Author: Calendar
Rating: PG-13 / T
Disclaimer: Not mine, but you knew that.
Spoilers: None
Pairings: NaruSasuSaku
Notes: I like to pretend Orochimaru is a fever-induced delusion. Denial is my best friend; I haven't had a fever for about ten years.
Summary: He wasn't quite finished yet, but they were working on that.
o0o
Sometimes Sasuke felt like he'd lost some intrinsic part of himself the day his brother had killed their clan, and had only just realized its loss after he'd started to piece it back together.
He figured Naruto would say it was his brain that he'd lost, so he didn't tell Naruto his theory. He figured Sakura would insist he was imagining things and that he was just perfect the way he was (well, if he wanted to be a little nicer, that would just be great, but otherwise!), so he definitely didn't tell Sakura his theory.
Sasuke thought maybe it was a very large chunk of his heart that was missing.
He could pin down the exact moment he'd started to rebuild it. When Team 7 had come into being--when he and Sakura had offered their bento to a tied-up Naruto and formed their future--some long-lost fragment had come back to him.
After that, it was only natural that things evolved as they had.
Beside him, Sakura snuffled softly and rolled closer to him. On her other side, Naruto lay snoring, his mouth wide open and gaping. She was hogging the covers, Naruto didn't have any at all. Sasuke had managed to sneak a corner for himself.
He thought, somehow, it should be annoying that it had worked out this way. He knew, somehow, it wasn't.
He thought he might love them, if he remembered what love was. It had been a very long time since he'd last felt it, and he couldn't very well ask anyone what it felt like. They'd look at him like he was crazy, or make snide comments, or give him copies of Icha Icha Paradise as a guidebook.
Kakashi was really annoying when he wasn't teaching Sasuke cool techniques.
Sasuke liked mornings best. Naruto and Sakura had decided their mission in life was to make Sasuke a relatively cheerful and well-adjusted member of society. They weren't asking for miracles, just a willingness to engage in conversations with people other than his teammates or teacher. His teammates, however, were not morning people, and usually walked around half asleep for an hour or two. In the morning, Sasuke could sit down and eat breakfast without the two of them nagging him about scaring the children he passed on the streets, or glaring daggers at innocent civilians who walked too close.
Like it mattered, anyway. The two of them (and Kakashi) were the only ones with whom he spent any time on a regular basis. Everyone else was superfluous. He would have told them that, but he had a feeling it would begin another one of their hours long lecture on social niceties and the importance of making new friends.
He wasn't even allowed to roll his eyes while they gave him the lecture. The first time he'd done it, Sakura had broken his nose and had only agreed to heal it on the condition he'd never roll his eyes during a lecture again.
He wasn't eager to find out the penalty for breaking his agreement.
Not that she scared him or anything.
He just... wasn't eager to find out.
Sasuke wasn't entirely sure how the three of them had come to be living in a house all together. The three of them been having sex for at least a year, when Naruto had been kicked out of his apartment. The idiot had flooded the whole damn place accidentally. It was a long story involving Naruto, a stray dog, and a nail file. A very long story. Sasuke tried his best to forget the whole thing.
So, with Sakura still living at home and no one else willing to put up with the ball of energy that was Naruto, Sasuke had gained a roommate. He hadn't been asked, probably because he would have said no, but he'd gotten one just the same. His cupboards had filled up with ramen and his room had been strewn with articles of orange clothing within a week.
He could have gotten used to that quickly enough (regular sex helped), except that after two and a half weeks of feeling left out, Sakura had moved in as well.
His apartment might have been larger than Naruto's, but it wasn't that big. Naruto brought up the idea of a house--he'd always wanted to live in a real house!--and somehow they'd been in possession of one two days later. It might not have happened if they'd spent any real time thinking about it, because a house meant permanence. A house meant they had a relationship.
A house meant there was something other than really good sex keeping them together, and Sasuke would have said the idea scared him, except that nothing scared Sasuke.
Really. Not even Sakura's unnatural strength and penchant for using it to break his nose. Clearly, if that didn't scare him, a house certainly wouldn't.
The day after the three of them moved into the house, Sasuke decided he needed to find Itachi right then and kill him. Naruto and Sakura caught up to him when he was less than a kilometer from the village, and dragged him back by his feet.
He got used to the house eventually.
There were things about living with them that he could easily admit he liked. He liked that Sakura mended his clothes before he had to break down and ask her. He liked that one of them was around whenever he wanted someone to train with. He liked that Naruto bought tomatoes when he went on his weekly trip for pre-packaged ramen. He liked that one of them made his bento when he didn't have time.
Then there were the things he found it harder to admit that he liked. He liked that it wasn't quiet at night anymore. He liked that they always smiled at him whenever he walked into a room. He liked that he had someone to make a bento for when they didn't have time. He liked that he was never, ever alone.
Even when he was the only one home, he could feel them. They had imprinted so much of themselves onto their home that they were everywhere he looked. The empty ramen containers in the trash, the medical jutsu scrolls piled in the corner of the bedroom. The little notes they left around the house as reminders of things they needed to do.
For a long time, he'd thought they were the reason he suddenly felt more whole than he had ever felt in his entire life, that they were finding his missing pieces and putting them back in him. Eventually, he'd realized that wasn't entirely true.
His missing pieces were finding their way back to him because of them, but just being with them was creating new pieces along with the old.
The warmth in his chest when he was with the two of them, the tightness in his throat when he thought of them; these were new feelings. He was more than he'd ever been before, and somehow, that made the emptiness easier to bear. He knew there would always be something he lacked. There were things Itachi had stolen that he would never get back.
It just didn't seem to matter so much anymore. As long as he had them, snoring and snuffling at his side in the middle of the night, the emptiness was easy to bear.
o0o
Notes: I really hate the ending, but I think it's as good as I'm going to be able to make it for right now. Comments and criticism are greatly appreciated!