love at first sight
theeflowerchild

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When they meet, he is too stricken with her.

He's never felt like this before. This painful consumption leaves him wanting, like for the sun after a harsh winter, for cold water after a stifling summer. He wants to devour her.

She's beautiful in the strangest way, mis-matching and a fairy-like. She has short, straight, petal-pink hair with long bangs covering a generous forehead. Her large, mint eyes sparkle under the string-lights strung across the deck, pure and pretty. She has an adorable, button nose and peachy, sun-kissed skin, fitting from the harsh summer they've only nearly made it through. Her pouty lips are red and clashing, and she looks like a little doll, with perfectly round cheeks and still short in her high heels. Her sundress is too pretty for a party stuffed with overgrown children ringing in a balmy fall.

She sticks out like a sore thumb, a bottle of water in her hands in a sea of red-solo-cups, misplaces and perfect.

It takes a mere twenty seconds for Sasuke Uchiha to realize that he's, without a doubt, painfully smitten for this girl.

He's snapped out of it by a painful clap on his soda. "Uchiha, you okay? Whatcha lookin' at?" Suigetsu scans the area in front of them, and Sasuke is confused and elated when he doesn't notice the pretty pinkette only a few yards away. "Lost someone?"

Sasuke purses his lips, taking a small nibble of the pretzels he collected in his hands moments ago, the consolation prize of the designated driver. He nods his head as nonchalantly as possible to the girl. "Who's that?"

Suigetsu's eyebrows furrow in confusion, dark eyes scrutinizing the deck. "No idea. She's cute; I can find out if you want."

He lets out a drawn sigh, wracking a hand through his messy, dark hair in silent frustration. His eyes narrow at the peculiar girl before he reaches into his pocket and removes a pack of cigarettes, gently packing them in his hands. He pushes open the sliding-glass-door, muttering an, "I'll be back," and fishes for his lighter. He pushes a cigarette between his lips, slides the door closed behind him, and lights up.

He takes a long, slow drag. It makes him warm, and light-headed. He approaches the woman, tries to get her attention, only to pause when she starts coughing.

His lips turn into a scowl when she twirls around, a look of disgust on her tiny face. "Smoking kills," she tells him. Her voice is sweet and sing-song, melodious and pretty. He thinks his brain is melting. "You should really quit."

At a loss for words, he manages to quip, "and who are you to say that?" hoping it will get him a name.

She shrugs and tells him, "A future doctor, of course."

"Future doctor," he reiterates. He takes one last drag of his cigarette before pushing it into an ash-tray, gone so soon. He purses his lips and decides to introduce himself first, despite the butterflies fluttering viciously in his stomach. "I'm Sasuke."

She pushes a lock of pink hair behind her ears, her long earring making a metal, clinking sound. "Nice to meet you, I'm Sakura."

Sasuke curses himself for not getting her number.

He can't forget choppy, pink hair, and a tiny, heart-shaped face. He can't forget full, green eyes and a heated, flushed face. He can't forget a woman that tore into him like they weren't strangers. He can't forget Sakura.

His mind drifts to images of a girl he doesn't know. There are too many Sakura's in the world, so she's impossible to find on social media, and even with access to hospital directories, he can't find a single Sakura completing an internship, or even a fellowship if he's entirely off about her age. Sasuke doesn't believe in fate, but he's listened to Naruto enough times in his life to at least hope this girl might show up again.

So she does.

On a Monday morning, of all days, and a hot one; summer still lingers in the start of fall, and Sasuke leaves with his standard-issue lab coat hanging over his messenger bag and decides to walk to work before a cool breeze settles in his bones with the start of winter. He missed the train, anyway. He takes a long sip of his coffee, and it's not hot enough. His shirt is too wrinkled because he couldn't find his iron this morning. He missed breakfast, his hair looks wild and in desperate need of a haircut, and he swears he's coming down with something, throat scratchy and cheeks gently flushed.

It is only when he trips frantically in front of the nurses' station, coffee spilling all over the clean floor, that he notices a fresh-faced pinkette in baby-blue scrubs and whiter than white keds chatting with the head nurse.

She turns to him and her features mesh into panic, and just as quickly into a kind laugh. "Are you okay?" she asks, as he catches himself on the counter. She presses an amiable hand to his shoulder, pushing her hair behind her ear with her free hand. Her earrings jingle. "Can I get you anything, sir?"

He barely notices the nurse mutter into her walkie-talkie, "janitor to the fourth-floor nurses' station immediately," because Sakura is right here, and she's touching him, and he looks like a mess, and his coffee is on the floor, and she's touching him.

"You're, uh, you're Sakura," he starts, and begins to pick up his empty cup off the floor. "Right?"

"Yes… Do I know you?" she asks, and her amusement suddenly changes to confusion.

It only then dawns on him that she may have no idea who he is, she may not have been constantly thinking of him since there not-so-grand meeting at a dumb end of summer party, he may not plague her thoughts like she does his. Instead of mentioning this, though, he frowns, and says, "I'm Sasuke... Uchiha, we met at a party, a few weeks ago..."

He sees the realization grow on her face, and suddenly she's grinning, so beautiful, so full. "Oh right! You're the guy that was smoking." Then her grin falls. "You've got to be kidding me. You're a doctor and you smoke?" Her eyes narrow at his name-tag.

"A psychologist," he corrects her, receiving a file from a nurse at the same time. He gives the nurse a nod, indicating a thank you, before returning his attention to the seemingly short girl in front of him. "What are you doing here?"

"I recall telling you that I was a future doctor, Mr. Uchiha, if you don't remember," she explains, but he does remember; he remembers everything from their conversation. "I'm interning here for Tsunade Senju to try to get into a better college, y'know? It'll look super-good on my transcript that I was chosen to follow her around. Plus, it will also count as community service, which I need if I want to graduate…"

He drops the file.

He ignores the nurse's, "oh, come on," and refrains from tearing his own hear out, seeing as he's likely ten-years older than this girl, if not more, and his almost disgusted with himself for letting a—what, sixteen, seventeen-year old girl plague his mind for a week.

"Good luck then," he tells her when he sees Tsunade approaching from down the hall, heels clicking loudly and a ferocious look on her face. "Maybe I'll see you around."

He does.

It is only hours later when he sees her in the cafeteria, eating dinner by herself. It is six o' clock, around the time when he breaks for a breath and some coffee. It's rare he decides to eat a meal, so he knows its fate that he sees her bludgeoning a pile of spaghetti with her fork. She looks lonely and tired, but her eyes are filled with something like excitement, maybe pride.

He doesn't know why, but after he grabs a plate of the limp spaghetti in the brown-looking sauce, he finds a seat across from her. She looks up with wide eyes, but grins at the familiar face. "Hello, Mr. Uchiha!"

He nods a greeting and begins twirling his spaghetti. "How was your first day?"

She lights up at the question. "It's not over yet, but it's going great! Tsunade is incredible!" She is grinning like a fool and he feels his stomach fill with treacherous butterflies for the vibrant young-lady across from him.

"Damn, she's not done with you yet? What a slave-driver." He sighs, knowing how strict the blonde is, but knows for a fact that there is no better teacher anybody could have if aspiring to become a doctor. "How long are you here for?"

"Um, let me think…" she trails off, biting her lip and wracking her brain. He thinks it's adorable, but nearly hits himself for thinking so (she's in high school she's in high school she's in high school) and waits for her reply. "I took off school today for my first day, but from then on, I'm here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday directly after school until ten PM, and then on Saturdays I come here at three PM and leave at two AM," she confirms herself by saying, "Yeah, that sounds about right."

"That's a lot for a high school senior though, don't you think?" he asks and almost winces when he reiterates the fact that she's in high school.

She shrugs. "I'm capable."

"I didn't say you weren't," he assures her. "How old are you, anyway?"

"I'll be eighteen in March," she explains and he nearly gags. "If you don't mind me asking, how old are you? You look so young!"

"I'll be twenty-eight next month," he supplies and her eyes widen.

"Wow, I never would've guessed that you were that old!" He cringes at the word old, hating the fact that he seems like an elder to her or something, but notices her blush deeply. She corrects herself, "Not that you're old! You just look super young, Mr. Uchiha!"

"I work at a hospital; how old did you think I was?"

"Well, I knew you were in your twenties, but maybe twenty-three or twenty-four?" she tells him, "You look like you're fresh out of college."

"So do you," he mumbles, but regrets saying such a thing, realizing how ridiculous it sounded.

She doesn't take notice to his nerves. "I get that a lot."

"What school do you go to?" he asks, quickly changing the subject. He takes a large bite of his spaghetti, noting that it's not as putrid as it looks.

"Leaf High, in the city." She finally takes a bite of her spaghetti, frowning at the fact that it has gone cold so quickly.

"Impressive," he compliments.

She smiles. "Thank you." She peers down at her phone that's on the table, clicking the front button to read the time. She sighs, "I have to get going, or Tsunade will murder me. It's been a few hours and I'm already terrified of her!" She giggles. "At least I'm learning something. I'll see you around!" She scurries off, throwing her unfinished food in the trash.

He smiles softly at her retreating back, cursing fate in his head for throwing him such a curve-ball as this one. He knows he can't win; she is seventeen and he is twenty-eight and not only is that illegal, but what would she want with an older man, anyway? Plus, it would go against his morals; he can't take advantage of a young girl.

He is confused, to say the least, but if there is one thing he is sure about, that feeling from the party has not left his system and he is almost positive this is the girl he is supposed to end up with. This is his other half, the girl he will one day marry and live happily-ever-after with.

Uchiha Sasuke is beyond totally smitten for the pink haired girl who is ten-years younger than him, ten times more beautiful than any woman he has ever met, and more than ten spaces out of his reach.

edited: 2/15/2020