"Get me out of this house, And get me out of my head, Give me a drink and a cigarette."

-kisskiss Machine Gun Kelly

Then.

"Goddamn," an eighteen-year-old Naruto hissed, begrudgingly grabbing a battered box from the trunk of his burnt orange Charger and balanced it onto the one already gripped in Sasuke's hands. "How do you have so much shit?" There was sweat beading on his blond brow as he scooped another box and followed Sasuke into the apartment complex's lobby. The linoleum was cracked, and smoke stains licked up the walls. "Seriously," Naruto huffed as his blue eyes washed over the flowing black sharpie label on the box in his hands. "Do you need Sasu-chan's dishes and towels? Like, how many dishes and towels do you have? You're one, singular person."

A too-tall, too-skinny Sasuke rolled his dark eyes and shook black bangs out from his face. He shifted the boxes in his arms, straining to reach out and jab the elevator's call button.

"Don't blame me," he said flatly, pinning the boxes between himself and the wall as he readjusted his grip. "Mom did that. She's been bitching that I don't have anything, so she packed everything in the house Father didn't tie down."

Naruto's blue eyes were obviously unimpressed as he stared blankly at his friend. The lift slowly rattled down to them and a blond brow quirked when he halfheartedly asked: "You really couldn't even pack your own towels? Your poor mother, look at what you put her through."

Sasuke glared at his friend, before scoffing. "Do you even know my mother? How long have we been friends again?"

Naruto's nose wrinkled in thought as they stepped into the elevator. "Fair point." He said finally.

The elevator smelled like stale alcohol while cigarette smoke laid thick in the air. It made a disconcerting groaning sound in protest as it carried the boys up to the fourth floor. They walked towards 4F, past yelling in 4B and muffled violent television dripping out of 4D. The chipped golden key tinkled on Sasuke's keychain as he pulled it from his pocket. The door squeaked when it opened, and light filtered in illuminating the decrepit orange couch sitting against the right wall while leaving the cramped kitchenette in the dark on the lefthand side of the open room.

"Home sweet home," Naruto murmured, stepping through the threshold and eyeing the motes of dust swirling in the air that their presence displaced. He set his box of dishes and towels onto the once green countertop of the stuffy kitchen area. "So," he put his hands on his hips as he took in the sagging cupboards noted the few missing drawer handles, and leaned closer to inspect what may have been a dead bug carcass beside an ancient toaster. "Do you have any snacks in here yet? I'm starving." He pulled open a drawer and nearly coughed at the layer of dust coating the inside. "It's fucking gross in here dude."

An audible sigh sounded from a back room that Sasuke had disappeared into. There was a thump and a short curse before Sasuke reappeared with cobwebs in his dark hair and a frown on his face. "How are you starving already idiot? We've barely just started."

The drawer snagged when Naruto tried to close it and he wrestled with it for a few seconds before uttering a short growl and slamming it back into place. "You should take the handle off that shitty one and put it onto a different drawer." The blond said with a half sneer on his face as he looked at the kitchen. "Why are you moving into this shithole again?"

Sasuke sighed deeply and tried to ignore the swirl of thoughts and humiliation that the question brought up. The Uchiha picked up a throw pillow from the floor and tossed it towards the couch. Mid arc, a glob of stained stuffing fell out and both boys grimaced.

"Only the best accommodations for the unnecessary second son of Fugaku Uchiha." Sasuke mocked, grinding his teeth as his black eyes roved meticulously over the thick coating of dust, the cities of spiderwebs that sprawled from the intersecting planes of the walls, and the warped and stained furniture that inhabited the space. "I'm going to have to bleach everything before I unpack." He muttered quietly, still glaring disdainfully around the room.

Naruto scratched at the back of his head. "Well, we can go grab food and a metric fuck ton of bleach on the way back if you want?"

The dark-haired boy tried to hold in another sigh, but he already felt so defeated he let it escape his mouth. They had only brought up four boxes already, and with his mother's worrying, they had about a thousand more to drag up into this cesspit. His father had given him a single day to scrub every inch of his existence from the family estate before he just started burning his second son's objects, and Sasuke had not factored in a deep cleaning into his time table.

His fingers itched for a cigarette, and he ground his jaw again. "Yea," he finally acquiesced, pulling out his cell phone to check the time. Naruto was mid victory fist pump into the air when Sasuke continued. "But we have maybe thirty minutes to get back and grab more shit."

"That's perfect," Naruto gave a sly side smile. "I know the best place to get quick good food-"

"Don't you dare sa-"

"Ichiraku's!" Naruto exclaimed, with a broad smile, whiskered cheeks highlighting his dimples. "Let's go."

"I swear you're twelve years old still." Sasuke muttered, following his sunshine friend back out of the doorway, not bothering to lock it back up because the worst thing a thief could steal were cheap dishes and a stained couch.

"Just because I've been able to hold onto my childhood joy even as a man doesn't mean I'm twelve still." Naruto said, sticking his nose up into the air as he tucked his hands behind his head.

"You," Sasuke said, settling himself back into the passenger's seat of his friend's car, pulling a cigarette from their joint pack in the middle console, "are definitely not a man."

"My dick sure says otherwise."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, lighting his smoke before tossing the lighter at the blond idiot. "And the fact you brought your genitals into it just confirms my point."

The car roared to life as Naruto laughed, lighting his own cigarette before rolling down the windows and cranking up the post hardcore music coming from his speakers and flipping Sasuke off. "Let's go, bastard."

The Uchiha inhaled the toxins, wind quickly pouring into the car as Naruto floored the vehicle, jerkily slamming his brakes to check traffic before peeling out of the parking lot with a squeal of his tires. The residential streets streaked past in a blur of colors, and the vortex now seemingly surrounding them – the whirling air tugging oxygen from his lungs and the smoke twisting through his throat – made Sasuke smile.

For a moment, only the briefest of moments, it hadn't mattered that his dad kicked him out of the house for calling him out on his elitest bullshit one time too many. It didn't matter that his mother had withdrawn a small lumpsum of cash for him to get the cheapest apartment in Konoha. It didn't even matter that he was going to be attending the fucking community college in a few weeks. They were flying down the streets, music pressing almost painfully into his body, life-giving air forcefully removed from his lungs, he felt good… in maybe a slightly manic way. But that didn't matter. Nothing mattered.

And Sasuke was happy for that.

They were almost to the street Ichiraku's was on, it was close enough to the ramen shop Sasuke could almost taste it in the air. He would never admit it to Naruto, but ramen might be his favorite too. It reminded him of informal dinners with Naruto's family where Sasuke was allowed to breathe, allowed to slouch a bit in his chair, allowed to smile. But suddenly the music pouring from the speakers was interrupted by a ringtone, and Naruto almost desperately snatched his cellphone up and answered.

"Hello?" immediately the car started to slow down, the blur of colors started to take shape around him, and Sasuke felt himself frowning as Naruto's eyes took on a dreamy look. "Hey," his usually boisterous rumble of a voice came out delicate and almost breathy. "No, yea of course." A chuckle Sasuke had never heard Naruto make suddenly sounded in the space between them, and the car was suddenly sluggish on the road. Dark eyes narrowed on tan skin, but Naruto was purposefully looking away from him. "I can come for a bit; I've just been helping my stupid friend move into his new apartment."

Naruto's other hand fiddled with his second cigarette and the boy steered halfheartedly with his knee. "Your friend's coming too? No," he inhaled his smoke. "You don't have to invite her if she's busy, Sasuke's an entire bastard anyways." Naruto came to a stop, and with barely a glance in his mirrors, he whipped his car into a U-turn and floored it again. Sasuke's unease lightened as the stupid colors blurred again, but the absolutely blinding smile on Naruto's face had him scowling.

"Well, you're an absolute angel, and I imagine your friend is too. We'll see you soon, okay? Yea, of course I miss you beautiful. We'll be there in ten – no – make that five minutes. Bye babe."

The phone hadn't fully disconnected when Sasuke already found himself shaking his head. "No."

"No what?" Naruto countered, playfully pouting, but he couldn't stop the jubilation situated plainly on his face. "Sasuke, you don't even know what that was about."

"What was it about?" Sasuke deadpanned, chewing on his filter in irritation.

"Well… There's this girl that I'm kind of -"

"There's always a girl Naruto."

"Yea but this one-"

"Right, right." Sasuke held up his hands. "Right, this one is different. 'Sasuke this one is special, she thinks my eyes are pretty. Sasuke, no, it's a different girl but she likes working out with me. No, we broke up but there's another girl and she knows how to make delicious dumplings.'" Sasuke mimicked his friend's boisterous voice. "I'm sick of it dude, I don't want to meet another one of your special girls Naruto. Just fuck her, realize she's not that special, and let the inevitable boredom with her happen without forcing me to meet new people."

It was Naruto's turn to scowl. "You know, maybe if you got laid even once you'd get rid of that stick up your ass."

"This isn't about my sex life Naruto."

"As if you even have one." Naruto huffed, the muscles in his jaw were working like he wanted to spit out something hurtful, maybe something about Sasuke's continued virginity, but he sighed instead. "Listen. I know, okay? I know I say they're all different, and you're right. Every other time I'd fuck them and then just… nothing. I feel nothing." His knuckles were white against the steering wheel and the speedometer increased. "I feel like shit about it, I really do. I know it makes me a bad person-"

"I didn't say that." Sasuke interjected.

"You didn't have to." Naruto continued, "You make it so obvious. But this one…" he was shaking his head with a glint in his ocean eyes. "She's completely different, I don't… I've never felt like this before. I'm not going to screw this one up, I swear. So please," he cast Sasuke a pleading look before looking back to the road. "Please just come get coffee, meet her and her friend, and then I will help you for literally the rest of the day – week, even. I'll help you bleach the shit out of that nasty apartment, not let you use ammonia and asphyxiate, and if you hate her, you never have to meet her again."

Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose. He knew he already lost this argument but he really, really didn't want to people today. Not after discovering the cesspool that was to be his new home.

"And if we get married, by meeting her now you'll already be prepared for the wedding. I know how much you like being prepared."

"You confuse my dire need for mathematical order for preparation." The Uchiha sighed and pressed his fingers into his eyes, hard. "I do really hate you sometimes." He pivoted in the seat and dug around in the mess that was Naruto's backseat. He found an old, rumpled black hoodie he had left in it weeks ago. Quickly sniffing it and determining it passable, he pulled it over his head before scratching at his hair.

"Just so you know, I'm going to get the fanciest, most expensive coffee here, and you're going to pay for it." Sasuke said simply, grabbing the lighter and halfheartedly flicking it.

Naruto laughed. "Your most expensive coffee is literally just a normal double shot espresso. There's no need to be dramatic."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Fine, then you owe me a pack of cigs too."

Naruto gave Sasuke a side eye. "It's just coffee with two women, Sasuke, you'll be fine." Sasuke opened his mouth to argue but Naruto cut him off. "I will get you espresso and cigarettes," Sasuke's eyes widened, that was big of the blond, he loved cigarettes more than a father loved his daughter. "I know your entire world revolves around espresso and cigarettes, so relax."

"Relax," Sasuke grumbled, crossing his arms. But he didn't offer any further disagreements as he took another stick out and lit it. Sasuke hated meeting people, they were the absolute worst, but maybe it could serve as a good distraction from the mess that seemed to be his life.

In the silence, Naruto turned the music back up and grey smoke laced through the air before being sucked out through the windows. The world was again blurry while they hurtled down the highway, and as the sun crept out from behind a few slate clouds, the world outside the car was plunged into blinding light, slurring the scenery into Technicolor brightness that seared Sasuke's eyes. He frowned.

God, Sasuke hated color.

"You're going to love her," Naruto's soft voice could barely be heard over the rushing of the wind and the throbbing of the music, but Sasuke didn't miss the nervous excitement in his friend's voice. "I just haven't seen her in a little while, and it's crazy, but I've been missing her."

Sasuke swallowed and didn't give a response. Instead, he winced as he watched the colors flow outside of the window before closing his eyes and holding smoke in his lungs.

.

.

.

Hinata readjusted her legs for what was maybe the fifth time since settling into their normal spot in Roasted not ten minutes earlier. She was fiddling with the hem of her polka dotted shirt before reaching out with short fingers to tap at her phone screen to check for any missed messages. Sakura glared at her.

"Hinata," pale violet eyes remained on her phone. " Hinata," she repeated with a little more command in her voice. The girl glanced up at her. "You seriously need to calm your shit down. It's just a boy. Relax." Sakura waved a hand in the air, motioning to the other patrons in the coffee shop. A fair number of young men were wandering around in small groups. "There are literally thousands of them in the world. Calm down."

Sakura shifted in her seat, settling back against the leather chair but readjusted after getting her long hair caught on a grommet. Frowning, she pulled the purple dyed pieces out of the grommet and combed her fingers through the locks.

Hinata's eyes narrowed. "Look, I know there are thousands out there… but Naruto is different." Her voice was soft, but stern and Sakura couldn't help but feel proud of her friend. It had taken so long for the gentle girl to grow into herself, Sakura had just wished her parent's divorce hadn't been the catalyst.

The black-haired girl picked her phone up and frowned. "Do you think I should call him? He said five minutes, it's been-"

"Hinata!" Sakura hissed and set her bright green eyes to glare at the chocolate accent wall across from their table. The tips of her fingers were tap-tap-tapping against the ceramic mug in her hands. A headache nestled in behind her eyes. Today might be the day she murdered Hinata. Sakura loved Hinata to death, she really did. She loved coffee and Roasted too, but this wasn't what she had signed up for.

It was like they were back in middle school again, where Hinata couldn't keep still. Her lilac eyes were wide, glassy, and her hands just kept fidgeting. With her purse straps, the hem of her shirt, the hem of Sakura's shirt while they had been standing in line, her phone, her nails, the tabletop It was too much. There should not be any reason for Hinata to regress to such nervous ticks, especially not for the likes of a stupid boy.

"It could be a Konoha five minutes or a Kumo five minutes, Hinata, Jesus Christ. Take a goddamn breath, drink some coffee, but please just stop. You're giving me anxiety."

Hinata almost looked guilty as she took her own steaming cup into her hands and took a delicate sip. They had been friends since before Sakura could even remember. Fighting like ninjas in Hinata's backyard, singing in choir throughout high school, they had always been inseparable. They got matching tattoos; they were best friends. But this panicking puddle of a girl was not the friend Sakura knew. No, the Hinata she knew was strong, funny, and a bit mischievous. Quiet, but only around people she didn't know well. With Sakura, Hinata had always been an open book.

And this regression was all over a boy. A stupid boy, the section of their species they had sworn off of after a particularly humiliating middle school dance debacle.

Hinata nodded, and was obviously restraining her flickering hands from moving so rapidly through stims. "I'm sorry." She mumbled and Sakura shrugged, choosing to pick at the paint spatter embedded in her nails instead of responding. Sakura was mid gulp of her mocha when Hinata added: "I didn't even tell you how nice your hair looks. I see you're trying another new color?"

Sakura shrugged again, pulling a few purple strands into her fingers and braiding them. "Yea, everyone thinks the pink is fake anyways, so I figured why not try the rest of the rainbow."

"This purple really matches with the natural – holy shit there he is!"

Sakura didn't know when Hinata had learned to fly, but there she went. Fluttering across the room within a heartbeat, disappearing towards the gentle tinkling of the entrance.

Radiant green eyes rolled at her friend's antics and glanced up towards the wooden door and almost spit out the mouthful of mocha. Because the sun had just walked into the coffee shop.

This boy was light personified, it almost pulsated beneath his skin, glowing from his whiskered cheeks down to the tips of his fingers, brighter than the sun, moon, and stars all put together. His tanned skin highlighted gleaming pearl teeth as he smiled – blindingly – at Hinata who was photosynthesizing in front of him. His grin was sheepish, scratching at his golden blond hair – the color of buttercups and marigolds and daffodils – and he seemed to chuckle as he gathered Hinata into lean arms. The girl, who's pale skin and slate black hair nearly reflected the boy's golden aura, turned a violent shade of crimson as she was pressed into his chest.

Sakura was not close enough to hear them, but she would have bet a significant amount of money that Hinata was sputtering and mumbling at the boy in greeting, but any judgement Sakura had previously held against her friend died in her heart. She herself turned away and swallowed a parched throat.

God, he was beautiful.

Sakura couldn't stop herself from fidgeting with her hair. She hadn't taken the time that morning to straighten the strands, so they were curling – wild and unruly – around her face and along her neck. She tried uselessly to tame them into some semblance of order, but it didn't work and ended up just sighing. Glancing down she felt a pang of embarrassment that she was wearing her oldest and most comfortable painting shirt – covered in spatters and streaks of dried paint – and ripped up jeans. Briefly she wondered if she could crawl out of the bathroom window, escape and return thoughtfully put together before Hinata would even realize she was gone.

"Hello," before a plan fully formed in her mind, the golden boy was suddenly in front of her, setting down two mugs and stretching a hand out towards her. "Uzumaki, Naruto." He grinned as he bobbed his head in greeting while shaking Sakura's now trembling hand. Sakura's stomach summersaulted as the sunshine boy tucked long legs under the table and Hinata sat down beside him.

"H-haruno, Sakura." Her words came out softer than intended and she mentally shook herself, trying almost desperately to ignore how beautiful he was.

"Did Sasuke get in here yet?" Naruto made a small show of stretching his shoulders and casually dropping an arm around Hinata's shoulders. Sakura shrugged – she did not know a Sasuke – and the question was lost on Hinata as she had to reboot from the physical contact. "He was finishing a cigarette, I figured he would be done and introducing himself by the time our drinks were ready."

"Are you complaining about me?" a deep voice said from behind Sakura, she caught Naruto grinning from the corner of her eye as she swiveled to acknowledge the newcomer.

Her heart stopped for the second time that day.

If Naruto was the sun, then this boy was the moon.

His pale, cream colored skin almost coruscated with a hint of stardust. His hair was made of shadows spiking and tangling unruly to the bottom of his ears. Long black lashes mixed with his fringe as he blinked ink eyes that were deeper than the cosmos. He was darkness personified. The embodiment of summer nights spent out under a stratosphere of stars; soft touches safe under the blanket of twilight; an inherent sense of trust witnessed only by the full moon.

Beautiful didn't begin to cover what this boy was.

Sakura squirmed in her seat, making room for the moon boy to sit down. He took the silent invitation, pulled a cigarette pack and his phone from his pocket and sat them on the table.

"I would never complain about you Sasuke," Naruto grinned, Hinata smiled up at him as her small hands wrapped around her lukewarm coffee cup. "Sasuke, this is Hinata Hyuuga and Sakura Haruno. Ladies," he tilted his head between them. "This is Sasuke Uchiha. Or bastard, we call him bastard." Naruto took a swig of his cappuccino and looked at the ceiling as he licked foam from his lips in thought. "Actually, I only call him bastard."

"Yea, and my dad just calls me a disappointment, so you could always use that too." Sasuke said flatly. Naruto smiled almost ruefully but offered no other input.

Sakura wasn't sure if she was supposed to laugh, he said it so deadpan that she wasn't convinced there wasn't some truth behind it. Sasuke claimed the final cup on the table, lifting it to his lip almost elegantly. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed, and a flicker of uncertainty passed over his face when he noticed Sakura was looking at him.

Her throat went dry, and pink dusted her cheeks as she quickly looked away from him. She turned her attention to Hinata, but the other girl was consumed with Naruto. With her avenue of escape blocked off from her, she glanced down and picked at the dried paint on her fingers. She tried to sneak peaks at the moon boy sitting to her right. He was so pretty, it had to be illegal to be that pretty, but he was clearly uninterested in the entirety of the situation at hand. He had some kind of game pulled up on his phone, tapping the screen now and then with obvious boredom. She leaned towards him a little, noticing he smelled like cigarettes and oakmoss, eyes wide as she looked at his phone screen.

"What are you doing?" He asked quietly, leaning back from her, a black brow was quirked on his forehead.

"O-oh," Sakura smiled and held her hands up. "I'm sorry, I was curious was you were playing on your phone. It looked like you were winning."

He shrugged, picking the object up and blacking out the phone screen. "Hn," he hummed, "it's just a stupid card game." He turned back to his drink and stared down at it as if it had challenged his family's honor.

"Ah, a card game." Sakura shifted back to her side of their shared leather couch. "Do you ever go to the game shops to play?"

He scoffed at her and couldn't stop himself from looking at her like she was a total idiot. "Why would I do that?"

"It can be fun."

"Ah," he hummed again. "If you say so." His gaze pivoted away from her, and he swallowed more of his drink.

She wondered what paints she could mix together to match that distant warmth she saw under the cold surface of his onyx eyes. She decided to try to engage with him again. "I like painting," she imagined he had probably picked that up from her spattered clothes, but maybe he thought she was just dirty. "I want to do it for a career after college. What do you like doing? Are you going to college?"

He audibly sighed, like it was painful for him to humor her questions. There was a clink of ceramic meeting wood as he set his mug down. He turned his limited attention back to her and shrugged. She noted he seemed to shrug a lot. "I play video games; I do calculus when I'm stressed. I'm a math major."

He watched her, gauging whether she was about to spew out more questions, but she was waiting for him to say something else, for him to maybe smile and ask her a question in return. But after a handful of heartbeats where they looked at each other awkwardly, he broke their eye contact, shifted in the seat, and picked up his mug. With his phone now put away, he was playing with his pack of cigarettes. He didn't speak, didn't make any effort to further acknowledge her existence. His lashes were so dark against his skin Sakura wondered if they were tattooed on, but he blinked, and that thought was quickly banished. She wanted to ask him a thousand questions, pick his brain, dissect his feelings and opinions. But now did not seem like the appropriate time, not with his dismissal. But even with his obvious disinterest in her, her heart thudded uncomfortably against her ribcage, and she still felt the pink dusting on her skin.

She swallowed and gently tucked her long purple hair behind her ear as she looked over to Naruto and Hinata who were engaged in a quiet conversation. Hinata's blush had finally receded, and Sakura was genuinely surprised to see that they were almost holding hands, fingers gently pressing together and pulling apart from their positions on the tabletop.

"Hinata, would you come to the restroom with me?"

Sasuke didn't react, Naruto raised a blond brow, and Hinata took a second to pull herself away from Naruto's radiance.

"Why?" the other girl said dumbly.

"Well," Sakura scratched at the handle of her mug. "I thought we could reaffirm our feminine bond by taking a trip to the bathroom together and you could help me since I forgot to pack essentials in my bag."

Hinata sighed, and Sakura was almost offended. It was tradition for women to go to the bathroom together and Hinata was reluctantly extricating herself from her orbit around Naruto's sun.

"Jesus Fucking Christ," Sakura hissed as soon as the bathroom door swung closed. "I mean Jesus Fucking Christ. Hinata! Why didn't you tell me he was the sun?"

"What?" Hinata asked, glancing at herself in the mirror, fluffing at her hair before pulling her red lipstick from her bag to reapply. "Do you think this is too red or anything?" Hinata pouted her lips, and Sakura rolled her green eyes.

"No, you're fine." She watched the black-haired girl adjust her shirt, healthy cleavage coming back into existence. "When did you start cosmically dating?"

"Cosmetically dating?"

There was a blank exchange where they both looked at each other in confusion before Sakura was shaking her head. "No, cosmically, cosmically dating. He's radiant, like literally the sun. Hinata, he is the sun. When did you start dating the center of our solar system?"

"Sakura," Hinata said evenly, pale eyes narrowing slightly in concern. "You're being weird artsy again, not just adorable artsy."

Sakura ran slender hands through her purple hair. "I'm not being weird artsy."

Hinata's brows pulled together while her mouth pursed with obvious doubt.

"I'm seriously not! He's beautiful, really. I want to paint him. How could he be so perfectly colored? I have a daffodil oil paint at home, and I swear it matches his hair color precisely." She paused, holding out a hand for Hinata's purse. The Hyuuga gave it to her and Sakura started digging through.

"Can I paint you guys? For your wedding, or for like a nursery present when he impregnates you with his solar seed?"

"Sakura!" Hinata blushed and snatched her bag back, but Sakura had already pulled out the black sharpie she was looking for. "Holy shit, we're not even dating officially, he sure as hell will not be impregnating me. What the actual fuck?"

"Yea, yea," The Haruno girl pulled a piece of paper from her pocket. "Listen, I'm calling it right now. You're going to fall in love with him, on this date that I write down. Years from now, I'm going to pull out this exact paper, and if I'm wrong about the date -which I won't be, let's be honest – but if I am, I'll buy you coffee for an entire year."

"Whatever," Hinata swiped the pen back and threw it back into her bag. She crossed her arms. "Are you even going to go to the restroom?" Sakura turned scarlet and nodded in embarrassment, quickly stepping into a stall. "I can't believe you said that." She said under her breath.

"I'm sorry," Sakura responded. "But I'm calling it."

.

.

.

Sasuke took a drag from the burning cigarette sitting in his lips. He growled quietly and kicked at a stone. Stupid, stupid Naruto. Sasuke was going to beat the shit out of him as soon as they finished cleaning and moving everything.

If there was one thing everyone needed to know about Sasuke, it was that he hated color. He hated radiance and brightness. Anything that was different.

That was the reason all his skinny jeans were dark grey, why the band hoodies he lived in were black with plain white writing. Why his shitty car was a sad grey that used to be silver. Sasuke hated color. With all of his heart.

And yet, here he was. Sitting beside a girl with amethyst hair – with pink eyebrows, what the fuck was that about? – while his alleged friend tried to bed the petite black-haired girl. Naruto could deal with both girls by himself. Sasuke was done meeting new people, sitting by weird girls with weird hair, and listening to the cooing and giggling pouring from Naruto's throat.

God damn.

He bit at the filter, hand balling into a fist in his hoodie pocket. Fuck this, for real. He could move the rest of his shit himself. If he started walking now, he could probably get a solid 4 more boxes from his family's home to the apartment. He'd just have to choose the most important ones so that whatever his dad burned wasn't… like important.

Like his computer, or gaming systems, or the silly trinkets Itachi had given him as a kid. Oh yea, he had to grab his collection of calculus textbooks too.

Fuck.

He pivoted out of the way as a couple walked by towards the door of the coffee shop.

He couldn't do the move in only 4 more boxes, he had too much shit. Naruto had been right earlier.

Fuck.

He blew smoke and rubbed at his eyes, ignoring the tinkling of the bell to the coffee shop, ignored the shuffling of feet and the wafting of quiet conversations. Naruto still owed him a pack of cigarettes for this. No, two. Sasuke would demand two packs, because this was absolutely asinine.

The bitter smell of fresh coffee hit him, and Sasuke sighed. Maybe the day would get better. They wouldn't be here for too much longer, right? How many cappuccinos could you actually share with someone at one time? Wouldn't they get hungry, they would have to leave.

Double fuck.

Naruto had sacrificed Ichiraku ramen for this. Sasuke rubbed harder at his eyes. How did he miss that part of the story? That was maybe the most important part. Fuck, fuck, fu-

"Hey," there was a small, somewhat familiar voice coming from behind him, and when he lifted his hand to look at them, all hope leeched into the ground.

It was the purple haired girl with pink eyebrows (pink!). She had her rucksack thrown over one of her shoulders and her coffee cupped in one of her hands. She smiled at him softly and nodded at him.

"I'm sorry, could I borrow one of your cigarettes? I emptied my pack on the way here." He noticed the small dimples peeking out from her cheeks and before he had time to think about it, he was obliging her. He gave her a cigarette and the green lighter he always carried with him. She fumbled trying to light the tobacco while one of her hands still held her coffee. The better mannered part of him thought he should offer to hold it for her, but he frowned at the idea. Soon she handed the BIC back to the boy and mumbled her thanks. Grey clouds puffed out of her pink, pink lips, and she fell into silence.

There was something awkward stirring in Sasuke's blood, causing his heart to thump a bit faster and his palms to sweat. He glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. Amethyst hair and vivid green eyes. A green he had never seen another human being have before. They were leaf bright, elven eyes, comic book radiation seeped from them and incapacitated him.

He sighed.

Even though she was silent, she was almost as annoying as Naruto was.

Sasuke didn't like colors. He was a boy who appreciated the normal girl. Medium height, medium build, nondescript. Maybe ordinary brown eyes that didn't make a big fuss about themselves. He liked plain, he liked normal. Plain faces, simple eyes. That's what he always thought was beautiful. He had only ever wanted a normal girl, there was already too much special in his family and he wanted no more of it. No more special, no more exotic, nothing remarkable. He was plain and boring. He wanted plain and boring.

But there she was, standing there quietly, not even trying to interact with him, and he couldn't help but glance at her. Sakura was some sort of pixie creature with wild amethyst hair, elven green eyes, and slender hands that looked so wrong holding a cigarette. She was brilliant, bright, luminescent. She was remarkable.

Sasuke's heart seized against his ribcage, he fidgeted with his cellphone in his hoodie pocket, and when his cigarette disappeared into ash, he grabbed another from his pack and kept smoking. Because he hated color. He despised brightness. He wanted nothing more than to walk away from her right then and there.

But this girl… he thought she was beautiful.

The realization made every hair on his body stand on end and he angrily bit on his filter. That realization would never cross the threshold of his mouth. It would never be allowed to live outside of his twisted mind, and it would haunt him to his grave.

The door bell dinged again, and Hinata stepped out, followed closely by Naruto. The blond's hand was held loosely against hers, and Hinata was grinning stupidly.

Sakura flicked ash and looked at her friend. "Are we ready to go then?" Hinata's pale eyes glanced from the cigarette to Sakura's face with a black brow raised, but instead of asking about it, she nodded.

Naruto pulled Hinata away to bid her farewell.

Sasuke scratched at his hair before tugging his hood up over his head. The air was crisp, autumn was on its way and the trees were already showing signs of losing their leaves even though it was barely the end of August.

"I think they're going to get married and have sunshine children someday." Sakura said softly. There were a few moments singularly filled with fitful heartbeats and puffs of smoke.

"I dunno," Sasuke shrugged, swallowing a dry mouth.

The girl turned her greengreen eyes on him, head and lips tilting to the side. She kicked a pebble to him and blurted: "I think you're cute."

There was an awkward pause in which his heart went into overdrive, and he couldn't quite catch his breath. He bit his filter a little too hard and bit through the foam inside. He kicked the stone back and stared at the ground, pulling the mauled cigarette from his mouth. "I think you are too." He mumbled, voice barely a whisper.

She smiled and his heart jumped again. "I'll see you around Sasuke, yea?"

He nodded as Sakura snuffed her cigarette and stepped away from him. He watched her go, forcing himself to take slow breaths, attempting to make his stupid heart stop palpitating.

God, he fucking hated colors.

Author's Note:

Thanks so much for reading! Please leave a comment letting me know what you think of the story, characterization, and what you think will happen next!