frat boys and she-devils
chapter 1: sibling's ideas of affection
Sakura's relationship with Sasori was definitely a weird one. They were half-siblings who shared a dad, a dog and a house that they were only ever in at the same time twice a year - Christmas and a few weeks in summer. But despite the little time they spent together in recent years, they were close. With only a two-year age gap and a shared love for sarcastic humour, they were siblings who would rather constantly insult each other instead of admitting how closely they had each others backs. Because at the end of the day, he was her big brother, and he was always looking out for her.
A beep sounded from her pocket and she checked the text on her phone, shoulders instantly drooping as a pout hit her face.
No.
Ok, so maybe he wasn't a loving brother and was just a complete asshole. With a huff, Sakura sent another text that included pleads, guilt-tripping and threats of bodily harm. One of them had to work right? Maybe. Meanwhile, she had other issues to deal with. Like the blonde roommate who was currently laid out on her bed, wailing about how nothing would ever be the same again and the world was an unfair bitch.
"Ino, babe, I'm going to miss you too but I'm pretty sure me leaving doesn't mean you have to become a stripper."
Finally pausing in her rant, Ino lifted shining blue eyes to the pinkette and looked at her like she was a fucking idiot. "Uh, hello, yes it does. Without you here, I'll be too depressed to work so I'll fail my course then I'll flunk out of uni and the only thing I'll have going for me will be my super hot body you selfish bitch".
Oh good, sarcastic, aggressive Ino was out to play.
"Look, I don't want to go - believe me, I don't - but Tsunade is the course convener at KU, if I study under her she is the key to me achieving my dream. She used to be one of the top brain surgeons in all of Konoha, and she's been my idol ever since I first learnt what the hell a hypothalamus was. I have to go," Sakura tried to reason, picking at the corner of her blanket to avoid the penetrating stare that was being thrown her way. "It's not that far anyway, once I actually have somewhere to live, you can come stay. After all, someone has to help me move in."
She finished with a cheeky grin at the blonde, praying that she could cheer her best friend up. Ino's eyes softened and a reluctant smile twisted her lips.
"Come on then, you better get packing. And make sure you take my burgundy top that looks annoyingly good on you, god knows you need all the help you can get with drawing attention away from that massive forehead."
Sakura really, really loved her best friend sometimes.
It had taken hours of texting, and the promise of her car becoming his when she, in his words, inevitably killed herself after spending five minutes with the freaks he for some reason called friends. Sasori had always been one for comforting words of support and sympathy.
However, part of Sakura feared he was right. She knew most of his housemates, and saying that they were a weird bunch was an understatement. They were all fourth-years at Konoha University, and Sakura had actually met most of them when she was 13 and they were 15 and they convinced her to watch a horror film that had her unable to sleep for weeks. Now, seven years later, she was much more accustomed to dealing with them. They had constantly been coming and going from her house over the summers, and had actually started acknowledging her as more than 'Sasori's weird little sister' in the last few years. She reckoned that they could get along fine.
Kisame, a marine biologist, was probably the most reassuring. Despite him being an intimidating, 6ft3, solid wall of muscle, he was nice to her in a teasing way. He also enjoyed watching her make a drunken fool of herself though, so she had to be careful. Hidan was slightly more of a concern as he had the tendency to completely bypass the rules surrounding friend's little sisters, and saw it as some sort of personal challenge to seduce her. But even this had it's pros - after all, she only had to wear a tight top and make direct eye contact with him and he'd buy her all the booze she wanted. Tobi was a newer addition that she had never met and heard little about, but she would give him the benefit of the doubt - which she would probably learn to regret, but oh well. Then there was Itachi, the older brother of one of her best friends, and her first crush. Which would be ok if she wasn't 100% certain that he knew this and found it highly amusing. In order to try and stop the blush that flooded her cheeks every time he entered the room, last summer she had taken a leaf out of Kisame's book and turned to mercilessly aggravating the older Uchiha until he wanted to bash his head against the wall.
It was one of the greater joys of her life.
This left Deidara. The blonde-haired, blue-eyed artist that she had been disgustingly crushing on for the past year. The fact that she was so physically attracted to someone who looked so similar to her best friend only mildly disturbed her, and she tried hard not to think about it too much. Deidara was everything that Sakura did, but shouldn't, look for in a guy. He was talented enough to be egotistical and have it just scrape the edge of acceptable behaviour. He was loud and had no inhibitions, and with his obsession with pyrotechnics and adrenaline rushes, he was almost definitely going to get her into serious trouble if she ever pursued anything with him. But god did she love that thrill. Ino had always said she had a worryingly self-destructive thing for bad boys. But underneath all of that, Deidara was an artist. He was funny, and curious and had a smile that could melt hearts and smirk that could make Sakura more aroused than anything else ever. And sometimes, she could kid herself that he returned these feelings.
Like over the last Christmas break when Sasori had them all - bar Tobi - come stay for a weekend and they had all gotten drunk together while their father took Sasori's mum out for a romantic cruise. At one point, Sakura had stumbled to the kitchen in search of a bigger wine glass and had instead ended up sitting on her back porch with the bottle, staring at the night sky. Deidara had, unexpectedly, come looking for her. Instead of just leaving her drunken ass there for her brother to scrape off the floor later, he sat with her and threw a blanket round her bare shoulders. They had talked in hushed tones about things she couldn't remember, but she could remember the heat of his body as they sat with sides touching. She could remember the way he had slowly turned his face to hers and the way time had stopped as their breath mingled visibly in the cold air.
She could also clearly remember the sudden crash that came from Hidan knocking over a bar stool in the kitchen behind them, effectively ruining the moment and ensuring his place at the top of Sakura's Murder List.
Since then, Deidara had seemed slightly wary around her, as if he suddenly realised what was happening and how badly things could go for him if anyone else found out. So they had kept it friendly and nothing else. But now they were going to live together.
Maybe this hadn't been her best idea ever.
The house was quiet, and instantly Sakura was on edge.
If there was one thing she had expected from this move, peace and quiet was definitely not it. But with the engine of her red Camry convertible now switched off, she suddenly felt quite out of her depth. She definitely should have listened to Ino and gone to breakfast with her rather than come straight here. Sending off a quick message to let Sasori know she was there, she inspected the house. It was old and tall, an off-white exterior with a dark wood porch and a peeling blue door. The driveway held a beaten up Toyota she didn't recognise and a black motorbike she knew to be Sasori's. The garden out front wasn't a garden, it was an overgrown patch of weeds with an assortment of beer cans spread across it rather than flowers. Charming.
At the sound of groaning wood behind her, Sakura turned to see her brother stood in the doorway, wearing pyjamas, bed hair and a sleepy scowl. Grinning brightly, Sakura did the only reasonable thing - propelled herself into his crossed arms and clung to his neck until he was forced to reluctantly pat her back twice in order to ever be released.
"So, how happy are you to see me? Aren't you so super excited to have your darling little sister moving in with you?"
Her only reply was a glare. Not that this would dishearten Sakura, who had not only grown up with him, but also had an Uchiha as a close friend and so was used to people trying to burn her alive with only a stare on a daily basis. When she simply stood smiling at the redhead, he sighed and turned to open the door wider for her in invitation.
"Your key's not cut yet, you'll get it tomorrow. This is the living room-"
He pointed left to a large room that held three couches and a tv, several game consoles laying around in various states of abuse.
"The kitchen and dining room are there-" she stuck her head into a kitchen that was comfortingly clean looking before being brought back to the bottom of the stairs, where Sasori gestured to a closed door.
"This is my room, upstairs is Hidan, Tobi, Itachi and their bathroom and the top floor is you, Deidara, Kisame and your bathroom. All the contracts and stuff are on your bed, and the others are sleeping so they'll appear at some point. Right now I'm going back to bed, you really didn't have to turn up this early you know."
With that, he turned on the spot and strode into his room, leaving Sakura alone in the hall with a heavy feeling of bewilderment. The door then opened again and Sasori's head popped out.
"First door on the right," he said, before his door snapped shut.
Determining that that was all she was going to get from her darling brother, she tightened her hold on the strap of her duffle and crept up the stairs. As she passed closed doors she could hear snores and mumbles behind most, bar from one. Her new room.
It was a decent size, with pale blue walls and large windows that kept the room light. The double bed looked relatively new, and the furniture was all in decent condition. For how little she was paying, she had expected much worse. Sitting lightly on the edge of the bed, she looked around again and was hit with a wash of sadness as she thought of the dorm room she had left behind. She really wished Ino hadn't of had that family thing and had been able to come with her, she could have done with her snappy, loud attitude right then.
But she was fine. She knew these guys, she could handle them. And if she couldn't, Naruto and Sasuke were moving in the rest of her furniture and belongings in a couple of days and she could beg them to help her find somewhere new to live that held less crazy occupants. Like a crack den. Or an asylum.
Sighing slightly, she stood once more and decided to stop moping and start moving in. The sooner the room felt like hers the better. With this new found determination she strode forwards and flung the door open, only to be drawn straight into a deep blue gaze and a soft smile.
"Hey roomie, need a hand moving in?"
A/N - the way I tend to write is that I have vague ideas about things I want to happen but no real overlying story arc, so writers block will almost definitely happen, and if things don't add up later on with what I've said earlier in the series, then let me know!
