frat boys and she-devils
chapter 6: caught in the act
The next few days flew by in a blur, and before she knew it, it was Saturday again. The workload was insane, and between juggling that, reconnecting with Shikamaru, getting to know Hinata better and searching for a job, she hadn't seen much of her housemates.
She'd be lying if she said that she hadn't been avoiding Deidara slightly.
She'd meant it when she told Hinata she was going to finally act on her feelings, but she was still scared.
Which was why she was currently laying on her bed, staring up at the ceiling and listening to Halsey. This was what she wanted. She wanted to be with Deidara, she just didn't know how to go about it. She couldn't just straight out confess, because she didn't think she would ever be able to recover if he flat out turned her down. But then, what could she do? Grab him and kiss him? That's definitely what Ino would do.
Which was the exact reason that Sakura wouldn't.
Groaning loudly in annoyance, she rolled over and buried her head beneath the pillows, her half an hour brainstorm a complete flop. She needed to plan how to show her feelings with military precision - if she was too full on, he'd be scared off, but if she wasn't serious enough, he might see it as an offer of a fling.
What she needed was a tactician.
A lightbulb suddenly blew in her head and she straightened immediately, wide eyes calculating as she snatched her phone from the nightstand and scrolled through her contacts.
What she needed was Shikamaru.
The look he was currently giving her was a fond mix of why do I even put up with you? and are you fucking kidding me? that Sakura sadly knew all too well.
The pair were sat across from one another at Shikamaru's dining room table, nursing coffees. A warm apple pie sat between them, a shameless bribe from Sakura to convince the man not to just kick her out the second she started spouting her troubles.
She had told him most of what she had told Hinata, but also included more of her deeper worries born from past experiences that were holding her back - he'd been there when she got the scars, it wasn't like he wouldn't see right through her if she tried to lie to him.
Talking to Shikamaru about emotional things such as this was difficult, because even though she knew he cared - deep, deep down - he had a hard fucking time showing it. The whole of her explanation was met with either a blank face or an exasperated eye roll, which wasn't the most encouraging reaction.
When she had finished though, he got straight to the point and his bluntness was what Sakura needed.
"Ok listen. As troublesome as it is to listen to you whine, you obviously like this guy and he doesn't seem like a complete asshole, so Hinata's right - you should just go for it. Sure, it might not work out, but you need to try for your own sanity."
His face then sobered slightly and his mouth twisted down at the corners as he reached a hand to her over the table - not to touch her, just to make her raise her eyes from her mug to meet his brown-eyed gaze.
"I know, ok. I know it must be hard for you to put yourself out there, and I'm not saying that what happened that summer wasn't serious and you should just forget about it - you never will, God knows I can't either. But this isn't the same. You're going to be fine."
Blinking back tears, she smiled at her honorary brother warmly before reaching over the table to throttle him with a tight hug.
She honestly didn't know where she'd be without her friends.
Sakura had never felt more disoriented in her life.
Swinging her head around wildly, she attempted to blink the sleep from her eyes and piece together exactly what was happening. Identifying her phone as the culprit of the beeping noise, she fumbled for the button to shut it off before blanching at the time on her screen.
Why the fuck was there an alarm set for 6:30am on a Saturday?
A Saturday.
Someone was going to die.
Emitting a low growl, her head snapped up as a fist began pounding on her door.
"Wakey, wakey princess, we've gotta be on the road in an hour and it's your turn for the shower!"
And to think, Kisame used to be her favourite.
Launching through her door with speed she didn't even know she possessed, she grabbed a fistful of t-shirt and swung him round to face her, pulling him roughly down to her eye level. Unfortunately, he seemed to be finding her anger amusing rather than intimidating, and he laughed loudly as he unclenched her fingers from his shirt.
"What do you mean 'on the road'? It's a Saturday morning, I should be sleeping." she questioned through gritted teeth, eyebrows furrowed angrily and arms folded tightly.
To his credit, Kisame did look genuinely confused at her outburst.
"We're going to Riot Mountain, remember? We organised it like 5 days ago, we said we'd leave early to beat the traffic…" he trailed off as he realised that the tiny pinkette in front of him was about two words away from punting him through a wall.
"Yeah, someone should probably have told me about this before they woke me up at 6-fucking-30."
Looking to be at a complete loss, he raised placating hands and slowly backed up a couple of steps. "Sorry kitten, Hidan said he'd let you know when he drove with you to campus the other day."
Judging by the look on his face, he hadn't realised how stupid it was to leave anything in that demonic mad-man's hands till he said it out loud.
Letting out a guilty, strained chuckle and an 'oops', he all but ran to hide in his room.
They really needed to start telling her their plans before they made them.
Her anger at being awoken so early was ebbing though, she loved Riot Mountain and she knew for a fact they had just opened a new ride last week. So she supposed she could forgive them, just this once. Well, mostly, she thought with an ominous smirk.
Showering could wait, first she had a certain silver-haired man to torture mercilessly.
By the time Sakura was dressed in denim shorts and a white tee, sunglasses on her head and bag packed and ready by her feet, her anger had been completely replaced by excitement. She was discussing with Tobi their favourite things about rides as they waited for Hidan, who was taking much longer than usual to get ready.
Something that Sakura was sure had absolutely nothing to do with the slight beating she had given him earlier.
Kisame, the self-appointed leader, was checking the time and sighing loudly every couple of seconds.
"Hidan, hurry the fuck up, man!"
Incoherent yelling and swearing was the reply, and a minute later Hidan came hopping down the stairs as he attempted to get his other shoe on.
"Keep your fucking hair on, asswipe, I'm here alright." Hidan grouched, pushing past the group in the hallway to storm off towards Itachi's car - obviously he'd taken her warning of not pissing her off for the rest of the day seriously.
As the designated drivers, Sakura and Itachi took a second to confer over directions, with the main idea being Sakura would tail him as much as possible. The group then split ways, Tobi bouncing excitedly in her back seat and Deidara claiming the passenger seat.
Deidara immediately busied himself with DJ duties, and Tobi began the difficult task of ranking all the rides from top to lowest priority.
Settling herself in for a long, deafening ride, she pulled down her sunglasses and followed Itachi down the road. Next to her, Deidara finally settled on the song Saturday Night, and went to put her phone back in its little stand just as she reached to turn up the volume on her and Ino's party anthem.
Their hands brushed, and they met each other's gaze with a smile, ignorant to the rambling man in the back, and Sakura had never felt so much anticipation in her life.
It was strangely poetic that someone so brash and obsessed with all things masochistic and bloodthirsty as Hidan would get so easily sick from roller coasters.
As the other's raved about how good Dragon's Lair had been, he was clutching to a bin tightly and projecting a worryingly blue-tinted vomit.
To be fair, she'd told him downing an entire slushie the second they entered the park was probably a bad idea.
Then again, she'd been the one to wear a white shirt without considering the implications of water rides.
She hadn't even thought about it for a second till she had stumbled laughing from the ride to meet the suggestive smirks of Hidan and Kisame and the bashful looks of Deidara - which she was secretly pleased with - and Tobi. Sasori had immediately started beating the former two for looking at her in such a way, while Itachi had pulled his own black hoodie over her head.
Smiling at him gratefully, she missed the sullen look shot their way from the blonde artist.
However, she didn't miss the fact that Deidara was now ignoring her.
Oblivious as she was, she failed to put two and two together and slowly crossed from writing it off as paranoia to irritation at his flakiness. He managed to avoid sitting with her on the next three rides, and when Sasori turned down the suggestion of the ghost train, he was quick to follow the red-head away to another ride.
Sakura wasn't sure if she was pissed or upset.
The morning had been great, her and Deidara had been talking almost non-stop since they left home but now she sat between Kisame and Itachi, as Tobi hovered around Hidan in an unwanted attempt to assist.
They hadn't seen the other two for over an hour now, and Deidara hadn't replied to Kisame's text - meaning he was either on a ride or sulking in a corner somewhere.
They didn't have to wait much longer though, as ten minutes later, as Hidan was refilling his stomach at an alarming rate for someone who had just been so sick, they appeared. It didn't escape Sakura's notice that Deidara ignored the space opposite her and instead sat next to Tobi at their diner table.
Ok, screw being upset, she was definitely pissed.
Silently fuming and internally planning out exactly what she was going to say to the infuriating blonde, she missed most of the conversation that took place around her. It wasn't until they all stood up that Sakura finally snapped out of her own head and trailed after them.
A few minutes later, she found herself staring up at the biggest swing that she'd ever seen people strapped to.
And they were upside down.
"Hell fucking no," were the first words she'd spoken in about 40 minutes, and came out with slightly more venom than she had intended.
Unfortunately for her, at the exact moment that she had spoken, Deidara had also scoffed and taken a step back. Panic rose in both of them as they met eyes, but the anger flooded back to her when he quickly dropped his gaze.
Before either of them could object to being left together, the others had surged forwards and were swallowed up into the queue. The awkwardness between them was palpable, and Sakura knew that this was her chance. So before Deidara could even open his mouth, she beat him to it.
"Why are you ignoring me?" she demanded, fixing him with a hard stare despite the fact that he was obviously doing everything he could to avoid making eye contact. He was silent for a moment, then slowly he turned to face her, vision fixed on a point over her shoulder.
"I'm not-" he began calmly, but she wasn't having any of it.
"Bullshit."
The harshness of her voice finally got him to look at her.
He seemed to be fighting with himself as he fidgeted, opening then shutting his mouth several times. Sakura merely waited in oppressive silence, till he huffed out what seemed to be a self-depreciating laugh.
"Shit, Sakura, I thought you liked me. I can't believe I was such an idiot," he replied, running a hand through his hair and averting his gaze yet again.
Sakura, for her part, was gobsmacked.
Her brain was having immense trouble taking his words in, and all she could do was stand and gape. This obviously gave off the wrong impression, as Deidara looked incredibly uncomfortable and turned his body away from her.
"Whatever, it doesn't matter. I should have known you wouldn't like me, it was always the Uchiha you had a crush on."
His walls were coming up quickly, and that was enough to break Sakura out of her stupor.
"What are you talking about? I don't like Itachi! I mean, I thought I did for like a minute years ago, but that's it," she reasoned, grabbing onto his arm to stop him walking away.
This didn't seem to get through to him as she hoped it would, and desperation took over her. She pulled him to face her and all but blurted out "I like you, you idiot."
Uncertainty tainted his features, and she realised he needed more.
"I've liked you for months, Deidara," she continued, voice softer this time, "I thought you knew that."
They stood in silence for a moment, when suddenly Deidara laughed and ran the hand she wasn't clinging to through his hair.
"Well, we're obviously both great at this sort of shit," he said, and Sakura had never been happier to see a smile on his face. Grinning back at him, she plucked up the courage to ask him - she had to be sure.
"So, does this mean you like me too then?" she questioned nervously, holding his steady gaze.
Rolling his eyes, he didn't reply.
Instead, he kissed her.
One of his hands cradled her jaw as the other wrapped around her waist. It took Sakura less than a second to reciprocate, twining her arms around his neck and pressing her lips fully against his with a deep, contented sigh. A low groan was her reply, and the arm around her waist pressed her tighter against his firm body.
The world melted away, and Sakura was adamant on committing every detail of this to her memory as an utterly perfect moment.
Until the sound of a clearing throat sounded from behind them, and they sprang apart guiltily.
Sakura's face paled dramatically, and she heard the curse that Deidara muttered under his breath.
They'd forgotten Sasori had gone to get a drink.
A/N - finally, right?
