"Ugggh" Three A.M. Three A.M. is not a good time for anybody to be woken up. And yet there I was…at three A.M. Woken up. It was the bang from the kitchen that drew me from my deep sleep. As I stumbled out of my dump of a room and down the stairs towards the noise, I considered the sound. It had sounded like a pan had been dropped. The use of pans at 3A.M. could only mean one thing. My roomies and their habitual late night/early morning warm glass of milk. Stumbling into the light I greeted them. "What the hell is wrong with you?" "Hey, Sakura." The two nervously glanced at each other. Normally my roommates (and resident couple) Hinata and Naruto were adorable when they were guilty. It must be some sort of survival technique. But it was not working at 3 am in the &%$(&^$ morning. Glaring, I repeated the question in the same grumpy and sleep deprived tone. Naruto decided to speak. " It was a rough night Sakura. Sorry." Naruto has these nightmares. He explained them to me once. The dreams were always the same and Naruto (who has had a pretty hard life and has always been one of the strongest people I know) would awake screaming and terrified. The dreams started as nothingness. Then a voice would speak to Naruto. He only told me that the voice would threaten him, his world, his loved ones. Basically it was a very mean vouice. And the voice was coming from the mouth of this terrifying demon fox. Then scenes of ancient villages being terrorized by this creature. And Naruto was always there, in the mind of the beast, completely unable to stop the horror. I started sleeping with earplugs, so I didn't really get woken up by the screaming anymore. But Hinata who had been with him for years, woke up every time to comfort him. She could calm him down in any situation. Hinata and a warm glass of milk have been doing the trick for as long as they had lived with me. Unfortunately I had work in 4 hours and had already lost sleep.. Sighing and giving Naruto a sympathetic glance (his gaze darkened at the pity) I nodded in understanding and turned around and wandered away back to my room. Behind me I heard soft comforting muttering coming from Hinata in the kitchen. At this point in their lives the recovery rate for Naruto was so much shorter. I was sure he was already fine for tonight.
The rain the following morning, matched with my limited amount of sleep mad me more miserable than usual as I rushed around the apartment. Our home was beautiful. Set a short distance from the local park, in the western end of the city, it was ideally positioned for convenient nature enjoyment in a very nice neighborhood. The apartment was spacey and comfortably cluttered. Hinata's psychology magazines scattered on any level surface available. Our beaten blue couch (also a pull out bed) had my books tucked down the sides. And some popcorn from movie night. And several of Naruto's socks (I don't think he even bothered to keep a sock drawer any more). The open floor plan made the apartment seem huge, and the walls where a beautiful shade of blue (thank you Hinata) The long corridor the our bedroom doors were along had random articles of clothing lining it. It was here that I was frantically searching for my favorite skirt while clutching my coffee and pulling a brush through my hair. Naruto was sat at the kitchen table chuckling and enjoying a bowl of ramen. " You have a very unhealthy ramen obsession, you know that right?" I asked him while digging through one of the larger pile of clothes. "Yup!" Naruto cheerfully agreed. He was already dressed in his gi. With his energy and natural enthusiasm, Naruto was an international martial arts champion and a bit of a celebrity. He had risen from abandonment and a childhood of unloving foster families to the man he was now and had opened his own school. Hinata stumbled out of their room. Smiling sweetly at Sakura she moved into the kitchen to give her boyfriend a loving smooch before disappearing into another room on the other side of the living room. Hinata was a writer (all the psychology magazines were the latest research). Her calm, soothing personality was the perfect complement to Naruto's extremely outgoing one. "You two are so cute!" I shouted to Naruto as a found the skirt and dashed into my room. He just chuckled- I tell him that all the time. Hinata had decided that I point out their relationship so often because I may want something like that for myself. Duh. I really needed to get those magazines away from her!
Charging out the door with an umbrella in hand I rushed down the street. The pedestrian traffic was fairly calm but it was bound to pick up soon. Being a bit uncoordinated I tried to avoid the busier hours on the street outside my home because the busier it got the more people I slammed into. And with a pointy umbrella that could be very dangerous. I was a secretary for a small law firm a couple of blocks away. So my morning journey was usually short. But for some freakish reason construction had taken up the road I normally took. I was going to have to take the long way. Sigh. The rain was starting to pick up and at this point I would arrive at work completely soaked.
The day didn't pick up from there. The weather staid unpleasant, and the clients visiting the office even more so. One guy spent half an hour screaming at me, the secretary, over some tax debate the our office had supposedly ruined. Turns out he had the wrong building. And as evening set in and lightning lit up the city in place of the sun I set off home. The long way was more scenic (or it would be in good weather) but quite crowded as everyone else in the city ran home around me. Dodging some psycho's larger than average umbrella I was forced to move to the edge of the walkway by the buildings. Each of the flats along this road had stairways leading to the ground level flats. My foot slipped on the wet ground and I tumbled. I slid straight down a set of steps and onto hard concrete . My umbrella clattered to a stop beside me. "oooooooooooooow!" With that half groan half shriek I twitched a little and tried to get to me feet. As I was getting my bearings I noticed I was being watched. From the doorway a shadowy figure was staring at me in shock. As I slipped and fell on my butt again, he lept to his feet. By wrapping his arms around my torso he managed to get me standing and slowly we pulled apart. He was young (about my age) with shaggy bkack hair that stuck up in an unusual fashion. Honestly, his hair reminede me of a chicken. He had faint stubble that made his face look strong and sharp. The best part was the look of utter shock that at the wet heap that had crash landed in to his world. Giggling a little I took a step back to thank him. But his face grew guarded and I noticed the rest of him . His baggy jeans were tattered and faded in a decidedly un-designer way. His hoodie was the ripped and covered in dirt. In the doorway he had come from there was a beaten back-pack, stuffed and fraying. " Ummm. Thank you! There was a puddle…the steps…well you know. Thanks." He continued to stare at me. " What are you doing out here? Locked out?" I asked. I know it was an optimistic guess but you never know. He chuckled and turned to grab his bag. "Something like that. You sure you're okay?" "Yeah. Thanks again." He gave me a glance, before moving around me and up the stairs. The man had no jacket or umbrella and the picture of him moving up those stairs in the pouring rain gave me a strange feeling of sadness. "Hey!" My shout caused him to turn to me. " You need to dry off. My place is nearby. Come on." And grabbing the poor guy by the hand I dragged him the rest of the way up the stairs. The guy tried to resist. I think is shocked him when I whipped around to face him with a glare "Now." I growled. I sort of have this darker side that pops up every once in a while. Hinata as a wannabe psychologist was still trying to figure it out. As the storm continued around us I dragged this poor homeless guy along behind me towards my home.