Chapter Four: Longing
Love you too, Sakura-chan.
Sakura-chan.
Sakura-chan.
Oh God.
He hadn't called her that in years, almost a damn decade. Even when they were drunk, even when they'd hit rock bottom and sobbed together. Hell, he hadn't even called her that to tease her, and the two of them lived to wind each other up.
He said it in her dreams all the time of course. She never really delved into that too much though, because well … then she'd have to admit to herself how much she loved him calling her that. And how much she missed it.
But her brain was firing on all cylinders and it just kept replaying him saying it over and over again, merging it with the vestiges of last night's dream, goddddddd.
She rested her head against the steering wheel of her car, resisting the urge to headbutt the leather grip. This was ridiculous. He probably just slipped for some completely innocent reason. Or she heard him say it but he didn't actually say it.
It wouldn't be the first time her thirsty ass heard him add chan to her name when he hadn't actually said it.
Except she'd been stood so close to him she couldn't miss the acknowledgement and shock in his eyes. His gloriously blue eyes. His endlessly welcoming, soul quenchingly deep eyes.
He knew what he'd said, he knew she'd heard him and that meant it was all too real.
And which was why she felt entirely fine having bolted. Twenty-seven or not, she was allowed to freak out like that sometimes. Especially when her bonkers hot, best friend called her by her old pet name, from back when she may or may not have had a crush on him through school, okay?
Her phone was going off in the passenger seat. She daren't look at it.
The first possibility was it was Naruto checking in on her. Which she didn't feel emotionally strong enough to deal with right now. The second was that it was Ino peppering her with constant texts like the one she'd sent just before she'd left. And the last thing she needed right now was more pushing to go back and jump Naruto's bones.
She'd been thinking about doing exactly that for the entire thirty minute journey home anyway. Now she was in the parking lot, she was still struggling to resist the urge.
The third option, and about the only one she could deal with, was that work was asking her to come in today and do a quick shift before the weekend. That she could handle. She could throw herself into work and not think about how damn gooey and horny Naruto had just made her by saying one extra word than normal.
God she needed to get laid.
She headbutted the steering wheel lightly and grumbled. Her phone burst into life with what was unmistakeably Ino's ringtone. Sakura glared at the thing and scooped it up and shoved it into the bottom of her bag, muffling the song for the most part.
She was outside their building already, the bitch could wait.
Slamming herself back against her seat, Sakura growled and dragged her fingers over her face. Enough, enough! This was ridiculous. She was a grown ass woman. She was a doctor for fuck's sake. So what if he'd called her Sakura-chan? He used to do it all the time and it didn't drive her anywhere near to this crazy back then.
It was probably just having such an effect because of the dream. They did always tend to linger with her for the entire day afterwards. The horny they inspired did at least. It'd die down and go away like it always did.
She would go upstairs, tell Ino about her and Naruto going as each other's dates, and then help her indecisive roommate choose the right dress for the reception and then when she went to bed tonight she'd go to town on herself. That'd fix it.
Sounded like a good plan to her.
Sakura-chan …
She grumbled again, but she had a plan now and used the power of the plan to force herself past the wobbliness in her knees. She even managed to make it up to her and Ino's apartment without thinking about his lips and what he could do with them.
Then thankfully she was greeted with the madness that was her living room and Naruto was shoved right out of her mind.
Wine glasses, plates and cutlery, a burned out stub of a long candle were spread out on the glass coffee table, the remnants of last night's meal still congealed to the plates. There was also both male and female clothing strewn all over the sofa and floor in a very telling path towards Ino's bedroom.
She caught sight of the shiny inside of a condom wrapper and decided she'd seen enough.
'Ino!'
'Shit,' she heard Ino hiss from her bedroom. 'Be right with you!' she shouted back to Sakura.
Sakura stood in the middle of Ino's late night activities feeling very much like an angry mother who'd caught her teenage daughter with a boy …
Which she guessed she sort of had … if you really stretched it.
She crossed her arms and kept her best annoyed scowl on her face as she tried to not let her mind wonder what sort of state she and Naruto could leave the room in as revenge.
Naruto had suggested they trash the living room as revenge on one of the rare occasions they'd been able to hang out at her and Ino's flat during her fling with Kiba. Ino and Kiba had hooked up on and off for a year back when the two women first moved in together. It had been … a car crash that just kept happening truth be told. Sakura had more or less just retreated to Naruto and Shika's as often as she could during that whole mess.
Naruto's suggestion had never included actually having sex though. Sakura's mind was decidedly including that part right now.
And it needed to stop.
She thought they had a system in place now? And with it being Sai, Ino had actually been pretty good about keeping sexcapades to her bedroom and warning her when the quiet man was coming round for a date night.
She hadn't actually walked into a bombsite like this in a very long time.
Ino appeared around the corner and into the open space living room/kitchen.
'Hiya Forehead, wasn't expecting you for a little while,' Ino said sweetly, not so subtly darting around her and picking up bits and pieces of the destruction in their shared living room.
'I can see that,' Sakura grumbled coolly. She scooped up the condom wrapper and held it between two fingers for Ino to see. 'Where's Sai?'
Ino had the good grace to blush slightly. 'He had to leave early, he's doing some last minute decorations for Shika and Temari.'
'And you didn't clean this up before he left because?' She gestured at the steadily shrinking mess. 'Honestly Ino, you promised I'd never find this sort of shit again.'
'I know!' Ino said, snatching the condom packet out of Sakura's fingers and darting it into the nearest bin. 'I know, but we got a bit carried away and you know how I've been trying to get Sai to be more adventurous?'
Sakura rolled her eyes. Because yes, she really did know that. And way too much about Ino's sex life to be frank. The things she knew about Ino's sexual partners … it made her feel like a massive pervert.
It wasn't Sakura's fault Ino went on and on in such detail. She hadn't been able to look Kiba in the eye for years after everything she was told about him. The only relief with Sai being Ino's newest boyfriend was he actually was worth gushing about for more than just sex.
Didn't stop Ino gushing about the sex all the same.
'Yes …'
'Well he took the initiative on the sofa right after dinner so …' Ino shrugged and smiled to herself. 'Anyway, when you didn't reply to my texts I thought maybe you'd finally acted on my advice and I'd have longer to clean up.'
Ino gave her a long look, the kind of look that made Sakura want to wrap her arms around herself to keep the other woman from looking right through her.
'But given how you've clearly got a stick up your ass still you didn't.' Ino sighed, smacking Sakura lightly on the arm with the back of her fingers. 'Honestly Sakura, what does a girl have to do to get you to bang that gorgeous man?'
'We're not talking about me and Naruto right now,' Sakura growled as she stormed past the blonde and all but slammed her bag onto the kitchen counter. 'You should have cleaned this up when you woke up and you know it.'
Ino held up her hands in defeat. 'Yes, yes, I know. I'm sorry, promise it won't happen again. Would it help if I told you it was some of the best sex we've ever had though?'
'Ino!'
'Right, right! Sorry, you still gonna help me pick a dress though? I really need your help there.' Ino gave Sakura the puppy dog eye treatment, with full stuck out lip and clasped hands. 'Please Sakura, you always pick the best dresses for me.'
Sakura grumbled and pulled out her phone, it had stopped going off now so it probably wasn't work or Naruto who'd been blowing it up earlier. Best to get the slurry of filth from Ino out of the way. It'd only annoy her more to have visions of what Ino thought she and Naruto were getting up to once she'd calmed down if she left it until later.
'Fine,' Sakura said eventually, smiling absently as Naruto's whiskered face lit up her screen. Seven texts from Ino, huh, it had seemed like more, a couple missed calls and an answer phone messages that she had probably best delete straight away.
'You're the best Sakura!' Ino cheered, hurriedly scooping up the remaining clothes and disappearing them into her room. Which was probably in an even worse state than the living room had been.
The pinkette quickly erased the answer phone messages, she'd made the mistake of listening to one from Ino after an overnight stay at Naruto's once and, suffice to say, she'd never do that again.
Texts were harder to ignore though and just reading them was making her blush so hard it could probably be seen from space. She involuntarily rubbed her thighs together when she got to one that listed her and Naruto in her favourite position. She nearly launched her phone at Ino when the blonde grinned at her knowingly.
'Why did you text me that?!' Sakura growled at her.
'That's what you get for answering that question honestly during Truth or Dare Forehead,' Ino teased in a sing song voice. 'I did tell you, you should've taken the dare instead …'
'You dared me to show up at Naruto's in just my underwear with beer and ramen,' Sakura ground out, she'd be worried she'd break her teeth if she wasn't so angry. 'I was never going to do that. Besides how do you even remember that? That game was during med school!'
Ino just winked saucily. 'It was a very revealing answer Forehead, I wouldn't be surprised if the other girls remember too. You kinky thing you.'
Sakura blushed into her hands and growled out her distaste for Ino as loudly as she could.
It helped distract from picturing Naruto underneath her as she rode him with her hands behind her …
She shook her head and pulled out a bottle of water from the fridge. She hated her roommate, she hated her a lot.
'And not for nothing Sakura,' Ino said as she brought the dishes over to the sink. 'If you'd done it, the two of you would probably have gotten together by now. Not my fault you chickened out.'
'I'm not having this argument with you again,' Sakura groused. Wandering over to the sofa that was now mercifully clear. She gestured at the sofa to a watching Ino and the blonde shook her head.
'We got to the bedroom before that,' Ino assured her, coming over to sit next to Sakura on the chair. 'Even I'm not that inconsiderate. Promise.'
The pinkette sighed in relief and nestled down onto the comfortable sofa. 'You had a nice night then?'
Ino nodded eagerly. 'It was so lovely Sakura, I know you don't wanna know about it now but it really was amazing, I think I'm falling for him.'
Sakura smiled warmly at her exuberant friend. 'You can tell me all about it later when we have wine. Just … no sex talk now alright?'
Ino nodded and leant in against her. She gave her a nudge with her elbow. 'You had another dream didn't you?'
'Shut up Ino,' Sakura said without any venom. Lying about it was pointless, her sex obsessed friend always seemed to know. It was like she could smell it on her.
'Seriously Forehead,' Ino said with a long suffering sigh. 'Just make a move on him already. If nothing else it'll alleviate the tension. And you know he wants you too.'
'I said we weren't having this argument,' Sakura repeated herself evenly. She had to do that a lot with Ino. Always had. 'But if I tell you something we agreed on today will you let it go until after the wedding?'
That got her a moment's silence and a delighted smile from Ino. 'Depends. What sort of agreement are we talking about? Coz frankly Forehead, neither of you strike me as the fuck buddy type.'
Sakura was about to admonish Ino, colour already racing up her neck, but she couldn't honestly do it. It wasn't important and now she was on the precipice of telling Ino she and Naruto were going as each other's dates to the wedding … she was reluctant.
Once she told Ino she couldn't take it back. The plan that could be abandoned right up until they got to the venue if Naruto or her decided it wasn't such a good idea, would then be set in stone and she'd have trapped them in it.
Ino would never let her live it down if she told her they were going together like that and then backed out.
It would probably be what tipped the pushy blonde over the edge and make her act on her threat to push them into a bedroom and not let them out until they'd fucked.
Which didn't seem like such a bad thing if you asked her brain. Which wasn't helping. At all.
Well, best treat it like a band-aid and rip it off to get it over with, she supposed.
'We're going to the wedding as each other's date,' Sakura said quickly.
Ino paused, it was like the universe had frozen around the two women and something in her had just snapped off. Sakura was actually getting a bit unnerved by how long she was just blankly staring at her.
She was about to check her pulse just to make sure she hadn't killed her friend when Ino finally spoke.
'No way,' Ino said, frowning at her. 'No way, don't mess with me Sakura, what did you really decide?'
She got a bit indignant at that. She thought this would be big news! Even if it wasn't a romantic date, she thought it merited some excitement! All their friends had been pushing for this since before they'd dated other people!
'I'm serious Pig,' Sakura said hotly. 'We're going as each other's date.'
'Not just each other's plus one?' Ino asked, crossing her arms and peering at Sakura like she could see into her very soul. 'His date, date?'
'Yeah,' Sakura said, a giddy little tingle running through her.
Sakura-chan …
'His date, date.'
Ino kept staring at her, it felt like she'd never stop and then her lips slowly turned up and the blonde threw up her arms so quickly the tank top she was wearing rose to expose some of her tummy.
'YES!' Ino cheered as she grabbed Sakura's hands and squeezed them so hard she thought her fingers might pop off. 'Finally! This is amazing! You guys are finally going on a date! And at a wedding! Oh Sakura this is fucking perfect! Well screw my dress we've gotta pick yours! And the right sexy underwear! I can lend you some if you need some!'
Ino had started bouncing on the sofa and threw herself at Sakura in a bone crushing hug before the pinkette could explain it was just a platonic date.
'Do you have condoms? I know you're on the pill but we don't want to take any risks, you two have got so much sex to catch up, we don't wanna throw a pregnancy into the works and mess that up.'
'I – um … Ino it's not actually that kind of –' Sakura tried to say as her face exploded with colour.
Ino was already pulling her towards her bedroom, pointedly ignoring her protests. 'Shh, Forehead, it's okay, you just let Ino take care of everything. Once I'm done with you, you'll have him eating out of your hand … and other places …'
'Ino!' Sakura gasped but was silenced with a wink.
She was already regretting telling her.
'And hey, you can finally make that little fantasy of yours come true!' Ino beamed as Sakura was dragged fully into the bombsite that was Ino's room.
Tonight was going to be a looooooong night.
Naruto honked the horn as he and Shikamaru pulled into the car park. He may have also deliberately driven over the speed bump in such a way to jolt his passenger awake painfully.
'Man,' Shikamaru winced from the backseat, where he'd stretched out to have another freaking nap. 'Did you have to do that asshole?'
'Maybe next time, when I tell you not to lie down in the back of a car,' Naruto said innocently with a shrug and another honk of his horn. 'You'll do it.'
'Troublesome,' Shikamaru grumbled, shuffling around to right himself in his seat. 'If you'd let me sit in the front, I wouldn't have fallen asleep.'
Ino's smiling face appeared in their kitchen window, her waving hand reaching out into the clear blue sky. Naruto was pretty sure she shouted that they'd be down in a minute but he wasn't sure.
Best just get the trunk ready regardless.
'I didn't make you get in the back,' Naruto pointed out as he hopped out of the Jeep. He wrenched open the passenger door so Shikamaru was hit with the morning breeze. 'You didn't even try for the front seat.'
'Yeah,' the other man said snarkily. He rolled out of the car to join Naruto at the trunk. 'Because you didn't need to. Sakura's got dibs and we all know it. And your girlfriend never gets told no, ow!'
Naruto pretended to wince. 'Oh. I'm so sorry there Shika, did I get you with the door when you were talking out your ass?'
Shikamaru grumbled some more, rubbing at his stomach where the door hit him, and at the sleep crystals crusting up his eyes.
'You're pissy this morning,' he muttered. He checked his phone, yawning loudly and stretching up one arm while pocketing his phone again. 'This got something to do with what you said to Sakura on her way out yesterday morning?'
Naruto decidedly didn't turn to look at his perceptive friend. Because he still hadn't figured out how Shikamaru had heard that particular exchange.
'Don't know what you're talking about,' he said dismissively. Naruto repositioned their suitcases to make room for the girls' and checked their suit bags were still hanging on the hooks in the large trunk. 'You misheard me anyway.'
'Bullshit,' Shika said mildly. 'Come on Naruto, you called her Sakura-chan. I know you guys have been pretty liberal with the 'I love you's since school but you never call her that anymore. I never understood why you stopped doing that by the way.'
He'd had a day of this sort of needling yesterday. Granted, Shikamaru seemed to have picked up on this thread being something he should tug on very carefully but that hadn't stopped him tugging.
He'd only stopped when Naruto had not-entirely-jokingly asked how Shikamaru was planning on getting to the venue for his wedding weekend. Intrusions into his love life, friend or not, were not something Naruto was in the mood for right now.
Not that he ever was in the mood for it.
Naruto let the innocent expression fall from his face. 'I don't want to talk about it, and given how the girls are probably on the way down … let's just focus on your wedding yeah? Something real please.'
Real. Like the fact that Sakura's texts had been a bit sparse yesterday. How he'd had a feeling of dread about this weekend ever since Sakura had left yesterday.
Real like how much he really wanted to keep calling her Sakura-chan and had only ever stopped because he hadn't wanted to … because it had hurt too much to call her Sakura-chan while she'd been dating Sasuke. Because she wasn't his Sakura-chan anymore.
Ugh, teenaged angst. He hadn't missed it.
'Alright, alright,' Shikamaru said with an impatient sigh. 'But you know she won't have forgotten. You just best hope she didn't tell Ino. I can't save you if she has.'
Don't remind me, Naruto grumbled to himself.
Ino was their loudest and most abrasive advocate and had been for what seemed like forever. There had been more than one house party where the blonde had pulled him aside to drunkenly give him dating advice in regards to Sakura.
The woman had been beyond put out when Sakura had started dating Sasuke and Naruto had dated Hinata. The blonde seemed to take it as some unforgivable sin that the second they were both single again, that they hadn't immediately gotten together.
Sakura had sent him a few texts during what had apparently gone from helping Ino with her dress to just a general girly day and night of wine and movies. But she had definitely told him that Ino knew about their platonic date.
Another thing Naruto had been wondering about. Was the platonic date really a good idea? He hadn't counted on his complicated feelings for Sakura coming back. The physical attraction and deep love and affection weren't new of course … but there were not so nice parts of their history too that had come back as his brain circled in on itself.
But she'd told Ino now, there was no going back from that. Especially given how much of a grilling Sakura had undoubtedly gotten. Naruto really hoped she hadn't mentioned the Sakura-chan thing.
It had been a slip of the tongue, he hadn't meant to call her that. But he didn't know how to tell Sakura that without hurting her feelings. They were definitely going to have to talk about it though. He didn't want to hurt Sakura by making her more confused than she looked when she'd left.
The pinkette's texts had been rarer yesterday which could only mean something was taking up her attention. He just hoped it was Ino's doing not her tearing herself apart trying to figure out why he'd called her Sakura-chan again.
But the texts had been no different than normal. They'd joked about Ino's incessant worrying about her dress, teased each other and made various in-jokes. There'd even been more than a few texts, when the girls had broken out the wine, which Naruto thought were kinda flirty?
Though that wasn't new. Alcohol tended to bring out Sakura's more flirty side, especially if Ino was there to goad her on. And supply more alcohol.
The best example being the night of his twenty-second birthday.
Ino had dragged them all to a club and shoved Naruto and Sakura onto the nearest dancefloor. And any time someone tried to cut in with either of them … Ino would just appear and almost snarl the unsuspecting man or woman away.
Naruto and Sakura wound up dancing together all night. It had been wonderful, they'd been silly with each other, being overdramatic and basically doing anything they could to make the other laugh and then there'd been one particular slow dance. His hands on her lower back and hip perfectly, her arms looped around his neck. Her delicate fingers playing with his hair. The smell of her perfume mixing with his cologne and their sweat, her mouth so close he could taste her lip balm on his tongue.
He could still remember the look in Sakura's eyes when she'd started to lean in.
And the pain in them when he'd pulled away at the last minute. She'd covered it quickly and the dancing had gone sillier and much more like friends cutting loose than … anything else.
They'd been drunk and it had felt wrong to him. Besides, Sakura had never mentioned it so he was probably the only one of them who remembered. It was fine. They didn't cross any lines and other than each having monster headaches the next day … they'd carried on as normal.
But that wouldn't be the last time they'd nearly kissed and while he thought he remembered most of them … he couldn't be sure. Sakura didn't remember all of them either but they'd had a good laugh about each of them they could remember.
Except the one from his twenty-second birthday. He'd never told her that one. Because that one … that one had felt … it had felt like the only one that was a genuinely lost opportunity. He should have acted on that one. He wasn't sure why he hadn't. Yeah they'd been drunk but … had they actually been that drunk? What if he'd just kissed her and seen where it had went?
Where would they be now if he'd done that?
'Naruto!' Sakura called from the door to her building, a pink suitcase trundling behind her as she half-run up to him. Her loose ponytail bouncing lightly between her shoulder blades.
He caught the hug before she basically tackled him, and was assaulted with every glorious scent of Sakura as her face buried into his neck instinctively.
'Please tell me I have the front seat?' She whispered hurriedly without pulling away from him. 'She's been so much worse than I ever thought possible.'
'Warned you,' he muttered back. Leaning down to pick up the handle of Sakura's suitcase and pull it round to back of his Jeep. 'But yeah, Shika's in the back with Ino.'
'Thank God, I told her about it being a date, totally platonic of course! But I didn't even get that far and she just went crazy.' Sakura cast a look back over her shoulder as Ino appeared with her own deep purple suitcase and was noticeably having more difficulty with it than Sakura had. 'And she still found time to bring half her wardrobe.'
Naruto chuckled lightly and nudged Sakura with his shoulder. 'Don't be mean, her childhood friend is getting married. She's just excited.'
She rolled her eyes but didn't say anything. She hefted her suitcase up into the empty space by Naruto's in the trunk.
And he totally didn't take the opportunity to watch how her perfectly normal and casual, loose fit clothing, which was perfectly understandable to wear when you were going to be in a car for an hour … made her look absolutely stunning and he couldn't keep his eyes off her.
Which he supposed wasn't anything new. He'd been like that all through school too. Even when she'd been dating Sasuke he hadn't been able to stop being captivated by her. And it just made him feel like a goddamn possessive monster.
Which he wasn't, he had never presumed to own Sakura, wouldn't have dreamed of it. And it wasn't like he was angry with her for dating someone else. She'd dated other men since Sasuke. And it wasn't like he'd been waiting dutifully like some great romantic hero for her to notice his childhood crush.
He'd moved on, he'd dated Hinata and a few other women and neither he nor Sakura had ever been weird about it. It had been fine.
They'd even talked about her and Sasuke. Just like they'd talked about him and Hinata. If either of them had wanted to take their relationship beyond what it was … even discuss the idea of it, they'd have done that years ago. Like on his twenty-second birthday.
Ugh.
This was just because of the damn pet name. Maybe he should have never stopped calling her it. Then this wouldn't be such a big deal. And it wasn't like he hadn't called her it in his mind even if he didn't actually say it out loud.
She was looking at him now though, blushing slightly as he caught where his eyes had landed and she punched him lightly in the chest.
'It's a platonic date right Naruto? Stop staring at my ass.' She laughed and he mirrored it on reflex.
'I mean, have you seen your ass Sakura? Can you blame me?' Naruto fired back automatically and that earned him another blush and a light punch. But Sakura's fingers lingered against his arm longer this time.
'Then you'll have no problem if I stare at yours in those jeans?' Sakura whispered conspiratorially, leaning herself against him temptingly. 'Cuz damn Naruto, I need to thank the designer for the view.'
'I – uh well, Sakura that's …'
Ugh, he wasn't a goddamn teenager anymore. He could flirt with his hot best friend and not go all awkward and tongue-tied.
Hell, they did it all the time. They'd damn near made a game out of it at this point. And Sakura had just scored another win it would seem.
Mirth filled her eyes and something else hid behind it and Naruto couldn't bring himself to pull away from the closeness. He could taste Sakura's toothpaste she was so close.
Green eyes fixed on him as a small smile pulled on her lips. 'You okay there Naruto?'
He wondered how much bigger he could make that smile by kissing it. And if her lips would feel as blissful against his as he'd always absently wondered. He'd lost more than a few hours wondering what it would be like to kiss Sakura's lips.
Those glorious eyes of hers dipped to his lips too and for a second he could have sworn she was having the exact same thought as he was.
That was …
'Stop eye-fucking and come help me with this damn suitcase!' Ino's loud voice pulled both of them out of the spell and they blushed furiously.
'We're not eye-fucking Pig!' Sakura all but screeched. 'Maybe if you listened to me about packing for a weekend not a week you wouldn't be having so much trouble.'
The blonde just stuck her tongue out at them and pointed at her suitcase. 'Don't care. I promised not to tell Shika about your little plan for the wedding. And you agreed you'd help me with anything asked for. Now you, lover boy.' Ino pointed at Naruto and then the suitcase at her feet and then at the car. 'Put that in there.'
Well that meant they were definitely doing it then. That … filled him with all kinds of emotions he couldn't pin down right now. Not when Sakura was frowning at Ino and glancing apologetically at him. And Ino was just watching him with the same expression she used to wear any time she'd caught Naruto and Sakura being just a bit too close to one another.
Badly hidden, and supersonic bright, glee.
Well, that was just gonna make this whole weekend just that little bit tougher.
'Chop chop, or maybe I won't remember it's meant to be a secret prank.' Ino smiled, a megawatt bulb hidden behind her white teeth. 'Besides you know Sakura wants to watch that muscled body work.'
Sakura blushed scarlet and gave him a beseeching look. And didn't seem to realise she was smiling sheepishly.
Well that did all kinds of things to him and a certain part of his anatomy approved of her not so subtle glance at not-his-face.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.
'Get in the damn car Pig,' Sakura said quickly when she caught herself.
'Yeah, yeah, just don't spend forever looking into each other's eyes now you're at least taking the right steps towards the obvious. We want to get to the venue ASAP right? Toodles.'
Naruto shut the trunk door with a hearty slam and Ino merely winked at him as she slid into the open passenger door, closing it behind her.
'Sorry Naruto,' Sakura muttered as she shot death glares at Ino, who was merrily chatting with Shikamaru in the backseat. 'She's been like that since last night. Just be glad she's sober now. Agreeing to help her with anything she asked was literally the only way to make her promise not to blab. She whined like a child this morning about being unable to tell anyone else.'
Naruto sighed and patted Sakura on the shoulder gently. 'It's fine. We knew she'd be a pain in the ass about it. Hopefully once we get to the house it'll distract her from tormenting us and we can have a nice weekend.'
Sakura smiled absently and bumped her arm against him. 'Still on for our platonic date then?'
That hope in her eyes. It was so familiar …
Dancing all night in a night club familiar.
'Yeah,' he said softly, a smile slipping across his face. 'It'll be fun.'
Sakura didn't say anything, only reached out to stroke his arm before walking up to the car.
He did his best to keep his eyes in respectful places as she walked away from him.
The sway of her hips made him fail in the best way though.
A small, hopeful and quiet part of him was throwing more and more doubts at how platonic their date actually was with every step Sakura took.
It slam dunked its doubts on the word when Sakura paused at the car door and bit her lip before slipping into the car with a smirk.
He blushed scarlet and blew out a long breath.
She knew he'd been staring, and apparently she hadn't minded in the slightest.
'Platonic,' he muttered to himself. 'Sure.'
