Disclaimer: Don't own!
Author's Note: I hope everyone who celebrated 4th of July had a good day. It was raining where we were, so we didn't get to do fireworks. I did go to Disney's Epcot a few days ago. It's my favorite park, even though it doesn't really have a whole lot of rides. And I watched Samurai X: Reflections again this morning. To date, it is the only anime/manga to ever make me cry.
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"Family is like fudge. Mostly sweet with a few nuts."-Anonymous
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"Ne…teme, why don't you like sweets anymore?"
Sasuke glanced
over at the blonde. "I've never liked sweets."
Naruto leaned back against the wall that Sasuke was sitting on. "Lie
to me if you want. I've seen you eating sweets before, no matter
how much you might say you don't like them. I'd be walking home
and I'd see you eating them." Naruto didn't say that Itachi had
been with him every time except one. He was sure Sasuke didn't need
reminding.
Sasuke didn't reply, didn't quite know how to phrase any answer he might have had. Naruto was right; he used to like sweets, used to love eating them. But he hadn't eaten anything sweet in years. Not since Itachi…
The last ten minutes of any school day were always the worst and the longest. Sasuke hadn't really spoken to anyone, had watched the other students with his chin in his palm. Sasuke would occasionally meet the bright blue eyes that were across the room. But they never spoke, didn't know each other beyond the gossip.
But the days that Sasuke would remember the most and treasure were the days when everyone would leave the Academy and Sasuke would see a familiar figure standing near the swing. Itachi would always find himself with an armful of little brother on those days. On those days, the brothers would come home late and they'd get a lecture from their father, but while their heads were bowed in apology, they'd exchange identical slight smiles.
Those days, which would become increasingly rare as more time passed, they'd walk the streets, the forest paths and speak of everything and nothing. And on the way home, hours past twilight, they'd stop and buy something sweet, something small. But it was the only time that Sasuke would ever get sweets because his parents didn't much approve of them. But the sugary taste wouldn't leave Sasuke's mouth for a while after eating the treats. It was enough.
The day that Sasuke woke from the hospital when he was eight years old was the last time he had a sweet. He'd walked the rainy streets, had walked through the Uchiha grounds, and he'd bought a single small stick of pocky with chocolate. He'd thrown it out after taking a single bite because the sweet taste was gone.
It was sour and bitter and the taste it left in his mouth tasted of sadness.
"Teme…those times are long gone. You have a wife and a kid on the way." Naruto held something out to him and Sasuke was a little startled to see a grape Popsicle being held towards him. "Sweet things don't taste like that anymore."
And the blonde would know.
Sasuke took the offered frozen treat with a little hesitation. He didn't want to taste sadness anymore, but he trusted his best friend, his other brother. Tentatively, he took a lick. The first thing was a powerful explosion of cold, but slowly the flavor came to his tongue. Perfectly sweet, perhaps a little overly so, but Sasuke had never much liked grape, but the thing that made his lips upturn ever so slightly was that the sweetness was all he tasted.
