Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Chapter Thirty-Four: Distant Encounters
"Why am I wearing this again?" Naruto drawled, staring at his reflection impassively.
"Because," Kiba tugged on Naruto's sleeve to straighten an imaginary wrinkle. "it's your first show, you have to look good."
"And you realize first chance I get I'm changing?"
"Why? You look handsome." Gaara informed him from his chair by the door. "Your tie even matches your eyes."
The blonde turned his face to stare at his friend. "No it doesn't."
"What?!" Kiba said loudly. "It's blue just like them!"
"It's far too light." Naruto argued, frustration bleeding into his voice.
"But your eyes are bright blue!" Kiba shot back.
"No, they're not! They're darker than they look."
"This is why I can't stand painters!" Kiba growled in annoyance, looking to Gaara for support. "They're so anal about color!"
Naruto snickered. "Did you forget that Gaara is a painter too?"
"Not all painters are as picky as Naruto." Gaara agreed.
"Tch, whatever. Are we done yet? We've been standing here for like fifteen minutes." The blonde tugged on the cuffs and tried to loosen his tie. As soon as they left him, he was coming back here and changing, damn it.
"Such impatience." Gaara murmured as he opened the door. "Remember, be nice. Smile, all that normal happy human stuff."
"So basically lie so they buy my soul?"
Kiba grinned and clapped a hand onto Naruto's shoulder. "You're pretty smart for a blonde."
"Hey—"
"No. Let's go." Gaara cut their argument off before it even began. Kiba sighed and followed the redhead out into the studio furnished with Naruto's art.
:break:
Itachi frowned. He had known Sasuke would try to lock the door despite that Itachi had the spare key, but he hadn't imagined his little brother would go so far as to bar the door as well.
"Sasuke, get your ass out here this instant."
"I have homework."
"Otouto, it's June, school ended a week ago."
"…"
Itachi sighed. "I'm only trying to help get you out of that damn apartment. You never leave, Sasuke, I'm sure your skin is transparent by now."
"Hn."
"Sasuke, you have until the count of three to let me in or I'm doing the same to you every time you come over to see Fuuko."
Itachi smirked when he heard grunting and furniture scraping on the floor. A perfect eyebrow arched when Sasuke threw the door open with a growl.
"You look like shit, otouto."
"Fuck you."
"Been that long since you got laid?" Itachi smirked and shouldered past the growling raven into the messy apartment. "Jesus, Sasuke." The Uchiha looked around at the pig sty and back at the insomniac, unshowered drawn thing that was his younger brother. "Go get showered and get dressed. We leave in fifteen minutes so we can pick you up something half decent to eat since you look anorexic."
Sasuke scowled deeper and stomped off to the bathroom.
Itachi checked his phone and let a sliver of doubt enter his heart about the plans he had for them tonight. He shook his head and squared his shoulders in determination. No, he was going to do this. Sasuke needed this, even though he didn't realize it. Itachi pocketed his phone decisively and went in search for anything to help him gauge Sasuke's current health.
:break:
What little effort wasn't being wasted on keeping the sandwich Itachi had gotten him in his stomach, was being used to glare out the window in an unwavering stance of disdain.
His fucking brother had forced him out of his own fucking apartment and was dragging him to some stupid art show, stupid fucking bastard—
"Sasuke, do be more pleasant." Itachi commanded coolly, earning a hiss. "I'm bringing you to make sure you're not a vampire yet and because I know you'll enjoy this artist, okay, otouto?"
Stupid fucking aniki, thinking he was a vampire—vampires don't even exist.
Itachi sighed and pulled into the gallery parking lot and waited with patience that infuriated the raven as Sasuke took his sweet time getting out of the car and up the steps to the entrance.
Sasuke's agitation grew even more when Itachi abandoned him immediately upon entry to go speak to the artist about a piece that the Uchiha had already purchased. So they hadn't even come to look, just to pick something up!
The raven jumped in surprise when his cell phone went off in his pocket (a rare occurrence those days). He flipped it open and read Itachi's message contradicting Sasuke's thoughts like a goddamn psychic. They were staying for at least an hour so Sasuke was to 'enjoy' himself.
Tch.
:break:
It made Naruto somewhat itchy to watch people talk about his art. The same art that Naruto had taken four and a half months from his life to do—four and a half months of constant deep emotional searching instead of pursuing his raven-haired ex-lover.
It didn't seem right for them to be interested without first knowing what had been sacrificed for the paintings to have come into being.
The blonde sighed for what must have already been the hundredth time that evening and was thankful that at least he was giving off enough of an anti-social aura that people weren't bugging him every instant like they would have before—
Naruto shook his head minutely and tugged on his short-sleeve hoodie. Both his friends had conceded that he looked better in the girly royal blue hooded shirt than the what would normally be a dashing suit. He was glad he hadn't had any opposition. It might have ruined his wonderful mood.
The blue eyes watched the people conversing on his art and he wondered not for the first time if he should have listened to his friends and included one of the many paintings of Sasuke in the gallery. He wondered what other people would see in them, since he'd locked them all safely away in his old room at his aunt's before anyone could see them. Would they see his heart ache? Could they see it in the less passionate facets of him that they were looking at now?
Naruto shoved his hands in his pockets and turned to stare at the wall.
"Naruto," The blonde turned to the deep voice and almost smiled.
"Hey, Itachi, glad you could make it."
The Uchiha smiled slightly and clapped the blonde on the shoulder. "Wouldn't miss it for the world, Naru."
:break:
Sasuke sneered. He hadn't slept in two days, barely ate for the past week, and people were still hitting on him. What-the-fuck? He stalked through the gallery in search of his brother. It was really starting to creep him out how familiar the art style was. He felt like he'd seen it all before, but he couldn't remember where from. The source was teetering on the edge of his consciousness but no matter how he tried to coax it out, it wouldn't come to him. The raven turned another corner and growled when he saw his brother chatting with someone. He started stalking forward but jerked back to peer around the corner when his brother shifted to show blonde spikes.
No...
Sasuke swallowed thickly and glanced again at the art, and felt dread building in his stomach as he realized why they looked so familiar.
That bastard! Fucking brother, augh!!
The raven growled and tugged his hair in anger--how dare his brother do this to him?!!
Sasuke stilled when Naruto's laughter echoed through the room. It was so...hollow. The pale hands slipped out of the raven locks and Sasuke leaned further from the corner to gaze at his ex-lover. Itachi stepped back as if psychic, to let the younger Uchiha view Naruto.
The blonde hair was bright and spikey as always, but the tan skin looked oddly washed out. Maybe he was sick? Sasuke bit his lip in worry as he observed the dull glossy blue eyes. A cold, maybe? Dumb ass probably wasn't sleeping enough. But he was still in great shape--and the blue outfit did nothing to hide that.
The raven scowled at the clawing want in his chest. No.
Sasuke turned away from the painful, forced smile and stalked to the refreshments and texted Itachi that it was time to go.
:break:
Itachi glanced at his passenger for the tenth time in the past four minutes.
"What?" Sasuke hissed, not looking away from the highway.
"You saw him." It wasn't a question.
"Hn."
Itachi sighed. "This is a problem, Sasuke."
"It's none of your business. You had no right to trick me today."
"Hn."
The rest of the drive was silent. Sasuke refused to glance into the back seat where a portrait of Fuuko by Naruto was sitting, waiting for its new home. Itachi parked beside Sasuke's car, which probably hadn't been used since school had ended. Sasuke shoved the door open but froze when Itachi inhaled deeply.
"He misses you just as much-if not more." The younger Uchiha's eyes widened minutely and he glanced to his brother, who was staring straight forward. "Stop being a dick and talk to him."
Sasuke growled and slammed the door shut and stormed up to his apartment without a second glance. Sasuke ran his hands through his hair and stalked to the bathroom through the mess of his apartment. He stared into the mirror and scowled. He really did look like shit. The bags under his eyes due to the constant unrest and nightmares had been there for so long that Sasuke couldn't remember what the skin there was supposed to feel like. He couldn't even relax. Every time he watched television, his heart would jump at the sight of blonde hair and crack all over again when it wasn't Naruto. Every book he read lead to him comparing the characters to his ex-boyfriend. Fuck, every sculpture he tried to work on somehow ended up relating back to Naruto. Sasuke slammed his fist into the tiled wall and didn't even flinch at the pain. He was still in love with the blonde. Fuck.
Sasuke turned on the tap and ran his knuckles under the cold water to wash off the blood. But Itachi had said that Naruto missed him too...and Itachi knew the situation and had obviously forgiven the blonde even though Itachi was no more a gentle, forgiving person than Sasuke was...
Hn, maybe he would listen to his aniki for once and go visit the blonde. He'd long deleted all the e-mails and Naruto's phone number, and he sure as hell wasn't going to do this online under Naruto's comics. No, he'd go see the dobe in person...
Sasuke turned off the tap and went to scavenge his apartment for bandages.
:break:
Sasuke slammed the car door shut and leaned against it and looked up at the shrine. The sounds of the near-by highway hummed in the background and he could smell the cherry blossoms on the shrine from there. He sighed. Sakura had stopped e-mailing him shortly after Naruto had. Sydney had sympathized with him and had offered several ways to "comfort" him, all of which had been immediately shot down. Sasuke checked his pockets before he ascended through the cherry-tree-lined stairs to the shrine. He silently rounded the large building and stood before the prayer bell. He felt somewhat underdressed in his white T-shirt and jeans, and he was certain he looked pretty much just as bad as he had the past week, only with a bandaged hand now. He hoped the gods would understand and forgive his informality. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the en he'd brought as tithe. He plunked it down into the tithe box, rang the bell, bowed semi-low twice, and clapped twice without wincing. He was about to bow his head in prayer but he was distracted by a quiet gasp and shuffling from around the corner. He waited several seconds and returned to his prayer when nothing else happened.
He prayed for clarity, patience, the ability to forgive, and emotional intelligence. He'd been resorting to the Uchiha mask more and more often lately, and even Fuuko had been avoiding him because of it. And this whole still-in-love-with-Naruto-but-not-talking-to-him thing was seriously starting to get out of hand, especially if it was damaging the dobe as well. He really missed the blonde, but he was so afraid that when they started talking he would only be able to concentrate on the image of the blonde and Gaara joined that haunted him still. He prayed for courage, strength, and good communication skills. He hoped it wasn't going to be as bad as he was anticipating, but one never really knew.
He continued his prayer for several more minutes before he bowed again and opened his eyes, cutting off his connection with the gods.
Sasuke sighed and let himself relax. A moment later he jumped practically two feet in the air when a loud shout rang through the shrine.
"NARUTO!! LUNCH IS READY!"
The raven froze in shock and watched the corner as he heard a soft curse then the unmistakable sound of someone sprinting to the other side of the shrine.
Sasuke waited a few minutes in shock before he made his dazed way back to his car and back to his apartment.
:break:
Alice watched in confused amusement as Naruto sprinted through the door and slid it shut like he was about to get caught by someone.
"What are you doing, Naruto?"
"Maa, Kawaguchi-chan!! Why'd you have to blow my cover like that!" Naruto whined and deflated onto the table.
"What cover?" Alice set down Naruto's first bowl of raamen and sat across from him with her own bowl. She chuckled when the tan face turned dark pink.
"Sasuke came to pray."
Oh.
Naruto propped his head up with his arm and pouted at his raamen. "I was sketching him."
"I hope he was in good health?"
Alice's chest clenched when Naruto's face paled slightly and he shook his head with a pained expression. Naruto had been keeping her company and helping around the shrine since her father had died almost a year ago. She had watched his heartbreak when his friend had left and his surprising dead-like state after they had had a spat. Naruto hadn't given her the details except that he had messed up and his friend was refusing to talk to him. She'd had half a mind to find the brat herself and knock some manners into him, but he had seemed sensible and polite when they had met two new years ago and since Naruto had given up, it had to have been a serious fight.
"He looks so tired..." Naruto straightened and started eating his noodles slowly. He had been so surprised to be on his way to collect cherry blossoms and sketch the trees only to find the constant object of his thoughts about to pray. He had made two very rough sketches of the raven and had sat observing and worrying over the Uchiha. The man obviously hadn't gotten very good sleep recently, and the usual duck butt hairdo was unnervingly unperky. He had looked so washed out against the white shirt that at first Naruto was afraid he was a ghost. And then there was that bandage. Naruto wanted to know who had caused that. Who had made the Uchiha lose his cool enough to warrant violence.
Alice watched as Naruto glanced at the clock and shot up.
"Shit! I have work!" He grabbed his sketch book and jacket, kissed Alice's cheek with a short 'thank you', and rushed out the door.
Alice stared worriedly at the barely-touched raamen.
Tsuzuku
This is all surprisingly difficult to write -.- I'm so sorry for such a long wait and for it being so short, but I hope to have enough free time in my week off to finish another chapter...wish me luck
NOTICE: I AM GOING TO CHANGE THE TITLE TO 'SASUCHAN IN ART SCHOOL' BECAUSE IT'S MOSTLY FROM SASUKE'S POINT OF VIEW AND IT'S BUGGING ME. So please do not ignore notices of chapter updates because it doesn't seem familiar.
much love