Chapter 5. Vicinity with strangers.

Sasuke was walking down the narrow dusty backstreet, trying to keep away from the main roads. He had a somewhat confused expression on his face and was constantly looking over his shoulder to check if there was nobody following him. It was a late hour during the weekend and there were good chances of getting into trouble without searching for it.

After some quarter of an hour at a fast pace, Sasuke reached his destination point. He looked back for the last time, took a deep breath acknowledging the sign in crooked italic letters 'Bumpy Ride', then pushed the swinging door into a small dirty bar-type club.

The place was smoky and crowded. As soon as Sasuke took his first step inside, a not-so-clear in the head young man got pushed into him from somewhere.

"Gosh, mate!Watch yourself. Tsch. ", Sasuke avoided the wobbly body, giving it a free chance to land on someone else.

There was a mixture of different types of music coming from the jukebox, the dance floor in the further section, as well as from the false singing group at one of the tables, probably celebrating a birthday or some other occasion with not the first glass of strong alcohol in their hands.

Sasuke successfully made his way towards the bar and ordered.

"One vodka".

The bartender, a skinny man in his thirties looked at Sasuke suspiciously and turned to another customer, taking an order and gayly chatting with a girl sitting next to him. Sasuke waited patiently, he finished mixing the drink and took another order, still keeping Sasuke waiting.

"Hey. You didn't hear me or what?!One vodka I said!" repeated Sasuke, slamming his hand on the bar. The bartender came closer and leaned towards him, warning

"Kid, you better go home before i call your parents".

Sasukes patience came to an abrupt ending. He grabbed the bartender by the collar,( with this the top button on his neon glowing white shirt fell off and hit the bar), at the same time not attracting much attention of other visitors to the scene.

"You make me a drink. Now. Don't make me repeat myself again. Or you will have to book a visit to the dentist for yourself."

With these words, Sasuke let go of his shirt and -a holy miracle!- he got his drink pretty much directly. He even got charged less than expected.

Sasuke smirked at that. Amazing, how cooperative people could be with just a little bit of forceful persuasion.

After his third glass Sasuke started feeling a pleasant warmth running down through his tensed abused limbs. He took his time to look around. For the first time.

The "Bumpy Ride" was a well suited name for for a place like that. The public in the room where Sasuke was currently sitting consisted mainly of men and women in their thirties. Almost all of them were either in autopilot-condition or approaching that stage.

There were exclusions though, well dressed in short skirts girls with long hair, and boys in clubwear close to his age, appearing every now and then from the neighboring dance hall, obviously tired of waiting for their drinks in there.

Sasukes eyes stopped on one couple, laughing and cuddling they rushed towards the bar and nearly knocked Sasukes' glass from his hand. They were both evidently slightly drunk.

"Oh, sorry", apologized the boy, smiling with a wide pleasant smile which Sasuke deliberately ignored.

"Hn", Sasuke stared into his own drink, feeling more relaxed than usual as he didn't catch to the opportunity to start a fight, which he would normally do.

They made an order. Pina colada and gin tonic.

What a girlish order, thought Sasuke, entertaining himself with observing his see-through beverage and paying vague attention to the public. He overheard though that the girl was about to go to the restroom.

Her accompaniment leaned to Sasuke as if he were his closest friend as he commented with a wink

"Oh, these women, right?"

Sasuke kept watching the pieces of ice on the bottom of his glass. The frosty crystals were slightly waving back to him through the layer of spirit.

"Are you alone here?", the young man didn't seem to be giving up and decided to lead the conversation further despite Sasukes' passive reaction. For the first time Sasuke lifted his eyes and stared at the boy with his Uchiha-glare, notifying that he was not in the mood for a chat.

Unfortunately due to the consumed alcohol, bad lightning or just his own manner of communicating to strangers the boy didn't get the message and continued pushing his luck.

"I'm Ki, by the way", he offered Sasuke a hand. Sasuke lightly shook it with three fingers only and returned to the activity of observing his drink

"And your name is?"

Sasuke glared at annoying Ki, who smiled at him , flapping his long eyelashes in an innocent Lolita-type manner

"Sasuke". He answered dryly.

"So what are you doing here, Sasuke? You are obviously not after getting layed, as you are in this section of the bar. Alone. So why then? "

Ki, seated himself next to Sasuke, unpleasantly violating the half a meter of his personal space.

Amazing that chattering Ki, or whoever he was, didn't get punched that very moment for his extra-super-hyper-extreme 'friendliness'.

"I'm drinking", stated Sasuke the obvious and his acquaintance threw his head back and burst into laughter as if it was the worlds biggest joke.

"Oh, man! You've got some sense of humor, I'm telling you", he patted Sasukes shoulder, missing one more deadly glare in his direction.

Sasuke just kept wondering about the extend of his own patience. Suddenly another inaccurate bar guest decided to land on Sasukes chest, this time successfully smashing the drink from his hands, sending it flying across the bar and spilling the rest of its contents on the others including the owner of the mentioned drink.

Sasukes reactions were immediate. He lifted the unfortunate body away from himself with a stretched arm and threw a fist into the mans' abdominal area.

His punch got stopped by somebody from behind just about a millisecond before it managed to cut the air. Sasuke turned his head at the obstacle represented by Ki, who was still smiling while holding Sasukes fist with his hand.

"Hey, there is no need for that." he said.

If Sasuke was not furious, then he was a timid kitten. He pushed the drunkie so that he lost his balance and met another 'guest' named the floor. With this turning towards Ki, gritting his teeth in rage

"You gonna disturb me all night or what?!"

"Hey, Sasuke-kun, its' not worth it. I'll buy you another drink", answered Ki, still continuing to smile generously as he let Sasukes' hand go.

Funny and unexpected, Sasuke smiled back at him and sat back on his stool, calming down.

Damn alcohol, he thought to himself, irritated but at the same time amused by his own reaction.

Ki bought him the promised drink and just as they 'kampaii'ed Ki's girlfriend returned from the toilet, closing her hands around Kis' shoulders and hanging on him.

"Well, Ki-san, did you miss me? Who is your new friend?", she asked staring at Sasuke with an interest.

Sasuke measured her with a gaze up and down and didn't find anything specially entertaining and returned back to studying his drink.

The girl pouted a bit at his reaction.

"Sasuke-kun, meet Ayano-chan", Ki introduced the girl pushing her in front of himself so that Sasuke could see her better. She stretched her skinny hand with unnaturally long jewelled fingernails to Sasuke. Sasuke stared at the hand for an instant, then slightly answered in the same manner as to her male-acquaintance before.

"Sasuke". He nodded indifferently.

She smiled at him.

"Do you like dancing, Sasuke-san?"

"I don't dance", he answered, but she already grabbed both boys by their hands heading towards the second hall, where the music was so high one could hardly hear himself speaking.

They had a couple of drinks more while Ayano was all in dancing, moving surprisingly lightly for having high heals on her feet and alcohol in the blood. Sasuke and Ki watched her but didn't join in. After the fifth drink Sasuke's head started spinning and he swallowed an urge to gag at the smell of sweat, alcohol and something else not very appetizing..

"I need to get some air", he screamed into Ki's ear as he put an empty glass on the bar and rushed towards the exit.

It was after midnight and the right time for parties and clubs. All the scum of the earth seemed to have found their way out onto the surface. There were groups of three and more hiding in the shadows performing some sort of illegal trade.

Sasuke was standing just outside the 'Bumpy Ride's' doors. He was feeling sick. The so-called fresh air contained a rich aroma of mixtures between alcohol, piss and old garbage that didn't make it easy for Sasuke to resist the temptation of emptying his stomach. Sasuke wobbled and leaned against the dirty brick wall of the bar and closed his eyes, panting heavily.

"Hey, are you alright? Did you have too much to drink tonight?" he heard Kis' voice from the suddenly opened doors.

"Yeah, apparently", Sasuke answered still keeping his eyes shut. Ki came up to him and offered him a shoulder to lean on.

"Come on, let's get you home. I'll call a cab."

Sasuke made a step, gladly putting some of his weight over onto Kis shoulder and they started slowly moving towards the main road.

"Hey, boys. Where are you going without me?" they heard an abrupt question followed by the rapidly

approaching steps of the girl named Ayano who appeared in the doors of the bar that they just passed.

Ki smiled to Sasuke a guilty smile "Women, huh?...".Sasuke smirked not capable for any further reaction, still trying to overcome the gravity and balance complications. Gladly with Kis' help.

"We are going home, Ayano-chan. Sasuke is not feeling well".

The girl took her healed shoes from her feet, carrying them in one hand, then she picked Sasukes second arm and placed it over her shoulder, supporting him from the other side.

Sasuke smiled at her. It was a nice gesture. Despite the fact that Sasuke didn't like interacting with people, he somehow enjoyed this sudden vicinity with two strangers, helping him when he felt so vulnerable and ...drunk.

They found a cab pretty fast and it took another good effort for Sasuke to fight with the famous but hardly appreciated helicopter-feeling before they helped Sasuke out of the car while Ki was paying up.

"How do feel now, Sasuke-san?", asked the girl supporting Sasuke the way she did before still carrying her shoes in a hand and stepping barefoot on the pavement.

"I'll live." the brunette answered, trying to keep to simple short words as his tongue seemed to have swollen in his mouth making it a hard job to pronounce complicated phrases. Sasuke looked around. He didn't recognize the area.

"Who lives here?", he asked when Ki leveled up with them, placing Sasukes arm over his shoulder again and they moved towards a many storied building with a convenience-store on the ground floor.

"I do", answered Ayano. And she added "Don't worry. You can stay at my place tonight. I've got plenty of space for all of us".

Sasuke was just about to say something, but it proved to be too long , so he just breathed out his quite meaningful "Hn", and silently proceeded, dragging his feet.

Ayano closed the door and locked it behind them, then made a gesture towards the room to the left. Ki helped Sasuke to reach the sofa and he heavily landed next to Sasuke. A moment later Ayano came in carrying a jug of lemon water and ice on the tray along with two glasses.

"Here. Drink this. You will feel better", she put the tray on the coffee table in front of them.

"I'll get some clean towels and the fresh bedding. But you will have to make the bed yourselves, boys", she smiled and Sasuke got a strange feeling at the thought of having to share the bed with someone. Especially a guy. A guy who was not his brother.

Ki seemed to have read Sasukes thoughts as he laughed reassuringly

"No, no, Sasuke-kun. Don't you worry. I'll sleep on the sofa, you can have the bed for yourself."

"Hn. Whatever."

Ayano laughed with him and it made Sasuke smile as well. They were actually quite nice people, these two. Very pleasant people.

N/A: yes, I know. At last Sasuke starts looking like Sasuke not just a wimp of some sort! tell me what you think of his transformation! I'm excited to know!