I'm posting this again because I just realized I stopped in the middle of formatting it so it can be easily read on the website. XD I hope this is better.
This is a really long one shot. :o I'm kinda proud of this one. It started out as an original short story, but I adapted it for FanFiction. Feedback would be super awesome.
The page breaks are quotes from a poem by Heather Alexander.
Title: Muse
Pairing: Slight NaruSasu
Universe: AU, modern day
Warnings: Nothing really
Sasuke stared blankly at the equally blank pages before him. He'd been sitting in remotely the same position for more than an hour now.
Sasuke was exasperated, stressed; He wanted to channel his negative emotions into something- something brilliant- to fill the menacingly empty pages before him.
On any other night, just this intense desire to write would have been enough. On this night, however, his usual tactics were proving to be rather insufficient.
He leaned back in his chair, and let out a jaded sigh, arousing the attention of the other man in the room.
"Why don't you take a break, Raven? You sound exhausted." This came from Sasuke's roommate, a short, stocky young man with a tanned complexion. He sat cross-legged on the messy, cramped looking twin sized bed in the rightmost corner of the room. A blue ink pen gripped tightly in his left hand, and a yellow legal pad in his right, he was also deeply involved in the creative process.
From his reclining position at the desk, Sasuke turned his head to face his roommate, his dull gray eyes glinting almost menacingly for a moment as his face caught the harsh light of the desk lamp. "It's Sasuke, Naruto."
"Hm?" Naruto lifted his head, his stylish, but thick-framed glasses sliding forward ever so slightly along the bridge of his perfectly straight nose.
"You called me Raven again. I told you I didn't want you to call me that anymore."
Naruto returned his gaze, his own eyes glinting, but with hurt rather than the reflection of the lamp's light. "Oh, yeah. Sorry- I forgot." He blinked hard, erasing any sign of weakness from his face.
"What's been up with you lately, anyway?" Naruto tries catching his roommate's stare once again, hoping to find some sort of clue in on the other man's sudden distance, but it was a fruitless effort.
Sasuke had already turned back to his work, and he was met with silence.
"Okay then..."
Wanting to change the subject, Sasuke gestured at the notebook in Naruto's hand. "How's your stuff coming along?"
"Good, good. I wrote a new song. It's pretty catchy. I'm definitely putting this one on my sample CD."
"Haven't gotten a record deal yet?"
Naruto blushed slightly. "No, not yet. I sent some stuff to another record company. It's looking promising."
"Huh. That's what you said about the last three labels too." Sasuke smirked.
"Yeah, well, The End Records doesn't really sign my type of music, and the other two wouldn't know good music if it stabbed them in the face."
They both laughed at that, and the tension they felt previously vanished, and they worked in silence for a few moments until it was broken by Naruto.
"I still think you should take a break. You know it's a lot easier to write when you have a clear head."
"Yeah… You're right…" Sasuke mustered a smile, desperate to control his temper. "I guess I'll go for a walk." He pushed himself away from his desk, away from his work, and stood up, stretching. Stepping away, even if it was just two steps felt good. Good enough to lead him to take one of Naruto's many orders seriously. "Yeah, a walk would be… good."
"Okay. What should I order for dinner?" Naruto asked, lying back on his bed and focusing once again on his work.
"Umm… Chinese?" Sasuke suggested.
"But we, like, just had Chinese yesterday… And the day before. I'm really getting sick of that stuff." Naruto whined.
Sasuke shrugged. "Yeah, me too. But it's cheap."
Naruto sighed. "Hah. True. What do you want me to get you?"
"The usual."
"All right. See you later, Raven."
Sasuke flinched at the repeat offence of the use of his old nickname, but didn't have the heart to correct his friend once again. "Yeah, see you."
He walked the few steps to the door in their tiny apartment and grabbed his coat off of the rack by the exit, and pulled it on. He shoved his hand into his pocket, and opened the door, and pulling his arms tighter around him as he was hit with a blast of cold, New York winter air.
My song can bind a human heart…
Walking down the block was energizing, the crispness helping to clear his head, but still Sasuke could not think of what to write, and thus decided to just wander around the city for a while. He stared at the gray concrete taking care not to step on the cracks, a habit he'd had since he was little, and observed his surroundings, trying to take inspiration from something.
'Bird… Sky… Homeless man…. Broken bottles...' To Sasuke, everything seemed blank. Bleak. Gray. Things that normally would have given him some form of inspiration were merely what they were- average, ordinary, mundane objects.
He thought for a moment about writing about the fact that nothing was lively or vivid anymore. Or perhaps a short story about a man with writer's block?
Sasuke laughed softly at the idea of writing something- something that was supposed to be entertaining- about one of the most mind-numbingly dull sets of circumstances, and quickly dismissed the idea.
He pulled his hand out of his pocket and ran his fingers through his hair. Looking around him, trying to draw inspiration from his surroundings once again, he found nothing, but recognized the area as being near the commuter train station.
He made a quick decision to take the train down to Manhattan, go to a café and partake in one of his favorite pastimes- people watching.
Now, with a purpose, Sasuke's pace quickened and in a few long strides he reached the station, and headed toward the ticket booth. The station was old, and didn't have mechanically operated ticket booths like the metro station farther downtown, only a machine where people who bought rail cards could easily and quickly get their tickets. Sasuke always hated speaking to the people who operated the booths. They were nosy, chatty, and somehow always seemed to know him from somewhere. More than talking to the operators, though, he hated being recognized.
"Ticket for route six, please."
The old man working the booth looked up. He was old, white haired, his skin deeply tanned and he had a salty, sea-faring air about him. "Round trip or one way?"
"Round."
"Mm. That'll be $4.75."
Sasuke reached into his back pocket for his wallet, thinking he was going to get off without having to converse with the man. As he was pulling out the correct amount of money, no change, he was proven wrong.
"Say… Don't I know you from somewhere?" The man asked a curious look in his eyes.
Sasuke avoided his gaze. "No, I don't think so." He handed the man the money. "I don't think I remember you from anywhere."
The man took the money, his curiosity not yet satiated. "Were you, like, in the paper or something…?" He placed the money in the register, casually, as if he weren't at all interested in the person before him. He hit a few buttons and his ticket was printed.
Sasuke felt a moment of trapped panic. The man was reminding him of things that he never wanted to think about again. Things that he was desperately trying to push back where it belonged, in the deepest corners of his mind. He shook his head. "I, um. I really have to go. If you'll excuse me…"
"Sure, sure." The man slid Sasuke's ticket through the window, flipped a switch, and the bar blocking his way rotated, to let him through.
Sasuke grabbed the ticket as a drowning man would clutch a lifeline, and hurried off without responding to the man's shouted "Have a good day." It only sounded sarcastic to him, after the man had made him so flustered.
He hurried to board the train once his ticket had been checked and took a seat in the back of the car, keeping his head down. He was always paranoid after a confrontation like the one he had earlier. Paranoid that everyone would recognize him.
It was still early, midafternoon, and so the train was not crowded; only a few seats were filled, with those who were probably headed to Manhattan for the same reason he was. As such his paranoia was probably uncalled for.
Realizing this, Sasuke lifted his head, trying to calm himself down. Not many people read the paper daily and remember what they read from last year. Just those bored sales clerks and ticket booth operators… Besides, commuter trains were always the worst places to have panic attacks.
He took a few deep breaths and stretched his arms over his head, then took a look around at the people riding the train with him.
There were six; two men, three women, and a child.
The child was sitting on the lap of one of the women. The woman wore a nurse's uniform, from her tired look, Sasuke concluded that she either worked the night shift, or was often kept awake by her child, who was relentlessly screaming, even though he looked to be about two years old, old enough to know better than to make a scene in public, in his opinion. The woman, who he guessed was a single mother by the fact that she was commuting with her child in tow, shushed him softly, bouncing his on her knee, but to no avail. The child continued in his tantrum.
There was a man seated behind them, sleeping, a newspaper almost comically draped over his face. He was wearing a uniform that looked to be that of either a plumber or maintenance worker. The navy blue shirt had a name tag on the pocket that read 'Gustav.'
His presence seemed to make the woman anxious, as she kept glancing nervously at him. Perhaps she was afraid of what the stranger might think of her screaming child waking him up, or perhaps they were acquaintances who had been in such a situation before.
The other man on the train sat a few seats behind the woman. He was wearing a business suit and sat with a briefcase in his lap. He held a beat up paperback copy of Treasure Island and was staring at the pages, although, from the look on his face, Sasuke suspected he wasn't actually reading it. He looked nervous, running his hands through his hair and playing with the gold ring on his finger. Sasuke noticed a trace of glitter on his face. Perhaps he's a cheater, Sasuke thought, and vaguely wondered if the man's wife knew where he was, where he'd been, if she even cared.
The train came to a steady stop and Sasuke looked around for a moment. It wasn't his stop, but the man with the briefcase immediately jumped up, taking long, deliberately casual strides down the aisle and off the train. The woman with the child left too, practically dragging the young boy, who still hadn't let up in his tantrum. The man who had been sleeping moved the newspaper and, looking at the two leaving breathed a sigh of relief and settled back into his partially reclining position.
Sasuke looked out the window and saw the man in the suit again. He'd met up with a woman who kissed him on the cheek, smiling warmly at him. He returned the smile, but it seemed forced, strained.
He averted his gaze from the window as the train began moving again, refocusing on the other people on the train.
Left were the man who was sleeping again, this time more deeply without the distraction of the woman and her child, and two women who sat together in the seat two in front of his. He couldn't see them very clearly from his as he could the others, but he could tell that their heads were pressed together and that they were whispering. One of the women was blond, her hair pulled into a sloppy ponytail and the other had dark, artificial red hair cut into a sleek, neat bob. As he couldn't hear what they were saying or see what they were doing from his place on the train, Sasuke quickly bored of the two and took to looking out the window instead.
Like the man with the newspaper, he felt himself nodding off, even though it was rather bright out, and the rickety sounds of the train's motions seemed louder when his head was pressed against the window.
They reached his stop quickly, as the station wasn't very far from the one they had just stopped off, and he disembarked, making sure his cell phone and wallet were still safely tucked into his pockets.
After he checked, he got out of his seat and walked toward the folding door near the front of the train car, ignoring the school-girlish giggles of the two young women that were previously sitting in front of him. He was used to this. Looking at them now- the red head blushed as they made eye contact- he could see they were indeed young. Probably junior high school students. He was a bit surprised- from their hairstyles he'd pegged them to be slightly older, possibly college students.
Disembarking the train, he contemplated the fact that younger women always seemed to find him attractive, while women his age wouldn't even give him the time of day. Not that he'd want them too. The women he came into contact with on a daily basis were definitely not to his taste. His face twisted into a scowl as a woman, lavishly dressed in a fur coat and hat, a bejeweled scarf wrapped around her neck, drenched in an obnoxiously expensive smelling perfume, passed by him, her head high and shoulders back. Exactly the type of woman he did not like.
He shook his head, wanting to clear the negative thoughts from his mind, in a subconscious movement wiped a hand across his face. The movement left his hand exposed to the biting cold and Sasuke realized that he had forgotten to wear gloves. He shoved his hands in his large front pocket and rubbed them together.
The route to Café de Citron was picturesque. There were trees, rare in New York, and even flowers during the warmer months. With the fresh winter snow, recently fallen, most of the autumn annuals had already withered.
Or, so he'd thought.
Looking at one of the near-empty flower beds to his right, he noticed a burst of pink and orange. He crossed the street quickly feeling compelled to see the apparently thriving flower up close. It was a lone snapdragon, the only one left amidst the pure, pristine white of the snow and the gnarled brown of the dead perennials.
He felt mesmerized looking at the flower, the slight curve of its luscious stem and it's deep orange color signifying it was near the end of its humble life. It appeared to be smirking at him, at others passing by him, as if it knew the end was near, but accepted it. As if it held knowledge they didn't- perhaps the secret of life.
Sasuke stood there for a moment, the sight of the flower throwing him back into memories that he was not so pained to remember. He had had a sister once. Her name had been Airisu, after the iris flower. He hadn't known her well, but from what Itachi, their older brother had told them, she had been an intelligent and kind spirited young girl. She had had a deep interest in plants and knew quite a bit about the meaning and symbolism… The snapdragon was a favorite of their mother, and he could remember their meaning quite clearly- deception and grace.
He nodded satisfied at remembering this. It seemed very well befitting, and in that moment, he felt like the flower, so gracefully deceiving those around him, pretending that he had not seen what he had very well been a witness too.
A strong and powerful emotion that he could not identify crashed over him like a breaking wave. He needed that flower. Or, at the very least some reminder that it had been here before the next snow destroyed it…
"May I help you?"
Sasuke looked up, surprised. There was a young man standing before him, wearing an apron embroidered with flowers. He glanced at the door of the building he'd been standing in front of. A florist's.
This was his chance. "Ah… Yes. May I buy this?" he asked, gesturing toward the flower- his flower.
The man shrugged. "It's just a snapdragon. You can take it if you really want it."
Sasuke felt a surge of anger as the man called his flower 'just a snapdragon,' but pushed it aside. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah. It's dying anyway. We have fresher stuff in the store if you want to take a look. Other snapdragons too."
"No, this one will do."
The man shrugged again, reached into the pocket of his apron and pulled out a pair of garden shears. He moved toward the blossom and snipped it carefully from its stem. Sasuke flinched as he cut the stem, not exactly trusting the man who had called his snapdragon 'just a snapdragon.' The man stood up, arched his back, examined the flower. He handed it to him, and Sasuke held it tenderly, not wanting to damage the tiny petals. "Thank you," he said to the man, feeling relieved, comforted, at holding the flower in his hand.
"Sure. Don't know why you'd want it, but…" The man shrugged once more, seeming slightly perplexed, and the two admired the flower. "I suppose it is nice looking. And it was the only one who survived that frost the other day." He nodded, as if he'd realized the blossom's worth. They stood awkwardly for a moment. "Well, have a nice day," he said, walking back toward the warmth of the store.
"Thanks, you too," Sasuke called after him, really meaning it.
He started on his walk once again, not really sure he even wanted to go to the café anymore, wondering where to put his snapdragon. He remembered there was a bookstore somewhere up ahead and decided to stop there and buy a book to press the flower in.
It was warm in the bookstore, and it's scent was comforting in the same way his flower was, with its musky, old, used books serving a soothing contrast to the inky new ones.
Sasuke always browsed the romance section first, then the mysteries, his two favorite genres, when entering a bookstore or library, but this time he thought differently and headed straight for the science fiction section.
There was one book with a bright orange cover that struck him as interesting. He slid the book from its place on the shelf, looking for a plot summary, but found none. Only the author's name in huge print and the title in rather tiny print at the bottom on the front cover. On the back were vague reviews such as "An excellent work… an asset to our generation" and "A must-read for all science fiction lovers…" by magazines and authors he'd never heard of.
He put the book back in its spot and kept looking. He hated books where the author's name was larger than the title, as if the writer were more important than the work itself… Sasuke always suspected writers who did that to either be amateurs or just really bad.
He paused with his hand on the book. Who was he to judge? He was an amateur author himself. An unpublished one- with writer's block- at that.
He sighed, feeling slightly depressed and slid the book back out of its place, deciding to give it a chance, and headed for the cash register.
The cashier rung him up, and let him be on his way without a word. As he headed out of the store, he wondered why it was only ticket booth operators who always seemed to be so nosy. Sasuke opened his wallet, hoping he hadn't lost his round trip train ticket. He definitely did not want to go through the torture of having to buy another ticket. It was there. He sighed again, but with relief this time, and checked his watch. It was eight o' clock, and getting dark.
With a pang, he remembered Naruto had said he would order dinner for them. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed Naruto's number. It rang once, twice, and then he answered.
"Sasuke?" He sounded mad.
"Hey, yeah. Look, I'm not going to be home for dinner," he said, hoping Naruto hadn't ordered yet.
"Yeah, I noticed. An hour ago. When I ate. You didn't tell me you were going to be out this late. I thought you were just going for a walk anyway?"
Sasuke felt guilty for some reason, like the cheater from the train. "Sorry. I sort of got caught up."
"It's fine," He heard Naruto let out a breath. "But you owe me for your share."
"Okay. I'll be back in a little bit. I'm heading to the train station now."
"All right. See you."
"Bye."
Sasuke hung up. That was the good thing about Naruto- he didn't draw out phone conversations. Once he'd said what needed to be said, he hung up.
He stopped by a bus stop's bench and returned his phone and wallet to his pockets and pressed his snapdragon in the book he'd bought. Once he was situated, he headed back for the train station, hurrying.
And if you chance to know my face…
It was late, and the train was nearly empty, as he had just missed the rush hour of commuters coming from work. As he boarded, a man moved past him and out into the inky black winter night, leaving only him and a woman sitting near the center on the left of the car.
Sasuke took a seat one row back on the opposite side of the woman and, placing the bag from the book store on the seat next to him, took out the book, turning to the last page, a bad habit of his, and read.
"Leona looked over the crowd, her subjects and his kind intermingling together, and smiled. For centuries those inhabitants of earth believed that the only way for them and the Avaritia to ever come into contact was through war.
"But here they were, speaking each other's language, holding each other's children, and all was right.
"Leona turned to her beloved, and a peaceful expression settled over his face as they made eye contact.
"'This is all thanks to you, you know,' he said, returning her happy grin.
"She laughed softly at that. 'I couldn't possibly take all the credit. You were as much a part of it as I was.' She placed a hand protectively over her midsection, allowing her mind to wander to the new life growing within her.
"Andreas walked toward her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and watched over the crowd as she did.
"It really was a sight to see; Companionship and love everywhere, before the backdrop of a setting sun, and the promise of peace to last an eternity."
Sasuke closed the book, slightly surprised. He was definitely not expecting an alien/human love story with a happy ending involving intergalactic peace. It was a strange topic to write a story on, which he guessed was why it was so obscurely reviewed. Or, perhaps, stories like this one were common in the science fiction genre. He shrugged, feeling intrigued.
It wasn't awful, he reasoned, and decided he would give the book a chance. But for now, he returned the novel to its bag and averted his attention to his surroundings.
His gaze, naturally, drifted toward the other person on the train. She looked to be about 17, certainly not older than 21.
Her face was serene, peaceful, something he didn't usually see in younger women. Her
posture was straight, as was her hair, which was shiny bluish ebony, falling just to the small of her back. She was casually flipping through a magazine, but even so, she didn't slouch. Her posture didn't seem arrogant, even though it was so unwavering. Sasuke liked that about her.
Her mannerisms were not that of a young adult, but her skin and eyes gave her age range away, each positively radiating with life. Her skin was a pale, creamy white, a sharp contrast to the intensity of her hair, and her face was of a clear, pristine complexion.
Her eyes were a soft, pale lavender, framed by long, doe-like lashes.
As he examined her face, she reached a hand up to brush a few strands of hair from her eyes, tossing her head slightly as she did so and letting out a soft sigh.
She looked down at her watch, having to brush her fringe aside once again and closed her magazine. She smiled to herself as she placed the glossy issue beside her bag on the seat next to her, appearing as though something had happened that she'd been waiting for.
Sasuke could not look away from the woman and her entrancing, ethereal beauty, even as she stopped what she was doing.
Perhaps feeling him watching her, she turned her head toward him slowly. Just as their eyes met, the two lurched forward in their seats as the train came to an abrupt stop.
Sasuke looked up, startled, and reached for his bag, which had fallen to the floor.
He looked toward the woman. She appeared completely unfazed by the halting stop.
"Are you alright?" He asked the woman, really only wondering why she appeared so unflustered.
As he spoke, her head snapped up, as if she hadn't noticed he was here. She pressed a hand to her chest, as in shock, and laughed nervously. "Yes, I'm okay. I didn't know you were there- you startled me." Her voice was hesitant, the way he had noticed some people with a stutter carefully choose each word
He nodded. Her voice was beautiful, reminding him of silver bells on a clear afternoon. It suited her. "Yeah, sorry about that. I thought you saw me before."
"No, I didn't," she replied, looking a bit confused, which Sasuke found odd. She had definitely looked right at him before. The whole encounter seemed odd, now that he thought about it. It seemed… rehearsed. Although, for some reason- perhaps it was the author in him- he like that feeling.
He thought for a moment wondering what he should say next, then decided it was her line.
"Wait. You do look a bit familiar," she said. "I think I know you from somewhere."
Sasuke felt his heart skip a beat and the panic begin to set in at her words, but it didn't last long; the sense of this encounter being scripted brought him an eerie, calm feeling.
He merely watched her, not sure what to say. A flash of recognition crossed her face
and she smiled. He waited anxiously to hear where she knew him from.
"You were at the florist's today, weren't you? The one on-"
"Belle Avenue, yes. I was. You were there too?" he asked, surprised. He thought he would have remembered someone like her. He was even more surprised, however that she remembered him.
"Yes. I was in the shop. Just looking at the flowers. I love flowers," she added. Then, "What were you doing outside?"
He flushed, not wanting to appear effeminate to the stranger. Her face was questioning, but didn't appear hostile in the least. He reached into his bag from the bookstore and opened to the page he'd pressed the snapdragon on. It's petals had spread beautifully, and it had retained its smirking shape. Although now it looked more like a smile. "This was growing in the flower bed."
She nodded, as if she understood. " I saw that on my way in." Her eyes took on a dreamy appearance. "It looked so lonely, there in the cold." She smiled at him. "It was wonderful of you to take it, I think. You must be a kind person."
Sasuke looked away from her, her child-like innocence riddling him with guilt for some reason.
She looked confused at his expression, and was about to say something when they were interrupted by the opening of the train door. It was a middle aged man, probably the driver
"Looks like you two are the only ones on the train. Well, that's not too bad. Anyway, we're having some issues with the engine. We're trying to get it fixed, but if we can't, we're going to have to call a mechanic." The woman looked troubled at this as the man added, "It might be a while. You two should probably get a cab home."
Sasuke moved to gather his things, but the woman shook her head. "I don't have any money for a cab."
The man looked at him, and, with a start, he realized that he didn't have any money left on him either. He turned to the woman, who looked uneasy. "I'll stay with you," he offered.
"All right then." The man shrugged and left to help work on the repairs.
"Thank you," the woman said, looking genuinely relieved.
Sasuke merely nodded. "Do you need to call your parents?" he asked, pulling out his cell phone.
She shook her head vigorously. "My father doesn't care how late I stay out."
Sasuke nodded and dialed Naruto's number for the second time that night.
Naruto picked up on the first ring. "Sasuke, where are you?" he practically shouted into the phone.
"Naruto, relax. The train just broke down, so I'm going to be out a little while longer." Sasuke noticed the woman watching him.
"Okay, okay. Why don't you just call a cab?"
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"Look, it doesn't matter okay?" Sasuke sighed, irritated. Being in the woman's serene
company had certainly not prepared him for the panicked fluster of his worried friend.
"Fine. Just… Are you coming home tonight…?"
He felt a pang of guilt for yelling at him. "Yes."
"Promise?"
Sasuke paused a moment. He hadn't expected Naruto to be that concerned about him. "I promise."
"Okay… Get home as soon as you can."
Sasuke smiled, happy to hear Naruto ordering him around, as he normally would. "I will."
The two hung up without another word, and Sasuke returned his phone to his pocket.
"Was that your wife?" the woman asked.
Sasuke nearly fell over at her assumption, but quickly composed himself. After all, if he'd been listening in on the conversation, he probably would have thought the same thing.
"No, no. He's my roommate."
"Oh! I'm sorry." She was blushing now. "I just thought-"
He waved his hand at her. "It's okay. Most of the time he acts like my wife anyway. Right now he's upset because I haven't gotten home yet. I told him earlier today I was going for a walk and I've… been out for a few hours now. He worries about me."
She tilted her head to one side. "Why's that? You look like you can take care of yourself."
"Yes… But I suppose I do give him good reason to worry. I… ran off once, you see. Without a word. I came back a few months later, but he had no idea what had happened to me. Where I'd been. Things like that." Sasuke ran a hand nervously through his hair, feeling slightly better now that he'd admitted that he'd basically been lying to his best friend for a long time.
She nodded, again giving him the sense that she understood him. He felt a bit angry, for a moment. How could someone so young be so… perceptive? "How old are you, anyway?" he asked, curious.
She looked away from him, embarrassed. "I'm 16. I turn 17 in February."
"I see" He didn't dwell on the fact too much, not wanting her to feel as if he thought he was superior to her because of their age gap. He got the feeling that that happened to her a lot.
"People always think I'm older than that though… I don't know why."
They sat in silence for a while, not an awkward silence, but a comfortable one and he sensed that their 'scene' was over. His guess turned out correctly as, in a few moments, the man he thought was the driver returned to their car to tell them that they'd managed to fix the train without much difficulty, and that they'd be reaching the next stop shortly.
The stop he'd mentioned was the woman's stop.
"It was nice talking to you," he said, as they approached the station.
"Same here." She nodded. "Just one thing. I think you should be honest with your roommate."
Sasuke nodded, feeling slightly depressed at seeing the woman go.
She merely smiled. "Don't look so sad. We'll meet again." And then she was gone, into the inky darkness of the winter night.
He looked out the window, wanting to see her one last time before the train began moving. He stared hard into the night, but he could not see her. This he found strange, but he was not worried. She had said they'd meet again, and he believed her.
He leaned back in his seat, feeling calm, empty, yet as if he'd found what he'd been missing.
My hold shall be your last embrace…
Sasuke opened the door to their apartment as quietly as he could. It was around 11:30, and the family living in the apartment next to theirs had probably already put their two young children to bed.
Naruto sat on the couch, legs crossed, staring at the 20'' TV. A program flickered on the screen, but Sasuke knew he probably wasn't actually watching anything; he hated watching TV.
As he stepped over the threshold, Naruto looked up at him.
"You're back."
Sasuke nodded.
"Didn't think you would come."
Sasuke sighed. "I told you before- The train just broke down." As he thought about the train ride, he felt as if the excitement about all of the things that had happened today were overwhelming him. He wanted to tell Naruto about everything. But remembering the woman's words, he knew he had to say something first.
"Naruto… I need to talk to you."
Naruto turned off the TV, faced him. "We're talking."
Sasuke contemplated for a few seconds how to best go about this. He decided to just go ahead and say it. He expected to feel the trapped, paranoid feeling he got when he thought someone might know him, but felt only calm. He had no doubt that the woman had something to do with that.
"Remember when I left last year?"
"When you went to stay with your cousin Shisui in Vermont? Yeah. Why?" Naruto tilted his head to one side.
"Well, I wasn't there. In fact, Shisui hasn't lived in Vermont for about four years now."
Naruto looked confused. "I figured as much, but then you showed me pictures of him, and the ranch and I just thought..."
Sasuke shook his head. "That was just some random picture I found on the Internet."
Naruto still looked confused. "Why would you lie to me about that? And where did you go if you weren't with your cousin?"
Sasuke took a deep breath. "I was in jail."
He expected Naruto to look shocked, angry, or something to that effect. Instead he just got a blank look. "Like, jail as in prison?"
"Yeah…"
"What for?"
"Murder."
There was a painfully long silence. A range of different emotions crossed Naruto's features.
"I don't understand." He shifted uncomfortably. "Murder? Then what… how are you still here now if… What?"
With a deep breath, Sasuke began to explain, thrown back into the memories he had been avoiding for so long.
The house his family had lived in. The house he had played in as a child. He was there to visit. But it was just…
So gravely silent.
The metallic scent of blood in the air.
His shocked expression as he walked into the kitchen and seen the bodies of his parents on the floor.
And his older brother standing over them.
He had been frozen, rooted to the spot on the floor. Unable to say anything as Itachi walked towards him and placed the murder weapon in his hands and then left without a word. Unable to even move as the police came, called by a neighbor after they had heard gunshots and seen him standing there with the gun and arrested him on the spot.
Sasuke swallowed hard, his thin, pale hands shaking slightly. "I got out eventually. There wasn't enough evidence pointing towards me as the killer. But they never caught my brother either." He sighed and tried to calm himself.
Naruto shook his head. "How come I didn't know about this?"
Sasuke shrugged. "It was in the paper. But you don't read the paper."
"No. I mean how come you didn't tell me about this?" There was a wounded look in his roommate's eyes, filling Sasuke with the same sense of guilt he'd gotten when speaking to the woman on the train. Sasuke was far from a nice person. He had a temper, he was prone to angry outbursts, he had an anxiety problem and struggled with depression, but Naruto had stuck with him through all of that. And what did Sasuke give in return for his loyalty? Nothing but lies.
Sasuke began to answer, then drew a blank. "I don't know."
"Whatever." He stood up, walked toward their room, and slammed the door.
Sasuke sat staring at the wall for a moment, then saying aloud to himself, "Well, that went better than I expected."
My spell is passion, and it is art…
Sasuke sat staring at his blank pages as he had earlier in the day. This time he sat at a table in the corner of a dance club he'd found while he was trying to kill time before he went home again.
Naruto was angry at him, angrier than Sasuke had ever seen his usually upbeat friend. He was feeling down, but as he looked at the page before him, he didn't feel the way he did before. His mind felt light, free, and he found himself describing the scene before him.
"The club was packed; He was surrounded by bodies, writhing against each other in time with the beat of a strong base riff. And he felt it too, deep within him like the beat of his own heart, making him feel… alive; Alive like the burning sunset that lit the sky outside."
He read over the small portion. It wasn't good, but it was something. Much more than a blank page.
Satisfied, he gathered up his things, left the club, and made his way back home.
The touch of death your lover's hand….
When he returned home this time, opening the door as softly as he could, trying not to wake up Naruto, who he assumed would be in bed by now, since the lights were all out.
He walked in, hung his coat up on the rack, and padded over the wooden floor to their room.
Naruto was lying in bed, silent, but Sasuke could tell he wasn't sleeping. They had lived together long enough that they were able to tell things like that.
He sat at the edge of the bed, and Naruto stirred slightly, waiting for Sasuke to speak first.
"I'm sorry."
"You should be." Naruto's voice was muffled, as if his face were pressed into his pillow.
Sasuke nodded, then remembering the lack of light, voiced his agreement. "Are you mad?"
There was silence for a moment, making Sasuke anxious. "No." Naruto turned to face him. "You've been through something awful. I couldn't be mad at you for not wanting to talk about it. I'm glad you finally told me the truth, though. "
Sasuke hesitated, then spoke. "Me too." He hesitated again. "And… it's hard… knowing he's still out there," he whispered, opening himself up for once. "That's why I don't talk about it."
"What made you decide to tell me all of the sudden?"
"Well, I met this girl on the train…"
Naruto took on an intrigued expression. "Really? How old was she?" he asked, knowing of his intense dislike of women his age.
"Sixteen."
Naruto shot upward with alarm. "Dude, that's just creepy. You're practically twice her age!"
Sasuke flushed. "No, no, it's not like that! Not like that at all."
Naruto let out an exaggerated sigh of relief. "Good."
The two laughed at the misunderstanding, and Sasuke told Naruto all about the day's happenings.
He felt good talking to Naruto again, not having to watch what he was saying, lest he give something away that would unravel his entire lie. But now, that lie was no longer a lie, but a truth.
It felt right.
I shall be thy lover…
Sasuke ran to catch his train. He'd come back late from his editor's office, depressed at the fact that he had scrapped his entire rough draft for the novel he was planning to publish, Sunset's Dawn.
Reaching the station, he swiped the rail card that Naruto had bought for him and retrieved his ticket.
As he took his usual spot toward the middle of the train, Sasuke contemplated a different starting point for his book. He had writer's block again, for the first time since that day, two years ago, and it was really bringing him down.
He let out a sigh frustrated at his situation, arousing the attention of the person sitting across from him. He felt it, the old but still so familiar feeling, once again, that as if with one motion, the stage was set, the actors of destiny in their places.
As gray met lavender, Sasuke smiled knowingly.
"So we meet again."
Muse
Thanks for reading! I worked really hard on this one, so please review. Did you love it? Hate it? Tell me why! It takes less than a minute of your day and makes mine. So do it! Please? :3 Also, I'm a fairly decent artist and I've been thinking of taking requests for story covers.
If you are in need of a story cover, send me a PM with the following details:
-Story you want the cover for
-Any ideas or imagery you want incorporated into the cover
-Any specific fonts or color schemes you want
-An email address where I can send you the image
If you aren't sure what you want the cover to look like, I'll read the story and pick out a scene I feel best represents the work as a whole. You can see my drawing style by looking at the covers for the stories I have posted. I mostly lean towards a more realistic style, but upon request, I can used a more traditional manga/anime style.
As of now, I will do covers for: Naruto, Cardcaptor Sakura, Lucky Star, and the Warrior Cats series.
I am also willing to do art for OCs.
So… yeah. Review. :D