(A/N: In direct contrast to "Bright," here is "Dark."
So screw it, I'm just gonna post these things as separate stories.
And it's Christmas themed, too!
~by AoNoShi)
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Warnings: Fluff. BL. Slight OOC? Places where you can't tell who's talking. Overuse of the words: Christmas, lights, and dark. Maybe a few curse words. May refer to characters using their hair color (oh the horror).
Dark
Why did it have to be so damn cold?
Sasuke hunched his shoulders against the chilly wind and continued his slow trudge toward home.
Winter was here. Which meant Christmas was looming. Bright lights and happy faces and gift-giving. Oh joy.
And he supposed his idiot teammates and constantly-late teacher would expect presents.
It made him uncomfortable. He hadn't bought a gift, Christmas-themed or otherwise, for anyone in years. Hell, he'd never even been Christmas shopping. When he was little, his two options had been hand-making something with glue and popsicle sticks or letting his mom buy the gift and then just slapping his name on it. He couldn't do either of those now.
Well. I suppose I could do something with popsicle sticks.
But that would just be embarrassing. And where would he get popsicle sticks, anyway? He wasn't about to buy popsicles in this cold weather.
"Hey!"
Sasuke hesitated a second when he heard the call, but only for a second. He kept walking.
"Hey!!" Louder, more insistent. The caller was catching up.
Sasuke sighed, watching his own breath swirl out of his mouth and rise upward in a plume. He had taken the long road home, the one that moved around the outskirt of the village, hugging the wall. Few people used it in the winter; they preferred the inner streets where warmth could be found emanating from food stalls and the body heat of the crowds. That was exactly why he had chosen this route. It figured that someone, somehow, would find him and try to talk to him.
He just wanted to get home.
"Teme!"
Sasuke winced as Naruto finally caught up and screeched into his ear. He turned towards the blond just in time to get a face-full of warm, ramen-smelling air.
"Don't ignore me when I'm calling you!" Naruto's breath came out as large gusts of steam.
"Oh, sorry. I thought you were calling someone else."
The sarcasm seemed to be lost on Naruto, who looked around in confusion.
"But there's no one else out here." He eyed Sasuke suspiciously. "Do you have an inferiority complex or something?"
"…What?"
"I mean, it's kind of sad to assume when you hear someone shouting that it must be for someone else. You can't be that pathetically lonely."
Sasuke opened his mouth, but couldn't find a suitable answer for this new idiocy. He opted to just walk faster instead.
Naruto, however, did not notice his obvious disgruntlement and continued following him.
"Soooo. Where ya going?" he asked.
"Home."
"That's it?"
"Yes."
"No stops on the way?"
"No."
"Not even for Christmas shopping?"
"Definitely not." Although he probably should be.
Naruto frowned.
"Well you're no fun."
"No."
Naruto grumbled something quietly. After a moment he spoke again.
"It's cold."
"Please tell me you're not attempting small talk."
"No!" he said defensively.
He seemed to hesitate, but then the blond quickly reached out, linked his arm through Sasuke's, and huddled closer to him.
Sasuke stopped dead in the middle of the street.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"It's not like anyone can see!"
"That's not the problem!"
Naruto stared at him for a second, looking disappointed.
"Oh." He started to draw away, which, for some reason, made Sasuke's stomach react violently, like he was falling from a great height. He quickly grasped Naruto's hand, so that he couldn't pull away, and drew him closer again.
Without a word he resumed walking, feeling flustered but trying not to show it. Naruto tensed up when Sasuke first tugged on his arm, but soon relaxed.
It was strange. Sakura had often done something similar to him. Yet this felt pleasant, not annoying. He looked sideways at Naruto, who was smiling happily.
Maybe because Naruto wasn't nearly so clingy.
They walked in silence for a while, passing the northeastern-most point of the village and following the road as it turned back towards the east.
"Hey, Sasuke," Naruto said.
"Hm?"
"Do you know anything about Christmas shopping?"
Sasuke looked at him quizzically. Naruto saw his expression and grinned sheepishly.
"It's just that, I've never done it before. I have no idea what to get anybody. I have some money saved up, though."
"Actually," Sasuke said after a moment, "I've never done it either."
"Oh. Really?"
"Why would I lie about something like that?"
Naruto shrugged, which made their arms rub together.
"Cuz you're a cold, unhelpful bastard."
"Wow. Thanks."
"You're welcome!" Naruto responded cheerily. A few seconds later, he amended, "Actually, you're pretty warm."
"Good to know."
"I wish you'd stop being so sarcastic."
"Keep wishing."
Naruto gave an annoyed huff.
Meanwhile something was bothering Sasuke. A memory of a class Christmas party last year in school, before they'd graduated, with Naruto conspicuously absent. There had been a Secret Santa thing, which he'd found annoying. Actually…they'd had one every year they'd been in school, and Naruto hadn't attended a single one.
"Have you—have you ever even gotten a Christmas present?" he asked the blond.
"Iruka bought me ramen last year."
"As a present?"
"Um, not exactly." Naruto shrugged again. "He was pretty busy; all the students' moms come and talk to him during holidays. They thank him and give him cookies n' stuff. He gave me some of those, too. There were all these different kinds! Like—"
Sasuke guided Naruto around a corner as he turned down the street that went by his house. Naruto's babbling faded to a soft hum in the background as he thought.
I guess Naruto will be pleased with whatever I get for him, if he's so unused to getting gifts. It probably doesn't even matter what I get him, as long as it's wrapped in pretty paper. He probably won't even care if it is wrapped. I don't know how to wrap presents, anyway. It looks pretty complicated with all those folds, but it can't be that hard.
"Hey!"
Naruto bumped into his shoulder, causing him to stumble sideways. Since their arms were still linked. He accidentally dragged Naruto with him.
He glared at the blond once he'd regained his footing. Naruto glared right back.
"Were you even listening to what I was saying!?" Naruto demanded.
"Yes."
"…You didn't hear a word of it, did you? I was talking about this kind of cookie that had these little pieces of chocolate in them."
"You mean chocolate chip cookies?"
"That would be it. They were my favorite."
"They're not that hard to make. I can't believe I'm talking to you about cookies, of all things."
"That's right, you can cook, can't you? I'm pretty bad at it. Frozen dinners all the way! Or ramen, of course."
They had stopped outside of Sasuke's house. He realized that Naruto was one of the only people besides him that had entered the Uchiha district in a while.
"Your house is really dark," Naruto said quietly.
"Like my soul."
"Was that supposed to be a joke?"
Sasuke sighed.
"Do you want to come in?"
Naruto smiled at him.
"Okay!"
They went up to the porch together, and Sasuke slid the door open with his free hand. He didn't bother keeping it locked anymore.
When they got inside, Naruto let go of his arm. Sasuke suppressed a shiver at the loss of warmth.
"Sasuke," Naruto said reprovingly, "it's as cold in here as it is outside!"
"Hn."
Naruto rolled his eyes, quickly removed his shoes, and moved off in the direction of the kitchen. Sasuke followed suit at a more subdued pace. When he caught up, Naruto was staring at the thermostat.
"Why don't you use this?" he asked, pointing.
"It costs a lot of money to heat the whole house," Sasuke explained. "Not much point since I'm the only one here."
"This place is pretty big, isn't it…and kinda weird, too."
He knew what he meant. The house was a strange mix of East and Western architecture. There was just one story; it was square-shaped with a porch wrapping all the way around it and a courtyard in the middle. The rooms were all decorated in Western style, though, and there were large glass windows and a few fireplaces.
Which gave him an idea.
"If you're so cold, we can start a fire," he said, nodding his head towards the living room.
"Let's do that!" Naruto agreed, and followed Sasuke into the next room.
It was dark, and some of the furniture had been covered with white sheets.
"Geez, don't you keep any lights on?"
"Not while I'm not in the house. And a lot of the rooms I don't even go in."
Naruto paused to turn on a lamp as Sasuke went to the fireplace and pushed the screen aside. He was surprised; there was actually wood in there. Well, it would be plenty dry enough by now. The problem was judging just how much charka to put into his Katon technique to get a fire going but not turn the logs into cinders.
"We could just use matches," Naruto suggested, as if sensing his hesitation as he knelt next to him.
Sasuke snorted and performed the hand seals. A moment later they had a roaring fire in the grate. Smirking, he pushed the fire screen back into place.
"Uchihas don't use matches."
"Yeah, yeah. Teme."
Naruto got up and looked around the room.
"It's not so dark, now."
"We just have to wait for it to warm up." He noticed, frowning, that despite being close to the fire, Naruto was shivering. Is it really that cold in here? "Do you want a blanket or something?"
"Uh, sure. Thanks."
Sasuke got up, and Naruto followed him into the hallway. He opened up a closet, revealing shelves stacked with folded sheets and blankets. He tugged out a thick green blanket and handed it to Naruto, who shook it out and wrapped it around his shoulders. He took one for himself, as well.
"You really live here by yourself?" Naruto asked quietly.
"Hn."
"Why would you stay in this house?" Naruto was staring at him with an intensity that was unnerving.
"Like I said, I don't go in a lot of the rooms anymore," he replied.
They both knew it wasn't really an answer.
"What's that?" Naruto asked suddenly. Sasuke saw he was looking at a large box on the floor of the closet.
"Don't know," he said shortly. He started to close the door, but Naruto stopped him and got down on his knees to examine the box.
"Lights," he muttered, reading the label on the side. He pulled open the cardboard flaps on top, revealing—
A thick tangle of wire, numerous multi-colored bulbs…Christmas lights.
"Ooooh."
"No."
Naruto turned to look at him, frowning.
"What do you mean, 'no'?"
"Just leave them there, dobe."
"Please?"
"No."
"But it's so dark here!"
"I like it this way."
"Well you could hang them up outside and—"
"They're for a tree, stupid, not for outside."
"How do you know?"
"They wire is green so that it will blend in with the pine."
"Oh. I guess that makes sense. A tree."
That image again. The Christmas party. Naruto not there. He's so clueless. How annoying. But…
"Allright," he said. "Fine."
He sighed. Can't believe I'm doing this. "Bring the box out here."
Naruto smiled. Warm and bright.
When the box was in the hall, Sasuke surveyed the contents in dismay. Everything was all tangled up.
"Okay, first thing…" he said slowly. He had a faint memory of having done this before. "…first thing we do is separate the strands."
"Strands?"
"Yeah, there are at least ten different strands of lights. They're not just all one big one."
Naruto nodded. "Okay."
They got to work, pulling the whole jumbled mess out of the box and starting the difficult process of untangling it. Eventually they managed to separate fifteen strands of lights, each one about six feet long. It took the two of them almost forty-five minutes. Sasuke was almost fed up with the whole idea by that time, but Naruto looked at him eagerly, awaiting instructions for the next step.
"We have to make sure they all work," he told the blond. "Hand me the plug on the one next to you."
Naruto did, and he stuck it into the nearest outlet. The bulbs all lit up.
"No burnouts, huh. Okay, now take the plug end of the one next to you and put it in the socket end of this one."
Naruto connected the two strands, and the next one lit up. Two bulbs on it remained dark.
"What about these two?" Naruto asked.
"We replace them."
There was a shoebox inside the other box, which held lots and lots of replacement bulbs in six different colors: red, white, green, blue, yellow, and orange.
Sasuke picked up two at random and held them out to Naruto, who crossed his arms and glared.
"What?" Sasuke asked.
"Those two are red and white. The ones that burned out are orange and blue."
"So? You don't have to put the same colors back in."
Naruto continued to glare, so he rolled his eyes and picked out a blue and an orange.
"Happy?"
Naruto took out the old lights and screwed in the new ones.
The rest of the strands yielded ten more burnouts by the time they had finished. Sasuke stepped back to look at their work.
Winding lines of lit bulbs ran up and down the hallway floor. Naruto stood in the center, all the different colors shining around him.
"All right," Sasuke said. "Now we're going to try to hang them up."
"But you don't have a tree."
He shrugged. "We'll just put them outside."
"I thought they weren't supposed to go outside?"
"We'll do it anyway."
Naruto grinned. "All right!"
"We just need some way to hang these up…Hang on."
Further behind him down the hall there was a large door made of a dark wood. He opened it hurriedly and stepped in.
It was his father's study—or had been. He hadn't been in it since then.
He shook his head. He'd always avoided this room. But Naruto was waiting.
He stumbled forward through the dark, up to his father's desk, and grabbed a small box off the top. Then he left quickly.
When he emerged, closing the door behind him, Naruto was right there.
He held out the box in his hands, showing it to him, and gave a small smile.
It was just a box of thumbtacks. But to him it felt like a small victory.
---
Later, the two boys stood together in front of the house. Lights hung glowing from the roof over the front porch on the front and both sides of Sasuke's home.
Naruto also seemed to be glowing, in a way.
The lights are on, Sasuke thought. And there's smoke coming from the chimney. You'd almost think this was a normal, happy home.
He smiled ruefully.
"Are you sure the lights will stay up just hanging them over the top of those tacks?" Naruto asked. "They won't fall?"
"They're fine. It's not like there's a lot of wind back here, since there's all the other buildings surrounding this one."
It was getting dark.
"I guess…I should head home," Naruto said finally.
"Hn."
Neither moved.
"Or," Sasuke said slowly, "you could stay for dinner."
"That sounds nice."
"Hn."
"Better than frozen dinners."
"Hn."
"Not better than ramen, though."
"Hn."
Naruto burst out laughing; it echoed up to the darkening sky and among the dark buildings. He linked his arm through Sasuke's again, and they went back to the house.
They ate in the living room, in front of the fire. Somehow, as they talked over their meals, Naruto convinced him to invite Kakashi and Sakura over on Christmas day.
"You have to let them see the lights! You know, share the joy!"
"Don't be ridiculous. Idiot."
"Am not! And you have to make some of those cookies for me—chocolate chip!"
Somehow he had ended up agreeing to that, too.
Now, with Naruto asleep on the couch with the green blanket over him, Sasuke smiled again.
It wasn't quite so dark anymore.
END
(A/N: Does the ending seem rushed? I dunno…Anyway, if you caught a mention of a "Nat," "Simon," "Uther," "King," or "Sahra," those are my codenames for the characters. I write these things in my school homework planner, and I don't want classmates reading over my shoulder. Not to mention, I can be writing during the middle of a lecture, and teachers assume it's school-related since it's in the planner. Ha.)