Hi hi! Neena here :D. This story, Little More Us, is dedicated to Ashurei Aque Blu who is also my much appreciated beta reader. Thank you Ashurei Aque Blu, for both you betaing and your request :) Now, please enjoy everyone! But also, be sure to let me know how much you enjoyed it by saying so in your review, it'll make my day :)
"I'm sorry Sasuke-kun, really, I hate to ask this of you, especially since you just got home from your mission, but there's an emergency at the hospital." Uchiha Sakura said over her shoulder as she packed a small knapsack full of snacks, pencils and notebooks—things that she would probably need during the time while she was gone.
"Aa…"
"I know, last time you babysat you were beyond nervous, but it should be fine this time, right?" She paused. "There's a patient in a critical state, I'm probably going to be gone till late tonight, maybe midnight." She half turned, her wide green eyes blinking at him owlishly, expecting a reaction. Uchiha Sasuke shoved his hands in his pockets, staring down at the floor, and Sakura sighed. "Sasuke-kun…stop pouting." She ran a single hand through her short hair in an exasperated manner.
His head snapped back up with narrowed eyes. "I'm not pouting."
"Sure…" His wife mused as she crossed her arms. By her side, a little boy—no more than a year old—stood; he was sucking his thumb and grabbing at his mother's legs with teary doe eyes.
"Ma…" He mumbled around the digit in his mouth.
Sakura looked down and smiled softly, apologetically. "Sousuke, mommy has an important job, be good for daddy, okay?" Though she knew that her son couldn't understand a word she said yet, she knew very well that he could understand the emotions in the words. Children were funny like that.
"Ma!" Sousuke shouted, yanking his thumb free and using both hands to clasp himself around Sakura's calf, sniffling. She sent a look that read 'help me' to Sasuke. He almost sighed—Sakura was deathly weak against Sousuke when he was near tears.
"Sousuke." Sasuke commanded softly, or as softly as he could. "Your mother needs to leave, come here." He held out his hand and curled his fingers inwards repeatedly, as if to say, 'come'.
The one year old scowled—a full on scowl with furrowed eyebrows, pouting bottom lip, and a scrunched up nose; the whole nine yards. "No." He muttered.
Sakura snorted and shoved a newly formed fist into her mouth to keep herself from laughing. Her shoulders were just barely shaking when she said, "Sousuke, that's not nice, go see daddy."
Meanwhile, Sasuke blinked in shock. No? Had his son just seriously told him 'no'? He stared at Sousuke, still attached to Sakura at her leg, and blinked. When did he learn that word?
Sakura looked back at her husband and giggled. "Sasuke-kun, don't be so surprised." She leaned down and rubbed Sousuke's head, her fingers running through the silky black baby hair that had barely started to hang in his eyes. "Contrary to popular belief, 'mommy' and 'daddy' are hardly ever a baby's first word. Didn't I tell you that?" One of her elegant, pink eyebrows rose. "'No' is a common first word for them to learn."
"Hn…" He grunted out, still perplexed.
Sousuke glanced up between his parents, gripping Sakura's leg as if his life depended on it. "Ma…"
Finally sighing, she reached down and picked up her son, rubbing his small back comfortingly. "Mommy loves you, mommy loves you, mommy loves you, yes she does."
Sasuke almost scoffed. Again with the peanut melody?
Since the day Sousuke was born, Sakura had sung the melody to him mixed with her own words. Quite the peculiar thing to sing to an infant, but Sousuke didn't seem to mind it, and so, neither did Sasuke. Sakura planted a quick kiss on her son's forehead before meeting Sasuke's eyes with a smile.
He stalked over and plucked Sousuke from her arms, to which, the child squealed and thrashed. It was obvious that he was a total 'momma's boy' as the saying went.
"Ma! Ma! Ma!"
Sakura sighed and tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear, grabbing her knapsack, and standing on her tiptoes so she could kiss Sasuke on the cheek. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" She murmured, her lips still pressed to the skin of his face.
"Aa." He said, gazing down at her with a tranquil mien of an aura. His sable colored eyes that were normally fierce and keen were soothed and unguarded—a dramatic change for the Uchiha. It was only around his family that he allowed himself to look like such a calmed person. And then, he did something Sakura wasn't expecting; he kissed her back on the forehead. "Come home soon." Sasuke pulled back, struggling to contain the writhing ball of energy in his arms.
Sakura quickly collected herself before grinning. "Yeah." She reached out and cupped one of Sousuke's chubby cheeks, wiping away his tears with her thumb. "I'll be back soon."
LMU
If Uchiha Sasuke was absolutely certain that it weren't possible, then he would have sworn his son was sending him hate waves. Like, legit hate waves. It was almost scary…almost. "Stop doing that." He said, looking his son dead in the eye.
Sousuke let out a huffing noise.
A knock on the door startled both of the male Uchiha.
"Teme! Teme! Open up!"
Sasuke glowered at the door before casting a glance to his son. "Stay right there." He ordered, using his pointer finger for emphasis. "What do you want?" He asked as he opened the door and glared at his best friend.
"Hinata! Hinata!" The blonde was jumping up and down.
"Hinata what?"
"She's pregnant, teme, pregnant!" His grin was ecstatic, his blue eyes were bright.
"Pregnant…" Sasuke's eyebrows rose. "Hn, you are a man after all."
"What? Teme, that's cruel." Naruto pouted as he crossed his arms. "Where's Sakura-chan? Hinata asked me to come tell her." He stood on his tiptoes, trying to look over Sasuke's shoulder.
"She's on hospital duty, last minute emergency patient." The Uchiha explain with a glare.
"Oh, someone's angry." Naruto waggled one of his eyebrows with a grin. "Well, aren't you going to let me in so I can see my nephew?"
"No." Sasuke pushed the door shut, but Naruto stopped it with the toe of his sandal.
"Pissy." Naruto mumbled after forcing his way inside.
After recognizing the blonde, Sousuke gave a bright smile and a mumble of, "Na!" The one-year-old Uchiha stood up and tottered over to his uncle. Naruto picked the child up with ease and ruffled the soft patch of black hair on top of his head.
"How's my Sousuke?" Naruto grinned from ear to ear.
"Grumpy." Sasuke answered, kicking the front door shut.
"Oh? So he got your genes?"
"Shut up."
LMU
Why was he here again? Oh, right, because Naruto insisted on going out to Ichiraku's in celebration of Hinata's pregnancy. In reality, it was just Naruto's excuse to get Sasuke to eat ramen. That idiot.
Sousuke slammed his tiny fists on the table and squirmed in his booster seat, yelling, "Ra! Ra!"
Sasuke almost sighed. Great. His son now knew how to communicate the word 'ramen' thanks to Uzumaki Naruto. "I hate you." He said, glowering at the blonde.
"Why? Because I have introduced Sousuke to the wonderful world of ramen?" Naruto replied, slurping down his third bowl.
"Hn." Sasuke stared blankly down at the steaming bowl placed in front of him. Essentially, ramen was liquid, sodium-filled heart attack in a bowl—so why would he ever want to eat it? Disgusting. He thought to himself while using a single chopstick to twirl a knot of noodles around.
"Don't worry Sousuke," Naruto started, looking at the Uchiha heir, "your father my be an unemotional bum who has no taste, but your Uncle Naruto will take you out to eat ramen all the time!" He reached across the table, holding out a small string of noodles on his chopsticks. "Say 'ahh'!"
Sasuke smacked Naruto's arm and noodles went flying.
"What the—? Teme! What was that for?"
"You really think that you can feed ramen noodles to a one year old child?" Sasuke glowered daggers at his friend, who sulked back into the booth.
"Well…why not?" Naruto sniffed, returning to eating his fourth bowl of ramen.
"Choking hazard." Sasuke said in the best 'dur' voice he could. Honestly, his friend was an idiot. "You're going to kill your own child with your stupidity someday." He muttered.
LMU
Shortly after returning home, without the idiot of a Hokage, Uchiha Sasuke noticed a funky smell coming from his son. At first, he thought maybe Sousuke had passed gas, but after the smell persisted and Sousuke grew increasingly cranky, one horrid thought settled into Sasuke's mind.
Dirty diaper.
All he could do was stare at his son with a blank look, and Sousuke stared back with a frown.
"Da!" He shouted angrily.
No, no, absolutely no. I refuse. The Uchiha firmly told himself, eyes scrunched shut.
"Da!" The child screeched furiously. He wanted his diaper changed, and he wanted it done now. "Da! Da! Da!"
Sasuke shook his head. "No." He hissed.
Sousuke glared, a perfect glare for a one year old, his black eyes narrowed and his lip twisted down. Stumbling over to his father, Sousuke glared upwards before taking his chubby hand and swinging it, making a small smacking noise against Sasuke's knee. The older Uchiha started. Had his own son just hit him?
"Da!"
"Fine." Sasuke grumped after nearly a five-minute pause. "You win." Hesitantly and gingerly, he plucked his son up and held him at an arms length away, nose scrunching. In this awkward position, Sasuke made his way to the changing table. He laid Sousuke on his back.
Hn…now what? In all honesty, Uchiha Sasuke, the man who had destroyed fives Kage's, Orochimaru, his own brother and Danzo, was clueless as to how to change the diaper of an infant. Predictable? He thought not.
Still unsure, Sasuke pulled off his son's little khakis with fumbling fingers—his fingers were used to the clean cut precision in throwing kunai, not the handling of a soft, fragile baby. Then, it was time for the actual diaper. Sasuke looked it over blankly and undid the little straps on the side. He, at the very least, knew how to do that part.
The rotting smell washing over him in a billowing stink cloud that, if he hadn't had perfect vision, almost looked like a real cloud—it made him gag and stagger backwards. …the hell? He eased back over to the changing table, lifted his son's legs with one hand, all the while holding his breath, and slid the diaper out from underneath the child. Sasuke dropped Sousuke's legs, took a few steps back and breathed in and out.
"Sakura, I can see why I left this to you…"
If he was talking to himself—he, Uchiha Sasuke—then it was a sure sign of his desperation. Taking a deep breath, Sasuke plunged back into the horror that was diaper changing.
He yanked out a few wet wipes and ran them along Sousuke's bum, clearing away the unmistakable reminisce of tomatoes. The full grown man felt the bile rise in his throat. He turned his head to the side and let out a puff of his breath before sucking in another.
Sasuke set the dirtied wipe to the side using his index finger and thumb—the word 'disgusting' flaring in his mind with nausea. Not wasting a second, he snatched the baby powder and held up Sousuke's legs again, giving the plastic container a good few shakes. After that, it was a clean diaper, and then, Sasuke redid the straps.
He had done it.
Uchiha Sasuke had successfully changed a diaper.
LMU
Like the last time he had babysat, nearly a half a year ago, Sasuke looked in the fridge only to find it nearly empty. Thus, as one would naturally assume, it was time for shopping.
Sasuke walked the dusty streets of Konoha with a familiar ease, Sousuke by his side, stumbling every few feet but keeping up nonetheless. With every three steps he took, Sasuke would glance at his side to make sure that Sousuke was alright—a sense of fatherly protection, still quite the foreign feeling, flooding over him.
Sasuke had offered his hand to the boy, but Sousuke had only looked up with hard, determined eyes. He wanted to walk on his own for the first time and Sasuke, very impressed with his son's stubbornness at such an age, wasn't going to stand in Sousuke's way. Sasuke looked down again, smirking when he saw Sousuke staring intently at the ground with furrowed eyebrows.
Suddenly, just when Sousuke looked up, his right foot collided with his left and the child tumbled to the ground with a grunt.
Sasuke halted immediately and squatted next to his son, grabbing him by the sides and holding back up. Even Sasuke could feel the worry on his face, and honestly, he didn't care who saw. He son fell. Fell. On the dirt ground god dammit.
"Sousuke." He said, brushing off the boy's shirt and pants quickly.
The one year old looked up at his father with watery eyes and a full, trembling bottom lip—he was sucking in his breaths quickly like he was trying not to cry. Sousuke sniffed and rubbed his eyes, smearing dirt on his face.
Sasuke, still squatting awkwardly on the road, patted Sousuke's head comfortingly. When the child persisted in his sniffling and hiccupping, the older man almost sighed—instead, he scooped his son up with one arm. Sasuke held him there, his little head nestled in the crook between his father's neck and collarbone. Sousuke, snuggling into his father, used his one of his hands to grip his father's arm and wrapped the other around his father's neck.
Even at age one, there was one thing Uchiha Sousuke was sure of—no matter how angry he was, or sad he was, he was never going to let go of his father.
"Da…lah yu…"
Okay, some of you may be wondering what "Da...lah yu..." means, because, duh, it's baby talk XD Anyway, here is the Uchiha Sousuke translator: Lah yu - love you. Isn't that cute? XD Well, I thought it was (albeit cheesy, but hey, who doesn't love cheese?). Tell me what you think, click on that nice looking button, okay? Yay, Neena is happy :D
Mahna Mahna~!