And I wanna

Be around him

More than I

Should

But maybe, right now

It's better to play it safe

On the sidelines

She smiled at him, shaking her head.

He tore his gaze away from the monitor and looked up at her stoically. "What?"

She tried to lighten her smile, make it seem like not a big deal. She shrugged casually. "I don't know."

–This just feels too right.

Chapter Five

I was enjoying this too much for my own good.

I was enjoying Uchiha Sasuke's company. This was way bizarre. I had to smile at the unlikely-ness of it all.

"What are you smiling at?" he asked, and I jolted. It had been about the second time he seemed to ask me that in the last fifteen minutes, and I was wondering how he kept on catching me.

He gazed at me blankly, with his dark, molten eyes boring through mine. I couldn't stand the way he looked at me. Like he could see through me.

"You keep asking me that." I said pointedly, jerking my gaze up to the ceiling.

"Because it keeps on happening," he retorted.

Seriously, he was like, so ruining our moment.

Er, as much of a moment Uchiha Sasuke can have with a person. And I doubt that's much.

"Well sorry," I muttered, rolling my eyes. He shook his head and turned back to my laptop, and I glared at his back.

He had a sexy back.

You could see the muscles through his thin white shirt, every time he moved his arm his shoulder rotated…

Umm… okay I'll stop now.

There used to be a graying tower alone on the sea.
You became the light on the dark side of me.
Love remained a drug that's the high and not the pill.
But did you know,
That when it snows,
My eyes become large and
The light that you shine can be seen.

Sasuke cursed. He dug through his back pocket and fished out his phone, laying it on my desk.

"Um, aren't you gonna get that?" I said.

"No."

My eyebrows narrowed in confusion. "Why not?"

"It's nothing important." He replied blandly.

I jumped out of my place on the bed and kneeled in front of my desk, right next to Sasuke. My curiosity was driving me nuts. I scooped the phone from him before he could protest and read the caller ID:

Okaa-san.

"It's your mom and you're not going to answer it?" I tried hard to stifle my laughter but a smile broke through my lips. He twitched.

The more I get of you,
The stranger it feels, yeah.
And now that your rose is in bloom.
A light hits the gloom on the gray.
There is so much a man can tell you,
So much he can say.

"It's not important." He repeated firmly, sticking his hand out stubbornly, his palm opened to the ceiling, waiting for the phone as if I would actually give it back.

Hah. Suuuure.

"But it's your mom." I argued. "What if she's dying?"

He glared at me wearily. "I don't think my mother's dying."

"You'll never know." I smirked at him and pressed the 'Answer' button on his phone, pressing it to my ear.

Oh yeah, I dared.

His glare turned hard and cold, but I didn't back down.

"Hello?" I greeted.

"Oh, hello. Who is this?" Sasuke's mother's voice was sweet and puzzled.

"Haruno Sakura." I answered swiftly.

Sasuke made a grab for the phone, but I dodged, grinning wickedly.

"Give me the phone." He mouthed angrily.

"Oh, well I was wondering if I could talk to my son, Sasuke?"

"I'm sorry, Uchiha-san, but your son is currently in my bathroom right now. You see, we were working on our Literature project together."

"Oh, really? Well, I'm so sorry I disturbed. Could you tell him to call me back when he finishes? He never tells me where he goes anymore, I'm afraid."

I laughed. "Of course, Uchiha-san, as a matter a fact, Sasuke's just came back." I lowered my hand to his. He jerkily grabbed the phone from between my fingers and greeted his mother, murmuring small, curt words through his gritted teeth. When he snapped the phone shut, he shook his head at me.

"What the hell did you do that for?" he growled.

"C'mon, I was just having fun."

"Oh, yeah, that's great Sakura, thanks." He threw me a death look. "Now you can have fun at my house Wednesday night."

My smile dropped. "What are you talking about?"

"My mom. She thinks we're doing a project together like you said, so I agreed with it, and when she asked me if we were done with it, I said no, and she scheduled a date for us to finish."

"Wait, can't I just cancel? I mean, it's not that hard."

Sasuke snorted bitterly, almost like a derisive laugh. "You don't know my mother. She gets what she wants."

"Oh. Okay." I didn't have a clue what he was saying. "So…" I returned to my original position on my bed, with my legs folded underneath me. I cocked my head to the side.

Oh.

Oh. Um… "Wait a sec. Wednesday isn't a good day for me. I have a dinner gala to go to."

"What?"

"My parents are hosting some kind of crap dinner party. I don't know, I'm like, supposed to attend it and all."

"Hn."

"So…" I snuck a look at him. His eyes were staring at the wall to the left of me. Just staring. I didn't know what to say if he wasn't going to say anything either. And I was saying too much. I knew that was bad.

"What's the deal?" he said emotionlessly, breaking our silence. I snapped my head up, to his face, his liquid-y, onyx eyes. "I mean, you and Haruki. I've –" he was struggling. Struggling to find the right words. "I've never seen you before."

I tilted my head towards the ceiling. I had always expected this Question, very much ready for it the moment I stepped back in Konoha. But I had never expected the Question to come from Sasuke, the most aloof and uncaring characteristic I had ever seen in one person.

"I told you before, haven't I? I went to a boarding school over in Wind for two years."

He was watching me carefully, reading my lips as I spoke the words. "Why?" he murmured.

"Because I –" a lump caught in my throat, I coughed quickly, "– I didn't want to be here anymore. I didn't like this place as much as I used to growing up.

"I mean, my parents, Haruki… everyone just kinda drifted off at the exact same moment, and I couldn't keep up – er, atleast, that's what it felt like. My parents starting fighting when I was in the eighth grade, and it just kept on building and building up till my freshman year, when Haruki started being this totally different person, like, when it just got up to this point when I couldn't handle anymore of it and so…" Suddenly the words were pouring fast and hard, like I couldn't stop, like I just needed to say it. Say it all.

I could see Sasuke, just looking at me, blank face and completely composed. Maybe that was all I needed. Someone who wouldn't be compelled to sympathize with me or rebuke me for what I chose. For where my life led to until this point. Maybe what I needed was just a guy who for sure, wouldn't care for my past, what it shaped me into now. I convinced myself he was only asking of mere curiosity. That after my little confession, he would leave without much of a thought. I needed to confess to someone I knew wouldn't give much of a damn.

"I saw the guidance counselor frequently, told him everything. There was this exercise where at the end of the month, I had to think of something I wanted more than anything else in the world, and one month… one month I wanted to just… leave. And so he helped me with that. We searched online for any schools that would take me in according to how well I learned academically and how much my mom was willing to pay for school and tuition. Nearby schools accepted me, but it wasn't what I wanted." My hands clenched tightly to the blanket, the fabric of it. I wanted to tear it. Rip it a part and to pieces. I didn't know why.

"I wanted to be farther away. And the farthest school there was, it was in Wind. So I took the offer."

It took him a moment to respond, to realize I was done with my prattling. He was sitting opposite of me now, turned the computer chair to face me and his gaze held on to mine, and it didn't waver. I gazed back full-force, because I wanted him to know that nothing weakened me. It only shaped me stronger.

"So why'd you come back?"

"My dad partially helped my mom pay for the school. But this year, he didn't give enough money to my mom, and it wasn't enough for me to stay the whole year. We couldn't afford the tuition and boarding since Okaa-san got fired and had to go to a, you know, a lower paying job than she had. So I milked it as much as possible until I ran out of money. I had to come back and go to school here." I threw my arms up, spreading them wide. The serious moment was gone, I tried to be lighter. "And that, that led to this. Any more questions?" I prodded, poking his shoulder lightly. The thick atmosphere did not really suit me.

He smirked, shaking his head. "None." He breathed.

I blinked.

What was… what the hell was that?

I made the mistake of making eye contact with him again, and this time I didn't pull away. His eyes smoldered mine. One side of his lips quirked upwards.

"Your mouth's open." Sasuke commented stiffly, placing two fingers to my chin and pushing up, closing the gap between my parted lips. I hadn't noticed I was breathing that heavy.

"Um…" I murmured. "I uh –"

Kiba and Naruto burst into the room, a sly grin on their faces. "Oh my God, you have to get downstairs! Your sister's so drunk she's strip teasing."

I could feel Sasuke shift weight swiftly, so that there was more distance put between us. I did the same thing, jumping to my feet. "Wait, what? She's stripping?"

Kiba smirked. "Ha, no we were kidding. We just thought up an excuse to kick your asses out of this room." He glanced around. "Soo… What were you guys doing in here? I mean, you've been up here for what, an hour?"

"Oh my God!" Naruto exclaimed. "Sasuke, you've been up here with Sakura for an HOUR?" He snickered, jabbing Kiba with his elbow. "Dude, what do you think they've been doing up here, eh?"

"Shut up." I said airily, standing. I didn't want to make this appear as such a big deal. "So, is the party still going on down there?"

Naruto nodded vigorously. Switching subject: good tactic. "Oh yeah, baby. Get this, Tenten and Ino are on this drinking contest!"

"I sense stripping…" Kiba chimed in, winking playfully at Naruto. He boomed with laughter.

"Dude, if Ino starts to striptease again, I'll laugh my ass off."

"Ino stripteasing?" I asked cautiously.

"Yeah, she only does it when she's got this heavy drinking thing going on, which doesn't happen a lot." Naruto flashed out dollar bills. "Heh, I should get ready to pay up."

"She only takes her top off, quit getting so excited." Sasuke rolled his eyes, stuffing his hands in his pocket.

I glared at him. "What? You've seen it?"

He took my glare coolly, unperturbed. "I'm surprised you haven't." He said simply, which got Kiba and Naruto rolling on the ground.

I sighed. The moment those words came out of Sasuke's mouth his eyes began to harden again, and not soften like they did when he was talking to me. I knew that it was time to leave. That our time was over.

Kiba and Sasuke left the room first, closing the door behind me and the blonde.

"What's this song?" Naruto asked, pointing to my monitor, which was playing 'Your Guardian Angel'. It was an old and non-too-famous song, but it still had the same effect on me every time. It made me think of the days when I was really young, and Okaa-san read Haruki and I books about angels who did good things.

But now my thoughts were different.

Sasuke knows this song.

OoOoOo

I was so tired of Tenten and Ino throwing up all the time, and having to hold their hair while they shared the bathroom and threw up into the toilet. And once, during the night, Tenten was busy occupying the toilet, so Ino ran over to the bathtub, pulled the frilly pink curtains aside, and totally ruined the tub.

I was torn between leaving it there until the morning when Haruki took her morning shower, but then decided against it when the stench of Sex on the Beach and pizza became unbearable. I was left to wash up the mess with the showerhead, and then scrub the tub surface with bleach and spray that sweet smelling stuff all around the bathroom, and it was not fun at all. Ino, too sleepy and tired to even apologize, just blacked out on my bed, her heavy, smelling breath leaving a horrible scent on my pillow and bedspread. Tenten occupied the mini couch, so when she curled herself in just the right way, she fit into. Problem was that she kept on hitting her feet against the wall, creating a huge racket and not enough silence for me to get some decent hours of sleep. I could smell the horrible scent Ino's breath, so I plopped about three mints into her mouth while she was drooling with her mouth open.

I sighed rather tiredly. It was an improvement, no matter how small.

I woke them up at the crack of dawn, which was actually like, 8:30 or something, because at that point they were so intolerable I had to drop them home. Fortunately, Ino's sister was the only one home, so she took her into her arms and led her away, and I fished out Tenten's apartment key from her jeans and kicked open the door, leading Tenten inside. I found her room and dumped her on it, which, believe me, was a miracle unto itself. Do I look that strong to you?

Yeah, thought so.

Then I drove over to the Hyuuga mansion. Just 'cause, you know, Hinata is that great.

Hyuuga Estate was actually a gated mansion, a packaged deal with the guards and all. So they had to confirm who I was with "Hinata-sama" and "Neji-sama" before letting me into their parking lot. And by confirm I mean calling up the Hyuuga household, and then asking the butler who answered it to press button 2, which led to the phone to "Hinata-sama's quarters." After confirmation from her, they hung up and called the butler again, and asked him to press button 7, which led to Neji. That, really, wasted at least ten minutes of my life.

When they finally opened the gates for me, I was only allowed to park Okaa-san's car to the left in the space reserved for guests, because the guards said they were expecting some business partners to be coming soon enough for Hinata's father. So I did as demanded of me, and then ran up the steps to the door, where the maid had opened it up quickly and led me inside without much of a hassle.

"Would you like me to call for Hinata-sama or I could escort you to her room?" The maid suggested, and it really racked my brain about how much this woman got paid every hour.

"Can we go on up?" I asked politely, and she replied with a smile of her own before leading me up a grand white spiral staircase, lavishly decorated with a velvety maroon colored carpet and the white marble polished nicely.

"One sec," she paused at the billionth white door in the second hallway and tapped it lightly. "Hinata-sama?" she breathed, "It's Haruno-san."

"Okay. Let her in, please, Mizzi."

I smiled and thanked her, entering.

"Hinata!" I threw my arms around her, which startled her.

"Hi there," she murmured amusedly, eyeing me carefully. "What's the special occasion?" she asked, smiling. The two of us basically were just lying around in her gorgeous room, snagging pretzels from a baggie she kept on her desk.

I had to hand it to Hinata, I really expected prim and proper décor and maybe a little lace here and there, but the room was nothing of that. Her walls were a plain white, with only a few photographs of what I assumed to be family gatherings hung up on her wall and a picture of her, her younger sister, and Neji, all standing close together, smiling at the camera with the shade of a wide tree behind them. Her carpet was the regular kind, the one where it's a tan-like color and soft. The only thing that really said much about Hinata was her desk, which, too, looked very ordinary. But inside, held much more personal sides.

I found in the first drawer packs of gum and licorice and chips and the pretzels we were currently eating. Hinata wasn't allowed to have a fridge up in her room, much less food, so she and her sister liked to stuff food wherever their father would never look. A rebellious side to her, however small it was. She also had books in the one under that, piling up so fast that it was hard to even open and close it. She had a bookcase, but the books that resided there were the ones that only her father approved of.

But of course, that was all she let me see. Everything else had a lock for, and I wasn't going to try and be snoopy when she was all ready letting me stay a while at her house.

"Sakura?" she called and I couldn't help but jerk. I wasn't listening.

"Yes?"

"I asked why you bothered to come."

If there was anything at all I'd learned during my currently thirty minute stay, it was that Hinata was far more comfortable about who she was when she wasn't with a hording crowd of people, or per se, Naruto?

Yeah, I'm not that stupid.

"Um, I was actually hoping you could do something with me? A favor, kind of. You know, since Ino and Tenten are currently hung over."

"I'd have to ask Neji, since Otou-sama is busy right now, but I think he'll allow me to go with you." She smiled happily. "I'm glad you asked me to come with you, Sakura." She pulled on her light coat, her arms weaving through the sleeves. "But where are we going?"

I thumbed her car keys, over and over again, and then signaled for her to catch them. "I was thinking Sai's house."

She pulled a puzzled expression when I didn't elaborate, but continued on her way to find Neji.

When the door shut close behind her, I smiled.

By the time we reached Koizumi Estates, I had filled Hinata in on my dress dilemma. I liked Hinata's company a lot, she usually didn't say anything that was idiotic or stupid, and half the words out of her mouth was something completely, selflessly nice. I really needed her as an antidote to my hell morning.

"It's this house right here," I said, pointing outside her window. She nodded and cruised to the curb slowly before cutting off her engine.

"Do I wait here?" she asked, and I shook my head as I began to open my side of her Volvo.

"No, come on, you can help me with the fitting and whatever the hell they do when you want a dress custom made."

She laughed lightly. "I'll be your second opinion," she agreed.

We rang the doorbell and this time, Kanon opened it for us, inviting us in immediately.

"Sakura, come in, I've got some adjustments I need to make, and some finishing touches for the dress." She said hurriedly, hurrying us the steps.

"W-what? You're almost done?" I asked, surprised.

"Hardly! You have no idea how much time consumes the adjustments and the touches and, oh God, if you don't like it, or the material, I'll have to start all over." She was frazzled as we entered the workroom, flitting off into one of the changing rooms. Hinata and I could hear the screeches of the metal hangers being moved and moved around.

"I'm looking forward to seeing what a pretty dress it will be." Hinata commented, smiling. I returned her smile with my own grin.

"Oh, let's hope it will be."

"Aha!" Konan pulled out of the room, escaping with my dress.

Hinata gasped.

Author's Note:

Ughh, sorry for the lame cliffhanger. And so sorry for not updating. You can count on it though, that I will continue both of my stories. And since summer's coming, well, we'll see. Oh, and I also forget to put up the disclaimers, so as you all know, NARUTO DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. Also, Sasuke's ringtone, Kissed By a Rose by the amazing Seal, does not belong to me either. Check out the song though, it's pretty amazing.

Please, review!

Review

Review

Tell me what you think, IDEAS NEEDED FOR FUTURE CHAPTERS!

Thanks 3