The Office

Chapter Two

The holidays passed much too quickly for Haruno Sakura, as there had just been so much for her to do: setting up the office gift exchange, making sure that all of floor three had been properly decorated, keeping up with her work, and generally keeping everyone else in the Christmas spirit. The last task had quickly proved to be the most difficult, as the irritating hermit who inhabited the office connected to hers seemed determined to stay in a sulky mood the whole season. Sakura didn't know what exactly spurred him to act the way he did, but it dragged her mood down with his on occasion. For some infuriating reason he seemed to enjoy this.

Uchiha Sasuke was a bit of a mystery to her, and Sakura simply could not make heads or tails of him. The closest thing she'd seen to a happy emotion on his face was a smirk, and those appeared most often when he was annoying her. Everything about him screamed 'recluse'—from his dark, midnight hair coolly swept back to his obviously expensive black suit. Or maybe it was just the "don't screw with me" vibe he emanated on a daily basis.

Sakura stole a peek at him from her desk, as she had 'accidentally' left the door connecting their offices open. She figured that some of the light from her office would filter into his; he worked under the dim light of his desk lamp only. That couldn't be good for his eyes.

Unfortunately, from where she was sitting, only the front corners of Sasuke's desk were visible. It suddenly occurred to Sakura that she had never seen him truly at work, when he was deep in concentration. She had only walked in during moments when someone else had already aggravated him, his concentration broken and his temper flaring. Ino seemed to be his newest annoyance. Sakura's closest workplace friend thoroughly enjoyed bursting into his office, not meaning to disturb him but finding any excuse possible to see him. It took a lot to keep Sakura from laughing in Ino's presence; Ino clearly harbored a massive crush on the man.

Sakura blew out a loud sigh. Well, if she couldn't see him, then she might as well return to her work. Or…her Spider Solitaire game. Her drive to get things done had led her to tackle her work the second it was practically chucked at her, even if it had caused her to work much later than her colleagues. Let's see…Sakura thought. I've finished typing up that advertisement the boss wanted by Friday, and I've come up with several ideas for the next magazine ad…Sakura rattled off all her accomplished tasks in her head, ticking them off on her fingers as she did so. She received a shock when she ran out of fingers. Wow. I guess I've done quite a lot lately.

She buried her face in her hands as she matched the last set of cards, winning the game for the fourth time in a row. That was it. Something had to be done. This was ridiculous; how had her boss somehow magically run out of projects to give her? Did he think she couldn't handle more than one at a time? Should she pay him a visit to discuss her workload?

"Miss Haruno," Sasuke's deep voice rumbled from his office, startling her out of her thoughts. "Can you get in here for a minute?"

Sakura scowled. Ino hadn't even had the pleasure of annoying him today, and he was already in his trademark mood.

"Yes? Would you like me to bring you a little bell, so you can just ring for me?" She raised her eyebrows at her own remark. Perhaps he was rubbing off on her a little.

"Not today, Haruno." Sasuke's tone held a warning note, indicating that today was not going to be fun for either of them. "I want you to get something for me."

"Calling in a favor after the lights I made you deliver?" Sakura asked him. Her peppiness had been drained out of her by her intense boredom, so she wasn't in the mood to exchange sarcastic remarks any more than he was.

"You know very well that was voluntary. Here." Sasuke set a stack of papers at the front of his desk, furthering Sakura's impatience with him. The man was so arrogant! She didn't know why he couldn't simply stand up and hand them to her like a normal human being.

"What?" Sakura asked.

"Take these to Ino." Such a man of few words—Sakura hated that. However, she couldn't help but smirk as she realized the reason he had called her in. By getting Sakura to run the papers over to her, Sasuke could avoid interacting with Ino completely.

"You owe me." Walking over and scooping up the papers, Sakura glanced up at him. Funny, she thought. He always wears the same blue tie.

Instead of turning around and leaving, she straightened and smirked. "Why are you in such an awful mood this early in the morning?" she asked.

"You don't need to know." Sasuke's voice was curt and to the point. "Can you just deliver those?"

"So, there is a reason," Sakura pressed, curiosity sparked. "What exactly could annoy you more than Ino before ten o-clock?" She gently set the stack of paperwork down and paced, a finger to her chin. "You haven't had your morning cup of coffee yet." Her eyes lit up as she teasingly grinned at him. "Or did you discover some gray hairs?"

"Don't be ridiculous, I'm not getting that old," Sasuke snapped. A little touchy? Sakura asked herself. He seemed to be reassuring himself more than her…

"Well? Then what is it?"

Sasuke glared at her, pulling the arm of his suit straight where it had wrinkled. "What will it take to get you to leave?"

Far from being repelled by his rude manner, Sakura was intrigued. "I'll leave if you tell me what's bothering you."

A frustrated sigh escaped Sasuke's lips, and Sakura gave a satisfied smile. He was giving in, she could tell. Sasuke paused before answering.

"Too much to do and not enough coffee. Now go away."

Despite this being a perfectly reasonable excuse, Sakura somehow knew he was lying.

"Gotcha." Sakura turned on her heel, grabbing the papers on her way out. "Don't worry, I'll fix that." She caught sight of Sasuke's confused expression as her words registered. "Don't worry about it, kay?" With that, she walked out, leaving his front office door open on purpose.

"It's from Sasu-kun?" Ino asked excitedly as Sakura set the impressive stack on Ino's desk. "Why couldn't he have brought them himself? Would've done him some good if you ask me. I'll bet he's literally shackled to that desk." She licked her thumb and flipped through the papers. "Sakura, next time you see him you're checking his ankle for a ball and chain."

"He's a hermit," Sakura replied without missing a beat. Surely she couldn't tell Ino that Sasuke was avoiding her with a passion. "And I believe he prefers it if you call him 'Uchiha-san,'" she added with a grin.

"Nah, Sasu-kun is just fine with me. It's cute." Ino said triumphantly, as if Sasuke himself had given her permission to call him by that name.

Mental note, Sakura thought, use that name at first opportunity to see how much it drives him crazy. "Could you ever imagine Sasuke as "cute?"" she asked with a grin. "I need to head back. Lots of work to do, you know." Briskly walking away, she sped toward her destination—the break room.

Sakura saw Sasuke look up from his desk as she came in, a cup of steaming hot coffee in her hand. Wordlessly she set it down next to his desk lamp, enjoying the surprise that crossed his face.

"So there. All better," she said happily. "Now you can go back to just being irritable, instead of being downright cranky."

Sasuke, speechless for the first time in months, gazed down at the black mug filled with wonderful caffeine. Sakura watched with growing amusement as it dawned on him.

"This is already a third empty!" Sasuke accused, looking up at her incredulously. Glancing down again, his suspicions were confirmed as he located the tiny pink ring that her lip gloss had made on the rim of the mug. "You drank out of it!"

"The elevator took forever!" Sakura said defensively. "God forbid you get any cooties." She waved her hand dismissively on her way out the door. "Anyway, I need to get back to work." She stopped and gave him a final glance over her shoulder. "Enjoy the coffee."

Sasuke could hear her chuckling at him from her desk as he attempted to focus once more. The shock of her appearing so suddenly bearing coffee had finally worn off, and he was left with a numb feeling of relief that she was gone. He really couldn't afford her distracting him once more.

He raised the mug, peering into its hazelnut depths. He guessed two packets of creamer, a few packets of sugar, and just a hint of lip gloss.

He expected to become angry with her, even though she had gone to the trouble of bringing the mug to him. Unfortunately for him, his emotions decided to have a mind of their own, as pleasure unfurled in his stomach. Her gesture was, for some reason, sexy, and he had yet to figure out why.

Placing his lips over the lip gloss ring she had left behind, he drank, inhaling the warm vanilla and hazelnut scent drifting into his nose.

Hmmm. Whether she meant it to or not, her lip gloss added a flavor to the coffee that the old Columbian just couldn't outdo. Sasuke wondered whether he could convince Sakura to bring him half-empty coffee every morning.

"Sakura." Sakura's ears perked up as Sasuke called to her from his office. She could easily hear him from her own, as their door was still wide open. Sasuke hadn't bothered to shut it yet, she noticed, feeling triumphant.

"What is it?" He was going to reprimand her about the coffee, she knew it. Too bad she didn't really care. In fact, she couldn't wait to hear what exactly he had to say about the matter.

"I lied about the problem."

Sakura gave a start. What?

"I'm turning thirty tomorrow."

Silence. The air was so heavy with it that when she broke the tension she could actually hear him jump when she spoke.

"Ah!" she squealed, her exclamation followed by peals of loud laughter.

"Sakura." Now Sasuke's voice was reprimanding. "I bother to tell you, and this is how you show your concern?"

"Concern?" Now she was positively howling. Breathing at a fast pace, she struggled to calm herself down. "Okay, I realize that was a bit unprofessional on my part—" Sasuke, unprofessionally, snorted—"But really, thirty is not a reason to have a conniption. Granted, it is a milestone, but you should be celebrating!"

Sasuke's sour growl back told her he did not appreciate the use of the word "milestone." He was a man married to his career; she guessed that for all of his work at the company, his sense of accomplishment was rather low at the moment, whereas she had danced into the same position a few years after college. She was a walking reminder that he should be farther up the job ladder by now, and she supposed she could show a little sympathy for that.

"Well, happy birthday, okay?" Sakura said, and then spoke not another word on the subject. She noticed with satisfaction that he was finally able to concentrate for the first time that day.

The next day, Sasuke was surprised to see Sakura already hard at work in her office as he came in. Prompt as always, he had arrived at eight-thirty. They were supposed to be at work at nine; Sakura was never there before him. Puzzled, Sasuke settled into his chair and set his briefcase down.

"Wha—" A small package lie on his desk, with a yellow Post-It note on the front that read simply "Sakura."

"Happy birthday," Sakura said loudly from her office, a smile evident in her voice.

Bewildered, Sasuke took out an envelope opener, gently sliced the brilliantly red wrapping paper in careful strokes, and held the revealed object in his hands. It was a black tie, diagonally striped with intensely bright yellow lines.

Sasuke glanced down at his own navy blue tie. He always wore the same one every day, wearing one strictly out of necessity. Being original with his ties never occurred to him, at least not until this moment. The new tie blended comfort and originality in a single dose with its familiar black shade streaked with yellow that screamed color. It was a perfect compromise between their personalities.

Surely she did not expect him to put this on. It was so far from anything he would have chosen on his own; the message was so distinctly Sakura, while at the same time maintaining the proper amount of workplace professionalism.

Sasuke threw his head back and laughed.

The next morning Sakura sipped her coffee in satisfaction, an involuntary grin tugging at her lips. She had made the great Uchiha Sasuke laugh. She had made workplace history. Ino would forever be envious.

She spotted Sasuke walk past, eyes straight ahead, but something stopped him. Pausing at her door, he glanced at her sideways.

"Morning," he grunted, and stalked back to his office. She didn't miss the almost imperceptible smile he wore—but that wasn't the only thing.

Sakura glimpsed a flash of color and immediately choked on her coffee.

"Well, don't start seizing just because I happened to look at you," Sasuke called sarcastically from beyond the open conjoining door. Sakura coughed unsteadily until her lungs were blissfully clear.

"As if I'd notice you looking, you ass," she commented back, but there was no maliciousness in her voice. Not this time.

He was wearing the tie.

That deserved a cup of half-empty coffee, she decided. Hazelnut with just a hint of lip gloss.