1. I suggest Googling "carrel" if you don't know what it is. It's a minor detail, but hey, a new word added to your vocabulary is always a good thing.

2. I was going for funny-cute, not really funny-ha-ha. Please adjust your expectations accordingly.

Sakura was holding open a medical scroll and jotting down notes when she felt it. Something shifted in the air next to her right ear. She tensed momentarily before snapping her head to the side and nearly slamming her nose directly into Sai's face before instinctively pulling back. He cocked his head to the side contemplatively and leaned a little closer to her again, undeterred by the sudden flurry of motion. "You smell like," he took a deep breath, "shampoo," inhale "detergent," a longer inhale as he furrowed his brows together "and, something else. Skin maybe? I'm not sure what you'd call it." He promptly disappeared back behind the divider between their carrels and his voice became muted. "Not like strawberries or wind or cut grass" he mused and Sakura could hear the faint scratching of a pen on paper.

"What?" she blurted out, so thoroughly confused she couldn't manage to be either embarrassed or angry that Sai just smelled me.

Sai reappeared, a book in hand. "I was researching friendship, which lead to romantic relationships and I thought it would be useful to read a romance novel, but it's been rather confusing." The book was annotated with small colored tabs, his hand holding open a page marked in blue. "The descriptions of the main characters don't seem to be realistic."

Fighting back a blush, Sakura reach over and tipped the book up so she could see the cover. She recognized the cover art as a novel she'd seen Ino with recently. She had met Ino and Hinata for lunch a few days ago and the two had talked excitedly about it. From what she could remember it was about a boy and a girl who were in love but couldn't be together for some reason or another. Ino had just kept declaring "he's sooooo hot" and Hinata would nod and sigh "and soooo romantic" and they'd stare dreamily off into the middle distance for a moment before continuing their conversation. Sakura had quickly tired of looking over her shoulder to see what they were staring at (nothing) and managed to steer the conversation elsewhere.

She relaxed. It wasn't Icha Icha. She could handle this and maybe she now was just a little bit curious herself. "What doesn't make sense?"

"The author describes the female lead as 'smelling like wind on a cool day'. How could a human smell like wind? Wind carries other smells, but it doesn't have an odor itself. And then another time," Sai flipped to another blue tabbed page, "she's described as smelling like cinnamon. But the characters had just spent the night together in a barn. It seems unlikely that she would smell like cinnamon after such an event."

Sakura nodded, it didn't particularly make any sense. She had always read those sort of passages without any real thought to the realism of them, but Sai saw everything from a very different perspective. "Why did you smell me, though?"

Sai looked up from the book at her. "I wondered if maybe there was something I had missed. Maybe women while they're teenagers smell differently to attract men. I hadn't read anything in any of my biology references, but I thought it would be useful to investigate this myself."

"So I don't smell good?" Sakura suddenly felt a bit self-conscious.

"You smell fine. Very clean." Sai had already returned to his book, but had now pulled his chair around so it was facing her. He flipped this time to a red tabbed page. "Here," he said, turning the book towards her slightly, "the male main character is described as smelling like 'the forest after the rain.' Now that is a very particular odor and I grant that it is pleasant in a way, but again it is unlikely that a person would themselves smell like that when not in the woods after it had rained." Sakura glanced at the page, but Sai was on a roll now. "In fact, all the smell related references to the male lead are very nature based. Here," he flipped to another blue tabbed page, "cut grass. Here," a new page "dried leaves. The character is a son of a wealthy merchant; I don't understand why he would smell like that."

Sakura laughed. "I think the author is trying to make him seem either a bit wild or," she thought for a moment, tapping her pen against the desktop, "maybe earthy and therefore safe."

"Earthy smells imply safety?"

"Kind of? I hadn't really thought of this too much before. The girl is probably just supposed to smell good. I guess the wind thing could imply wildness too."

Sai nodded thoughtfully. "Her character has to be convinced to have a relationship with the male. She declares early on that she will never get married."

"Ah, then maybe the transition from wind to cinnamon is supposed to represent her settling down." Sakura was enjoying herself now. It was a shame that the literature courses at the ninja academy were so perfunctory. This was kind of fun.

"So it's just a literary device?"

"Probably. I think they tell authors to try to engage all the reader's senses or something. It's supposed to make the scene more compelling. Or something."

"They?" Sai asked, mid note taking.

"Argh, I don't know. People who teach writing?" Why did Sai have to be so literal?

He nodded and turned fully back to his carrel to add to his list of notes. "It makes more sense now. Thank you."

Sakura smiled to herself and returned to her scroll. The last few weeks had been strangely pleasant. She would spend the mornings in the library doing research for Tsunade, eat lunch with Ino or Hinata if they were available, then train in the afternoon after watching Naruto and Kakashi for a bit. Sai had taken to joining her in the carrels about a week earlier. This corner of the library was so remote and empty that it didn't matter if he asked her questions about his own research into relationships and emotions. It had been a bit tiresome at first, but now she was getting the hang of his questions and seeming non sequiturs.

Ten minutes passed. "Sakura?"

"Yes, Sai?" she responded, not looking up from her notes. She could feel that he had turned towards her again in his chair.

"This seems to be related to the smell literary device, but it could be more plausible. When the characters kiss, the female lead is always described as tasting like strawberries or sweet things." Sakura looked up at him, unsure of what he was going to say or suggest next. Sai was still intent on the book, this time the page was marked with a yellow tab. "I guess," he said, looking up at her, his brows quirked slightly, "that she could have eaten something sweet and it stayed with her."

"I guess…" Sakura drew out slowly. Where was this going?

Sai nodded looking back down at the page. "They don't talk about what she ate though and how long ago it was. What did you have for breakfast?"

And, yes, this IS where this is going Sakura thought to herself. "Toast with jam, yogurt, and some tea" she replied, her tone guarded. Probably.

Face now as blank as an ANBU mask he asked "do you think you'd still taste like those things?"

Sakura sucked her teeth. "Possibly, I don't really know."

"Could I taste you?"

Only Sai could pose a question like that – so that it sounded perfectly innocent and perfectly filthy at the same time. He somehow hadn't actually equated it with kissing her though. That was odd. And odder still, Sakura was suddenly curious. Did she still taste like her breakfast? What would Sai taste like? What would it be like to kiss Sai? Sakura hadn't kissed anyone yet and was starting to worry that when she finally did her lack of experience would be embarrassing. Well, here was a pretty low pressure opportunity. The boy hadn't even made the connection.

"Uh, sure, why not?" She let out a long breath and turned fully towards him. Sai leaned forward and Sakura closed her eyes and tried to relax. This is just a science experiment. Try to pay attention to the details. His lips were on hers and his mouth was slightly open. Warm her mind registered. His lips were soft on hers as he held them there momentarily before swiping his tongue into her mouth. Her eyes shot open to catch Sai pulling away looking thoughtful. Does that count? Aren't you supposed to open and close your mouth? That tongue thing is weird.

"You don't taste like jam or toast" he said slowly. He leaned back in, catching her chin this time with his hand to hold her in place and pressed his lips to hers again. This time Sakura pressed back a bit, closed her mouth slightly and then opened it again. That's how it works, I think. Sai pulled back, but held on to her chin. "You don't taste like yogurt or tea either." He looked somewhat confused.

"What do I taste like then?" Sakura felt just a little bit breathy for a moment. That wasn't terrible.

"You tasted like…" he paused and dropped her chin "like warm. Can you taste like warm? That doesn't even make sense." He now looked hopelessly confused.

She laughed. "I guess. I mean, that's the only way I could describe how you tasted." Sai looked surprised; he apparently hadn't realized that this could be a two directional investigation. "It wasn't a bad taste, you tasted pretty nice." She felt giddy. She had done it.

"I wonder if everyone tastes different. It seems like they would," he mused. Now there's an idea. Who else could she kiss as an experiment? Sai seemed to be looking around thinking the same thing and began to gather up his books. Uh oh, I better nip this in the bud before it gets out of hand.

"Sai, I wouldn't go around asking people if you can taste them," she started. Sai turned back to her in askance. "Um, we just kissed, you realize."

Sai blinked. "I guess we did. I hadn't thought of it that way."

"Yeah," Sakura measured out, "I didn't either until just now." You are such a little liar. "It was, uh, an experiment. So it's best not to just go up to people asking to taste them. Unless you want to kiss them. But still that's probably not the best line."

"Line?"

"Uh, I'll explain that tomorrow?" I think I need to get myself out of here before I cause any more damage. "I need to take this up to Tsunade now," she said and began hastily gathering her things.

Sai nodded, "thank you, Sakura. I appreciate the help and understanding."

She was going straight to hell. She grinned up at him, "anytime, Sai."

Cools, I wrote another story. This was much, much faster to write which hopefully reflects that writing fluffy humor is easier than angst rather than reflecting poorly upon the quality of the writing. This might be a small commentary on the over-use of "Sakura tasted like cherries" I see sometimes. Like cherries? Who tastes like cherries? And who smells like "the woods"? I've hiked a decent portion of the Appalachian Trail and those people in the woods hiking the trail with you don't smell like the woods. They smell BAD. Very bad. And after two days, so will you!

Please tell me if it was actually funny, that'd be good to know. And if you use the term LOL (wow, that'd be intensely awesome) please specify if it was a metaphorical LOL (I grinned) or a literal LOL (people looked at me because I was laughing out loud). Kids these days with their non-literal text speak. ROTFL? Youtube isn't that funny.

Oh, and this might possibly not be a one-shot. I have a little scene between Sakura, Ino, and Hinata floating around in my head. So a mindless two-shot it could be!