This one's for Nozomi-sama -- hopefully correct. I now find the disadvantage of giving everyone else nicknames. I seem to, er, forget what name they really go by.

(I hope that you like it.)

Uncle Hiashi, it seemed, would be a miser this year, too.

That meant that Neji would have to go out the extra mile in order to get his friends gifts for Christmas. Most of them were eerily materialistic and wouldn't forgive him if he didn't give them anything for the occasion.

Being rich, Neji thought, wasn't at all that helpful if they didn't use their money every now and then. How would the money circulate? How would they help the economy?

Neji sighed. His white eyes looked from job ad to job ad, not finding one that suited his tastes.

That was, until he landed on the bookshop ad.

It was a small bookshop, but a lot of people frequented it because of the ambiance and the atmosphere it produced. He had bought a lot of books there before. He thought that it would be a great idea to work there.

Neji liked books.

He seemed to be the only guy amongst his co-workers. There were six of them, too.

There was Sakura. She went to his school. If he was correct, she was only a year younger than him. She had just won some karate championship a few weeks back. She had come out as the surprise victor.

Ino also went to the same school as Sakura. They were classmates. At least it seemed that way since they would discuss their homework as if they had the same. Neji supposed that Ino would occasionallyborrow some answers from Sakura.

Temari was a year older than him. She said that she went to the nearby university. The nearby university that was for the intelligently elite. Neji would've been very much impressed by her if she didn't come off as crude at times.

Karin was even older than Temari. She went to the same university as the other. She was currently hoarding all of the Science competition awards held in their city. She was, more or less, insanely intimidating. Especially if she was paired with her odd-looking boyfriend, Suigetsu. He visited the bookshop every now and then, mostly to cause some chaos.

Last, but not the least, was Shizune. She was the niece of the current mayor's boyfriend. She was quiet and caring. She wasn't really a member of the bookshop crew, but she came to help a lot. She, Neji had heard from the others, worked in the big-shot hospital near some uprise condominium.

Neji's only pet peeve about working with them were the males that flocked around them.

The five of them were considerably pretty women. The three of them got visited by a couple of their suitors, which they all turned down for one reason or another. Temari was visited by some Shikamaru guy which she, oddly enough, often played chess with, and Karin, of course, had Suigetsu.

These males were often noisy, with the exception of Shikamaru.

Neji hated noisy people.

"It's that kid again," Sakura said.

"Bookworm?" Ino asked.

"You should go and help him, Neji," Karin said. "It's a ritual everyone needs to take."

"Is he a difficult customer?" Neji asked.

"No, no. He's a... complex one. And he's a regular," Shizune said as she put the newly delivered books on their appropriate shelves.

"Belive it or not, kid, around a fourth of our sales depend on him," Temari said. "He practically buys the bookstore every weekend."

"So go ahead and cater to his needs before he gets all angry," Ino said.

"Why don't you try and take care of him then?" Neji asked.

"It's a bit of the ritual that the noob needs to do. Karin did say that, didn't she?"

Neji inwardly sighed and resigned to his fate. He knew that there was nothing he could say that would change those women's minds. Nothing at all. Modern women were obstinate like that.

He walked to where the customer was.

"Good morning, sir," he said.

"Yes, morning," the customer said in a bit of a hurried voice.

Rude. That was the one thing that went through Neji's mind.

Neji was quick to judge.

"How may I help you?" he asked.

Rude or not, that was a customer.

"By not helping me," the customer said. "Just go away. It's hindering me in finding what I need."

"I'm sure that I'll be able to help," Neji said, avoiding from flat-out growling.

"You're new, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am. What's it to you?"

"Look here, not one of the staff minds my business when it's looking for the book I want. They only interact with me when I'm in the cash register."

"Well, I'm not like other staff. I know that it's my business to care about the customer."

"Go care about some other customer."

"There aren't any other customers right now."

The customer turned to really look at Neji. A frown was on his face and his eyebrows were furrowed. He pushed his glasses up his nose. He looked really irritated. Not that Neji cared, really. He often didn't care for others.

"What would you want me to do about it?" the customer asked. "Magically conjure some new customers for you to pester?"

"No, just allow me to help you right now," Neji said.

"You probably won't even be able to help. You're not even helping right now. I was supposed to be out of this bookstore a minute ago or so."

"I'm just doing my job."

"Would your job include vexing people?"

"That's definitely no way to treat your elders."

"We live in a place that is somewhat close to being democratic. I can do whatever I want – even piss off my elders."

The customer then went back to examine each and every book that his eyes would land on.

"What are you looking for?" Neji asked.

He heard a soft growl coming from the other.

"A book on C++," the customer said. "And that's two plus signs with a capital C."

Neji promptly went to find a book that would have the word C++. He presented each and everyone of them to the customer.

His efforts were all in vain.

Soon enough, the customer was able to find the book he was looking for. All by himself.

"Thanks very much for the help," the customer dryly said. He briefly looked at Neji's nametag, "'Hello my name is Neji!'-guy."

He walked away to the counter.

Neji made a face that suggested that he was very, very angry. Or somewhat like that.

Karin, with a smirk, walked to where he was.

"You've just encountered Sasuke," she said. "Darling little kid, isn't he?"

"It's a learning experience," Neji said, gritting his teeth.

"You'll get used to him. We all did – steered clear out of his way. He makes our paychecks happy and that's that. By the end of the day, he's just another customer."

Neji had a feeling that he wouldn't adapt to this Sasuke kid as easily as the others did. He also had a feeling that he'd be seeing the boy a lot more.

There was only a week before Christmas. And it had been around ten days since the boy, Sasuke, started to go to the bookshop everyday.

Sakura said that it was normal. It seemed as if the boy was more than busy during the days near Christmas. Most likely off plotting something big – making a new virus, finishing up some robot to give to some equally geeky friend.

Sasuke and Neji were in much better terms now. Relatively better terms. At least they didn't get as irritated or as angry whenever they met each other.

Today, Sasuke was looking for a cultural book – Neji had pestered him enough to know what he was looking for.

Today was the first time Neji was able to assist Sasuke. A shocking turn-around.

Neji was a big fan of cultures. Not to mention, he was the one who'd arranged the books in the history section where the culture books were. As soon as Sasuke had said the name of the book, he was able to find it easily.

Sasuke begrudgingly accepted the book from Neji who had a smirk on his face.

The girls giggled as quietly as they could.

The ratio was now one to n. With Sasuke in the lead and with n standing for infinity. Neji had a long way to go, but he was starting his counterattack.

It was six days before Christmas.

Sasuke walked inside the store with a depressed aura hanging off him.

Neji approached him with the intent of asking him what book he was trying to find for the day.

Sasuke punched him even before he could ask, then went to the health (and lifestyle) section. This was certainly something odd. He never went there. The staff could almost say that he avoided it like the plague. Something of importance must've happened to him then. Something bad, most likely.

Neji would've punched Sasuke back if it wasn't for the fact that he didn't go around beating up little kids.

Eerily enough, Neji felt rather concerned. The two of them hated each other to some extent, yet they wouldn't go around punching each other.

He didn't voice out his concern – it would seem rather idiotic if he worried over the person who made his day dreadful. But he did give Sasuke an anger management book which seemed to have only aggravated Sasuke even more.

But this time, there was something more comfortable about the atmosphere. It was magical the way it changed so suddenly. Not that anyone in the bookshop had any qualms about it.

It was five days before Christmas.

"Coupons?" Neji asked.

"Yes," Sasuke replied. "I heard that they'll be releasing special coupons in the next issue of that magazine."

"What kind of coupons?"

"Let's just say that you'll be able to avail of a high-quality microscope in the best science shop around here."

"I didn't hear of this."

"Ah, I've already gotten a couple of stuff. It's real. You should go and ask Karin, too."

When Neji looked at Karin, she was all thumbs-up at him. She had a large grin on her face. Coupons were definitely real. It also seemed as if she'd gotten a lot from those.

"You should hurry," Sasuke said. "It only lasts until this midnight."

He threw a copy of the magazine at Neji who eagerly caught it.

"Thanks," Neji said.

"No need," Sasuke said.

It was a way of reciprocating Neji's good deed from yesterday.

It was four days before Christmas.

"I'm looking for 666 Satan," Sasuke said.

"... Manga?" Neji asked.

One of Neji's cousins, Hanabi, was really into manga – she was diverse in her manga likes. Would read possibly every single manga in existence. 666 Satan would be one of those.

"Yeah."

"I didn't know that you were into that stuff."

"A friend of mine recently got me interested in manga. So where is it then?"

"It's on the fourth aisle. The one two aisles to the left of the computer section."

"Ah, thanks."

It was only then that Neji – the guy who was a bit slow on the uptake when it came to things that weren't graded or really didn't need to be thought over more than once – noticed that Sasuke had willingly asked for his help. In a way.

The kid was warming up to him.

Neji was internally ecstatic. And he didn't even know if that was something normal.

To be so giddy over a kid thanking him and asking him for help. Something was very, very wrong.

It was three days before Christmas. Neji had a feeling that Sasuke had utterly invaded his mind. Little bastard.

And speak of the devil, too.

"It's a cookbook this time," Sasuke said when he entered the shop.

Neji had been standing right by the door, looking at the sky and contemplating about the inner turmoil he had. Unfortunately, Sasuke was not the sensitive type.

Neji wasn't also, so it really didn't matter.

He looked at Sasuke seriously.

"What?" Sasuke asked.

Intense stares were things that he could easily detect.

"You most probably hate me and I most probably hate you just as much," Neji suddenly said, "but I have this insane desire to take you out for lunch. Or dinner. Or breakfast. Out for anything."

He hadn't even thought whether or not Sasuke was gay. Or bisexual at the very least.

Neji had his impetuous moments.

"What... the hell?" Sasuke asked.

"I'm asking you out."

"Stop fooling around."

"I was actually quite serious there."

"What exactly is your basis for this? Or bases."

"I'm really just going by instinct." Neji sounded very much embarrassed.

Sasuke was very much reminded of a friend of his. His best friend, in fact. As close as they were, going out with Naruto just seemed odd. Going out with anyone at all was odd for him.

Except, well, Neji's offer really did sound tempting. But no. Not right now in the very least. It was all so very sudden.

Who would want to date a regular at their shop? A bookworm-y regular, to boot?

"Fuck this, I'm going," Sasuke said.

He turned around and immediately went out. The bells of the door made a sound that reverberated inside Neji's head.

Did he just get... turned down?

It was a shocking, shocking thing. It was his first time to actually do that. To be interested in someone enough to ask them out. And he got turned down.

Sakura approached him and patted his back. She could understand. After all, the same thing had happened to her when she'd asked Sasuke out once upon a time.

It was two days before Christmas. Around a day since Sasuke had gone absent without leave. Not that he needed to. It wasn't as if he was a part of the staff. He just was one of those regulars.

A man in a black suit approached Neji. He looked very much like one of those stereotypical bodyguards for ultra rich people.

"Have you seen this guy?" he asked Neji.

He then got a picture of a boy out of his pocket.

Neji could only shake his head.

He did it as calmly as he could.

On that picture was none other than Sasuke. Well, at least the person there looked like Sasuke. Except he was gorgeous, not schoolboy!cute. And this person's facade really suited that oh so sexy voice of Sasuke's and that ever so arrogant personality.

Neji thought that that would be what Sasuke looked like if the boy fixed his hair and took off those horrid, horrid glasses.

It all made sense now. Really, it did.

It was only a day before Christmas.

So, Neji thought, maybe he was a little bit more than obsessed with Sasuke.

Uchiha Sasuke. The younger son of Uchiha Fugaku and Mikoto, both big names in, respectively, the business world and the fashion industry. Currently Toudai's best. And he was younger from Neji by a year – a bit depressing on Neji's part, considering that the boy was already in Toudai.

And maybe maybe he was also the guy that Neji was seriously crushing on. The guy whom Neji though he would never ever see again.

Neji's two-week romance that ended even before it could start. It was the first time that he'd attempted to go the extra mile and ask someone out. It was all a rather brutal rejection.

Neji hated Sasuke. Neji could have loved Sasuke.

Eh, well, Sasuke confused Neji.

It was now Christmas.

There was a gift right beside the cash register. It was for Neji. So he went up there and opened it. It was Christmas and it was for him.

It was a book. A self-help psychology book. It was about being happy and not suicidal.

It had a note on top of it.

"Hello, my name is Neji!"-salesperson,

It's Sasuke. One o'clock sharp in front of the donut shop beside the bookstore. And next time, when you ask someone out, make it blatant that you really want to get a date with them. Even before you actually ask them out. It helps.

-- You should give me a gift, too.

Hopefully this one isn't all that bad. Plot-wise, grammar-wise, characterization-wise, and all of those other xyz-wise.

Also in need of criticism (lest my head grows large and I forget about everything else except myself).