Lost things.
A/N: I feel irritated and suicidal and have an hour to kill; let's see what I come up with.
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Naruto paced outside, in the shitty little hallway that preceded his apartment. He was digging through his bag, hoping against all hope that he found his house key. After the fifth fruitless search, he gave the bag one last violent shake and stopped when he heard a faint tinkling coming from within.
Heart at his throat, he started to search again with renewed vigor and when he got to the source of the tinkling he almost couldn't restrain himself from flinging his useless bag at the floor. The tinkling had been his key's charm, an annoying bell that usually helped him locate his keys.
It had been a gift from Sakura. Probably the last one he'd gotten from her.
Instead of thinking about memories that the bell brought up, he decided to cool down, sit, and mentally retrace his steps.
Before the apartment, came the subway; with its jostling and people constantly coming in and out, he wouldn't have been surprised if the keys had been lost there, before that the university; a possible place of misplacement, prior to that the same damned subway again, and at the very beginning, his apartment.
He gave an exasperated growl and got up brusquely, pacing again.
He hated losing his keys.
He'd only done it twice or thrice, but it always came with the awful feeling of loss of control of his safety. He never knew if the next time he lost his key some junkie or freak might find it and, Naruto being the idiot that he was, read the address engraved onto the key itself and let themselves into his house at any time.
Since Naruto didn't have close friends that lived near him, one option was to wait for the landlord to make an appearance and literally beg him to open his door with the landlord's skeleton key. He'd usually act a douche, but eventually let Naruto in.
The other option was to wait for Sasuke to roll up, but that's something that Naruto would rather not have happen, lest he wanted to invoke the wrath of Sasuke.
After a couple of hours waiting for the landlord to show and dreading the possible appearance of Sasuke, he decided to head to a nearby café and get some coffee and maybe a muffin to settle his stomach; he hadn't eaten since 12 and it was now well into the evening.
He went to the counter and was surprised to see Ino working behind it.
"What will you have?" She asked, all politeness but no warmth.
He ordered a plain cup of coffee and a chocolate chip muffin. When she asked him if he'd have it here or to go, he shook his head absently. Naruto was still too ashamed to look her in the eye. She still hadn't forgiven him for what he did to Sakura when he chose Sasuke over her.
He had meant to visit her in the hospital, but something kept popping up and in the end he just couldn't face her anymore.
His order rand up and she glared at him and thrust the to-go bag into his hand. He had meant to eat in the café but he could see that he wasn't welcomed here at all.
Making his way across the street, holding the brown bag in one hand, he was surprised to run into Sasuke. He decided that perhaps he could tell Sasuke that his hands were too busy and could you please get the door? I can't right now, my hands are full.
Acting natural, Naruto gave him a sweet slow smile and casually threaded his fingers together with Sasuke's as they walked home together.
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End.
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A/N2:
Um.
I like to think that Sakura tried to kill herself. Maybe she succeeded, maybe she didn't.
There's this whole intricate back-story in my mind at the moment, but I'm just too tired and well, I just wanted to write something quick and I know that tomorrow it won't be the same.