Prompt: "My roommate is too sick to come and pick you up at the airport in the middle of the night."

Pairing: NaruSaku, SasuNaru

Genre: AU, Slice of Life, Romance, Comedy

"Loving someone who doesn't love you,

is like waiting for a ship in an airport."

Anonymous

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!"

"Please Naruto! I'm begging you!" Sakura cried; her voice crackly through the phone's static.

"Go beg to someone who actually cares!" he growled back savagely, gritting his teeth as he shot a man between the eyes.

"There is no one else!" she sobbed.

Naruto sighed loudly as he shot another zombie, but he could already feel himself caving. Pressing a button on his controller and pausing the video game, he smiled sardonically at the phone.

"You are so fucking dramatic, you know that?" Naruto ground out between his teeth. He dropped the control on the carpeted floor and maneuvered the phone from his shoulder to his hand, relieving the tense pose. "Sakura, it's almost midnight. Why in God's name do I need to do this for you? And why can't you go pick him up yourself? Ain't he your boyfriend?"

"He is not my boyfriend!" she screeched, and Naruto grinned broadly, imagining the bright blush on her cheeks. "And I already told you, Naruto. I'm sick." As if on cue, the girl on the other line began coughing violently. Naruto winced. He'd heard Sakura fake some coughing fits before to get out of things, like work or handing in late projects. But he knew her well enough to know this one sounded genuine. Naruto mildly remembered her having a leaky nose yesterday when they left work.

"I don't think I'm well enough to drive. I can barely walk." She continued miserably.

Naruto sighed and leaned back against the sofa. Well, there went his Friday night. "I don't know, Sakura. The guy might be weirded out, he doesn't even know me. I mean, wouldn't it be creepy to have a total stranger pick you up at the airport?"

"Oh, you wouldn't be a stranger. I talk about you all the time."

"You do?" Naruto asked, feeling a goofy grin tugging at the corners of his lips. "Damn, Sakura, I had no idea you felt like that."

"Oh don't flatter yourself, Uzumaki." Sakura's staticky voice snapped over the line, and Naruto did smile fully then. She coughed again and then sneezed twice in a row. Sakura groaned. "Ugh, I feel like shit."

"Don't worry, you sound like shit too."

"Gee, thanks Naruto." She sniffed. "Look, I know this is a huge favor to ask, but I've been planning this reunion with him for months now. He's going to be expecting somebody to be there when he comes out of the terminal. All you have to do is pick him up at the airport, maybe buy him some dinner and then let him crash at your place. Then tomorrow morning, you can drop him off at my house. Easy-peasy."

Easy-peasy, my ass, Naruto grumbled. That sounded like more trouble than it was worth. He wasn't even getting anything out of this deal. If it had been a cute girl he was picking up, then Naruto would've already been in his car and halfway there.

But a dude…ugh. Plus, a dude that Sakura seemed to have a major thing for? Double UGH.

Naruto couldn't bring himself to deny Sakura anything, though. It had been like that ever since their first year in college. The moment that Naruto had laid eyes on the perky, pink-haired girl, it was all over for him. He was caught in her beauty, her grace, her everything.

But as soon as he'd walked up to her and talked it had been a disaster. Like water and oil, Sakura and Naruto repelled each other with a ferocity that defied logic. They fought and bickered over every little thing, yet Naruto came back for more with a masochistic zeal that was downright unhealthy. The pink-haired student rejected him time after time, and Naruto eventually gave up trying to court the angry woman.

It all turned out for the best though, because she soon turned into one of his best friends, if not his only one. Looking back on it now, Naruto couldn't even believe he had ever looked at her as anything more than a sister figure. He adored the girl, who in turn spoiled and chided him like a doting mother.

And after all the shit Sakura had put up with last year with Naruto's family…well…

He owed her BIG TIME.

Sakura's weak plea interrupted Naruto's reminiscing.

"Please, Naruto. I would really appreciate it…"

The blonde sighed loudly. The puppy-dog voice? Really? Oh for the love of-

"Fine, Sakura. I'll do it." He gave in, rolling his eyes.

Naruto pulled the phone away as a girlish squeal resounded from the other line. "Thank you so much, Naruto! I love you, I love you, I love you!"

Naruto tried not to feel too pleased at her words, blushing slightly. So sue him, he still had a teeny-tiny crush on the girl. And he was was going to play cupid by picking up her Romeo. What a fucking joke.

"Yeah, yeah, you owe me, Haruno."

"You bet! Ramen at Ichiraku's."

"For an entire week."

Sakura grumbled something unintelligible.

"Then maybe someone else will have to do it-"

"Ok! Ok! Ramen for a week. God! Greedy asshole."

"I guess I'm going to the airport, then." Naruto smiled. He hung up the phone and grabbed the controller.

Just as soon as he was done with this level. The guy, whoever the hell he was, could fucking wait.