"Where is your head at, Sweetheart?"

Sasuke averts his gaze from Sakura onto his mother, not for the first time in the last few minutes. Ever since their dinner last night, he's had trouble thinking of anything else. That includes work. Regardless, he sighs and tries to focus on his mother. "You know as well as I do that the end of the year is the busiest for those of us actually working, Mother. Pardon me if my mind is elsewhere."

Mikoto pouts, and her youngest son bites his tongue because he hadn't meant to be harsh. He even feels the other two womens' stares.

Quickly, he backpedals, "Sorry…. You know what I mean."

Though the Uchiha matriarch doesn't hold an official title within the family business, she does tend to Fugaku's every need and handles a great deal of the public relations side of things, which can sometimes be even more difficult than working an office job.

His mother smiles, placing a hand on her hip and shaking her head, "I know you're overworked right now, but your father says Saturday will be incredibly important for the family's future. I'm only here to confirm you aren't going to skip."

And she has to do this in person? Right in front of his colleagues? Sasuke nods, "I already said I'll be there, didn't I?"

She narrows her eyes, though her smile doesn't falter. A familiar, terrifying aura begins to emit from her. It's the energy of a mother threatening her child, and it has the Uchiha man's face going pale. Her voice is sickly-sweet, "Great. Now, let me warn you that I won't tolerate being spoken to like this again."

He nods quickly, recalling the few times he'd incurred her wrath growing up.

"And you'll be sure to be gentlemanly to all women. Do I make myself clear?" Obviously, Mikoto is referring to the other employees present.

Sasuke nods again, and his mother returns to her usual, doting and bubbly self. "Wonderful, Dear. I'll see you on Saturday, then." After briefly exchanging pleasantries with Karin and Sakura, the woman finally leaves.

Karin hisses once the door is closed behind her, "And here I thought the CEO was scary!"

The pinkette snickers, offering an empathetic shrug when her eyes meet Sasuke's. He averts his glare onto the computer screen and pretends not to be affected while trying to refocus on work. The holidays truly are the most stressful time of year for everyone, but especially those spearheading a multi-million dollar company.

So, for the remainder of the day, he does his best to remain entirely locked into work. If he wants to go to dinner with Sakura tomorrow without having anything else on his mind, he needs to catch up completely. After his terrible judgment call at the banquet, he knows she deserves his full attention. It's been a long time since he's taken someone on a date, and this will be the first time he's actually interested in the woman.

By the end of the work day, he's still not satisfied enough has been done to warrant taking the entire weekend off without doing some work from his home office. Karin and Sakura bow politely whilst standing at his desk. They both stayed until seven o'clock to assist in the heavier workload. For the first time in hours, Sasuke's distracted from his computer screen by Sakura's intent gaze.

"Have a good night. I'll see you tomorrow!" Karin begins walking toward the door, but her pink-haired counterpart hesitates.

Sasuke lifts a brow, confused by her concerned expression.

"You coming?" The Uzumaki woman interrupts before either can speak a single word.

With a pretty pout, Sakura offers a short, quick bow before excusing herself. The Uchiha is unsure what she wanted to say just then but doesn't have time to dwell on it.

Hours pass.

It's nearly midnight when Sasuke finally arrives at home. His cell phone rings as he's walking up to his door. Sighing, the man assumes there's an emergency with security at one of the malls and doesn't bother looking at the name or number before answering, "This is the director."

The exhaustion weighing down his limbs and eyelids relents momentarily when an unexpected voice responds, "I knew you'd still be up. You'll make yourself sick working like this."

It's Sakura.

She sounds mildly sleepy, as well, and he can't help but wonder why she isn't asleep. As usual, he doesn't say that and instead comes off as unintentionally blunt, "Why are you calling me?"

Either the woman is unfazed or pretends to be, "I just said I knew you'd still be up, didn't I? I'm calling to scold you." When Sasuke can't figure out how to respond, she teases half-heartedly, "You said you want to go on a date even though I treat you like a kid, so you can't get mad at me!"

Genuine annoyance warms the man's face, or maybe it's embarrassment at her confident remark. He scoffs, entering his condo and heading straight for his room to fall onto the bed. He doesn't even bother taking off his work clothes.

"So, you're calling to prove yourself correct?"

This time, Sakura didn't immediately reply. She paused before speaking more quietly, "No." There's a long moment of silence before she continues, "I just wanted to make sure you're alright after that talk with your mom. I know you're stressed with work right now, and I wanted to lend an ear earlier, but I chickened out of talking to you in person."

Sasuke is entirely flabbergasted. Sure, as Haruki, this woman said sincere and heartfelt things all the time. This is the first time she's doing so aloud, so it feels foreign and new. The Director doesn't know how to take it.

He's very uncomfortable but also the opposite. It's a feeling he's never experienced. He also can't tell if he likes it or not. Deep down, he knows the cause. He's stuck between trusting Sakura and being grateful she's so earnest, while also having been raised to never utter a word about personal weakness. It's ingrained in his body to be outwardly perfect.

Sasuke's mouth opens and closes. No words come out. He turns onto his side, glaring at the dark room with tired eyes. His heart begins to race because he knows Sakura's waiting for a response, but he simply can't figure out what to say. This is his first time verbally trying to open up to someone, no matter how irrelevant the topic may be.

"It's alright," She suddenly says. His brow furrows with frustration as the woman continues in a soft, calming voice, "You don't have to push yourself."

"I'm…." Sasuke manages. He trips over his words, sighs, and admits, "I'm trying."

A muffled sound meets his ears. He imagines the pinkette curling further into her blankets and pillows. The thought brings him a tiny bit of comfort. "I know."

The receiver goes silent as the conversation lulls. Eventually, the man panics and says the first thing he can think of, "How's your dad?" He inwardly cringes because talking about her father is the last thing a person should do when called by a woman late at night.

Sakura answers as though the question isn't as odd as he believes, "Mom says he's nearly back to one hundred." A tiny giggle meets his ears. "She's been making him do yoga with her. She said the other ladies in the class keep teasing him."

Sasuke tries to picture the man in question amidst such a situation and finds himself smirking, "I'm sure he's enjoying that."

"Of course. A normal person would be embarrassed, but he's eating up the attention!"

The pair continues to talk about whatever oddball topics arise until they lose track of time.

Before Sasuke knows it, he's waking up to his alarm sounding loudly. Groaning, he clicks it off. Just before he can lock the device's screen again, he does a double-take because the call with Sakura is still going. The timer at the bottom of the screen says they've been connected for nearly six hours. Then, the man doesn't know if he should say something to verify if she's awake, hang up, or just wait until he hears something from the other end of the line.

He sits up to throw his legs over the edge of the bed, running a hand through his messy hair while staring at the pinkette's name. Before he can make a decision, a bubbly-sounding pop song erupts from the receiver. Moments later, it ends, followed by a familiar voice, albeit groggy and unaware, mumbles, "...I don't wanna go to school today, Mom…."

Sasuke's lips tug into an amused grin as the line goes silent once more.

She's sleep-talking.

Deciding to give the woman a break, he ends the call, but finds himself staring at the call details instead of getting up to prepare for work. Warmth meets his chest and stomach as he recalls their seemingly pointless conversations last night. Rather than force him to talk about his feelings, Sakura was happy to be a distraction. If the man is being honest, he wasn't sure if they can go back to how things were before they knew one another's identities. That is, until now. This feeling…. It's just like back then.

…..

Sakura curses under her breath when she wakes up and realizes she slept past her alarm. Naturally, she's feeling frazzled while hurrying into her doctor's office, already five minutes late and feeling terrible about it. The blonde woman, named Tsunade, seems unaffected by her patient's breathless appearance, "Sit. So, tell me what's wrong. You said you fainted?"

Tsunade has been the woman's doctor since she was around ten. She's ultimately the reason Sakura chose to go to medical school. Their relationship is a bit closer than the usual patient-doctor's, so she doesn't hesitate to be honest.

With a reddening face, she nods, soothing out her hair and avoiding eye contact, "I was smack in the middle of some…strenuous activity, if you know what I mean."

The well-endowed doctor laughs loudly, tossing her head back, "Dusting off the cobwebs was a little overwhelming, huh?"

Sakura glares at her, face only becoming hotter, "Can you just run some tests and make sure nothing's wrong with me so I can get out of here?"

"Yes, yes. Alright." Tsunade dons an amused grin whilst taking a blood sample, waggling her eyebrows suggestively, "So who's the lucky guy?" She pauses, smile fading, "You didn't let that friend of yours set you up with someone, did you? The men she dates…."

"Who, Ino? No!" Sakura waves her free hand dismissively.

She's careful not to move her other arm so as to not interrupt the process of having her blood taken, "He's…. Well, he's just a guy I met at work." She may be comfortable around Tsunade, but she doesn't want to hear the ear-full she'll get if she tells her she's sleeping with her boss. Before the blonde can reply, she interrupts with a change of topic, "So, just by what I've told you, do you think I should be worried? It's been a while since I've fainted."

"It's difficult to say, but if it only happened once, I'd air on the side of it not being something serious," the doctor put a bandage over the small bleeding spot of Sakura's arm and shook the small vials of blood with a frown, "I'll send these in right away and call you when the results come back."

The duo catches up for a few moments before Sakura inches toward the door. Just before she can turn the handle to leave the room, Tsunade stops her, "This guy you're seeing…. Is it serious?"

The pinkette thinks about all the drama and stress they've gone through. Then, she thinks about the good things. She doesn't want to jinx things by saying it out loud, but she can't help herself. With a smile that won't be held back, she tilts her head, "I hope so. I really like him."