Man, I'm taking forever to update this story. My apologies! Please don't kill me.. .
I know where I want this story to go, it's just hard to connect all my ideas and fill in the plot holes. So sorry! I hope you enjoy this chapter and HOPEFULLY I'll update sooner.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Italics – someone is thinking.

Sasuke and Sakura were sitting across from each other in a booth by the window patiently waiting for their food to arrive. Sakura was staring at the window in deep contemplation while Sasuke was messing with his I-pod. Usually Sakura would be on full conversation but it was another one of those moments where she had to think over her current situation. She always thought badly of herself and she was once again, thinking about Sasuke and her. Sakura knew that they were getting closer and she was glad for it, but she was just so afraid she'd lose him. Sasuke seemed to be nonchalant and indifferent about all the fan girls he'd been accumulating over the past day so she wasn't exactly sure how he felt about everything. She knew he was still a little pissed at her for making him get into this mess, but she could see that he was actually somewhat enjoying the experience of people liking him and wanting to be his friend (or boyfriend in most cases), but it didn't seem to get to his head. Yet. Sakura knew she shouldn't worry because Sasuke was.. Sasuke, and the day before he had been complaining the whole time about how annoying this all was. He specifically said that fan girls were stupid and a waste of time and damn him if he'd ever get with any of them, which of course made Sakura secretly glee in happiness, but still, there was just that feeling that was gnawing inside her. I should stop worrying. Sasuke is mature enough and he never let anything get to him before, why should he start now? Right..?

In the meantime, Sasuke was checking his I-pod for any good songs to listen to, but gave up once he realized that it would be rude for him to listen to music while he was with Sakura, especially since she liked to talk a lot. Although he noticed since the whole time they got into the booth and ordered their food, she hadn't said one word. He looked up from the mp3 device and saw Sakura gazing out the window, unconsciously playing with a strand of her hair, and biting her lip as if she was debating on something. She had half-lidded eyes and her normally bright green orbs were a darker shade of emerald, but they still kept the same shine in the poorly lit room. Her hair was messy and splayed out in small waves because she wasn't able to re-straighten it from the night before, but Sasuke thought to himself that he liked her hair better this way because it looked more natural. She paid no heed to him or to the world surrounding her. She was in her own world and in that moment in time, Sasuke thought she looked undoubtedly beautiful. He sat there, staring continuously, with his elbows propped up on the table and his chin resting on his linked fingers. Sometime along the way, Sakura had come about from her deliberation and looked up to see Sasuke watching at her. Her cheeks heated up in embarrassment but seeing the smirk don Sasuke's face after, she smiled back in return. They stayed that way for a fleeting moment, not saying a word, but with happy faces (or in Sasuke's case, amused face) until the waitress dropping off their food interrupted their silence.

"Ah, two young lovebirds who aren't quarreling in the morning. That's a refreshing sight to see! Usually we get them flooding in, arguing about who should get the bacon and who should get the hash browns." The waitress chuckled and set the plates of food on the table. The comment caught them both off guard so it took a minute longer for an initial response. Sakura's cheeks were reddening by the second and she tried helplessly to think of a decent response back to correct the waitress, but when she opened her mouth, nothing came out. She glanced at Sasuke and saw amusement in his eyes. Clearly he was enjoying her embarrassment. Bastard. She was about to say something when Sasuke spoke up.

"Thank you. We appreciate the fact that you don't find us quite as bothersome as other couples. We try not to let impractical arguments get in the way of our relationship." He gave a charming smile back that could knock off the socks of any lady, young or old, and certainly it was working because the waitress fanned herself in satisfaction. She looked at Sakura and gave her a wink.

"My, what a charming fellow you've got on your hands. Better have a hold on this one. He's a keeper!"

"Y-yes. Thank you, I'll uh.. try." Sakura spluttered back with a hesitant smile. The waitress cheekily grinned at them both and with a 'how lovely' comment, left them alone again. Sakura turned her head slowly from the now vacant spot of the waitress and gave Sasuke a confused, incredulous look.

"It's not very ladylike to leave your mouth hanging like that." He said with a smirk on his face. Sakura ignored the rude comment and kept on glaring.

"You- what the hell was that?"

"What was what?" Sasuke's eyebrows raised in feign innocence. Sakura could tell he knew exactly what she was asking, but she also knew that he was trying to mess with her and she refused to be played like that.

"You know exactly what I'm referring to. Don't play games with me mister!" She reached across the table just to poke him in the chest for affect. Sasuke shrugged his shoulders in response.

"I just thought it'd be too much of a hassle to correct her. There was no harm done."

"Oh." Sakura didn't know what to say back, so she rolled her eyes and slumped back in her seat. No harm done, my butt. She looked up to find Sasuke preparing to eat his food. She sighed, thinking, if only you knew, Sasuke, how I felt about you..
Soon enough, they finished up their meals with minimal conversation. Sakura wasn't really in the mood to talk, and Sasuke wasn't up for trying to figure out why. He had just assumed that it was because of last night and how she was most likely going to get in trouble, but in the back of his mind, there was a hidden doubt that maybe there was more to it than that. He didn't want to pry though, so he just left it alone.

Eventually, they got up to leave the restaurant, with Sasuke paying for their meal much to Sakura's protest, and walked to the car. Right before they left, the same waitress had, once again, made a comment of how cute they were together, and waved them on out with a wink. Feeling even more awkward, Sakura resumed to her quiet state while she got into the passenger side.

While on the drive home, Sakura felt a little relieved. She had been starving since she had woken up and she finally satiated her hunger. She also felt pleased with the fact that Sasuke had been nice enough in the first place to take her to breakfast. It was still quite early in the morning and the sun was just visible to the horizon, rising slowly and making the whole town light up with bright hues of pink and orange. Sakura gazed longingly, wishing that she didn't have to go home to a, most likely, verbal punishment. Though she had to admit to herself, she had enjoyed this time with Sasuke. Besides the whole oversleeping part, she didn't regret one bit of it. And maybe, a little, she didn't even mind sleeping over. She wondered to herself if she was the first girl to ever sleepover at Sasuke's. Maybe even the first girl to step foot into his house. Pondering on that, she smiled to herself, then casually glimpsed at Sasuke. He remained silent and mysterious, as always, but she admired the way he looked with the sun rising behind him. With the light casting over his features, and the wind flowing through his black hair, she was reminded of the first time she had driven him. The first time she realized how beautiful he was. How beautiful he is. He glanced back at her with an impassive look, but when he noticed her smiling, his lips curved upward into a smirk and Sakura thought to herself, at least I can have this, while she graced him with an even bigger smile.

In time, they had finally arrived to Sakura's car and she proceeded to grab her things and get out of Sasuke's when he stopped her, putting a hand on her wrist. Sakura looked down at him surprised and gave a questioning look. Sasuke quickly let go and responded gruffly.

"Hey, I hope you don't get into too much trouble. But if you do, I just wanted to let you know.. I'm sorry." He put his hand back on the steering wheel and looked out into the view before him, avoiding Sakura's puzzled stare. It took a minute to process before she smiled in return.

"Thanks Sasuke. I really appreciate it. I'm sure that took a lot to say." She giggled when he turned his head the opposite direction.

"Plus, it was my fault, I had the wrong alarm time.. I just hope my parents don't kick my ass all the way to Mars and back. But anyway, thanks again! Drive back home safely. I'll see you at school. "

"Hn. You too. Bye."

Sakura finally got out of Sasuke's car and walked toward her own. Sasuke had waited til she started her car and reversed before he moved to leave as well. They both drove out of the school, each turning in different directions towards their own homes.

At school, Sasuke remained waiting, sitting on the bleachers near the field. He was unusually early, and he wouldn't have been if it weren't for the fact that he got a distressed call from Naruto to meet him there. That was weird in itself because Naruto never wanted to come to school, let alone come to school early. Nonetheless, Sasuke had been waiting for ten minutes, wondering when the hell the dobe would be coming to meet him and why. He looked around the field, seeing no one in sight, when a blob of orange came running towards him from the side. Sasuke stood up and sidestepped before Naruto tripped over the bleacher and fell flat on his face where Sasuke was once sitting. Rubbing his head, he got up and glared at Sasuke.

"What the hell, man? If you knew I looked like I was going to fall, why didn't you try and stop me?" Naruto watched as Sasuke shrugged his shoulders.

"You're a jerk. I hope you know that."

"Yah, I hear it from you and Sakura all the time. Old news." Sasuke sat down and watched as Naruto did the same.

"Speaking of Sakura, this is why I asked for you to come meet me." In response, Sasuke quirked an eyebrow up.

"She wanted me to tell you that she did end getting in lots of trouble for last night. She's actually grounded for a really long time. Her parents didn't give her an exact estimate, but she knows they were pretty pissed and probably will be for a while."

"Oh." Sasuke didn't know what to say. He figured she'd get in trouble, but it didn't stop him from feeling bad for being somewhat responsible for it. Naruto noticed and patted his hand on Sasuke's back.

"Don't worry too much about it. They were more mad at the fact that she didn't call them than her sleeping over your house. Though, she did say they were not too pleased at that either. Hence why she couldn't tell you herself, because her parents kind of.. forbid her to speak or hang out with you." At this, Sasuke unnoticeably slumped his posture. He remained emotionless, but on the inside he felt.. well he wasn't sure. Maybe a little bit of disappointment mixed with anger on his own part. He knew it was a bad idea to let Sakura nap at his house. He should've made more of an effort to get her to go home instead. He wondered, though, why her parents didn't call her in the first place if they were so worried. He voiced this thought and Naruto shrugged.

"I think it's because they work late nights. Sakura texted them that she was going to be at your house, so they knew where she was, but they didn't realize she still wasn't home until they got home themselves. They were waiting for her when she did get home."

"Hn."

"Yah. So.. that's pretty much all she wanted me to tell you. Oh, well there's that, and you may also not be able to talk to her in school because Ino will be all up on her ass. Her parents had called Ino to ask to her to make sure Sakura didn't try talking to you either." Sasuke sighed irritably. Ino had always been a bitch to him, so he knew that even if he wanted to attempt to talk to Sakura that Ino would be a pain in the ass to have to deal with.

"Well, time for school! I can't believe we're here this early. I'm starving! Let's go to the cafeteria and get something to eat. Maybe we'll see Sakura before Ino gets to her first." With that, they both got up and walked towards the doors to the school.

They walked through the hallways and there were barely any people there yet, but the ones that were, most of them being girls, ogled Sasuke the whole time. He ignored this and followed Naruto into the cafeteria where there were even more girls staring at him creepily. Some even tried coming up to Sasuke and talking to him, but he briskly walked past them and Naruto just waved them off. While they were there, Naruto got his food and Sasuke got a V8 to drink and they walked towards a table to sit down. It wasn't until it became closer to their first period that more people started coming to school, which meant more annoying fangirls that Sasuke had to deal with. They unsuccessfully got to enjoy their food and drink because of all the surrounding girls.

"Seriously, it's like what? The second day already, and they just keep on coming! How are you going to get used to this for the rest of the school year. Geez!" Naruto said as girls were trying to push him away to sit next to Sasuke.

"I have no idea." Sasuke replied while he tried to ignore everyone else around him. He attempted to take a sip of his drink, but since it was so crowded around him, he accidentally spilled his drink onto some random girl. He would've normally apologized, but the girl was jumping around crazily screaming.

"Sasuke spilled his drink on me! He spilled his drink on ME! Get jealous!"

"No way! You lucky bitch!"

"It's my turn to sit next to him!"

"No it's mine!"

"You all are wrong. It's my turn, and I'm going to get him to spill on me too!"

Naruto's face contorted into one of disgust and turned to Sasuke, signaling to get out of there. Sasuke nodded in agreement and moved to get up when a hand pushed him back down.

"Are you going somewhere?" A manicured nail pushed Sasuke's face towards the apprehending person and he looked up to see Kin standing there, smiling at him.

"Kin, get out of our way! We're trying to leave." Naruto yelled out and grabbed Sasuke's shoulder to push him the opposite way of Kin. They both tried forcing their way out, but Kin and her posse ended up finding their way to the end of the crowd, sufficiently blocking their way.

"What? You don't want to talk to me, Sasuke-kun?" Kin batted her eyelashes. Sasuke glared back at Kin.

"Shut up Kin. Of course he doesn't want to talk to you, you're annoying." Naruto responded. Kin bared her teeth at Naruto before turning back to the onyx-eyed boy in front of her.

"Oh, but Sasuke-kun likes annoying girls. Isn't that why you hang around with Haruno?"

"She's not annoying." Sasuke bit back, clenching his teeth.

"That's right," Kin nodded her head in false agreement, "You guys are practically lovers. Am I offending you, Sasuke-kun?"

"Shut. Up."

"Why should I? Who are you anyway? Just some loser geek that actually turned out to be a pretty boy, but so what? You're still a geek. And no matter what Haruno does, she can't have her cake and eat it too. So she can try to salvage her reputation, or she can wither in hell with the likes of you. What will you do, Sasuke-kun, to help your little cherry blossom?" Naruto looked back and forth between Kin and Sasuke and noticed that the tension was rising. Sasuke looked like he was about to hit Kin and her devious grin off her face, so before he even thought about doing it, Naruto pushed Kin out of the way and dragged the Uchiha with him. While they were still within earshot, Kin shouted at their retreating forms.

"Better tell Haruno what I said and watch her back! She's going to need your support, literally, when I'm through with her." She cackled in the distance as Naruto and Sasuke stalked off, out of the cafeteria.

Alright! I know it's a short chapter, but I've been working on this forever (procrastination and writer's block at its finest) and I decided a short chapter is better than no chapter. Right? Also, I've realized how much my writing has progressed since then, so looking back on my older chapters, I just want to apologize for how terribly they were written with my not so great characterizations and amateurism. To anyone still reading this though, keep hope! I WILL finish this story (the estimate on when, however, is still in the air), and I hope you will still enjoy it all the same.