Nothing belongs to me other than this shitty story.
Ha, I told you the updates would be irregular (even though I probably would have been writing non-stop if I didn't work every fucking day but let's just pretend that i'm not that pathetic alright?).
A warm late summer's breeze gently teased at Lee's free flowing strands of dark hair as he focused heavy lidded eyes on the crystal azure sky. Humming softly under his breath, he lazily tracked the smooth progression of the large fluffy clouds marring the otherwise endless blue. Releasing a content breath, Lee closed his eyes snuggling further into the shoulder he had been previously leaning on. A gentle smile graced his serene face and he felt the warmth of the sun kiss his lightly tanned skin. What a truly beautiful day this has turned out to be, his relaxed mind carelessly conjured. The students of Konaha high were currently on their lunch, having been given an extended break due to a meeting currently being held by the faculty. The small group of friends had decided to embrace this extra time by eating lunch on the school's roof where they could enjoy the mild weather leftover from the just passed summer.
Large obsidian orbs opened slightly when a pair of hands gripped his own, halting the fingers that had been carding through the crimson locks of hair on the head that rested on his lap. Looking down, Lee met Gaara's cerulean gaze as the other sat up slightly, pulling the hands he had in his grasp over his shoulders to rest on his solid chest in a sort of half hug.
"You look happy," Gaara's dark baritone rippled through the comfortable atmosphere.
Slightly confused by the declaration, Lee's eyebrows drew together uncertainly. "I am always happy Gaara, I do not understand what it is that you mean," he answered honestly.
"Your smile, it feels different," was the even more vague response.
"But…..Is this not how I always smile?" Lee asked, his face reflecting how puzzled he felt.
"No, this is the real version, not the usual half truth you have on display." Gaara easily explained, displaying his extremely perceptive nature (something that still caught Lee off guard despite their years of friendship). "This," he concluded, bringing his hand up to gently touch Lee's soft mouth, "comes from a you that is at peace which makes it much more beautiful."
An uncontrollable wave of affection surged through Lee at the blunt, yet genuine words from the typically hardhearted male, a light flush spreading across his already heated cheeks. Bringing the rest of his body forward, Lee tightened his grip around Gaara's neck in a heartfelt embrace.
"It warms me that you know me so well my friend," Lee whispered into Gaara's neck, feeling that his usual volume would shatter the moment. "I never meant to show insincere smiles but I only recently understood how much my past still clung to my present, altering my own perceptions. Can you forgive me?"
"Can you forgive yourself?" Gaara countered in an equally soft hush, effortlessly hitting the real issue on it's head.
"I…..I think I have already begun." Lee confessed, voice so quiet the words barely passed his lips.
"Then it is forgiven," came the deeply rumbled resolution.
After a couple of moments of the two hugging comfortably, Lee released Gaara from his hold. Sitting back up, he returned to his earlier sprawl, settling his head back against Neji's shoulder which he had ("Just this one time Lee, don't get used to it!") generously allowed him to rest upon. Just as he head gotten comfortable again, eyes closed in blissful relaxation, Lee abruptly felt a sharp pain as his cheeks were roughly pinched.
"What's with these freaky smiles Bushy Brows? They're really starting to creep me out, I mean you just keep smiling for no reason!" Naruto complained as he pulled Lee's cheeks.
"Nawruhoh hah huwrhs, eashe shawh" Lee managed through his stretched mouth.
"Huh, whah….? Oh!, heh sorry abou-" but before he could finish, Neji's hand shot out with lightning precision and connected unforgivingly with Naruto's face, forcing the hold on Lee's cheeks to be relinquished as the blonde went flying backwards.
Tenten and Hinata, who had been talking amongst themselves for most of the lunch, abruptly turned at the loud thud of Naruto's back violently hitting the paved roof. Even Sasuke, who had been listening to his music a bit further away, removed one of his headphones to better watch what new events were unfolding. There was a moment of silence that seemed to stretch as the six friends made eye contact above the collapsed body of their seventh companion.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR YOU PALE EYED BASTARD!?" Naruto screeched, rolling on to his front as he clutched his aching back.
Said paled eyed culprit, who was still casually resting against the roof's entrance, lifted his chin in annoyance, looking down at the prone figure of the flaxen male. Tsking derisively, he rolled his eyes and huffed out an exasperated sigh.
"Better it was me than him," he replied, deep voice calm despite his irritation, jerking his head to indicate the reclining male in Lee's lap.
Directing his glare to where Neji had indicated, Naruto's confusion at the brunette's explanation vanished immediately: the sight that greeted him was Gaara's left leg raised in preparation to kick whatever so crossed it's path.
"WHY YOU TOO?!" Naruto hollered while pointing an accusing finger at Gaara's neutral expression.
"You were hurting Lee, I didn't like it." was the straightforward response.
"But, but, bUT I-" he was once again cut off as a pair of chopsticks that Tenten had chucked hit the back of Naruto's head.
"Oh shut up, I for one think Lee smiling more can only be a good thing." The girl with twin buns atop her head stated sunnily.
"I never said it was a BAD thing!" the blue eyed male quickly defended, bitter at the treatment he was receiving. "BB smiling is always great, but like, he keeps on doing it at the weirdest times! Like this morning he was totally late but even when Iruka ripped him a new one he just had this super calm smile on his face! It was freaky to see Lee, you know -Mr. "I take every piece of discipline so seriously that I almost cry when I do something wrong"- Lee just being so, so, so NOT Lee!"
"Maybe he's just having a good day idiot," Sasuke interjected, moving to join the rest of the group. "ever think of that, or are you really just that slow?"
"SHUT UP YOU SPIKY HAIRED PIECE OF SHIT, I SWEAR I'M GOING T-"
"STOP IT!" Lee yelled unexpectedly causing everyone to freeze and focus on him. "Er….that is," he fidgeted, growing uncomfortable with the sudden attention, "could you please stop arguing?"
"L-lee is right, we really s-shouldn't fight," Hinata stuttered out, soft voicing faltering at the end. "…um, why d-doesn't he just tell us why he's b-been smiling so much?" she suggested shyly, head tilted so her straight purple bangs covered her face.
"Good idea Hina," Tenten agreed patting the other's back making the violet eyed girl beside her blush faintly. "So what exactly has made you so happy?"
"Weeeelll," Lee drew out trying to gather just what he could openly share about the previous night. I hate to deceive my friends in this manner but I can not tell them the full truth….at least not yet.
"Wait, that's right!" Tenten exclaimed hitting her fist to her opened palm. "I almost forgot that you had you're first shift yesterday. How was it!?"
Briefly holding his breath, Lee decided that the best way to not exactly lie was to just go on about all the great things that had happened (which wasn't hard) and hope they didn't ask too many questions.
"It was wonderful, everyone there is so kind, even the owners! You would think that they would be stuffy and unapproachable owning a business and all, but they most definitely are not! Oh, and I have already made a new lifelong friend! He is also very nice and an extremely talented server and he helped me throughout my shift making sure that nothing went wrong. He also walked me home because it was much darker out than what I had thought it would be when I got off and we talked the whole way back!" Lee ranted, hardly taking a breath between his long sentences.
"I thought you worked at some sort of restaurant, why did you get out so late?" Tenten questioned, concerned at Lee being out at night especially in the neighbourhood he lived in.
"Ah, well that was because there was a special event going on which we had to stay open for," Lee hastily supplied. I am not being that untruthful, he tried to convince himself, a themed night is almost like a special event. "Did you know there are these wonderful things called tips were people leave you money for being an exceptional worker! ?I did not know until Sai, that is my coworker friend, told me that I could keep the money that the costumers I had been serving left on the table!"
"Wait, Lee I stil-" It was Naruto's turn to interrupt as he cut Tenten off mid sentence.
"WOAH THAT'S FREAKIN AWESOME! How much did you make in tips!?"
"I made four hundred last night," Lee said proudly, beaming at his accomplishment. When Sai had told him it was an impressive pull for a first timer he had felt beyond excited at his accomplishment. Even Kakashi had uttered a low whistle when he had seen his haul.
"F-f-f-four hundred!" Tenten wheezed, grasping at her chest in shock.
"Way to go BB, you'll be rich in no time!" Naruto cheered, raising his hand to high-five Lee.
"Thank you Naruto-kun, but I do not think that it would be possible for me to become rich from tips alone," Lee laughed, bringing his hand up to return the gesture.
The others started asking various question in return, like how much he was paid and what kind of hours he was going to work while Tenten sat frozen, stare fixed on the raven haired male.
After recovering from her surprise,Tenten opened her mouth prepared to halt the other's questions so she could call Lee out on his abrupt change of topic, but stopped before she could utter a sound. As she looked at Lee recalling more stories of his first shift and answering every little question asked, she decided that Lee would never be less than honest unless it was something he himself didn't know how to explain. However, she also knew that he would tell her everything when he felt the time was right and so she would wait until whenever Lee was ready.
"I'm glad you had such an awesome first night, do you work again today?" Tenten asked instead.
"Not tonight, no. I do work the next couple of days however," Lee answered, thankful that Tenten had dropped her previous inquiry.
"Perfect, that means that you can come to my house tonight for a sleepover!" She chirped, clapping her hands happily. "Everyone else already agreed, but we were waiting to see if you could make it. That means it will be the whole gang for the first time in a long while!"
"Yosh, that is an excellent idea Tenten, I look forward to spending more time with all of my most precious friends!" Lee excitedly agreed, overjoyed to be able to finally see his friends outside of school.
It really had been an overly long time since they had all gotten together this way. When Lee had moved out from the orphanage his nights had instantly been consumed by job hunting while his weekends had turned into volunteering at the Church until he finally convinced Mother Tsunade to cut it back to once a month so he could keep his a availability open for work. After that his weekends had become the same as his weekdays: homework and trying to get hired. He had felt horrible for constantly brushing off their group plans in favour of spending hours upon hours being continually rejected (his heart ached too at having to spend time being looked down upon when he could be with people that actually believed him to be worth something).
Regardless of his busy schedule, his amazing friends had understood his plight and found little ways to make sure he felt included no matter how few their interactions were. They would take turns walking him home and picking him up in the mornings or, if the job hunt had been particularly bad, they would bring him dinner and stay and do homework together. Now though, Lee had a (hopefully) steady job with set hours (every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and alternating Saturdays) so he no longer had the wall of consuming guilt over spending more money that wasn't his keeping him from spending his free time as he so desired: being with the people he loved most.
A pleasant chime rang through the air signalling the end of the elongated lunch hour. The small group of friends packed up their belongings and made their way down the flight of stairs leading back into the school. As they rounded the corner, lightly chattering amongst themselves, they broke off into pairs, each heading to their respective classes.
"Remember guys," Tenten began before the retreating figures could make it too far, "my house after school and don't forget your P.J's, yes that means you Naruto."
"Oh it was ONE time can't you just let it-"
"Okay bye guys, see you then!" She waved cheerfully, grabbing Hinata's hand as she rushed down the hall before Naruto could finish his rant.
"OI, LET ME FINI-"
"Let's go Lee, If you're late again I just know i'm going to be blamed," Neji said in an annoyed tone, though his gentle grip on Lee's arm suggested otherwise.
Lee turned in Neji's grasp to see that Gaara had already gone ahead ignoring the, what he surely deemed "unnecessary", conversation going on behind him.
"Goodbye Naruto and Sasuke-kun, we will see you tonight!" Lee called back to the adoptive brothers as Neji pulled him around the corner.
Lee felt a grin form on his face as he heard a faint yell of "WHY DOES NO ONE LISTEN TO ME!" before they entered the classroom.
Sitting in his desk waiting for the last period to begin, Lee could hardly keep his eyes of the clock, counting down the time before school would be out. He just knew tonight was going to be amazing.
This felt kind of rushed and awkward to me but it had to be done to progress the story.
Eh, it'll do.
Thank you once again for another fantastic comment, it really resonated with my trashy heart that above all else desires Lee to be loved by all.