WINTER WONDERLAND
Disclaimer: I once gloated to the world that I own Naruto then woke up the next day with mysterious cuts. I was wondering where the hell it came from until I noticed shurikens beside my pillow. With the Uchiha crest on it. That sneaky bastard.
The cold December winds have started to pick up as two silhouettes trudged the snow-covered ground with a big lump over their shoulders. It was only their luck that it has stopped snowing, making it easier for them to carry the more-than-your-average-weight baggage. Well, they could always drag the blasted thing back home. Sasuke would have preferred that but Naruto insisted they carry it, as to preserve its "original look".
Sasuke once again adjusted the unmoving lump not-too-carefully on his shoulder. No, it wasn't Itachi's dead body as much as he wanted it to be. It wasn't Sai's, either (Unfortunately for Sai, comments about Sasuke's private parts have never sat well with him). It was a six foot tall fig tree Naruto cut in the forest and decided to take home with them. And the offending leaves kept on brushing on his cheeks since time immemorial.
"Tch," he tried to push the tree away from his face as far as possible, trying to give Naruto an obvious hint that he wants to ditch the damned tree and just go straight home. Of course, Naruto got the hint after the tenth one. This seemed to be the fiftieth one since they left the forest but that doesn't mean he would do something about it. He just finds it amusing how Sasuke twitches easily every time a leaf touches his cheeks so he kept on pretending he doesn't notice anything.
But seeing that Sasuke was already having thoughts of dropping the tree and leaving him behind to carry it, he finally decided to do something. Clearing his throat, he started singing a Christmas jingle, not even bothering to sing in tune.
"You better not cry! You better not pout! You better not frown! I'm telling you whhhhhhhhy. Uzumaki Naruto is coming to toooown!" he was singing on top of his lungs with pissing Sasuke off as his number one priority.
And it was working perfectly well.
"Stop singing, dobe. You're out of tune and you're butchering the lyrics," Sasuke visibly cringed at the blonde's loud voice.
"Well, sorry Mr. Grinch," he stuck his tongue out at Sasuke's back while adjusting the tree on his shoulders.
Sasuke rolled his eyes at the nickname and settled on voicing out his urge to drop the tree. "Isn't it a little too early for a tree?"
"No way! Christmas season starts as soon as you put up a tree. And then you decorate it with lights and stuffs. Then you start putting gifts under it. Sit back on your couch while watching the sparkling lights; probably drink a cup of sake or two. Then ---"
"Or you can just cut out its branches, burn the leaves, and then it can be a good taijutsu practice material." Sasuke snorted, cutting off Naruto's cheerful tirade about Christmas.
A glare was quickly sent to his direction. "You always have to ruin the Christmas mood, don't you?"
"I've always hated Christmas."
Thud.
Naruto dropped the tree from his shoulders which caused Sasuke to turn around and look at him. "How can you say that? Christmas is so much fun! The snow! The tree! The gifts! How can you not like it??"
Sasuke sighed and set the tree in an upright position before enumerating his reasons. "Fan girls screaming at my door early in the morning. Mountains of gifts blocking my doorway. The temperature's freezing cold. And this type of tree catches fire easily."
Naruto stared at Sasuke disbelievingly. "That's why you hate Christmas?" He can't even believe he was asking him that question. He was torn between sympathizing with the other guy and concluding that he is indeed the Grinch. Although from the looks of it, he was more in favor of the second option.
"That and..." Sasuke paused, contemplating if he should continue his explanation. "I've always been alone on Christmas." The last part was said in almost a whisper, Naruto had to strain his ears to catch the words. But he heard it, nonetheless.
"Oh. Well... you're not gonna be alone this Christmas," the words were out of the blonde's mouth even before his brain had the chance to process it.
A dark eyebrow raised in amusement. "Could you... say that again?" He heard it clearly the first time but he just wanted to humor himself with Naruto's reaction. A smile was threatening to grace his face but he fought the urge to do so.
Naruto, on the other hand, just smiled and took a step closer to the raven. "You're not…" Step. "gonna be..." Step. "alone…" Step. "this Christmas." By the time he finished his sentence, his face was extremely close to Sasuke's, their lips almost touching.
Blue eyes locked with black ones, as if daring the latter to oppose what he just said. Sasuke just smirked in response before looking down, shaking his head amusedly.
"What?" the blonde whined in protest, coming to the conclusion that Mr. Grinch was making fun of what he said.
"Nothing," Sasuke turned his back on Naruto. "Let's go decorate the tree, dobe." He picked up the ignored tree and swung it over his shoulder, barely missing Naruto's head in the process.
"Hey!" Naruto cried in protest but let out a little laugh as he tried to catch up with Sasuke's quickening pace. He wrapped an arm around the raven's waist and nuzzled in his neck, slowing down their pace. "Merry Christmas, teme."
Naruto took the tree from Sasuke, carrying it over his shoulder and supporting it with one hand. His other hand held the raven's as they made their way back to their shared apartment. Sasuke did not make any attempt to hold back the smile that is slowly gracing his face as he moved closer to the warm blonde. He can make an exception this time. After all, Christmas this year wouldn't be as cold as the previous ones.
.::OWARI::.
Bubble notes: Inspired by an episode of Ally McBeal. I incorporated some of the lines as well. The moment I saw that episode I was like "this is so NaruSasu" and evil fic-doer that I am, decided to do some character switch. X3 It's not that original, i know, but I had fun writing this. I hope you had fun reading, as well. And yeah, it's unedited. Again. X3 Well, that's it. Happy Christmas, everyone! Enjoy the holidays. ^^