It was quiet. From the outside, cars could be heard faintly as they passed by, and the falling patters of the rain. Lightning flashed and thunder ripped through the air, causing him to jump awake. The first thing he noticed was he was sitting upright, something over his head. The material was scratchy against his face and when he breathed in, his mouth sucked it against his lips, chapping them. An air of panic filled his lung, as he slowly realized: one, he couldn't see. Two, he couldn't move, being firmly tied to a chair. And three, someone was coming.
Part of himself screamed to pretend to still be asleep, but his body was stilled with fear. A door opened and closed- he could hear footfalls and they stopped right in front of him. There was a brief rustling of something-like he put something on a table beside them. The bag was ripped from off his head and he blinked-his eyes needing less time to adjust to the light than he thought.
He tried to pull at the tape on his wrists, staring at the surprisingly good-looking face in front of him. He had never seen him before in his life, but there as still an air of familiarity about his face-like he had seen him somewhere but he couldn't place it.
"Where I am?" He choked out, still pulling to find a weak spot in the tape-a rip or bubble. The man turned away from him, opening up the bag on the table. He didn't look-he could see the faint glisten of metal and he didn't want to know for sure if it was a knife. "You're that serial killer, aren't you? The one that's been cutting people's eyes out."
The man actually huffed with a laugh. He turned back towards the man tied to the chair-the remnants of patronizing smile on his lips. "You and I both know that he doesn't cut their eyes out, does he?" His full gaze was on the man tied to the chair, watching his face, analyzing his reactions. He could tell the man actually less scared than he was letting on.
"I'm not a bad man." The man tied to the chair's breaths were coming out in rapid puffs. The room was dimly lit-no windows and the light bulb hanging by a thread from the ceiling was nearly out by itself. But he could see his face, just barely. He was so handsome, dark eyes and equally dark hair-It was pulled back into a loose pony tail at the base of his neck. He had creases around his eyes and a high, aristocratic nose. His lips were thinned into a line as he pulled a cigarette out of his pocket. He sighed as he lit it. "I really don't do things like this anymore." The man just stared at him, the cherry illuminating his face just so slightly. "But, you made my brother cry…and for that, I cannot forgive you."
"Oh." The man tied to chair relaxed slightly, he laughed. "So, instead of calling the police, to prove my innocence in this matter, you're just going to kill me?"
"They could never prove it was you." The man with the cigarette ashed, re-igniting the illumination of his face. "You made sure to be extra clean, you have no relations to the victim, and most importantly, he was your first, isn't that right? Sai-I believe?"
Sai looked up a little, with a smile on his lips. "Are you trying to imply I'm a bad man, mister…?"
"You're the Sandman, after all. I would say 'yes', you are a bad man." He assured without a hint of doubt. Sai shuddered a little. "And no, you will not have the privilege of knowing my name. This isn't about me."
"No, you're doing this for your brother-which means you must be Detective Itachi Uchiha, who was pulled from the Uzumaki case for personal biases. Sasuke Uchiha was Naruto's boyfriend, and the number one suspect. It's all over the papers."
Itachi said nothing.
"Tell me something," Sai leaned forward in the chair, feeling the tape around his wrists strain with the tugging. "You seem awfully certain it was me who did this heinous crime-what makes you so sure?"
-
"You're walking?" Naruto turned towards his coworker. He had just strolled into the breakroom and slung his coat onto the mesh back of one of the chairs. He still smelled lightly of cigarettes. His spiky hair was clasped up onto the back of his head and he shook it with some amount of disapproval.
"Yeah dude, I gotta save money somehow."
"It's rain season."
"Oh, come on, I was born in Washington. I'm basically immune to rain by this point. Besides, on the days its dumping, they do have these nifty inventions called umbrellas."
"Ya, that's all fine," Naruto looked back over his shoulder to his larger coworker opening the microwave and pulling out an El Gigante Burrito Supreme. He slapped it onto the table and rummaged through the small basket on the table for hot sauce. "You could have always texted me or Shika for a ride. You live like…less than a mile away."
"Yeah, and that's why it's okay for me to walk."
"We work graveyard, dude."
"Choji, Shikamaru," Naruto clapped his hands together, using the tips of his fingers to point towards them. "I got this. I live super close and I will kick a man to death if he tries to rob me. Also, as stupid as it sounds, Sasuke got me a taser." Naruto pulled it out of his pocket as proof. "The fact he was not confident in my kick skills offends me, but I understand that he's worried." Shikamaru shook his head. "But there's not much else I can do right now-Me and Sasuke are hella broke from moving. We got one car and he on his morning-shift-kill-himself-at-four-am-grind. He works farther away and needs the car more."
"And that prevents you from getting a ride, why?" Shikamaru asked, eyebrow raised. He sighed. "Listen, I know you hate asking for help but really, if you want a ride, just call me. I pick up Choji on the way, anyway."
"Dude, we're next to that shitty casino. It's twack central out there every night-we just don't want anything to happen to you."
"I'll keep it in mind." Naruto said with a neutral smile. He sat down at the breakroom table and pulled a Monster out of the plastic bag next to backpack. "Have you guys tried the red, zero calorie one? Blows my dick right off."
"I really don't wanna know what blows your dick off." Shikamaru said, barely looking up from his phone.
"We all know who blows Naruto's dick off." Choji said as he cut into his burrito, about to scoop the food into his mouth but he squinted his eyes. "it's still frozen."
"Good, that's what you get for talking shit." Naruto said putting up his middle finger in Choji's face.
"Don't talk about a man's burrito like that, that's his pride."
"Yeah, you think I don't know that? I'm a connoisseur of a man's burrito, okay?" They all started laughing, Shikamaru setting his cup of coffee a little too hard, spilling a blurb of it from the top.
"I'm so bored." Naruto muttered, his arms hanging over his register. It had been dead inside the store for the past twenty or so minutes-it was well into the night, past two so the liquor rush had already came and went. Shikamaru looked briefly looked at the clock. "Go ahead and count your till down."
"Oh yes, lunch time!" Naruto chided excitedly, pressing the 'safe drop' button on his register. "What about Choji?"
"Nah, give it about ten." Shikamaru replied. "We've been getting last minute rushes when I've been up here by myself. It's hard for me to print out everything and kick people out. They never listen."
"Aye, aye captain." Naruto said, giving a little salute as he pulled on a fresh pair of latex gloves. He started counting the change in his till, drowning out all the noise around him. He briefly looked up and paused, shaking his head as he continued to watch a man with dark hair head over to the coffee station. He blinked when he came up to Shikamaru, paying for the drink. For a brief moment, he had actually thought it was Sasuke, but they just had similar dark hair. But not even that similar-it wasn't spiked or anything. Naruto blamed it on being tired.
"Is there something I can help you with?" Came an almost too soft voice-he was speaking awfully quiet for a store with music on full volume. It was patronizing in a way-Naruto had to strain and almost had to ask the man to repeat himself. He pointed at himself and the man nodded, slowly, as if the direction he was speaking was obvious.
"Ah-no, sorry. You just-"
"KInda reminded you of someone?"
"Oh-that was rather-"
"Astute, I know. I get told that a lot." He moved off to the side, still holding eye contact with Naruto. The blond wasn't quite certain why he seemed so…interested in their conversation. "You know, you remind me of someone too."
Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Oh?"
"Yeah, ex of mine." And then Naruto realized why he was so interested. The blond laughed.
"If you're going to try and come onto me, I'll have to tell you 'sorry'." He held up his hand and pulled off the glove on top of it. He pointed to the ring on his finger-he and Sasuke weren't married or even engaged for that matter-but this rando didn't need to know that. "I'm married."
"That's okay, I don't have any interest in faggots."
"Whoa, what the fuck-"
"You, get out, don't come back. We don't tolerate homophobia." Shikamaru said in a firm, but authoritative voice.
"You can't just kick me out for stating an opinion."
"If you don't leave I'm calling the police. You've been asked and if you refuse, you're trespassing." He stated calmly. "Insulting employees is harassment; we have three witnesses."
The black haired man nodded slowly, "Whatever." He curtly turned on his heel and left quickly.
"What an asshole." Naruto muttered. He could feel the prickling a rage still setting ablaze the skin on his face and the adrenaline of the comment making him dizzy.
"Don't worry about him." Naruto looked over to see a different man coming up from the side-his hair was red and he had a face tattoo. His mesmerizing green eyes stared into his own blue ones, almost making the blond shiver with their intensity. They stood out even more against the dark circles under his eyes-Naruto couldn't tell if it was smudged make-up or not. And much to add to the irony, he was buying four Red Bulls-so maybe he was just incredibly tired. "He's just mad he couldn't have you." Naruto raised an eyebrow. "You didn't see his weird half-shirt from where you're standing. He was definitely gay too-but some people can't stand the thought of being told 'no'." He reached into the pockets of his black windbreaker, probably for a wallet.
"Still doesn't make what he said okay." Shikamaru replied, bagging up the red head's energy drinks.
"Never said it did." He handed Shikamaru two cards. "It'll be credit."
"Thanks. Insert the chip if you have it."
Naruto finished counting out his money, dropped it all, and pushed past the small swinging door. "I'm going to lunch."
Naruto huffed as he settled himself down in a chair. He didn't know why he was letting that guy's rude comment get to him but he supposed it had been a long time since someone had actually insulted him like that. Most of the people he knew were bleeding liberals and had accepted who and what he was years ago. He rolled his eyes. Sometimes his skin just wasn't thick enough.
He heated up the food he brought from home and picked at it, watching YouTube videos on his phone. He sat there, monitoring the clock on his phone until it was time to go back to work when he heard tapping. Turning his head, he looked towards the doorway, waiting to see Choji or Shikamaru messing with him. He saw no one.
"Ah, finally gone crazy." He muttered to himself. He sat back in his chair and when he hit 'play' again on his video, he heard the tapping again. He put his phone on the breakroom table and turned his head towards the large window. During the day time, seeing through the window was no problem, but during night time, it was like a two-way mirror. The person outside could see him but he couldn't see them. He heard their voice muffled because of the glass and they continued to tap. He grabbed the walkie-talkie on the table and radio-ed out. "Uhh, guys, there's someone outside the breakroom window."
No response. Naruto had a wash of realization and he rolled his eyes. It was probably Choji trying to freak him out. He walked over to the window and grabbed the cover, pulling it up so he could flip off Choji.
No one was there.
He took a few steps back, the blind still in his hand so he could stare out into the small area. He turned on his heel and headed out onto the sales floor, watching as Choji came back in through the front door. "What the fuck, man? I thought we called off the pranks."
"I don't know what you're talking about." He replied with a small glint of challenge in his eyes. "You're the one who made me go out there for nothing."
"Oh, very funny." Naruto put his hands on his hips. "I know you were the one knocking on the window. You know I can't see through the blinds and you ran away when I lifted them up."
"Choji has been inside the entire time you were on lunch." Shikamaru was giving him an incredibly skeptical look. "Are you sure you heard tapping?"
Naruto felt his heart beat pick up. He pushed past Choji and went around the front of the building to where the window was. It was easy enough to access so it wasn't exactly hard for some random weirdo to come by, see him, and start fucking with him if they could.
He looked for footprints, some kind of proof someone had been standing around, tapping and he didn't see anything. To be fair, it was also really dark outside. Naruto felt the skin on his neck start to prickle up, becoming covered in goose bumps-his arms too. That meant someone could have just been watching him the entire time he was on lunch-doing God knows what. A shiver racked up his spine thinking about some anonymous person watching him through the window. He could be jacking off for all Naruto knew. He wrapped his arms around himself, feeling the chill of October wrap around him-he needed to get back to work anyway.
When he walked through the doors of the store, Shikamaru and Choji were staring at him, expectantly. "And?"
"I didn't see anyone."
"If there was someone there, it was probably someone who lives in their car in the alley next to the store. They probably saw you and were trying to freak you out." Shikamaru said with a shrug. "We'll call the cops if something happens when I'm on lunch."
"Yeah, okay."
Naruto logged back onto his till and Shikamaru went to lunch. Nothing happened. The regulars came in, got their coffee, complained about Monday morning, left. Naruto watched and waited for something else to happen, but there seemed to be no signs of anything else. Sure, isolated strange incidences happened all the time-most people did not return because they got a sharp tongue from one of the night crew members.
Having to basically brush off that weird feeling, Naruto clocked out so he could head home. He stretched as he walked through the front doors, passing by the gas pumps and the bus stop right outside his work. He kept his head down so he wouldn't make eye contact and encourage any of the weirdos on the street to talk to him. It would be about twenty minutes before he could throw himself into his bed and sleep.
Naruto looked over his shoulder-he had forgot his headphones and was too lazy to turn around and get them when he left the house-so he could hear everything. For a brief moment, someone was walking behind him, but stopped at the crosswalk so they could cross the street. He let out an annoyed breath-he was really letting that window thing get to him. He'd gotten his ass grabbed, almost been in a fight, had a flurry of horrible and strange things said to him, but he was going to be all weird about-someone tapping on a window.
When he told Sasuke about it-he would definitely laugh but then he'd get all weird about how he doesn't want Naruto to work there. They fought about it more than he liked to admit, but there wasn't much he could do right now. They were just trying to save up as much money as possible, so they could do better in the coming months.
Naruto rubbed his eyes and face with the sleeves of his hoodie before slamming his hand into the crosswalk button. He was minutes away from home now. The wind was starting to pick up, showering him in yellow-orange leaves, his hood falling when a particularly strong gust blow into him. Trees were swaying and bending, clouds starting to move in rapidly, showing it was going to rain soon. Naruto crossed the street, shoving his hands into his pockets and realizing just how silent things were right now. Aside from the wind, there were cars, and nothing else. He had passed a Dairy Queen, seeing no lights on inside or around the complex-the street lamp was also out. So not only was it eerily quiet, it was also dark for on the stretch of sidewalk. He shuddered. Next time he needed to remember his headphones, so he could be distracted by his music. He hadn't realized just how creepy it was at six in the morning.
He walked through the apartment buildings on a small winding path that lead to the back of the complex. His apartment was in the very back on the top floor-which had been such a pain in the ass to get everything up to. He and Sasuke had been sore for days after they moved all of Sasuke's incredibly heavy shit.
A black cat darted past him as he got closer to the building-he'd seen it before, up at the top of his stairs because his neighbors left out their garbage. He wondered if Sasuke would be mad if he befriended it…
He quickly headed up the stairs, before doing anything stupid. Naruto pulled the backpack off his shoulders and rummaged around in the front of it-feeling the ache return to his feet as he stopped walking. The first thing he was gunna do with his next check was buy a new pair of shoes. Pulling out his keys, he opened the door-overwhelmed the by the smell of old coffee and how dark it was with the blackout curtains. He stepped inside, clicking the lock behind him. Naruto sighed, slinging his backpack to the ground, and setting his keys on one of the hooks.
There were still boxes everywhere and in the dark, Naruto almost tripped over one Sasuke had left next to the couch. He scowled but would berate the man when he got back from work. He headed into his room, throwing himself down on the bed. He snuggled over to Sasuke's normal side of the bed, smelling the lingering of the Uchiha's cologne and shampoo on his pillow. Working opposite shifts was so hard sometimes-all he wanted was to be able to spend the day with Sasuke after work-but he'd gotten a promotion so now Sasuke was a floor manager and no longer work graves with him. Naruto pouted-he couldn't really complain either because now Sasuke was making three extra bucks an hour.
Naruto's eyes started to droop, so he rolled onto his other side, letting go of Sasuke's pillow. He still needed to brush his teeth and strip before he could go to sleep. When he was all finished with his mission in the bathroom, he noticed for the first time that Sasuke had left the window open in their room-giving it a light chill now that he wasn't wearing his long sleeve shirt. The blinds too were slightly open and he moved over to them, pulling them shut.
He wondered if anyone had seen him strip-he didn't think so because he was on the second floor, but maybe one of his neighbors got a bit of a show. He flopped down on the bed again, pulling up the blanket to his chin and closing his eyes. Sasuke would be home in a few hours and when the Uchiha was back-Naruto smiled to himself.
-