O my goodness! It's been how long since I last updated? I'm so sorry! okay, well, i didnt really want to, but here I got another chapter out XD High school is tough, but it's okay, and I finally got used to it. So here we go, chapter 6 ...Uh, ignore the crappyness please, excuse the spelling mistakes, skip the boredom, but most of all Enjoy! oh! and i would like to thank AlwaysEponine for telling me what AU means - Thanks for the reviews!

Disclaimer (why do I even have to type this?) --I do NOT own or have any rights over naruto or any other persons or things mentioned in this fanfiction. the plot however, belongs to me

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3:45 that afternoon found Hinata dragging a tired, but happy body back to her room. The day had passed by all too quickly, and now all she had to look forward to was a 700-word essay on her opinions about West Side story. She shook her head in disbelief, what did she expect? This was college after all, but still... seven hundred words! She groaned and slapped her hand to her forehead, ignoring the couple next to her that stared at her as if she had three heads. Her slow march home was slowed even more by her heavy backpack, which bit into her shoulder uncomfortably. She gladly put it down as she reached the mailboxes in the main corridor of the dorm building. After hastily stuffing the mail into the front pouch of her backpack, she picked it up again and ran up the stairs.

Stepping into the pleasant room was like taking a painkiller, with the side effects of instant sleepiness. She pulled the mail out of her backpack, ignoring the bed on the other side of the room that seemed to call her to it. Nevertheless, Hinata did sit down on Sasuke’s large bed as she sorted through the mail. It was only a small pile of letters, and she fully expected them (and rightly so,) to all be letters to Sasuke. Therefore, it was much to her delight and surprise, to see a small, formal looking envelope addressed to her.

She brightened with a look of happy surprise, a look often seen on old teachers when their students remember them. Her facial expression quickly slacked into a tight frown however, when she read the contents. The letter was in truth a bill, and not a small one. Hinata got an easy ride to the best art school around with scholarships, but they scholarship papers failed to mention the expense of supplies and tuition. In fact, the only expense the scholarships had paid for was for getting her into the school for four years and accepting her as an important addition to their publicity.

Hinata Hyuuga was anything but cheap, and still she found herself stretching her small amount of money across what seemed like never ending boundaries. That is to say, to pay off the steep prices of college living, she could starve, or get a job. For the first few days of college, thought she, it was definitely not the breeze some people could make it out to be. She got up to move the mail not belonging to her, to Sasuke’s dresser. After hastily unpacking her backpack, she sat back on her dorm-mate’s bed. Pulling her knees up under her chin and leaning against the wall, she put pen to paper and began her 700-word essay.

Four hundred words and ninety minutes later, she exhausted all thought processes, and stared blankly at the now graying page in front of her. Without her consent, her upper eyelids slid towards the lower eyelids, heavy with exhaustion. Getting only a few hours of sleep, and having several new classes to cope with left her physically drained. She threw the pen and essay to the ground, covering her bill. She stretched comfortably on the bed, thinking that she would only rest for a little while. And then, she slept.

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Sasuke, to put it bluntly, had a horrible day. From the start, waking up with a boy sleeping on him, having a major hangover, forgetting homework, not paying attention in class and screwing up his lines had all prove that sometimes, the second day of anything is the hardest. Or was it the third? He rubbed his head, trying to banish the once pounding headache into complete oblivion. Slipping into his room, he was surprised to find Hinata knocked out on the bed. At the moment, he himself felt that sleeping was a good idea. However, he had extra homework to do and his favorite café-bar was open until nine o’clock that evening. The prospect of a hot cup of rich coffee and alone time instantly made him move with renewed energy, as he popped into the shower.

After showering, changing into fresh clothes, putting on a dab of his favorite cologne and grabbing his script for the play he was to be in, Sasuke was happy and ready to go the café. He flipped his key through the air, idly humming as he locked the door, slamming it loudly.

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Sasuke’s roommate on the other hand, was anything but happy when a loud noise woke her from sleep. Disgruntled and groggy, she leapt up from the bed, slipping on the papers scattered around the floor. She fell fast and hard, bruising her hands when she caught he fall. Luckily, the floor was carpet, and she wasn’t hurt. Her essay and her letter from the head of college was what had caused her to slip, and she was not in the mood to think about either one. She did realize that she absolutely must get a job, and soon. Knowing job options weren’t always that often available, even in Tokyo, she jumped to her feet and changed into a cleaner, unwrinkled out fit.

‘I’m stupid,’ she thought, ‘to think people are hiring this late in the evening…it’s already five-thirty.’

Nevertheless, she freshened up and pulled a bra out from under her bed. She slipped it on, already feeling more comfortable than she had been just thirty seconds ago. Who knew that after just two days a bra would feel like paradise compared to tight chest bindings? Shrugging, she realized that analyzing clothing would not get her anywhere. She slipped a key into her back jeans pocket and threw on a large, but thin jacket.

The night had already fallen, and the first stars crept out from behind their cloudy coverings. She took a back path, among the small surrounding forest, and walked the dark trails. The atmosphere of the whole campus had changed, and the feeling everywhere was that of a relaxed transition into a schedule. A few students crossed her path, nodding slightly as a greeting, and continuing their business. Hinata tightened her jacket around herself, afraid that someone would recognize her and see that she was obviously an idiotic girl. A light tinkling noise floated around the small campus woods, the sound of a piano. When she finally reached the outskirts of Tokyo, she began the slow process of checking for help wanted signs.

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Sasuke practically fell into the lounge chair at the back of the cafe. Leaning over his script, he didn’t even realize a waitress stood over him until she cleared her throat - loudly. He jumped slightly, earning a chuckle and a sympathetic slap on the shoulder. When he did order, he got a cup of black coffee and a slice of hot applesauce cake -his favorite- not too sweet, not too spicy. From his spot in the corner, he watched as several increasingly dunk people climbed on stage and sang badly, to an old karaoke machine. Within minutes of the drunkards being hustled off stage, several bad poets read cheesy poetry, earning only a few snaps from the crowd. He smiled, and went back to analyzing his script.

Three more times he looked up, once to re-order coffee, another time he shoed three pretty girls from the area surrounding him, after flirting shamelessly. The third time he looked up he nearly spit his coffee across the table. The people closest to his chair turned and looked at him strangely, but he ignored them. Why could he never, ever get away from this person? He groaned. Leaning over the counter at the front of the café was his roommate, who always seemed to end up where he was. Slinking down in his chair, but also craning his neck to get a good look at what he was doing, he took on the look of some one very close to blowing a blood vessel. The group next to him continued staring at him with fascination, until they became bored and looked away, towards another bad poet who was leaping across the stage with expression.

Hinata talked with the manager for a long time before she was finally told to step back around the counter and fill out papers. Sasuke looked over to the window, which sported a large red HELP WANTED sign, and sighed. His roommate had taken away his solitary room, and now he was going to work at his favorite café.

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Searching through the city hadn’t been too unsuccessful, except that every job Hinata wanted required knowledge of the trade, or ended up being strange, or only needed hours that she couldn’t work. When she finally was about to give in, she noticed one small shop she hadn’t tried. The name of the shop was in a foreign language, and because Hinata was fluent in English, she knew that the sign was definitely not that. Piecing together the words, she realized that the sign over the café was French and read “Le Rat Mort,” or, the dead rat. She wrinkled her nose with disgust but walked in anyway. The scene was almost exactly how she expected it to be, overly tired waiters, snappy customers high on coffee and drugs, horrible poetry, and a haze of smoke drifting over every one.

The manager was nice enough, if not a bit careless with words. He cussed at every tick of the clock, and he seemed like the kind of person who isn’t whole if they aren’t clutching a smoldering cigarette between their yellowing fingers. He accepted her help immediately, because their ‘best’ waitress had just taken maternity leave and they were short on help that night. After questioning her and asking her to fill out some papers, her threw her an apron with the name of the café painted in large bold letters across the front, its namesake lying dead just below. He directed her around the back room and set her to work. And then she noticed Sasuke.

Sasuke himself was watching his roommate with increasing interest. He drummed his fingers on the rim of his coffee cup thoughtfully, staring at Hinata. There was something different about him, but Sasuke couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He thought about leaving, and then thought the better of it. After all, why should he leave his comfortable spot because some idiot seemed to follow him everywhere? Hinata moved back from the counter, slipping on a hideously colored and designed apron, picking up a pad and pencil, neatly tucking it behind his ear. He smoothed his hair flat and looked. When Sasuke caught his eyes, he visibly jumped and dropped the pad of paper he was holding.

Sasuke, quite honestly, was prone to grudges. And even though Hinata had not done anything name ably rude, Sasuke still found him quite annoying. And so, he took hearty pleasure in seeing Hinata freak out. For some reason, that put him in a better mood than he had been in all day, so just for fun, he decided to order another coffee from her.

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Hinata looked a bit shaken, but it was just a simple surprise and she recovered quickly. After picking up her papers and a small menu, she walked from table to table, checking if they needed anything. She of course, was not the only waiter there, but their form of hazing was to watch her struggle for a few minutes while they decided what they thought of her. After a few silent trips back to the counter and kitchen, they decided she was not a complete loser, and went back to their jobs, murmuring silly things to her. Several times a stupid joke had her burst out laughing, only to realize she had interrupted the poets or musicians onstage, and from there she clamped her mouth shut, only chuckling softly at the jokes and comments on certain people from the other workers.

She noticed that the female waiters seemed to gravitate towards specific areas, namely areas where attractive young men sat, and that night, Sasuke was what had all the women talking. She avoided his table, but eventually she saw him beckoning to her with an air of barely suppressed superiority. His summons made the girls around her twitter excitedly, and no less than three fellow employees shot her dirty looks. Hinata shrugged, she didn’t see what the big deal was. However, something at the back of her mind bothered her, like forgotten lyric to a melody that played repeatedly in your head.

Half way to the table a thought struck her. The waitresses were jealous of her, because she was a …girl… going to a handsome boy’s table. But he wasn’t supposed to know she was a girl! It was fine that her co-workers knew she was female, her clothes had already given that away, but Sasuke was her roommate! She turned away, and ran into the backroom. Finding him here was worse than she had thought it would be. Her first initial shock was the surprise that in all of Tokyo, he was there, but had he noticed she was wearing girl’s clothes? She fingered her apron, happy that it mostly covered her top hap. If she was lucky, he wouldn’t have noticed because it was dark, she was wearing an apron, and he probably was not paying any attention to her at all. Hinata figured after a long moment that the likely hood of him knowing would probably have resulted in him walking up and confronting her, so she decided she could chance hope that he DIDN’T know, and go back to serve him. She pulled off her apron for a moment and zipped her jacket all the way up, happy that she had brought it. After fixing that, she put the apron back on over that jacket, rolled up her sleeves and walked back out.

Her run had not gone unnoticed by the other waiters, who once again watched coolly from the sidelines, letting her do everything for herself (again). She rolled her eyes, and remembered this was why she had hated high school, fickle stupid girls chatting nervously with strained voices always got under her skin. The only person who had not stopped his doing his job was the only male waiter in the place, and he continued wiping down tables with out so much as a glance towards his co-workers to acknowledge that they stopped. He did however, look up as Hinata swept by and watched her as she walked back to Sasuke’s table.

Sasuke sat and waited for Hinata to get close before waving to him for service. The women of the café kept annoyingly close, and fifteen minutes passed before Hinata did start walking over to Sasuke. For some reason, Hinata stopped and ran behind the front counter before disappearing through a side door. Sasuke wondered what had happened and was about to leave when Hinata re-entered the room, his jacket zipped up under the apron he wore.

“Hello,” Sasuke said casually when Hinata reached the table, “what are you doing here?”

Hinata shrugged and said, “J-Just in need of a job…uh...what do you need?”

Leaning back, Sasuke stared straight up into Hinata’s face and gave his order for another coffee. “Why do you need a job, anyway? I thought you had a full four year scholarship.”

Hinata shifted uncomfortably, glancing at the clock over the counter to check the time when a dark look passed over her face. “Eh…. Apparently….apparently a full scholarship d-doesn’t mean it c-covers everything…” He turned away and stalked toward the counter to pick up Sasuke’s coffee. A minute later he returned and put the coffee down hard in front of Sasuke. He turned to walk away when on impulse Sasuke said,

“Hey, wait a minute!”

Hinata turned around slowly. “Y-yeah?”

Sasuke furrowed his brow, confused by his own idiocy. Why had he called Hinata back? “uh… why don’t you sit for few minutes?”

Hinata stared at him for a long moment before responding, “I can’t, this is my first night on the job,” he shrugged, “w-what do you want?”

“I don’t know, you just seem stressed. I am your roommate for another four years right? What’s wrong with asking? I mean, yea, I already have been here this whole summer, but that just mean I know how to deal with homework and crap. What’s wrong?”

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Hinata stared at him warily, searching for a hidden meaning behind the strange random questioning. She really wanted to get this job over with, and finish her homework that inevitably awaited her. In truth, another long nap or even a short break seemed like heaven to her at the moment. She opened her mouth to speak, but never got any words out.

“Is this guy bothering you miss?” The male waiter had come up behind her when she and Sasuke were talking, after seeing a look of discomfort on her face.

Sasuke stared at her, then back at the waiter. “I’m not doing anything jerk, and besides, Hinata isn’t a girl.”

Hinata’s breath caught in her throat, scared that the waiter would insist on her sex. She watched both Sasuke and the waiter and jumped in. “ N-no, he wasn’t bothering me, I was just telling him about the desserts. And he’s right, you are mistaken, I’m a guy”

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Sasuke glowered triumphantly at the waiter, unsure of why he was so satisfied with Hinata’s retort. His confusion turned into irritation, and he stood up. “Yeah, and I was just about to leave.”

He shoved his full coffee cup towards Hinata, who grabbed it unquestioningly. The waiter however, was unsatisfied. He took a step towards Sasuke and grabbed his collar. Like wise, Sasuke grabbed his.

“What the hell is this about?” the manager broke the two apart and waited for an answer, glaring accusingly at Hinata and company.

“Nothing sir…” Hinata looked on as the two boys scuffed the floor with their feet, answerless. She moved away from the group, to put away the cup. They dispersed and Sasuke walked towards the door. Two loud noises stopped him from leaving, he turned around to see what had happened.

One of the noises had been Hinata, falling to the floor, and the other was ceramic breaking. She lay on the dirty ground as two or three people ran to help. Sasuke quickly jogged over and saw that she was unconscious and bleeding from where the ceramic had cut her. one cut ran from her neck to her stomach, dark red blood seeping out from the jacket being the evidence. She only had two other small cuts, which would heal without a trace of any scarring within a matter of days. A waitress holding a broom stood nearby, looking panicked. Sasuke heard her muttering o her friends that she had only meant to trip Hinata, not too hurt her. He moved to her angrily, but was jostled aside by the waiter who unleashed his fury on them. Sasuke, deciding that a weirdo like that waiter would be enough for them turned back to Hinata.

“Hey move!” He ordered the people, “I’m his roommate!” he pushed them away and removed the red apron from Hinata.

“Jeez,” The blood had already covered most of his jacket, and was spreading. The manager began to unzip Hinatas jacket to see how bad the cut was. When he finally got it open, another loud thud could be heard as Sasuke fell heavily to the floor (he was kneeling already).

The customers were too distracted by Hinata to even glance at Sasuke, who’s head spun as he stared at his roommate.

His FEMALE roommate.