Hola,
I don't own Naruto, but I did draw a chibi picture of Sasori. I own that, and will guard it with my life.
Enjoy!
The first thing I noticed was the sharp pain in the center of my forehead.
I groaned as I tried to open my eyes, but the light I encountered upon opening my eyelids had me flinching away. Apparently, my struggles did not go unnoticed.
"Oh, you finally coming around, huh?" A voice, sounding almost annoyed, spoke from off to the side.
I gave a sort of mumbling reply, and then there was a set of footsteps clicking against hard floor. A small flicking noise later, and it was suddenly much darker outside through my closed eyelids. Taking a chance, I fluttered them open. Sure enough, it was now darker in the room.
My vision was confusingly blurred. I looked around, trying to discern my surroundings. I seemed to be in a relatively small room with white walls, white floors, white ceilings, white beds, white blankets…
Oh, and there was an elderly woman with frizzy, white hair and horn-rimmed glasses resting on the end of her nose.
Well, that just did it. I was obviously in a nurse's office.
"How are you feeling?" The nurse said, no nonsense, making her way over to my bed with speed that she didn't seem like she would possess.
I sat up slowly, taking stock of my body. My head was killing me, and I was pretty dizzy, but other than that, I felt alright. When I told the nurse this, she nodded knowingly.
"That's exactly what I thought. When you passed out, you hit your head pretty hard on your desk." She informed me, reaching over to my bedside table. She took a pill bottle and tipped out two orange pills, which she handed me along with a glass of water. "Take it. It's for the headache."
I knocked back the pills quickly, wanting to get rid of the pounding headache as soon as I could. Yeah, I must have hit that desk pretty dang hard.
The nurse went back over to the light switch, but paused, giving me a pointed look. I nodded, and the room was flooded with harsh, artificial light. "You can take your time. Everyone's on their lunch break now, since you missed the first three classes -"
She was cut off when I chocked on my water, spitting a little as I tried to not let it go down the wrong pipe. A hand was suddenly on my back, patting none too gently.
"Did you forget how to drink?" She asked rhetorically, rolling her eyes. "This happens every year. You all get so nervous and just start dropping like flies."
I glanced around the room, finding the other beds empty. "But I'm the only one here," I told her quietly.
"Well, the others weren't out for as long as you were." she said, and a flicker of concern passed over her face, covering up the annoyance, "You sure you're okay?"
I nodded again, "Yes, I think I'll be fine, Nurse-san."
"Excellent!" She grabbed a stack of papers off her desk along with my bag, shoving them at me, "These are the sign-ups for next semester. You know, the first semester the first-years get every single class available so they can be exposed to everything, or something."
She snatched at the blankets covering my legs and yanked them back. Ignoring my squeak of surprise, she picked me up out of the bed with strength that I wouldn't have thought she had. Setting me on my feet, she held my shoulders while I fought to stay upright through the dizziness.
"What else was I supposed to tell you…" she furrowed her eyebrows for a moment. "Oh, the first semester you will take every class with your homeroom. Then the second semester you pick which classes you liked the best…"
I heard her keep talking in the background, but my mind was stuck on what she had said. The first whole semester, we take every class with our homeroom..? That… That meant… I would be with…
"…but you still have to have the same core classes, of course," the Nurse continued. There was a pause as she seemed to think if she had forgotten anything. When she couldn't think of anything more to say, she spun me around and steered me towards the door.
"Go eat. I recommend soda and anything salty. They get rid of nausea and dizziness." She patted one of my shoulders very roughly.
And with that, I was pushed out the door. As I stumbled outside, I could vaguely hear her from inside.
"Finally..."
Not wanting to stick around, I quickly walked down the hallway to the door at the end. The farther away I got from that crazy, looks-deceiving nurse, the better. She may look like the picture-perfect copy of a grandmother, but she sure as heck didn't act like one.
Walking outside, I saw that the sun was trying its hardest to break through the stubborn mist that still blanketed everything even in the middle of the day, but it was still relatively warm. Students were out, sitting in groups of two's or more on the benches, low rock walls, or just on the grass. Everyone had some kind of food.
Which brought me up short.
Where was the lunchroom exactly…?
I sighed, long and suffering. Today just wasn't my day. I wake up late, get my hand smashed in a door, pass out in homeroom, find myself in the company of a strange nurse who looked a lot kinder than she was, and now I can't find the lunchroom.
Throwing my bag over my shoulder, I resorted myself to asking someone. The only problem was that everyone seemed to be in groups of people. If only I could find someone by themselves…
Ah-hah!
There, walking down one of the many gravel paths was a girl with long blonde hair. She appeared to be by herself, and that was good enough for me. I jogged up behind her slowly, still wary of the dizziness.
"Um, excuse me…" I reached up and tapped her on her shoulder, absently thinking how tall she was. "C-Could you tell me where the lunchroom -"
And that's when he turned around, for it was indeed a he. I recognized the one visible blue eye immediately, the other covered by blonde hair. My hand snapped back to myself. This was that D guy! The one that hung around Him! He was there when I… When I told Him…
"You wanna know where the lunchroom is, hm?" He asked, grinning down at me. He seemed nice enough, but I wasn't going to chance running into Him, and I could tell it was definitely that D Guy now. He had the same verbal twitch and everything. The one who said I had the hots for -
"A-Ah, no." I looked away, "N-No, in fact, I-I was just leaving." With a jerky twitch of my hand that was probably supposed to be a wave, I turned on my heel, ready to flee.
"Hey wait a minute," I froze. "You look familiar."
In my frozen state, he walked around to in front of me. Putting one hand on his chin, he scrutinized my face with his one, narrowed eye.
"Yeah…" D Guy said slowly, "I've seen you from somewhere before, hm."
I violently shook my head, not even caring about the pain it caused, "N-no! Never seen you b-before." Bowing shallowly, I blurted out a quick goodbye. I tried to make another escape, but an arm thrown over my shoulders made me stop.
"Nope!" he said happily, "You aren't going anywhere until I figure out where I have seen you before. It's gonna bother me if I don't, hm." He started walking after dropping his arm from my shoulders. He resorted instead to grabbing my wrist, either ignoring my completely red face, or enjoying my embarrassment as he hauled me across the campus. "Besides, I'm going to the lunchroom anyway, yeah."
After a minute, he looked back and randomly poked my forehead, causing a shock of pain to make me hiss. "Oops, sorry," D Guy apologized, actually sounding sincere. "Just wondering why you have your head wrapped like that."
Blinking owlishly in confusion, I reached a hand up to my forehead. Sure enough, I could feel a sort of medical wrap had been wound around my head. My cheeks got even warmer, realizing I no doubt looked like some sort of mental patient.
"I hit my head…" I mumbled. D Guy nodded his own in acceptance.
"Happens to the best of us," he sighed, somehow being able to sound wise about such a stupid topic. Then he grinned and laughed, turning to look forward again as the spell of momentary wisdom was broken, "I've hit my head before, plenty of times, really, but I think I turned out just fine, yeah!"
The irony was not lost on me as I registered his words accompanied with the verbal tick at the end. Was this guy… Mentally stable?
D Guy kept chatting about who knows what as we made our way across the campus. I didn't really pay attention to what he was saying, trying to memorize the rout he was taking. Come to think of it, I don't know if I've ever even been to the lunchroom before. It is open three times a day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but I have yet to actually eat from it. I arrived at the academy late last night after dinner had been served, and I had slept in the morning.
My stomach growled suddenly. Placing a hand on my stomach nervously, I looked up to see if he had noticed, but D Guy was oblivious, walking along while talking animatedly about something.
Apparently, I was almost just as oblivious for I almost didn't notice when we had entered a large building some time later. The lunchroom was of pretty decent size, with circular tables filled with students placed randomly. It was cooler in here, and he finally released me of his hold, going to stand in line for food. I had no choice but to stand behind him. It was quiet between us for a while, and I thought he had dropped the idea of trying to figure me out.
"So…"
Or not.
"What's your name, hm?" he asked, and we grabbed our trays when we were close enough. "I'm Deidara."
Ah, so I was right that it started with a D. Well, now I could stop referring to him as D Guy.
Wait. D Guy.
D. Guy.
Oh gods.
I can't believe I've been… If anyone knew… I immediately had a premonition of what Amaya, a friend at my old school, would have said about the nickname, and it wasn't good…
She had been the biggest perv, after all. She saw hidden innuendos in everything. It seemed it had rubbed off on me a little. Man, I missed her.
I gave a visible start when I hand waving in front of my face jerked me out of my thoughts.
"O-Oh," I smiled sheepishly at the waiting Deidara, "Mai. It's Mai."
He seemed to pause. He put his hand on his chin again, even closing his eyes in thought. When the lunch lady yelled at him that he was holding up the line, he shook his head as he started grabbing food. I followed his league, snatching up a soda, a chicken salad sandwich, and some chips all the while keeping the nurse's advice in mind.
"Don't think I've ever heard of that name before…" He stepped up to the cash register to pay, pulling out some crinkled money from his back pocket. He stood off to the side, waiting for me with a thoughtful look on his face. I fumbled with my wallet, paying along with a stuttered apology to the unimpressed lunch lady.
We started walking again, and I began to wonder when he would leave. It's not like I didn't appreciate his company, I just didn't want him to -
"Got it!"
… recognize me.
I have the worst timing.
"You're that girl that confessed to Danna!" he told me like I didn't know, "Called him sama and everything, hm!"
I gripped my tray harder with both hands, "Y-Yeah, w-well -" My eyes widened as they slid to the two trays, one in each hand, that Deidara was carrying. "Where are you…" I trailed off, not sure how I was going to end the sentence.
Deidara seemed to get it, though, because he gave me a sneaky grin, "Oh, I think you know exactly where we are going."
My feet stopped moving. "No…" I whispered in horror.
But Deidara seemed unaffected by my fear, "Yep! We are going to see your one, true love! My man, danna! The guy who owes me five bucks for lunch…" Deidara shook his head, somehow grabbing my arm again while he still carried the two trays. He pulled me along as I stumbled.
"W-Wait," I tried, "I d-don't want to see… It's j-just… um… P-Please stop…"
Deidara did indeed come to a stop, but it was with a devious look on his face, "And over there, if you look straight ahead," he commentated like he was a tour guide, "You will see the great Sasori Akasuna!"
All functions came to a screeching halt. For there, not ten yards away, sat the beautiful, handsome, amazing… His scarlet hair was blowing from a breeze that I didn't even feel, and his brown eyes showed boredom even from so far away. He was sitting by himself on a bench underneath a tree, not looking like he was waiting for anyone. Just like he should be there. Like that bench would be lost without him.
And…
It was…
"And there he is, folks. The one and only." Deidara looked down at me with a grin, "So, is your heart fluttering away like a hummingbird on steroids?"
Huh.
Well that's weird.
"What's weird?" Deidara asked, sounding curious. I blushed realizing I had said it out loud.
I let out a deep breath I didn't know I had been holding, furrowing my eyebrows in confusion. "Nothing," I told him, "Absolutely nothing."
Deidara accepted my answer, grabbing my arm again as he walked closer to the bench. "Ah, young love," he sighed.
But I didn't fight him this time. I didn't drag my feet like before. I let myself get closer and closer to Sasori.
Not Him.
Sasori.
Sasori Akasuna.
Because when our eyes had met, brown against green, I felt it.
Nothing.
Dun, dun, dun! Was that unexpected, or was it so expected the fact I actual did something so expected was unexpected?
Well, I won't know unless you tell me.
