Beta-reader: SymphoniaFreak

Chapter: Four – The Library

Type: Mini-Story – Incomplete

Summary: It seemed that after running into him the first time, she was destined to keep doing it. At least it wasn't literally this time.

Theme: 25 Place LJ challenge (#6 – Ice Cream Parlor)

Word Count: 4,450

Disclaimer: If you've heard of it before, then it's obviously not mine.

Note: I don't do this often; I usually keep it in the Review Reply section, but I had an anonymous reviewer that I'm grateful to. So L7997, thank you, I appreciate the constructive criticism and I hope I am doing better about my wordiness.

Also, I'm not sure if the overlapping was part of this mini-story's charm or not, but I've decided that this chapter would be better without doing it. But I do like my Sakura then Itachi pattern for perspective, so I will be keeping that.

So as a few people have pointed out, I made a blunder with the phone number thing. I didn't realize that I had already done that (the downfall of taking so long to finish a chapter, it seems) however it has been fixed hopefully there are no more problems.

Edited on: February 25, 2012

Frazzled and irritated, it was all she could do not to slam the book closed. She'd already gotten the Evil Eye for doing that to the first book that hadn't given her the information she sought.

This was why she didn't put off research papers. Just because she was a good test-taker didn't mean she could foist off big assignments until the last minute and still get by just fine. But her week had been so hectic; she hadn't had enough time to even start researching her topic. Granted, the research portion wasn't due until the following week, but she still found herself feeling utterly swamped.

Sighing, she shoved the book back in place and let her head fall in her hands. She was not going to moan or groan about the circumstances, but she was going to find a different way to go about this other than the hard way. Turning around, she looked over at the computer section; they were all still taken.

At least she had all day to get this done; no plans or obligations were going to interfere, and the only way she was leaving was when the library closed. Comforted by the thought that she still had hours and hours at her disposal and determination at her beck and call, she picked herself up and began skimming the titles of books once more. This was the section she needed to be in, and if that meant opening every book of every shelf, then she was just going to have to do it.

After all, there was simply no way she wasn't going to find somethingabout this particular topic. So she started from the top-right corner and read each title carefully. This would be time consuming, but until a computer opened or she found a book to use, this was the only thing she could do. After all, it wasn't like she could touch a book and know its contents or something.

She smiled at the absurdity of the thought and almost laughed at how she could put such a power to use. Lost in her own thoughts, she nearly jumped out of her skin when a hand covered her own. Large and warm, but firm, her first instinct was to look at hte hand, and the second was to look at who it belonged to. Maybe even snatch her own limb back and put distance between them in process.

But she found herself frozen in place when she realized that she recognized the hand. Immediately she turned her head backwards and craned her neck so as to see the dark eyes in that oh-so familiar face. Sakura grinned and whispered, "Hey, Itachi."

He hummed back nonchalantly, his eyes seeming almost hypnotic the more she stared at them. After her encounter with him at the school, any lingering doubts she had about even being around him were gone, replaced by confidence and a feeling of friendship. After all, who, but a friend, would pull someone else from a crowd of jerks whether or not one of those jerks was his younger brother?

Now that she wasn't busy worrying about if Itachi was going to do something cruel to her, she found his presence comforting and easy to be around. She saw no reason to shy away from how close he was to her; she never minded if a friend invaded her personal space. Naruto had been doing it so long and so frequently that she was pretty sure she didn't have a personal bubble anyway.

"What brings you here?"

The dark-haired man paused but for a moment, retracting his arm as he did so. When she felt her own arm being moved, she realized that he hadn't let go of her hand yet nor had she let go of the book. Blinking in surprise, she felt heat begin to pool behind her cheeks as she hastily tried to retrieve her appendage.

However, her mind went blank when Itachi didn't seem inclined to free said limb. "Um, Itachi?"

"I was in the mood to find a book to read."

Again she blinked, momentarily confused by the statement. It took her a bit to realize that he was answering her first question. She nodded distractedly. "That's great; can I have my hand back?"

He tipped his head in that way of his; she was beginning to think she should be wary of whatever he intended to say or do afterwards. It was almost like when Naruto got a certain look in his eye, or Ino made a particular face. And she'd come to associate both with trouble, more specifically trouble for her.

"Does such a close proximity make you nervous, Sakura?" Even as he said the words, he slowly released his firm grip. "I apologize."

She was quick to shake her head, all the while wondering what the hell was wrong with her. "N-no. I don't mind." Did she just stutter? Thrown by her own demeanor, she fell silent.

"Is that so?" He murmured as he took a step back to give her breathing room.

She thought to say that she didn't care if her personal space was invaded, but stopped herself. That would definitely imply the wrong thing, and she didn't want to make an even bigger fool of herself. Why was she worrying about such things if she thought of him as a friend? She had definitely decided that he wasn't anything like his brother or how the rumors portrayed him.

All she could think about was how absurd she was acting. What was her problem? She hadn't even thought about how close he was until she realized that he hadn't let go of her hand. Surely, that wouldn't change anything. How many times had she cuddled with Naruto on her couch and completely forgotten his arm was around her when she tried to stand up? More than a few times she had ended up with a bruise because she'd stumbled and fallen in the process. Granted, Naruto was like a sibling to her, but Itachi was her friend. Inadvertently holding hands should be no big deal.

But try as she might, something in her was determined to view it as more than it was.

"You are interested in fortune telling?" Itachi asked, bringing her out of her stupor as he gestured to the book.

"Huh?" Glancing down, she saw that she was indeed holding a book about fortune telling. Looking back up, she saw an amused look in his eyes and promptly blushed. "Not really. I was looking for a book with specific information."

He raised one dark eyebrow. "And that information pertained to fortune telling?"

Without even trying to, she managed to keep shoving her foot in her mouth. She shook her head. "No, the book should be in this section, but I can't figure out which one I need."

He was looking more and more amused by the second, and she wondered if she should just duct tape her mouth shut. At least that way she couldn't say something that made her seem dense. First she was nervous about being so close to Itachi and him holding her hand, and now she was saying things that made her look like a fool.

"I'm trying to find to origins of 'magic' and how exactly it connects to religion. It's for a school research paper." There, now she seemed less like she was rambling and saying silly things.

He paused for a second. "I see. Then why did you grab a book on fortune telling?"

She too paused, stumped for a moment about how to explain. Finding herself fed up with the shyness she felt about telling him that she was doing things the hard way, she decided to simply ignore all those absurd feelings. If they didn't make sense for her to be feeling, then they could just go away. There was nothing wrong with how she came to the conclusions she did, and she shouldn't feel the need to impress Itachi in any way, shape, or form. "I tried looking in books that I thought would have the information I needed, but that didn't work. And since all the computers are being used, I figured I'd start from the top and check every book."

The amusement changed to simple bemusement as he looked at the aisle of books surrounding them. "That sounds quite time consuming."

She shrugged, happy that she had managed to work past whatever her problem was. Now with any luck, she could go back to being herself without any more hindrances. "I have all day."

The Uchiha seemed to be contemplating something as he glanced at the books once again. After a moment he pulled the book that would have been right after the fortune telling one off the shelf and turned it over. "I have all day as well."

She blinked, taking a moment to realize the implications of that. And then she grinned brightly, flipping her own book over. "Thanks, I totally appreciate it."

As the hours passed and the day slowly turned to night, the two of them had made a nest of sorts in that aisle. They conversed between and during books, pulling each one off the shelf one-by-one and putting them back when they didn't yield relevant information.

It did end up being a time consuming process, but with the both of them being quick readers, it took half the time it would have taken her alone to work her way through the entire right side of that aisle. And by the time they had finished, she had a handful of books that definitely had information she could use for her paper.

Not only had she managed to do what she set out to accomplish in much less time than she thought it would take, she'd had fun the entire time. Itachi was quite the conversationalist, given the topic. And she had certainly found a handful of topics that kept them both going. The best part was that whatever she had felt when he'd first spoken to her didn't crop up again. Sakura always loved it when she could spend an entire evening both productively and enjoyably.

Setting down her stack of books at an empty table, she invited Itachi to join her. The teenager didn't want to head home just yet and was more than willing to sit at a table and talk quietly with him. The man was full of opinions and experiences that kept her hanging off of every word. He made her think and consider, his statements almost forcing her to form her own opinions. And where she did have opinions, she was forced to think of viable reasoning to defend them.

In the back of her mind, she wondered how she could have ever thought he was anything less than he was. This was the start of a beautiful friendship; she could just feel it.

But when he settled into a seat right next to her and grabbed a book off the top of the stack, she found herself feeling like she had hours earlier. For no explainable reason, she found herself nervous and anxious.

Did having him so close really bother her that much?

Itachi was looking at her expectantly, and she realized that she'd completely missed whatever he had just said. "I'm sorry. Would you repeat that please?"

"Sakura, is there something wrong?"

Green eyes blinked, and she shook her head. "What do you mean by 'wrong'?"

"Are you alright?" Those dark eyes of his were so intense, and she could almost imagine what he was really asking: if she was alright with being around him, if she was okay with talking to him.

"Yeah, Itachi. I'm great; I guess I'm just a little more worn out from my hectic week than I thought I was." She figured that would have to be good enough to cover the fact that she couldn't figure out her own emotions. The silly things weren't working properly. Or maybe she really had missed something. But she would dissect that later, when she didn't have to worry about if she was spacing out or staring. Maybe she could even ask Ino for her opinion on the matter; as much as a hassle the blonde could be about these matters, she was more than helpful, and Sakura always found her best friend's advice useful.

The college student watched her for a moment longer, seeming to weigh the truth of her words. Finally he nodded. "If there is, please don't hesitate to inform me."

She smiled at that and nodded happily, unable to stop herself from thinking that saying something like that was really sweet of him. It wasn't everyday she ran into a guy like Itachi, who was understanding of when she didn't want to talk about something and willing to listen if she had complaints about him. "I don't think you actually have to worry about that. I'm pretty sure we already got all the big stuff out of the way."

He raised an eyebrow bemusedly at her. "Did we now?"

She hummed. "Sure. We established that you're not a jerk or anything like the rumors about you, so I'm pretty sure it's smooth sailing for our friendship from here on out."

With that, she reached over and grabbed a book as well as some sticky notes and a pencil from her bag, not noticing that her friend seemed to be frozen.

Friendship. The word echoed almost hollowly through his mind, bouncing off walls as he found himself unmoving at her admission. But before she could notice that he'd gone as still as a statue, he forced himself to move again, turning the page if only for effect. Itachi chided himself for thinking that she viewed them any differently. After all, they'd only really met each other all of three times, and none of those meetings had any kind of romantic undertones to them. Unless the definition of smitten had changed to getting ice cream all over a stranger, buying them a new shirt, and running into them at a school. It didn't matter that he was intrigued with her, and everything he saw only made him more enamored with the girl. Because the fact of the matter was, she had never given him a thought past the rumors she'd heard about him until that fateful meeting in the parlor shop.

To her, it was only logical that they were only friends, if that. She didn't know that he liked her and wanted to go out on a date with her. She didn't know that letting her run into him had been partially intentional and that going shopping had been completely intentional. She didn't know that he didn't care about one stained shirt or replacing it, not if it meant spending time with her. And she definitely didn't know that seeing his brother pick on her had been aggravating at best, and watching her trying to cover up that she had been affected by it had not helped his mood.

As far as she was concerned, most of what had happened between them was due to mere happenstance and nothing more.

Which left them at friendship.

He rallied his emotions, hushing them. After all, they'd gone from not knowing each other to acquaintances and now friends. Surely he could be patient enough to get her to think about him as more than a friend. They were young and had their whole lives ahead of them; he shouldn't be in any hurry.

Besides, this particular meeting should have shown him that it really was just a matter of time. As long as he was interpreting her reactions properly, and he was certain that he was, then she was nervous when she thought he was too close to her. But rather than try to put space between them, she was refusing to accept that she was even nervous to begin with. The knowledge gave him the certainty that she wasn't anxious to get away from him or avoid him entirely. Her subconscious was recognizing him as a potential boyfriend, and it was affecting her; her conscious mind just hadn't caught up to that yet.

Reassured by these thoughts, his protesting emotions were more easily quieted and shoved away. He could wait knowing that being more than friends could just be a few reachable horizons away.

Even if he really didn't want to wait.

Especially not when she jutted her bottom lip in that way which meant she was stuck on something and trying to figure the word out. It wasn't just cute; it was like she was begging to get herself kissed.

Pursing his lips, he turned his eyes to the sticky note she had her hand poised over and then to the page she had the book open to. Refusing to look up because he knew she was still making that face, he reached over and grabbed the pencil. He felt her green gaze turn on him, but he simply moved her hand and wrote down the words that had undoubtedly been on the tip of her tongue.

When he pulled away and let her see what he'd written, she squealed softly, humming a quick 'oh thank God, you're a miracle Itachi' before taking her pencil back to build off his notes. He gave into the temptation to blink at her in utter surprise. That was not quite the reaction he'd been expecting even if it was the exact emotion.

He shook his head bemusedly, knowing she wasn't paying him any mind. Reaching around her, he grabbed a sticky note and a spare pencil; then he settled in to get comfortable as he set to the task of writing useful notes for her to reference later on when she put the outline of her paper together.

They were spending time together companionably, and there was still a chance for them to be more than friends. He could live with just this as long as he had something to look forward to. Besides, this was quite enjoyable all on its own in some ways.

Not more than a few hours later, they found themselves leaving the library together, more because the building was closing for the night than the research being anywhere near done. Still, Sakura was immeasurably happy as they walked side-by-side toward the parking lot, if her humming and bright smile were any indication.

It made Itachi smirk just looking at her. The pink-haired teenager could have been compared to a fairy right then, she was so full of energy; she almost seemed to glow, and it was made more apparent by the darkened world all around them. It was early spring, which meant cool days and cooler nights, but she didn't seem all that affected by the crisp night breeze, or at least her good mood seemed impervious to it for the moment. He suspected that by the time she neared her car, she would be happier to be out of the cold than she would be thinking about how much they had gotten done.

They were carrying five books between them, the main resources they'd decided on as these particular books had the most useful information.

He tossed her a curious glance when she started giggling. She shook her head in response. "I can't believe we haven't known each other very long…and I wish we'd met before this."

One dark eyebrow rose in askance.

"I've never met anybody with my sense of humor, and maybe a handful of people who can hold a highly intelligent conversation without thinking less of me when I say something completely idiotic." She paused and turned a teasingly suspicious gaze on him. "You don't think less of me for half the moronic things that come out of my mouth, do you?"

He snorted, intentionally fueling her amusement. "It's balanced by the fourth of the intelligent things you say."

She grinned back at him, and he waited patiently, finding it easy to count backwards from three until realization and indignation danced across her countenance in quick succession. "Hey!" Another pause before she added with a curious lilt, "Wait, what's the missing fourth then?"

"The silence between when you forget what you're about to say." He answered nonchalantly, deciding to add, "Or when it takes you a moment to fully absorb what's been said to you." almost on a whim.

She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, feigning irritation as she stuck her nose in the air with exaggeration. After a moment, her green eyes flicked to him, amusement lighting them up. That was definitely a look he would never tire of seeing, he was sure. And moments like these were sure to be plenty as long as he kept her close.

"Seriously though, I'm glad I got ice cream all over you."

Again he raised an eyebrow. "Be careful how cavalierly you say such things. Someone might take that the wrong way."

She chuckled. "Oh hush; you know exactly what I mean."

He hummed absently.

She smiled at him, stopping in front of a smal,l white car before turning to face him. "Thanks Itachi. It seems I have a knack for owing you one. I still haven't figured out how to pay you back for helping out the last time we saw each other." The mention of the incident at the school clearly made her embarrassed as she shuffled on her feet and looked down.

Thinking about it would have irritated him, but he was satisfied in knowing that his 'little chat' with Sasuke had certainly left its mark. The boy wouldn't be targeting this pretty little girl any more at the very least.

"A thank you is more than enough, Sakura." He told her firmly, and it made her jerk her head up to look him in the eye with a startled look. Itachi couldn't resist teasing her though; it was just too amusing how she reacted. "Although, if you truly feel the need to pay me back…"

"No more shopping." It was immediate and firm and almost made him snort again. So she didn't like clothing shopping; that wouldn't be a problem as far as he was concerned. He handed over the books to her when she motioned for them.

Itachi answered dryly, "That would hardly be appropriate, given the circumstance."

She threw him a half-hearted scowl and made to get in her car, though stopping just after she'd open the door. "You know what? How about I give you my address, and we can discuss this when I haven't just realized that it's coldand I'm freezing my butt off?"

The dark-haired man repressed the urge to blink as she rifled through her purse for those sticky notes and proceeded to write down numbers and words with a small drawing of what her house looked like. He reached out numbly to take it from her when it was offered.

He knew she was giving it to him as a friend, but he couldn't stop the feeling of triumph swelling in his chest. A glance down at the note told him that he had indeed gotten the home address of the girl he liked. Right then, he decided that he could definitely live with 'just friends' for a while longer if she was willing to be this forth coming. Though it did make him curious to know how much more up front she would be with a boyfriend as opposed to a friend.

"Well, we can't have that."

She turned away long enough to shuffle her things around in the passenger seat, supporting her weight on one hand and both knees as she did so.

"No, I like my butt just the way it is."

He was tempted to roll his eyes at that, but stifled it in favor of shutting her door for her as she moved back to sit in the driver's seat. Once she was situated she rolled down the window, grinning at him. "Want a short ride to your car?"

He shook his head and motion vaguely to the next aisle over. "It's not far enough to warrant that."

She shrugged. "If you're sure; then I will see you whenever we run into each other next."

Itachi nodded. "Or whenever we schedule something." He did have her phone number from the last time they'd met after all.

Sakura grinned. "Right, that too. So then I guess I'll probably hear from you before I see you. Well actually, knowing my track record, you'll probably hear from me first." She paused, as if debating whether she had remembered everything, and then finally nodded.

"I will call you later." He assured, not willing to find a pencil or take his hands out of his pockets now that they were safe from the cold, and the sticky note with her address on it was clutched securely in his hands. He could give his house address to her at a later point in time, after all.

She nodded back. "Sounds like a plan. Bye Itachi."

He tipped his head to her and told her goodbye, watching with dark eyes as she rolled her window back up and pulled out of her parking space.