The long green summer grass was waving in the wind, carrying with it a scent of rain gone hours ago mixed with flowers and sunrays. The trees where whispering secrets to each other as the sun was starting to rise slowly at the horizon. It was only four in the morning, so the village hidden in leaf was still asleep. Thin white curtains were waving lazily in an open window of an apartment on a small hill, as a boy with golden blond hair turned around and yawned in his sleep, before he settled down on his other side with his arms thrown in different directions.

On the floor beneath the bed there was a mattress, on which a pale boy with raven black hair was lying. His breaths were, like the other boy's, slow and content, enjoying the fresh morning air of summer. It had become a habit, sharing the night at the blond boy's house, chasing away the ghosts of their past, and building something worth living for. A bond. A strong friendship. A home.

The night had been rainy, but now the clouds where gone, and the sky was pink yellow and blue. It was a bit dusky outside, but small sunrays soon found their way through the small window, tickling the already tan skin of Uzumaki Naruto along with a warm morning breeze. He didn't wake from it though, but kept sleeping in the calming presence of his raven friend, dreaming lightheaded dreams, yet to know what his future would be like. Although that was in a way comforting, because he knew that in that case, he could shape his future into whatever he wanted it to be. With anyone he wanted to be in it.

Raven hair moved over a white pillow as Sasuke turned his body, breathed in the fresh air and opened his eyes. His eyelids clipping the sleep away, he rested his gaze on the nestle of light golden locks covering a pair of, for the moment closed, azure eyes. Naruto's face was calm with sleep, and much more different from the grin he was usually displaying. It was still, showing his rough but beautiful features clearly. Sasuke felt a knot of something undefined in his chest, though he chose not to pay much attention to it. He reached up long slender fingers and lightly touched the whisker-marks on Naruto's cheek. He traced one of them, his eyes following the movement. His fingertips were tingling with an unfamiliar feeling, and he didn't know if he dared to feel more of it or not. As he reached up to trace the next one, he realized that those blue eyes weren't closed anymore. They were fixating him with a gaze hard to read, and hard to look into. Three times harder to look away from. It wasn't angry, but confused, and happy at the same time. There was also a feeling Sasuke found so hard to define, he wouldn't even dream to try. He withdrew his hand with a guilty look on his face, explanations lost before they were formed.

To his utter astonishment, a tanned calloused hand withdrew from under the white sheets now glowing with early morning sunlight, and proceeded to trace a finger across his forehead, excusing itself by moving a strand of his hair. The feeling was so intoxicating, so intense, so forbidden that Sasuke had to close his eyes, for this feeling was not real. It had to be a dream. A friend was not supposed to feel that way. So he told himself that he didn't. Not knowing why, he grabbed a hold of the hand in his face, dragging the muscular body that followed with it down beside him, wrestling with it. Naruto was laughing, and Sasuke felt relieved that the intense moment was over. He had never been good with them.

As it turned out, he wasn't good at wrestling early in the morning either, though he still kept his smirk on his face. Light golden hair was shining in a now strong morning sun, and Sasuke found himself looking up into the face of a miracle. The usual grin was displayed, whisker-marks adding to the effect of being engulfed by something unreal. The grin soon turned into something dangerously familiar to a soft but wild smile. A tan hand shot up to comb silky black hair, and Sasuke's smirk was wiped away from his face, as soft laughter broke from the other boy's chest. His eyes closed on cue, and his whole body was concentrated on the warm dry hand in his hair, sending shivers after shivers down his delicate skin. Body heat close to his told him that Naruto had leaned closer, and he was startled to hear a voice, close to a whisper but yet so loud, so full of laughter that his heart ached. "Do you want to know a secret?"

Sasuke didn't know if he wanted to hear or not. He wasn't a person favoring change, and he had an inexplicable feeling that this secret would – in one way or another - turn his life around.

The birds had begun to wake up, chirping now and then to each other, and suddenly Sasuke was aware of the breeze of summer across his body, the sunrays warming the hand that had subconsciously moved to the tan neck of the boy on top of him and how much he wanted to hear that one secret. He nodded.

Naruto took a deep breath, laughed and spoke in a low voice into Sasuke's ear,
"I have fallen for you like a little girl."

no reply.

"do you hate me?" it wasn't a question, but more like a statement. Or a plead not to.

Sasuke's heart was doing somersaults, his chest was full of butterflies, and his fingers were tingling to an eternity. The hand around the tan neck clung tighter, bringing the blond bustle of hair closer to his neck, so close he could feel the warmth of Naruto's breath and skin against it, and the other hand pressed against his shoulder blades. His lips were a hairs width from the tan boy's ear as he whispered,

"No."

It was all he needed to say. It was all that was necessary for Naruto to crash down on Sasuke, hugging him tight and burying his warm face in the crook of his neck. Sasuke's arms wound themselves around the slender body, holding tight, as an unfamiliar smile made its way to his face. The butterflies made him laugh. The relief made him laugh. His laughter made Naruto laugh, in gratefulness, in thanks, in relieve and in excitement. Naruto slid down beside Sasuke, eyes sparkling and still smiling like a maniac, luring that thing he wasn't used to up on his face again. Pale slender fingers interlaced with tan long ones, resting on the seal on Naruto's stomach. Sasuke rested his head against Naruto's, and closed his eyes for a moment, savoring every second of it. The tip of a nose and a pair of soft warm lips were pressed shyly against his cheek, and his heart stopped for a split second, only to race away at a ludicrous speed.

"Breakfast?" Naruto's voice sounded like the sunlight itself, shaky, but bright with pride, and Sasuke broke into one of those smiles again. Some day, maybe he'd get used to doing it.

"yeah, sounds good to me."