Muse
Chapter Four
A/N: If you've read this story before, I recently went through it and made quite a few alterations, especially to the 1st and 3rd chapter, so you may want to go back and read them. You might want to go back and read them anyway because I've not updated this fic in years.
"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, rounding the corner as he caught Sasuke by the bus stop. "Wait!"
Sasuke stopped; his face flushed with colour and he subconsciously ran his fingers through his hair.
"Oh…hi." he said in as close to casual tones as he could possibly manage. He gave Naruto this awkward nod and then became entirely engrossed by the bus stop map, as if he urgently needed directions to somewhere. Directions to sanity maybe? It was highly unlikely that Naruto could be thinking anything other than Sasuke was acting like a complete lunatic.
Who rings on peoples doors and then runs off?
There was no excuse, apart from alien mind control chips or lack of prescribed medication and neither of those routes sounded particularly appealing to Sasuke right now. He gave the map one last desperate look, saw no magical solution appear before him, sucked in a breath and turned to face Naruto.
"Hey," Naruto replied, to his credit no part of his expression gave away the fact that Sasuke was acting like someone who had recently escaped from an asylum. In fact he was bending over slightly with his hands braced on his knees puffing a little.
"You can't half sprint you know? What are you training for the Olympics?"
Obviously you didn't sprint fast enough to shake him off! The crazy little voice in his head piped up.
The voice that was also telling him it was a good idea to run straight into the road in order to be hit by oncoming traffic, rather than facing the humiliation of this conversation. How was red was his face? Sasuke could feel the heat in his cheeks radiating from his skin as if it were the part of a nuclear fusion reaction. He dug his hands so deeply inside his trench coat he thought they might rip through the lining completely.
"Uh… I um, sports sometimes."
Sasuke had no idea what he'd just said, but he decided to go with it.
What the hell was wrong with him? It was like he had lost control of his higher brain functions; this conversation was rapidly descending into hell. Maybe he should just end it now and fling himself into the path of the nearest oncoming Boris bicycle.
Again Naruto didn't falter at Sasuke's apparent mental breakdown, he smiled instead flashing those very white teeth and drawing attention to his perfect mouth.
"It's nice to see you again Sasuke."
That smile made it very hard to think, Sasuke thought. He felt almost panicked, his hands were sweaty, his heart rate had sky rocketed and his tongue felt uncomfortably numb in his mouth.
"Hi!" Sasuke began and then realized his mistake. "Oh, er no, we've already covered that part of the conversation."
He was babbling now and put one hand over his face in embarrassment. Just calm down he thought, just calm the fuck down. Make something up, anything up! Don't just stand there like an idiot!
He removed the hand from his mouth and tired again. "There was a gig. I mean; I'm going to a friends gig. But the gig's nearby and you live there. I mean you don't like right there… no! I mean you don't live there." Crap.
"Um…" Naruto was frowning at him, looking somewhat perplexed. "Sorry, I don't really follow?"
Sasuke took a deep steadying breath squeezed his eyes shut and just asked: "I thought you might want to come."
It was a complete lie of course; pretending he had pre-planned this. He wasn't even sure how he'd gotten here in the first place. It had been something like wondering around in blind panic, a sickening gut clenching feeling you get when someone rips your life apart.
He'd felt like he was trying to fight down nightmarish monsters for the past few hours, swallowing down the memories he tried very hard to keep suppressed. It had been necessary to leave the house, as he'd felt trapped in it all alone. He had run almost blindly from the sound of Madara's voice and the visions it had conjured up. It forcibly reminded him of dark rooms, the sound of a piano playing and then… In his mind he could still see his mother with her long hair and her smiling eyes. The image was clawing horribly at his insides, as if the memory was trying to punish him for still being alive. It was her birthday, her birthday, and damnit, Itachi wasn't even here to…
He opened his eyes; Naruto was staring at him looking utterly lost.
"Come to what?"
Sasuke felt himself deflate a little, "The gig!"
"OH!" Realization dawned on Naruto's face. "Oh I see. Wow, that's...great, but I…" He looked awkward.
Sasuke felt like a water filled balloon descending several stories to burst open on a hard cold floor. Of course Naruto was busy, of course he was. The whole damn planet was busy just to spite him. How embarrassing! Imaginary lights inside his head seemed to flash the warning: Back track! Back track!
"But of course you're unavailable, and uh…. I thought it would just be polite? Seeing as we didn't say goodbye to each other properly."
He neglected to mention the other day, after we had sex. He should be banned from interacting with people other than Gaara, Sakura and Itachi; no good could come of it.
Naruto's smile was a little wry as he said "It was a little awkward when you threw me out on my arse."
"Yeah, so…." Ah, if he were only able to teleport. "You can't make it, so I'll er, go."
Sasuke looked around hopelessly for the bus to arrive, wishing Naruto would just walk away and never look back. He'd transfer to an Alaskan university the second he got home, under a new alias with a fake mustache to prevent them from accidentally bumping into each other ever again.
It was absolutely impossible to tell what Naruto was thinking; those eyes were like cornflower marbles sunk into a basin of salt. He was tilting his head slightly to the side as if he were studying Sasuke, exposing a lot of his very alluring neck, a neck that Sasuke vividly remembered kissing.
He should really stop thinking things that made him feel like his face was on fire.
"No, you don't have to go. It's just that I promised Kiba that I'd be his wingman at a house party he wants to go to."
Now it was Sasuke's turn to be confused, "A what?"
Naruto shrugged, and waved his hands in the air. "It's stupid really, don't worry about it. They probably won't be heading off till about eleven as it's just around the corner from where we live. So, if the gig finishes around then and it's nearby so we could head on over to the house party together?"
At these words Sasuke's stomach twisted as he watched Naruto smile, he had never before felt so unsure and awkward in his own body. It was as if he'd suddenly become three inches high; his fingers twisted the end of the scarf he was wearing anxiously between forefinger and thumb. He hated house parties. To him they signified a lot of drunk people throwing up everywhere usually outside ones bedroom, couples sneaking off to make out in cupboards and having unsanitary sex on someone else's bed sheets.
For Naruto's benefit however, he pretended to look enthusiastic, or at least he hoped he looked enthusiastic but the expression on his face made Naruto smile again instead. Was that a good thing? Was Naruto smiling because he wanted Sasuke to go with him, or was he smiling because Sasuke had pulled the worlds most ridiculous face?
He ran his hands anxiously through his hair again, unsure of what to do or say but was saved a reply as Naruto put his hand gently on his shoulder and asked, "Could we go back to the flat? You don't have to decide about the house party now, but, er I'm not wearing any shoes."
"Oh!" Naruto was indeed shoeless Sasuke realized, the kneejerk reaction causing him to glance down at Naruto's unclad feet, poking out from beneath denim jeans. He had run after him before stopping to…
"It's only a two minute walk from here."
Sasuke tried to move his features back into their customary impassive expression and attempted to squash the myriad of emotions that were swirling through his brain into a quantum black box. One of his hands was still tugging at the end of his scarf, the other clenched rigidly at his side.
Some expression flashed through Naruto's face as he looked at Sasuke's hand, but as suddenly as it had arrived it vanished. Naruto ran his tongue across his teeth, his mouth still drawn in a smile and pointed back to his flat; they started to walk and silence stretched a little between them.
Sasuke Uchiha bit the inside of his cheek, the use of language had abandoned him completely and he had invited Naruto to a gig? Oh well, at least the music would be loud enough to excuse Sasuke's complete lack of interpersonal skills.
The silence was earsplitting.
Naruto spoke first, blurting the words out as if he were also uncomfortable with the lack of conversation. "You look a lot like your brother, you know."
Sasuke scowled. Itachi was the last person he wanted to talk about right now to anybody least of all Naruto. Naruto who he'd caught in the kitchen laughing and cracking jokes with Itachi of all things, and to boot he'd been making conversation whilst topless!
"So I've been told before."
There was a certain shutdown tone to the sentence that warned Naruto that this was probably not Sasuke's favourite topic. He changed tactics.
"So, you're studying Law. Is that interesting?"
"Not really, no."
"Ah...that's great."
Naruto looked at Sasuke; there was a hint of amusement in his eyes as if he were secretly finding something very funny. That irked Sasuke, he knew he wasn't giving Naruto very much to work with but usually when he did that people had the common decency to feel awkward about. Not find it amusing.
The laughter in Naruto's blue eyes made him feel stupid and childish, he tried to insist in his mind that it was Naruto's fault for bringing up Itachi but then again that was only to be expected, seeing as how they'd been talking for at least forty minutes because Sasuke had made his way downstairs.
But how dare Naruto talk to Itachi! And how dare Itachi talk to him?
How dare Itachi bring it up the next day as well over dinner, and then complain that Sasuke that thrown desert at him? Really if people were going to mention things like that they should expect desert to go flying into their face, and furniture … and pointed objects.
In retrospect Sasuke thought he'd been entirely reserved.
They walked in silence for another thirty seconds or so, walking out of sync with each other. Sasuke's hands still entrenched in his pockets.
"Um," Naruto began, taking yet another stab at conversation, a lesser man probably would have given up by now. "So, how'd you know where I live?"
"A friend from Uni told me." Sasuke said noncommittally, he was steadily avoiding eye contact feeling more and more awkward as every second passed. It caused him to stand straighter, his shoulders forming a solid line under his coat, head and jaw tilted slightly upwards as if slightly defiant. He could feel Naruto next to him studying his features and wondered why he didn't make an excuse to leave.
"Can't reveal your sources huh?" Naruto asked sounding genuinely amused, "I suppose as a spy you're not supposed to."
Sasuke blinked. "A spy?"
"You know dark and mysterious, turning up at peoples doors and dragging them off into the night. It's the sort of thing a spy would do, or maybe an assassin."
"Seeing as you're still talking, I don't think I've made a terribly successful assassin so far."
"True, so you must be a spy."
"I think you play too many video games."
Naruto grinned, "You can never play enough video games."
"Hn, sure."
"What about you? I get the feeling you don't play any, you're the type who'd say they'd interfere with work. An unnecessary distraction am I right?"
"I used to play when I was younger."
"But now you're an adult and don't play them anymore." Naruto nodded to himself as if he'd made an irrefutable point. "Yes, you've grown up and seen the error of your ways and I'm still stuck acting like a child, never wanting to grow up."
"Been successful so far I see."
Naruto put his hands up and over his head in mock surrender, "Ouch, come on give me some credit, I'm a hard worker!"
"Are you?"
"Work hard, play hard! That's my motto."
Sasuke stole a glance at him from beneath his dark feathery lashes; there was a confidence in Naruto's stride even in his bare feet that Sasuke found maddeningly attractive. He was just so confident, as if he didn't care what other people thought about him, all that golden hair falling about his head, not the ordered hairstyle that Sasuke always felt he had to conform to. That smart and out of your league look that that he applied to himself everyday like armour, because without it he felt vulnerable.
Naruto was very natural, everything about him suggested that that was just how he was, everything on the surface and you could either take it or leave it.
It was a confidence that Sasuke lacked, the ability to just be, he was always hiding something, pulling back so no one could see what was underneath.
Nothing to criticize, nothing that allowed people to get too close. A permanent barrier between himself and the rest of the world, they had no right to see him, they had no right to judge, and they had no right to know.
But Naruto…. it was like Naruto simply didn't care what others thought and Sasuke was unsure of whether it made him feel uneasy or contemptuous.
"So who's the mutual friend?"
Sasuke looked at him puzzled. "Mutual friend?"
"The one who knows where I live?" Naruto said, gesturing vaguely to the block of flats in front of them. "Or maybe it's not a mutual friend, and he's part of an organized spy ring that scopes out peoples houses. If that's so I've really got to change the locks."
"Yeah, nothing quite so fancy. I don't think you know him directly though…Gaara?"
Naruto's expression was nonplussed.
"Red hair, eye liner. He's often in the Maughan library…. Stares a lot when you speak to him."
The last part seemed to trigger some recognition in Naruto; he clicked his fingers and looked suddenly enthusiastic.
"Kankuro's little brother? Yeah I know him! Came round once and picked Kankuro up after he'd passed out from drinking. Literally dragged Kankuro out through the front door after rescuing him from the bathtub, I don't think I've ever seen Kiba laugh that hard. He's a lot stronger than he looks."
Sasuke tried to imagine Gaara hauling his unconscious brother into his sister's car as an act of kindness, but thought it far more likely that the two of them would have deposited Kankuro in the hedge outside the front of their house until he came to. Besides god help the idiot who threw up in Temari's car.
Naruto was excitedly bouncing from one foot to another as he fished in his pocket for the keys to the flat.
"Yeah, I've always been a bit fascinated by Gaara! Is his hair really that colour, or does he dye it?"
"I'm not sure."
"I heard he writes poetry or plays or something? Didn't he write part of last years play?"
Sasuke gave a noncommittal shrug. "I think so he's very adept at satire, unfortunately."
Naruto laughed, "Yeah, I can imagine that would be a pain in the arse when you're trying to win an argument."
He fumbled with the key in lock grating it around until the door swung open to reveal a steep flight of carpeted stairs, at the top of which Kiba was standing hands on hips staring curiously down at the two of them. His amber eyes flicking from Naruto's face to Sasuke's face, with no attempt to hide his interest at seeing the two of them together. Sasuke felt like pulling the collar of his coat around his face, it made him feel distinctly uncomfortable.
"You went off without your shoes, mate." Kiba said helpfully, gesturing behind him as if to implicate the rest of the flat for willfully withholding the articles of clothing.
"Yeah, I noticed." Naruto replied giving Kiba a look, which obviously communicated something between the two young men as Kiba moved away from the stairs grinning mysteriously.
"Just thinking about your welfare, didn't want to have to give you a tetanus shot."
Naruto shook his head; he turned round to find Sasuke hanging back in the doorway as if unsure of what to do with himself. He gave that smile again that did bizarre things to Sasuke's insides, and motioned for Sasuke to follow him up the stairs.
Almost with reluctance did Sasuke follow him, feeling as if he would happily stayed by the front door. His feet felt heavy as he moved into unknown territory. What was he letting himself in for? The guy with the brown hair had been the one to open the door to him and seen him 'take off'. Too late for rational thought now though, he should have made an excuse for staying outside the flat. Like being allergic to ceilings or something.
Sasuke ascended the stairs with all the dignity and grace he could manage, pretending as if the earlier incident had never happened and a slipped off his shoes. He stole a look at Naruto who had seemed to have registered the fact that Sasuke had taken off his shoes but kept his coat on, he didn't say anything about it though.
At the top of the stairs Sasuke took in the décor of the flat, simple student accommodation with the 'bare essentials' this included a plasma TV hooked up to both a Wii, an Xbox and a PlayStation 3. There were several items of clothing strewn across the floor, an empty pizza box; several drink bottles and an unidentified stain on the carpet poking out from beneath the table.
Shikamaru and Kiba were both sitting on the main sofa in front of the TV, Kiba had his arms crossed looking at Naruto with the same expression as that of a disciplinary parent, whilst Shikamaru kept giving them curious side glances from between intense bursts on the Xbox.
"Back so soon?" Kiba asked playfully, his gaze sliding mischievously from Naruto to Sasuke, it was obvious he want an explanation as to why the Sasuke Uchiha was standing in their living room. Naruto's only response was to give him a deadpan glare.
"These are my flat mates, flat mates this is Sasuke."
"We have names!" Kiba snapped at him, he jumped up from the sofa and shook Sasuke's hand in such a vigorous manner that it reverberated through the rest of his body.
"Kiba Inuzuka." Said Kiba Inuzuka and Sasuke had the distinct impression he was being introduced to the Pope. "And the thing connected to the Xbox is Shikamaru Nara."
Shikamaru gave mock salute from the sofa, briefly turning his attention away from the television screen as he was apparently in the middle of zombie apocalypse.
"I've seen you around Uni," Kiba informed him bossily, "never spoken to you though. You're an illusive man Sasuke Uchiha."
"That's because he's a spy." Naruto said smiling, "Careful Sasuke, I think Kiba's going to hit you up for his Student Union representative speech."
"Oh, you're running for student union president?" Sasuke asked putting two and two together as Kiba visibly puffed out his chest. "Naruto approached me about it the other day."
He neglected to mention that that had led onto other things; other wonderful, marvelous things that had involved the salty taste of his skin against his tongue and Naruto's fingers pulling at his hair. He compressed his lips into a line and didn't trust himself to look at Naruto. They hadn't spoken about what had happened since they'd done it, and the way that Sasuke had ejected Naruto from the house had been in such a manner that they were to never speak of it again to anyone. And yet, here he was. Still infatuated with the man, unable to function properly around him and inviting him out to gig out of all the ludicrous things to be doing.
"Ah, excellent! Well I'm sure Naruto gave you the whole reel huh? So, it's a yes?"
Then they all looked at Sasuke expectantly.
The alarm bells went off in Sasuke's head, what was a yes? What was he talking about? What had been the original reason that Naruto had some round? The actual reason that Sasuke had given him his address? He couldn't remember; his mind had drawn a complete and unhelpful blank, and Kiba was looking at him hopefully. Just give an answer he voice inside his head shrieked, any answer would do!
"Uh…yes?" That response in retrospect was probably not the best move he'd ever made.
Kiba clapped his hands triumphantly, "This is marvelous news!" he said excitedly, and Sasuke wondered with a slight panic what the hell he'd just agreed to.
"You don't have to give him an answer now Sasuke." Naruto intervened looking more than a little concerned, "I'm sure he needs more time to mull it over. Don't bully him Kiba into agreeing with you!"
Naruto's eyes were wide as if he were trying to give Sasuke a signal or a way out but Kiba clapped him hard on the back and said jovially "Nonsense, he's quite clearly made up his mind, didn't I tell you that I'd get Sasuke, Shikamaru?"
Kiba put his arm around Sasuke's shoulder looking incredibly pleased with himself, "You and I, we will do great things. In celebration of this new alliance can I get you something to drink, we have cider, Peroni, Carlsberg, Budweiser?"
"I'm good, thanks."
New alliance? What on earth…
"Oh leave him alone Kiba," Naruto put his arm around his friend's neck in a vice grip and pulled him backwards away from Sasuke.
"Give him some space jeeze, he didn't come all this way just for that you know."
Kiba looked a little dispirited at this, even as his face was turning slowly red in Naruto's death grip.
"He didn't?" he managed to choke out.
"No! He came over to invite me to a gig." Naruto kept his arm exactly in the same position apparently enjoying the site of Kiba wriggling around trying to break his hold. Kiba leaned forward, pulling the weight of Naruto's body onto his back and tried to throw his friend onto the floor, but Naruto clung on unrelenting. They struggled for a further minute, until Kiba threw all his weight backwards and sent them both toppling onto the floor.
"Who are you going to see?" a red-faced Kiba asked, pulling himself up from underneath Naruto's torso.
"Kankuro's band." Sasuke said, watching as Naruto messed up Kiba's hair, who protested and pretended to punch him in the face.
"The Maxwell's Derivations?" Kiba said grinning, smoothing out the ridiculous side parting his friend had given him. "They're actually pretty good, although I'd prefer if he put more effort into his rugby training. We were slaughtered by UCL last week."
Extracting themselves from the flat and going to the gig was turning out to be easier said than done.
Sasuke could tell Kiba was trying to mine him for information as he continued to pepper him with questions. There was no doubt Kiba was a natural team leader and networker; he'd seen Kiba around Campus before as one of the popular boys constantly surrounded friends and admirers. Sasuke knew he was heavily into sports and never absent from Sports Night at the student bar so naturally he was invited to every student house party in the capital. Not only that but he was captain of one of the university's more successful rugby teams. It was some CV Kiba Inuzuka was putting together Sasuke thought as the young man eyed him up from across the room with liquid amber eyes. Perhaps he was just working up to world domination.
"I thought Sasuke could come to the house party with us later, I'm sure there will be a few people there that you know." He said turning to Sasuke.
"That'd be cool." Kiba said thoughtfully, making his way over the fridge and helping himself to something in a takeaway box. "It'd be good to be seen together so early on, gently introduce people to the winning combo, Sasuke Uchiha and Kiba Inuzuka. They'll never know what hit them."
"Shut up Kiba." Naruto told him, but he was laughing.
"What?" Kiba asked; there was something roughly feral about his face that made him oddly attractive. He was masculine in a subtle way, like a hunter or a predator. He was broad and fit, a similar shape to Naruto Sasuke noted, with several metal piercings in his ears and he could see a tattoo of a wolf on his right bicep. He looked at Sasuke's impassive expression and grinned, "I'm only joking!"
"Yeah, right." Shikamaru interjected from the sofa. "Sasuke ignore Kiba, he talks shit ninety percent of the time. He's probably worried that the girl he's madly in love with at this house party will like you more than him."
Kiba looked pointedly at Naruto as Shikamaru said this, "You said you'd help me with that," he reminded his friend. "Don't forget!"
"Keep your underwear on," Naruto replied rolling his eyes. "Not that you'll be removing it anytime soon as I still think it's a lost cause Kiba. She lives with Neji. There's no competition."
"That's a nice way to talk to your friend!" Kiba said indignantly, "What does he have that I don't?"
"A less obnoxious personality?"
Sasuke laughed at that, and it felt like the first time he'd laughed in years. Kiba cast his hands in the air dramatically, muttering the words: 'Et tu, brute?' and flounced theatrically back to the fridge.
Sasuke turned to find Naruto staring oddly at him and reminded him that he still needed his shoes. There was unusual expression on Naruto's face, as if he'd just been awoken from a long sleep or like a deep-sea diver emerging to the surface for air.
"Oh yeah…right." Naruto murmured; looking almost embarrassed as he came to. "Shoes!" He began rummaging under different pieces of furniture.
"Sasuke, have something to eat!" Kiba insisted, advancing on Sasuke brandishing a sandwich.
Sasuke Uchiha's protests were nullified as Kiba pushed it into his hands, his liquid amber eyes sparkling with some mischief as Sasuke looked down at the plate.
"Go on."
Seeing as Naruto was still unsuccessfully looking for his shoes and there seemed a lack of other alternatives bar running out of the flat, Sasuke bit into the sandwich. It was like trying to eat a jellyfish; the sandwich's filling was rubbery in texture and extremely hard to swallow. He tried not to let this register on his face however and instead said, "Mmm… Yum."
Kiba cracked up.
"Spit it out!" Shikamaru yelled from the sofa, he was playing as an old man wielding a hunting rifle and was currently engaged in shooting a huge zombie in the face that currently seemed to be trying to eat him.
"Don't trust anything he gives you, he's winding you up."
"You're a good sport," Kiba laughed clapping Sasuke hard on the back, almost causing him to swallow the whatever-it-was that was in his mouth.
With the rest of the sandwich and the whatever-it-had been in Sasuke's mouth in the bin, he was pointed to the toilet as he insisted on using mouthwash to get rid of the funny taste.
In the bathroom he splashed cold water on his face, ran his hands under the tap and then dragged them through his hair, in an attempt to stop it from sticking up at the back. No such luck, it stubbornly remained in its anti-gravity position, he sighed. He was uncomfortably hot he thought, and then realized it was because he was still wearing his coat and scarf, too late to take it off now though.
There was a knock on the bathroom door and Naruto's head appeared around it.
"Hey, sorry about Kiba. He's always doing things like that. I hit him for you though if that helps."
"Is that what the screaming was?"
"Yeah, Shikamaru and I used a couple of thumbscrews on him. He won't be doing that again in a hurry."
"It's ok, my brother and I used to do that to each other all the time when we were kids."
"Kiba means well, we think." Naruto paused for a moment, stepped into the room with Sasuke and shut the door behind him.
"Look, about last week. We didn't really get round to discussing Kiba's terms and conditions, so it's okay if you tell him you don't want to do it."
Sasuke brushed past the reference to last week acting as though nothing had happened. Instead he asked, "What exactly have I signed on to?"
Naruto looked at the floor, there was an amused smile on his face that highlighted the dimples in his cheeks "I don't know whether you've noticed Sasuke but you get a lot of attention."
"Do I?"
Naruto stared at him as if trying to determine whether or not he thought Sasuke was being sarcastic or not, he decided to go with the latter.
"Yes, you do. When you do things Sasuke people…notice. Kiba's idea is that you show that you support him, and people will vote for him."
Sasuke ran his hands through his hair again for the 90th time that evening and tried to flatten it down unsuccessfully at the back again.
"I'm hardly popular, Kiba's popular but I'm not. I don't mind him telling people that I'll vote for him, but I hardly see how that's going to change anything."
"Well, you'll see." Naruto said shrugging his shoulders, "I'm pretty sure half of the reason Kiba's doing it anyway is because he has a personal grudge again Neji."
"Hyuuga?"
"That's the one."
"He's in my tutorials."
"And there's that," Naruto said with a laugh, "pretty sure Kiba's going to ask you to do baseline reconnaissance work for him."
"I think we've already discussed the fact that I'm an operative, but I doubt Kiba could afford my fees."
"I'm sure Kiba would become your personal slave if you asked him to."
Sasuke inclined his head a little as if considering the proposition, he tried to turn off the tap but the cold water kept pouring vigorously into the basin. He twisted to no avail, the water rapidly rising and threatening to spill over the edge.
"It does that sometimes," Naruto muttered, moving over to where Sasuke was standing and giving the tap such a wrench it threatened to spin off the to other side of the room. He straightened up and looked at Sasuke who hadn't moved from the basin either, his hands still wet, his coat and scarf still on.
This was the closest they'd been to each other since they'd kissed, touched each other and fucked. The tension between them was electric; Sasuke felt his pulse begin to rise as he looked back into Naruto's bright blue eyes. Even in the poorly light bathroom he made Sasuke's heart leap about in his chest, that messy blonde hair, the strong jaw, that ultimately kissable mouth… He wanted to lean forward and touch Naruto, he was close enough and he was sure Naruto wouldn't stop him.
He was staring at Sasuke as intensely as Sasuke was staring at him, as if he too were trying to slot the pieces of the puzzle together. What was this? He never felt like this about people, usually it was one quick fuck and then it was all over. But this? He didn't know how to get Naruto out of his system, or even what his feeling for Naruto were. It was silly surely to keep seeing him, but when he hadn't seen him, all he'd done was think of him.
He wanted Naruto to kiss him…He wanted to kiss Naruto, to push him up against the bathroom wall and feel Naruto's fingers running across his skin again.
"You know," Naruto's voice sounded lower and huskier, Sasuke felt his skin prickle with anticipation. "I kind of liked your hair before you tried to flatten it."
Sasuke didn't reply; he didn't even trust himself to breathe. He inclined his head and saw Naruto move a fraction of an inch towards him and then…
His phone went off.
The moment splintered and Naruto pulled back and moved towards to door.
"I've got the shoes." He said blinking as if he were coming out of some sort of reverie, "I'll be waiting in the hallway."
Sasuke frowned, not sure if the phone had saved him from a terrible mistake or not. It was a text message from Itachi. Sasuke toyed with the idea of ignoring his brother but then thought the better of it, sliding his phone open to read the rest of it. The content of the text was simple the worlds: 'Madara wants to talk' flashed up at him in the dim light. Sasuke felt his stomach twist horribly.
He'd done nothing wrong, had he? Was it something he'd done personally? Or was it something that he and Itachi had done? Madara wasn't known for his 'friendly chats' but… Now, now was not the time to panic. Whatever had happened to make Madara upset it would have to be dealt with tomorrow with Itachi. There was no point in panicking now. He bit his lip and closed his eyes, just try and forget about it he thought. Make sure you're back for tomorrow morning and everything would be fine. But the thought didn't stop the cold feeling of dread from slowly creeping its way across his body.
Fuck it, there was only one-way he knew how to resolve this, and that required a lot of alcohol.
"I'm all for advising you against listening to Kankuro's band sober," Gaara yelled above the music to Sasuke who was standing a few paces away from him at the bar. "But I think you're taking this a bit too literally."
Sasuke finished his bottle of Peroni tilting his head slightly towards Gaara, his dark eyes set and a little dangerous. He turned to Naruto, his jaw very firm and absolutely stubborn. "Want to do a round of shots?" He asked.
The blonde was a curious customer he had decided, Naruto was friendly and absolutely charming. Even Gaara had made an amused expression at him as he'd introduced himself, explaining that he had been summoned here by Sasuke's recommendation.
"If you can handle it Uchiha," he said easily. They were in a small trendy bar with only two levels, they were on the second level were there was a platform at the back of the room for a band to play in. The walls were decorated with clocks, old glass decanters and antique looking keys, whilst the bar a rectangular shaped area boxed in by the high counter-top was on the far right of the room pressed into the wall.
It was busy tonight mainly due to the fact that it was a student night and the drinks and entry were 'cheap' for London prices, they were packed up against the bar being pressed on by all sides by other customers revving to get the attention of one of the bar tenders. Sasuke could see Gaara eyeing the girl he had asked to make him a cocktail suspiciously, he had every right to be suspicious however, he had most definitely asked for a daiquiri and she was most certainly making him a margarita, or at least that's what he told Sasuke saying: "I've never seen a daiquiri involve salt before!"
Sasuke shrugged, his friend would know more about cocktails than he would. Gaara considered the act of making them as a sort of art form and was highly critical of any establishment that didn't make them correctly. It fitted accordingly into Gaara's repertoire to be seen in fashionable places with an elaborate drink in hand, ready to make smart comments to unsuspecting passers by.
On the other hand the same couldn't be said for Kankuro, who was at this minute making a hell of a lot of noise. Sasuke was not quite sure if it could be classified as music, but it was close enough.
He leant across to Naruto, "Do you like them?"
Naruto pulled the pained expression of 'I can't quite hear you' and tilted his ear towards Sasuke's mouth, making the motion to reiterate what he'd just said.
"I said," Sasuke repeated bringing one hand up to cup his mouth. "Do you like them?"
He watched Naruto grin, "I find his lyrics funny!" he responded cupping his own hands around his mouth in order to amplify his voice. "I don't know anybody else who'd write a song about his PhD!"
"It's pretty absurd." Gaara agreed sipping casually on his cocktail. "No one understands what he's saying. I'm not sure how he expects a layman to understand terms about Quantum Field Theory and path integrals."
"I thought that was the point?" Naruto asked. "It's just supposed to be outlandish? When he talks about it when we're playing Rugby we all just take the piss."
Gaara pulled a long suffering face, "You've not heard his song about 'Dicks Diagrams' then, not to add that Temari once had to persuade him out of getting the Dirac equation tattooed on his arm."
"How did she do that?"
"Oh," Gaara waved his free hand around in the air. "She said she'd punch his teeth out if he so much as dared. He was stone drunk at the time, next morning he thanked her for stopping him, said that it would have been a terrible mistake to have got Dirac and not Maxwell's equations instead."
He rolled his lime slate green eyes, "You can't help whom you're related to, I guess."
Naruto burst out laughing, "I had no idea he was so into physics!"
Gaara gave him an apologetic nod, "He did three degrees at Imperial, his bachelors, his masters and his PhD, he couldn't get enough of it. We thought he was going into academia and research but then he changed his mind when he submitted his thesis."
Sasuke rolled the empty bottle of Peroni between his hands, feeling the cool condensation that had formed on the bottle lower his skin temperature.
"He switched to medicine didn't he?"
"Yep. Totally out of the blue, just came back one day and announced it. That's how you know him isn't it?" Gaara asked Naruto, he was balancing his cocktail in the one hand with amazing grace Sasuke thought. That was the thing about Gaara, you could never tell when he was drunk or not, he always stayed exactly the same. Methodical and unblinking like a live statue.
"He's on year two of the graduate program so he's been put with all us lot the third years, but I know him mostly from Rugby."
"Ah yes, that sport." Sasuke stopped himself for giving a derisive snort from the way Gaara had pronounced the word 'sport'; he caught the eye of the bar tender and asked for tequila shots.
Naruto flashed that smile again and his expression fox like. "I take it you don't approve of rugby then?"
"Gaara disapproves of many things." Sasuke informed Naruto whilst watching his friend raising a quizzical eyebrow, or would-be-eyebrow but due to his lack of them he simply raised his forehead.
"All I'll say is that the amount of head bashing doesn't seem to have affected his academic performance as of yet. Although I'm told the socials are something to see."
"Yeah," Naruto admitted looking slightly abashed, he rubbed the tip of his nose. "Rugby socials are a thing no civilized person should ever see."
"All that ramped up testosterone no doubt," Sasuke could see Gaara giving him a suggestive look here and chose to ignore it. "Manly men in a room making each other drink their own piss and vomit."
"What?" Sasuke almost dropped the shot glasses.
"Oh hey, look here!" Naruto raised his hands so they were palms facing forwards, the picture of a peaceful surrender. "I have never drunk someone else's piss."
"Implying you've drunk someone else's vomit?" Gaara laughed, "Oh my god Sasuke you've introduced me to a barbarian."
Sasuke pressed the shot glass into his friend's hand and then into Naruto's. Naruto was looking slightly embarrassed but was laughing at the same time,
"I don't know what happens at Rugby initiations that turns all players into animals, but it's not very nice."
"Vast amounts of beer and vodka?" Sasuke suggested, "Speaking of which, Skål."
"Skål?" Naruto asked perplexed, the shot glass wavering in front of his mouth.
"It means cheers in Norwegian."
They downed it in one, licking the salt from the glass and biting into the lime afterwards to stop the back-burn from the tequila. Sasuke winced from the taste, it wasn't his favourite shot but it beat getting Sambuca because Gaara would always insist on lighting. He didn't care on whether Gaara insisted a thousand times or not that it was perfectly safe, he was not going to set something on fire and then swallow it.
They spent another half or so talking, Sasuke getting steadily tipsier and tipsier, the room wasn't spinning but he felt 'buzzy' as if he were filled from the inside with a warm glow. Speaking without confusing his words was getting a little difficult too, but Naruto also seemed to be reaching the same state of a slightly 'fuzzled'. He was laughing and smiling at a greater rate, standing closer to Sasuke and reaching out every now and again to put his hand on Sasuke's shoulder.
He was sure this was great entertainment for Gaara, who was holding yet another cocktail with supreme elegancy, having not changed in sobriety since the beginning of the evening.
Damn his friend for being so cool and collected, even when challenged by forty percent alcohol.
"I need to pee," Naruto said mid conversation excusing himself.
"Don't succumb to temptation and drink any!" Gaara shouted after him so several people heard. Naruto turned round laughing and gave Gaara the finger.
They had been discussing why Kankuro would sing a song about a cat that was both dead and alive (according to the lyrics). Gaara said it was a metaphor about a previous relationship, Sasuke wasn't so sure.
Gaara gave a rich chuckle as Naruto left and turned round to Sasuke.
"I like him." He said factually, "He's nice, although why you'd take him to listen to my brother's monstrosity of a band on a first date is beyond me."
"It's not a date!" Sasuke interjected a little more hotly than he'd intended.
"Sure it's not, that's why you've been making eyes at him all night."
"I have -…"
Gaara patted him in a mollifying way on the shoulder, "Of course not. You don't fancy him at all."
"I don't fancy people!" Sasuke informed him in what he hoped was a cold and aloof voice.
"And the Pope never watches porn."
"Gaara!" Sasuke reproached, slapping him on the back.
His friend gave a small nod of the head and just smiled, taking a sip of his drink and rearranging his little cocktail umbrella.
"I think Kankuro is about to finish up, aren't you supposed to be going to a house party or something. That'll be something to see, you hate those."
"No I don't."
"Yes, you do! You must really like him to have agreed to go."
"I've not agreed to do anything."
"Uhuh…"
"Oh shut up."
Gaara gave his dark throaty chuckle again, "Well you've brought him here so I can access him, and I've just given him an all clear. Who else are you going to test him on, Sakura?"
"I'm not testing him on anyone, I just thought it'd be polite to bring him along."
"And since when have you cared about being polite? Never. You like him, it's obvious. In fact you more than like him, you like him like him like him."
Perhaps Gaara was a little drunk.
"What are we in, primary school?"
"Why, do you want to pull his pigtails?"
Sasuke entertained the idea of smashing the nearest bottle over Gaara's head but resisted the temptation. His friend was good naturedly trying to wind him up and to hell with it if he was going to let him succeed.
"Itachi liked him though." he wasn't sure why it was important to venture that information forward to Gaara, but it just was.
His friend nodded, thoughtfully prodding the umbrella round the cocktail glass. "Don't get too hammered at this house party, I don't want to be called out to carry you home."
Sasuke bit the inside of his mouth, his mind flicking back to the text message in his pocket, should he tell Gaara? Shouldn't he tell Gaara? Would Gaara over-react if he did tell him? Gaara had been the only person he'd ever told about the piano incident, it was both a reason to tell Gaara that he was supposed to be meeting Madara tomorrow and a very good reason not to tell Gaara he was meeting Madara tomorrow. If he was being sensible he should really start sobering up now.
"Hey," there were warm fingers on his back and Naruto's blonde hair and denim jacket had reappeared again.
"I've got a text from Kiba saying they've left to go to the party and could I please come and back him up. So, I've gotta go make him look good." He gave Gaara one of his incredibly warm smiles and stuck out his hand for a shake.
"It was great meeting you, you should come over with your brother and Sasuke to chill out and have some drinks."
"It sounds like a tempting offer," Gaara replied, shaking Naruto's hand. "It was nice to meet you too."
Naruto turned his full attention back to Sasuke; they were standing very close together, partially because the bar was so full and partially because alcohol had dissolved the social protocol of personal space. Sasuke was actually enjoying the fact that Naruto's torso was pressed up against his arm, and that the fingers of one hand where still on his back.
"My offer still stands if you want to come with." Naruto told him, his bright blue eyes were looking directly into Sasuke's dark grey irises.
I should really say no. Sasuke thought. I should really say no. I should go home and…He thought about going home and dwelling on the fact that he'd have to see Madara tomorrow morning. And yet Naruto was looking at him as if he did really want him to come with, and going to the house party meant delaying going home alone…
"Yeah, okay."
He was determined not to look at Gaara's 'Ha-ha I told you so, face.'
NB:
Some people might not get references to things I've put in the text so here's a list.
UCL: University College London, the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1826, UCL was the first university institution to be founded in London and the first in England to be established on an entirely secular basis, to admit students regardless of their religion and to admit women on equal terms with men. It's famously situated on Gower Street and is closely affiliated with University College Hospital (UCH) on Euston Road and the Royal Free Hospital, situated in Hampstead. Both are world renowned teaching hospitals, it also has a close affiliation with the Hospital of Tropical Medicine, this research institute is famous for their work with AIDs, discovering Ebola, and Malaria. Incidentally it was the Royal Free Hospital's research department that published the paper on the Autism and MMR association which lead to a vaccine scare and is currently why we are experiencing a resurgence of measles in Europe.
Although the philosopher Jeremy Bentham is commonly seen as the father of UCL, he personally took no part in its creation. It famously shares a competitive rivalry with Kings College London (KCL), sometimes referred to as 'Rags'. One of the famous pranks pulled by UCL students was to steal the Kings mascot 'Reggie the Lion' which ended with Reggie being dumped in a field, I also believe on another occasion he was found trapped in solid concrete. Kings students have been rumoured to have stolen the skull of Jeremy Bentham and to have played football with it.
Both UCL and KCL are part of the Russell Group (akin to the Ivy League in America) and are both part of the 'golden triangle' which includes Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, and LSE (London School of Economics and Political Science).
Universities from my own experience in London are mostly called by their acronyms LSE, KCL and UCL. Imperial is an exception because no one wants to call it ICL, although they are no longer part of the University of London group after recently pulling away in 2007, this has larger ramifications for staff and research departments, it mostly means that Imperial students are no longer allowed to use other university of London faculties such as Libraries or gyms, and have to pay a larger fee if going to an event at ULU (University of London Union).
Imperial College London: Originally established around a hundred years ago as a polytech it has since merged with other colleges and expanded into becoming one of the largest London universities. Imperial specialises in sciences and business, having a large business school as a separate department. Imperial's maths course famously requires the highest grades of any undergraduate course in the UK.
Imperial notably has campuses in Chelsea, Paddington and Hammersmith, the most famous campus being in South Kensington and its main entrance is on Exhibition Road next to the Science Museum, and they boast a students union that is next to the Royal Albert Hall. Medics however studying at Imperial have a separate students union, bar and campus and exclusively remain at Hammersmith Hospital and are known to mostly socialise with the other science students in first year, due to sharing halls.
CV: Curriculum vitae, a summary of academic and professional history and achievements, this is basically the English version of a resume.
Boris Bike: Barclays Cycle Hire (BCH) is a public bicycle-sharing scheme that was launched on 30 July 2010 in London, England. The scheme's bicycles are popularly known as Boris bikes, after Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London who introduced them, however I believe it was originally Ken Livingston's idea, so yet again Boris takes credit whilst doing nothing.
Other London universities include: Westminster University, Kingston University, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), Birkbeck, Royal Holloway, Queen Mary and St George's University of London (SGUL). (I'm sure I've missed some here)
Enjoy x
