March
Sakura's cell rings Monday night from an unknown number just after she has settled into an armchair with a drink. With caution, Sakura answers, ready to end the call the second a telemarketer clicks on the line.
"Hi Sakura, this is Mui."
Sakura sits back in her armchair, fingers clenching automatically at her margarita glass at her last memory of the woman; even if it had been a sham.
"Thank goodness I got a hold of you on the first ring. What luck!"
Sakura recognizes the name but not the high pitched voice or peppy attitude associated with it.
"Madara totally gave me your number on Saturday, but I've been so busy with work – please, like, don't blame him for not passing along your info. I've just been swamped, you know?"
Totally? Like? You know? This isn't the woman Sakura remembers, the one with short phrases and a pitch so low it could be a growl. It also isn't the woman from the dvd, the one with crisp clear lines and sorrow dripping from her lips. Her grip on the glass loosens in confusion.
"Mui, hi," Sakura really isn't sure what to say. She hadn't really wanted a call, and she'd told Madara that.
"I'm so glad we finally get to talk. I feel like there has been so much I want to say to you that I couldn't. You know, it would have ruined the whole marriage counseling spiel."
"I did not give you marriage counseling.*"
""I am really sorry, Sakura. Madara talked me into it." It's like the woman doesn't hear her, she just continues on. "He and his sister, you must know how they are by now. Ugh, goodness, I would never have been such a jerk in real life."
Hadn't it been real life? Sakura half wonders if maybe this woman doesn't even know what reality she is in. It had been very real to Sakura.
"I owe you a spa day. Fully paid for by muwa. And you'll get the works, I promise."
"That's not necessary or needed. I've forgiven you and Madara." This is strange and awkward and Sakura would like to get off the call.
The woman doesn't stop though. "You'll get everything from a mani, pedi, face, mudbath and wine - lots of wine - ooo and chocolate too. Lots of chocolate. Oh, I know, we can make it a girl's trip!"
What in hell? "No, thank you again for the offer, Mui, but let's call it good." Sakura doesn't want to spend a day, or any amount of time with the woman. Mui has at least stopped speaking so Sakura takes the time to finalize this. "I appreciate your call. I forgive you for the part you played. I hope you have a good night-"
"Thank you," the woman's pitch drops to a more bearable level and it makes Sakura hesitate in hanging up. Mui sighs on the line. "And I know you only got to see the show I did at the coffee shop* but I really do love him. Madara that is. Just. Not in the way he needed. We couldn't stay married. Anyway, thank you for being there for him. Everytime I call he mentions you - to be honest I think you are one of his last remaining good people. So really, I do owe you. If there is anything I can do for you, now or in the future, I'll do it in a heartbeat."
"Good people?" The phrase sounds odd to Sakura's ears, but she quickly follows with, "You don't owe me anything." What exactly had Madara told Mui about her?
"You know - good people. Someone you'd trust with your life. You'd be surprised how shitty people can be, or maybe it's just Madara rubs people the wrong way. His whole family's got this grit to them, they are like sandpaper. Izuna especially, being the baby none of his siblings see it; he's the coarsest grain. I'm glad I never have to be in a room with him again. Fugaku, on the other hand, is a sweetheart; how he puts up with his wife is beyond me. I'm pretty sure he's not a real Uchiha.
"Yesterday, I met someone just like him-" and the woman dives right into a tale about a waiter she met at a restaurant the night before.
With a stretch Sakura begins sipping her margarita while Mui goes full blast from one topic to another. There's a strangeness to Mui, like the woman is detached from reality and yet in the heat of it. One thing becomes obvious, the new job on Broadway is Mui's dream fulfilled and she tells story after story about it with the excitement of a child on Christmas morning. By the fifth story, Sakura ends up making another drink and actually enjoys the strange monotony and drama of Mui's workplace.
The oddness with Mui wouldn't be so prevalent had Madara not given very similar gossip. Whereas Madara had only given her interesting, juicy or funny information about Mui's coworkers during their viewing of the broadway show, Mui unloads everything. Sakura is getting details about nail colors, clothing, food preferences amongst the strange conflicts occurring between cast members. It takes one more margarita for her to start engaging in the conversation.
"And then Alestor found Laura in the bathroom with Felix. Such a mess."
"Wasn't Alestor with Annie, the girl in the blue dress on the show…er Calli-erm?" what was the name of the character?
"Oh that was last week, hun. How did you know about that anyways?"
Oh no. "Ah well…"
"Did you see my play?" She doesn't sound upset, almost like she's containing nervous energy.
"Yes, Madara showed me the video of you. I hope you don't mind." Was it weird Sakura had seen it? Yes. Very weird. Shit. Why had she opened her mouth?
"Did you like it? Did you like it?" the pitch goes right up several octaves.
"You were brilliant," Sakura says, relaxing. The rest had been boring, but not Mui. "Madara mentioned some of the context he had on the cast while we were watching it…"
"You watched it with Madara?" the woman's pitch drops back down.
Shit. "Yeah, but it wasn't-" Sakura doesn't get to finish that thought.
"What a lame date. He chose to watch a show with his ex-wife in it? Ugh. Gross. Lame. Don't you worry hun, I'll give him a talking to." She moves the phone away from her head such that Sakura can barely hear her, "Donna, you'll never guess what my ex did."
"No, no, no." She practically yells. And she is standing on her feet pacing. Oh dear, what has she done?
"It wasn't a date," Sakura clarifies. "He just wanted to show me that you two were still on good terms."
"Well, of course we are silly. Hard to be on bad terms with Madara for long. He's still number one on my good people list, that's why I married him in the first place."
"Look-"
"Now don't you worry, I'll sit him down and tell him how to treat a lady."
"I'm not dating-"
"I'll also remind him to take his pill before bed, but honest you should know, remind him, makes the sex so much better. He's ah-mazing with his hands, but a consistent poke is a must. The pill helps, you know, keep it–"
"It's getting late, I know you are a couple hours ahead," Sakura yells over whatever else Mui is about to dish on her ex-husband's sex life. Social norms be damned, she'll do anything to get out of this phone call. "I have to go." Now.
"Oh cute, you two go to bed about the same time too. Well tata for now. I'll harass Madara."
The woman thankfully hangs up.
Sakura drains her margarita glass and goes for shots. At least she knew why Madara was such a drinker. "Wow," is all Sakura can say, ears and face flushed crimson.
An hour later, she's upstairs getting ready for bed in the bathroom, brushing her teeth when her phone rings.
Madara.
She spits into the sink and gives some thought before answering. She's not sure what Mui meant by harassing Madara, but she has a strong suspicion the harassment has caused the call. Her face warms. Well she hopes that Madara has talked some sense into Mui, and that Mui did not speak of what she spoke to Sakura about. Well this would decide if she went on Wednesday, or kept the dvd for good. "Hello?"
"Hi Sakura, this is Madara. I just want to call and apologize because if your phone call from Mui was anything like mine.. Well, next time, I'm giving her an address to send a card and flowers to," his tone is crisp and tight, she can almost feel the tension of a tightrope. She'd only heard Sasuke have such a tone once, right before he'd gotten in a fist fight in highschool with Gaara and got his ass kicked from said fight.
Sakura tries to diffuse the situation as she rinses off her toothbrush, "No worries, Madara. Sounds like you got the brunt of it. When things got awkward, I got off the phone."
The silence over the line feels heavy.
She feels the need to keep talking. "All's well, she's forgiven." She glances at her own reflection, her entire face is beet red. Well maybe not so forgiven. How the hell is she supposed to meet Madara on Wednesday and look him in the eyes now? "So you know… no harm done." Except knowledge she should not know about Sasuke's uncle sex life. Mui, why? Who would divulge such information like that?
"When things got awkward?" he backtracks to her early statement.
No, she is not going to repeat a word of that conversation until the day she dies. "Like I said, no worries."
"I feel like we had very different conversations, what exactly did she say? There is awkward and then there is Mui awkward."
Crap. "Like I said, don't worry about it-"
"What did she say? Usually that question is easy to answer."
Well, normally it is easier. Sakura quickly tries to think of anything, anything at all that had some truth that Madara might buy. "Izuna," Sakura coughs out. "She really didn't seem to like your brother." It is the truth, although slightly stretched.
The silence goes long.
"It really wasn't anything that bad," she tries to course correct, guilt pooling in her stomach for throwing Izuna under the bus. "They seemed like snide side comments."
"I suspect she didn't tell you the full story between them," Madara says, giving a long sigh. There is rustling on the end of the line. "Izuna caught her with," he hesitates, "a married individual that wasn't myself… He hated her ever since. Wanted me to divorce her that night."
"The affair was real?"
"It happened a year after we'd been married. We'd been struggling and we worked it out. Our marriage lasted two years after that."
Her heart felt heavy with the news.
"I don't hold anything against Mui. Izuna, however, never could let it go… I barely kept Izuna from ruining two reputations at the time. I'm sorry she's dragged you further into Uchiha drama. Please do not think ill of my little brother. He kept blaming himself for introducing us. Honestly, that woman," Madara lets out another sigh. "Is that it, that was what was so awkward?"
Her mind replays the end of her call and with a flush, "Yes!"
"It sounds like she said other things, likely worse. Take everything from Mui with a grain of salt, please. Especially anything she says about my family. Pretty sure she hates all of them but me."
"She likes Fugaku." Suddenly a horrible feeling strikes her. "Please tell me it wasn't him."
Madara laughs, "I can assure you; you've never met them. Fugaku has never looked at another woman as far as I know. Even when I'd talked Mikoto into going into a strip club in Vegas, he was the one who opted out and spent money at the card tables instead. He was also kind enough to get our plastered asses back into a hotel room safely, paid for breakfast from his earnings. Talk about a saint."
Sakura laughs with him. She can't imagine Fugaku herding drunkards around or an intoxicated Mikoto. As much as there is still anger at the way she'd been treated by said woman, the image of the prim and proper women being unruly and tucking dollars into cleavage makes Sakura burst into another fit of laughter.
Madara lets out a yawn, "I'm not even married to Mui anymore and she's going to send me to an early grave."
"Have a good night, Madara."
"You as well. Sleeping better, I hope?"
Nope, and she probably wouldn't tonight without help. Medical help that is. "I'm planning to take some NyQuil."
"You normally drink and take NyQuil?"
"What?" How the hell did he know she'd been drinking? She creeps to her window intending to look out the blinds when he begins speaking again.
"You've been slurring your words this entire time. I'm not sure I'd dose with NyQuil on top of that."
There's nothing strange outside her window. The cars were all familiar and accounted for by neighbors. Had she really been slurring? She counts the drinks on her hand as she leaves the window and sits on her bed. Ok, NyQuil could be a death sentence with five drinks.
"My bad, I miscounted how many I'd had. Didn't really feel tipsy." Not in a good feeling kind of way. Thanks again to Mui. "I'll bail on the NyQuil idea."
"Good, glad to hear it."
She winces at his clipped tone. "I'm just not used to having tequila in the house," she teases, trying to lighten the mood.
"You're drinking my tequila without me, rude," he quips back.
"It's my tequila now. Finders keepers." Sakura returns to her bathroom, takes an aspirin, puts the phone on speaker and fills her water glass.
"How much is left?" he asks.
She takes a moment to drain the majority of the glass before filling it back up. "You drank half, I don't want to hear it."
She snorts as she returns to her bedroom and puts the glass on the white nightstand. "The rest is mine to finish at my leisure. I won't be judged for how fast or slow I consume it."
"Since you can't pronounce consume, I suspect there's little left."
Sakura settles under the covers. She sits up, and begins drinking the water. She can't afford a hangover at work tomorrow. "Ha, well - anyway, I'm turning in for the evening. Work night. So -"
"Good, so am I. How about we count sheep together?"
"I'm good, but thank you. Have a good night."
"One, Two," he starts.
"Madara."
"Three."
She sighs giving in. Sakura leans back against her pillows. She has to finish the water anyway. "I'll notice if you miss count, you'll have to start over."
"You're too drunk to notice if I miss count. Three. Four.**"
She ends up counting to twenty-five with him before opting to drain the rest of the glass. She turns off the lights and curls under the covers, letting him continue on without her.
Her eyes close, listening. He's consistent in his spacing and rhythm. She joins in every so often before dropping off.
"Ninety-eight. Ninety-nine. Hundred. Hundred-and-fifty-two."
Her eyes crack open. "You missed some there."
"There was a herd, they jumped in unison. I had to make a rough estimate."
She can't help her laughter and he chuckles with her over the line.
"Well, before they trample you I think we'd better call it quits," Sakura says.
"Very well. Have a good night, Sakura."
"You too, Madara, you too."
She doesn't get up to plug in her phone, not wanting to wake herself back up; she plops it onto her night stand. She closes her eyes, about to fall asleep and dream of sheep. But then the conversation with Mui replays in her mind. She lets out a groan and jams a pillow around her ears as if to stop hearing the words.
*no marriage counselling + a coffee shop ? - if your confused – it, turns out I had a major plot hole and had to re-write chapter 1. .
** she didn't notice the miscount and you might not have either