Part 2: Chapter 5

The drive back was...quiet. It was one of those uncomfortable silences where you try to think of a million things to say and none of them sound right in your head so you refrain from saying them aloud. The top was down and the radio was blaring but the sky seemed to draw out our discomfort and press it back down on us twofold. I was fidgeting; it's not like I never do, but I was moving pretty noticeably. The scary things is, Sasuke didn't seem to notice. He just kept both his hands on the steering wheel and his eyes fixated on the road, his jaw clenched slightly. The only reason I could tell was because the hollows of his cheeks seemed deeper and more pronounced than usual as the moonlight spilled down on his pale face. He looked dead. Or ready to kill something.

We parted ways at the entrance to the main stairwell--Sasuke twitched his head toward me as I called a feeble 'good night', and then he was through the cardlock door and walking down the hall to his room. I watched him through the little four by sixteen pane of glass in the door, then I turned and headed up the stairs. My feet dragged on each step and clunked hollowly in the deserted stairwell. It was some ungodly hour of the night, no one was awake. As I reached my door I pulled out my keys and fiddled withthem and the lock, and suddenly, my room phone started ringing shrilly. Sasuke! I nearly rammed the door down in my run to catch the call before the person on the other end decided to give up. Three rings. I darted expertly through the mess and jumble of furniture, nearly knocking the items on my desk to the floor (like it would make more of a mess) and snatched up the reciever.

"Hello?" I panted.

"Naruto?" the quiet voice came over the line. "I'm sorry--did I wake you?"

It took me a moment to register that the voice coming out of the speaker was not my boyfriend's: "Haku?"

"Yes, sorry. Did I wake you?"

"N-No..." I lowered myself into my purple rolling chair. "You just...surprised me."

"I'm sorry," he apologized again. "But I was calling in reference to--" He paused. I heard some movement on the other end of the phone; a door slammed. "Sasuke," he finished.

"What about him?" I began knotting the phone's long cord in my fingers, leaning one elbow on the desk.

"He seems...distant. I was wondering if maybe you and him had a fight...?"

"No, we just went out for a drive."

"That's odd..." he sounded confused.

"He's got an eight o'clock class in the morning; he's pushing for sleep as it is," I heard Garra murmur. I glanced at my alarm clock: three twenty one a.m.

"Do you have any idea where he could be going this late at night?" Haku addressed me.

"And why the hell he was acting so weird?" Garra again.

"Well, he was really quiet on the drive..." It wasn't a total lie, but for some reason, I couldn't bring myself to explain about seeing the elder Uchiha and Neji in a band, and the news that they were in the Battle of the Bands competition. I figured it wasn't my story to tell, anyway. Although I'd have to ask Hinata about Neji--I remember her once mentioning that her long-haired cousin had connections in high places, especially among a record label known as Anbu Productions. And suddenly, I wondered what this meant for Sharingan and our upcoming competition. Would Sasuke even be able to perform in front of a huge audience and a potential scout knowing his brother could be somewhere in the crowd, watching him?

"Naruto?"

Whoops. "Yeah, I'm here. Sorry, what was that you said?"

"Do you have any idea where he could be going this late at night?" the other man repeated patiently.

I thought for a moment before opening my mouth to answer, but I cut myself off as I heard a single, fleeting knock on my room door. I meant to say "here" before I dropped the phone reciever back into the cradle, but I don't think it happened that way. I rose and made my way to the door, pulling it open. The dark-haired lyricst was turning away and when he heard the door open he stopped andlifted his face to me. I couldn't quite understand the look he was giving me: it was sad and confused and hopeful all in one expression. I silently held open the door and he wordlessly came into the room and I closed the door behind him, watching him cross over and around the mess skillfully and sit himself down on the edge of my bed. I joined him. The silence wasn't as heavy as it had been on the way back, but it was still hard to navigate a conversation. Finally, however, I gave it a shot.

"That guy...the one back at the cafe... He's your brother?" Duh, Naruto, I scolded myself. Sasuke humored me with a weak nod. "Did...you know he had a band?"

It took him a moment before answering, and I listened to each word intently, trying to measure exactly how upset he was: "He and Orochimaru have been friends for as far back as I can remember. Kabuto used to drop by every now and again--he was a manager of some sort. But my brother... He'd always talked about starting a band."

Okay, he's talking. Slowly, baby steps, I coaxed myself. "Anbu Productions?" Nod. "Neji knows some people there... Maybe he told Kabuto about us, and Kabuto let your brother know...?" Shrug. "Maybe... Maybe he's been looking for you."

I instantly saw his face harden and I flinched inwardly. Wrong thing to say. "If he had been looking for me all this time, I'm sure he would have found me by now. Why this way? Why a band?" The last question came out in a mixed shout and whisper. He lapsed into silence after his slight outburst. I tried to think of something else to say, something to take a step backward, and suddenly found myself pinned beneath his weight. He had his knees on either side of my hips and his hands clasped my wrists to the mattress. His mouth was on mine, crushing our lips together fiercely, and I whimpered helplessly in the grip. His tongue plunged boldly, commanding dominance as his body shifted and he sat himself back on my thighs, his hands slipping down my arms and to my waist. His mouth was still on mine, as if he were trying to drown me in the kiss. I was going under too, trust me. The only thing I coherently thought was 'why?' as his mouth tore from mine with a hurried gasp of breath and rushed down along my neck to the hem of my orange shirt. His hands made their way quickly from my hips, ducking under my shirt briefly before pushing it up to my chin.

"S...Sa...suke..." The orange material was bunched along my upper chest and shoulders and his hands, cold as ice, planted themselves firmly against my stomach. His hair tickled my chin as his head came level with my chest and a scarce breath caressed my skin. Soft lips brushed against one of my nipples and I reeled beneath him, my eyes wide and unseeing. "Sasuke..." The flat of his tongue rolled down my torso to my navel and I gave another shiver as more cold breath touched my damp skin. I felt a slight tug on the button of my khaki shorts and little alarm bells started clambering in my head. My hands somehow found his shoulders. "Sa...suke..." He had gotten the shorts open. I abruptly pushed him up, away from my twitching hips and found his eyes. The shivers of pleasure abruptly ceased--his eyes were two cold, flawless onyx orbs.

"What?" he mumbled and my brain screamed at me to let him continue, dear god let him continue. I hung on to the rational part of my mind that remained.

"What... I..." I shook my head to clear it momentarily. "This... Do you actually want to go through with this?" He stared at me blankly, almost coldly. It felt like a bucket of ice water had been thrown on top of us. I was starting to feel nauseous.

"It doesn't matter," he answered finally and I felt the bottom drop out of my stomach. "Nothing matters anymore."

"But...this..." I tried weakly. "This is important..."

"I don't care anymore," he said flatly. His head came down and I pushed up against his shoulders, continuing to keep him at a distance. A strange feeling of hurt and anger began to rise up in my chest, but I didn't want to cry. I wanted to...

"Sasuke, we can't just--"

"Don't you want this?" he looked annoyed now. "Don't you want me?"

My body screamed along with most of my brain: YES! I gulped hard and looked at him as sternly as I could manage. "That's not the point."

"I'm just going to give you what you want," he reasoned, forcing me back down with his own hands on my shoulders now. "Maybe that way, I can forget everything."

I don't quite know what part of that sentence set me off, but I was suddenly furious, enraged. I sat up abruptly, knocking him off balance, drew back my right fist, and punched Sasuke full in the face.

With a cry, he toppled off the bed and onto the floor, clasping his hands to his face. "FUCK!" he screamed into his hands. "Oh FUCK! That HURT, Naruto! What the fuck was that for?" I couldn't answer him. I just stared straight ahead, fist still out, eyes bulging out of my skull. With a moan, Sasuke stumbled to his feet and out of the corner of my eye I saw a spill of dark blood hit the floor. My body relaxed suddenly and I slumped on the mattress; all the anger and pain was suddenly replaced with a sick apprehension.

"I..." I tried to choke out.

"Screw you, Naruto," he said thickly through a bleeding nose. "Screw you and screw the band--I'm out."

And he stumbled over to the door, yanked it open, and nearly fell outside. I stared helplessly at the door sitting open awkwardly. My eyes moved mechanically to the small pool of blood on the floor by my bed. And finally, I started to cry.