Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto franchise or any characters mentioned in the story, unless otherwise stated.

Pairing: This story will be Kakashi x Sakura. Maybe slow-paced, maybe not.

Rating: The Story is rated T for now. It will change if people want it to. (SO REVIEW)

Length: I'm not sure how long this story will be. I may just write until it comes to a natural end, but if I'm receiving great response (AKA REVIEWS) I will do everything I can to keep the story going longer! :)

Summary: Sakura Haruno works at a coffee shop as she waits for her writing career begin. Every day she sees a man who refuses to show his face or give his name. With encouragement from her best friend and coworker, Ino, she begins to interact more with this man, learning far more secrets than his name. She just might learn a few things about herself along the way, too. AU. Possible OOC.

Sakura Haruno was many things.

She was a pirate sailing the high seas, searching for the treasure to put all treasures to shame. She was a princess, falling in love with her servant when she was engaged to a King from a faraway land. She was a circus leader, amazing her patrons by her rare animals and talented acrobats. She was an assassin, sent out to kill a man who ran a sex trade and turned out to be her long-lost father.

No matter how magical her lives were, she always had to put the books down and come back to reality. She had rent and student loans to pay. She had a job at a coffee shop to be at...five minutes ago.

Sakura threw her current read down and sprang off her couch. She was already wearing her uniform — a white shirt, black pants, and black shoes — and just had to throw on her apron. She left her apartment without locking her door and rushed down the street. Thankfully she lived within walking distance of the coffee shop.

Her manager didn't seem to notice she arrived fifteen minutes late, breathless with her apron almost falling off her waist. Gai wasn't the type of manager to get angry, but he would give her quite the lecture on the importance of being on time, even if her "youthful passions" kept her otherwise occupied. She quickly retied it and got behind the counter.

"Running a little late?"

Sakura looked up at her first customer and rolled her eyes. Of course, it was him. The guy who came in every morning for his coffee, sat in the corner with his laptop, and stayed long enough to order three more drinks. It wasn't like he had an easy order either. He always made things complicated, which she despised.

"Large with half almond, half 2%, foamy, and three extra shots?" she asked.

She was almost embarrassed with how well she knew his coffee orders. No matter how complicated, she'd worked long enough to have it all memorized. It helped she made his coffee five days a week.

He may have smiled, but Sakura couldn't tell. He always had some covering over his face, whether it be a turtle neck pulled up over his mouth or a scarf. Sometimes his eyes would crinkle just so, possibly meaning he smiled. She couldn't tell yet.

He didn't answer her — aside from the eye crinkle — so she got to work on his order. She grabbed a cup and scribbled "Tella" on the side. His coffee only took a minute to make. She made it every day, after all.

He actually chuckled when she handed him the cup. "Tella? That's new," he said in that deep voice he used. Sakura couldn't tell if it was always like that or he just used it for the one-liners he gave her.

"A girl in the book I'm reading right now," she said. He shrugged and went to the corner by the window and threw his laptop back on the table. "You're welcome!" she shouted after him. He waved her off without looking her way.

He and Sakura had an odd relationship. She didn't know his name because he refused to give it to her, so she always wrote silly names on his cups, usually feminine ones. She also didn't charge him until the end of his visit; she knew he would pay at the end of his stay. They bantered back and forth like old friends, yet she only met him a year ago when she started working at the coffee shop.

Sakura kept busy for another hour by cleaning and making coffee for other customers. She went out to clear tables, taking a moment to stop at his table. Without looking up from his laptop, he handed her his cup. She flipped his laptop shut, which earned her a half-hearted glare. She began walking away backward and gave him a smile and a shrug, spinning back around just before bumping into a table.

He drank a plain black coffee next. His first cup had enough milk and foam to cover the taste of his three espresso shots — they got the caffeine kicking — then he switched to his plain coffee, enough caffeine to keep his buzz going without an overload of sugar. At least that's how he explained it to her one day.

"I can take that over," Ino, Sakura's coworker and long-term best friend, said.

"No, I got it," Sakura said, moving the cup out of Ino's reach. "It only takes a second."

Ino smirked. "You just want to see your boyfriend, doncha?"

Sakura tried not to blush, but she felt it creeping up her neck anyway. "Shut up. He's at least thirty-years-old. Don't be weird."

"Psh, as if he wouldn't want your ass." Ino spun the rag in her hand and snapped Sakura's butt with it, eliciting a sharp "hey!" from her. "Just go get your drink to your man, before it gets cold."

Sakura shoved Ino's shoulder, stifling her laugh. She didn't want to feed into Ino's teasing, but it was a little fun. Just a little. She was going to miss Ino when she left in a few months after her unpaid internship at the hospital.

"Here you go," Sakura said, setting his cup down beside his laptop.

"Thank you, Sakura," he said.

She flinched as if he hit her. "You know my name?"

He gave a small chuckle. "Of course. You have a nametag."

The blush she tried to suppress with Ino came back with full-force, crawling all the way up to her cheekbones. She didn't know what she could say, so she went back up to the counter. On the way, she had a burning feeling he was staring at her butt.