"Sasuke, this is going to be your new home for a while." Sasuke flicked the woman's hand away from his shoulder for what seemed like the hundredth time since he'd gone to live with her two weeks ago. She gave him an exasperated sigh and said, "good luck child," as if that was all he needed: a little luck.

"Tsk."

"Now Sasuke, these people having been taking kids in for years. They're really generous people, and for right now you'll be the only child living with them," his social worker explained. He was a middle aged guy with round glasses and grey hair that seemed to belong to someone much older. "It would be in your best interest to be polite to them."

Sasuke stared at the house. It was two stories tall and painted a horrendously cheery bright yellow color. He could tell by the print on the curtains hanging in the windows that it was going to have that unmistakable smell of old people.

"Come along, Sasuke," his social worker urged. Sasuke followed him to the front door, standing a safe distance behind him while he knocked.

The door was answered almost immediately by an elderly woman. "You're late, Kabuto," she scolded the social worker. "Have you brought Sasuke Uchiha?" Kabuto stepped aside to show her Sasuke, who did not appreciate being stared at by this lady. She wore plain grey clothes with her grey hair in a bun atop her head held in place by a long, skinny piece of wood with beads hanging off each end. Her face was very square, probably due to the way her cheeks sagged with age. Sasuke couldn't tell whether she was squinting at him, or she just had baggy eyelids. Either way, he didn't liked being watched. "Come, child." She extended a hand, palm up.

Sasuke stayed put, looking towards Kabuto for guidance. He nodded at him, then gestured towards the old woman with his head.

"Call me Koharu," she instructed, waving him over with her hand. "Now come. My husband Homura is inside, he'd like to meet you now."

Sasuke went to her cautiously. She put a hand on his upper back and corralled him inside, thanking Kabuto as she closed the door. Just as he had suspected, it smelled like mothballs and old folks.

"Would you like to see your room now, Sasuke?"

X X X

Sasuke reached for his phone to check the time. Ugh, he thought when he saw it, only two in the morning. The bright screen hurt his eyes in the dark and he quickly put in back on the table.

He hadn't been able to sleep for the past three hours. His mind was filled with thoughts of Naruto, or more accurately, questions regarding Naruto: how would they greet each other at school? Was Kakashi catching on to the situation? Was Naruto over Sakura? Did it even matter if he was still into Sakura, since he and Sasuke definitely weren't about to become anything "official?" Or did Naruto actually have legitimate feeling for him? Sasuke was pretty sure he'd never had any weird feelings towards the idiot.

He rolled over and covered his ears with his hands as if that would block out the questions. What am I doing? He asked himself. Where is this going?

X X X

Sasuke and Gaara ate their lunches without conversation. Labs had been unbearably normal. Naruto acted the same as always towards him, and while he was relieved to know that his loudmouth classmate was intending to keep his mouth shut for once, he was also ever so slightly disappointed. He'd spent all night tossing and turning over it, but it seemed to him that Naruto wasn't going to lose a wink of sleep. The sudden return to their normal behaviors also made Sasuke wonder if he'd actually get to be with Naruto again like they'd been over the weekend. Maybe it had been some sort of one-time fluke afterall.

Gaara finished off his sandwich and tossed the crumpled paper into the garbage bin across the walkway with expert precision.

"You would probably wreck all those stupid jocks if you played basketball," Sasuke told him.

"Did you hit your head or something?" Gaara shifted to sit cross legged on the bench. "I'd rather go to Akatsuki Psych than set foot in that smelly locker room. Besides, what a huge waste of energy." He locked his fingers behind his head and looked up at the sky. It was a clear day. Sasuke would not call it warm, but it was definitely sunny. "Any news about your brother?"

Sasuke studied his face intently. "Why would you even ask me that? I never hear anything about him, you know that." Gaara knew something, he was sure of it.

"I was just curious," the redhead explained. "I had a premonition."

"You don't believe in premonitions." Sasuke watched his brow constrict ever so slightly. "Spill it."

Gaara let his hands flop back down onto his lap, but continued to look up with his head tilted back. "We may have chatted a bit while I was there visiting," he admitted. In Sasuke's opinion, his expression wasn't nearly as guilty as it should have been.

"Chatted?" he growled. Sasuke was starting to get pissed off now. It wasn't Gaara's place to be getting involved with his brother. It didn't concern him.

"Yeah," Gaara continued. "He wanted to know all about you, so I told him he should just ask you himself." Gaara shrugged, as if it were the most simple thing in the world. No strings attached. "I wasn't about to narrate the soap opera of your life for him."

Is he... worried about me? The very notion of that seemed outlandish. The man who had murdered their parents, even shoved Sasuke's face into the carpet soaked with their blood… that man was incapable of caring. He must wonder if I'm like Gaara, he realised, looking down at the overlapping scars all over his arms. He just wants to know how bad he fucked me up.

Sasuke looked down at the last bit of sandwich in his hands, not feeling very hungry anymore. He and Gaara had walked down to the sub shop a few blocks away and ordered a turkey sandwich to split. It was the cheapest way to get lunch without braving the horrendous cafeteria food. "Do you want the rest of mine?" he asked.

Gaara shrugged and said, "sure." He took it from Sasuke's hands and quickly ate the last few bites, then tossed the wrappings into the garbage once again with perfect aim.

"I swear you practice sports in your basement at night when you think everyone's asleep."

"It's called being naturally gifted," Gaara corrected him.

Sasuke looked down at his hands. Blood. There's so much blood! He looked out across the lawn at other students eating on the grass, trying to tear his mind away from wherever it was trying to lead him. Mom… dad… are you okay? A gust of wind blew across the grass. He could see it coming towards him by where the grass flattened and sprang back up. Brother, what happened? Black hair blew across his face, and he instinctively closed his eyes. Big brother? I can't see. It's so dark.

"Sasuke?" He opened his eyes quickly and turned to look at Gaara. His friend wore a very concerned expression. "I shouldn't have brought it up here," he admitted. "Are you okay?"

Sasuke broke their eye contact and looked down. He saw that his hands and knees were shaking ever so slightly. He hadn't even noticed it until Gaara's expression inspired him to look at his own hands. Stop, he told himself. You're fine. Stop shaking. As usual, telling his body what to do didn't work.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. "Sasuke," Gaara said his name calmly. "It's okay, we're at school." Sasuke inhaled sharply, making a sound that was faintly reminiscent of a hiccup. "Do you need a ride home or something?"

Sasuke slapped his hand away from his shoulder. "Get off my back," he demanded coldly. "I'm fine." He stood up and attempted to stalk away angrily, but could feel his knees and ankles wobbling with every step. In reality his stalking probably looked more like teetering, but he was at least relieved that Gaara did not attempt to follow him. He wanted a moment alone before he had to go to art class. Whenever he went to art in this kind of mood, he always ended up making something way too personally revealing that his teacher felt compelled to show everyone, which was definitely not his style.

Get it together! He was frustrated with himself. His body was disobeying him as the trembling spread to his shoulders. The thing that made him panic the most was his complete lack of control over his own reactions. Stop fucking shaking, he commanded his hands. Stop! Sometimes talking or thinking about Itachi was unpleasant but manageable, and other times it was like this.

Gaara had only seen it happen one other time, when he had unknowingly attempted to open the door to Sasuke's parents' bedroom. Sasuke had stopped him in time, but even just seeing the doorknob turn - hearing the soft click - had been enough to induce a panic attack. That had been way worse than what he was dealing with now, but this was still extremely frustrating in its own right. Why now? he wondered. I'm fine. Nothing has happened.

He found a secluded spot between two school building to wait it out, and sat on his knees in the grass. He tried to breathe as slowly as he could, watching the sky for birds, unique clouds, an airplane - anything to look at besides his own trembling hands. All he could find was blue vastness, so he decided to just go with it. Remembering a trick one of his childhood psychologist had taught him, he tried to think about other blue things: the sea, his binder, blue raspberry flavored slushies, the siding of Naruto's house, Naruto's bedroom walls, Naruto's clear eyes. The waistband of Naruto's boxers peeking out of his pants.

Well, I guess this counts as working, he figured, laying down on his back in the grass. The two buildings he was nestled between blocked out the sun and he found the shade rather chilly, so he zipped his jacket all the way up and flipped his hood up over his head.

Sasuke closed his eyes, trying to occupy his mind with more blue things. He added a rule that they couldn't be related to Naruto, who he was honestly tired of thinking about all the time. His shirt was blue. The plates in his kitchen were blue. He bit down gently on his bottom lip in thought. He had a pair of blue sheets somewhere. The rug in the living room was blue. His toothbrush was blue. The seat of the swing in his backyard was blue.

He opened his eyes again and brought his hands in front of his face. They weren't trembling anymore. Damn Itachi, he thought just as the bell rang.He took his time getting back onto his feet and made sure to pull his hood back and fix his hair before grabbing his bag and heading for class.

Kurenai had already started by the time he arrived. His eyes scanned the room for Naruto, who he remembered was in this class with him, and found that every seat near him was taken. He shrugged to himself and thought, I wasn't going to sit next to him anyways, then took one of the many available seats at Gaara's table.

The art room was an unusual shape, almost like an L. Instead of desks, there were round tables scattered about in no particular pattern. Each table had eight or nine chairs, and no one ever sat at the one Gaara was at. If there were no seats elsewhere, they would dare to take a chair from his table and create a new spot at a different table. Sasuke enjoyed having one class where infatuated girls wouldn't fight over a seat near him, so he always sat with Gaara.

Gaara raised an eyebrow at him after he sat down as if to ask, "Are you okay?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow to match Gaara's as if to reply, "Why wouldn't I be?"

Gaara shrugged, and turned back to Kurenai. She seemed to be continuing with the theme of abstract art from last week. There was a lot of talk about "feelings" and "emotions" and using colors. Sasuke tried to follow along but the whole concept seemed beyond him. Where was the technique? The tricks? The actual skills?

He looked towards Naruto, wondering how he was absorbing all of this. To Sasuke's surprise, he seemed really into the lecture. He was smiling and periodically nodding his head. It figures the one thing in school I don't get, Naruto gets all into it, he thought. It made him wonder where the attraction came from. Somehow they got along well when they were alone even without any common interests. I'd like to see him in the advanced calc/trig class I took last year, he thought bitterly. That would show him.

"Mrs. Yuuhi," Naruto suddenly called out, completely interrupting the lecture. "Are we going to paint something today?"

Kurenai rolled her eyes. "Not today."

Sasuke exhaled forcefully. Oh thank god.

"Awe…" Naruto put an elbow on the table and rested his cheek in his hand, frowning. Sasuke couldn't help but find his pouting somewhat cute.

Kurenai gave her students an assignment to find a piece of abstract art they like, put a picture of it on a flashdrive, and come to class ready to analyze it presentation-style by Wednesday. She also advised everyone to read over the "How to Talk About Abstract Art" handout again beforehand, then let them out ten minutes early.

Darker clouds had rolled in by the time Sasuke's final class finished. The wind whipped at his exposed hands and face as he made his way through the parking lot. It felt refreshing. October was drawing close, and Autumn's colors were beginning to appear around campus.

He checked the mail on his way inside. It was all coupons and other junk so he tossed it in the recycling before making his way up the stairs. He still spent most of his time at home in his room, even though he had the whole house to himself. He did it more out of habit than anything else. Years of living with strangers in houses where he didn't feel he belonged had formed a number of habits he couldn't seem to shake: this was just one of them.