affinity
Prompt: Mentality
Rating: M
Title: from behind the curtain
Summary: Potential is something they are all full of, and of course they put it to good use.
She struts out from behind the door, decked to the brim in black lace and ribbons, her long hair moving back and forth as she walks around the smoke filled room. Voluptuous hips sway to each side, slowly and deliberately gaining her the well deserved attention. The curve of her legs and the shape of her butt are emphasized with the ridiculously tall stilettos she dons and all the men around her take notice.
She bends over, to hear a patron's order and all others in the room take advantage of her position. The sheer black tights on her legs stretch with her movement, becoming that much more transparent as they strain against the hooks attached to a lacy garter belt secured tightly around her hips.
The customer seems to appreciate the fact that he ended up with the prettiest girl in the joint and shows this by smacking her ass when she leaves to retrieve his drink.
Irritation flares behind green irises, but she does not respond, simply grins and bears it as she approaches the bar.
She tells the woman behind it the order and waits patiently.
"Saki." Turning at the sound of her stage name being called she sees her boss, a middle-aged man with greased back hair and bad breath. "The gentleman over there has paid for a dance from you." He gestures to the man that just so rudely touched her and she nods in understanding.
The barmaid sets down the cocktail and sends her a quick look of pity before continuing filling out the other orders.
Walking back to the table with the sweating glass in hand, Sakura plasters on a smile.
The man accepts the drink from her and spreads his knees apart to make room for her work. She straddles his leg and begins gyrating her hips, moving closer until her crotch pushes against his in time with the music. She flips her hair and spins around so that she butt rubs against him and she feels hands come up around her stomach.
She pushes his hands from her body, in a way that could still pass as flirty, and nods her head towards the large neon sign on the wall that says 'No Touching.'
"Read the sign, big boy," she whispers, her lips just barely grazing his skin.
"But you're so beautiful," he says gesturing to her scantily clad body. "And unique, I mean how many other people have pink hair, and eyes that stunning."
She resists the urge to roll her eyes, having heard the spiel over a thousand times before.
"You'll have to pay extra for a trip to the back room if you want more," she murmurs seductively and points towards where one of her co-workers leads a patron behind a black curtain by his neck tie.
The man watches as she continues to dance on him, seeming to weigh his options. After all, the back rooms were not cheap, especially with a girl as high in the ranks as her.
"Back there you can touch me," she runs her hands up to her breasts and squeezes them teasingly. "And see what's behind this skimpy top," she leans forward to give him a little peak and licks her lips seductively.
Sure, she feels degraded, but girls who take somebody to the back room get a bonus big enough to cover her rent for the next two months, not to mention the extra tip.
The man nods his head up and down quickly and Sakura pops off of his lap, grabbing his hand to lead him back.
She slowly draws back the curtain and ushers him through, pausing to look around the dark strip club.
Just when she is about to follow the faceless man, another customer enters the bar, his dark eyes immediately locking with hers. She quickly lets the thick fabric drop back into place, effectively cutting off their eye contact and furthermore, view of each other.
He tucks the gun into the holster around his waist and effectively hides it with his leather jacket. The last thing he needs is to draw attention to himself due to a firearm.
Hoping that their informant had been correct, he enters the strip club.
Immediately he picks her out through the thick smoke and dim lighting. She stands all the way across the room holding an obsidian curtain up after ushering an eager looking business man behind it.
His dark eyes lock with her bright emerald ones and all the emotions of their last meeting linger between them.
She lets the curtain fall, separating them for the time being and Sasuke approaches the bar.
"Hey handsome," the woman mixing drinks says, her blue top glittering in the strobe lights. "I wouldn't mind giving you a dance." She winks and Sasuke ignores it.
"Actually," he begins, "I have a specific girl in mind."
"Oh," the barmaid responds with a small frown, "Which one?"
"She has pink hair," he says, figuring that it is description enough.
"Ah, Saki, she's quite the popular one and might have a queue lined up."
"Is there anyway I can get a private dance with her tonight?" he asks, hating how his desperate tone might sound to the woman.
"She just took a man back, so you'll have to wait," she peers at him through her dark eyelashes in a way that she probably does to hundreds of men each night. "How about a drink to pass the time?"
He nods and orders a rum and coke, all the while watching the velvet curtain.
It can't be him, she tells herself while quickly cleaning up the room around her and re-fastening her frilly top.
It's been a year and I made it clear to cut off all contact.
The sudden pounding of her head with the memories of the past follows her out of the room and into the dark corridor. She finds her boss standing in the hall and she instantly knows what to do.
"Hey, I'm taking the rest of the night off," she tells him.
"Oh no you're not," her boss, a squat man with a patchy beard, responds with a frown. "Some big spender just paid for an hour with you." He hands her a champagne bottle and two glasses. "He's a VIP so treat him right."
She turns to reenter the room she just left with an indignant huff, but the manager stops her once again. "Sak, I'll be watching."
Angered, she practically stomps to the corner of the room, willing the pounding in her head to go away. That last customer had been a total creep and his fingers keep trying to sneak under her panties.
A job is a job though, so she takes a few deep breaths and gets ready for the next customer.
"Sorry, sir." A short man in a pinstriped suit says as he comes up next to Sasuke at the bar. "Our lovely Saki is no longer seeing patrons for the night."
"I can change that," Sasuke replies with a smirk as he sets an abnormally large amount of money on the bar top. "I want an hour, you can keep the change."
The man gaps at the cash, adding up the extra profit in his head before nodding quickly. "Yes sir," he trips over the words in his haste, "Just a moment, sir."
Sasuke just finishes his drink when a girl with long blonde hair and seemingly fake boobs walks up to him. "Follow me, big spender," she says seductively as she beckons him to the back and through the dark passageway he had seen Sakura enter earlier.
She leads him to a crimson curtain decorated in cherry blossoms and lightly opens it for him. "She is ready for you," the woman says before quickly kissing his cheek and nudging him into the room.
Sakura stands with her back towards him, at a table in the corner.
"So we have a couple of rules back here," she begins without looking at him as she pops open a bottle of champagne, "The top can come off by any means, but anything below the waist remains on." She speaks in a husky voice, probably meant to feign desire and arouse the patrons.
"If anything tries to get beneath the fabric in this region," she bends over and shakes her butt, "then I will have to ask you to leave. Now-" she says, turning around and nearly dropping the bottle at the sight of him sitting there.
"You," her eyes narrow slightly, but she keeps her tone nonchalant. "I thought it was you."
He watches as her nose curls up.
"I already told you guys that I wasn't coming back," she states offhandedly.
"Who said I'm here for that," Sasuke responds, reaching out to curl a pink strand of hair between his fingers. "I believe I paid for a dance, Saki." He emphasizes the fake name as if to mock her.
She is about to kick him out, but remembers what her boss said about watching. So instead, a mischievous smile appears on her face as she decides to pull out all the stops. "Champagne?" she offers, gesturing to the bottle in her hand.
Sasuke shakes his head in decline and watches as she shrugs before lapping up the foam that currently runs down the side of the green glass before tracing the opening with a swirl of her tongue.
His eyes darken at the action, and he shifts in his seat a bit as she sets the bottle aside and drops to the ground on all fours.
Sasuke decides to take the opportunity to admire the changes in her. In a year, her pink hair has grown out so that it just passes her shoulders. Her skin is tanner, having moved to the warmer climate of Suna, and overall, she appears more toned and muscular.
Her eyes are hooded as she crawls towards him, in time with the music that has suddenly become louder. Placing both hands on his knees, she runs them up his thighs and rises from her kneeling position until she straddles his lap. She whips her hair around all the while rubbing against him with such force that she even turns herself on a little.
When he makes no move to touch her, she takes matters into her own hands, literally. She sets his hands on her hips and pushes them up until they grasp her breasts. Though his face is passive, she can tell she is getting to him. After all, even if it had been a year, that tension between them never fully went away. Then again, it was never properly sated.
Still thrusting in a definite rhythm, she moves her hands behind her and unfastens the decorative top.
She begins to shrug out of it, but Sasuke stops her in favor of removing it himself. Slowly, he hooks his long finger under the thin strap and drags it off of her shoulder, his eyes greedily taking in the sight of the smooth skin now revealed to him.
He does the same with the other strap, but this time, he leans forward and barely brushes his lips over the skin. Sakura fights the urge to shiver, but fails and a little tremor racks through her body.
Sasuke notices this and leans forward to torment her some more, but Sakura stops him with a finger on his chin.
"No lip contact, honey," she whispers breathlessly while continuing to move her body against his. She resumes with her dance, putting just a little more gumption into each of her moves.
Looking up at him, she finds him staring at her face, rather than her – now free – breasts unlike most of the men that she brings back here.
Unable to take his intense gaze, she looks down and begins running her hands over her body, satisfying a bit of the fire burning within her and hopefully arousing her "customer" as well.
She traces every inch of her skin, just barely coming close to the lacy garter belt. Looking up to gage his reaction, she finds him still staring at her face, but now he is leaning in close.
Ignoring his attempt to kiss her, Sakura turns around so she faces the opposite direction and arches her back in a way that gives him a nice view of her legs and backside. She wiggles her hips in figure eights, trying to shake the thoughts of what would have happened had he kissed her.
Usually, the men patrolling the security cameras would come in and kick the man out faster than he could slip his tongue in her mouth. However, since Sasuke seems to have put down quite a bit of money for this time, it is not unlikely that her boss will turn a blind eye to any stray appendages or dirty grabs.
But it is not for the sake of the establishment that she turned around, but rather for the sake of herself. The attraction that she once had – still does – felt for him had never been a secret. If he kisses her like he used to, she probably would go along with it full heartedly until the manager came in to pull them apart.
"Sakura," he says breaking her from her musings, "turn around."
She catches a sense of strain in his voice and does as instructed, more than a bit anxious to see what he has in store for her.
Then she sees the true damage that she has caused. His hands rest by his side, knuckles turning white from the effort he has put into keeping his fists firmly shut. His usually impassive façade has cracked, revealing how flustered he has become at her actions. She makes a mental note of the bulge in his pants and the thin sheen of sweat on his forehead.
A wicked grin appears on her face at the recognition of what she has done, and she realizes what a loss it would be to stop now.
Wrapping a hand around the back of his neck, she locks her hips to his, then, with the grace of an angel, she leans backwards, pushing her breasts out with the effort. She snakes around and lifts back up until she is just a breath away from his lips.
His mouth moves and there is a slight delay as his words register to her.
"Get off of me."
Embarrassed, she removes herself from him and pours a glass of champagne to fill the awkwardness of the moment.
"I knew you weren't here because you missed me," she says before draining the glass of its contents in one go.
"We need you," he tells her, and she ignores the way his eyes drift down her body, now glistening with sweat.
"I already told you," she moves forward with the bottle, tipping some of the golden bubbles into his mouth, which he accepts with surprisingly little protest. "I'm not interested."
Then she whirls on him, dancing once again, her breasts brushing against his chest so that he can feel her pert nipples rubbing through the thin material of his t-shirt.
He tenses up again, and Sakura knows she has the upper hand in this conversation.
"I told you to stop," he says between panted out breaths.
"Well, thanks to you, 'big spender'," she makes air quotes around the title, "my boss is watching and unless you want us both to get into trouble, I have to continue with this."
"Fuck your boss," he hisses between gritted teeth. "With the job we're planning, you'll have enough money to be out of this hell hole."
"I make enough money now," she emphasizes her words with a particularly strong amount of pressure against the tent in his pants.
"You'll never have to work again," he murmurs in her ear, slapping her ass to get her to realize that dancing for lustful men is not where she truly wants to be.
"Sounds familiar," she retorts, running her hands up his chest and down his arms.
"This isn't like last time," he tells her, taking his own turn at feeling her body, even groping at her round chest. "The plan is foolproof and we have somebody else on the inside."
"The last time we had somebody on the inside, I was nearly exposed." She turns around to grind her backside against him, looking back at him with anger in her eyes. "And I spent a month in jail."
"I bailed you out," he reminds her and this time she does jump completely away from him.
"That's not the point," she screams, but quickly recovers by moving to pour another glass of bubbly and handing it to Sasuke in a way that would appear to the cameras like he asked for it. "I lost any chance at getting a respectable job, and I was the only one to take the fall because of that damned Sai."
"You know that his abilities are exceptional," Sasuke reasons as he accepts the glass and watches her as she collects her frilly bra from the ground and snaps it up.
She looks up at the clock on the wall and watches as the second hand ticks pass the little black numbers. "I'm sorry, but I think that your time's up," Sakura says walking to the curtain.
He grabs her wrist and pulls her back towards him. "It doesn't have to be," he whispers hoarsely. "You can still do it, can't you?" he asks mockingly, knowing that she cannot resist showing off.
She does not get the chance to answer as a burly bouncer enters in the room.
"You're going to have to let go of the girl and leave," he tells Sasuke threateningly as he cracks his knuckles. He must have been sent in once Sasuke grabbed her arm, a sign that security is needed to intervene.
"Sakura," Sasuke says, his hand still on her arm. She nods her head and world is suddenly bathed in monochrome.
The security man in front of them stands as still as a statue, his right fist still cradled in his left hand, his body made up of different planes of grey. The whole room is drained of color becoming a singular block of grey, no shadows or definitions, simply the small lulling shade expanding throughout.
The second hand on the clock, now the same hue as everything else, stands still in its spot.
Sakura's hair is still its usual soft pink, her eyes bright emerald, and her costume remains black and sparkly. Sasuke also remains unaffected by the world around him, his intense eyes and messy hair maintains their dark tone.
They are the only two that can move now as the rest of the world stands still under Sakura's power.
"How long can you hold it for?" Sasuke asks her as they walk from the room into the adjoining hallway and eventually to the club floor where customers and employees alike are all frozen in position bathed in the same grey shade. A girl is flipped upside down on the pole in the center of the stage while another is in the process of receiving a tip between her breasts from an enthusiastic patron.
"An hour," she tells him, before opening the door of club, the door regaining its color at her touch before quickly losing it once again when she lifts her hand off of it.
"How often?"
"About once every 24 hours if I've rested properly," she informs him and Sasuke knows that she is interested in the job, otherwise she would not be answering his questions.
"We can work with that," he mutters under his breath. "The job is at Konoha National Bank six months from now. The team is Naruto, Kakashi, Sai, and myself."
He hands Sakura a slip of paper with his free hand, his other still securely wrapped around her wrist to prevent from being stopped in time with the rest of the world.
She accepts it, stuffing it in her cleavage. Her eyes drift close, and Sasuke knows that she is about to restart the time, but before she can, he pulls her into his arms and crashes his lips to hers.
Tracing the seam of her mouth with his tongue, he prompts her to part her lips, which she does. He tastes her and molds her to him, grabbing her petite body by the waist, he lifts her up and she complies by wrapping her legs around his waist. He leans her against the grey, time-halted wall of the strip club and grinds into her. She murmurs happily, begging him to continue.
However, she breaks off suddenly and wiggles out of his grasps, but maintaining skin contact with him nonetheless. He looks at her imploringly to find a single ribbon of red dripping from her nose.
"I thought you said you can hold it for an hour," he states accusingly.
"That's if I'm concentrated, which I wasn't, obviously."
"We'll work on that," he tells her.
"I haven't agreed yet," Sakura shoots back angrily.
"You basically have."
She gives him the finger before the grey enveloping the world slowly melts away and things are in motion again.
Sasuke steps away and mounts a sleek, black motorbike.
"Call that number when you're done being stubborn," he tells her before donning a tinted helmet. "Then we can finish what we started."
She shakes her head at him before turning to reenter the club and do damage control. However, even as she rethinks about what happened last time, she already plans out a resignation speech for her boss.
