The Second Festival Date

This one's been done a few days, the Beta had some personal issues to take care of.
This was requested by one of the $10 patrons directly, and did get voted on recently.
I think I did a good job, though I will admit something feels off. I hope everyone enjoys it.

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“No, that’s bad.” Yet another day bored and stuck at home, Sakura finds herself working on her drawing skills, which really means she’s failing horrifically and grunting to herself. “Why can’t I just gain a skill on this already?” She throws a magenta stained drawing in the trash after messing up another draft. There’s not a lot to do on house arrest when she doesn’t have classes or a meeting with Ino. She twirls the colored pencil in her fingers and wonders if there’s any justification to pop in on any of her friends. “Maybe I should host another party? Ami seemed to like the last one, after she got over whatever was bothering her.”

She taps her lips with the eraser and looks to her door a second before it bursts open and a blonde savior steps through in a pretty purple skirt and form fitting top meant to show off curves that Sakura can analytically acknowledge but she finds the real thought in her head is ‘that can’t be easy to move in.’ “Why aren’t you dressed?” Ino asks her, and Sakura blinks a few times, racking her brain for an answer to that question that isn’t ‘why would I be?’

“The Flower festival, dummy, we have to do our thing… We do this every year, Sakura.” That does explain why Ino’s hair is down and there’s a sunflower half sticking out of it. She hadn’t noticed until now but actively searching, it’s fairly obvious.

“I suppose I should get dressed then, I’m sorry, I forgot.” Sakura gives her an apologetic smile, only to watch Ino groan and throw her hands up.

“Every year and yet I’m surprised every single time!” She stomps one foot on the creaky floor and walks out the door.’

“I’ll be down in ten minutes-” Sakura begins-

“If you spend any less than an hour getting ready we’re not going!” Ino shouts as she stomps down the stairs, and Sakura ponders what she could possibly spend an hour on.

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So twenty of the minutes were spent sitting around pretending to get ready while a screen lit up her face, but she did manage to fill the rest of the time showering, finding clean and nice pink clothes, braiding her own hair back - that probably takes longer for civilians, if they can do it alone at all - and finding just enough make-up in a care package Ino left her months ago to make herself look a little less pale. Which was an art project, and she may have learned something for her drawing later. She’s just not very good at that, she wonders if skills require some base level of proficiency to be reached before they can activate? She feels like she’s gotten better though, is she just that hopeless?

She should start grinding stickman drawings to see if that works.

“You look nice.” Ino says, soft bare arm linked with hers as they wander towards their goal.

The flower festival is a formal event for a couple of days each year when a lot of the prettier flowers bloom in the green areas Konoha normally has sectioned off. For most people it’s a time to visit, buy a pass, and spend the day wandering around and oohing and ahhing at all the local beauty. It’s a tourist trap, and it makes anyone who deals with flowers quite a bit of money. Which is why for Ino and Sakura it’s a little different. Ino helps run a flower shop. “Like always, this gate is just wide open.” Sakura snickers, “isn’t this a safety hazard?”

“The wildlife doesn’t like leaving.” Ino reminds her, “too much open air, not enough prey.”

For the two of them, they take a trip to the Forest of Death and pick a bunch of rarer flowers for inventory and promotional purposes. They get all dressed up and then get what they can before something chases them out, and then they spend the rest of the day in the shop selling to people that want to buy flowers after they’re done at the actual festival. The outfits are more for the shop part. She kind of wishes they did it backwards this year? She’s pretty sure she could kill anything that tried to stop them this year so they could probably do this for way longer if Ino let her come in combat gear and change after.

“Well, let’s go in.” The pair prance on in like it’s a second home. Sakura gets the feeling Ino would be mad if she made the suggestion that she actually go change and undo that ‘hour’ of work.

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“That went poorly.” Three baskets, that’s all they managed before they were ambushed by a horde of snakes. “Why is it always snakes?” Ino asks.

“I dunno, maybe because they stick mostly to the ground and we’re actively trying to get flowers?” Sakura laughs, sticking a band-aid on Ino’s forehead where she scraped it running. A bell rings just as she uses a little bit of her spit to make sure it’s properly sticking. “Customers!” She whispers excitedly, jumping up with the brightest smile she can manage and holding up one of the baskets. There’s some kids coming through the glass door at the front, a little girl and a boy, followed shortly by an older man. “Free forest of death exclusive flower with any purchase of two thousand Ryo or more!”

“It’s three thousand, Sakura, it’s been three thousand for two years!” Ino grumbles from where she’s patching her leg behind the counter.

“Free Forest of Death exclusive flower with any purchase of three thousand Ryo or more!” Sakura beams for them, and while the older man seems a little put off by her awkward smile, the kids jump and cheer at the idea of some special flower they wouldn’t have seen out there at the festival.

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The night sky is sparkly this time of night, the endless expanse above them something that Shikamaru is no doubt looking at right now, though his thoughts are likely very different. He’s not laying right beside an Ino that won’t stop looking at her every ten seconds when she ‘probably’ won’t notice. “This was fun.” Ino nudges her, “That one looks like a rose.” The blonde smiles at her, before pointing up at a grouping of stars high up in the sky.

“It looks like a lot of flowers, Ino, plants all look the same.” Sakura points out, shifting a little in place.

“They do not, you take that back.” Ino giggles, rolling her eyes at her friend.

Laying on the roof to take in the stars at the end of the day seemed like a perfectly normal after work day thing when they were kids. Knowing that Ino likes her, she can’t help but notice romantic connotations. “How often did you sneak in a little romance throughout our childhood?” She can’t help but ask, looking at Ino and ignoring the stars she’s seen thousands of times.

“Err-” The girl’s flaming cheeks would have given it away even if Sakura was bluffing.

“It’s fine, I’ve always liked these moments,” Sakura shrugs, “but please just admit it’s a date next time, hiding behind tradition is very awkward for me. I don’t understand all this stuff and the more layers between reality and what I’m experiencing, the more lost and confused I am. It hurts when you know everyone else is seeing stuff you don’t and they’re not even bothering to explain it. It feels disconnected and lonely. I already have to deal with perceiving things so differently…”

“Well, that’s what you get for being a genius, but… I’m sorry.” Ino leans over to kiss her cheek, before thinking better of it. Sakura rolls her eyes in response. She doesn’t mind giving Ino casual intimacies, their friendship has always involved them and Ino acting like they’re forbidden now just makes things feel icky. She’d rather Ino go full ham and let her set boundaries when they matter, but maybe that’s missing the point. She learned recently that intentions matter, and that black and white has started to gain color as she gains more charm and has more learning experiences. One day she’ll probably learn that humoring Ino is a bad move. For now, she just likes to see her friend smile, so she leans over so Ino can get her cheek kiss.

“Don’t apologize, apologizing means guilt.” Sakura shakes her head at her with a soft and understanding smile. “I want you to do better, just like I’m trying to do. I’m not feeling guilty for every mistake I’m making, and you shouldn’t either.”

“Right… Sorry.” Ino giggles.

“What did I just say-” Sakura scolds with a big smile of her own.