Chapter 2
'We'd better not be staying here for long. I don't think I can deal with this idiot for much longer and we've only been here ten minutes! I wonder what Orochimaru would do if she were to ACCIDENTALLY get fatally wounded.'
'They'd better not be staying here for long. I don't think I can deal with this idiot for much longer and he's only been here ten minutes! I wonder what Orochimaru would do if he were to ACCIDENTALLY get fatally wounded.' The two feuding adolescents thought in perfect unison. On the outside they were opposites, but within the thick walls of the teenage skull they were very similar. Their reasoning and rationalisation, their opinions and their emotions were almost identical. But Sasuke wasn't very outgoing, and Mei tended to keep her true thoughts and feelings locked up. Making the chances of the two realising their similarities very slim.
"Well, scene as you decided to bring this with you," Mei pointed her thumb at Sasuke, refusing to call him by his name (she was still irked by his lack of manners). "I'll have to make another room liveable." She complained. She made her way to the one remaining room.
Mei looked around the monotonous room. It was cold and dark. 'Just the perfect room for Sasuke' she thought. She dusted the surfaces, swept the floor and got rid of the cobwebs. As she was putting the cover on the duvet, Mei noticed Sasuke walk past the open door looking perplexed.
"Lost?" She asked, in a mocking tone, her lips folded into a smirk. He stepped inside and eyed the room.
"No, I'm just looking around." He replied. Sasuke turned to walk out but stopped. "By the way, that duvet covers inside-out." Mei looked down and sighed.
"Could you give me a hand?" She asked, reluctantly. Sasuke sniggered, watching her pride shatter as she asked him for help. "Don't you snigger at me!" Mei pouted angrily after reading Sasuke's thoughts like a book. "If you're going to act like that then you'll just have to deal with an inside-out duvet cover." Sasuke rolled his eyes, which were still darker than obsidian, and let out a clichéd sigh. He passed her the corners of the duvet (to which Mei replied with a subconscious 'thanks') and their eyes met. Mei recalled the previous glares she'd been shot, and was certain that his eyes were red earlier. The one arched brow and another folded towards her eye painted a look of confusion on Mei's face.
"What is it?" Lethargically inquired an uninterested voice.
"Weren't you eyes red earlier?" Came the puzzled reply.
"Yeah." Mei waited for elaboration on his inconclusive reply. But Sasuke evidently wasn't much of a talker, as he turned and walked back out.
"Well thanks for clearing that up." Retorted Mei sarcastically. She grumbled to herself as she finished making the bed.
After some small talk, reminiscing and quite a few awkward silences, the group dispersed and retired to their rooms. All apart from Mei, who kept her sleep-deprived self awake to clean the extra dishes, dirtied by people she wasn't even too fond of. In all honesty, Mei thought of their presence as a burden. However, she did find the silence of her sleeping house guests nostalgic, but she couldn't think why. What bothered her even more is that it aroused a warm, safe, blissful feeling in her heart, which was overshadowed by a cold feeling of trepidation.
Clink. The final plate was put in its place and Mei could finally go to bed. The sound of limp and tired feet dragging across the stone floors echoed in the halls. Mei passed Sasuke's room, then Orochimaru's and was passing Kabuto's when he popped out his head from behind the door.
"Mei, could you show me where you moved the draws, please?" The cauliflower haired young man asked. Mei's saggy, tired face attempted to look inquisitive but the sleepy muscles failed.
"Draws?" A lethargic voice repeated as she ambled into the room. "They're next to th – Ugh!" Her reply was cut short as a tensed hand engrossed in blue flame collided with the base of her neck.
First went her knees. They gave out almost immediately. She fell hard on to the icy granite floor and toppled forward as the tingling sensation, that preceded numbness, spread throughout her physique. Her face was next to be embraced by the sadistic floor. All that was left with feeling were her fingertips and toes. But now even they were numbing. Suddenly, a choking sensation reminded Mei she was still alive. Kabuto grabbed her collar and yanked her upwards, onto her limp feet, making her shirt ride up her sides. Mei's entire body was numb, but even worse; her mind was starting to go to sleep too. Everything was hazy, dark. She felt being pulled up off the floor then falling again. Her fall was stopped though. By what? Something cold and hard. But comforting. It felt like she'd been caught.
Sasuke was still wandering the halls when he heard a thud, followed by a choking noise. It sounded like Mei. But it hadn't come from her room. Curiosity overwhelmed Sasuke and he decided to find the cause of the deathly sound.
Outside Kabuto's room Sasuke saw him wrench Mei into a slouchy stand. Kabuto hauled her limp body towards the ajar door that concealed Sasuke's presence. There was no time for Sasuke to think. However, had he thought, he would have decided not to get involved. But instead he just moved (faster than the human eye could follow). Jumping into Mei's path and catching the vulnerable girl as Kabuto released his iron grip on her forearm, due to the shock of Sasuke's sudden materialization. She didn't seem conscious. Sasuke cast Kabuto a feral scowl. If he hadn't been holding Mei, he probably would have ripped Kabuto to shreds. However, anchored down my Mei (which was probable for the best), Sasuke teleported to two of them to Mei's room and away from Kabuto. He lay her down on the bed and left, quietly seething with bloodlust.
Kabuto was frozen with embarrassment and fear. Embarrassment because of the false assumption Sasuke had made. And fear of how Sasuke would react.
Even after an adequate night's sleep, Sasuke still couldn't rid the urge to peel every layer of Kabuto's skin off one by one. And he didn't even know why: Why he'd saved her, why he was angry.
A groggy "Urghh" distracted Sasuke from the lacklustre breakfast in front of him. Sasuke's gaze shifted to a scruffy Mei with bed hair pointing in a thousand different directions, and the same clothes she was wearing yesterday but now crinkled and creased from restless sleep. She mumbled something incoherent through a not-yet-functional mouth. As she swayed into the kitchen her crusty eyes pried open causing her pupils to shrink to the size of a pin point from the sudden intake of light. Still half asleep, she sauntered towards the almost bare cupboards, searching for something that was relatively edible. After chowing down on something unidentifiable, she spun round and leaned towards Sasuke.
"What are you doing up so bright and early?" queried a still sloppy voice. "You don't exactly strike me as much of a morning person." She added, followed by a few gulps of milk straight from the carton. Sasuke made a mental note not to drink that milk, before feelings of worry and anger resurfaced. He thought back to the previous night and wondered how Mei could be so nonchalant.
"I'm going out training." He answered her earlier question, before pitching his own, "Mei, are you feeling okay?" Sasuke tried not to sound too concerned, but truthfully, he was. Mei, on the other hand, was not. She eyed him suspiciously. After all, why would this narcissistic meany be worrying about her? She stared hard into his midnight eyes, searching for a hint of amusement, any sign of sarcasm. But, concluded that he wasn't kidding around.
"I'm fine!" She scoffed in a slightly smug voice. "Why? Are you concerned, Sasuke?" She ridiculed him. Fine, black brows dug deep into Sasuke's narrowed eyes, as his brain did summersaults trying figure out why she would be acting fine . . . No, more than fine. Jolly. The long pause after her rhetorical question led Mei to believe Sasuke actually may be concerned for her. This panicked her a bit. "No, seriously now: Why?" Mei repeated, this time without the mocking ring in her voice. Sasuke's train of thought was squashed by Mei and her imposing questions.
"You just look tired." He lied. He'd come to assume that Mei couldn't remember what Kabuto tried to do last night. And the fact that she could show her face in front of Sasuke meant she still had some dignity (something she wouldn't be able to claim, had she remembered Sasuke saving her vulnerable self).
"Well, I didn't get much sleep last night: I had this really creepy nightmare, and then it just got embarrassing." Mei trailed off, her cheek's colour revealing just how embarrassed she was at the 'nightmare' of being saved by Sasuke. "But if you're going training, would you mind if I came too?" Sasuke raised a judgemental eyebrow that spoke for itself, it said 'and why should I?' But before he could actually reply Mei added, "Relax! I wouldn't actually want to go training with you. I just want to get out for a bit." A painful grimace swept Mei's face just at the thought of going training with 'this guy'. Sasuke considered letting her tag along. At the very least, he could use her as a moving target for kunai throwing. With a roll of his complacent eyes he replied.
"Fine" He sighed. "Just don't get in my way."
"Yess!" Mei's face lit up, as she pumped her fist in the air as a sign of victory. She scampered out of the kitchen towards her room (supposedly to get ready) and almost tripped, whilst shouting behind her at Sasuke. Telling him she'd only be a minute. Sasuke slumped forward, resting his brow on the cool, stone counter, repeating in his head over and over, 'Why, why, why . . .?'
So, Mei's past seems a bit mysterious. I guess now is the part where I give away subtle hints, but I haven't really got round to making up a back story for her yet. Sorry, I should really stop slacking off! But I have a plan for chapter three, so I'll try getting it done . . . soon-ish. Anyhoo, thank you so much for reading this all the way to the end. I hope you enjoyed it, love MrsPacMan :3