So in this old tiny building, his apartment was a story upstair from Naruto's apartment.
From the beginning, they were not related to each other in any sort of way, existed in this life like two separated beings with two separated rooms and two separated balconies, lying parallel to each other without a known intersection. Naruto knew him and he could have known Naruto just as well, that was each other's name in tons of names being signed up in this building and that was all.
No, Naruto knew about him a little more than he knew about Naruto. His name was always being mentioned in the hallway gossips that Naruto himself never seemed to care, but enough for the thirty-three year-old man to know he was a scandalous person. Such a shame. He always heard loud arguments and smashing noises came from above the ceiling, but not enough for Naruto to care because that was just something so ordinary in this rotten place called a residential building. And in this cramped, noisy place that had already squeezed Naruto enough - he was only someone else.
Maybe what made him special was that he lived right above.
One morning, Naruto went to the balcony for some cigarettes. There was a heavy rain last night that soaked the floor in pools of water and uncomfortable dampness under his bare feet. Drops of water felt cool on his fingers as he stroked his little plant's leaves. He blew the smoke into the air, leaning on his balcony to gaze at the street. It was still too early, the sky had not yet turned white as calm blue covered it in a sad, stilled atmosphere. As if everything had been too tired to wake and move.
When he lifted the cigarette to his mouth, Naruto noticed an unordinary pinkness covered his forearm. Then he came to realize it was everywhere - on the balcony, on the floor, on his feet. A red metallic drop fell on his forehead, ran a straight line down to his nostril. He knew it immediately.
Blood.
His head turned to the balcony above. A limp, pale arm hung on top of a white blanket soaked with a wet circle of red.
Naruto blinked, walking inside to call the police.
Two weeks had passed since the murder, but the gossips hadn't seem quite faded off the hallway yet. People talked so loud that Naruto knew most of the story even when he didn't mean to hear it.
"You know what? " The lady asked. "That was a boy. He gave birth to a baby boy few days after court. Poor child. Too bad his mother killed someone when he was pregnant with him, and gave birth to him after being tried."
"I heard that was only self-defense." Another person said. "That's why they still let him live here."
"Oh come on! You know they're so desperate to have someone hire these old cracking rooms they'd easily pass on everything. I heard the guy lives across my apartment used to be arrested for selling drugs, for God's sake! Can't believe that slut. I mean, that eight-teen year-old slut came here pregnant without a father to his child so it's not possible he had something good on his mind either, right?"
Oh, how much he hated these people. Wicked hell of the neighbors with their whole life bored and vulgar like dusts on the street, with no accomplishment in life and neither themselves were even moral people. They were buried within this rotten place so long their soul blended into each other... Into a mess of lame humans with tongues sharp as knife as the only weapon and the only entertainment they had, poking at the ones they viewed as the "lesser people" so as to forget how low was the ground they stood. These people disgusted him more than the building itself did, but then - he himself was nonetheless as bad.
Then the second time flew into like a huff of wind. That was at midnight of the weekend and Naruto was enjoying his long deep sleep after a long week of hard working. Suddenly, loud infant cries echoed through his ceiling and woke him up. He groaned, hoping some neighbors upstairs would come over to complain. But the cries lasted for a very, very long time. Longer than a child should be crying before having their mother checking up on them, and the mother's usual hurried footsteps couldn't be heard.
Something was wrong.
Naruto couldn't sleep. It seemed like he was the only person who heard it. He angrily put on his jacket as he went outside and upstairs. The hall was dark and empty, silent with none of the cries could be heard. Naruto was truly the only one.
He knocked several times on the door and waited, but nobody answered. Naruto was in his temper of being woke so he slammed hard on the wooden panel and the door just slipped open. It was not locked. Cold air flew out and touched his skin as he looked inside the apartment lit with little light. The cries came to his ears, so miserable and violent it somehow got into him and just magically dragged his feet inside without him knowing, because the current Naruto was not the kind that wanted to get into trouble.
He followed the cries and the source of light into a room. There, for the first time he met his neighbor.
A small, skinny figure with messed raven hair lied face down, half out of his blanket and unmoving with an infant covered in a mountain of clothes lied next to, crying loudly. Naruto shook the boy because he knew there was no way the raven could be conscious after all of his waiting, knocking and entering into his house. The boy felt hot to the touch despite the chilled air in this room and did not wake no matter how hard he shook him. He turned the raven up, touching his hot forehead and noticed his shallow breathing. Naruto fish out the phone he managed to grab when he left and dialed the emergency number.
"There's a person fainting right here." He told them after they answered. "I think he's having a terrible cold. He's extremely hot to the touch and..."
Charcoal eyes snapped open almost made him threw his phone. Pale hand weakly reached up, tremblingly touching the wrist that was holding the boy in his lap. "Don't..."
"What?" Naruto dumbly asked because he couldn't hear the faint whisper.
"Don't... Call... Please, stop it." He heard the boy said. "Please... Can't... Afford more."
Naruto signed and ended the call. Normal people would have said that life matter more than money, but that was when they haven't seen the bill after they got out of the hospital yet. This boy just begged him.
"Stay here. I'll get you some medicine."
He went right to his room downstairs because searching for medicine would take time. As Naruto walked, he hoped the boy was only having a cold because how much responsibilities he would hold after he fed a stranger in an emergency state his leftover cold medicine. Hell, he could even go to jail after this. Maybe he just woke up so his mind hadn't been working right, because right now he was out of his mind.
Naruto took the medicine on his table and ran upstairs. He helped the raven sit up and let him take the medicine, then tried to help him lie back down but the raven refused. The blond realized the baby hadn't stopped crying since he came. The raven tried to cradle the infant in his arms and lifted his shirt up to feed him.
As he fed his child, the eight-teen year-old glared at him. "Who are you?"
"I'm Naruto, your neighbor downstairs. Your child cried so loud and I couldn't sleep so I just went to knock at your door, and you didn't lock it so it just slipped open. Do you believe all of that?"
The raven boy said nothing, but he let his child lied over his shoulder and patted its back. After the infant burped and felt asleep, the raven kissed the child's forehead and laid them in that mountain of clothes again. "You're the one who called the police before." He suddenly said.
"I did." He said. "Sorry for the bills."
Because they did not only find the body on the balcony, but also the boy lying on the floor inside the house with a bleeding forehead and injured body.
"Thanks." The raven said blankly. Of course he was not grateful, Naruto guessed.
"Why are you covering the child in so much clothes?"
"My heater just broke." He admitted.
Naruto noticed the boy didn't have anything much around. Perhaps the reason could have something to do the smashing sounds he heard. In fact, the raven was sleeping on the floor with nothing but a thin blanket and gave the small sleeping mat and the pillow to his child. Imagine sleeping on the hard floor after going through labor, Naruto knew his back must felt really crappy by the way he sat.
So Naruto went downstairs and grabbed the old heater he didn't use anymore, a spare fluffy sleeping mat, a blanket and a pillow. That should be working just fine. When Naruto was trying to plug the heater in, he saw the raven changed the infant's mat with the fluffy one and wrap the blanket around it, while himself slept on the thin mat. What a good mother, too bad Naruto didn't have another spare mat.
Before he shut the light off and stepped out, he heard the boy said. "Thank you."
Maybe up until now, he had never done anything that made him feel as good as tonight.
Naruto made some soup for him and the raven because the boy hadn't got better enough to eat solid food yet.
He brought the small pot upstairs and put the soup into two bowls. Bringing it into the raven's room, he stepped in just to saw the raven lying there, stroking his son's hair.
"Menma cried really hard last night, right?" He whispered softly. "Mommy is so sorry, mommy tried to come by Menma but he just couldn't get up."
"I'm sorry, dear. I won't let that happen again." He said finally and kissed his infant's forehead. The infant squirmed around then grabbed the raven's pinky finger curiously, making him smiled.
Naruto decided that was the time for him to step in. He sat down, placed a bowl in front of him and handed the raven the other. "You should eat something. I made soup."
The raven hesitantly accepted the bowl and blew the hot soup to cool it down, then took a sip. He exhaled contently, happy with having the soup warmed his body up and filled his stomach after two days of emptiness. Uncontrolled, the boy held the bowl with two hands and downed the soup in one big gulp in front of Naruto's widened eyes.
He must be really hungry. Naruto thought. "Want another bowl?"
The raven realized what he had just done and blushed deeply in embarrassment, making the blond chuckle. "It's okay, I know I'm a good cooker." He said and went outside to prepare another serving.
When the raven finished his third bowl, since Naruto said he wanted to empty the pot for washing, he suddenly asked. "Why are you helping me so much?"
"Because your door was opened and I am your neighbor." The blond said while gathering the bowls for washing. "Anybody who went to your door instead of me would have done this, too."
The raven went stiff for a moment, then whispered quietly. "No, they didn't."
The blond head went up. "Pardon? The bowls were making so much noises I couldn't hear you."
"Nothing." He carried the infant up to his chest. "Just... Thank you so much."
"It's just a coincidence, Sasuke. There's nothing to thank me about it."
Sasuke was surprised at Naruto calling him by his first name, but he figured it out that Naruto knew his name like Sasuke did. Or probably from the other neighbors, he thought. But then the raven suddenly snapped out of his thoughts and remembered that it was the usual time Menma got his meal. How could he forgot his child's meal time? He was such a terrible mother. "Sorry, but I have to feed him. It's his meal time now."
"Oh, sorry. I'll go now." The blond quickly grabbed the stuff and went out, making the raven chuckled lightly. Though there's nothing embarrassed in breast-feeding a baby, the blond had probably forget he sat there and watched the raven fed last night.
Sasuke held Menma up in one arm, since he had gotten so used to carry a baby, and lifted his pajama shirt with the other. Lightly pressed his child to his chest, he smiled looking at the infant instinctively found their way to his nipple. Menma had been almost two weeks old but yet Sasuke couldn't stop admire this every time he fed his child. It was something so instinctive, something that showed the incredible bond between a child and its mother and whispered to Sasuke every time that this was real, that Menma was a part of his blood and bones that he carried and gave birth to, lying right here in his arms. His, and he would never lose it. Never.
Sasuke stared up at the ceiling, confused with thoughts. Being a eighteen-year-old who barely finished high school and had a child, Sasuke tried to work hard and traced out a safe line for him and Menma. He had several temporary jobs and earned just enough before proving his ability to be approved for a stable office job in a small company, in which he intended to switch into right after he left. He had insurance and a home he hired for a very cheap price. He got no bad credit and a save for his labor and maternity leave. Sasuke was so ready to bring his child into this world and provide it a good life, because he had been all prepared.
Then it was a chain reaction and that fucking bastard was the start.
The incident made Sasuke lose all the jobs because the customers knew the stories and they didn't want to be near a killer, as they called him, whether that person killed on a deliberate intention or not. That led to him also lost the office job so now he was completely unemployed with only the monthly aid from the former orphanage to hold on. Unfortunately, most of that money was used to pay the rent and the least-covered giant bills he got from the ambulance and the labor after, because too many problems happened at once made his insurance coverage went down terribly and he hadn't been able to pay insurance's and other bills yet.
With debts lying on his back heavier than ever, Sasuke was stuck. The events made his labor hard and long, his body hadn't recovered fully. He couldn't walk right, his body always felt sore and cold with bone-deep pains every night.
As if all of Sasuke's strength had been sucked out, after a few days of struggling his body gave up, unmovable. The bastard destroyed most of his belongings so he laid on the floor with a jacket draped over him, unable to get up and eat. Numb. Sore. Cold. He almost cried but he just couldn't, his tears dried from a long time ago.
Everything was so gray and dark. Like it had always been.
Sasuke was about to fall into the peaceful darkness, forever forgotten nor longing to this world. His breath so shallow below his nose, his soul was leaving. 'Is this my end?' Sasuke thought. 'Sure.'
'But I can't leave yet.'
Then Sasuke saw a speck of color.
And he woke up.
Naruto needed to buy some groceries so he went out. As soon as the blond left, Sasuke immediately locked his apartment's door. Menma's taking a short nap after meal so he'd have some time for himself.
As Sasuke stood, his whole body felt so sore and painful. His legs trembling vigorously and his head felt so dizzy. Still, the raven told himself he shouldn't be wasting time and grabbed some clean clothes, almost struggled to get into the bathroom. He took his small pocket knife out of his pajama before stripping himself and had a quick morning routine. When Sasuke finished, he put the knife in the pocket of his clean clothes and headed out.
When Sasuke was sixteen, he secretly bought a pocket knife and hid it deep inside his bag full of beers. He never left it since then. It did little to protect him, as a small pocket knife always did, but it brought him a feeling of safety. Like a little charm, because whenever he didn't have it with him things always happened.
In this situation, he knew he had no option but to depend on this stranger. Sasuke could have died if the blond hadn't came over; and it was either Sasuke was lucky, or either he owed Naruto a life.
Still, he'd not trust him. He trusted nobody and for eternity, none but himself.
Sasuke went inside the room to change Menma's diaper and clean him, then dressed his baby into new clothes. All the while, he did everything gently and in complete silent because the infant was still asleep and his son was a light-sleeper.
Sasuke believed it was his fault that Menma's sleep was so easy to be disturbed. He had plenty of anxiety attacks during pregnancy and Menma was actually born almost half a month premature. He was kept in NICU for nine days before early release since his son was "a pretty healthy premature baby." But still, the raven had been told to supervise his child's smallest behaviors - there could be future chances of mental and physical health problems due to premature birth. Sasuke was very sad to know that, he had made his son's life imperfect just because he wasn't strong enough. He almost lost him once.
But Sasuke immediately bit his lips to get rid of the thoughts and went out to unlock the door. In a second, he was back into his bedroom and lied down, thinking of other things to make these thoughts go away. They always lowered his mood and with bad mood he couldn't do anything right; he had been through enough to know that for sure.
Sasuke actually wanted to do some houseworks but his whole body ached even when he was lying down. So charcoal eyes closed. They fell into a dreamless pit of comfort.
It was almost seven in the evening. The dark road was lit with several lamp posts and there were a few people passing by, bringing in this almost quiet, timid feeling of a silent evening.
Naruto walked down the road with a packet of cigarettes he had just bought in his pocket. He arrived underneath the apartment building, pulling out a cigarette and lightened it while looking upon the building. In the morning, this was a dirty, old building with gray walls and pieces of clothes hanging on the balconies as if the building and the people itself were from decades ago. Seemed to be bored with time. But at night, the walls reflected the reddened sky from air pollution and the balconies unseen. Small rectangular windows lit with white light and occasionally, colored light, laid flashing and plain, with shadows of people living inside doing things like bees in a hive. Something so calm, so irritated with time and comfortable at the same moment.
Naruto could have afforded a better home. Sure, he hated his neighbor and was not particularly keen on the place, but every evening he walked underneath it like this, he remembered the reason he chose this place. It... matched him somehow. The place. Matched his color and set his soul at peace. Every small window flashing like a human's life, and behind every frame was a story untold and unknown, buried deep behind the thin dusty glass and the white simple light. It was the people's feelings that made up this place. The bruised, worn out feelings.
Then he suddenly thought of the raven boy and looked at his window. Seemed like the raven didn't switch the light up, for whatever reason he knew he would not take time to guess. The boy was one of the ones that had a story behind the frame, but it was hanging above his head all the time without his attention. Then suddenly, he cared.
Sasuke Takai, an eighteen-year-old boy who moved into the apartment above six months ago. Nobody cared about him at first, but after two months he became the hot topic of the building for being pregnant without a partner.
Then several months after, he heard they claimed having several strange men asked about his place, and following that was a rumor about him doing prostitution.
Finally three weeks ago, Sasuke Takai killed a man out of defense as he broke into Sasuke's home at night and tried to kill him with a gun, after beating the teenager violently.
The man must have been a robber or some psychopath, that was what the ladies said. Police didn't release much information and he must have been the only witness, but by the time the event occurred Naruto was dead asleep and the rain was heavy outside.
Still, Sasuke practically won the case. They did not even need Naruto in court and Sasuke was free of everything.
But that did not change the fact that Sasuke killed a man. Rumors spread and reshaped into something else in the neighborhood's mouth and made Sasuke the criminal. Naruto knew Sasuke would never be such one; he knew for sure that police were more professional in investigation than his neighbors, and if Sasuke was set completely free then he was completely innocent. The only thing that made Sasuke a criminal should be the people around him.
The next morning, Naruto suddenly felt the urge to stop by and check how the raven was doing. He brought some medicine and went to the raven's door, knocking on the wooden panel.
The door opened to him for the first time. A tired looking Sasuke peeked behind the least-opened door, then stepped out completely when the raven realized who that was. "Naruto."
"Hi, I'm bringing you some medicine. Have you gotten better yet?"
"Sure, I have. I-" He suddenly turned at the crying sound. "Wait a moment, please."
Sasuke almost ran inside at his son's crying sound, leaving the door open. Naruto just stood there, gripping the medicine in his hand. Maybe he should leave it at the doorstep and walk away, but the tiring look on the teen's face held the blond's feet back. He knew he shouldn't put his nose too deep into other's business, but clearly the raven may need help. After all, he was only a teenager and he was sick, Naruto told himself.
The raven came back after a while, anxiety clearly showed on his face as he carried his son out. "Thank you." He said as he received the medicine from Naruto.
"Is he okay?"
"He has been uneasy since last night and he kept crying. I don't know what's wrong."
"Maybe he was just having his fussy week. You should carry him a l...Whoah!" His voice raised as Sasuke's feet stumbled and the blond managed to catch him before he fell to the floor. The raven's brows knitted in pain as his arms instinctively did their best to keep the infant from falling out. "Sasuke, what's the matter?" Naruto asked.
"Cra... Cramp... Aah!" The teen groaned as pain filled his body again, one arm went down to hug his abdominal while he breathed heavily.
"Let's get inside. Give your son to me, I'll hold him."
"No!" Sasuke hugged the infant tightly to his chest and raised his voice at the thought of someone wanting to touch his child. He then realized what he had done and lowered his tone. "I mean... I'm fine... I can hold him. Thank you."
"Of course, do you want me to walk you inside?" Naruto offered the trembling raven and he nodded hesitantly, letting the blond draped his arm around Sasuke's shoulder and helped him inside. He brought the teen to his sleeping mat and helped him lie down, then dragged the other mat over for the raven to set his child in.
"I'll get you some painkillers." The older went out and downstairs to his apartment. He took the painkiller bottle but it was empty, so blue eyes glazed over the kettle on the kitchen. Naruto heated the water to make coffee minutes before he went upstairs so pretty sure it was still warm enough. The blond hurriedly took the thermos bottle he had to bring coffee to work, and poured some water in. To his expectation, it was hot.
He came back to Sasuke's apartment and handed him the bottle. "Sorry, I've ran out of painkillers. Hold this to your abdominal. It shall help soothing the pain while I go to buy some painkillers."
The raven groaned some more when he was in the midst of thanking him, then nodded weakly as a response. "C... Could you buy me some pads, too?"
"S... Sure." Naruto said and went downstairs, to his apartment for the keys then down and out. The pharmacy wasn't far but he wanted to be quick so the blond drove, slightly feeling nervous about this. He knew a little about these cramps but he had never knew it could be that painful. Maybe there was something different and wrong about Sasuke's cramp.
The blond wondered whether Sasuke should take painkillers instead of seeing a doctor, but seeing the teen's painful expressions and knowing that he couldn't afford any treatment made Naruto put those ideas away.
He came back after a while with a small bag in his hand, full with painkillers and pads he bought for the raven. When Naruto went inside the apartment, the blond got slightly nervous when he saw Sasuke gripped the pillow tightly with a painful expression on his face. He dropped the bag to the floor and rushed to the kitchen for a glass of water, then handed the water and painkillers to the raven.
A moment after taking it, Sasuke's expression eased and he laid flatly on his mattress, looking at his child. Somehow, the raven had managed to calm the baby down while he was away and now Menma was asleep.
"That looks serious." Naruto said it finally. "I don't think painkillers is enough."
"It's just postpartum pain..." He whispered weakly. "...will go away in days."
"I don't think postpartum pain should last that long." He nervously scraped through the blond locks.
"Mine is just... abnormal."
Then they both went silent as the sun hid away and sunlight dropped behind the old window. The air went cold and the sky was dark, then all of a sudden thunder struck audibly. Drops of water fell to the ground, jumped onto the balcony and into the window of his flat. More and more of them fell until the point that it was raining with cool, thumping sound could be heard from inside the thin walls. Weak, gray light shone upon the teenager's face. His gaze sad and unreadable, staring at the heavy rain outside of his window.
"Do you want to eat something?"
Sasuke turned his head to look at him, lightly shook it. He didn't think about it before, but now to him it seemed wrong. Unsuitable, like a puzzle piece placed in the wrong space. Or maybe he just didn't know.
"I'm fine." He said softly. "Because I appreciate everything you've done, I'm telling you this. Don't... Just don't get involve with a person like me. You shouldn't. "
Azure eyes dazed over the small figure. "Why shouldn't I?"
"You know they whisper."
"Right." Blond head lowered. There was an amused hint in his voice as he spoke with closed eyes. "And why should I care?"
"Your family." He said. "Your family will get in trouble for this."
Azure eyes snapped open, staring widely at Sasuke. "What?"
The golden ring was missing on his finger. Everyone in this building did not know about him more than a single man and Sasuke barely knew him at all. "How could you...?"
"Everything you did." He said, charcoal eyes staring at him. "They told me you knew more than what a single man could ever knew."
Well, he couldn't help it. It was merely nature, some pieces of memories left went alive and pulled the strings on his limbs.
"No." Naruto whispered in a small smile. "No, they don't live here anymore."
"She's living on the other side of the city. At her parent's house. With our son."
There was a moment of awkward silent between them before Naruto switched topic. "So how old is your son, Sasuke?"
Sasuke didn't know how could he say sorry to the blond, so he just flowed with him. "Almost two weeks old." He said, gently rustling the infant's crown.
Just like Sasuke, Menma was born with a thin mess of raven hair that possibly inherited from his mother. His eyes, on the other hand, was completely different. Naruto had seen the baby's eyes and he did not pay much attention to it before, but now when he came to think about it, that should be the clearest trait Menma had from his father: green eyes.
"Menma Takai, huh?" The name sounds pretty strange on Naruto's lips. "That's a name, Takai-kun."
"Just Menma." Sasuke corrected him. "And please don't call me by my last name."
"Oh, sorry." The blond quickly apologized. "Have your pain eased yet?"
"It's still a little sore but I'm fine by now." Sasuke tried to sat up but failed. He helplessly looked at the low table on the other side of the room. "Could you take the book over there for me?"
Naruto sat up to take the book and handed it to Sasuke. He opened it, took out the thin stack of low-value bills he put in his book and handed it to Naruto. "I'm sorry but this is all I have right now. I will give more back to you right when I have the money."
"No, you don't have to pay anything back." Naruto pushed the pale hands away. "I'm just helping you out. Neighbors with neighbors."
"Please... Just take it." He tried to shove the money into Naruto's lap but the blond grabbed his money and put it onto the table.
"No. I'm not doing this so you'll owe me." He hardened his voice. "Please stop trying to pay me back."
"I..." Sasuke's voice slowly faded into the air. Even if he had pay back, these the last bills he had in his pocket. His head went low when he said quietly. "Thank you."
Menma stirred, hands covered in tiny mittens wiggled slightly. Dark green eyes fluttered open then closed as his brows knitted together in displeasure. Small sobs made Sasuke worry and sat up but a loud groan escaped from his mouth as he fell back down. Naruto knew the raven did not feel safe having him carried his son, so he went behind Sasuke and helped the boy get up and leaned on his chest for support. Sasuke, though surprised and a bit resisted, simply let him do that because he had no other choice. He picked the infant up and softly rocking him in his arm, soothingly whispered. "There, there... Mommy is here."
The infant cried less and fell back to sleep after a while. The raven signed, gently put the baby back in his blanket and pulled his body from Naruto's chest to lie down again.
Naruto could feel how skinny Sasuke was when his body contacted his. He clearly felt the raven's shoulder and back bones pressed into his chest over his shirt, his postpartum belly was just at the five-month-size. Even his child did not look not as big as other babies, he was small and Naruto wondered if that'd affect the infant's growth in the future.
"How old are you, Sasuke?" Naruto found himself blurted out these words before he could stop it. "No, I mean..."
"Eighteen." He said blankly. "I'm not ashamed of that, you don't have to be sorry."
"I..." He was confused. "Giving birth must have been hard, right?"
The blond tried to switch topic, but he ended up making it even worse.
"Hardest thing in the world." Sasuke's lips curved up slightly, his voice went soft as he looked at his child. "It was worth it, though."
"Did the doctor tell you what went wrong? Perhaps... Any postpartum traces?"
"It was just a premature birth. I'll be fine." His voice affirmed everything into its place
Naruto gazed the rain absentmindedly. The water was slamming into the window, just like that day in his flat when Hinata confessed to him, eyes swollen with tears.
"Naruto... I'm... I'm pregnant."
"I think I'll make us some food." Naruto snapped himself out of his thoughts and stood up, headed to the kitchen. "You should take a nap, Sasuke. You look really tired."
"Thank you but I'm not. Besides, I can't really sleep right now." Naruto responded with a nod and went out.
Naruto made some soup for both of them and they ate together. Neither of them had something to talk about, except stupid questions about the weather and the road, so most of the time they ate in silent. Naruto cleaned up everything afterwards and washed the dishes. It was nearly five in the afternoon so the blond figured he should dump the garbage anyway.
He pulled the little garbage bags in the corner out and started grouping them, recyclable and non-recyclable. There was a little pile of papers in one bag, consisted mostly of leaflets and advertising magazines, and Naruto wanted to group it with the plastic bottle bag. When he took the pile out, some pieces fell off and slipped onto the floor. Groaning, the blond bent down to gather them, but before his hand touched one particular piece of paper, the handwriting on it caught his eyes.
Sasuke, my sweetheart.
I love you dearly. I cannot live without you. Not like this.
Please come back to me. I promise I'll find a way for us. We could begin again, with our child, as a family.
The rest of the page was ripped off. While the blond was in the middle of putting the page back into the pile, a silky, low voice caught his attention.
"Sweet, right?" Sasuke asked bitterly. Naruto turned around to see the raven stood there, leaning on the wall.
"Sasuke..." He said, reached out his hand to give the raven the letter.
Sasuke came forward and took the paper from him. He held it angrily, making the paper crumbled under his fingers. "You believe them." He mumbled to himself he ripped it into pieces. "Until you see what they truly are."
He threw the pieces into the garbage bag and carried them to the door. Although the blond didn't want him to move when he hadn't got better yet, he did nothing to stop the raven. He didn't want Naruto to see things he was hiding.
Sasuke came back and washed his hands, but the blond could see those pale hands trembling. His dark eyes full of unreadable thoughts.
He thought the raven might need space, so he decided to leave.
"Rest well, Sasuke." Naruto said before he went out of the door.