My Happy ending

By Eternity Dreams

Disclaimer: I do not and shall never own Naruto, but it serves it's purpose for engaging my muse.

A/N One shot written for Chaipon, contains Yaoi and an abundance of goo. If you don't like turn back now.

One Shot (part 2 maybe? Depends what you think)

It started most likely on a gloomy day in late October Naruto remembered crying when the rain came tumbling down, heavy shower drenching through his hair and across his skin in cold sluices. He'd crouched and cried until he couldn't cry anymore, fingertips numb with icy cold, body shivering and shaking, head leaning against the hard face of the tombstone crying and crying because he knew he could never get Sakura back, and despite everything, everything that he had promised her he'd failed because he'd lost what was most precious of all.

The first memory of that day for Sasuke had been looking at Naruto's back as if he could see right through the outer rim of flesh and into the rib cage and straight to Naruto's wildly beating heart. Sasuke remembered the fact that he didn't cry, remembered the fact that he couldn't cry because all the emotions inside of him were so blackened and burnt that he was unable to feel anything at all. He knew Sakura dying had been partly his fault, no scratch that and burn it. It was entirely his fault, if it hadn't been for him there would have been no reason for Sakura to have defended both of them in the first place. She had died in short for both of them, forgiving Sasuke's betrayal and fulfilling the promise she'd made to Naruto years before on a sunny summer morning. The only emotion Sasuke had been feeling at this particular point was a particularly venomous amount of self-loathing, but that was nothing new, he'd felt that ever since the tender age of eight. He felt no overwhelming sadness but a sucking feeling of loss. Loss of a childhood friend, loss of the fact that he could no longer mourn properly, and another loss of love, he was astounded Naruto hadn't turned round and blamed the whole thing on him as of yet.

"Naruto," he'd said, and felt his own stomach tighten at the fluid indifference in his own voice, "we should go, you'll catch pneumonia."

The sound drifted around the grey graveyard, over the sound of the pouring rain as it pattered nosily onto the wet mud, dribbling between flecked pebbles running tumultuously into small rivulets to collect in puddles.

Naruto turned to look at him then, feathery eyelashes clumped about eyes like blue Venetian glass, violent blond hair streaked with rain as he shivered and choked on the sobs he was trying to hold down. It was frightening how vivid and alive he looked in contrast to the bleak blackness of the graveyard about him, black ceremonial dress out of place on his young body. It was too suffocating, too formal for him, and Sasuke found himself unconsciously reaching down to the thing beneath him, almost wishing, wanting, hoping some of that pure energy would rub off on him and make him feel more alive too. Not extending a friendly hand so much as a strong shoulder to fall apart on, because he could take all of Naruto's emotion and then some because he felt no emotion himself. The rest of the afternoon mixing into a grey foggy blurs all damp and clingy. Sasuke could remember Naruto crying into his shoulder, pressing himself very close as if he thought the world would shatter if he let go, he remembered buying alcohol, he remembered Naruto drinking until he could no longer stand up and then the scene changed to him dragging Naruto through the front door of his house, the both of them dripping wet with rain and throwing him onto the living room sofa before disappearing upstairs himself to indulge himself in a warm bath.

He did not remember how Naruto managed to make his way into his bed.

Naruto remembered the waking, waking up because he was cold and sneezing as he did so. He remembered looking blearily about him, alcohol still making his senses muzzy so the world seemed to drift slower than his eyes looked and made the inside of his head feel like it was slowly being ripped apart.

Dimly in some mute dark corner of his brain still unaffected by alcohol he registered the fact that he was in someone's house and was filled with the sort of tiredness that required a soft feathery bed to cure and he followed his feet up the winding stairs and into the bedroom that he'd never slept in before but knew somehow…inexplicably (the alcohol made it hard to remember) that this was the right place to be. And without thinking about the mess or who was going to clear it up he pulled off his wet clothes and threw them on the floor in delightful disarray, left, right, behind and above him and then scrambled head first under a clean duvet over linen bed sheets and felt springy softness of the goose down mattress bounce under him. He lost consciousness the second his head touched the pillow.

When Sasuke emerged from the bathroom, towelling his hair dry and nothing but a scant white towel tied about his slim hips he was not best pleased to find a jigsaw puzzle of wet garments strewn about his house. Naruto's orange socks had managed to migrate out of the bedroom and into the hallway where they had become wedged between the slats in the banisters. Sasuke frowned, considering the option of picking up the mattress and simply rolling Naruto off it, or leaving Naruto exactly where he was. Then the blond from the middle of the mess of eiderdowns and limbs thrown at odd and awkward angles gave a contented sigh and Sasuke, blinking and shaking his head at his own peculiarities found himself lying down too and watching Naruto as he slept.

In truth, Sasuke felt more for Naruto than he did for anyone else, since his awkward return and Sakura's death his relationship with Naruto had been at best stretched and somewhat tortuous. Naruto spoke to him as if almost out of necessity, not because he wanted to communicate but because he felt he had to communicate with Sasuke. He hung around Sasuke because he was afraid that without him Sasuke would just disappear again, as silent and as slippery as the shadow of a fish. Naruto, Sasuke thought was still filled with the echoes of yesterday, still chasing down the image of a Sasuke Uchiha who was still twelve years old, neither Sakura nor Sasuke had had the heart to tell him that that part of Sasuke was long since dead. Sakura had known it ever since she'd looked into Sasuke's eyes the exact colour of coal and seen nothing in them. She had cried on his shoulder too, cried for him a week before she died, cried because he couldn't, and she'd wept, wept long and hard about love long past gone and the pain of the love she'd felt now. Sakura had been in love with Naruto, Sasuke had known that from the moment he'd seen them together again, whether Naruto knew it or not was not, however, clear.

"Dobe," he'd said softly, putting his hand on Naruto's head and running fingers through his damp blond curls, "I keep forgetting she was the love of your life."

There was a pang of regret in his voice as he said it, melancholy sadness. Like there was no cure and no hope. If Naruto was Sakura's forever Sasuke would live with it, after all he suspected he was Naruto's forever, how could he not be? His soul the property to the one person whom had run to the end of the world and beyond to get back. But Naruto had never wanted to own Sasuke, he'd gone on chasing despite words of warning that he was nuts and that it was impossible anyway, and through all of that Sakura had stayed by his side, without a question or a doubt and that was more then Sasuke could ever hope to give Naruto.

Right here, right now, it was difficult to say what Sasuke felt or saw when he looked at Naruto. Somewhere between home and a distant horizon. He was still guarded still defensive, immune to snarls, hisses and snide biting remarks that others sometimes passed. The name of Uchiha dragged through the mud and stepped on, words of 'Betrayal', 'Murderer' and 'Psychopath' were things he'd come to associate with himself and his family history. Naruto never said those things though, never had done, he'd called Sasuke a jerk on more than one occasion, but that was old habit. Habit like his sunny smiles and positive disposition that could peel paint.

Sasuke had never had anybody sleep next to him before, not like this anyway, willingly, comfortably and unconditionally, Naruto slept somewhat like a child Sasuke thought, body curled up into a ball, thumb close to his mouth, feathery sand blond eyelashes fluttering slightly as he breathed in and out, in and out, slow inhale and long exhale.

Sasuke had felt a lot of things for Naruto over the years, he'd felt and felt until he'd learned how do subdue it for his own sanity as well as for the sake of others. Life had taught him that if you wanted to achieve some goals it was necessary to kill part of yourself in order to achieve it, somewhere down in the depths of his rotten and twisted soul something stirred. Like a diseased tree shaking off the earth from its feet to expose new and healthy roots something inside of Sasuke sprang up, it wasn't much. A tiny spark of something that he'd had at the very beginning, some rare and real human emotion, a flicker of tenderness and wanting that made him lie closer to Naruto, dark hair slipping down white sheets in a dark cloud as he watched Naruto sleep.

Naruto remembered the first time he'd found Sasuke watching him sleep; it all started really after that cold day in the graveyard Naruto started to turn up at Sasuke's house (locking his own tiny one room flat before he left) in the middle of the night and alight on Sasuke's balcony knocking on the window quite uninvited until Sasuke would let him in. Some nights took longer than others, if Sasuke had spent a busy day ordering his ANBU guard around it might be anywhere between ten to twenty minutes before he heard Naruto's adamant noises of protest and stumped moodily over to the window to let him in. Other times Sasuke would let him in with a smile on his face and a bowl of ramen sitting downstairs on the kitchen table, once or twice the window had been unlocked and Sasuke had been sitting underneath the ledge, expectant look on his face as if Naruto were late for something important. The conscious decision Naruto had made to sleep at Sasuke's apartment was simple, he slept better with Sasuke around because he wasn't constantly worrying where he was or what he was doing, he liked Sasuke being close to him although he didn't always know what to say which made the sleeping part even easier because when one was asleep they didn't have to talk or manage some forced conversation. Naruto found himself curling up into Sasuke during the night and wondering the next morning when he found half his limbs tangled up with Sasuke's why on earth the Uchiha hadn't pushed him out of the bed.

There had been one particular night when Naruto had had a violent horrific dream in which he'd grown into a Kyuubi and ripped apart the village with his bare hands and had enjoyed the blood lust and the slaughter, revelling in human carnage and feeling that all the dead bodies were his lovers, part of his adoration and all of his creation. He'd woken up suddenly without a sound at the realisation that he'd been talking to the bodies and the bodies had been talking back to him, consciousness had come back like a dizzying step, as if he'd fallen through thin air disguised as solid earth and the shock had made him feel sick throughout his whole body. With a fast blink he'd opened his eyes and looked up to find Sasuke looking back at him with an expression Naruto had never seen on his face before, he'd blinked at Sasuke then, startled like a deer drenched in light. Sasuke had blinked too, then tentatively reached out to brush his fingers across Naruto's left cheek, the ridge beneath his eyes, the bridge of his nose and then slowly almost leisurely down to his mouth. Naruto would have opened his mouth to talk then, to say something that would diffuse the silence and the hard pumping of his own heart when Sasuke had leant down and brushed his own lips teasingly over Naruto's. It wasn't much of a kiss really, more like the warm and dry touch of feathers over his lips. It didn't make his toes curl or his head spin in the way he knew kisses were supposed to do. But for an instant it did take his breath away, and left him with a puzzled expression and the yell of "Sasuke!" on his lips as Sasuke Uchiha simply rolled onto his opposite side and closed his eyes as if that was that. Throwing the pillow at Sasuke afterwards had been a bad idea as well, Sasuke wasn't like Naruto he didn't simply reach over and throw another pillow at Naruto and call it a day, no Sasuke got out of bed and threw things at Naruto that were much, much heavier.

It must have happened gradually Naruto would later conclude to himself and no one else in particular, sometime after the first kiss and the morning after when Sasuke had walked downstairs to find Naruto sitting at the kitchen table finishing off a bowl of cereal and having drunk all of the milk. After picking up the milk carton and bashing Naruto over the head with it several times, he'd told Naruto to go buy some more, thrown his extra set of keys at Naruto and slipping his ANBU mask up and over his face had walked out the front door.

Naruto had never given the keys back to Sasuke, partly because Sasuke had never asked for them back and partly because Naruto hadn't wanted to give them back. He'd made himself a keychain for himself out of some twisted metal wire and written on the keys in big black letters 'Mine', and that had seemed to settle the matter.

After that Naruto just started turning up earlier than was absolutely necessary for crawling into bed at and began to be Sasuke to feed him. At first Sasuke had refused to cook for him and had made Naruto watch him eat a delicious meal for one (all the while the blond looking like a dog would look if you had beaten it for no reason at all) until Naruto had started bringing back cups of instant Ramen which he heated in Sasuke's microwave and then eaten at the same time as Sasuke's own home cooked meal. Sasuke had snapped that Naruto would die if he continued to eat 'what was obviously unfit for human consumption' and amidst shrieks of protest had poured it all down the sink. He'd stemmed Naruto's wails of shock, horror and torture by giving him his own dinner and consoling himself with a glass of wine and a secret satisfaction that Naruto ate it three times faster than he ate the instant Ramen and had the audacity to turn round and ask for more.

Naruto was gradually feeling Sasuke relax around him although he couldn't exactly pin point what the difference was, and after a month of turning up at seven o'clock every evening for a month even if it meant leaping out of the window in the Hokage's office in shouting apologises over his shoulder and knowing full well that Tsunade would punch him in the face the next time he walked through her office door, but time with Sasuke was worth a million punches, a few broken ribs and a cracked skull as far as Naruto was concerned, not that he'd told Sasuke that. But one would think it was obvious if he turned up early enough to help Sasuke lay the table and then hung around the kitchen afterwards and casually ask Sasuke if he'd like any help with the washing up. Naruto was slowly beginning to spend most of his free time trying to make Sasuke smile he started talking more too, non-stop in fact, hardly aware of what he was doing, for Sasuke it was like being followed around by an extremely talkative shadow. He could hardly get Naruto to shut up anymore, regardless of whether it was at the dinner table or in bed. Naruto would sometimes talk until he fell asleep, it was as if there many little explosions of energy inside of Naruto's head that he either had to expel by talking non-stop about anything and everything or explode.

Sometimes Sasuke would pick up a pillow and try to beat Naruto into submission but inevitably that ended with the duvet kicked off the bed, pillows and feathers all over the room and Naruto in laughing hysterics whilst Sasuke sat back on his heels and observed the mess they had created. A much more effective approach was to pin Naruto down on either shoulder, lean over him and tell him to shut up. On these occasions Naruto would either go a very light shade of pink, red flush wriggling across his face, neck and ears and shut up completely, or would say in a slightly mischievous voice that unless Sasuke made it worth his time not to talk he would talk until he was blue in the face.

It was at times like these that Sasuke would lean down and kiss Naruto; kiss Naruto softly in much the same manner that he had kissed him before. A soft chaste kiss, hot scratchy rubbing of lips against lips, sometimes Naruto would reach up and pull Sasuke down on top of him closing his eyes and listening to their mingling heart beats until they both fell asleep until the first sneaky rays of morning would slip between the curtains and wake the both of them up.

Gradually a routine worked its way out, he'd wake up and dance into the shower and dance back into the bedroom again laughing because Sasuke was in no way a morning person and would on most occasions glower at Naruto acidly from his burrow amongst the covers and would wait until it was absolutely necessary to move such as being almost late for his work as an ANBU captain or his least favourite, Naruto jumping on him.

Sometimes on the mornings of particularly tricky or dangerous missions Sasuke would hold his arms open to Naruto and Naruto would stand in the doorway for a second, looking almost nervous beneath his sandy lashes before walking forwards and leaning into Sasuke's arms. On those occasions Sasuke would often end up being late to whatever it was he supposed to turn up early to. It wasn't his fault he argued privately with himself, when he was that close to Naruto he often lost track of time.

Ino pointed out the gradual mellowing out of Sasuke's disposition to Shikamaru several days after Sasuke had come back from a mission to Sand and had stood for a tolerably long time in the corridor whilst Naruto had ran at him, hugged him and shouted loud enough for the whole of Konoha to hear. Shikamaru had said nothing to this, but had run into Naruto later at the supermarket with a shopping list from Ino in his hands. Naruto had taken one look at the basket he was carrying and pointed at the box of Shitake mushrooms and had pleaded for his friend to relinquish them because, Sasuke, was making Udon noodles with beef and Shitake mushrooms tonight after he'd spent a week persuading him to cook it and that was the last box of Shitake mushrooms the supermarket had and he had to get back to Sasuke's in twenty otherwise dinner would be late and Sasuke wouldn't cook him anything for a week.

Shikamaru had blinked, and then given him the mushrooms with a slightly awestruck expression on his face at the delight grin Naruto had responded with and had then found himself asking with almost rude abruptness, "Does Sasuke cook food often for you?" and had suddenly realised this was probably the reason why Naruto had been spending less and less time with himself, Choji, Neji and Kiba.

"Pretty much every night unless he's away." Naruto had said off handily taking out a much longer list from his own back pocket and fretting over its contents. "How does he expect me to get him all this in twenty minutes?" he said darkly and wandered away muttering to himself "Does he expect me to rob the store? And who the hell needs extract of pickled radish anyway, I want peanut butter, why does he never put peanut butter down on this thing?"

Shikamaru had gone home that night frowning and finding Ino sitting on the end of their bed reading a book and had been in the middle of kissing her gently when he suddenly pulled away and said in a slow wondering voice, as if no matter what he did he just could not shake it from his mind asked, "Do you think Naruto and Sasuke are having in a 'relationship'?"

If Ino had been younger, fickle and not so completely in love with Shikamaru she might have screamed and hit Shikamaru about the head for daring to suggest that Sasuke could have ever be involved with a guy. Now all she did however was hold the sides of his face look at him with wonder and say in a voice, which thought it had missed the obvious "I guess that would make sense."

In Naruto and Sasuke's case what made sense wasn't always obvious, neither was it clear what the other wanted from the relationship. They hadn't even had sex yet, the furthest they'd got was the small chaste kisses they shared in bed but knew the exact shape, texture, scent and look of each other's body. Naruto knew with his eyes closed the exact location of Sasuke's mole just above his belly button, the slim scar across one shoulder blade where the first snake he had ever summoned had lunged at him and tried to sink its terrible one foot fangs into his neck. Sasuke knew of the strange birthmark on the back of Naruto's right calf, like a bending giraffe he'd once noted and watched amused as the blond twisted and turned in an amazing feat of acrobatics in order to see it better.

Sasuke had got to the point when he wanted Naruto to touch him, to be touched, to touch back, to roll, bite and cuddle until he was sated with laughter and a warm fuzzy feeling like liquid sunshine which spilled out of him because he was full of it. On the several occasions he'd come back at four o'clock in the morning to find Naruto sleeping on his couch obviously in the hopes of waiting for him to come home he'd actually smiled, until he found the mess Naruto had left in his kitchen. Then he would pour a glass of cold water all over Naruto. But it wasn't always like that, Sasuke could be sexy too, he could be seductive, in control and tempting. Sometimes he wanted to dominate Naruto, sometimes he wanted Naruto to dominate him, he'd often imagine straddling Naruto's slip hips and kissing him fiercely awake, grinding down hard and fast, body rocking and applying delicious friction as he brought Naruto to a gasping, toe curling climax. Sometimes the fantasy would play on his mind during dinner and the blond would momentarily stop eating and peer at Sasuke who at these moments inevitably had a glazed look on his face, and ask him politely if he was feeling well.

Naruto learnt quickly that Sasuke often went through irritable moods at least three times a week which was not helped by Naruto being as messy and clumsy as he had ever been. More often then not Sasuke would stand and yell at Naruto for some minuscule thing he'd done or overlooked and they'd spend the better part of an hour hollering at each other across the glass coffee table in Sasuke's sitting room. By the time Sasuke had calmed down Naruto would already be lying in bed, hands folded beneath his skull staring up at the ceiling, quite expressionless, almost mute until Sasuke climbed into bed next to him, said nothing but just lay close. It would only be a matter of time Sasuke knew before Naruto would lie on his side and twist his arms, like warm vines around his waist and pull him closer, hot breath tickling his ear and Naruto's steady heart beat 'thump, thump, thump' against his chest and he knew he was already completely forgiven.

Sasuke never apologised, he wasn't able to, words of: 'I'm sorry' forming in his throat but never making it past his oesophagus. His closeness to Naruto, his level of trust and dependency on another person made him somewhat uneasy. Lying next to Naruto like that, feeling how in sync they were, how they aligned together so perfectly, was when he felt the greatest sense of terror.

He felt the most vulnerable and yet the most secure when he was close to Naruto, like he could almost risk saying those three forbidden words and only expect only happiness in return.

A life full of sunrays and Saturdays.

The perfect fairy tale ending.

Life, Sasuke knew rather than suspected, was not like that. Life was cruel, life was harsh, it beat you down and poured out your insides like cement for people to step on and crush beneath their feet. Sasuke was deadly afraid of Naruto figuring out how much he loved him and how much he wanted to be loved in return. He'd heard the rumours flitting about the village, seen the look Neji sometimes gave him when he thought Sasuke was looking the other way. The sort of look that asked when had the great Sasuke Uchiha, (the lonely pinnacle of sorrow) allowed someone in.

Sasuke wondered too, he fretted and worried over it, standing for minutes at a time in his bathroom contemplating that there were two toothbrushes in the glass on his sink. The two bowls he set out for dinner, two glasses for wine, two sets of shoes in the corridor, two chairs, two towels, two laundry piles, and two birthdays.

The more he thought about it the more panicky he became, the slow advance and penetration of his life and Naruto…Naruto…the possibility that Naruto was playing with him. Letting him fall in love just to dump him, no, to crush him for more or less killing Sakura with his own two hands was overwhelming.

He had panicked, to sort of irrational fear that leads you to abrupt decisions like jumping of a cliff, swimming in his underwear in shark infested water, or say announcing that he never wanted to see Naruto again, over breakfast.

Needless to say it did not go down too well.

Naruto spit copious amount of milk all over the marble floor not caring that his face was a violent shade of beetroot purple had yelled:

"What?"

At the top of his voice as if he could simply not believe his ears.

"I think," Sasuke began, it was hard to say facing him, so he was looking into his cup of half drunk coffee and twirling the hard ceramic round and round in his hands so the liquid span. Ignoring the fact that his fingers were trembling and his knees were shaking.

He knew he must not look into Naruto's face, less his heart should break.

"Whatever this is, it has to stop. I want you out of my life by this afternoon, I want you gone."

Naruto was neither understanding or considerate on the matter, he stood up, fists trembling and slammed them hard back down into the countertop.

"You can't just announce it like that you Asshole! You can't just tell me that and expect me to just pack up and go! What right does you have to just make a decision like that on your own and not ask me first? You selfish bastard! What right have you to change this!?"

"Why not?" Sasuke bit back as bitter and as cruel as a winter storm, "It's my house and my life, and I can do whatever I want with either!" The stubbornness in his own voice surprised even himself, and he felt himself clinging to this last security, the last step before the ocean before him. Clinging because he was deadly afraid to let go.

"It's not just 'your' life!" Naruto spat back at him, big blue eyes looking genuinely hurt but far too mad to cry, "It's my life too, you do something this stupid it effect's the both of us!"

"Ha, 'Your life'!" Sasuke scoffed, almost brutal in his scorn, "Why the hell should I care what happens to you?"

That, for Naruto really was the last straw. Seeing that words could no longer aid him in his fury, his confusion and his determination to make Sasuke see sense he simply picked up the large china cereal bowl he'd been eating from and threw it forcibly at Sasuke's head.

If Sasuke had not been a ninja, incredibly skilled and a neurotic bastard to boot, the collision would have knocked him out cold and given him an ugly lump the size of a goose egg on his skull. As it was by the time the bowl hit the marble floor and shattered he was already in locked combat with Naruto halfway across the room.

That day Sasuke would never forget as for a number of reasons, two being because they completely trashed both the hallway and the living room and thirdly because that day was the first time he and Naruto had sex.

Naruto threw Sasuke against a wall twice and Sasuke tried to throw Naruto through a wall six times more at least, they were both hot and sweaty shaking with anger and adrenaline before Sasuke started shouting how much he hated Naruto, hated him like no other person in the world. Hated him so much it was almost killing him, and he wanted Naruto out, out like the plague before it consumed him completely and devoured him from the inside out.

"Out, get out, out, out!" that was all he remembered shouting until his voice was so hoarse he could barely speak, barely protest when Naruto lunged at him vicious wanting on his face like an animal seizing its prey from the hot arid plains.

They'd fallen down, down, down until Sasuke had felt Naruto's burning hands at the back of his head and a claiming urgent mouth over his own and felt his mind reel and collect, but not collecting, only reeling further as a tongue pressed insistently between his lips.

Neither Sasuke nor Naruto knew for how much longer they fought for there, each one wanting dominance, twisting, turning, arching, moaning, calling, frantic scrabbling to tear off clothes and slide across each other naked.

So vulnerable, so beautiful, so terrifying all at the same time. Naruto's head span as he felt Sasuke move over him, the side of Sasuke's gorgeous face nuzzling, licking, touching his neck, listening to his half mewling cries and kissing the sides of his mouth, nibbling and biting his lips and devouring him as only Sasuke could devour, claim and contaminate him. Sasuke who was so madly passionate, Sasuke who was so dangerous, Sasuke who would surely rip his soul apart. In parts it was almost animalistic, Naruto had read but he had never experienced how truly terrifying it was to open up to someone else completely to lie so naked and be loved at the same time, despite his hideous flaws, despite his scars, despite the demon. Sasuke licked the black spiral on his stomach with the pink glistening tip of his tongue, dipping into Naruto's naval and listening to him yell. Tongue swirling, licking, and tasting salt mixed with the bitter flavour of sex.

Sasuke was good, no he was beyond good, he was mesmerizing, he was perfect, and yet every time Naruto told him with his body, with his heart, with his soul and finally with his mouth that he had loved him, he had always loved him, that he'd loved him all this time why didn't he know? Sasuke would almost seem to look away again, grey eyes like slate, and Naruto so consumed by lust and wanting, forgot everything for a moment of high indescribable ecstasy that shook his body and though, maybe dreamed that Sasuke said back to him in that breathtaking moment 'I love you too.'

For a little while after that they didn't actually talk, Naruto woke up to find himself lying in nothing but his birthday suit on Sasuke's living room floor and a carpet burn on his backside with Sasuke no-where to be found.

Naruto was angry, and then he was hurt, pulled on his clothes and left closing the front door quietly behind him. Sasuke came home five hours later, after wondering around for a while on his own, and finally realising that if he didn't want Sasuke then what on earth in life did he actually want? They were both young but screwed up enough to realise that if this relationship didn't work then nothing else ever would, no matter how much time or effort they'd pour into it, it simply would not work, and if Sasuke ever wanted a shot at a perfect happy ending, well then who better to try it with then Naruto? Naruto who would slog it through thick and thin, true perhaps it wouldn't be a perfect happy ending, perhaps a lopsided one with peeling paint and 'perfect' spelt as 'purfect' or something sloppy like that but he'd rather have that then nothing – no, he'd rather have that then anything. But when he rushed home he found the house empty and the spare keys in the dish in the hallway and had felt more cold and alone then he had since he was eight years old and felt the dark grey night close in all around him.

The next morning Sasuke Uchiha did not turn up for his early morning shift, insignificant as it was he was pardoned until lunch time supposing that he was with Naruto and would do as he usually did and just turn up late with his nose in the air and an attitude too high and mighty to give any form of explanation. It was only at twelve thirty when both Yamato and Neji were beginning to become irritable when Kakashi pointed out somewhat dryly that Naruto had arrived early to the Hokage's office this morning and therefore could not at any point been alone with Sasuke for the past twelve hours, as he had spent the night crashed on Iruka's spare bed.

That was when Neji panicked anyway, figuring that Sasuke was dying or worse dead. He told Lee who in turn told everyone else that Sasuke was suffering from a fatal illness and the whole village went into uproar over the last remaining Uchiha demanding and explanation to what was going on. Sasuke never got sick, the plague wouldn't have stopped him from coming into work, and everyone knew that. So by the time Shizune came back from Sasuke's house, quietly shaking her head and medical bag clasped tightly in her hands all she did was schedule a private meeting with Naruto and close the door to the curious on lookers.

"Is he dead?" Naruto tried to ask casually as if he didn't really care when Tsunade had had to restrain him earlier from tearing out the building to check if Sasuke was all right. His heart was beating like a one-man band inside his chest.

"No, he's not dead." Shizune said simply, running fingers through her short dark locks, "But he's sick, there's nothing physically wrong with him, but he's sick all right. He can't even get out of bed."

Naruto gulped audibly.

"Do you know what it is?"

Shizune nodded and pulled out bottle of Sake and pour a small nerve-steadying amount out for Naruto she pushed it at him and then folded her arms across her chest.

"He's love sick." She said very softly, making a curving pouting smile with her mouth, as Naruto seemed to sink right into the bottom of his chair.

"He's made himself ill in other words Naruto, he's pining but he'll never admit it."

Outside the room a small huddle of people were gathered, a betting pool had been running for sometime as to the exact time as to when Sasuke would eventually admit his feelings for Naruto. At this current point in time Jiraiya had the closest date and was doing a silent dance of victory outside the door whilst Tsunade looked pissed.

After a minute or two Naruto got up from the chair, crossed the room and opened the door and walked out through the throng of people like he had expected them to be there. In half an hour or less he was already at Sasuke's front door and pushed it open finding it unlocked, walked slowly up the stairs and into the bed chamber.

Sasuke was lying on his side facing away from the door and away from Naruto, his hair was messy and the curtains were still drawn. Sasuke gave no sign of acknowledgment that he knew Naruto was in the room with him, but the blond could tell by the slight tensing of his shoulders that he was aware alright, tensed and waiting like a black panther about to spring.

"If I come back," Naruto began slowly leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed, "will you get better?"

There was no answer, but the shoulders tensed more.

"Shizune says you'll get better if I stay." Naruto continued walking with firm deliberate steps towards the bed, "But I'm only going to stay if you want me to stay."

Again, nothing.

"If you don't tell me Sasuke," he pressed on, heart beating 'lub-dub, lub-dub' deep inside his chest, "I've leave."

"Do you want me to stay?"

Silence.

Naruto let it pan out for a minute, then a minute more, then a last long minute, and feeling as though he had swallowed a multitude of sharp objects for lunch turned and headed out the door, one foot after the other. This was it, this was the end.

Goodbye.

It was just before he came out onto the corridor that it happened, just and inch before or less, a crunch of bone and the impact of body and flesh on his back and Sasuke saying muffled against the back of his neck "You fucking idiot, what are you doing? Go anywhere and I'll rip your fucking balls off!"

It wasn't love poetry but it was enough, more than enough for Naruto, and he became aware of the fact that he was kissing Sasuke again, holding Sasuke again, being pulled onto the bed with Sasuke. Laughing, teasing, writhing and rolling with each other until all the air seemed to have been pushed out of his body and all he could was lie there gasping short shallow breaths as Sasuke nuzzled the base of his jaw with his nose, and then with his teeth, and then with his tongue.

"Take a bath," Naruto said breathily after their second bout of love making, "you stink." To which Sasuke punched him quite unrestrainedly in the eye.

Three months later Kiba caught Naruto five minutes after Tsunade let him out of her office for a half an hour respite before her long talons raked him back in again and made him listen to another long lecture about politics.

Kiba had given Naruto a wolf like grin that animated his roughly handsome face and asked Naruto with all the good intention in the world "Are you and Sasuke going out now?" Kiba had married Hinata last spring and they were now expecting their first child, Kiba was an animated Dad-to-be and bursting over with nervous energy and a good will towards everyone.

"I-uh…" Naruto began scratching his head and looking puzzled, "I guess I don't know."

The questioned bugged him all the way home, until shouldering his way through the front door and depositing six bags of shopping on the kitchen countertops and began putting the peanut butter and instant ramen away in his secret stash under the sink, did he notice Sasuke already sitting at the kitchen table reading a newspaper.

Naruto watched him for a while until Sasuke caught his eye and gave him one of his sexy bedroom grins to which Sasuke folded the newspaper in half, raised one eyebrow at him and smirked.

"Sasuke," Naruto said in his best growly and playful voice, "are we going out?"

The raven haired, pale skinned young man gave him a queer squinting look, the sort that always made Naruto wonder if he secretly needed glasses despite the fact that Sasuke had the nearest perfect vision one could possibly posses.

"What do you think?" he asked with little to no inflection at all and then started on to Naruto about why he hadn't, once again, bought any milk, and that he was always forgetting to buy the milk despite the fact that he drank more than twice his body weight in it every day.

It occurred to Naruto then that they weren't going out at all, in fact it was already way beyond that. They were married, and he was so happy about it he smiled dreamily at Sasuke all throughout his reprimanding lecture of: 'if you use something up you replace it again'.

He'd ask Sasuke what he thought the names of their twelve children should be after sex (because he was usually mellower then), and sometime in the not too far distant future consider finding a child who was as lost an alone as they had been in their childhood and raise them up themselves. After all, what is the difference between one hell and another?

That was Naruto's happy ending anyway and as far as he was concerned it was Sasuke's too.

End

So what do you guys think? You know if you review more I write faster so really it's in your best interests to drop me a quick line, uh, please please please??? x3

If you'd like me to write a second half to this, drop me a review! And tell me what you'd like it to be about.

Love ED

(This was a lot of fluff, I know :'D)