Dust
By Chinadoll1231
There were layers of dust in his apartment when he returned. He remembers there was exactly 2.43 cm worth of dust on those hardwood floors. Two years had passed. This is how Naruto tells time, by the amount of dust gathered on those wooden floors. But then he'll grimace and reach for a washrag hoping that the dust bunnies won't come to life and attack. Maybe eliminating dust will rid his need to see, to think about Sasuke. Because like dust, Sasuke is always there, a constant reminder of time, and how much the world around him has changed.
Each millimeter of dust shows how many months he has been gone. And each time he returns from a month long mission, he'll get the feather duster. Sasuke is the kind of dust that coats Naruto's heart, but Naruto knows he wouldn't, couldn't reach for the washrag to clean him up.
"Sasuke, do you know you've left footprints all over my heart?"
But unlike the dust, he hopes he can't wash Sasuke away that easily, he hopes he can never wash Sasuke from his heart. Because Sasuke is still there in Naruto's memories, as a reminder of his first family, and Naruto knows like the dust, no matter how he tries to clean it, it'll always come back.
"But even as you trampled it, stepped on it, the dust will always come back, yes Sasuke, you're the dust that coats my heart, which I hope I can never clean off. "