Ehehehhh….

OKAY. BEFORE YOU SHOOT!

So, I've been so freakin' busy this past year (OH GOOD GOD HAS IT BEEN A YEAR ALREADY?), mostly with school.

I'm not gonna lie: I went into 6th form thinking 'HEH. I'm a genius. They're lucky to have me there!'
I was so wrong. So goddamn wrong.

It's been the hardest year of my life: I'm not kidding. I've had barely any free time. It's only now, after exams, that I'm able to find the time to work on my poor neglected fanfiction…

Also: I've completely lost interest in the story of Naruto. NOW. DON'T HURT ME. I tried to write fanfictions for other anime's (like kuroshitsuji and hetalia) but found that I just couldn't write as well for them as I could for Naruto. Bonus for you all: I WILL finish this story! I do, however, want to try writing for other anime's too sometime. That would be fun.

LASTLY: I'm looking for a beta reader: but I want a special one! I want someone who's willing to add me on either skype or msn who can not only read through my work and fix it, but give me a kick in the pants if I need it. If you're up for the job, let me know!

ONWARDS!

After a painstakingly long and brutally in-depth questioning of the mother, and about 12 minutes asking several other nurses to look up patient charts, Naruto had a pretty good medical history for the patient.

He sighed and pulled his hand through his now-limp blonde hair, wincing as he finger-combed through the tangles. Heading to the nurse's station, he placed Hotaru's chart on the side and gratefully thanked the nurse who filed it away properly for him. Another sigh escaped him and it dawned on him just how tired he was.

He could definitely go for a coffee.

8:02pm.

Normally, Sasuke didn't care whether people were on time or not: but this was a new matter entirely.

Okay, that was just a lie outright. Punctuality was very important to him at all times – but especially tonight. He couldn't quite explain what he felt when he was in Naruto's presence. He found himself wanting to know things about the man, and he wanted to share things with him. It was understandable that Sakura had imagined he'd like him.

Naruto was gorgeous; there was no doubting that. But he was also stupid. Not in an academic way – but a life way. It was like he was a kid stuck in an adult's body. The thing was, it was actually kind of endearing.

8:04pm.

He decided he would wait until ten past, and if Naruto still wasn't there, he'd just go home. Standing outside in the cold was annoying.

"Ah! Teme!" Sasuke turned to face the entrance and was greeted by Naruto's grinning face and frantically waving hand as the man jogged happily over to him.

"You're late," Sasuke mumbled indifferently. He didn't miss the slight twitch of annoyance from Naruto's eyebrow.

"Yeah, sorry about that I decided to have a shower," he replied, gesturing to his hair. Confused by this gesture, Sasuke frowned and Naruto rolled his eyes before grabbing Sasuke's hand and putting it on his head. Sasuke felt the cold dampness of the hair before he pulled his hand away.

"It's winter, dobe. You could catch a cold or something," Naruto giggled at that, but Sasuke couldn't think of any part in that sentence that was even remotely funny.

"Well, where are you taking me?" Naruto grinned and reached for Sasuke's hand, but Sasuke snatched it away, glaring.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he grunted.

"Umm…holding your hand, silly!" Naruto laughed uncomfortably "Wait…this is a date, right?" at this, he blushed, hoping that he hadn't mistaken this invitation for something more than it was…he had been sure that the raven-haired doctor had been flirting with him earlier…in his own twisted way.

"Don't be ridiculous," Sasuke scoffed "This isn't a date."

At that, Naruto frowned and folded his arms, willing the cold of the air to go away.

"Well then, what is this?" He was getting kind of angry, feeling like he'd been totally led on.

Sasuke shifted awkwardly, refusing to make eye contact. Naruto's anger ebbed away slightly, feeling a sense of endearment for the other man for that brief moment.

"It's just…a meeting between colleagues." He said, finally. Naruto smiled a little bit, noticing that Sasuke was feeling very discomforted. He couldn't think why that was, but perhaps he'd find out during coffee.

"Fair enough," he smiled and began to walk, gesturing that Sasuke should follow "let's go them teme,"

Sasuke chuckled.

"You're going the wrong way, dobe,"

"Coffee. Black."

"Oh, wow, real adventurous, teme."

"…soda for him."

"SODA? It's, like, minus a million degrees out! I'll be frozen!"

"Okay, hot chocolate for him,"

"…"

"Any complaints?"

"…"

"Good."

The two hospital employees picked up their drinks and walked to a table for two, sitting down in sync. Sasuke was mildly impressed by the symmetry of the situation, but tried not to seem too excited by it.

Naruto shivered a little bit and leant over his drink, blowing the steam away in the hopes of cooling it slightly. He was pretty damn cold, but nothing was worth burning his tongue for.

"Why did you come with me?" Sasuke suddenly asked, surprising Naruto quite substantially.

"Uhh," Naruto tried his best think of a reason other than 'because I wanted to get to know you' or 'because you're smoking hot and I want you to tap this'. He managed to come up with: "Well, you invited me. It would be rude to turn down such an offer," with a gentle smile afterwards, hoping that would be sufficient.

"Hn," Sasuke replied with his classic monosyllable answer to everything. The noise was actually starting to sound quite cute (for lack of a better word) to Naruto.

"Why do you ask?" Naruto asked pleasantly "Were you scared I was just trying to get into your pants?" He laughed and winked, making Sasuke feel ever so slightly 'freaked'.

"…Are you coming on to me?" He asked seriously, holding his coffee mug tightly.

"What if I am?" Naruto deepened his voice to a certain degree, but, rather than eliciting a pleasant shiver, or perhaps a sexy moan from the Uchiha – he simply received a smirk.

"Then you're not going a very good job of it," that condescending, yet beautiful, smirk stretched across his mouth and his voice dropped to a husky whisper. It was Naruto who let out a small whimper. Sasuke laughed lowly, causing Naruto to blush quite red.

"Fucking teme," he grumbled, staring down at his drink. He smiled down at the whipped cream atop his hot chocolate and gently sucked a little bit into his mouth.

"What did I tell you about swear…ing…" Sasuke drifted off at the end of his sentence, unable to concentrate while Naruto was doing that. Hot damn, did this dobe know how sexy he was? It should be a crime not to know.

"Shut up, I do what I want," Naruto laughed and stuck his tongue out playfully, causing Sasuke to grimace at how childish the other man was being.

There was a fairly long silence after that.

"Are you gay?"

Sasuke promptly chocked on his coffee and proceeded to cough for a considerable amount of time afterwards.

"Haha, sorry, I didn't mean to kill you," The blonde idiot just laughed as if he hadn't questioned a man's sexuality.

Sasuke growled from the back of his throat and narrowed his eyes as he wiped the coffee dripping from his lips.

"For your information," he replied, after composing himself and settling his hands around his coffee so they weren't tempted to choke people "I am gay, yes."

"Awesome" Naruto smiled for a while "Oh wait, did I say that out loud?"

"…Yeah, you did."

"Well…shit…haha" Naruto laughed and a light blush dusted his cheeks. Sasuke smirked in reply.

The silence fell again, this time intensified by the fact that the couple that had recently arrived and sat next to them was having a very loud conversation.

"I just don't feel like you get me, babe,"

"What is there to get? All you do is play video games all day!"

"HEY. I work hard to put food on the table and pay our rent: what the hell do you do?"

"Well I don't go wasting my money and time on 'Duty Calls' or whatever the hell it is,"

"No, of course not! You just spend my money!"

"That's not fair at all! I only spend what I need!"

"So you needed to buy a freakin' limited edition Gucci bag?"

"How do you even know what the hell that is? What kind of man are you, Gerald?"

"I'm the kind that looks at his credit card bill, Claudia,"

"…God, shut up," Before then, Sasuke had simply been glancing at the couple with an irritable look in his eye, hoping to catch their attention with that and failing. He hadn't noticed the way Naruto's fingers had clenched so tightly around his mug that his knuckles had gone white. He also hadn't seen how he had turned away from the couple, frowning. In fact, Sasuke hadn't been paying any attention to the blonde until he said those words.

"…uh…what?" Sasuke asked eloquently.

"Excuse me?" An angry woman's voice sounded loudly throughout the café signaling that, apparently, Naruto had not uttered that quietly enough.

Naruto stayed silent and turned his head to his hands, not making eye contact with anyone, not even Sasuke.

"Yeah man, do you have a problem or something?" The man chimed in behind his girlfriend, obviously irritated.

Naruto continued to say nothing, keeping his head down.

"We're talking to you, blondie!" The woman shouted, her hand now firmly clasped around the man's. It seemed as if they'd found a common interest: arguing with whomever they came across.

"Yeah, kid! You gonna talk or what?" The man was now out of his chair and stood directly behind Naruto, looking quite angry.

Naruto remained still and Sasuke was beginning to worry a little. The café had gone completely silent: one could hear a pin drop.

"Your friend retarded or something?" The woman asked Sasuke who looked up, shocked for a moment, before those words sank in.

"No," he said, folding his arms on the table in front of him "He's not".

The silence stretched out for a little longer before the man, Gerald, suddenly grabbed Naruto's shoulder and pulled him backwards. Naruto, without meaning to, held on to his drink and, as he fell, sent it flying backwards. The mug hit Gerald in the chest, and the contents of it poured onto Naruto's face just before he hit the ground with a thud. The mug also obeyed gravity and fell too, shattering inches away from the blonde's head.

"The fuck? You did that on purpose you little brat!" The man shouted, raising an arm as if to hit the guy while his was down, but found that something or, rather, someone was restraining him.

"I'd leave if I were you," Sasuke growled, tightening his grip on the man, who ground his teeth as he glared back.

"And what if I don't?" he snarled. Sasuke kept a passive face before twisting the man's arm behind his back, careful not to cause too much injury, but a sufficient amount of pain. The man cried out in pain, his girlfriend clasping a hand to her mouth.

"Alright! Crap! I give! Let me go! We'll leave!" The man gasped as Sasuke pulled a little harder on the appendage.

"Gerald! You're such a pansy sometimes!" the woman shouted, storming off angrily to the door. Sasuke loosened his grip and the man ran after her calling: "Claudia! Darling! I'm sorry, okay?"

Neither turned back to apologise to Naruto.

Sasuke rushed to Naruto quickly, seeing the young man lying on the floor with his hands over his face.

"Naruto, are you all right?" he asked, glancing over Naruto's body to check for injury. The chair had fallen with him and he had landed on top of it before apparently rolling off to cause himself less pain. The only reply he got to the question was a slight nod.

"Let me see your face" Sasuke ordered, placing his own hands gently over Naruto's. He pulled at them carefully and revealed Naruto's face.

He had a small burn stretching from his left cheek to his left ear where the drink had fallen on him, and a small open gash above his right eye where the china of the mug had pierced his skin. A thin trickle of blood travelled up his forehead and disappeared into his hair. Sasuke felt his own blood boil and a feeling of regret that he hadn't broken that dick's arm filled him.

"Sir, are you two alright?" a timid voice spoke behind him. The question was followed by a gasp as she saw Naruto's state, but before she could make a fuss, Sasuke replied.

"We're fine,"

"B-But sir!"

"Don't worry," he said, turning to her with a small smile "I'm a doctor,"

With that, he scooped Naruto up into his arms and carried him out of the shop, ignoring the blonde's blushing protests as he squirmed to free himself.

Well, I know it wasn't worth the wait…but at least I wrote SOMETHING, right?

I have such a kink for strong Sasuke and Damsel in Distress Naruto. It's weird.

Well, please review! I'd appreciate any feedback…this could very well be a lost cause. I never do know.

And remember! If you think you could be that special beta reader for me, let me know! You can tell me in a review or a personal message and I will get back to you as soon as I can!

Thanks for not killing me 8D