The movie began. A man in a drenched trenchcoat appeared on the screen, a camera swinging from his neck. He walked along the misty evening city street, the movie camera panning ahead of him to reveal a crowd of police and reporters surrounding a crime scene. The man walked up to a policeman.
"Roger," he called, "you have to let me get a picture. The Evening Standard would have my tail if they knew I wasn't able to cover this one."
"No can do, man. This is too high-profile, no pictures allowed."
Roger the policeman waved a detective in a brown hat towards the chalked outline of what was obviously once the body of someone who fell from a very high place.
The camera followed the brown-capped man as he spoke with a handful of policemen standing outside the chalk outline. The audience learned that the outline belonged to a 50-year-old oil tycoon who had come to the city for a weekend trip. His name was Blaine. The detective, whose name was David, decided to return to the police station, but not before he encountered a woman on his way to the station. She wore a long fur coat, her hair fell in soft auburn waves, and her red lipstick accentuated her glamour.
She must be the love interest, the one Naruto likes, Sasuke thought rather jealously. He glanced over to his friend, his eyes wide with wonder and excitement, at the movie or the woman, Sasuke didn't know what, but he hoped the former.
David the detective, as it turned out, was a ladies' man, with the beautiful woman being one of his many conquests; and she wanted to know why- why did David prey on her, why was David such a selfish bastard, but most importantly why didn't he stay, what made him leave, why couldn't he love her the way she loved him. "Why couldn't you stay?" Her words bounced back and forth in Naruto's head.
"It's not in me to stay, Audra. God didn't put the capacity to love in this soul. Don't concern yourself with me, find someone else to fix you eggs in the morning."
With a wave of dismissal he walked off, leaving a body that wore the hurt like the fur coat that draped around it, from the quivering of her mouth, to the sag of her shoulders. The camera stayed fixed on Audra.
"Why did I," her voice beginning to break, "why did I…" she trailed off, a tear rolling down her cheek, "for someone like this?"
Sasuke felt like scoffing. He identified with David's problem of females who couldn't comprehend the phrase "not interested," but at the same time at least David wasn't blind to Audra's attraction, and had reciprocated it at least once. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught blonde hair falling into blue eyes.
"Why did I for someone like this?" Sasuke muttered to himself.
"It's a great line, isn't it?" Naruto whispered a bit too excitedly.
Sasuke shrugged. Stupid, cliché movies shouldn't hit so close to home. If only Naruto would agree, he silently wished.
David arrived at the police station. A portly man in suspenders talked to him about how he needed a vacation, and then handed him a folder. David sat at his desk, and thumbed through the contents. Roger the policeman entered the scene again, and sat on the edge of David's messy desk.
"It was a murder. We've ruled out a suicide. This man," Roger tapped the folder, "had a lot of enemies." The rundown of enemies began, but there were only two powerful enough to get close enough to kill him: Eric Morimer and Angel Lucci; the former Blaine's number one rival in the oil business, and the latter the city's most renowned gangster whom Blaine had had shady dealings with. At this point in the movie, Sasuke decided he wanted a refill on his drink. He began to lift himself from his seat.
"Are you kidding? You'll miss something good!" Naruto clasped his hand around Sasuke's wrist. Not willing to lose the pleasantness of the touch, Sasuke sat back down and readjusted himself.
Roger got up to leave David, but before he could exit fully he threw his head over his shoulder, and said very snidely, "And by the way, Isaw her last night." David shot him a look full of daggers, the bad blood practically bleeding through the screen.
"Her? Sasuke, who do you think…?"
"I don't know, and I don't care." He grunted with frustration to the "shh-ing" of the people around them.
The scene changed to a smoky jazz club. A voluptuous woman in sequins stood atop a stage swaying her hips to a mellow beat. Her soulful, rich vocals filled the theater. The movie camera panned along the dancing clubgoers to a man sitting alone at a bar. It was the photographer from the first scene.
"Sean, want another?" The bartender questioned.
"No thanks, man. I think I'll just nurse the rest of this one until I leave."
Sean continued sipping his beer, and was soon accompanied by another beautiful woman. She was different from Audra, but they were cut from the same cloth. She was just as curvy, just as glamourous, just as beautiful, but whereas Audra's fragile smile exploited her vulnerability, this woman radiated something different. It was her smirk coated in blood-red lips that told a story much different than Audra's hesitant pout. This woman was capable of anything, capable of feeling much too deeply in all directions, and acting accordingly. She threw back a mane of jet-black hair.
"What is it that you're after, Raquel?"
"Same thing I'm always after, Sean. I want the key to the city, the power to control. Play your cards right, and when I'm queen I'll let you lick my throne one day."
Naruto gulped. She was forward, but aloof, detached to even the words that she let escape. She reclined in her chair, not breaking eye contact with Sean. The eyes he was captured in though, two obsidian pools one could drown in. The darkness of her hair and eyes contrasted strikingly with her alabaster skin. Just like…
Naruto turned to Sasuke. He would kill me if he knew the things I thought. After a moment, Sasuke returned the stare.
"What?"
"What do you think of her? She's amazing, isn't she?"
Sasuke turned to the screen. Raquel the siren was fingering the straw in her drink while looking seductively at Sean. She didn't make much of an impression on Sasuke. In truth, he thought she seemed like a bitch.
"She's okay, I guess," he sighed without a hint of interest. Naruto turned his head back to the movie, snickering inwardly.
Raquel and Sean had never slept together, though each had an itch that screamed to be scratched by the other. That much was evident by the shared double entendres and the suggestive body language. Raquel had decided to let Sean in on a little secret- she knew who Blaine was with shortly before his death, but it would cost him. As it turns out, The Evening Standard had had his tail for failing to get any pictures of the day's biggest news story, so Sean became a buying man, and agreed to pay the large sum Raquel requested.
Blaine had been with a woman on the night of his murder. A beautiful woman, whose innocence was the selling point to many men. Audra, Raquel had mentioned, and Sean would find her at the corner of 67th and Marble, in the apartments beside the asylum.
Sasuke leaned back in satisfaction, trying to read the expression on Naruto's face. How was the little love interest now? Would he still want 'one of those' if all the other similar models were murdering whores as well? "Hmmph." He was satisfied at this turn of events.
Naruto directed a sideways glare at him. "What the hell, Sasuke." Phrased like a question, but intoned like a statement.
"You should've seen it coming from the previews. It's always the one you least expect. Besides, sweet innocence like that in a movie is seen in those who can either do no wrong, or are just waiting for someone to push the wrong button."
"The movie's not over yet. You don't know that."
"I've seen enough to know. Her innocence has already started to crumble, and when that happens, the true colors can't help but show."
"True colors? If she had anything to do with the murder, then I'm sure she had a good reason. Like, he was molesting her or something."
"Molesting? She's a whore. I guess it is what it is though. Hookers with a heart of gold are one of most annoying movie clichés anyway. It's better that she's rotten."
"She's not rotten! You can see it in her eyes. There's love, and beauty, and kindness, and truth, and…"
"Excuse me." The man sitting beside them focused his glowering and line ridden face at the boys. His words iced in a venom that spoke of an extreme annoyance at having the value of his afternoon at the movies lessened by idle chatter. "If you're going to have a conversation, please do so outside."
Naruto huffed. "Everyone makes comments at the movies."
"Yes," the man answered, "but they don't have drawn out conversations about the complexities of a character's morality. If you want to talk about it," he fumed to the point of a growl, "then why don't you and your boyfriend go outside."
Naruto paused in the way one would do the moment they realized the shore they were standing on was about to be engulfed in a tsunami, a stillness of the mind where all thoughts cease, and it takes a crushing inward silence to get them to work again.
"Gah…" a stammer, "H-h-he's not," a stutter, "my boyfriend!" a bit of a yell, met by laughs and girlish giggles of the people seated around them, as well as what Naruto was sure were a few pieces of popcorn thrown at the back of his head.
The man's anger creased face sank deeper into a fold of lines. Sasuke sensed a bubbling danger and interjected, "We're sorry sir. Expect no more conversations from us." The man nodded warily and sat back in his seat. Naruto sank into his chair, trying to melt through the theater floor. Sasuke caught site of his pink, embarrassed face, and smiled.
"Are you smiling?" came the muffled observation from the currently melting ninja. The man beside them glared out of the corner of his bloodshot eye, clearly not appreciating that the blonde kid was talking again. Sasuke continued to smile. There was a long pause, followed by a dejected, but still authoritative mutter: "Bastard."
