Highs and Lows

Highs and Lows

Chapter 5: Pizza, Fruit-Punch, and Fencing (aka Smiles)

(Uzumaki Naruto’s point of view)

Even though Sasuke said he knew how to smile, I honestly wasn't sure. I think he'd sorta smiled before, but it had come out more of a smirk. He could smirk, but truly smile? The smile he flashed my way now didn't have a hint of smirk in it. I'm also sure it didn't help that he didn't seem to have any one to make him really smile. He had little to no support from his family and friends, if he even had any friends. Overall he struck me as someone who wasn't overtly happy. I know I'd be lost and miserable without my parents' support. It just made life easier.

"Want to get something to eat?" Sasuke asked. I grinned.

"Yeah!" I said. I had kinda forgotten that Sasuke still probably needed to eat after his blood sugar had been low. "But you're paying ‘cuz I don't have much cash on me."

"Hn," Sasuke said, smirking, not smiling again. "I have a fair amount of food at my apartment, with no need to worry about calculating the carbohydrates of unmeasured portion sizes at a restaurant or at my university’s mess hall. I decided I’d forgo eating in the dining lounge unless necessary. I think it’s helped with my blood sugar a little bit. Anyway, my car is over there. You can follow behind," he said, and started to walk away. At first his words struck me as odd. Follow behind? Then I realized he meant for me to follow behind him in my car. Except, I didn’t have a car.

"Um..." I began. I don't think I'd mentioned I'd taken the bus because I didn't drive. "I didn't drive here. I took the bus here." In fact, I'd waited 20 minutes before Sasuke had shown up because the bus to this office didn't run as frequently. It wasn't like we lived in a big city, so the transportation system was only so-so. Some people didn't even know we had a local bus route.

Thankfully, instead of asking why I hadn't driven to the office, he just nodded and continued walking to his car. I'd seen it once before, the night we'd met, but to see his car in the daylight: it looked extremely impressive! For one thing, it seemed freshly waxed, and there was a glossy glow to the black finish.

"Nice car," I murmured.

"Hn." I couldn't tell if that sound was supposed to be a sound of agreement, thanks, or something else. With a click of his keys, the doors unlocked, and I opened my door, staring right at beautiful leather interior.

"Really nice car," I muttered.

Sasuke gave me a snort of laughter as he slid into the car and buckled up.

"You really don't talk much, do you?" I asked, scrunching my eyes up and then looking at him. He turned to me as he pulled out of the parking spot with narrowed eyes.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You don't give details! I mean, you could have said, 'I love this car!' or 'You should see my other one,' or 'This was a birthday present from my parents,' or 'I've been saving since I was two for this car,' or-"

"What two year old would start saving money for a car?"

"I dunno! Maybe your parents did it. But that's not the point. I'm just saying you don't seem to talk too much."

"I say what I need to. I'm a good listener. Haven't you ever heard the expression, 'you have two ears and one mouth. You should listen twice as much as you speak,' before?"

"Funny, my teachers used to tell me that all the time."

"Funny, you don't seem to have learned it."

Five years ago when I was younger and immature, okay, okay, so maybe even two years ago when I was younger and immature, I would have been pissed at his comment and told him off.

Now I knew better.

Don't piss off or instigate a driver.

Wait till he's not driving, then seek revenge for the mean comment.

"Favorite food?" I asked, changing the topic. Or maybe I could just bug him into conversation. That seemed like good revenge. I smirked evilly to myself.

"Tomatoes." There was a pause.

"This is where you have the chance to ask me what my favorite food is," I stage whispered. Yes, bugging him was going to be fun.

"Miso ramen," he said stating my favorite food. I was surprised that he already knew it. "You already mentioned it. And you didn't stop to ask me what my favorite food was then," Sasuke added smugly.

Well shit. The saying worked. The bastard had listened.

"You remembered something like that?" It surprised me. I know I had mentioned it very briefly while explaining something else, and it was impressive that he remembered. "You must have a good memory."

"Hn," he smirked, yet again. I looked out the window as the trees zoomed by, throwing splashes of green in and around the houses. I realized we were heading to a more suburban area, and I wondered what kind of home Sasuke and his parents lived in. Then I remembered he didn't live at home with them, but rather at an apartment near his university. He didn't even live in a dorm room. Must like his privacy.

"Do you work?" I wondered. Did he make his own money or did his parents just give it to him? I thought he had said something about working at one point, but I couldn't remember for sure.

"I do client analysis." And that means what? He could do just about anything with a statement like that. Sasuke glanced at me quickly before his eyes darted back to the road, and he explained without me nagging him for details. "In other words, my father's company gets dozens of new clients each month. I sort through them to figure out the compatibility between our current employees and our new clientele, based off of our employees' previous work history with clients and their own knowledge of the client's field."

Sounded important. And boring as hell. I told him so.

"It's more tedious than anything. I have to read through the clients' files, review each employee's history – as well as their current workload – and match them up. It's annoying because sometimes the employees don't update in the company database when they have finished the bulk of their work with one of the other clients."

Like I said: boring as hell. I was tempted to ask him what exactly the company did to get all these new clients, but I wasn't sure how boring that story would be.

"Going to school to continue with the family business?" I asked.

"Yes, and no. Yes, I'm going into a family business, but no because it's my maternal grandfather's business that I'm going to take over. It’s a company that does work with special effects' weaponry by recreating era weapons or finding and restoring actual artifacts. The company is an agency used by filmmakers and high-end theaters. I'm gong to school for a dual degree in history – for the ability to place the weapon’s age and other pertinent information – and engineering to know how to recreate a weapon's design."

Now that sounded cool.

"What are you in school for?" Sasuke asked.

"Writing. My dad owns the prefecture newspaper, and I want to be a writer. Not just reporting, but other stuff as well! One day I want to take over. When I told him that, I thought he'd be excited. Instead he said I should pick another career because he didn't plan on retiring any time soon, so I would have to wait for a long while before I made it to my dream. I don't care if he doesn't retire soon. My dad's awesome. I'd love to work with him. Right now it's nice because he always gets the latest info on medical stuff and his staff had already been reporting about medical findings when I got diagnosed with diabetes. They filled him in when I became diabetic, and they keep him up to speed when new information comes out."

"Sounds like you and your father are close."

"Yeah. My mom and I are too. My parents actually wanted more kids, but it just wasn't meant to happen. My mom got shingles and became sterile not too long after I was born. I think it would have been cool to end up with a big family. My parents are both from only child homes, so I don't even have any aunts, uncles, or cousins."

"I'm not close with my father. I suppose I'm closest to my mother. I'm not close with my aunts, uncles, or cousins either."

"What about your grandfather? You know, the one on your mom's side that you're going to work for?"

"He died when I was two. He left the company to my mother, but she's owner in name only."

"Oh." I didn't know what else to say to that.

And then came that awkward silence. That silence where you want to say something but don't want to put your foot in your mouth. Do you know what I'm talking about? It's that awkwardness that comes with talking to new people. It's not usually the most exciting conversation to begin with because you don't know each other that well, and that silence is just long and drawn out.

It always seems worse in car rides because you have nothing to do. Well, okay, so the driver is driving, but all I can do is look forward or to either side. He doesn't even have the radio on to listen to either.

"You know what always gets me," I said, "is how tons of people drive and listen to the radio, but you rarely hear people listening to it on TV shows and movies unless it's for comedic effect or it’s an important news broadcast telling of some catastrophic event. People generally talk over the radio."

"It's so the audience can focus on the dialogue between the people in the car," Sasuke stated slowly in a tone indicating I should have realized how obvious that was.

"I know, but it's just not realistic!"

Sasuke didn't say anything more, but the awkwardness at least seemed to have faded, especially since he turned into his apartment complex’s parking lot.

The buildings all looked like small houses but with four doors to each building. Sasuke led me to one of the small buildings and opened the door that had a staircase leading up. Obviously the building was split into fours, two top apartments, and two side apartments.

"Whoa! That's awesome!"

As soon as I entered the living room, I was met with a wall that had weapons displayed all over it.

"You even have them separated by regions. I especially like your European saber."

He raised an eyebrow in interest, clearly impressed that I was familiar with weaponry. I grinned.

"I take fencing," I explained.

"Saber, I presume. Anything else?"

"Started with foil, then did epée, and now I do saber fencing." Foil, epée, and saber were all different styles of fencing that used the type of sword the fencing style was named after.

"My brother started kendo when he was three, so I insisted that I take kendo so as well. Kendo is a wonderful art, but we have to use shinai, and using a bamboo stick isn’t the same as using a katana. I moved to European swords in order to have the feel of real metal in my hands."

I looked over his collection, my hands itching to grip the saber, feel the coolness of the handle as the hand guard would close around the top of my fingers. Unlike standard approved training, dueling swords, this one was real.

Like all European dueling or fencing swords, the blades were thin with a small grip, versus the heavy battle swords used for actual combat. They usually took two hands to hold. There were some of those on the wall, but I was focused on the designs on the handle of the saber. It was more tarnished than what I used, and therefore more likely to be authentic rather than a replica. Replicas always tended to be too shiny; the dated stuff was made to really fight with, to defend your life, not to look pretty on TV.

"Do you want something to drink?" Sasuke asked.

"Do you have any diet?" the words came thoughtlessly. Of course he would have diet! He didn't drink the sugary stuff either. "Never mind. Forget I asked that. I'm so used to asking people 'cuz tons of people don't drink diet."

"I have diet sodas, teas, and fruit juice."

"Diet fruit juice?"

"I guess the label states it as sugar free, technically, but yes, fruit juice. Not half bad either. Then again, I've never really liked sweet foods or drinks, so perhaps it's too watered down for your taste."

"I wanna try it!" I said excitedly. He went off through an open doorway (obviously the kitchen). I followed behind, too intrigued to stay in the living room.

Later, in hindsight, I'd think how silly it was to get excited over sugar free fruit juice with all the cool weapons, but I'd never said I had a long attention span.

Besides, kitchen meant food.

"What were you thinking of having for lunch?"

"Pizza."

"Pizza? You don't strike me as a pizza guy."

"Think about it. I told you what my favorite food is."

"Ooh. Tomatoes," I said. Pizza has tomato sauce, riiiight. "Does that mean you like spaghetti too?"

"Yes, homemade sauce with real chunks," Sasuke explained as he opened the fridge and took out the fruit juice. The SUGAR FREE stuck out in large, block letters. I popped the can open and took a gulp.

It tasted good. Really good.

"This actually tastes like juice!" I said, thinking how it tasted even better than the sugary juicy juice (fruit punch flavor) that I used to treat for my low blood sugars. Sasuke gave me an amused smile as he pulled out two personal pizzas from the freezer. Another smile, not a smirk. I grinned back widely.

It said it would take fifteen minutes for the personalized pizzas to cook. While we waited, we headed back to the living room where he showed me all sorts of weapons that he had on his wall, explaining which ones were replicas, and which ones were the real thing.

"I don't have any overtly expensive originals here. Most of this came from my grandfather's collection. The really expensive items are still at my parents' house. My grandfather split his collection equally between my brother and myself, but Itachi was never as interested. He doesn't need a weapon; I always thought he could stare someone to death if he really wanted to do so."

"Are you and Itachi close?" I asked. The only person he seemed to talk about was his older brother. Sasuke merely shrugged.

"Not really. When I was younger, I really looked up to him, hero-worshipped him to a degree. Then when I turned ten or so, I got to the age where I realized acting like Itachi would never get my dad's attention. If I acted like Itachi, I would always be in his shadow, doing just what he did. Most of the time I did it worse. At thirteen, I finally realized that nothing I did would ever truly get my father's attention," Sasuke stated.

It was a hard statement, almost cold. It was that tone people used when they were trying to convince you that it didn't matter to them, while trying to convince themselves even more.

Even so, I bet it wasn't something he talked about often. I bet his blood sugar was dropping low again. When my blood sugar initially starts to drop, I fee like I have a loose tongue, and things I normally wouldn't – and in most cases shouldn't – say just sorta pop out.

If he weren't having a low, I probably wouldn't have ever heard him talk about his father so bitterly.

DING!

Mmmm! Food was ready. 46 carbs of pizza!

We ended up eating in his living room. By the expression on his face, he was half-regretting the decision. I mighta kinda sorta accidentally gotten pizza sauce on one of the cushions. One of the white cushions. Oops.

But he had wanted us to eat out there to he could show me the movie "The Princess Bride" since I liked fencing. It was awesome! Even though he and I both grumbled when you could see the mat beneath the actor's feet during one of their fencing scenes, it was a hilarious movie.

"Makes me want to fence now," I grinned, my hand once again itching for that saber.

"You touch my weapons, and I'll cut off your hand," Sasuke said coolly.

"Oh come on. You fence! Doesn't watching the duels make you want to duel as well?"

"Yes, but I only have one foil, saber, and epée that we could actually use."

I pouted.

Now, to you, you might think hey – if there are three swords, why can't you each use one? Well, they're all different, and each style of fencing has different rules and a different type of sword. The rules influence the type of sword you use.

I like saber because you can make slashing movements. In foil and epée, you can only score a point by "poking" someone.

"Besides," Sasuke continued, "my apartment doesn't have the room for a match."

Good point. Even so, it would have been awesome to fence against him.

Sasuke frowned suddenly, looking at the clock.

"I should probably start looking over files soon," he said.

"Okay! We should hangout again before we have the CGMS training. We should watch the "Mask of Zorro" together. Aren't there cool fencing scenes in that?"

"Never seen it." My eyes widened.

"How can you like fencing and have never seen the "Mask of Zorro" before?"

"How could you have never seen "The Princess Bride" before?"

"Touché," I said, and Sasuke smirked at the French fencing word.

"I'll drive you home."

On the way home I explained with great enthusiasm my great fencing abilities (to which Sasuke snorted at as well as distracted me so that I forgot to tell Sasuke to turn onto the right road). It took slightly longer than it should have to get home, but we actually didn't live that far from each other.

I got out of the car and gave him an enthusiastic wave goodbye.

He raised his arm, giving the slightest of waves before leaving.

I bounced up the front walk, grinning. I'd had a lot of fun. For a semi-quiet guy, he was cool.

However, my grin faded when I saw my mom's car in the driveway. Apparently she had gotten home early. I hadn't thought to tell her I wouldn't be home from the doctor's right away. I entered my house and headed straight to the living room where she usually sat and read after work. She stood up as soon as I entered, approaching me. Her eyes narrowed. Yeah, she wasn’t happy with me.

"Where were you?" my mom demanded sternly, her arms crossed against her chest.

"Sorry – sorry! I thought I'd be back before you were. I was hanging out with Sasuke. He's a pretty cool guy. We had pizza and this awesome sugar free fruit juice that tastes like normal fruit juice. We have to get some! And then we watched "The Princess Bride." We gotta rent that movie. And he had a whole wall covered with knives and swords and stuff!" I said in a rush.

"Sounds like you two have a lot in common. Maybe it's true love," my mom bit out sarcastically. She always gets grouchy when she doesn't know where I am.

Telling her I'm a legal adult won't help though. Since I still live at home, I have to let her know where I am at all times. I once argued that since I was a legal adult that it was none of her business.

She said if I was legal working age, and if I didn't tell her where I was going, she'd start charging rent and she'd stop asking me where I was all the time. I like free room and board. I therefore make sure she knows where I'm at, at all times. My mom does not make idle threats.

"If I had known you were coming home early, then I would have told you," I suggested, trying to make her realize that it really wasn’t that big of a deal.

"I'm not home early." She pointed at the clock.

"Eh?" I followed her outstretched arm to look at the clock. It was a lot later than I had thought. I laughed nervously. "Ehehehe," I chuckled, grinning. "Oops."

"Oops?" my mom repeated, not amused.

"Uh – sorry?"

"Mmm-hmm," my mom drawled out. She sighed. "Call, text, something next time."

"Alright."

Really, parents were too over protective.

Then again...

I wondered how Sasuke's parents felt and acted toward him. They must have cared about him. He was their son after all. But seeing how Sasuke acted, maybe his parents weren't the kind of people who let it show. For once I was grateful that my mom cared and wanted to make sure where I was.

"Thanks Mom," I said, smiling at her gratefully. I then walked over and gave her a hug.

"Huh?" I just smiled even wider before bouncing off to my room, remembering one of my favorite quotes.

Smile. It confuses people.


Next Chapter: Movie Night

General information about diabetes:

When a diabetic’s sugar drops low, it’s a lot like being drunk. When a person is drunk, they tend to say things that while sometimes may seem out of character or harsh, are what a person truly thinks. It’s harder to lie while drunk, just as it is harder to lie while a person’s blood sugar is low. Then again, that’s only if a diabetic is willing to talk. When blood sugars drop below a certain point, then sometimes diabetics prefer not to talk at all.

Notes about my life:

Yes, I fence, and yes, sugar free fruit punch is AWESOME. I kid you not; I squealed when I found it. Ironically, I called my mom and asked her to buy some for me. She said I sounded way too excited about sugar free fruit punch. What’s ironic about that situation is my brother had called her about a half hour before I had, letting her know he’d just won $1,000 – but I sounded more excited about finding sugar free fruit juice than he did about winning $1,000.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY lL0tus!!! ~ Jelp