Author's Note: Thanks for the feedback! I can tell you that things will be explained in much more detail later, and the action will really pick up as well. I hope this chapter is a bit longer to your liking (900 words to be exact). Kind of just the starting two chapters with just the surface of the plot. Enjoy!

I hadn't gone over a day without seeing the demon, well, Naruto, again. I hadn't gone out of my way to search for him, rather he seemed to be following me. In between jobs, I would see him leaning against buildings or sitting in parks, and he would wave to me as though it was the most natural thing for a demon to be friendly with an exorcist. He started with just waving, but he began walking with me, in regular, comfortable silence until he got the courage to talk. He could clearly tell I wasn't much of a talker, it kind of came along with the 'ability to see beyond' (all the stories I had were about my many painful jobs), but it didn't seem to bother him as he would watch for small signs of me listening, such as nodding, to his long, usually pointless stories.

A part of me resented him, the part that believed demons belonged in hell and angels belonged in heaven and nowhere else. The majority of me, however, enjoyed his company. I would never mention this to Naruto; his ego seemed already too big, and I doubted he would ever stop mentioning the fact that an exorcist enjoyed the company of a demon. He already made jokes about our awkward friendship, as he put it, and I wasn't about to give him any more ideas.

Eventually, it came to the point where he believed we didn't have any more boundaries, but I was still waiting for him to screw up. It wasn't necessarily bias because he was a demon, it was more because I didn't believe an angel, demon, or even a human would willingly spend time around me without an ulterior motive. He would come around regardless of me ignoring him, and he even began showing up at my rundown apartment, helping me fold my tiny loads of laundry in the basement of the apartment complex and commenting on each shirt I owned more than one of.

"Sasuke, see, you have ten of these same shirts in the same color!"

I shrugged, "You wear the same outfit every day,"

I waited for his reply, but as I was met with silence, I looked down at his frowning face. He looked up to me, forcing a smile and a shrug, "I don't own anything else... demons don't really get much, you know? And it's not like I could work somewhere."

I looked away from him, back to my basket, and then back to him again. I grabbed one of the ten shirts and plopped it onto his head before grabbing my basket and heading up the stairs. I heard him scramble to his feet and follow me.

"Sasuke, I can't take this!" He called from behind me.

I rolled my eyes, "Look, you already pointed out that I have ten, so I figured I could spare one. That one has a bleach stain anyway."

The rest of the way back to my room was silent, but I could practically feel him radiating happiness. When we reached my door, I was tempted to slam it in his face, but I knew he would just find another way in. Any act of anger, or attempts to push him away, only succeeded in making him follow me more.

"You know, it's pretty stupid of a demon to follow an exorcist around like a lost puppy," I said, placing the basket on top of the kitchen counter, just to get it out of my arms, and watched him plop down on my sad excuse for a couch.

"It's pretty stupid for an exorcist to let them," He laughed, "Besides, I've never had a real friend, and you're better than nothing, even if you could kill me."

I shrugged, but a part of me agreed with him. It was relieving to come back from a job and take my mind off my life. I didn't do anything outside of work; I did a job, came home, and thought about more jobs. Occasionally I went out of my usual routine to stock up on more holy water or other items necessary for work, but it was still centered around my daily activities. It would be difficult to find someone to be friends with that wasn't a part of the life. I may have been able to lie to someone about what I did for a living, but it would be impossible for them to stay in my shit hole of an apartment, let alone not find all my weapons lying around. Questions would be asked, ones I was not interested in answering. Besides, humans brought too much drama, and I had enough already.

"Sasuke," Naruto called, breaking me out of my thoughts, "How did you become an exorcist?"

I took a seat at the other end of the sofa, glancing at him staring at me eagerly, and sighed.

"I could always see all the shit as a kid, and it led me to a man, a priest to be exact, who was a retired exorcist. He knew right away, and basically taught me everything I know before he was killed."

"He was killed?"

"I meant before he died. Whatever, it doesn't matter."

"But you said-

"Drop it, Naruto,"

There was awkward silence after that, and I cursed the part of me that felt bad for the pout on his face. Just my luck that my only friend was someone I needed to kill.

"That was a pretty dull explanation..." He mumbled, looking nervous and eager at the same time.

I felt a smile grow on my face, "Yeah? Wait until I tell you about my first job,"

He resituated himself, sitting criss-cross and facing me, and I shifted for better eye contact.

"The priest, Bobby was his name, told me I was getting quite good at exorcising his practice dummies, which I thought was a dumbass thing to do, it really didn't show me if what I was doing was working, and gave me my first job. It was simple; it was a low-level demon, very weak, and it was possessing a little girl, about the age of twelve."

"Bobby is a weird name for a priest," Naruto laughed, and I shrugged.

"Anyway, I wasn't any older than this girl, just barely thirteen, but cockier than ever. I thought it would be beyond easy, but when I arrived, I completely blanked. I tried to expel the demon, but I was honestly too scared, and ended up being thrown out a window." I let out a small laugh, "Bobby wasn't too impressed, and he was actually forced to come take care of it with me because I refused to try again alone."

"Really, a window? I wonder if I know them. My brothers in hell, they talk about this stuff all the time, but I'm not really into hurting humans."

I raised an eyebrow, "Your brothers?"

His blue eyes widened in short surprise, "Uh well, we were all created by the same person right? We call each other our brothers and sisters..."

I hadn't thought about that. I suppose it was just as true as the 'children of god' thing. "I suppose you're right," I finally decided, "Though I sure as hell wouldn't want that many demons in my family."

Naruto laughed surprisingly hard at that, especially considering it wasn't a joke, "I don't think you'd want a demon as a family member at all, or even an angel. You don't like anyone, do you?"

"People are only capable of disappointment. Humans aren't at all what you think they are." I said, refusing to acknowledge the fact that he hadn't mentioned humans at all.

Naruto frowned at me, "I think you're wrong. If humans are only capable of disappointment, there wouldn't be any of these great things on Earth, there wouldn't be happiness,"

I chuckled, "Have you ever seen the movie 'The Pursuit of Happiness'?"

"The what?"

"Don't tell me you've never watched a movie..." The sheepish look on his face confirmed my suspicions and I groaned, "You're lucky a friend forcefully gave me a DVD player and I just so happen to own that movie,"

"A friend?"

I shrugged, "She's my supplier for stuff like holy water. Kind of a friend, more like an annoying, slightly helpful girl."

"You shrug a lot."

"You talk a lot." I shrugged, this time completely on purpose, and stood to set up the movie. It took me a moment to find the movie, and a quick glance back at Naruto showed me he was indeed watching me, a strange look on his face.

I turned the lamp off on the way back to the sofa, one of the only lights in the apartment, and we were graced with only the light of my small TV. I felt bad for having his first movie be on such a tiny TV, but I doubted he had any idea of the others out there.

As I watched Will Smith's son prance around the screen for the thousandth time in my life, I felt my attention drawn away from the movie and to Naruto sitting next to me. He was still, watching with rapt attention. The images on the screen danced in his eyes, and just from little movements I could tell what he was feeling. He would lean forward slightly, lips parting, when something surprising happened, furrow his brows when something bad happened, and at a simple scene, one I knew well where Will Smith and his son spent the night in the bathroom at a train station, a single tear rolled down his cheek. Before I could stop myself, I had reached out to stop the tear, my finger brushing against his cheekbone.

We both froze, and as his eyes met mine, I quickly lowered my hand and looked back to the screen. I could feel his eyes still on me.

"I didn't know demons could cry." I whispered in an attempt to break the silence.

"Neither did I."

I couldn't understand the feelings rushing through me. I couldn't understand how he could be crying, how he could go against everything I had ever been taught, go against everything I had ever experienced. I had let this go on too long; I went against my teachings and against my own better judgment. For what? A demon?

I threw my head into my hands, the internal battle with right and wrong becoming too much.

"Sasuke..." Naruto whispered, grasping my shoulder in his hand.

I abruptly stood, shaking his hand from my shoulder. I could feel my legs shaking, but I quickly made my way to the door, hearing Naruto jump up to follow.

"Sasuke, wait!"

"Don't follow me!" I shouted back, leaving the door wide open. I took the stairs two at a time, no patience for waiting for the elevator, and fumbled in my pockets for my keys. My car was, as usual, parked on the side of the road. I flung the driver's side door open, ignoring honks from cars going around me, and slammed it shut and jammed the key into the ignition. I wasn't one for cursing too much, but I couldn't help a long string of profanities coming from my mouth as I slammed my forehead against the steering wheel.

After a minute of sitting there, gripping the wheel so tight my knuckles were white, I finally sat up. The car was yelling at me to put on my seat belt and I complied, pulling out onto the street and trying to think of anything but the bright eyed demon sitting in my apartment.

Author's Note (again): Hope you liked. Be ready for a bit of a deeper look on Sasuke's ideas next week.