Chapter Thirty-Four:

3 November: Occupied

Occupied. Sasuke read the text with a sigh and then set his phone back down on the large table covered with his various research materials. Part of him wanted rush from the library and go barge in on Naruto and Hinata and stop them from having sex. He could say his phone died and he never got the text. But doing so would break a foundational code of his friendship with Naruto.

When they first started university they had made a pact, with one of the rules being that if you text occupied to the other person they had to give you a three-hour window of privacy. Naruto, of course, had been the only one to ever use this rule. Typically, it had been once or twice a week, sometimes more, but lately Sasuke hadn't been receiving the text. In fact, it had to have at least been a few weeks, maybe even a month. Sasuke frowned. Maybe Naruto was finally getting serious.

He knew he should be happy for his best friend, happy for Hinata as well, but instead it just made him angry. He loved Naruto like a brother, but why did he have to have Hinata? What did he do to deserve a girl like her? The man was practically a noncommittal whore who would ignore a girl's affections not moments after he slipped between her legs. Sasuke had never and would never do that. He had loved and cherished whole-heartedly and what did it get him? A mutilated heart and an unrequited love. It just made him so…so…so ugh! Sasuke chucked his pen across the table with all his might. It bounced off the edge, spun a few times, and fell to the floor.

"This sucks," Sasuke murmured as he leaned back in his chair and ran his hands through his hair. He really needed to get his act together.

"What does?" The voice was so soft and so sudden it made Sasuke jump, knocking some of his research papers to the floor. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

"What do you want?" Sasuke asked coldly, refusing to look at Sakura as he bent down to pick up his papers.

Sakura walked up to the other side of the table and held up his pen. "You seem to have misplaced this."

Setting his papers down, he straightened his shoulders and looked at her with as little emotion as he could manage. She looked different than what he was used to, no makeup and she hadn't spent hours arranging her hair perfectly, instead it was the way he had liked it, messy and untamed.

"It's not mine," Sasuke said.

"Oh? So there's someone else in this world who buys expensive, refillable pens, and then removes the little clippy parts?" She smiled softly at him.

Sasuke reached across the table and snatched the pen from her. "Thank you. Now go away."

Sakura frowned, her shoulders slumping. "Can't we talk?"

"I'm busy."

"I just want to be friends again, Sass."

Sasuke paused at the desperation in her voice. Sakura was nothing if not a proud woman. She had never pleaded or begged a day in her life and she would never lower her head to anyone, not even on the day they broke up. He remembered it so well. Her head had been held high, shoulders straight, nothing but her sad eyes gave away what she was feeling. The woman before him now was perhaps just as broken as he was. Sighing, he sat back down and said, "I told you not to call me that."

Sakura lowered her eyes and held her books more tightly to her chest. "I'm sorry, Sasuke."

Silence fell between them. Neither knew what to do next. The air was filled with possibility and unspoken heartache. When it began to become too intense, the silence lingering for too long, Sakura bit her bottom lip and made to leave.

"Thank you, Sa-" Sasuke paused. "Ura."

Sakura's heart swelled with hope at the sound of her nickname on his lips. She looked over her shoulder at him. "Huh?"

"For the pen," he said, raising it up. "It is mine."

She smiled and nodded at him. "No problem."

"See you in class tomorrow?"

"Yeah. See you in class."

Turning, Sakura walked down the aisle in search of some other place to do her own research, though now, with a slightly happier heart.

AN: Here ends the last chapter (of five) for this single day. However, we have a little more of a calm before the drama starts seriously happening. Also, sorry for the lame nickname for Sakura. It's surprisingly hard to figure one out by just using her name alone. Feel free to give me some suggestions.