Author's Notes: I couldn't withhold this chapter any longer than I already have. It's getting so juicy! Neither of them seemed to know how to proceed from the point at which they stood together, balanced on the precipice of…something.

xxxxx

Chapter 6: Make Your Mind Up

If you can't make your mind up

We'll never get started

And I don't wanna wind up

Being parted, broken-hearted

So if you really love me

Say yes, but if you don't dear, confess

And please don't tell me

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps

Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps by Doris Day

xxxxx

As soon as Kakashi finished his last mail route the next day, he bee-lined for the bar near Ichiraku. His sleep the previous night had been restless and overflowing with questions; he desperately needed a drink or two to help loosen up his thoughts, hoping for liquid assistance in unknotting them and figuring them out. He could make rapid, life-or-death decisions while arrested deep in combat, but this, this was a battle he had never before set foot in.

As he ambled toward the bar, a tiny voice in his mind suggested maybe he wander to the other one where Sasuke worked, just in case Sakura was out tonight as well, but Kakashi waved it off. She never had much free time and didn't visit the bars often because of how focused she pushed herself to be at work – she had said so in one of her notes.

A sigh left him as he gripped the door handle and pulled. In the overall picture, things were going delightfully well; he was reaching out to his old student and she wasn't pushing him away. They appreciated one another's company and there was no doubt a sort of companionship brewing. But things, at least in his mind, had begun creeping toward the next level, and what that was exactly, he had no way of knowing. It was becoming a delicate situation and he didn't want to be the one to crush it.

The air from inside the bar rolled over him as he entered, and just as he was about to will himself to relax, he froze. Every nerve pinged to attention.

Sakura was leaning over the bar, her head turned toward the door, no doubt due to the attention-getting bell perched on the corner to announce each entrance. It was too late to turn back; she had already spotted him.

He approached her slowly, noticing that her cheeks were already flushed from the two glasses that now stood empty before her. She handled herself surprisingly well, however, when Kakashi entered into casual conversation with her.

Chatting went like it normally did, though Kakashi could tell, and he knew Sakura could as well, that something had changed in the air between them since last night. It wasn't so effortless anymore to be so unguarded.

"So…I…last night was amazing," Sakura blurted awkwardly after an uncomfortable pause wedged its way into their conversation.

He had been prepared for this topic to crop up at some point, but it somehow still managed to jar him on the inside. On the outside, however, he kept his composure normal and gave nothing away, which was a skill he learned long ago. His apparent indifference about most things kept many people from bothering him.

He had to formulate a response that wasn't a lie, but on the other hand wasn't too forward, either. What he resolved to say felt more like a lie, though, since it made it seem he was feeling much less than he really was.

"I enjoyed myself," he replied evenly.

Sakura stared at him, scrutinized him for an aching moment as if attempting to read between the lines of what little he supplied her. Hesitation was plain on her pink face, but he didn't know what for until she began to lean forward, giving in to her desire. She came close, so close to him, and they nearly brushed lips before she halted and drew away quickly with an incredibly embarrassed look on her face. She clamped herself back into her shell, away from him.

Blatantly flustered, she pulled out a couple bills and slammed them on the counter, mumbling to Kakashi that she'll see him 'round, and hurriedly shuffled out of the bar toward home.

Kakashi swiveled in place, watching her leave as his heart plummeted into his stomach.

xxxxx

Sakura shouldered her way out of the bar, sucking in the crisp night, letting it rush through her head in order to clear it.

Her thoughts screamed incessantly at her with every pounding step she took away from the bar, away from Kakashi. Some were scolding, others were encouraging, but she knew at the root she was ashamed. How could she even begin to think romantically about her prior sensei? What had come over her?

Still, some part of her wanted, needed him to burst through the door after her and call her name through the thick summer night air, but he wouldn't. She knew Kakashi was not one to be dramatic as such. She continued to berate herself for first of all even thinking of him in the way she had just before she gave in and almost kissed him, and second of all for wanting that to happen to her, for wanting him to chase her down and tell her she wasn't crazy for feeling what she did.

As Sakura stalked home, she tore herself to shreds and attempted to convince herself she was just angry at Sasuke and getting with Kakashi would somehow get back at him. A large part of her poked holes in that reasoning, knowing that the attraction (did she really just use that word to describe it?) to Kakashi had no connection whatsoever to Sasuke's rejection. The past few months as well as her growing emotions were evidence of that.

Memories of those past few months rushed in and badgered her, like a murder of angry crows, pecking and jabbing at her with sharp beaks and claws. She was at war with herself and somehow she was also caught in the crossfire.

The familiar sight of her front door staved off the attacks for a moment, as did the promise of comfort that lay beyond it. She could blast some music, take a hot shower, and crawl into bed, seal herself off from the real world for a while.

The hair on the back of her neck stood up and she halted her steps a few feet from her threshold, her senses heightening. She looked up and found a dark silhouette perched on the edge of her roof, moon spilling across his back and coating his front in black.