Between using the library's computer and my mum's I have managed to get another chapter written, hurray for me!

Predictable

Chapter Four- At the Library

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Sasuke pulled into his driveway.

And then pulled back out immediately.

Itachi's car was already in the driveway, therefore Itachi was already in the house. How could he have forgotten? Itachi was taking a vacation from college and staying with his family for the next month and a half.

He sat in his car for a few minutes contemplating what to do. He didn't want to go home just yet, as if his day hadn't been bad enough without seeing Itachi. He was sure he'd done poorly on his math test, his locker hadn't wanted to open all day, and of course, he'd had to deal with Gaara.

He couldn't go to Neji's, because he was at Hinata's orchestra concert, and he couldn't go to Kabuto's because he was at some sort of a medical convention with his parents. So that left…the mall, the library and that was basically it, since it was winter and it was too cold for him to hang out at a park. He decided on the library, the library was quiet, and the chances that he would run into anyone who would want to talk to him were small.

Gaara waited in front of the school for the city bus to come. The city bus was okay, nicer than the school bus anyway, and if he wanted to go to the library, then he had to take it because the library was all the way on the other side of the town and would take him forever to walk there, especially in the winter.

The bus finally pulled up, by that time Gaara's toes were going numb, and let him on. He flashed his bus pass to the driver before taking a seat in the very back. The bus driver smiled at him in the rearview mirror, and he pretended he didn't see it. Just because he rode the bus every day didn't mean he wanted to make friends with the driver. The most overly paranoid part of his mind believed the bus driver was a dirty pervert who secretly wanted to rape him.

The library was warm inside; the snow that had gotten caked on his shoes when he'd walked from the bus stop to the building started melting instantly, getting his socks damp. Shizune, the librarian, smiled warmly at him, and he allowed himself to give her a small smile in return. Unlike the bus driver, he did not think that Shizune would ever attempt to rape him. He actually kind of liked her; they had formed some sort of a silent friendship over time since Gaara came there every day. The people at the library were okay, he'd decided, none of the people there cared if he dressed oddly or barely ever talked or spent almost all of his time reading,

He'd gotten a lot of homework that day, so he couldn't just read like he usually did, he'd have to sit at one of the tables and work. The tables were on the upper floor, right near the adult (not adult as in sexual, except for some of the books, adult section as in not the children's section) fiction section and by some large windows over looking the town.

There was only one empty table when he got up the stairs, it was covered in graffiti, a hundred names carved into it's wooden surface with paperclips, pens, and whatever else Daisuke, Ayame, Hiro + Hana 4ever etc. happened to have handy. Gaara sat in one of the four chairs at it and pulled his binder out of his bag and set it down on top of a pot leaf sketched in permanent ink.

History homework was always so boring, he traced grooves, scratches, and people's carvings in the table before forcing himself to pull out his history book as well and start taking notes. He couldn't afford to procrastinate and not pay attention to them, five pages of notes weren't going to get themselves written, and he had language arts homework as well, that would be easy though, just vocabulary words.

The Meiji era began in 1868 and lasted until 1912. During this time period-

Gaara slammed his textbook shut, memories of the day's history class resurfacing, and causing a few people at neighboring tables to look up and glare at him. He pulled a worn folder out of his binder and pulled his language arts homework out of it; history could wait.

Sasuke parked in the library parking lot, pleased to see that there were few cars and knowing that many of them belonged to staff members. He hadn't been to the city library in a while, he did his studying at home or at school most of the time and the bookstore was closer to his house, so if he wanted to read non-school related things he usually went there. Some of his fangirls had figured that out though, and had taken to staking out the bookstore nearly every day of the week.

Not being one to miss an opportunity, he decided he might as well get his homework done while he was there, if Itachi had any friends over he'd never get it done at home. Once inside the building, he headed up the stairs and over to the area where the tables were. He scanned the area, ever wary of stalker fangirls that could have followed him up, or have already been there, but saw none. He did, however, see a shock of blood red hair, which on closer inspection turned out to belong to Gaara.

Sighing to himself, he decided to go sit by the boy. He never did pass up an opportunity, and maybe Gaara acted differently away from the school environment, maybe he could get him to say yes. There were no other open seats anyway, and Gaara was the only one at his table.

When he sat down at the table, he made sure to create a little noise putting his books down so Gaara would look up.

"What are you, stalking me?" Gaara's eyes were hard and angry looking, and Sasuke considered leaving right then and there, but he didn't. A week wasn't really so long when he thought about it, he couldn't afford to miss his chance to talk to Gaara outside of school.

"No, I just happen to be at the same place as you, at the same time as you, doing the same thing as you by the looks of it, and there are no other empty tables, so don't flatter yourself." He smirked, proud of the last few words he had said.

"I am not 'flattering myself' with the way you've been acting today it is perfectly logical for me to assume that you are indeed stalking me." Gaara snapped in a hushed tone before hurriedly shoving his things into his bag and getting up. "Just leave me alone, Uchiha, just leave me the hell alone okay?"

Sasuke stared at Gaara's back for a few moments, stunned, before pushing back out of his chair and following after him, leaving his possessions behind. He would not be brushed off like that, and he would give up on Gaara so easily.

Gaara, meanwhile, was furious. Why was Sasuke doing this to him? He was tired of people harassing him everyday, tired of being made fun of, tired or people trying to take advantage of him, tired of everything. Maybe he could find a storage closet and fall asleep in it instead of going home. And were those footsteps he heard behind him?

He whipped around and then stopped walking.

"Uchiha, I already told you, leave me the hell alone." He growled. Sasuke stopped too, only a foot away from him and stared him in the eyes.

"Or what?" He challenged with a smirk. "You'll beat me up? Kill me?" He knew he shouldn't taunt Gaara, especially since he believed Gaara would do those things, but he did it anyways.

And Gaara was at a loss. He couldn't 'beat up' Sasuke, who was taller, more muscle-toned, and obviously stronger than himself. And kill him? That was out of the question, despite what people thought, Gaara did not have any murderous intentions. His father was the one who hurt people, and Gaara had sworn to himself to never be like him. Having nothing to say, he pursed his lips and turned away, starting off again.

Sasuke reached out to grab his wrist, but stumbled, falling into Gaara and bringing them both to the floor.

He could feel Gaara stiffen underneath him and hear his breath catch in his throat. His own breath caught too, and he could feel his cheeks heating up. He didn't move though. He could've moved, but he didn't. Having Gaara beneath him felt kind of nice, and his face was pressed up against Gaara's hair, which was soft. He wanted to run his fingers through it.

And then he realized what he had just thought and mentally slapped himself.

Please tell me I didn't just think that I liked being on top of Gaara. Oh god that sounded wrong! No, don't think like that! And did I think that he had nice hair too? Tell me I didn't, tell me I didn't. That would make me gay, and I'm not gay, I'm straight, straight, straight, straight, straight! Okay, calm down Sasuke, it was an accident; you didn't fall on top of him on purpose. Just push yourself up and you can forget all about this.

Hastily, he pushed himself off of the smaller boy and rolled onto the floor. Gaara laid still, muscles tense for another moment, before pushing himself up as well. His face was beet red, Sasuke noted, and his breathing had sped up slightly.

"What. The hell. Was that?"

"It's obvious isn't it? I tripped."

"Yeah and that so happened." Gaara scoffed.

"You think I'd do that on purpose?"

Gaara glared at the raven-haired boy for a long second. "I'm leaving." He said finally and got up. "And don't you dare try to follow me." He hissed over his shoulder as he walked off.

It was still freezing when Gaara got outide, and it had starting snowing heavily, but he decided that he didn't care. He also decided that he didn't care if the next bus wouldn't be coming for two hours. Waiting out in the cold was better than being stalked by Sasuke.

And nearly molested His mind added. Not that you minded.

Gaara decided that his mind was evil. He did not enjoy the feeling of Sasuke lying on top of him, not in the least. Sasuke's breath on the back of his neck did not feel nice, Sasuke's warm body on top of his did not feel nice, being so close to Sasuke was not nice.

Yes, and sitting out here on this freezing bench in a snowstorm is so much nicer. You could wait inside you know, he's not going to follow you anymore.

Gaara ignored the voice, and instead pulled his feet up onto the bench and pulled them close to his chest.

Stupid Sasuke.

After Gaara stormed off, Sasuke had gone back to the table; he didn't have the patience to go after him again. From his seat, he could oversee the parking lot out the window, and in the white world outside, he could see a very small flash of red. Gaara. He moved to the other side of the table so he couldn't see him anymore.

An hour and a half later, Sasuke finally finished his homework and decided to go home. Hopefully Itachi would be at a party or at someone's house, but if not, hopefully he could avoid him.

When he got down to the parking lot, it was still snowing hard, but not so hard as it was when Gaara had come down. He got into his car, putting his backpack in the backseat and starting it up. He let it stall for a while so it could warm up before he started driving, and then pulled out of the parking space. Near the exit of the lot, was where the bus stop was, a bench with three walls of glass around it, and sitting on the bench was Gaara.

The redhead was shivering, his shoulders shaking so hard that Sasuke couldtellfrom his car. He sighed to himself, debating on whether or not to offer the boy a ride. Gaara obviously hated him, and he wasn't so fond of Gaara either, but…he couldn't just let him freeze and he'd been out there for a while. Well he could, but that would be mean, and he didn't want a frost bitten Gaara on his conscience.

Swallowing his pride, he pulled his car up to the bus stop, rolled down his window, and stuck his head out.

"Gaara!" He shouted. "Do you need a ride?"

It took Gaara a few moments to register that someone was yelling at him. He'd been spacing out and trying to forget that he couldn't feel his toes, fingers, ears, or face. He looked up, and seeing it was Sasuke looked away again. There was no way in hell he was going to accept a ride from him.

Sasuke groaned inwardly. Gaara just had to be difficult didn't he? He couldn't just accept the damn ride.

"I said, do you need a ride?" Sasuke yelled again. Gaara clenched his eyes shut briefly and frowned.

"Not from you I don't!"

Why, oh why did Neji and Kabuto have to pick Gaara? Sasuke wondered to himself. Why couldn't they have picked someone agreeable or at least with something resembling social skills?

"Gaara get your ass over here and get in the car!"

"I don't need a ride! And I already told you to leave me alone!" A part of Sasuke really wanted to do what Gaara asked and leave him there, but if he wanted Gaara to believe that he liked him than he would have to act friendly toward him, and offering him a ride would fall into that category. He would not take no for an answer.

He got out of the car, slamming the door shut behind him and strode toward the bench.

"Uchiha what the hell are you doing?"

"Taking you home so you don't freeze to death." Sasuke answered, grabbing Gaara's wrist and pulling him up off the bench.

"Don't touch me!" Gaara tried to pull away, but Sasuke's grip on his wrist was too tight as he dragged him to the car. "I said don't touch me!" He struggled harder and twisted away. "I'll take your stupid ride, okay?" He panted. "Just don't touch me."

Once they were both in the car, Sasuke turned up the heat full blast and Gaara put his cold reddened fingers near the heater, trying to warm them up faster.

"Where do you live?" Sasuke asked once he had started driving again. Gaara mumbled his address without looking at him, staring out the window blankly. Then came the long, awkward silence.

Say something to him Sasuke. Small talk or something, conversation is good, remember?

"So…um…nice weather we're having." He blurted and immediately regretted. That was the most ridiculous topic, and even Gaara who barely talked to anyone would know that. Nice weather his ass, since when were snowstorms considered 'nice'?

Gaara cocked a non-existent eyebrow and gave him a look that most clearly said something along the lines of, 'Sasuke, you are an idiot'.

"Eheh…that was a stupid thing to say wasn't it?"

"No really? I never would have guessed." Gaara muttered sarcastically.

And the awkward silence continued.

And continued.

And continued.

Until Sasuke pulled up in front of Gaara's house.

"So…I guess I'll see you tomorrow then?" Sasuke asked as Gaara opened the door on his side.

"Stop pretending that you care, Uchiha, you're not fooling anyone."

No reviewer replies, because I'm in a hurry and I'm really tired, except to Fantastical Queen Ebony Black, 'cause she asked a question. It's rated M because I plan to write a lemon later on in the story.