The Barista

Chapter 3 - Flat White

"Finally, you're back! Jesus, I couldn't take one more day of Sarada's sulking. You think she's moody normally? She was impossible this week. It was a week that felt like three years," Wasabi ranted dramatically.

Boruto opened his mouth to reply but the girl was having none of it, "and I thought you cared about us. Do you imagine the mayhem you caused?"

He again attempted to answer but only managed a few words, "I had to study-"

Wasabi turned to him with a raised eyebrow, "I thought you were brainy. You know, because of the science or engineering or whatever."

The boy had the decency to look embarrassed, "well, the class I was failing happens once a week with this professor that comes from God knows where just to teach it and it lasts about four hours," he stopped, as if that explained everything.

Wasabi shrugged; did he think that justified it all?

He rubbed the back of his head and stared at the floor, "it lasts four hours in the afternoon and it starts at 3pm every Monday."

The girl still looked confused, "but you're here every Monday afternoon so how can you- oh," realization dawned. She gasped, "you're failing because you're here? You ass-"

Boruto shushed her, looking around in worry that Sarada might have heard them.

"I'm not failing anymore! The guy is really annoying about people making the time for his class as he 'makes the time for us'," Boruto did his best to sound annoyingly professor-like in the last sentence.

"But no worries, I did so well in the exam I'm sure he'll love me now."

The girl crossed her arms in judgment, "so you don't show up to class, study a week and then it's all good?"

He shrugged, "I'm really good at learning what I hear but in this case I actually had to study because I wasn't there at all. It's the hardest class of this year but with a week of study, I've aced it."

Wasabi nodded sharply. She then picked up the order book that was sitting next to her and slammed Boruto's arm repeatedly with it.

The blond yelped, "what the- what's with you girls and physical abuse of your costumers?"

The girl glared, "maybe if said costumers weren't so cocky and over confident they wouldn't deserve to be beaten up with stationary."

Boruto muffled his laugh, "I thought you wanted to guarantee I was smart enough for Sarada."

The girl put the book down and gave him a knowing look, "you can't use my dedication to my foolishly good looking yet surprisingly single friend against me."

He smiled, "you were the one that said I was the cause of all her sulkiness last week."

Wasabi sighed, "I wouldn't say sulkiness. I'd say more… angriness."

"Why did you leave her alone to close if she was that angry?"

"She insisted on it," Wasabi nodded, "I think she was waiting for a certain someone." she shrugged, smiling with mischief, "but who knows."

The blond smiled sweetly. It felt incredible to know Sarada cared for him, even if not as much as he did for her. It did horrible things to his heart to give him this much hope.

"What are you two plotting about?" Sarada asked, coming closer to them. The blond looked at Wasabi, silently begging her not to say anything about their study conversation.

"We were talking about how much you missed him," Wasabi, ever the brave one, spoke. The dark haired girl's face took a pleasant shade of pink, while she flat out ignoring Wasabi's words.

Sarada turned to Boruto, "are you going to order or just chat all day?"

The boy smiled. Her fake annoyance was very amusing.

"A cappucino, please," he tried not to look directly at her face, out of respect, he knew how much she hated not being in control oh her emotions.

She nodded but said nothing until she told him the price, then Boruto could not help himself, "can I pay it with a hug?"

He had to dodge about three flying spoons after that remark but it was totally worth it.

Wasabi prepared his coffee for him while Sarada overall disregarded his existence. The short haired girl turned back a the love-struck idiot leaning over the counter, "you have balls, boy. I'll give you that," they high fived.

A couple of weeks had passed and little had changed. Boruto managed to sneak two or three hugs in to tease Sarada when she was distracted and they all went surprisingly well.

Sumire found a boyfriend so Wasabi immediately blurted out all the details of Boruto's crush to her so she could become another ally on their team.

"You have to tell her how you feel," they both insisted, over and over again.

By the end of the month, as Boruto still did not have enough courage to ask her out; Sumire demanded he'd stay on the shop until it closed so Sarada and him could be alone. That Sumire girl could be proper intimidating when she wanted.

Boruto stared at the watch as if it were a deadly enemy. There were two minutes left to closing time and Sarada made his way to him,

"I thought you said you couldn't study here," she eyed his computer.

"I can't, but I don't want you to call the SWAT team on me for disappearing another week."

Sarada slapped the back of his head, "smart ass."

He rubbed the back of his head with an over dramatic 'ouch'.

"I'm going to get changed now so I can close the shop," she walked away, "if you're going to sleep here I expect you to pay for whatever you use overnight."

When she came back, Boruto was at loss of words, realizing he had never seen her without a uniform before.

The girl was as beautiful as ever, wearing black over the knee boots, a black skirt and a light grey top. She was holding a grey jacket in her hands and a burgundy scarf and bag.

"Are you coming?"

Boruto blinked as he realized he was staring. He answered with a sharp nod and packed his stuff as quickly as he had ever done in his life.

"Uh-" he started, once he got to the door and Sarada closed it behind them. "Can I walk you home?"

The girl gave him a strange look but she was smiling, "think I'm going to get lost?"

"Well, it's dark and-"

"I'm trained in three different kinds of martial arts," she crossed her arms, "worry more about the other guy."

Currently, he was worrying more about himself and the possibility of getting his ass kicked if he pushed too much.

"I'll keep you company."

She smiled, "aren't you awfully worried about me. I do walk home alone very often, you know? It's one of the best things about living close."

Boruto's head tilted with curiosity, "you don't leave near the university?"

She shrugged, "it's close enough. My roommate's grandparents own the apartment so it's much cheaper."

The blond nodded. "I live with a childhood friend, Mitsuki. I used to live with Shikadai but he slept most of the time, it was pretty much like living alone until I dragged him out of that room."

"He was the guy that came to the shop a while ago, right? He likes to stare."

Boruto laughed awkwardly, maybe it would be a good time to tell her that Shikadai was trying to assess if she would ever spare him more than a glance.

"Why are you following me?" She asked. Boruto looked around; he didn't realize he was following her at all, the conversation just had a good flow and he kept walking.

"I didn't realize I was. Sorry," he mumbled, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.

She shook her head and continued walking; Boruto took that as a cue to continue. They arrived at her apartment about five minutes later.

"You live really close."

"Told you I did."

Sarada turned to say goodbye but realized she didn't know exactly how to; they were not exactly friends, but you don't let a costumer home with you either. They were not colleagues or strangers so, an acquaintance maybe? How do you say goodbye to those?

Boruto looked anywhere but at her. Was it a good time to let her know he liked her? 'Hi, I know I just found out where you live and we are alone here at night so I think it's a great time to make some advances on you despite you giving me no sign you actually want this'. He would end up dead in a ditch and with good reason.

Thankfully, Boruto's stomach decided to break the silence with some startlingly loud growling.

The couple turned at the same time to look at his belly.

Sarada chuckled, "hungry?"

"I guess so," he presumed one more embarrassing moment really wouldn't make that much of a difference on her opinion of him.

"Do you want to come in?" She offered. At his staggered expression she quickly added, "to have something to eat."

He grinned, nodding vehemently.

Sarada tried to disguise her smile, turning around to open the door for them. Boruto followed her up the stairs and into her studio, all the time struggling to contain his heart, bursting with happiness that he was invited to such a place as her home.

Sarada's house was neatly organized as he expected. Everything was clean and the décor was mostly done in light colors. She had a very comfy sofa as well.

He continued to explore while Sarada took some food out of the fridge to prepare dinner.

"Are you done exploring?"

He had the decency to look embarrassed, "it's a really nice place."

"It's small. I never had anyone take such a long time exploring it as you did. It's usually a five second look around."

He shrugged, "I like to take in the details." He observed as she prepared some vegetables, "can I help?"

She gave him a look, "how good is your cooking?"

He shrugged, "good enough to keep me alive."

Sarada pointed at the sofa, "maybe just watch TV."

Boruto did as he was told until he was bored. There wasn't that much on TV and, besides, it was much more interesting to see her cook.

He sneaked around to the kitchen and watched quietly. Sarada stopped humming a song she had stuck on her head to look at him, "it's really hard to focus with you spying over my shoulder."

He ignored it, "what's that?" He was pointing at some tiny green leaves she was adding to the food.

"Oregano."

Her answer came too late, the blond was already trying it, "oh yeah, I know the taste."

Sarada raised an eyebrow at his strange antics, "how often do you cook?"

The young man shrugged, "hm, I'm more used to leeching off my mom's cooking. I live on ramen." One of the many similarities to Naruto that he refused to acknowledge he had.

She shook her head, "oh, good thing you told me that half way through my cooking and not a minute before."

"Are you cooking italian ramen?" He asked excitedly.

"No. My mom's not the greatest cook so I learned to cook for her. She loves it all but seems to be a bit tired of ramen, so I don't cook it much."

He gave her a playful smile, "she's your mom. I'll be a fair judge of your food."

Sarada pretended to be offended, "I didn't realize it was a contest."

"If you're as good at this as making coffee, you'll be fine."

She snorted while distractedly continuing to cook, "you hate coffee."

It was his turn to sound offended, "I've told you I don't."

"Yeah, you obviously do."

They stared at each other challengingly. Boruto easily gave up, "so... what's this?"

He pointed at some other condiment. Sarada laughed, "oh my, you're really bad at this."

"I can't be good at everything. We wouldn't want all you girls falling for me."

Boruto went quiet as soon as he realized what he had said. Damn it. His self-control couldn't be any worse if he tried.

Sarada cleared her throat, playfully patting his back, "I don't think that'd be much for you to worry about."

"That really hurts," the blond placed a hand over his heart, overdramatically. "I'll let you know that-"

"You're really popular. Yes, I know. You've told me that about a million times already."

"Well," he tried to defend himself, "you never seem to believe me."

"A sweet smiling blond with piercing blue eyes and a body of someone that spends a considerable amount of time exercising," she said it in a fake bored tone, pretending to continue cooking without looking at him, "I don't need you to tell me you're popular, it's obvious."

The annoyed tone of voice flew completely past Boruto, "you think I'm sweet?"

Sarada ignored his question, "time to eat."

Boruto set the table as she served the food. He looked distractedly at a collection of frames that showed a baby that he assumed was Sarada, a couple of family pictures with her mom and a single picture of an extremely good looking young man that Boruto was currently glaring at.

"Who's that?" He asked, pointing at the guy's picture, "your boyfriend?" He tried to sound teasing but he actually sounded annoyed. There was so much more he wanted to ask: 'why is he so handsome?', 'why didn't you tell me you had a boyfriend even though I never asked?' and 'wouldn't you rather have a blond?'.

Sarada came out holding the food and looked at the picture he was pointing at. Her face contorted instantly, "that's my dad, you idiot."

Boruto blinked, "why is he so young?"

She rolled her eyes, "he is actually about 32 in that picture. My mom put it there because it's her favorite picture of him and she wants to know how she, and I quote, 'married such a handsome man'."

Boruto looked at Sarada and then back at her dad's photo.

"You know, looking at him it actually explains a lot."

She sat down, "what do you mean?"

Shit. Well, nothing to loose now, "I mean like- how you're so… beautiful."

Sarada immediately grabbed her glass of water and tried not to choke. Boruto ran to her aid, "are you okay?"

She waved him off, "yes, I'm fine. Just shut up and eat."

Boruto found her lack of capacity to deal with a direct compliment very interesting. Maybe he found a weakness.

They ate together, Boruto complementing her cooking skills and Sarada warning him to 'shut up and just eat' multiple times.

When they were finished, the blond insisted he wanted to help with the dishes and only almost broke two glasses before Sarada kicked him out.

"I'm sorry," he whined.

"You would be if you had actually broken anything," she threw his scarf at his face.

He laughed, "I'm not very good at house keeping."

Sarada raised an eyebrow, "you need more practice then."

He nodded in agreement while putting his scarf on.

Boruto smiled at her and turned to walk away, "Thank you for everything. Bye, beautiful lady." He waved, enjoying Sarada's annoyed look from a distance.

She huffed, turning around to close the door as she whispered, "not so bad yourself."

To be continued...