Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
What do you See?
.Hot Coffee.
I see him everyday. I don't know anything about him; I don't know what his favourite colour is, I don't know what kind of weather he likes, I don't know whether he has any siblings, I don't know his name. But, unfortunately, I do know one thing- he's not single.
The bell jingles, and I automatically turn and stop what I'm doing to say a cheery 'Welcome to Sugary Bliss!'. However, once I see the head of dark hair and those melting obsidian eyes, I immediately drop the cup I'm washing, grab a menu and stride over to the table by the window he always sits at. I get there before him, and when he sits, he gives me a small smile. But there's something wrong- a dullness in his eyes, a coldness. I haven't seen those emotions from him for a long time (when I first served him, he was so rude. He didn't even say 'thank you' or anything and treated me like a virus. But, gradually, he got used to me).
After a few months, he trusted me-to the extent of which you can trust the waitress who serves you whenever you walk into your breakfast place-and I fell head-over-heels in love. It was so hopelessly corny and cliche, I wanted to hit myself for even doing it. But yes, I fell and I fell hard. I've never regretted it.
I take his order quickly and walk back to the counter. Hyuuga Hinata, another waitress, turns to me when I plonk the menu down. Her beautifully pale lavender eyes land on me, and I can sense at once she knows something is off. I prepare myself to answer.
"What's wrong?" There it is.
I give her a big grin, pick up a dark blue ceramic cup, the jug of full, rich, creamy milk, and turn my face away before I answer, "Nothing."
. . .
Which was-and is-a complete lie. Even as I'm standing here by the counter, just watching him swirl his cinnamon stick listlessly in his cup, I know with a pang of dread, that something is horribly wrong. My dream guy, the guy I've fallen hopelessly in love with, doesn't swirl cinnamon sticks in drinks listlessly. He waits a few minutes for the drink to cool, he dips the stick in, eats it, then downs the whole cup in a second. He leaves money on the table and leaves soon after. Sometimes, we get a 'thank you' or 'see you' as he goes out the door.
But not today. Today he is looking out the window, his eyes glazed over with- my God, are those tears?
But before I can look closer, or even go up to him and ask that hated question of 'what's wrong?', he takes out his black wallet, leaves money on the table in his signature way, and exits. He hasn't even touched his cup of steaming hazelnut coffee. He hasn't even eaten his loved cinnamon stick. There's something wrong.
"Tenten." My blond haired, blue eyed housemate turns to me on her turquoise heels, an expression of pure exasperation on her pretty face. "This is a guy you haven't even met! Why the hell are you so worried? You don't even know for sure that there's a problem! You're making stupid assumptions." She flicks her long hair over her shoulder.
I sigh; I knew Ino wouldn't understand.
Leaving her to her closet full of designer clothes and shoes, I make my way back to my own bedroom. Heaving another deep sigh, I open my apple green laptop and go online. I break a smile when I see he's there. ISeeYou. - I've never met him before, but he's the person I talk to, the person I'm open with. I tell him about my problems, about my complaints and whines on daily life. He takes them all in and responds with heavenly patience. I've even told him about my love for a guy I've never really met. Yes. I've never met this person before, but I throw my heart and feelings at him, and he understands.
I stare at the screen, sigh for the third time, click on him and start typing.
. . .
CoffeeGirl says: I've had a crap day.
ISeeYou. says: Likewise. My room mate has just broken up with his girlfriend. I don't know how to cope with depressed males.
CoffeeGirl says: You do fine with depressed females!
ISeeYou. says: Thank you, but that doesn't exactly help with the situation at hand.
CoffeeGirl says: Ah, I wish I could help, but I have no idea. Tell him to do something nice, get her off his mind.
ISeeYou. says: He's already gone out to his favourite coffee shop, but apparently it didn't work. He came back very quickly.
CoffeeGirl says: Mmmm, sounds serious! Coffee usually cures everything for me.
ISeeYou. says: I'm sorry, I have to go. I think I should talk to him.
CoffeeGirl says: Understood! I'll talk to you tomorrow!
ISeeYou. says: Bye.
. . .
Damn his room mate. He doesn't usually sign off so quickly. It's funny how I met him, maybe it's fate giving me free stress relief- I had just typed a friend's e-mail in wrong. I was half asleep and drunk, and bam- the next morning, I have this polite guy on the screen of my laptop asking me who I was. It pissed me off at first, but we got talking and here we are now. However, in these months of talking together, we've never negotiated a meet-up. Weird, isn't it?
It's like we are totally fine with talking to people we haven't met before. Complete strangers.
And yet, I think with a small smile, I am.
Far Away
"Neji," a dark haired, dark eyed man groans from his place on the sofa, "you were talking to your coffee girl again?" His ending words slur, and Neji spies the half empty bottle of wine on the table with a shake of his head. Sasuke usually detests the idea of alcohol.
"Sasuke," There is a firm tone in his room mate's voice that he recognises, and Sasuke groans again. "Go to your room, I will not have you catching a cold sleeping here." Suddenly, large, opal eyes appear in front of Sasuke's face. He exclaims in surprise and sits up. The eyes look triumphant.
"Good. Now go to your room." As Neji walks to the kitchen, the bottle of wine clearly in his hands, Sasuke fights the urge to run after his room mate, pull his long coffee-coloured hair and scream at him. He just doesn't understand- He's content with a virtual girlfriend.
He won't understand it if Sasuke tells him how he can still feel the soft, pink hair, how he can see the emerald green eyes boring into his onyx ones with inquisition. Neji won't understand it when his room mate tells him brokenly of how he can still feel her gentle touch and soft voice and how her hair looks like falling cherry blossoms when the breeze picks it up. He won't understand.
Neji, I don't understand you at all. What do you see in the world?
Sugary Bliss
Tenten's POV
"Welcome to Sugary Bliss!" I beam at a customer. Hinata goes, menu in tow, to take her order. She's pretty, and when I look at her for longer, I realise that it's the first time I'm seeing her. A new customer! Great!
Her bright green eyes sparkle when Hinata writes down her order and she crosses her long, pale legs under the table. Her boyfriend is lucky to have such a good-looking girlfriend. Judging from the friendly atmosphere she seems to have already struck up with Hinata, she seems nice too. Good catch. Since she's gotten one of the bigger tables, I can only presume she's waiting for someone.
Hinata comes back, flushed and smiling. "The new customer is very nice!" She tells me. I grin and nod, and go back to spraying cream over a cup of cinnamon coffee. I fish a tray of chocolate chip cookies out of the oven and leave them on the cooling rack. With a quick look around, I sneakily snatch a cookie up and bite into it. I close my eyes. Bliss.
A chuckle comes from my left. I jump, startled, and my cookie falls to the fall. "I don't think you're supposed to do that." There's laughter in the smooth, silky baritone voice. I look up, and I can feel my eyes widening. It's another new customer.
Long, rich, dark brown hair spills over his shoulder, his creamy white skin is unblemished and his face is just...angelic. I let out a small gasp when I realise that his pale eyes are on me. "Um, I'm sorry!" I exclaim as I bend down to clean up the cookie mess on the floor (and to hide my blush). When I finish, he's still staring at me, amusement written all over his face.
"A hazelnut coffee, please. Take away." What a voice. He can make girls swoon with that voice.
"Of course!" I snap into action and make the coffee quickly. I'm lucky he ordered hazelnut coffee- I've made it so many times (since it's my beloved's favourite) that I look quite efficient and professional as I do it. When I finish pouring it into one of those styrofoam cups, I dare a smile at the angel's face. When I look at him again, I jolt and almost drop the cup, surprised at the expression of pure anger that he's directing towards...what? The other new customer? Why?
The bell jingles just then, and I swivel on my heel in reflex action to welcome the customer who's coming in.
I gape when I see my loved one enter the shop- how many surprises can a girl take in a minute? The look on his face is pleasantly surprised when he sees the angel at the counter. But, as he turns his head and sees the pretty girl with big green eyes-the new customer-sitting close by, the look on his face turns to complete and utter shock. And, as I look around in a daze, I drop the styrofoam cup. The boiling hot liquid spills over me, and I jump, straight into the tray of glass mugs on the counter. I fall, they fall- we fall together and I hit my head hard on the floor. I feel sharp stings of pain coming from where I landed on the splintered pieces of mug, but the last thing I remember are those wide, pale, startled eyes looming over me.
"Are you okay?"
I hope you like it!
Next chapter coming out soon :)