Playing the Villain

Chapter Three



The hallway itself left no tell tale signs that the house was currently only being occupied by a singular teenage boy. Once you made it to the kitchen though, all the signs were there – empty pizza boxes, piles of washing up waiting to be noticed, and rubbish littering every surface. Packaging and spilt food covered the whole kitchen table, and the even more disturbing part was that if anyone actually bothered to look, there were even empty wrappers in between some of the sofa cushions. Of course this would all be found and tidied before his parents returned from their most recent trip abroad, but for now Naruto was living his own way which included the least possibly cleaning. It would also stay like that for as long as he could possibly get away with it. Luckily, for the moment, the house was pitch black so none of this could be seen.



The deafening silence of the place was usually what drove the blonde insane. He could never stand it there for long before he would head out, calling around anyone and everyone he knew, finding someone to help him pass the time. He never thought about it as loneliness, but that would’ve been the best way to describe it. The empty house served as a constant reminder that his family were never around. Each room would seem ten times larger when they were away. Every sound would reverberate off the walls and each time a door creaked he was sure it was undoubtedly louder. Naruto had grown accustomed to spending as little time there as physically possible.



Maybe that was what had fuelled the rumours of his reputation. That was something he could cope with though, while the tauntingly empty house wasn’t.



Tonight on the other hand, it was going to be different, and the house didn’t have a clue what was about to hit it.



It started with a fumbling noise. Metal scraped against metal as a key failed to find a place where it might fit.



Next a small thump echoed down the hallway followed by the keys clattering on the floor.



“Ow!”



That was then followed by a tirade of giggles from various sources before the fumbling started again.



The laughter grew, and then tapping started against the wall much like a mock drum roll building to a crescendo just before the door swung open with an almighty bang. Light flooded in and Naruto stood square in the middle of the doorway looking overly pleased with himself for having won the battle with the key.



“Welcome to my humble abode!” He declared, as he stood to the side, bowing down while ushering his guests in.



“Finally!” Neji exclaimed as he dragged a now clapping Tenten through the door and lead her towards the lounge off to the left before Naruto had even finished his welcoming speech. The others weren’t far behind.



“Okay then, guess I’ll go and get the drinks,” Naruto half mumbled to himself, even though that fact was inevitable as it was after all his house, and he was the only one that knew where the drinks were. Neji had been round before, which was obvious by the way he knew where he was going, but the others were experiencing the place for the first time, which reminded him, “ Temari,” He poked his head in to the lounge on his way past to the kitchen, “the toilet is upstairs, first door on the right!”



He successfully navigated his way to the pantry before nearly falling head first into the fridge door as a rogue take out box managed to trip him up. By chance his hands flew out just in time to catch himself before he retraced his steps and decided flicking on the light would have probably been an idea a few moments ago. The refrigerator was seriously lacking in all types of food but was instead heavily stocked with a selection of beers, ciders and alcopops. It took a few minutes to get the balancing act just right, but Naruto was soon in the front room with the others, minus Temari, placing the selection of drinks on the table.



All hands came forward to grab their choices, except one. Sasuke eyed up the array of bottles spread out before asking, “Got anything a little stronger?”



Earlier that evening, the brooding raven had thought that a few drinks would help distract him from thinking about the past few days, but so far that plan hadn’t worked. However, seeing the others around him were smiling and so easily under the influence, it made him even more determined that drink should be the answer. There was only one thing for it - he obviously just hadn’t had enough yet. Unbeknown to him though, he most definitely had already had sufficient amounts or else he would have noticed the blatantly obvious flaws in his current logic.



“Sure,” Naruto grinned, his own mind already feeling the buzz of what he had already consumed and as such had some flawed logic of his own. He had decided that if Sasuke wanted something stronger, then he too would also follow suit. He made his way back to the kitchen and pulled out two glass tumblers before once again entering the pantry. This time he bypassed the fridge and opened the cabinet on the far back wall to reveal a selection of spirits. He went straight for the dark rum.



“Good choice.”



The recognisable voice that suddenly appeared very close to Naruto’s ear sent shivers right down his spine. This was mostly out of fear due to someone being unexpectedly behind him, but there was something else there too. There was definitely something pleasurable about the fact that the person inches away, and whose breath was practically on his neck, was the same guy that he had been sneaking side glances at all evening. Fortunately for both parties involved, the blonde’s reflexes were also working to their own rules tonight and his hands chose to tighten their grip on the bottle instead of the usual reaction to shock which would have led to the dark liquid coating the floor beneath them.



Sasuke stepped back as Naruto stood up, giving him room to manoeuvre around to where he left the glasses before pouring out two generous helpings of rum that were only sprinkled with a dash of coke. Naruto was beginning to wonder if he had only poured coke into Sasuke’s glass after watching the older man pick up his drink and down it in one. The grimace that he was greeted with on the other hand reassured him that he wasn’t going insane; there had most definitely been mostly rum in that glass. The sanity of his current houseguest however was something he was less sure about.



Naruto put his drink back on the side after only taking a tentative sip and watched as Sasuke was already in the process of refilling his own. “Woah there!” He exclaimed as the second drink gave him déjà vu, vanishing in mere seconds much like the first. “Are you really that hung up over some guy?”



The glass came down a bit heavy-handedly as Sasuke suddenly turned his attention away from consuming alcohol and onto the boy in next to him. He wanted to snap at the kid to mind his own business. He also wanted to confess his life story to him now that he saw how those amazingly blue eyes were genuinely showing some kind of concern for him. Anger came back again though as he reasoned it might not be concern but pity instead. Who was this guy to pity him? And how could he be so blatant about it without feeling any kind of remorse or guilt? Was he the only guy that had to feel guilty about feeling pity?



This internal dialogue that Sasuke was having with himself took place in a matter of split seconds, yet in that time he had forgotten what it was Naruto had said. Instead his mouth just decided to say out loud the next sentence in his random trail of thoughts.



“Why do I pity him?” He seemed genuinely perplexed.



The problem was, so did Naruto. “Who?”



“He just keeps calling and the voicemails he leaves... I can’t help it; I can’t remember ever feeling anything else for him.”



“Oh... Him.” The whole of Naruto’s body quite obviously slumped as this realisation hit him. Of course Sasuke was still going to be getting over his ex, it hadn’t been long since they split. Sasuke didn’t notice though, just as Naruto was failing to notice that Sasuke wasn’t actually hung up on his ex but instead suffering from guilt for the fact that he wasn’t actually harbouring anything for his ex at all. He didn’t even miss him. All this made him think about way too many things, such as if he had ever really liked him or if he could trust his feelings when he had thought he liked someone before but looking back on it all now he knew that his heart had never truly been all that into it at all.



The awkward silence was interrupted by the sudden eruption of music from the lounge followed by Neji voice trying to tell Tenten to back off and that no, he did not feel like dancing. He obviously managed to break away from her only seconds later as he stormed into the kitchen, glared at the pair still standing there and demanded that they stop being anti-social on his birthday and for a present could they please keep Tenten away from him.



All three men had to try not to laugh out loud as the re-entered the front room to find Tenten now sprawled across one of the sofas having finally passed out. Neji quickly made a move over to the stereo and lowered the volume of it hoping to keep her that way as long as possible, not that anything was likely to wake her till morning, he still didn’t want to take the chance.



Temari on the other hand had taken it upon herself to find some other form of entertainment when Tenten had started the dancing, and had come across as pool table in the adjoining room which served as a dining room come games room.



“Anyone up for a game of doubles?” She asked as she appeared next to the others holding a couple of cues.



Naruto racked up the balls and got ready to break. It was a good shot. At least considering how drunk he was, he considered it a good shot. He hadn’t actually managed to pot anything but that meant the white ball also still remained on the table and he felt that he had looked professional while taking aim, so he was proud with his performance none the less. Moving out the way for Temari to have her go, Naruto was tapped on the arm by Sasuke who had retrieved their drinks from the kitchen. The blonde didn’t fail to take note that Sasuke’s glass was once again full, but was slightly more relieved to see the aforementioned male was now taking actual sips rather than going for the all in one approach.



Naruto got quite into the game as his competitive streak took over, especially once Temari managed to pot yet another of her striped balls even though she had been attempting a completely different shot. It was one thing to lose, but it was another thing all together to lose when your opponent won on pure fluke. Neji, who was on Naruto’s team, was finding it even harder to deal with this and as soon as that game was over, he was demanding a one on one rematch against her.



Sasuke was happy to leave them to it, seeing as he had managed to quite sneakily sit out of the first game as well. He instead chose to follow Naruto back out to the kitchen.



Upon seeing the raven, Naruto stood between him and the rum before jokingly stating, “I feel I must start to limit your alcoholic intake young man.”



Sasuke scoffed at the 'young man' comment and quirked an eyebrow as he raised his glass to show that his drink was basically still half full.



“Oh.” Naruto was quite taken aback now. Granted he was only planning on making a joke and had Sasuke actually wanted more rum he would have gladly poured him another, he was now quite bemused as to why Sasuke had come in to the kitchen after him. He turned back to his own drink which he had topped up with coke, knowing from his last few tries at pool that his head was spinning. Looking up at Sasuke and taking in their close proximity, Naruto quickly rethought this and felt maybe he needed some more Dutch courage so did finish it but adding some more rum.



That must have been what pushed him over his limit. After that most things became a blur as to what happened, or in what order things occurred. There had been some idle chit chat better the two as they stood in the kitchen. He knew Sasuke had started the conversation, commenting on the mess before enquiring about the whereabouts of his family. It had been an innocent enough remark but to Naruto it brought to the surface memories that he didn’t want to think about right then, so he followed Sasuke’s earlier example and downed the drink he had in his hand.



He might have drunk more after that, or maybe he didn’t need to. All he could recall was that when Sasuke started talking again, Naruto could only stare at those lips as they moved, and his mind started to imagine a number of scenarios involving said lips. At some point after that, he must have acted upon these thoughts as he was right up next to the other guy and those lips were now touching his. Not only were they touching, they were also opening just wide enough to invite the kiss that Naruto was only too willing to give.