twenty minutes

one glass in

"Will you marry me?"

Sakura almost drops the glass of wine she's been sipping on languidly for the last twenty minutes. Already, she can feel the faint buzz of alcohol tingle through her body as she stares at the scene in front of her with wide eyes. Gripping the glass in her hand tighter, she leans back against the wall in an effort not to keel over from shock.

Naruto looks about the same as she feels – white as a sheet and ready to faint. Hinata is pressing her hands to her flaming cheeks, mouth opening and snapping shut repeatedly. Next to her, Ino seems to have stopped breathing altogether, gripping a plate full of canapés in a white-knuckled grip that has the porcelain cracking.

Two dozen milky-white eyes are staring at her, unblinkingly.

Neji looks up at her from where he is sitting on the ground, kneeling in perfect kiza, back ramrod straight and dressed in the same traditional robes as the rest of his clansmen whose eyes now swivel to bore holes into his back. The heavy cloth drapes elegantly around his shoulders, falling down his torso in soft pleats.

It might keep his family from seeing the tension in his shoulders, and how his back is strung so tight his spine seems close to snapping.

It does nothing to hide from her the way his hands are balled into fists on his thighs, the muscle that jumps at his jaw, or those damn white eyes that look up at her unblinkingly, carrying in them a mixture of hope and fear and insecurity and every other conceivable emotion between here and the sun that goes straight to Sakura's heart.

Stunned into stupidity, fuelled by decade old and sinfully expensive wine, Sakura blurts out the first thing that comes to her mind.

"Okay."

A/N: Hello hello!

First of all, thank you for checking in. I hope you're as curious as I am to see where this story goes! For those of you who are interested in following, please note that

1) I have no idea where I am going with this. I'm currently in the middle of my bachelor thesis and need something to take my mind of things.

2) this is not a plot-heavy monster. It's more like loosely connected little snippets taken out of everyday life. Kinda like my Colder Spots, if you've read that! :)

3) OOCness. Probably. I know that I tend to tweak at least Sakura's personality more than just a bit, but what can I say. I do hate the job Kishimoto has done on her. So much potential, wasted.

Hopefully, some of you will be along for the ride!

Love,

planless