happy sasusaku month, everyone!

title: a welcomed distraction

summary: in which sasuke proves that not all distractions have to be bad.

Prompt: The Smell of Fresh Paint

Sakura huffs out in annoyance as she stares down at all the unopened paint cans.

It's been exactly one week since she had moved into her new apartment, and because of her hectic schedule throughout said week, today was the one day she was presented with to finish such a tedious task. However, looking down at all the paint cans she wonders if she can just not do this, perhaps get some sleep, do something productive on her day off.

But being that Ino was her best friend, and said best friend had a knack for giving things(and people) make-overs, she insisted on helping her paint her room, as well as decorate it once they finished. It didn't even have anything to do with Sakura not being able to get the task done on her own, Ino had dubbed the duty as one of a best friend, something about plenty of helpful ideas coming from (what she called)God's gift to planet earth; Pintrest.

However, Ino had a forgotten all about her mani-pedi appointment and now Sakura was forced to wait for her loud best friend.

But waiting seemed a bit dumb because that way she'd never get anything done, so she had decided to just go ahead and start. Besides, should she make a mistake, she's positive Ino(who claims to be an A+ painter) would fix it.

So she changed into a pair of old shorts and a white t-shirt and moved all the painting supplies to her empty room, fully prepared to get some work done. She'd show Ino just how useful she truly was, after all, this was her room, she'd be damned it she let Ino brag about being the one who painted it.

She places her pink hair in a high ponytail, clipping her bangs to the side before she starts to cover her floor in plastic tarp, making sure the edges are taped down so she won't spill anything past it. Then, with determination written in her eyes, she opens a can of paint and stirs it until the color mixes well. She pours it slowly into the tray Ino said they'd need, she takes a roller out of the plastic bag of supplies, dipping in into the paint.

She then moves quickly over to the wall, and with her tongue sticking out, runs the roller down the side of the wall, watching as the pale pink color begins to cover the once-white walls. She repeats the process several times, watching as the amount covered becomes slightly greater.

However, it only last a few more minutes before the doorbell ring.

With a grin she props the roller in the pray and rushes to the door, ready to show Ino that she isn't truly needed. However, when she swings the door open, a smirk on her lips and an insult on her tongue, Ino isn't the one standing there.

To her surprise it's Sasuke, looking slightly annoyed, and in his hands he holds a small cactus with a tiny flower at the top.

"Sasuke-kun?"

"Tch," he frowns, shoving the plant towards her, "here."

She takes the plant carefully, examining it, "A cactus?"

"House warming gift," is all he says as Sakura moves out-of-the-way to let him in.

"Oh, then thank you," she smiles, "would you like some tea?"

"No," he looks at her, inspecting her clothes with an arched brow, "what are you doing?"

She grins sheepishly, scratching the back of her neck, "painting my room."

"Need help?"

She snorts, a smirk on her lips, "I don't want to offend you, Sasuke-kun, but this isn't children's work."

He gives her a smirk of his own before nodding in the direction of her room, "lead the way, then."

She laughs, walking over to the table and setting the small cactus on it, before she leads the way to her bedroom. They enter the room and he grimaces at the sight of the color that she's chosen for her room, but it's to be expected since Sakura never had a thing for dark colors.

Sasuke thinks it's a shame.

He inspects the wall she has started to paint before grinning smugly, "you can't paint, Sakura."

She waves him off, walking over to the roller and tray, "excuse you, Sasuke-kun, that way right there is the product of my amazing skills."

"You know, even Naruto can paint better than that," he tells her, smirk still on his lips.

"Hey," she snaps, eyes narrowing, "don't you dare mention that backstabbing traitor in this room."

"You know, you're going to have to get over that sooner or later," he sighs, "you're being childish."

"Hmph, that's rich coming from you," she rolls her eyes, "besides, you don't even know me."

Sasuke rolls his eyes, "Sakura, I've known you since we were five."

"Whatever, Sasuke-kun," she waves him off, "pick up a roller and help, unless you wanna back out now, I wouldn't blame you."

He watches as she resumes painting, before going over to the plastic bag filled with painting supplies, "Hn."

In all honesty, Sakura is grateful for the extra company, if Sasuke helps her out she's positive she'll get a lot more done, because knowing Ino she'll take another hour to get here. She paints for a few seconds before she casts a glance at Sasuke, who's painting the wall pretty efficiently, and smiles to herself, who knew he'd be the one to come visit first?

Shrugging, she continues painting the wall she had chosen, humming softly to herself as she continues to cover the white walls.

They work in silence neither one saying anything to the other, but despite the lack of a conversation, Sakura thinks it's nice. In about thirty minutes they get a whole side of the wall covered in paint, and she can almost see the look on Ino's face when she sees Sakura's(and Sasuke's, but she won't know that part) hard work. She'll make sure to thank him properly, perhaps even offer to buy him dinner, well, that was the plan until she feels something cold run clear across her butt.

With a gasp, she twists her upper body around to see the pink streak that now covers her butt before looking up at Sasuke in alarm.

"What are you doing?"

"You were in the way," he says nonchalantly.

"Sasuke-kun," she grits her teeth, "that wasn't nice."

"And whoever said that I was nice?" he smirks, before whirling around and returning to putting pain on the wall instead of on her.

But Sakura doesn't like to be outdone, especially not by egotistical, self-indulgent, inconsiderate, handsome jerks. So, she quietly dips her roller into her pale pink paint before walking over to him, however as she makes to run it across his back side, he swivels around and the pain ends up running clear across his chest.

She snorts at the look he gives her before his eyes narrow, and he runs his own roller down her chest. So, in retaliation she takes hers and runs it down his arm, and in retaliation to that he runs it down the side of her leg. Gritting her teeth she runs back over to her tray and dips the roller, before running back over to him, but before she can make a hit, she's pressed up against the wall currently covered in pale pink paint.

"Sasuke-kun," she snaps, turning around to look at how much paint was wiped off.

He merely smirks, "Hn."

So without warning she whirls back around and chucks the roller at his head, laughing loudly when it smacks on the right side of his face. Her laughing lasts for short seconds because suddenly he's looking at her like a predator would its prey, she frowns, raising her hands up in defense.

"I'm sorry, truce, truce," she laughs nervously.

"You know better than anyone I don't forgive."

And with a movement so quick she didn't even see it, he presses her against the paint coated wall, and she can only squeak as he towers over her.

"I get even."

"Sasuke-kun," she laughs nervously, "that's a lot of paint you got there, you should probably be more careful."

He looks down at her lips before his gaze travels back up to her eyes, he smirks, "Sakura."

Instead of begging for mercy, she smirks, "You've got paint on your lips." And with her smirk still on her lips, she swipes her paint coated thumb across his bottom lip, laughing at his expression.

"Yeah?" he asks, leaning down, "so do you."

"You better no-"

But the words die in her mouth when his lips claim hers and suddenly every rational thought slips away from her, butterflies swarming in her stomach. She buries her paint covered hands into his inky black hair when he deepens the kiss and she thinks that this is how painting rooms should always go;

A paint war and an intense make-out session, once said war was over, with nothing but the lingering scent of fresh paint to accompany them, with a boy she's loved all her life.

epilogue:

She sighs as she turns the knob, finding that the door is actually open.

Rolling her eyes she quickly goes inside, shutting it behind her, leave it to Sakura to move into a new neighborhood, where she knows no one and what they're like, and leave the freaking door open. Seriously, Ino frowns, the girl should learn how to be a lot less trusting of others and a bit more cautious.

She places the bags of food she brought, and her bag on the table, and notes the small cactus placed at the edge, where'd that come from, anyways?"

Ino expects to find Sakura sprawled on the floor of her bedroom reading some magazine, waiting for her so they can get started on painting her room. Ino doesn't blame the girl, after all, she's quite the expert when it comes to these things.

Pintrest truly is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

However, as she moves down the hall towards the pinkette's room the smell of fresh paint hits her unexpectedly, has she already started? That's very unlike Sakura, to be quite honest, normally she'd wait for Ino to get stuff done.

As she comes to the door of her room she expects to find Sakura standing there, trying her hardest to get one single spot painted to perfection, completely drenched in paint to show how much of a hard time she's having. But when she stops at the threshold of her room she is met with a completely different sight.

Sasuke, who appears to be completely covered in paint, has her pinned to a paint coated wall, and it seems that they are joined in a very heated lip lock(if his wandering hands tell her anything).

Ino's brow arches as she sighs, shaking her head and turning on her heel, she'll just sit in the kitchen and hope things don't get too heated, she's hungry after all. Knowing those two they won't be done for a really long time, because that right there is a long time coming, something for the books.

After all, those two have fumbled around each other for years now, sneaky glances and smiles when they think no one is looking. So, this happening is like a milestone, it's truly great, wonderful, everything she knew it would be.

With a smirk she opens up her twitter, she'll have to let everyone else know about this one, too.