S.H
"Itadakimasu!"
After they finished chorusing their thanks, both Sasuke and Sakura immediately started eating. Sasuke with his ratatouille and Sakura with her lobster bisque. She said in delight, "It's so good!"'
"Mhm," Sasuke nodded with his mouth full. Sakura giggled.
A couple of minutes passed in silence, the two just contendly eating without the need of a conversation. After a while, however, Sakura felt as though they were being a little too quiet.
The content silence turned awkward, and Sakura could only wonder to talk about. Think, Sakura, think!
"W-What's your favorite colour?" she asked randomly.
Sasuke paused and looked up from his ratatouille, an eyebrow raised. "Why the random question?"
She fiddled with her fingers. "I just thought...maybe we could take advantage of this hangout and find out some basic things about each other. Our relationship is always so deep and emotional, I think we need some normal moments too. If that's too confusing just forget what I sa-"
"Dark blue."
"H-huh?"
"Dark blue," he repeated. "That's my favorite colour."
"O-Oh," she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly in realization. "I like blue too, but not dark blue. I prefer pale blue, like sky blue."
"Oh, that's nice," Sasuke nodded in response. "Favorite movie?"
"Titanic," Sakura instantly said. "That's my absolute favorite, but Me Before You and Five Feet Apart are a close second. You?"
"Parasite," Sasuke sipped his soda. "And The Conjuring. I'm a sucker for crime and horror movies. Anyways, in this world, where would you like to go?"
"Japan," Sakura replied. "It's home, to me. My family is there, and I just love exploring my culture."
Sasuke contemplated this. "I would like to go to Antarctica. It's the only continent I haven't been to, and I want to explore something unknown."
It was funny how their answers seemed to contrast the other so much. It was like they were polar opposites when it came down to it.
"What, like Elsa?" laughed Sakura.
"Minus the singing," Sasuke's lips curved upwards.
Sakura pouted. "I would love to see you sing 'Into the Unknown'."
"I'm sure your ears wouldn't," Sasuke added, and they both laughed.
Sakura swung her legs back and forth playfully, sipping on her juice as she enjoyed the moment. "If you were stranded on an island and could only take three things with you, what would they be?"
A smirk grew on Sasuke's face. "A picnic basket, a towel and you."
"Such weird objects," frowned Sakura.
The smirk grew bigger. "Weird objects to have perfect dates with you all the time."
"Sasuke!" Sakura swatted his shoulder playfully as he chuckled at the sigh of her face burning. "Stop making me blush so much!"
"But you're cute when you blush," he said, causing her cheeks to turn even more red.
"Sasuke!"
"Alright, alright, I'll stop," he laughed. A comfortable silence settled over them, silence in the midst of a bustling restaurant.
Sakura scraped the last bits of her dish off her plate and inserted them into her mouth. "The food is really good here."
"Yeah," Sasuke agreed. "We should come back here with the rest of the group."
"Mhm," Sakura nodded. "This place would be so lovely for a date, n-not that we are on one, of course."
"It's hangout," Sasuke said. "Just a hang out."
They both sounded like they were trying to persuade themselves of that, and it didn't go unnoticed by Sakura. She shifted in her seat, uncomfortable by the unease that had settled in yet again. "Should we call Claude for the bill now?"
"Okay," Sasuke said, before raising a hand. In an instant the waiter came. "We would like the bill, please."
"Of course," Claude said as he produced the paper from his pocket. "Here you go, monsieur and mademoiselle. I hope you had a delightful time here for your date."
"I forgot to correct you before, we're actually just on a hangout," Sakura explained as both her and Sasuke paid.
Claude wriggled his eyebrows mischievously and took the money. "For now, maybe. All down? I'll lead you to the exit."
As they walked towards the exit, several people gasped upon seeing them. Sakura blushed in embarrassment, and lowered her face, wishing for the stares to go away.
Claude bowed to them upon reaching the exit. "It was a pleasure. Come back soon to this restaurant."
"We will," said Sakura truthfully. "Thank you."
"Goodbye," nodded Claude, before leaning in. "Mademoiselle Sakura, good job on taking on a leader ship role in feminism."
He left to go serve another customer and Sakura frowned. "How did he know about that."
"Sakura!" gaped Sasuke, staring at his phone. "It's all over the news."
"What?" she said, panicked as she peered at his phone. It was true, several news sites were popping up on the internet and videos were trending, all with the glaring words of 'Model Sakura Haruno has decided to lead a small feminism group in France'.
She glanced up from the phone, and she felt as though everyone's eyes were on her, watching her every move and judging her for it. People who she had never met before were watching her carefully in the restaurant, all of their eyes terrifying Sakura.
She grabbed Sasuke's hand and lead him away from the restaurant hastily. Ignoring Sasuke's protests, she walked hurriedly towards the park, weaving her way quickly through the families. She eventually stopped and let go of Sasuke's hand when they reached a shady tree.
Sakura plonked down on the lush grass and rubbed her temples. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to grab you and take you away so suddenly."
"It's fine," Sasuke sat down too. "The eyes are all so pressuring, aren't they?"
"Yeah," Sakura admitted shakily. "I know it's something I should be used to considering I'm a celebrity, but it was just all so quick. I made a decision last night and not even twenty four hours later, the whole world seems to know about it. The world is probably going to know all about our hangout too and think it's a date. It's like my life is for their entertainment."
Sasuke leaned over and squeezed her hand gently. "Don't think about it that way. Think of it as if you're so powerful that all of your actions influence others. And I don't know about you, but I'm pretty okay with the world thinking that we're dating."
"Yeah," Sakura smiled weakly. "Dates like this would be great, no matter how awkward they were."
"Not fair, you get to flirt but I don't," Sasuke folded his arms grumpily, but there was a small smile on his face as the two of them shared a tension-free laugh. The golden noon light hit Sasuke's face, illuminating his breath-taking features that awed Sakura.
"Eloise," Sasuke suddenly snapped his fingers, breaking Sakura out of her trance.
She blinked. "H-Huh?"
"I was just thinking how it might've spread," Sasuke explained. "We were in a small café, hardly anybody was in there, and only our group and Camille's group knew about you becoming a leader. At the beginning of our trip, we were given strict instructions not to leak any private information, so it must've been someone from Camille's group. Eloise likes to chat about you a lot, so it must've slipped and then spread."
"That makes sense," Sakura said thoughtfully.
Sasuke studied her face. "Well? I thought you would be angry at Eloise for leaking it when you weren't ready."
"It's true that I'm a little mad at her," Sakura reflected. "I mean, I've only met their group once and I don't even know what I'm supposed to do to be a leader for them. Now people are expecting me to do something. But I'm also kind of grateful."
"Why?" Sasuke furrowed his eyebrows.
Sakura took a deep breath. "I don't like all the eyes on me. If I had an idea, I might have never put it into action because nobody was expecting me too. I would've fled from a scene that could've used my help. It's stupid to flee from all those eyes, because I knew that I would have that problem before I became a model, but I still chose to be a model. I chose to have all those eyes on me. And now I need to face my fears and conquer. Conquer like the leader I'm supposed to be."
Sasuke stared at her, onyx eyes staring at her face, but staring as if he could see her soul.
She blushed, and all of her seriousness vanished. "W-What?"
"Nothing," he murmured, still staring at her. "I was just in awe."
"Because I looked beautiful then?" Sakura asked, hoping for an answer that wasn't like Kiba would've answered.
He blinked and frowned. "What? I mean you do look beautiful, but I was just in awe of how confident and purposeful you are. I was in awe just of you."
In a world of people that knew Sakura only because she was beautiful, she did not expect someone to ever be in awe at her with something other than her beauty.
She was always given compliments about her eyes, her lips, her hair, her face; only how she looked. Yet here was someone complimenting her as a person, not because of how she looked.
In a life like hers where she was seen just as a pretty face, this was something big, something that struck her to the core. And the best thing was, it was Sasuke Uchiha who had said that.
It was surprising, because Sasuke's life revolved around him and his family's looks. But maybe it was because of that Sasuke knew how Sakura felt. Her trust issues with him immediately vanished.
Maybe Sakura Haruno fell in love a little more with him.
Because, she realized, looks didn't matter to Sasuke. Sasuke fell in love with her when they were in high school, when she had acne, a huge forehead and a flat chest. She looked ugly yet he still pursued her.
And then Sakura also realized that she let go of a breath she didn't even know she had been holding in. Gratefulness flooded her, and she thought that she had hoped a lot that Sasuke wasn't like Kiba.
Because Sasuke was special. He was special to her.
"Sakura?" Sasuke waved a hand in front of her face. She blinked out of her daze. "You okay?"
"Sorry," she apologized, a tender smile gracing her lips. She stared at Sasuke. "I was just in awe of you too."
Sasuke blinked, and then his dark eyes stared back into her eyes for what seemed like forever. All the background noise vanished, and it was just them.
A moment passed, and as Sakura stared into his eyes she felt as though she was experiencing what he had experienced throughout the years. His self-esteem issues were astonishingly similar to hers.
And then he broke the gaze and looked away.
"Sasuke?" she whispered, noticing the liquid trailing down his cheeks.
"I'm so pathetic to cry in front of you," he managed a smile.
"No, I get it," Sakura squeezed his hand. "I really do."
Sasuke gazed upwards at the clouds floating ahead. "I really believed that everyone only liked me because of my looks, status and wealth. My personality sucks; I'm cold, distant and I act like a jerk. Why would anybody like me? But then you came along in high school, and I thought that everything would be better. But it just took a turn for the worst."
Sakura realized that Sasuke was full-on crying now. In all her time of knowing Sasuke, she had never, ever seen him show this much emotion. She pulled him in for a warm hug. "It's okay, you can cry."
And then Sasuke broke down, tears full of emotion staining her shoulder. With each reverberating sob, Sakura felt as though she knew his story a little more.
She felt his anguish as he was forced to leave her in high school, he was forced to live what he viewed as his happiness. She felt his anger at his father who he used to consider a monster. She felt his loneliness, despairing over the fact that all he had was money and a nice face.
His story was much, much worse than hers.
But she also felt his joy on the day Fugaku let them be together. And that outweighed any other negative emotion. It was pure joy, blindingly pure happiness.
Then she felt herself cry, crying for all of the times Sasuke was sad, but most of all, crying with happiness for the time he was happy.
And then she knew that she had fallen harder than she did before.
So she cupped his face and kissed him on the lips.
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i wanted this chapter to be fluffy and then it just kinda turned angsty oh well :( i suck at writing fluff but i excel at angst
word count: 2145