sasuke could safely say he had no idea.
Or rather, he did have an idea. An entire plan at the beginning of the day where he would take her, what they would do, but all of that flew out the window, along with rational thought, when Sakura danced down the stairs like something out of his most private fantasy. More beautiful than any girl ever was, smiling and beaming and happy and all for him.
He swallowed hard. Don't screw it up, stupid. She's always been gorgeous, stop getting tongue-tied like you're the fucking JV team watching cheerleading practice.
"Surprise," he said, with a smirk.
"Sasuke you know I hate surprises," she whined.
"I also know you said you were on a boy diet, but you're here with me, so what does that tell you."
"That you have an annoyingly specific memory," she muttered, but he detected the amusement in her voice. So far, so good; he was worried that perhaps changing the dynamic in their relationship might make things awkward between them, and the absolute last thing he wanted to have happen would be to take his easy friendship with Sakura and turn it into something uncomfortable. But it seemed like the only things that were changing between them were the way he no longer hid his frequent looks in her direction, and of course the kisses that threatened to consume him whole.
And he could live with that.
"Seriously, where are you taking me?" she pressed from the front seat.
"Quiet, woman," he ordered. "Did you eat yet?"
"No. I was too nervous to eat." At his surprised glance, she blushed furiously and pretended to look at something out the window instead. The Freudian slip, however, had him smirking in satisfaction. Nervous, huh?
Me, too, Sakura.
"All right."
It was sometimes a chore to find something to eat with Sakura, considering that she was a vegetarian, but he'd spent many years as one of her best friends, and knew her likes and dislikes better than almost anybody. If he was unsure about the rest of the date (and he was, because he'd never fucking done this before), he was confident in this.
"Froyo?!" she said happily, as he pulled into the parking lot of Konoha's nicest frozen yogurt shop. "Wow, Sasuke, home run!"
His smirk widened. Maybe not the world's healthiest dinner or the most romantic place to have the first part of their first date, but he knew Sakura. And he knew, without ever really having had to ask her, what she was looking for on a date.
And he'd choke down plain vanilla froyo for hours if she'd keep that happy, glowing smile on her face all night long.
As she happily added a generous helping of strawberry topping to her pomegranate flavored yogurt, he leaned in behind her to murmur in her ear.
"Get it to go," he said quietly, enjoying the way she shivered at the close proximity. She smelled amazing up close, like cinnamon and roses, and the confusion in her shiny green eyes was overpowered by the way they darkened in attraction. It became extremely difficult to keep his hands to himself, standing so close to her like this, but he figured he had all the right in the world to place one hand on her lower back. When she didn't bite his head off, he kept it there. "We'll eat somewhere else."
Sakura just nodded and leaned in closer to his side as she added chocolate sprinkles to her disgusting confection. When it was their turn to pay the cashier, he noticed her rummaging in her purse for some money, and frowned.
"Put it away," he ordered, irritated. It was a date, she'd been on dates before, hadn't she? What was she pulling out her money for?
"Oh," she said, surprised. "Um, are you sure?"
"Tch," he grumbled, annoyed that she must have been used to paying for herself on dates when she was with Kiba. "You don't pay when you're with me."
"That can be true some of the time," she said sharply; apparently there was a closet feminist inside of Sakura. "But this is the 21st century. You pay sometimes, and I'll pay sometimes. Capisce?"
It was annoying to think about, given that he'd been raised in a household where men paid for women on dates and there was no compromising involved. And he almost argued it, but he caught onto what Sakura was saying.
Next time.
There was going to be a next time.
Smirking a little, he nodded and pressed the money into the cashier's hand.
... ... ...
"I'm going crazy trying to figure out where you're taking me!" Sakura giggled from the front seat, their frozen yogurt in a paper bag on her lap. "Is this like, my last meal or something? And you're taking me somewhere to off me? Is this because I made you be my escort to Homecoming? Because I barely even twisted your arm, you volunteered, basically."
"You talk too much," he said curtly, secretly loving the way her lilting voice sounded in his car. It still wasn't awkward, and he was shocked at how easily they were making the transition from Just Friends to Something More. It felt as effortless as it had falling in love with her in the first place.
They were approaching their destination, and with every stoplight, Sasuke's apprehension grew.
He had a plan for the second part of his date with Sakura Haruno, but now that he was nearing its execution, he was starting to have second thoughts. What seemed natural and maybe even romantic in his head this morning, now seemed silly and a tad bit creepy. What if she was so skeeved out by what he had in mind that she dumped him before they even started officially going out?
And when the hell had Sasuke Uchiha turned into a fucking coward?
He decided to plow forward now that he'd already started. He was stubborn and arrogant, if not crippled by a frightening inferiority complex. But he'd made a plan, and he'd stick to it. Sakura deserved to know how he felt and this was the best way to show her.
With that, he pulled into the high school parking lot.
"The…school?" Sakura said, confused. "What're we doing here?"
Sasuke threw the car into park and opened the door. "Come on," he said softly.
Sakura showed every sign of wanting to ask more questions about what on earth they were doing at the Konoha High School parking lot in the middle of the night when they were supposed to be on a date, but she said nothing, merely picked up the paper bag of frozen yogurt and followed him out of the car.
It was getting colder now the later it got, and the walk from the parking lot to the senior doors of KHS had Sakura shivering in her little sweater. She looked like a model in it, but he had to shake his head at the practicality of a sweater that didn't make you warm. Without a thought, he removed his varsity jacket and slung it across her shoulders.
The blush that stole across her face had him blushing, too, and he quickly turned away.
The senior doors were, predictably, locked at such a late hour on a Saturday night. This didn't stop Sasuke, though, who'd had to break into the school more than once with Naruto for a variety of reasons; with a quick look around, he whipped a credit card from his wallet and slid it between the crack of the door to jimmy the lock open.
"Sasuke are we breaking in?" Sakura hissed in panic from behind him, her hand on his arm to stop him. "Are you crazy? Did you forget a book or something? You can borrow mine, you know!"
"Just keep your voice down," he muttered with a smirk. He couldn't help it, he loved to rile her up. Maybe if she was frazzled, they would be on level ground with each other. A few seconds careful maneuvering, and the ancient door swung forward to admit them. "C'mon."
Placing his hand at her waist again, he led her inside and shut the door behind them.
The school was empty, the way he knew it would be. Sakura's heels clacked loudly on the freshly-waxed floors as he guided her through the senior hallway, still festooned for Homecoming.
"I can't believe you broke in!" she whispered.
"You broke in, too. Be quiet."
She giggled in spite of herself. Sasuke knew Sakura was relatively straightedge, very studious and school-oriented, but he also knew she was a secret thrill-seeker. Something of a rebel, even. He knew she would be scandalized to break into school for about a minute, then she would look at it as an adventure.
They crept along the corridors to the junior hallway, and paused in front of the junior honors math room. Sakura blinked, clearly confused, as Sasuke jimmied the door open and nodded her inside.
"I mean, points for the whole breaking and entering thing," Sakura said slowly, looking around the abandoned classroom where they'd spent so many hours laboring over proofs and Pythagoras, "but this is bringing back terrible memories of us staying till eight o'clock trying to figure out what the hell anybody meant by the quadratic formula." She turned around to face him, the moonlight casting shadows off her face and starlight shining in her eyes. "So…what are we doing here?"
Sasuke stared down at her, and it was hard for him to breathe, let alone speak. It took a few moments of self-motivation, a few moments of trying to regulate his heartbeat. He had to tell her. She had to know.
He swallowed hard and shoved his hands in his pockets because he didn't want her to see how sweaty his palms were. Leaning up casually against the doorframe, hoping he looked a lot more relaxed than he felt, he said the words he knew would change their lives.
"I took you here," he said quietly, casually, "so you could see the place I realized I was in love with you."
note.. lololol. close encounters and this in one day. i will be accepting commissions to erect monuments in my honor.
just kidding. i love you guys.
xoxo daisy :)