February – Week 4 (Part I)

Sakura was a bundle of nerves as the phone rang. Her heart was in her throat, and her hand jittered as she reached for it. She endlessly wished that she could ignore it but it was her job to answer. So, steeling herself for the worst, she winced.

"Moshi moshi, Kohana University Libraries. My name is Sakura, how can I help you?"

She nervously glanced toward Choji, who gave her a silent thumbs-up. Thanks to the support, her heart rate slowed and confidence flooded her. Sakura slotted the office phone in between her neck and shoulder as she continued on the phone with the student.

It seemed like they needed some help finding a book.

Imagine that.

Seconds later, she'd finished the conversation with a sigh of relief. "Not too bad for my first solo call, ne?" she chuckled, looking toward Choji once again.

"Of course not, Sakura-chan! I knew you'd be a quick study," he complimented. "I'm not too bad of a teacher, either! Ha!"

Sakura laughed, "Nah, there are certainly worse. Thanks so much for hooking me up with this. You don't know how much you're helping."

Her hire was extremely last-minute, but it really came in the nick of time. Her rent wasn't going to pay itself and interning at the Counseling Center barely cut it. Sakura spent the rest of her shift unremarkably – answering a few calls here, checking in and out books there. Time seemed to fly, and before she knew it was time to clock out.

"Hey, Udon," she greeted her coworker when she reached her break room locker.

He sniffled, "Hey. Sakura-chan, right?"

Sakura smiled, "Mmhm. I'm surprised you remembered. I haven't noticed you working here since my first day."

"You say that like you've been here more than three days!" he laughed. Sakura shrugged good-heartedly as Udon explained, "I feel like they always hole me away at the EL, but – oh. I've been meaning to tell you, I'm really excited we'll be working together tomorrow."

"I don't work in the Engineering Library, Udon-kun," she said hesitantly.

Udon frowned and urged her along to follow him to the schedule posting for the next day. "Says so right here," he sniffed. "Katō-san doesn't really make errors, so I'd definitely recommend checking in with her if – "

"Oh, no," Sakura interrupted, waving Udon away as she approached the board. Her eyes narrowed in their search and widened in horror upon finding her little pink pin positioned just as indicated.

This is horrible, she thought.


xxxxxxx

"Shizune, please," Sakura begged immediately after class the next day. She clipped at the aforementioned's heels as she all but chased her through the busy halls of the psychology building. The rosette nearly bumped into a fellow student – earning a nasty sneer – in her efforts to beat Shizune to her office door.

Sakura shoved herself in front of the brunette's door and slammed it shut, effectively eliminating all opportunities for her to escape her pleas.

She grinned innocently.

"I already told you, Sakura," the brunette repeated, unfazed. "There are absolutely no ways in or out about this. When you work for University Libraries, you work for all of them, and you seemed to understand this –"

Sakura interrupted her, "Things change, Zune-chan."

Shizune's mouth pursed.

"I gave preferences, Shizune-san," Sakura whined.

"Katō-san, if you would."

Sakura blanched, looked from left to right, and drew nearer to Shizune before whispering, "Dude, are you serious?"

Sakura wasn't used to Shizune being in a formal leadership role; when they had first met, she was her pre-med mentor as a first-year student. Now, Shizune served as TA for two courses and as the graduate supervisor for all the University libraries. Through all the time that they'd known each other, Shizune had definitely pulled more than a few strings for Sakura because of her positions. Sakura didn't see how one more would hurt.

And she really needed this one if she was going to keep on successfully avoiding all personal contact with Uchiha Sasuke.

Their phone call was tonight for Kami's sake! How on Earth would she secretly call him when there was a 99.99% chance he'd be in the same room as her?

"Fine," Sakura stated, out of other options. "Katō-san, I really need your help with this. Please."

Something in Sakura's expression must have changed from desperate to pitiful because Shizune visibly softened. She relented, "I have to get a couple of things done before Tsunade-sama's 4:15 lecture, but –"

The younger's arms were encasing the older's in a boa-like grip of a hug before the sentence could be finished. Several of Shizune's vertebrae cracked in between her mentee's kisses and praises, "Thank you, thank you, thank you, Zune-chan!"

Shizune peeled herself apart from Sakura. "Don't thank me yet," she warned.

"The fact that you're even trying is enough, believe me," Sakura breathed, thankful.

Dark eyes narrowed inquisitively. "Is something else going on that you want to talk about? Mentor to mentee."

Sakura bit her lip. "Ah, no," she lied quickly. Shizune's eyes flicked to hers, and Sakura dodged them as she slipped away and into student traffic, seemingly never to be seen again.


xxxxxxx

As the newest addition to campus, the Engineering quad was positioned in one of the farthest corners of Konoha University, buried beautifully amongst trees and sidled amongst small streams. All of the buildings still sparkled of newness, with sharp, unmarred red brick and sparkling glass uniform throughout. At the center of all the beauty was the Engineering Library.

Oh, and Sakura.

Sakura was there, too.

The rosette was a jittery, itchy, nervous wreck at the second floor's help desk. She was doing all that she could – read: throwing her jacket hood over her pink head and ducking behind the desk as often as possible – to hide her identity. As she peered over the ledge of the desk, her green eyes were darts and the faces of each library patron was the target. Not a single one had been Sasuke...yet. And, somehow, as more time passed, Sakura only found herself getting more and more anxious.

The mental barrage of curses that she was sending Shizune's way was endless.

"Are you okay, Sakura-chan?" Udon asked hesitantly.

Sakura whispered, "Yeah. I'm fine," as she kept her head on a swivel, scanning.

"Are you looking for someone?"

She halted.

Then, she answered slowly, "No...but do you know–"

"Oh, hey, Sasuke!"

Sakura yelped and flung herself into the air and underneath the desk in a millisecond, a tornado of papers flying in her wake. How had she missed him! Her heart pounded in her ribcage. What the hell!

"Oh, my God," she breathed lowly to herself, pressing her hand to her chest. She'd just gotten this job and she was going to have to quit right now. She could eat air for the rest of her lease if that meant she wouldn't be needing to put herself in the line of fire like this on a regular basis.

Udon tapped her shoulder three times and smiled down at her. "Erm, Sakura-chan," he murmured. "Could you hand me the key for Sound Studio 3?"

Sakura blanked. Right. Sasuke wasn't stalking her. There was no line of fire to avoid. Sasuke just...wants to use the library and she works here. She inhaled deeply and brushed her pants off as she stood up. "Sure, no problem," she grinned, voice a little shaky.

Unsurprisingly, Sasuke was waiting at the front of the desk in all of his cool, careless hotness. His eyebrows rose slightly upon seeing Sakura and his mouth fell slightly agape in shock.

He had no idea she worked here.

"Hi," Sakura said quickly before stiffly turning herself away to dig through the appropriate draw for the key. "Here you are," she extended the key to Sasuke and gently placed it into his palm, concentratedly avoiding his intense study of her features. Maybe she was imagining it, but her fingertips seemed to light on fire when they brushed his skin.

Sasuke took the key and muttered a quiet, "Thanks," before striding away. Sakura watched his back as he walked away, just as mesmerized by his walk as she was with how quickly he seemed to have escaped. Before long, he was lost in between the mass of student traffic and long gone. When she was certain he wasn't coming back, Sakura exhaled a breath she did know she was holding, pulled her hood off her head, and leaned into her chair.

That was close.


xxxxxxx

As per usual, Sasuke stayed in the music studio for as long as he could, mixing and mastering to his heart's content. His head bobbed gently to the rhythm he was creating. He was deep into a chorus – or, maybe a hook? He deleted a sequence and rewound it, then jotted a note in his journal about an idea – when three knocks gently rapped at the door behind him.

He shifted his headphones onto his neck and swiveled his chair around to the glass door. The light from the hallway was much brighter than the dim that he preferred to work in, but her pink head was unmistakable.

"Studio's closing in 5, just letting you know," Sakura said routinely, eyes focused on the list of tasks on her clipboard. She'd done the final 2:00 am count of patrons on each of the three floors, closed out all of the study rooms, and locked up rental equipment; wrapping up the sound labs was the last thing on her list before she could finally go home.

Sasuke watched as a yawn curled out of her mouth and she stretched before starting, assumedly, toward one of the other studios down the hallway. Feeling a rush, he quickly saved his project and clicked a few buttons to close the desktop browser. He grabbed all of his things into one arm and galloped toward the door.

"I'm done," he called. Sakura turned toward him, clearly startled, if the way she cutely gripped her clipboard to her chest was any proof. A smirk involuntarily tilted the Uchiha's lips upward, but he smothered the strange lightness that warmed his chest and finished, muttering, "Everything's out."

Sakura cleared her throat, "Ahem," and gave Sasuke a hesitant once-over before scuttling toward him. He sidestepped out of her way as she locked the door, and leaned on the wall, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"Thanks," Sakura murmured carefully. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear before looking toward him and asking, "Was there anything–"

Sasuke interrupted, "I drove."

Sakura gulped. "Okay, so–"

"It's late."

Sakura's eyes widened with realization and she shook her head, "No way, Sasuke, you don't have to…"

"I am."

Her green eyes narrowed as a certain sense of challenge filled the air. Her mouth tightened into a line as she glared into Sasuke's dark orbs. Sasuke didn't know what exactly to make out of the way her staring him down, eye-to-eye, made him feel, but he was more than willing to entertain the game.

He would be taking her home.

Several tense seconds passed before Sakura scoffed, "Fine, give me ten." She turned, and her long hair whipped behind her to leave rosemary and mint lingering in the air. Sasuke inhaled deeply and closed his eyes, taking in the smell.

Surprisingly, he didn't mind it.


A/N: Sorry y'all. Writing this was beyond difficult for some reason, and then the COVID thing happened. My apologies! Hopefully I'll have a lot more time to write now that my schedule is unexpectedly cleared haha.

Stay well,

hot