[ May I ]
Let me raise you up
The taxi came to a stop as Sakura alighted from the cab after paying for the fare. Sakura held onto her bag and gave a huge tired sigh. She briskly walked towards the office, not until when the glass door was pushed opened and almost hit her face.
"Wooops!" Sakura was about to fall but the blonde managed to grab her by the arm.
"Sorry yeah." Deidara apologized quickly, scanning over Sakura to make sure she was fine.
"Ah, it's alright." Sakura said, before she frowned at her boss. "Where are you going?" She asked when at the moment Deidara was moving away for her to enter the building.
"Oh, I'm dropping by a few shops to buy some flowers. Need it for the vase that I just make yeah." The blonde artist answered.
"Really? I can recommend this one for you." Sakura dug into her bag, fishing out her pink purse and unzipped it. "My good friend is working here, just show her this card and she can give you really good offers. My friend is also talented in picking and choosing beautiful flowers." Sakura smiled proudly as she knew her best friend was just as amazing as she said.
"Thanks yeah." The blonde accepted the card and looked at the printed name "Yamanaka Ino." Deidara mumbled and flipped to the other side of the card. "Sakura's privilege card?" He read aloud from the printed text on the card.
"Ino wrote it. Just ignore it." Sakura said embarrassedly. "Erm, and I better get in before Sasori get impatient?" Sakura said like she was asking a question.
Deidara immediately looked up. "You should hurry yeah." The blonde made a hand signal indicating her to go. Sakura bowed politely and hurried up the stairs as the door chimed when the door closes behind her.
He shrugged as he placed the card into his pocket after looking at the address. "Worth a try, yeah." He walked to his carparkt lot and started his car, speeding off to the address afterwards.
0o0
"This is the receipt." Sakura handed the receipt with both of her shivering hands. Sasori frowned as he had noticed Sakura's uneasiness and took the paper but gave no comment other then muttering a "Thank you."
Sakura looked around the room until her eyes stopped at the clay vase that was placed on Deidara's table, it was not painted yet and Sakura assumed that the blonde artist was leaving it to dry until the clay hardened. Sasori caught her gaze before returning back to his work.
"Deidara was planning to make a vase and filled it with flowers to put on your desk today." Sasori explained. Sakura stared at the vase before at Sasori.
"Really?" She asked. Sasori slightly nodded without looking up from his work. Sakura gulped and she asked again.
"Anyway, is there anything I can help?"
Sasori stopped writing and looked at the file he had been thinking about the past two days. He quickly brushed it off before looking down and continued writing.
"I'll tell you later." The redhead answered. Sakura quickly nodded and knowing that her presence was causing him disturbance, she instantly leave the room but before she reached out the handle, a voice interrupted her actions.
"You can go for lunch if you want."
Sakura glimpsed at the busy artist before she quickly replied, "Nah it's alright, I'm not that hungry. I can hold on for another hree hou-"
A loud growled escaped from her stomach, exactly betraying what she was about to say. A blush immediately tinted her cheeks as she rubbed the back of her head innocently again while Sasori was staring at her like she was an idiot.
She was a completely different person when she was angry at him back when they were both at the petrol station.
"I shall go for lunch then. Do you need anything?" Sakura paused before asking him. Sasori shook his head and just waved her off in annoyance. Sakura nodded and swiftly exited the room within seconds.
She took her bag from her desk and exited the building, before halting and looked up at the second floor of the building. The bright golden sunrays reflected from the clear glass, making it rather impossible for Sakura to view what was behind the glass from her position. She turned her attention to the streets and stared at the throng of people roaming outside certain cafeteria and restaurants.
"Maybe I shall just eat MacDonald." She smiled brightly and said out loud, like she was announcing a piece of important news to the whole world before she strolled towards one of the most famous fast food chain restaurant in the world, finding rather ridiculous of herself.
0o0
Deidara parked his car in the car-park lot before slamming the door shut behind him and walked onto busy streets packed with worker who were on their precious lunch hours.
'I wonder if Sasori gave Sakura a lunch break or something yeah.' Deidara thought as he pushed himself through the frenzied crowd before finally reaching right outside where the address had stated in the name card.
He pushed the glass door opened as a bell chimed as it dangled at the side of the door, Deidara slightly smiled as he looked at the colours of different types of flowers neatly placed on the shelves in a long vase. The fragrance really captivates him, even possible to make him stay here and leave all his work behind him.
"Welcome!" A head popped out from the storeroom behind the counter as Ino welcomed her customer before she headed back inside and not long, she came out with a nicely wrapped flowers and placed it on the counter while one of her customers was glancing at the beautiful wrapping and nodded in enchantment at the beautiful bouquet.
"Thank you, do come back soon!" Ino said before the chimed of the bell sounded once again as the customer walked out of the store after payinng for the flowers.
"May I help you?" Ino said as her turquoise eyes shone even more colourful and bright than the flowers surrounding her, she wiped her hands clean on her white apron with flowers on it. Deidara blinked before he realized what he was supposed to do here.
"Yeah, Sakura recommended me to come here to buy flowers yeah." Deidara delved into his pocket and took out the card that Sakura had gave him before.
"You know Sakura?" Ino asked, taking the card from his hand to find out if he was saying the truth.
"Yeah. I'm Deidara, her boss yeah." He explained.
"Her Boss?" Ino's eyes widened. "You and that redhead are Sakura's boss?" The blonde almost yelled as she waved her hands in the air frantically while the card was still on her hand.
"I suppose you're talking about Sasori?" Deidara asked while the female blonde slowly nodded while she regained her composure.
"I guess it's him. The coffee-"
"Yeah, it's him. The coffee incident." Deidara cut in.
Ino face palm before sighing. "How could Sakura's day get any worse? Sakura told me about the other boss, and it must be terrible for her is he really came across that book." Ino said.
"Don't worry though, Sasori would not do anything to her. He was just saying it out of anger yeah." Deidara convinced her.
"I heard Sakura talked about her bosses. I never knew I'll met one of them at all." Ino clarified. "She told me that you are kinder and better than the redhead." Ino giggled while Deidara stared at her.
"Did she, yeah?"
Ino smiled and nodded before her expression suddenly changed. "Oh my, I'm sorry that I'm wasting your time. So, how can I help you?" .
"It's alright, I just came as I need flowers. Could you pick the flowers that Sakura likes, since I'm giving them to her." Deidara said.
Ino slightly frowned in disbelief.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm not courting her. I am going to put the vase that I made for her so I felt that I should buy flowers that she likes too." Deidara reassured her.
"I see, obviously she likes pink but she really love daisies." Ino said as she walked up to one of the shelves and pointed at the yellow daisies.
"Awesome, I'll have that then." Deidara pointed as he dug for his wallet and took out some cash while Ino was wrapping the bouquet of flowers.
"It's alright, you don't have to pay for it." Ino said as she handed the flowers to Deidara.
"I can't. I'm buying it yeah." Deidara insisted nonetheless but Ino refused.
"Just take it as a thank you gift for being Sakura's wonderful boss. Furthermore, since these flowers are actually indirectly for her so it's really fine." Ino said while she handed Sakura's privilege card back to Deidara as the male blonde took the flowers back reluctantly before digging into his wallet, pulling3 out his name card as well and gave it to her.
"Fine. Then you should call me and we can have lunch together perhaps yeah." Deidara said before leaving the store with the daises in his hands.
Ino glanced at his name card while recalling the redhead she met two days ago. "Her two bosses… are pretty good-looking actually." Ino said, a hint of jealousy in the air while she waved it off and put the name card into her purse before the bell tolled once again, indicating yet another customer coming into the shop.
"Welcome!"
0o0
Sakura walked down the avenue, her stomach filled with the gassy coke as she burped and immediately covered her mouth to avoid anyone to hear it while she continued walking, crossing the busy road as the workers were rushing back to their work.
She passed by a few cafeteria, including the one she had went with Ino and Hinata two days ago. She stopped while she smelt the wonderful aroma of the coffee and the sound of the spoon clanging onto the glass cup. She recalled about the time she accidentally spilled the coffee onto Sasori.
Sakura felt that she was a little bit over reacting and childish back then… she covered her face with both of her hands as she thought to herself 'I'm so…' Sakura sighed as she recalled today's morning about what the boss from the warehouse told her.
"So Sasori hired someone. He was always so tired when he came all the way here just to check the goods."
Sakura looked at the seats where she had sat along with her two best friends, sipping that perfect coffee. Perhaps she should buy at least something for her boss.
She entered the cafeteria as she took a nicely wrapped sandwich from the counter and ordered the same coffee she drank the other day. After paying for the drink and food, she walked back to her office and burping a few times along the way.
0o0
"I'm back yeah, where's Sakura?" Deidara asked as he placed the daisies on his desk while slowly touching his clay to make sure it was fully dried up.
"Out for lunch." Sasori answered, glancing at the yellow flowers before smirking. "Nice flowers anyway."
"Sakura's friend told me that she likes Daisies." Deidara spoke before getting some paint to paint the vase by his own self, since this wasn't a project but his own personal entertainment.
"And I'm not as heartless like you yeah." The blonde said. taking the cup of coffee he had bought along the way and placed it on Sasori's table.
"Look at you, such a sweetheart." Sasori said, full in sarcasm in it.
"You know what, Sakura told her friend about you and I yeah." Deidara began painting the vase with bright orange colors, ignoring Sasori's sarcastic words. The redhead glanced at him and tried not to be interested but was not sucessful.
"So what did she say?" He asked, trying to feign incurious.
"She said that I'm so much more kind and better than you. And I'm much more attractive and awesome, plus I'm the best boss she have ever met other than you yeah. In your face!" Deidara laughed, as Sasori rolled his eyes and went back to his work.
"Whatever, I don't intend to play friends with her and you too." Sasori remarked.
"Geez… I'm just kidding yeah. The first sentence is what Sakura had really said while the others were just added in by me, but all of them were pretty true yeah." Deidara added.
Sasori seemed eased with his partner's answer, but he was not aware of it either.
Sound of quick footsteps could be heard and the glass door was flung opened, resulting in the two artists looking at the girl who just barged in for no reason.
"Oh Deidara? You're back." Sakura said, slightly surprised as Deidara answered.
"Yeah, Your recommendation is great." Deidara said while pointing at the yellow daisies behind him. Sakura glanced at the Daises as she smiled like she was in
"Daisies!" Sakura shrilled with excitement.
"Yeah, Your friend, Ino told me about it and I find it beautiful too." Deidara smiled contentedly to himself thinking that the flowers he bought were perfect. Looking briefly at Sakura who was excited by some mere flowers, Sasori went back to his work in silence.
"Sasori." The redhead looked up to find the pink-haired girl looking at him, she placed the plastic bag that contained the cup of coffee along with the wrapped sandwich and smiled.
"I suppose you didn't eat either, you have to eat something or you'll get gastric-pain." Sakura reminded him.
"I already hav-"
"Yeah Sasori, you should eat up or you have gastric pain which is awfully bad for you." Deidara said as he swiftly took the coffee from the table that he had bought for Sasori and sipped it like it was his own.
Having no more reason to reject the food, Sasori muttered a "Thanks" after giving a glare at Deidara, which the blonde pretended that he did not see it as he casually walked back to his seat and continue sipping on the fresh coffee.
"I'll go back to work." Sakura was about to turn when Sasori stopped her.
"Sakura, read this and give me your views afterwards." He handed the white file to her as she blinked. Deidara continue sipping his precious coffee like nothing happened.
"W-what? Oh, read." Sakura stuttered before knowing what was happening as she did what her boss told her and opened the file, her eyes slightly widened after she stared at the words on the very front page of the file.
Project #36 Furniture Proposal - Day care centre.
"So, what am I suppose to do? I mean after reading of course." Sakura said, rather oblivious what was going on.
"I want you to go through the file and give me your idea on it as soon as you had any. After that, sketch your overall design for me." Sasori clarified.
"Really? I mean really?" Sakura cleared her throat as Sasori slightly nodded before pointing at the clock on the wall.
Without waiting for another second, Sakura rushed down the stairs, in hope to put in her best effort on her very first design, even if it's not up to her boss's standards, she really wanted to at least had a chance in getting Sasori's approval for her talent.
"You make it Sasori, you make it yeah." The blonde announced as he placed the coffee on his desk and continues painting, Sasori rolled his eyes and went back to his work, the file that was just by his table a while ago was given to Sakura, and he could feel his burden so much lessened.
"You finally opened your heart and-"
"Shut up Deidara, I'm just giving her a test." Sasori cut Deidara's sentence with no mercy. "Test?" Deidara raised both of his delicate eyebrows in surprise.
"Yes, I'm just testing her abilities." Sasori summarized what he was thinking about all along.
"Seriously, you need an emotion call trust yeah." Deidara stated.
"Who said I didn't trust her?" Sasori finally admitted, but he went back to his work, praying that Deidara actually missed out what he just said.
"Danna!" Deidara exclaimed, rolling his wheeled chair in front of Sasori's desk. "Man, I must tell this to the other guys about this seriously, I can't imagine a pink haired girl changed your opinion on women and trust."
"First, I didn't change my opinion on any women and second, this is nothing to brag about so you have no reasons to tell them anything." Sasori glared daggers at Deidara.
"You never mention trust." Deidara pointed out.
"Did I forget to mention about smashing that vase on your head too?"
"Fine, fine." Deidara rolled the chair and back to his desk and continued painting his vase with bright orange paint. Sasori began looking at his computer until his gaze moved to the plastic bag, which had the sandwich and the coffee in it. Rummaging the stuff in the bag, he took out the cup of coffee and took out to cover and blew the surface of the coffee and gave a sip.
'This coffee tastes pretty good.' Sasori thought as he continued to sip his coffee and took a bite on the sandwich.
0o0
"… And since this day-care centre took care of children's between 3 to 11 years old, it is important for them to grow in a proper environment. This design is specifically for…" Sakura used many descriptive words to describe with specific details and explanation like she learnt when she was studying about Design and Technology.
Sasori silently sat on his chair while tapping his feet, listening to her comprehensive ideas while she pointed out and explained the details and the sketch she had drew.
Deidara was pretty impressed with how Sakura was doing, he had actually seen Sasori going through his proposal with other of his clients before, and to say the truth, Sakura was equally awe-inspiring like Sasori.
"… This would be my idea for this erm... project." She said after clearing her throat, and both Sakura and Deidara patiently waited for the redhead's response.
Sasori stopped tapping his feet and looked at the sketch that Sakura neatly drawn. "Pretty good." Sasori said, even though he didn't really want to admit it. Sakura's bright emerald eyes glimmered like it was brighter than the stars in the night sky.
"Really?" Sakura exclaimed. Deidara wanted to laugh out loud as he seen the scene between the two of them.
Back then in high school, Sasori seemed anti-social, rarely speaking or talking to anyone except the gang with Deidara. The redhead appeared to be a sexist and never once complimented a girl after she had done something incredibly good or perfect. Being anti-social and sexist himself, mostly all the girls rather went out with the rest of the gang than Sasori, thus he was rather alone during days like Valentine's Day and etc.
But now, Sasori just complimented a woman, and he looked really funny when he did. This would certainly hit the headlines if this happened back at school.
Sasori looked at the sketch again before answering. "I'll hand this project in your charge and I'll help out when it's necessary. Would that be fine, Haruno?" Sasori questioned.
"Oh my- Yes! It would be totally fine!" Sakura jumped out of her seat as Sasori stared at her curiously, wondering what medicine did she took this morning. "I'll do my best! I promise!" Sakura beamed.
"Tomorrow, I'll show you the room." Sasori pointed at the room he was referring to casually before cutting in between Sakura's speech-of-excitements. "For now, you can edit and finalise your sketch" Sasori said.
"I'll do it as fast as possible!" Sakura quickly rushed down the stairs like lightning as the footsteps faded into silence as the two artists presumed that she was silently working on her things.
"Sasori… You just gave her a job she always wanted on the second day of her work yeah." Deidara said in disbelief.
"Is there a problem with that? You've been complaining about not giving her any work since yesterday." Sasori scowled.
Deidara was not totally convinced but didn't say anything and shrugged. He just felt that this was not Sasori's usual attitude and personality and also sensed that Sasori seemed different after he had interacted with that particular pink-haired girl.
0o0
"Mom... Ar-Are angels...Pink?"
.
.
The innocent pink-haired girl looked at the pencil and smiled sheepishly again. "Hehe, never mind, my name is actually called Haru-"
Sasori's eyes flung open and the first thing he saw was the ceiling in his dim lit room. He slowly sat up on his bed, slightly panting when he just woke up from his dream as he run through his messy red hair between his fingers in frustration.
"She's Haru…Haruno Sakura."
To be continue
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