My One and Only

Chapter 27

Dozens of people walked in and out of a grand ballroom. Flowers, curtains, ribbons, intricate art pieces, and even more decorations were all carried in and assembled in a beautiful pattern. Sakura walked in the midst of all of it, watching as everything took shape.

Her wedding was only a week away now. The snow and cold of winter were long gone and these past few weeks of wedding planning had felt like a dream. Everything had gone by in a flurry of decisions and it seemed all she did was worry about the wedding.

Despite Mikoto's urge to control anything and everything about her first son's wedding to make sure everything was perfect, she'd recognized that perhaps the bride should also have some choice over the matter. And so, Sakura had ended up spending many weeks right next to Mikoto, who made sure to get her opinion on everything, brainstorming every detail.

Sakura was grateful for feeling included, but a part of her wished Mikoto had just stuck to planning everything so she didn't have to bother. Now everything had been chosen down to the color of the silverware that would be used that day, it was only just a matter of that vision becoming reality.

Mikoto was currently busy yelling at some poor errand boys doing the dirty work for the more seasoned decorators. She would not let a single wrinkle out of place slide, everything had to be in its correct and exact position. Sakura had never seen the fair-tempered woman as passionate nor as picky as she had been these past few weeks and even more now that the date loomed so near.

Hands encircling her waist was all the warning she got to Itachi's arrival. "It looks great." He said, observing the careful arrangement of the salon before them. She fought the urge to jump a bit, only the fact that he'd snuck up on her many times like this before helping her succeed.

Sakura lifted her head to look at his face, "You're mother's not even done yet. This is only about half of everything she has planned."

Itachi only sighed with a half-amused smile on his face, already knowing well his mother's devotion to perfection.

Mikoto walked over to them, noticing Itachi had just entered, "Itachi-chan! What brings you here?"

"Well, I was actually about to ask if Sakura was free to come with me for a bit," Itachi responded, addressing Mikoto but looking at Sakura, who looked at Mikoto to see what her answer would be.

Mikoto beamed. "Oh yes, of course! Go on, I can handle things here."

Sakura grinned, grateful to finally get away from the commotion of the ballroom and breathe, "Thank you Mikoto-san!"

Mikoto smiled in return, "Of course, dear."

Itachi took her hand and led her out of the room. Sakura finally wondered what exactly he was up to and looked at him questioningly.

"I have something to show you." He responded mysteriously.

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Sakura looked around excitedly as Itachi led her down the dock. She had no idea there was such a pretty lake here. Her eyes shimmered and she grinned widely as she realized they were headed straight towards the small wooden boat located near the end of the dock.

Itachi got into the boat first, jumping from the ledge of the dock and landing with a grace and elegance Sakura had seen few distinguished noblewomen exude. Then he extended his arms and grabbed her by the waist-eliciting a small, surprised squeak from Sakura- and lifted her up into the boat. She landed with a much clumsier step, and with Itachi's earlier performance, almost felt ashamed about it. Almost. 

They settled onto the seats of the boat sitting across from each other, their legs touching. Itachi took the oars and began to row them further out into the lake. The gentle sway of the boat and the rhythmic pattern of the waves as they hit the sides of the boat were enough to make Sakura feel just a bit sleepy. 

She closed her eyes for only a moment when the boat suddenly stopped and she heard two soft taps as Itachi set down the oars. She opened her eyes to see they were positioned at the center of the lake, and it hadn't been a small distance to move across. Maybe she'd been a bit more tired than she'd realized if she had taken a small nap or at least spaced out enough to have no recollection of the previous minutes.

Itachi fumbled a bit with something in his pocket. "Sakura," Her eyes quickly left his pants and focused back on his eyes at hearing him address her, " I realized I never gave you a proposal gift."

"You're still on time," Sakura answered, a bit lost. And he was, the only requirement was that he give it to her before they were actually married. 

"Yes, I am," He said, smiling wryly, realizing she hadn't understood what he was trying to get to. Well, he wasn't one to dawdle, it was best he got straight to the point. 

Taking out the hand that had been holding on to the small box in his pocket Itachi said, "I'd like to give this to you as my proposal gift, I hope you like it."

He opened the box in her direction. Sakura gasped, "It's so pretty!" Inside sat a silver ring with two stones intertwined beautifully seemingly held together by delicate silver vines.

"The stones on top are our birthstones," Itachi explained as he slid the ring on her finger.

Sakura stared at the ring on her hand for a few seconds and found she quite liked the way it looked. She smiled at Itachi and threw her arms around him, "Thank you!"

Itachi wrapped his arms around her and embraced her right back, 
"There's no need."