Sometimes talking to him could be rather difficult to say the least. A grunt, a nod, a flicker of pale mint eyes…

Sometimes I doubted he even heard half of what ever came out of my mouth. Today was different from the others though; in the afternoon blanketed by the grey cold of winter, we blew hot breath into the palms of our hands in feeble attempts to stay warm.

The bus was late again.

I stared at the redhead that rarely acknowledged me; we'd been standing in this same spot since freshmen year, every day after school. My mouth would run and his lips would merely purse, my legs couldn't stand still while his seemed fossilized into the dead grass.

Four years ago, in middle school, for those three miserable years, we still stood stock still, beside each other still.

From the blazing summer afternoons to the dry lung-burning winters, he never spoke, never even glancing at me, never acknowledging… never caring.

Back then I'd hardly bothered speaking to him at all.

Turning back the clock even further, still standing in an elementary school bus lot, waiting. I would scream because I couldn't stand him.

Always quiet, never caring.

I've stood next to him like this almost every day of my life, but I guess that's what happens when you're neighbors with the same family from birth.

"I love you."

I could see my breath gather at my mouth, it seemed to carry the words straight to him. He heard them, because his eyes shifted slowly to gaze at me, head actually turning for the first time in a lifetime.

"Are you sure?"

Freshmen year he had come over to my house for the first time. We sat and I talked and he listened. We watched movies and ordered pizza and broke my grandmother's favorite jar. I panicked while he shrugged and I prepared myself to be killed. He smiled. Not a grin, anything but; just the slightest tilt of usually bitter lips.

His mirth at my misery had done something to my heart. Ever since that day I wanted something from him, it took me another four years to discern exactly what it was.

"Yeah Numb-nuts, if I didn't why the hell would I say it?"

It was my simple logic, I was not nervous, I did not expect anything out of him. I simply stated a fact. Though I admit I probably would have been blushing if my cheeks hadn't gone entirely numb. I expected nothing from him.

"Hmn."

When the bus arrived we rushed into the heated sanctuary, a flood of students following behind us.

Every day, for our whole lives, whether high school, middle school, or elementary, we always sat across from each other in the very front row of our bus; whichever bus.

Today as I slid into my seat, the fair boy I loved seated himself beside me.

I stared with wide eyes for a moment, but accepted the single ear bud that he offered.

He was never a man of many words, but my heart raced and I felt that somehow, he had confessed something to me in that gesture.

"Naruto."

"Yes Gaara?"

"You're staring again."

"I know."

"Hmn."

We sat with the humming of passionate cello serenading our ears.