Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I own Neji's angst. Yes, all of Neji's angst is MINE. MUAHAHAHAHA!
Author's Note: This is YAOI or SLASH or SHOUNEN AI. Whatever you prefer, this is it. Don't like it, leave. 'Tis that simple.
It's the weekend! HALLELUJAH! Am I the only one super-duperly happy about this? I have been waiting for this day all freaking week! I love the weekend! You can just sit around do nothing. And nobody can shout at you for it. It's great. Gosh, I just looooooooove the weekend.
OH! And every single one of you should go read "The Best Mistakes" by Mercury Chaos. It is a RP piece in story format between her and her co-writer, Mujaki no Tsubasa. If MPreg squicks you, you should still read up to the beginning of chapter four anyway, because it started out as a short story and evolved from there. So, it's still really good. I came up with the title. Yes, me. Aren't I cool? And later on in the story--the chapters are not up yet--I also helped write as Hinata and Lee. (The Hinata chapter that is up right now is not me, she was written by Mujaki as well.)
So, go read it. Oh, and Review Replies are on my bio.
Enjoy!
Memories
He had come home early from the mission. He had been tired and worn out but proud that he and his team had been able to complete the mission three hours ahead of time. Even the Hokage had been surprised, and impressing that old woman was hard to do.
He had heard the sounds of voices before actually hearing the words. They were shouting at each other. One sounded confused, wailing and screeching and whining about like crazy. The other one sounded pissed off and frustrated, growls and curses coming in the same baritone. He recognized both of them before he even saw them: Naruto and Sasuke.
Making his way to the kitchen, he paused mid-step when he heard a loud POP! and silence.
He stepped into the kitchen and stared.
Naruto was standing with his jaw slack as he held a packet of flour that had the top blown out. He was lightly dusted in flour, but it was nothing compared to Sasuke who was standing in front of him and had apparently taken the blunt of the exploding flour.
He was standing there, looking livid and murderous, covered from head to foot in powder. There was almost a perfect ring of flour on the floor at his feet as well, and every time his eyebrow or hand twitched, more dust fell off of him in sheets.
Naruto was the first to notice him. He turned to look at him and then grinned. "Hey, Neji! Sasuke-teme was helping me make Hinata-chan a cake for her birthday. Wanna help?"
His announcement of his presence caused Sasuke to spin around to look at him, leaving a flour-like image of what his posture had been a moment earlier before it, too, fell to the ground. Then, for one long moment, they stared at each other. Neji half expected Sasuke's annoyance to grow with his appearance. After all, he was three hours early and had just walked in on probably not exactly the most dignifying of moments. But, instead…
There were white flecks of powder sticking to his eyelashes surrounding his creased eyes. Flour decorated his forehead and was lightly sprinkled across his cheeks and chin. On his lips, slightly moistened and therefore darkened, was more flour that was flaking off. It was caught all in his bangs, clinging like snow to a tree, and it decorated the top of his head where his spikes stood haphazardly. All down the front of his shirt, the flour was caked, making the black cotton almost not distinguishable beneath it all. His shorts were the same, caked and layered, and his knees held an ashen look from the powdery substance. His feet were practically buried under all of the flour, with just the top cuffs of the sandals visible.
And he was smiling.
He was smiling because he was happy to see him, happy that was he was home. And Neji could not help but smile back. The moment probably only lasted three seconds at the most, but it seemed like much longer that they stood there smiling at each other, happy to see each other again after what seemed like so long, but too proud to show it through an undignified scream and hug. Maybe when they were alone, they would hug and kiss, and maybe tell each other how much they missed the other. But with Naruto there, they just smiled.
Then, Sasuke remembered that Naruto was there and his smile turned to a glower, and he turned his glare onto the blond.
"Ah… it was… an accident?" Naruto said, laughing nervously.
And the moment was broken.
CLANG… Clang… clang…
Neji snapped awake. He cursed himself for dozing off—even if it had been only for five minutes at the most considering the positions of the people below—and marked down the changing of guards as the one that had been there for the past five hours disappeared beyond the gate. A moment later, the familiar CLANG was heard as the gate opened again and the replacement guard took his post, letting the gate bounce against its hinges.
He'd been at this for almost five days now. All together, he'd been gone from home for at least three weeks. It was no surprise that he had dozed off considering that he had not slept in fifty-two hours, but he knew he could not afford to do that again. So, popping a soldier pill in his mouth and resituating himself on the tree branch, he told himself to stay focused.
He couldn't think about Sasuke right now.
He'd save that for when he could actually see him in person. And maybe, just maybe, he'd throw all dignity aside this time.