Disclaimer: not mine

Dedication: to Tricky (xelektracrystallis) and to her very happy and very rockin' birthday. Happy birthday!

Whatever You Say

By: Just Lovely.

In which she just went along with it with a smile on her lips and twinkling jade eyes. In which he just stared blankly forward and wondered what was going on in her head.

X.X.x.x.

She was small and average height, pretty but not beautiful. Pink hair and jade eyes; a charming smile – not captivating, just charming. For her age, she was a strange combination of loyal and childish; she wasn't anywhere near perfection.

He was tall and lean, mysterious and drop-dead gorgeous. Dark hair, a lopsided smirk and mesmerizing eyes that held a twinkle that made girls swoon. He was handsome and smart; perfection in the flesh.

Polar opposites; a clash.

Yet, they made the perfect match.

X.X.x.x.

"Where are we going, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked softly. The ends of her hair danced around her as the wind blew on a Spring evening and she felt very free. Breezes gentle and a fresh smell of new life, it was like a new beginning and there were no restraints.

He gave her a mere grunt, soft and barely audible as they continued on the path; a picnic basket hung from one hand and a folded blanket in the other.

She blinked and stared for a second. "Okay then."

And she was okay with not knowing because she trusted Sasuke – trusted him and his drop-dead-gorgeousness and his darkalmostblackbut pretty eyes. Because he was her friend – and then some, or something –, because he was nice, because he was just Sasuke and he didn't act any different.

He glanced back over his shoulder at her, her clear expression and easy-going personality made him wonder what he saw in her and herpinkhairandgreeneyes ensemble. He shook his head, letting dark bangs fall into his eyes – she was perfect anyways.

X.X.x.x.

"It's pretty," she murmured. Her attention was completely set on her dainty fingers fingering the little plastic containers of fruit and cake.

Her and her statements; they always made him laugh and want to smile and just... hold her close to him. He honestly didn't know what she was talking about though. The high view from their perch at the very top of the hill, where the sky was painted in charming dashes of purple, pink, yellow and orange with here and there streaks of red. The sight of a flock of birds who sliced the air open with their straight, angular wings that had feathers of pretty gray shades. Or, the feeling of being there, with him, and being alone. Where it was peaceful and calm.

"Hn."

"Okay then. Do you want some cake?"

He fought the urge to wrinkle his nose; he didn't quite like sweets, though.

...-...

"Can we go take a walk?" She was swinging her bare arms and letting her pretty white-with-pink-and-red-printed-flower dress twirl around her. She was excitement with acceleration coursing in her veins and she smiled at him. Lopsided and not perfect, but she still felt freedom even though she wasn't like a bird who could take into the sky on stable wings. She couldn't fly, but she could dream.

She was mesmerizing.

"Hn."

And he got up, patting down invisible dirt and fallen leaves away from his clothes as he strode gracefully towards her. A small smirk winding its way up to his lips, perking the ends up until it met the glimmer in his eyes. She was a dream that made his heart pound and his blood run cold, but all in the positivity that was bathed in her presence. The golden sun that had pink hair and green eyes.

.

.

He was so pretty, it should be illegal.

.

.

Sakura interlocked her hands behind her back and let her pink hair fall over her eyes and around her shoulders. She let the wind rush through her; let adrenaline and a rush of comfort fall over her. She let him be silent because that was what he was. She let him be him because that was what made him so important to her.

She would let herself die before he changed, because he was just Sasuke who did little things that meant so much if you read between the lines. She didn't care if he had the looks or the brains, the money or the status; because just being there, with him, it was enough.

"The sky is pretty." She smiled, green eyes hiding behind dark lashes and bright cotton candy hair.

"Yeah..."

He looked lost in his thoughts and she just quietly found herself falling a little closer to his side.

X.X.x.x.

He cast a small glance over at her; her and her flawless face; her and all her mistakes; her and just only, Sakura.

"What's a memorable night to you," he asked, eyes locking with hers as a careful lopsided smirk formed on his lips.

She put a finger to her lips in thought, "When everything's not perfect but right in so many ways."

"Aa."

"What's a memorable night to you," she questioned him, her voice carrying a soft ring of bells and chimes that sounded so calm in the starlit black night.

"When everything is right."

She pondered over his response, her finger twirling in her hair. Her lips pursed, her brows furrowed and her jade eyes shining. Finally, she said, a bit airily, simply, "We think alike."

He grunted because he couldn't have said it in any more or fewer words.

X.X.x.x.

"Sasuke-kun...? Why are we out here?"

This time, Sasuke answered. He sighed, and said, "Because we're having a picnic at night while staring at the stars."

Okay, so maybe his answer wasn't the complete truth... but it wasn't anything that far off either.

"Okay."

She sat back down onto the blanket, curling her knees underneath her as she stared at the twinkling lights in the sky, feeling his warmth beside her.

"You go along with everything."

His phrase was incomplete, not quite a question, not quite a statement and it made her look at him quizzically. "What?"

"You don't question anything," he specified and stared over her head at the darkened horizon.

"I don't want to pry in matters that don't have anything to do with me." she replied like it was the most simple and obvious answer in the world.

He looked at her through dark eyes, contemplative. " So if someone pried in something that had nothing to do with them, it'd be wrong?"

She half-grinned at him, cheerful and playful, "I'm not saying anything like that actually."

He gave her a look, to tell her to continue but it fell to blind eyes.

She piped out, "Let's play a game."

The corner of his lips quirked, "A game?"

"Let's play Truth."

His smirk fumbled and fell into a frown at her last word, "That's a girl game."

And she was just a little offended; she quirked a brow as she teased him, half-heartedly and half serious. "Is not, unless you're afraid that your secrets will get out Sasuke-kun. I swear not to tell."

He narrowed dark eyes at her, challengingly, "Bring it."

And so it started.

X.X.x.x.

"What's your favourite colour?"

He heaved a sigh and couldn't quite believe why he was playing such a chick game. He shifted in his position, as he lazily drawled, "Navy blue." Seconds later he asked, "What's your favourite food?"

"Carrot cake. What's your favourite day?"

"I said food, not dessert, Sakura." He shook his head and nonetheless answered, "Friday. What's your favourite phrase?"

"Ugh, what... fine. Don't have one." She pouted and crossed her arms. And then she remembered his question. "'You're stupid.' What's your favourite room?"

"Wha–hey. You never said there was that option. My bedroom. What's your favourite place?" He broodingly rolled his dark eyes at the insignificant questioning.

"You never asked." she replied simply, shrugging her shoulders. " The library. If you could be someone else, who would you be?" she was quite satisfied with keeping him talking just to hear his voice, it was very pretty, really.

Sasuke froze a little, eyes just widening a little and he was just the perfect example to a tongue being caught by a cat. "...hn."

"'Hn.' is not a word, Sasuke-kun. I'm expecting an answer you know."

There was something about the tone she used that made him think twice about his answer; it was as if she knew what would trip him up in this overly girly sleepover game.

He grumbled something incoherent because Uchiha Sasuke never backed down from anything and never took any free cards. He had pride and dignity as an Uchiha, although of what was left; he didn't want to think about.

Sakura's brow furrowed and she leaned closer to him. "What? I'm sorry, I didn't hear that. Speak up now, Sasuke-kun."

"...my father," he muttered sullenly with a little red brushing over the pale cheekbones of his face.

"Aw, how cute!" she giggled, teasingly, playful, cutely. "Now, now. No sad faces Sasuke-kun, we're playing a game"

Sasuke ignored her earlier comment and just grumbled, "...if you had to do something embarrassing, would you do it?"

She tilted her head. "Embarrassing...? It depends on what it is."

He peered at her through the dark bangs that covered the blush on his cheeks, "I dunno, like a dare to kiss some guy that you had a secret crush on or something."

Sakura's eyes widened a fraction for a brief second, "You're such a girl, Sasuke-kun. Only those really annoying, prodding girls would say that; you know, like Ino." Here, she giggled. "Well I guess so, why not right? Might as well get it done with something rewarding in the end. What about you?"

"...I'm not Sakura..." he looked at her blankly, annoyed and slightly shocked that she would have even said anything akin to that. "No."

"You are so like that, Sasuke-kun. Stop denying it because underneath that 'tough man' exterior, you're as much as a girl as Ino. And why not? It can't be that bad, it's a dare; Sasuke-kun. Not a request for your life."

There was something about her childish curiosity that made him regret ever joining this stupid game of

'Truth' where you had to tell the truth and nothing but the truth.

"That's not the game, Sakura."

"It is too, it's a question, so there." she pouted at him, cherry lips puckering.

"...just because."

"Ugh, fine. Whatever. So then...why'd you bring me out here?"

The ice breaker question.

"To have a picnic and stare at the stars."

"Isn't that a little too...cliché for you?" Sakura said, a little odd-stricken.

"...it's just a picnic Sakura, it's not a novel you have to pick apart and analyze." he retorted as he rolled dark eyes.

"So? I just wanna know the real reason."

"That is the real reason." he was trying really hard not to stare right at her, into the endless pools of green that seemed to be quick and observant.

"Is not and I can totally tell." she snapped, a serious pique in her tone and a frustrated edge to her voice.

"Why do you have to make things so complicated?"

"Well I'm sor-ry if I'm making things hard on you, because it's obviously not on me." there was sarcasm in her words, laced around and around as she crossed her arms and stared out into the hillside.

He stared at her, blank and questioningly, "What are you talking about now?" he sighed, he never would understand women and their many mood swings.

"I always have to pick apart each of your sentences because there's like this deeper meaning behind your words; do you know how hard that is for me. I hardly even know you," she threw back at him, anger flashing in her once calm green eyes as she stood up.

It struck deep in Sasuke for a moment, "I...it...this...it's not like that." He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated, "I just wanted to take you out, okay? Is that so wrong," he countered. He was standing in front of her now.

She stopped for a moment, a frozen look on her face, "What did you say?"

"I just...wanted to take you out." he mumbled, a little flush on his cheeks but his eyes still levelled with hers.

"Mmm, ummmm..."

He rose an eyebrow at her incoherent words and blinked, "What?"

"Umm...well, " and suddenly, she found it very hard to look at him right then, " Mmmm, okay then."

She shifted her weight from one leg to the other, unsure of what to do. It was a little awkward...well more like a lot, but whatever because she never really expected something like that to be uttered out through his lips, in his voice as he directed it to her.

"Whatever you say, Sakura."

And he sat back down, determined to put whatever bizarre moment that just happened, behind them.

She plopped right back down beside him, a curious and oddly playful smile on her chap stick lips.

Sakura looked at him with a gleam in her eyes that just told him that she wasn't up to anything good, at all. "So...do you like me, Sasuke-kun?" the anger was gone, and a teasing tone moved in.

.

.

Talk about mood swings.

.

.

His face froze over for a brief second and then became composed, "You are my friend, Sakura. I kind of have to like you."

She rose a fine eyebrow at him, a silent question of his intelligence. "You did say you wanted to take me out; which also translates to a date."

His face took on a pale scarlet colour and from the look she was giving him, he could see that he was nailed, dead on centre.

...-...

"See? Wasn't that so easy?" she asked him, her head tucked under his chin, his arms around her and her back against his chest as they sat against the old trunk of the tree. Sakura felt a hurricane of emotions seize her, a cunning coy smile and a burst of excitement and acceptance. A happiness, a little confusion and maybe more. But right then, in his arms, it was something like a bliss moment that she never wanted to forget.

"Hn."

And despite getting it all out of his system, he was in absolutely no mood to share it with the whole world.

Sakura was his.

Because after much persuading – sly comments, little flushes of his pale cheeks, a little smile, a little pout, a taunt, and a kiss – she had him.

Hook, line and sinker.

X.X.x.x.

W-h-a-t-e-v-e-r Y-o-u S-a-y

Much thanks to les (xfucktheglasses) for being a wonderful Beta.

And don't forget to leave whatever you want to say!