A Place We Call Home

Chapter 20: The Man on the Swing

Kazuhiko believed himself to be a very patient man. He could wait in lines for hours and not a single word of complaint would come from his mouth. He could stand a slow day with no customers. Heck, he could even tolerate customers who take forever to decide and eventually end up buying nothing from his shop. See? He is a very, very patient man.

However, what he was currently watching could prove to be the limit of the very patient Kazuhiko. Not in a bad way, of course, but it was something new to him and he wasn't used to it at all. Normally, it would take Uchiha Sasuke an hour at most to tune his motorcycle in preparation for a race—and he had been watching the said young man tune it for the last 3 hours.

"Come on, Sasuke." he called. Kazuhiko was casually perched atop a barstool he got from a garage sale. Its metal footrest was almost covered in grease courtesy of Kazuhiko work boots. "Shop's supposed to be closed two hours ago. I'm gonna miss Fire Country Idol. Can't you just do it at your place?"

Sasuke stretched out his toned arm, dirty with grease, to grab a wrench. With a quick turn of his arm, the nut he was supposed to attach was now anchored firmly in place. "I could have," he replied, not bothering to look at the older man. "but you have the tools. I don't."

Kazuhiko's face twisted in what seemed to be both exasperation and amusement. "That's it?" he cried, jumping off the seat in an almost child-like manner. "I would've appreciated it if you've told me that earlier." He bent down and started gathering the various tools scattered around Sasuke's work area. The raven-haired man finally looked at him, his eyes confused as he watched Kazuhiko dump the greasy tools in a bucket he found lying around.

"Tools." said Kazuhiko as he set down the bucketful of them in front of the Uchiha. "Now, can I close the shop so I can watch my show?"

A dark eyebrow rose, and a smile almost appeared on Sasuke's lips. Almost. "Hn." was his reply. He gingerly straightened up and sauntered towards the lavatory at the side of the shop and scrubbed the dirt and grime off his hands and arms. He emerged from the bathroom just as Kazuhiko finished pulling down the folding metal shutters of the shop. "Ciao!" chirped Kazuhiko and Sasuke could swear that he saw him bunny hop onto his motorcycle before speeding off away. He scoffed and took the bucket of tools and rode home.

He was not even in front of his apartment when he saw Sakura from the distance. The soft pink of her hair beneath the streetlights was hard to miss. She must have caught sight of him as well for she stopped walking in small circles. He slowed down into a stop and propped himself upright with his foot when he was in his yard. He was greeted with an apprehensive Sakura as soon he pulled off his helmet.

"Sasuke-kun! Where have you been? I was worried when you didn't come home for dinner. And I know you; you never miss eating dinner at home because you're too stingy to eat out. You could not imagine how worried I was!" said Sakura all too fast. She was like that when she was worried, speaking in torrents and then huffing and puffing by the end. Sasuke waited for it to come. Three. Two. One. Heave. There.

He placed his hand on her shoulder to calm her down. He said, "You shouldn't have worried. I could take care of myself." Sakura just gave him a look which read "I know, but I don't care." Sasuke eased to his side and turned the knob and entered the house. He was greeted by the fait scent of fish in the air.

"Have you eaten?" he asked.

Sakura shook her head. "I was waiting."

After they had supper, Sakura proceeded to clear the dishes while Sasuke excused himself and quietly slipped outside, back to his machine. Absentmindedly, he tinkered on it. His mind drifted back to the conversation he had with Sakura during supper.

"Sasuke-kun?" The young man looked up from his food, a wordless gesture urging her to go on. "We're graduating tomorrow."

"Aa." was his reply, taking her words as a statement of fact rather than an implication of something else which he knew was what she meant. He was fully aware that they were ending their lives as high school students the next day, but he did not want to talk about it—he avoided thinking about it. He didn't have a plan, anyways.

"Yeah." He heard Sakura respond. He could hear her disappointment on her voice from his answer. "I was wondering about your plans after graduation." she inquired.

Sasuke put some rice in his mouth and took as much time chewing and swallowing it. Finally, he set down his bowl and chopsticks. "I haven't thought about it." He replied, searching her eyes for a reaction. He though he saw a split-second flicker of emotion in her jade eyes, perhaps from surprise or a similar emotion. Wanting to let go of the topic, he slowly stood up, saying, "That food was good, Sakura." and then ambling back outside to his motorcycle. He haven't really though about his 74.68 and what to do with it.

Sasuke woke up to the sound of hurried footsteps walking back and forth across his wooden floor. He rubbed his eyes grumpily and quickly found the culprit for the noise. Sakura was pacing around the room, already wearing her white graduation dress, and obviously looking for something. Her eyes lit up when she caught him awake. "Good morning Sasuke-kun! It's good that you're up already, I was going to wake you up in a minute or so." She said, her right hand pulling her hair away from her face in a ponytail-like manner. "By the way, have you seen the brush? I couldn't find it anywhere."

Sasuke shifted on the bed and dug his hand underneath the covers. When he pulled it back, his fingers were already clutching the said brush.

Sakura clapped her hands and took it from him. "So there's where it was all along. No wonder I couldn't find it." Then she retreated to the bathroom. The young man rubbed his eyes once again and stretched. He wasn't going to tell Sakura the reason why it was on the bed was he used it to scratch his back in the middle of the night. Nah, definitely not worth getting bonked on the head for.

Moments later Sasuke found himself being dragged outside by a very nervous Sakura. Apparently people who would be receiving honors would have to be at the school auditorium much earlier than those who were just there to graduate. Soon after, when they arrived at the auditorium, Sakura was attacked by teachers who talked to her about how the ceremony will take place and other things like speeches and whatnots. It was fun watching her as she flipped through her speech; he especially liked it when she pouts—a little habit of hers. But he soon got tired of standing around and being told to move out of the way by the logistics team who were carrying extra chairs for the attendees. He cast one look at Sakura and saw she was still preoccupied with her speech. She wouldn't notice.

He stepped out of the auditorium, his hands in his pocket in the usual Uchiha Sasuke-like manner. The ceremony wasn't going to start in an hour so he decided to wander around. He thought of Sakura's parents. Sasuke knew that even though on the surface, Sakura seemed happy, deep inside she was pining for the both of them, even more so today. And what hurt him more is that he couldn't do anything about it.

He roughly kicked a pebbled and watched it soar in a perfect arc and then land again on solid ground with a distinct "clunk". He absentmindedly kicked the said pebble again, following it wherever it happened to land just to kick it again. It was particularly senseless, but he was killing time anyway.

The pebble eventually landed in a bush. Sasuke frowned; disappointed that somehow it refused to be knocked around anymore. He lifted his head up and surveyed the area where it took him. It seemed to be an old park, abandoned, by the looks the foliage which was kept untended. He took a few steps forward, recognizing it was the same park he used to frequent as a kid. He frowned as he remembered the person who always took him there.

The rusty steel tubings of the swing came to his view. His eyes traveled downwards and was quite surprised to see that someone was sitting on one of the swings, not afraid that the feeble metal would give away more sooner than later. The figure was wearing a black sweatshirt despite it being the middle of summer. A small "crunch" sound filled the air as Sasuke stepped on a dried, fallen twig, causing the hunched figure to tense up, but not look his way.

"I'm surprised I found you here." The voice was deep, but oddly, hauntingly familiar. It was too familiar that it hurt him.

Sasuke forced the lump in his throat back. He took a deep breath to steady himself and murmured, "Itachi.", his voice shaking. The man on the swing released his grip on the chains and slowly turned his head to his right, but did not turn his eyes to look.

"Little brother."

Tsuzuku.

A/n: I am a bad person. I updated VERY VERY VERY late and left you with a cliffhanger. Very bad indeed. Whack me with a review loves! Hope you like this chapter. I'm writing the next one now.