Warnings: See previous chapter.

Disclaimer: I still don't own them, and I still want to. :grumble:

Author's Note: Chapter two, baby! I was amazed how much you guys liked this story! I'm sorry I took so long to update it, but I was busy with "I Love Teaching"...Anyway. I finally updated! Unfortunately, like "I Love Teaching," I must warn you —my updates are probably going to take a lot longer. I'll try my best, of course, but my school work's got to come first. I wish it wasn't so, but that's the truth.

I'm just as upset as you are, if not more so. In fact, MORE SO!. :pouts:

Ahem. Anyways...Here it is! The long awaited chapter two! I hope you guys like it! Rate and review, everybody!. :grins Uzumaki-style:

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Naruto couldn't remember the last time that he had slept on a pillow. Being a stray, he lacked a bed, so he rarely had the luxury of sleeping through the night—instead, he caught what rest he could by napping fitfully throughout the day, on benches or (preferably) in public indoor spaces, rarely sleeping for longer than an hour a time. Naruto had carried a blanket around for a while, but someone stole it off him while he slept a while back. He had used the blanket as a cushion for his head and highly sensitive ears, but for some time he had lacked even this. So, in conclusion, he was very un-used to pillows.

Naruto decided, in his hazy, mostly-asleep state, that he liked pillows. He liked them a lot. They were extraordinarily comfortable, offering the perfect fusion between firmness and snuggly pliancy. And they were really warm, too. And they smelled absolutely...delicious. In a very different way from food, certainly, but just as alluringly enticing, if not more so. In fact, more so. Naruto found himself loving the smell, burying his nose into the pillow to get more of it. The pillow responded by pressing itself more firmly against Naruto's body, releasing a warm sigh into his hair.

Oh, yeah. That was the other thing about pillows, Naruto had discovered. They breathed, apparently. That was cool, too.

...Wait a second.

...Pillows breathed? Since fucking when?

Naruto's azure eyes promptly snapped open.

Naruto quickly realized that he was in a very...interesting...situation. He was hopelessly entangled in a mass of warm, pale, lithe limbs. His head was cradled on someone's muscular chest, and his skull softly rose and fell as the person took in oxygen. Naruto's right leg was looped possessively around his bed-mate's slim hips, and he was fisting both a handful of shirt and a handful of silky raven hair. His bed-mate's legs were softly rubbing the insides of his thighs, and strong arms had found their way around Naruto's waist, pushing up the voluminous folds of the Uzumaki's borrowed nightshirt. Naruto noticed also, with no small amount of alarm, that a rigid hard-on was digging into his side. Equally alarming was that fact that Naruto sported an impressive erection of his own, which throbbed and twitched with uncomfortable need.

Naruto gulped, feeling an unusual mix of embarrassment and arousal. He cleared his throat audibly and shifted into a less suggestive position. He cleared his throat again, then he poked his bed-mate roughly in the shoulder.

"Sasuke," he said.

No response.

"Sa-su-ke," Naurto repeated loudly, over-accentuating the syllables.

Nothing.

Naruto paused. He thought for a moment in silence. Then he relaxed his throat and gently laid his hands on Sasuke's chest, his eyes large and unfocused with lust. "Please, Sasuke-sama," Naruto breathed huskily. "...Fuck me."

Sasuke's eyes opened instantly. "What?"

"Oh, nothing," Naruto said loftily. "Just...good morning, Sasuke!"

Sasuke fixed the Uzumaki with an incredulous stare for a moment. Then he scowled.

"...I'm going back to sleep," he proclaimed grumpily, flopping onto his stomach and burying his face into his pillow. (Which was, as it happened, a real pillow.)

Naruto sighed dramatically. "Alright," he said. "But I just think I'd ought to warn you...I haven't had a hot shower in over a month. I fully intend to make up for all that lost time...as soon as I turn on the water. So I hope you like cold showers."

Actually,

Naruto thought with a blush. Maybe he should take a cold shower. Maybe we both should. Naruto's blush darkened at the mental images the words "both" and "shower" in context of Sasuke began to conjure.

After a long silence, Sasuke finally lifted his head from the pillow.

"...I'm showering first," he growled.

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One hour and a half, two showers, a few attempted outfits, and many, many shouted insults later, Sasuke and Naruto began heading downstairs. Sasuke was dressed head to toe in his typical, form-fitting black ensemble. Naruto was a different story. That morning, for some reason, Naruto's clothes had been no where to be found. They had simply disappeared. So after searching in vain for nearly twenty minutes, Sasuke gave Naruto a pair of his smallest jeans and a horrible orange shirt that he doubted he'd worn once. As Sasuke suspected, the jeans were still a bit large, and ended up clinging to Naruto's hips for dear life. Miraculously, however, Naruto adored the shirt. He proclaimed it his favorite piece of clothing and impulsively wrapped Sasuke in a hug by way of thanks. Sasuke was hit with the sudden urge to shove his hands down Naruto's pants, but fortunately, he was able to restrain himself —he did so by stamping on his own foot.

But anyway. The point is, they went downstairs.

Once again, Sasuke noticed Naruto's changing demeanor as they left the privacy of Sasuke's room. Naruto became instantly and completely silent. It was weird—for Naruto, anyway, who Sasuke had pegged as as a loud-mouth. Obviously, Naruto became shy in the company of people he didn't know. Or maybe it was just humans. Maybe Naruto didn't want to attract the attention of Kakashi by speaking. Sasuke thought he could understand, at least slightly—humans had been nothing but mean, if not worse, to Naruto for as long as the homo animalis could remember. From experience, Naruto seemed to think that avoiding contact with humans was the safest course of action.

Maybe the blonde wasn't as stupid as Sasuke had once thought.

...Maybe.

Sasuke's suspicions were confirmed as the two boys stepped foot into the kitchen. Naruto immediately stiffened as he noticed the pair of humans who also inhabited the room. Kakashi was sprawled gracelessly at the kitchen table, languidly scratching his uncovered and unshaven jaw, skimming the newspaper with drooping eyelids. Iruka, unsurprisingly, had spent the night, and he was now standing at the stove, cooking something that smelled like pancakes.

Sasuke watched Naruto's muscles instantly clench and his pupils simultaneously dilate. Sasuke raised an eyebrow. So. Naruto was shy of humans. Interesting.

Just then, Kakashi glanced up from his newspaper. His eyes opened more widely as he took in Naruto's disheveled form—more specifically, Naruto's disheveled form dressed in Sasuke's old clothes. Kakashi giggled inwardly.

Aw, he thought, the eye not hidden beneath his bangs curving happily. Sasuke gave him some clothes. How cute.

Sasuke glared at his owner as he stepped more fully into the kitchen. Naruto followed him a little too closely for comfort, but luckily, Sasuke's attention was diverted by his irritation.

"What the hell are you looking so cheerful about?" Sasuke grumbled, gracefully sweeping his tail to the side as he took his seat at the table. Naruto plunked down next to him, his breathing a little faster than usual and his breathtaking blue eyes pinned to the floor.

"Oh, nothing in particular," Kakashi crooned. "It's just...Well, since Naruto is obviously wearing your clothes, I was wondering if he was wearing your underwear as well, or if he was naked under those cute little jeans."

Naruto's face turned a delectable shade of red at this remark, his mortified gaze flying up to Kakashi's face. Sasuke's eyes widened slightly at the lewd, though infuriatingly arousing, comment. It almost looked like he was blushing slightly, but that was probably just the way the light was hitting him.

"I'm wearing my own underwear!" Naruto shouted vehemently, making wide, very bizarre hand gestures as if they would somehow validate his proclamation by default.

"What was that?" Iruka asked over his shoulder as he turned off the stove, only picking up on the otherwise quiet conversation due to Naruto's shouted statement.

Naruto quieted immediately, placing his hands in his lap and lowering his chin, though his face was still incredibly pink.

"Naruto was describing his underwear to me," Kakashi said happily. "I told him that that was quite inappropriate, but he was quite insistent. I think it was his way of coming on to —"

Kakashi's sentence was abruptly cut short as Iruka's frying pan came down on his head. Kakashi froze in place for a moment, then fell forward onto the table with an audible thunk, lying as if dead. Iruka glared at his boyfriend's splayed profile for a moment before turning his attention to the two homo animalia who sat silently watching him—one in boredom, the other in fascination.

"Good morning, Sasuke," Iruka said.

"Hn."

"And...good morning to you as well," Iruka said to the Uzumaki with a smile. "...Naruto, was it?"

Naruto nodded, his eyes shifting uneasily around Iruka's face—not quite looking at him, but close.

"I'm Iruka," the man continued. "It's nice to meet you, Naruto."

Naruto nodded again, mysteriously and stubbornly silent.

Iruka lifted a questioning eyebrow to Sasuke, who responded with a couldn't-care-less kind of shrug.

"So, Naruto," Iruka said after a moment. "...Do you like pancakes?"

The magic words.

Naruto's face lit up, his eyes widening and flashing with renewed brilliance. Iruka found himself catching his breath ever so slightly at the boy's imminent beauty.

"Do I ever!" Naruto shouted, promptly standing up in his excitement. Sasuke's ears twitched in annoyance, protesting both the loud voice and the irritating scraping of the chair across the kitchen floor.

Iruka laughed softly. "Well, good. I was hoping you'd say that." Iruka went back over to the stove, picking up a plate that he had set down next to it. He carried it back to the table, as well as four empty plates and four glasses. Iruka set the plate, which now obviously held an impressive pile of pancakes, in the center of the table. Naruto practically started drooling.

"How many would you like?" Iruka asked warmly.

Naruto licked his lips, then swallowed. "How many have you got?"

Iruka laughed. "Well...There are four of us, and I've got twelve. So if we split them evenly, you'd get three. However, I'm not very hungry, and quite willing to give up one if you want it. Kakashi seems to be out of commission—"

"No I'm not!" Kakashi proclaimed, sitting up with a start. Iruka rolled his eyes.

"My apologies," Iruka replied dryly. "Anyway...Sasuke, do you—"

"Naruto can have mine," Sasuke said.

Naruto blinked several times, his eyes freakishly huge. "Seriously?"

"Yes, are you sure, Sasuke?" asked Iruka. "You really should eat something. I know you're not the biggest fan of pancakes, or an especially big eater at all, now that I think of it, but you should really have some breakfast."

"Most important meal of the day," Kakashi added, enthusiastically extracting his three pancakes from the center pile.

"Naruto can have mine," Sasuke repeated, this time with a slight edge to his voice. "I'll...have some milk or something," he added at Iruka's disapproving look.

"Well, okay," Iruka agreed dubiously. "But I really think—"

"Iruka. Stop," Kakashi commanded, his mouth already full.

"Stop what?"

"You're doing it again."

"What? What am I doing?"

Kakashi grinned. "Mother-henning."

Iruka rolled his eyes with a slight sigh, but didn't bother denying it. At any rate, he ceased his fussing. Sasuke collected his promised milk from the fridge, Iruka neatly began eating his three pancakes, and Naruto promptly started stuffing his face—after first drowning his entire plate in syrup and butter, of course. After a few minutes of comfortable sort-of silence, Naruto drained his glass of orange juice and then slumped in his chair, quite full.

"That was really, really good," he announced.

"I'm glad you liked it," Iruka replied with a smile, deftly slicing up his remaining pancake.

Naruto sat in silence for a moment, then asked, rather thoughtfully, "Why is everybody being so nice to me?"

Everyone froze. It was a question each man had wondered, but it had been left unanswered by all.

Why was everyone being so nice to Naruto, Sasuke wondered. It would've been more than kind to allow Naruto to wait out the previous day's storm, let alone letting him stay afterward. So why had Kakashi let him—a mere stray animal, really— spend the night? Why did Sasuke search for especially hard for clothes that he thought would fit Naruto best? Why did both Iruka and Sasuke offer up their breakfasts? Why was each person so compelled to help this Naruto, this beautiful, angel-eyed creature that appeared unannounced and so unceremoniously on Kakashi's doorstep? What was it about him that so irresistibly called out for attention and care? Why...Why...

...Why did he want to love him?

"Because..." Three heads swiveled towards the voice. It came from the most unexpected source in the room. "Because...No one's ever been nice to you before. And...you deserve a little niceness." A pause. "If we aren't nice to you, then we will forever know ourselves as horrible, heartless creatures. Because you deserve niceness. You deserve it."

There was a long, long moment of quiet, and no one hardly dared to breathe.

"But mostly...because...We can't help it with you, Naruto," Sasuke said. "We just can't help it."

And at that moment, he knew he was right. He wanted to love Naruto, and he couldn't help it. He just couldn't help it.