A/N: Hey here's my first fanfiction on this account~! I hope you'll all enjoy it! I enjoy writing it! I really like the ide of Sasuke working in a bookshop and I got the idea to this since my boyfriend (now ex) loves books so much. And I would like to thank my best friend for supporting this as I write it and help me correct it! You're the best! I'll try to update it about once a month! Hope you'll enjoy and please leave a feedback!
Sasuke let out a soft sigh as he entered the classroom. He was the first one to show up, as per usual. He preferred it this way. It gave him peace and quiet to read whatever book he currently was reading. Reading books was pretty much everything he ever did. At the moment, Sasuke was reading a book called Skary Childrin and the Carousel of Sorrow. It basically looked like a children's book and it was a children's book as well, but that didn't mean that teenagers and older people couldn't read it. In fact, Sasuke didn't even think of it as a children's book. In his opinion it was way too fucked up to be a children's book. Sasuke really liked the book nonetheless. It was quite... interesting and a really good light-reading book. Sadly, he had almost finished the book and would have to go buy a new one soon. Not that it was a problem, of course. He was a volunteer in an old, yet cozy bookshop. He went there every day after school, to help out the elder man who owned the shop. The elder man, Hiruzen Sarutobi, would every now and then let Sasuke have a book of his choice as a thank you for helping with the shop. Sarutobi was a very kind man and he often told him that he was more than welcome to bring a friend to the shop since he spend so many hours there. The problem was, Sasuke didn't have any friends. Not that he cared. As long he had a good book to read he was fine. To be honest, Sasuke preferred to stay as far away from other people as possible. Especially people his own age. They all saw him as a nerd, simply because he enjoyed reading.
That, and the fact that his childhood bully had followed him all the way from elementary school up untill university. He had spread rumors about him on the very first day at every new school. University wasn't an exception either. So far Sasuke hadn't been able to make one single friend and they were halfway through the first semester by now. Even the girls who found him attractive stayed far away from him so they wouldn't be badmouthed. And here Sasuke had thought that people at university would be more mature. Well, he had clearly been wrong about that.
As Sasuke went through his school bag to find his light reading book, he heard soft footsteps come down the hall. It seemed like people was starting to arrive. Pity. He had enjoyed the silence so far. If he was lucky it wouldn't get too noisy just yet. He opened the book and started reading. A tiny smile formed on his lips. It was really rare for the Uchiha to smile. No one but his family had ever seen him smile. And it was even rare for him to smile around his family. He just couldn't help but smile when he was reading.
Reading really was his happy moment. It was just so enjoyable. He enjoyed the way you got to leave the reality and enter another universe which was so much better and so much more exciting than the real world. The characters in the book could do whatever they wanted to do. They didn't have to attend to school if they didn't feel like it and they wouldn't even get in trouble for it. They could have powers which made their everyday exciting. They could do everything Sasuke couldn't. The books were Sasuke's secret dreams. No school. No homework. No big pressure from his father. No constantly reminders that he would never be as good as his older brother, Itachi. But no one could ever know that. Was it so weird that he found the everyday boring and just wanted a more exciting life? He knew it wasn't possible to get an exciting supernatural life so the books would have to do.
Sasuke noticed a presence as a person appeared in the classroom. He didn't look up though. He was busy with his book. Also, he never talked with anyone, so looking up to greet the person wouldn't matter. He would get ignored as usual, so it was rather pointless. It wasn't before he heard the person's bag getting dumped on the desk next to him that he looked up from his book. This was unusual. No one ever chose the seat next to him, unless it was the last available seat there was. The moment he looked up from he's book, he got eye contact with the last person he wanted to see while he was located in an empty classroom.
"Good morning, nerd." Sai, the bully who had been torturing him since elementary school, spoke. A small smile was placed on his thin lips, but the smile was fake. The ice cold look in the dark eyes always gave it away.
Sasuke looked down at his book. He pretended to be reading, but honestly he was way too nervous to continue his reading. He could feel that his heart was beating fast. Really fast. It wouldn't surprise him if it ended up beating so fast that it would continue out of his chest and already be miles away just within a few seconds. 'Damn it.' Sasuke thought to himself, 'It's been, what? 10 years... maybe even more, and I'm still a coward when he's around me'.
Sai didn't seem too pleased about the nerdy raven ignoring him, so he slammed the book, the raven was staring intensely at, shut. This made a loud sound which made Sasuke jump slightly in his seat. A pleased smirk formed on the bully's thin lips by the nerd's reaction. "Well, let's see which book you brought along today, shall we?" he picked up the book and started studying it as his turned the pages slowly one by one. "This is a children's book" Sai stated, looking up from the book and down at the raven who looked at him with a tiny hint of fear glimpsing in his eyes. "How... childish." Poison was attached to the word as he spat it out; slowly ripping out the page he currently was holding as he said the words.
Sasuke had a stabbing feeling in his heart. It hurt so much to watch one of his favorite books getting destroyed in front of his eyes. He wanted to save it so badly, but he couldn't. His whole body was paralyzed with fear. Fear for Sai. The book let out a small scream as its insides were torn out, but there was nothing to do. It couldn't fight back no matter how much Sasuke wished it could. It was only a book after all. A painful expression covered the raven's usually emotionless face as he watched page by page getting torn out of his new book. Doing the many years of getting bullied he had found out that nothing hurt more than watch your favorite book getting torn apart. Not even getting beaten up hurt this badly.
'Come on, Sasuke! Do something! Stop being a wuss! Do it for the book!' his inner mind screamed at him. Finally Sasuke snapped out of it and pried the book out of Sai's hands. "Don't touch it!" He said protectively of his book as he hid the book behind his back so Sai wouldn't get a chance to destroy it any further.
Sai rose one of his slim eyebrow. "Oh, so you finally fought back, I see." He said in a calm tone, but his facial expression didn't match the calm tone at all. His face showed nothing but pure anger. It seemed like Sasuke's act of bravery pissed him off. No bully liked when their victim got cocky, and Sai was no exception. He grabbed Sasuke by the collar of the shirt and pulled him closer. The pull was so forceful that Sasuke almost tripped over his own feet. "I'm not pleased about that. Not one bit." Sai was just about to punch the other male when a cheerful voice filled up the room.
"Good morning~!"
Sai let go of Sasuke immediately and went back to his own seat, pretending to mind his own business when a blonde guy entered the large classroom.
Sasuke let out a sigh of relief when he saw the blond. Sai always behaved whenever the blonde was around. The blonde was almost like a hero to Sasuke. Ever since Sasuke had started at the university the blonde had always saved him in the last minute. Because of that Sasuke had started pondering if the blonde actually was his guardian angel. He was just as beautiful as an angel after all. His golden hair had the same color as the sun, his skin had a nice and warm tan and his eyes were azure blue. They were so beautiful. Sasuke liked to think of them as small puddles of deep blue water where the sun shined through. Whenever Sasuke saw him he would always think of the sun. Not just because of his sun god appearance, but also because he was the sun in Sasuke's life. This might be rather silly to say since Sasuke only had spoken to him once and barely knew anything about him.
Well, the last was a bit of a lie since Sasuke usually listened to all of the conversations he had with other people and that way had gotten to know him. He had found out that his name was Naruto Uzuamki, he really loved ramen, his favorite color was orange - this one was rather obvious since he usually wore this color. This was just a few of the things that Sasuke had found out. He had written all the information he had about Naruto down in his notebook, in case he would actually have a proper conversation with the blonde some day.
To be honest, Naruto was the only person Sasuke cared about, and it was not just because Naruto was the only person who treated him nicely. Sasuke had accepted from day one that he probably had a huge crush on the blonde. As well as Sasuke had accepted his crush on the blonde, he had also accepted that he was way out of his reach. He was dating Sai. It had crushed Sasuke's heart when he had found the two of them kissing in the school's library. Poor books. They had witnessed a devil seduce the most pure angel in the world. Sasuke hated that Naruto probably didn't know Sai's true colors.
Sasuke watched as the blond took the seat in front of his boyfriend and turned to face him. He silently listened to the conversation between the two males as he picked up the torn off pages from the floor. He put the ripped off pages inside the book where they belonged. Sai had managed to rip off at least one third of the book and they were spread out all over the classroom. Sasuke left out a soft sigh. He really hoped that he could fix this with some tape later.
Naruto's bright blue eyes fell onto the raven who was collecting the book pages from the floor. "Geez! What happened?" He asked, sounding worried. "You need help with that?"
Sasuke was about to say yes. He really wanted to say yes. He wanted just to spend just one minute with the kindhearted blonde, but the poisonous glares he got from Sai made him say otherwise. "No, it's fine. I got it. Don't worry about it."
Despite Sasuke's words Naruto got down on the floor and helped him collecting the pages. "Man, what a waste of a good book." Naruto said as they finished collecting all the torn out pages. "Here." He smiled softly as he handed Sasuke all the pages that he had collected.
"Thank you" Sasuke said in a somewhat happy voice as he took the pages and put them into the book along with the others. It was a big thing just to find a hint of happiness in Sasuke's voice. Actually it was a big thing if his voice wasn't monotonous like it usually was. Sasuke rarely showed his emotions to anyone else but Sai, but the only emotions he showed to Sai were fear and anger.
Naruto flashed the raven a bright, brilliant smile. "Just tell me if you need help with taping the pages back into place."
Again Sasuke got glares from Sai which promised him nothing but death if he accepted the offer. "No thanks. I can handle it myself." Sasuke was forced to say.
"Why do Sasuke always reject me?" Naruto whined as he plopped down at a table in the canteen with his boyfriend and a bowl of ramen as usual. He dragged the chopsticks out of their wrapping before he pulled them apart and placed them correctly in his right hand. "I really want to get to know him, but it's pretty damn hard when he rejects me flat out every time. He won't even consider it."
"He seems like an asshole to me." Sai said, as he watched his boyfriend stuff his face with noodles. "I don't get why you even bother trying to befriend him. He obviously has no interest in you." Of course, Sai knew that it wasn't true and that Sasuke was definitely interested in Naruto, but he would never tell him. Naruto belonged to him, and no geek should change that.
"He's just always alone and he seems so lonely. I want to help him and make him happy." Naruto pouted, "And I'm going to keep on trying until he gives me a chance!" He said determined.
"Just give it up, Naruto. You can't do anything." Sai sighed. He was really annoyed by how much Naruto actually cared about the geek. He didn't know anything about him and he still cared a whole lot about him. It made Sai feel threatened, and he didn't want to feel threatened by that shit of a geek.
"I'm not going to give up, Sai!" Naruto said and stood from the table. "I'll find him and I'll succeed! Just you watch!" And with those words Naruto marched off to find Sasuke and he had a pretty good idea of where he might be at.