Gaara hadn't known that he had actually awoken the next morning, Neji still wrapped firmly around him. He would've smiled at that fact, and the fact that he had a boyfriend who insanely understanding about him, or that was so damn sexy. If hadn't been for the way that he'd been awoken that morning, which was first a short gasp and giggle from his mother and then an enraged yell from Neji's uncle.
He saw red as said uncle yanked Neji out of the bed by his arms, and the red had nothing to do with the hair in his face. Apparently Maya was also shocked at the reaction from the man before she snapped back into the moment and deep seated distaste set in and she shoved him... hard. He relinguished his grip on Neji and looked at the short woman glaring at him, standing between him and his nephew.
"You have no right to come into my house and start yelling, and you definately have no right to go yanking the kids up in here!" she hissed, but that wasn't the reason she was mad. Not by a long shot, and both boy's knew it. She was thinking again on the past more than likely.
"He's my nephew! And I am his guardian!"
"I don't really give a damn! What is it that made you mad Hiashi? Is that he's with a boy? Or is it because it's my child?" Maya laughed bitterly and shook her head at the man, Gaara and Neji were already dressed and looking at both adults in confusion. "You're just like your parents!" she spat and the man visibly flinched, Neji had never met his grandparents on account that they had all died when he was younger, too young to remember.
"I'm not having this conversation with you, come on Neji." Hiashi said, his eyes snapped over to Neji when he didn't move in response but instead look over at Gaara. "Neji!" he said more forcefully, the red head nodded before Neji slinked out of the room.
Maya turned and looked at Gaara who was standing on the steps looking shell shocked before she shut the door and moved to wrap her arms around the boy who just relaxed against her. "I'm so sorry." she mumbled to him.
"What for? You didn't do anything wrong, you didn't know." he replied, no saddness in his tone. Just silent acceptance.
The Mansion: Neji
"You are not to see Maya's son anymore, don't even speak to him. And I am taking away your cell phone until you can act like a more responsible Hyuga." Hiashi said taking said cell phone as he spoke and paced his office. "Don't look at me like that Neji, and don't act like you didn't already know your part in this family. You will get married to a nice girl that's picked out for you."
Neji wasn't paying attention though, his arms were crossed over his chest as he looked out the window and thought about his red head. Then about Maya and Hizashi... they'd done the same thing to them and Maya had given up so he wouldn't loose everything. Neji knew his father had loved his mother, but at first they probably both hated each other. He couldn't imagine falling in love with anyone else, nor did he want to try.
"Disown me."
"Excuse me?" Hiashi asked, not sure he had actually heard the boy correctly.
"I said, disown me. I don't want to live like that, not all the money and royalties in the world are worth living my entire life misirably. Personally I don't think my dad chose that life either, I think that afte Maya broke up with him he just sort of gave up on trying. And I bet he hated you for what you done, for making his first love leave him!" Neji said watching as his uncle calmly moved across the room and slapped him, then he placed both his hands on Neji's shoulders.
"Now I know it feels like the end of the world to you right now, but I promise you, in the long run you will thank me when you have children of your own and the security of family business." Hiashi said getting a small nod from his nephew before the boy was excused to his room, never quite looking his uncle in the face as he left.
Halfway through the hallways Neji made up his mind, and his plan set into motion when he caught the very timid Hinata walking in his direction. "Hinata!" he said sweetly to the girl who looked up, her eyes were wide like she never expected him to speak to her. "Can I borrow your cell phone?" he asked watching her eye him suspiciously, even though she didn't openly question his intents. "Look, I need to call some real quick and then you can have it back. Uncle revoked my phone privileges and I really need to tell someone something."
"B-but I'll get in trouble and so will you if my f-father finds out."
"He won't because you won't tell him, now hand it over Hinata this is important. You could very well be deciding the fate of my happiness if you don't." he said watching the timid female hesitate before handing him the phone. He thanked her before dialing the number and walking away from her so she wouldn't hear him.
"Hello?" came Sasuke's displeased voice from the other side of the line.
"Sasuke, I will explain after you get here. Right now though it is really important for to go out into your garage and steal like Itachi's car. When you get here I'll be waiting, don't come in just stand underneath where my window is." Neji said quickly looking back at Hinata who was doing her best to not look at her cousin from down the hall.
"If I get caught, I going to kill you! You know Itachi rigged it after last time."
"Yeah I know, but you're a genius too so just get your ass over here." he replied before shutting the phone and walked back over to Hinata who took the phone and looked at him shocked. He stared at the nervous girl for a moment before pulling her into a tight hug which illicited a squeek from her. "I love you Hinata, I know I don't show it. But I really do." he mumbled before letting her go and departing down the hallway.
Once locked away inside of his room he began packing a luggage case, full of clothes and the pictures and videos he had taken of Gaara. It was all done in such a quick succession because Sasuke didn't live far from him, and would soon be out front. And just as he went to the window to check Sasuke was out front and making his way across the front lawn to stand under Neji's window.
Neji stuck his head out of the window for a moment before holding out the luggage in warning, then dropping it. Sasuke shook his head and began piling it into the car, carefull not to hurt the paint, because if the smallest thing was off Itachi would murder him. After all that was done, Neji stuck his head out of his window and looked for something to climb down with.
The bricks were set in an oddly fasionable way, every other brick sticking out a little from the wall but it wasn't good enough. Sasuke raised one finger in the air before retreating to the car and pulling out a grappling hook with a long string on the end. Neji was confused for a moment as he back up and allowed it to come flying through the window where he attached it to the bottom of his bed and scaled down the wall.
As they were driving away from the Hyuga estate Neji looked over at Sasuke who was watching the road closely, "What the hell did you have that in the car for?"
"I didn't, Itachi did. And I didn't really want to know so I never asked." Sasuke replied smirking in that special way only Uchiha's could before his face dropped back into a deep frown. He was looking more angsty than usual.
"What's wrong with you?" Neji asked staring out the window as neither male knew where they were driving at the moment.
"Itachi found a new boyfriend. Naruto's devastated. It's like he doesn't even see that I'm there, I might as well be a wall." Sasuke replied waiting for Neji's own promised confession.
"Hiashi said I can't see or speak to Gaara ever again. That I'm going to be married to someone he chooses, and do exactly what he thinks I should do with my life. That's no life Sasuke, you should know. If he wanted a puppet he should go to the store and buy one." Neji said closing his eyes in thought.
"Where do you want to go?" Sasuke asked suddenly.
"I don't know, I want to go back to Gaara. To Maya's house, there's something so surreal about being there. Like nothing in the world touches that place. Well... until this morning it doesn't." Neji said looking over at Sasuke who's hands seemed to tighten on the steering wheel. "Look, if you want Naruto to notice you for once you have to do something different. Being there isn't working, and avoiding him is going to make it worse. Do something drastic like kiss him and then tell him you won't settle for just being friends anymore. So it's more or nothing at all."
Sasuke glanced at him briefly before turning his attention back to the road. When they reached the house and the pulled up Neji unpacked his things and went inside, sending Naruto out to the car for something 'missing' while he went up to Gaara's room.
Said red head was lying on his bed scribbling furiously at his notebook, "Go away Naruto, I said I don't want to talk about it." he practically growled as Neji said nothing but move across the room and sat on the bed. Immediately Gaara swung and Neji was ready for it when he caught his fist, sea foam eyes widened in shock as sat up and flung himself on top of Neji.
"What are you doing here? I thought your uncle was mad, and I thought I would never seen you again. And I-" Neji cut Gaara off with a laugh and a kiss, which the boy instantly melted into, his stress levels had been so high all day that he was so relieved to just have him here.
"I lo..." Neji shook his head, Gaara wasn't ready. And neither was he so he smiled warmly and corrected the situation. "I couldn't let him push us apart. I just, kept seeing what your mom was seeing when he was here. I won't allow that to happen to us." Neji said running his hands gently over the boy's face and through his hair.
"So your uncle let you come here?"
Neji's look got grim at the question, "No, I ran away. He'd disown me eventually if I didn't follow his plans." he replied getting a weary look from Gaara as the boy broke off from him and moved to sit with his knees pulled to his chest.
"You can't stay here, he's gonna come here and get you and then-" Gaara said sadly being cut off by a finger being placed on his lips.
"Don't worry about me, ok? Even if you leave me I'm going to still stalk you like crazy." Neji laughed drawing a small smile from the other. "Now, you were talking so highly about Naruto's father. I was wondering... how'd he and your mother meet? They seemed like... polar opposites."
Liking the small slip into a casual conversation and not a serious one for once Gaara readily explained. "They met in school actually, you didn't see it on those films because they were rival... bands? Singers? I don't know, anyway you did get to hear her curse about him once. They met up afterwards, she was doing an opening gig for him since he was already famous and she was just becoming so because of me she had to wait a little longer..."
Gaara shook his head, why was he blaming himself for something like that? She was famous now, and it didn't matter anymore. "Anyways, he recognized her backstage and they got into a bit of, not an argument but like a spat. She told him..."
-Meeting Arashi Again: Flashback?-
Maya was walking backstage, she couldn't believe the people were cheering for her when she had got off stage. Sure the concert wasn't her own, but whatever, she was gaining fans none the less. She was standing around with the girls she had been set up to travel with, and talking casually with them when the music ended and the crowd began cheering. "Maya is that you?" Maya turned to face the glamorous looking Arashi and she knew then that this was his concert and could feel herself cursing under her breath.
"Arashi right?" she said feeling a sudden tick above her eye.
"I'm surprised you don't know who I am. After all your gloating that you'd become more famous me." he said with a smirk, and Maya glowered at the man.
"Do you want to get punched? 'Cause body guards or not I could do it, and I think I could take them on too. Plus, just because I started after you doesn't mean I'll be any less famous than you." she replied crossing her arms over his chest, but he kept that same light hearted smile on his face.
"Is that so?"
"Yeah." she challenged before watching him turn and run back out on stage, he winked at her before announcing she would be coming back on stage and she could have killed him as the girls piled around her looking confused.
"Good luck following my act." he whispered in her ear before running back stage to watch her.
She. Would. Kill. Him.
Looking back at the girls she put up two fingers than five, they had only practiced this but if they didn't something amazing and get some noise from the crowd she would die.
Yes...
Yes... Arashi smirked when Maya look directly at him and gave him a hauty look.
Hey (hey), Hey (hey), Hey (hey), Hey (hey), Hey (hey), Hey
I wanna see the bottles poppin'
Hey (hey), Hey (hey), Hey (hey), Hey
I wanna see, I wanna see, I wanna see the bottles poppin'
Work our toosh way to the front of the line, the line
Bouncers gonna let us in 'cause we're so fine, so fine
Girls, you know we have it better than the boys, uh
Yes
Girls, you know we have it better than the boys
Yes
Sexy stiletto boots, tight jeans, no panties on
Oops, did I turn you on?
I only came to party, party
Oops, did I turn you on? Did I turn you on? Oops, did I turn you on? She nearly died laughing when Arashi howled into a microphone in the back.
Hey (hey), Hey (hey), Hey (hey), Hey (hey), Hey (hey), Hey
I wanna see the bottle poppin'
Hey (hey), Hey (hey), Hey (hey), Hey
I wanna see, I wanna see, I wanna see the bottles poppin'
See the stars up in the sky, they're all mine, all mine
There's a full moon out tonight
The wolves cry, wolves cry
Girls, you know we have it better than the boys, uh
Yes
Girls, you know we have it better than the boys
Yes
Sexy stiletto boots, tight jeans, no panties on
Oops, did I turn you on?
I only came to party, party
Oops, did I turn you on? Did I turn you on? Oops, did I turn you on?
I only came to party, party
Hey (hey), Hey (hey), Hey (hey), Hey (hey), Hey (hey), Hey
I wanna see the bottles poppin'
Hey (hey), Hey (hey), Hey (hey), Hey
I wanna see, I wanna see, I wanna see the bottles poppin'
Yeah, you heard me right
They're all mine, the stars in the sky
But I can share if you like
Would you like that?
Hey, we make the beat go
All night, all night, all night
Hey, I might be crazy but I'm
All right, all right
Work out toosh way to the front of the line (the line)
Bouncers gonna let us in 'cause we're fine (so fine)
Hey (hey), Hey (hey), Hey (hey), Hey (hey), Hey (hey), Hey
I wanna see the bottles poppin'
Hey (hey), Hey (hey), Hey (hey), Hey
I wanna see, I wanna see, I wanna see the bottle poppin'
I wanna see the bottles poppin'
The crowd cheered loudly before Maya exited, she pat Arashi on the back, "Let's see if you could follow that." she whispered in his ear, as she walked away; relishing in her victory; Arashi yelled.
"Dinner!" Maya's eyebrows scrunched up in confusion before she turned and looked at him. "Go to dinner with me?"
"Um, no. Too cliche." she said smirking again at the regained footing.
"Then, a club. Go to the club with me, there's this new one that just opened up. Really hot." he said moving to stand walk with her.
"You don't give up. Are you really taking me to a club where a ton of better prospects will be able to hit on me?"
"Please, none of them will have moves like me." Arashi said laughing.
-End: Flashback?-
Neji smiled, his family was amazingly complicated. "I was thinking of getting a tattoo." Gaara said while staring at the ceiling, his fingers going up to brush his forhead. "A kanji that means, 'Love' right here." he said looking over at Neji who laughed and shook his head.
Naruto decided to take this moment to interupt the decidedly romantic mood by entering the room and tossing a box of dye at Gaara who caught it deftly and stared. "Dye my hair." he demanded and the red head continued to stare. Whatever bad mood the blond had been in broke as he jumped onto the red head laughing, "Come on! You're supposed to love me! And if you don't I will give you like a million hugs this week, in the house, around Neji, around mom, at the store, at the mall, at school-"
"Ok! Get off of me!" Gaara yelled shoving his brother onto the floor, grumbling Gaara followed Naruto downstairs into the kitchen where the boy sat stiffly. Neji followed both of them, never having siblings of his own he had never had these kinds of exchanges with anyone, sure he had Hinata but they never spoke to one another.
Neji watched as Gaara mixed the dye in a little bowl and put on gloves before beginning the tedious process of putting little strips all through out Naruto's hair. When he finally dunked the boy's head under the sink water, it washed out to be a stunning blue. Yet another color that the boy sported to school. Only Neji had never seen it that color before. "How does it look Neji?" he asked looking at the other boy who froze and looked at the two brothers.
"I uh... nice. It looks real nice." he said nervously watching the boy bounce out of the room excited to show everyone. "Did you realize that's Sasuke's favorite color?" he asked looking at Gaara who shook his head.
"No, maybe it's just coincidence."
"I don't think so, it's common knowlege to anyone who talks to him. What isn't common knowlege is why it's his favorite color." Gaara was interested now as he dropped the gloves and box into the trashcan, anything he could use against someone he was interested in.
"Tell me."
Neji snickered, such a nosey boy, "Naruto. They day they crashed into each other a couple of years ago, his favorite color became blue because of Naruto's eyes. Coincidently that also led into their first argument because Sasuke felt stupid for staring and felt that the only way to regain his ground by calling him some odd name." Neji explained watching as Gaara soaked it all up, he knew the boy was trying to figure how he could use such information.
"I think I remember him coming home, ranting about some 'teme' in school." Gaara said nodding to himself in affirmation as he made his way into the living room, not paying attention all that much to the sound of the hidden doors sliding shut. Purely from memory, Neji picked up the universal remote and the screens slid shut, the lights dimmed into club lights and the radio began playing.
Gaara sighed and turned to look at the grinning Neji with a blank stare, "Show me how this works, your uh... workouts." he said watching the red head cross his arms over his chest, clearly thinking the boy was up to something. "Oh come on, I wanna know." he pouted, Gaara sighed and rolled his eyes before stepping up onto the very large coffee table, pulling Neji up there with him.
Neji stood perfectly still as Gaara took the remote from his hands and changed the music, the tempo was slow as Gaara moved forward placing his hands on Neji's hips. "You have to catch the beat and move with it."
"You were definately doing more than catching a beat." Neji commented as he began swaying slightly with Gaara.
The red head smirked at the comment, "Well that's because I've been doing this for as long as I can remember. My mother used to say it was good exercise, fun, and it kept me from thinking too much."
"Thinking too much? Is that really bad."
"I was five." Gaara replied blandly, remembering those times always made him smile. When Arashi would drag them all into the living room to dance, because that's when Maya fell in love with him and because it helped wind Naruto down for bed.
"You thought too much when you were five?" Neji quirked an eyebrow at that before being pushed onto the couch. "Hey! What was that for?" he asked before Gaara moved across the room and locked the doors so his nosey mother and brother wouldn't interupt. Then he climbed back onto the table that doubled over as a dance floor he slowly began to move to another song that began, Neji immediately shut up.
Either the red head was trying to show him something or he was being sexy. Well either way he was being sexy but Neji didn't dare speak in case he broke the spell that was cast across the room. Soon enough, the song was over and Gaara was stepping off of the table and making his way to Neji where he straddled said boy's hips before leaning forward and kissing him heatedly.
Neither boy payed attention to the sound of disks switching as they continued to kiss and allow their hands to roam.
Maya found both boy's the next morning lying on the couch watching movies she smiled softly to herself. Caller ID said that Hiashi had called her house about twenty times since five that morning, she ignored every single one, knowing that the man had obviously done something to cause the boy to run away. And she wouldn't make him leave by any means, Neji already told her that he planned on getting a job so that he could get legally imancipated, and she would help him.
Hopefully, with the right amount of persuasian Fugaku would find someone to help. Or help himself. He would understand, or she would beat the shit out of him... which ever came first. "What are you two watching?" she asked coming in to sit next to them.
"It's called 'Voice' by Ihk-hwan Choe. She died within the first five minutes of the movie." Gaara replied without looking away from the screen.
Neji looked up at her though with a smile, "It's very strange, want to join us?" he asked watching as the woman took in the strange movie before shaking her head and dismissing herself. When the movie ended Gaara sat up just in time to see Naruto slam the door shut and rush up to his room. He didn't need to dismiss himself from Neji because he already knew where Gaara was going.
The red head shut the door behind himself looking at a teary eyed Naruto hugging a stuffed fox that he had since he was child. "What's wrong?" Gaara asked sitting down and not looking at the other boy anymore.
"Sasuke's not speaking to me, first Itachi left me and now Sasuke's abandoning me too! It just sucks." he said burrying his face into the fox.
"Well Itachi left because you told him to go ahead with the school. And what happened with Sasuke?"
"He said he won't just be my friend anymore. That if it wasn't going further than we shouldn't talk at all." Naruto sniffled, "I don't know what to do."
Gaara sighed and looked up at the ceiling trying to formulate some kind of answer, "I think you should think on it, think about what it would be like if you were with Sasuke. If you don't think you could be, then tell him and let him be. If you can then, well everything works out just fine." Gaara said watching a wicked grin cross his brother's face.
"I think that's the best advice you've ever given me." Naruto said with a small giggle. "What have you been doing lately?" he asked, and immediately Gaara's face lit up a bright tomato red as he then quickly left the room.
A/N
Ok so another chapter dearies, lolz. The movie I mentioned is an actual movie I was watching the other night. It's a Korean horror film and while it is creepy, it's also just so incredibly weird. Anyways, I hope you enjoy it I know it's not much but I need to formulate more chapter ideas. So Review darlings. And thank you for the sweet comments NejiGaa4life.