Again. same disclaimers and stuff. i have no beta so tell me about errors so i can fix em. like it? tell me! its for reyn's contest.
Language Barrier.
The light of the evening danced on the snow as Naruto wondered home. He was partly watching the fading sun, partly reading an assignment over and partly reminiscing. His mind darted from poetic lines to the English language and over to Polish pronunciation. But he seemed to circle around the red head, for some reason, his thoughts appeared to swirl back to the solider repetitively. As if all other thought was pointless. Naruto tried shaking his head in hopes of dislodging him from his brains. He was familiar.
Why?
As he turned towards his apartment building, forehead scrunched in thought, it dawned on him.
"OH! It's the guard outside my building!" He yelped snapping his fingers. Ever since the pink triangle he would purposely wink at Nazi guards, proudly displaying his pinkness. Most would turn pale and look away, obviously sickened, some beat him, some even winked back! Most surprising however was the guard outside his main building, the red head. The pale skin that accentuated his sea foam eyes and the brown hat that desperately tried and failed at muffling his flaming red hair. When Naruto had winked at this boy he simply stared straight back at him. The blank look followed Naruto down the street until he disappeared from sight. Naruto never winked at the frightening boy again. In fact he had not since made eye contact, that is, until this morning.
He glanced up at his building and there he was. The guard. If you asked him why he was so interested in the guard, Naruto could not answer. He, in all of his 22 years, had never met a boy with such a blank face, not angry or anything. Just blank. Like no one taught him how to smile or frown or any sort of expression. Naruto was a man who loved expression, he was over expressive, over emotional, this Nazi bore a foreign concept.
"Good evening!" Naruto said brightly to the guard.
The guard stared back.
"We met this morning. Remember the coffee?" Naruto asked hopefully.
The guard stared back.
"Sir? Hello??" Naurto shuddered. What was with this man. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki! I live in this building? I see you every morning?"
The guard stared back, a look of incomprehension on his face.
"Do you…" A light bulb turned on. "do you speak German? You don't do you?"
The guard stared back.
"Don't worry! I speak a lot of languages! I studied them in school. I'm going to be an archaeologist! I'll find out which one you use!" Naruto rambled happily. A companion that would not interrupt. How liberating. Naruto felt the need to find his language, to speak with him. He could not help imagining how in must feel. Not being able to speak, the things that would build up, the confusion of everyday. Loneliness, Naruto knew about loneliness.
"I go to collage now, I have a scholarship! It's sort of exciting, living a life where you know one day you'll be somewhere else. Any where else really, in Egypt, along the Nile, by the Amazon river, Brazil. Anywhere, y'know?" Naruto blabbed. Then he remembered. And a brick wall slammed down forcefully, almost painfully. Naruto's smile froze on his face, eye's the first to lose their happy glint. He was a Nazi. The enemy. A homophobic racist pig, a consumer, a hater. The source of destruction and pain.
" Good night then, sir." Naruto slowly said, smile fading. He began to walk through the lobby of the apartment building. It was the second slowest, quietest, and most painful walk Naruto would do in his entire life and at the very end, right beside the green painted door with the misconnected hinges, he glanced back.
A glance. That was all it took. Naruto would spend the rest of his life, right up until his last waking moment, as the world's edges faded and lost their colour, Naruto would wonder whether this moment was the best or worst moment of his life. He would wonder if this was the pivotal point, if this was the moment that changed everything. For as his eyes fleetingly scanned the room, they rested on the green across the room. There was the softest and briefest smile on the guards face. It barely counted as a smile really, it easily could have been a facial twitch or a momentary flinch. But it was enough. Enough for Naruto to spend weeks trying to look for the right language.
It was a rainy Tuesday morning. That is pretty much all Naruto could remember about it. He could not remember what he had for breakfast, or if he even had anything. He couldn't remember what shirt he wore or socks but he remembered it was a rainy Tuesday. Naruto had tried every language he spoke fluently and was beginning to think perhaps the boy could not speak at all. Perhaps he was mute or deaf or both. He made a mental note to learn sign language. Today's highly unlikely language; ancient Egyptian. He climbed down the seven flights of stairs briefly pondering what culture had his exceptional height and body structure, pale skin and unique colour combo. None. But something rang a bell, his facial structure. His wide cheek bones and tapering chin. Egyptian had that quality, but so did other cultures. Brazilian? No. The forehead is different.
Naruto swung open the rickety door and glanced up at the doorman with the passive face, anticipation pulsing in his eyes as they turned to Naruto expectantly. After all he was the only tenant to ever greet him.
Japanese.
"Ohayo gozaimasu! Nazi-san" Naruto grinned up at him.
The guard stared back.
Fuck, this sucks. He was so sure. Naruto sighed and pushed open the front door.
"….Ohayo….."
The guard said slowly. Naruto whipped around, bashing his head of the door. "Ow!" he danced around trying to numb the pain and concentrating on his Japanese. He didn't know much but it was worth a shot. He spoke Japanese! He was Japanese!
"Yata!" Naruto danced around holding his head. "Ha, you're Japanese! Japanese! I don't speak Japanese! Yata! Japanese!" Naruto laughed about. The red headed guard blinked, then said some stuff in Japanese. Something about speaking and war. Naruto shook his head.
"Slower! New! Bad speaking!" He pointed to himself and spoke in slow broken Japanese. The stranger nodded.
"Gaara." He said softly making a small discreet gesture to himself.
"Ohayo, Gaara." Naruto beamed, "Naruto." He said tapping himself. "Matte…" Naruto is pretty sure that means wait. He dashed out for two coffees. Japanese. Japanese. "YATA!" He laughed as he entered the small café on the main road.
"Good morning Sakura!" He called to the sole waitress.
"Morning Naruto! Kiba is in the back with Shino. They want to talk to you. I'll make your regular." The pretty pink haired girl said brightly.
"Two today please!" Naruto said brightly. "I have company!"
"Who?" She chuckled. Sakura had been serving him a coffee a day since he started high school right through grad and now his second year of collage. Naruto liked it black, no sugar, no milk. Which was convenient now that is was all Burly Café could afford, coffee beans and water. "Finally find another gay boy who isn't in his early 40's?"
"No! He's not gay, just really handsome and really…" What, a Nazi? "Hetero…" He sighed. She took that differently then it was meant. She took it as a 'woe-is-me-I'm-in-love-with-someone-who-likes-girl's-again' sigh, not a 'oops-I-made-friends-with-a-Nazi-who-is-my-sworn-enemy' kind of sigh.
"Poor Naru. I'll make 'em." She patted his head, which was a few centimetres below her own. Naruto scowled and hurried into the back room.
"Kiba! Is this important? I'm, uh, job hunting." Note to self, never tell an underground rebellion you're spending quality time with the enemy.
"Look, something has happened." Kiba said gravely. Naruto's heart sped up. In times of war, nothing good ever happens, only death and pain "It's bad news."
'Mister Uzumaki? We have bad news….'
'I'm sorry son, we did all we could,'
'Naruto….he's gone. I'm so sorry…'
His breath hitched.
"W-what?" he stuttered.
"Someone stole my watch." Kiba looked gravely about.
Naruto hit him as hard as his spaghetti arms would allow.
"Yeowch! Seriously though. Tonight you're on radio watch. Meet at the docks at 9, 'kay?" Kiba mumbled rubbing his cheek. "And don't look so serious all the time jeez, take a joke."
Shino let out a muffled sigh. "Hard to joke in these times, eh?"
"These times are all the more reason to joke." Naruto called chuckling to Kiba as he ran back to grab his coffees.
"I don't know Japanese." He stopped suddenly in the middle of the street, realization sinking in. A passer-by looked up, wondering if Naruto was talking to her.
"Neither do I." She said honestly then continued walking.
"Oh." Naruto strolled back towards Gaara. Half heartedly. Of course he knew he didn't speak it, it just finally clicked that he would have to learn it.
not bad right? maybe? sorta? comment!!