A/N: Yay! I'm back:dodges various thrown fruit: Not quite sure where I was going with TRFB, so I'm taking it down until I've got something better for you guys. You might have noticed (or not), I took down my other fic that I had posted. Anyways, much love and happy holidays!

Mistletoeless

Naruto

Damn. It's that day again. That day which I absolutely hate. Why? It's another one of those cuddly-snuggly-family-friend days. Which really wouldn't be a problem, except for the fact that I lack in the Family and Friend departments. But here I am anyway, at the so-called "holiday meeting" Kakashi declared. If it's really a holiday, why are we having a meeting at six in the morning?

Kakashi arrives on time, for once.

"Yo." He raises a palm to us. I can tell he's smiling under that weird mask.

"Eh? You're not late...!" Sakura and I both exclaim half-stupidly-half-happily. One of us is faking being happy today, and it's not Sakura. Except...

Sasuke just sits there on his rock, and since he first sat on it, it's been declared "Sasuke's Rock," worshiped by fangirls around the world. Stupid Sasuke.

Kakashi explains why he isn't the usual five hours late. "I didn't want to keep you from your families." At the mention of the word "families" (what family? Even Iruka didn't come back from his mission yet), Kakashi looks at Sakura, who looks at Sasuke, who for a second looks at me—I think—but turns away immediately. None of which I should know, because I'm turned away, too, but secretly watching from the corner of my eye.

So it's like that for a while. Silence. Staring. More silence. More staring. Kakashi breaks it. "Hey, I got you guys cards." He throws us each an envelope with our names on it. "I thought of you when I saw them in the store." Something's up. Something's definitely up.

"Thanks, Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura's the first to open hers. She stares in disbelief and horror at the card, and I could've sworn I saw her eye twitch. Scary. She drops it, then points an accusing finger at Kakashi. "YOU thought of US when you saw THIS?!" Sakura practically screeches.

A one-way argument ensues between Sakura and Kakashi over the card. Out of curiosity, I open the card he threw at me.

"Heh... no way. I don't believe it..." A shot from the new Icha Icha Paradise movie is featured on the front of the card. I open it, and another shot takes up both sides. There's a girl in a skimpy bikini. She's saying "Happy Holidays, baby." In Sharpie, Kakashi's written me a little note. "Go grab him." What the hell is that supposed to mean?

I turn to Kakashi, hoping for some sort of explanation, but he just looks in the direction of Sasuke in response to me. So I don't have anything else to do but look to Sasuke. I didn't get an explanation.

If it were someone else, I would have said he blushed, but since it's Sasuke, I won't say that. But anyway, he turns a little pink then throws the card in the direction of the garbage. Pfft. It's too far away, there's no way he'll make it in.

And... the card goes in. Stupid show-offy Sasuke.

I put my own card in my pocket. It's a horrible card, but it's a card. One of my first.

Things die down a little (Sakura stops yelling at Kakashi), and she approaches Sasuke. Kakashi nears me. Good. I want to talk to him.

From a distance, I can hear Sakura: "Ah, Sasuke-kun..." I tune her out of my head. Kakashi's right in front of me.

"Naruto-kun, did you like my card?" Kakashi can be real annoying sometimes.

"What did you mean about what was on the card?" If I get right to the point, will Kakashi answer me straightforward?

"Oh, that?" C'mon, just tell me already!

"You of all people should know. It's quite obvious. Happy holidays!" Kakashi vanishes in a puff of gray smoke, leaving me standing in it. I have no idea what he's talking about. The smoke starts to clear a little, and Kakashi seems to have left me a gift. Something green floats down, with a note attached to it. I grab it out of the air. Mistletoe? The note says "you'll need this." I don't get it, but I stuff it in my pocket anyway.

Sakura leaves, a hopeful look on her face. She waves to me. "Happy holidays, Naruto!"

"Bye, Sakura-chan! Happy holidays!" I reply automatically.

Sasuke sits on his rock, a new card in his hand. Sakura gave him a card. Sakura gave Sasuke a card, but didn't give me one.

Stupid Sasuke.

He throws that one away, too, making that impossible shot to the garbage. Stupid, stupid Sasuke.

What would I do for a card from Sakura? ...For a card from stupid Sasuke?

I would have been okay today. I should have been okay today. One of us was pretending to be happy today, and it wasn't Sakura. I was acting again, and I'm not okay today.

Sasuke just sits on his rock, chin resting on his folded hands.

Everything's not okay. It's not fine. Is Sasuke okay? He looks okay. He always looks okay. But I'm not okay. Does that mean Sasuke's not okay too?

Where does Sasuke spend his Christmas? I've always spent my Christmases with Iruka, but even he's not here.

I would have been okay today.

"Iruka's not home yet," I say out loud. Sasuke turns on his rock.

"What?" I shouldn't have said anything. I really shouldn't have said anything.

"I'm spending Christmas alone." What, what am I doing? "Go grab him." Oh no. No no no no no no. I'm not "grabbing" anyone.

Silence. Silence again. I'm not okay. I'm going and "grabbing" Sasuke, and I'm horribly afraid. Of what, I'm not sure.

"...You want me to spend Christmas..." Sasuke says very slowly, painfully slowly. Is he mocking me? "...with you?"

Ack. Yes. Yes, I want stupid Sasuke to spend Christmas with me. Please?

I don't say anything. I can't say anything. I'm not okay enough.

"I got invited to a party." It hurts. For a second there, I almost thought Sasuke would spend Christmas with me. Stupid Sasuke.

"But I'm not going." ...What? "I'm going to your place, right?"

Woah. Sasuke's coming to my place for Christmas. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, I guess..." I blink multiple times. Sasuke's coming to my place for Christmas. I touch the mistletoe Kakashi gave me through my pocket.

"You okay? You're being weird," Sasuke says coolly. I think he's pretending that I can't see that his cheeks are pink. But he's not blushing, because he's Sasuke, of course.

"You know what? I wasn't okay a minute ago, but I think I'm fine now." I smile for the first time today. And, I think Sasuke smiled back.

"Well, I'm gonna go. See you later," Sasuke says. He gets up from his rock. I watch him as he leaves.

"Later..." I say.

I guess I should go, too. Sasuke's coming over later, I've gotta prepare—Sasuke's coming over later. I smile. Sasuke's coming over later to spend Christmas with me. With me.

I pass the garbage can that contains two forgotten cards. I look around to make sure no one's watching, and reach in to grab the first. It's the card Kakashi gave us. Sasuke didn't even open it yet.

On the front, the envelope has Sasuke's name on it. I flip it over to open it. It has a message: "I know you're going to throw this away before opening it. So go grab him." I can't believe that Kakashi did that. I open the envelope and find the same shot from the Icha Icha movie. I open the card and it reads, "Naruto-kun, I knew you'd open Sasuke-kun's card. Did you grab him yet?" God. Kakashi's so weird.

I throw away the cursed card and pick up the other one. This card's already opened. The one from Sakura-chan. When I open it, I realize it's not a greeting card, it's an invitation. To a Christmas party.

"Dear Sasuke-kun, Ino and I are having a Christmas party! Everyone's invited, and they're all coming. Please come. Sakura."

I wasn't invited, Sakura. You didn't invite me. I'm not part of "everyone," am I?

I put the card in the trash. It wouldn't have been okay, but Sasuke's spending Christmas with me instead of Sakura and everyone else. So it's gonna be okay. I head home to prepare for Sasuke. I think I'm gonna hang up the mistletoe.

Sakura

"But I feel bad, Ino! I invited Sasuke-kun, but I didn't invite Naruto. He was standing right there, too..." I really do feel bad about it. I would have invited Naruto to our party, but Ino told me not to. I know I shouldn't have listened to her, but...

"Well, don't! You should be glad he's not coming, Sakura. Imagine what a disaster it would be if he showed up!" Ino insisted he shouldn't be invited.

"It really wouldn't be so bad, would it?"

"Actually, yeah, it would. Imagine all the stuff he'd break, all the pranks he'd pull! And, he'd be picking fights with Sasuke-kun the whole time."

Ino's right. I know she is. I want a chance with Sasuke-kun tonight, without Naruto interfering. Sasuke-kun, in front of me when I answer the door, under the mistletoe...

"Hey, Ino?"

"What's up?"

"You got the mistletoe, didn't you?"

"..."

We forgot the mistletoe.

So we went all around the village, Ino and I. Every single store that would have sold mistletoe was either closed or didn't have any more. It was in this frantic search, we stumbled upon a mistletoe, but it was in the possession of someone who we'd never even considered.

I knock on the door, ready to beg whoever answers it for mistletoe. Naruto opens the door, stupid look on his face.

"Naruto?!" Ino and I exclaim in unison. I look up. Mistletoe. I'm so not going to kiss him, but I am going to take his mistletoe. He wouldn't need it anyway.

Naruto

It's Sakura-chan. What about her party?

"Listen, Naruto, I need this." She points to the mistletoe I prepared for Sasuke. "Mind if I borrow it for a while? You'll have it back by after Christmas, I promise! You don't really need it anyway, do you?"

As a matter of fact, Sakura, I do need that mistletoe. Sasuke's coming over. But I would never say that. "Uh, Sakura, I—"

"Please, Naruto! I need this!" She's practically begging me. I don't have a choice. Nothing would've happened between me and Sasuke, anyway.

"Go ahead, take it."

Sakura and Ino run off, back to their party. They don't know Sasuke's not going, do they? Sakura yells her thanks. She doesn't say "Merry Christmas." That would have bothered me some time ago, but now it doesn't matter.

An hour later, the doorbell rings. Oh god, Sasuke's ringing my doorbell. Sasuke's standing in front of my door. Oh dear god.

"Hey," He says as I open the door. I can only say "hey" back.

He looks up, almost like he's looking for a mistletoe. Did Kakashi tell him I had one? Sasuke blinks; he was expecting a mistletoe. I really wish I had one.

"Looking for something?" Haha, I caught you.

"Huh? Uh, no, of course." Sasuke doesn't look me in the eye. "I just noticed that you don't have a mistletoe."

"Sakura stole it from me." I say plainly. He stares at me for a second, a what-the-hell look on his face. Genuine. We laugh for a while. It feels nice. "You wanna come in?"

"Yeah."

I bring Sasuke some hot chocolate. "Too sweet for you?" He doesn't like sweets. I know that.

"Nah, it's fine." Sasuke drinks it. Sasuke drank hot chocolate I made without gagging or throwing up. "So what did happen to your mistletoe, Naruto?"

It sounds real nice when Sasuke says my name. "Sakura needed it for her party."

Sasuke looks at me. I wasn't supposed to know about the party.

"I found the invitation you threw away earlier. It's no big deal." It's not a big deal, really it's not. But it's not nothing either. It's just a... deal. Sasuke's here, at my apartment, sitting next to me, on my couch. I couldn't care less about Sakura's party.

"We don't need one, you know," Sasuke says after a while. I pretend I don't know what he's talking about, just to see what he'll do.

"One what?"

"A mistletoe." It's cute when Sasuke won't look at me. Yes, it's cute.

"For what?" I must be killing him. Haha.

"To do this." Sasuke grabs my chin. His hands are warm. So are his lips.

"What did you want for Christmas, Naruto?" Sasuke later asks.

I'm not used to being asked what I want for Christmas, so I never thought about it. I think about it now, though. What I wanted for Christmas...

"Nothing you haven't given me," I finally say. "And what did you want for Christmas, Sasuke?"

Silence. Silence again, for the third time today. The difference this time is that the silence is comfy, and I wouldn't mind staying in it.

"Nothing you haven't given me."

I like him. I like Sasuke. I like stupid Sasuke. Thanks for the best Christmas, Sasuke.

A/N: Aw! Indeed, Sasuke is very stupid. It was so fun typing "Stupid Sasuke" so many times! Please review. Merry Christmas, happy holidays, whatever it is that you celebrate!