A.N. All characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto, and sadly Boost Juice isn't mine either. It's an amazing store in Manchester :D
It was a typical weekend in the Uchiha residence. The sole two occupants of the house were lounging around in the penthouse, as they usually did on lazy Saturday afternoons.
Uchiha Sasuke was an attractive young man in his early twenties, and was a very successful lawyer. Orphaned at a young age and escaping from his neurotic brother's custody, he'd lived alone for most of his life. Which was why no one expected this bitter young man to take a young boy of seven under his care.
If Sasuke represented all that was dark, foreboding and cold, Naruto was the complete opposite. Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto, was all sunshine and butterflies, nary a grey cloud hanging over his head, so much unlike 'Sasuke-nii', as the boy called him. It came as surprise, this sudden caring side of himself that Sasuke revealed to the world, just increasing the number of rabid fan girls he already had had; nobody really knew why, except for the brooding raven himself.
Anyway, that lazy afternoon, the little blonde ball of hyperactive exuberance decided he wanted a smoothie to cool down the heat of the day. Not just any smoothie, though. He wanted Mango Magic.
Now, Mango Magic was available at the mall just over a five minutes drive away from the penthouse, and Naruto absolutely loved it. No, that is an understatement. The boy craved it, yearned for it, dreamed of it every day, required it. It was a healthy smoothie, mangoes blended smoothly with fresh banana, mango nectar, low-fat strawberry yoghurt and ice, which Naruto always has with extra passion fruit. Extremely healthy low-fat smoothie, and not to mention, deliciously delicious and irresistibly addictive.
"Sasuke-nii!"
The raven looked up from his laptop. "Yes?"
"I want Mango Magic!" he declared.
Sasuke sighed. "Not today. I'm busy."
"No you're not!" Naruto said accusingly. "You're just playing solitaire on your laptop, I'm sure."
Sasuke twitched. Maybe Naruto knew him more than he gave him credit for. Snapping his laptop shut, he relented, "Fine. Go wait by the car, I have to get my keys."
"Whoopee!" Naruto danced out, chanting happily, "Mango Magic! Mango Magic! Mango Magic! Oh boy, Mango Magic!"
Sighing in resignation, Sasuke grabbed his keys before taking the lift down to the carpark. Naruto was already waiting by the black BMW, hopping from one leg to the other in excitement.
"Sasuke-nii! D you know that their dairy based smoothies give you approximately 50% of the RDI of calcium in every original-sized smoothie?"
"Is that so?" Sasuke replied absent-mindedly, starting the engine and maneuvering them out of the car park with practiced ease. He doubted the boy even knew what RDI meant.
"Did you know that most of their smoothies contain fresh fruit that has been individually quick frozen, which means the goodness and been locked in so that I can get the fruit at its absolute optimum?" Naruto carried on excitedly, not noticing Sasuke's lack of attention.
"Really."
"Yeah! Mango Magic is the bestest of them all! Do you know, that it contains half or a whole freshly peeled banana which is a good source of Vitamins C and B6, dietary fibre and potassium? It not only tastes awesome, it is healthy too!"
"Hn."
"OHOHOH, and, the yoghurt they use? Contain live cultures and big words like 'Streptococcus thermophillis' and 'Lactobacillus delbrueckii' for internal harmony!"
Sasuke marveled at the boy's ability to remember these rather redundant scientific terms while he couldn't for the life of him remember the difference between 'stationery' and 'stationary' for his spelling tests in school.
"… 98% fat free, and don't contain artificial sweeteners, colours or preservatives! AND! AND –"
"If you don't keep quiet, I will not buy you Mango Magic anymore," Sasuke threatened as he turned into the open air car park situated outside the mall. Naruto's cerulean eyes widened in shock as he clapped a hand over his mouth, "I promish I wun tawlk," he said, his voice coming out muffled from behind his palm.
"There's a good boy," Sasuke replied, smirking slightly. It was fun, even if slightly sadistic, to make fun of the blond.
They exited the car and headed over to the stall, Boost Juice. There was already a long queue in front of the small shop that snaked for about 10 metres from the start of the queue, and Sasuke frowned, not liking the looks of it. Still, he patiently took his place as the 53rd customer in line, with Naruto starting to yabber away again, too excited to reign in the hyperactivity.
"Did I mention that it is the bestest bestest BESTEST ever smoothie in the world?! Sasuke-nii, don't you agree with me? Of course you do, even if all those meanies in school don't believe me! They are just missing out on the best thing in the world; no one can deny it! Oh, Mango Magic, Mango Magic… " Naruto continued this conversation with himself for the entire painful 10 minutes they waited I queue. All Naruto could think of was Mango Magic, and all Sasuke could think of was what he could have done with that 10 minutes.
The thing about having too much time on your hands when you're bored is that you start thinking retarded thoughts.
Sasuke started wondering how he would account for those 10 wasted minutes. What if God looked at him before the pearly gates and asked him what he did with those 10 minutes? What would he say? "Oh, Mango Magic!"?
In any case, Sasuke's rambling thoughts were cut short by a chirpy greeting from a gushing buxom middle-aged woman behind the counter, who was fluffing out her hair and fluttering her fake eyelashes at a thousand beats per minute.
"Hello! And what would you like to order today from Bust Juice?" she asked, while all but shoving her chest in Sasuke's face.
Sasuke recoiled in shock while Naruto looked quizzically at the woman. "Isn't it BOOST Juice? Why'd she call it Bust Juice, Sasuke-nii? What's bust?"
The woman blinked at Naruto rather impatiently. "What do you mean? I very well did say BOOST Juice," she snapped at the indignant boy before turning back to Sasuke. "Aw, bringing your little brother out for a treat? That's so sweet! I like sweet men, you know," she said, leaning over to Sasuke, the counter creaking dangerously.
Sasuke jumped back in disgust. "I'll just have one Mango Magic please."
"Sure," she purred. "I'll make it as fast as possible."
"Sasuke-nii, I think that woman is weird." Naruto said as the woman sashayed away to mix up the drink.
Sasuke sighed. "You know what? You're actually right. I agree with you."
The woman came back all too soon for Sasuke's liking, with the smoothie in hand.
"Oh my," she said as some of it dribbled down her finger. "What a mess." She bent down, licking it up seductively. Sasuke wanted to hurl.
"I'll just pay up for it now," Sasuke said, handing her a credit card.
"Sorry darling, we don't accept cards," the woman said apologetically.
Sasuke frowned. He wasn't sure if he had any cash on him – he hardly did.
"You can go withdraw some from the ATM in the mall," the woman said sympathetically. "I'll keep a hold on the smoothie in the mean time."
"Right," Sasuke said, grabbing hold of Naruto's hand and walking briskly away. "I'll do just that," he threw over his shoulder as he fled.
He hurried into the mall to the ATM, to see a whole queue of people behind it. He groaned in exasperation but took his place in line. It just wasn't his day.
When it was finally his turn, Sasuke inserted the card into the teller impatiently, tapping his foot as the machine blinked a couple of times before rejecting the card.
"I'm sorry, but your card is unreadable," the electronic voice beeped. Sasuke gritted his teeth in anger, clenching his fist and trying to compose himself. Sometimes, parenting was an excruciatingly painful experience.
"It's okay, Sasuke-nii!" Naruto chirped from beside him. "There's another ATM at the other mall, remember? The one on the other side of the city?"
Sasuke couldn't believe his day could get any worse. "I'm so sorry, Naruto, but can you get Mango Magic another day? It seems that today it's impossible to get."
Naruto looked at Sasuke in shock, his big, blue eyes pleading. "But… you promised."
Sasuke was torn. He had his solitaire game at home, beckoning for him to solve it… but on the other hand, he had his promise to Naruto.
"Sasuke-nii…" Naruto said mournfully, tugging on the corner of Sasuke's jacket. "If you really can't make it, then I don't mind, really. I'll just wait till next time… I'll wait for you, Mango Magic…"
Sasuke found himself speeding down the road to the next mall with an exuberant Naruto next to him in the next minute.
"Wait here in the car while I go get the money, okay?" Sasuke said, stopping by the side of the road and putting on the hazard lights. On his way out of the car, he stood up too quickly, and hit his head hard on the door frame.
"OW!"
"Sasuke-nii! Are you okay?!"
"Yeah, yeah..." Sasuke said as he smiled weakly, wincing as he touched the bump gingerly. This was seriously a fucked up day.
"Okay," Naruto smiled.
Sasuke hurried into the mall, located the ATM, and withdrew the money without much problem, thankfully, and hurried back to the car, eager to finish this errand quickly.
"Come on, Naruto, let's go quick," Sasuke said as he opened the door and started up the engine again, driving off.
"Sasuke-nii," Naruto said puzzled. "What's this?"
Sasuke looked over at what Naruto was holding. It was a long slip of white paper that looked suspiciously like a… traffic booking ticket.
"A man in a white helmet and dark glasses came to put it on our windshield," Naruto said as Sasuke grabbed it in horror.
"I brought it in 'cos I wanted to see what it was," Naruto continued, not noticing Sasuke's intensely horrified face. "And I waved to the man, but he didn't wave back." Naruto frowned. "What's that anyway?"
"It's… a prize," Sasuke replied.
"REALLY?!" Naruto said excitedly. "What's the prize?"
"We have to pay them some money."
"How is that a prize?" Naruto asked as Sasuke zoomed past a traffic light that just turned red.
"It's a prize for them."
They reached the first mall at long last, and Sasuke hurried to the store to pay for the smoothie.
"Oh, that was a long time you took, honey," the woman said, upon seeing a very breathless Sasuke approach.
"Yeah," Sasuke said, handing her a fifty-dollar bill. "I'm kind of rushing for time, can you hurry?"
"But don't you want to spend more time with me? I think the time we spend together is very special," the woman said, going into another eyelash-fluttering frenzy.
"No – I mean, I'm rushing off… somewhere…"
"What's more fun and important that talking with me?" the woman asked, shoving her thick bottom lip out in her own revolting rendition of a pout.
Sasuke's eye twitched. "I'm… meeting my girlfriend, could you please hurry?"
The woman frowned and started muttering under her breath as she huffily took the fifty dollar bill and cashed it in, giving Sasuke back his change and the cup of Mango Magic grudgingly.
"Sasuke-nii! You're going out with Sakura-chan later?" Naruto asked, excited. "Can I come too?"
"You don't tag along on dates, shrimp," the woman said sulkily. "People don't like you disturbing their dates, even when it's with some bitch worse than me."
Sasuke heaved Naruto bodily away from the shop towards the car in his eagerness to get away from the lady. "No, I'm not going out with her, Naruto, I don't go out with anybody. Let's go home; it's been a long afternoon."
"But I thought you told the fat lady-"
"No, that was to make the fat lady stop acting weird, Naruto. Now, let's go."
Slurping his smoothie delightedly in the front seat, Naruto grinned all the way home.
"Sasuke-nii?"
"Yes?"
"Thank you for buying me Mango Magic!" Naruto beamed. "Ai shiteru!" the boy said, leaning over, managing to hug Sasuke as plant a sticky kiss on Sasuke's cheek despite the seatbelts.
Sasuke paused momentarily, before breaking out into a smile. So what if an annoying fat woman was hitting on him, if he got a ticket for illegal parking, and if he had to drive all over the city that day? Sometimes, parenting was a lovely experience.
"I love you too."
A.N. For all those people who are experiencing BAD DAYS! Haha, I haven't actually been to Manchester before. My pastor was talking about it in church before, and I just got an idea. He was talking about a similar experience with his own children, except there were no rabid fat ladies and no unfriendly traffic wardens!
And also, first time it's a no pairing story! Still, it's kinda fluffy, I guess. o.o review? :D