A nervous pencil tapped on the kitchen desk as two stern eyes bore into the top of the boys head. Both onyx hues stared down at the paper before him.

Y equals two x squared divided by…two x… two x exp?

Sasuke shook his head suddenly, realizing he had read the same problem over at least ten times now. He was getting no where. His focus drifted so constantly nowadays he couldn't keep his mind with him to even read a math problem. He had been sitting here for almost two hours with his father watching him, arms folded, and seated in that same position, unblinking, as stone cold and unmoving as a rock.

Every once and a while the boy would blink up at his father then avert his eyes just as quickly to check if he was still staring at him. He almost always was. Wasn't it impossible to work with someone watching you?

Sasuke swallowed, tapping his pencil faster. He knew no matter how long they sat here his homework wouldn't get done. He was already letting his guild down by being offline. Slowly, the graphite at the tip began to fade into the form of a negative one on his paper. It was a guess, for sure. He hadn't even read the question nor had he written any other work down to solve it.

The scratching of chair legs against the tile floor caused the boy to look up, seeing his father get to his feet and silently leave the room. Had that satisfied him? Sasuke blinked, feeling his phone vibrate in his pocket. Pulling it out, he flipped it open, reading the text he had received from Naruto.

Did you do your project yet?

Sasuke blinked. What project? Oh…right. That project.

uh no. i forgot.

It was an honest reply. He couldn't think of anything else to say anyways. He didn't really have to look up what the word meant anyways. He knew celerity meant speed.

Oh my gosh. You're gonna fail! Go do some work, teme. Love yew. *chu*

Sasuke blushed slightly, brows furrowing in annoyance at the text on the small screen.

yeah whatever.

The Uchiha got to his feet, giving the room a glance before, literally, running to his room, only to get stopped at the door by his mother.

"Don't you have homework to do?"

Sasuke bit his lip. "Yeah, but I have research to do on the internet for a project." It was the truth. His mother smiled at him, nodding.

"Alright. Go on."

She had believed it? It almost seemed too easy. Sasuke twitched a lip in a half-smile at her before rushing into his room, throwing his books on his bed and jumping into the black spinny-chair at his computer. As the Windows Vista took it's sweet time booting up, the Uchiha felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.

Come on AIM. I'm bored!

As much as Sasuke wanted to ignore the blonde, he couldn't bring himself to not text back.

no. i'm busy.

Short and to the point. That's how he texted. Besides, he was slow at texting, so short worked well for him. Unlike Sasuke, though, Naruto was much faster at texting back.

Okay, actually…I kinda forgot what we had to do for our project and I figured it'd be easier to explain through IM so pleeeease?? Just sign on as invisible.

A twitch befell the boy's right eye as he flipped his phone shut, huffing in aggravation and looking up to his monitor, which was now fading from black to his desktop image. Though, it always took another hundred billion minutes to load all the settings and fire walls his father had installed when they got it. Glancing back down to the text, he sighed once more.

fine

As the Uchiha watched the screen load, he bit his lower lip in anticipation till everything had booted into it's correct place. Eagerly, the boy clicked on the Crisis Code icon on his desktop, proceeding to click on the AIM icon he so rarely used as well.

"Yes…yes!" The boy smiled slightly as he clicked start game when the packages had all loaded then, not near as enthusiastically, clicked the sign on as invisible button to AIM. "Come on, come on…" Anxiously, he tapped his finger, only to let out a growl when Naruto IMed him, slowing down the process of connecting to the server.

Heeeey x3 So what do we have to do? o.o Cuz I really don't remember.

Sasuke shook his head, barely remembering the instructions himself.

just research the word and talk about it its not that hard

The small smile returned as the Uchiha noticed the screen load in window mode to Crisis Code. Immediately, he hit g, the shortcut key to his guild list, to check who was online. "Resplendence…Resplendence…" A sudden pang to his heart sent the boy, who was formerly sitting upright in his chair, back into a leaning position of defeat. "…he's not online…" He whispered gently, pursing his lips.

Ooooh. Okay! Thank yew Sasuke-kun~! *chu!* Btw, whatcha doing? I'm bored!

He knew it. Naruto knew what he was supposed to do. The kid just wanted someone to talk to out of boredom. And who better to harass than Uchiha Sasuke, of course? A groan was forced past the boy's lips.

crisis code... what the hell else would i be doing?

The apathy of his rhetorical inquiry held a sullen innuendo of annoyance in it's depths. And Naruto took quick notice.

Uh, okay, sorry I asked. What's your problem?

Sasuke huffed, figuring he was tired of the boy already and decided not to respond, checking his guild list once more, only to see a tiny IM box at the bottom corner of his MMO screen.

Resplendence says Hey, you! :3 Wanna grind? I just bought a level 22 party and need a partner.

Sasuke smiled slightly, allowing his hopes to be raised tenfold and ignoring the blinking orange tab at the bottom of his monitor.

um sure but u wont get exp remember? where at?

Resplendence says Haha, silly I don't mind if I dont get exp if it means I can help a new guild member level. :3 We've gotta get our guildies to high levels so we can keep our position in the top ranks of guild wars. n.n Besides, I don't mind spending time with you. :3 Since we never got around to it yesterday, just meet me at Tabitha Town and auto-follow like I said, okay?

Sasuke couldn't help but let a light blush touch his cheeks. A high level player like this didn't mind spending time with a newbie like him…it made his heart tingle.

As he began typing a response to the other, a pop up at the bottom right hand corner of his monitor caught his eye.

Sasuke? You there?

Annoyance flooded him while he clicked the orange box, reading what the blonde had typed before that.

You don't have to take out your pissy attitude on me, damnit.

Wishing he had ignored the boy, he typed a quick 'no, I'm not here' to the other before going back to reply to his fellow guild member.

…ok.

He hadn't meant to add the ellipses at the front. Yet, it just seemed to happen. It flowed, it was habit. Besides, he never even noticed till after he sent it so there wasn't a thing he could do about it anyways. Biting his lip, he began to run his character to Tabitha Town, hoping the other hadn't noticed. But, of course, with luck like his, nothing would go as he wanted it to.

Resplendence says Are you okay? D:

Sasuke growled, cursing his luck as he asked why he did this to himself in a near silent hiss of a whisper.

im fine sry…just talking to someone on aim that's making me …idk. sry.

The words were jumbled and disoriented, yet the spilling of syllables onto the screen made it more comprehensible than his mind was thinking it out to be.

Resplendence says Oh, sweetheart, I'm sorry. If you wanna talk, we can. I know you don't know me and I don't know you but I feel like we have a kind of connection…maybe because we both live in Shibuya? :3 Lol. But you have an AIM? n.n So do I! Add me. :D My username is xSilverScarecrow. It'd be easier to talk there than here so we wouldn't have to press enter at the end of every sentence ya'know? Hehe. That way we can talk off-game, too! :3!

Sasuke perked up a bit. Somehow, the other made him feel so warm; a polar opposite to the empty, forgotten, betrayed chill he felt on a daily basis. Though he normally spoke to no one but Naruto over AIM and rarely logged on, he figured he could make a habit of it if it meant being able to talk to the other.

okay i added u

There was a pause before Sasuke typed up something else. 'I feel like we have a connection, too…I wish I could talk to you, but-' The boy didn't get past that word before erasing it entirely and staring over, taking a deep breath.

im in tabitha town where r u?

He had only just sent it before he saw the other's character; a slender male priest in snow white and cerulean blue robes, a glowing halo around his light purple chest-length hair, bangs covering the two emerald green orbs. His wand and robes were glowing from a plus ten upgrade, which was also near impossible to obtain, and a small white kitty followed him around; a pick up pet for items, since the game didn't have auto-pick up. "Wow…" The syllable was breathed almost inaudibly past his lips.

Resplendence says I see you. :3

Sasuke had forgotten the other could see him and sprang back slightly in alarm, realizing how plain and n00b-like his character must look in comparison to the other's. His simple black hair and red eyes and unupgraded level 35 npc-bought rogue outfit was nothing special. A hue of pink stained his cheeks as he swallowed, fingers shaking over the keys.

ur character is amazing…

It was all he could type in his dazed stupor.

Resplendence says Haha. n.n Why, thank you! Ready to grind? :3 Auto-follow me!

Sasuke barely had time to click the option before he was being pulled along through back routes till they reached a spawn of level 60 mobs. The Uchiha blinked, frowning at his level in comparison to the levels they were by as the other began to buff him.

um…im only lvl 38...

Sasuke's eyes widened as he watched his stats soar with the high-level buffs he was receiving.

Resplendence says I know. n.n Now go kill. :3 Don't worry about healing, I've got that covered! AoE to your hearts content! Go, go, go!

The Uchiha bit his lower lip, knowing the penalty for death was a loss of 10 percent exp that would take hours to get back. Putting his trust in another was something hard for him to do, yet, however many doubts he had, he found it abnormally easy to push them aside and collect a mob of over 20 level 60 creatures. The boy paused for a moment and watched his hp flicker like a seizure; the sporadic up and down movements of the numbers from being attacked, crit'd, and healed was mesmerizing to him. He couldn't believe he wasn't dead yet. Pressing the button for his AoE attack, the boy 1-hit-KOed the many monsters.

Both onyx hues shot open. "No way…he was right…?"

Resplendence says See? n.n Look at your exp. :3 Hehe.

Sasuke blinked. From a normal mob, around an 8 percent increase was to be expected. From this, his exp had shot up from 23.86 to 53.24.

oh my god!! i got almost 30 percent!!

A smile traced Sasuke's lips, parting them to reveal pearly white teeth. It was rare he had a moment he smiled like such, but the rapid increase in exp caused a euphoria to warm the length of him. With exp like this, he'd level in no time at all!

This continued for another half hour till the boy had reached level 42 and exp was becoming harder to obtain.

Resplendence says Okay, if it's alright with you, let's do this every day we're both on and you'll be up in the ranks in no time! Tomorrow, we'll move to level 63's, okay? n.n But, now I've got to log off. Talk to me on AIM? ;3

Sasuke nodded to his computer as though the other could see him.

yes! yes yes yes! and sure i will. see u on aim.

No sooner had the two logged off were they speaking to each other once more.

xSilverScarecrow (9:15:07 PM) Hey! Okay, so I've really been wondering, what's your name?

Sasuke knew not to give his name out to strangers. He had always been taught that. Yet, something in him told him it was alright this time. That everything would be okay. That he could trust this person…

QuothTheRaven (9:15:22 PM) sasuke

xSilverScarecrow (9:15:28 PM) Sasuke-kun, hm? n-n That's a cute name. :3

The Uchiha waited for a moment, wondering if the other would tell him his name as well. Yet, after a full minute without seeing the 'such and such is typing' at the bottom of the IM, the boy couldn't help but type up the inquiry himself.

QuothTheRaven (9:16:01 PM) so do i get to kno ur name…?

xSilverScarecrow (9:16:04 PM) Just call me Laharl. :3

Just call…? Did that mean that was his real name or what he was known as? Come to think of it, Laharl sounded strikingly familiar, yet the boy couldn't place his finger on it. Biting his lower lip, Sasuke decided even if he wanted to, he couldn't be pushy enough to force the other for an answer.

QuothTheRaven (9:16:28 PM) ok

It was all he could say. Pathetic, he knew. But there wasn't a single other thing he could think of.

xSilverScarecrow (9:16:48 PM) So how old are you?

QuothTheRaven (9:16:53 PM) um 14 u?

xSilverScarecrow (9:17:00 PM) 23. I hope that doesn't scare you off. : (

Sasuke blinked suddenly. Twenty three? He didn't act twenty then. But, then, maybe he did. The emoticons threw him off, though. He always wondered why people used smileys. Putting mini faces into phrases didn't make much sense to the Uchiha. Why not just say what you mean in the first place?

QuothTheRaven (9:17:34 PM) no

xSilverScarecrow (9:17:42 PM) Okay, good. :3So tell me about this friend of yours that was upsetting you earlier.

Sasuke hesitated slightly, biting his lower lip. It was rare he spoke of Naruto to other people and especially rare he spoke of his feelings at all.

QuothTheRaven (9:17:52) its nothing…he was just being annoying. hes always annoying. he may be my friend but i really hate him sometimes…he never knows when to shut the fuck up. hell he never shuts up…and he says everything wrong at the wrong times so its nothing…just normal stupidity

It was possibly the longest IM he had ever written in his life and his heart was thumping avidly in his chest, a nervousness arising at admitting something so personal.

xSilverScarecrow (9:18:02 PM) Aww. Poor thing. : ( Though, it kind of sounds to me like you like him. o.o Maybe.

Sasuke thought nothing of it and shrugged.

QuothTheRaven (9:18:05 PM) yeah guess i mean he is my friend i guess….

xSilverScarecrow (9:18:14 PM) Well, yes, of course, but I was actually talking about it...a different way.. n-n; Eheh.

The Uchiha blinked, eyes widening as his mind began to reel. Like Naruto? Like, like like Naruto? There was no way! They had grown up together. They were just best friends. Flustered, Sasuke began to type back quickly, only to be stopped mid-sentence to click the x on an update pop-up that had sprung up at the bottom right hand corner of his monitor.

QuothTheRaven (9:18:32 PM) like naruto?? no fucking way! i hate him! the idiot can go die for all i care…

It wasn't the truth, but he wanted to make himself quite clear it wasn't denial he was experiencing nor was he lying. Chest heaving with the embarrassment such a statement had caused, he looked away for a moment, not wanting to see an answer from the other. It was true, he really did like-like Naruto…but it was just a childhood crush. A crush that caused his heart to lurch every time he saw the other… After thinking for a moment, he turned back to the screen, wanting to add 'besides, we're just friends' onto his argument. Though, what he read on the screen was not the black and green script of Laharl, but the bright orange font of Naruto.

RamenHokageXoX (9:18:52 PM) …what?

Sasuke felt his breath catch in his throat, his entire body freezing in paralysis. He had clicked the wrong IM tab.