41kismet
(n.) destiny; fate
I.
They called it an unfortunate error. Uchiha Sasuke called it a royal fuck up.
He could understand the flight delay−anyone with a smidge of common sense would see that the dark, gray skies and the heavy downpour didn't exactly make for suitable flying conditions. But what he couldn't wrap his mind around was the idea that someone could have their head so far up their own ass that they would book two passengers−two complete and utter strangers−in one hotel room with only one bed.
Sasuke occupied the couch like the gentleman that he was and kept busy on his phone, playing the rhythm game Naruto had gotten him hooked on two weeks ago. He could feel his eardrums shattering from how high he'd turned the volume to zone out the incessant ringing of his roommate's phone. He tried to turn it up even higher but found that it was already at its loudest. Frustrated, he yanked the buds out of his ears and was about to tell the stranger off when she abruptly sat up in the bed she was lying on and threw the phone to the wall with such force he was surprised it hasn't stopped ringing.
Their eyes met for a quick second before her visage crumpled and she buried her face in her hands. And he sat there, frozen and confused. He was stuck listening to the heavy pounding of rain against the window and the woman's quiet cries and the factory set ringtone that still hadn't ceased. Fed up, he pushed himself out of the couch and walked over to where the phone laid neglected.
He really wasn't the type to meddle, but he really wasn't the type to stay in hotel rooms with people he didn't know, either. He picked up the phone and answered the call. "If she didn't answer the first three times, take the fucking hint," he said, annoyed.
The person from the other end of the phone was a man. Too young to be her father. Boyfriend, maybe? "Who is this?"
Ah. His voice was tinged with jealousy. Definitely boyfriend. Or maybe ex now?
"She's busy right now," Sasuke said simply. Without another word, he dropped the call and locked her phone. He looked over his shoulder to check for her reaction, only to find that she was now sitting on the edge of the bed with her back to him and her ankles propped on the bed frame so that she was hugging her knees up to her chest.
He grimaced, tapping a knuckle hard against his temple before taking a step forward. He approached her slowly and carefully, like approaching a wounded animal that could go feral on him anytime. Now standing by the bed, she looked up at him and he stopped abruptly.
Her red-rimmed eyes were big and glassy, but they were the most surreal shade of green he's ever seen, framed by pink lashes that were thick and matted with tears. She sniffled and wiped her little red nose with the sleeve of her turtleneck, before tucking stray strands of pink hair behind her ear.
Sasuke was never one to care enough to notice people's appearances, but she was pretty. Really pretty. Undeniably so.
He cleared his throat. "Sorry," he muttered, and handed her her phone back. Her fingers twitched before she raised her hand slowly and reached for it. But instead of taking her phone, she got a hold of his sleeve and yanked at it with such strength that he fell on the bed next to her.
Before he could register what had happened, she was on him, sobbing onto his shoulder as she gripped the material of his sweater tightly. He felt every shake of her bone, heard every dry heave from her lungs painfully sharp in his ears. And anyone who knew Uchiha Sasuke knew that he wasn't the person to come to for comfort. But this poor girl didn't know that so he tried not to grimace as he wrapped an arm across her shoulders, his entire body stiff as he awkwardly patted her on the back. He winced when she cried harder.
"I'm so stupid!" she wailed into his sweater. Between sobs and hiccups, she told him about how she had come to London to surprise her boyfriend of thirteen months−her boyfriend whom she's never met in person before, mind you. Instead, she was the one who was surprised when she found out that he not only had a girlfriend, but one that was pregnant with his child.
"I mean," she swallowed thickly, "it's one thing to be cheated on−" she hiccuped, breathed in sharply, and pushed her face further into his shoulder. "But it's another to be put in a position where I'm the other woman!"
She continued to pour her heart and eyes out into the cotton material of his sweater, now drenched. And at some point while she told him everything, her sobs had subsided and the violent shaking of her shoulders had stopped. Now, she just rested her forehead against him, completely silent. He didn't care about her life story, really, but he was above kicking someone when they're already down. "There, there," he said awkwardly, a little exasperated.
He was surprised by her quiet laughter. She pulled away slightly to look up at him with a single brow raised. Her cheeks were tear-streaked but her still-glassy eyes were bright with mirth and a ghost of a smile played on her lips. "There, there?" she repeated incredulously. "That's all you've got?"
He scowled at her and her sudden mood change. "It's your fault," he said indignantly. "Who trusts people over the internet?"
"You're right." Her voice was still hoarse from all the crying, but at least that was over with. She was smiling now, and he found that she was even prettier. "Why meet strangers on the internet when you can meet strangers in a hotel room?"
"Well, rest assured, I don't have a pregnant girlfriend."
"Oh? Is that an invitation for me to hit on you?"
He shook his head, unable to fight the amused grin on his lips. He could have stood up and gone back to his spot on the couch right after she'd stopped crying, resumed his game and acted like nothing happened, go back to being complete strangers. He didn't know why he was indulging her in conversation when he wouldn't even give his closest friends the time of day. But there was something about her…
Her smile faltered and she exhaled loudly. "I really liked him," she said, voice quiet once again. "I don't know if I loved him, but I really liked him. He was smart, he was fun to talk to, and he was so sweet−I woke up to good morning texts every day even with the time difference, and I…"
"What a bastard."
She paused for a second, before the corners of her mouth lifted once more. "Yeah, he is… I don't need him. I'm smart, I'm fun, I'm sweet. Most of all, I'm accomplished. I am a strong, independent woman!" She met his eyes proudly as she recited these words to herself, showing off her pearl white teeth as she smiled widely and sat with her back straight. "I'm Sakura, by the way."
Sakura. He took note of her soft pink hair and the light blush on her pale skin and how she looked so delicate, so demure. How fitting.
"Sasuke," he said, shaking her hand briefly. "What is it you do exactly, Sakura?"
"Guess."
He studied her. The first thing he was drawn to were her fingers, long and delicate. She could be a musician. A pianist, maybe. His eyes traveled further down to her legs. She wasn't tall, but they were long, slender. He considered that she could also be a dancer. Maybe a ballerina, looking at her perfect posture and the air of elegance around her. But he wasn't so sure the pink hair would pass in any company.
"You look like one of those mall elves at Christmas."
She threw her head back in laughter. "Close enough," she said, in a way that he knew it wasn't. "What about you? Let's see…"
She held his gaze for a long moment, before she cocked her head to the side and pursed her lips in thought. Her eyes lingered on the watch on his wrist, then she looked past him at the coat he'd thrown on the couch. "You look…" she started hesitantly. He raised a brow in question, urging her to continue. "You look like a businessman."
And she said it like it was the saddest thing to be.
"That's all?" She was right, of course. But he'd expected her to come up with something interesting.
"But like an unwilling heir to a multimillion dollar company," she elaborated. "Like you were thrust into the corporate world and you reluctantly accepted the job offer because you didn't have an alternative because… you've been groomed for this position since you were a kid. It's all you've ever known…"
That got the smug Uchiha. He was perplexed, staring at her in stunned silence. Sasuke was anything but transparent. He was a master of concealing everything under a mask of indifference. And yet here was this woman, who he'd only been talking to for a few minutes, and her first impression of him was spot on.
Sakura's eyes widened for a moment and she opened her mouth to say something but thought better of it, choosing instead to meet his eyes bashfully. It occurred to him a few seconds later that she was apologetic, feeling as though she'd crossed a line.
He just sighed and looked ahead at the raindrops that streaked their window. "What, you read my diary or something?"
Her eyes lit up yet again.
They continued to talk as the storm continued to rage outside while they stayed warm under the covers. She talked about her ex-boyfriend whose name she'd decided never to utter again in her life so he remained strictly as my ex in all of her stories. When she felt like she's been talking for eternity, she nudged him in the ribs with her elbow, forcing him to air out his own laundry.
He was never the type to talk about himself−he was never the type to talk at all. But here he was, staring up at the ceiling, lying next to this woman he didn't know, close but not touching. He oddly felt compelled to tell her everything. And so he did, vague but personal.
Maybe it was the anonymity, the ambiguity, that made the words come easy. Maybe it's because he knew he would never see her again after tonight and she would never be able to hold these things against him, that he told her things he wouldn't have told even Naruto. Or maybe it was the way she looked at him as she laid on her side, green eyes round with curiosity, her fingertips so close to his elbow that he could feel them twitch like she wanted to touch him when he said something particularly sad.
The storm had calmed and the night sky was pitch black when he saw her eyes grow heavy. It was already midnight and Sasuke reluctantly pulled himself out of bed to go back to the couch when the sky was momentarily lit up with lightning, followed by the deep rumble of thunder. He heard a sharp gasp from the bed and when he looked down, Sakura was already tugging at his sleeve, for the second time that day.
"Please stay," she said, and she sounded so small, so scared.
He abandoned all common sense, every rational thought that screamed at him not to sleep in a bed with a complete stranger, and nodded. He lifted the blanket and slipped back down underneath it, maintaining a safe distance between them. "What, you're scared of thunder?" he asked lightly.
"Lightning, actually," she breathed. She turned on her side to face him again. And when light flashed through the sky for a second time behind her, she squeaked and scooted closer, hugging his arm tightly. "I… I've had this fear for as long as I can remember that I would get killed by lightning."
He breathed out something that was caught between a chuckle and a sigh, then turned on his side so that she was safely tucked under his chin, his hand running up and down her back to soothe her. He heard her sigh pleasantly.
"The odds of being struck by lightning is 1 in 700,000. I doubt you're that special."
"It's fear, idiot." She punched him lightly on the abdomen. "It's not always rational."
And he must be really tired, really sleepy, to be so out of it. To be able to touch her as intimately as the way he was doing now, fingers reaching her nape and sifting through her soft tresses. "Well, I won't let you get struck by lightning tonight. Go to sleep."
As if on command, she yawned. "Goodnight… Sasuke-kun…"
And he was so tired, so sleepy, and so out of it that he didn't have the time to wonder why the way she said his name felt like déjà vu.
.
Sakura tugged on his sleeve as they stepped in line.
"So, this is it!" she said, so cheerful in the morning. Sasuke could only shrug in response, taking another big gulp of his coffee.
They were standing at the gate now. They had left the hotel together, taken one cab to the airport, and waited on each other as they passed through airport security. He'd even gone with her while she went souvenir shopping in the criminally overpriced little airport shops. Not that he minded; he enjoyed her company too much, maybe he was even a little sad that they had to part ways.
And she must feel the same way, he thought, as she sidled closer to him and looked up at him a little hopefully. "Ne, by any chance, we're not sitting together, are we?"
He scoffed. "That would be too much of a coincidence."
She sighed and her head fell for a moment, her spirits deflated. "Thought so," she muttered under her breath. Clicking her tongue, she looked up at him again, this time beaming. "Well. Goodbye then, Sasuke."
She held her hand out for him to shake. They shook hands stiffly, longer than necessary for a formal handshake, before her smile turned watery and she dropped his hand to wrap her arms around his middle.
"It was really nice meeting you." Her muffled voice sounded strained as she spoke into his chest.
He wrapped his arms around her waist in return and murmured into the crown of her head, simply, "Likewise."
Sasuke lost Sakura as they boarded the plane. He didn't see her at all during the flight, no matter how much he strained his eyes for a glimpse of pink, and it was even more impossible to find her in Tokyo once they had landed. It wasn't until he was being driven away in his best friend's car that he realized how absolutely stupid he was not to have asked for anything beyond her first name.
II.
Sakura was a common name. Hell, Sakura was a common word.
Sasuke, in his desperation, had googled her, knowing full well that it was futile. He had gotten results for the tree, a couple of restaurants and spas nearby, and even a goddamned festival coming up. He glowered at his computer screen. He hadn't even thought to ask for her last name or what she really did for a living−no, she wasn't a Christmas mall elf, he had actually checked.
It's been two months since he got back from London, since the unfortunate flight delay and hotel room fiasco. It had been two months and the stranger named Sakura was still on his mind.
Uchiha Sasuke never knew what it was to want something. He was privileged enough to have everything he needed, so there was really no use asking for more. But when he closed his eyes, he could see the green of her eyes like the color was imprinted on the back of his eyelids and sometimes his fingers itched to feel the softness of her pink hair. Now he experienced the agony of wanting, of yearning.
Meanwhile, his best friend was still relentless in his attempts to set Sasuke up with his girlfriend's best friend. He's been at it for a year but just the fact that this woman was friends with Yamanaka Ino was all the information the Uchiha needed to know. He answered with a resounding no.
Naruto spun himself in Sasuke's office chair, holding his takeout container as he went. Sasuke chastised him from where he was stretched out on his leather couch, threatening to gut the blond alive if he spilled ramen on his paperwork.
"Come on, Teme," he whined. He slapped the palm of his hand to the desk to halt the chair's spinning then held it up as he started counting off his fingers. "Look, she's a doctor. She's smart. She has a black belt in taekwondo. She does yoga. She's hot. She's…"
He continued to prattle on about this woman and everything that made her oh-so-great to the point that he'd started counting with two hands. Sasuke tuned him out and brought his arm over his eyes to catch up on lost sleep. Ino's best friend could be the most important person in the country for all he cared, and it still didn't matter. She wasn't Sakura.
It was ridiculous, really. Sasuke didn't know a single thing about her aside from what little of her personal life she had divulged to him while she was in the middle of her post-break up rant, and yet he was losing his mind over her.
Fortunately, the young COO had enough discipline to manage to push her to the back of his mind when the sun was up and he had work to do. Or so he liked to think. Just now, he totally did not space out during an important meeting with new potential partners to the company.
He could feel his father's eyes on him as the presentation came to a close. He dodged his disapproving look and slipped out of the room just as board members began to rise and shake hands and compare whose dick was bigger. He locked himself in his office like a child hiding from house guests.
He quickly turned on his computer and plopped down into his chair, already playing the part of a busy white-collar worker when the door to his office opened without even a knock, as he expected. He looked up just as his father entered his office, face stern and back rigid. But what he didn't expect was for his older brother to be following close behind.
Sasuke turned off the computer he wasn't even using and rose from his chair and offered it to Fugaku, while he sat in his own guest chair. Itachi took the armchair next to him, eyes brimming with amusement even though the smile on his lips remained miniscule.
"You've been distracted since you came back, Sasuke," Fugaku said, eyes roaming his son's office desk, which was, fortunately, free from clutter today−he took a mental note to thank his secretary for cleaning up while he was out. His father leaned back in his chair, elbows on the armrests and holding his fingers together over his chest. Sasuke swallowed. "And I heard from Naruto that it's because of a girl."
Next to him, Itachi snickered−snickered, like a child. He leaned back and crossed his leg with his ankle over his thigh. "I heard they shared a hotel room."
Fugaku hummed in surprise, raising his brows at Sasuke. But his younger son, feeling utterly betrayed, whirled on his older brother, who looked a little apologetic but mostly amused.
"Aniki!"
"Really, son, if you were smitten by this girl, you should've at least asked for her number. I thought you had more… game than this."
Sasuke's head snapped towards his father and Fugaku only stared at him impassively as he gawked. The last time he was in a position like this, squirming under his father's scrutiny while Itachi made the experience a hundred times worse, he had been in high school. And just like back then, he crossed his arms over his chest in defense and pouted.
"I didn't think it was appropriate," he muttered under his breath, scowling at his shiny shoes. "She just broke up with her boyfriend."
"I heard he cheated on her."
"Where do you hear this shit from, Itachi?" he hissed.
"Sasuke," his father called sternly, giving him The Eyes. The Eyes that used to reprimand Sasuke when he was ten.
He shut his mouth. It was just like his father to hand him a high position in the company, give him his own office, and still treat him like a child right in their workplace. He could only hope that his secretary, who happened to be Naruto's cousin, wasn't listening in and having her own fun.
He fought the urge to groan as his father launched into a lecture about how he was now 28 years old, fast-approaching 30, and still hasn't brought a girl home to introduce to his mother. Because nobody groans or gets exasperated at Uchiha Fugaku, even when he was being annoying.
He sank sullenly into his seat, not even bothering to point out that Itachi was 35 and a monk.
He expelled a deep sigh. He must have it pretty bad if he'd come to the point where he was talking about Her with his brother and father. So that night, Sasuke decided that enough was enough.
He put Sakura into a box and stowed her away in the recesses of his mind, which wasn't all that hard because he knew very little about her so there wasn't a lot to compartmentalize except for her seafoam green eyes, her pink hair, her surprisingly rough hands, and the strength in her arms when she hugged him before she disappeared from his life, as suddenly as she came into it.
He went back to his life before London. He buried himself in work and when he was dead tired but still couldn't catch a wink of sleep at night, he exhausted himself for a run no matter the time. When he was particularly bored or restless, he vacuumed his entire condo and scattered his clothes just so he could fold them neatly again.
Effectively, he thought about her less.
This all but lasted for three whole weeks.
He had his fingers pressed against his temple, massaging the throbbing ache away. He pushed away from his desk, eyes strained from looking intently into a computer screen for hours, when a knock came on the door and Karin's red head popped into his office. He motioned for her to come in.
"Naruto's been rushed to the ER," she said calmly. He was out of his seat in a split second, eyes wide and worried. She simply waved him away. "It's just an appendectomy."
"Start with that next time," he breathed, falling back into his chair.
"But he does want you to be there when he comes out of surgery. I've already cleared your schedule. You only had one meeting left today anyway, and it wasn't that important."
"Thanks, Karin."
By the time he got to the hospital, Naruto was already out of surgery. The idiot was high as a kite in his hospital bed, lids heavy and grin wide, looking like a bigger idiot than usual. Sasuke asked him how he was doing and he only grinned wider, nodding his head slowly.
"Sasuke-teme," Naruto drawled. "I'm so glad you could make it. You'll never guess who my surgeon was."
He smiled cheekily and Sasuke squeezed his eyes shut in annoyance, pinching the bridge of his nose. Of course, the dobe's doctor would be his girlfriend's best friend that he wouldn't shut up about. And of course, he would use this opportunity to play matchmaker.
Sasuke met Naruto's eyes. "I hope you go into sepsis," he said with mock sincerity. He stood up, deciding to take his leave before Ino came back with the doctor, but froze when he saw a flash of familiar color in his peripheral.
He looked out the wide window right ahead of him and scowled. It was like the universe was playing a joke on him. Outside the hospital window was an abundance of pink, cherry blossom trees in bloom. Fucking sakura blossoms.
He sighed and was about to continue on his way when the door opened. He cringed at the sight of Ino, whose blue eyes widened slightly when she saw him before she greeted him with a saccharine hello that made him uneasy.
She looked to her side as if she was expecting someone to be there and clicked her tongue in annoyance when there was no one. "Get in here, Forehead!" she hissed, hand shooting out the door as she dragged someone into the room.
"Ino-pig, this is my workplace, not a dating site−"
Sasuke felt his entire world come to a halt. For a second, he thought that he was going insane. That he'd started projecting Sakura on every face that he saw. But staring back at him with eyes as big with shock as his were the exact same eyes that he'd been trying to forget and it seemed that they hadn't forgotten him, either.
She was here. Sakura, in the flesh.
Her pink hair was tied up in a tight ponytail and she wore blue scrubs underneath a white lab coat. She clutched a clipboard with two hands, so tight that it could snap any minute.
She was Ino's hot doctor best friend?!
Naruto beamed, opening his arms as if for a giant hug. "Sakura-chaaan!"
"I−you−Sasuke−?" she sputtered incoherently and Sasuke snapped out of it with a wild shake of his head.
She turned to Ino. The two girls seemed to be communicating wordlessly, and Sasuke watched as Ino's brows furrowed in confusion before her blue eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "Sasuke?!" she gasped, still looking at Sakura as she pointed at the man with a shaky finger. "He's the guy you've been so hung up on?!"
Sasuke's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Good to know he wasn't the only one pining. He was so sure he would've been overshadowed by her ex-boyfriend.
"Shut. Your. Big. Mouth!" she said, hitting Ino with her clipboard with every word. Her entire face was red, from the roots of her hair down to the collar of her scrubs. She met his eyes for a fleeting moment before she quickly turned to Naruto, the dear patient who has been forgotten. He remained smiling.
She looked down at her clipboard, tucking stray strands of hair behind her ear, before clearing her throat. And just like that, she was Naruto's doctor once again.
Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest as she spoke, explaining what had been done to Naruto's appendix and what recovery should look like. She spoke professionally and clearly, and occasionally her eyes would find his, shyly, but she never broke character.
When she was done, she took a deep breath and smiled brightly at Naruto. Standing at the foot of his bed, she reached down and pinched a toe and he laughed. Sasuke frowned slightly, seeing how familiar the two were with each other.
Then he watched her chew on her bottom lip as she turned to Ino, looking at the blonde unsurely. Ino muttered something quickly under her breath but Sasuke caught the words "shoot your shot" and tried not to smirk when Sakura finally turned to him. "So, uh… do you wanna get coffee?"
.
"So this is what you usually do when you're not crying over men from the internet?" he teased, gesturing at her scrubs.
"What about you?" she retorted. "You didn't tell me you were a babysitter."
They sat across from each other in the middle of the hospital cafeteria. It still felt surreal to have her right in front of him. Even more surreal that she was the woman he's been rejecting for over a year now. He frowned at the thought, taking a sip of his coffee. "Why have they been trying to set us up if you were in a relationship that whole time?"
She rolled her eyes and looked mildly exasperated with their friends. "Ino didn't really like him."
That surprised him. He frowned deeper in confusion. "I didn't think she liked me."
Awkwardly, she wordlessly sipped her coffee and averted her gaze. "She doesn't like me," he realized, to which she giggled, shaking her head in agreement.
"She thinks you have a stick up your ass," she said, her voice tinged with mirth. And a little more thoughtfully, with a faint blush on her cheeks, she added, "But she thinks you're decent. And that you'd be good for me… and that you're totally loaded."
His mouth turned up at the corners in silent laughter.
Her hair was longer now, falling past her shoulders when it had barely touched them when he first saw her. But it was the same soft pink of cherry blossoms in the spring and her eyes are the same green tint of the ocean, sparkling and bright as she smiled at him.
"What time do you get off?" he asked. She shot her shot, he might as well shoot his, too.
She laughed humorlessly. "Twelve midnight," she said, and he stared at her in awe. "But I have tomorrow off, if you want to…"
"I can do twelve midnight."
"No way."
He shrugged. "I'm staying late in the office anyway." He was not planning on it, but he could. Or he could just pass the time in Naruto's room.
"You're taking me on a date at twelve midnight," she said incredulously, shaking her head at him like it was the most ridiculous thing she's ever heard.
He smirked, teasing. "Who said it was a date?"
Uchiha Sasuke wasn't one to believe in destiny. But somehow, sitting across from Sakura now, he couldn't help but think that the airline's royal fuck up wasn't at all a fuck up. That it wasn't a mere coincidence that it was the two of them sharing that hotel room that night. That it wasn't pure chance that he would find her again here. There was something bigger at work here, the universe bringing them together. And he would be a fool to let her slip away again.
.fin.
a/n: it's actually my 21st birthday today so i wanted to do something special and update both a lesson in romantics and finally finish Intoxicated. unfortunately, i couldn't finish either of them in time for today so please have this little one-shot i've written some time ago but never got around to posting. rest assured, those updates are coming!
