Cold Brew | narusasu

FIVE

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"Let's go inside. I'll get you some ice."

Sasuke scribbles circles into one of the loose leaf papers of his thick red binder, staring out the window of his least favorite class as his crush's words from two days ago play in his mind. What a gentleman. As he fantasizes, completely disconnected from the lesson and the professor droning on about the French Revolution, the other three students sitting at his table gossip.

"Did you hear about RELAPSE? They're performing tomorrow night at that goth bar I was telling you guys about." Came out of brunette with his spiky hair thrown into a ponytail. He usually sported a leather jacket to pair with the thick, beat up doc martins on his feet. Today, plaid red pants complete the outfit with a heavy wallet chain. Shikamaru.

"Goth bar?" A platinum blonde guffaws, her long hair styled in loose curles falling past glittery silver hoop earrings, a pastel purple blouse, and jeans that pair with white healed shoes. Ino. "You're always on and on about that heavy metal stuff, Shikamaru. It's so lame."

The brunette scoffs in return. "No, you're lame. We always gotta do what you wanna do and I never complain!"

"Actually, you always complain." Sighs a dirty blonde, clearly remaining quieter today than usual so he can snack on his hot chips in undetected. He mostly underdressed, wearing big anime shirts with shorts or sweatpants. Choji. "But I agree with Shika. We should go. I kinda like their music."

"Exactly! See!" Shikamaru exclaims as quietly as he can seeing as their table is closer towards the back of the room and most of the students are dosing off or playing games on their devices. "Besides, you like hot guys, right? There's gonna be tons there."

Ino makes an unsure face before a complete look of disgust takes over her features. "You mean guys that dress like you? Hard pass."

"First of all, fuck you. This is the only way anyone should dress." The brunette responds lazily, his feet propped up on the window sill beside their table, arms behind his head. "Second, it'll be fun. Not everyone that goes there dresses like this. You'd actually be quite surprised at the kind of people enjoying rock music."

"I just wanna go because I think the drummer's hot." Choji throws in, both of his friends side-eyeing him, as if their friend would never change. "Her drum solo in I DONT WANT TO BE ANYWHERE, kills! And Naruto's metal scream on the hook? It's a great piece."

Sasuke's ears perk up at the sound of his crush's name in relation to the band they've been yammering about for the last four minutes. "I'm sorry," he chirps, leaning towards the middle of the table so they can hear him clearly, "did you say a band was performing at a goth themed bar?"

The three exchange looks amongst themselves of shock, finding this to be the first time they'd ever heard words leave the ravenette's mouth since they'd started the class.

"Yeah," Shikamaru confirms, completely ignoring how awkward the male looked suddenly being interested in anything they had to say. "They're called RELAPSE. They're pretty underground, and not many people know them or listen to them, but they make really good music. They usually perform at festivals and punk clubs or bars, but I haven't really heard of them doing too many shows the passed few months."

Ino follows with a, "I didn't know you were interested in that kind of thing, Sasuke."

"It's more like something that's piqued my interest recently," he admits, leaning back in his seat and effortlessly twirling his pencil between his fingers. "I don't like new things, so I've never really listened to anything in that category."

He couldn't understand what it was exactly that drew his attention to the genre. Maybe it really only was because of his silly crush on a barista, or maybe it had something to do with the fact that he'd never really seen anything like it up close. Sure, he'd seen all of these things on the internet, but very rarely did he see anyone dress like Naruto in person.

It wasn't until he moved to the city that he realized it was a lot more popular than he originally thought.

"You should come with us!" Ino exclaims in excitement, Shikamaru groaning at how easily swayed she was from her own jurisdictions by a handsome face.

"Really?" Sasuke's eyebrows raise, a bit in shock, as not too many people had the courage to befriend him. Mostly they assumed he was cold and snobby, but he was really just quiet and wary of new people. He didn't show exactly who he was and what he was feeling, and that somehow made him intimidating.

"Yeah!" Shikamaru smiles. "Why not? I'll send you a playlist so you can see what it's all about."

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i was curious about what a ShikaSasu friendship would look like so i decided to explore that in this book. characters are kinda all over the place from their canon line-ups, but i put each person where i thought they should be based on the world I'd curated for this book in my mind. super mundane writer things.