"That was close," Sakura could feel his voice through his chest, his breath on her ear as he murmured right into it, "Nearly let you down again. Good thing I wasn't late this time."
THIS TIME?!
It... really... is him. Meister really is Uchiha-senpai!
Hesitantly, because Sakura had her priorities in exactly the right order, and it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she was nestled against her idol's chest, she had to confirm the thundering suspicion in her heart, "... SmirkMeister?"
"Yes, that's me."
No hesitation! He just - out with it! How- What- Huh?! But that means... He can't be! But... I-
Sakura must have been having an out-of-body experience as she watched Uchiha-senpai, the object of more than one girlish fantasy over the past two years, put his hands on her - actually touch her! - to help her regain her balance. She managed not to drool all over him. Note to self, never wash this blouse again.
She was still trying to process the other major shock, that Meister was Uchiha-senpai. She'd been prepared for anything and everything - that Meister's appearance was unremarkable (likely and irrelevant), "he" was actually not a "he" (unlikely, it was the internet), or that they wouldn't get along as well in person as they did online (likely, and what she dreaded the most).
Uchiha-senpai though? There's no way! Maybe there's a hidden camera around here. Sakura tried to look around surreptitiously, but Sasuke saw her little movements.
The corner of his mouth quirked up. "Thought you might finish algo early. Didn't want to make you wait again."
"Huh? Wait?" I don't see any wires so they must be using fairly small battery-powered units. That limits the transmission range and video quality.
"The couple's tournament."
"Oh, that! No, that's okay." I don't even see a lens. Must be a pinhole device of some kind.
"Lunch?"
"Uh-huh." If I'm lucky, they won't even have voice recording capability. That way no one will think I'm a total lunatic, asking the most eligible bachelor if he's my dom, or whatever people will come up with.
"OK, let's go then," Go? We can't go! What if the real Meister shows up while I'm still dealing with this hidden camera nonsense?
"...," What if Meister picks up on this embarrassing crush I've had on Uchiha-senpai all along?
"..."
"..." What if-
"Sakura?"
"Sakura?!" Sakura repeated stupidly, turning bright red at the intimacy of him - the Uchiha-senpai - using her first name, just like that. No honorifics or anything. Startled, she realized he'd already started walking away and was looking back at her now, waiting for her to catch up.
"Hold over from Way. You don't mind, do you?" he asked nonchalantly. Sakura was too flustered to notice how the tips of his ears turned a bit red.
"N-No, it's okay," Sakura stuttered.
"Okay," Uchiha-senpai looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to walk beside him.
Somehow, in her wildest dreams, Sakura had never imagined walking next to Uchiha-senpai. She'd probably had a hundred different fantasies over the year and a half since she'd come to Konoha U, but this wasn't one of them. But she'd imagined walking next to Meister a thousand times, especially over the last week. She'd dreamed of laughing and talking to him, to finally hear if his voice was as deadpanned as she imagined he'd be when he delivered one of his stinging barbs. She'd wondered if she'd be able to hide her blushing face if he was as smooth offline as he was online.
For one deranged, insane moment, Sakura wanted to run back to the bridge, to sit at the base of a tree and wait for him like Heitaro-san had waited for his willow wife. She was afraid if she left with Uchiha-senpai, she'd miss Meister and regret it for the rest of her life. Maybe -
"Sakura? Aren't you hungry?" Sasuke asked, frowning a little, "You said you normally don't eat before morning exams."
Even her roommates didn't know that about her, since she went straight from the track to her exams. She'd only told him that a few days before his accident. He really is Meister.
Taking a deep breath, a chance, and her future into her own hands, Sakura grabbed her courage and smiled widely as she caught up to him, "I'm absolutely starving!"
(¬‿¬ )(o^ ^o)
Sakura had thought they were going to eat in the cafeteria by the west gate and had braced herself for the stares and whispers that would inevitably follow. She was with the Uchiha-senpai, after all. Instead, Uchiha-senpai had led her out the gate, into the residential area where more of the faculty lived and away from the commercial district where the students hung out.
Ichiraku stood out like a sore thumb on the street corner, with its shop banner flapping in the wind, amongst the stately homes and elegant townhouses. Inside, there were a number of patrons sitting at the bar or some of the smaller tables. When the waitress saw Sasuke come in, she immediately gestured them to a private booth.
"Is there a menu?" Sakura asked, looking around. She expected to see some wooden slats with the options laid out or something, but all she saw was Uchiha-senpai looking back at her. Actually. Making. Eye contact!
"My brother prepaid for a month's worth of meals for me since he had to go out of town for the summer. So they already know what to bring." Uchiha-senpai replied. "We can ask for another menu, if you want."
"Oh? What did he-?" Before Sakura could finish the query, the server answered her question by placing a bowl of rice, two smaller bowls, utensils, and a large soup tureen between them. She trailed off when she saw the... is that staring at me?
"Fish-head soup," Uchiha-senpai's face remained absolutely calm as he lifted the ladle with the enormous fish head out of the milky broth. "They say you should eat what you're trying to fix."
I'd rather have a cracked head, Sakura thought but didn't say it out loud as she eyed the pale eyes on the fish skull.
"Do you want a menu?" Uchiha-senpai asked, obviously seeing her trepidation.
Sakura took a deep breath, then squared her shoulders and said, "No, that looks like it's too much for us already. We can just share it."
Uchiha-senpai only nodded and picked up the ladle to dish out the food. Just as he'd handed her a full bowl with most of the head (Sakura wondered if she could hide it under her plate), his phone rang. Uchiha-senpai looked at the caller id, then ignored the call. Not a second later, it rang again, and he ignored it again.
When the phone rang for the third time, before Uchiha-senpai could hang up again, Sakura blurted out, "You can take that call, I won't mind." She tried to make herself look like she was very busy eating, only to find herself confronted with the milky eye of the fish head. Urgh. She sipped at the rich, salty broth and tried to ignore both the eye and Uchiha-senpai's phone conversation.
Sasuke tried to keep the smirk off his face as he watched Sakura. That idiot has the worst possible timing. Sasuke was barely paying any attention to him as he blathered on and on – something about basketball? Instead, he enjoyed watching all of Sakura's little expressions as she struggled with the fish head. 10 bucks she hides it under the plate.
"Oi, asshole. Are you coming or not? It's the farewell game. You gotta be there, dattebayo!"
"That's not for another two hours, idiot."
"We got practice! Gotta pass our wisdom down to the juniors and all. Besides, the stands are packed already."
"Can't. I'm busy."
"Doing what? You're an anti-social loser at the best of times."
"I'm on a date," Sasuke said bluntly.
Sakura choked. Sasuke pretended not to see the flying fish bone. His phone was dead silent for a split second and then –
"WHAT?! A date? You? With who? Where?"
"None of your business."
"C'mon Sasuke! This is you we're talking about! On a date."
"Is that it? I'm hanging up now."
"Hey!" He could hear Kiba yelling in the background, "Bring her to the game, so we can get a good look at her and see what kind of girl has made the mighty Uchiha-"
Sasuke cut him off midsentence by hanging up. He looked up at Sakura, who was very red in the face and trying very hard to pretend that she hadn't been listening. "So?"
"Huh?" Sakura coughed.
"The game," Sasuke prompted her then added, "do you want to go together?"
"Oh, uh, actually my roommates and I were thinking of going together depending..." Depending on how the date went. Sakura flushed again when she inadvertently revealed that she had an escape plan in place had their meeting gone poorly.
Uchiha-senpai only nodded. "Then I'll take you over."
"Can you play?" Sakura gestured to his head.
"The doctor gave me the go-ahead to play for one period if I'm careful. It's the farewell game, after all."
Sakura remembered the many games she had attended with Temari this semester, and the dwindling number of fangirls who'd shown up as Uchiha-senpai failed to appear each time. Yamanaka-san hadn't turned up after the first game of the semester. So that's why Temari was talking about going early this time. It hadn't registered because she had been so preoccupied with Meister, but she now hoped that they would remember to save her a seat.
"No rush, we have plenty of time."
They ate in companionable silence as Sakura focused all her attention on eating the fish head. While she couldn't bring herself to eat the eye, the cheeks had some deliciously savoury and slippery morsels. All in all, Sakura decided that it had been a worthwhile experience that may not bear repeating. When she finally looked up, she nearly jumped out of her skin. Uchiha-senpai had been watching her this whole time. Is there something on my face?
As if he had read her mind, Uchiha-senpai reach over the table the napkin in his hand. It took Sakura a minute to realize that he was expecting her to take it. She coughed and accepted the napkin, pretending that she hadn't expected him to wipe her face for her. From the tiny smirk on his face, though, he probably had guessed it.
I think my heart might literally explode if he did. Instead, Sakura coughed and asked, "So do you come here often?"
"Mm. Nii-san wasn't exactly a home cook; this place is closer than the university cafeteria. Besides, they have good food." Uchiha-senpai took her empty bowl and refilled it, this time without the terrifying addins.
"You live with your brother?"
"Before I moved into the dorms, for most of high school."
"Oh, I see, after your parents-" Sakura cut herself off, mortified at her tactlessness. The death of both the CEO of Uchiha Corp and his wife in a car accident had been major news, even in far away Ushiozukagure. Shannaro! Get your act together.
"After my parents passed away, I lived with some relatives first. I only moved in with Itachi after I was a bit older," Uchiha-senpai said smoothly as if his dead relatives were normal first date conversation. Wait, is this even a date? I know he said so on the phone but maybe he was just trolling his friends. Does Uchiha-senpai troll people? I mean...
Preoccupied with her own thoughts, the rest of the meal passed quietly as Sakura tried not to stick her foot in her mouth anymore. She was so focused on not saying the wrong thing that they finished their meal, left the restaurant, and walked for five minutes before she realized that they were not, in fact, headed towards campus and the farewell basketball game. Before she could ask though, Uchiha-senpai disappeared around a corner of an old townhouse, leaving her standing awkwardly at the gate.
"Sakura-chan!" A familiar voice called her name from the next-door townhouse, and Sakura turned to look for the source. The Dean of the Computer Science Department, who Sakura had met a few times, was waving cheerfully at her from the garden gate. "What are you doing all the way out here? New pupil?"
"No, I – uh, I'm meeting up with a friend," her uncharacteristic nervousness made Tsunade raise an eyebrow.
"Friend, eh? But if I remember correctly, my next-door neighbour is –"
"Professor Senju," Uchiha-senpai arrived at that moment, bicycle in hand, cutting off their Dean's drawn-out teasing. His tone was polite, and Sakura couldn't see any difference in his facial expression, but something about his tone of voice must have set off the Dean's warning bells because she just guffawed and waved to both of them. As Tsunade went back into her house, she called over her shoulder, "I see how it is. Never thought the day would come. Well, I'll just leave you two lovebirds to it."
Lovebirds!? Blushing furiously, she peeked at Uchiha-senpai to see if he had any objections to the term. He acted as if he hadn't heard anything at all and only looked expectantly at her. Confused again, she cocked her head to the side in a silent question.
"Hop on. I'll take you over." He gestured at the passenger seat over his bicycle's back wheel.
Sakura stared at the flimsy perch, then in growing horror, stared back at him. There were no railings or handles or anything, so she would have to hang on to... Him?! "This... This isn't good, isn't it?"
"It'll take too long to walk there," Uchiha-senpai pointed out.
"But... But... Won't people misunderstand?"
"Misunderstand what?"
"That we're... you know...," on a date? Madly in love? Just friends? Sakura didn't know how to define this, or what she was afraid (hoping?) people would misunderstand this new thing between them as.
She took the easy way out. "Like this?" She held up her hands in a heart, unable to imply anything more earthly to such a celestial being as Uchiha-senpai.
Every cell in Sakura's body stood to attention when a slow, sexy smirk spread across Uchiha-senpai's face, and he leaned forward on the handlebars of his bike. Oh oh oh. his face. I can't. he's just so good-looking - he looked straight into her eyes, raised an eyebrow and asked:
"Since when were we not like that?"
Excusemewhat?
Sakura might have squeaked. Or screamed. Or just floated right away. At least she thought she turned away from him so he wouldn't see her face right at this moment because she was sure she was grinning like a fool, or pinching herself.
Did he just -
He can't mean -
But -
SHANNARO!
"I'm not that bad of a cyclist, you know," a low voice in her ear sent shivers right down the back of her neck.
Haruno Sakura, top of her year and scholarship student, said very eruditely in response, "huh?"
She spun back around to face him.
Uchiha-senpai was much closer and still had that tiny smirk on his face that made all of Sakura's insides turn to goo.
"I'm not that bad of a cyclist. You look like you're staring down death."
I might as well be! Sakura knew his fangirls.
"We're going to be late for practice if we don't take the bike. Of course, I could always skip practice and just walk there with you -"
"No! Absolutely not! Let's just take the bike!" Sakura interrupted him, aghast at the idea of Uchiha-senpai missing his last public practice while so many of his fans were waiting for him. Maybe we'll go fast enough that no one will be able to tell that it's me riding with him. Mind made up, she got onto the back of his bike before he could change his mind.
"Hold on tight," Uchiha-senpai said over his shoulder. Sakura was about to ask him where when the bike started moving. Instinctively, she flailed until she wrapped her arms around his waist - by the time she realized exactly where she was holding on tight to, the bike was going too quickly for her to even think about letting go.
SHANNARO! Sakura buried her face in his back, praying no one would recognize her in this position. Uchiha-senpai's back was deceptively broad for how elegant his frame was, and she couldn't help but feel the muscles tense and flex under his shirt as he powered out of the faculty housing district. She really hoped he'd take her hands against his abs in the entirely innocent way she meant it. It's not like I could move them up or down. No, definitely not down.
Shannaro! Mind out of the gutter, Haruno! This is Uchiha-senpai here! Have the proper respect for your idol! Innocent thoughts, innocent thoughts, rainbows and sparkles, fairies and unicorns, unicorns are attracted to virgins, I wonder... Ahck! No! Innocent thoughts!
The breeze would probably feel good against her overheated face, but Sakura still lived in mortal dread of someone recognizing her. While she welcomed the wind streaming through her hair, she could do without it blowing up her skirt. No doubt, she was flashing any erstwhile bystander. Her tiny handbag wasn't any help either - while it was enough to hold down one important point at the front of her skirt, her back didn't even have that little protection. Now I remember why I don't wear skirts that often.
Just as Sakura was trying to work up the nerve to let go of Uchiha-senpai to try and preserve at least a bit of her dignity without falling off the bike or showing her face, the bike stopped. Disoriented, Sakura blinked as Uchiha-senpai gently tapped her hands to get her to let go.
"Be right back," He said, then strolled into the on-campus convenience store that they'd stopped outside.
The few minutes' wait felt like an eternity as people started to notice the campus idol in the convenience store. Sakura wanted to find a nice hole to crawl into when people started throwing furtive looks her way, standing as she was right outside the store.
You've never been the whinging type, Haruno. C'mon, chin up, chest out. Just because you've spent the last five minutes hanging on to your personal wet dream doesn't mean you have anything to be ashamed of.
When Uchiha-senpai came out and unceremoniously thrust a huge bag of snacks at her, though, Sakura stared. He bought all that in a few minutes?
"Take it," He ordered.
Still, she hesitated, feeling the eyes of the gathering crowd on their little exchange. Uchiha-senpai ignored them all; instead, he just waited for her.
If he doesn't care what other people think, why are you so worried? C'mon Sakura, go big or go home.
Sakura took a deep breath and finally accepted the snacks, ignoring the whispers that ran through the crowd.
She moved to get back onto the bike when Uchiha-senpai stopped her to lean close and murmur, "You can sit on the back of your skirt and hold this bag in front."
"How?" Sakura asked, her brow wrinkling as she tried to think through the mechanics.
Uchiha-senpai popped out a bar under his seat that she hadn't noticed before. "By hanging on here." He smirked again when she got even redder.
"You could have told me that earlier!"
"Could have," He agreed as he got on, then turned to wait for her.
Did he just - Sakura gaped at him. Did THE Uchiha-senpai just admit to conning me into hugging him?! No way!
"Coming?" He quirked an eyebrow at her. Still a bit shell-shocked, Sakura nonetheless got on, tucking her skirt under her and keeping the massive bag of snacks on her lap while she hung onto the bar, and they were off again, leaving the gathered crowd behind.
The breeze really does feel good. Now that she wasn't hiding in his back and was actually sitting properly without worrying about flashing bystanders, Sakura could enjoy the campus scenery in spring as it sped by. The few curious glances she caught didn't even bother her anymore - in that moment outside of the convenience store, she'd realized her mistake.
He's Meister. Still the tricky, troll-y, thoughtful guy I know from Way. Maybe in the future, I'll get to know Uchiha Sasuke, but right now, he's not the campus idol I admire but the person I... the person I might be in love with.
If I'm going to have the courage to break my rules and meet him, I should have the courage to face him.
Having made her peace, the ride to the gym felt like an eternal, glorious moment full of butterflies and sunshine that was over too quickly. This time, when Uchiha-senpai pulled into the parking lot beside the gym, Sakura hopped off smoothly.
"Give me a minute," Uchiha-senpai said.
Minute? To what? Sakura stared blankly until it dawned upon her that he meant to go into the gymnasium with her. In front of everyone. Ohhhhhh no, no, no, nope - courage is one thing, but discretion is also the better part of valour!
"Actually, I'm going to sit with my roommates. They've already saved me a seat," Sakura jerked her thumb towards the entryway, already backing towards it. People were starting to stare and whisper again. "Good luck with the game! I'llseeyouonlineafterwards!"
So saying, she took off, bag of snacks bouncing behind her.
Sasuke blinked, watching her go. Then he smirked. As if I'd let her get away that easily.
( ^ ___ ^ )
AN: Like that?! Like THAT?!
*Insert maniacal cackles here* That scene makes me giggle every time, I love it. Favourite scene number fifty bajillion and eighty-three (Yes, I do know what the meaning of favourite is and I'm NOT TAKING IT BACK). *Cough* It's been a while! Not that I haven't been writing. Just dealing with muse wandering off on other projects (2 chapters of a SS smut fic and SS month prompts... that I still need to finish. Yes I know it's past SS month - but day 4 is a ATSiD outtake, if that takes your fancy). Also, this one was just a hard one to write - I have to admit, as much as I've been writing other SS fics, I just wasn't prepared to bring these two blorbos together in ATSiD with the pure awkwardness, funny cringe, and heartfelt sincerity that I really wanted to show in this transition. I feel like it's such a transient period in their relationship, but so important. And when you're writing about 10 minutes of a 45 minute episode in a chapter, you really spend time stretching out every thought and moment and feeling. This is still Episode 10, for anyone following along with the drama
Also in the interim, someone finally told me about Zheng Shuang's (the woman who plays Weiwei in the Love O2O drama) surrogacy scandal. Yes, I am very late to the party. Yes, I find her actions repugnant. No, I'm not going to stop writing ATSiD because of her - more thoughts on my tumblr under the same name.
ANYWAYS - As always, thank you for stopping by! Reviews, comments, kudos, favourites, bookmarks, and protective charms to keep the muse wandering off again always make my day. See you soon!