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"This is laaaaaame," Hidan whined, sprawling across the seat. Temari shoved his head off her shoulder with a look of disgust. His head fell against Kakuzu instead, who hit him even harder.

They sat on the patio at the bar. This was supposed to be the party for some important person's something-or-other. None of them had really listened to the many speeches. All they knew was that Tobirama had sent Hidan, Temari, and Kakuzu in his place. And Madara, who had another event to attended, had begged Sakura to go too.

"Make the boss stop sending us to shitty parties, Sakura," groaned Hidan.

Sakura lowered her cocktail glass, eyebrows rising. "What do you want me to do? He's your boss."

At this, Hidan sat up, Clasping his hands together, he fluttered his eyelashes to simper, "Oh, Tobi-baby. Be nicer to Hidan and my other less-talented friends for me!" And then he lowered his voice, miming throwing his arms around her. "Anything for you, sweetheart."

Sakura wrinkled her nose at him. She contemplated kicking him before Temari got up to grab her hand.

"Let's head somewhere else. Didn't you say one of your friends has a place around here?" Temari asked, already pulling her in the direction of the stairs.

"Huh? Oh yeah. Let me give him a call." Sakura hooked her arm through Temari's.

Genma picked up after four rings. "Graymalkin," he answered with the name of the bar.

"Gen, Sakura."

"Hey!"

"You guys busy tonight? I wanted to drop by with some friends."

"Are they hot?"

Sakura hung up. Rolling her eyes, she looked over at Temari. "He says we can come," she sighed.

Genma's bar was tiny. Squeezed between a taco place and a fortune teller, it glowed soft orange, funky music playing low over the speakers. It was always busy, but not in an unbearable way. Like tonight, there were no free seats open at the bar, but there were a couple empty tables.

Graymalkin was a hipster hangout. There was no denying it. If the sheer amount of facial hair, black glasses, and plaid didn't make it obvious, the number of people wearing suspenders did.

When they walked in, Genma stood at the cash register, chatting with a customer. His face lit up when he spotted Sakura. He waved at her. She winked in response.

"Cute," Temari commented as they made their way to a table.

"The bar?" asked Hidan.

"...Sure... The bar," replied Temari, looking over at Sakura, who sighed.

"I think Gen's single, if you're that interested," Sakura told her. And Temari's whole face lit up. She dug through her purse to find her lipstick to reapply.

While Hidan and Temari settled in, Kakuzu and Sakura walked up to the bar. Genma was too busy to take their order, so they asked the other bartender instead. He gave Sakura a not-too-subtle once-over as he took their order. Sakura ignored the look.

A couple minutes later, they returned to the table with the drinks.

It wasn't a bad night to be here. The mood was good and the music selection wasn't horrible. Hidan went to get them another round of drinks later. And when things finally calmed down, Genma came over to join them. Sakura didn't have to really break the ice. Genma was a natural charmer. And he and Temari seemed to hit it off right away.

Genma was in the middle of telling one of his wild stories when Sakura thought she heard something. She tilted her head, trying to catch the sound better.

Sakura's eyes widened. "Hang on," she said to Kakuzu. He just grunted vaguely at her.

And that was the last thing she remembered before she opened her eyes.

Sakura jolted awake in an unfamiliar room.

"Oh no. Shit. Fuck," she hissed, fingers tangling into her hair.

Her head whipped around as she tried to figure out where she was. The wall directly behind the bed was made of old, weathered bricks. From the rafters hung a fan that rotated in a lazy, almost sleepy way. A potted fern sat on top of the dresser, which was a weird place to put a plant, in her opinion.

And while this room was nice to look at, there was nothing she recognized. No photos. No posters. This was a stranger's place.

She slid her hands down to cover her bare chest. The shame burning her cheeks, the heat slipping down to her neck, her shoulders as she wondered who to call. Maybe Ino? Or Temari?

"Oh, you're awake."

She burst into tears when Itachi walked through the door with a mug in his hands. Which he almost dropped when she began sobbing. He plunked it onto the dresser before he hurried over to her.

"Heyheyhey shhhh," Itachi murmured, his arms wrapping around her. "What's wrong?"

Sakura couldn't do much else but hiccup and whimper as he hugged her. Her hands grabbing onto his as the tears spilled down her cheeks. It took her a long time for her to calm down. Even with Itachi rocking her back and forth, murmuring soothing words into her ear.

Sitting at the kitchen table an hour later, Sakura sniffed. Her eyes puffy and her nose bright red. The quilt from the bed wrapped around her shoulders. She stared blankly ahead as Itachi set a glass on the table. He poured her a glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice.

"Do you feel a little better?" he asked, pushing it towards her.

Sakura shook her head.

"You should drink something. You're dehydrated," he said anyway.

Wrapping both hands around the glass, Sakura took a sip. Which turned to a gulp. Itachi refilled her cup with an anxious expression, hovering around her with all the nervous energy of a hummingbird.

"Sorry," she finally managed to croak.

"For what? Drinking all my juice? I can always make more," he replied, finally settling in the seat across from her. She only noticed then that he was wearing an apron. There was a little black bird stitched into the pocket.

"Do you feel like talking now?" he then tried again.

"I got confused... because... this doesn't look like your place," she mumbled.

Itachi looked around at the white walls. And the weathered wooden rafters above. "I told you that I was moving."

"I forgot."

His gaze returned to her.

"So... I thought that... for a minute that- that..." Sakura trailed off, rubbing her face with both hands.

He began to look a little nervous as he took that in. "I didn't think you were drunk. Do you... not remember last night?" asked Itachi, leaning his elbow on the table.

"I do now. Not when I just woke up."

She had recognized his voice at Genma's bar. She had always been good with voices. And she had dragged him over to their table to laugh at Genma's stories. His arm wound around her waist, thighs pressing together on the hard, wooden seat.

Cheeks gin-warmed, Sakura had waved goodbye to her friends and left the bar with him. Laughing into the cool night as Itachi caught her up on his busy week. Arguing with Itachi as he tried to insist on carrying her purse for her.

And as she thought, she remembered now. How the lease for his last apartment had ended and he had moved to a bigger place. White walls full of windows and the burning city lights. The sills crowded with potted cacti and souvenirs from his many business trips.

After a tour of his new place, and a glass of red wine, they had climbed the steps up to his bed in the loft.

"I'm an idiot," Sakura sighed.

"You're not," Itachi assured her. He leaned across the table to put his hand over hers. It took a moment, but she answered him with a smile. She pecked him on the lips.

They had breakfast and then walked to the subway station together. They parted ways after the turnstiles. He kissed the top of her head as he gave her a hug.

"Have a great day."

"You too," Sakura replied. And it was almost drowned-out in the metallic screech as a train pulled up to the platform. Their heads swiveled to check the colored circle stuck to the windows. It was his train uptown. Itachi waved before he squeezed in with the crowd rushing toward the doors.

Tobirama stood in her office by the time she got to work. He held a shopping bag in one hand, the other in his pocket. He wore a black sweater with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. It had been a few months since he had covered up the chord diagram tattoo on his left arm with a new one of Apollo. He took one look at her puffy face and sighed.

"Itachi texted me. You okay?" he asked as she set her purse down. She sat on the edge of her desk, kicking off her shoes.

"I'm tired," was all she could think to say. Which was true on a lot of different levels.

She lifted her chin when Tobirama pushed the bag into her hands. When she peeked inside, she found clothes. After a little digging, she recognized them as a sweatshirt and jeans she had left at his place a while ago. There were also two plastic packages obviously bought from some cheap pharmacy on the way there. One of socks and one containing underwear.

"Thank you, Tobirama," was all she could say as her throat began to feel clogged.

She watched as he began moving around her office. Pulling down the blinds and drawing the black curtains shut. He locked the door and pulled down the shade on the window too. And then he sat on the little grey sofa pushed up against the wall.

"So?" Tobirama asked.

Sakura turned her back to him before she shed her jacket and then unbuttoned her blouse from last night. She folded her clothes, setting them inside the empty bag.

"I woke up in Itachi's new apartment and I thought I went home with a stranger last night. I thought he texted you," she grumbled. She yanked her socks off in big motions. Tossing those into the bag too.

"He did. He just said you had a rough morning and probably wanted some fresh clothes," replied Tobirama.

"Oh."

Sakura peeked over her shoulder. Tobirama with his too-long legs watched her with- She didn't know what that expression was supposed to be. She quickly turned away to finish yanking her arms through the sleeves. Tugged the rest of the garment down to cover her stomach.

"So that's why you cried, huh?" he then commented. She pretended not to hear him.

"Let me see," Tobirama then requested.

"Don't look at me," grumbled Sakura.

"I can't even look at you now?" Tobirama asked. His voice so soft that she almost didn't register what he was saying. That made Sakura peer over her shoulder at him again as she pulled her panties on. The cheap elastic snapping over her skin. She glared at him, especially at the way he looked so innocent.

Sakura rolled her eyes when she realized what he was doing. She squeezed into the jeans. Pretended she couldn't feel his hand reach out to touch her hair. Or that he brought it to his lips to kiss it. She swatted his hands away when she felt them creep up around her waist.

"Ugh, you're so clingy," she pretended to complain as he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his lap.

"I wanna look at you," Tobirama whined. He kissed the back of her neck, her shoulder. Her scowl dissolved into giggles as his lips tickled up the side of her throat. More kisses peppering around the shell of her ear.

"Quit it! You're so annoying," she laughed, pushing his face away with both hands. It wasn't until much later that she realized what he had been doing. Snuggling and annoying her until she forgot what had made her so upset in the first place.

Sakura got a call from Itachi a few nights later. There was a soft opening of a mediterranean restaurant in the city that a friend of a friend had invited him to. They browsed the stiff new menus with the glossy pages. When the waitress stopped by to offer them a drink menu, Itachi and Sakura exchanged a look.

"...Just water, thanks," Sakura told her.

And as the waitress walked away, Itachi nudged Sakura, leaning in close. Like he was about to whisper a secret. Instead, he remarked, "Should we stop by Genma's after this?"

He laughed as she smacked him in the forearm with the menu.