"Two fifty, kid."

Sasuke glared, but the bus driver seemed immune. He dug around in his satchel for the bus fare, rankled that he even had to take the bus to work. Sasuke knew his car had needed a new battery...he just didn't realise how pressing that need had been. Not until this morning when, already running a little behind his morning schedule thanks to Itachi having not paid the electricity bill quite on time, Sasuke's shitbox gemini refused to kick over. He would've sorted it out straight away but he couldn't afford to lose his job. Not now when Itachi had just lost his.

Sasuke slapped a fiver in the old woman's outstretched and waiting hand, and held out his own for the change...which didn't come.

"Excuse me," Sasuke growled almost politely. "My change please."

The bus driver pointed at a sign above her seat while she directed the bus back in to the hectic morning traffic, Sasuke obviously more or less forgotten and/or ignored. No change given, Sasuke read before he sighed crankily and threw himself in the closest empty seat, ignoring whoever it was he sat beside. Crossing his arms and glaring at the unidentifiable stain on the back of the seat in front of him, Sasuke was annoyed that he hadn't had the sense of mind to grab his ipod for the unscheduled bus trip. There was nothing better than earphones to stop people trying to strike up conversation with you, but Sasuke figured fiddling with a phone would come a close second, and so pulled out his mobile. Surely there was some shitty flash game on there that would help keep utter boredom and people at bay. Sasuke was more pleased than he cared to admit to discover he had Snake 3D. Ten minutes later he nearly fell out of his seat with surprise.

"OBJECTION!"

Sasuke felt his cheeks heat as the entire busload of people turned to stare at him as if the idiot sitting beside him was his responsibility. Settling back in his seat, Sasuke stared at the boy he had sat next to, amazed that he was still oblivious to everything around him as he tapped furiously at a bright orange Nintendo DS. Huge earphones covered his ears, and Sasuke watched in sort of slow motion as the boy raised the DS slightly and-

"TAKE THAT!"

-screamed in to it again.

"Oi," Sasuke poked the boy in the shoulder to make sure he had his attention. "Have some consideration, moron."

Instead of apologising or ceasing to be a moron, the boy looked at him and shrugged off his oversized earphones, and proceeded to shove the bright orange game console in his face.

"Have you played this game before?"

Sasuke caught sight of one suitably harrassed and nervously sweaty Phoenix Wright before pushing the DS out of his personal space.

"I think you screaming 'Objection' at the top of your voice sort of gave it away."

The moron seemed to consider that for a moment before pushing the DS in to Sasuke's hands. "So you've played this before, right? I need help!"

Sasuke wanted to comment that that was rather obvious, but didn't get the chance.

"I'm stuck on this case and it's been ages since I saved it and now I only have one more chance before I FAIL! Can you get me past it?"

Sasuke was about ready to tell this boy to fuck off in no uncertain terms and turned to the moron to do just that, but then there was blue. Bright blue flecked with darker blue and Sasuke found himself unnerved that a colour could make him grip the bloody orange Nintendo and say-

"Well tell me which court case it is."

The boy with the impossibly blue eyes bounced in his seat and graced Sasuke with a smile that made him both regret and utterly cherish getting involved in such a ridiculous situation. Immediately Sasuke's bus companion launched in to an explanation of Wright's case and what exactly the Judge was asking for him to present as evidence.

"So," the boy wound down, arms still gesturing wildly, however, "the Judge is asking for something that could prove that old mate's eyesight isn't exactly reliable, I gathered, but I dunno what!"

"Hmmm," Sasuke scrolled through the evidence, pausing on the bright yellow baseball glove. "What did the witness say he saw the dead guy give to the police girl?"

"A bunch of bananas," the boy scrunched up his face, clearly puzzled by this particular testimony. "Doesn't make sense."

Sasuke smirked slightly, presenting the evidence with a flourish of the console's stylus rather than a scream. "Yes it does."

The boy stared over his shoulder with a pleased grin as the story progressed. "Of course! Because old mate's eyesight is shot he thinks he saw a bunch of bananas when really, it was the yellow baseball glove! Genius!"

Sasuke handed the DS back as the boy thanked him, but cocked a brow when he saved and turned the console off.

"Aahh I'm not very good at the game," he shrugged at Sasuke's questioning look. "It's fun but I don't think all that logically."

Instead of saying "Oh, I see" and leaving the out of the ordinary meeting at that, Sasuke instead heard himself say something completely different.

"Well, I could help you out."

The boy grinned hugely. "For real?!"

Sasuke recovered slightly. "So long as you don't scream 'Objection' again."

As such, Sasuke never got around to replacing his car's dead battery, and couldn't rightly say why he continued to catch the bus to work when Itachi brought it up some months later. And Itachi indeed didn't have the puzzle figured out, until his brother brought home Naruto a few days later.

'Just a friend' was how he introduced the blond, blue-eyed grinning boy. Itachi immediately had doubts and suspicions and rather figured he knew his younger brother a mite better than Sasuke knew himself. And when Sasuke finally left Naruto alone for a moment, Itachi was quick to ask questions. Are you a friend from work? School? Oh? How did you meet Sasuke? How very interesting, and how long ago was this, would you say? Veeeery interesting indeed.

And then Naruto was around almost every day, and Itachi wondered if Sasuke knew that generally speaking, generally, two men who were 'just friends' probably oughtn't touch each other so much or lie tangled together when they played the playstation or watched tv. 'Just friends' didn't stare at each other over breakfast for a moment too long or fall asleep on the couch together more often than not. But then Sasuke was happier than his brother had ever seen him, and Itachi knew Sasuke wasn't an idiot.

And it was an awfully private moment Itachi accidentally witnessed some weeks later. In the kitchen pantry and out of sight as he prepared to make dinner, Itachi was unknowingly invisible to Naruto and Sasuke. Slamming doors, talking and laughing, Itachi was well aware the two boys were home. Stepping out of the pantry, he had figured they had gone upstairs considering the general lack of noise. Instead, he was met with a sight he should have expected at least a little, considering it was bound to happen sooner rather than later.

In the arch between the kitchen and the loungeroom, Sasuke and Naruto were kissing.

They weren't touching, aside from their lips, and the energy that seemed to surround them gave Itachi the impression that this was their first kiss. Sasuke's cheeks were tinted red and Naruto's eyes were slightly open, and it was a fragile moment that Itachi felt he had no business in disturbing. Not this awkwardly anyway. So he backed in to the pantry once more before calling out.

"Sasuke! Naruto! Are you in the kitchen? Can you check if we have beef strips in the freezer?"

There was a sharp intake of breath and a few moments later when Itachi felt it safe to venture out, Naruto waved at him from the lounge and Sasuke was pulling meat out of the fridge. And as they were inadvertently brought up to do by their deceased parents, the brothers conversed without words.

Itachi patted his brother's shoulder as he took the frozen beef, smiling slightly. I know you probably really didn't want me to see that, but I did. There's nothing wrong with what you're doing and I'm happy for you.

Sasuke flushed lightly, cocking a brow and nodding before turning away. Figured...but thanks.

And Itachi sighed as he continued with dinner, because next time he stumbled on Sasuke and Naruto in a private moment, he was betting that he was going to be wishing they were only kissing.