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Real Disclaimer: I own not. Kishimoto's. Take it up with him.
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It got a little busier at BJ's after Gaara and Neji's little game, so Gaara didn’t really get time to finish the next round. Neji, however, wasn’t planning to let the game finish in a stalemate. He waited patiently with his coffee and his food for Gaara to finish serving his customers. Gaara noticed that Neji's plate was empty so he walked over.
"Finished with this?"
Neji nodded, but didn’t let his eyes break the contact with Gaara's. Gaara felt his face warm slightly under the close scrutiny of the handsome man.
"Would you like anything else today?"
Neji paused for a moment, but didn’t stop looking into Gaara's cold jade eyes.
"Another coffee would be great... and maybe some cake."
Gaara raised his non-existent eyebrow and smirked slightly as he took down the order. This didn’t escape Neji's notice. He grinned slightly at the boy.
"Yes? Is there a problem with my order?"
Gaara shook his head
"You just don’t seem like a coffee and cake kinda guy to me. But hey, you're the one eating it."
Neji raised a delicate brow
"Oh? And what kind of guy to I seem to be?"
Gaara smirked again, but this time it held a challenge of their game in it, rather than amusement.
"Oh, I don’t know... maybe a fancy restaurant kind of guy."
"And why is that?"
"Girly hair."
Ok... that slipped out before Gaara expected it too... probably too far to go with a customer... even one he had been shamelessly flirting with his entire stay. Neji raised an eye brow.
'Girly? My hair is not girly! It’s... manly! In fact, I’m so manly that I can have girly hair and it’s not girly anymore!'
So Neji's inner voice didn’t exactly match up with his outer voice... who cares? No one else knew what was going on. Neji just smirked, albeit sort of tensely.
"Says the kid in make up."
Gaara rolled his eyes
"Oh, never heard that before. Did you come up with that one all on your own? With wit like that you should be a writer."
Man how Gaara loved sarcasm. He turned to go and get Neji's order.
"I am."
The man's voice behind him made him stop.
"Sorry?"
"A writer. I am."
Gaara scoffed
"Well are you any good? Based on that Id have to say humour isn’t your strong point."
Neji smiled slightly
"Read any of my books?"
"I don’t even know who the hell you are."
Yep... Gaara wasn’t a very good conversationalist... which made being a waiter rather hard sometimes. But Neji wasn’t bothered.
"Names Hyuuga Neji. As to the question of if I’m any good... well. Read a book of mine and find out."
Gaara's mouth fell open.
"Hyuuga... Neji? That’s who you are? Hyuuga Neji?"
Neji smirked
"That’s what I said."
Everyone knew Neji's books. Not just in the city, but everywhere. He was an amazing writer, and just happened to be Gaara's favourite author of all time. Yep, that’s right, Gaara had an "all time favourite", like a little girl does.
"No... Really. You aren’t lying?"
"Why would I?"
"I dunno... to be a jerk?"
"Come on now Gaara dear... do I seem like that type to you?"
Gaara blushed at the dear comment.
'Oh. My. God. Neji Hyuuga just called me dear.'
It took him a second for the rest of the shift to sink into his mind.
'OH MY FUCKING GOD I FLIRTED WITH NEJI HYUUGA!!!!!!!!'
Neji watched as this realisation struck Gaara. His eyes were open in surprise, and his face went from red, to deathly white, to a flaming red almost matching his hair.
"I... uh. I uh have to go... now. Ill... Be back with this... uh... yes. Ok." Gaara managed to stumble the sentence out and walk away to the kitchen. He was in complete disbelief. It was Neji fucking Hyuuga for Christ's sake! He had been his inspiration so many times. Many of Gaara's pieces were based off things he had read in Neji's books. And here he was flirting with the man himself. Gaara could have died. He nearly did when he realised he didn’t recognise his face the second he walked in the door. Something about him looked... different.
'That kid is... I don’t know. There's something about him...'
Neji didn’t know Gaara. He only met him when he first came to the cafe. Yet he had this insatiable urge to talk to him, get to know him. Maybe it was that he was just so different looking to other people, or maybe it was the dead, haunted look in Gaara's eyes. That was one of Neji's good, and sometimes, bad habits; wanting to know and understand people. Not because he was a Good Samaritan and actually cared about them, but because he had a huge deal of interest in knowing why people did things, how people thought. Come on, he was an author, and knowing a great deal about the human psyche only helped him create the complex emotions and thoughts of his characters. Gaara's dead eyes... he had never seen anything like them. Well... he'd seen people who had given up hope, or had terrible lives; but they had all quit. They were just existing; they didn’t live. Yet here was a boy with the same dead eyes... and he was living. He wasn’t just there; he made up the picture. Neji didn’t know why, but something about the way the cafe was set up; with its neat booths and its crisp white décor made Gaara the focus of the room. He was so much more vibrant that anyone else, yet his eyes; so bright a shade of green, were dead and grey. Neji wanted to know why.
"Gaara... what happened?" Ino asked quietly... almost breathing the words out. She had never seen the boy look like this, neither had Chouji. Gaara shook his head.
"Neji Hyuuga... I’ve been flirting with Neji Hyuuga..." Gaara mumbled. Ino frowned slightly, not believing her ears.
"What?"
"Neji... Neji Hyuuga..." Was all the boy was able to get out that time.
"Gaara, I think you should go home. Your shift is over any way..." Chouji said, looking concerned.
"Ah... yeah... yeah ok. Ill just take this out."
Gaara took the coffee and the cake out to Neji, still in a daze. Neji smiled as Gaara walked over, causing Gaara to blush brightly.
'Really is a cute kid...' Thought Neji.
"Here you go Neji... uh sir. Um Neji sir."
Neji smiled at the boy.
"You know this doesn’t really suit you, being all nervous. Neji is fine really."
Gaara blushed again.
"Oh, ok... sorry."
Neji frowned slightly.
"And you don’t apologise either... you're not the type."
Oh yes, Neji knew all about 'types'... of people that is. And he was right. Gaara was not the type to get flustered, or flirt, or blush, or get nervous, or apologise. But there was something about Neji... before Gaara even knew who he was, that made Gaara feel... not like himself. Gaara scoffed a little.
"That’s better."
"Well, my shift is over, so Ino will be taking over as your waiter. I hope you had a pleasant stay." Gaara said, the well rehearsed phrase coming to his lips. Neji looked a little disappointed that Gaara was leaving.
"Do you have some place to be?"
The question startled Gaara.
"No..."
"Well why don’t you join me for a minute? I enjoyed our little... talk."
"Oh I... I wouldn’t want to intrude."
Neji smiled
"Don’t be silly. I’m inviting you. Now sit. I insist."
Gaara rolled his eyes but nodded. It doesn’t matter that Gaara was as likely to punch someone in the face as he was to do what he was told; this was his idol here.
"Ill just go grab my things from out back."
Neji nodded as the boy walked away.
'I don’t know why I agreed to this... but how often does Neji Hyuuga walk into some cafe in the shitty part of the city? Well... apparently twice...'
Ino stopped him as he walked out back.
"Gaara... what’s wrong with your face?"
Gaara put is hands to his face, feeling around
"What do you mean?"
"Your mouth is... pointing up at the sides... in what us humans with emotions call a smile. Why is your mouth doing that?"
Gaara didn’t know. In fact, he didn’t know he was smiling. Ino's question didn’t even piss him off. He didn’t scowl or anything.
"I don’t know. But I’m going to sit down out there for a while. But I’m not working. Ill see you tomorrow."
Ino was officially confused. Why Gaara was staying after work for no apparent reason... well... she didn’t know. But she was going to find out. Gaara didn’t care though. In fact... he wanted her to see. Just to be petty.
'He has a nice voice...' Gaara thought, then blushed slightly. No way did he think that. That was a girl thought... not a Gaara thought.
"A year now. It’s been... well... boring."
Neji smiled as he bought the coffee mug to his lips, his eyes not leaving Gaara's face.
"Why did you, of all people, come in here?"
This was probably the politest conversation Gaara had ever had... and it was straining his nerves. Neji smiled
"You know, you don’t have to be polite. Just be yourself..."
Gaara scowled. And here he was trying to be friendly! Neji laughed slightly
"That’s better. And why did I come in here?" Neji sobered slightly. "I... had to get out of the house. This seemed like the last place I would be... found. And it's nice. Food's good, nice service." He said, winking at Gaara, who just grimaced at him.
"Wow. Lame line."
Neji smirked.
"Oh well. Have to bring them out sometime."
Gaara rolled his eyes. The two fell into a semi awkward silence, which was conveniently broken by Ino... who was shocked to say the least. But, being the clever girl she is, and planning on getting the entire story out of Gaara the following day, she recovered and acted like normal.
"Finished with the coffee? Can I get you anything else?"
Neji looked at his watch. He'd been here much longer than he intended.
"No, thanks. I really should be going. Wait for me outside?" Neji asked Gaara. Gaara raised an eyebrow. That seemed to be a question you would ask a date or something... Gaara shrugged, and walked out the door while Neji was paying.
"Thanks for waiting."
Gaara worked up the courage to ask what he had been meaning to ask ever since Neji had asked him to sit.
"What do you want from me?"
Most people would have looked surprised... and maybe up fronted. Gaara may not be a lot of things, but he was straightforward and honest.
"I don’t know."
Gaara raised an eyebrow
"You know that doesn’t fill me with confidence"
"Its not supposed to. It’s the answer to your question; I don’t know what I want from you. When do you work next?"
Gaara frowned at the sudden change of topic.
"Tomorrow. Why?"
Neji smirked as he walked away.
"See you then."
"Hey wait!"
Neji just ignored him, and Gaara sure as hell wasn’t going to chase him. Gaara was confused as hell, and a little pissed off. What's some man, some very famous man, want with him? Gaara was slightly in awe of Neji, and while he was thrilled to have met him, he had come to a conclusion about his occasional muse and idol.
'He is a complete arrogant prick.'
Ok, how was that? I hoped you liked it! If it seemed a little off, well the next chapter is better. This one was really hard to write... getting them to meet and stuff... so it gets better from here. More on Neji and Gaara's pasts coming up soon. This story does actually have depth! Don’t worry. And yes, btw... a warning: There will be OOC-ness in here. Hopefully not too much, but its there. Anyway, review!
LittleCrane
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