Once More With Feeling

Chapter 4: Linework

Boy meets girl, kind of.

Boy works with girl, kind of.

Boy ignores all the signs that something's supposed to happen with this girl.

Kind of.

Kakashi's a fucking idiot, and I tell him so.

"Why'd you hire her?" I demand the next day I see him.

"Who?" he asks mildly, his attention on his sketchpad as he freehands an (admittedly) awesome pin-up girl on the blank sheet.

"You know who," I grumble at him. "That little shrimpy ballet girl."

"Because she answered the ad," he responds, all innocent as he shades in a skimpy G-string on the big-breasted woman, his bandanna concealing what's got to be a lecherous smirk. "We were in need of a good cleaner. I had Kiba do it last week as punishment for that fuck-up he did on a client..." I remember Zaku's jacked tattoo and hide my smirk. "...but this place was still a shithole. Look around, Sasuke. She was here one night, and it's sparkling."

"It's a tattoo parlor," I mutter, pissed because Kakashi's right, the place looks great. "It's not supposed to sparkle. You can't have her working here, she's a girl!"

"Well that's chauvinistic of you."

I'm not sure why I'm so stressed out having Sakura working at Ink and Iron. It's not like we're coworkers or anything. We'll only see each other at shift change, when I close up the shop and she comes in to clean it. Seeing her more frequently doesn't give her some brand-new significance in my life. But something about her has me...edgy. Granted, most things have me edgy, it's one of the downsides to having an inferiority complex (you can thank my gifted older brother for that.) But Sakura...I don't know.

And I'm not fucking scared of her, or anything like that. You'd have to be high to find anything scary in that doll face and those shiny eyes and her stupid smile. She doesn't scare me.

She...unsettles me. Like whenever I see her, I don't fucking know what to do with myself. She threatens me with her impending relevance.

And something tells me I need to stay away from her. She's bad news for me.

"You think about the liability, old man?" I snap, snatching my sketchpad, too, since I might as well make good use of my time here. "Having a little underage girl working alone, after dark?"

"I've thought about it," he responds dismissively.

This is going nowhere. Kakashi's got his reasons for keeping Sakura around, even if I think it's a nightmare. With a sigh of surrender, I settle into my drawing. It's raining outside, there's mud tracked into the shop from all of our clients. Sakura's gonna have a lot to do tonight.

She's right on time. Not that I was waiting for her or anything, but I get out at eleven when she comes in. So ten minutes before, she breezes inside like she owns the place, still wearing her ballet shit and smiling brightly like this is the most fun she's ever had.

Maybe it is. Girl needs to get out more.

"Hey, Sasuke," she says with a sweet smile, like we're best friends, like we didn't argue the night before. Like she knows me so well.

"Hn."

If she's bothered by how I'm not talking to her, she doesn't show it. She just hangs up her jacket on the coat rack and makes a beeline for the supply closet to get her cleaning things.

"Oh, just so you know," she adds, dragging out a vacuum cleaner that's nearly as big as she is, "I was looking through your design book last night..."