Sleeping Habits
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Notes: This is short, rather pointless fluff; it's intended to be sweet. Guess that it could be seen as a sidefic to "Her and Them", but I think that it works perfectly well as a standalone. Criticism of all kind accepted (even if you say "you suck", I'll appreciate it).
When Sakura first started sharing a bed with Naruto and Sasuke, she learned a few, inarguably, valuable facts. She learned that boys smelled – smelled like old socks rotting in a garbage can – and that it wasn't smart to lie face to face next to someone. It wasn't smart because if you did, you'd end up having a person's morning breath all over you. That, most assuredly, was a positively disgusting experience. It wasn't that she minded the characteristically male stench that much, but the morning breath made her cringe and rise out of bed, sooner than she would have liked.
Sakura didn't like to be woken up like too soon because she was lazy. And like most lazy people, she liked to wake up slowly, stretch out her limbs and let the morning slowly sink in. Then, still hazy from sleep, she liked to conclude this ritual with a nice, hot bath. Only after that, did she feel ready to start the day.
Yet, waking up to Naruto's foul breath or Sasuke's smell of unbrushed teeth woke her up with a start and sent her running for the bathroom. There, she would wash her face and return to the bed with a heavy heart and barely restrained fury. And fall asleep on her back which she didn't like because the mattress always felt too hard and the pillow too soft.
Sometimes she really didn't like sharing a bed with the boys.
Sadly, Sakura couldn't escape that experience because Naruto and Sasuke were curiously adamant on sharing a bed with her and no one else. One day, when she felt a little brave and a tad bit frustrated, she asked them why they didn't prefer sleeping next to each other instead. It didn't strike her as a strange thing to ask, considering that they were rather intimate (if you had sex on a regular basis, it shouldn't have been that strange to sleep next to each other, too).
Later, Sakura realised that she shouldn't have bothered asking. Like most things that concerned Naruto and Sasuke, it ended up in a disaster. At first, after she'd repeated the question twice, there was silence (the uncomfortable, prolonging into infinity sort of silence which occurs when an idiot is brave enough to laugh at a funeral). Then, Sasuke turned green and Naruto started breathing heavily; Sakura feared that both of them would die prematurely (which would be a shame because she didn't want to be deprived from all that hot sex).
Sakura was just about to say something when Naruto started talking or rather yelling with such venom that she wondered what the hell was going on. She hadn't said anything offensive.
"Are you insane? I'd rather choke on my own vomit than sleep next to the bastard," Naruto exploded with a force that would have made Sakura fear for her life, if she hadn't known that his outburst was directed at Sasuke.
"I'd rather be killed by Itachi, then sleep next to that dead-last," Sasuke said angrily through gritted teeth, shooting a dirty look at his best friend. The other returned the gesture just as lovingly and squaring his shoulders, looked ready to pounce, attack at any given moment.
What followed was a verbal match – Naruto and Sasuke style – that would have ended violently; if Sakura had not put a stop to it. In the end, possessing a loud voice and a good fist was advantageous, after all. And the boys learned not argue in front of her ever again. Sakura, however, was forced to accept that the sleep conditions would have to remain that way, too.
Sometimes, Sakura nodded solemnly, it was necessary to make sacrifices. After all, she didn't want Naruto and Sasuke to kill each other just yet. Still, once, when her job required her to be gone all night and she found the boys snuggled up against each other, Sakura did have to wonder.
Another thing that bothered Sakura was that Sasuke tossed, groaned and talked in his sleep. He didn't merely talk and cry out in his sleep, but kicked and snagged the blanket from her. It wasn't very pleasant. As for Naruto, to her dismay, he was a little too fond of cuddling. Not that Sakura minded that, being a touchy-feeling person herself, but Naruto was a little extreme. In fact, he nearly choked her to death with his hugging.
Naruto was warm, which meant that when he hugged her a little too tightly, she was left a sweating mess. It was uncomfortable and in these moments, Sakura felt as if she had undergone another training session or spent the whole day under a smouldering sun. In the end she learnt that she just had to deal with it. Besides, it didn't really feel that bad, Sakura reasoned, once you got used to the excessive warmth (and the bad smell). Besides, in winter Sakura felt that no heater could have made her feel as warm and cosy as Naruto did. But that wasn't something she'd ever admit out loud because Sakura had her pride. Besides, it was so damned cliché (and there was no way Sakura would ever admit to liking clichés).
Another annoying thing Sakura experienced was that when Sasuke wasn't tossing and screaming in his sleep, he had that strange habit of licking her cheek. She couldn't tell where he had picked this habit up from (she really didn't want to know), but it was infuriatingly-annoying. When Sakura least suspected it, she'd end up thinking that a cat was licking her, only to realise that it had been Sasuke all along. And that freaked her out.
However, as time passed, she even learnt to accept that odd little quirk of his because Sakura had to admit that it felt nice. Sasuke's tongue was warm and soft, sending jolts and pleasurable chills down her spine that made her feel weak in the knees. She hated that Sasuke could make her feel like that, even when he wasn't consciously aware of it. He really was a bastard in some ways, though she believed that he didn't do any of this on purpose.
Naruto, she learnt, wasn't that much of troublesome sleeper, apart from the suffocating snuggling. Unfortunately, he wasn't entirely quiet either because sometimes he snored -- rather loudly, in fact. When he snored, it didn't take place all night, but came in phases with breaks in between: the snoring started off quiet, halted, and then swelled until the noise was similar to a bird's screeching. Strangely, it reminded Sakura of the buzzing of mosquito: a sound that also disappears and returns without warning and makes you want to tear all the hairs off your head.
Sasuke didn't seem to mind because he was too busy tossing, moaning and talking in his sleep. Truthfully, Sakura doubted that anything disturbed him at night, for she knew him to be a heavy sleeper (which was rather odd, considering he tossed and turned so much in his sleep). If Naruto's snoring couldn't stir him out of sleep, nothing would.
Sakura, however, did mind because she couldn't sleep a wink. Or, at least, it was considerably difficult for her to fall asleep. She never chose to tell the boys about that, though. They would have only felt bad and Sakura didn't want them to feel guilty about it.
After all, for all the tossing, snoring and bad smell of the boys, there was one thing she'd never get enough of: it was that familiarity, strength and security they provided her with. With them she felt complete in a way that no one other, but her boys could have made her. She felt that, in spite of their bad sleeping habits, she'd never get tired of that feeling. She, like a chain-smoker, was addicted to it. No could have taken that it from her. To know that Sasuke and Naruto were safe with her was worth it all.
