ETHEREAL
(adj.) Extremely delicate light, not of this world.
There were never moments where Sasuke had stuck around whenever someone began to cry. The noises were excruciating to deal with, and it always bothered him when his eyes were exposed to a grieving person. A result of attending a public school, Sasuke often found himself with a girl attempting to seduce him with their charm, whether it be breasts or the prospect of sex, it didn't take too long to realize that he preferred intercourse with a male than with a female.
But even with that discovery, he found most men he'd been with were annoyingly clingy, or just boring.
Though Sasuke favoured the quiet and reserved type of company, he wasn't happy whenever he'd date an elegant man, often he'd feel an odd pull to the rugged, excitable men downtown.
Somehow he'd find his signature black eyes linger on waxy yellow hair, that were accompanied with sky blue eyes, but for some unfeasible reason, Sasuke could never bring himself to approach the ones with these characteristics.
But even with all touching, kissing, and loving words, not once did any of his partners succeed in easing the hollowness inside Sasuke.
Although he did meet a woman that eased the pain a little, but not in the romantic way.
Her attitude was comforting to Sasuke, it reminded him of his mother in some ways. Soft eyes that were violet, and dark, straight hair.
Which was why he pushed her away, it was a sign of weakness to depend on someone, besides, he'd only thought of her in a platonic way.
What was amusing, was that he didn't even know her name, which was perfect. Love and companions were meaningless to him.
People were only there to serve as a way to pass time.
Hatred was the only thing he could allow inside his heart, by suffering to the point of depression, his heart could only afford anger as of means to recover.
Getting adopted by equally heartless adults also aided in nurturing the dark void inside him; hence the lack of tears he had at the moment.
Death seemed to enjoy watching over Sasuke's shoulder. Right after he had reached the age of twenty two, both of his guardians died from a drunken argument while one of them stupidly thought it was a good idea to drive when alcohol pulsed heavily in their blood.
Colliding with a large trees, having it fall and crush them. Naturally they were broken like a twig, or so Sasuke quietly mused with mild indifference to their deaths.
Actually he was quite relieved they were gone now. As of the moment, Sasuke only attended their funeral for the sake of publicity, and to get acquainted with his 'parents' partners in business.
Sasuke was starting to regret his decision. All the people surrounding him were disgusting and hateful. Many woman wore bright make up, thick mascara (which was probably waterproof with their staged tears), and resembled a grotesque doll with their muscles fighting against Botox to form a grieving expression.
Men merely shook their heads in loss as to what to do, Sasuke could tell they were only at a loss for what this meant for the economy and how the result of their death would impact their wealth.
A good, rational, human with good morals would naturally cut off such vain people, but Sasuke merely saw this as an opportunity to dive into the new position he had of a powerful company.
The key word was power.
He hadn't made any moves in the business world, but Sasuke was determined to continue going up from this point, he was close to taking down Itachi.
Sasuke could feel his fingers digging into his palms out of eagerness.
When a good two hours passed, many―of not all― of the attended people approached Sasuke with ambitious eyes.
Sasuke accepted some of their offers for his new business, but he sharply dropped the ones he considered useless and deadweight with his heartless words.
If the previous owners of the company set some sort of proper work into the system, they would have easily gone to a higher ranked company with the rich resources they had available.
Already so eager to get his career rolling, he set out to different parts of the country to personally deal with problematic employers, and quickly replaced them with people he deemed 'reliable'.
Trouble always followed after cutting out people from their jobs. It was just a bit of extra problems he could deal with. Though it always left an uneasy hole in his stomach.
Poor fathers and mothers that work to support theory families were the majority of those who lost their jobs. Of course, the media couldn't just turn away from such a scoop.
Sasuke Uchiha, a man of power and money shows no mercy if he is dragged down.
Or so they insisted.
It wasn't that he didn't care for people―well actually, that might have been part of it―he simply accept anything less than talent and determination. Shikamaru was an exception with his unfeasible ability to predict the correct times to release certain products depending on the economy and the stock market, though it was sometimes frustrating to get on contact with him when needed since he was often out of his house without his cell phone, the only excuse he would give was that he was out meeting with some childhood friends.
Normally Sasuke would have told Shikamaru to drop his 'old' friends since they were ordinary and this completely useless to the ink haired man, but when he attempted to slowly bring the topic up, Shikamaru would abruptly send Sasuke a fierce warning through eye contact.
The company was doing extremely well even with Shikamaru's dysfunctional schedule, so Sasuke wouldn't push his luck if it meant risking the loss of valuable asset.
Although Sasuke would be compliant to a request from Shikamaru, socializing wasn't his particular favorite pastime.
"No, I'm afraid attending would be a bit exhausting of the moment." He replied quietly, politely turning him down as he continued to work away at his office.
Shikamaru kept his eyes on Sasuke's busy fingers that typed sharply on the keyboard before he exhaled, sounding close to a disappointed sigh.
"That's too bad." He commented, already used to being turned down since Sasuke was always occupied with work, work, and more work. Shikamaru wondered if Sasuke had a vague understanding of relaxing. Although it did seem like the ebony eyed man did take pleasure out of stylish, fresh suits from Armani, he still looked extremely uptight.
Shikamaru only tolerated the dress expectations since he did want to impress a certain blond lady he knew of.
"I wouldn't call it a loss since I'm not familiar with your friends." Sasuke had made sure to articulate the word 'your' when he spoke.
Shrugging his shoulders, he quietly excused himself to take the rest of the day off.
"Just stop by for once, the café isn't bad, the coffee my friend sells is better than anything I've ever ordered." He quickly added before he closed the door behind him.
Shikamaru wasn't impatient, but after these past years, it would have been a nice sight to see his friend having a good time.
All Sasuke did was snap at anyone who performed a mediocre job before firing them, work till his pale complexion turned pasty, and scowl at the idea of relaxing.
Nodding in acknowledgment to a passing co-worker, Shikamaru made his way to the polished elevator doors, pressing the down triangle once as he waited.
In any case, Shikamaru wouldn't bother Sasuke anymore. For now.
Like his old friend Naruto always said, Don't give up, just ask again later. Annoy them to death or something.
Maybe once Sasuke reached his goal―whatever it was― he would finally allow himself to introduce himself to the meaning of comfort.
But that's in the far future, so it didn't matter at the moment.
The tall man just wanted a coffee at Choji's café, and catch up with his old friends from the orphanage they all came from.
Kiba and Naruto always had a good story to ease out the stress from work.
Laughter was always the best medicine.
God he hated wearing this suit.
"So I hear you said something about being bombed in the face with pepper spray?"
The intelligent man asked, an amused smile creeping on Shikamaru's thin face.
The untamed blond head nodded, handing out the napkins in neat folds for the sake of practice since he started being a waiter, clumsiness was the greatest obstacle to overcome.
Boisterous laughter erupted from the café, Choji would normally warn them to tone down the noise but on Fridays he kept the shop extended, but no one really stopped by to buy anything around 10 pm for some unexplained reason, it was their night.
Naruto Uzumaki was happily smiling, showing off a rough smile as he continued to tell the tale of how he met and Kiba met two of their friends in university.
"Like I said! Kiba approached Hirata and got pepper sprayed in the face at the parking lot!" breaking out into boisterous laughter that resonated in people, making the group of friends also join in the laughing.
Passing by civilians caught sight of them from the display windows, finding themselves also smiling from the warm sight of good friends having a wonderful time with each other's company.
"Get off my back! I just wanted to walk her home… I didn't expect I'd scare the chick… I just didn't expect to freeze…" Kiba defended himself in a half embarrassed way, when he began heading towards the pretty girl with long sapphire tinted hair, he never expected to meet eyes with her.
He was caught off guard.
"Yeah, but I ended up watching your jaw drop when you saw her here, you were drooling before I had to come over and save your sorry ass against the pepper. You two might be together now, but she's still skittish."
The golden man replied with dancing blue eyes, he took his cup of iced coffee and sipped quietly to follow up with a belch.
"Say what you want, but you were pounded into the ground by Sakura when you tried to get with her." Kiba roughly shoved him by the shoulder as he stole the iced coffee from his friend's hand to gulp the rest of it.
Shooting a jokingly angry glare "I wasn't beaten into the ground asshole." Passing the emptied glass to Choji, he asked for a refill as he turned back to Kiba.
"I got away with a black eye."
Choji simply chuckled, shaking his head out as he wished he had been there at the time.
Shikamaru never said much, since he enjoyed listening to his friend's banter, their presence already fulfilling enough for him.
"I get the sense I wasn't her type at the time…" the blond added, rubbing his neck softly―a habit he developed since he started painting.
"'At the time'? You still ain't her type!" Kiba howled, taking pleasure that it was his turn to poke fun at his friend.
"Well…even if I was, it's pretty out in the open that sexuality isn't an issue since we broke up." Naruto reminded with humility as he thanked Choji for the refilled iced coffee.
Recently Naruto had the realization hit him that breasts and vagina were not what his body liked when he attempted to look at straight porn, when he gave gay porn a shot, it was like an electrical reaction when he tried it.
Then he compared sex with males to females. Although the feel of a soft body of a woman wasn't unpleasant, he couldn't get sexual pleasure from the soft canal of a woman's body.
With a man, was a whole new story. Naruto found himself enjoying both roles if the bottom and the top when it came to sex, it was different. It was invigorating and sensual to him.
But finding a good man was a whole new story. There were the potentially good partners Naruto had found, but he always ended up breaking things off because depth was missing, he knew his partner had a golden heart, but for some reason the bond never felt passionate enough for Naruto. He just wasn't happy, and it wasn't fair to himself or his lover to continue things from that point.
Love was just a difficult thing.
"…Gay…As a unicorn." Kiba added, reaching for the refilled cup in Naruto's hand.
"Thanks," Naruto sarcastically replied, swatting away Kiba's fingers.
"Come on Naruto! I don't have enough money to buy coffee…" the wilder man whined, slouching at the denial of coffee, Kiba was helping out his family business by caring for the animals, but he was given a low paycheck since his family was rather harsh on money.
"The hell Kiba? You got a job that at least pays you on a schedule." Nudging the man harshly brought out a pout from Kiba "Yeah but I gotta keep my buddy Akamaru healthy and happy!"
Although Kiba did have a good job and friends, Akamaru was his best friend for life despite being a dog, nothing would ever get between keeping his dog content. Unable top deny that keeping Akamaru healthy was a good priority, Naruto gave his coffee to his friend.
The warm atmosphere however was interrupted by a ring that cut through the happy air like a knife.
It had seemed Sasuke had taken the advice to visit the coffee shop. By instinct, Naruto ditched the table of his friends to attend what the blond assumed was a customer, even though the suit he was adorned in spoke of luxury. The café Naruto worked in was modest, though stylish he'd admit, but not to the point to appeal to the rich folk of the city.
Stretching his arms to tighten his apron, Naruto grinned widely, his eyes meeting the charcoal eyed man.
Kiba narrowed his eyes, to him, he got the sense the newcomer was sort of a jerk with the angle his head tilted to the side, his smooth chin held up as if he looked down upon people. Silently he watched with mild indifference to the stranger.
Choji had gotten up to greet the man, but Shikamaru sent a look to his bigger friend Leave it be. Naruto can handle this.
Confused, Choji only had trust and faith to do as Shikamaru requested. It had seemed Shikamaru wanted to observe the interaction of Naruto and the customer, but Choji couldn't fathom why. Perhaps it was a hunch, or guess, Shikamaru seemed to know the pale man before them.
With enthusiasm, Naruto welcomed their new customer despite feeling a little tired; regardless, he needed the money to pay his bills since Naruto had begun living by himself in search of a friend.
Prepared to say hello he opened his mouth to welcome him, but was cut off by the customer who glanced at paintings on the walls (which Naruto had painted)
"I'll have a coffee with two spurts of sugar free toffee syrup and cream, keep it low on the sugar."
"What…? Oh… uh sure…" Naruto nearly stuttered from the unexpected interruption, unsure if the man before him was just grumpy or an asshole, it was hard to tell with the signs of fatigue on his face.
"Was I not clear? Coffee with two spurts of sugar free toffee syrup and keep. Low sugar." Solid black eyes glared down at Naruto as he repeated with his husky voice, which the blond man noted was quite sexy sounding.
But still an asshole… Definitely an asshole. Naruto concluded.
"Make it quick, I don't have much spare time." The customer bitingly added, giving a prudish glare at Naruto.
A little more than annoyed, Naruto could only bite hid tongue and head to the coffee machine.
Pouring some coffee beans to mash into a powder which he effectively placed into the machine that buzzed softly as a signal it was getting ready to extract the caffeine from the beans.
Careful not to burn himself from the hot coffee, he began to mix in the sweeteners and cream as he noted how similar the coffee and the customer were.
Dark eyes and hair… Plus once a person got a taste of them, both were bitter tasting.
Though as tempted as Naruto might have liked for a taste, he wasn't one to fool around with customers, especially if they had a horrible personality.
Taking his sweet time, Naruto had made sure to stretch the time he finished up with the order.
When he returned to the counter, he noticed his cranky customer was no longer standing, instead, he was sitting in Naruto's seat to chat with Shikamaru.
Naruto wasn't much to overreact over little things, but for some reason, the fact that the jackass was sitting in his seat after he rudely demanded for coffee, complaining about how little time he had, when it was obvious that he wasn't busy.
The customer didn't seem to realize where he was sitting (how could he?) when Naruto nearly glared, feeling the bubble of anger beginning to develop. But Naruto also felt surprise, he half expected Shikamaru to ignore the man, or pull a smartass comment, then again, when Naruto gave the situation a proper assessment, both of them shared a taste for classy suits; though Shikamaru was more casual, both brunettes gave off a business air.
It seemed like both knew each other well with how relaxed their conversation was, it was likely they were catching up with each other. By assuming both were good friends that hadn't seen each other in a long time, Naruto already felt his temper cool and dissipate.
He wouldn't get in between two good friends, maybe the rude guy was actually nice and was just having a rough day; he did look rather exhausted.
Approaching the table with the drink in his hand, Naruto flipped his frown into a radiant smile, feeling happier that another friend had seemed to join the group.
Originally, the determined blond had planned on placing the cup on the table gently, but either because he was tired or clumsy, his own two feet tangled together, accidently launching the hot steaming liquid at Kiba's shirt.
Which wasn't too much of an issue since he had spilled worse things on his friend, but plenty of the coffee had settles itself on the customer's shirt and pants.
Shikamaru was never one to react very much to anything, so when his eyes stretched and mouth parted, Naruto immediately felt himself panicking. Luckily he didn't just stand there like an idiot; he tore off his apron to dab over the customer, hoping the coffee stains would miraculously disappear from the white dress shirt.
"Shit, I'm sorry!" he began apologizing profusely, yelling at himself for not paying attention when he tried to deliver the coffee.
Dark, smoky eyes captured Naruto's attention.
The depth of smoke they had reminded Naruto of the deathly smoke left after a war.
Something intense.
The owner of the fascinating eyes sneered at Naruto "Are you that ill-equipped to do something simple as walking? I'm surprised you could even properly brew a decent coffee with those street hands of yours."
And all of a sudden, Naruto had the itch to hit the man; blinking to himself for a few seconds Naruto took a step forward to glare down at the inconsiderate jerk before him, nearly butting heads "What did ya say pretty boy? I don't speak bitch." He replied with gritted teeth, letting his fatigue and crankiness begin to get the better of him.
Shikamaru took the responsibility to interject before anything violent broke out, while Choji pulled Kiba away from the room when he began cursing because of the scalding liquid he had been splashed with.
Choji tended to Kiba's mild burns at the back with the first aid while Shikamaru watched with interest as the scene played out in front of him.
"Well at least I have the time to care for myself, you're looking in tough shape for the economy, typical for a street loser." Sasuke mused darkly, taunting the blond waiter to lose himself in anger even more.
As Naruto eagerly opened his mouth to reply, Shikamaru cleared his throat which got both of theory attention.
Closing his eyes briefly as he took a deep intake of air to exhale it as a sigh, he looked at his two friends from different worlds that could offer each other the help they needed.
Naruto needed a better paying job to be able to keep his apartment while Sasuke needed a representative artist for his company to enter a competition of other art businesses for a partnered contract with the country's best art organization to extend their business and possibly become a world renowned art supplies company.
Sasuke did say his company was lacking in potential artists, the materials his company provided were good quality, but the problem was he needed more money to branch out more stores outside the company.
Shikamaru knew too well that Sasuke would accept a skilled artist that approached Sasuke, but thankfully Shikamaru intervened and sent all talented ones back before they got to Sasuke.
The problem was, Sasuke only takes skills and abilities into consideration, to win something so competitive, would require someone with untameable imagination, unprofessional, expressive, and determined. Someone like Naruto.
Sitting back a little, he glanced to Naruto and pointed at Sasuke. "Naruto. He'll pay you a good amount of money."
As anticipated, both of his friend's eyes widened as their mouths opened in immediate rejection but Shikamaru only continued, pointing to Naruto and switching his gaze to Sasuke "You need someone with talent, uniqueness, and imagination to win the competition you've been stressing over. Naruto has talent. Unique to the point of being just plain weird, and a imagination of a hyperactive kid."
Dark eyes glared, infuriated with his friend for even thinking that the idiotic mongrel. Where did he even find the courage to suggest such a thing?! Sasuke didn't fucking care at this point whether or not the fair haired man was his friend, besides, could the vulgar man have a chance in winning in one of the world's mo-
Sasuke's train of thought was cut short when he noticed the brightly lit face of the blond waiter, a result from the miniscule compliment from his laidback friend. Sasuke had always received flattering compliments about how beautifully sculpted his body was, in contrast to the minor compliment to Naruto's talent was what halted from Sasuke rejecting immediately.
Shikamaru was never wrong when it came to people and their talents, especially their personality. Naruto's surprised and shy reaction indicated that he was modest when it came to his abilities, which was actually a nice change of pace for Sasuke, though very different and surreal to the onyx haired man, he was left baffled and unsure what to do at that point.
Pursing his lips, the businessman pondered to himself quietly before hesitantly answering for the sake of saving his pride before he looked stupid.
"I'll be happy to accept him as contestant on choosing the representative," Sasuke smoothly suggested without the usual frigid attitude he maintained, which he found rather odd. Slowly his eyes settled on to Naruto disdainfully "Of course I'll be required to view a minimum of three artwork pieces of his to be sure his works aren't of the same level as a five year old girl, I doubt he's worth it though."
Almost lunging forward, Naruto only stood in front of Sasuke, despite being an inch shorter, Naruto could still come across as intimidating to men who were bigger than him. "Repeat that why don't you? Cause I couldn't understand all that bullshit coming out of those princess lips!" intense blue eyes glared at Sasuke.
Nearing rolling his eyes and giving up, Shikamaru pinched both of their facial cheeks to drag them outside the café "Enough you two. Naruto, you can go show Sasuke your paintings at your apartment or choose to let the chance slip by you. Sasuke, you're running out of time and out of all possible choices we have―which are painfully limited―he's your best chance."
Sasuke only glared back at Shikamaru, close to snapping at his co-worker until he remembered that it was odd for his friend to bother suggesting a specific person to him. Was it even possible that the blond buffoon before him was capable of being skilled enough to hold a brush properly?
Carefully evaluating the situation, it hit him that his friend was―unfortunately― right. If Shikamaru went out of his way to suggest that the outspoken man was a good investment, others with good enough sense would place their faith in his judgement.
Already feeling the roots of a headache begin to clench his brain, Sasuke sighed, giving in.
"Alright… As I have said before, he'll be required to be judged equally, in addition, he'll require at least a high school graduate degree, I refuse to accept a delinquent drop out to be a part of my company."
Sasuke's words were sour and painful to Naruto, but he didn't blow up since Shikamaru had pretty much served this golden chance to live an easier life on a plate of silver. Not only that, this would be a good chance to find him once again in the vast city of Konoha.
The thought of finding his childhood friend was enough to help Naruto find strength again within himself.
No matter what happens… I can deal with assholes like this guy… I've gone through worse. Naruto reminded himself, his head nodding in reluctant agreement.
"Find." His shoulder slumped a little before he gave Shikamaru a quirked eyebrow "But why are we outside the café?"
The mild smile his friend gave told Naruto instantly that his friend was planning something.
Shikamaru rubbed the back of his neck, resisting the urge to take out his cigarette pack out.
Holding his breath, he exhaled, expecting to feel the tension in his temple unravel, only to be sorely disappointed.
Gesturing with his thumb, he pointed behind him "Naruto lives in the apartment right behind the café." Shikamaru's sharp eyes observed the dark coffee stains that bled into his friend's white shirt.
"And Sasuke can clean out the stains there. You did spill it."
Naruto parted his lips to deny that he spilt it on purpose but the chance was taken away when Sasuke began his journey to Naruto's apartment. Sasuke would not stand wearing dirtied clothing, especially his favoured Armani limited edition set, he just wanted to get this over and done with; spending any more time with Naruto would be teasing his urge to wring his neck.
"Sasuke wait!" the distant voice called out, the rough timbre was almost shiver inducing by how oddly mature it was, though the potential of possibly being sexy was destroyed since the owner of the voice was charming as a piece of festering meat.
Well, maybe that was lie, Naruto wasn't really unattractive; on the contrary his sharp blue eyes were hauntingly beautiful and his smile triggered an odd ache in his chest. But the eyes were what bothered Sasuke the most, they were so clear and open, like windows to something forgotten. Windows to a forgotten past.
None of this was attractive to Sasuke though, deadbeats were useless to him.
"Sasuke!" A shrill voice called behind him, pitch similar of a child; turning his head out of curiously from the sudden call he answered "What…?"
The shine of golden hair sent Sasuke feeling a wave of slight confusion in his cranium when he swore he saw a young child with scrapes and bruises on his skin, mud stained gold hair that stuck up like feathers.
Something inside Sasuke began falling, skin began to clench out of nervousness to end up halting when the image faded before Sasuke could catch a glimpse of the expression before he was left with questions and odd pieces of memory he never recalled before now.
"You turn right not left. Haven't you ever walked on the streets?" Naruto asked with an arrogant grin, his eyes amused at the ebony haired man's poor sense of direction.
Turning right to where he pointed Sasuke sneered at Naruto, shrugging off the feeling of uneasiness that dug in his back "As a person who can actually afford a car, no." he dryly replied.
"Bastard, I was just teasing… So sensitive," Naruto commented as he jogged to catch up until he was by Sasuke's side "I just wanted to make some small talk."
Glancing to Naruto, Sasuke opened his mouth to reply with something biting and cold until his own eyes began to trail up to Naruto's golden hair, his dark eyes remained a little longer at the soften darkened lines of his cheeks, scars from a long time ago.
Like a fox... He absentmindedly concluded before he paced faster.
"The only time I'm willing to be seen with a dead last loser like you is when you've learned to properly manage your hair."
The rest of the walk consisted of Naruto's consistent chatter which Sasuke allowed since whenever Naruto spoke, the childish laughter stopped.