Third Person's POV
It doesn't take long for Sarada to get over her fear of rides. After a couple of smoother rides she tries a roller coaster and gets hooked. Now she wants to go on every single ride. This doesn't sit well with Sasuke. After three upside down roller coasters he starts to feel sick and tired. Not only are our the rides making him feel sick, but the weather and the people are too. The sun hasn't died down at all since this morning. If anything it got more intense. Sasuke can feel the sun beating down on his neck, sweat accumulates over his face, neck, chest, and armpits, making his shirt a bit moist and uncomfortable to wear. Sarada got really hot too in her cotton shirt, so she switched it with the shirt Sasuke packed, which was more breathable.
Being in the crowd isn't helping Sasuke's headache calm down. Everywhere you go there is a crowd, mostly little kids with their parents, some with a group of teenagers who are being obnoxious. Some people for some reason feel the need to run too. 'I need to sit down,' Sasuke thinks.
Sakura and Sarada are walking next to each other both looking at the map while Sasuke trails behind. After the first couple rides, the awkward tension was no longer there. Now Sarada spends more time with Sakura than Sasuke, making Sasuke feel like a babysitter watching not one, but two kids. "We haven't been on this one yet!" Sarada says as she points to a certain part of the map. "Let's go on!"
Sarada picks up her pace so that she is running. Sasuke doesn't have the energy to tell Sarada to stop running, but he doesn't need to worry because Sakura says it. "Sarada, don't run. You don't wanna get lost or hurt." Sakura jogs up to her so she doesn't lose her. Sasuke doesn't speed up.
When they get to the ride Sasuke feels a wave of pain in his head. "You guys go ahead. I'm gonna..." Sasuke doesn't finish his sentence. He just walks zombie-like to the nearest bench to sit down. Then he places both of his hands on his ears and bends his upper body down, hoping to block out the noise and sunlight.
Sakura takes notice of his distress. "Sarada hold on," she says to the little girl who is already at the front of the entrance to the ride. Sakura walks over to Sasuke. When she reaches him, Sasuke can hear a zipper noise and movement in front of him. He glances up to find the pink haired beauty looking through her tiny backpack. Then she pulls out a water bottle and hands it to him. Once Sasuke grabs it, she goes through her bag again and then pulls out ibuprofen. "Here, take some and rest," she says softly, which sounds angelic like in Sasuke's ears. He gives her a soft expression and takes the medicine from her hand, touching her fingers in the process.
"Thank you." Sasuke moves his head to find Sarada.
"Don't worry about her. I will go on the ride with her," she says with a big smile.
Sasuke again says, "Thank you."
Sakura flashes another smile to him and jogs back to Sarada. Sasuke sees Sakura's mouth moving and Sarada then looks towards Sasuke with concern on her face. Sakura, seeing this, lightly grabs her shoulder to get her to look at her, and says a few more things that Sasuke can't hear. After that, they go through the entrance, leaving Sasuke by himself with his water and medicine.
It is then when he takes two pills and forces them down with the water. 'I'm surprised she had water in her tiny backpack.' It's pretty cool, a little colder than room temperature.
The ride starts up and he can see Sakura and Sarada on the ride. It starts off with you going directly up for a slow and long time to build up the excitement. As he watches the passengers continue to rise he notices something about Sakura and Sarada. They were holding hands. She didn't do that before when they were on other rides. 'Is it because I'm not on the ride?' he thinks.
They finally get up to the top, and blast down. Sasuke can hear Sarada's scream very clearly, making him grin. 'That's my girl.'
"How was the ride?" Sasuke asks at the exit area of the roller coaster.
"Crazy!," Sarada says. "When we were first going up I got so nervous, but then when we went down," Sarada continues while moving her arms trying to reanimate the ride. "And after that, we kept going crazy fast, and there were so many loops."
"Sounds like you had fun."
"Yeah..." Sarada's mood changes suddenly. "If you don't want to go on any more Papa, we don't have to... we can just play in the arcade-"
"Don't worry about me Sarada, I was just a little sick. I'm also an old man, so I don't have as much energy as you. I feel better now though." Sasuke rubs the top of Sarada's head and gives her a smile. Sarada smiles too. "By the way, where is Sakura?"
"She was getting her bag."
After Sarada says that, Sakura is seen running towards them, with very messy hair.
"Hey," she pants.
"Why are you so out of breath?"
"I... was trying to get my... bag and...," she takes a minute to calm down here breathing. "There was this woman trying to claim that my bag was hers. We got into a fight. She started to pull my hair, so I stepped on her foot and whacked her arm away, and bolted away."
"Wow. Why would someone try to grab your tiny-ass bag?" Sasuke teases.
Sakura pouts, then sticks her tongue out at Sasuke. He does the same thing except pouting, he is smirking. The teasing continues with the two adults, and while this goes on, the small child notices something between the two. She notices that maybe she isn't just a coworker to her father. That they are more than that.
"Anyway, it's a bit past noon, should we head to the water park and get lunch?" Sasuke asks.
Sakura answers with, "Sounds like a plan." And so they walk together to the water park
Sasuke's POV
Water from the pools are everywhere. A bunch of little kids are running in their drenched swimsuits. Young woman laying down trying to get a tan. Middle aged woman drinking. The sun beating down on me again. What's taking them so long? I know it takes longer for girls to change into a swimsuit, but this is too long. Is there a line?
"Papa!" I hear the voice of my raven haired girl. She is out of the girl's changing room wearing her red one piece bathing suit, her glasses are off now, and her hair is in a french braid.
She runs up to me. "When did you learn how to french braid?"
Sarada runs her hand through her hair. "Oh, I didn't. Sakura did it for me."
"I see, where is she anyway?"
"She is just fixing her hair."
"Okay." I pull out my phone to check out the time, and it is almost 1pm. "Do you want to have lunch first or do you want to swim first?" I ask.
"Swim."
"Okay, but you need to put on sunblock again." I reach in my bag and grab the sunblock. When I do, I hear Sarada groan. "Here." I give her the sunblock and wait for my turn to reapply. Sarada squirts it into her hands and starts with her face and ears. "I can put it on your back when you're done."
After Sarada finishes putting on her face, ears, arms, and neck, she hands me the bottle and turns. Then I crouch down and apply sunscreen to her back. From this view I can see the braid Sakura did. It is a very neat looking braid. I'm surprised that she was able to make it look so clean even though Sarada has short hair, but then again, Sakura has short hair too. Taking a closer examination I notice that there are two red clips in her hair. I think those are the clips Sakura was wearing earlier.
"Hey guys," I hear my friend's voice. I finish applying the sunscreen and stand up straight again. Now I see Sakura. She is wearing a red two-piece. The straps on the top tie at the back of her neck, and it shows a bit of her cleavage. I lower my gaze and find a very toned stomach, along with possible abs coming in. I look even lower to her legs. They aren't too short or too tall. She has small but strong calves, and her thighs are well formed, and a bit curvy. I go back up to her face. Her hair is now in a pony tail and the clips are gone. She looks so different from the Sakura I normally see. Right now, in that bathing suit that shows her off so perfectly, she is so... so-
"Papa?" I am broken from my daze. I turn to Sarada and she has a confused look on her face. "Why are you staring at Sakura like that?"
I turn back to Sakura and I notice her cheeks are red and she isn't making eye contact with me. Oh shit. Sasuke you idiot. How long was I checking her out for? I clear my throat to try to change the subject. "Anyway, I need to put sunblock on my back. Sarada, can you help me?"
"Sure," Sarada takes the bottle from me. I bend down facing the opposite direction from Sakura and Sarada. I can feel Sarada's tiny hand on my back as she applies the sunblock. Even though I'm not looking at Sakura I still have her in my head. Damn, what's wrong with me? Why can I get that picture out of my head? This isn't normal for me. I haven't felt this feeling in a long time. The last time I did was with Ino.
"Papa, I think you got sunburned on your face. Your face is red," Sarada says with concern. I cover my face with my hand. I would rather have them think I got sunburned than what is really happening.
"Yeah, maybe."
I feel Sarada's hand disappear from my back. "All done."
"Sakura, did you reapply sunblock?" I ask while standing up.
"I only didn't put it on my back. Can you help me?" What? She wants me to apply it? As in, me touching her bare back? Rubbing her bare back?
"Here." Sakura holds out a different sunscreen can. A spray can kind. Oh. I need help.
I take the can from her, shake it, and spray it on her back. This makes her flinch from the cold sunscreen.
"Done," I say.
"Thank you," she says shyly.
"Papa? Can we go on that first?" Sarada points to one of the water slides. There are three big slides. One is red, another is green, and the final one is pink.
"Which one?"
"Umm... all of them." The more she talks the slower and quieter it comes out. I don't know if I have the energy for all of them.
"Let's go then." Sakura walks past us and towards the slides. I find myself lowering my gaze to her butt this time. NO, STOP IT SASUKE!
Third Person's POV
The slide they start with first is the green slide. With this one, you slide down in a circular pool float that holds two people. Sarada rides with Sasuke for this. She gets in the front and Sasuke gets in the back. Once they start to slide, they are unable to see anything. Everything is pitch black, making it impossible for you to figure out when it will fall into the water, giving you an uncertain but exciting feeling. All Sasuke can comprehend is that his headache is coming back and Sarada is screaming in joy. At every turn Sasuke's head gets whipped, not helping.
They at long last see a ray of light, and not even a second later, they fall into the cold, chlorinated water. Sasukes jumps up from the water to catch his breath. "I think some water went up my nose," he says as he pushes his hair back.
Sarada takes a bit longer for herself to swim up. Her little pops out of the pool trying to recollect her breath. Sasuke swims to the discomfort looking girl to see if she is okay.
When he asks her, she gives a toothy grin to let him know she is fine. More than fine. She is over the moon.
Both of them swim over to the side so they don't get hit face first from Sakura's legs. A shout of joy is heard from the green slide, and not too after the shout, the emerald eyed waitress comes flying out and into the water. She jumps out of the water the same way Sasuke did, but coughs more. "Saku!" the Uchiha girl shouts. Sakura's eyes open and face the father and daughter. She gets out away from the slide and swims to them.
"That was fun! It's been a long time since I went on a slide," she says. "Should we try the others?"
"Let's go!" Sarada pumps her small arms and legs to get to the shallow part of the pool.
Once Sarada was a far distance from Sasuke and Sakura, Sasuke asks, "Didn't it hurt your head?"
"Yeah," Sakura whines. "But it was still fun. I'm guessing the turns didn't help with your headache. Sasuke groans and scrunches his face, which makes Sakura laugh. Her laugh is a bit of an ugly laugh, but to Sasuke, it sounded beautiful as it entered his ears. He wants to hear her laugh a lot more often than he has, because when he heard it, his headache was gone.
After they all tried the other two slides, they decided to do something less intense. The pink slide didn't involve a float. You would sit on your back and slide down even faster than the green one, but there weren't too many turns and you were able to see where you were. The red slide was similar to the green one, but the floats only held one person, and it was longer than the green one.
Their activity after the slides is in this pool that stretches out through the whole water park. There is a current in the pool that drags you through like a river. Little kids like Sarada were given ring floats so they could be dragged easily. Some adults floated on the rings too, but Sasuke and Sakura didn't need them.
Sasuke takes this chance to relax from all the fast paced rides and slides he has been on. He closes his eyes and lets the current take over him. In his left ear he hears a girl-ish giggle. Sasuke opens his eyes and turns to his coworker who made the noise. "What?"
"You look so tired. This is really tiring you out."
"I'm not the type of person who likes to leave his house often."
"Yeah I know that. I learned that really fast. Your face always gives that impression." Sasuke chuckles.
"Can't argue with that. I have a resting bitch face."
Sakura laughs again. Sasuke grins from this.
"Sarada seems like the exact opposite of you."
"She is. She is sweet and always smiling. She is also happy with anything. I don't know where she gets it from because it's not me."
'Did she get it from her mother?' Sakura thinks.
The three of them go around the water park three times, until Sakura and Sasuke get hungry, but Sarada still wants to play. "You can go play in the playground," Sasuke says. "Don't go anywhere else. Sakura and I are going to be sitting over there," Sasuke points to a table with an umbrella in the middle.
"Okay Papa." Sarada runs off again to the playground and gets sprayed from water that shoots out of the playground sets. Sasuke walks back to the table and tries to set the umbrella, but it doesn't go up. He keeps struggling when Sakura comes back with two drinks in her hand.
Sakura places the drinks on the table. "Here I'll do it," and the umbrella goes up with ease when she does it. This leaves Sasuke in shock, and a bit angry with himself for not being able to do it.
Sakura picks up the drinks and moves one of them towards him. "They are selling some summery drinks so I got you one. I know how you hate sweet things so I got you a virgin coconut pina colada. I don't think it will be too sweet."
"Thanks." Sasuke takes it and sits. "What did you get?"
Sakura takes the seat across from him. "Virgin margarita." She starts to sip her margarita.
A comfortable silence takes over as both of them check out what food is served. Both of them decide the best option was something light. After ordering they sit back down and watch Sarada play as they sip their drinks.
"Sasuke?"
"Yeah?" Sakura wants to ask him something. Something that has been on her mind since the river pool. What happened to Sarada's mom? Where is she? Do you still stay in contact with her? Questions like these have been in her head.
"Umm..." She is very curious, but realizes how personal that is, and closed off Sasuke can be, and saying something like that could ruin this great day. "I just want to say thank you again. I'm really having a great time."
"You don't have to thank me. You're the one who gave me the tickets."
"Still. I have been really depressed for a while. I don't know if you know this, but I recently broke up with my boyfriend and...," Sakura pauses. "You probably don't care about this."
"I know. Tenten told me."
"... Oh...," Sakura sips more of her margarita.
"...Can I ask you what happened?" Normally, Sasuke wouldn't care about someone who broke up with their partner, but Sakura isn't just somebody.
Weight on Sakura's shoulders is lifted. Sasuke saying that makes her feel more at ease, since she thinks he doesn't care, but that is not the truth. "He didn't want to get married and have kids. He told me that he still loved me, and that won't change, but he didn't want to take any big steps with me. I tried to see his point of view, and maybe change my mind about having a family and getting married, but I just couldn't."
Memories of the time Sakura asked him about having children came back to Sasuke. 'Is that why she asked that?'
"It just all happened so fast," Sakura continues. "One minute we are both so happy and in love, but then a minute later, everything changed and he and I were no longer the same."
"I understand what you mean," Sasuke interrupts. "One minute things are all working out and life is going well, and then, they are no longer the person you thought they were. Your relationship isn't what you thought it was."
Sakura gives a nod in agreement. "... He told me that isn't wasn't because of me. He said that he didn't want to marry anyone but... I feel like... I think it was m-"
"He doesn't deserve you," Sasuke interrupts her again. Sakura is taken aback from this. She looks at his face again. His face is solid and serious. No blush. Perfect eye contact. He is dead serious.
Unfortunately for Sakura, you can't say the same thing about her face. Hers is beat red, and she can't keep eye contact for too long. She starts to feel a grin coming, so in order to hide it, she brings her cup to her mouth. In a whisper, she says, "Thank you Sasuke."