Luck

How to describe Uchiha Sasuke. Naruto didn’t know that much about the boy in all honesty. Golden child of the Architecture Department, he had a reputation for never failing, and consequently was ranked first in his major. With the way people talked about the kid, Naruto wouldn’t have been surprised if he was the top student in their entire graduating class. Which was a stark contrast to his own reputation. Not that he didn’t try, but working two jobs just to put himself through school didn’t exactly make passing with high marks a top priority. It was enough that he was going to graduate.

He found that slightly annoying about the guy, how everything just seemed to come easy to him. Everyone loved him, the beloved son of the Uchiha family. Practically military royalty as far as the country was concerned. His older brother Itachi was a legend on the campus, a so-called genius and party-boy extraordinaire. Though there was that rumor that his idea of ‘fun’ had a rather cruel twist to it. However, most people seemed reluctant to talk about that matter. Either way, the guy was still worshipped as a god among all.

And if that didn’t make matters worse for Naruto, Sasuke topped his brother as far as looks were concerned. Now, Itachi was a good-looking kid, sharp-eyed and alluring in that mysteriously dangerous sort of way. Naruto had to agree with that. Heck, even Kiba said he’d screw the guy, and Kiba was as straight as they came. But for some reason, Naruto hated to admit that Sasuke was even better looking. As far as he was concerned, the youngest Uchiha was delicate and moody to a fault. Yet, every girl on campus was taken with him – even if they never admitted it to anyone. He could tell. Mention Uchiha Sasuke in a crowded room, and every girl would flush holly berry red.

So, when Sasuke grabbed a seat at the farthest end of the bar and ordered up three shots of Southern Comfort, Naruto couldn’t resist taking a jab at the kid he’d grown to dislike simply through idle chatter and the constant doting of the female population.

“Now, there’s something I wouldn’t have expected,” the blond called down to the other end, a viciously taunting smile tugging at his lips. “Are you sure you wouldn’t prefer a Cosmo or maybe Sex on the Beach?”

Kiba smirked as he distributed the light brown liquid between three crystal clear shot glasses. Then damn near laughed as the girls from the pool table immediately rallied by the Uchiha prodigy’s side. Leave it to Naruto to call the female populace to arms rather than successfully wooing their members.

Sasuke stiffened up, back rigid and fingers laced tightly together before him on the bar. He hated the comment, but hated the girls even more. Always hounding him with their worthless comments. How they supposedly loved him, adored him, would do anything for him. They didn’t even know him! Just his family name, his reputation. And the harder he tried to shove them away, the harder they tried to claim him for their own. Like he was something that could be won with desire alone.

This was not how he had intended his Christmas Eve to go. Without acknowledging Naruto’s comment, Sasuke picked up the first shot and downed it.

“Oh, I know what you would like,” Naruto prodded, “Sex with the Bartender! Now that seems to be more like your taste. It’s easy to swallow and has just enough bite to make you enjoy it. Wouldn’t you agree, Kiba?”

Kiba really had nothing against Sasuke. The kid was talented, but definitely had some issues he needed to work through. And he sure as hell didn’t want to piss off his groupies. The wrath of women aside, they were still customers, and he was still working. However, he wasn’t about to leave Naruto without a leg to stand on. After all, best friends didn’t bail you out, they went down with you.

“Real tasty. As long as you’re the one bartending feel free to serve it to him as often as you’d like.” Best friends might take the fall with you, but it wouldn’t stop them from kicking you on the way down.

“Hey, quit it, you two! Especially you, Naruto. Sasuke hasn’t done anything to you,” Ino snapped as she sidled closer to the dark-haired prodigy.

Close to her elbow, another girl, who Naruto was certain was called Sakura, jostled for an even closer position. “Yeah, Naruto! Quit being a jerk. It’s Christmas, isn’t it? Even you should be able to muster up some decency for that!”

With a scowl, Naruto swiveled around on his bar stool, began to nurse his drink with curses treading under his breath. He bit miserably at the straw Kiba had tossed into the liquid, small indentations rendering the utensil pretty much useless. It was bad enough they had refused to sit with him earlier, but to rush to that prick’s defense like their lives depended on it?

Maybe Kiba was right, there was no such thing as luck in his life. Sasuke hadn’t even said thank you to the girls. Too busy mumbling to himself over his misfortune, Naruto failed to catch the muttered Annoying from Sasuke’s lips before he swallowed the second shot.

“Hey, Naruto! Don’t just turn away. Apologize!” Sakura again. He could have sworn she was a polite girl, that never-do-wrong pride-of-her-parents sort of girl. Rather smart to boot, now that he recalled. Definitely not the type to demand apologies from guys she barely knew in a bar on Christmas Eve. But, he’d never been very…alert when it came to women.

However, before Naruto could respond - no male with a half decent sense of self would let a command like that slide - Sasuke sat up with a growl. “I don’t need a bunch of drunken whores to get apologies for me! If I wanted that from a low-class loser, I’d have gotten it myself! Now leave me alone!”

“Whoa, whoa! ‘Low-class loser’? Sorry I’m not some son of the Uchiha family or brother to a campus legend. But what fucking right do you have to judge me?” Naruto snapped back, suddenly forgetting the girls, who were so taken aback by the object of their worship that they’d stepped back a good five feet from his stool, and the rather astonished Kiba.

“I could say the same to you! I wasn’t even in here five minutes before you started on me!” Sasuke returned heatedly.

One of the girls stirred, took a step towards the bar. Neither Naruto nor Sasuke moved, each tangled up in the other’s glare. Neither willing to back down. “Hey, c’mon you two. It’s Christmas.”

“Naruto just leave Sasuke alone. You’re the one who started this.”

“Dammit,” Naruto snarled. With one last hard look thrown at Sasuke, Naruto turned back to his drink, swallowed the rest of it in three large gulps. Down at the other end of the bar, he could once again hear the girls murmuring with concern around the Architecture major. The bastard could push them into a lake of scorn, and they’d drown in worry over him.

“Want another drink?” Kiba whispered as he leaned over the bar, one hand settling on the edge of Naruto’s shoulder.

The blond stared back at his best friend, the blue of his eyes swimming in a volatile mix of anger and hurt. After giving a sullen nod, Naruto set his forehead against the bar’s top. He lifted his head up slightly, then banged it down against the wood. Once. Twice. Three times was indeed a charm. He could feel the headache knocking on the back of his skull.

From the opposite end, a stool scraped along the ground, the sound ricocheting through the wooden top of the bar and into Naruto’s head. He groaned miserably, turned his head to the side. Unable to stand the sound any longer - he swore it had gotten closer – the blond picked up his head just as Sasuke was settling into the seat beside him.

“Want an apology now?” Naruto asked with searing sarcasm.

Sasuke glanced over, dark eyes simmering with indignation and irritation. “No. They,” he gave a toss towards the pool tables, “don’t seem to go near you.”

“Glad to be of service,” the Sociology major muttered in return.

Not wanting to maintain eye contact with him, Naruto gazed over in the direction indicated by the dark-haired boy, saw that the girls had not returned to the pool table as he had thought. Instead, they were standing rather perplexed around the seat Sasuke had just vacated. There was a brief huddle, glossy lips moving in rapid answer to one comment or another, then all fell silent. Naruto knew female determination when he saw it.

“But apparently, even I’m not enough of a deterrent,” Naruto said, not without some amusement. “Curse your genes, not me for this.”

“I do,” Sasuke answered dryly. He gave one more glance towards Naruto, the look in his eyes toeing the edge of despair before hardening over once again. As though preparing himself for the final assault of a losing battle, the Architecture prodigy picked up the third shot glass and poured the golden contents down his throat.

He wasn’t sure what it was – whether that wry admission that could be taken any number of ways or the constant torment of unwanted attention – but Naruto felt a twinge of understanding. Not that it reconciled Sasuke’s actions from earlier or made him regret his own words. There was truth sitting behind some of them. But, Naruto knew all too well the feeling of having eyes glued onto his every action, following him relentlessly. Though for him, it was that wanting to see just how badly he would screw up. It had nothing to do with admiration.

“Uzumaki, go bartend or something. You do work here, don’t you?” Ino demanded, because it sure as hell wasn’t a question with any room for no answer. She stood directly behind him, arms crossed, lips a tight line of dissatisfaction over the current situation.

Naruto looked under his arm, caught the single-minded glare boring into his back, imagined some of the others wore a similar look. He shifted his gaze to the young man besides him. Three fingers raised, indicating another round of shots to be set before him, Sasuke seemed rather disinterested in the whole affair.

For a moment, Naruto was reluctant to let anything slip past his lips. Let the brat fight his own battles. Then he watched as Sasuke threw the fourth shot into his mouth, watched the liquid pulse down his throat as he swallowed. Could’ve sworn he sighed bitterly as the liquor scorched its way down.

“No can do, Ino.” He spun around on his stool, placing his hands on his knees as he leaned back against the bar. A wide grin pulled his lips slightly apart, and for a good minute he simply sat there smiling at the less-than-amused girls.

“Yeah, I do work here, and we’re about to close. And if I’m not mistaken, I doubt your father would like to know you’ve spent your Christmas Eve trying to seduce a frozen bitch of a boy in the only open bar in town. In fact, I’m guessing you blew off that big party your parents always throw with those friends of theirs for this. But I’d be more than happy to escort you home to tell him. With you dressed like some five-dollar hooker, I’m sure he’d like that. After all, you are daddy’s girl, aren’t you?”

One down. And the effect seemed to work because the blond Psychology major simply stood there completely confused. It wasn’t every day Naruto went off on someone though.

“Annnnd, you Sakura. I’m guessing you blew off said party as well because let’s face it, you probably can’t let Ino do something without being there to show her up. Now, you aren’t dressed like you’re fit to work the corner, but I do think mom and dad will be upset that you snuck out like that. I love it how you people always seem to want to escape from home, even though it’s Christmas as you’ve pointed out to me this evening.”

Naruto wasn’t about to let Sakura off of the hook for blasting him earlier. So much for the polite princess of the Haruno’s. Still, he actually felt a little bad about talking to her like that. She had tolerated him better than the others of that clique had. Except for the last one who had shown up tonight. But Hinata never really said much of anything either way.

“Hinata. You actually haven’t done a damn thing all night except follow these two blind worshippers around. But friends are friends, huh? I just don’t want that cousin of yours showing up on my doorstep in the morning. God knows, Neiji will try to kick my ass for not sending you home the minute you stepped into this place.”

And that was true. Hyuuga Neiji had already tried to kick his ass once when he failed to send his favorite little cousin back home when she had stepped into the place on her twenty-first. Apparently, a college bar – and that’s essentially what Top of the Stairs was for only college kids seemed to visit it- was not the place someone from the Hyuuga family should spend their birthday. Even if it was their twenty-first. Then again, maybe it was just Neiji. He didn’t come across as a guy who would drink excessively. Or even drink at all now that Naruto thought about it.

Satisfied with his defiant stand, the blond took the latest offering of rum and Coke from Kiba and simply sat there drinking. Waiting for the girls to accept his position on the matter and leave. After all, if you had family on Christmas, you should spend it with them. At least, that’s what he thought. Wasn’t the damn holiday all about that anyways? Which led him to his next question: What was someone like Uchiha Sasuke doing alone on Christmas?