Playing the Villain

Chapter Two



The next day at work, Naruto wasn’t fairing any better than he had been the day before. His head was spinning from the alcohol and he was planning on keeping a constant supply of coffee behind the tills to help him through the day. On arrival the shop was already buzzing with a whole range of activities. Apparently the past few days had been really busy as some schools had already broken up for the holidays so most of the other tasks had managed to fall behind.



“Hey ‘Ruto!” Tenten greeted him as he tried to walk past her to go up to the first floor. “Don’t suppose you wanna switch today? I’ll go upstairs and cover for you, while you help out down here?”



Naruto stopped mid-step and raised an eyebrow. From anyone else that would have seemed like an innocent enough request, however, this was Tenten. “Sasuke?” he asked, even though he already knew the answer. That would be the only reason she would want to offer to take on helping out in the children’s section.



The place was actually impossible to ever keep tidy, which most people would usually boil down to the fact that children love to pull things off of the shelves. Naruto, however, had a more informed perspective on the situation. Most the books that were pulled out and dumped in random places came from places too high up for small arms to reach, and many times he’d seen the parents flick through a variety of things which would later be found left on displays and tables around the store. He often felt sorry for the innocent kids that were left to take the rap.



No matter who it was though, it was Naruto’s job to clear up after them. He had other things to do too, but that always took up the majority of his time, and he liked hanging out there as it was what he knew, what he was familiar with. Downstairs with all the academic book though was a completely different ball game. Sure he could manage to help down there if he had to, but it was out of his comfort zone, and therefore the day always seemed to drag. It must have been the same for Tenten. She’d be utterly lost upstairs if anyone asked her to recommend adventure stories for a ten year boy, or anything to help explain puberty to a young girl.



“No,” Tenten tried to defend herself. “It’s because I want to... There’s a new... I mean, it would be advantageous for everyone if I had all round experience in every section of the store.” It had taken a few seconds, but he had to give it to her, that at least seemed logical.



“Seeing that you put forward such a convincing argument... no!” Tenten’s face fell as only seconds before he had finished that sentence she had been sure that he was about to give in and actually agree to her proposal. Instead she was left open mouthed as Naruto ran up the stairs taking them two at a time, to avoid whatever excuses and complaints she had ready as a backup to try and get to work next to the intelligent, dark haired man upstairs that went by the name of Sasuke.



The man in question had had a few days off recently for reasons only disclosed to management so Naruto hadn’t even been sure if he would’ve made it in to work today. However, knowing that he was at the top of the stairs and would be there all day for Naruto to sneak regular side glances at, the teenager‘s stomach jumped slightly in excitement. Nothing showed on his face though. Sure he was smiling, he always was, but he had so much experience in feigning emotions that it was practically impossible for most people to tell when what Naruto showed was genuinely what he was feeling.



There were many reasons for this, and one of them was because the guy now standing just a few feet in front of him was the most beautiful creature he had ever come across. He had never thought of himself as gay, and he still didn’t really acknowledge it as a label to attach to himself. He had gone out with a couple of girls but nothing had ever come of it, and even when he had first met Sasuke when he turned up for his interview, he had only taken notice that the boy was very attractive and left it at that. The more time he spent with him though, even though he couldn’t class them as being any closer than he was with any of his other workmates, he found more and more things that he liked about the guy. Maybe it was just some kind of admiration. His body always just acted on instinct but after his mind would try and justify it differently.



He found the rumours about him that went around at school hilarious, and they had also spread to work as Tenten was a friend of both Ino and Sakura. Still, it was easier to lead them on with that than to admit to the truth. He wasn’t even sure what the truth was, or he refused to believe what he thought it was. He found another guy attractive, and liked spending time with him, that was all there was to it. Anything more than that and it was easier not to think about. Sasuke had been unavailable for as long as Naruto had known him. One good thing about his relationship though, was that it confirmed that Sasuke’s preferences weren’t hidden like Naruto’s and he was most definitely interested in men.



Naruto, on the other hand, had a mind full of confusing questions, unanswered uncertainties and mixed feelings. They had tormented him for the first few days, maybe even weeks when they first appeared, but he had dealt with them in the same way that he dealt with most things, blocked them out and locked it in the long lost corners of his mind.



“Hey,” Neji shook Naruto out of his thoughts as he came up the stairs behind him.



“Morning,” Sasuke called to both of them, looking up from computer that he was doing the daily replenishments on.



“Feeling any better?” Neji had walked up to Sasuke and was glancing over the rotas as he spoke to him. “What was with the time off? It’s been a great mystery around here - Tenten’s talked about nothing else.”



Sasuke looked down from the screen and stopped typing as he sighed and his shoulders slumped. He knew about Tenten’s obsession and tried to steer clear from her at all costs. He had pointed out on several occasions that she really wasn’t his type, but it was to no avail as she seemed to think she could convert him or something along those lines. Still, that was only half the reason for his exasperated attitude. He knew people were going to pry and it had to come out at some point.



“I had to move all my stuff back into my place.”



“Oh.” Now Neji didn’t know what to say. “I thought you and...”



“Look, its fine. I’m fine. It had kinda been heading that way recently but when we finally decided to call it quits it was just more hassle than anything else. He was even the one that suggested we cool it but then hours later he was on the phone trying to take it all back. It was just shock though I guess. Hopefully he’ll get over it.”



“There’s no chance that you might...”



“No.” And with that one word, Sasuke started typing again, reams and reams of ISBNs expertly being inputted at record speed.



Naruto hadn’t actually moved from the spot he’d been occupying for the past few minutes as he’d been listening intently to the conversation and was now struggling to try and digest this new information. It had been easy to fancy Sasuke before as he knew he had always been unobtainable. That had always been an easy excuse for him to never act upon his thoughts. Now though, without that excuse, he would have to face up to the feeling that he harboured for the other man. That was something he hadn’t been expecting to have to deal with, and he honestly didn’t think he was ready to do.



A hard slap on the back shook all thoughts from his brain though as his boss’s voice boomed in his ear, “Half past guys! Get those doors opened!”



By the time it came round for Naruto’s lunch he was exhausted and starving. He tried to think over his options for what to eat but he knew that he would end up going to the nearest possible place. Even if it was more expensive and the food not quite on par with the other options available at shops only a few outlets further down in the shopping centre, when it came to lunchtimes, he got lazy.



As he got to the locker room, he was close enough to hear that the staff room was already occupied, and the voices he could hear included Sasuke’s. That meant food could wait. In the quick split second as he entered the room, he took in who was where and positioned himself in a chair that was diagonally to the left of where Sasuke sat giving him a perfect view while at the same time wouldn’t be too obvious. A couple of other workers were figuring out who was coming out later for Neji’s birthday and had started questioning Sasuke about it.



“Sure, I’ll come for a bit. I need a drink after the week I’ve had.”



“Sweet!” Naruto accidently thought out loud, gaining him a questioning glance through the dark bangs that fell over Sasuke’s face. The fact that the poor blonde was already troubled over his feelings wasn’t helped by how alluring it was to have those dark eyes focused intently on him. “I mean, you hardly ever come out with us, and the more the merrier I always say.”



As Sasuke’s gaze moved away of him, he felt relieved as he had be struggling with the sudden thumping of his heart that seemed to have jumped into the base of his throat. At the same time though, he was also experiencing a sense of disappointment. If his whole body wasn’t betraying him enough, his stomach decided at that exact moment to let it be known that it was not happy about being ignored for a bit of eye candy. He noticed the wrap that came flying in his direction just in time to catch it before it hit the floor.



“You have it. I’m not really all that hungry.” Sasuke smiled at him before picking up his bag to take back to his locker. “Later guys.”