Flower Crowns

There were times when her Servant reminded Sakura of her younger self. The reddish-pink hue of Frankenstein's hair. The way Frankenstein's eyes were covered by long bangs. Frankenstein's love of flowers. The shyness and insecurity of Frankenstein.

What's more, she knew of the Berserker's fear to be left behind, to be left alone. She had studied the literature thoroughly before the Servant summoning ritual, and her heart ached for Frankenstein, who was rejected by the one who breathed life into her and was denied her chance at happiness. It reminded Sakura of Naruto, who had suffered a lonely and loveless childhood for hosting the Kyuubi. Yet Naruto still had people who love him. There was Iruka-sensei, the old man at Ichiraku, and of course, there was Team 7. On the other hand, Frankenstein had no one who loved her or held her dear. Not only was she abandoned by her creator, she was cursed to be nothing but a repulsive monster. No one deserved that.

Which was why the kunoichi wanted to make her Servant happy. She had a good idea what the female homunculus' wish would be, and while Sakura knew she could never fill the void left behind by Victor Frankenstein, she swore to herself that she would try her best to understand and befriend her Servant, for it was almost painful to see the white-clad figure every time and be reminded of her past self and how she had turned a blind eye towards Naruto's loneliness for so long.

She had to admit it was hard at first because though Frankenstein was not hostile towards her, the Berserker seemed to be hesitant about spending too much time with her. Instead, Frankenstein would often spend hours in the gardens, picking flowers (sometimes crushing flowers) and watching clouds; or she would be wandering around the mansion, searching for lights that were forgotten to be switched off or other electrical appliances that were supposed to be turned off.

But Sakura just put in more effort to show her goodwill in hopes of closing the distance between them. She allowed Frankenstein to constantly stay in the material form despite the higher risks of being detected by enemies; she tolerated Frankenstein's borderline obsession with conserving electricity and tried her best to be more energy conservative as well; the pinkette also redecorated Frankenstein's bedroom with floral-patterned wallpapers and changed the flowers on the bedside table regularly. (Thankfully she could still recall some distant memory of how to arrange flowers in an aesthetically pleasing manner from Ino's teachings.)

And as time flew by Sakura took notice of her Servant was warming up to her. Frankenstein's grunts sounded less aggressive, and sometimes she would catch the less-aggressive Servant sneaking curious glances at her. The glances were discreet enough for any other person to never notice them, but she knew everything about the right angles for head tilts to hide glances behind long bangs, so Sakura just pretended to be oblivious of the looks she would get. There were even times when she would find flowers on the floor or on her bed, presents from the shy Berserker.

Sakura made up her resolve on a bright morning when she woke up once again to see a handful of flowers scattered on her bedsheets, so she headed towards the gardens where she knew Frankenstein would be there. The flowers were in full bloom, and the young magus allowed her mind to stray back to her younger days when her foster mother would often take her on walks in the gardens after a strenuous day of magus training. It wasn't long before she spotted Frankenstein sitting in a cosmos flower field, the shades of pink and white highlighting her ivory dress and bright-colored hair. Sakura was hit with a pang of nostalgia as memories of Ino flooded her mind, but she believed the cosmos must be a good omen.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" Frankenstein gave a quick shake of her head, causing Sakura to grin happily while she settled down next to the other girl.

"You know, when I was young I sported a similar hairstyle to yours."

"Unf!?" Frankenstein emitted a surprised grunt, and Sakura chuckled.

"My forehead used to be huge. I was teased a lot because of it, so I grew out my bangs to try and hide my forehead," The pinkette paused slightly as she grabbed a few flowers previously picked by Frankenstein and concentrated on lacing the flowers' stems together, "but it only made the bullying worse. I was miserable for a long time…"

"Ughhh." Frankenstein let out a low growl, which made Sakura wonder if the Berserker was angry for her sake.

"Well, that was until I met Ino. Ino's a really pretty and popular girl in school, and I've never talked to her before. One day she just came up to me, brushed my bangs apart, and commented on the size of my forehead. I thought she would tease me relentlessly about it too, but the next day Ino turned up with a red ribbon and tied up my hair with it." Sakura examined the flower crown in her hands, and decided she would go ahead and make another oner, "Without the bangs my forehead is on full display, so I didn't really like it at first. I knew the other kids would tease me even more for it, but Ino convinced me that I should just show off my forehead and be proud of it. And after that whenever I got laughed at or bullied Ino would always defend me and fight off the bullies."

"I never really understood why she took a liking to someone like me, but it certainly didn't stop us from becoming best friends." Sakura's eyes softened as she thought of how much Ino meant to her, how she would have never blossomed into a strong and confident flower if it wasn't for Ino. She added a few final touches to the second flower crown, and it was Frankenstien's quiet grunt that prompted her to go on with the story.

"Oh, we had a falling out and were at each other's throats for a few years because we liked the same boy," It still hurts to think about Sasuke, so she tried to gloss over that part despite sensing Frankenstein's curiosity, "but later we reconciled and went back to the best of friends."

"The thing is," A sudden wave of nerves hit Sakura, for it came to her realization that she had never been the one to initiate any kind of friendship. Heck, she didn't even have that many friends besides Ino and the rest of the Rookie 11, and she had even fewer friends in this lifetime. Most of the other orphans avoided her after she had shown her violent streak, and once she became a Hortensia all her time was taken up by magus and shinobi training.

Sakura held the newly-made flower crown out to Frankenstein gingerly and swallowed once before looking into her Servant's different-colored eyes. "I would really like to be your friend. I know, I mean, I've read about your past, and I…I want you to be happy, and I hope, I truly hope, that your wish will be fulfilled by the Holy Grail." Sakura noticed Frankenstein stiffening after hearing her words, but she continued on nonetheless, "I know I'm your Master, but I also want to be your friend."

Sakura waited for some sort of reaction from Frankenstein. To be honest she had expected Frankenstein to crush the flower crown, for she knew the Berserker-class Servant sometimes seemed to find enjoyment in flower-crushing, but to her surprise Sakura felt the flower crown being tugged out of her hands, and she saw Frankenstein scrutinizing it for a while before placing it through her limiter and on top of her reddish-pink hair. She was even more surprised when Frankenstein picked up the other flower ring and moved it onto her pink locks, albeit a little awkwardly.

Sakura grinned. "I'll take that as a yes!"

"Yaa." The grunt was soft and a little shy, and Sakura thought perhaps even Frankenstein didn't realize how affectionate it had sounded.

"So…can I call you Fran from now on?" She pressed on, recalling how nicknames were capable of bringing people closer, according to Sai.

A disapproving grunt erupted from Frankenstein's throat, and Sakura frowned worriedly. Perhaps the name Frankenstein and any nicknames that derive from it reminded the Berserker too much of her creator, and how she was never gifted with a proper name.

"Then what about…your class is Berserker, so, um…how about Ber-chan?" Sakura winced at her lack of creativity. So much for wanting to give Frankenstein a proper, unique name. But instead of grunting in disagreement, her Servant was fiddling with the flower crown, a faint blush dusting Frankenstein, no, Ber-chan's cheeks.

"Sa…Ku." Ber-chan muttered, her voice wavering and cracking slightly, but Sakura heard it, and she didn't waste any time to envelope her new friend, Ber-chan, in a bone-crushing hug.

A/N

I've been trying to squeeze out a Karna chapter, but my creative juices keep running out when it comes to Karna, so I went ahead with Frankenstein instead. I was so tempted to have Sakura call Frankenstein Cosmos, but it just sounds weird...The name keeps giving me Saint Seiya feels.

Btw I changed my user name. It's still me. :D