The Barista
Chapter 6 - Affogato
Sarada took her drink and guided Boruto back to the crew that received him with a dubious look.
"Have I missed something?" The blond asked Sarada in a whisper, genuinely considering how much he would have to drink to start enjoying the company of her friends.
The girl gave him an apologetic smile, "my friends have a few trust issues".
Boruto narrowed his eyes, "understatement of the year."
"What are your exact intentions here?" Iwabee rushed forward, a fearless hothead unable to hold his distrust back any longer.
Boruto glared, "what are yours?"
Sarada swiftly interrupted the 'my dick is bigger than yours' contest by standing in between them.
"Do you want to introduce each other like normal people instead of threatening grunting cavemen?"
Her statement didn't have as much of a desired effect as she expected.
Iwabee's eyes did not once leave Boruto's, whose stare on occasion wandered off to look at Sarada and ponder how much grief she would give him for this. Still, he needed to find out exactly what this turban idiot was playing at; how dare him act over friendly with Sarada – this despite the annoying voice in his mind that kept reminding him that he did not know these people, he didn't even know Sarada that much and he certainly was in no position to demand to be informed of anything in her life; he made sure to burry that voice deep inside his mind and go back to it at a later time. Maybe. Probably not.
The thick eyebrows guy spoke, "I'm Metal Lee", insolently interrupted his thoughts and intense staring. He seemed to be trying to break the tension.
"I'm Denki," a nervous sounding voice spoke after, "that guy is my boyfriend, Iwabee."
Iwabee's glare flattered slightly at Denki's words; it was not often that the shy boy introduced him as his boyfriend. Boruto's scowl disappeared completely as soon as he heard the word 'boyfriend'.
The blond blinked, staring at Iwabee's face over Sarada's head, "you're gay?"
The other boy crossed his arms over his chest, "what's it to ya?"
Boruto's surprise turned into an open grin, "that's awesome. I'm Boruto, nice to meet you."
He extended his hand, moving to avoid Sarada, as Iwabee uncrossed his arms, suspiciously looking at the offered hand and back at Boruto's bright blue eyes. What was up with this dude?
The blond reached for Iwabee's hand and shook it, earning a suspicious look. Their strange handshake was interrupted by the shriek of none other than Metal Lee, "YEEESH!"
"THAT'S MY SONG!" Metal Lee shouted at the top of his lungs as soon as 'gandam style' came on. His friends smiled helplessly as he pushed people out of the way to make space for his performance.
Boruto didn't need to think twice, abandoning the handshake and leaving his drink in Sarada's hands as he rushed to join the thick eyebrow guy, whatever his name was.
Boruto's dance skills, easy smile and sweet laugh seemed to be a knock out combination that had a delayed effect on Sarada's friends, all but Chocho who was still carefully pondering if this guy could be trusted.
Barely an hour had passed and the young men were all chatting like old friends, buying each other drinks and making up toasts.
The birthday girl stared at her friends and mumbled something about 'gullible idiots' to Sarada. The black haired girl smiled and pated Chocho's head "boys will be boys", she said before being offered a drink by Metal Lee and invited to join yet another random toast – this time celebrating good music, apparently.
Glasses clinked together for what felt like the tenth time that night, Metal Lee's drink half spilling on the floor. Sarada took a sip of her drink and turned to walk back to Chocho before she noticed her friend was not alone anymore.
"I think Chocho's replaced you," a voice called softly behind her.
Sarada turned to face Boruto, "if I had a penny for every time some guy decides to hit on Chocho…"
The blond raised a curious eyebrow, "what about every time someone hits on you?"
"I'm not as-" she stopped, considering her words carefully, "approachable… as Chocho is."
Chocho's new friend was a good-looking young guy who seemed to be trying hard to get her attention. Sarada smirked at her friend's superior look, "Chocho loves to play the diva with these guys."
Eventually, Chocho noticed them staring and waved them off. Sarada nodded with a knowing grin and pulled Boruto by the arm, "let's give them some privacy."
"Sure," the blond smiled, "anyway, I vaguely remember this really good looking girl inviting me to dance so – no better time than the present!"
Sarada stopped and had another sip of her drink, avoiding eye contact, "I don't really dance."
He was not surprised but did his best to act like it, "why not?"
"Let's say more like I can't dance."
"I think you can do everything you put your mind into," he was in a few drinks in and that was pretty much the best come back he could come up with.
"Complementing my mind won't get me to dance," she started, and then raised her drink, "but two more of these might."
"That's the spirit!" Boruto rushed away to fill in the lady's request.
Three or four drinks later, Sarada was dancing like she never did before (probably because she never had that much to drink before). Boruto was half dancing, half stumbling, half singing... wait, were those too many halves? He couldn't really tell. All he knew was that for every drink he got for Sarada, he got himself two, in a failed attempt that it would push him to a burst of confidence and a consequential drunk confession. Now the floor was spinning funny and the colours around him had multiplied.
They were pretty much the last survivors of the night. Metal Lee was passed out drunk in a corner – Sarada, ever the motherly friend, had seen to him and made sure he was alive and breathing before Boruto dragged him to the corner where he couldn't be trampled by dancing strangers.
Denki and Iwabee had been slow dancing for the past two hours and by this stage no one was quite sure if they were awake or simply fell asleep standing.
Sarada was happy-not-quite-drunk and seemed to be much more aware of her surroundings than any of them were, including Boruto. She danced and her dress glittered; it was all very cinematic in Boruto's mind.
Eventually, the girl noticed the staring, "can you stop that?"
"Stop what?" Boruto feigned innocence.
"The staring," she answered. The blond tilted his head slightly to continue his clueless act but Sarada spotted it immediately and stopped dancing to give him a stern look, placing her hands on her hips. This did not have exactly the desired result as a drunk Boruto could not clearly define the lines of her body while she was moving and dancing, but standing still… she was a tempting sight.
"I'm just looking around to make sure you won't get harassed," he stated feebly, too busy studying her hips and oh-so-beautifully-defined legs.
She crossed her arms, "no one has harassed me, idiot."
He scoffed, "that you noticed." Boruto had dedicated half the night to both glare away any approaching males (and on two separate occasions, females) and ensure he remained close enough to discourage any other brave souls.
The longhaired girl pushed her hair back and looked away, "fine, just stop staring. It makes me…"
"Makes you what?" Boruto was genuinely curious. The girl blushed, avoiding eye contact. He grinned, "shy?"
Her eyes snapped back at him, "no! I'm not-"
Boruto ignored her anger, "aw, you're so adorable!"
"I am not adorable," Sarada tried to reiterate.
"Gimme a hug!" Boruto asked sweetly, opening his arms as Sarada edged back.
"Do not hug me," she warned in a low tone that Boruto could barely hear over the blaring music.
"I will!" He threatened in an overly sweet voice.
"No."
"Yes!"
"No," she warned, "I will bite you."
"Come here!"
Boruto wrapped his arms around her. Sarada wasn't much in favor of physical contact but damn Boruto and his sweet nature, amazing smell and argh... just damn him.
Sarada glared. Boruto cuddled her harder.
"Thought you were going to bite me- ouch, what the hell!" Boruto inched very slightly away from her only to notice the red lipstick clearly marking the skin in between his neck and shoulder.
"You bit me!" He exclaimed, still not letting go, "and you stained my shirt!"
She smiled triumphantly, "I warned you."
He pouted slightly, the girl rolled her eyes.
As she was wearing heels, Sarada was at perfect height for her lips to meet the offended spot. She leaned forward and delivered a light peck to the place she had previously bitten, "there, better?"
Boruto started in awe, then nodded fervently. Sarada laughed and pushed him away; she was only feeling this confident as she was absolutely sure he was too drunk to remember any of this in the morning.
Sarada woke up with a thudding headache. The world came into focus quickly as she sat up. Too quickly; she had obviously slept with her contacts still on. The girl sighed as the voice of her mom popped into her mind, 'you'll get a nasty eye infection' - whatever, she felt too exhausted for any of this. She looked down to check she had at least changed; her oversized shirt was on and last night's dress was thrown over her chair.
Sarada stood from the bed, looked in the mirror and checked her panda eyes from the makeup she clearly did not remove last night. She wiped it off, struggling to remember why she would have neglected all her night routine before getting into bed due to her painfully present headache.
The Uchiha walked to the living room, planning a nice, calmingly lazy day to recover, as she absent-mindedly combed her messy hair with her fingers. She looked around the room for Chocho (who she assumed was obviously to blame for this headache) but her friend was amiss. What she did spot, however, was a sleeping figure lying on her sofa; softly snoring, drooling and naked save for a ridiculously short pair of boxer shorts.
Sarada gapped at the sleeping blonde; what on earth was he doing there? Why were his clothes all over the place?
Her face suddenly went pink; was he naked because of her? Her features darkened; maybe because of Chocho?
"This is ridiculous," she mumbled, rubbing her face in a failed attempt to wake herself from whatever this was. Her eyes reopened and Boruto was still there, still mostly naked and still awkwardly sexy. God damn it.
Sarada dragged herself to the kitchen to get some tea. Tea would help her calm down, it always did.
It did help, slightly. Sarada held on to her tea as she headed back to the living room; her eyes trailed back to Boruto, studying his messy golden hair, then continued down to his innocent expression and onwards towards his muscled arms, fit torso and- hm, she wisely stopped herself just there.
Sarada looked away, embarrassed by her own thoughts. She rubbed her temple; this is not what she needed right girl struggled to fill in the gaps in her mind - she could vividly remember going out with her friends and Boruto, having a few drinks and then-
The blond squirmed slightly, probably sensing her eyes burning into him. She froze, what the hell was she meant to tell him once he woke up?
There was not much time to consider this as the Uzumaki's eyes slowly opened, revealing the piercing blue Sarada enjoyed so much.
"Good morning, sunshine," she spoke, hoping to all heavens that sounded confident and not at all like the pool of anxiety and confusion she felt like right now.
The young man gave her the sweetest smile, "good morning," he half slurred.
He rubbed his eyes slightly, pushed his hair out of his face and then shuddered; it felt a bit chilly. Boruto's eyes wandered downwards and Sarada could swear she had never seen anyone loose color so quickly.
"I'm naked," he stated plainly.
"It appears you are," she nodded.
"Any idea why?"
She shrugged, hiding a playful grin with her tea mug, "maybe you were feeling warm."
He nodded and sat frozen in place for a few seconds in silence. Sarada looked amazing - then again, when did she not. Her hair was loose and messy, giving her more a wilder look and less of its usual coiffed perfection; her makeup was mostly gone but still there enough to make her eyes darker, her lips were fuller than usual from just waking up and the oversized light grey shirt that hung slightly from her shoulder made her look blamelessly teasing.
He then stood in a rush, half stumbling to the bathroom as he dragged his clothes behind him. Sarada continued to hide her smile behind a well-positioned hand and walked to the kitchen to get breakfast ready. She had this nagging feeling that she had forgotten something about last night, something important...
"What the fuck?" Her thoughts were rudely interrupted by Boruto's voice, shouting at the top of his lungs.
To be continued...
A.N: Sorry for the delay my lovely readers, 2018 had some unpredictable predicaments saved for me. Hope you enjoyed the new chapter, see you soon ^^