#ssm21d1

Just Sakura. She’s alone; he knows because she doesn’t throw a covert look to where her teammates would be patrolling (a tell she’s never quite broken free from), and because she stands her ground, part surprised, part something he cannot read.

“Sasuke-kun?” she queries, like she too has lost power over her vision.

“Sakura,” he affirms. Neither of them look away. Neither of them speak.

The busy port moves on as they stand in the way. It’s close enough to Konoha that the average person probably recognises Sakura’s uniform as that of a jounin, and there’s barely any grumbling as the townspeople skirt around where they stand, shifting like the shoals of fish they catch daily. When did Sakura make jounin? She hadn’t mentioned it in her letters. Sasuke can feel the weight of them in his pocket, and he’s tempted to touch their crinkled pages, believing in the power of touch, at this moment, over that of sight.

“Should we get something to eat?” he hears himself asking, because Sakura hasn’t moved or spoken again and he is beginning to feel uneasy with her unreadable face.

“Have you just arrived?” she asks in response to his question. It doesn’t make sense, but Sasuke shakes his head, telling her he has been nearby for a few days. Today is the last day he had booked at his inn; tomorrow a new chapter would start.

“I see,” Sakura replies. Sasuke does not. “Yes, let’s get something to eat. You still eat seafood, right?”

Sasuke has eaten three day’s worth of it, but he nods like it’s his favourite thing in the world, following her mutely until she stops outside the restaurant attached to where he’s been staying. The proprietress throws him a warm smile as he steps beyond the curtain, gesturing him to where he’s been sitting in the evenings. At Sakura’s presence, she darts a glance back at him, blatantly puzzled.

“Back again?” the woman says lightly, placing their meals on the table. There’s only one thing on the menu, and Sasuke’s eaten it for days now. “The girls will be pleased.”

Sakura’s pale pink eyebrows climb towards her hairline at that; Sasuke is relieved her expression has changed into something he recognises, though it’s not jealousy, just curiosity. He cannot quite muster pleasure at the implication.

They don’t talk much while eating - Sakura never has, and Sasuke is too well mannered - and before long two tortoiseshell cats slink under the low table, appearing in the space where Sasuke’s arm stops.

“The girls,” he finds himself explaining, enjoying the way Sakura’s intensity softens at their animal affection. 

“You’re popular,” she observes, and he thinks he can hear the laughter in her voice though she doesn’t show it.

“For once,” Sasuke jokes, and Sakura grins outright at his jest. It’s unlike him, but cats tend to relax his guard. Or so he tells himself, watching her smile delightedly as he feeds them the scraps.

Conversation is sparse as they finish eating and leave, Sasuke paying the bill while Sakura is busy acquainting herself with the cats. It dwindles to nothing as they walk together through the streets of the port, some semblance of patrol visible in the way Sakura’s hands remain resolutely in the pockets of her flak jacket. She commands respect in a way he doesn’t remember - nor receive himself - and it’s strange to him, this woman shaped like the girl he knew, but not quite the same. They’ve walked for an hour, or two, when he notices her face has closed off once more, and her glances at him grow longer, and longer until she stares openly as they wander.

“What is it?” he ventures. They’re standing at the outermost pier; with no ship docked it’s empty, a pocket of quiet in the bustle of commerce. It is, he reckons, exactly where he’d departed from Fire Country’s shore all those years ago.

Sakura doesn’t reply immediately. Her deep green gaze holds his with such intensity that he blinks and almost drops his stare, but Sasuke has never looked away from Sakura, not when she is truly looking. She is now, and he reaches forward with all his understanding, wanting to pin down the meaning in the depths of her expression.

“When-” she starts, then closes her mouth so abruptly he hears her teeth click. He waits. It’s his turn to, after all.

“Would you like to come with me?” she asks eventually, and it’s not what she was going to say. Sasuke can see it in the frustration on her brow. He thinks she was going to ask when he would go home, but it’s the wrong question, and Sakura has always been the smartest of them. So instead she simply gazes up at him, a woman grown but still shorter than he by far, her face upturned with the sun in her hair. There is a promise in the way she holds herself open, but not relaxed.

It’s beautiful. It’s Sakura at her most persuasive, and he’s sure she knows that it works on him as well as it always had.

He doesn’t know where she is going. And she doesn’t tell him, waiting under the hot sun as the waves tickle the pier they stand on. But it doesn’t matter, because Sasuke can read volumes in one glance, and Sakura has opened herself like a book to him once more.

“Yes, I’ll go with you,” he agrees, glancing as her fingers flex in unconscious relief. It surprises even him, to say it so openly.

This was her one free day in her experiment period week, but she needed to steam off for a night and so she allowed her friend to tug her along for a chill night drink. What Sakura didn’t expect was to socialize with a small group of people in their year and to suffer the cold indifference of the guy in front of her.

To her another surprise, he held out a hand to her. “Hello there.” She took it, slightly conscious whether she used her formaline-cancelling hand lotion. A brief and firm shake and he quicky turned away.

“Sasuke finally speaks.”

“That hello sounded a little spicier.”

“Oh my, that hand holding definitely had some electricity.”

The cajoling and teasing finally stopped when the first round of beers came in. Local university gossip was the go-to conversation opener, from the open secret student-teacher relationships to recent couple break-ups. It eventually led to Sasuke and his list of confessions.

“I heard you turned down Mio from fashion design department.”

“No way. I heard she was approached by Celine for a gig.”

“Really Sasuke? That makes her the fifth girl you dumped for this week alone.”

“You never actually had a girlfriend, did you?”

Sakura stared at him doe-eyed, genuinely curious of his answer. He returned her gaze and raised one brow. “I have high standards.”

Oh wow, what a douche, Sakura thought. Hoots erupted in their table but only for a few seconds. While the drinking and the exchanges went on, Sakura found herself wanting to go home early. She was bored and her neck was tired from not looking at him. Under the guise of stretching her already strained neck, she stole a glance, hoping to have a brief moment to take in all of his features and remember his face.

But he was already looking at her. His eyes went to the door of the restaurant then back to her. Bored? He mouthed.

Sakura looked at the door, knowing perfectly what he meant. She chugged her supposedly last bottle of beer and made a small gap with her thumb and index finger. He caught her signal and started to stand up. Their group was tipsy enough not to notice their sudden movements as they shuffled out of the door.

She halted after a few steps, Sasuke’s figure already paces in front of her, wondering whether she should say goodbye or just walk towards the opposite direction back to her apartment. She didn’t think too much of it and quickly chose the latter.

She had to get ice cream first though, a sugar rush to help jolt her senses awake. She was choosing between chocolate and strawberry when a large figure stood beside her.

“A vanilla one, please,” Sasuke said, looking smug with his hands both in his pockets. “Your treat.”

Sakura felt weirded out by the fact that he actively kept on engaging her. His reputation preceded him, but she decided to humor him for tonight. “So library science and you’re an archivist.”

“Intern archivist actually. So you actually know me.” There was arrogance in his voice that made Sakura almost choke on her ice cream.

“Process of elimination. There is no male major in our year in the History department.” She glanced at him and saw that smug look slowly transition into a slight flush of embarrassment. Cute.

“And what if it was a hobby?” Sasuke fiddled with his still unopened vanilla ice cream.

“There was a job posting in the bulletin specifically calling for Library Science students.” Their feet led them to the park still bustling with university night life and settled on a bench under the canopy of a fully bloomed dogwood tree. “See, I’m not your admirer.”

“Well, that’s a downer,” he smirked.

They talked like that for a while, fleetingly exploring related topics to their degree programs, the usual prominent teachers, the busy schedules, until Sakura finished her chocolate and strawberry popsicles. It was on her way home, finally this time, that she realized he never ate his ice cream.

--------------------------

She next saw him on their building’s rooftop with a group of friends, a piece of unsmoked cigarette in between his fingers. He quickly met her eyes, did a brief nod, and looked away. She inadvertently expected more than that but she wasn’t here for a smoke break, and it wasn’t her intention to take it further. She was here for a quick getaway from her microscope and to appreciate the city view dotted with the flowers of spring.

He kept glancing her way, however. He would be in the middle of a conversation and his eyes would stray to her, and she would catch it in her periphery, trying not to notice it. She got tired after a few repetitions of this, and the next time he glanced, she caught his gaze.

Stop it, she mouthed.

I’m bored, he mouthed back. Walk with me. His fingers mimicked the gesture, his fingers walking in the air.

She put her hands together and slightly bowed in apology. Next time, she winked at him before running back to her laboratory, a small smile painted on her lips.

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It became like this for the next few weeks; they conversed through glances and awkward gestures whenever they were in public with their friends. When it was time to come home, they would walk in separate ways and meet again in the park under the same dogwood tree and they would converse for hours. It was mostly Sakura word-vomiting about her experiments while Sasuke would look at her with abandoned fascination.

“Stop doing that,” Sakura called him out one time.

“Stop doing what?” Sasuke asked, his ember eyes never leaving her face.

“You stare too much I feel like I’m melting.”

Sasuke made a small grunt and wore his hoodie over his head to mess with her more. He waved his hands on both sides of his face, and she immediately understood the reference of a horse having its blinders on. “Good because usually I’m the one being stared at.”

Sakura reached out to his hoodie and tightened the strings around his neck. “You’re hopeless.”

He leaned forward, almost touching her lips, his face still between her palms. “Hmm, maybe I am.”

Sakura moved away just as quickly as he moved into her personal space, a hot flush creeping to her cheeks. She hated this particular situation since blushing always made her look like a cherry tomato.

“Cute.” Sasuke apparently said his thoughts aloud because he was taken aback the moment she glanced back at him. “Cool, I said cool.”

She laughed this off just as he completely covered his face inside his hoodie.

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She visited the basement section of the library for reference materials. Her writeup was due tomorrow and she was missing a section on historical evolution of vaccines and dosages for the viral DNA she uncovered. The small library slip in her hand, she made her way to the dimly lit rows on Biology. The shelves were twice taller than her, but there were spaces in between stacked books.

Would make it very easy to spot a ghost, Sakura chided to herself. A shadow moved along the row adjacent to the Biology section, but she dismissed this as the library staff. Her fingers traced the spines of ragged books and examined the list of recommended titles in her hand. When she raised her head, ember eyes stared back at her between the spaces of the opposite row.

Hi, Sasuke mouthed. He glanced around and seeing no one, he whispered, “Can I come over to your side?”

She found it hard to stop her grin from rising. “More eyes, the better.”

It took only a few minutes for Sasuke to find all the titles in her list, but they littered around, walking in between shelves, taking one random book and flipping its pages, stopping when they find something interesting. When heavy footfalls were heard on the stairs, Sakura inclined her head, gesturing she needed to go.

Sasuke seemed to misunderstand as he pulled her through the sleeve of her cardigan to the area further behind the room, and as the shadows grew darker, and the noise became more muted, she heard the racing beat of her heart.

Finally reaching the wall, Sasuke slumped to the floor and patted the space beside him. Sakura followed suit, consciously leaving a space between them as she was slowly becoming hyper-aware of their proximity.

“How are you faring so far? Done with the requirements?” Sasuke asked, his voice low but audible enough for her.

Sakura nodded, and after beat, rolled her eyes at him. “Shouldn’t you be out there assisting others?”

“I believe you need more immediate help.” Sasuke pulled his knees in to rest his chin on and trained his eyes on her. “Sakura.”

“Sasuke.”

The longest minute of silence hung between them, tension strung by the stare, until Sakura broke it off with her eyes shifting to the floor. “What are you doing?”

“Flirting,” he said like it’s a matter-of-fact. “This is what they usually do to me.”

“And what should I do?” She let the words roll out of her mouth, unsure why she asked, uncertain also of what he felt. She met his gaze again.

And in that moment, he just sincerely looked at her. “Flirt back.”

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Sakura was done for the school year. She will be officially graduating in a month, and to celebrate, she went out with their group for a sem-ender discotheque clubbing. She was gonna shoot her shot for a one-night stand with literally anyone who had chemistry with her – haha she was just kidding. As this seemed to be the final cap-off to her university life, she went all out with her clothes Sakura-style – basically a boxy cropped tea, high waisted jeans, and old heels her best friend gave to her in pity.

This was actually her first club experience, but she was glad to be with veteran friends. The first few minutes inside a closed space with bass boosted, unfamiliar crowds, and lots of skinship made her very uncomfortable. Her only reprieve was the free-flowing drinks – ironically she can handle alcohol well. The disco lights would have made it difficult to spot faces, but she found him in the dark, on the corner directly across her group, his eyes already glued on her.

She wondered if he ever forgave her for scrambling out of his presence in the reference section last time, explicitly avoiding his request to flirt back. It seemed like she worried for nothing since Sasuke raised his glass to her and mouthed congratulations. She raised her glass back, resolving to mind her own business tonight. But he kept looking, a smirk etched on his beautiful face, urging her to meet him halfway.

She didn’t need to look for an excuse as her friends suddenly pulled her into the harmless mosh pit of friendly grinding. Sakura allowed herself to move to the beat, enjoying the bubble offered by the club to lose herself for a few seconds. But she kept glancing towards his direction, his eyes looking for her in the mass of bodies. At first, the glances were mischievous, like playing hide-and-seek, then they held gravity, heavy lidded and palpable.

Sasuke was impatient, and soon enough, at her next spin on her heels, he was right behind her, his hands hovering over her arms, seeking consent to touch. Sakura turned to face him, one part shy, other parts unnerved, and she slowly encircled her arms around his neck, her eyes a definite yes. His hands went to her waist, and he brought her closer to his embrace.

“You don’t have your hoodie though,” Sakura said, a little louder over the crooning of Carly Rae Jepsen to Gimmie Love. “Someone will definitely see you.”

Sasuke closed whatever distance was between them and brought his lips to her ears. “That’s a relief then. I want to be seen with you.”

“Simp,” Sakura teased. “You’re probably expecting a confession out of me, aren’t you?” This was a long time coming and she wanted to get it over with tonight especially when she had alcohol buzzing on her side.

“I am actually,” Sasuke said. “I was hoping to beat you to it in the library last time, but you ran away. Coward.”

“What?”

“What? Didn’t you hear me?”

“You like me.” Sakura said in realization. She edged her face away from his hold to take a good look at his embarrassed face. “Oh, you really do.”

“You could be dense sometimes, Sakura.” Sasuke poked her forehead playfully, and he was rewarded with a bubbly laughter from her.

Their friends finally noticed them and the intense skinship happening. The yells and woots started to drown out the speakers.

“That took you two long enough, huh?”

“They really waited for the end of the school year to do their big reveal.”

“As if the whole school doesn’t know already.”

“What?” Sasuke and Sakura asked in unison.

“It was the constant eyesmex.”

“Really, they do it every time with no shame. It gives me secondhand embarrassment.”

“Right? Sometimes I think I need to yell get a room.”

“Maybe they’ll get a room tonight.”

“Oh my god, shut up."