Ficcage! (before the week is over)
Title: Tête-à-tête [Over Tea And Fruit Drinks]
Rating: K+ to T for some references and swearing
Summary: Ino decides it's time she and Sasuke Have A Talk.
Words: 1675
X-posted at sasusaku.
Notes: This was extremely fun to write. I have a thing for dialogue. I hope it's fun to read as well. And, I've rekindled both my love for Ino and for SasuSaku by writing this. This has got to be some kind of... record. Also, title is pending, because I honestly suck at those. I can't believe I don't have more SasuSaku up. For someone who claims them to be her OTP, I sure show little production of my own support. Cry, cry.
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The first time they talked, it had been four months since he’d been allowed out of the village, two years since he’d been allowed out of the hospital, and eight years since he’d knocked Sakura out and left her on a bench.
Ino initially had no plans of kidnapping him and sitting him down in a pub (in the good old days, most of her plans were of kidnapping him and just sitting him down, if you understood what she’d meant) like she was doing then, but she knew it was for their own good. She was sure Sasuke didn’t think so; he was lightly drumming his fingers on the table and sort of deliberately not looking at her. While this was something he did to most girls ever since That Day That Could Have Been The Apocalypse, where Sakura had apparently snagged him and snagged him hard, Ino was still mildly insulted.
“I picked a fairly deserted place,” Ino pointed out. “With decent beverage and neutral service.” By decent beverage she really meant just don’t order food and by neutral service she meant staff here will neither want to kill you nor bear your children. Sasuke, of course, understood what was under her choice of wording; they weren’t ninja for nothing. “And it’s just one drink. So what’s the big deal?”
He turned to her and gave her an irritated look. “Why am I here?”
“Tsk,” said Ino, crossing her legs with a smirk. “Is this how you treat Sakura on your evenings out?”
This time, his look was a cold vision of don’t go there. Ino rolled her eyes.
“Look,” she said more sincerely, deciding to cut to the chase. Sasuke wasn’t one for beating around the bush. It only served to irk him more. “I do have a reason why I asked you to come here. I just… wanted to talk to you.”
“Ino.” He was surprisingly gentle-toned. Or maybe it was flatness. Either way, he didn’t sound cold or irritated like before. “I can’t give you what you want.”
Ino stared at him, then promptly burst out laughing. “Oh-Oh gods-you thought I was going to give you some kind of confession?”
Sasuke stared back. She let out several more peals of laughter. He scowled. Already he was grateful he only agreed to staying until he finished his drink. He picked up his tea.
“There’s hardly any other reason why I get asked out like this,” Sasuke explained, his voice ever so slightly hitting a sulky tone. Ino stifled more laughter.
“S-so you’re still popular, huh?” Ino managed to drown her giggles with some exotic beverage the bar offered. What was it? Melon and strawberry something? Tomato? It was something unfamiliar. “That’s surprising after the initial grapevine when you first got back, but then again it’s not entirely surprising.” Ino shook her head. “You and your good genes. No, I haven’t got any romantic feelings for you, Uchiha Sasuke, because whatever romance that revolved around you in my head died after I heard you betrayed us.”
“Is that when you decided to hate me, too?”
He sounded too resigned for her tastes. She snorted, softly. “No. I started to hate you in the years that followed, particularly whenever I hung out with Sakura.”
Sasuke’s entire body language paused. Then, almost too casually, he prodded her quietly. “How so?”
Ino shrugged. “I’m betting Naruto gave you two ears full whilst he was beating you up back then, but just in case he didn’t make it clear. Sakura suffered, perhaps more than even Naruto, perhaps not, because of you. A lot of people told her to give up on you, but she didn’t. There were a handful who were even wary about her link to you, and they questioned her loyalty to the Leaf. More of us vouched for her, of course, but when it came down to it…” Ino sighed. “She’s not like Naruto. Apart from being a girl, she just didn’t deal in the same way he did. Naruto had isolation, so there was nobody except Jiraiya-sama to judge him. Sakura had an entire village aware that she still had it for you. Love, hate, friendship-it didn’t matter. The point is, all of that was because of you."
Sasuke was looking at her now, intently, but at the same time elsewhere. He didn’t touch his drink. He merely gazed. He seemed to be taking everything she said in.
Good. She had more to say.
“Don’t think,” she told him, “that just because you suffered more she hasn’t suffered at all-“
“I don’t!” he interrupted, startling her. This time he actually sounded angry. “I don’t think that-and goddammit, I told her from the start to forget me, forget everything. How is all of this my fault?”
Ino quirked an eyebrow at him. “You’re really asking me that question?”
His aggression died down, and he merely pulled himself into Angsting Position A. Ino rolled her eyes again.
“Maybe it’s not all your fault,” Ino amended. When he got like that he could be worse than a marble statue, though probably equally sexy. “As a girl’s best friend, it’s my job to make sure her man is treating her right. Especially since I was one of those people who told her to give up on you, a few years back.”
Sasuke’s frown straightened. He seemed surprised, just a little.
“Well, I know now you haven’t got any superiority complex over her,” Ino said dutifully, like a reporter. “At least in the angsting department. I just wanted to make sure she wasn’t carrying all your emotional loads for you.”
And just like that, his frown returned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
For the third time in half an hour, Ino rolled her eyes. “Does she, or does she not tell you that she’s there for you? That you can tell her anything, if you felt so inclined, and she’d take it all in stride, forgive your sins, purify your soul, and so forth?”
His eyes actually widened this time. When a slight hue brushed his cheeks she pressed on, “And I bet when you ask her if anything’s the matter, she tells you nothing. And-slash-or, tells you everything is fine, not to worry, etcetera.”
Sasuke’s hand clawed at his hair. “You sound like a bloody machine.”
Ino smiled. “I’m right, aren’t I? At least you’re semi-enlightened now.”
He peered at her, and demanded, “What am I supposed to do?”
Oh. This was nice. He was, in that controlling, emotionless Uchiha kind of way, asking her for help. “It’s not so hard. Now that you’ve learned something new, you can apply it. Or, just appreciate it. Buy her things. Show her you care. Spend actual time with her, instead of popping in the hospital every now and again, whether due to injury or random attacks of jealousy.”
“That entire platoon wasn’t as seriously injured as they claimed to be,” Sasuke muttered. “And it’s hardly a good time for midday outings. Life, missions, and as you say: etcetera.”
“And the only reason I know you two are actually for real is because she has the bite marks to prove it,” Ino said coolly. Sasuke choked. “Remember, Sasuke, we hit the baths together every Thursday, because we get off at the same time. Which means that, if you got any from her last night, I’m going to find out.” She tried not to laugh at his expression. “It’s Thursday”
He didn’t dignify that one with a response. Well, there was a strangled “Meep” that his throat made, in a rare show of embarrassment.
“Anyway,” she said briskly, after draining the last bit of her melon-strawberry-whatever juice. “All this lovely chatting aside, I also thought you’d like to know that the Yamanaka flower shop has a discount for weddings. Not that I’m sure you’ll have anything too economic.”
This was definitely the reddest she’d seen him yet, though it was still horribly aesthetic. Damn, those were some good genes. “H-how-“ Sasuke tried. “How did you-?”
“If I didn’t think you were getting to be serious about her,” Ino replied, her tone a shade gloomy, “We wouldn’t be having this talk.”
There was silence as it was her turn to deliberately not look at him.
“You have a funny way of showing things,” Sasuke said finally, then added, “I’ll take care of her, if that’s what you’re wondering.”
“Mmm,” Ino said, as if disinterested. She glanced at her nails. “Not just financially and physically, I trust.”
Sasuke looked like he was going to say something sardonic, but he restrained himself. “Of course.”
She caught the offended tone, though, and grinned. “Excuse me for not thinking you’d be the lovey-dovey husband.”
He squinted his eyes at her, in a what-I-don’t-know-what-creature-you-are kind of way. “Are we done here?”
Ino shrugged, and pointed at his glass. It was empty. “You know Sasuke, considering my last real conversation with you alone involved rejection on my part, this hasn’t been all that bad, really.” Ino yawned. Time to get back to the academy kiddies. Damn. “Sure. I can get the bill; my treat. You’re free to go.”
Sasuke nodded once and stood up. Then, as if thinking about it, he asked dryly, “Do I meet approval, then?”
Ino smiled. “For now, yes,” she said, but held up a wagging finger. “We’ll be having another talk right before the wedding. If not about flower discounts, then probably about bachelor parties and wedding nights.”
“Can’t wait,” Sasuke muttered, before ducking out of the door.
As she was paying the bill, Ino felt a little lighter. Tonight she would meet Sakura at the baths, she would whine about Chouji’s new girlfriend and academy brats, and then Sakura would tell her with shining eyes that Sasuke actually visited her at the hospital today-without an injury! And she had been tending to a child!
Ino glanced at the empty glass of her wild fruit drink on her way out. It hadn’t been that bad at all.
.
.
Rating: K+ to T for some references and swearing
Summary: Ino decides it's time she and Sasuke Have A Talk.
Words: 1675
X-posted at sasusaku.
Notes: This was extremely fun to write. I have a thing for dialogue. I hope it's fun to read as well. And, I've rekindled both my love for Ino and for SasuSaku by writing this. This has got to be some kind of... record. Also, title is pending, because I honestly suck at those. I can't believe I don't have more SasuSaku up. For someone who claims them to be her OTP, I sure show little production of my own support. Cry, cry.
~
~
The first time they talked, it had been four months since he’d been allowed out of the village, two years since he’d been allowed out of the hospital, and eight years since he’d knocked Sakura out and left her on a bench.
Ino initially had no plans of kidnapping him and sitting him down in a pub (in the good old days, most of her plans were of kidnapping him and just sitting him down, if you understood what she’d meant) like she was doing then, but she knew it was for their own good. She was sure Sasuke didn’t think so; he was lightly drumming his fingers on the table and sort of deliberately not looking at her. While this was something he did to most girls ever since That Day That Could Have Been The Apocalypse, where Sakura had apparently snagged him and snagged him hard, Ino was still mildly insulted.
“I picked a fairly deserted place,” Ino pointed out. “With decent beverage and neutral service.” By decent beverage she really meant just don’t order food and by neutral service she meant staff here will neither want to kill you nor bear your children. Sasuke, of course, understood what was under her choice of wording; they weren’t ninja for nothing. “And it’s just one drink. So what’s the big deal?”
He turned to her and gave her an irritated look. “Why am I here?”
“Tsk,” said Ino, crossing her legs with a smirk. “Is this how you treat Sakura on your evenings out?”
This time, his look was a cold vision of don’t go there. Ino rolled her eyes.
“Look,” she said more sincerely, deciding to cut to the chase. Sasuke wasn’t one for beating around the bush. It only served to irk him more. “I do have a reason why I asked you to come here. I just… wanted to talk to you.”
“Ino.” He was surprisingly gentle-toned. Or maybe it was flatness. Either way, he didn’t sound cold or irritated like before. “I can’t give you what you want.”
Ino stared at him, then promptly burst out laughing. “Oh-Oh gods-you thought I was going to give you some kind of confession?”
Sasuke stared back. She let out several more peals of laughter. He scowled. Already he was grateful he only agreed to staying until he finished his drink. He picked up his tea.
“There’s hardly any other reason why I get asked out like this,” Sasuke explained, his voice ever so slightly hitting a sulky tone. Ino stifled more laughter.
“S-so you’re still popular, huh?” Ino managed to drown her giggles with some exotic beverage the bar offered. What was it? Melon and strawberry something? Tomato? It was something unfamiliar. “That’s surprising after the initial grapevine when you first got back, but then again it’s not entirely surprising.” Ino shook her head. “You and your good genes. No, I haven’t got any romantic feelings for you, Uchiha Sasuke, because whatever romance that revolved around you in my head died after I heard you betrayed us.”
“Is that when you decided to hate me, too?”
He sounded too resigned for her tastes. She snorted, softly. “No. I started to hate you in the years that followed, particularly whenever I hung out with Sakura.”
Sasuke’s entire body language paused. Then, almost too casually, he prodded her quietly. “How so?”
Ino shrugged. “I’m betting Naruto gave you two ears full whilst he was beating you up back then, but just in case he didn’t make it clear. Sakura suffered, perhaps more than even Naruto, perhaps not, because of you. A lot of people told her to give up on you, but she didn’t. There were a handful who were even wary about her link to you, and they questioned her loyalty to the Leaf. More of us vouched for her, of course, but when it came down to it…” Ino sighed. “She’s not like Naruto. Apart from being a girl, she just didn’t deal in the same way he did. Naruto had isolation, so there was nobody except Jiraiya-sama to judge him. Sakura had an entire village aware that she still had it for you. Love, hate, friendship-it didn’t matter. The point is, all of that was because of you."
Sasuke was looking at her now, intently, but at the same time elsewhere. He didn’t touch his drink. He merely gazed. He seemed to be taking everything she said in.
Good. She had more to say.
“Don’t think,” she told him, “that just because you suffered more she hasn’t suffered at all-“
“I don’t!” he interrupted, startling her. This time he actually sounded angry. “I don’t think that-and goddammit, I told her from the start to forget me, forget everything. How is all of this my fault?”
Ino quirked an eyebrow at him. “You’re really asking me that question?”
His aggression died down, and he merely pulled himself into Angsting Position A. Ino rolled her eyes again.
“Maybe it’s not all your fault,” Ino amended. When he got like that he could be worse than a marble statue, though probably equally sexy. “As a girl’s best friend, it’s my job to make sure her man is treating her right. Especially since I was one of those people who told her to give up on you, a few years back.”
Sasuke’s frown straightened. He seemed surprised, just a little.
“Well, I know now you haven’t got any superiority complex over her,” Ino said dutifully, like a reporter. “At least in the angsting department. I just wanted to make sure she wasn’t carrying all your emotional loads for you.”
And just like that, his frown returned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
For the third time in half an hour, Ino rolled her eyes. “Does she, or does she not tell you that she’s there for you? That you can tell her anything, if you felt so inclined, and she’d take it all in stride, forgive your sins, purify your soul, and so forth?”
His eyes actually widened this time. When a slight hue brushed his cheeks she pressed on, “And I bet when you ask her if anything’s the matter, she tells you nothing. And-slash-or, tells you everything is fine, not to worry, etcetera.”
Sasuke’s hand clawed at his hair. “You sound like a bloody machine.”
Ino smiled. “I’m right, aren’t I? At least you’re semi-enlightened now.”
He peered at her, and demanded, “What am I supposed to do?”
Oh. This was nice. He was, in that controlling, emotionless Uchiha kind of way, asking her for help. “It’s not so hard. Now that you’ve learned something new, you can apply it. Or, just appreciate it. Buy her things. Show her you care. Spend actual time with her, instead of popping in the hospital every now and again, whether due to injury or random attacks of jealousy.”
“That entire platoon wasn’t as seriously injured as they claimed to be,” Sasuke muttered. “And it’s hardly a good time for midday outings. Life, missions, and as you say: etcetera.”
“And the only reason I know you two are actually for real is because she has the bite marks to prove it,” Ino said coolly. Sasuke choked. “Remember, Sasuke, we hit the baths together every Thursday, because we get off at the same time. Which means that, if you got any from her last night, I’m going to find out.” She tried not to laugh at his expression. “It’s Thursday”
He didn’t dignify that one with a response. Well, there was a strangled “Meep” that his throat made, in a rare show of embarrassment.
“Anyway,” she said briskly, after draining the last bit of her melon-strawberry-whatever juice. “All this lovely chatting aside, I also thought you’d like to know that the Yamanaka flower shop has a discount for weddings. Not that I’m sure you’ll have anything too economic.”
This was definitely the reddest she’d seen him yet, though it was still horribly aesthetic. Damn, those were some good genes. “H-how-“ Sasuke tried. “How did you-?”
“If I didn’t think you were getting to be serious about her,” Ino replied, her tone a shade gloomy, “We wouldn’t be having this talk.”
There was silence as it was her turn to deliberately not look at him.
“You have a funny way of showing things,” Sasuke said finally, then added, “I’ll take care of her, if that’s what you’re wondering.”
“Mmm,” Ino said, as if disinterested. She glanced at her nails. “Not just financially and physically, I trust.”
Sasuke looked like he was going to say something sardonic, but he restrained himself. “Of course.”
She caught the offended tone, though, and grinned. “Excuse me for not thinking you’d be the lovey-dovey husband.”
He squinted his eyes at her, in a what-I-don’t-know-what-creature-you-are kind of way. “Are we done here?”
Ino shrugged, and pointed at his glass. It was empty. “You know Sasuke, considering my last real conversation with you alone involved rejection on my part, this hasn’t been all that bad, really.” Ino yawned. Time to get back to the academy kiddies. Damn. “Sure. I can get the bill; my treat. You’re free to go.”
Sasuke nodded once and stood up. Then, as if thinking about it, he asked dryly, “Do I meet approval, then?”
Ino smiled. “For now, yes,” she said, but held up a wagging finger. “We’ll be having another talk right before the wedding. If not about flower discounts, then probably about bachelor parties and wedding nights.”
“Can’t wait,” Sasuke muttered, before ducking out of the door.
As she was paying the bill, Ino felt a little lighter. Tonight she would meet Sakura at the baths, she would whine about Chouji’s new girlfriend and academy brats, and then Sakura would tell her with shining eyes that Sasuke actually visited her at the hospital today-without an injury! And she had been tending to a child!
Ino glanced at the empty glass of her wild fruit drink on her way out. It hadn’t been that bad at all.
.
.