Chapter 2: Fog of Nothing

Sasuke knew today would be a bad day. It was Monday. Mondays were automatically worrisome, because Itachi was more likely to force him to go to school early in the week. Like he had today. Bad day already.

In school, Sasuke always spent most of his time not-listening to the teacher, and not-looking at his classmates. He was pretty good at it - maybe it was a skill he learned from his brother.

Instead, Sasuke stared. He stared at the blackboard. He stared out the window. He stared at his desk, at his idle hands, his blank notebook. Its pages were too clean, too white. He marked them with his pen. Just a line here, a black mark there. Sasuke did not doodle; he was not interested in doodles, or art in general for that matter. Or empty notebooks or teachers or even the window. He couldn't see the sky from it.

Sasuke was not the only one staring. Feeling the fine hairs on the back of his neck stand up with awareness, he shifted uncomfortably in his seat, thinking of glaring his unwanted observer back into apathy. Back when they were normal brothers who spoke to each other regularly, Itachi used to lecture him about the rudeness of staring. Sasuke remembered. It was rude, so he should behave as if affronted.

He spun around to face the blonde boy he knew would be looking back at him. Bright cerulean assaulted him, gazed back unflinchingly and brazenly. Unapologetic. And far, far too curious about him. Sasuke let his glare blacken further, though it would do no good against this particular opponent. It never did.

This blonde boy whose name he did not even remember was always staring at Sasuke. He could do so easily from his usual vantage point two seats back and a row over. In the beginning of the year, he had been appallingly persistent in his pursuit of Sasuke's friendship. Sasuke had tried repeatedly to make it clear to the boy (by not-seeing and not-hearing) that he did not have friends. How in the world could he possibly be friends with anyone? He wasn't even on speaking terms with his own brother.

Sasuke allowed the staring/glaring contest to continue just long enough to firmly make his point before turning back around, hoping the annoying blonde would follow suit and just drop it. His thoughts drifted back into blankness for a couple minutes before he was suddenly startled out his reveries by a sharp poke in the back of his head, making him jump. He glanced around briefly before locating the culprit: a paper airplane lay on the floor next to him. Words were scrawled across it in barely legible pencil: To the dumbass with the mean eyes and stupid pierced ears.

So it was a paper airplane note. To him. Pointless. Sasuke did not need to guess who the responsible party was. He turned around briefly to shoot daggers in the blonde's direction, not even bothering to pick up the note. The blonde raised an eyebrow expectantly. Sasuke resolutely turned back to his notebook, determined to ignore the boy thoroughly. The random marks he scribbled on his paper became more disordered, though Sasuke kept his expression carefully neutral.

The rest of the period passed without further incident, in a haze of nothingness. This class had a five minute break midway through that Sasuke barely remembered. He never left his seat. He lost track of how long he'd been sitting, and did not care to remember.

Then without warning: a warm hand on his shoulder.

Sasuke was on his feet instantly, chair screeching from the sudden motion. He found himself standing a full three feet away from his desk, heart pounding wildly in his chest, nerves afire. Someone had touched him.

And now everyone stared.

The teacher's voice died mid-sentence. He stared. The students stared too. But worst of all was the shocked look from the blonde who had evidently swapped seats with the girl behind Sasuke during the break. The blonde boy who must have touched him.

"Mr. Uchiha. Are you alright?" The teacher spoke slowly, as though confronting an unpredictable animal. Somewhere in the back of his malfunctioning brain, Sasuke supposed that must be exactly what he was.

Pinned beneath over-interested gazes everywhere, Sasuke's muscles froze. Blood pounded in his ears. He could not speak. He could not explain. So he did the only thing he could do.

Sasuke ran.

It was happening again, but his awareness of this fact changed nothing. He could not stop it.

Sasuke had escaped the unbearable pressure of the classroom, seeking one of his precious few places of respite: a public park, one of many in Seattle, situated only a couple blocks from the tiny apartment he and Itachi lived in. It had a small pond fed by a surprisingly deep river, across which a little wooden bridge stretched. He often came here to dangle his feet off the edge of the bridge and calm himself. Looking at the water relaxed him, though it was gray like the sky it reflected.

And after his humiliating panic attack in the classroom, Sasuke needed the calm badly.

So here he was, sitting barefoot near the middle of the bridge, gazing down at the water beneath his toes. He had calmed his breathing methodically, concentrated hard to slow his furious pulse. He did not think back on the events of the day nor his inappropriate reactions. He did not wish to look that closely at himself.

A rustling in a nearby tree caught his attention. A beady black eye was watching him. That was the only problem with this spot. The fucking crows. For the second time today, the hairs on the back of Sasuke's neck rose. He twitched uncomfortably.

It was the ugliest thing he'd ever seen. Scraggly legs, sharp talons, oily black feathers. The way it watched him with its inhuman eyes was unnerving.

Sasuke threw a rock at it to make it go away.

His eyes widened in shock as it was suddenly upon him, a flurry of rank black feathers completely filling his field of vision. Sasuke gurgled in fear and disgust, instinctively holding his forearms up to protect his face from its sharp claws and beak. He swatted at it wildly, trying not to breathe in the foul scent—in my face, my hair—but was knocked off-balance by the abrupt impact. He teetered precariously on the edge of the bridge for a moment, briefly suspended in time, knowing what would happen next and powerless to stop it.

Sasuke fell.

It took forever, though he knew the drop from the bridge to the river was only a few feet. His body hit the cold surface too hard anyway, water forcing its way into his lungs. His mouth and nose were filled with the burning taste of it. He fought and thrashed wildly, but couldn't swim. His arms and legs refused to function. Brown reeds snared his wrists and ankles, twisted around his neck like cold fingers, choking him and dragging him down. He could not get to the surface, could not reach the air. His lungs constricted painfully, filling with more freezing water as Sasuke coughed and tried to scream. Finding no air, his body breathed the water, and that was the end of it. Bubbles rose, then stopped. Sasuke eventually stilled, suffocating, and looked up at the sun peeking through the surface of the gray water. Gray like the Seattle sky…

And Sasuke died.

The beady eye was watching him. Sasuke blinked at it, rock in hand. He paused to consider the possible implications of his next action. Then he threw the stone.

The crow simply screeched and flew away.

"Hey."

Sasuke's thoughtful frown was interrupted by a deep voice. He looked around, eyes quickly locating a seated figure, leaning casually against a nearby tree, book in hand. He was older than Sasuke - surely an adult - but it was hard to estimate his age, especially given the unusual color of his hair. He definitely looked too young to be so gray. The man quirked an unimpressed eyebrow at him. Sasuke noticed he had a long scar bisecting his left eye. Odd.

"That wasn't very nice."

Sasuke said nothing. He was as uncomfortable with strangers as he was with people he knew. If he shut up the man would probably leave him alone. Most did.

It worked beautifully. The stranger went back to his book, looking utterly disinterested...bored, even. The minutes passed by slowly. Sasuke found himself idly wondering why he bothered to read it if the book was that dull. Or maybe this man was just unusually expressionless, like Itachi. Or himself.

"Hasn't anyone ever told you it's rude to stare?" The man never even looked up from his book, but Sasuke knew he must have spoken to him. They were the only two people there.

Sasuke's eyes widened slightly, and he felt his cheeks heat up before he quickly turned his face away. The man was right, he had been staring. What was wrong with him?

Maybe the shock of dying again? It wasn't something a person could get used to, no matter how many years it'd been happening for. Sasuke briefly wondered if the mysterious man could somehow sense how disturbed he was. He shook the paranoid thought off. The stranger was paying no attention to him whatsoever. Often Sasuke had to fight off unwanted attention until people learned to ignore him, but this guy was a natural. Sasuke wondered how he got that scar.

Abruptly the man snapped his book shut and dragged himself to his feet with an exaggerated sigh. He finally looked directly at Sasuke. Then he began to calmly slouch toward him.

Sasuke's heart quickened as the man approached. He fought the urge to flee. The man was clearly making a beeline for him, albeit a thoroughly unhurried one. What did he want? Sasuke did not want friends, and he did not know how to talk to people. But his legs were frozen.

The man stopped a respectful distance away and sat down lightly on the bridge near Sasuke, dangling his feet off the edge. Sasuke noticed he was also barefoot. He waited for the words to come. Words that intruded, that demanded things from him, words of unwelcome concern or interest. Sasuke got his glares and silence ready in response.

The words were not what he expected.

"You were staring again."

Sasuke blinked in open shock.

"How can you expect me to read in peace with you watching me so intently? With a face as handsome as mine, I can understand the desire to talk to me, but if you have something to say, I'd appreciate it if you just said it. Then I could go back to my book." The man looked at him, and Sasuke saw patience in his bi-color eyes. One was the oddest shade of red-brown, the other nearly black.

Sasuke could not find his words. The man did not seem bothered by this, though. Sasuke lost track of how long the stranger waited calmly for him to speak.

"Ah. Mute, are we?"

Still, Sasuke could not respond.

"Well. I suppose I'll just have to come back another time then. Apparently today is not a good day for reading." He stood slowly, stretching lazily, taking time to crack his back. Sasuke's eyes were locked on him throughout the entire belabored process. The man turned away.

"Maybe I'll see you around sometime."

And just like that, he wandered off into the distance as the sky began to drizzle.

Sasuke watched his back the whole time.

Later that night, Sasuke feared that his brother would confront him about his disturbance in school. He knew the events were noteworthy enough that his teacher would have called.

They ate their dinner together, but Itachi never said a word.

A/N: This chapter is dedicated to Kyarei, as it probably would never have been written without her encouragement. Thank you! Reviews are greatly appreciated.