Here's chapter 3! Please R&R, not much else to say I guess, don't worry. From now on, I'll be updating chapter by chapter. I just wanted to start off by putting a few out there.
Disclaimer: As much as I wish i did, I do not own Naruto.
Piano
Gaara sat at his new desk in his new room right near his new bed writing in his old notebook. He was writing out lyrics and random words to express how he felt at the moment. It was what he did when he felt confused or afraid. Right now, he felt both.
It was his well kept secret that he was gay, and being in a room with such a pretty boy made him horribly nervous. Neji was adorable, no doubt about it. With his pale skin, odd pearly white eyes and long brown hair, how could anyone think otherwise? But it wasn't going to work, because not only was Neji undoubtedly not gay, but he already hated Gaara's guts. He had been so cold and formal all day.
He looked over his shoulder at the boy's sleeping form. His eyes were shut, and his mouth was set in a thin smile. 'Probably dreaming about his girlfriend'. Gaara thought. He sighed and put down his pencil, closing his notebook. He figured that he wasn't going to get anything done tonight anyway. He was tired and distracted. Maybe it was just his extreme paranoia, but he could have sworn that Neji had seemed rather… almost angry when he had played that piece, and also when he had told him that he spoke fluent French. He was already getting off to a bad start with his new roommate.
He also had to worry about class tomorrow and the audition. New school, and if it was anything like his last one, it wouldn't be good. This was the second prep school that he had gotten into on a piano scholarship, and he never fit in well with any of the rich kids. He had tried at first, but never managed in succeeding. They always found something wrong with him, some tiny little flaw that only the insanely rich with much too much free time on their hands would think of.
Gaara was too lazy to change into his pajamas, and since Neji was already fast asleep, he didn't think the other boy would mind if he just fell asleep in his boxers. He knew he would wake up before Neji anyway, since he hardly ever slept for even four hours straight. He got up and peeled off his shirt, tossing it on the bed, and then pulled off his pants, putting those on top of the shirt. He opened a drawer to shove his clothes back in, and stopped when he heard a noise. He waited, but hearing nothing else, he shoved his clothes into the bottom of the four drawers, and stood. He stretched his arms and bent side to side, cracking his spine as he did so. Four hours in the train had made him very stiff.
Neji woke up a lot in the middle of the night. It was a problem he would have to deal with now that he had a roommate, but hopefully Gaara was already asleep by now. He opened his eyes and was going to just turn over onto his other side when he saw something… strange to say the least. Gaara was in his boxers, bent over shoving something into the drawer. It was too dark to see what, but it didn't really matter. Neji felt the blood rush to his face, and he quickly squeezed his eyes shut and turned over. He only hoped that Gaara wouldn't notice.
What bothered him the most though was the little voice in the back of his head muttering something about Gaara being very hot. He tried to silence the pesky voice, but it refused to rest.
Gaara looked at the sleeping boy once again, but he had turned over onto his other side. That must have been the noise that he had heard earlier. A sudden wave of panic rushed over him as he realized that had Neji had his eyes open at that moment, he would have seen an almost naked Gaara. He had to remember to change in the bathroom from now on.
He went to bed and pulled the cold sheets up to his chin and lay on his back staring at the ceiling. It was strange to be in a new room. Hard to get to sleep, but he had to try. He didn't want to be tired on his first day. Yup, Gaara was a good boy deep at heart.
He fell asleep knowing that the one bright side to his day tomorrow would be that he could spend a lot of time with Neji since he said that they probably had almost the same schedule. Hopefully they could talk and maybe even get to know each other a bit better. Friends was all he asked. Of course, from previous experiences, 'friends' was a bit too much for Gaara to ask.
Gaara woke up at two in the morning and got dressed. He would have taken a shower, but he didn't want to wake Neji who would probably sleep for at least another three hours. It was a good opportunity to try on his new uniform anyway.
He took the outfit out of the top drawer of his dresser. He had just received it yesterday when he arrived. It looked a bit big, but he figured he would deal with it later. The uniform was a pair of straight black dress pants with a white collared shirt and a straight black blazer that zipped up and had a small white border over the zipper, at the collar and on the edges of the sleeves (Anyone ever seen FB? They're like those, I just don't know how to describe it right…). He was right, the pants were a but long and so were the sleeves of the white shirt, but the blazer fit okay. He went to his backpack that he had draped over the back of the desk chair and pulled out a sack of silver safety pins and brightly colored buttons. There were also some needles and thread in the bag. He went back into the bathroom.
An hour and a half later, his pant legs were rolled up and sown to the right length with some safety pins pined in just for show. Gaara knew that his stitches would stay in, because he had been altering hand me down clothing for years. He had sown some small red buttons over the right pocket, and some silvery grey ones over the left one. He took off the small white buttons on the cuffs of the sleeves on his shirt and replaced this with big black plastic buttons, and since the sleeves were too hard to alter, he folded the cuffs up over the sleeves of the blazer. He was pleased enough with his look, but took three chains of different lengths out of the drawer and attached those to the belt loops of the pants on the left side anyway. He took a brush and attempted to make his unruly hair look a bit more acceptable, and then put on a thick rings of black kohl around his eyes. He hooked the arm his sunglasses that he had sitting by the sink in his right pocket, and went back into the room. He would try and read something quietly or maybe listen to some music until Neji woke up.
The clock said it was three forty-five in the morning, so Gaara pulled a CD player and four CD's out of his backpack and a book called 'Dracula'. He was into the whole vampire thing. He found most books about them very interesting. He put the Papa Roach CD 'Getting Away With Murder' into the machine and hit play. He loved listening to 'Blood' on repeat over and over again, for hours sometimes.
He was sitting on the bed with the pillow propped up against the wall and his knees pulled into his chest listening to 'Blood' for the eighth time in a row when Neji shifted in his sleep again, this time so he was facing Gaara.
He paused the CD and put down his book and took advantage of the moment to admire Neji's beauty. In his sleep, he really looked like an angel. His hair was splayed around his head wildly and one pale, muscular arm was slipped under the pillow while the other one rested limply at his side. Gaara smiled to himself and put back on his music. He was so lucky to have a roommate like Neji. Even if he was most certainly despised by him.
Neji's alarm went off at five thirty. It almost gave Gaara a heart attack, but he managed to get away with only jumping a bit. He had just turned off his music too. He was reading the sheet music for music class when the alarm started its shrill rhythmic beeping. Neji sat up on his elbow and rubbed the sleep from his eyes with his fist. He seemed very dazed and out of it, something that Gaara found very funny for someone who had been so serious yesterday. He didn't say anything though.
He watched as Neji got up and made the bed neatly.
"Good morning Sabaku-san. You're already dressed? You must wake up rather early." His voice was sleepy and he yawned a bit at the end, but Gaara just stood up and fixed his sheets too. Neji looked at him.
"You… altered it a bit I see…" He said a bit unsurely. Gaara smirked.
"It was big. And anyway, if you people are gonna hate me for being a little different, I might as well be a lot different." The passive defeat masked in his voice made Neji squirm a bit.
"You're not going to be hated. You can't know that." He said, but he sounded unsure himself. Gaara shrugged it off.
"S'okay. I'm used ta it." There was pain in his eyes, but he masked it with cold indifference, and it was gone as quickly as it had come.
"Well," Neji said in a desperate attempt to shift the mood to something a bit lighter, "I'm going to change and go down to the cafeteria for breakfast before the rehearsal. Would you like to come?" Gaara nodded and thanked him for the offer. When Neji went to the bathroom to change, Gaara slipped his wallet into his pocket. He was supposed to get some sort of student charge card eventually, but they didn't have on ready for him yet. He was told that it should be in by Monday though.
When Neji came out, Gaara was stunned again by his beauty. His hair was pulled back and tied off just two inches from the bottom, and the uniform fit his thin muscular frame to perfection.
"Shall we go?" He asked politely. Gaara nodded wordlessly and followed him out. Luckily the cafeteria was just two floors down, in the basement of the dorm building. Neji got a turkey sandwich and a small salad with water, and Gaara got a bowl of some fancy kind of corn flakes and milk. They sat at a table in the back of the large room eating in silence. Neji ate very neatly, wiping his mouth with a napkin every few bites, and Gaara ate as neatly as he was able, making more mess with a milkless bowl of cereal than Neji did with a sandwich and salad. Such was the gap between the rich upbringing and Gaara's somewhat unconventional childhood.
They went back up to their room at six, and Neji went to go take a shower. Gaara almost asked why he got dressed, ate breakfast and then undressed to take a shower, but decided that it wasn't worth it. It was probably some weird rich person thing.
For a boy, Neji took a long time in the shower. He was in there for about half an hour, and when he opened the door, steam and the scent of coconut shampoo came flooding out. It was seven ten exactly Gaara knew, because he was checking his watch every ten minutes. He had gone back to reading while Neji was in the shower. He read a lot. Neji began typing something, presumably schoolwork until seven forty-five, and then he told Gaara to get a notebook and pencil as well as the sheet music he had given him yesterday because it was smart to get to music early. Yuuhi-sensei, he said, was a neurotic fanatic about being on time.
They went to the same music room as they had last night, and they were the third and fourth to arrive. There was a boy with rather frizzy black hair who Neji said was named Shino sitting with a cello and another boy that Neji didn't introduce tuning his violin. Neji walked over to the teacher's desk and said good morning to a woman with long wavy brown hair in a black suit skirt and matching blazer with a white shirt underneath. He introduced Gaara to her, for which he was infinitesimally grateful, he hated introductions, and she told him to go sit at the white grand piano from yesterday. It was the only free piano, and she would have him do his audition as soon as everyone had arrived.
The few students that were there, as well as the ones that were arriving gave him odd stares, looking at his altered uniform disapprovingly. He felt very uncomfortable, but held his head high and walked to the back of the room after Neji who was already there.
Neji was sitting at the black piano practicing some scales to warm up his hands. Gaara knew that he should do the same, but he was suddenly too nervous to. He was thinking about all the things that could go wrong. His depressing train of thought was interrupted by Neji though.
"Don't worry Gaara. You're a very competent pianist, you'll be fine. Why don't you do some warm ups, okay?" he played a scale, and Gaara joined in with him. His heart did a few back flips at the fact that Neji had finally called him Gaara instead of Sabaku-san. They went through a few simple warm-ups, and ten minutes later Yuuhi-sensei called the class to attention.
"Okay, before practice, we have a new student, Sabaku no Gaara, and he's going to be doing an audition piece so we can get to know his style a bit. Everyone please be quiet and respectful. Gaara, what are you going to play for us?" Gaara announced the name of the piece, and the whole class was silent as they waited for him to begin. Or more, they were silent as they waited for him to make a fool of himself.
Gaara was nervous. Incredibly, illogically nervous, but somehow he managed to get his hands to move. They flew over the keys, stopping here and there to add a new note to the mixture of sounds that melded together perfectly. He was very aware of the unforgiving eyes watching him, and almost missed a key, but managed to finish the piece without any technical errors. He didn't feel like he had played as well as he was able though. He brought the song to a gentle fading close, and when he was finished, he got up and made a shallow bow before sitting down again.
Kurenai stood up.
"Very good." She said emotionlessly. Gaara was more than a bit discouraged by her lack of enthusiasm. He knew that he hadn't played to his full ability. "Class, we're going to run through the piece a few times, Neji will play the lead, but Gaara, make sure to listen to him and know when to come in for the lead. Neji will play the lead two or three times, and then Gaara will give it a go." Suffice it to say, both boys were incredibly surprised, not to mention the shock of the other students.
But Neji was also a bit angry. He had been working on that for so long, and now Yuuhi-sensei was just going to casually hand the part over to Gaara? And what made it even worse was that Neji knew Gaara wasn't playing as well as he could. He felt so inferior, something he wasn't used to.
Over the next two hours, they ran through the piece ten times. Neji played the lead for the first three and the last two, Gaara playing all the rest. When class was over, all the students left, and none said anything to Gaara, although a few did give him an almost approving look. Yuuhi-sensei asked the two boys to stay after.
"Neji, Gaara, you are both incredible pianists, and it would be a shameful waste to make either of you play the ensemble part. I have an idea, but I'm going to need both of you to help me with it. I would like to re-write the music for this to make the lead part a duet. What do you think?" She looked at them hopefully, and idea bubbling just below the surface of her sharp red eyes.
Neji wasn't all for the idea, but he knew that for one thing, if he didn't acquiesce, Gaara would certainly get the part, and also, he did honestly think that it could be a good idea. It would bring new life to an old classic piece. Gaara on the other hand didn't look so sure.
He wanted to play the main part, it as one of his favorite songs, but he knew that if he did this, he would probably be resented even more, and Neji would probably dislike him even more than he already did.
"Yes Kurenai-sensei. It sounds like a very good idea. I'll agree if Sabaku-san is alright with it." He sounded genuinely excited about the idea, so Gaara decided to rethink it. Maybe with Neji in his corner, it would work out. It would be fun, and he would get to spend even more time with Neji to write and practice. And, Yuuhi-sensei didn't seem too bad either.
"Okay. I guess I'll do it." Kurenai looked hard at Gaara, searching his face for insecurity.
"I need you to be one hundred percent sure about this Gaara. It's a big commitment." Gaara had forgotten just how strict and serious these prep school types were.
"Yes Yuuhi-sensei. I'm sure. Neji and I will get to work on it today. I don't think either of us has anything to do today that's more important, right Neji?" Gaara looked at the taller boy, facial expression almost pleading him to agree.
"Of course. Sabaku-san and myself would be more than happy to take on this project. Can we meet with you after class on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays? I'm afraid that I have soccer on Tuesday and Thursday." He made such a formal sentence sound so apologetic, Gaara had no doubt in his mind that Neji must be every teacher's favorite student. He was glad though that he was learning something about his roommate. They were getting closer and closer to becoming friends, he could just feel it. And yes, he knew that that sounded horrible cheesy.
Kurenai dismissed the two boys, and they were back in their room by ten twenty. Gaara was fully expecting that Neji would crack down on wither schoolwork or the music piece, but he didn't. He got in and grabbed his dark blue backpack, elegantly shoving in another two notebooks.
"Sabaku-san, I'm afraid I have to go to a student council meeting." He took the silver key to the music room out of his pocket and handed it to a slightly stunned Gaara. "This is the key to the music room, Yuuhi-sensei leaves around eleven, so you can go in any time after that. Lunch is at noon, and I should be back by then. You don't have to wear your uniform to lunch on the weekends, so feel free to change." He explained it all to Gaara as if he were a talking to a third grader, but Gaara just listened and nodded.
He had to admit that he was disappointed. But then he realized that it was his own fault. He had put Neji on the spot like that telling Yuuhi-sensei that neither of them had anything more important to do. He should have known that Neji was probably busy. He should have at least asked. He had been very inconsiderate and selfish. Also, Gaara had seen first hand that Neji was good at telling people what they wanted to hear. He had probably so much wanted to believe that someone like Neji would spend time with him that he got ahead of himself. He decided instead to take a look at the music.
Although he had agreed to work on the project, Gaara had never written a duet before. He had written music, but not of the classical genre, and melding together two people playing was going to be very difficult. It was like trying to get two finished mixtures to blend together flawlessly, because it had to be flawless. If there were even any rough patches, the whole thing would fall apart. Also, it might involve changing the ensemble parts for various instruments, and they had less that a month until the music festival. Neji had told him that during breakfast.
Gaara realized after half an hour of thinking that had led him nowhere that he was in way over his head. He had no clue what he was doing, and chances were that Neji already had some sort of idea in his mind about what to do with the project. Gaara didn't want to look like a complete idiot but he was afraid that that was the way it was going to turn out.
Neji was sitting in a student council meeting. They were discussing plans for Konoha Music Academy's annual winter gala, the day aafter the student council meeting. Two representatives from their sister school Konoha Girls Preparatory Academy were present to help, and this year the ball was going to be held at the boy's school. Neji wasn't so much concentrating on the task at hand though, because he found himself thinking about red hair and wonderful melodies.
And there you hae it people, chapter 3!!! Please R&R!