Work Text:
sasuke sat on the couch, staring down at his phone at nothing in particular. around him, his friends were decorating his apartment for naruto’s surprise party. really though, they weren’t his friends, they were naruto’s, but his best friend forced him to socialize with them enough that he could tolerate them for the most part. he had done his part by getting plates and cups, and was now watching with a frown as they rearranged his apartment to put up decorations.
“sasuke, be useful for once and go pick up the cake,” shikamaru called from the kitchen. “hinata just texted that it wasn’t ready when she tried to get it earlier, and she doesn’t want to take naruto with her to get it and make him suspicious.”
sasuke sighed, reluctantly getting up from his spot on the couch and heading into the kitchen. he leaned against the wall and glared at shikamaru, who was rearranging his fridge to fit the excessive amount of drinks that had been purchased for the party.
he really hated people messing with his things.
“where am i going?”
“babycakes,” shikamaru responded, not looking away from the fridge. “i assume it’s under hinata’s name, but it might be under naruto’s, i’m not sure. she hasn’t responded.”
“okay, but where is that?”
this time, shikamaru did turn around, only to look at sasuke like he was an idiot.
“how do you not know where babycakes is? it’s like the most popular bakery around.”
“i don’t like sweets,” sasuke shrugged. shikamaru rolled his eyes, returning to his task of putting drinks in the fridge.
“okay i’m-too-good-for-sweets-gym-bro.”
“i don’t dislike them because they’re unhealthy, i dislike them because they are literally too sweet. i don’t like the taste,” he replied, pulling out his phone to look up the place, since shikamaru was obviously enjoying him not knowing something too much to actually give him the address. he heard choji mumble something that sounded like “said no one ever,” from the living room, followed by a laugh from kiba. sasuke rolled his eyes again.
“tell hinata i’ll be back with the cake in a half hour,” he told shikamaru as he found the address, grabbing his keys on his way to the door.
fifteen minutes later, he stood in front of the bakery. it was a small shop, easy to miss if you weren’t looking for it, which surprised him given how popular shikamaru made it out to be. “babycakes” was printed in pink letters on the glass, and the door was a soft cotton-candy pink. in all honesty, he’d probably walked right past the building more than a dozen times on his way to school without even noticing it.
he walked in, and was instantly hit with the smell of fresh-baked cookies. his nose scrunched up a bit, the smell overwhelming him as he walked up to the counter, looking around for someone who worked here. noticed a sign on the counter, informing customers that they would be back in 5. again, he was shocked at how popular shikamaru made this place out to be. he pulled out his phone, texting shikamaru that he was waiting for the cake, unsurprised that he was eventually left on read.
“sorry about that!” a female voice said, pulling his attention away from his phone. he looked up and paused, his eyes widening as they met a girl with pink hair. it was tied up in a pony-tail, and she was smiling despite the fact that she was covered in flour. “there was a little mishap in the back, i went to help clean up.”
“spilled flour?” sasuke guessed, making the girl laugh as she looked down at herself. her laugh sent goosebumps down his arms.
“guess it’s kinda obvious, huh. anyways, what can i get for ya?” she smiled, looking at him expectantly. he froze for a moment, trying to remember what he was there for. he was more focused on the fact that even covered in flour she was the prettiest person he’d ever seen.
he shook his head, realizing he’d been staring at her way longer than was socially acceptable.
“i’m, uh, here to pick up a cake. i want to say it’s going to be under hyuga, but it might be under uzumaki. sorry, i don’t know what name they used.”
“gimme one second,” she nodded, the smile never leaving her face. she walked over and poked her head back into what he assumed was the kitchen. “do we have any cake orders for pick-up? great, thanks.”
she came back with a much larger box than he was expecting, setting it on the counter. she opened the box, and his eyes widened again when he was the design on the cake. it was an intricate orange fox, naruto’s favorite animal, but the detail was incredible. he was could understand why this place was apparently the most popular if the food tasted as good as the designs were.
“does it look alright?” she said, frowning slightly as sasuke just continued to stare at it. he shook, his head, looking up at her with a small smile.
“no, no, sorry, it looks amazing. i‘m honestly shocked at how good it looks, my friend’s going to love it.”
instantly her smile was back, looking down at the cake with pride.
“i helped with the borders,” she said, closing the box and pulling a spool of pink ribbon from a drawer.
“that was my favorite part,” he said, instantly regretting it. he felt his face start to heat up even more when the girl laughed. he noticed a faint blush on her cheeks as she tied the ribbon around the box. she slid a business card underneath the bow once it was tied, giving sasuke another smile.
“it was paid for in advance, so you’re good to go. hope your friend likes it.”
he grabbed the box, making sure to support the bottom so he didn’t ruin it on the walk back. shikamaru would never, ever let him live that down.
“thank you. i’m sure he’ll love it,” he nodded. “have a nice rest of the day.”
“thanks, you too,” she smiled, giving him a small wave before heading into the back again. he stood there for another minute staring at the door she left through before he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, most likely a text from shikamaru telling him to get his ass back to the apartment with the cake. he shook his head again as he walked out the door, hurrying back to his apartment before the cake could get ruined.
a few days later he found himself across the street from babycakes, staring at the pink door. he’d been standing there for a good three minutes, his back aching and begging him to go home and take his backpack off after walking around campus all day. instead, he was seriously debating going back to the bakery to see if the girl with pink hair was working. what he needed from a bakery, he had absolutely no idea, but a minute later he found himself walking through the front door.
the girl with pink hair was standing behind the counter, chatting with an older woman, her clothes free of flour this time. she glanced up as the door opened, recognition crossing her face as she sent him a smile.
“will i see you tomorrow, dear?” the woman asked her, picking up a pastry box from the counter.
“unfortunately not betsy, i’ve got class. i’ll be here thursday morning, though,” she smiled, waving as the old woman walked past sasuke out the door. once she was gone, she turned to sasuke, her smile widening. “how’d your friend like the cake?”
“he thought it was the coolest thing ever. his girlfriend was really happy with how it turned out too.”
he didn’t think her smile could get bigger, but it did. he really liked her smile.
“and what about you, did you like it?”
“i don’t have much of a sweet tooth, so it was a little bit too sugary for me, but yeah, it was good. i liked the cake part,” he said, feeling slightly bad that he didn’t enjoy it as much as everyone else. he wasn’t lying though, he had shocked everybody by actually trying a piece. he actually didn’t mind the cake, but the one bite of the frosting made his stomach hurt.
“yeah, our buttercream is sweeter than most. i’m not gonna lie though, i could eat a whole bowl of it. you kind of have to have a sweet tooth to work here,” she laughed, resting an arm on the counter.
“is pink hair a requirement too?” he asked, motioning to the interior of the restaurant, most of which was the same light pink color as the front door.
“nah, that was just me being stressed out during finals my freshman year of college. my friends convinced me to keep the color, and it worked in my favor when i applied here. i matched the vibe, so to speak,” she explained, glancing around the restaurant fondly. she looked back at sasuke with wide eyes, as if realizing that she was in fact at work. “i’m getting distracted, sorry. i’m kinda all over the place if you can’t tell. anyways, what can i get for you?”
he had not thought this far ahead. he glanced at the bakery case, his eyes widening at the selection, most of which he had never seen before and had no idea what they could taste like. who knew bakeries were this overwhelming.
“what’s your favorite? i’ll trust your judgement since you work here.”
she smiled again, her eyes lighting up. she pulled a box off the shelf and headed over to the bakery case, pulling out what was probably the largest muffin sasuke had ever seen. she sealed the box with a sticker, bringing it back over to the register.
“it’s a cranberry orange muffin. probably on the simpler side of most of our stuff, and personally i don’t think it’s overly sweet. definitely not as sweet as the buttercream, don’t worry,” she smiled. a small smile crossed sasuke’s face as well as he realized she took into consideration his comment about not having much of a sweet tooth. he pulled his phone out of his pocket, holding it up to the card reader to pay. “i’m sakura, by the way.”
“sasuke,” he replied, putting his phone back into his pocket once it popped up that his card was accepted. he picked up the muffin box, nodding at her in thanks. “have a good one.”
“you too,” she smiled.
he tried the muffin when he got home 15 minutes later, and she was right, it was definitely less sweet than the frosting had been. to sasuke’s own surprise, he actually kind of liked it. even then though, he barely made it through half the muffin before it became too sweet for him.
“whatcha eating?” naruto asked, running a hand through his hair as he walked into the kitchen. sasuke rolled his eyes as he took in his friend’s bed head and pajamas at 2:00pm, figuring that he had once again stayed up until god knows what time playing video games.
“a muffin from babycakes, want the rest of it?”
naruto immediately sat down across from him at the small table, breaking a piece off the muffin.
“shit, this isn’t some organic, no sugar, no carb muffin either. who are you and what have you done to sasuke?” naruto joked, taking another bite of the muffin.
“why do all of you think i’m some sort of health freak?” sasuke mumbled, crossing his arms as he watched naruto eat the rest of the muffin. “i just don’t have a sweet tooth. that’s perfectly normal.”
“no, it’s not. you’re just a weirdo who doesn’t enjoy happy things, such as sugar,” naruto shrugged, smiling at his friend.
it was truly amazing to most people that naruto and sasuke were best friends. sasuke was a neat freak with a 4.0 who rarely stayed up past 11pm unless he was studying for an exam, and in all honesty, disliked most people. naruto on the other hand was the polar opposite. the only reason you were able to see the floor in his room was because he finally got tired of his girlfriend telling him to clean it, and he slept more during the day than he did at night. he was also the friendliest person on the planet, and downright terrible at school. it honestly shocked sasuke that he hadn’t dropped out of college yet.
“anyways, hinata’s coming over in like an hour, is that cool?” naruto asked, taking the last bite of the muffin. “also, this muffin was fucking amazing.”
“yeah, that’s fine, i’m probably just gonna be in my room working on homework anyways.”
“when are you not?”
sasuke rolled his eyes as he stood up from the table, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. he tossed the muffin box in the trash on his way to his room, a small part of his brain rethinking his stance on sweets.
☆
a month later, sasuke had tried about a fourth of the menu at babycakes. every time he went in, he would have sakura recommend something different, and normally it ended with him eating half of it and giving the rest to naruto because his stomach wasn’t used to that much sugar. so far, his favorite had been an apple pie muffin, with his least favorite being a s’mores bar. he had also stayed far, far away from anything with double or triple chocolate in the name.
in that month, he had also learned a lot about sakura. she was a year younger than him, and turns out they went to the same university. it didn’t surprise him that they hadn’t run into each other before considering how big the school was, but it did slightly disappoint him. she was a pre-med major, and was in the process of studying for the mcat and looking for medical schools to apply to. he felt her pain when it came to that — he was a law student who had just taken the lsat. he also learned that her favorite color was not in fact pink, but purple, she hates spicy food, she has a cat named pumpkin, and her dream vacation was to go to japan and see the cherry blossoms bloom.
he walked down the street towards babycakes, which had truly become part of his routine after he found out what days sakura worked. it had become the part of his day he looked forward to the most, even if he normally only spoke to her for around five minutes.
today however, he froze when he walked in the door. instead of sakura behind the counter, there was another girl around his age. her brown hair was pulled up into two buns on top of her head, and unlike sakura, she didn’t smile when he walked in.
“welcome to babycakes, what can i get for you?” she asked, closing the book she had been reading. sasuke looked around, searching for any sign of sakura.
“where’s sakura?”
the girl looked confused.
“uh, i’m covering her shift because one of her exams got moved,” she explained, narrowing her eyes slightly. sasuke realized it was probably slightly stalkerish that he came in and immediately started asking about the girl who normally worked this shift, and internally sighed. “do you actually want to order anything?”
“um, yeah, sorry,” he mumbled, walking up and glancing at the case full of baked goods. he hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to get. “do you have any of those apple muffins?”
“the apple pie crumbles?” she asked, to which he nodded. she walked over to the case and placed one of the muffins into a box. this girl was much less social than sakura, but really, he couldn’t blame her. he wasn’t the most social person either.
as he was paying, he heard the door open behind him, followed by two guys walking in. the girl smiled at one of them before sending a glare towards the other.
“geez, tenten, you could at least not look like you want to murder all the customers. you know, sakura is much nicer when i come in,” the one she glared at said, a hint of laughter in his voice. sasuke felt slightly annoyed at the mention of sakura, although he had no real reason to.
“i smiled at neji,” she shrugged, handing sasuke his receipt. he turned around and nodded to one of the guys, whose eyes widened when he recognized him before a smile crossed his face. god, this guy really reminded him of naruto. he could almost feel the hyperactive energy radiating off him.
“sasuke! long time, no see, how’s it going?” lee asked, sitting down in one of the unoccupied chairs. his friend, neji, took a seat across from him, glancing at sasuke briefly before his focus returned to tenten, who had gone back to work.
“i just saw you a month ago at naruto’s birthday, not much has changed.”
“a month is such a long time, though. you know, we should hang out sometime!” lee said, brimming with excitement. he heard tenten laugh behind him. “it’ll be fun! trust me!”
sasuke could genuinely not think of one thing that both he and lee would find fun.
“um, i’m pretty busy with school, and uh, stuff,” he mumbled, starting to move slowly towards the door. lee’s face fell slightly. “but um, next time you and naruto decide to do something, let me know.”
lee’s face lit back up, a giant smile crossing it as he gave sasuke a thumbs up.
“sounds great! see you around, sasuke!”
15 minutes later, sasuke was sitting at his kitchen table, staring at his untouched muffin. he glanced up as naruto and hinata walked in the door, nodding at both of them. for the first time, he felt slightly jealous of the couple, though he wasn’t sure why.
“what did you get today,” naruto asked, glancing down at the pastry box on the table. sasuke passed it to him, finally deciding that he wasn’t hungry. naruto opened the box, looking slightly surprised. “haven't you gotten this one before? i don’t think i’ve ever seen you get the same thing twice.”
“i thought you didn’t like sweets that much?” hinata asked. coming from anyone else, that question would irritate sasuke, but he knew that hinata was genuinely asking, not teasing him. “you seem to go to that bakery pretty often since you picked up the cake from there, or so naruto says.”
“is there perhaps a girl there that you like?” naruto asked, and this time sasuke was irritated. his best friend did not have the same intentions with his question as his girlfriend had.
“or guy, i wouldn’t judge,” he shrugged, ignoring the glare that sasuke was giving him.
“i ran into lee today. he’s probably going to ask you to hang out sometime soon,” sasuke said, changing the subject as he stood up, getting ready to head to his room. naruto smiled, pulling out his phone to check if lee had in fact texted him.
“where’d you see him?” hinata asked, attempting to rope sasuke into having an actual conversation like she always did. most of the time she was actually successful, too. hinata, like naruto, was one of the few people sasuke didn’t mind constantly being around.
“babycakes. he and another guy came to see the girl that was working.”
hinata and naruto both nodded, sharing a look.
“it was probably neji,” naruto laughed, hinata agreeing. “neji’s girlfriend works there, a brunette girl who always has her hair in buns. she’s pretty nice, only met her a few times though. neji kind of reminds me of you, actually. not the most social dude.”
that didn’t surprise sasuke, considering he hadn’t heard neji say a single word earlier.
“tenten’s nice, as long as you stay on her good side,” hinata agreed, looking back at sasuke. “was she the one working?”
“yeah,” he nodded, leaning against the counter. “it’s the first time i’ve seen her in there.”
hinata smiled knowingly while naruto sat there oblivious. he rolled his eyes as he walked towards his room, making hinata laugh quietly.
“try the strawberry shortcake muffin next time sasuke! i promise, it’s good!” she called, a small smile settling on sasuke’s face as he closed the door to his room.
☆
the strawberry shortcake muffin was pink. like, completely pink.
sasuke stared at it in the bakery case as he waited for someone — hopefully sakura — to come back up front. he was slightly concerned hinata was trying to play some sort of joke on him, though he knew she didn’t have a mean bone in her body. he glanced away from the case as he heard the door to the kitchen open, a smile crossing his face when he saw a head of pink hair.
“didn’t see you on tuesday, how’d your exam go?” sakura asked, smiling as she adjusted her ponytail. sasuke felt his face heat up at the fact that she remembered when he had offhandedly mentioned he had an exam coming up.
“pretty good, at least i think. the uh, girl that was here mentioned you had one too?”
sakura nodded, her cheeks turning a slight pink.
“yeah, it got moved up a day. it went well though, better than i thought considering i lost a day of studying,” she muttered, rolling her eyes. sasuke chuckled slightly. “what did you end up getting on tuesday? try anything new?”
“one of the apple pie muffins. it was my favorite one so far, so i figured it was a safe choice,” sasuke shrugged, now wishing he had tried something new so they had more to talk about. “uh, but i actually think i’m going to try the strawberry shortcake muffin today. a friend recommended it.”
sakura’s face lit up at that, making sasuke’s stomach do a strange little flip.
“that one is my absolute favorite. like, out of everything here, it’s literally the best,” she explained, grabbing one out of the bakery case and setting it in a box. sasuke wondered if hinata somehow knew that.
“sakura! i brought you some flowers!” a voice chimed from behind him, and a second later a blonde girl was standing next to him, a bouquet of flowers in her hands. sasuke’s stomach dropped as he recognized her and realized there was no way he was getting out of this without her noticing him.
“thank you ino, but really, you don’t have to bring flowers by every week,” sakura laughed, setting the pastry box on the counter in front of sasuke before taking the flowers from ino, who rolled her eyes.
“and how many times do you stop by and bring me muffins on your breaks, hmm?” ino glanced over at him briefly, giving him false hope that she might not have recognized him. a second later though, she did a double take, fully turning towards him this time. “what on earth are you doing here?”
“purchasing a muffin. am i not allowed to do that?”
“please. you hate sweets,” ino laughed, making sasuke’s face heat up again. there was no way shikamaru wasn’t going to find out about this, and he would never hear the end of it.
“he’s in here twice a week,” sakura laughed, glancing between ino and sasuke. “i don’t think it’s really possible for him to hate sweets.”
ino suddenly gave him the same knowing look hinata had a few days ago, and sasuke knew that as soon as she walked out of the bakery she was going to text shikamaru.
“how do you guys know each other?” sakura asked as she finished ringing sasuke up.
“mutual friends. he’s friends with shikamaru,” ino explained, a look of disgust crossing sasuke’s face at the fact that he was just introduced as shikamaru’s friend. “oh please, you two seriously need to get over that. you bicker like children but the two of you are still friends.”
sasuke would go to his grave before admitting that.
“anyways, glad your exam went well, sakura,” sasuke said, grabbing his muffin and heading towards the door, wanting to get out as fast as he could now that ino was here. “i’ll let you know how the muffin was next week.”
☆
shikamaru: you’re so lame
shikamaru: just ask her out already
sasuke: i have no idea what you’re talking about
shikamaru: don’t play dumb, ino told me
shikamaru: no way you’ve been going to a bakery twice a week for the past month and a half if you didn’t think sakura was cute
shikamaru: ask her out already
sasuke: i’m not having this conversation
shikamaru: idiot
sasuke glanced down at the texts that were now four days old, which he had received less than 20 minutes after he ran into ino at babycakes. of course, after shikamaru found out, he told naruto, who then spent the entire weekend pestering sasuke into asking sakura out.
he had a plan. or really, naruto and hinata had a plan that sasuke only trusted because hinata came up with most of it. their favorite bar has a trivia night every friday, and according to hinata, sakura really likes trivia. did sasuke feel slightly betrayed when he found out that hinata and sakura knew each other? a little bit.
now, all sasuke has to do is go into babycakes, and ask sakura if she wants to go to a trivia night on friday. simple enough, besides the fact that he has been standing outside for 10 minutes too nervous to go inside. according to naruto, the worst thing she could do is say no, which sasuke was convinced is the most likely outcome.
“jesus, go inside and ask her already,” a voice said from behind him, almost giving him a heart attack. he turned around to see shikamaru, a pack of cigarettes in his hand. sasuke raised his eyebrows, wondering if someone told shikamaru or if he was just that obvious. “naruto informed me of the plan, and i happened to be at ino’s store when i saw you standing out here looking like a complete idiot.”
“thanks.”
“look, it’s not like you’re ugly. ino thinks she’s going to say yes.”
“i think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” sasuke said sarcastically, watching shikamaru light a cigarette. “does ino actually think she’ll say yes?”
“yes, although she doesn’t have as much experience with your god-awful social skills as i do, so i’m still skeptical. purely because i have no faith in you, though.”
sasuke flipped him off, deciding to go inside before shikamaru said anything else that would make him rethink this entire plan.
“this has been so helpful. i’m going to start coming to you for advice from now on,” he said, turning around to head inside.
his stomach turned into knots the second he was met with sakura’s smile. maybe it was the fact that her hair was braided over her shoulder instead of her normal ponytail, but he was very aware of just how pretty sakura truly was, which made him all the more nervous. he gave her a small smile as he walked up to the counter, glancing at the bakery case as he attempted to get his thoughts in order.
“so, what did you think of the strawberry shortcake muffin the other day? best thing you’ve ever eaten, right?”
“it was the first one where i ate the entire thing,” sasuke admitted, laughing as he watched sakura do a small fist pump in celebration. she had been right about it being the best thing on the menu. it tasted like fresh strawberries, not artificial flavoring, which made it way less sweet than sasuke was expecting. “normally i split them with my best friend, but not that one. it was incredible.”
“right? if i could only eat one thing for the rest of my life, it would probably be those muffins,” sakura sighed, a dreamy look on her face. she looked down for a moment before looking back at sasuke, a nervous expression on her face. “um, so this is kind of lame, but there’s this bar downtown, and they do these trivia nights every friday. any chance you want to go with me?”
it took everything in sasuke not to burst out laughing from surprise. from the change in her expression though, he probably hadn’t done a good job of hiding the shock on his face.
“oh god, that sounds so lame, doesn’t it? sorry, um just forget-”
“no, no, not at all,” he interrupted her, a smile spreading across his face. “i was just surprised, because i was quite literally about to ask you the same thing. i actually stood outside for a good ten minutes before i actually came in because i was trying to work up the courage to ask you.”
relief spread across sakura’s face, and she gave him what was probably the biggest smile sasuke had ever seen. they spent a few more minutes talking about friday, agreeing that they would meet at sakura’s apartment and then walk over to the bar right as another customer walked in. sasuke ended up getting two strawberry shortcake muffins, one for him and one for naruto, who was still annoyed that sasuke wouldn’t let him try the last one.
he found shikamaru still waiting outside, the cigarette he had been smoking earlier finished.
“considering you don’t look miserable, i think it went well?”
sasuke hesitated for a moment before nodding, which made shikamaru raise his eyebrows.
“she may or may not have asked me out. to the trivia night,” he mumbled, walking past shikamaru in the direction of his apartment. he could hear shikamaru laughing loudly behind him.
“oh, that is so going in the groupchat,” shikamaru laughed.
“preferably the one i’m not in, please,” sasuke yelled back, rolling his eyes.
☆
4 months later
sasuke walked into babycakes, smiling at his girlfriend who was standing behind the counter. he set his backpack down on a chair before making his way around the counter to stand behind sakura, wrapping his arms around her as he pressed a kiss to the top of her head. he could feel her laugh softly.
“you’re not supposed to be back here,” she reminded him, although he could tell that she was smiling. he rested his chin on the top of her head.
“you close in five minutes, i won’t touch anything. promise.”
“a customer could still come in in those five minutes,” she reminded him. he let her go and returned to the seat where his backpack was, frowning as he sat down. “oh please, you look like i just kicked your puppy.”
“i’m tired, i just want to go home and fall asleep to whatever movie we’re watching,” he shrugged, smiling at sakura’s offended expression. he wasn’t actually going to fall asleep during the movie, but from the information she had given him, he wasn’t expecting to particularly enjoy it.
“you are not allowed to fall asleep!” she snapped, walking over to flip the sign on the door from “open” to “closed”. “this is my favorite movie, you have to give it your complete and utter undivided attention. i still can’t believe you’ve never seen it.”
“why would i have seen a movie about talking animals?”
“it’s not about talking animals, it’s about three pets who think their owners have left them and made a treacherous journey back to them to prove how much they love them,” sakura explained, as she began to close down the store. sasuke stood up, starting to help her flip the chairs onto the tables so she could vacuum. “it’s heartbreaking. by the end, you’ll be in tears. i promise.”
sasuke seriously doubted that, but it was her favorite movie, so he would do his best to pay attention. thirty minutes later, sakura had finished closing, and the two were getting ready to head back to sasuke’s apartment.
“oh, did you want a strawberry muffin for the movie? i can go grab some really quick,” sakura asked, peering up at him. a smile crossed his face as he shook his head.
“no, it’s fine, i have a surprise for you actually,” he said, taking her hand as they began to walk down the street. “hopefully naruto hasn’t ruined it.”
to sasuke’s relief, everything was in place when they got back to his apartment, save for two missing muffins he was guessing that naruto took. he handed one of the pink muffins to sakura, who skeptically took a bite of it. sasuke wasn’t the greatest cook, and they had discovered that he was an even worse baker, but he tried seven different recipes to make these correctly. sakura’s eyes widened as she took another bite, glancing behind sasuke at the plate of muffins on the counter.
“you learned how to make the strawberry shortcake muffins?” she asked, a smile on her face.
“well, you said that if you could eat any food for the rest of your life, it would be these muffins, so i figured i would learn how to make them,” he mumbled, his cheeks reddening. “you know, just in case you don’t end up going to med school here and can’t get them from babycakes.”
sakura set the rest of her muffin down on the counter as her eyes began to water, wrapping her arms around sasuke. he returned the hug, pressing another kiss to the top of her head.
“that is literally the sweetest thing ever,” she said, her voice slightly muffled since she had her face buried in sasuke’s chest. “thank you. they’re even better than the ones at babycakes.”
sasuke laughed at that, because he knew they were nowhere near as good as the ones at babycakes, but they tasted good enough to be a replacement in a pinch.
the two sat down in the living room to watch the movie, sakura bringing the entire plate of muffins with them.
“you know, i thought about this again the other day, and i’m curious,” sakura started, making herself comfortable on the couch as sasuke searched for the movie. “back before we started dating, when ino said that you didn’t like sweets, was she being serious?”
“yeah,” sasuke laughed, slightly embarrassed. sakura’s jaw dropped slightly as she elbowed him lightly in the stomach. “going to be honest, i still don’t like a lot of them. i’m getting better though.”
“you don’t like sweets, but you came in every week and let me pick you out baked goods?” she asked, dumbfounded. “is that why you refused anything that had a lot of chocolate?”
“bingo,” sasuke said, finally finding the movie sakura wanted to watch, his eyebrows pinching together as he read the summary. “this is literally rated G. this is a children’s movie.”
“homeward bound is the greatest film ever made, you’ll see,” she dismissed, quickly returning back to her original topic. “you had me convinced that you really loved baked goods but just didn’t like overly sweet stuff. don’t tell me you were coming in every week just to see me?”
“yes, now hush and watch the movie,” he muttered, pressing play and turning the volume up, hoping sakura didn’t notice the redness on his cheeks. she laughed softly beside him, moving closer so she could rest her head on his shoulder.
“don’t worry, it’s cute. definitely not stalkerish,” she teased, focusing her attention on the movie. by the end of it, sasuke decided that he would admit that he and shikamaru were friends before he would admit that the movie made him cry not once, but twice.