"Sasuke-teme! Guess what, guess what?!" Naruto yelled as he barreled into 7th period, taking out some unfortunate desks and students that got in his way of telling Sasuke the big news.
Sasuke decided that this didn't dignify a verbal response, so he 'hn'-ed at him, and Naruto took that to mean 'Oh, please tell me, I am so excited to hear your wonderful news' in Sasuke-ish.
"Sakura-chan finally agreed to go out with me!!!" Naruto screamed out, bursting with happiness.
The only reaction that Naruto could see that Sasuke gave was a scowl before he turned to look out the window as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. Naruto pouted.
"Why aren't you happy for me, Sasuke-teme?" He whined.
He got no answer as Sasuke continued to gaze outside.
---later that day---
He had seen them.
Seen them at the park, walking along the path, holding hands, and he felt his heart breaking apart. He stopped and stared at the couple from his vantage point of the parking lot next to the park.
Unfortunately, it didn't stop there.
The rain was light at first, hardly noticeable, but it soon began coming down harder, stronger, faster, and Sasuke saw Naruto take off the god-awful orange jacket he always wore and hold it over Sakura and his head while they searched for cover, laughing and huddling together.
Now the broken parts of his heart seems to be crumbling into a small, fine dust, and he clenched the area of his hurt painfully, crumpling up his shirt and turning his fingers white.
He watched until they were out of his sight, then he slowly made his way over to his car, and got in.
---car---
Sasuke tried blinking back his tears, but to no avail, as they continued to make tracks down his face. He gripped the steering wheel tighter, trying to focus. Where was he? How long had he been driving? When had the rain begun to feel like his own pain was overflowing and pouring from the sky?
His tears felt cold.
His entire being felt cold.
No, the entire world felt cold.
As he turned the windshield wipers up even higher, with no success of making the road any clearer, he let out a gut-wrenching sob and collapsed on steering wheel.
His last thought as his car slammed into the tree, shaking and crushing him until everything went black, was of a certain blue-eyed blond.
---with Naruto---
Naruto thought about the façade he always had up. It had never really worked. Even after all this time, he still loved Sasuke with all his being, his heart had stopped when he heard that Sasuke had gotten into an accident, and for a second he was grateful that he would die at the same time as Sasuke. But then he had been forcibly dragged out of his stupor by Sakura's hand slapping his face, and as soon as he snapped out of it, he rushed to the hospital.
It was all his fault. He thought that instead of just fooling everyone around him, he would finally be able to fool himself if he added another actor to his play. But where was he when Sasuke needed him the most? On a date, with Sakura. He felt disgusted with himself. Sasuke was going to die, and it was Naruto's fault.
As he thought about all these things, he concluded that he was no longer worthy of being Sasuke's friend, and if Sasuke managed to survive this, he would back off and leave him alone.
---hospital---
Light.
There was too much light. It surrounded him, burning through his eyelids and permeating into his head. What happened to the darkness? The nothing, but absolutely everything, that sympathized with him, welcomed him, when he could not stand the pain anymore. It was back to the brightness, and everything he hated. He let out a small sigh.
But at this, however slight, noise, a greater one rose. It sounded like…
…Naruto…
Was he the source of the illumination? Sasuke opened his eyes slowly and stared at the ceiling, but as he did, his body finally registered to his brain, and he let out a yell as his whole body seemed to be afire with pain. At this, the voice started again, only this time he could understand it.
"I hate you, Sasuke-teme."
Yes, it was definitely Naruto. But his voice sounded different. Sasuke brought his eyes down to search the room for his friend, but his neck jerked to a halt when he found the source of the voice resting on his chest. Naruto glared into his eyes, hot tears running down his whiskered cheeks.
Sasuke stared in astonishment. He had never, ever, seen this headstrong, impulsive, optimistic boy cry.
It felt worse than when he had seen Naruto with Sakura, worse than his physical pain, worse than anything. Naruto pounded a fist unto Sasuke's chest, making him cough violently.
"How could you!?! How could you do this to me!?! I thought you had DIED!!!" After this was said, fresh tears were added to the tan face, and Naruto crumpled, burying his face into Sasuke's torso.
Sasuke had no answer, and Naruto didn't expect one. They stayed there in the stillness, silently taking comfort from one another's presence, until a nurse came in. As she ushered Naruto out of the room, each boy stole once last glance at each other, and thought about the other in despair.
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Inspired by the song 'Breath' by Breaking Benjamin, and thus, the title.