[Open to anyone who wants to deal with a cheerful, excited Leigh]

[rock_leigh]

Comments

[boy_pink]

"Ah, Leigh-chan." Sakurai called, seeing Leigh pass by quickly as he turned to the hallway that lead to Tsurude's office. He looked vaguly worse of the wear, his own eyes starting to get dark circles under them. But coffee. He had coffee. Most importantly, it was coffee with sugar. "...You look happy, what's up?"

[rock_leigh]

"Sakurai-kun!" Leigh spun around, braid flying behind her. "I received approval from Tsurude-sama for Naruko-chan and I to go visit Gaara-chan in Sunagakure!" She paused to really look at Sakurai, and her expression quickly shifted from exuberant to concerned. She didn't like the raccoon-eyes. "Ne, ne, Sakurai-kun, are you all right?"

[boy_pink]

"Ah! Yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine. Coffee. Fine." He took a sip of said coffee. "Ah, that's great, I'm glad you and Naruko can go see her, I bet you'll have a lot of fun. Be sure not to get sunburned, okay? Naruko better watch out, too, she's got the blonde hair and all."

[rock_leigh]

Leigh studied him, frowning. She heard the words, but Sakurai-kun, though she'd never admit it aloud, looked not quite like death warmed over. As it was the dark smudges under his eyes were reminiscent Gaara's insomnia rings. "Coffee's okay, I guess," she hazarded (she was never one for artificial stimulants), "but, Sakurai-kun, when was the last time you got any quality sleep?"

[boy_pink]

"Just a few -" dozen "-hours or so." He suppressed a yawn. Yes he'd been overworking, but it was all things he needed doing. And he was quite pleased with how he tactically avoided Tsurude for enough time every few shifts to make sure he wasn't alerting him to being there for as long as he was.

Sakurai was definitely a work-a-holic if allowed to be.

[rock_leigh]

"...."

Marching right up to Sakurai-kun and leaning in until her face was inches from his, Leigh did her best approximation of the Hyuuga Stare of Disproval. "Sa-ku-rai-kun! I'm not sure what you seem to be calling 'quality sleep' of late, but if you're yawning with coffee in hand then you are most certainly not getting enough rest! I can't imagine Tsurude-sama would approve." Dark eyes searched green for a reaction.

[boy_pink]

"Don't tell Tsurude-sama." Sakurai blurted out the plea before he could stop himself. Damn it, now it was obvious he was doing something he probably wasn't supposed to be doing.

[rock_leigh]

Leigh raised a bushy eyebrow. "Don't tell Tsurude-sama, what?" she asked oh-so-sweetly, linking her fingers behind her back as she rolled onto the balls of her feet. What she honestly wanted to do was knock the stupid boy out so he could get some decent rest, but she doubted he would appreciate the sentiment.

[boy_pink]

"Leigh." but Sakurai knew that face when he saw it.

Naruko got it all the time.

There were two options. Bribery and violence. While violence worked for the girl he'd known for what felt like forever (but it didn't take long for something to "feel like forever" at his age), something just told him 'no' for doing it with Leigh. That left bribery.

"I'll go home, okay?"

[rock_leigh]

Leigh was nonplussed. "When?" she wanted to know. She shifted her gaze to Tsurude-sama's office door before sliding it back to Sakurai-kun. Two choices were to be had: Sakurai-kun could go home and sleep, or Leigh would inform Tsurude-sama that Sakurai-kun was trying to cosplay as Gaara-chan.

[boy_pink]

Sakurai sighed. "As soon as I put away my clipboard, okay? Does that work?" he rubbed his right eye with the heel of his palm.

[rock_leigh]

"Okay!" Leigh chirped, beaming. "I'll follow you, then I'll walk with you back to your place."

[boy_pink]

"It might be kind of out of your way..." Sakurai said, as a sort of 'last ditch effort'. And it was true, his parents lived in what was as close to 'suburbs' as Konoha had.