Gaara stared ahead; far too stunned to move as the man's unnaturally pale eyes bore right into him. The longer those icy orbs focused on him the harder it became to think rationally and he could feel his palms starting to sweat, making it difficult to keep a hold on his order pad. His right foot tapped nervously on the ground and his mind willed the rest of him to move but his body was refusing to comply.
The spell was suddenly broken however when Neji looked away to greet the arrival of an older gentleman who bore a shocking resemblance to the young Hyuga. Gaara blinked slowly, grateful for the opportunity to collect his thoughts as he forced his tongue to unstick from the roof of his mouth.
'Of all the rich pompous bastards in the world why did I have to get stuck with this one?'
A loud sigh of annoyance left his lips as he nervously fingered the binding of his order pad and started to march forward almost as if heading to the gallows. He could already sense that this was going to be a very long night.
"Hello my name is Gaara and I will be your server for the night."
He snapped each word out in a mechanical voice staring straight ahead and refusing to make eye contact with the smirking brunette before him.
"I will get you started with the specials for the night. We have hickory smocked salmon served with-"
He didn't get a chance to finish listing each delectable meal choice as Neji abruptly cut him off.
"Don't bother with the specials I've already decided." He shot a pointed glance to his companion. "I've had quite a bit of time to think about it."
The older man merely chuckled, shaking his head from side to side and looking amused.
"I'll take whatever my nephew is taking."
Gaara nodded slowly, not yet over the irritation of being interrupted as he brought the notepad to the ready.
"And what would you like, sir?"
Neji tilted his head to the side, smiling charmingly at the redhead.
"Oh, please just call me by my first name. Sir sounds so old."
"Okay." Gaara drawled out in annoyance. "What would you like, Neji?"
He said the name as if it was some sort of disgusting disease and by even mentioning it he was growing physically ill. The elder Hyuga looked between the two with a raised eyebrow, wondering how this indignant young boy knew his nephew's name.
"I would like this."
Neji smirked, pointedly holding his menu out slightly and front of him and gesturing at one of the dishes, successfully forcing the redhead to inch closer and lean in next to him to see what he was indicating. Gaara scowled, hunching over and squinting in an attempt to make out the delicate print on the menu, all to aware of Neji's lips hovering inches from the shell of his ear.
Just as he was done recording the Hyuga's meal order and had started to pull away he felt a soft stream of air tickling his ear, abruptly sending the small hairs on the back of his neck on end. He let out a small gasp, instinctively jerking away and staring at Neji with disbelief. The gesture had been so quick and subtle that in any other situation he would have been able to convince himself it was an accident. But the way the brunette was sitting there, chin resting in folded hands and all the fires of hell dancing mischievously in his eyes, Gaara knew that the action had been completely deliberate.
Jade green eyes narrowed to dangerous slits and he had to fight to keep himself from dumping a glass of water over that smirking bastard's head.
"You can expect your food shortly."
With that he turned on his heel, moving as quickly as he could without running towards the safety of the kitchen. The second he was through those beautiful double doors he slammed his piece of paper onto the chef's revolving wheel and fell back against the wall, breathing heavily.
"Uh, Gaara? Are you okay?"
He looked up to see Naruto standing in front of him with a concerned expression on his face. It was weird to see the normally impassive redhead getting worked up over something.
"Do you know where Haku is?"
Right now Gaara really needed the feminine boy's help, he had more experience dealing with creepy customers than anyone else. Naruto continued to look surprised at Gaara's uncharacteristic franticness.
"I think he and Zabuza are taking their break together…again."
Gaara rolled his eyes. Zabuza was an assistant chef and had been Haku's boyfriend for all of one month and already the two were inseparable. He scowled viciously while running a hand through his hair with frustration.
"I really want to punch my customer in the face."
Naruto suddenly looked quite panicky.
"Man, you know you can't do that. I swear Orochimaru's patience is running out, the next time you do anything rude to a customer you could be out of here."
Gaara sighed.
"I didn't say I was going to punch him I only said I wanted to. Trust me there's a difference."
---
Hiashi smiled pleasantly at Neji as he filled up his wine glass halfway with champagne he'd pulled from his briefcase. It was a rather odd quirk the man had but he was very picky about alcohol and insisted on bringing his own bottle whenever they went out to dine.
"So how's everything been going with you?"
Neji lifted the glass up to his lips and took a delicate sip.
"Just wonderfully, the business has been going along excellently but of course you'd know that."
Hiashi nodded, he was known for his near obsessive surveillance of every department in his massive monopoly.
"You've been doing a fine job, Neji I look forward to the day I can retire and leave everything in your hands."
The young Hyuga tried his hardest to not let an excited smile break through his calm mask.
"Don't talk like that, you're years from retirement."
The man put his champagne down, regarding his nephew with soft unguarded eyes.
"The mansion has been awfully lonely since you left…"
Neji sighed deeply, he knew exactly where this was going; they'd had this conversation many times. Much to his surprise however his uncle brought his hands up defensively.
"I know your eighteen now and you need your independence I'm just saying everything's different now that your gone…"
He averted his eyes from Neji's face for a second, as if trying to will away any negative feelings before looking back up with a rekindled brightness.
"But never mind that, why don't you tell me what's going on between you and our waiter?"
---
Gaara closed his eyes, only for a second, in an attempt to calm his aggression and soothe his nerves.
'All you have to do is walk over there, put the food on the table, and then leave. It's not so bad, you've done this a million times before.'
He sighed for what felt like the millionth time that night, giving himself a short affirmative nod before grabbing up the tray and heading back out into the dining area, head held high.
"I hope you enjoy your meal if there's any troubles at all please let me know."
He set each dish down in front of their respective owners, being careful to avoid eye contact despite being painfully aware that both men were starting at him with the same creepy pale-eyed stare. Once he'd relieved himself of the burden of the plates he turned hurriedly to leave, internally praising himself for a job well done.
But before he had his chance to exit Neji once again displayed his penchant for taking a parting shot when one open hand shot out from under the table and landed with a satisfying smack on Gaara's rear end.
Green eyes shot open, pale pink lips parted into an expression of shock, and an angry red blush invaded his cheeks as the boy rapidly turned around, completely prepared to initate a fistfight.
"What the hell was that?!"
Neji beamed up at him proudly while his older companion simply placed his face in his hands and shook his head mournfully. Gaara's scowl darkened in response to the brunette's infuriating happiness. This caused the expression on the young Hyuga's face to immediately change from one of arrogant satisfaction to a practiced innocence. He jutted his lower lip out and widened his eyes to a nearly comical proportion.
"Why are you so angry?"
Gaara could feel his temper rising up like boiling water and he had to clench his fists hard enough to leave fingernail imprints in his palms just to keep it from getting the best of him.
"Don't play coy with me, asshole."
Neji still had that puppy dog look on his face but now he seemed a little more annoyed than amused.
"You know I'm not sure your boss would be too happy if he heard that you were cursing at me and if you keep this up I may have to take some action."
Gaara's heart plummeted to his stomach as he struggled to think of a response that wouldn't get him fired.
"I-you…ARGH!"
He threw his hands in the air with defeat and quickly turned to head back to the kitchen, a weight suddenly resting on his shoulders.
'He's not going to tell Orochimaru. He wouldn't, I know he wouldn't…would he?'
---
Hiashi faced his nephew, trying his best to look stern when it was apparent all he really wanted to do was laugh.
"You really need to start outgrowing this behavior, or at least learn to control it. A sexual harassment lawsuit would not reflect well on our company."
Neji only smiled and rolled his eyes, picking up a fork and proceeding to pick daintily at his food.
The rest of the meal passed with all the usual mannerisms, polite conversation, and idle chitchat. Things didn't truly start to get interesting until the end, when Hiashi had paid the bill and gone outside to summon their limo, leaving Neji alone in the restaurant.
With a grin the pale-eyed mischief-maker got up from the table and strolled over to the metal doors he'd seen Gaara disappear through earlier. There was a sign hanging on it that read in bold black print "Employees Only" but things like that had never stopped Neji before. Granted, he did receive a few odd looks from the various workers milling about but they all knew their place and not one dared to ask him to leave.
He stopped in the middle of the bustling heat filled room, scanning until he saw that familiar shock of red hair hovering some twenty feet away. Filled with anticipation and glee he marched over in that direction, tapping the boy on the shoulder to gain his attention.
Upon seeing him those green eyes narrowed with hatred and arms folded defensively across his chest.
"What do you want?"
Neji didn't answer at first, he was too busy admiring the boy's face. He had very delicate, almost girly features that did not match his hell-raiser attitude at all. Neji squinted a bit, just now noticing that the boy appeared to be wearing eyeliner.
"What do you want?"
Gaara repeated himself, sounding even more annoyed than he had the first time if that was even possible. Neji smiled, reaching out to put one arm around his slender waist and pulling him closer. Aside from stiffening up a bit the boy remained unmoving both facially and in posture. Neji leaned in next to his ear for the second time to whisper in a low voice.
"I just wanted to give you this in person."
The hand resting on the petite redhead's back slid lower down to his back pocket, sliding in something before quickly pulling away along with the rest of Neji.
"See you tomorrow."
A none too discreet wink followed those parting words as Neji turned, strutting back out of the kitchen without so much as a backwards glance. On the outside Gaara looked like stone but inside he was fuming.
"Well that was weird."
Naruto still stood behind him, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. "Why don't you check what he put in your pocket? I think it was money."
Gaara reached back nonchalantly pulling out two folded hundred dollar bills. He glanced down at them impassively before stuffing them back in and resuming his staring at the place where Neji had disappeared, mulling over the last thing he'd said.
'He's going to see me tomorrow?'
"You know," Naruto interjected his thoughts. "He was actually kind of cute."
Gaara gave his friend an icy glare.
"Do you think there's anyway I could not come to work tomorrow?"
---
Well there's chapter two, hoped you guys liked it. This wasn't a particularly eventful installment, just building up of Neji and Gaara's relationship and setting the stage for later chapters.
I did this chapter pretty quickly and I was too lazy to read it over more than once for mistakes so if there's any just point them out and I'll fix it.
REVIEW!
