Skis or Board?
By thepragmatist
Pairings: SasuNaru Nejigaa. maybe ItaShi but probably no other pairings. I don't really like pairing off everyone. It's just so unrealistic.
Warnings: Swearing, Yaoi, and perhaps smut. I'll add the M if I decide to.
Author's Notes: Well my family's pretty hardcore skiers, but the other day when I was skiing I slammed into a snowboarder on a Mogul Trail. But also I remember watching some Disney Channel movie about snowboarders and skiers being segregated sorta. So ta-da. I really tried to make this long but..yeah.
Sking terms:
Mogul: It's like these tiny hills that forces the person to weave in between them. Skiers like moguls more than snowboarders.
Green Circle: Easiest
Blue Square: Medium
Black Diamond: Hard
Double Black Diamond: Hardest
Gaara squinted as the ice cold flurry of snow fluttered onto his eyelids. He pulled his goggles on tightly before shifting his weight and flew down the side the mountain. He felt the biting cold pinch his cheeks and his fiery red hair blow back. He felt his body numb with excitement and the familiar sensation of flying as he went off a particularly high jump.
Here, surrounded by white and silence except for the sound of his board slicing through the packed snow and ice, was where he belonged.
- - - -
Temari sighed as she unpacked the rest of their belongings into the decent-sized house. Kankuro glanced up at his sister.
"He's gone again isn't he?"
Temari nodded disappointedly. "Yeah." Her brown eyes showed unnatural pain.
Kankuro placed the box he was carrying down on the bottom of the stair before placing a comforting hand on his sister's shoulder. "He's good, you know he'll be safe."
"It's not his safety I'm worried about…" Temari and Kankuro sat on the couch. This was the third time they'd moved, they dealt with the new surroundings easily, but Gaara was never quite so open. Instead of spending times with others, he would hide himself under the cold mists of the mountains.
Kankuro murmured softly. "Don't worry about it, let's just finish this."
Temari nodded, and Gaara was left forgotten for a little while.
- - - -
Gaara was on his 5th run when more people began to show up. Most people wouldn't be awake and on the slopes at 7 in the morning, but once the clock hit 8:30, people began filing in.
Gaara scowled, he hated having to share the beautiful mountain with chatty, troublesome tourists.
He slid down the ski-lift gracefully before quickly strapping on his board. Sneering at the amateurs on the ground, he swerved around them before heading down the double black diamond. He was sure he wouldn't encounter anyone. Especially since this was a mogul trail.
He almost smiled as he went for several minutes without seeing anyone. He felt himself calm as comforting loneliness settled in and he could concentrate on himself and only himself. He didn't mind that he was alone. It was better this way.
He, and only he, would love himself. He didn't need anyone else. Slowly, he felt his eyes drift close as he enjoyed the cold wind blow against his pale face.
All alone…
SLAM!
Gaara's eyes shot open as he felt something slam against him. He fell back and winced as his back hit solid ice. As his eyes focused, he scowled when we realized he had collided into a person.
He struggled to get up and cringed as he felt the newly formed bruised. But as he attempted to get off of the freezing snow, he realized he was tangled with the skis of another person. Growling softly he shoved the long-haired person off of him.
Great, not only do I collide with someone, I collide with some dimwitted girl who's bound to cry. Great. Just fucking Great.
Angered by this thought, Gaara pushed harder at the girl on top of him…
…until he heard the 'girl' talk.
"Hey! Watch where you're shoving!"
Apparently the 'girl' had a really deep voice, or 'she' was not a 'she.'
The skier had untangled himself from Gaara and was balancing himself as he looked down at the redhead.
"Hey, you okay?" The brunette held out a hand. But Gaara just slapped it away and got up gracefully, ignoring the searing pain in his back.
The brunette just gave him a look and adjusted the poles in his hands.
Without even giving the boy (yes, Gaara finally decided it was a guy) a response, he turned to his side and went down the rest of the mountain.
- - - -
Neji stared after the redhead as he swerved down. Intrigued, Neji began to ski after him, shifting his hips easily through the moguls. He watched the snowboarder fly down the trail, his movement graceful and fluid, something he rarely saw in a snowboarder. In fact, it was strange that this boy was on this particular trail. Moguls were more favored by skiers. Even most of the advanced snowboarders didn't really like moguls.
What a strange boy…
Neji watched as the boy swerved out of site. He shook his head. He shouldn't be thinking about a snowboarder so much. Especially such a rude one.
He pushed the strange boy out of his mind and finished the trail enjoying the scenery and the speed he was experiencing.
Relaxed from the intoxicating run, he quickly turned straight into the singles line for the ski lift. For once he was glad he wasn't skiing with his best friend, Sasuke. The singles line went much faster than the group ones. Though he enjoyed the competition he had with the other boy and he hated getting paired with a chatty lift partner, sometimes he enjoyed thinking about himself and only himself.
The singles line was moving quickly and he soon found himself getting paired up with another person from the other singles line. As he pulled up next to the other person, he realized that the person was a snowboarder. And a redhead.
- - - -
Gaara had yet to pay attention to the person he was sitting next to and was enjoying the view. He breathed out slowly as he let his leg relax. Though he loved snowboarding, the rush, the speed, the absolute invigorating feeling of rushing out of control, he needed to rest in between otherwise he knew he would collapse.
Slowly Gaara began to notice the silence that took place on the lift. He was glad his partner didn't like talking with awkwardly polite tones. It was quiet, but Gaara liked it that way and sat back, relishing the silence.
"Hey again…"
Gaara scowled. There went his precious silence.
Neji felt awkward. He never felt awkward before. So he attempted to sound as natural as possible.
"You okay? I didn't hurt you too bad when I crashed into you did I?"
Gaara finally looked at the boy. How did he know that…
Oh. Right. He was the 'girl.'
Gaara folded his arms and looked expectantly at the 'boy.' He noticed that the boy had pale lavender eyes. It was strange, though he wasn't one to criticize with his fiery red hair and pale green eyes.
"Who are you and why are you talking to me?" Gaara asked bluntly.
Neji blinked.
Well, this was interesting.
"I'm Neji, and I'm talking to you because I thought that you might be hurt from that hit you took."
Gaara glared. "One I did not get hurt, and two, it was your fault you were on a trail much too difficult for you level." A complete lie, but Gaara didn't care. He was no saint.
"Excuse me? But moguls are made for skiers, not snowboarders. Therefore that was a skier trail, not a snowboarder." Neji responded arrogantly.
Gaara gave him a look. "Well I apologize then..."
Neji began to smirk.
"…I didn't know that skiers were so klutzy they needed an entire trail to themselves." Gaara smirked.
But before Neji could reply they realized they were almost at the top and they quickly raised the bar before slipping down the hill. Once they both braked, Neji turned toward the sneering redhead.
"Oh the skiers just need the whole trail so that they don't have to dodge fallen snowboarders." Neji retorted.
Gaara glowered at him before growling. "Very well then, let's see who's fallen by the end of this run."
Neji smirked. "A threat?"
"A promise." Gaara leered before starting down.
- - - -
Several hours later, the two boys were seen exhausted at the bottom of the mountain.
Neji tried to hide his panting. "That was our…6th…run."
Gaara smirked in between his heavy breathing. "What? Tired already?"
Neji shook his head stubbornly. "No way." He looked directly at Gaara. "It's just that you still haven't made me fall yet."
Gaara smirked. "There's still time." He said before heading toward the ski lift. Suddenly Neji put a hand on Gaara's shoulder, stopping him. But he quickly took it off as he felt Gaara tense.
"Yeah, but why don't we grab some lunch first."
Gaara looked away. "I'm not hungry."
Neji leaned in and grinned seductively. "You sure? You're not hungry? Not for anything?"
Gaara attempted to fight down a blush and glared at that smirking brunette. He leaned away from the boy, not noticing that he was losing his balance…until he was on the snow-covered ground and Neji was above laughing.
Gaara quickly got up and glared.
"Looks like you've fallen for me again. And I haven't fallen once. Where's your promise now?" Neji taunted.
Gaara growled and unstrapped his snowboard, seemingly ignoring the chuckling skier. He picked up his board and walked toward the lodge, pushing the surprised brunette over as he passed him.
"W-What the--? Gaara!" Neji sputtered after him.
"Hurry it up pretty-boy. You're paying."
- - - -
Naruto groaned as he tried to disappear into the ground. He was surrounded by horrible laughter. As he hid his face in his arms he knew he should've been used to it by now, but he couldn't help the tears of mortification sneak out of his eyes.
Suddenly the bell rang and the herd of laughing students scattered as a teacher walked into the class. Quickly calming himself, Naruto raised his face so that no one could accuse him of crying. As his eyes focused through the tears he noticed that the teacher was standing next to a short fiery haired boy who seemed to be terrorizing all the other students.
Naruto didn't pay much attention to the teacher and all he saw was his mouth opening and closing before he bent down to whisper in the redhead's ear and pointed straight at him.
Naruto blinked confusedly. But soon realized that the boy was asked to sit in one of the empty seats around him. After all, there were always empty seats around him. No one wanted to sit next to him.
The boy was silent if not a little creepy. His pale jade eyes scrutinized the blonde before turning back toward the teacher.
Naruto's gaze drifted down to the new kid's books and noticed that there were elaborate drawings of snowboarding moves all over his things. Surprised, Naruto continued to look at the boy's things until a hand slammed down on top of the books, shocking the blonds view away from the books and up to the owners annoyed features.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Looking at your stuff." Naruto replied bluntly.
Gaara twitched at his innocence.
Naruto seemed to realize how blunt he was and stuttered to elaborate.
"W-well, I was just wondering…do you snowboard?" Naruto winced slightly, half expecting the boy to sputter angrily how he even dared to think he was some low-life snowboarder.
"Yeah, what of it?"
Naruto perked up. "Really? I am too!"
Gaara gave him a look that said 'And-I-care-why?'
Naruto flushed and scratched the back of his head. "It's just cool how we're both snowboarders. To tell the truth, there aren't many at this school."
And since Gaara was giving him the 'I really don't care' look, Naruto continued to talk. "Hey! Why don't I show you the ropes at this school!"
"You're already supposed to." Gaara stated pointedly.
"Huh?"
Gaara rolled his eyes. "The teacher told you to show me the school."
Naruto grinned sheepishly. "Oh right. I wasn't listening."
"Like that wasn't obvious." Gaara mumbled under his breath.
"But that doesn't matter!" Naruto threw an arm around Gaara. "I know we'll be bestest buddies!"
And though this blond boy was incredibly loud and annoying, Gaara couldn't help but like this boy's sunniness. It was just so different from what he was.
- - - -
Perfectly manicured fingers drummed angrily against the desk. Sasuke Uchiha's day had been fine until now. He had even been able to humiliate that Uzumaki-loser before first period even began. But with the presence of the new kid, Sasuke's day just somehow got ruined. He didn't know why, it just didn't feel fine anymore. Call him superstitious but something bad was going to happen.
"I know we'll be bestest buddies!"
Sasuke's head snapped up and he glared at the too cheery sight. Naruto had thrown his arm around the new kid and grinning like there was no tomorrow. For some reason he didn't like how close the blond was the redhead. Just like how he didn't how the blond was so happy and redhead didn't look so annoyed either.
Gritting his teeth he forced himself to turn himself back toward the teacher and listen to the incessant droning for another forty minutes.
But it was hard to concentrate with the blonds incessant laughing and talking. He never had anyone else to talk or laugh to before.
Sasuke scowled. Who did this new kid think he was, making Naruto so happy. And after all that work he did to make everyone hate him! Naruto's attention should always be focused on his number one tormentor, him! Not some redhead that suddenly comes and barely says anything, but makes him so freaking happy.
The bell rang and as Sasuke packed up his things for his next class, he made a note to talk to Neji about the suspicious new kid. Perhaps he could torture the kid enough to leave the blond alone. After all, that's what he'd done to all the other kids.
Author's Notes: o0o0o. what did Sasuke do to the other kids?? I don't know really...
Next Chapter: Gaara learns about Neji from Naruto, and this Neji sounds nothing like the boy he met on the slopes.