Friends & Family von dragonfighter (The Clumsy & The Lonely) ================================================================================ Kapitel 2: Step 2 - Engagement ------------------------------ The Uchiha Empire is divided into two areas, the technological and the creative. In addition to the invention and development of new technologies, technology also includes accounting and controlling, human resources and others. The creative department includes the design department, the development of new products and other such departments, but also marketing and logistics. He has always been the creative one. Even as a young boy he built houses and cities while playing Lego, and later built model cars himself. That is why he is the head of the creative departments, must coordinate these, approve designs that can be used in production.   The black haired young man sighs and rises from his armchair. A glance at the clock shows him that he should start going slowly so as not to keep his mother waiting. He silently drives the computer down, puts his tablet in his work bag and then picks up the stack of documents to sort them in the trays. He sighs again, at least he's finished with his work, so he gets his peace at the weekend. With loose movements, he throws the folders into the various trays, which his secretary will pass on to the departments on Monday morning. He briefly looks around his secretary's empty office, except that there is no one else anyway. Even Itachi as the boss has already left. The older of the brothers also likes to let the not so important things wait a bit. Sasuke just shakes his head and returns to his office, from here he has an optimal view of the city and part of the Tokyo skyline, since the building of the Uchiha Corporation headquarters has 65 floors, it is the tallest building in the skyline Tokyo and, due to its location on the edge of Shinjuku, you can see the entire skyline of the city center from his office.   After a last brief glance out of his panoramic window, he takes his jacket and his work bag and leaves his office with his smartphone in his hand. His path leads him through the illuminated corridors of the building complex, past dark offices. Just as he enters the elevator, his cell phone starts ringing. Rolling his eyes, since he has just put it away, he takes it out of his suit pocket and looks at the screen on which "Itachi" is written. With a sigh, he answers the call. "Hey kid, where are you?“, His older brother's voice sounds from the smartphone. "Still in the office." Sasuke sighs and looks up over the elevator door, which shows which floor the elevator is passing by. "You are always in the office for so long.”, this time there is a sigh on the other side of the phone call. "I just do my job and don't go away when the mandatory attendance is over.”, the younger Uchiha hisses. "I also have something of a private life. But don't worry, you will notice that there are more important things in life than work. Just wait until a woman comes over.”, Itachi whistles cheerfully into the cell phone. “Anyway, I wanted to inform you that Mum planned the meal for 7:30 pm. Make sure that you are here by then. See you“ In the next moment there is only the steady humming, which makes the young man clear that his brother has hung up on him. He snorts derogantly. "The one woman. Yes, of course, and all because he is married now.” Says the Uchiha to himself and lets the smartphone disappear into his pocket. When the numbers fall below the double-digit range above the elevator door, the young company boss puts on his jacket and closes it. Just when he picks up his work bag again, the elevator stops in the underground garage. There are no cars here either, except his Audi A8. Nicely parked in the parking space reserved specially for him. With the remote conditions, he opens the trunk in which he immediately stows his work bag and then takes a seat in the driver's seat. Dutiful as he is, he fastens his seatbelt before starting the engine and parking out with a single pull backwards and out of the underground garage. There are always arguments about the parking spaces in the underground park house, especially in summer and winter. When he leaves the underground car park and passes the barriers on the exit, Typical for December, thick white flakes fall from the thick cloud cover and immediately covering his car with a white layer in order to adapt it to the whole environment. A 10 cm thick layer has already laid over the city and spreads pre-Christmas mood. Sighing, Sasuke turns on the radio and then leans back in his seat before turning off the road to make his way through the side streets. 30 minutes later he drives through the gate of the Uchiha estate. With a slight smile, he parks behind his brother's car and immediately leaves his own vehicle. At the door, he is met by one of the butlers. From the kitchen, his mother immediately comes to meet him, who, despite the wealth and the butlers and housekeepers, can not help but cook for her loved ones. "Sasuke. I really looked forward to see you!“ With bright eyes she comes up to him to hug him. Smiling, he presses a kiss on her cheek. "Hello mum. How are you?”, he immediately explores and examines her in detail to immediately notice the smallest change and if it is only her skin that is a shade lighter. "Eh well, Sasuke. Don't worry.”, she smiles at him, "go to your father, Itachi and Honoka into the living room.” Gently she pushes him towards the living room, whose dining table is already set for dinner. "Ah, Sasuke. There you are. You shouldn't be working so long on a Friday!”, Fugaku rises from the couch and approaches his youngest son to greet him with a handshake. "Thanks to that at least I have no work for Monday morning and can relax at the weekend instead." Sasuke shrugs before greeting Itachi and his wife, Honoka. Shortly after, Mikoto also enters the living room, asking them to come to the dining table. Butlers bring drinks and finally serve the soup. The youngest Uchiha follows the conversation at the dining table in silence, which only takes place between Itachi, Honoka and his mother. He and his father stay out of it. Even when the main course and finally the desserts are served, the oldest and the youngest Uchiha remain silent, only making comments about the drinks or the food. Itachi stretches extensively as the butlers take the plates. With a smile, he taps his stomach to show that he liked it. His mother giggling girlishly because of his behavior. Finally everyone rises to sit on the couch in front of the crackling fire. Sasuke looks out into the with snow covered garden in silence, until he feels a glance resting on himself. He slowly turns his head and looks at his mother. "Sasuke. I would like to speak to you for a moment.“, she smiles pleadingly. The person addressed nods and follows his mother out of the living room into his father's study. In this she stands behind the work chair while Sasuke closes the door and stops in front of the table. "Sasuke, I'm worried about you. You've been drowning in work since you came from university. You even sit in the office until 7pm on a Friday. I am afraid that you will never find anyone.“, Mikoto explains and looks up at her son with a worried and sad look. "I don't want to decide anything over your head. But I talked to a friend recently. His sister is now 23 years old. I would like to engage you with her.” The black-haired woman smiles tentatively at him. Sasuke sighs and lets his hand wander through his hair. "Don't worry, I chose this woman wisely. You know her, you were with her at the inauguration of the Tokiwa Towers, Haruno Sakura. Do you remember?“, She looks questioningly at him. He nods slightly smiling, he remembers her vaguely, but he doesn't remember what she looked like, apart from that he can't tell his mother that he booked her with an rental service for that evening. "It is my wish to see you happy Sasuke. I want you to get married and have children. Only when I have passed you on to another woman who can and will make you happy I can die in peace.“, she still smiles sincerely at him. Sasuke's eyes widen at her last words before he brushes through his hair again. He was always bad in refusing her wishes and certainly he couldn’t now either. Not now that she had wished something from him so deep from her heart.   "If it is your wish, I will marry Sakura.", the youngest Uchiha smiles at his mother, who sheds a single tear as she approaches him to happily embrace him. The black haired man smiles sadly. If only because of this reaction, he can't refuse her and gently strokes her back. Smiling happily, she pushes away from him and leaves the office beaming, which his father entered shortly afterwards. "How's it going?" Sasuke asks a question. Every outsider would have looked at him a little confused now, but Fugaku knows what his son is referring to. "It has grown again.", it comes quietly and depressed from the head of the family. The youngest Uchiha takes a deep breath and lowers his head before covering his eyes with his hand. ~>*<~ The best time of the year, that's how Christmas is called. This time is associated with stress and sometimes grief, how can this time be happy? When you hurry from one store to the next to get gifts and you miss people who have already lost their lives. This time is particularly difficult for her, but she tries not to show this to anyone.   Christmas carols fill the apartment. Humming softly, the pink haired woman places the pine branches in the vase, adds various other branches and then looks at the table next to her. Spread out, there are Christmas balls, glittering decorative stars, Santa Claus figures and snowmen. Her eyes roam the fuchsia balls and silver stars before she selects a few and places them in the arrangement. A Santa Claus figure is standing there and smiling at her work. Satisfied with the work, she nods and rises to put it on the dresser in the hallway in front of the mirror. She looks around briefly and smiles. At the archway, which separates the entrance area of the hallway from the actual hallway, she has hung a mistletoe. Maybe it happens this year and she manages to get Ino and Kiba under the archway at the same time, so they are obliged to kiss each other. The two are these typical couples. Best friends since middle school, clearly in love with each other, but unable to admit it to themselves. Hinata and the pinkette have hoped that something suddenly happens that one of the two finally understand and realize. But nothing has happened yet. The Haruno sighs quietly and returns to her coffee table to settle back on the pillow on the floor. A few branches are still left, which she simply ties together, makes a nice stitch and hangs the festive covenant on her apartment door. She quietly closes the door behind her and looks around the hall. Christmas cookies smell from the kitchen and music from the living room reaches her ears. Everything looks pretty festive and clean. She smiles a little mockingly, it’s amazing how much stuff can be done on a day off. With a sigh, she leans against the door. A tortured, bitter smile lays on her lips.   Christmas used to be her favorite time of the year. She couldn't wait for Christmas to come, every day she waited for the next day to come and was already looking forward to the candys in her Advent calendar. It was simply the most wonderful thing to sit at the table on an Advent Sunday and watch the flickering candles until you realize that thick flakes are falling outside the house. It was just always a dream. Shopping with her parents. Bake the cookies with her mother. Sleighing with her father. Snowball fights with her brother. Now everything is different. She doesn't even know why she goes out of her way to decorate her home every year. For her friends? Her brother and his girlfriend? Every year she gets the decoration out of the closet and cleans out her apartment, sometimes feels like she is back in her own childhood and then she can see the sparkle in her eyes. This childlike delighted radiance, this childlike glow fades from year to year and frustration spreads in her that she just has the need to tear down the whole decoration, throw it against the wall, tear it up and just destroy it. At Christmas she always has to be painfully confronted with the memories of what she once had and now she is missing so bitterly. Sakura feels tears in her eyes and a sob escapes her lips. She immediately puts her hand over her mouth and tries to blink the tears away. But it seems to be one of those moments when her feelings overwhelm her. Tears flow from her eyes and dampen her cheeks. Suppressed sobs make her body shake. With a deep breath, the Haruno tries to calm herself down. When it doesn't help, she takes one more and one more. She is slowly regaining control of her body and feelings. Smiling bitterly, she wipes the tears from her cheeks. Nobody should see how much she sometimes suffers. She pushes herself away from her door and goes into the bathroom. She silently looks at herself in the mirror and wipes away the smeared mascara and eye pencil stains with a cotton pad. She smiles bravely and then returns to the hallway.   The young Haruno puts on her black boots and pulls her green vest into shape before putting on her winter jacket and puts the lime green scarf around her neck to protect it from the cold. With a handbag, smartphone and car key, she leaves the apartment and heads down the stairs to the ground floor. When she leaves the apartment building, the cold winter wind hits her in the face with a few snowflakes. The pink-haired woman looks briefly up at the sky and smiles tenderly before she climbs the few meters of the forecourt of her residential complex and heads for her car, with which she fights through the traffic to the Haruno Empire. The parking lot is only half full, the rest of the employees seem to have already started their well-deserved weekend. With a sigh, she strokes her hair and looks up the building to the top where her brother's office is. Slowly her legs start to move and carry her into the company. At the reception she is greeted warmly, after all, she is known as the boss's sister. When she approaches the elevator, the doors open and a few of the employees get out. They nod at her kindly, which she replies with a smile, climbs into the empty elevator and confirms the button for the top floor. During the short ride in the elevator, she looks at her smartphone and checks whether someone might have messaged or called her, when she didn't pay attention. The elevator announces a stop with a bright tone and when Sakura looks up she sees that she has already reached the top floor.   With a smile she walks out of the elevator, past her brother's secretary and through the open office door of him. "Sakura. Nice that you are here.”, smiling, her brother rises to his feet and looks at her with delight. The younger Haruno quickly closes the door and then approaches her brother, whom she hugs and then drops into one of the armchairs in front of his table. She looks around briefly as she opens her jacket and brushes off her sleeves. "You look good Ryosuke.", she observes after briefly examining her brother. "You wanted to see me? What is it about?” Her green eyes look interested into his blue ones. "Kiba and Ino still haven’t made any new seps, have they?", he grins lightly, supporting his elbow on the table and his chin on his hand. She looks at him with surprise before she sighs. "Oh man, Ryosuke. What have you pulled off and done now?”, she gives him a lecturing look and shakes her head. "Oh well. I wouldn't really call it ‘pulled off’. Maybe it didn't really work out… I-”, He begins to philosophize about the term ‘pulling off’. “Out with it Ryosuke.", amused Sakura looks at her older brother. "Well...", With a sigh the brown-haired man rises and stands at the window, looking out through it and only turns around a few moments later. “Well, it’s like that... An old acquaintance of mine, a friend from school, expressed the wish to marry you and I agreed. So you got engaged to him.”, his arms crossed behind his back, he looks like her father. She stares at him stunned. "What? Ryosuke are you crazy? You can't just engage me to someone I don't know!”, The young Haruno suddenly jerks up and makes the armchair she was sitting on shake in the process. "You know him. He was one of your clients a few months ago, you were with him at that celebration. Do you remember? ”Explains the brown-haired man and looks at her with a smile. "Do you know how many clients I have as a companion? I don't remember every single one. Just tell me a good, really good reason why you came up with such a banal idea of engaging me!”, angrily she walks past him and stands at the window, her arms crossed over her chest, looking down at the snow covered city. "No. Sakura.", Ryosuke sighs and looks at her back, "Both of us had to experience a few years ago, how fast everything can change. How everything changes from one second to the next and everything can be over. I know you have been scared ever since, afraid to let someone get close to you and loose. To love and loose someone. I also know that you often feel lonely. Neither of us can say what will happen tomorrow. And I'm afraid of that. Afraid that one day you will be alone because I am no longer, one second to the next. Afraid that you will get lost in loneliness. I want you to be in good hands.” Her body trembles as she suppresses the sobs. Tears flow quietly down her cheeks.   The young man sighs again when his sister suddenly turns to him and he sees her tears. He smiles sadly and walks up to her to take her into his arms and comfortingly strokes her back. Crying bitter tears, she nods at his chest and a sob escapes from her lips. "I'm going to marry him." It's just a whisper. Relieved, Ryosuke smiles and kisses his sister on the top of her head. "I know that you will be in good hands with him and he will take away your fears and also my fears for you," he says against her hair. Hosted by Animexx e.V. (http://www.animexx.de)