Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ All-Girl's Sasuke ❯ But Soft! ( Chapter 7 )

Info: (dance) I gots a lot of reviews for that last chapter and I ish very berry happy. Sankyu! xDD And a recommendation on a site? Wow... never thought anyone would want to recommend anything I write to others... X3 Anywho, this chapter is very odd. And guess what, for all you out there who like to torture androgynous bishis!! Yep, Haku-kun's first P.E. class. Mwa, Ino and all. XDD Read the warnings for more information on all that.... (cough)

Warning: I'm thinking everyone in this bloody story is OOC this chapter.... the entire first thing is mostly in Haku's POV, and then there's a couple of Sasuke points.... and I know I messed up there. -.-0 Jiraiya's probably OOC, for all I know. Sheesh.

Disclaimer- I do not own Naruto! Because, if I did, I wouldn't be complaining about how OOC I'm making all the characters! (snicker)

Chapter 7 - But Soft!

-

Now Haku figured he knew what Sasuke meant when he'd asked, "Would it kill you to end a conversation like a normal person, despite knowing that you are far from that?" the past Sunday. Of course, the cross-dressing male hadn't exactly been up for normal conversation with anyone (save for the few 'forced' ones with Sakura) since Friday's meeting between him and Zabuza.

It hadn't exactly gone perfect, though Haku had certainly not been supposing it would. Zabuza never was the most predictable person. But wasn't that why Haku found himself so fond of the man in the first place?

He also hadn't seen Zabuza since Friday. It was the mid-morning of Wednesday already, and Haku was currently stuck in Literature with someone who'd probably never even picked up a book before. It was slightly amusing at first, watching the teacher attempt to explain the words the class read, but now it was beginning to be irksome, almost to the point of insulting Haku's intelligence.

Since when had the point of Tom Sawyer been changed to, "Some redneck kid running amuck on the Mississippi River's side?" It was ridiculous to the extent that nearly no one listened, and just passed notes and chatted quietly. Haku found himself merely gazing about the room, suddenly curious as to what everyone else was doing.

Looking to the left, two seats away, was Hyuuga Hinata. This was the class he knew her from. And even she, Miss Sasuke-is-to-many-girl's-lust-dreams-as-Hinata-is-to-shyness, was doing something other than listening to the teacher ramble about why Don Quixote could have been a science fiction piece because of the windmills. However, while Haku was staring around the class, Hinata appeared to be writing something.

Probably some love note to Hot-Pants over here, he thought, soon glancing to his right, where Uchiha Sasuke, School Sex Beast Extraordinaire, was seated. This was one of the three classes Haku attended with Sasuke, and (due to the false-female's sheer boldness in his first day) had also kept a seat next to. Haku watched him now, a questioning look on his face. Was Sasuke actually listening to this crackpot sensei of theirs? Well, he was just sitting there, his chin propped up on his interlaced fingers, above where his elbows sat on the desk.

It was that trademark 'brooding' pose of his. Or maybe he knew what Haku was 'inconspicuously' doing, and knew that the boy was staring at him. Haku quickly faced forward again at this thought. But then his attention strayed back to Sasuke, cautiously looking through the corner of his eye in case the spiky-haired male had caught him.

Sasuke hadn't moved. So maybe he was stuck in his own little world.... Since the auditions Friday, it had been a bit unnerving to be in the dorm alone with him. Haku had been sure that Sasuke had heard more of his and Zabuza-san's conversation than he'd wanted. But then for some reason, at the end of the weekend, the room suddenly seemed even more silent than before.

Or maybe it just seemed that way because Sasuke was continuously gone every day since then. Probably at Uzumaki-kun's house all that time.

Maybe Naruto was sick? Perhaps. Or maybe it was something else. During Saturday and Sunday, it was like Sasuke was unsettled by Haku's unwillingness to do anything other than stare out the window. But now... was it just him, or had Sasuke taken up the silently-staring mode once more, as well? Just thinking about it made Haku wish Sasuke would say something, even if it was more of some blunt remark about how idiotic he was or whatever. Just to show that at least someone in the dorm was acting half-normal.

When Sasuke had asked him to end a conversation normally, was this what he was talking about? Though, the subject should have been more along the lines of even starting up a conversation than anything.... Maybe the brooding teen had felt the same, wanting at least an inch of normalcy (though what Haku was could definitely not be the definition of the word), as well.

Then... was I that out of it? Haku began to wonder, again turning his head ever so slightly towards the male next to him. ... but he's like that all the time, so why would he care? Tch, such a hypocritical little boy... I wonder what his parents must be like for him to glower so much.

For one thing, though this was entirely not out of Haku's opinion and merely based on the swoons of masses of girls in the school, Sasuke's parents can't have looked too bad. Sasuke had such a dreamlike air that more than once, Haku had mistaken him for an apparition in the darkness of the room at night. Why, with his darkly narrowed eyes, paled porcelain skin, and spiked up hair, Sasuke definitely wasn't the worst dorm mate one could have. Not to mention the fact that if Haku had been stuck with a female roommate, he'd have to listen to her incessant complaining and ranting about how 'Sasuke can never be mine!' or 'My uniform makes me look horrible!!'. Even with just seeing his dear friend Sakura at short, random points of the day, he had to deal with all sorts of Sasuke-linked tirades, mostly centering on her own dorm mate Ino, or Naruto.

However, in Haku's dormitory, it was fairly quiet. The two still had their momentary, pointless disagreements, most of them related to secrets either one or the other was sharing, but the two stayed silent nonetheless. And while secret-keeping wouldn't normally be much for the rest of us, for two mysterious brooding boys it was (and meant) quite a lot.

For starters, Haku was cross-dressing as a girl at an all-girl's school to try and gain back Zabuza-san, who was posing as a teacher at the school. Then there was Uchiha Sasuke, heart's desire of every girl in school, including a couple boys out of it. Why he was at St. Ruto's was still a mystery for Haku, but the false-female did realize one thing. Sakura seemed to know a bit about the reason as well, which had fairly lowered the options down, despite the fact that she didn't want to share the secret with him.

First, he had figured Sasuke was some sex-crazed pervert who got his kicks out of seeing chicks in skirts all in one setting, and then just happened to be related to someone on the school board and had good connections. But about five minutes after meeting him, Haku nixed the pervert part and just when with sex-crazed, connected kid. Yet, even that whole idea was soon destroyed after Haku and Sakura sneaked out one night after him, only to see the great and beloved Sasuke kissing a boy.

And so, Haku began to believe that maybe under all that bitter, I'm-too-pretty-for-you exterior, there was an insecure little boy who merely went to an all-girl's school so that he wouldn't be verbally attacked for being... well, him. Of course, he also figured that maybe Sasuke didn't really care what others thought of his relationship with Uzumaki, seeing as how he much rather wanted Haku to hide their kiss than his with Naruto. Plus, there must have been more to it than just that, seeing as how even Sakura didn't know about Sasuke's 'homosexual tendencies,' and she was the one who made Haku believe in the first place that there was more of a reason to Sasuke's St. Ruto attendance.

Maybe he did something horrible... Haku began to muse, wondering what that something was if it was true. He couldn't think of anything though. Uchiha Sasuke, irate little punk as he was, certainly couldn't have killed anyone, though he had gotten close to murdering Haku more than once. But why would they send him to a girl's school for that, anyway? Stealing? Again, why send him here? So, maybe it was some weird sort of law that only existed in this particular town. Probably something idiotic like... no boys kissing boys?

He smirked. If that's the case, is sending him here an attempt to turn him straight? Because it's really only working on the girls.

Then, another thought appeared. Maybe... he saw something happen.... Then perhaps Uchiha Sasuke was under some kind of witness protection program, and his real name was something else entirely. So then how the heck did Sakura know about it?!

"What...?" Haku was snapped out of his thoughts by Sasuke's voice. He breathed in sharply, turning forward yet again, as if he'd never been staring at the male beside him.

"Nothing."

Even out of the corner of his eye, Haku could catch the piercing glare Sasuke was sending him.

"Whatever." Sasuke went back into his brooding pose, looking as bored as ever, as if Haku never had been looking at him in some weird way.

Haku decided to just keep himself frontward facing, though his annoyance slightly showed. While most thought that a conversation made entirely out of one word sentences was impossible, speaking with Sasuke certainly made it doable. Especially if you had just been caught staring at the male.

-

What kind of damn pervert is he?!

Sasuke started every morning this week with these words, attempting to never have a look at Yukio Haku again. Of course, this was a tad hard, especially when he shared a bloody room with the guy, and even worse... Haku ran around with a friggin skirt on! Again, he had to mentally state, What the hell kind of freak tortures people like this?!

It wasn't the fact that Haku certainly didn't seem to mind cross-dressing. Oh no, Uchiha Sasuke could deal with that. After all, Sasuke slept with everything but girls.... And if anything, the boy slightly wished he had thought of that idea first, so that he wouldn't have to deal with mobs of fan girls stalking his every step.

It was just the fact that not only did Haku insult his intelligence with believing he couldn't find out or didn't know, he had also played everything off the week before as if Sasuke was the naughty, stupid, perverted boy of the dorm room and he, Yukio Haku, was not!

And he was! Yes, Haku was the horribly, naughty, perverted boy in the room! He was the one having who KNOWS what kind of relationship with a teacher, and he is also the one screwing who knows how many girls!

Is that why Hinata appeared at his door that one day? Because Haku had messed with her the night before or something and had forgotten his books or whatever?! Dammit, why hadn't he checked the pages of those things?! There were probably condoms and all kinds of... of....

Idiot lech! He thinks he can meander in here and do whatever he wants when I actually have to work to stay here?! Where's the goddamn justice in all that?!

Of course, while hardly any of the accusations that blazed through Sasuke's mind were true, he still fumed over them. After all, he actually joined that place for a reason. And it was a damn better reason than what he believed Haku to be doing there: sexing all the girls up, including some of the teachers.

If Haku wanted to play his 'Innocent School Girl' game, Sasuke could damn well do it, too! No, better...! Sasuke could play along with this and get all kinds of stupid revenge. Yeah, he was going to show just who the snake amongst the two was.

And now he wouldn't even have to worry whether or not he gets on Haku's real bad side, because now he knew that if Haku ever tried to pull out that, "I'm the victim because Sasuke attempted to RAPE me in the night!" shtick, Sasuke could just come back and say, "Well, Haku is a boy and so that kiss didn't count!"

Huzzah, a perfect plot. After all, what had really been keeping Sasuke on the edge since the night when Haku forced a kiss on him was whether or not the cross-dressing boy would use that information as blackmail. He always could have told someone and have Sasuke kicked out. But, now Sasuke didn't have to worry. Oh no, because now he had his own ammo and it was going to be a lot of fun getting his ultimate revenge.

Damn liar....

-

Even as Sasuke seethed over these thoughts, he still kept as stoic a front as ever. He hardly paid any attention to the teacher, despite his staring straight ahead at the man, and simply mused over the falsely identified classmate beside him. The only time Sasuke had looked anywhere else was when he felt like performing a glare at Haku, only to find the girl... er, boy... staring straight at him.

This irked him, wondering if maybe Haku had been mouthing horrible things to him the entire time he had been brooding, but after a few moments of unblinking nothingness, Sasuke realized that Haku was merely staring at him, for presumably no reason at all.

Of course, this thought only annoyed him further, so Sasuke had to ask, "What...?" in order to maybe incite Haku into doing something other than stare blankly at him.

A gasp, then a swift shifting in gears as Haku whirled back to facing forward. "Nothing."

Maybe he was a stalker... Sasuke had been sure he'd never seen Yukio before, but what if he had and didn't remember? But then Haku had and, believing Sasuke to be an adorable ickle boy like most Sasuke fans did, had decided to follow Sasuke here to this school? Shooting a particularly loathing glare, like the kind he had hoped to have done earlier, Sasuke went back to his brooding, looking as though he was nary giving any more thought to the manner when in fact he was wondering if he should transfer to another dorm in fear of a stalker.

While it was partially true that Haku was a 'stalker,' his target was definitely not Uchiha Sasuke, no matter how pretty-boy he was. And while Haku had had an anything-other-than-normal relationship with a 'teacher,' it definitely did not include any kind of perverse thoughts like what Sasuke had presumed. At least not on Haku's half, as far as the cross-dressing male knew. And besides all that, from what Zabuza said, they should have technically been strangers once more.

But how? How could Zabuza expect Haku to just forget everything? While it might've been easy for the man, nearly all of Haku's childhood had surrounded Zabuza-san. While he hadn't been the kindest, the warmest, or even least sadistic, Haku had still believed him to have been the sun and the moon. The one who made the rain fall. The one who kept him from dying in the snow that cold night.

Though all Zabuza had done was provide him with the faint hope of morning that time.

"Yukio-chan, what is the summary for this?"

For the second time that day, Haku was stirred out of his thoughts, though this time it was by the teacher. He stared blankly at the man, then at his desk, unsure of what book he was talking about.

"Uh... what was the-" But before he could ask, Sasuke cut him off, hand raised.

"It was the story of a boy who had to live through the horrors of the holocaust, even when his entire family had been slain, ending with his father. It told what happened in the camps, most of the time in piercing detail." ((1))

The teacher nodded. "Hn, thank you Uchiha-kun... that appeared to have made even more sense than what I had thought, but oh well. Now, the next thing to discuss...." As he went back to rambling, Sasuke turned to Haku, a brow raised.

"Weren't you the one who had been looking forward to reading Night?"

Haku stared back, awkwardly. "I hadn't been listening."

"Neither had I, but I at least had enough sense to read the bold letters on the board," Sasuke replied, pointing at the words with a glance. Haku narrowed his eyes, exasperated.

"Sure..."

At that moment the bell rang overhead, and the sounds of their classmates slamming textbooks shut echoed in the room with words of, "Finally!" and "Sasuke-kun is so smart!" soon following. Haku filed all his stuff into his bag, getting up to leave when Sasuke stopped him.

"What?" Haku questioned. "You want to mock me more, despite ignoring me, not to mention the dorm entirely, since Sunday?"

Sasuke scowled. "Maybe."

After a moment of waiting, Haku finally said, ".... so? What do you want?"

"I'm not going to Naruto's tonight. We're running lines."

"Where?"

"Stupid, here. As in our room," Sasuke added, when Haku looked at him confusedly. "We have to have these lines down in two months, right?"

"Oh... yeah. Fine." When Sasuke turned away, Haku looked after him incredulously. So what? Did he just have two days of nearly endless sex with Uzumaki to make up for one night away from him? Haku wondered, still confused over why Sasuke had been gone most of that time. If that's the case, what a darling, love-filled relationship those two have. He mentally remarked, leaving the classroom with a slight smirk on his face.

He stopped by Sakura's locker, seeing the pink-haired girl rummaging through it hastily. Peering in behind her, without the girl noticing, Haku saw what looked like a landfill in the thing.

"Where'd you get all this stuff, Sakura-chan?" he asked, slight amazement in his tone.

She jumped at the voice, quickly whirling around to face him. "Haku-kun, stop doing that!" Sakura berated him, Haku backing away in return.

"Sorry... I forget," he said.

"How can you forget?" she muttered, angrily. Going back to searching through her stuff, she continued, "You only do this every bloody day...!"

"Yes well..." Haku leaned back in, to see what exactly she was looking for, "no one else really startles as much as you do. And then Uchiha-kun always knows where I am, so....."

"Tch," she scolded, before making a sound of satisfaction. She pulled out a set of clothing, apparently having found what she had been looking for. Sakura then shoved the dark and light blue clothes into Haku's arms, the boy looking down at them nonplussed.

"What are..."

"P.E. clothes," Sakura stated, grinning. "I was supposed to give you these last week, but I totally spaced on it...!" She blushed.

"P... E....?" Haku glanced back up at her suspiciously, as if wondering if this was a joke. "But, last week we had-"

"Art, yeah. Every week, it's a different thing on Wednesday depending on your grade," she said. "Didn't you read that little foldy-booky pamphlet thing they gave you when you signed up...?" He shook his head, causing the girl to mumble incoherently.

"But, I can't do this," he cried. "I thought.... Why didn't you.... Will there be swimming involved?!"

"We don't have a pool here...." Of course, if you had read the little foldy-booky pamphlet thingy you would've known....

"Then, where do I-?" He was cut off by Sakura's shoving in a direction.

"Just come on, we'll both be late if you keep complaining..."

-

When Sakura had finally pushed Haku into the right direction, and had finally gotten him through the gym's double doors, the bell rang once more. Cursing, she waved a brief goodbye before sprinting back across the school to her own classroom.

He watched her disappear just before the doors slammed shut once more, leaving him in a gymnasium filled with glaring Sasuke fans. Last week, it hadn't been so bad because they were in a classroom; however, in a gym... who knew what exercise equipment of doom the crazed girls would use. The gym teacher, a man named Jiraiya who certainly didn't seem to be teaching the class for the enjoyment of health, stood before them all with a wide grin on his face.

Haku knew this was not going to be one of his favorite classes... though at least it only came once every other week. That was something to look forward to... slightly. He made his way to the mass of young females, most of which had recognized Haku last week as their 'darling Sasuke's roommate,' and glowered as they had before. He smiled despite them, though it was considerably weaker than he had hoped for. Especially when Yamanaka Ino, the blonde who was Sakura-chan's dorm mate, stepped up next to him.

He glanced over at the girl, who was still a tad intimidating even though he was taller than her, and she stared back with an unrecognizable gleam in her eyes. While the group of Sasuke-fangirls had been considerably jealous last week of Haku's luck to live with Uchiha Sasuke, this time around they were even more envious due to the fact that now he got to share a much wanted smooch with the 'only male in school' for the school play. One could only guess the plots that hid behind Ino's grinning facade.

"Hey, Yukio," she greeted, smiling. He nodded back in reply, rousing an angry stare in her smile's stead. "What? Can only talk to Sasuke-kun?! Well, I'll have you know th-"

"Class!" Jiraiya-sensei began, clapping his hands. "Quick, to the locker room so we can get this class started," He said, ushering the girls, and Haku, to the locker room, which was just at the other side of the gym. "Now, all of you into your short-shorts..."

When Haku stepped in, he did his best to avert his eyes to anywhere but the changing girls around him. He stared at the miniature locker he'd been given the entire time, taking off his shirt first and switching it with the light blue P.E. one Sakura had given him. Even during this class they had to wear a uniform... though if he had it his way, Haku certainly wouldn't be wearing such tiny shorts. Luckily, the shirt he'd been given went on long enough to just about two inches above where the shorts themselves ended.

Long enough, he thought, breathing a sigh of relief. It was probably because he didn't exactly have a chest to take up the rest of the shirt. Thanking the fates for that, Haku meandered his way back through the tiled room, keeping his eyes to the floor.

Just when he thought he was home free, however, Ino walked right in front of him. How he knew it was Ino was a surprise to him, even, but the surprise quickly faded when she spoke.

"Just who do you think you are?" she questioned, urging him to answer. When he merely kept watching the floor, as if expecting it to change when he wasn't looking, she glanced down to the tiles then back up at his lowered gaze. "What are you looking at?"

Not you. "..... nothing...."

"Then look up, flat-chested weirdo," Ino stated, tilting Haku's head upwards with a hand to his forehead. Instead, he shut his eyes. Ino made a sour look.

"What?! Are you trying to say I'm ugly?!" she cried, rousing the stares of everyone else whose attention she hadn't caught beforehand. Everyone but Haku, who kept his eyes closed. "Hey...!!"

Running out of options, Ino decided to play dirty. A smirk jerking at her lips, she reached for his chest and dug her fingers through the shirt's material, into his sports bra's front and pulled. Upon release, Haku had his eyes wide open and a sharp breath taken in.

He jumped back, his hands over the place where she had probably left a welt. "What was that?!"

Ino folded her arms, almost nonchalantly. "Poor, sheltered girl... never had someone pull your bra straps before?" Several of the girls in the room were now laughing, some turning away to hide their giggling expressions. Haku blushed when he saw that Ino hadn't even put her other shirt on yet, and was only wearing the shorts and a lace-topped bra.

Ino opened her mouth to say more, but the locker room door swinging open (coupled with a couple girls' screams) quickly drew her attention away from Haku. Jiraiya stood there, an odd mix of amusement and curiosity on his face.

"What's going on? And what's taking so long?!" he asked, a couple of girls soon rushing out the door, fully changed. Ino huffed, mumbling something about 'perverted old men,' as Haku flew past her.

When he got out the door, a hand crept around his neck, causing the boy to shudder. Looking up, he saw the face of his teacher staring back.

"Yamanaka-chan teasing you?" Jiraiya questioned, bringing Haku closer. Haku felt his face heating up even more intensely than before, at the feel of this much, much, much older man pulling him closer.

"N-no," Haku stammered, trying to rip away as hard as he could.

"What's she saying? Because if you ask me, you are a very adorable young woman, and you've no need to pay heed to anyone else's wor-"

Haku finally wriggled out of Jiraiya's reach, saying, "Th-thanks...!" before running off to join rest of the classmates who were done.

When he got there, he received a few odd stares from the rest of the girls. Sighing in defeat, Haku realized that this was probably going to be the norm in this class for the rest of the year.

-

"Did she really?!" Sakura couldn't stop herself from shrieking in laughter, her face buried in her hands.

Haku rolled his eyes. "Yes..." he grumbled, annoyed at the fact that his supposed friend was taking amusement from his troubles.

"She... she..." Sakura tried to speak between snickers, before finally bursting into a set of giggles. "She pulled your straps!!"

Haku nodded again, his arms crossed in front of himself on the spot where Ino had blatantly attacked him. "It's not funny."

"Y-yes, it is," Sakura insisted, before going into a mad burst of laughter once more.

The two were headed to the dormitory building, school having ended just moments before. Sakura hadn't had a chance to ask him how his first P.E. class had gone until then, and now Haku wished she hadn't had the opportunity at all.

"It is not," he said again. "How is inflicting random pain in the most ridiculous manner possible so hilarious?"

"Because it is!"

"Hn, really?" Haku raised a brow, looking at Sakura vengefully. Before the giggling girl realized it, she felt a harsh snap at her back, and nearly shot two feet ahead in surprise.

"Haku-kun!!!" she shrieked, grabbing at her back. Haku made a smug look, and she knew he was mentally scolding her for making it so easy by owning a side book bag, the kind you slung over one shoulder ((a.n.- Which, coincidentally, I own)).

"You jerk, how dare you?!"

"You defenseless little girl, how dare you?" he returned with, smirking. "But, you were right... it is funny."

"Ugh, I'll get you back for this...!!" Sakura warned, as Haku sped ahead to avoid her impending wrath.

He was still grinning when he reached the room, figuring that the whole day was worth just that one random attack on the girl. Well... save for the harassment of Jiraiya-sensei... but that was besides the point!

Haku flung open the door, only to find Sasuke looming over the entrance.

"Uchiha-kun...?" Haku looked at him oddly, walking around the glaring boy to drop his stuff by his bed. "What were you doing?" he finally asked, a good safe distance away from Sasuke.

"Waiting," Sasuke replied. "What took you so long?"

Haku quirked an eyebrow. "Unlike you, I don't have magical teleportation powers." A moment of silence, then, to Haku's great surprise, a slight smirk appeared on Sasuke's face, though it scared Haku more than relieved him.

"Let's get this over with."

Haku flopped onto his bed, bending in an awkward manner to retrieve the script out of his book bag without having to get up. He somehow managed to, after a good five minutes of rummaging through the thing upside down, and sat back up.

Sasuke had watched, impatiently, having had half a mind to just rip the script out himself. However, when Haku finally achieved his somewhat lethargic goal, the Uchiha muttered a brief word of, "Thank Ra," before flipping to the first page.

The script for Ribbon Heart, seeing as how it was a playing for a girl's school, had a light pink front-and-back covering. The title was scrawled over the top with a very ribbon-y font, ending in curls all the rest of that feminine nonsense. After waiting for Haku to say the first line for what seemed like a long while, Sasuke finally had to speak up.

"Don't tell me you've just been looking at the pretty pictures in those dragon books all this time," he sneered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Haku asked, not even looking up from the page. In truth, he hadn't exactly laid eyes on the script's storyline before, and, having found it to be a bit interesting, had forgotten he was supposed to be reading it out loud. He was so engrossed, he didn't even pick up on the subtle remark Sasuke was trying to say.

"Can't you read?" Sasuke edgily questioned.

"Hn? Oh, yes...," Haku finally remembered and his eyes traveled back up to the top. He coughed, trying to figure out the best way to say it. He had just opened his mouth to speak when Sasuke cut him off.

"Didn't you look over the thing beforehand?" he asked, snidely.

"No," the cross-dressing boy plainly replied, slight annoyed that Sasuke had cut him off twice that day (once in the classroom, and again just then), and looked up at his roommate.

"You had two days to figure this out. If you're trying to do something, you think you could at least work a little harder at it," Sasuke said, smirking inwardly. Revenge was sweet.

Haku furrowed his brows. "I am working hard. And besides, I didn't have time to peruse over it since I got it," he explained, giving Sasuke a guarded look. "And I honestly don't see how you could have had all that time... that is, unless you can read while being fu-"

"Shut up and read."

Haku glowered, then returned to the page's confines. That day was definitely not going to be on his top ten list of all-time favorites, that was for sure. As if P.E. wasn't bad enough, having Uchiha Sasuke certainly made it worse. And all over what? Nothing! A stupid play, if that counts as anything...! But other than that, absolutely nothing!

"'I've never seen such a beautiful work of art,'" Haku read flatly, before glaring back up at Sasuke, as if asking, 'Was that good enough, you bastard?'

"Want to have a little more feeling than that?" Sasuke deridingly asked, meeting Haku's heated stare with his own.

Haku quirked a brow, showing his indifference. "Not if you're going to keep talking to me like that." He then proceeded to 'mumbling incoherently', "....boys these days.....," conspicuously inconspicuous.

Sasuke heard this as a challenge, and answered to it with a reply of his own. Something he'd been planning on since he read the script two days earlier. "I've got an idea, Yukio-chan," he said, keeping a masked expression even as he put emphasis on his words. "Why don't we just skip to page twenty-two, ne?"

Curiously, Haku did as Sasuke suggested, silently reading the lines once he arrived at the page. Before even reaching the end of the page, he promptly glared back up at Sasuke.

"Heck, no."

Sasuke merely acted as if he didn't know what Haku was talking about. "No, what? This is the punishment you get for not acting with feeling, so live with it."

"There's a reason with this is one whatever the heck page it's on, and that reason is because... well... the romance has to be worked out first!"

The spiky-haired male before him stared back, stoically. "It's a freakin' play, Yukio," he stated. "And besides, where else could you find more feeling than in a romance scene?"

"I don't know...," Haku replied, unknowingly backing away on his bed. "A dramatic scene? There, let's find one of those-" He had nearly turned the page when Sasuke grabbed his arm swiftly, halting the progress.

"What the hell are you so afraid of?" Sasuke asked, his hand still clamped around Haku's wrist.

"Nothing," Haku denied, defiantly. "I just don't appreciate pushy men," he added, pulling his arm away from Sasuke's reach. Damn, two guys today... Haku mentally remarked, recalling Jiraiya-sensei's much unwanted contact. And neither of them are the one I want.

Sasuke took a deep breath, as if trying to figure out how to handle his roommate. "I didn't want us to do the scene itself," he said, trying to get his point across once more. "Just the lines. And this time... try and make it believable."

"Fine," Haku muttered, grudgingly.

"Tch, I swear...," Sasuke suddenly added. "None of my fan girls would complain as much as you do..."

Haku performed a wry smile. "Darling," he stated, on a falsely sweeter note, "that's because I don't dream of becoming your bed slave one day."

He winced at the thought. "Huzzah for me. Now just read."

The so-called girl tried reading her part once more, finding this new line easier to say than the first. "'You jerk, just who do you think you are, anyway?! Just because the rest of the world falls at your feet doesn't mean I have to!'"

Sasuke raised both brows to this, though he wasn't too overly surprised at the fact that it sounded suspiciously like Haku meant these words. "'I wasn't expecting you to, Anna. And I meant to tell you, but you never let me close.'"

"'What? And let you trick me like I knew you would end up doing?! All men are the same; lying, cheating animals who care for nothing but themselves,'" Haku read, before glaring up at Sasuke over the top of his script. Sasuke noted this, but pretended to ignore it.

"'If you would have just let me known we had a connection, maybe I wouldn't have done what I did.'" A shifting of mattress springs, as Sasuke leaned further to the edge of his bed, unnoticeable to Haku.

"'Connection? If someone tells you they love you, isn't that what a connection is...?'"

Connection... Isn't that what he and Zabuza-san had? Or had that all been a dream, hidden in the snow? Of course, the word 'love' had never been used but... as far as Haku had seen it, no words were needed for what they had.

The letters on the lines he held before him started mixing in and out as he thought, remembering the numb cold that had surrounded him before. After Zabuza-san had left, Haku would sometimes still sleep out in the snow overnight, leading to worried stares of the others in the apartment housing he used to live in. But all he'd wanted was that nostalgic feeling.... one he could only get lying out in the ice-cold white powder during the night.

"'You never said that.'"

Haku snapped up. "Huh?" Sasuke only needed to give him a burning stare before Haku remembered what they were just doing. "Uh, right.... 'I did... You wouldn't have remembered though, of course.'"

"'Why not?'"

"'I said it....'" Haku paused, whether for dramatic effect or because it struck a mental chord, Sasuke couldn't figure out why, "'but, you were asleep, so....'"

"'Then it didn't count.'"

"'Of course it did! Do you know how hard that was? Just to say it while you were... unconscious?!'" Haku then felt the paper slowly being pulled out of his fingers, only to look up and see Sasuke mere inches away from him. He almost protested, but Sasuke beat him to speaking.

"'Then say it again.'"

Haku had seen the line earlier, he knew what it was. He could still hear his mind echoing the words over and over again so then why... why did his throat suddenly get so dry?

Hearing Sasuke read his lines, and then actually watching him was a different thing entirely, as Haku had found. Dark eyes linked, could Haku finally figure out the answer to what he had been wondering earlier, that morning? Though, they seemed to conceal as many secrets as his own eyes did.

".... I...."

"... Haku...?"

"I.... think you are the biggest moron to walk the face of the earth," Haku blandly stated, eyes narrowing.

"What? Stick to your part, stupid!"

"No, why don't you stop trying to get in defenseless girls' pants?!" Haku retorted. "Or, in my case, skirt!"

"Why the hell would I want to get into your damn skirt?!" Sasuke cried, soon standing. Haku followed this motion.

He folded his arms, and in doing so felt the familiar mark of where Ino had snapped his sports bra. "How should I know? Because you seem to get your sadistic kicks out of torturing people you deem fools!"

Sasuke stared at him incredulously. "And who would that be?!"

Haku rolled his eyes, proceeding to walk around the beds, where there was more room to argue pointlessly. "Gee, I dunno... maybe the entirety of your bloody fanclub!!"

"I don't even want their attention!" Sasuke replied. "Unless you haven't noticed, girls are not my... my choice of bed partners!"

"Oh, how I would beg to differ," Haku remarked. "Because, unless my source is mistaken, that cultish ring you seem to love wearing so much wasn't even given by Uzumaki-kun...!"

Sasuke flinched at this. "Well, you can tell that source of yours that whoever gave me this ring is none of her business."

"Aha, so it wasn't him!"

"You just said it wasn't...!" Sasuke cried. "Who are you, Captain Redundant?"

A smirk played on Haku's face. "No, but I did just trick you into telling me that that ring wasn't given by Uzumaki Naruto, so HAH!"

"What?!"

"So then who did give it to you?" Haku pried, closing the distance between them again.

Sasuke turned away. "No one of your concern."

"I'll tell you a secret of mine if you tell me this," Haku offered, remembering Sakura having made a deal like this with him once. It was girlish and silly, but maybe Sasuke would fall for it.....?

"No way."

Damn. "Oh, come on...!" Haku tried again. "Isn't there anything about me you've ever wondered about?"

Before, yes. Now, however... "No," Sasuke said, coldly. "Besides, your secret will probably be something idiotic, like what your favorite color is or something like that."

Haku shook his head. "Nope, it'll be good."

At this, Sasuke faced his dorm mate once more, slightly curious. Of course, Haku could have just been lying and actually was planning on just telling him his favorite color. But... what if he actually revealed what happened between him and Zabuza-san?

 If it is stupid, I'll be forced to attack viciously and without mercy, Sasuke resolved, glaring at the boy opposite of him. "Fine. But you have to tell me your secret first."

"What? No!"

"Why not?"

Haku's arms returned to be crossed. "Because my secret is a heckuva lot better than yours is going to be."

"Well," Sasuke began, his tone edging towards irritation, "if you already know what my secret is, then I don't see why I have to tell you."

Haku and Sasuke glared at one another for a few moments, both becoming more and more impatient with the other.

"You know what?" Sasuke finally said, sitting back onto his bed. "Since it doesn't matter anyway because I doubt you know the person, I'll tell you."

"Yay!"

"His name is-" At that moment the door burst open, Sakura on the other side.

"Sakura-chan?" Haku stated, slightly wishing she hadn't burst in at that moment, right when he was getting somewhere.

"Sasuke-kun!" she cried breathlessly, her face red as if she'd just run a long way in a very short amount of time.

Said boy quickly stood once more, his stoic facade cracking faintly to show a hint of alarm. "What is it?"

"Down... stairs....." she stammered between breaths. "Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-sensei asked for you...."

-

After notes: (1) - Never read Night before, though all my friends have had to read it for English. Haven't taken that class yet this year so.... I'll probably end up reading it then, too....

Surprisingly.... this chapter's probably taken me the longest to write. O.o; Weird. It's one of my most enjoyed ones though..... (grins madly) Having people snap other people's bras is probably one of my most guilty pleasures...... Now then! Review, and... yeah! Complain about how out-o'-character I made them all! Especially Ino, though for some reason, I think she might just be jealous because Haku is perdier than her. x3 And Sakura and Haku are like, OOC all the time because... for one thing... I doubt they would be friends under any different circumstances. -.-0 Maybe... acquaintances? Certainly not best buddies, like what I seem to be depicting here. (sigh) Oh well....

Again, review, review, review....!! ((Or complain. XD))