[ May I ]
May I hold you, as you fall to sleep.
"You look… Beautiful."
Sasuke opened the car door as Sakura entered inside, slightly adjusting her clothes awkwardly. The Uchiha closed the door before entering at the other side of his vehicle as he soon started the car.
"Really? Ino and I had went to the shopping mall yesterday and pick this dress after an hour of searching. I'm glad you like it." She shyly said, clutching onto her handbag while looking down at her feet.
Sasuke slightly smile, driving his car down the street.
The cherry-haired girl stared at him for a moment before she averted her gaze to the front. It had been a few minutes of silent as the Uchiha focused on the road. She started to felt rather edgy and anxious whenever he stopped his car at the traffic light, thinking that they had reached their destination and would have to meet Sasuke's parents.
"Are you nervous?" Her boyfriend asked, noticing how quiet she was. She confessed and nodded.
"This is the first time I'm meeting you parents, since they were always overboard when I went to your house. It's rather uneasy and-"
Sasuke placed his hand over Sakura's shivering ones while the other was still on the wheel. She looked up to find him smiling, slightly laughing.
"What's so funny? I'm serious!" Sakura pouted, moving her hands away from Sasuke and crossed her arms, looking out of the window in displeased.
"So you've been worrying about this all day long? You don't have to worry…" He turned his car and headed to another street, starting to slow down as his estate could be seen a few meters away. A few other cars were parked beside the house or drove in to parked beside the garden. He pulled over, which startled Sakura, just realizing they had reached.
"You'll do great, I'm sure you'll leave them an unforgettable impression."
Sakura silently gulped, Sasuke alighted from his car and goes around the vehicle to open the door for Sakura. She knew how clumsy and an accident-prone person she was. What if she were to ruin her very precious first impression? Would her dream in getting married with such a perfect boyfriend just be destroyed and gone?
The Uchiha's heir reached out his hand for Sakura to hold and alighted from the car. She stepped out of the car with her high heels, giving a bright broad smile as she tries to gain back her confidence.
"Let's go, my Princess." He chuckled. Deciding to play along with him, she slightly lifted up her dress and bowed.
"Please lead the way, my Prince."
0o0
Sasori drove his car into a street and parked swiftly at the end of the road. He slammed his door shut before locking it and putting the car keys into his pocket.
Walking down the well-lit street towards a huge estate, he noticed a few other people were strolling towards the Uchiha's property, wearing all sorts of branded clothes bags and accessories.
The only thing Sasori could think in his mind was that all of them wore all of these were just to impress Itachi's father, Fugaku Uchiha, in order to work with their huge company and strike deals together. Sasori scoffed and shook his head, continuing his slow walk.
The redhead shuffled his feet, looking down at all times, feeling uninterested in other things. But just then, something caught his eyes as he walked further down, he turned around to find the familiar dark blue BMW car that he had seen this afternoon parked at the side of the pavement. Sasori blinked, remembering the scene where Sakura had got onto the exact car that he's staring right now.
"Yo shorty!"
Sasori's thoughts were immediately interrupted. He whirled around into another direction to find his same old pal Hidan, running towards the innocent redhead and jumping onto him in surprise.
"What- Hidan!" Sasori blurted out, trying hard not to fall. Hidan placed his arms over his friend's shoulder while ruffling his red hair.
"You've finally fucking grown taller! Last time I've seen you, you're below my nose!" He yelled out when in fact, Sasori could hear him extremely loud and clear. A few guests stared at the duo and muttered among themselves suspiciously, and Sasori could somehow make out what one of them were saying, something related to gay.
"OK, stopped it Hidan." The redhead muttered, slightly pushing his friend aside and stared blankly at him. "Where is Kakuzu?"
"Cheh, that bastard's been busy counting his fucking money for Jashin's sake. He had now opened the 12th branch of his own bank over the town. He just said that he would be arrive here with Kisame." He waved the subject off before playing with his long Jashin necklace. Sasori had noticed that he had been wearing since the first day of high school, or even before that.
"Hidan, Sasori." A rather monotone voice called out.
The two looked up to find Kakuzu and Kisame in the same car as Kisame waved back like a three-years old child on the front seat.
"Hey bastard, I didn't know you would come so early."
"You must be saying something stupid again." Kakuzu snorted, parking right between Sasuke's car and another unknown's one. The two guys got off the car and slammed the door shut behind them, approaching to the other two who were against the wall.
"Where's Deidara, I thought he was with you?" The weirdly blued-skin asked. The redhead shrugged, leaning onto the wall by the pavement. "We use our own car to come here, we've missed each other because of the traffic light-"
'"I'm here yeah!" A loud shout could be heard on other side of the street. All of them turned to find the rather familiar blonde running towards them.
"Speak of the little blonde devil…" Kisame wondered aloud.
"Hey Kakuzu, Kisame… and Hidan." Deidara slightly panted, mentally reminding himself that he should go to the gym tomorrow.
"Let's go, since Konan and Pein has not arrived then we shall not wait." Sasori mumbled, walking towards the gate and completely forgotten about the car he had noticed a while ago.
"They must be having some hot sex in their car." Hidan chuckled.
"Mind what you say, because he will bash you if he heard that." Kakuzu warned but the Jashinist completely ignored him. They ended up walking into the estate while reminiscing about some crap they had experienced during high school.
"Can you fucking believe this? Itachi's fiancé must have hit a jackpot when she got Itachi's heart." Hidan commented, rubbing his chin.
They entered the huge grand hall after signing their names at their entrance. Right in the middle of the hall were a long table filled with tons of small cakes and foods, a stage at the front for a few guests to dance when they were willing to. Right beside, there were a few violinists and a pianist playing a beautiful and soothing song. This was just practically too high class for them.
"Let's find the main host." Deidara nudged Sasori. He gave a nod before following the others.
0o0
"This is Sakura. Sakura, this is my mom."
Sakura politely bowed while his mother greeted back with a small smile. "I've heard a lot about you from Sasuke. You're indeed a very beautiful child just like what my son said." Uchiha Mikoto remarked. Sakura blushed and slightly smiled.
"Really? Thank you…"
"Where are Sakura's parents? Why didn't you invite them over?" She questioned Sasuke. Sakura waved both of her hands frantically. "They are currently having an overseas business trip. It's not Sasuke's fault." She explained.
Mikoto nodded before shaking her head disappointedly. "What a pity, if only they were in town, we can discuss over both of your marriage." Mikoto teased both of them.
"Mom, we know what we are supposed to do." Sasuke grasped Sakura hand to prevent her from blushing even more.
"Alright alright-" Before she could speak further, a waiter walked towards the three of them.
"Sorry for the interruption, but Mr Fugaku Uchiha wants to speak to both of you regarding to the business plan that the Sabaku Sand's trading company is willing to offer." The waiter whispered into Mikoto's ears. She nodded and glanced at Sasuke before facing Sakura.
"I'm sorry dear, but we have something important to discuss. Perhaps you should enjoy yourself at the food's table." She said, walking off. Sasuke walked behind his mother before stopping.
"You can go find my brother or find some place to rest for the time being, I'll come and find you afterwards." He only said before quickening his steps behind his mother.
Sakura couldn't do anything but nodded. She stood right in the middle of the hall, wondering around aimlessly with no one to talk to. All of the guests were from rich companies and other several foreign businessmen and she had completely nothing to talk about with them even if she were to find someone to talk to.
She really wished that her parents or Ino and Hinata were by her side now. Finding that there no other options, she went forward to the food's table to enjoy the delicious cuisine.
0o0
"That chick sure is hot." Hidan chuckled to himself.
"Stop it Hidan." Kakuzu muttered.
"Itachi sure have some fucking nice taste." Hidan wondered aloud, ignoring Kakuzu while glancing at the Uchiha and his fiancé at the other side of the hall after meeting both of them.
"Hey guys."
A familiar voice called out as everyone whirled around to find the blue and orange haired couple walking towards them. Hidan whistled at Konan while everyone sighed.
"This guy is itching for a bashing tonight…" Sasori muttered. The two of them had their hands intertwined together to show that they were a happily married couple like everyone thought they always were.
"Sorry we are late." Konan apologized.
"Where is the Itachi?" Pein looked around. Deidara pointed at the corner.
"He's busy over there yeah." He stated.
Hidan scoffed, crossing his arms while looking at Konan and Pein, they looked back and stared weirdly at the white-haired Jashinst.
"What is it?" Pein muttered.
Hidan suddenly smirked and looked at every one. "Let's have a bet!"
Kakuzu's eyes immediately lighted up and turned to face the loud mouth Hidan.
"What bet?" Kisame asked.
"Let's bet who would be the one getting fucking married next!" He grinned proudly. Everyone stared at him, looking at each other before Deidara broke the silence.
"I'm betting; on Sasori!"
The redhead knew this was coming; he turned and fixed a glare at Deidara who feigned that he didn't see anything.
"Ok, how much?" Kakuzu asked, his was already holding onto a pen and a paper. Everyone knew how efficient he was when it is related to money.
"Twenty bucks." Deidara grinned.
"I'm outta here." The redhead gritted through clenched teeth.
"Oi!" Deidara shouted, following the fuming redhead.
Pein was about to raise his hands when Hidan cut in, "Not you two fucking couple, both of you had already set a wedding date." The orange-haired slowly put down his hand while his fiancé sighed.
0o0
Sasori walked briskly through the huge numbered of guests, managing to shake off Deidara for a moment. He rolled his eyes and gave a sigh, he need some quiet time alone to think.
But God just doesn't allow him to do so, a few girls began to pester the redhead and insisted him to have a dance with them as he tried very hard to politely declined all of them since he was about to lose his temper already.
Sasori walked to a rather long table filled with many different types of cakes and drinks that could actually serve the entire people in the hall. He looked around for a moment until his eyes laid on the last small chocolate cupcake atop of a plate. He slightly smiled at the cute decoration on the small cake, reaching out to it. But to find someone beat him to it.
"This is so cute!" Sakura giggled. She grabbed the cupcake, removing the cupcake base at the side and began to munch the chocolate cupcake happily just like a kid. She was so engrossed in licking her fingers that was stained with chocolate cream that she failed to notice the redhead staring at the pink-haired girl across the table.
"Sakura."
The said girl stopped her actions immediately as she looked up and stared in horror.
"B-Boss?" Sakura nearly shouted.
"Sasori, I finally found you yeah." Deidara said, walking towards the his other as he sat his hand on Sasori's shoulder.
"Hey Saso- Sakura?"
"Why are you here?" She asked, pointing shockingly at the two of them.
"And then why are you here?" The two artists said together at once. But Deidara was too attracted to Sakura's beauty and turned his attention from the question instead.
"Sakura, you look rather gorgeous tonight yeah." Deidara smirked. Sakura's face immediately turned red as she played with the laces on her dress.
"Thanks…" Sasori glanced at her for a few seconds before turning away, making no comment about agreeing or against what Deidara said.
"Sakura, why don't you join us? You couldn't be hanging around the food table for the entire time yeah. And you looked too prepossessing to be doing that yeah." Deidara gave a wink.
"But I-" Deidara just grabbed her arm and pulled her away without waiting for her answer.
"Come on!"
"But-" Sakura tried to protest but Deidara had already dragged her away. Sasori watched the two of them before he shook his head and in the end as he followed behind them.
"Guys, Let me introduce someone to all of you, yeah."
All of them turned around to find the cheery-haired along with the blonde walking towards them. "This is my newly hired employee, Sakura. And all of them are my high school friends yeah; Kisame, Hidan, Kakuzu, Konan, Pein."
"Hello Sakura." Konan politely put out her hand while Sakura gladly accepted the handshake.
"Hello." Sakura smiled.
Hidan raised an amused eyebrow and glanced at Sakura, switching places with Kisame who was actually standing beside Sakura before.
"You're hot. Pinky." Hidan smirked. A small vein popped out on Sakura's temple as she glared at Hidan.
"Don't call me Pinky!" She bellowed.
"Pinky~" He said teasingly.
Before Sakura could argue back, Sasori appeared between the two of them out of nowhere, slightly shocking both of them after getting separated. But Sakura didn't mind. She preferred her redhead boss that this old man with white hair. "Stop being childish Hidan." Kakuzu muttered, with the pen and paper still in his hand.
Ignoring both Kakuzu and Sasori's attempt to separate the two of them by standing in between, Hidan stepped in front and looked at the two artist, "How the fuck did you manage to hire such a hot employee? Mind going out for a date?" Hidan smiled innocently.
"Hey! Mind you-"
"Sorry, but she's taken." A voice said from behind Hidan. All of them looked at the direction to find the familiar figure smiling at all of them.
"Itachi! So finally the host is free to attend us." Konan commented.
"Itachi-kun!" Sakura face immediately brightened up.
"What's with the 'Kun' behind, yeah." Deidara asked. Sasori glanced at Itachi, wanting to know what's the answer as well.
"As I said, she's taken. She's going to be my future sister-in-law." Itachi clarified, squeezing in between Hidan and Sasori.
Sasori's eyes unmistakably slightly widened, he recalled the scene he encountered in the afternoon. 'So, that guy that fetched Sakura during her work is Itachi's brother…'
"So, please mind your language!" Sakura huffed.
"Don't mind him, he have Tourette's syndrome." Kakuzu mumbled.
"What the fuck?" Hidan looked back at his friend, mouth opened wide.
"Where is your fiancé?" Konan asked. "I'll introduced her to you later. She's busy meeting up with her other friends." The Uchiha heir explained before adding.
"While I was attending to something nearby, I heard someone mentioned something about betting, what is it?" Itachi asked interestedly.
"On who the hell would be the next to get married." Hidan smirked, turning to Kakuzu before glancing at the Uchiha.
"Sasori has one awesome vote made by the blonde bastard." Hidan pointed. Sakura raised her eyebrow before making a sidelong glance at Sasori, deep in thought.
After thinking for a few second, he finally spoke. "I place my bet on Sasori as well." Itachi replied.
"And why?" the redhead demanded for an answer.
"Yeah, why?" Kisame asked his buddy. "Remember? He's the only guy in high school without dating a girl once." He added.
Sakura raised her eyebrow and stared at Sasori in disbelief. "Is that true?" Sakura asked. Sasori rolled his eye, refusing to answer.
"Yes, he's the only one yeah." Deidara answered for him.
"Shut up." Sasori gritted dangerously through clenched teeth.
As Itachi was the most intelligent person among the group, everyone wanted to know the answer as well and thus Itachi finally answered. "He just has a face that says that he's in love." Itachi finally said.
Everyone stared at Sasori. "What the shit is this Itachi." The redhead argued.
The Uchiha shrugged smartly. "I just say what I noticed." He merely said.
"How much are you betting?" Kakuzu asked Itachi. "20 bucks for me."
Sasori rolled his eyes and turned to focus on the old woman who was trying to reach out for a drink on the waitress's tray.
"How about Pinky?" Hidan asked. Sakura ignored the nickname Hidan gave before stroking her chin.
"How much would I get if I were to bet?" The pink-haired girl asked.
"Double the amount you bet." Kakuzu replied.
She nodded and began looking around the gang to find everyone staring at her, waiting for her answer. Even Sasori turned his attention from the old woman to Sakura, of course… She was so much attractive then some old woman...
The girl first glanced at Itachi. 'Itachi, Konan and her fiancé are excluded so…'
Sakura turned to Hidan and made a face. 'He's such a stupid idiot, and his face obviously shows that he's the number one playboy. So, no.'
She turned to Kisame… 'Uh, not that I'm against people who are different colored but uh… I'll skipped him.'
Kakuzu was staring at the paper while writing down the amount that he's going to earn if he were to win. 'Hm… From what I see, he's calculating and thrifty; he must be loaded… But will he be willing to spent his money for his wife or girlfriend?' After a few seconds of thinking, she turned to the familiar blonde.
Deidara was grinning at her very widely, like he was hinting her something. She frowned for a moment before pondering. 'He's a great boss. A kind and happy-go-lucky person, he's totally perfect to be one's husband. But I don't know…'
Lastly, she turned to Sasori as the redhead gazing back at her, but the weird thing was that he was not glaring at her but just staring. That's a sort of an unusual thing Sasori would do. 'Itachi-kun did mention he didn't get a girlfriend during high school but he's rather good-looking. I wonder why he didn't have one. He's great but if I were to choose him, would he fire me? I don't want to get fired!'
"So Sakura? Who?" Itachi asked
Sakura smiled sweetly, she knew the answer in her head already. "I'll bet 20 bucks on… Kakuzu."
Everyone stared with amazement at her. "You pick that money-face instead of me? What the fuck?" Hidan argued. This must be the first setback Hidan had experienced in his life.
Kakuzu wrote down Sakura's bet before asking. "Why did you choose me?"
"You gave me a sort of weird feeling, that you'll marry first. You know, women's sixth sense." Sakura explained.
Sasori glanced at Deidara before he looked away. "I already said I'm special before." Deidara argued, realizing that Sasori was gazing at him.
Kakuzu didn't say anything but just wrote down the money Sakura bet. She gave a sidelong glance at Sasori to see his reaction; he didn't show any emotion in his reddish-brown eyes but just staring in front like a lifeless puppet.
"Konan and Pein, your turn." The two of them looked at each other, as if like they knew what the other was thinking, they immediately said the name together.
"Sasori." The innocent redhead glared at both of them.
"Nice friend you are." Sasori said sarcastically.
"We just have to agree with Itachi." Pein said. "We've been in love before, so we knew what Itachi had mentioned was quite true about you." Konan said merrily.
"No, I don't." Sasori protested like a five-years old child.
"Sasori, what about you." Kakuzu asked.
"I'm not going to bet on this." Sasori stubbornly said.
"Don't ruin the fun, come one! Take this as a sort of game we have on such a rare gathering we had together and next time we can collect the money from Kakuzu when we won on your wedding!" Konan teased.
"What-"
"Listen to her and place the bet." Pein growled.
Sasori sighed and stared at Hidan. "Since you want someone to bet on you so much, I place 50 bucks on you." The redhead said, reaching out for his wallet. Sakura could have sworn Kakuzu's eyes just flashed a bright light as he wrote down on the paper within seconds.
"Kisame?"
"I bet 5 bucks on Sasori."
"At least 10 bucks."
"What? Oh fish, fine. 10 bucks." Kisame groaned.
"What the hell, Kisame-"
"Shut the fuck up and give the money to the banker now." Hidan cut in, reaching out his hand. It seems like many people loved to interrupt Sasori whenever he was talking, and that was what Sakura noted. Everyone fished out their money and handed to Hidan as he pushed it into Kakuzu's face.
He slowly counted the amount while the rest were arguing among each other.
"Currently everyone bet one Sasori except for himself and that pink girl. He bet 50 bucks on you and she bet 20 bucks on me. Who do you want to bet?" Kakuzu muttered to his buddy. He stroked his chin like a sort of detective, looking at all his friends.
Sakura was talking to Sasori and Deidara, as she playfully punched on the blonde's shoulder while Sasori slightly smiled. Everyone knew Sasori was a sexist in school and betting on him would be very risky. But, Itachi might be right; nothing's impossible. 'And that fucking cute face might have shown some sort of signs that he had fell in love.' Hidan snickered evilly to himself.
"Since he bet 50 bucks on me, I should show some fucking kindness and bet 50 bucks on him too." Hidan muttered, only allowing the banker to hear. Kakuzu slightly laughed at the amount they were betting on this bet as the Jashinist pulled out a 50-dollar note and handed to Kakuzu.
It was now Hidan's turn to laugh. "You better get married first if you want to prevent Sasori from getting fucking married first. You'll be broke." Hidan remarked. Kakuzu stared at the piece of paper before he grunts.
"Then I'll get married to prevent that from happening."
"Then you'll have to pay 40 bucks to that Pinky." Hidan added.
"… Shit this."
0o0
Before they knew it, the engagement party had ended and everyone soon went their own separate ways and went home. Sakura really had many laughing periods when they started telling jokes and their incidents in high school. She never knew that her two bosses would have such a fun and hilarious side, especially for Sasori.
But soon it was over and Sasuke had finally finished his business discussion right at the moment when the party ended. Even though they did not spend quality time together, Sakura sure had fun and it's all thanks to Sasori and his gang; or she would be lonely and stuffing herself like a pig at the food's table.
Itachi brought Sakura to Sasuke before he headed to find his fiancé among the guest. "I'm sorry that I didn't spend the time with you. You must be lonely…" Sasuke said apologetically.
"Not really! And I've actually realized that Itachi-kun's high school buddies were actually my two bosses that I'm working now! So I've actually had pretty much fun today." Sakura said.
"Oh… Let me sent you back home then, it's rather late now." Sasuke said, changing the subject and grasped her hand, pulling her to his car without waiting for her responds. They walked out of his estate before Sasuke opened the car door for his girlfriend to enter as he got inside and rode towards Sakura's house.
Just as his BMW car rode down the long street, it passed by Sasori's red Dodge Neon when he was about to start his car. He silently watched the car driving as it turned smaller and smaller until it disappeared down the street. He soon regained back his composure and made a slight turn, driving into the opposite direction.
Within fifteen minutes, Sasuke stopped his car, parking by the pavement outside Sakura's house.
"Thanks for the ride." Sakura smiled sweetly.
"I'm sorry I wasn't able to spent the time with you." Sakura gave a small peck on Sasuke's cheek before he could continue further.
"I said it's alright. You don't have to worry, I'll see you tomorrow since it's Sunday and I don't have any work." She said merrily.
"About this Sakura… I might not be able to have a day off tomorrow, I have an important meeting with the Sabaku Sand trading company…" Sasuke said, a hint of guiltiness in his voice.
"Work is much more important. Then I'll see you next time when you're free." Sakura said before she gave a final kiss on his lips and got off the car.
"Good night." Smiling sweetly, she walked towards her house. After ensuring that she got into her house safely, Sasuke rode his car back to his estate like the wind.
0o0
Sakura threw the high heels on the ground before slumping onto her comfortable sofa. Sakura suddenly felt rather stress after meeting Sasuke's parents. It's just… wasn't her.
She had to act elegant and quiet when she's actually loud, clumsy and a playful kind of character. Does she had to act every time she met Sasuke and his parents? Must she be perfect and pretend to be what she wasn't?
The party she went just proved everything, she's showing her true self when she was having fun with Itachi's high school buddies, but when she was having a small conversation with Sasuke's mom, she couldn't even remember how tensed she was back then.
She threw her arm over her forehead, taking in a deep breath. "Sasuke is a wonderful boyfriend I ever have in my life, but what's the use of being perfect for him when I'm not even enjoying the role of it?" She continued.
Sakura shook her head and sat up straight, looking wearily around her living room. "I'm going to change now, wearing this dress is rather uncomfortable."
She changed into her pink pajamas after taking a nice hot shower and brushing her teeth nice and clean. The pinkette then climbed onto her soft and comfy bed after drying her hair, switching off her lights and crawled onto her bed.
In just a minute, she fell into a deep slumber.
To be continue
Author's note:
Reviews are appreciated!