Heeeeyyyy I know it has been a while (holy shit, has a year passed already?!), and I'm so so SO sorry for not updating! Guess who's moving out soon? You guessed it, me! I've already reached my internet limit, so I used the time to update my stories and whatnot. So yeah I might exceed my internet usage…what. ever. I lost my inspiration for this story, but then I listened to Animal by The Cab for the first time in a long time, and just felt totally re-energized to write up a chapter!
Do note, that that doesn't mean I planned on giving up on the story, I just wanted to feel inspired. Hopefully I'll be able to make it up to all of you!
-xoxoxo-
The limo ride was loud much to Sasuke's disdain. He didn't know why they had to share a limo with Will of Fire when really they could have just gone in three different limos; one for the girls, and one for each band. But no, their recording companies were cheap assholes.
Neji scowled at how close Kiba got to his cousin. Who did this bitch think he was? She is Hinata Hyuga. She is royalty. How could that mutt even think he had a chance with her? It was absolutely disgusting. Bad enough that his bandmates wanted to snog Hinata, now he had to worry about those buffoons going after his cousin. Neji's frown deepened once he realized he never got the chance to catch up with her. She had spent more time with Kiba than him.
"Thank you." the limousine went quiet. "Hinata."
Hinata looked incredulously at Sasuke who was looking out his open window. "No problem."
No one except Ino was too sure on what was happening before them. Sasuke Uchiha rarely showed genuine gratitude for anything. He didn't even sound like Sasuke in that one moment. Neji observed the suddenly calm Sasuke while the conversations began to arise again. He was coming up with a new song, Neji could tell by the way Sasuke's fingers drummed against his knee, and the way he was paying no attention to the limo ride.
It was a known fact to all of Caged that Sasuke had a knack for song writing, he just never showed them any of his personal stuff. Sasuke, like Neji, had a variety of professions he could have pursued aside from music. The passion he has is what drove him to it unlike Neji who chose to be smothered by the watchful eye of the public rather than the watchful eyes of the Hyuga family.
Neji wasn't the only one who noticed Sasuke's odd behaviour, Gaara had as well. Despite his preoccupation with his niece, Gaara could tell something had happened for Sasuke to act this way. While the Hyuga girl did capture his attention, he couldn't help but wonder that there was more to her than her appearance lead on. Like she was more than just the pretty head on her shoulders. For someone to get Sasuke to show the slightest bit of gratitude was a huge feat.
"Excuse me, sleepy man." Shigeko yelled over the noise. Gaara stiffened knowing who his precious niece was talking to. He had half a mind to pull her away in that one moment. Shikamaru opened an eye to peek at the little girl tugging at his shirt. "You're sitting on my bow."
Poor Shigeko had been trying to get her hair bow from the man since the beginning of the ride. It had fallen from her head upon entering the limo, and lo and behold, that pineapple head sleepy man had sat down on the seat closest to the door…where her bow dropped. Her uncle however had no intention of letting her anywhere near that guy, so once she saw an opening to escape, she did.
Shikamaru lifted himself slightly, and reached under him to find the little girl's hair accessory. "Here you go." He was going to just leave it at that, but seeing her grin at him with those adorably crooked teeth of hers had triggered something in him.
"Thank you!" Against his better judgement, he reached a hand out to ruffle her already messy hair. If he believed in anything like cosmic forces, he'd think they were the ones causing this connection he didn't want with the girl before him. "Uncle Panda, help please."
Had Gaara not been given the task of fixing Shigeko's hair, he would have gotten up to beat the shit out of Shikamanwhore for laying a filthy hand on Shigeko. Father or not, that lazy asshole left her behind. Lucky for the bassist, Gaara had made himself a promise to never show his violent side in front of Shigeko — the last thing he wants is to scare her.
"Well, girls, we've arrived at your destination." Jiraiya said, opening the door for the girls. Sakura wasn't so sure she should leave the limo with the other girls after the previous night. "As much as I'm sure the boys would love for you to stay, Ms. Haruno, we've got a busy schedule ahead of us today, and we need for you to leave."
"Yeah, move billboard brow." Ino said flatly. The feeling of betrayal didn't leave the blonde. What happened to their honesty policy? They were to tell each other everything even if it meant possibly hurting the feelings of the other. The fact that it took an ecstasy pill to get that out of Sakura really pissed Ino off. So what if she hashtags like a mad woman? Whether people want to like her photos or not, is up to them, not her hashtags. Yes, she is sensitive when it comes to her social media, but god is she even more sensitive when it comes to dishonesty.
Once the door closed behind the girls, all hell broke loose.
"How dare you lay even one finger on Shig's head." Gaara snarled.
"I didn't hurt her." Shikamaru shot back. "I don't see what has you all worked up."
"That is none of your business. I don't want your filthy hands anywhere near my niece, got it?" Shikamaru rolled his eyes.
"What are you gonna do to me, Sabaku? Beat me up?"
"Don't fucking tempt me you low life." Gaara was at his boiling point.
"I'm not fucking retarded, Gaara. I know I'm the father."
"SHUT UP!" Gaara roared, launching himself at the smirking bassist. "You have no right to call yourself her father; you were never there!" It took Neji, Kakashi, and Sai to hold Gaara down.
"How could I even be there if I didn't know she even existed!" Shikamaru argued.
"You would know if you bothered returning my sister's calls! That's real classic of you, you know that, Nara?"
"Oh, real fucking funny coming from you." Shikamaru snorted.
"Here's the key difference between the two of us, you lazy fucker. I wrap my dick before I fuck my chicks." Gaara spat. "Some of us aren't so fucking careless. I also make it clear to every bitch I fuck that I'm not in it for them. I don't lead them on as if I actually had any sort of feelings for them in the first place. I don't fucking tell them that they're special, and I don't make promises I don't intend on keeping."
Shikamaru opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. He knew as well as Gaara that none of what had just been said applied to him — with the exception of not using a condom, he couldn't be bothered really — and that he was specifically talking about what happened with Temari.
"Let me out, Kakashi." Gaara said, shaking everyone off. "I'll take a cab to the company building."
"Gaara—"
"Let him go." Sasuke finally spoke up. "I would do it for the sake of Nara's face. I'm going to go too." Kakashi just sighed and told the limo driver to stop. Pulling their hoods over their heads, and glasses on, the two Caged members exited the limousine.
"Shikamaru, you've got a lot of explaining to do." Jiraiya sighed.
-xoxoxo-
"Here's your stuff, now go." Ino said. "I've called a cab for you already."
"Ino, can we please just talk about this?" Sakura groaned. "I was desperate for Sasuke's attention, and I screwed up. I'm sorry."
"Sakura, what is the one thing I hate the most?"
"Fake people, but you know our friendship isn't fake! We've been friends for so long, I'm sorry!"
"And you're not the least bit sorry to Hinata who was trying to look out for you? I'm not trying to pin you as a total bitch, Sakura. You're doing that to yourself. We're your sisters, and you're supposed to trust us."
"I wouldn't say Hinata exactly ever trusted me." Sakura scoffed. "As if she's actually honest with us. If she was, she would speak up more, don't you think? Why are you even making this about Hinata when it's clearly between the two of us." The cab arrived, and honked its horn.
"Yeah, well I can't exactly say you gave her a reason to after last night." Ino retorted. "Have you ever taken the time to reevaluate the shit that spews out of your mouth? Because if you did, you'd totally hear how fucking dumb you sound. You went from apologizing to giving me reasons why you think Nata isn't as good a friend as I think she is. And this is plenty about Hinata, since you pulled your shit on her, not me."
Sakura roughly grabbed her bags. "I don't need to grovel at your feet for forgiveness. Stop acting like you're better than me just because you're tumblr famous. I'd like to see what people would have thought of you if you kept your junk hidden."
"That's tumblr, Instagram, Youtube, twitter, and vine famous thank you very much." Ino corrected. "At least I have bits to flaunt!" She sneered, kicking Sakura out of her bungalow. Ino took deep breaths to refrain from crying. There goes her best friend.
"Thank you for letting us come over, Ino." Temari thanked, picking up Shigeko.
"Anytime! Come by again with Shig, we love having both of you around!" Ino waved goodbye to her new friend, and locked the door behind her.
"It's okay to cry, Ino." Hinata said with open arms. "You guys can make up, and it'll all be okay again." Ino ran to Hinata and let the tears fall.
"You know this was her inner self, don't you?" Hinata nodded, and stroked her head. "Thing is, Nata. She can't control that aspect of herself, and it's not like I can tell her to get psychiatric help for something that's a part of her. I just thought that with all that we went through together, we could talk things out and be honest with each other."
"Come on, calm down now." Hinata said softly. "Don't go making this sound like you just went through a break up with your boyfriend."
Ino laughed, and wiped her eyes with her arm. "Let's watch The Notebook."
"Again, Ino?" Hinata groaned. She loved the movie the first four times; after what seems like the twentieth time, she was really sick of it.
"Pleeeease?" Hinata groaned in defeat, and went to prepare some snacks.
-xoxoxo-
Taking a swig of his beer, Gaara sighed. It was terribly warm even with his hoodie completely unzipped, showing off his toned torso. "So what were you writing up in your mind? Don't even try hiding it."
"None of your business." Sasuke mumbled. "Isn't it too early for you to be drinking?"
"Asked the guy who usually gets high out of his mind before noon." Sasuke shrugged and drank his water. "So what happened between you and Hinata that got you all thankful and shit."
"She saved my ass from Kakashi."
"Elaborate."
"Kabuto was testing his weird shit on me again. Whatever he gave me, it wasn't ecstasy. Anyways, she found me passed out in an alley before paparazzi or a fan could find me."
"She doesn't count as a fan?"
"I think I fucked that one up for myself." Sasuke said, ordering a beer for himself and another for Gaara once the waiter came to their V.I.P. room. "Tried to get her to take the disco biscuits with me, and she wasn't exactly happy when her now ex-best friend took it with me."
"Fuck it man." Gaara said. "You should really cut back though. That shit's not good for you."
"I don't need that from you too, Sabaku."
"Just trying to look out for you, Uchiha. If Kakashi found out the amount of shit you've been doing, he'd flip a whole new level of shit."
"Let's face it, Caged brings in most of the revenue at the company. There's no way he'd give me the boot. My shit is controlled, I can stop whenever I want."
"Whatever you say." Gaara rolled his eyes, drinking his beer. "So which friend was it that took the E with you? The hot blonde?"
"The one with the pink hair. Sa…Satsuki…Sayaka…Sakura. I'm shit with names."
"You seem to know Hinata's name very well."
"Don't get me started, she's just nice to look at."
"Is she? Well she is, but so are Ino and Sakura. She must've stood out for one reason or another." The waiter came by with another beer for Gaara, and one for Sasuke. "If you don't like her, I'd be glad to snag her for myself."
"I don't think Neji would be too happy with us." Gaara looked at him with 'I don't give a flying fuck' written all over his face. "You can have her. She's not fun."
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but last time I checked you don't need to be high as the clouds to be having fun."
"Whatever. I'm going to the bathroom. Zip up, man. You make us look so fucking gay." Gaara flipped him off, and Sasuke put his glasses and hood back on. Exiting the room, he collided with a girl. She looked up and was taken aback. "Sakura, what are you doing here?" he asked monotonously.
"Grabbing a bite before going back to my place." She said peppily. "Kind of had a fight with Ino, so staying at her place is a no go."
"Was it about the after party?" God, Sasuke, what are you doing? It wasn't like him to ask so many questions. He shouldn't have even acknowledged her. "Did Hinata manage to get back okay?"
"Of course you'd ask about Hinata." Sakura sighed. "Yes, it was about the after party, and Hinata lives with Ino, so they're fine. I'm sorry for getting in your way."
Sasuke stepped to the side, and Sakura stepped in the same direction, once again blocking his path. "Would it be alright if I sat with you?" Sakura asked, looking up at him.
"Go ahead," Sasuke waved to a waiter and signalled to him to lead Sakura to his table. "now move. I need to piss." He wasn't even sure what just happened but she could sit all she wants, she wouldn't be heading back their way anyhow.
He wasn't too sure what had hit him when he first saw her head next to him that morning. Something along the lines of relief, and maybe happiness. Not the kind he got from drugs, but a different kind. One that made him want to pick her up, and switch places with her. A feeling that made his heart buzz with discomfort knowing she was probably uncomfortable sleeping like that — all to make sure he would be okay. She put his comfort and safety before her own. Perhaps he had an epiphany in the limousine; whatever it was, it made him realize how great of a woman Hinata Hyuga truly was.
How can I even really know who she is? I just met her. He thought, zipping up his fly. I might never see her again after this anyways…
Not unless you want to, Sasuke. If you want to, you can see her whenever you want. Fuck you, conscience. He thanked her already. He had no need to see her again. He approached the front desk and took a spare pen, and napkin.
"What took you…oh." Gaara said, seeing the pen and napkin clenched in the Uchiha's pale hand. Sasuke gave a nod of recognition to the two sitting in the booth with him. His scribbling of music bars was rushed, but he had a clear enough idea of what he wants in his mind.
"Is that a new song for Caged?" Sakura asked, peeking at his work. He didn't answer her, and kept working. He wasn't sure what he'd do for lyrics yet, but he had a good feeling about this one. Not that he would actually share it with the rest of his bandmates.
"Don't bother, he's in his music zone." Gaara said, finishing his bottle. "So how was your first E trip?"
"How can you be so sure it was my first?" Sakura asked. "It was…awesome."
"You're kidding me, right?" Gaara almost threw his head back in laughter. "Look, sweetheart, I wouldn't peg you as a junkie — take that as a compliment — and that pill wasn't ecstasy. Duck ass over hear got fucked over by his dealer. If he got majorly fucked, I doubt a noobie like you could handle it."
Sakura turned pink as her hair, and looked at her lap. It was true, it had probably been one of the worst experiences in her life. Had Ino not found her, she wasn't sure what would have happened to her. The worst part was that she remembered every word she said to her best friend.
"I don't know what happened between you and your friends, but if it had anything to do with Uchiha and drugs, I wouldn't suggest you just sit around here with us." Gaara said. He wasn't one to give advice, but they were associates of his sister, so why not enlighten the poor girl.
"I'm going to leave first, Gaara." Sasuke reached for his wallet.
"It's cool, just go do that music magic or whatever the fuck you call it. I've got it covered." Sasuke thanked him, and left without another acknowledgement of Sakura.
If you want to, you can see her whenever you want. The words stuck in his mind. He really could just pop by Ino and Hinata's place. He had to…apologize. He had to apologize. He asked the taxi driver to take him to the Senju Entertainment headquarters downtown.
-xoxoxo-
"Still my favourite movie." Ino sniffled, rubbing her eyes.
"Ino, you say that about every Nicholas Sparks novel based movies." Ino was a huge fan of Nicholas Sparks.
"Not true!" Ino chirped. "I love John Green too!"
"There's only one movie so far based on a John Green novel." Hinata smacked her with a cushion. "In any case, are you feeling any better now? Crying aside." Ino nodded with her usual sunny smile.
DING DONG
"Shit! Nata, answer the door. You're Satan for not crying at the end of this movie, but you don't look like crap so you answer."
DING DONG
"Whoever it is seems to really want in." Hinata got up, and answered the door. "Sasuke?"
"WHAT?!" Ino tumbled out of the living room, and observed from afar hoping he couldn't see that she looked like a wreck. "What do you want, Uchiha? And how do you know we live here?"
"I only dropped you off this morning, Yamanaka. And the company has your information thanks to your entry to the contest." He turned his attention to the petite bluenette standing in front of him. "I came to apologize." He bent down and grabbed a bouquet of flowers hiding at the side of the entrance. "Girls…like flowers, right?"
"They're lovely, Sasuke. Thank you." Hinata said. They were absolutely beautiful — a large bouquet of white sweet peas, and her lilies of the valley; her favourites. She wanted to stay mad at him, she really did. The flowers however, made her smile unconsciously. It was probably then that Sasuke was truly captivated by her. He wanted to see her look like that more, but he wanted to be the one to make it happen. As quickly as the smile came, it went. "R-right, well I guess you're forgiven." Her face was absolutely pink.
Their fingers brushed when she went to take the flowers. Though Hinata thought nothing of it — still mesmerized by the grand bouquet — Sasuke wanted nothing more than to have the contact last longer. Ino being the onlooker noticed the whole interaction between the two.
"Hey Uchiha, if you aren't busy, why don't you come in for a cup of tea?" Ino called from the back. She still didn't want her face to go noticed.
"Sure, why not?" He looked at Hinata who was hiding her pink face behind the flowers. "May I?"
"Yeah, sure, why not?" She echoed him. Running back in, she went to find a vase — wasn't hard considering Ino's family did own a flower shop after all. "Any preferences?" Hinata called from the kitchen.
"I'm good with anything." Sasuke answered, taking off his shoes at the entrance.
"I look super gross, so just go to the kitchen and hang with Nata while I go freshen up!" Ino piped, running to the bathroom closest to her room.
This was probably the most brilliant idea she had ever had! Ino silently cackled to herself. Who would have guessed? Sasuke Uchiha of all people had fallen for her best friend.
