My usual one-shot style, i.e. fluff out the wazoo.
Shonen-ai. So they're both boys. Just felt I should clarify that.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any affiliated characters, settings, etc. The plot of this story is original work and the property of EverPlotting.
The reception was nice, of course, but really nothing more than that. The dean was supposed to be there and so, of course, Sasuke Uchiha found himself amongst a throng of people, half of them looking as bored as he felt, and the other half looking like lap dogs ready to drool at the dean's feet the moment she should approach them.
The dean was a nice woman, not elderly but not quite what one would consider young for a dean. She always seemed pleasant and wore dresses that seemed to belong more to the summer regardless of the approaching fall. In many ways she reminded Sasuke of an elementary school teacher. Despite this sense of informality about her, Sasuke felt strikingly wound as he stood in the elegant hall. This, Sasuke mused, was perhaps due to the fact that his parents were here, literally breathing down his neck.
Taking an obligatory sip of his water from the almost modernistic plastic cup, Sasuke scanned the room once more. He had never enjoyed these reception things. Though the school promoted such opportunities with an almost religious vigor, Sasuke found that he almost never spoke to anyone interesting, much less the dean. The conversation of the people was always the same. People wanted to know one's name and major, not so much because they cared but because it was an easy subject to discuss. It was comfortable. Everyone had a major. Once established there were always comments about the future – talk of jobs or prospects – or perhaps a strained but clever anecdote about something to do with Biology or English or Art History or whatever.
In short, the people Sasuke found himself amongst at these sorts of things were nauseatingly dull, and thus, he made a habit of rarely attending these sorts of events.
"This is quite nice, isn't it Sasuke?" chimed a soft voice from his left.
Without so much as a glance in her direction, Sasuke nodded in agreement. "Yes mother. It is."
If it were not for his parents, Sasuke thought, he could be doing so many other things. He realized that he would probably just be doing homework but, depressing a thought as it was, anything sounded more interesting than standing here looking like a fool.
"Excuse me," Sasuke said, setting his glass down and briefly interrupting his parents' conversation. "I need to use the bathroom."
Striding briskly over the marble floor, the feeling of movement in his legs made him want to run. The logical part of Sasuke's brain tried to sooth his infuriated id as he pushed open the stairwell door. He ran up the stairs as fast as he could, simply to burn off his frustration.
As he reached the next level, Sasuke slowed his steps, listening to the way they echoed off the high, bright tile walls. There was a window that overlooked the courtyard and the school chapel on the landing. He watched the ant-like figures as they strode about, wishing away their lives. What struck Sasuke most was that though he recognized the empty routines, he found himself trapped in one nevertheless. He wasn't sure if he was content or incredibly frightened by this thought, but he was more unsure still of how he should feel.
Glancing at his watch, Sasuke sighed. If he took too long his parents would wonder where he had gone. Turning to head down the set of stairs, he mentally prepared himself for the sheer torture that he knew was imminent. When he reached the next landing, however, he paused.
Sitting in the wide windowsill, was a boy, staring out at the people below. He must not have noticed the other on his rush up. A notebook lay open in the boy's lap. Sasuke spied a page fraught with doodles and scribbles, but at the center was a sketch of the window of the chapel below. Intrigued Sasuke looked closer; the difference between the real window and the drawing was shocking. The figures and shapes had been distorted so that the people seemed to be screaming or expressions contorted in agony. Amongst the doodles were whole faces and individual features, similar, as if the artist had been practicing.
"Can I help you?"
Sasuke glanced up. He had been so taken by the drawing he forgot to acknowledge the blond boy.
"You've been staring at me for, like, thirty seconds now. At first I just assumed you just zoned out, but then it started to get kind of creepy."
"Sorry," Sasuke shook his head. "Your, um… your drawing is really interesting. That's all."
"Really?" the boy replied, sounding skeptical. "I don't really like it that much myself. It's actually not even mine. A friend of mine drew it."
"Oh," Sasuke said succinctly.
"Yeah. Were in front of the chapel the other day. I actually fell asleep in the grass and when I woke up he was working on this. Apparently he got bored and stole my notebook. He carries charcoal pencils every ware, I swear. I don't know how his clothes are ever clean." The boy paused. "I'm Naruto."
"Sasuke."
"Nice to meet you," Naruto said and then he turned a page in the notebook and scribbled something down.
"What's your major?" Sasuke asked.
Naruto looked up from whatever he was writing and looked at Sasuke as if trying to decipher something. "Do you actually care?" he asked.
Sasuke snorted. "Honestly, no."
Naruto smiled. "We give so much value to labels now-a-days it's oppressive, and no one really cares about those labels anyway. It blocks actual human interaction, you know?"
Sasuke nodded.
"And another thing: why does it matter what I or anyone else wants to major in. I mean, isn't who we are more important than what we are?"
Sasuke thought for a moment.
"But what we are is a part of who we are, isn't it?"
Naruto paused for a moment and pushed down his eyebrows, holding a narrowed gaze with Sasuke's unsure one.
"Hm. I like you. Sasuke was it?"
"Yeah."
"Cool name. Where are you from?"
Sasuke smirked. "Do you care?"
Naruto laughed. "Not one iota." The blond suddenly shut his notebook and stared at his watch. He slipped off the windowsill and his canvas shoes made a soft thud on the floor, bouncing off the enclosed stairs.
"Well, I must be going," Naruto said in a mockingly thick British accent. "I'll see you around Sasuke."
Sasuke watched Naruto descend through the stairwell even as the rhythmic echo of the blond's footsteps faded. It was then that Sasuke decided, consciously or not, that he liked Naruto, making him the first person Sasuke had ever liked without knowing anything about him.