Tales of Sakura The Bartender Chapter 2
Sakura wakes the next morning when her alarm chirps. It's too early, and too bright. But she drags herself up out of bed anyways.
She dresses quickly and then hurries out of her room. Her drunken ass had dug through every single box last night trying to track down some pajamas, throwing items half-hazardly over her shoulder as she went. Now her room looked like some sort of bomb had gone off.
A problem for later. She winces.
She makes a quick breakfast and takes a large coffee with her to campus where she has orientation to her first few classes starting at 9 am sharp.
She meets up with Ino afterwards to hit up the campus bookstore to buy her texts for the semester.
Ino arrives with her long blonde hair pin straight down her back, wearing a gorgeous black body con dress with white converse. Fire outfit aside, her huge black sunglasses give away her hangover.
"Ughh Sakura. How are you functional right now?" She groans, shading her eyes further with her hand.
"Better genetics pig." She shrugs.
"Shut up…" She grumbles, too hungover to come up with her normal rebuttal.
"What are you doing this afternoon?" Ino asks her.
"Kiba's coming over to put together my furniture for a bit. Why?"
"Oh Kiba's coming over?" She begins to play with the ends of her hair absently. "Hmm that's nice."
"Right," Sakura raises her eyebrow at her.
"Mhm…" She says distracted. "Apparently he's having a big BBQ at his place tonight, like a lead up to Homecoming weekend type thing. Are you going?"
"Sounds fun."
"Well technically I guess his roommates are throwing it, but the whole football team's going." Ino continues, rabbling on about who would be there and what she might wear, what Sakura should wear…
But Sakura's only half listening to the blonde as she thinks of Sasuke. She wonders if that means he'll be there.
She pulls out her phone and shoots off a quick text to Naruto.
Hey, U going to Kiba's tonight?
He's quick to respond. Which probably means he's in class.
Sakura rolls her eyes.
HECK YA! U & the roomies comin?
A subtle way to ask if Hinata would be there. It was cute how they thought they were still a secret.
Sounds like fun. Pre at our place?
And that's that. If Naruto's going, she can almost guarantee that Sasuke is going.
Sweet, we'll come by after practice is done!
She tries to ignore the butterflies she feels at the idea that she might see Sasuke again tonight.
Her and Ino finally get home right around the same time Kiba shows up.
"Sak!" He's got a 6-pack in one hand and a tool bag in the other. Still he manages to wrap an arm around her in greeting and give her a kiss on the head.
"Hey Ino! How you feeling after last night? You looked fire on the dance floor." He smiles broadly at her. Kiba had a way of lifting the energy of any room he enters.
Ino seems to suddenly forget her aching head and tired body and smiles coyly at him, casually flipping her long blonde hair over one shoulder.
"Oh me? I feel fine." She nearly coos in reply. Sakura has to cough to cover her laugh at her friend's lie.
"It's so cool that you work at Nightowl! I had so much fun." She turns her megawatt smile on him. "I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of you there this year."
"It's so sweet of you to help Sakura out." She pouts at him, and Sakura doesn't miss how Kiba's attention goes straight to her plump lips.
She's been waiting for Kiba to notice Ino all summer. He's totally her type.
Ino goes through guys like seasons. But so does Kiba with his girlfriends. Maybe what they both needed was more of a challenge.
Sakura secretly can't wait to see the outcome.
Kiba sets down his stuff and cracks open a beer, taking a sip he asks, "Okay put me to work Sak."
He follows Sakura to her room, stopping at the doorway to take in the carnage.
"What happened...?" He asks in shock.
Ino starts to cackle as she walks past him to flop down on Sakura's mattress sitting amongst all the clothes and books spread across her floor.
"Drunk Sakura happened." Sakura responds sagely from beside him.
"Her and I are going to have to have words you know. I can't have her treating you this way." He says in mock seriousness.
Ino wishes him good luck from her spot on the mattress. "Drunk Sakura is her own force of nature." She giggles.
"Oh, I know that better than anyone." He looks at her with a certain light in his eyes that gives her butterflies in her stomach.
"Remember that afternoon at the old pub back home? I got you drunk after your opening shift? Oh god Ino, it was hilarious."
Ino props her chin on her hands and looks raptly at Kiba as he launches into his story.
"She's still in her uniform and everything; piss drunk, and these two guys start hitting on her. And well you know Sakura, barely bats an eye at these guys till they try to take some of the Caesar garnishes from the server station. Tells them right off, doesn't even stutter. Couldn't stand," he gives Sakura a conspirators grin, "but she doesn't slur a word. And get this, they pay her not to tell me about the piece of bacon they ate. Twenty fucking dollars! Like I would've even cared" He's keeled over laughing at this point.
"And it gets even better, Sakura goes back to nursing her drink and buddy gets so scared she might get him kicked out over this one piece of bacon he ate like 10 minutes ago, he gives her another twenty bucks." He shakes his head in amazement.
"No way." Ino looks at Sakura with mischievous amusement. "Isn't that the day you were also supposed to meet my summer fling?"
Sakura covers her face with her hands, "Yes! It was!" She howls. "For the record, it was all Kiba's fault. He kept messing up drinks because he was too hung over and then he would feed them to me. I had like 8 drinks in under an hour!"
"Well he didn't last anyways, so I guess your both forgiven." Ino says nonchalantly, but Sakura knows her friend well enough to know Ino's hinting to Kiba that she's single.
"Hey speaking of drinking, are you guys coming to the kickoff party my roommates and I are throwing tonight? Everyone's comin after the rookies finish practice."
Ino smiles seductively, "Wouldn't miss it."
"Isn't it an annual tradition of yours? Course we're going," Sakura chimes in, "The guys are coming over to pre a bit before we head over. You should stay for a few drinks too."
"Let us properly repay you for coming to Sakura's rescue!" Ino adds, "Hinata's cooking tonight and unlike Sakura, she's a great cook." She winks.
"Phew." Kiba wipes his brow in relief, "You know, I'm curious… what does Sakura cook on her days? KD? Ben's fried rice and plain chicken?" Kiba jabs at her while grinning so hard she's sure his face must hurt.
"You mean all the same things you cook!" Sakura accuses him. "It's not my fault my babysitter taught me how to cook." She teases right back . "So truly, Ino. This is who you can blame for my cooking skills."
"Or lack thereof." Ino corrects.
"Okay okay, all joking aside, that sounds awesome." Kiba smiles at Sakura and looks at Ino, "The guys will just have to make do picking up the kegs without me, but for a real dinner they'll understand." He winks at them.
With that Kiba takes a swig of his beer and then gets to work, laying out the bed frame and attaching the pieces together until it begins to resemble more than a bunch of stray wood planks.
Ino relocates to Sakura's desk chair and cracks open a Mott's Caesar tall-can to nurse her hangover. Her and Kiba chat about the summer, they were at a lot of the same parties and they swapped stories back and forth of all the stupid drunk drama that ensued between their friend groups.
Sakura takes to unpacking the rest of her stuff and organizing it into her desk and dresser.
An hour or two later and the finished room is like night and day to what it looked like at the start.
Hinata had gotten home not too long ago and popped her head in to say hi to everybody before she had to go call her parents. Hinata, like Sasuke, was heir to a corporate family business, and as such had a lot of family responsibilities even while she was at school.
Sakura went back and forth on whether or not she envied them for coming from such important families.
She can't help but to think back to the other night, when she and Sasuke spoke about his family on the roof-top patio. She frowns a little remembering how troubled he seemed about taking over his family company, but quickly cracks a small smile at the thought of him. And how it felt when his lips touched her forehead… And how nice he smelled, of something smokey, yet sweet and fresh.
"Earth to Sakuraa…" Ino waves her hand obnoxiously in front of Sakura's face.
"Hmm?" Sakura's cheeks warm guiltily for being caught daydreaming about Sasuke.
Ino passes her a bowl, some pasta veggie combo Hinata prepared while being on the phone. Bless that girl. They would need something in their stomach's if they were going to make it through the night without dying.
Sakura follows her into the living room where Hinata and Kiba are already sitting, digging in. She pulls open the sliding door to their small balcony before taking a seat by Kiba on the far side of the couch.
The fresh air breezes past Sakura into the room, helping clear her mind of all thoughts Sasuke while she re-focuses on her friends.
"So Hinata," she hears Kiba address the quiet Hyuuga across the room, "How's Neji doing? I'm surprised he didn't come out for football this year. We really coulda used him."
"H-He's good." Hinata smiles softly. "He worked hard to improve his relationship with my father recently, and my father wants him to spend more time in the business to make up for p-past years."
Sakura had never really understood it, but while Hinata's dad and Neji's dad were brothers, Hinata's dad had inherited the entire company. They're relationship was so bad, that Hinata's dad had flat out refused to acknowledge Neji as a member of the family for the first ten or so years of his life.
Hearing that they had amended things made Sakura happy. Neji was one of the nicest guys in school growing up, and even though he was pretty quiet he had never been shy. It was too harsh of Hinata's dad to judge him based on his brothers' actions. Especially considering how Neji looked out for his cousin. Whatever might've happened between them to make them hate each other so much, Sakura had no clue.
Sakura's cell vibrates on the kitchen table, where she left it. Hinata reaches behind her to grab it and flings it into her ready hands.
"Woah, nice! Still got those same reflexes, eh." Kiba comments on her catch. "I never could get her to come play softball with the guys though." He clucks his tongue in mock disapproval.
"And go slipping around in the grass and mud! No way. Us ladies leave such activities to the men." Ino gasped at the suggestion.
Sakura ignores them both to look at her screen, seeing a text from Naruto she unlocks her screen to answer.
Yo, U guys ready?
Before she could even reply a simple, Ya. Another notification from Naruto popped on her phone.
Wait.
Then another.
Neji already left.
So did Shikamaru and Sasuke.
Oh shit. That's everybody.
K c u soon.
Sure enough, she looked up to hear a light rap at their door.
Sakura smiles and shakes her head gently at Naruto's antics, while Ino goes to answer the door.
"Neji!" She hears Ino all but yell in greeting. "Shikamaru! Sasuke!"
"Naruto… " she pauses, giving him a suspicious look, "Why do you look so out of breath?"
She steps aside to let them pile into the kitchen.
"Mmm. What smells so good?" Naruto askes, immediately noticing their dinner.
"Uh, I'll give you one guess what it's not?" Ino giggles, "Ramen."
"Heyy, mind if we put some stuff in your fridge?" Neji asks no one in particular as he pulls open the door to maneuver a few packs of tall boys in there.
Ino finishes her meal standing in the kitchen while the boys get their drinks sorted, then pops her dish in the sink before pulling out a bunch of glasses and arranging them on the counter. Then she sets about filling them with ice and vodka and handing them to whoever doesn't already have a drink in their hand. Leaving them to sort out their mixes.
Sakura finishes and then sets up the speakers up with an iPhone playlist- a random mix of everything recent or good that is ever growing. She passes the speaker to Kiba who tosses it to Naruto to place on the kitchen counter.
Sasuke makes his way into the living room, handing Naruto a beer as he passes him and Hinata. He gives Kiba a nod as he walks around the table to take a seat in a chair next to Sakura.
"Hi," she says breathlessly. Why does she suddenly feel so out of breath?
"Hey," Sasuke replies in his deep baritone voice, sending the butterflies in her stomach fluttering.
"How was practice?" Sakura asks, kicking herself for not coming up with something more interesting, but she's more nervous than she expected to be.
"It was tough," he shrugs, "Our coach, Kakashi's really been putting us through the paces, but that always happens at the beginning of a new season." He takes a sip of his drink.
"How were you feeling this morning?" He smirks at her.
"Pretty okay! Actually." She raises an eyebrow in challenge at him, "We stayed up to eat something and chugged some water. Watched Jane the Virgin, it was fun." She beams up at him.
"Nice. Naruto woke us all up at 7am because he can't pace himself." Sasuke sends a look over to the obnoxious blonde.
Sakura snickers, "Sounds about right." She sends him a knowing look, then they both look back over to Naruto in unison.
"Why are you guys looking at me like that...?" Naruto asks with suspicion.
"Hm?" Sakura, the image of innocence.
"Mind your own business. Baka." Replies Sasuke.
Naruto narrows his eyes like a hawk zooming in on its target, but then hears his name behind him and is immediately distracted.
"Huh? What did you say about me Shikamaru?!" He says far too loudly for indoors. "That is not what happened!" He starts to wave his arms about to further emphasize his point, nearly spilling his drink on Kiba in the process.
"Oi!" Kiba narrowly moves out of the way in time.
"Oh yeah," Naruto puts the can to his mouth and turns it upside down, trying not to break eye contact with Shikamaru and Neji as he chugs the remainder. Then he puts the empty can down on the counter like he's slamming a basket. He does this without missing a word from Shikamaru's version of the finer details of a flip cup game from who knows when. Which Sakura is sure Naruto probably doesn't even remember himself.
"Hey Kiba!" Ino asks from the kitchen, "What time should we head over?"
Kiba pulls out his phone to check the time, "Oh shit, probably now!" He laughs, jumping up from the couch.
They hurry to finish drinks and gather belongings, then head out of the apartment to walk to Kiba's place. Some five or so blocks away he says.
It's warm and sunny, even as evening sets in; perfect backyard BBQ weather.
The crew makes there way over leisurely, chatting the whole way.
As they approach his street, Kiba falls back to walk with Sakura. "You've never seen my place, right?" He says exuberantly, "I'm pretty sure you were up north when my sister and I came to set it up."
"Yeah," she answers.
"Cool." He grins broadly, looking ahead. "This is it guys," he gestures to the house coming up on their right. "Head through the gate on the side there Ino!" He directs them through to the backyard. It's not packed yet, but the yard is bustling with students catching up. Toward the back there's a few guys tossing a ball around and a few others trying to throw a frisbee into opposing bins.
Closer to them, there's a makeshift bar top made from a plank over two stools, and behind the bar one of Kiba's roommates is bartending. Next to it is an ambitious number of kegs, Sakura thinks to herself; even considering this is a football kegger.
Naruto whistles in appreciation upon spotting the kegs, and bee-lines right over.
"I thought this was BYOB?" Sakura askes Kiba with her eyebrows raised.
"Hm?" He looks over to her, "Oh, there's a door fee for the kegger. The guys woulda gotten tickets at one of the practices. And I took care of you guys." He wraps his arm playfully around her neck as he walks with her. "Come on, lemme show you the place."
He steers them towards the screen door at the back of the house and they enter the kitchen, every surface of the counter covered in snacks and chips or pop.
"The kitchen," Kiba gestures proudly, then jerks his thumb over his shoulder at a closed door opposite the table, "Two bedrooms downstairs."
They continue past the table into what is obviously a living room, with two couches and a huge TV with nearly every console available to man set up.
Priorities, Sakura thinks amused.
"Gaming slash football watching room." He says seriously, continuing through another doorway into a hallway heading to the front of the house.
Kiba gestures to a closed door on the far side, "Bedroom."
Then he makes a sharp turn up the stairs. He points to the two doors on the end of the landing, "Bedroom. Bedroom. My room." He opens the door closest to them.
So he basically lives in a frat house. Seems fitting, she thinks amused.
"And the coolest feature…" he takes broad steps across a surprisingly clean room. With his own mini fridge and TV, naturally. So Kiba.
Reaching the other side, he pulls another door open to a rooftop balcony. She follows him out, right up to the railing at the edge. He leans his forearms easily on the railing, but she has to step up on the ledge to follow suit. She peaks over the edge and looks right down over the party.
"Wow…" She says in awe. "This is so dope."
Kiba nods in agreement. "Best room in the house for the best housemate. Obviously." He jokes.
"Sakuraa!" She looks down to see Ino calling her through cupped hands.
Sakura smiles widely and waves back down at her friend.
"Hiii!" She sings back.
"Hey, I heard about last night – you okay?" Kiba loses his easy smile and looks at her with concern.
"Oh yeah, it was nothing serious." Sakura waves him off. "You taught me everything I know anyways; you know it was fine."
"Hey, hey. A guy can worry, okay? I forget how small you are sometimes, until I see you nose to chest with some scrawny dude. You didn't even reach his collarbone." He replies holding his hand at roughly her height to prove his point.
"So you did see what happened." Sakura teases him, sending him a knowing glance.
Knowing Kiba, she was surprised he didn't jump the bar to get involved. He always dealt with fights back home. Partially because he was good at deescalating people, but also because he'd yet to lose a fight that did escalate.
It didn't hurt that he enjoyed the attention either.
"Yeah yeah," He waves her off lightly, "You had perfect form," He puts his fist out and she bumps it, glowing under his praise.
"I saw you leave the fight with Uchiha though… what was that about?" He asks looking a bit miffed.
Sakura shrugs, "He took me for some fresh air and a water. It was very…" She pondered for the right word, "gentlemanly."
"Why?" She asks him curiously.
"No real reason." He says nonchalantly. "I just don't know him that well and he's a new recruit on the team."
He goes quiet for another moment.
"I've heard he's made a few girls cry." He adds in a weird tone soon after.
"Okay, but you've made quite a few girls cry." Sakura replies slyly, looking up at him.
"No! Well, a few. But only because–" He looks at her with shrewd appraisal, "Fine. Good point."
She laughs, and the sound is musical.
"I-," he starts, "I just care about you, you know that?" He punches her lightly in the shoulder. "If he's never dated before you probably don't want him as your first either." He pretends to grimace at the idea.
But Sakura couldn't believe that for a second, Sasuke's very existence screamed sexual confidence. She was pretty sure he was nowhere near being a virgin, previous girlfriends or not. Not that it mattered to her, she wasn't really sure why Kiba was suddenly making a big deal out of it either. He certainly didn't discriminate in his partners.
"I can take care of myself, Kiba." She bumped him right back with her shoulder. "You worry too much."
Kiba frowned, but she wasn't looking up at him, she was looking out over the backyard to where Sasuke stood with the rest of the rookies. Tall and brooding, but with the smallest upward tilt of his eyes that gave away that he was enjoying himself.
So beautiful she almost forgets to breath for a moment. How could a guy like that be interested in someone like me? She wondered wryly to herself, paying no heed to Kiba's out-of-character advice on restraint and caution. This is the same guy who had been sneaking her alcohol long before she was even legal, after all.
She shook her head. Weird.
"Well, I need a drink." She announced, "You coming?" She stepped down from the ledge and crossed the balcony back to his door.
"You know what, same. I'm losing my earlier buzz." He agrees, following after her.
As they leave the house back into the yard they head right to the make-shift bar table. Kiba steps behind to make them both drinks while the bartender helps someone else. He makes them straight into two red cups and pours a frightening amount of liquor into them.
"You're trying to kill me." She tells him, as he starts to add the mix.
"I've been serving you since you were 15. I could never." He gives her a charming smile.
He passes her the cup, and she takes a tentative sip. It's strong, that's for sure. There's that unmistakable taste of alcohol beneath everything but its surprisingly drinkable. Not just drinkable, it's actually pretty good. She sends him a look of mild surprise. "Thanks," She raises her cup towards him.
"Cheers," he says in reply, tapping her cup with his own.
Kiba makes eye contact with Ino further into the yard and takes off with a pat on her shoulder, leaving Sakura alone by the bar. From here she's got a decent view of the yard.
Naruto and Sasuke are helping Kiba's housemates to build what looks to be a massive bonfire for later that night. Working in the setting sun must have been quite the task too, seeing as they'd all ditched their shirts onto the lawn.
Which also explained the audience they'd acquired.
Sakura can't help herself but follow suite, taking advantage of the situation. Ino had said his abs were impressive, but, wow. His body was beautiful.
Her eyes rake over his biceps, to perfect shoulders and firm pecs. They followed the line between his pectorals down over his abs to the beautiful V sculpted by his obliques as they tucked into his dark jeans.
Oh my… god.
She shakes her head just slightly before looking around to see if anyone had noticed her non-so subtle assessment of Sasuke. To her relief and amusement, no one was paying any remote attention to her because they were also distracted by Sasuke.
Or the other shirtless guys, who she had paid nearly no notice to.
As they finish up, Sasuke picks up his shirt and pulls in back on before walking up to Sakura.
"Hey, where've you been?" He asks her, irked that his jealousy has already gotten the best of him. He'd been unsure of what Kiba's relationship with Sakura was, but now he was pretty confident Kiba wanted to be more than just an older brother figure to her. And that irked him. More than he was proud to admit.
"Kiba was showing me around."
"Oh yeah? How long have you guys known each other?" He tries for nonchalance.
"Oh god, forever." She laughs. "He babysat me when I was little. Which was something like a kid babysitting another kid."
"Did you guys ever play on the same team in high school?" She asks him.
"Not really… The junior and senior teams don't practice together. I didn't really know him before pre-season this year." Sasuke pauses, "but one of his exes did ask me to make a revenge sex tape with her earlier this week. To get back at him." He admits, chuckling awkwardly.
Sakura gives him a weird look for a second, then bursts out laughing. Howling really. She's laughing so hard that her eyes start to tear a little. She claps her hand over her mouth to try to stifle her laughter and Sasuke can't help but to smile too.
She's beautiful.
"No!" She gasps after she regains control of herself.
"Seriously." Sasuke nods.
"Oh my god, no. Where?." Sakura laughs again, then something seems to distract her suddenly as she stops and looks up at Sasuke again, "And what did you say?" She listens raptly for his reply.
"She was waiting on the side of the field after one of the practices. I didn't answer her, I just walked away." He rubbed the back of his head, not one of his prouder moments.
"You just walked away?! And she just left it at that?"
"Aa."
"Wow. I'm surprised by that."
"Surprised?"
"Well if I'd gone through the trouble of approaching Sasuke Uchiha for a revenge sex tape, I think I'd be a little more determined to at least get an answer."
"So what you're saying is, if she had approached you to make a revenge sex tape… You would've said yes?" Sasuke raises his eyebrow.
Sakura breaks out in laughter again.
Across the yard, Ino watches Sakura with Sasuke. She's smiling and laughing, who knew stoic mysterious Saskuke was such a comedian?
She's not bitter, she mentally reprimands herself. Though Sasuke's rejections have always hurt, she supposed she couldn't be everyone's type.
As the bonfire is lit, Kiba's all over her. His arm is snug around her waist, holding her close as they talked. He was actually pretty sweet, despite his reputation.
But whenever he looked towards Sasuke and Sakura he seemed to get distracted.
Did him and Sasuke have some sort of problem? She wonders.
Or maybe he was being over-protective of Sakura?
That would be kinda sweet. Everyone knew Kiba was a womanizer. Yet somehow he was also a great brother figure to Sakura. And those two traits together somehow made him into female kryptonite. Like his relationship with Sakura gave them hope that they could also be the exception; the woman to finally turn him into a monogamous man.
Foolish, if you asked Ino. She reveled in winning a man but keeping him had never concerned her. Her interest was fleeting. She wanted to know what was out there before she got old and had to settle down, dammit!
All this naturally made Kiba the perfect challenge, because she wasn't interested in anything long term or serious, and neither was he. He was just a cute older guy on the football team who would get her invited to all the best parties.
It was a perfect frosh match in her opinion.
The fire is in full swing now, roaring nearly as high as Sasuke is tall.
It's a good thing too, or she'd be freezing right now. When they'd left earlier it had been almost swelteringly hot. She hadn't thought to bring a sweater or anything to throw over her thin T-shirt.
But now she finds herself inching closer to the fire as the night cooled off.
Her and Sasuke had been talking easily for the better part of the evening. They talked more about their families. How Sakura was an only child. They talked about their programs, what classes they were excited for and which ones they were dreading.
They covered favorite foods, and restaurants and pastimes until it was well into the evening.
At some point Naruto had come by with new drinks for them, and the fresh cold cup in Sakura's hand made her shiver.
Sasuke shrugged his jacket off and helped her slide it on without comment, the gesture making her blush.
"It's counterintuitive but drinking that would actually help you warm up." He suggests as she tries to hold the cup while making as little contact with it as possible.
Sakura grimaces, "You'll have to distract me then. Deal?"
"Fine." Sasuke breaths out a quiet laugh.
"Never have I ever." Sakura grins, knowing she's got him.
"Here we go…" Sasuke groans, but she can see the corner of his mouth twitch up in a near-smile he tries to hide.
"Never have I ever…" Sakura thinks for a second, "Left the country."
Sasuke drinks, "Really?" He asks her in disbelief.
"Really. Never. Have you traveled a lot?"
"Every year or so. I used to travel with my father to shadow him at smaller summits and meetings abroad. Since the accident, a bit more frequently with Itachi."
"Always someplace different?" She asks him.
"Sometimes, but usually the same few capitols. Sunagakure and Kirigakure the most"
"I'm jealous. Kirigakure sounds so cool." She fawns. "You're up."
Sasuke pauses, thinking. "Never have I ever been in a bar fight." He raises an eyebrow pointedly at her.
"Touché," she raises her glass at him and drinks.
"Never have I ever, been propositioned for a sex tape." She counters.
Sasuke laughs and drinks.
Then jabs back, "I… have never dated anyone." He looks at her meaningfully.
"Oh come on," she whines half-heartedly, "grade school playground romances hardly count."
"Drink up."
"Boo." She tells him and takes a good sip of her cup.
"Never have I ever… gone all the way with someone." She says with a coy smile, gaging his reaction.
Sasuke hesitates, then reluctantly takes a drink.
Sakura tries to hide her surprise and epically fails, looking comically adorable in his humble opinion, "You're surprised?" He asks her softly.
"Intrigued." She covers. "Who was she?"
"If it's alright that I ask." She adds on quickly, with a curious smile.
"I met her at one of the companies' functions, it was a one-night thing." He shrugs just slightly, "I'd had too much to drink and I was pissed about something. Instead of making a fool of myself, I left with a distraction."
"I used to lash out a lot after my parents death." He continues in his low husky voice, "but that was the tipping point. After that I realized I needed to sort through my shit."
"And so you became a star football player and got a full ride to Konoha University. I'd say successfully so." She says warmly. She pats his chest a few times before resting her hand there and looking up into his eyes shyly.
The fire is much smaller now; having used all the wood in building it initially, no one was tending to it now and it burned lower and lower. The light from the dwindling fire set off all the angles and contours of his face. There was something primitive about firelight, that sent tingles down her spine as she looked at him. His chiseled jaw line and high cheekbones.
The way the light reflected off his dark eyes made him look like he was ready to devour her, and she found she wanted to find out what that might be like more than anything.
It was easy for them to slip into their own world, despite being surrounded by teammates and friends. The fire bouncing off their skin, so stark against the dark night.
"Did you ever come close, with someone…?" He asks quietly, like speaking too loud might break their private bubble.
They're standing close enough now that Sakura can feel some of the heat radiating from him. "No, I've never liked anyone that much." She says honestly, unembarrassed by her lack of experience. She thanks Ino and her pre-requisite courses for that. Her knowledge of the female and male bodies was unmatched by any other first year student, she knew that for sure.
She'd learned about sex from a medical textbook she had taken home from the library way before sex ed (which was a joke, and vastly unhelpful). But while Ino couldn't wait to lose her virginity in high school, Sakura found she didn't really care that much. The who was more important than the when.
She'd had a small fling with another councilor at camp over the summer, but nothing so serious as for them to have exchanged numbers or keep in touch after the season ended. And then she'd been asked out a few times in senior year, but she'd been too busy between working her co-op at the hospital and bartending that she'd always had to decline.
But in this moment, Sakura thinks maybe Sasuke could be that guy to her. That she kinda wants Sasuke to be that guy.
The fire's nearly embers now, and without them even noticing the party had begun to empty out as drunk teenagers meandered home.
She had no idea what time it was, but gradually began to notice more of her surroundings as she realized it was probably time to head out.
Sure enough she could see their friends starting to congregating by the gate,
Naruto could be seen with his arm wrapped around Hinata, the two of them chatting happily. Shikamaru was sprawled on the porch step, lounging as he finished off a joint which he passed over to Neji beside him. Sitting on Neji's lap was a girl with two buns atop her head. He took a few short puffs, then tilted his head back and blew it out all at once into the sky. Sakura vaguely recognized the girl from Kiba's year; Tenten her name was. Hinata had told her they'd started seeing each other over the summer.
The only person Sakura didn't see was Ino. As her and Sasuke approached their friends, Sakura turns to scan the back yard again wondering if she's going to have to go knock on some bedroom doors inside to locate the blonde siren…
But then she spots her, and she smiles smugly. Because she's making out with none other than Kiba himself. Mission success. She thinks, impressed by how quickly that came together.
"Hey! Ino-pig!" She hollers, to which Ino reluctantly breaks the kiss to look over at Sakura and say, "What forehead?"
"It's time to go." Shikamaru answers for her, followed by a plume of smoke and a look in Ino's direction that Sakura can't quite decipher.
Sakura may not be able to see it, but she knows that Ino rolls her eyes. She and Kiba exchange a few words, kiss a few times; then Ino reluctantly detangles herself from him and strides over.
Sakura gives Ino the look that says she'd better be spilling all the details as soon as they're home, then loops her arm through her best friends and they follow the gang as they make for their building.
It's so late the streets are eerily quiet, and despite their hushed voices they still echo down the streets. They make a brisk pace, since the girls are all freezing, and make it home quickly.
They clamber up the stairs, relieved for the warmth of indoors. Sakura's already thinking of what snack she can make that would require the least time and effort and settles on Mr. Noodles. Fitting since it's so damn cold.
The girls say good night to the guys as a group, Sasuke meeting her eyes before she ducks inside.
She immediately sets about boiling the kettle and emptying the contents of a packet of Mr Noodles into a bowl. As she's adding the hot water her phones vibrates in her pocket.
She smiles so hard her cheeks hurt, quickly closing her phone. Then immediately unlocking it to read the message again.
Unknown Number
Good night, Sakura - Sasuke
AN/ two real stories in this one. Guesses?