Over the next three weeks, Sasuke and Sakura rarely saw each other in person. Sakura's schedule was ten times more hectic than his own, with awards season (by far the worst part of the year) coming up and therefore parties and press calls and promotions scheduled all day, every day.
Sasuke and his bandmates, however, were deep into the recording process. Their next album (what would be their fourth) had a March release date, followed by a summer tour that was presumably already sold out. They had about half the songs finished, and were doing well considering the way it could've gone...But having production people on their backs wasn't helping. Even Kakashi wanted them to be done; normally he was patient, but this had been the longest period of time between albums, and the hype was at an uncontrollable level.
Still, Sasuke knew he didn't have it nearly as bad as Sakura, who was writing and recording in between everything else. She actually had to participate in marketing, something Sasuke hadn't had to do in years.
The first real free time they both had was a morning in early December. Sasuke had snuck out to meet Sakura at her apartment. Today was the unofficial start of the awards season, which would last on and off through early March.
Sakura answered the door wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt. There were circles under her eyes and she wasn't wearing much makeup. She didn't seem to care about trying with him.
But it's not like she has to try with anyone, Sasuke thought, exasperated. She looked good no matter what she was wearing. Still, the fact that she was so informal with him felt more personal, somehow. Don't be ridiculous.
"Hi," she said, giving him a tired but warm smile.
"Hey," Sasuke said, coming inside.
"Oh, I have to show you something," Sakura said, grinning suddenly. She grabbed his hand and led him to her curtained corner. "Look!" She beamed and motioned to the brand new bedframe.
"About time," Sasuke muttered, smirking.
"Yep. I only got it two days ago, and I haven't done much sleeping, so it's been a bit neglected. I'm sure it'll get good use eventually, though." She smirked at and Sasuke had the urge to pull her onto the bed then and there.
"Tch," he said, hoping that his face didn't betray his thoughts.
Then Sakura's phone buzzed loudly. She pulled it out of her pocket and sighed. "We haven't got much time, I'm going to have to go soon."
"Go where?" Sasuke asked frowning.
"To get ready," she said, raising her eyebrows as if he was missing something. "The Studio Awards are tonight…?"
"It's too fucking early to get ready," Sasuke said.
"Yeah, but I'm a girl. And that means I have to spend hours in a makeup chair." Sakura said. "Are you going tonight?" She frowned at him.
Sasuke nodded. "Don't want to, though."
"Yeah, neither do I, really." Sakura sighed. "I just haven't felt too good lately."
"Aa. I can tell." She'd been talking to him over the phone a few days ago about a few recording sessions she'd had. Clearly she wasn't the one in charge of this album, and the thought made Sasuke furious (though he hadn't told her that).
She was also incredibly stressed. Sasuke remembered the feeling, from when they'd been getting big. Somehow, you got used to it, though it was no use telling someone that. Sakura was right in the middle of it, clearly playing it off as not a big deal. Sasuke didn't press her about it (emotional confessions were not something he wanted to deal with), but that didn't mean he didn't notice.
"It's just that they want me to do my, like, peppiest song with all of the backup dancers and a whole set. It's ridiculous."
"Tch. Dumb." Sasuke felt a powerful surge of irritation for whatever idiots were on her team.
"Yeah…Whatever. No use getting worked up about it, I guess." Sakura shrugged. "You're not performing, right?"
Sasuke shook his head. "Presenting some award."
Sakura's phone buzzed again. "Shit. I have to go."
"I'll get out," Sasuke said, smirking.
Sakura rolled her eyes. "Thanks."
She walked over to the door with him.
"Good luck." Sasuke said.
"Thanks," Sakura said, smiling.
They kissed for a minute and then Sasuke left.
His own preparations were almost nonexistent in comparison to Sakura's. When Sasuke got back to the apartment, several people were there laying out clothes. Kakashi was in the living room with a cup of coffee, reading a book.
"Please wear what's been put out for you," Kakashi said to Sasuke without looking up.
"Hn." Sasuke passed by and went into the kitchen, where Naruto was talking nonstop to some stylist about the color orange. He'd be wearing his trademark bright orange suit, because no one could convince him otherwise, ever.
Kiba and Shikamaru were in the front room with other people. There had to be fifteen people in the apartment, and Sasuke only knew who half of them were. He hated days like this.
"Sasuke?" A small woman approached him, obviously nervous. "We put out a few outfits on the table for you, if you'd like to select one of them…"
Sasuke could feel Kakashi's eyes on him from the doorway of the living room. "Aa. Thanks," he muttered.
He picked the least offensive, obnoxious choices: a gray dress shirt and black jacket. The last thing Sasuke cared about was wearing something interesting, or following whatever dumb shoe or pants trend was currently popular. So he stuck to basics. As long as his face was out there, no one seemed to care.
The band arrived on the red carpet to screams from the piles of fans lined up behind the ropes on either side of the road. Sasuke ignored them, and attempted to also ignore the cameras that had immediately started flashing on all sides.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Firestyle has arrived!" Sasuke heard some commentator say, and he rolled his eyes. The entrance to the theater looked extremely far away from here; rows and rows of photographers blocked the path like ants.
This was by far the worst part of awards shows, the way they were shuffled down the carpet by an endless stream of press people. Kakashi was lurking in the back of that crowd somewhere, but he preferred to stay out of it.
"Can you guys pose together?" Someone called. "We want group shots!"
Naruto grabbed Sasuke's arm and yanked him closer to the three of them. They stood frozen there for what felt like five minutes while the cameras flashed at them, burning into his vision. Sasuke fixed his eyes above them, a strategy he'd worked out ages ago so it wasn't completely blinding. His first time on a red carpet had been so completely overwhelming, he'd almost had a full panic. It was much easier to do now.
They moved along the carpet slowly, Sasuke not paying attention to much. He started working out chords in his head, something that he'd learned to do when he was stuck in places like this. It was calming.
"Hey." Naruto nudged Sasuke, surprisingly inconspicuous. "Guess who's here." He shot Sasuke a mischievous grin. Sasuke restrained from rolling his eyes and kept walking, at the same time following Naruto's gaze further down the carpet to where Sakura had just appeared.
If Sasuke hadn't been so good at concealing any emotion, he would've stopped right in his tracks.
She looked gorgeous. She was wearing a pale gold dress that reached her feet; her hair was pulled back from her face in a braid that wound around her head and ended in a perfectly straight ponytail. Her makeup was slightly more dramatic than usual, but not enough to be unrecognizable. He just stared at her for a moment as she posed for the photographers. She was good at this, despite being so stupidly modest about her music. She knew exactly how to work the cameras.
Sakura was swallowed by a crowd of people streaming into the theater on the way in, so Sasuke didn't say anything to her (not that he could've—the press would be all over it if they even say hello to each other).
After a series of thirty-second, useless interviews, the band was finally led to their seats inside. Everyone was mingling, but this wasn't the type of thing Sasuke was good at. Sakura was sitting far away, in the front row of a different section. Sasuke couldn't see her over the sea of heads. But then the lights dimmed, and whoever was hosting the thing (some actor named Asuma Sarutobi) came out to loud applause. Sasuke settled back in his seat, already bored by this whole thing.
The awards were interspersed with performances, primarily by pop artists who weren't particularly impressive. Some people were lip-synching and not doing a very good job of it.
"This is sad," Shikamaru muttered to Sasuke at one point.
"Aa," Sasuke said, frowning at the stage. Some teen singer was attempting to stay on time with the recorded track behind him.
"Give him a break, he's probably nervous," Naruto said.
Sasuke rolled his eyes.
The host came out again immediately following the kid, and after a long speech gave some award to the singer Karui. Sasuke had never understood just using a first name for performing, by now it was completely unoriginal and—
"And now, a performance everyone has been anticipating…This girl has made quite a stir, and for good reason. Sakura Haruno!" He said, and Sasuke sat up straighter, his train of thought gone.
Sakura came out wearing an extremely tight, extremely short silver dress, and to Sasuke it looked all wrong on her. But it was just her and a stool onstage, along with a mic stand; no backup dancers and no weird set. It looked like she'd gotten her way after all. Or at least a compromise, because she didn't have her guitar (or a piano). She looked almost naked without an instrument near her.
A light piano track started to play. It was a ballad, with a lot of soul thanks to Sakura's voice. And of course, despite the music being prerecorded, she sounded ridiculously good. Sasuke couldn't keep himself from smiling slightly. Everyone had their full attention on her, well-known musicians and random audience members alike. Two months ago it would've annoyed him to no end.
Sakura finished to huge applause. She gave a little wave, and then the lights faded to black. He didn't see her leave the stage.
A few minutes later, the band was being rushed backstage to present the next award. Sasuke didn't realize until he glanced at the list of nominees that it was for best new artist (one of the bigger awards). And Sakura was one of the nominees. She hadn't said anything to him about it. Of course.
"Ten seconds," someone said, and then they were walking out into the blinding stage lights to loud applause.
"Hi. We're Firestyle." Shikamaru said, giving a lazy wave to the audience, who cheered.
Naruto jumped in front of the microphone. "We're here to present the award for Best New Artist. Which we won two years ago." He grinned.
"Yeah. Move out of the way." Kiba said, rolling his eyes. He took the envelope from Naruto's hands and glanced up at the teleprompter. "This year, the award goes to…" He opened the envelope, glanced at the rest of them, and unfolded the paper. Then he grinned.
"Sakura Haruno!" Shikamaru, Kiba, and Naruto said. Sasuke smirked. It wasn't like there was any contest.
The applause was huge. The spotlight went to Sakura, in the second row. She was blushing bright red as she got up, lifting the hem of her dress and accepting hugs from several people around her. She made her way up to the stage as the applause continued.
Kiba handed her the award with a grin and Naruto gave her a hug. When Sakura turned to Sasuke, he thought for a wild moment that she was going to kiss him on the mouth in front of all these people. But Sakura gave him a peck on the cheek and a wide smile, looking at him for a fraction of a second longer than the rest of his bandmates. Then the four of them were shepherded off the stage and Sakura stepped forward to the microphone.
"I—Wow. This is amazing." She smiled at the audience, who were all completely under her spell. She looked speechless, and Sasuke smirked. "I didn't really prepare a speech but first of all I need to thank my family. Mom and Dad, I know it was hard but you made sure that music would always be a possibility and I'll never be able to thank you enough. And everyone who's helped me in this business, I owe so much to you. And I know so many people say this, but to everyone watching out there: this right here is evidence that your ridiculous, wild dreams can come true. Thank you so much!"
One of Sakura's songs started playing as she was escorted offstage.
Sasuke met Sakura at her apartment for an early dinner the next night; the band was going into the studio that night for a late recording session.
"You didn't happen to get any calls from your agent or anything today, did you?" Sakura asked. They were sitting on either side of her coffee table, eating takeout. She was smiling slightly.
"Uh…No." Sasuke frowned. "Why?"
Sakura slid a copy of some tabloid over to him. Someone had caught the moment when she kissed him on the cheek the night before.
IS SOMETHING GOING ON BETWEEN THOSE TWO? The obnoxious headline read.
"And to think I thought I was being subtle." Sakura said.
"Nothing's subtle for tabloids." Sasuke said darkly.
"Yeah. My manager cornered me about it."
Sasuke raised his eyebrows.
"I hadn't told him, so it had to come out. He had a field day with it."
"What do you mean?" Sasuke said, frowning.
"It's the big story he wants. He said he wouldn't get involved, though. Thank God."
"Hn." Sasuke didn't know much about Sakura's manager, other than assumptions he'd gained from interpreting things she said, but it was repulsive how much control someone could have over your personal life, if they wanted to. But at the same time that was the business they were in; everything about you was marketed. You were a story, sometimes a fictional one, and someone was always too eager for the next chapter.
"Anyway, did you see anything about us?" Sakura asked.
"I saw one. Naruto showed it to me." Sasuke said, rolling his eyes and showing her a link on his phone. He hadn't been planning on saying anything to her, though Naruto had been practically bouncing up and down about it that morning. "He wouldn't shut up about it."
IS SASUSAKU A THING? The huge headline read, next to a grainy, badly photoshopped picture of the two of them.
"Sasusaku? Is that seriously what they're calling us?" Sakura raised her eyebrows.
"Apparently," Sasuke said darkly. The thought was already haunting him.
Sakura didn't say anything for a minute. Then, "You think we should just come out and say it? It would probably make things easier."
"No it wouldn't," Sasuke said, thinking of the shitload of press that came out when some paparazzi caught Naruto and Hinata kissing after a show. "They'd never shut up." For Sasuke and Sakura the press would be a hundred times worse.
"Yeah, you're right." Sakura shrugged, still looking slightly unsure. Then she rolled her eyes. "God. Sasusaku. That sounds so ridiculous."
A/N: Couldn't resist having fun with the name lol. Speaking of which, happy sasusaku month! I'm going to be posting a bunch of one-shots to my tumblr for the daily prompts, so check them out.
Thanks for reading :)