AN: This is a coda to WesDunne's "Cruel Fate, Kind Destiny." It can basically be read as a standalone AU thing if you really want it to, but I really recommend reading his fic first. There are a lot of canon changes (including the part where Haku's still alive) there and taken for granted here.
Thanks to Wes himself for betaing this – because apparently the author/beta relationships are two-way streets – and also for letting me play in his AU.
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Sasuke dropped onto his front doorstep, feeling exhilarated. Something about running with chakra-enhanced speed always did that to him. He was pulling his keys out of his pocket when the door in front of him opened, revealing Haku wearing a neutral expression. Usually Haku had some kind of pleased look on his face, which meant that he was probably schooling his features for Sasuke's benefit, just in case the written exam had gone poorly. Sasuke felt his lips quirk up into a smile, and he let his keys fall back into his pocket so that his hands were free to pull his roommate into a brief hug. When he released him, Haku was smiling too.
"We did it. It wasn't even that hard." Haku's face broke into a full grin, and Sasuke wondered about how much of the emotion Haku expressed was for Sasuke, and how much of it was genuine. Sasuke knew that when Hinata met him in Wave Country, he'd been quiet and a little sad, but somehow still optimistic. Since they rescued him from execution and he had become Sasuke's roommate there had been time to learn things about Haku. More than anything, Sasuke knew now that Haku was well trained in the subtle art of putting on a façade for someone else.
In the first few nights at Sasuke's, Haku had been more untrusting than anything, which was understandable. But Sasuke had largely left him to his own devices and made enough dinner for two, bringing the wary boy a serving and also a one-sided conversation about the things that Sasuke and his friends had done during their day. He would prop the door open and recount his day in the dim light from the kitchen down the hall, barely able to see his guest even with his enhanced vision.
The suggestion to talk to Haku – about anything at all, just to get him out of his funk – had come from Kakashi, and Sasuke wondered a little if it'd been suggested for his own good as well. It was nice to talk to the still air, to break the quiet that had rested in the apartment almost continuously since he'd moved in.
On the fourth day, Sasuke had come home to find dinner prepared and sitting on the stove – still hot, even though the appliance had been off for a long time. A little concerned, but mostly just curious, he had put together two plates and taken the familiar path to Haku's room. The door had been cracked open and was leaking light around the edges. When he nudged it open further and looked in, Haku was standing at the window with the curtains open. Sasuke's usual chair had been moved over by the futon, and when he cleared his throat, Haku had turned away from the setting sun and gave him a little smile.
Their conversation that day had been one-sided, too, but on Haku's end this time. He had told Sasuke – quietly and with little starts and stops along the way – about how he had been treated by his village, about how he'd met Zabuza, and the things he'd done since then. Sasuke wasn't exactly a good read of others' emotions, but Haku had seemed better – brighter – when he had finished talking.
In the days since then, he'd felt almost inseparable from the older boy. Sasuke had invited Haku off-handedly to join him for early morning training with Naruto and Hinata, and since then it'd become a regular thing. There were a lot of things that couldn't be discussed in front of Haku – especially those regarding the Kyuubi – but Naruto seemed to genuinely like him and Hinata had treated him like a close friend, likely because of their first encounter in Wave Country.
More time spent with Haku made a lot of things evident to Sasuke – including the way that Haku's self-esteem and feelings were directly linked to how useful he felt to his "important people"; for the time being Sasuke seemed to be in that exclusive group. Of course, Haku didn't know many people yet, and it was possible that he wouldn't be in that group forever, but Sasuke was also fairly sure that an experienced ninja like Haku wouldn't just go around telling his life story to everyone he met.
If he was honest with himself, Sasuke wouldn't want anyone else to know the things he knew about Haku. He told Kakashi, Hinata, and Naruto what he thought was important for them to know, considering the situation, but the unshared details were kept close to his chest. It'd been a long time since he'd had something that was entirely his. He didn't resent Naruto and Hinata's slowly budding romance by any means, but after losing his family he had come to envy their close relationship.
Still, Sasuke felt his smile turn up a little further in response, and he stepped into the apartment as Haku moved out of the doorway. "I had faith that you could do it, Sasuke-kun," Haku said, cocking his head to the side. "I've, ah, prepared a special meal for the occasion!" Sasuke sniffed at the air and he could smell cooking tomatoes even from the doorway. There was no telling what exactly Haku has cooking, but it smelled good and that was what mattered. It was nice not having to cook every night; he and Haku switched off most nights now.
"It smells good; what are you making?" Haku was walking towards the kitchen as he asked, but he turned to send Sasuke a mischievous look.
"It's spicy tomato and egg stir fry! A little birdie told me that you were a fan." Hinata, Sasuke thought, but he wasn't bothered at all. Today had been a long day, and if the last really normal thing he got to do before tomorrow was eat his favorite food and relax with Haku, life could be worse. "It'll still be about ten minutes, though." He sounded apologetic, and Sasuke shook his head even though Haku couldn't see him.
"I don't mind. Is there anything I can do to help?" Sasuke walked into the kitchen and came to stand by Haku, who was stirring the tomatoes Sasuke had smelled earlier. Sasuke washed his hands in the sink to the right of the stove, just for something to do. Haku looked like he had everything under control. There was rice in the pressure cooker on the counter by the window, and the tomatoes were the only thing cooking on the stove, though there was a bowl of eggs at Haku's elbow that would probably be joining them soon. The towel Sasuke needed to dry his hands was hanging on the handle of the stove at Haku's hip, and he reached around the older boy instead of walking around him. The oil in the pan was sizzling and it got worse when the eggs were poured into the mix.
Sasuke dried his hands and returned the towel to its place, and a slight stiffness in Haku's posture seemed to fade away when Sasuke reached around him. It had been a long time since Sasuke cooked to actually enjoy cooking – being an academy student was a lot of things, but taxing on his time was not truly one of them. Doing missions with Hinata and Naruto was another story.
"I think I'm almost done. Thanks though, Sasuke-kun," Haku finally answered. Sasuke walked to the window and pulled down two plates from the cabinets off to the side. The sun was setting outside, and the open curtains let the light in to color the room yellow not unlike when he and Haku shared their first real dinner.
Sasuke puttered around the kitchen, putting away clean dishes and collecting the things Haku was done using to soak them in the sink. It wasn't long before dinner was done, though, and thankfully Sasuke didn't have to find anything else to occupy himself with. They took their plates to the table in the living room, sitting on the floor so they could face each other and talk over their meal.
Sasuke told Haku about the genjutsu trick they had encountered upon entering the building, and he had been right – the older boy got a kick out both the simple trick and how many of the prospective chuunin had been fooled by it. He briefly mentioned the unusual team from Suna, and the genin who was on his seventh time taking the exam, but the test itself is what he gave the most attention to.
"So Naruto tells us the answers to some of the problems with that Wind Whisper technique – you remember the one, right? And then Hinata and I discover one of the two chuunin plants in the room and we basically gathered the other answers from there, though even if he hadn't been there I think we could have copied one of our old classmates. Sakura is kind of annoying, but if anyone would have known the answers to all of those questions on their own it would have been her." Haku was listening with rapt attention; his plate was clear now, mostly because he'd been eating while Sasuke had been talking. The food was delicious, and Sasuke was slowly relaxing from the high tension of the exam even as he talked about it.
"What about the tenth question, though? It was special, right?" Haku asked, folding his hands in his lap and leaning forward with a curious expression.
"Oh, it was special alright." Sasuke left Haku to wait as he took a big bite of his food, chewing slowly and allowing Haku to wallow in suspense.
"You aren't just going to leave me wondering like that, are you?" Haku asked, pouting in an exaggerated manner as Sasuke went to take another bite. "You're the meanest, Sasuke-kun. I was going to make onigiri tomorrow morning, you know, but now I might not…" Sasuke's well-known love of the food got the better of him, because he swallowed quickly - and nearly choked before he could get a drink of water. Haku was looking at him with a mixture of amusement and concern. He reached over and puts his hand on Sasuke's shoulder in a reassuring, comforting gesture. "I was only kidding! I'm going to make some, I promise, as long as you don't kill yourself between now and then. I don't think Naruto-kun and Hinata-chan would appreciate having to go through the rest of the exam without you."
Sasuke shook his head, setting his glass down and stretching when Haku took his hand back. "The tenth question was a test within the test. Quite a few teams bailed out at the end; the proctor was this intimidating guy who said that if we 'failed the tenth question, we'd be banned from taking the chuunin exam forever,' which was pretty scary to them, apparently. But then after they cleared the room, it turned out that there was no tenth question at all, it was just an tactic designed to weed the unsure people out. It was really obvious, in my opinion – though that might have something to do with how Kakashi-sensei is always telling us to look underneath the underneath."
"Do you know what the second exam is going to be like, then, since you passed this one?" They stood together and took their plates to the kitchen, where Sasuke rinsed them quickly and piled them in the sink with the other dishes. He'd pack his supplies for the next day and probably end up using the dishes as an excuse to take a break from that monotony.
"Well, the proctor for the second test burst through the window when we finished today, so if I had to guess… I'd say it's going to be something crazy. I don't actually know what the details of it are, though… just that we're going to meet up tomorrow morning and go from there. Probably a survival test of some sort, considering that Kakashi-sensei said to pack-" Sasuke considered referencing the mission where they actually met, and decided against it "-well, a lot." Haku eyed him curiously but didn't say anything about the awkward pause in the middle of the sentence.
"I'll definitely make those onigiri now, then. We can leave them in the refrigerator overnight and you can take some to Naruto-kun and Hinata-chan in the morning!"
Sasuke left Haku working in the kitchen and went to his room to begin packing. The test ahead was going to be hard for sure, but he had faith in Hinata and Naruto, and everything looked a little easier with a full stomach and the knowledge that Haku would be there to talk to when he came home.