A/N: This is AU, and I'm going to try updating these weekly again, but I can't promise that yet.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or make any profit from this.

Suigetsu didn't know the redheaded girl who was crying by her locker personally, but he did know her story. The school stud, Sasuke Uchiha, had left her for her best friend. Suigetsu wasn't usually into gossip, but that had been all over the school that day, drilling itself into his brain.

"Hey." He sighed, sitting by her. "You gonna be alright?" He took a sip from his water bottle and eyed the girl. She was pretty, with red hair and matching eyes behind the frames of her fogged up glasses. She wasn't the kind of looker that would win in a beauty pageant, but she was girl next door gorgeous.

"Who are you?" Karin asked, studying him. Her eyelids were swollen from crying, but when she saw him her features hardened into that of distrust. It was clear she saw him as just another guy trying to be her rebound. By the way she scooted away Suigetsu could guess that she was hating on the entire male race, whether she knew them or not.

"Suigetsu Hoozuki." Suigetsu continued to study her calmly, but she was moving away again. "Listen, I'm not trying to get anything from you. I just feel bad for the girl sobbing by the lockers thirty minutes after school's out on a Friday alright?"

Karin took a deep breath, wiping her eyes and then wiping her glasses down on the bottom of her shirt. "I don't need your pity, Suigetsu Hoozuki." She huffed, reaching off to the side to grab her bag.

"It's not pity, it's freaking compassion." Suigetsu glared at her. "Listen, I'm probably not the best judge in the world, not knowing you and all, but you seem like a nice enough girl. If that Sasuke guy didn't see that, is he really worth crying over?"

Karin pressed her lips together, pushing her glasses up. "No." She shook her head slowly. "No, he's really not." She stood slowly, slinging her bag over her shoulder.

"Hey, wait!" Suigetsu popped to his feet, following her.

"What?" Karin paused, fiddling with a zipper on her bag idly. "Did you need something, Suigetsu?" She stared him down, neither warming to him nor being cold, just a weird in between stage.

"Let me walk you home." Suigetsu grinned at her, and when he got a small smile back he swore she had to be the only girl who wasn't afraid of his teeth.

"Do what you want. Just don't touch me or talk." Karin, seemingly recovered, smirked a bit. She seemed to be challenging him.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Suigetsu huffed, following her out the school doors.

It took two months before they realized there was a lot more than pity to their friendship. It took two months for them to realize that Sasuke breaking Karin's heart had started a chain reaction, and that despite the smart aleck comments; they meant the world to each other.

A/N: This one didn't go too well, and I've been up all night, so it may come down later. I don't know, what do you guys and girls think?