Ah! Sorry guys! My play is sucking up my time like a sponge and I took longer then I thought getting this up. Sorry again, I hope you like it.
Sasuke Uchiha perspective: Savor Mornings flavor
I still couldn't feel parts of my body as I stepped out the apartment. A shiver rushed down my spine as crisp air filled my lungs and the murky smell of the decaying city filled my senses as I took the time to savor each breath. I could feel the harsh sensation of ice enter through my nasal passages, and travel slowly down through me to my lungs where it flourished and engulfed me with its sharp chill. I concentrated on the feeling for a long while enjoying the sensation of the autumn winds whipping at my bare arms. But still I had wished I had paid better attention and followed the trend Naruto had set by grabbing a jacket on my way out.
Hunching over I did my best to keep warm as shifted my weight and I looked back to the maze of walls that I was surrounded with. If you were new to this chaotic landscape you could easily get lost for eternity making useless turns and twists in this city just burying yourself in the sheathing decay.
Often times I believed that that was how this place got so populated; people would coincidentally wonder in to the chaotic maze that was San Francisco and slowly lose themselves in the city, eventually losing all desire to exit until they became one of its many inhabitants.
Pulling myself out of my thoughts and brought my attention to the blond who had some how managed his way in front of me and was now walking playfully down the empty sidewalk doing spins and double steps to song of the city.
I followed behind him at a bit of distance as we continued down the street. I could feel a small smile beginning to pull at the corners of my mouth as I watched him prance down the street. Quickly I corrected myself allowing a false scowl to set across my face and I continued to follow close behind my companion as we made our way.
He quickly turned a circle on his heels, allowing his arms flare out either side of him, and cocked his head back smiling. The rays of sunshine danced and played blissfully along his sun kissed skin and shimmered oh so brightly with amusement as he studied the arctic morning sky. He gave a laugh and opened his mouth wide enough to cause his eyes to scrunch closed. He then stuck his tongue out in to the air.
It was always interesting how that boy was never what he put out there. He so easily mislead people into believing that he was a chipper, kindhearted individual just staring down his path. A lot of people shake their heads when they see Naruto coming, or going for that matter, and they would automatically place "A-okay" on his forehead with a fat ass rubber stamp marking him up to be a "Naive Kid" and refusing to see him for what he was: an addict.
You see, that's his scheme: to jump around singing and laughing like a hyper active 4 year old, making people believe he wears his heart on his sleeve, that he's readable and keeps people from asking questions he would rather not answer. It's a faux front, an illusion he's created with a mix of false smiles, empty laughs, complicated word choices and an even more complicated thought pattern.
Now if there is something I will admit he is genuinely child-like in his ways. He pouts when he doesn't get his way, he eats nothing but crap, he's loud, he's annoying, he can be an all out brat… but there is nothing naive about him. In all actuality he is wise far beyond his years. But the only way to know that is to get to know him… like I did.
Pulling myself to a stop my eyebrow raised at the interesting the sight of the blond standing in the middle of the road with his arms stretched and his face contorted with forced wrinkles… he resembled a hyperactive pug. I couldn't help but let an amused chuckle flow from my lip at the sight and shook my head a bit before walking up to him, standing by his side. At this distance I could see that his cheeks where now flushed with a cherry tint, and if I concentrated enough I could just barely feel the heat from his body brushing over my skin. I almost felt like a vampire whenever I stood next to him. I was always so cold while he, the direct opposite of me, always seemed to be about 2 degrees hotter than everyone.
I never shared this with anyone, but I genuinely believe that that was why he was always so full of life and color, and that if I hung around him enough that I may absorb some of his… life… into myself… I know it's ridiculous but even now I could almost see the heat flowing from the zealous blond and start toward my body but they would stop short of me, leaving me pale and lifeless. With the failure of this search I started out on another I began to search through the sound that drifted through the air in hopes to find some hint of color hidden in the monochrome that shone over everything in my world. I let out a disappointed sigh and shook my head a bit, finding it hopeless. Everything seemed to blend together blandly almost working as some lackluster orchestra and painted a rather arid painting in my mind.
It had been like that all my life, the world was bland and spice less, filled with nothing but the shades of the same colors and redundant noises that did nothing but confuse me or agitate me during times that called for silence. Even when I was a kid I was unimaginative, I was too logical for things like gazing at the clouds and creating different colors by staring into nothingness. Though, in my defense, I did try the whole fake friend thing when I was like 6 but by the second day I got too bored with talking to myself and gave up on it. That's why I hung out with Naruto so much. He was annoying, bright, obnoxious, and weird… pretty much out of the ordinary. He was different from everything I knew. I grew up in the upper class while Naruto was a street punk. While I spent my time locked away in libraries and classrooms studying for life, Naruto was out living it. He knew things that I didn't quite understand… I'm pretty sure he made most of the shit up, but still, he was different.
He stood out and brought a little bit of life to this corporal world I was subjected to. Even now I could hear his breath coming in short quick wisps that set him apart in the orchestra as if his breaths where working as a metronome.
"What are you doing?" I asked, suddenly breaking the silence as I looked at Naruto, whom continued to lick at the air.
"Twying tu datht da mohnen," He slurred with a wide open mouth.
A frown crinkled my brow a bit as I struggled to decipher what he had said. "What?"
Naruto closed his mouth with an "opping" noise and smacked a bit as he blinked a few times, a goofy smile spread across his face. "I'm trying to taste the morning."
My face slowly contoured in to a confused expression, and at the risk of again sounding redundant I spat out and agitated "What?" and shifted my weight from one foot to the other.
Naruto looked at me for a moment with a smile still plastered across this face. "I'm trying to taste the morning. I've done it before; it has a lemony taste with a slight hint of honey."
I stood there for a while with a blank expression aimed at the blonde's face as I thought over his answer, trying to understand the concept of tasting light. Eventually I found my efforts to be futile and shook my head at the blonde. "You're out of your mind," I murmured exasperatedly, continuing my way down the street quietly.
Soon enough I could here the rushed beating of Naruto's shoes clicking hurriedly against the pavement as he tried to catch up with me. I began to slow my pace a bit allowing him to walk by my side. "I'm not crazy." He said as we found a comfortable walking pace.
My eyes shifted to him as my eyebrow rose in to a redundant inquisitive expression. "You were trying to taste light." I said with a facetious draw hidden in my tone as we rounded a corner. "Last time I checked tasting things that have no taste…"
"How do you know the sun has no taste?" He cut me off with a bit of a frown knitting together his blonde eyebrows. "I mean have you even tried to taste it? Have you?" he asked in a quieter tone.
I shot him a glare to answer the question and watched as he nodded a bit as if to say 'That's what I thought.' "Where do you come up this crap? Every day it seems like you have some weird ass quirk to you. Yesterday you spent most of the day on your hands…"
"It's a matter of perspective; if you stand on your hands you see things differently," he interjected with a playful nod.
"The day before that you mixed my damn paints looking for whatever color."
"It was blue." He said with a little less enthusiasm catching the tone of my voice.
"Paints are expensive." I said grudgingly as we came to the entrance of a small coffee shop. "I can't afford you looking for colors in my paint." I wasn't angry with him so I couldn't really explain why I was being so curt.
"I'll pay you back." He replied his tone dropped to an equally agitated tone.
I pulled a face.
The coffee shop itself was actually rather small. If you didn't know it was there you could easily pass it by with out a second thought. From the outside it pretty much sunk into the rest of the shops that surrounded it. The two large windows on either side of the door were decorated messily with advertisements for different events making it difficult to see past the clutter and into the shop.
Most people found the display to be rather… unbecoming… saying it looked more like clutter then a business strategy. I remembered when Naruto had gotten into a debate with one of our comrades over the windows
You're right. It wasn't a corporal coffee shop, but that's why we went there. They didn't need the money of the every day overworked pencil pusher, they had us.
To the average Joe, the posters, advertisements, art work and left over tap just looked like the manager was too lazy to take down what other people put up and come up with a decent display. To the artist, the thinker, the performer, the geek, the nerd, the heroin addict, the next suicide victim, things like this read "Safe Haven". It was like a fat ass X that marks the spot to people like me.
We came to places like this, the mom and pop stores, because we weren't like those prototypically conforming bastards who sit in fucking Starbucks sipping their 10 dollar lattes, talking about some asinine subject.
No, that's not who came into this shop, because those are the people who see this display as clutter… but to us, things like this are maps to where you can go to meet people like you and see just what they can do. The tape was like a trail that shows just how true this place is, like street cred, just in the form of an adhesive.
The way Kiba was looking at him could be read all too well. Though he was full of shit, hell back then I kind of thought he was talking out of the side of his neck, too. I was 16, my parents had just died and I was being challenged for my parents fortune, I had just gotten out of the ridiculous grasps of my trainings and I was hanging out with this new crazy ass blond kid who had these wild political views that went right over my head; so the easy solution to not understanding was to say he was full of it.
But now, four years down the line, I find myself following the same philosophy as well. When I go shopping I search for those small bouquets with crazy looking hats in the windows or when I go to new places to eat I keep an eye out for different quirky shops and for scrap tape on windows if I'm walking down the streets.
With a sigh I opened the door and stepped into the familiar shop. The strong smell of fresh brewed coffee filled my senses and the warmth of the café brushed at my cheeks warming me kindly. I could hear small amounts of chatter coming from different parts of the cafe and my eyes set on a brunette sitting behind the counter.
I immediately recognized her as one of the shop owners, Hyuuga Hinata; there were many distinctive factors to her build that would allow anyone to pinpoint her in a heartbeat. She had flawless pale skin that had a slightly greenish tent to it that read she had trouble maintaining her iron levels. Her hair was cut in a clean cut A-line bob, which framed her thin face nicely and accented her marked jaw line. Her face was very angular, giving her expressions a hardened point to them when she was caught reprimanding someone, even though the action was very rare.
The one thing about her that will always be seared into my memory is the look of her eyes. Even though she was blind she never hid her eyes behind dark lenses. They were this dramatic hoarfrost blue that accented the usual serenity that blended into her features. Haunting would be the best way to describe them, completely voided of emotion yet they shimmered with an off kilter beauty that seemed to entrap you in their stare if you got caught in their unintentional gaze.
She was sitting on a black stool. Her posture gave her a distinct eloquence as she sat with her back completely erect, her head placed directly above her spine and her bony shoulders pulled back behind her, correcting her posture as she sat sipping a mug of coffee.
"Imma go get a table." I heard Naruto mumble.
"What do you want?" I asked absently, though I already knew the answer.
"Black… two sugars and a pumpkin scone." He said as he walked away, my lips moving in unison to his predictable order. I gave a bit of a nod, and then walked to the counter.
"Good morning Sasuke," Hinata greeted me in a sweet tone, a benevolent smile setting across her otherwise emotionless face.
I smiled back even though I found the gesture to be pointless seeing that she couldn't see it. "Morning Hinata, how are you today?" I asked in monotone and leaned against the counters.
"I'm well. A bit tired, Kiba kept me up last night," she said with a bit of a laugh as she stared at the wall behind me.
My ears began to ring a bit as my mind took the idea and ran with it. Shifting a bit in my spot and cleared my throat as I tried to shake the idea of Hinata being with anyone, let alone Kiba, out of my head. It wasn't that I was uncomfortable with intimacy in general. It was that I kind of saw the raven haired girl as some sort of serial female… like she was untouchable. And the idea of her being tangible to someone as simple as Kiba… it just bothered me.
I guess she sensed the awkwardness in my presence because she smiled lightly and gave a laugh before shaking her head a bit. "Get your mind out of the gutter. He was practicing last night and needed an audience." She told me before turning her attention to a dark haired boy standing behind the counter.
He had been working there for over a year now and I still couldn't recall the male's voice. He never spoke or laughed or smiled or did anything that showed that he was acutely living. It was unnerving. He just seemed to fade in to the background. I wouldn't be able to recall his face if it weren't for the fact that he resembled me in a few ways.
"One black coffee, two sugars and a pumpkin scone, one bold Grande soy latte ½ regular, ½ decaf, two extra hot spits of skim milk light whip drizzled with dark cocoa," she said with ease before she turned to look back at the wall again. "Anything else?" she asked as if she already knew the answer.
I shook my head. "No thanks," I said with a bit of a huff as I sunk my shoulders more.
"You seem down today." Hinata said inquisitively as she layered her hands on top of each other on the marble countertop.
"No, not down, just tired." I explained as I ran my lanky fingers through my hair, pulling it out of my face for a moment only to have it fall directly back into my face again.
"Drinking?"
"A little." I lied in hopes of avoiding her reprimanding me.
I watched a small sigh force its way from her thin lips as she shook her head directing her gaze to the counter top. "And Naruto?" I didn't answer this question. I only redirected my gaze to look uncomfortably at the flooring.
Hinata nodded a bit in understanding. "On your tab?" she asked suddenly. I let out a small sigh in relief as the male placed our order on the counter besides her, signaling the end of our conversation.
"Yeah," I mumbled as I glared across the way to the similar male who had returned to his work with out a second wasted in his movements. "He's like a robot," I said unconsciously, grabbing the dark haired woman's attention again.
"You don't have much room to talk, Uchiha." She responded, the smile back on her lips. "You are just as cold, you know."
I could feel the frown knitting my brows together. "I am not cold," I corrected her in a severe tone as to get my point across. "I just think a lot."
She simply passed a taunting smile as she stared ahead, knowing very well the lack of reply would get under my skin far more than anything she could say. I huffed out a breath in mere silence as I gathered Naruto and my order and started off in the direction of our table without another word.
I looked around the shop for a moment in search of my comrade. I soon saw him sitting at a large table at the far end of the café. He had his elbows propped up on the table and his thin yet toned arms were supporting the weight of his head which was tilted to the side so he could gaze childlishly out the window. It was really a rather classic pose for such a character.
Chuckling to myself I deeming the idea of painting the image as cliché as I walked up to the table taking the seat adjacent to him "Two sugars and a pumpkin scone," I announced as I passed him the order.
"Thanks." He chimed as he slid his cup across the table to himself.