Chapter Text
Things were looking up. Naruto was in his sophomore year of college and thriving. He’s living on his own, going to classes with his best friend Sasuke and enjoying life as it was.
They are both enrolled in general education courses for now, but soon they will have to diverge into their own disciplines for more specific classes. Naruto was going into children's studies to become a teacher, and minoring in an art degree. Sasuke was getting his associate's in business, minoring in Japanese, and debating which colleges to apply for his master's. Naruto often complained that Sasuke lived in Japan as a child, so his minor choice was basically cheating, but he respects his friends choices.
"Ne, Sasuke, you ready for the new term? We only have a couple of classes left together before we transfer to different schools. We have to make the best of it!" Naruto said and rubbed shoulders with the Uchiha as they walked to class.
“Are you, dobe?” Sasuke replied with his usual cocky smirk. Naruto used to get so on edge about that smirk and would try to beat the other into a pulp but as they grew and understood each other more, it was no longer a trigger for him.
“Hell yeah! I’m gonna ace all my classes, get a datemate, lose my freshman 15, and get swole at the gym! Kiba and I have the same goals this year and will be holding each other accountable!” Naruto exclaimed and Sasuke simply rolled his eyes.
“Sure.” Sasuke holds out his hand and starts listing Naruto’s goals with his fingers. “You are going to pass, but barely. Get a datemate? What are we 50? Lose 15 and get swole? On your pure ramen diet? Hm.” Sasuke doesn’t sound confident or convinced. Naruto moves to hit him over the head and Sasuke ducks left toward his next class. “Later, moron!”
“Asshole!” Naruto shouts and his friend flips him off over his shoulder. Naruto raises his own bird to the back of Sasuke’s head, even though the raven can’t see him, and hooves it to his class.
Naruto strolled into the classroom and nearly walked into the teacher, who was standing by the door and already writing on the board. “Ah, welcome back, Naruto. How nice of you to join us.” The professor drawled without looking away from the whiteboard.
“I’m not late- Oh shit,” Naruto looked at the clock. “My bad, Iruka” He blushed when he saw that everyone else was seated and already taking notes. Naruto laughed nervously and quickly made his way to the only open seat and pulled out his notebook.
“Alrighty, welcome to Children's Studies 102A. I am your professor, Mr. Umino, and today we will be covering…”
Naruto has known Iruka since he was a kid in foster care. His unwilling parent had enrolled Naruto in the big sister/brother program and got paired up with Iruka. Initially Naruto had been a clam, refusing to open up to the older mentor, but after time went on Naruto found they were kindred spirits. Iruka helped Naruto shape his outlook in life and decide on wanting to help kids like him. He even helped Naruto apply for college, so getting to study underneath him was all the more exciting.
Despite his academic goals to ace his classes this term, Naruto quickly lost his concentration. He didn’t see it coming, but when he looked across the room he was met with seafoam blue eyes and was immediately lost in the trance of those eyes. The hypnotic gaze seemed to go on for minutes, though it could have only been a few seconds, before the person behind those eyes looked away, seeming bored.
Naruto shook his head and tried to pay attention to Iruka but his eyes continued to drift back again and again. Naruto looked over the other man, realizing he'd never seen him before. He has a small frame, bright red hair, a tattoo of some symbol on his forehead and the most amazing blue eyes.
The blonde luckily made it through class and caught the key points needed. He scooped up his things and quickly got up to run for the door, feeling awkward that he had been caught staring at the stranger so many times. Despite the pull he felt to look back at the mesmerizing redhead, Naruto decides to rush to his art class. He takes out his supplies, trying to put his distracted thoughts away, then looks up and meets seafoam blue again. He practically jumped out of his skin when the redhead sat next to him and finally spoke, “Hi.”
“H-Hi.” Naruto replied and looked at the redhead. The young man didn’t appear creeped out that Naruto stared at him all last period, and Naruto decides to swallow his embarrassment and befriend him. “I’m Naruto, sorry if I was staring at you in children's studies. I- Um… Yeah sorry.”
“It’s okay.” The other man replied and pulled out a sketchbook from his bag as well. “You were only caught because I was staring too.”
Naruto swallowed thickly and coughed, “O-Oh. That's fair. I-”
“Welcome everyone, this is art 150, I will be your professor, un. You can call me Deidara. This class will be focused on autonomy and figure posing...”
“Gaara.” Naruto suddenly heard to his left.
“Huh?” he whispered.
“My name, it’s Gaara.” the redhead said again and Naruto nodded slowly.
“Nice to meet you.”
~~~
The days that followed were much the same, with Naruto and Gaara both catching the other staring. Naruto felt embarrassed and clammy when he was around the redhead and would apologize more than he needed to. Which led them to where they were now: they had drawn each other in a quick in class assignment and Naruto was apologizing for making Gaara look so bad.
“Yeah, sorry I-”
“You don’t have to apologize so much.” Gaara cut him off.
“What?” Naruto asked, taken aback, he really had drawn the redhead so badly, he needed to apologize.
“You apologize too much. It’s okay… To make mistakes.” Gaara clarified and gave a small smirk.
And that’s when it clicked for the blonde.
He had a crush on the redhead.
“Oh, uh, okay.” Naruto said quietly and looked back at his drawing. The drawing was truly terrible, but now the blonde blushed. He had a drawing of his crush.