Like a Dream || borusara

2.

By the time she got off work, Sarada was exhausted. But she left the library with a smile, remembering the way her new (and particularly handsome) acquaintance helped her clean up the books that had fallen from the shelves.

Then even after they were finished, Boruto lingered around the library, seemingly just to hang out with her and ask more about her interests and her art. Sarada had shown him a few of her recent sketches and told him about how she planned to make more with the kitsune as her new inspiration.

He attentively listened to her ramble about herself as if she was the most interesting person he had ever met. And he seemed excited when she promised to show him her first kitsune painting.

The cold winter air tousled her raven hair as Sarada ventured through campus. She bit her lip, wondering if she should've asked Boruto for his phone number. He seemed so interested in her with his questions and his flirty smiles, but then again maybe she was misinterpreting.

He hadn't asked her for her phone number either...

With a sigh, Sarada hugged her Japanese folklore book to her chest and pushed open the door to her favorite coffee shop.

Yes, she should probably be taking a nap before her afternoon classes, but with her new muse so prominently on her mind, Sarada decided she would much rather paint. As luck would have it, standing two places ahead of her in line was one of her classmates and best friends.

"Yo! Inojin!" she called. He whipped around and smiled the moment his icy blue eyes spotted her. Inojin let the people between them ahead of him so that he and Sarada could stand together.

"Hey, good morning!" he greeted. "How was work last night? Are you just getting off?"

"Yeah, it was good, ya know, besides the earthquake," Sarada chuckled as they stepped forward in line.

"Earthquake?" Inojin repeated, his brow raised in obvious confusion.

"Yeah, it was in the middle of the night, like... actually I don't remember what time it was."

"Oh, I must have been asleep," he shrugged before approaching the counter to place his order. Sarada followed suit, dropping the subject without much thought.

With her vanilla cold brew in hand, Sarada gave her goodbyes to Inojin and made her way back to her apartment. It was convenient and safe living on campus, but her space was dreadfully small. It was more of an art studio than it was a bedroom, but she didn't really mind.

She shed her outer layers as she entered her apartment, hanging her coat on the rack beside the door before kicking off her shoes. Sarada crossed the room, tossed her book bag onto her unmade bed, and set her coffee down on her nightstand. She then began shuffling through her supplies to find a blank canvas.

Her eyes were growing heavy as another yawn fell from her lips, but she resisted the temptation to try to sleep. It wasn't guaranteed that she would even feel rested when she woke, especially being that she had been having terribly gruesome nightmares lately.

After many nights staying awake longer than she should, Sarada discovered that the art she made in this tired, if not slightly delirious state, was actually quite interesting.

Exhausting her mind and body probably wasn't a sustainable way to churn out art, but she did it anyway. She considered experimenting with psychedelic drugs like some of her peers, but the occasional tale of a bad trip always seemed to steer her away. Sarada wasn't sure which was more unhealthy: sleep deprivation or mushrooms, but hey at least one is more legal.

With a blank canvas positioned on her easel, she sat down on her bed and flipped through her book about the kitsune to find a good reference image. Dark eyes blinked slowly a few times, fighting to stay open.