Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, the anime or the manga, or any of its associated characters. It's a damn shame, too!
A/N: Chapter 2! I hope you like it :)
Welcome Home
Chapter 2: Housewarming
"You brought wine?" Naruto was surprised.
"Isn't that how you break in a new house?" Sasuke asked.
"I wouldn't know," Naruto said, "do you have beer?"
"Neither would I. And obviously not. When have I ever had beer?"
Naruto laughed. "I dunno, you seem to have thought of everything."
"I always think of everything."
"Arrogant bastard," Naruto laughed again and eyed the wine. "So fancy!" He muttered.
"You think all wine is fancy."
"Because it is. That shit is expensive."
"All liquor is expensive. If you really wanted to save money, you would go sober."
"Pah!" Naruto waved a hand. "What kind of lazy slacker would I be then?"
Sasuke chuckled, and reached for the cups they had unpacked. He frowned. "The wine glasses must still be in the boxes. Actually, I'm not sure we even brought any…"
"That's fine!" Naruto grinned. "Let's use these!" He pulled out two of the cheesy mugs that he had bought Sasuke—one of many various grumpy mugs like "Good morning, I see the assassins have failed" and "Unless this cup is empty, don't talk to me". Sasuke, a known coffee guzzler, had been forced to use them many a time when they hadn't gotten to the dishes yet, and Naruto had never failed to get a kick out of it.
Sasuke rolled his eyes, but obediently set out opening the bottle. "You're fine even though you have an early morning tomorrow?"
Naruto grinned, "my nap wasn't as good as yours," Sasuke glared, "but yeah. Everybody knows I'm moving in today so they all expect me to be tired."
"What about hungover?" Sasuke filled the mug.
Naruto laughed. "Probably that too!"
"Then here you go," Sasuke passed on to Naruto, who grinned.
"Cheers!"
Pleasantly warm, and far too late, they were getting ready for bed. Sasuke was about the same drunk as he was sober, only he pretty much had a constant smirk plastered on his face and the comments that he would make tended to be ones that sent Naruto into fits of giggles. Not that it was hard to make drunk Naruto laugh; the blonde was full of smiles and laughter and jokes—all of it becoming more incomprehensible as the night went on. Naruto was the life of pretty much any party he went to…except when he drank whiskey; whiskey was a definite no-go for Uzumaki Naruto.
(December, 2 years ago)
"Where'd Naruto go?" Sasuke asked the first person he saw, just assuming the blonde would be known to everyone there. He was right.
"Um, I think he went outside. I haven't seen him in a while," she said.
Not bothering to thank her, he promptly turned back around and walked through the door he came in. Naruto had been drunk texting him for about an hour, making less and less sense, until Sasuke had finally just decided to go and pick the idiot up and take him home. He had clearly had too much.
"Oi, dobe!" He called into the darkness.
He waited a moment…no reply.
"NARUTO!" He called louder, scowling.
"..-suke?" He heard just the end coming from his left, and looked into the woods that brimmed the property. What had possessed the idiot to go in there?
But before he had to go looking himself, the blonde came out to meet him. His eyes were wide and red-rimmed, and Sasuke stared at him in disbelief.
"Are-are you okay?" He asked, confused and worried and suddenly furious at what someone could have possibly done to make Naruto—
"Yeah," the blonde breathed. "I...wanna stay out here Sasuke. I'm just gonna stay out here for a bit, 'kay?"
"Naruto," Sasuke called as the blonde turned around and went to walk back into the forest.
"Just for a bit," the blonde mumbled, and stumbled over a stick that caught his foot. Sasuke looked behind him, scowled, and then followed the blonde.
He found him sitting against a tree, looking at his lap.
"Naruto."
Naruto jumped at if startled, looking up at Sasuke with wide eyes before quickly looking down again. He turned his head to the side in a pathetic attempt to discretely hide a tear or two.
"Naruto, look at me."
"N-no."
Sasuke sighed in frustration and knelt down in front of Naruto. He grabbed his shoulders, and Naruto turned to look at him with a gloomy expression.
"What happened?"
Naruto shook his head.
"Naruto—listen, I know that—"
"Nothing," Naruto interrupted quietly, his eyes unfocused, "nothing happened…honest. I'm just…not…all there right now, 'suke. Just let me be here for a bit. I just wanna sit here."
"Nothing…nothing really happened?"
Naruto paused, furrowing his eyebrows in an obvious attempt to think about Sasuke's question.
"Nothing at the party, Sas…uke." His words were extended and slurred, as if he was very tired. He squinted up at Sasuke suddenly. "Why are you at the party?"
"I'm here to take you home, dobe."
Naruto's eyes widened and he looked down, grabbing at his pocket. "Shit, I'm sorry, I didn't remember—when did you get here? Did you—oh," he swayed as he stood too quickly, grabbing a tree branch for balance.
"Careful," Sasuke eyed him. "You didn't ask me to pick you up. I came on my own." 'Because I was worried about you.'
Naruto blinked at him in wonder, as if he had heard Sasuke's unspoken words.
"Let's go home, dobe." Sasuke reached out a hand to help Naruto's balance, but Naruto frowned and seemed to shy away from it. He looked away.
"Naruto?" Sasuke asked, after a moment.
"D'you..do you really think I'm dumb like that?" Naruto mumbled so quietly, Sasuke could barely hear him.
"Like…what?" Naruto was behaving completely out of character.
"Dead last…I guess I really am that, aren't I?" Naruto laughed: it sounded hollow.
"The fuck, Naruto? Where is this coming from?"
For the first time, Naruto looked him dead in the eye. "Go home, Sasuke."
Sasuke scowled.
"No."
"Leave me alone."
"No."
"Sasuke—"
Sasuke sat down beside the tree and pulled Naruto down with him.
Naruto seemed dizzy, and stared at Sasuke as if he was hallucinating.
There was a moment of silence.
"What is a forest like this doing in the middle of the city?" Sasuke asked. Despite his mood, Naruto snorted.
"I dunno," he replied quietly. "Animals must like it…"
"All the wolves moved in here, eh? Maybe the bears, too," Sasuke leaned back against the tree.
"No home, nobody wants them…at least they have a place to stay…it's not so bad...kinda crowded," Naruto seemed like he was dozing off, "maybe one day we'll be taken home…if they're a good boy…"
After that, Sasuke had picked up the sleeping Naruto and taken him home. Naruto had apologized the next day, and promptly never drank whiskey again—it was the first and last time he had ever seen Naruto break down like that.
Now, the blonde was attempting to brush his teeth through his giggles—probably still laughing at his own joke—when Sasuke came in to the bathroom.
"Shashke!" Naruto practically shouted. "Ouw woo' shawesh a baffwoo'!"
"You know you can remove the toothbrush before you talk," Sasuke smirked.
Naruto pulled the toothbrush out of his mouth and Sasuke dodged a glob of toothpaste that came flying his way.
"Our room shares a bathroom!" He exclaimed again. Sasuke rolled his eyes.
"Excellent deduction, dobe."
"Why do you think it does? And the partition door is kinda weird, right?" Naruto said, going back to brushing his teeth. "Do you shink it wash fow kidsh?"
"For kids?" Sasuke asked, and Naruto nodded. "Hn…maybe the previous owners were couples who liked to…trade partners," he smirked. Naruto started coughing.
"No way!" He pulled the toothbrush out again and was staring at Sasuke with wide eyes. "Do you really think so? Did you meet them?"
Sasuke couldn't help but laugh, "of course not, dobe, I have no idea."
"Oh," Naruto seemed disappointed.
"It would make sense though," Sasuke pointed out, and Naruto was back to giggling again.
It was a good thing the two of them had to leave for work around the same time, because Naruto needed someone to kick him out of bed and Sasuke needed someone to stop him from drinking his fourth cup of coffee in as many minutes.
Sasuke, workaholic that he was, always stayed late, so Naruto beat him home. For the second time, the reality of living with Sasuke hit him. It didn't hit him as hard as the first time, but it was still a damn good punch.
He had promised to pay Sasuke back eventually – like paying rent – but still…that was something that was going to take very many years. He still had no idea what prompted Sasuke to invite Naruto to live with him. He had no idea why the idea had been so appealing that he agreed right away, either…well, no, that wasn't entirely true. He had been stifling the thought in the back of his head that going back to live with his parents felt like failure, and the terrifying thought that his friends would all go off into their separate walks of life, and forget about him. None of them went into the same job, it would be so easy…
He shook his head. That hadn't happened. He had an amazing house with Sasuke, and he had spent every free moment he had texting one of his friends. And he had a job right out of university; that, in itself, was incredibly lucky. It was Sasuke who had pushed him to ask Tsunade if he could stay on; after working there every summer, it was a fairly reasonable request, but one he hadn't felt entitled enough to make, until Sasuke had slapped the back of his head and told him if he wasn't going to ask, Sasuke would do it for him, and it would be less than polite. He wasn't sure Sasuke would actually do it, but he hadn't really want to test him.
The sound of the door clicking open broke Naruto out of his thoughts.
"Welcome home!" He called.
"Naruto?" Sasuke's voice filtered in—the fact that Sasuke had to follow his voice to find him really spoke to how big the house was.
"I'm in the kitchen," he replied. Sasuke strode in, looking as unblemished and stoic as usual.
"Pasta?" The Uchiha asked.
"It's the only thing I can make consistently, you know that," Naruto laughed. "I got the extra tomato stuff that you like!"
Naruto indicated the jar on the table and Sasuke slid behind him, brushing up against his back, to examine it.
"So you did," he said after a moment, his voice soft and awfully close, "thank you."
"You're welcome," Naruto replied quietly, fighting the urge to blush for some inexplicable reason. The dark eyes felt heavy on him, and he suddenly felt very conscious of the way he was stirring the pasta—as if he was afraid he was somehow doing it wrong.
"How was your day?" Sasuke leaned up back beside the stove, palms resting on the counter behind him.
"Good," his eyes flickered to Sasuke, but looking at him felt so overwhelming he had to pretend to be entirely focused on the pasta. "A bit boring, honestly."
He saw Sasuke nod out of the corner of his eye. "Mine too."
There was a pause. Naruto felt awkward.
"What else did you buy?" Sasuke slid behind him again, the island counter causing him to press up against Naruto's back for a moment. Naruto let out a puff of air.
"Uh—not a lot," he lied.
Sasuke bent down and opened the very full fridge. "Not a lot?"
"Well—I," Naruto blushed, "you bought the house and stuff, so…"
"You don't have to feel like you owe me," Sasuke frowned, shutting the fridge to cross his arms.
"Uh," Naruto stopped stirring the pasta and wiped his sweaty palms on his pants. He looked at Sasuke. "I do owe you, though."
"You're paying me back," he pointed out.
"Yeah," Naruto agreed, "but you still bought the place. Hell, you bought the furniture too! Did you even include that in the price?"
Sasuke shrugged.
Naruto frowned. "You didn't, did you?"
"They were a gift," Sasuke said.
Naruto felt frustration build in him and he sighed, trying to let it go. "It's not that I don't appreciate all…this," he waved a hand around him, "but…I just…y'know, if you do stuff like that, I feel like I need to do something, too."
"You don't," Sasuke pointed out.
Naruto opened his mouth to speak, and then chuckled a little. "That—damn it, Sasuke, that just makes me wanna do something even more."
Sasuke crossed his arms. "You go through life repaying every single good deed someone else has done for you?" Even in his disbelief, Sasuke realized that yes—that is exactly what Naruto did.
"Uh…well, I try to, anyways," Naruto shrugged.
There was a pause.
"The pasta's boiling over," Sasuke pointed out.
"Wha—aah! Why didn't you say something sooner!" Naruto frantically tried to get the lid off, burning his hand in the process, but succeeding eventually. Sasuke reached over and lowered the heat a little.
"Did you burn yourself?" He eyed Naruto's hand.
"A little, I think. Not bad though." Naruto held his fingers up to his face. Pale fingers suddenly grasped his, and he yelped when Sasuke pressed against the burn.
"Dobe," Sasuke muttered, pulling Naruto over to the sink and turning it on cold.
"Shut up, teme!" He pulled his hand out of Sasuke's, feeling colder at the loss, and ran it under the sink. "…I was gonna run it under cold water anyways."
Sasuke rolled his eyes, and went back to the pasta, placing the lid on with a towel. "No you weren't. You were going to say 'I'm fine' and go back to cooking."
Sasuke didn't need to look at him to know that Naruto reddened. He knew Sasuke was right because this had literally happened before, only with bacon grease, and Naruto had developed a rather angry blister that he had complained about for days.
"Bastard," Naruto said, after a moment. Sasuke just smirked and stirred the pasta.
A/N: :)
See you tomorrow!
- Kinomi
