Third Person's POV
Sasuke didn't get a lot of sleep that night. In fact, he hasn't been getting a lot of sleep for the past couple days. Ever since the amusement park. Coming to a certain realization, he has been having a hard time speaking to Sakura, and when he does, he ends up saying something dumb or stutters. "Welcome to Davis' Coffee Shop. What can I get you today?"
A short, thin woman in a business outfit responds with her long and complex coffee as if she was explaining how to solve a college level algebraic equation. 'Why must people's coffee be so complicated? Why can't people drink regular coffee with milk and sugar? Or just take it black like me? It's just a beverage.'
"Coming right up ma'am." Sasuke turns away from the counter and turns to the french presses to start the coffee. Sakura then walks behind the counter too and grabs one of the cinnamon buns and places it on her tray.
"Morning Sasuke."
Realizing that the girl he has been thinking about is right next to him, his stomach spins and his face heats up. "Go-od morning."
The bell on the door rings signaling another customer. "Welco-" Sakura stops her welcome, making Sasuke curious as to who entered the restaurant.
Sasuke stops making the coffee and turns to see an odd, skinny man with big bushy eyebrows and a bowl cut.
"Lee, what are you doing here?" Sakura says.
'Who's Lee?' Sasuke thinks. He then goes back to making the coffee for the lady, but continues to listen to their conversation.
"I would say that I am here to get coffee, but you and both know that would be a lie."
"Well, that's obvious since you live on the other side of the city," responds Sakura.
"I came here to tell you something I have been wanting to tell you for a while. Ever since you and I first met the first time you spent the night at Gaara's and my place, I've had..." Lee takes a deep breath, and Sasuke leans back a little towards them. "I've had feelings for you." Sasuke almost drops the french press when he says that.
'What? Who is this guy? What the hell.' Jealousy starts to grow inside Sasuke. 'Who does he think he is?'
Lee continues. "I never did anything about these feelings because you were with Gaara, but, now that you are single and Gaara has moved on-"
Sakura disregards everything that Lee has said and holds her hand up signaling him to stop. "Wait, what did you say about Gaara?" saying her ex-boyfriend's name made Sasuke take a step back.
"That he has moved on? Yeah. He started seeing this girl who is the daughter of a coworker of his. Anyways..." Sakura blocks out all of the noise in the coffee shop including Lee's talking.
Mentioning Gaara does something to Sakura. Her shoulders tense up and she no longer makes eye contact with Lee. Sasuke seeing this turn fully towards her with the finished coffee in his hands. "Sakura?" he mutters.
"Excuse me! Can I have my coffee now?" The short woman with the complicated order shouts to Sasuke, clearly aggravated. Sasuke almost drops the coffee from the unexpected screech.
"Sorry." He then hands her the cup and saucer to the woman who scoffs after being handed her drink.
"Excuse me, I have to go." Sakura whispers and exits the dining room and towards the back room.
"Hey! I didn't get the chance to finish! Sakura!" Lee tries to stop her, but she is already gone.
Sasuke faces the man with bushy eyebrows with a snarl. "If you are just here to hit on the waitresses, then I suggest you leave. Sakura is very busy and she is obviously not into you."
Lee takes a step back in shock. Next, he grunts, "I'll just come another time," and walks out of the restaurant.
With no customers, Sasuke takes this chance to find Sakura. 'Was what that creep said about her ex affecting her? Is she not over him? ...Please be over him.' he thinks. He walks into the back room to find Sakura's back facing him, and her arms crossed.
"Sakura?" He is expecting Sakura in tears. Her face red, spouting out nonsense like 'He has moved on already? Was I really nothing to him?' He expects that, but when she turns, face to face with him, he is astounded.
The young, beautiful woman isn't crying. Her face isn't red. Her eyes aren't showing pain. Instead her eyes show confusion and astonishment. "I thought I would cry. But I can't. My heart doesn't ache. Am I... am I over him?"
Relief sets in for Sasuke after hearing that. He smiles. "Yeah, I think that means you are. But, why did you run away?"
"I was shocked. Hearing that Gaara moved on quickly, I thought I might cry, but, nothing."
"Have you been thinking about him a lot recently?"
"Not really." Sasuke holds in the urge to grin and jump up and down. "Do you think we moved on too fast?"
Sasuke hesitates. "Um..." Wanting to say no is in his head, but he isn't completely sure since it took him until recently to fully move on from Sarada's mother. "I don't think it matters how long it took for you and him to move on. As long as you do."
Sakura looks down with a smile. "Yeah." Then she looks up with a bigger smile. "It doesn't matter anymore. What matters now is saving up for that nice apartment! Let's go! Sakura says that last part in a jokingly, masculine voice.
'She is such a dork.' Sasuke smirks, and they both continue with work.
Time passes by as the clock keeps making a ticking noise. Sasuke lies in bed, unable to sleep yet again, because of a coworker. Scenarios play into Sasuke's head faster than a middle aged mom trying to get their kids to work on time. 'Hi Sakura, how has your day been? Great. My life has been going well. Hey, I was wondering, I know you and I have been just friends, and even though you just got out of a long term relationship, I was wondering, would you like to get dinner sometime?'
Sasuke slaps his hands on his face and groans from the pain and embarrassment he feels following just thinking that. 'You sound like a fucking idiot.' He drops his hands from his face and turns to his side, finding a lamp, box of tissues, his phone, and clock on a nightstand. The clock reads 1:37 am. He takes a big breath and exhales.
After a minute, Sasuke grabs his phone and turns it on, having the blinding light flash in his eyes. He squints. "Aahh my eyes," he whines. He then turns the brightness down and searches for his best friend's contact. 'He's probably up.' Once he clicks the call button he puts the phone to his ear waiting for Naruto to pick up.
"Yooooooo, my brrrooooooo! Waaazzz uuuppp?"
"...Are you drunk?"
Naruto cackles. "You know it! Hey guys," Naruto shouts to someone that isn't Sasuke. "Am I drunk?!"
Voices in the background respond with 'Hell yeah' or 'Definitely.'
"Yeah, after work, a couple of coworkers were going out to drink, and they invited me along," Naruto answers, trying his best not to slur.
Sasuke raises an eyebrow. "On a Wednesday?"
"Heeeelllll yaaaaa!"
After a moment of hesitating, Sasuke asks, "Where are you right now?"
"Uhhhhh... Some place named Black Crab."
'Black Crow.' Sasuke thinks, waits another minute, and sighs. "Stay there, I'm coming to get you."
"You wanna drink too? Wooaahhh Sasuke! When was the last time you got drunk?! Was it college? Man, I remember you getting drunk at parties. Ha! Best moments of my life were seeing you act stupid! But then, you normally end up in a private rooooommmm with a guuuuuurrrrrlllll!"
Sasuke gets up from his bed and walks into the hallway. "Stay there. And don't do anything stupid."
"I'll wait for you maaaaannnnn!" Sasuke hangs up the call and opens the door to Sarada's room. There, she is fast asleep clutching her childhood stuffed bunny, and the stuffed elephant Sakura gave her.
Sasuke closes her door hoping to not wake her. 'Should I really leave?' Sasuke contemplates. 'I don't wanna leave her alone, but Naruto is out being a dumbass and needs help, plus, I won't be out for too long.' Sasuke keeps his hand on the door knob. 'Crap.' He lets go of the knob and walks to the living room and puts his shoes on.
Before he leaves, Sasuke checks all the windows in their apartment to see if they are locked, closes their curtains, opens Sarada's door one more time to check on her, and locks the front door.
He could walk, but in order to get there faster and get back faster, he jogs to the bar. Once he reaches the bar, it doesn't take him long to find Naruto from his loud and obnoxious laughter. "Naruto." Naruto turns his head. When he sees Sasuke his eyes bulge out of his head.
"Oh shit! Sasuke! What's up!" Naruto spins around on his stool and punches Sasuke in his chest.
"Don't shout moron." The men next to Naruto turn as well to see the unknown guest.
"What are you doing here maaaannn?!"
"I came to get you. Did you forget our conversation we had ten, fifthteen minutes ago?"
Naruto squints trying to remember. He then takes a sip of his beer. His eyes bulge out again. "Oh shit right! Hahahahaha! I totally forgot."
Sasuke grabs Naruto's jacket from the counter and reaches his hand out to him. "Come on. I left Sarada alone. I need to get back soon." Naruto grabs his hand and gets up from the chair, wobbling in the process. Sasuke catches him before he falls. "Come on," Sasuke complains and wraps Naruto's arm around his shoulders and he does the same to help him walk.
After a couple minutes. They manage to exit the bar. Naruto keeps singing a classic rock song in Sasuke's ear, angering him. "Will you shut up?!"
Naruto finishes the chorus of the song and then says, "Hey, why did you come and pick me up? Is it because you loooovvvveeeee mmmeeeeee?"
Sasuke wacks him in the back of his head, causing him to groan in pain. "God no moron. I just remember the last time you got drunk, and you woke up in a random alley with your wallet and car keys missing."
"...Love you too brother."
Getting to Naruto's place was taking much longer than Sasuke expected, so he decided to bring him to his house. Unfortunately, it is also taking a long time. Trying to get Naruto upstairs was almost impossible, but after a lot of trial and errors, Sasuke managed to get him up the stairs by dragging him by his arms.
The door is abruptly opened by Sasuke. Next, he drags Naruto to the couch and flops him on it without care and takes off his shoes. Naruto tries his best to get comfortable on it, but since the couch isn't that big, his feet dangle off of it. Sasuke leaves the room to get a pillow and blanket for him, and when he enters the living room again, Naruto is already asleep.
As quietly as he can, Sasuke places the pillow under his best friend's head and puts a small blanket over his big body. "Unfortunately your feet are just gonna have to be cold Naruto," Sasuke whispers, realizing the blanket is too small. He doesn't respond.
Sasuke goes back to Sarada. The only thing that changed from before was her sleeping position. Now she is on her back snoring a little. When Sasuke leaves the hallway, he goes to his kitchen and grabs the trash can and places it next to the couch. "If you have to hurl, hurl in here. Don't even think about puking on my floor."
Instead of leaving to go back to bed, Sasuke just stands there, staring at nothing in particular. Once he escapes the trance he was in, he checks the time again. 3:04 am. "Damn."
Sasuke turns himself and sits down on the floor, in between the couch and coffee table, leaning his back on the couch. "There was a reason I called you so late, Naruto." He glances at Naruto, seeing him snoring annoyingly. "To be honest, there has been something on my mind. Well, someone on my mind. There's this girl I work with. Her name is Sakura. She's fun, smart, reliable, trustworthy, and has a good head on her shoulders. Her, Sarada, and I went to that new amusement park two Sundays ago, and ever since then, I can't stop thinking about her. Her face, smile, voice. It's constantly playing in my head like a broken record. I never thought I'd say this out loud but..." Sasuke looks at Naruto again, then back to his hands that are fidgeting. " I think I found someone who I would want to be with romantically, Naruto. Every time I'm with her, I feel relaxed, safe, like I can be myself without judgement."
Sasuke rests his head back on the couch, which makes his head touch Naruto's leg, but he doesn't have the energy to care. "Today, she realized that she is over her ex. I want to take a chance, but even if she is over her ex, she may not be ready to date. Plus, we work together. And what about Sarada? How would she feel about this? This would affect her life just as much as mine." As Sasuke contemplates what he just said, he chuckles.
"I'm saying all of this like I have the guts to actually ask her out. You and I both know I am a coward when it comes to women." Naruto lets out a loud snore. After all, Ino was the one who came to me... What should I do?"
Sasuke circles to Naruto. Of course, Naruto keeps snoring. A chuckling Sasuke rises from the floor, and scratches the back of his head as he walks to his room to get some sleep.