Another attepmt at a MC story. So far, all I've been able to write have been one-shots. Hopefully, I'll be able to commit to this one, instead of scrapping it like I usually end up doing.
Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto Masashi.
"Nagareboshi ka?" (1)
Sasuke smiled faintly, closing his eyes. Neji moved closer.
When Sasuke opened them, Neji's lips were on his, pressing softly and sweetly.
Blood rising to his cheeks, Sasuke sat feeling shocked for a moment, before smiling again and kissing back.
And, as if trying to set the perfect backdrop for this heartwarming scene, the stars twinkled brightly, contrasting against the night sky. By this time, the shooting star had vanished, leaving both boys' wishes granted.
6:05 A.M.
Darkness. It was everywhere. Pitch black.
"Only in my dreams," he thinks.
It was maddening. Everywhere he looked, nothing. It seemed as though he had been there for hours, this black abyss.
But that couldn't be, he knows, even in unconsciousness. The beatings had lasted until late, and he had only lost consciousness three, maybe four, hours ago, when the pain subsided enough.
But now, he didn't know if he wouldn't rather be awake, facing him again, than be here. Not that here was bad, it was just so damned boring.
The need for sleep already consumed much of the precious hours he had that he could be working. He'd much rather be asleep, but even that extra bit of money would help.
In a way, it wasn't all that bad. The blissful unconsciousness of sleep let him forget. Let him be numb. Let his aching mind rest for a few good hours while his brain sorted through, deleted, and replayed the fragments of information his short-term memory had collected in the form of a dream.
He hated dreams.
He preferred the pitch black unconsciousness of a dream-less sleep.
It was comforting. It made him forget. But this time, the Gods of sleep were punishing him, forcing him to be awake during it.
Technically, he wasn't really awake, he was unconscious, sleeping, lost in that wonderful black abyss.
This time, instead of his mind shutting down, not allowing him to think at all, it made him aware of himself wandering in that "dream."
Which made it that much more annoying.
Oh, the agony.
6:15 A.M.
Sasuke moaned, opening bleary eyes to gaze at the clock that sat on top of his bedside table.
He had woken before his alarm again, a nasty habit he had recently picked up from God knows where.
He really needed to get more sleep, Sasuke noted as he glanced at his reflection in the mirror.
There were dark bags under his eyes.
He had been losing a lot of sleep lately because
(the beatings had gotten so much worse)
he had so much on his plate right now, it was getting too much to handle.
Sasuke was down to about three to four hours of sleep a night now, and he didn't know how much longer it would be before he started passing out during school again.
Sasuke hurriedly got dressed and left for school, not eating breakfast no matter how much he wanted to. He was lower on money now than ever before and he didn't think he could afford to go grocery shopping this week.
He walked to school, ignoring the hunger pangs because
(he hadn't eaten in almost two days)
he would get something to eat at lunch.
7:15 A.M.
He walked through the doors to
(Hell)
his school, went to his graffiti covered locker, got out the books he would need, dodged the fist that he knew was coming at him from behind, closed the locker, and turned around.
"Teme! Where were you yesterday?"
Sasuke sighed. He really didn't know why he put up with
(his best friend)
the idiot.
"I had work."
"You always say that!" Naruto whined. "Why do you have to work so much anyway. It's not like tuition here's that expensive. What would you need that much money for?"
The look on Sasuke's face told him he had gone a bit too far, which
(he seemed to be doing too often lately)
made Naruto immediately regret pushing the subject further.
"Don't worry about it." Sasuke replied tonelessly.
"Ne, Sasuke, want to go to 'katsuki tonight? I dunno how we'll get in though. What do you think?" Naruto was changing the subject, for which Sasuke was grateful. But he wished Naruto hadn't invited him to go there, but he guessed he owed Naruto for ditching him so often lately.
"Yeah," Sasuke forced out, "...I know how to get in."
Akatsuki was a local night club. Sasuke and Naruto were still underage, being only 17, but Sasuke had some...connections. If you could consider secretly working there part time because the owner of the club happens to be your older brother, who happens to have fallen seriously ill a few months prior and had to be admitted into the hospital for long periods of time, which happens to be very expensive , connections, then yes, Sasuke had connections.
Naruto's face brightened. "All right!" he cheered as the bell rang.
They departed to their respective classes and Naruto was happy, so Sasuke was happy.
(Is what Sasuke tried so desperately to convince himself)
2:43 P.M.
Naruto and Sasuke met up outside the school.
"So I'll come by around 8, 'kay?"
"Okay."
Sasuke began to walk home, taking his time. There was no one expecting him home anyway.
Thank God it's Frida- Shit! He had a shift at the restaurant today.
Luckily, it ended at 7:30, so he would not have to cancel on Naruto.
(Again.)
Sasuke sighed and quickened his pace so he could go home and get ready.
7:45 P.M.
Sasuke opened the door to his apartment. He slipped out of his shoes, and immediately went to the bathroom to take a shower before Naruto arrived. He had to get rid of the smell of food that always came with working at restaurants so Naruto wouldn't find out that he had been working again tonight. It would make him worry again, and Sasuke wanted Naruto to enjoy himself tonight.
Sasuke stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist. He grabbed another one for his hair and proceeded to dry it vigorously while walking to his room, in search of something to wear.
He pulled out his favorite pair of jeans, slightly low-cut with a few chains here and there. They were dark in color and a bit tattered from being worn so many times, but that only seemed to make them look more attractive.
Next, he picked out a black, high-collared short sleeve shirt with a slight V-neck shape to it. To go under that, he found a fishnet shirt in his dresser, which had sleeves slightly longer than his shirt had, so they reached just above his elbows, sticking out under the black shirt he would wear on top. Perfect. (2)
He got dressed and put on a few bracelets to complete the look: A simple black chain, a thin black and white checkered band, a thin silver chain, and about half a dozen of those thin, rubbery, black bracelets.
On the other wrist was the bracelet he never took off. It had bands of orange, black, red, and white intricately woven together to form cris-crosses around his wrist.
On the inside, very carefully carved was one word.
Yakusoku. Promise
It was their promise to each other.
Their promise to always be there for each other when they needed it.
Each color on the bracelet represented one of them. His most precious people.
Orange was Naruto's, of course. It was originally his idea to make the bracelets for the group.
He had been Sasuke's best friend since... forever. The two were inseparable. Everywhere Sasuke went, Naruto also went.
And everywhere Naruto went, Sasuke would surely be found there also.
They were eternal rivals, each constantly pushing the other to his limits, and then going beyond them.
They balanced each other out. Light and dark. Sun and moon.
You couldn't have one without the other.
Black was Itachi's. Being hospitalized most of the time, Itachi didn't get to see his younger brother much, so the bracelet, in a way, was a symbol of Itachi always being there for him.
Red was Sakura. Originally, it was to be pink, but Sasuke had simply refused to wear it if it was going to be pink. So, they made a compromise and went with red. After much arguing on both parts of course.
Sakura kept him balanced. She tended to be motherly and always fussed about Sasuke not taking care of himself properly.
She was like the big sister Sasuke never had.
She was who you went to when you wanted a home-cooked meal, needed a shoulder to cry on, or just couldn't decide what to wear.
In a way, she kept him sane.
And finally, white was Neji's.
Neji and Sasuke had been friends since the day they were born. Often, they were left to play together while their mother's gossiped and chatted.
They had been best friends until...until Sasuke met Naruto. After the massacre.
Of course, Sasuke and Neji remained friends, but Neji had gone through that inevitable stage of jealousy.
He fought for Sasuke's attention at first, which hadn't really seemed to work.
When all else failed, Neji avoided Sasuke and anything that had to do with him, secretly hoping that, that would drive them back together. It had been subtle at first, and then escalated until Neji slipped up and went too far.
The words had been so cruel, he couldn't believe they had come out of his mouth. And he found himself regretting them as soon as they were out.
He would never forget the look on Sasuke's face. Obsidian orbs filled with unshed tears, desperately being held back, and mouth hung slightly open in shock. Betrayed. Heartbroken.
It might as well have been written on his forehead.
Sasuke had walked away.
Walked until he was out of Neji's and then ran.
He ran without knowing where. When he calmed down enough to stop, it was raining and he was miles from home. Too tired to move any further, he climbed up into one of the thick trees for shelter from the rain, telling himself that his cheeks were only wet from the rain, nothing more.
Eventually, the cold became too unbearable, and he succumbed to that blissful ignorance known as sleep.
When he woke, he was lying in a soft, warm bed.
Looking around, he had immediately recognized the room as Neji's, with said owner sitting in a chair next to the bed with his head in his arms on the bed, fast asleep.
Sasuke had smiled, and Neji had been forgiven.
After that, the two continued to be friends, Neji realizing at last that Naruto had filled a spot in Sasuke's heart that he would never have been able to. But he accepted that, and was able to move on.
Things with Neji had been a bit awkward lately. Sasuke didn't really know why, but he would save that for a later time; he had other things to worry about.
8:00 P.M.
Sasuke heard the car horn beep outside.
"Tch, right on time," Sasuke said to himself.
The idiot was infuriatingly late to everything he went to, but he always came on time for Sasuke. Not to mention that Sasuke had chewed him out once for arriving late to pick him up from work, leaving the dark haired boy forced to stand shivering in the rain for 20 minutes.
Sasuke grabbed his wallet and his phone, shoved them in his pocket, stepped into his worn out, black Converse, and opened the door. He made his way out to the car, where Naruto was looking him over appreciatively.
"Hey, you sure clean up nice, huh, Sasuke-chan?" Naruto said cheekily.
Sasuke punched him in the arm, "Didn't I tell you to stop calling me that, dobe?"
Naruto laughed, "Whatever you say, Sasuke-chan."
Sasuke growled and gave him a glare, but eventually gave in to Naruto's contagious laughter.
1 - Nagareboshi means 'shooting star'. I had Sasuke say it like that because it just sounds so much cooler in Japanese xD
2 - Sasuke's outfit is based on one I had drawn a while ago, just for fun, when I was playing with the idea for my own ninja from the Naruto world. If anyone would like to see it, I'll put up a link somewhere, so let me know. (But be warned, it's just a sketch on a piece of notebook paper, nothing fancy. I don't want people to get their hopes up expecting a masterpiece of sorts. It's just so you can get an idea of what the outfit looks like, mostly the shirt, since I don't think it's very clear in the story.)
Oh, and for the beginning section about Sasuke and Neji that is overflowing with cheese, I won't exactly tell you what it's about, but I'll give you a hint: I decided to do this one Shippuuden style ;)
Kudos and a one-shot to anyone who guesses it.
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