Chapter Three: An Awkward Meeting
Saturday

"Hey! Up! Get up, I said!" Naruto groaned angrily at the pain that shot through his body as he slammed into the floor. He opened his eyes to see Gaara hovering above him with a far too amused grin on his face. "Shoulda listened to me," Gaara said nonchalantly, like he didn't just shove Naruto off of the couch to the floor.

Naruto waved a cursing finger at Gaara. "Fuck you."

Gaara's smile widened. "So you're really awake now?" Gaara walked around the couch and into the kitchen as he spoke. "I tried to wake you politely four times. Then, I yelled at you for like five whole minutes. You just kept groaning at me so I gave up and shoved you off the couch. Thirsty?" He turned to look at Naruto over his shoulder but Naruto was still on the ground out of view. "Hey! You fall back asleep?"

"No! I'm awake, asshole." Naruto lifted himself off of the floor and rolled onto his back on the couch.

"Well, not for long if you lay back down," Gaara pointed out as he poured himself a glass of juice. "Get up. Get a shower. We only have half an hour until we have to leave."

"Huh? Leave where?" Naruto asked as he sat upright on the couch at looked over the back at Gaara.

"Late lunch, remember? Sasuke called you six times until I finally answered. I asked why he didn't just call me but he said he didn't have my number. Yeah! Bull, right? Neji is with him. He definitely has my number but whatever. He sounded weird but I guess it was probably just a hang over." Naruto plopped back down on the couch. He was interested in what Gaara was saying, especially since it was about Sasuke, but Gaara could talk too much sometimes. Naruto wasn't awake enough for this much conversation. "Anyway," Gaara continued, "he called a billion times and I answered and he said he just wanted to confirm lunch. I told him you were still sleeping. He wasn't too surprised that you slept longer than two hung over guys but I told him we were out pretty late."

"What?" Naruto shot back up on the couch. "What'd you tell him exactly?"

Gaara gave Naruto a weird look. "I told him what happened. We got sucked into the party. It was inevitable. I mean, come on, we're two hot guys. Would you expect any less from us?"

"But what exactly did you say about me?" Naruto persisted.

"Well, I didn't tell him the dirty details, bro. I just told him we partied. That's all. Oh, wait," Neji went on dramatically, "maybe I told him about those two totally hot chicks that were all over you! Come on! You think I'd ever leave that out?" Naruto groaned and fell back on the couch again, covering his face with his hand. "What's your problem?"

"Let me get this straight," Naruto began, "you told Sasuke that I was out late fucking two extremely hot girls?"

"Yep," Gaara answered with pride. "You're the only straight guy in our group… well… mostly straight but anyway, even us gay folk would all agree that you nailed some seriously good looking ladies last night."

"You're not gay," Naruto pointed out.

"True," Gaara agreed, "but they were still really hot."

"You… You shouldn't have… Ugh!" Naruto trailed off as he flipped over to his stomach and groaned loudly into the couch cushion.

"What, Naruto? I shouldn't have told Sasuke about that? Why? Who cares? It's Sasuke." Gaara was thoroughly confused by Naruto's behavior. "I know you haven't been laid in a while but you'd think you'd be proud of the fact that you got back into the groove with a threesome. You should be boasting. What's up with you?"

Gaara was answered by a muffled shout. "I don't know!" Naruto really didn't know why he didn't want Sasuke to know about it. I only had sex with them because of Sasuke, Naruto thought to himself. If I had been with him last night then… wait… no! What am I saying?

"Well," Gaara started as he walked back over to the couch, "get up and shower. We only have twenty minutes now and it takes five to get there." Naruto was glad for the interruption to his thoughts. Thinking about Sasuke was getting really confusing lately. Gaara slapped Naruto on the back. "Get what you want from my room, as usual." Naruto didn't move and Gaara decided to motivate him with more playful slaps on his back. "Up! Up! Up!"

"Ahhhh fuck!" Naruto rolled onto his back, only opening himself up to more playful slaps at his face and chest. "Okay! Okay!" Gaara's slapping stayed relentless. "Gaara!"

"Up!" Gaara demanded.

"OKAY!" Naruto shouted as he jumped off of the couch.

Gaara smiled at his victory. "Shower!"

Naruto rolled his eyes but the attempt at irritation was negated by the smile that overtook his face as he retreated to the bathroom.

Neji looked anxiously at his watch. "Where are they?" He was drumming his fingers wildly on the table top.

Sasuke reached over the table to stop his hand. "They're only two minutes late. What did you expect? It's Gaara and Naruto."

Neji nodded. Sasuke was right. Why was today so different? It was always like this. Gaara and Naruto were notoriously late and it was only two minutes so far. Neji had been friends with Gaara for his entire life. He was used to it. Neji was suddenly very aware of the fact that Sasuke's hand still lingered on his own and he looked at it anxiously before forcing down an awkward gulp.

"Oh," Sasuke said as he noticed and removed his hand quickly, "my bad."

Sasuke cleared his throat nervously and found himself looking at the time on his phone. He suddenly felt Neji's anxiety. The air between them had been tense since they woke but Sasuke chose to ignore it. Now, however, it felt very thick and he couldn't wait for their friends to arrive. Just as he started drumming his own nervous fingers on the table top, he saw a flash of familiar blond hair approaching and he released a sigh of relief. Finally, he thought. The last twenty seconds of waiting felt like a lifetime. Both Sasuke and Neji were visibly tense and only nodded awkwardly in response to their friends' arrival. Naruto sat beside Sasuke and Gaara sat beside Neji. Gaara sent Naruto a skeptical look as Neji and Sasuke worked hard to avoid each other's eyes.

"Did you fuck?" Gaara asked blatantly. He would, certainly, be unhappy if they had but Gaara chose to push the potential dismay away. He reminded himself that Neji's joy was his joy. Of course, Neji didn't look exactly joyous right now. He looked like a nervous wreck. Gaara could understand, though, knowing what he knew of Neji. Maybe the idea would grow on Neji, though. Maybe last night was an awkward fuck but it would eventually evolve into something better. Gaara could only hope and, yet, not hope at all, seeing as that would piss Naruto off to know end.

Sasuke wasn't half as affected by Gaara's question as Neji was but he was still obviously uncomfortable. It was already weird around Naruto as Sasuke had began questioning their relationship lately and now things were very weird with Neji, too. Gaara's blatant assumptions weren't making anything any smoother, either. Sasuke managed to keep himself from reacting like Neji, though, whose eyes widened as he started choking on air.

"W-What?" Neji stuttered. "N-No! Why would you s-s—"

"That's why," Gaara interrupted, looking thoroughly amused. "You're freaking out! Even Sasuke is acting weird which is really strange, right Naruto?"

"Huh? Yeah," Naruto responded blandly. He was interested in what had happened between Sasuke and Neji. Had they fucked? Would that bother Naruto? Why would it? Why should he care? It's not like Sasuke couldn't fuck who he wanted to fuck. Naruto did. Well, to be honest Naruto didn't really screw anyone as of late. Last night was the first time in a long time but Naruto did have sex last night, so it was perfectly fine if Sasuke did too, not that Sasuke needed Naruto's approval or anything. It's not like Naruto wanted Sasuke to want his approval either… right? Why am I even thinking about this, Naruto questioned himself.

As Gaara saw Naruto squirming with thoughts of Sasuke, he thought that maybe he shouldn't have brought it up at all. This still wasn't the time for everyone's secrets to be coming out to play, whatever they all were. Gaara couldn't be sure what exactly Naruto was thinking but he was sure that it was only making the air more tense. Of course, Gaara had already started the conversation. Now he had to find a good way of abandoning it. Neji kept opening and closing his mouth to try to form a response but his throat was dry and, frankly, he was freaking out. Sasuke grew tired of Neji's embarrassing display and answered himself.

"We did not have sex last night," Sasuke said plainly. He stole a quick glance at Naruto who was watching him. It made Sasuke nervous that Naruto was staring at him. Naruto had looked at Sasuke a lot in their lives but something about the way Naruto looked at him now make his stomach twirl. What was Naruto thinking?

"Alright," Gaara answered, as if he didn't believe Sasuke at all. It was very Gaara-like of himself and he was sure it was a good way to seem normal. Lately, he'd had to pretend to be himself with everything that was going on, known or not. Right now, he felt that he was passing as his normal self rather well and this was a good spot to ditch the topic. He picked up his menu and started to look for something to eat. "I guess the only one who got lucky last night was Naruto," Gaara added quietly. Gaara chuckled to himself. "He got really lucky." He partly just wanted to seem normal and normal Gaara would have said that, no matter what, but he partly wanted Sasuke to know about it, too. Didn't Sasuke have that right?

Naruto stiffened up in his seat just as much as Sasuke did. Sasuke did not, under any circumstances, like to hear about Naruto's sex life and he was glad that he hadn't in a while. He almost forgot that Gaara had mentioned it on the phone earlier. Naruto's reaction to Gaara only served to confuse Sasuke more. Why had Naruto begun acting so sensitive around Sasuke? Did he feel the same way that Sasuke felt? If he did, then why was he off screwing two girls? If he didn't, then why was he acting all weird about Sasuke hearing about it? Naruto was never the kind to be shy about that sort of stuff, especially not with Sasuke.

"Gaara," Naruto whined, "I don't wanna…" Naruto gave Sasuke a nervous glance. "I don't wanna talk about that!" He picked up his own menu and buried his blushing face behind it.

"Why is everyone acting so weird?" Gaara asked as he set his menu down, feeling even more convincingly like himself. "Seriously, what is wrong with you guys? Neji and Sasuke had sex—"

"Did not!" Neji protested.

Gaara continued, as if Neji hadn't said anything. "—and Naruto is suddenly all shy about sex. The fuck is it with sex? The weirdest of all is you, Sasuke," Gaara said, pointing an accusing finger at Sasuke. "You're all… strange. You have… emotions."

Sasuke sneered at the remark but Gaara was right. Sasuke was being awful loose with his emotions lately. He couldn't keep his cool around Naruto anymore but the fact that Naruto couldn't keep his cool around Sasuke either made it even harder. He also allowed the awkwardness with Neji to bother him. Gaara seemed pleased with his depiction of his normal self. Now, it really was time to drop all the topics. He didn't want to start an all out war where even his own secrets would end up being revealed. Absolutely not, this was not the time. Sasuke got out his phone and decided to send Neji a text once Gaara had stopped bothering him.

Look. We need to get it together. Chill out. We didn't do anything. They never have to know we kissed. It was a fluke. It's cool. Just, remember our deal. I'm gonna pay more attention to Gaara. These are our best friends we're talking about. It's not like anything has changed.

Sasuke felt a wave of ease wash over him when he saw Neji nod and smile at Sasuke in agreement. There was no point in acting so weird. They had more important things to focus on, like their deal. It took them another ten minutes or so but everyone did eventually relax and settle back into the normal groove of things. Gaara decided not to talk about the previous night's events relating to sex anymore and everyone was grateful. They eventually ordered their food and shared laughs over beers. It turned into a typical outing for the group once it surpassed its rocky start. They must have stayed there for at least two hours before going their separate ways and agreeing to meet at the bar again the following night.