The Art of Dating
by Diana-san

05. The Art of Sleeping

"I'm only here because Mama and Papa are out on missions this week," Sarada said as she placed her tote bag of things on the floor besides the bed.

"And I'm only giving up my bed because my mother made me since I'm supposed to be a gentleman about it," Inojin replied.

"Papa didn't even want to let me stay here since he doesn't trust you. But no one else was able to take me in."

"Well our mothers are best friends so we are probably the top of the list."

"I guess so, next to Boruto's parents."

"They have enough to worry about with Boruto to take care of."

Sarada laugh as she sat down on Inojin's bed. "So since I kicked you out of your room…where would you be sleeping?"

"I guess we can snuggle."

Sarada stared at him with a blank face as she raised an eyebrow. "No, really. Where?"

"The couch in the living room."

"Sorry about the inconvenience," Sarada apologized.

"No worries. You'll make my bed smell like roses," Inojin said with a smile.

"Oh, like it doesn't already?" Sarada commented as she curled her lips up in a teasing smile.

Inojin laughed. "Just because I help out at the flower shop, does not mean I smell like flowers."

Sarada glanced away as a shy blush emerged from her cheeks. "I don't know about that…" she murmured.

"Do you smell me often?" he teased.

Sarada gave a small grunt as she folded her arms. "That's ridiculous!" she insisted. But it wasn't. She did accidentally inhale his scent once when the two were paired up in a training exercise. He was shielding the two of them behind a tree and because of the close proximity, Sarada couldn't help but noticing that he smelled like a garden of fresh cut flowers. It wasn't overbearing in the way that there was a strong floral smell but there was a hint of flowers along with fresh cut grass or pine trees. Sarada couldn't exactly pinpoint the description of the scent. It was just intoxicating to her. That he smelled this good.

It was something she never noticed before in guys. Training her senses was never a top priority to her but ever since that day, she had been well aware of what the guys in her class had begun to smell like. Boruto was always smelling like mud or paint probably because he was dabbling in less than innocent activities. Shikadai was similar to Inojin with the smell of grass but unfortunately, Sarada assumed that Shikadai had been lying about in grass all day and had turn that fresh cut scent into a more musty scent. She didn't even want to think about what Lee Jr. smelled like since it was definitely the stench of sweat. 500 push-ups was not an ideal scent.

Sarada sighed. She was beginning to wonder if she should have sided along with her papa and argued against her mama that she was a big enough girl to stay home alone. Then she wouldn't be in this situation of spending two nights at Inojin's home.

It was going to be super awkward. They weren't exactly dating per se, but she wasn't sure what to categorize her relationship with Inojin as. He did seemingly admit that he liked her. She did somehow seemingly develop some sort of feelings for Inojin that was more than what just friends should have for each other. But she had to bite her tongue because what if he was only being friendly? If anything, Inojin was quite popular in her school and she couldn't help but feel that he could just be stringing her along.

"What are you thinking about?" Inojin asked softly as he gazed into Sarada's eyes.

The sound of his voice broke through Sarada's thoughts as she realized that she had been staring off into the distance for the past five minutes.

"N-nothing," she muttered as she got up to fumble through her tote bag and search through it as a pretense that she was busy.

"Okay, if you need anything, you can ask me. Mother and father already went to bed."

Sarada nodded. "Thanks."

As he left the room and Sarada had gotten ready for bed, she couldn't help but feel discomfort lying in Inojin's bed. Maybe it was her conscience or something, but she got up and peeked downstairs to see if Inojin was awake or not.

He was sitting on the couch with an sketchbook propped up against his knees as he sketched underneath the light of the single lamp on the side table besides the couch.

She walked down the steps slowly as she tried not to make a sound to disturb him. It didn't work when the last step of the stairs creaked underneath her weight. She froze as she wondered if he could have possibly heard that. Inojin turned around slowly and looked surprised when he saw her by the stairway,

"You're not asleep?" he asked.

"No.. I couldn't sleep," she said as she held tightly against the railing of the stairway.

"Uncomfortable sleeping in a new place?" he asked.

Sarada shrugged. It wasn't more of the new place but rather of whose place it was. "I guess," she murmured.

"Join me?" he asked with a smile as he beckoned over to her to come over and sit beside him on the couch.

Sarada hesitated for a moment but slowly walked forward as she sat down on the seat beside him. "What are you drawing?" she asked him.

"Just a little bit of my day today," he answered.

Sarada peered over his sketchbook. There was a drawing of a female figure but the face was left blank. It could be anyone. "Oh, drawing your girlfriend or something?" she asked with a bit of disappointment resonating in the tone of her voice.

"I wish," he murmured as he continued to fill in the drawing by adding details to the outfit and hair.

As Sarada watched, the figure on the paper slowly transformed into a familiar person. She didn't want to question it so she said nothing as she continued to stare at the sketchbook.

"Why are you leaving the face blank?" she asked, almost in an accusing tone as she scrunched up her eyebrows and pulled her knees closer to her.

"I don't know what kind of expression I want to give her. She has such beautiful eyes but they're usually hidden behind glasses," Inojin answered.

The silence that followed after his words left her heart thumping loudly against her chest as she tried not to inhale too sharply. She couldn't say anything but she just clutched tighter to the blanket that was draped over her legs. Despite the silence of the night, she felt like there were sounds of a thousand men yelling in her ears. It was deafening.

"Y-you should…" she started to say but her voice faltered when she couldn't think of what was to follow after the first two words.

"You should go to sleep," Inojin finished in reply as he closed the sketchbook and placed it down on the table besides the lamp.

Sarada nodded and she pulled back the blanket as she tried to get up from the couch.

"Do you want to stay down here?" he asked.

She looked back at him and wasn't sure if he was teasing her again. But his face was completely serious as he asked that question. She slowly nodded but her body continued to get up on its own. After all, she couldn't possibly stay down in the living room alone with him. Her papa would freak out if he knew.

"You can take one end of the couch and I'll take the other end," he said. "That is, if you want the company."

She did. She didn't want to sleep alone up in his room. As she sat back down on the couch, Inojin got up to tuck the blanket over her as she laid down on one end of the couch. She smiled as she took off her glasses to place it down on the table besides the couch.

Inojin looked taken aback as he stared briefly at her but he glanced away as he walked over to the other end of the couch and crawled underneath the blanket. With good nights being said on both ends, he reached over to turn off the lamp and soon the entire living room was shrouded in darkness.

Sarada smiled as she snuggled underneath the blanket. Her feet was just barely touching against Inojin's feet and she blushed a little at the thought of it. As she counted to one hundred in her head, she tried to think of something else besides Inojin's presence that was five feet away from her. Before long, she had fallen deep into slumber and dreams of a boy that smelled like flowers and fresh grass.