If: I decided that there weren't enough SasuGaa stories out there, so I decided to try writing one. I also noted that most SasuGaa stories would conviently leave out Naruto... so... I tried my best to keep everything IC, even if its the typical (even cliche) Highschool AU.
Disclaimer: if I owned it I wouldn't be writing fanfiction...
High school: the source of teenage angst, and many horrible teen movies. In this place, the bane of the teenage existence, life is cliché and stereotypical. Cliques are alive and well, people are close minded and for some reason, unknown to man, everyone wants to be in the so called "popular" group. As the stereotype goes, these "popular" people aren't the brightest lights and are the captains of football teams and cheerleading squads. Why anyone would want to be part of that stereotype is beyond comprehension.
A loud beeping noise was echoing in the near-empty room. A hand casually reached over and turned the alarm clock off. A sigh escaped pale lips and a pale hand reached up to rub at tired eyes. Another sleepless night. Sighing once again, the boy finally rose from his bed. Tugging the sheets off to the side, he rolled out of the bed and stood on the floor. Scratching his head absently he made his way over to the other piece of furniture in his room, the dresser. After pulling a drawer open, he rummaged through it and pulled out a pair of black boxers, tossing them onto his bed. Opening another drawer, he pulled out a pair of tattered faded jeans, tossing them on the bed as well. Stumbling to his closet he threw open the doors and grabbed the first shirt he could find before tossing it onto the bed. Moving away from his closet and to the left he finally turned on the ceiling light.
Light green eyes blinked, trying to get used to the light. Squinting, the green eyed boy made his way back to his bed. Frowning at the shirt he had picked out, he shrugged it off and pulled it on. He looked down at the shirt. It was black, he could deal with that, but it said "I like skinny pale guys" on it in pink. Frowning, he pulled at the shirt. This so couldn't be his. It had to be his sisters or something… surely he would remember getting a shirt like this. He wasn't even gay… he thought. Scratching his head, covered in spiky blood red hair, he thought about it for a moment. He didn't think he was gay, but then again, he didn't really feel much of anything for people, so he really wouldn't know if he was gay or not. Shrugging at the pointlessness of his topic of thought, the boy decided to finish getting dressed. He pulled off the boxers he hand slept in, and pulled on the clean pair. Then he pulled on the tattered jeans. Taking a moment to finger brush his short red hair, he turned on his heel, grabbed the untouched schoolbag by the door and walked out into the hallway.
Following the hallway and casually looking at a door closed on his right, the boy made his way down the stairs. He would have to wait until the person in the bathroom surfaced before he could get in and put on his eyeliner. Stumbling down the last of the stairs, the boy cautiously peered around to make sure there were no malicious persons around. Seeing no one that would cause him bodily harm, the boy made his way to the kitchen by bumbling through the living room he had just entered. Setting his bag down by a chair he made his way to the fridge. Pulling the fridge door open, he looked around inside. There was nothing to eat in there. Pulling out the half gone carton of milk, he set it on the counter and pulled a glass out from a cabinet on his right. Pouring himself a glass, he turned to put the milk back into the fridge. When he turned back around, however, his glass of milk was being drunk by his older brother. He twitched.
"Kankuro…" he growled. His brother lifted a blonde eyebrow at him. The boy twitched again. "That was My milk."
"Heh, sorry Gaara," Kankuro said. He turned on his heel and made his way back to the kitchen table. Gaara growled and pulled out yet another glass before going back to the fridge, mumbling something about evil inconsiderate brothers. He glared once again at his brother, who was clad in a pair of patched jeans and a plain black shirt before pouring yet another glass of milk. This time the glass was snatched by a delicate hand with blue painted nails. Gaara twitched again.
"Thanks Gaara," his sister Temari said, gulping down the milk and handing him the glass, before going to rummage through a cabinet for food. Gaara growled at his half-clad sister, in her white mini-skirt and blue tank top. At least she had a white sweatshirt and knee-high boots on.
Grumbling once again, Gaara pulled out a third glass and poured yet another glass of milk, not even bothering to put the milk carton away before drinking his glass of milk. Setting down his glass, he glared at his so-called "family." Gaara wasn't exactly on good terms with them. His sister was one of those popular, yet individual popular people, but Gaara could see by the clothes she wore that she was starting to conform to the other popular girls slutty dress code and habits. His brother Kankuro wasn't exactly normally. The boy locked himself in his room to work on his puppets. He was anything but popular, but he disliked his brother with a passion. Gaara wouldn't put it past either of them to actually hate him. He was the only emoth person they knew… he didn't seem to fit into any standards and never seemed to fail at whatever it was that they thought he could at least pass with average grades. But of course life wasn't just that great; it was his father that made his life the greatest life anyone could have. His father, the angry god of violence. Every day it seemed Gaara was getting yelled at for some stupid reason, and beaten for another. Truly it was a wonderful life that Gaara led.
The only bright spot in this world of darkness it seemed was Gaara's one and only friend… and he literally was a bright spot. Gaara had met said bright spot three years ago. It had been a bad day for Gaara and he didn't really remember much, only that he was lashing out at anyone who even looked at him wrong. It had ended up that he had messed with one hyperactive blonde with an ego problem. This blonde, clad in orange head to foot, had taken him on in a fist fight and that was the first time that Gaara had lost to one of his peers, having always lost against his father. Gaara had been stunned to say the least, and then the blonde had gone off on a strangely philosophical speech, and they had somehow been friends ever since. They were strangely similar, having dealt with much of the same things and yet so many different things at the same time. They understood each other on a fundamental level, and they were inseparable.
Gaara looked up at the clock and his eyes got wide. Running up the stairs he dashed into the bathroom and shut the door. Rummaging through the cabinets he searched for his black eyeliner pencil. Finally finding it, he put thick black lines around both his eyes. Glancing at his appearance in the full length mirror, Gaara spotted the old scars on his wrists. Long ago, before he had met his one and only friend, Gaara had been desperate for relief. He had no one to talk to, to turn to when things got rough and the only thing he could think of to help the pain was to cut. Gaara felt ashamed now that he looked at the mostly healed, but always visible scars. There had to have been some other way back then, but even thinking about it now with the clarity that he had now, there still was no other option he could think of.
The doorbell brought Gaara out of his thoughts. Surely there was something wrong with him today, reminiscing about the past that he had never wanted to remember.
"Gaara!" came the shout from downstairs. Gaara opened the bathroom door after unlocking it. "Naruto's here!"
Gaara rushed out of the bathroom and down the stairs skidding to a halt before an orange clad person. Gaara's face seemed to light up, but he did not smile. A giant grin was his friend's response.
"Morning Gaara!" the loud nearly obnoxious voice of Gaara's one and only friend, Naruto Uzumaki, shouted in his ear. Flinching slightly, Gaara braced for impact. Said orange clad Uzumaki proceeded to glomp onto his friend just as he did every morning. Hugging his friend close the blonde grinned even larger, Gaara was such a softie. Waiting approximately ten seconds, Gaara started to push at his friend.
"Naruto…" he tried to say, but the other boy hugged him closer, effectively cutting off any protests Gaara would have had.
"Could you two go and be gay somewhere else?" Kankuro's voice came from the table. Gaara turned his head to glare at his brother and Naruto finally let go of his friend. Gaara sighed in relief, but was soon startled to find Naruto's arm around his waist and his face dangerously close to Gaara's. Gaara's eyes went wide; surely he wasn't going to…
"Nope," Naruto replied before Gaara could finish his thought and before he could do anything Naruto had already pressed his lips to Gaara's cheek.
"Wahh!" Gaara shouted, and scrambled away from his now cackling friend. Gaara wiped at his cheek, furiously trying to get the feeling of Naruto's lips off of his skin. Looking to see his brother, Gaara wasn't surprised to see Kankuro's face had drained of all color. Gaara turned his head to look at his sister and saw with a certain unease that indicated certain doom, that she was grinning like a maniac and had stars in her eyes. Gaara had the sudden urge to flee.
"That was so kawaii!" Temari finally shouted. Gaara hung his head and felt the sudden urge to bang his head against the floor. Kankuro had a look of utter confusion and aghast. He stared at his sister like she had gone insane and even Naruto had stopped laughing to look at her like she had lost any marbles she might have had. "What?"
Gaara stood, patted his sister on the head, grabbed his bag and Naruto's arm, and started to walk to the door. "We're going to school now."
"Bye Gaara!" Temari cried out and Kankuro waved, though Gaara didn't see it, his back to his siblings. Once safely out the door, Gaara pinned Naruto with a "what the hell were you thinking?" look.
"I couldn't help myself!" Naruto cried. "It seemed like a good idea at the time!"
Gaara hung his head. "Come on."
"Right beside you," Naruto said, once again grinning from ear to ear. A few seconds of silence occurred before the inevitable. "By the way…"
Gaara sighed; his ears certainly had been getting a lot of work since he had become friends with Naruto.
"Did I tell you about my old bestest buddy in the whole world?" Naruto asked, having moved from Gaara's side to walking backwards in front of his friend.
"What about him?" Gaara asked, looking up at the sky and wondering if any god would be merciful enough to strike him down at this very moment.
"He's coming back!" Naruto exclaimed. Gaara raised and eyebrow and grabbed hold on Naruto to keep him from walking into traffic. "He's been gone for a little over three years and he's coming back!"
"Joy," Gaara replied, letting Naruto start backwards again as the traffic stopped for a red light and the pedestrian lights said to cross.
"Hell yeah! We were best friends from like, kindergarten up till the time he went away… we kinda had a falling out before he left… I thought he was doing stupid things for stupid reasons and he wouldn't listen to anyone that was telling him not to do it and just left. It was the strangest thing getting a letter from him telling me that he would be coming back. I wonder how he's changed…"
Gaara zoned out through the rest of Naruto's little rant on his old "best buddy." Gaara had this sinking feeling that once this other boy was back that Naruto would forget about him. A deep pain resonated in his chest as he thought about it. Bringing a hand to his chest Gaara clenched his hand. He wouldn't lose his one and only friend, but he knew that once this boy came back it would be hard not to. Naruto would easily forget him and go back to whatever it was that he had had before.
"Gaara!" Naruto's shouted burst through his depressing thoughts. Gaara blinked up at his friend. Naruto was looking at him like he had lost his mind, and yet there was concern hidden in that look as well. Gaara glared and Naruto grinned at him.
"I said, 'we're here'," Naruto repeated. Gaara looked up at the brick building. Taking in a deep breath, Gaara prepared himself for another day of the bottom of the social ladder, another day of ridicule and teasing. He was ready for it; he had someone to stand tall with.