VitaminWater Fact Number 11: The new XXX label is pretty bangin', I must say.

Like VitaminWater
x. by ANGELforSHOW

Chapter Ten: Rescue.
Purpose: Metabolism.

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let's get these teen hearts beating faster, faster.

-p!atd

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Not very many people knew what the entire Sai fiasco last year was really about.

Ino had managed to chalk it up, saying that Sakura and Sai had broken up because of indifferences, and not because Sai was a lying bastard. Who just so happened to be gay.

There was nothing wrong with gay people of course, Ino and Sakura agreed. They were normal humans…they just swung the other, unconventional way. But the last thing Sakura wanted was for people to console her purely on the basis that another man had beat her out for the attention of her so-called boyfriend.

The strangest thing though, was how all the signs of break up (and homosexuality) had been there: Sai refused to do things with her over the weekend, he avoided physical contact with her as much as possible, and he just wasn't the boyfriend-y type. He didn't like to hold her hand, or give her small, sporadic gifts. He wouldn't openly embrace her, and he wasn't exactly passionate when he kissed her. Quite frankly, it had been remotely similar to kissing a rock.

But for some reason, it was still came across as surprising when Sai had turned around and confessed to Sakura that he had been using her to cover up his true sexual orientation. It made Sakura want to whip the shiny homecoming queen tiara off her head and throw it at Sai's (beautiful) lying face. She wanted to sink into the floor and die. She wanted to go home and go to bed and toss her stupid dress and her stupid corsage into the river. It had been the worst feeling in the world.

From the first day when Sai asked her out (and then just walked away) Sakura had known something was off about their new relationship. But she waved it off as nervous butterflies he probably had crashing around in his stomach, or perhaps as indigestion. The cafeteria food had been peculiar.

But deep inside, Sakura had always known their relationship wasn't going to be perfect and normal, like your average fluffy high school romance. She knew the break up was going to be painful, because that's how it always was with these weird pretty boys.

She really could have – should have – seen it coming.

Ever since Sai, Sakura had sworn off boys.

It wasn't just a proclamation, "I will not date boys, because they smell and have cooties. And they can break hearts a little too well." either. Sakura had taken her heart, locked it up tight in her emotional bank, and thrown the key out into the gutter. She would not like boys. She would not date boys. She would not even associate with possible heart breakers. She was a girl with a mission; a girl on the ultimate boy-fast.

She was Sakura, dammit, and she did not want her partially healed heart to be jabbed at any longer!

Which was why it was particularly irritating that this "Uchiha Sasuke" character had come into her life.

--

Sasuke was a tad strange, Sakura had to say.

The kid was drop-dead-freaking-please-wear-a-hazard-sign-around-you-neck-gorgeous. He had to know he was ajskdjak-ing hot. Sasuke was the kind of guy that made every girl in the room swoon and want to make his babies. His hair was fluffy, his body was delicious, and his eyes were, dare she say it, smoldering.

The first time she had seen him; her mind had not registered the name 'Sasuke', but instead, the synonymous term of 'Sex God'. Sasuke was the cherry on top of the hot fudge sundae. He was the first part of the ice cream sundae that everyone went after, and then the part that everyone wanted more of. Screaming little children liked him, as well as toothless old grandmas. Sasuke was just that. He was Sasuke, master of all things delectable.

Sakura enjoyed his company, and she certainly enjoyed spending her fair share of time with said sex god, but honestly…he certainly wasn't good for her boy-fast. At all.

Which was why Sakura was particularly annoyed.

Because her boy-fast was NOT to be broken.

Not even by the scrumptiously scrumptious Uchiha Sasuke.

Sakura was upset.

No, she was more than upset. Sakura was freaking unhappy. She wasn't even unhappy – she was hard-core angsting. Angst was filtering through her body as if it were in her veins. She felt like she wanted to dress in all black and then wax poetic about death and depression.

Why? Because her life sucked, that's why.

Her grades were slipping, Ino was acting particularly out there, Naruto was being too loud, Sasuke was "Hn."ing too much, Ibiki-sensei was a sadist, her father wasn't answering her phone calls, and she had gotten her dry clean only cashmere sweater drenched in rain. And she still didn't have any VitaminWater in her freaking mini-fridge.

Life was looking down. Way down. Like down into Hell kind of down. So argh.

But Sakura was even more upset because her number one rule of life seemed to be sliding away too: the boy-fast. Her boy-fast rule seemed to be being ripped apart by the seams. Slowly, so she could hear every tiny little stitch pop. All because of stupid, stupid, stupid Sasuke.

Stupid Sasuke and his stupid actions. His stupid, brainless actions.

It made her want to punch something. A lot.

As soon as Sakura woke up at 6:07 AM – an hour before she was even supposed to be close to consciousness – she had the feeling that it would be one of those days.

Y'know the kind of day when nothing went right. The kind of the day that you woke up too early, but you still didn't get ready in time, and it was humid as a bitch outside, so your hair poofed up, and you failed a calculus quiz, and the cafeteria served the nastiest food ever, and you didn't even have VitaminWater to choke it down wi –

It was at that point in that depressing train of though that Sakura knew it was going to be one of those days. Because she still didn't have any VitaminWater left in her fridge. She had been lucky enough to skimp a couple bottles off of Sasuke yesterday, but she doubted he would be quite as generous today.

Honestly – that Uchiha kid had to love his VitaminWater more than he did hair gel.

Any how, Sakura dragged herself out of bed with a seemingly negative amount of vigor, grumbling inwardly with each stumble towards the mini-bathroom connected to her tiny dorm.

She rubbed her eyes blearily, turning on the hot water tap and waiting for the water gushing out of the spout to become warm.

A quick look at Sakura would tell that she was tired.

A closer examination into the mirror revealed that she was fucking dead on her feet.

As Sakura pulled at her skin and tried to slap some life into her cheeks, she sighed, noticing how college was suddenly make her look older and older each day. Which was downright depressing as hell.

Splashing some warm water onto her face, Sakura started to scrub at her facial skin, lathering her face wash into a white, foamy layer on her skin. Rubbing harder, Sakura made sure she got into the creases of her skin. She may look like death, but she would not have blackheads or oily skin, dammit!

She rinsed off her white mask, patting her face dry with a towel. Sighing again, Sakura picked up her toothbrush, wet it, and squeezed a bit of Crest onto the bristles before sticking it in her mouth.

Scowling at her reflection while she brushed her teeth, Sakura contemplated two things: what she should wear today, and how the hell was she going to survive without her VitaminWater?

She groaned again as she thought of the latter question, spitting her toothpaste rather violently into the old sink as a response.

"Sakura, you are especially pissy today," Ino diagnosed sarcastically when she saw Sakura take an unenthusiastic swig of orange juice from her plastic cup and rip an angry chomp out of her I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Butter!'ed toast.

Said pissy girl made a face. "What makes you say that, Pig?" she asked quite heartlessly, glaring at the strawberries on her plate – they seemed to whither underneath her merciless glower.

Ino threw a dirty look back at her friend. Count on Sakura to screw up everyone's day at breakfast.

"Hey, cheer up guys, at least it's going to be a good day," Naruto intervened, holding up the spoon he was using to eat his Lucky Charms as a sort of white flag.

"What makes you say that, Whisker Boy?" Sakura repeated, frowning when she realized she was out of orange juice too. She did not bother to refill it. She would've preferred to be drinking an Essential now anyway.

Naruto rolled his eyes, not phased from Sakura's whisker jab. So he had funny scars on his face, big deal. "Well for starters, classes were cancelled again today," he told the two girls with an impish grin, flicking his wrist, iPhone in hand.

Ino let out a slight squeal while Sakura slumped further down in her seat.

"I'm out of VitaminWater. For real," Sakura informed her tablemates shortly, sliding her tray away from her and burying her head in her arms.

Ino giggled slightly. "Why did you get any yester…oh," she ended sheepishly, breaking off her sentence with awkward laughter. She twisted sunny blonde hair around her fingers as she tried to think of a solution. "Well, you can get some today," she started, "But there's a freaking hurricane brewing around outside, so that might be dangerous."

Sakura grumbled a bit. "I don't think a little bit of rain can hurt me right now," she informed Ino, clearly still grumpy.

"Fine then," Ino replied, sticking her nose in the air. "Sasuke, go with her."

Sasuke looked up from the book he had been reading ("Business Management for the Young Heir(ess)". Psh.). He obviously had not been paying attention to the conversation that had been circulating around him. He was confused about who "her" was and where it was going to, but the best thing to do at a time like this was to stay silent. He'd catch on eventually.

So he did.

"…"

"So you'll go with Sakura right?" Naruto asked Sasuke. He did not want to get his face ripped off by an angry Sakura today, thanks.

"…"

"Because she reeeeeally needs to go to the supermarket and get her damn VitaminWater before she claws someone's eyes out," Ino added helpfully.

Ah, so that was it.

"Hn," Sasuke answered with a slight nod. They could interpret that as they wished.

"Great, thanks for agreeing. Now go, shoo," Ino said to the Uchiha, taking his abandoned meal tray and throwing out his trash for him.

Naruto pulled Sasuke's jacket off of the back of his chair, holding it out to Sasuke. "Try and make it back before the hurricane hits, you guys," he said to them, genuinely concerned.

Sasuke nodded, while Sakura sulked and saluted half-heartedly. "Will do," she answered glumly, following Sasuke slowly out into the rain.

The closest VitaminWater-bearing supermarket was at least halfway through the city.

And Sakura and Sasuke, being poor college students, did not have a car to use as transportation to said supermarket. (That was a lie, actually. Sakura and Sasuke had a car on campus they could use, but what idiot would drive their brand spankin' new BMW out into a brewing hurricane?)

Needless to say, by the time the two of them arrived in the supermarket, they were both drenched and pissy to the extreme.

Sakura literally wrung out her hair on the dirty, checkered market floor, while Sasuke shook his head free of excess water. "Why is it so wet outside?" Sakura muttered angrily. She added a few choice curse words under her breath as well.

"Because it's rain," Sasuke drawled out bitterly, unwrapping his soaked scarf and attempting to wring all the water out of it. He failed. And his scarf was freakin' dry clean only.

Sakura gritted her teeth before beginning to stomp away from her psychology partner. "Thank you, Captain Obvious," she told him shortly, storming away to try and look for the "flavored water" aisle.

Sasuke sighed and reached after Sakura, grabbing her wrist. "This way," he mumbled, dragging her to the opposite side of the supermarket.

Expertly, Sasuke weaved through crowds of people in the store. Tons of people were attempting to stock up on extra provisions. Apparently this storm was going to be a bad one, and they'd be stuck indoors for quite some time. Sasuke shook his head inwardly, scornfully. Buying excessive loads of canned goods and bottles of water, withdrawing bundles of cash from the ATM machine, and searching for last-minute first aid supply was something these idiotic people should've done months ago when hurricane season was starting to come around.

Standing in front of the shelves of VitaminWater, Sakura grumbled underneath her breath. "I don't even like some of these flavors…" she whispered to herself.

"Just get some and let's go," Sasuke told her impatiently. He wanted to get back to campus before the storm really started to go. "Grab a few bottles. We'll come back for a crate when there isn't a freaking typhoon going on outside."

Sakura obliged, crinkling her nose in annoyance as she started to sweep a few bottles off the shelves into her basket. She made sure she had her favorites, definitely: Rescue, Defense, Power-C, XXX, Essential, and Focus.

Slowly, her anger began to subside when she realized all would be well in her life again as soon as she paid for her drinks, cracked open a Rescue, and –

"HA, you can't catch be, haaa ha ha ha haaaaa!" a little boy pushed past her, shoving her white coat aside with sticky fingers. He taunted his chasers in a sing-song voice. "SLOW POKE!"

"Konohamaru, come back!" a whiny little girl cried, chasing after him, a snotty looking boy in tow. The girl pushed past Sasuke, making him flatten himself against the Gatorade rack, while the snotty kid followed. "Give me back my chocolate!"

Sakura's face stretched into a large frown. Choco…late? She looked down slowly to wear the Konohamaru kid had pushed her coat aside.

She was met with little brown handprints of melted milk chocolate. On her dry-clean only coat. Which was white. Which meant she was going to kill someone.

"That little fucking bitch!" Sakura cried out, stomping her foot. "This is dry clean only, you retard!" she called after bratty child. It was no use. The little menace was probably running down the next aisle, terrorizing the next poor woman with a fabulous coat.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "It's only a chocolate stain, it's gonna come out," he told her. He took her basket and tossed three b-relaxed bottles in – she would need them.

"That's not the point. The point is, I'm going have to waste 50 dollars on cleaning a coat that was absolutely spotless before, just because some idiot kid decided to pig out on someone else's Hershey bar!" Sakura told him, eyes flashing with anger.

"What the fuck is your problem? A stupid stain shouldn't make you so fucking mad!" Sasuke hissed out at her, his patience finally starting to crack.

"You're not the one with the dirty coat now, are you? So shut your mouth!" Sakura shot back, crossing her arms and giving him her worst death glare of the day.

"Obviously something else is wrong with you, and I was just trying to freakin' help," Sasuke responded. "Let's just go." He started to turn with the basket in hand.

"Do you wanna know what my problem is?" Sakura ground out to his retreating back.

"What?"

Sakura clenched her jaw and fisted her hands. "It's YOU."

Sasuke whipped around, "What the fuck did I do?" he asked, giving her a deadpanning stare.

"You're – I just – you – you're just being you," Sakura spat out, her rage deflating with a large whoosh.

Sasuke gave her another look. "Excuse me?"

Sakura rubbed her temples for a second, before spreading her arms out in a shrug. "You're just being you. You're being too nice. You're a boy, you're supposed to be an asshole, but you aren't. And you're give me VitaminWater and you let me copy your notes and you get me to study so I don't fail and you go on walks with me and you just…you…why?" she asked, slumping against the shelves of VitaminWater behind her.

"Because that's just how I am, and I don't know why I'm so nice to you, I just…you just…argh," Sasuke faltered, sagging against the Gatorade wall behind him.

"You're just ruining everything," Sakura said, brokenly. She straightened up and stepped towards the middle of the aisle.

Sasuke followed suit, so he was right in front of her. "How?" he asked.

Thin, pink eyebrows slanted downwards. "Because you're making me think differently. I've been on a boy-fast every since Sai, and you – you're making me break it. Because you're being too nice and you're not being like that dick-face boy you're supposed to be like. And who knows I think I actually might like you because you – !" Sakura cut herself off, green eyes widening. "I didn't – you aren't – I think…"

"I'm not what?" Sasuke asked quietly. "Good enough? Gay enough?"

She didn't answer.

So Sasuke did the only thing a man his position could do.

He leaned down, and he kissed her.

Which, like the last-minutes shoppers surrounding them, was something he should've done months ago.

It's out. It took two months, but Like VitaminWater, Chapter 10 is out. Sorry about the wait.

Thanks to defray, Epiff Annie, and aNdreaa for whipping my ass back into shape to do this. I love you all.

Review. (: