Sasuke stared indifferently at the couple sitting across from him on the metro. He was not, in any way, creeping on the couple. He was simply observing. People watching. He observed as the girl fell asleep and her head slowly fell onto the boy's shoulder. He saw the boy startle and then relax when he saw her fast asleep. Sasuke then watched as the jostling of the train also lulled the boy into a slumber and his head fell on top of the girls. It was disgusting really, how comfortable they were together. Sasuke felt like he was going to get a cavity watching and went back to his book.

Or at least he tried.

In the space to the right of the sleeping couple two friends leaned over a phone. They tapped and swiped and pointed and laughed. Clearly playing a game of some sort. To the left of the couple a man stared blankly at his phone, but when Sasuke took in the slight crinkle in the corner of the man's eyes and the way they lite up, he knew that there's something on the phone that made him happy. Maybe it was a text from his daughter or maybe it was a funny joke on some social media site or maybe he's reading porn. It could have been anything. A couple seats down from where Sasuke was sitting, a woman was attempting to multitask. In her arms she rocked a baby to sleep while simultaneously trying to keep a toddler entertained. Her hair fell in a mess as she picked up a dropped stuffed giraffe to give back to the toddler.

The girl startled awake and caught Sasuke's (in)attention once again. Sasuke saw the slight widening of eyes as she checked the station they were arriving at. She shook the boy and pulled him up to the door holding hands. They got off at the next stop.

Sasuke stood up and got off at his stop after theirs.

Maybe there was something in the air or maybe it was the couple that sat across from him on the metro, but something triggered and Sasuke was in a Weird Mood TM. It made him more aware of everything around him. Almost as if the world before was in 240p and now it was in 1080p HD. He could feel himself in the space around him. Feel as the warm evening air entered his body and filled his lungs, how his blood cells would gather the oxygen molecules to circulate through his body, how he would exhale the carbon dioxide into the air in an invisible puff of heat. He could feel every hair on his body rise as a cool breeze whisked his warmth away.

Okay he might have exaggerated a little.

Anyway, every noise, the sound of his steps, the rush of passing cars, the rumble of the leaving train, rang clear in Sasuke's ears. He was aware of himself and everyone around him. How everyone was their own person with their own desires and stories. How everyone was the protagonist to their own life. How Sausuke was just another passerby, not even registered in their concious mind.

Sasuke's mind wandered. He remembered hearing somewhere that crowds were a fluid. Maybe they could be compared to other states of matter too. The crowd could be a solid as the people crammed together to get off the train. From there the pressure would turn the crowd into a liquid as people moved around others and obstacles, walking without faltering, without even thinking too much about it. As the people split to go their separate ways to cars and stores, to homes and jobs, the crowd would be evaporating and turning into a gas.

Sasuke reached his apartment. With a sigh he pulled out his keys. He was tired. He wanted nothing more than a warm meal and a hot shower and blessed, blessed sleep. But sleep never really helped with the Weird Mood TM. Sasuke always tried to focus his attention outward. Focusing inward was dangerous. Focusing inward was for when he was alone at night with nothing but his mind inside his body. The quiet and dark amplified a fact that Sasuke never liked to acknowledge.

Saskue took a deep breath and let it go as he entered his aparment.

Sasuke was...

Food. Eat. He forced himself to think pleasent thoughts. He had some cherry tomatoes in his fridge still. He should eat those. Itachi was going to come over the next day, he should clean a little. Well maybe not. It was just Itachi. Okay maybe he should.

He pulled out a single plate and a single fork and a single cup and set them on the counter in his cold, empty aparment. The thought bubbled up inside him with the undeniable evidence set in front of him. It settled in the middle of his being, the space between the bottom of his ribs and the top of his stomach. It was almost like a hunger pain except instead of a cramping stomach, it was a cramping metaphorical heart.

Sasuke was lonely.

His phone buzzed. He checked the caller ID and ignored it. He was too invested in his brooding to be social at the moment. He retrieved a container of leftovers from his fridge and dumped it on his plate. His phone buzzed again as he put his plate in the microwave.

Sasuke sighed, "Yes Sakura?"

"Why'd you ignore me?" Came her voice over speaker phone.

"I did not ignore you," Sasuke lied.

"Uh-huh," Sakura didn't believe him for a second. "Whatever, that's not important. You free this Saturday? I'm throwing a surprise party for Ino."

Sasuke thought of his absolutely free weekend that he planned to do absolutely nothing and replied, "No. I'm busy."

Sasuke could feel Sakura's eyeroll over the phone. "Your sixth grade class picture says you're free."

A spike of panic raced through Sasuke as repressed memories of middle school picture day surfaced. Then he remembered that he had taken care of-

"Before the retakes," Sakura's pleasent voice was an auditory hallucination. Behind the angelic voice was the devil out for death and carnage.

Sasuke briefly wondered where she got the photos, but really it was probably from Itachi. For some reason they were friends. Sasuke sighed again. "Where and what time?"

The timer for his food beeped.


A/N: Crossposting from AO3. Or more like this is completely finished on AO3 and I forgot FF existed. I'll be updating this over the next couple of days.