Crazy Daze

XI

I wish I had some cool story to tell, like a race through the city, Amada using his lights to race in and out of traffic. But I don’t. It took us four excruciating hours to get to the courthouse where Sasuke had been for the past few weeks, complete with Amada’s country music. And he sang. The whole way. For four fucking hours. I was ready to pop the guy if he just sang one more song, but we made it to our destination before that could happen.

- God dammit. He was like… like strangling a cat while its nails played La Cucaracha on a blackboard. –

Don’t remind me. I think I’m deaf.

- We both are. -

Good. Now, just smile and nod.

- Not too much, or they’ll think we’re crazy. -

We giggled and Amada threw us a sharp look. I couldn’t help but push his buttons.

“Take me to Sasuke.”

Amada gave a little snarl and hauled me along, pulling me into the station, past the real criminals and other cops and detectives, all the way to the back. He wordlessly opened a door and tossed me in, growling out some ridiculous time limit and locked the door behind us.

- Rawr. We is dangerous cwiminals. -

Rabbit season.

- Duck season! -

“Naruto?”

I turned around and grinned at Sasuke, shoving a victory sign in his face. He only slapped it away and grabbed onto me, clutching. I held him back, trying to calm him down. Not as easy as it looks. When he finally did calm down, I only riled him up again, but in a different way. Practically melted under the kiss, he did, god it was perfect.

“I missed you,” Sasuke whispered.

I held him tighter. “Missed you, too. But it’s only just started. We gotta get through the trial.”

Sasuke pulled away and looked up at me. “But you’re not testifying.”

“Itachi asked me to.”

“Itachi came to you to ask you to talk?”

“What am I? A record?”

Sasuke sighed. “I’m sorry. It just doesn’t sound like something my brother would do.”

“Well, this Kisame guy was with him. Pretty hard to pull off natural blue hair.” I replied dryly. Sasuke reddened in embarrassment.

“All right, point proven. They’ve just been hounding me.”

“I know how that is.” I heaved a sigh. “They keep throwing you curve balls, trying to make you contradict your story. It’s been done to me before.”

“How’d you win?”

“Blink and stare. Maybe start to cry. Child advocates really go for that stuff. They force the cops to dumb it down.”

- That and they pity you. -

Only problem is, that stopped working for me when I was twelve.

- Because you’re not as cute and cuddly as Sasuke. -

I can be cute and cuddly. I just prefer to be a badass.

- Uh-huh. –

Kyuubi, shut up.

“They just keep asking me the same thing over and over,” Sasuke said softly.

“Oh, good then.” I smiled. “Keeps your story easy. Just repeat yourself.”

Sasuke rolled his eyes. I stuck my tongue out at him. What followed was a snog-fest of epic proportions and it would’ve gone further had not the door rattled. We pulled away faster than should be humanly possible and fixed our clothes, quickly sitting in the chairs and looking properly miserable. Amada stared at us, no doubt suspicious as all adults are suspicious of children. Or crazy people. Or people in general. People suck.

- Amen to that. – Kyuubi said lowly.

“All right boys.” Amada was saying. “It’s time. You say what I tell you to say, and we can all go back to our normal, happy lives.”

“Hey, Amada.” I ventured, acting curious, innocent. “Are there recorders around? I mean, you’d be really smart if there were.”

Amada’s face tightened and I glanced at Sasuke, hoping he got the clue. Judging form his smile, he did get it. Perfect. He couldn’t tape us, not without our consent or the consent of our adult guardian, so Amada’s panties were tangling up in a nice knot. It was too perfect a revenge, so I shut up and settled for grinning. He jerked his thumb and together Sasuke and I followed him to the courtroom, where a bunch of people sat – not counting judge and jury – restlessly waiting to condemn an innocent man.

Honestly, I had no idea how this was going to play out. I mean, really, this case should’ve been scrapped due to insufficient evidence, but I guess people were just assholes.

- Or they have nothing better to do. -

Like I said. Assholes.

I saw Kisame, saw Itachi, glanced around and saw a few other people I recognized. Those people meaning the judge and bailiff, really. I have a nod to the two men and got a nod and grimace in return. I decided I could behave for a while.

- Do we have to? –

Yeah.

- Damn. -

I know. It sucks.

- Damn straight. –

A gavel struck wood and all noise hushed. Even the crickets were afraid to make noise. I took Sasuke’s hand under the table and clutched it.

“Just tell the truth,” I whispered. Sasuke swallowed and gave a hesitant nod. As the speeches began, I took a deep breath.

Here goes nothing.