Disclaimer: Not mine.

Rating: PG for language.

Pairing: SasuNaru

Warning: Cliché fic ahead!! Also, shounen-ai. And sappy sap.

Summary: Sasuke and Naruto become roommates.

A/N: This layout of Naruto's apartment was taken out of the anime, not manga. I'm not even sure if it's really a studio, but oh well.

Roomates, Part 1

--maldita

"So, this is your place," Sasuke said with a raised eyebrow. It was a lot cleaner than he thought it would be, he had to admit. Who'd ever thought that the dobe was actually a good housekeeper? Naruto certainly wasn't what anyone would call a poster-boy for clean living.

"Yep," Naruto said, grinning from ear-to-ear. "Home sweet home and all that. You can dump your stuff by the bed, I'll fix us something to eat." Sasuke nodded and went for the twin bed. He could hear Naruto messing around in the small kitchenette.

Sasuke put down his backpack and duffel bag and took a closer look at Naruto's apartment. It was only a studio, but it was pretty spacious. From where he was standing by the foot of Naruto's bed he could see everything: the closed front door and the open one to the bathroom, the kitchenette and dining area, the glass sliding doors that led to a narrow balcony.

As the ninja part of Sasuke's brain automatically catalogued every possible point of entry and/or escape (eight; the apartment had a lot of windows), the part of himself labeled "Naruto's best friend" (and wasn't that weird) couldn't help but notice that for all the apartment's admittedly homey atmosphere, there was a distinct lack of...people. Picture frames. Photographs of family and friends. The family part Sasuke could understand, but the friends? He'd always thought Naruto would be the kind of person that would have tons of his friends' pictures around.

And come to think of it, where was Naruto in this neat, if slightly shabby, apartment? There wasn't a hint of the loud, obnoxious, maddening dobe anywhere. Not in the neatly pinned up posters, the clean floors, the suspiciously empty trashcan, the made-up bed, the healthy houseplants.

Oh, wait. There was that swimsuit calendar beside the mirror. And the ramen poster. Hm.

"Lucky! There's still two ramen left!"

Sasuke looked toward the dining area where Naruto was putting down two small Styrofoam cups on the table. He sighed and made a mental note to buy foodstuffs. Unlike Naruto, he had no intention of living off of nothing but instant ramen for the foreseeable future.

"Hey, dobe, don't you have anything other than ramen?" Perhaps not what a polite guest would say to their host, but when had politeness had anything to do with him and Naruto anyway?

"Huh? Why?" Naruto asked, looking at him with slitted eyes. He was already sitting down and blowing on the cup of noodles in front of him. With a muttered, itadakimasu, he began slurping. "Don'cha like ramen, Sasuke?"

Sasuke sat down and opened his cup. "Don't talk with your mouth full, baka. Itadakimasu. Has it ever occurred to you that not everyone loves ramen the way you do?" Sasuke winced at the first overly salty slurp. Naruto was going to kill himself eating this junk.

"They don't?" Naruto asked, his eyes ridiculously wide open.

Sasuke frowned and took another long slurp of his dinner. He wasn't sure if Naruto was being serious or facetious. Which was weird since the dobe was the simplest person he knew. He didn't think Naruto was even capable of understanding the concept of irony. Then again, he didn't think Naruto would actually be fastidious either. Confused and not liking it, he settled for a murmured, baka, and continued eating.

Naruto finished eating with a loud, satisfied sigh and sat back, looking at Sasuke quietly. Sasuke frowned. "What?"

"How long d'you think you gotta stay here?"

"At least a month. You know that yourself, dobe." Sasuke answered, annoyed not so much because it was a stupid question, but because he knew it wasn't the question Naruto meant to ask.

"Don't call me dobe," Naruto said, almost casually. "Hey, sorry about your house."

Sasuke shrugged. "It was old. And I knew the roof needed to be fixed a long time ago. I was surprised it took this long to collapse, actually."

"Oh."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "What is it?"

"Huh?" Naruto asked, startled out of staring at the ceiling. "What is what?"

"You obviously want to ask me something. Just spit it out already."

"Wha—it's nothing," Naruto said in a way that meant it was something.

Sasuke scowled. "Fine. I'm done," he said, putting down his chopsticks.

"Eh? But you only ate half of it!"
"If you want it so much you can eat it yourself, dobe." Sasuke said, getting up and walking to his duffel bag.

"Fine, I will! Asshole. And don't call me dobe!"

Sasuke grabbed his towel and bath stuff and started for the bathroom. "I'm taking a shower."

"Don't use up all the hot water!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and slammed the bathroom door closed.

---

The rest of the evening was surprisingly comfortable, Sasuke thought back with not a little bit of shock as he settled down on his sleeping bag. Maybe it was because they were both tired and achy from their last mission and the confusion that followed, but aside from the fight over the hot water ("You used up all the hot water!" "There wasn't any to begin with, dobe!"), the two of them slipped into the roles of roommates easily. Really easily.

Sasuke figured it was because they'd camped out and spent so many nights in hotel rooms together on their missions that they were just familiar with each other's habits. Still. It was kind of eerie. After all, they had no mission to occupy their thoughts or distract them from thinking about how much the other grated on their nerves, no matter that they were each other's "best friend."

Sasuke found that Naruto still annoyed the shit out of him, sure, but it was... comfortable. Familiar. Almost... soothing. Sasuke scowled and turned on his side. He must be more tired than he thought.

Naruto, soothing? What a joke.

He was just about to fall asleep when loud rustling from the bed had him opening his eyes. "What it is, Naruto? I need to sleep."
A long pause, then: "Sasuke, why'd you pick my place to live in?"

And maybe it was because of the dark or the fact that he it was the dobe's floor he was lying on, but Naruto had never sounded like this to Sasuke. Quiet and unsure. A really weird feeling settled on the bottom of his stomach. Sasuke frowned and didn't answer.

"Because, you know, Sakura-chan really wanted you to stay at her place. And you could've asked any of our other friends... I mean, they looked like they really wouldn't have minded... Everybody wanted to..." Take care of you. It was there, unsaid. Sasuke heard it, and he also heard the rest of what the baka wanted to say. Nobody would have wanted to take care of me, if I lost my apartment.

He didn't know why, but suddenly Sasuke felt his eyes harden as the knot on the bottom of his stomach grew bigger and bigger so that he really wanted to curl his hand into a fist and destroy something. Someone. And surprisingly enough, someone not Naruto.

When Sasuke opened his mouth, his voice came out weird. Quiet and not angry. "It's just more practical to stay with a group member. And I didn't want to deal with anybody's parents."

"Oh." Naruto said, in a voice that clearly said he didn't understand why Sasuke didn't want to have someone's mom wash his socks.

When Sasuke opened his mouth again, he was probably more surprised than Naruto. "I would've let you stay at my place, if your roof caved in."

Naruto didn't say anything and Sasuke mentally beat himself up for saying something so stupid. What was he, a girl?

There was more rustling from the bed; Naruto turning away. "Feh. Who asked you, asshole." Then, a little later, "goodnight, Sasuke."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, the knot in his stomach unwinding. "Goodnight, Naruto."