Star-Crossed

"So, the great Uchiha Sasuke is finally going to tie the knot."

Sasuke looked up from where he was trying on a new ninja sandal (the sole of the left sandal on his old pair had come off half-way through a spar with Naruto today, creating an opening that his opponent gleefully exploited. 'Gleeful' being the operative word, of course) and came face to face with Yamanaka Ino, soon to be Akimichi. He put on his best apathetic face and raised an eyebrow, hoping the entire expression would translate to something along the lines of 'I am very busy and desire to be left alone. Say what you came for so I can tell you no and get back to what I was doing.' Unfortunately, either Ino mistranslated or chose to ignore this sentiment, since all she did was laugh and sit down next to him, before turning and smiling half-mockingly. Sasuke inwardly sighed and resigned himself to a half-hour of meaningless chatter.

"The big day's tomorrow, isn't it?" Ino asked him, leaning forward a little so as to get into his personal space. "Nervous?"

"Hn," Sasuke answered, returning to his sandal. He slipped his foot in and then leaned some of his weight onto it from a sitting position in an initial test. Hm, feels like it'll rub a bit…

"Oh, good answer, Chatty. My curiosity has been completely satisfied and I can now leave you alone knowing that I have all the information I was looking for," she returned faux-sweetly.

"Glad to help," Sasuke said, taking off the sandal and replacing it in its box, before reaching for the next possibility.

"Ooh, three words! Should I announce it in the newspaper?" Sasuke chose to refrain from commenting. Ino sat back and, with a roll of her eyes that was almost possible to hear, swung her legs onto the padded bench and leaned back on her elbows, looking up at the ceiling. "You're no fun," she complained. "Your bride-to-be was much more accommodating."

Sasuke grunted noncommittally again, and moved to try on a new sandal.

Silence reigned to a grand total of two minutes.

"She's a great girl, by the way," Ino declared, turning to look at him, now. "I love her to death. Well, of course, I like most kunoichi from our generation, but still, very nice person. She'll do you well, I think," she continued, her tone turning thoughtful. "Still," her voice became a little coy, "I think I would have been a better choice."

Sasuke couldn't contain a snort at that. Yamanaka Ino had been on his list of prospective brides for all of thirty seconds, and only then because she was a kunoichi in the right age group. Even if she hadn't been in a very happy relationship already, Sasuke wasn't quite socially inept enough to think that catty and out-going plus emotionally reserved and snobbily stubborn would lead to anything but a train wreck of a marriage. Ino's flirty smile turned wry.

"Yeah," she said, as though he'd actually given a long and thought-out response, "I suppose not." She turned back to her observation of the ceiling, and silence once again fell. (Sasuke was actually rather pleased about how this conversation was going. Usually on the rare occasions that Ino cornered him, there'd be non-stop chatter for ages).

Alas, this blissful state of affairs could not last. Ino broke the silence again not five minutes later. "You know," she began, "A bunch of us were really surprised to hear the news." She tossed her hair a little, looking at him craftily from the corner of her eyes. "We all thought you'd eventually end up with Naruto."

Sasuke dropped the sandal he was about to try on and whipped his head up to look at her, startled into open incredulity.

"Naruto?"

Ino cackled at him. "So shocked. It's not that far-fetched, Uchiha. He was really adamant about getting you back once you left, and you did follow him home after you'd finished all that business with your brother despite the fact that a smart boy like you'd know there was no warm welcome waiting. Like a lost little puppy," she simpered teasingly. Sasuke forced his face back to impassivity and turned away.

"Believe what you like," he said noncommittally. "Naruto's straight."

"I notice you say nothing about yourself," she returned slyly, turning to look at him fully now, long legs swinging to the ground gracefully.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her. Wasn't she the one who'd come here to grill him on his impending wedding? She rolled her eyes.

"Oh, come on! I don't know you that well, Sasuke-kun, and even I know this is a marriage of convenience. Entirely so that you can have little Sasuke-kuns running under-foot, am I right?" He chose not to answer. "Besides," she continued. "It's a well-established fact that very few people in this world are entirely straight. He could have made an exception, since it's you, and since you're obviously so attached to each other."

Sasuke scoffed. She was making all of this sound like some sort of grand romance from a drugstore novel. Like they were supposed to have this all-encompassing and mystical bond called 'love,' which would somehow conquer family obligations, overcome life-long dreams, triumph over gender preferences, and be so all-consuming that they would give up absolutely everything for the other, no matter what the ramifications.

Sasuke had, after all, already made it quite clear that his clan did and always would come first. Where did these people get off, believing he would choose anyone, let alone a man, over the continuation of the name Uchiha?

"So you never even thought about it?" Ino wheedled. "Not even once? Just one little devious thought about his ass or something?"

"No," Sasuke answered, looking her straight in the eye. He wanted to be very clear on this point. Neither he nor Naruto needed this rumor spreading about. They both had goals that it would hinder, and quite frankly, there were enough hindrances already. For both of them.

…Besides, even if he had thought about Naruto that way, which he was fairly sure he hadn't, he certainly wouldn't tell Yamanaka Ino. She was right, they weren't exactly close.

She pouted at him. "Like I said, no fun." She got up then, and stretched luxuriously. "I'll just be going then. Have fun with your sandal-shopping, and give the lucky young lady my best!" Then, with a wave and cheerfully flirtatious smile, she was gone through the door and off down the street.

ooo

To his utter annoyance, Sasuke had a hard time getting his conversation with Ino out of his head that night as he ate his dinner and checked and double-checked his preparations. It was completely ridiculous. He knew it was. He even knew it was likely made-up, just Ino fishing for dirt so she'd have some scandal to whisper to all those giggly young women she'd somehow amass at the reception tomorrow. And even if it wasn't false, it was a moot point because he had absolutely no interest in Uzumaki Naruto. None what-so-ever. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Zero.

…which meant it could stop bothering him now.

Naturally, because the universe hated him and enjoyed being annoying at inconvenient times, logic did not work.

This is ridiculous, Sasuke finally snapped to himself. He knew himself, he'd keep chewing at this in the back of his mind for ages and ages, and eventually if he didn't work it out, he'd manage to completely convince himself the opposite of what he knew was true, and it would poison everything he did for the next decade. He was completely unwilling to let that happen.

So he sat down at his kitchen table with something like determination and thought about it.

Could he ever go out with Naruto? If he got over his initial (and admittedly completely immature) reaction of "Ugh, dead last germs," that is. Could he spend a life-time with Naruto, as a partner as well as a… well, whatever they were? Could he love him romantically? Could he desire him?

And to his abject horror, he found that if he squinted and tilted his head down and a bit to the right, it made a sort of sense, in a peculiarly nonsensical sort of way. Naruto had, after all, been pretty much obsessed with bringing Sasuke home, a fact that even Naruto fully admitted to. Sasuke, he said, had been his first real bond, the first person who he had honestly cared for not because he had been given something, but just because he could and wanted to. His brother, he said, in all but blood. Sasuke wasn't sure he went quite that far in reciprocating the sentiment, since after all he'd had a brother and it hadn't turned out that well, but… but Naruto was the one person he was fully incapable of watching die, which probably meant something big and deep and painful and frightening that he didn't really want to delve into.

His best friend.

Which, he knew, was very, very different from 'his lover.' Urges, when it came to Naruto, tended more towards wiping that idiotic grin off his face with gratuitious violence than they did wanting to sleep with him. They didn't love each other, at least not in that sense of the word. Not romantically. But… they cared. Sasuke admitted he cared.

So he couldn't feel that way about Naruto now, since Naruto fulfilled a different yet equally important role in Sasuke's life. But maybe, if circumstances had somehow been entirely different, if he'd had a clan and Naruto'd had parents, if when they'd met and bonded they both hadn't been in such desperate need of something they could put in the role of family…

No, he thought, cutting himself off. Not even then. Because if that had been so, Sasuke wouldn't have been Sasuke and Naruto wouldn't have been Naruto, and they wouldn't have had that one common trait with which to bond. That common loneliness. And Sasuke really didn't care all that much what two people who shared their names but weren't them would have done romantically. Or sexually.

So, he concluded with finality, he and Naruto weren't destined to be, no matter what those silly girls who watched them and sighed dreamily and fantasized thought. Sasuke wasn't denying either of them anything by doing his duty, by getting married and restarting a clan, by having a family again. He wasn't letting worldly issues, or whatever they wanted to call them, stand in the way of being with his soul mate, or someone that he secretly loved with every fiber of his being, or some such bullshit. He was doing what he had to do to finally fulfill that goal he'd set himself all those years ago: avenging and reviving his clan. He was, in a way, doing what he needed to do to be happy, which he kind of felt entitled to after all the crap he'd had to go through to get to this point.

Not that he really remembered what it felt like to be happy. But that wasn't the point right now.

With this decision firmly in mind, Sasuke got up from the table and went about doing what he needed to do before the ceremony tomorrow: one last check of the rooms, setting out his clothes, getting ready for bed so he could at least make an attempt at some sleep. And when he did lie in bed that night, tossing and turning, it wasn't because of some lingering doubt about whether or not he was making the right decision, it wasn't because he was battling down guilt at denying his best friend something he deserved, and it wasn't because he was mourning some great love he'd never have.

No, it was because he was an incurable insomniac, and nothing more. The life of Uchiha Sasuke was quite melodramatic enough without adding some type of star-crossed lover situation to it, thank you very much.

ooo

A/N: So, my muses are apparently in a oneshot mood recently. Unfortunate, since I kind of really need to work some more on Best Days…

Anyway, I kind of like how this turned out. Tell me what you think?