Evening Annoyance l l Sakura [Open]

[uchihasasuke]

It was boring evening and the young Uchiha had just finished training. Not a scratch was on him but he was out of breath. He decided to sit down on the park bench while he rested up before heading to that empty home. He felt a lack of any emotion to display and to him he didn’t seem to mind. That single night terrified him due to a single person, Itachi, his brother whom he cherished while he grew up. He walked through the training ground and headed towards his destination. Not much haste was in his steps either. Looking into his eyes it seemed he had died once before or at least experienced it first hand.

It wasn’t long before he would reach there to kill time. He passed by trees and people in the village; girls who thought he was attractive waved at him trying to be noticed. Yet he saw no one as he faced himself in deep thought. When would he become stronger? Has his hate grown? These were things that constantly ran through his mind everyday, besides the fact that he missed his family. Each step he took seemed like an eternity to him reaching his goal and he couldn’t stand it.

As he finally reached the bench in the park he sat down, raising both of his hands and crossing them he rested his chin on them. He continued his thoughts as he closed his eyes. “Uchiha Itachi, will you come to me or will I have to find you?” The massacre of his family ran through his head as he asked himself that question. The blood that still stains the floor of where his parents die still eats away at him. The more he saw it the more it made him want to become stronger. Hopefully his Kakashi-sensei will make this happen.

Since he brought up Kakashi his mind wandered on about his two teammates; a screw up loser, and an annoyance. Sasuke hoped that they wouldn’t slow him down. He had a mission and he wasn’t looking to play babysit for them. He felt Kakashi wasn’t worthy of being his sensei either, after Naruto caught him with a simple prank. Hopefully, team 7 would last to help further his ambitions, that was all he thought.

[Yamanaka Ino]

Sakura had been out taking care of some last minute shopping in order to get enough supplies for tomorrow's 'mission.' She had made sure to stock up on kunai knives and shurikens, in case she needed them. Furthermore, she got a fresh ribbon for her headband. The other one had gotten dirty and wrinkled; she needed a fresh new one if she was to impress Sasuke. A ninja made sure all their equipment was in the best of condition, right?

So with that in mind, she carried her bag in front of her as she made her way through the park. While she wasn't keen on walking in the dark, Sakura knew she'd be fine. You'd have to be an idiot to attack a person in the middle of one of the strongest hidden villages in the world. Besides, she was a ninja now; she'd be able to handle anything that was thrown at her. Still, she had a nice spring in her step has she rushed to get out of there as fast as possible.

As she walked, however, something stopped her in her tracks, something that made her heat beat race; Sasuke was there. Sakura halted her walking, and stood there dumbstruck with a blush. There he was, sitting on a bench, thinking hard about something. Oh, he looked so dreamy when he got serious like that. Realizing she was just standing there like an idiot, Sakura got the nerve up to actually say something.

"Aih, Sasuke-kun! It's me, Sakura!" she yelled out gleefully and with a wave.

Running over to him, she stood in front of him holding her bag. She was tempted to sit down, but held off on doing so for the moment. Right now Sasuke was in such a serious pose she didn't want to force him out of it. She stood there smiling, face slightly blushing.

"What are you doing out here Sasuke?" she nervously asked, truly wondering what it was he was doing out here. He looked tired, so maybe he was out training? Oh, she missed it. She really wanted to see him training. Maybe one of these days the two of them could have a training session together! It would be great, as long as Naruto wasn't there. She promised to try and be nicer to him, but he was just so annoying it was rather hard to try.

[uchihasasuke]

His thoughts continued to swarm his head as if it was an agonizing pain that just wouldn’t go away. He suffered from this, only a little bit though. He wished no one would bother him this evening, he wanted solitude, and if anything disturbed that he might kill them or so he would make them think. He lowered his hands as he felt a sudden presence or rather annoyance on his part. It was the kunoichi who like every other girl was infatuated with him, Sakura.

She didn’t seem skilled as a ninja to him, and she’d most like slow him down more than Naruto. He wanted no part of being with her unless it was for mission purposes. What could a girl like her be out at this hour for? His eyes lowered as she called out to him and he saw the bag she was carrying. Were they weapons? Nah it couldn’t be, she didn’t seem the type in his eyes.

He didn’t bother to continue to wonder as he went back deep in thought. Hopefully she would have figured he wanted to be alone, only if so. She stood in front of him and it disturbed him quite a bit. She was blocking his sight but it wasn’t like he was looking at much anyway. “Iruka-sensei really put me in a weird group. Why?” It was best he conversed with her a little at least.

He looked up at her; he saw her headband and wondered whether about her potential. She then suddenly asked him what he was doing. A little to formal he thought, they weren’t close friends even if they were on the same team. He still decided to reply to her though. “Training. What are you doing out here this evening Sakura?” He asked calmly not really caring but showed no emotion of not caring.

[Yamanaka Ino]

Just as expected, Sasuke replied with a complete and emotionaless reply. In Sakura's mind, this made him 'cool', and just spurred her on harder. There was just something attractive about such a uncaring, mysterious personality. Of course it also made it hard to react too. If she went to emotional in response, then he'd think her 'annoying' like Naruto. On the other hand, there was no way she could act as uncaring and cool as Sasuke. Besides, part of her plan was to make him break out of that shell anyway; no need to reenforce it it.

It then she realized that she was still holding the bag of weapons, and she held it up for Sasuke to see better.

"I was stocking up on kunai and shuriken in case we needed them." she replied, a little shyly but still rather confident.

In her mind, however, Inner Sakura was going nuts. She was actually talking to Sasuke, and he was talking back. Oh, Ino was going to be so jealous of her, which was just great actually. There was no way she was going to lose this battle for Sasuke's heart. Still, she was going to have to hold back that emotion for now; she can celebrate it more when she got home tonight. For now, however, she needed to stay calm, with maybe a little perkiness in her attitude.

Still not sitting down, Sakura tried to think of something else to say. What could they talk about afterall? Oh, yeah, that's right, tomorrows mission. If they failed it, they could get sent back to the Academy, and there was what, a sixty-six percent failure rate? Of course, with Sasuke by her side, there was no chance they would ever fail it. Then again, they had Naruto on the team; he'd probably just drag them down.

"So Sasuke, do you need any of these for tomorrow? I have plenty of them if you need them" she added in, offering the weapons to him. He probably didn't need them, but by mentioning tomorrow she hoped to transition into a conversation with him.

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[uzumakinaruto]

Grrr. Naruto clenched the cloth over his rumbling stomach and made a face that combined the emotions of annoyance and desperation. His stomach was twisting itself in painful knots, demanding for nourishment. Naruto sighed and reached into his pocket, only to find that it was empty. His heart sank a bit, but he proceeded with checking his other pocket without too much of a second thought. When he realized that one was empty too, Naruto felt himself pale. He had no money... No money meant no Ichiraku Ramen! Frustrated, Naruto threw his hands up to his head and let out a quiet cry. When he did, his fingers tapped an unfamiliar object. Confused, Naruto felt around his forehead, a quizzical expression on his whiskered face. That was when he remembered he was wearing a Leaf Headband. A giant, proud grin spread across his face as he couldn't help but rub the metal once or twice in admiration. Today was the first day he'd actually started wearing it, since today had been the team assignments.

Team... Naruto crossed his arms and stood there, in the middle of the street, getting lost in thought. He still couldn't believe he'd had the luck of getting Sakura on his team, but he wasn't so sure Sakura would talk to him for awhile after his and Sasuke's 'incident' earlier today. Sasuke... Naruto's expression quickly changed from thoughtful to annoyed once more. If it weren't for him, Naruto would have no problem with this whole team thing. Then again, having a different sensei wouldn't hurt either. Naruto didn't have a good impression of that Kaka-sensei or whatever his name was. His hair was ridiculous too... how could anyone take him seriously with a haircut like that? Naruto visibly nodded to himself in agreement before his ears picked up on a familiar voice.

Without meaning to, Naruto felt his heart do a little jump of joy within his chest. The familiar voice was Sakura's. Eager to see her, Naruto whirled around in nearly 180 degrees to the direction her voice came from. He saw her, a little ways off the street by a bench in the park area. She was holding out a bag, and talking to the bench... What? No, that couldn't be right. Naruto leaned over to his left so that he had a full view of the bench. When he saw Sasuke in his usual brooding position, Naruto became annoyed once again. Why did it seem like every time he saw Sakura, she was always with Sasuke? Or talking about him, at least. Naruto really couldn't see what was so great about him. He was boring, uninteresting, and a douche. Despite his unwillingness to talk to Sasuke, Naruto began approaching them in a slow-paced jog.

Though tempted to ambush Sasuke, Naruto took Sakura into account and decided against his delinquent wishes. Instead, he waved a hand high up over his head and returned to his usual grin. "Sakura-chaaaan!" Naruto called as he approached both of his teammates. Naruto purposefully ignored his male teammate, for obvious reasons. Plus, Naruto hoped it would kinda piss the Uchiha off. As he found himself next to her, Naruto couldn't help but investigate her bag. "Ooohh, what's in the bag Sakura-chan?" He made a move for the bag she held, hoping to get a peek of its contents before she answered.

[uchihasasuke]

Sakura was truly annoying in his eyes so was the other girls who flocked at him in the village. They didn’t seem to understand his need to be alone or rather they wouldn’t try to understand it. The more she pushed forward the more it bothered him especially since she doesn’t understand the feelings of being all alone. He clenched his hands together in frustration, too much time passed with so little done. It ate him up inside as he continued to act interested in what she was saying.

Sasuke was one to belittle anyone under him but he did show respect to people who seemed to be interested in training. What he heard from Sakura intrigued him because it might have seemed as if he underestimated her, maybe she might have what it takes to become a kunoichi and not slow him down, only time will tell. Though Sasuke had his own set at home it would be rude to refuse, yet he still wasn’t comfortable taking any. She needed it more than he did as he had lots of training since he was young. He shook his head as he was ready to reply. “Sakura your annoying.” He had a cold stare as he said that.

Sasuke wasn’t thinking of team it never crossed his mind, only his ambitions matter for all he was an avenger on a mission that he would have to walk alone. He would be the only one to kill that person, his brother, and he needed the power he read about on the ancient tablet. To do all of this he couldn’t let anyone or anything hold him back, Sakura or Naruto in particular. His eyes started to slowly close as he heard a nerve racking voice. This was his perfect time to leave them both to themselves.

It was his other teammate, Naruto. Sasuke couldn’t stand him really, a lot of bad things happened to him when ever they were near, such as the freak accident when Naruto was pushed into him. It still bothered him and he still couldn’t clean his mouth enough. “More trouble arrived.” Even though he thought that it seemed as if he was being ignored by Naruto. It bothered the young Uchiha but he refrained from showing any emotion or it would make Naruto think he won. He didn’t have the energy to waste with Naruto at the current moment it wasn’t beneficial to him at all. He needed to save his strength for whatever Kakashi-sensei had in store for him them tomorrow.

Sasuke stood from his chair with haste; he needed to prepare for tomorrow since they needed to wake up early. He didn’t plan to tell them bye but he had a few words for them since they would be needed tomorrow. “Idiot make sure your on time tomorrow, make sure your both on time.” After he said that he started walking further from them till he body flickered and disappeared from sight. He needed time to himself and looking at his clan’s portion of the village in the night would just help him prepare mentally.

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[Yamanaka Ino]

Sakura just stood there holding the bag, waiting for a response from Sasuke. The response she got, however, was not what she had wanted. Sasuke thought she was annoying? But what did she do to deserve being called that? She had just tried to help, and they were on the same team so they did need to hang around each other more often in order to get to know each other better. Or maybe that was just it; she was hanging onto him too much, and that was what was making him annoyed….which meant she was acting just like Naruto did towards her. Between both of these revelations, Sakura was frozen in place, completely unsure what it was to say.

Inner Sakura, however, was almost on the verge of wanting to beat the snot out of Sasuke for that (not really, but she was mad). Sure, she may hang onto Sasuke like Naruto hung onto her, but it was completely different. Naruto just liked to see her get in trouble and angry, right? She was hanging onto to Sasuke out of love, not spite. Motive was half the situation, and so in this situation Sakura was much less ‘annoying’ than Naruto. It wasn’t like she was going to jump him, or start a fight, or kiss him (which Sakura was still rather upset about). Overall, she was much less harmful than Naruto was.

Just like Sasuke, however, Sakura’ mood took a turn south at the sound of Naruto…calling for her. Sakura was about to yell out and call him an idiot for ruining this, but considering she just suffered what Naruto normally suffered, she was going to let him off the hook. If she didn’t like being called annoying even if she truly wasn’t, then Naruto might feel even worse for being called annoyed for deserving it. Besides, she couldn’t stare in there in silence forever. Sakura hesitantly returned Naruto’s wave, and one could see she wasn’t wanting to be that nice to him.

”He…hello there Naruto.” she replied, nervously letting the words come out of her mouth.

As Naruto got closer, he apparently noticed her bag, and Sakura was about to offer it to him until, he decided to look into it himself. How completely obnoxious and rude! And here she was feeling sorry for him, but that momentary feeling was gone now. She yanked the bag from Naruto’s sight, keeping it fully away from him. As she spoke, it was with a rather spiteful tone of voice.

”Naruto, you don’t look into a woman’s bag like that. Learn some manners and then we’ll talk, got it?”

At that moment Sasuke got up, diverting Sakura’s attention towards the Uchiha boy. He called Naruto an idiot, and then told them to be on time. Yeah, like Sakura was the one he needed a warning about that thing. Naruto was the one who was always late. Sakura’s eyes lit up when Sasuke disappeared with a flicker. Oh, he was so cool! It was too bad he had to go like that though. Still, they probably did need to get some rest before tomorrow’s test. Sakura was also tempted to get a snack or something, but she was on a diet so she had skipped dinner. Though the stress from dealing with Naruto here was making her seriously reconsider that idea.

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[uzumakinaruto]

Naruto misunderstood Sakura's greeting as friendly, rather than strained and couldn't help but fight back a creeping light blush. He wasn't used to Sakura responding to him positively, and when she did it caught him off-guard and he didn't know quite how to react. And Naruto, being thick-headed, didn't consider the fact that maybe something had happened to her to alter her usual behavior. If Naruto had known what had really softened Sakura towards him, he'd be more than happy to pick a fight with his other teammate. But he wasn't observant, and enjoyed Sakura's mood... while it lasted.

Naruto sweat-dropped at Sakura's annoyance and flashed her a curious look. Why couldn't you look in a girl's bag, anyway? It wasn't even her bag, either. It was... just a bag. Was there something super dangerous that girls secretly hid in their bags? While this seemed far-fetched, Naruto couldn't deny the possibility. He couldn't think of anything dangerous that he carried with him, except for weapons of course. So what would girls have? As Naruto's face began to drain from the raging confusion going on in his head, Sasuke spoke.

Though he was used to being called an idiot by Sasuke, that didn't mean he didn't take offense to it anymore. He glared at Sasuke as he stalked off, giving his brooding teammate the first bit of attention for the night. "Yeah, yeah." Naruto grumbled in response to Sasuke's demand, crossing his arms. Who did Sasuke think he was, anyway? The team leader? Naruto opened his mouth to protest, ready to tell him that he better be on time tomorrow, but Sasuke had already left via body flicker. Naruto growled in annoyance and huffed, his annoyance obviously returning. Jeez, what a show off.

Looking over towards Sakura, Naruto sighed internally when he realized she was impressed by Sasuke's dramatic exit. If he learned that jutsu, would Sakura be impressed? Before conjuring up a scenario in his head, Naruto suddenly realized that he and Sakura were alone. No more Sasuke to distract Sakura or to piss him off. A foxy grin spread across his whiskered face as he tried to discreetly and casually slide on over towards Sakura. "Soooo..." He began, trying to make it look like he wasn't trying too hard. "Since we're alone, you wanna go on a date, Sakura-chan?" He winked at her, sort of. Usually he was kinda nervous about asking Sakura out, especially because she always rejected him. But tonight he felt pretty good about it, though he couldn't pin down why.

Suddenly realizing she could still reject him, Naruto followed up on his offer quickly. "We could go to Ichiraku Ramen! I have..." Naruto reached into his pocket, only to be reminded of its emptiness. He froze in shock. "A-Ano..." He sweat dropped again, his spirit and confidence wavering. He didn't have any money to pay for Ichiraku, not even for himself. Sure, he could head home and cook up some instant ramen, but that was dog food compared to Ichiraku. "Hey, um.. Sakura-chan...?" Naruto laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head, while simultaneously attempting to avoid his crushes' gaze. "You... You wouldn't happen to have any money, would you?" Naruto could've took the chance and pleaded with the old man Teuchi to give him two free bowls for just this one night, but he sort of doubted he'd be granted his wish.

[Yamanaka Ino]

Sakura completely ignored Naruto’s reaction to her wave considering her attention switched over to Sasuke as soon as it was convenient. In fact, she didn’t even look at Naruto again until he tried to look at her bag, which lead to her yanking it away from him and scolding him. Once again, however, she ignored his reaction for Sasuke, but once Sasuke was gone there was nothing left to distract her from Naruto…except a general feeling of wanting to get out of this place as fast as possible. With Sasuke gone, there was no point to remain there other than talking with Naruto. And she really didn’t want to talk to him that much.

However, before she had the chance to escape, Naruto had realized they were alone, and started to try and make a move on her. Sakura looked over at him, confused at first, till he asked about the two of them going on a date. Sakura could tell he was trying to hard (it was Naruto, there was no way he could hide his real emotions). Before she could get an actual response out, however, he started digging in his wallet. This gave Sakura plenty of time to think over a response (well, how to give a response at least).

Obviously, the answer was going to be no. She had no interest in Naruto whatsoever. He was annoying all right, though she was going to tone that down a bit. He deserved the title more than anybody, but that didn’t mean he had to keep getting it drilled in his head. Still, he was loud, obnoxious, childish, the complete and total opposite of Sasuke. She really just didn’t have any interest in going out with a guy like that. Besides, just a second ago he tried to dig around in her bag; it was hard to take a guy seriously like that. Still, she was in a bit of a down mood tonight, and was willing to let him off with a warning for the most part.

Then came the usual Naruto twist to it all; he was broke and was wanting her to pay for it. Yeah, that was a great way to start off a date all right. Offer to take them somewhere to eat, and then ask if they could pay for it. He could have just outright insulted her and gotten away with it, but to just plain out ask her to pay for the date he was offering, well, that wasn’t just right. The veins on her forehead were rather noticeable, and she was trying her hardest to not say anything. That, however failed, and within seconds Naruto’s face was about to meet Sakura’s palm.

”Naruto you idiot, that is not how you get a girl to go out with you! Really, that’s just even more of a sign of your childishness right there. Really, to ask the girl to pay for the date. No wonder you don’t have anybody going after you. You totally lack the grace and class that Sasuke has.” she followed up with, crossing her arms and outright scolding him in the process.

After letting him a moment to sink in, Sakura looked down at the bag of weapons. She was tempted to just let Naruto deal with it all himself, but since he didn’t have money for food, how could he afford weapons? Biting her lip, she looked up at him for a second, then at the bag, and then sighed. Reaching down, she grabbed a few shuriken and then handed them out to Naruto. She didn’t look at him, but she handed them.

”Look, you might need these tomorrow so just take them before I change my mind all right?” she replied. She found Naruto annoying, and right now she wanted to beat him to a pulp, but after being called annoying by Sasuke she could at least see where he was coming from. So just this once she was going to be nice to him and let him off the hook (which, considering she just slapped her, probably didn’t mean much).

[uzumakinaruto]

It didn't take Naruto long, or with much effort, to realize that Sakura was angered by his inquiry. The follow-up smack in the face left a stinging sensation on his cheek and Naruto began rubbing it sheepishly. She'd most likely left a mark, knowing her, and Naruto squinted in disappointment. He loved Sakura, but sometimes he couldn't understand her at all. Before opening his mouth to ask 'what was that for?' Sakura went into her explanation of why she had been angered.

Naruto stared at her, dumbfounded as she gave her speech directly to him with confidence. He liked that about her, and instead of listening to what she had to say, Naruto admired how she spoke. The only the words he was tuned in to hear were the last two sentences or so. When Sakura told him No wonder you don't have anybody going after you, he had to admit his heart sank a bit. What did he have to do for Sakura to reciprocate his feelings? It seemed impossible, but Naruto couldn't give up. What if Sakura found some other guy before falling for him? Or worse, what if she ended up with Sasuke? As if on cue, Sakura compared himself to Sasuke, of course putting the absent teammate in high regard.

Visibly, Naruto pouted and resisted the urge to cross his arms once again. Why was it always about Sasuke? He had class and grace? What the heck was that anyway? If by class she meant politeness, then she was definitely way off. Naruto wouldn't care all that much if Sasuke was just a jerk to him, but he wasn't all too pleasant around Sakura either, so that made him a double-jerk. Shaking his head, Naruto continued to wonder about Sasuke's popularity around girls.

The moment he detached himself from his thoughts, Naruto realized Sakura was looking at him and biting her lip. Usually people do that when they're thinking, right? Naruto's heart rose up again, beginning to feel like it was on a roller coaster. Was she thinking about him? Taking his hand off the side of his injured face, Naruto scratched the back of his head nervously and asked, "What?"

But just as he asked, he found Sakura turn away and hand him a couple shuriken. He froze, dumbfounded by Sakura's offering. Was it some kind of trick? She just slapped him across the face and now she was offering him a gift? Jeez, girls can really be complicated, Naruto thought. He would have asked her why she was being nice to him all of a sudden, but he realized she had warned him about accepting them quickly or he wouldn't get any at all. Sweat-dropping, Naruto took her offering and held them in his hands. "Thanks, Sakura-chan!" He gave her a genuine, happy smile and put away his newly acquired weapons.

He knew this should probably be the time to leave. It was getting late and Sakura most likely didn't want to hang around him. Besides, they had to be up bright and early tomorrow morning for the test. On top of that, Naruto wanted to practice a couple of his moves in his own apartment. But how often was he alone with Sakura like this? Conflict bounced around in his head as his face contorted in thought.

[Yamanaka Ino]

Sakura was tempted to apologize for the slapping, but blew it off. He kind of deserved it for what he had all done. Besides, he would get over it eventually. No matter how hard he was put down, Naruto kept coming back for more, the idiot. Naruto didn’t get the chance to say anything since she interrupted him, and she kept right on it. The guy deserved a scolding, and since he didn’t have any parents, she was going to have to serve as the role of mom. A little hard love would help him grow up a little bit.

Not that it helped it seemed. While she kept on going, Sakura did notice that Naruto was just standing there dumbfounded. This didn’t improve her mood at all; he did the same thing with teachers. They’d scold him, and Naruto would just stand there thinking whatever strange thoughts ran through his head. And when they were all done, he’d have learned absolutely nothing from them. Going off his looks right now, it was probably going to be the same situation. All this scolding, and absolutely nothing was going to go through. She was starting to think that there was no point in doing any of this.

Once Sasuke was brought up, however, she saw his mood change for the worse. Obviously, he didn’t like Sasuke. Probably just jealous of him, that’s all. Sasuke was smarter, cooler, and stronger than Naruto. Sasuke was the best of the best, the elite of the Genin. Naruto….well, Naruto was the runt of the litter so to speak. He couldn’t even pull of a basic afterimage clone to save his life. How he graduated she would never know. Add in that all the girls were after him, it was no wonder Naruto would probably be jealous of Sasuke.

Leaving him in to his own thoughts, Sakura debated with herself about the weapons. Naruto finally popped back to reality, however, to worriedly ask her about something. In handing him the weapons and giving him the chance to take them, Sakura was giving a quick answer. She almost pulled back when he hesitated to take him, but Naruto was always a bit slow on the uptake so she waited a little bit longer for him than she wanted to. And once he took them, she was surprised to find that he actually thanked her. A broken clock was right twice a day however. At least he knew how to thank someone.

”Your welcome Naruto, but just remember it’s only this one time. After this you’re on your own, got it?”

The gift seemed to brighten up Naruto’s mood somewhat, and in return brightened up her own. Even with him being such a goofball troublemaker, it was hard to be depressed or mad when Naruto was happy. It was infectious to some degree. Shifting the bag in her hand, Sakura considered what to do next. Due to her diet she was skipping on dinner, and it was starting to get late. Sleep was very important, especially for her so she could look her best tomorrow in front of Sasuke. A tired teammate was a terrible thing, and she would look like a complete mess as well. Now was probably a good time to get moving, considering it was just her and Naruto after all. She wasn’t going to miss anything by leaving.

”Well then, good night Naruto.” she said as she started to walk. She gave him a rather simple wave as she did so, wanting to get out as fast as possible. He had already hit on her once, and after brightening up his mood with the gift, she didn’t want to risk getting hit on by him again.