VitaminWater Fact Number 13: Sometimes all you need is a good Revive to kick your sorry ass back into shape.
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x. by ANGELforSHOW
Chapter Twelve: Multi-V.
Purpose: More Key Nutrients.
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This was all quite new to Sakura.
Okay, maybe it wasn't new to her, but it certainly had been a while since she had held hands with someone and actually meant it.
She pondered as she and Sasuke slowly made the trek back to campus, their fingers intertwined as they embraced the cold wind together. In all honesty, she was kind of dreading getting back to the university campus. The sight of Sasuke and her together wasn't really that big of a deal, but the sight of Sasuke and she together was. There was no doubt that this would cause some sort of uproar amongst the Sasuke fangirls.
But Sakura didn't really care about what the fangirls thought. She couldn't care less about them and their simpering looks at her newly established boyfriend. She didn't really give a damn about how much time they spent making care baskets to send to him when he had a cold (really, it had only been the sniffles, Sakura mused), or how much money they wasted when they bought him chocolates (Sasuke hated sweets. He gave all the chocolates he ever received to Sakura to eat.).
There were only two people whose opinions really mattered to Sakura right now, and they were sitting in the cafeteria sharing a pot of coffee, peering out to window to see if they were coming back safely.
Ino and Naruto, their bright hair shining in the dreary gray window like lighthouse beacons.
Sakura must have stiffened when she saw them, because Sasuke squeezed her hand reassuringly. I know, he seemed to say.
Sakura took in a deep breath and stepped in front of Ino and Naruto, leaning into Sasuke slightly.
And Ino, her best friend, her rock, her support, her pick-me-up, her shoulder-to-cry on, her diary – smiled.
Sakura sighed in relief as Ino started to giggle and nudge Naruto with her elbow, breathing in the cold, fresh air. And then she prepared herself for the inevitable –
"Tell me EVERYTHING!"
Ino eagerly scooped copious amounts of vanilla fudge swirl from her ice cream carton as she sat at the foot of Sakura's bed, grinning with sparkling teeth from ear to ear.
"You kissed in the rain?" she asked Sakura, wiping some ice cream away from her lip with a leaf-printed napkin. "Cliché, Sakura," Ino scolded her cheerfully. "Seriously though, Sasuke's one big hunk of man-meat. I'm so impeccably proud of you."
Sakura laughed slightly. "Hey, I think I like a little more about him than his looks, Pig," she told her best friend while digging a large wad of mint chocolate chip ice cream out of her own carton.
"In all seriousness though," – Ino's expression suddenly turned somber – "don't mess this up, Sakura. Sasuke's great." She sucked on her ice cream covered spoon thoughtfully. "I really think you should marry him."
Sakura combed her fingers through her short pastel locks. "You're jumping a little far ahead, Ino," she said to her, "but I know. This can't just be another fling. He's too serious for one of those."
Ino nodded. "Now there's one more serious problem we have to tackle…"
"Mmm?" Sakura hummed, mouth occupied by a heaping spoonful of ice cream.
"What are we going to do about your appearance?!" Ino asked dramatically, clapping two hands to her cheeks. "Sweatpants to early morning psych classes simply cannot do."
Sakura sighed. "Oh, Ino, shut up…"
Sakura really had to admit that it was weird having a boyfriend again.
It wasn't that she didn't enjoy it – no, she really did like sneaking kisses in the lecture hall and watching Sasuke's fangirls flail with anger – but it was weird not being single.
Whenever some asshole frat boy ogled at her and Ino on their way to get cappuccinos, she wondered why they couldn't tell that she already have a freaking boyfriend.
When the pimply boy next to her in chemistry waited for her after class to talk about, "Uh, um, did you get the homework?" and "We don't get homework in chemistry, dude," she regarded him with slight disgust and wondered why he wouldn't leave her alone, didn't he see Sasuke waiting for her two feet away?
When she went to buy VitaminWater at the café and the cashier boy was exceptionally friendly to her, she wondered what kind of blind jackass he had to be not to see Sasuke right next to her, purchasing both of their Multi-Vs.
All these things had been happening for the past few months, but post-hurricane, every event had been brought into a new light.
Depending on how she felt that day, Sakura might have flicked the frat boy off, or walked straight past the chemistry kid. If Ino were with her at the café, she would've pushed Ino to flirt with the cashier so they could get their drinks for free.
But now Sakura couldn't do that. The freedom she once had as a single person had been wiped away with one clichéd kiss in the rain.
But…that didn't matter to Sakura when she saw Sasuke waiting for her at the door of the café with their drinks in hand, or when she managed to steal a little kiss from him while trudging across campus at 9:00 AM to Brit. Lit., kisses that made him perk up a little bit (after all, a grumpy Uchiha Sasuke wasn't nearly as nice as the not-so-grumpy one).
Sakura loved everything about being in a relationship, from hand holding to warm embraces at the end of the day to borrowing strawberry Chapstick from her boyfriend, simply because she giggled every time she saw him fish through his pockets for the tiny pink tube.
She loved how Sasuke looked at her sometimes, and how his voice grew a little softer whenever he talked to her. And…even though they hadn't been dating officially for a long time, Sakura knew she had loved Sasuke from the moment she set eyes on him the first day of psych class.
It was scary, and it was confusing, but Sakura thought that maybe, just maybe, she was in love for the first time in her life.
It's short. Really short. But it's a transitional chapter. And I know this is a shitty chapter to post after a three months, but at least it's an update, and at least I haven't given up.
Thanks, as always, to defray, annieberry, illusioned, aNdreaa, xoAerith, and all the wonderful people on LJ who convinced me to keep going.
Review. (: