.o.O.o.

I own nothing! Please don't sue me!

For additional warnings, disclaimers, and summary, see the first chapter!

.x.x.x.

-o-

Sasuke enjoyed Neji's party even less than usual that night. Sakura and Ino were hounding him the whole time, and even though he knew Neji's house and all of it's best places for keeping away from prying eyes extremely well, it seemed as though they had some sort of radar for him with the way that they would keep cropping up right beside him with no warning.

He hadn't been able to find Gaara that evening to inquire about whether or not the guy had an obnoxious, loudmouth acquaintance that he had let in to the event, but it seemed as though Naruto knew Sakura and Ino as well, because although they looked annoyed every time he would attempt to make conversation with them, they didn't look confused about who he was.

Although he initially tried to deny it, Sasuke eventually couldn't help admitting to the fact that he watched Naruto like a hawk all evening, and not just out of waiting for him to slip up and get thrown out. He had never really seen the idiot outside of their coinciding lunch breaks, and it was… interesting to watch him interact in public.

Naruto didn't seem to be a bad guy, he was just… annoying. He was brash and full of laughter, and the complete opposite of everything that Sasuke strived to be. He also seemed to vie after Sakura's attention, which Sasuke couldn't for the life of him comprehend.

But it served to effectively distract the bubblegum-pink-headed girl from her search for him, and for that Sasuke was glad. Nothing about her or Ino had ever appealed to him, but his family had unfortunately been trying to set him up with one or the other for years now, saying that it would be an excellent match. Sasuke, however, had other ideas for his future – namely ones that didn't include a prearranged marriage to a girl who, frankly, annoyed the crap out of him.

Most girls did, in fact. Sasuke supposed that they might have been alright, if it hadn't been for all of the incessant chattering and clinging and fiddling with hair and makeup that they did. The only girl he had ever met that didn't do all of those things was Hinata, and she was Neji's cousin, so even if Sasuke had been interested, she was definitely off limits.

"Hey Sakura! I – hey wait where are you going?"

Brought out of his thoughts by a name that set off alarms in his head, shouted by a voice that annoyed him to no end, Sasuke glanced down from his inconspicuous hideout of a third floor balcony. There was no way to get to it without going right through some of Neji's private rooms, and those were off limits to everyone but the Hyuga heir himself, and Sasuke. Sakura and Ino were still on the hunt it seemed, although he couldn't hear what they were saying – it was only that loudmouth Naruto's voice that carried all the way up to his hiding place.

With a sigh, Sasuke leaned back against the railing, hidden from view, and contented himself with bunking it out right where he currently was for the rest of the evening. He had brought some food and drinks up from the kitchen on his way to his hideout balcony, and grabbed a book from the library, so he was all set for a night of hiding away from the party. Picking up his book, Sasuke popped open a bottle of sparkling juice, and set about sipping and reading. It was actually rather nice, with the steady thrum of the music's bass serving as background noise, and Sasuke easily immersed himself in his reading.

That was, until someone came crashing through the balcony double-doors.

"Ow, holy shitballs, OW!"

Absolutely unable to believe what a bitch fate was deciding to be to him that night, Sasuke glared at the idiot who had tumbled into his little sanctuary.

Still grumbling to himself, said intruder stood up, brushing himself off and muttering murderously. He glared at the French double-doors as if it was their fault for opening up and dumping him to the ground when he had no doubt bashed into them all of his own devices. Sasuke wasn't sure how Naruto had managed to sneak his way into Neji's rooms and out to the balcony, but he was most certainly not pleased, and did not welcome the interruption.

However, it did allow for a highly ironic twist of situational arrangements, giving him a perfect in for that annoying line that the loudmouth was always so quick to blab out.

"Fancy meeting you here, idiot."

If it weren't for how disgruntled he was, Sasuke would have found it hilarious – the way Naruto nearly jumped right out of his skin at Sasuke's voice.

"Holy FUCK you bastard!" the blonde replied, rounding on Sasuke and clutching a hand over his heart in a show of surprise. "Don't just go sneaking up on people like that, yeah?"

Sasuke scoffed, pushing away from the balcony railing and striding over to Naruto. He knew his presence was intimidating, and the fact that he held about an inch's advantage in height over the blonde helped when he stopped right in front of Naruto, sizing him up. They stood like that for a minute, nearly nose to nose, before Sasuke spoke up again.

"You're not allowed to be here."

"Bull shit, I'm not!" Naruto indignantly shot back, cheeks flushed as he riled himself up. "I didn't see any signs telling me that I couldn't wander around upstairs! This is a house party, therefore I am allowed to explore the house!"

Narrowing his eyes as Naruto's idiotic gall, Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest, shifting his weight from one leg to another in a show of annoyance that could not be contained. He did not fidget, as such mannerisms were not in his purebred Uchiha blood, but there was nothing wrong with a little physical restlessness in the face of a frustrating problem.

"When you come across roped off wings, that means that it is a part of the house not meant to be accessed by just anyone, even during a house party. It's common knowledge… for people with more than half a brain, that is."

"HEY!" came the indignant response, and Sasuke was more than a little surprised that Naruto had even caught the insult. "I do so have more than half a brain, and at least I don't have a giant pole stuck up my ass! How did you even get it up that far, anyways?"

Glowering, Sasuke didn't dignify that with a response. They engaged in another heated staredown for a few minutes, before Naruto got frustrated, throwing his hands up in the air in a gesture of defeat.

"Okay, fine!" he said. "I give up. You're right, I'm probably not supposed to be here, but I just wanted to try and hang out with Sakura, and she was so busy looking for your bastard ass that I just followed her around, but I guess I took a wrong turn after the last staircase or something."

"Hn. Or something." Sasuke returned, shaking his head and going back to the balcony ledge, sitting down against it and picking his book back up. This idiot really wasn't worth his time.

Naruto was a little confused by this change in attitude. He had figured that their stand-off wouldn't end until Sasuke had either shoved him by force back into the part of the house he was allowed to be in, or tossed him off the balcony. But the dark haired male was simply going back to hiding in the shadows in his little corner, attempting to finish his book.

"Hey what the hell?" Naruto asked, his tone carrying less of a tone of anger, and something more like genuine inquiry. "Aren't you going to throw me out?"

Sasuke glanced up from his book, looking bored. "And have you kick and scream the whole way, alerting everyone to what's going on and causing a scene? No thank you. Do whatever you want, I don't care."

Naruto stood where he was for a minute longer before nodding to himself as if making up his mind. Striding over to Sasuke's little corner he leaned back against the railing, sliding down into a cross-legged position beside the glowering brunet.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked, and his voice sounded guarded, as if he suspected that Naruto was up to something.

The blonde shrugged. "Just sitting. You said I could do whatever I wanted, right?"

"… I would have thought you'd go away."

Naruto couldn't help but grin at that. "You wish, bastard. The party's getting boring with all of these yuppies that Neji invited, and Sakura won't pay any attention to me. Why do you hate her so much anyways?"

Sasuke sighed, annoyed at the ceaseless yammering. But if he ignored it he just knew that Naruto would only keep at it, getting louder and louder, until one or the other of them snapped and broke out into a fight… again.

"I don't hate her." He clarified. "It's just very annoying that she and her friend follow me around all of the time, giggling and trying to get me to talk to them. I'm not interested, but they won't leave me alone."

Furrowing his brows in confusion, Naruto tried to take this information in. Why would anyone not like Sakura? She was pretty and smart and… and pretty, and… well actually, she had never been especially nice to him and he new next to nothing about her, but the thrill of the chase kept Naruto striving after her out of habit, even though he had realized a long time ago that he stood no chance with her.

"Well if you don't want her attention, whose do you want?" Naruto questioned, brows furrowed. "Because I hate to break it to ya, but you're not gonna get much of a chance to socialize with much of anyone hiding up here."

Sasuke scoffed at that. "I wouldn't bet on that, idiot. It seemed as though at least one pushy annoyance has bumbled their way to me, who's to say fate won't strike again?"

Rolling his eyes and snorting in amusement over Sasuke's jab, Naruto rested his head back against the balcony, looking up at the stars. "So what, you come to these fancy parties just to isolate yourself in your little hideout above all the 'little people'?"

"Essentially." Came the bored response.

"Well that's lame!" Naruto declared, leaning forward and budging even more into Sasuke's space, looking him over skeptically. "You're honestly telling me that you'd rather be all alone up here with your boring books and stuck-up attitude than down there with the food and music and chicks?"

"Yes." Sasuke answered, looking annoyed – as if there was possibly any other response that he was supposed to give besides an affirmative? "And if you're so interested in those things, why don't you go back to them? Really. You can leave anytime you want." Please, he added in his head.

Naruto folded his arms behind his head, laying out on his back, stretched out on the marble floor. He didn't look so bad like that, Sasuke thought, when he was in a relaxed position rather than wound so tight and ready to spring into action like he normally was.

"Eh, I don't think I will." The blonde answered. "Mainly I came here to impress Sakura and show her that I was good enough to get in, but she's too busy flitting around after YOU to pay any attention to me, and apparently Neji's parties aren't as crazy as most of the others I sneak – er, get invited to, so I can't get sloshed off my ass and go crazy down there in the yard. Everyone here's kind of a bunch of stuck up snobs and douchebags, no offense."

"Hn." Sasuke acknowledged in distaste. "What did you expect? Neji is rich and prestigious, and he invited others who are the same, or who have at least worked up a reputation for themselves."

"Hey!" Naruto indignantly snapped, sitting up. "I have a reputation!"

"Let me clarify – people who have worked towards a positive reputation for themselves."

Grumbling but accepting that accusation, Naruto laid back down, closing his eyes. He really was an annoyance, but for the life of him Sasuke couldn't figure out why he had yet to force the loudmouth blonde away from the balcony, so that he could get back to reading in peace. Maybe it was the fact that he was different. Sasuke had never met anyone quite like Naruto, and he had to admit he was intrigued. What made this kid tick the way he did? And more importantly, how was it that even though the blonde got under his skin in the worst of ways, Sasuke was still compelled to let him stick around?

Deciding to ignore that for the time being, seeing as he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer to that particular self-questioning at the moment, Sasuke went back to pretending to read his book, all the while continuing to figure out this… Naruto puzzle.

-o-

The next Monday, at his crappy little foodstand in the mall's food court that he took so seriously, Sasuke wasn't surprised to see that he had been scheduled until closing.

Again.

Sasuke got scheduled until closing a lot, seeing as everyone else was lazy, and he always did a spotless job of closing shop, thanks to his anal-retentive nature. It meant that he had a loooong day ahead of him, but at least he knew that the job was going to be done, and done well.

However, it was hard to let that be satisfying enough when faced with giggling girls, ignorant adults, and otherwise irate mallgoers all day who were just trying to get food, but making the process-oh-so-difficult. Really, Sasuke wondered, was it that hard to order a teriyaki chicken bowl? Or a vegetarian tempura platter? No, it wasn't. But everyone wanted it tweaked to their liking, nevermind the fact that they could just pick out the vegetables themselves, or order something that they knew rather than ask him every last detail that their meal would consist of.

Honestly, they were a crappy Asian food stand in the mall, not a five star restaurant.

Eventually, thank God, lunch break rolled around, and Sasuke grabbed a business magazine (having forgotten his book at home that morning, as he had been a little distracted thinking about… not last night's party and Naruto) and headed for the barstool at the end of the counter, just as he did every day.

But today, Sasuke held a bit of anticipation for the break. At Neji's party over the weekend, he had managed to spend hours upon hours with that Naruto guy, and had come to find that the kid wasn't half bad, once you got past the annoying attitude and overenthusiastic personality. He was actually rather funny, and a nice guy, albeit a bit crude and blunt. Overall… Sasuke could stand to be around him, and maybe even enjoy himself.

Not that he would ever admit to any of that, of course.

Eventually it had gotten so late that Sasuke had had to force Naruto out of the house, seeing as the blonde didn't want to leave on his own, and they'd run across a rather flustered Neji and Gaara on the living room couch on the way out. Naruto had given the redhead a cheeky grin, wink, and thumbs up as Sasuke shoved him out the door. Gaara actually smirked back ever so slightly, leading Sasuke to finally believe that they two actually knew eachother. Had they not, Naruto surely would have been flipped the bird at the very least.

But the point was that all in all, Sasuke had actually had a rather enjoyable time at the party, which was certainly not as per usual. Naruto livened things up and was interesting and hard to predict, and Sasuke found himself captivated.

Maybe a little bit too much, if the current twisting of his stomach in anticipation over the blonde's imminent arrival to ambush his lunch break was any indication.

Forcing himself to think that it had simply been a long time since he had met anyone different, let alone anyone different that didn't completely piss him off, Sasuke went back to attempting to read his magazine. And he was doing so very well until –

"Well fancy meeting you here!"

With a habitual huff of annoyance Sasuke turned to face who he knew had come to interrupt his break, but he couldn't help the flutter – of… of NOT nervousness! – in his chest.

"No book today, bastard?" Naruto playfully teased, pulling up a menu. As if he even needed to look at it – he always ordered the same ramen bowl. Sasuke just suspected that he was fidgety and needed to be doing something with his hands. "I don't think I've ever seen you without your nose stuck in some stuffy novel."

Deciding to not rise to the bait that Naruto had dangled in front of him about his choice in genres, Sasuke made up a quick excuse. "I finished it. You were there."

Naruto looked puzzled for a second, before enlightenment lit his features and he laughed. "At the party? Bullshit! Kiba's dog could pretend to read better than you. You weren't actually reading it at all – or are we pretending that you finished it too, as long as we're playing make believe that you were actually reading?"

Sasuke would have been very offended had it not been for the obviously playful intent and mischievous twinkle in Naruto's blue eyes. Muttering under his breath and going back to pretending to read his magazine, Sasuke listened to Naruto ordering his soup. The kid always did it with such an air of importance, as if requesting noodles was the most significant thing he could ever think to do with his life. Which might have very well been the case.

But what Sasuke didn't know was that Naruto had a lot more on his mind than noodles. For once. The blonde was acting casual as ever, but at the same time he was carefully observing Sasuke's reactions to his presence. Now that they finally knew eachother for who they both really were, Naruto was curious to see if their lunch-break routine was going to be awkward at all, or even just different in any way than it had been before.

And for one thing, Sasuke seemed a lot more willing to interact than before. Not that the ice-prince would ever actually be open about it, but Naruto could tell in the way that the dark haired male would keep sending glances his way, or heaven forbid directing full sentences at him. Before Naruto had been lucky to get a cursory glare and "hn" from the Uchiha. Grinning, Naruto knew that he had wormed his way into Sasuke's "reluctantly acknowledged friend" zone.

He didn't know exactly why he felt like befriending the stoic boy, who was so unlike himself in almost every way, but Naruto had always been the type to act on his impulses first and ask questions later. Something drew him to Sasuke, and had from the start, otherwise why would he have gone out of his way for so long just to say hi and try to get a response of some kind out of the stubborn bastard every single day, even when the odds seemed so against him?

No, there was something about the guy that made Naruto feel like nagging, getting under his skin, pushing in the hopes that Sasuke would push back. Their interactions were half friendly (albeit teasing and mocking) banter, half competition. It made Naruto really feel interested and challenged, and so he was going to keep pushing, just to see how far he could take things.

Initially, it had started as a game of annoying the bastard at the food stand every day. When he'd found out who Sasuke was, it had warped into fabricating a reputation of some kind, and when that had failed it had turned into proving himself. They had settled into a tumultuous sort of curious acceptance for a while at the party, but now it looked like they were now almost back to square one…

Except this time Sasuke's guard was down just enough for Naruto to see that the dark haired man was actually interested in their continued interaction, to some level. Naruto at least no longer felt like he was being blocked out like an unwanted, nagging wife…

… which was good, because it meant that Naruto now had an opening to keep pushing until he figured out what exactly it was he wanted from this Sasuke Uchiha character.

-o-

Sasuke hated closing shifts.

They meant that he had to stay at that God-forsaken food stand until the mall closed, which was rather late, not to mention that people generally stopped coming by the food court an hour or so before the mall closed.

Which meant that Sasuke had to stand around at his abandoned little food booth with technically nothing to do for an extended period of time.

Sasuke hated being unproductive.

So he cleaned.

Top to bottom, Sasuke spent his closing shifts cleaning until the pans shone, the stove gleamed, and all of the food ingredients were perfectly organized. It was tedious, but it kept his mind and hands occupied when there was nothing else to do.

There was a radio in the shop that he very well could have fiddled with to his liking, but Sasuke didn't really listen to the radio. They never played anything good between the commercials these days. And so in silence he packed boxes away, locked refrigerators and freezers, and made sure that every speck of dust was swept up. He was doing quite well, ahead of schedule even, until –

"Someone's here awfully late."

'Naruto', Sasuke inwardly groaned. What was he doing here? Wasn't the mall closing soon?

"So do you sleep here too? Oh no wait, lemme guess! They couldn't afford a burglar alarm to stay here at night, but you're such a bastard that they figured you'd do just as well! Haha get it? Because you're such a jerk that no one would want to –"

"I get it." Sasuke cut in, organizing noodle packets into their proper containers to give himself an excuse to not look at the blonde. He scowled into the freeze dried noodles when Naruto didn't go away.

Naruto, for his part, smiled and appeared completely undeterred by his joke being cut short. "So what are you doing? Closing up shop?"

Sasuke barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Obviously."

He heard a loud sigh at this, and heard a thump against the counter. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Naruto had leaned heavily on the counter, his elbows propping him up with his face in his hands. Sasuke huffed, turning back to his work and wondering when Naruto was going to leave him alone. Just because he was sort of vaguely interested in some sort of confusing way in Naruto, didn't mean he wanted the loudmouth just hanging around being annoying all the time.

Neither of them spoke for a minute, and Sasuke heard the scuff of a barstool scrape against the floor, indicating that Naruto was settling in. Sasuke moved his attention to the plastic utensils and chopsticks that needed to be wrapped in napkins for the next day in order to cover his shift of discomfort. His interest in the blonde unnerved him. He never cared about anyone, so this new feeling of genuinely wanting to know about someone and sort of be around them was foreign to him. He realized that it was stupid to lash out by being rude or unresponsive, which would be backwards progress in figuring out this new enigma, but he couldn't help it. Call it his coping mechanism, but Sasuke liked to drive away or obliterate anything that intimidated him.

He had just started to turn on his heel to tell Naruto to go home and let him finish closing up in peace, when the blonde spoke.

"So I've been trying to figure it out."

Sasuke paused, before turning the rest of the way around, folding his arms over his chest as he looked at the boy in front of him. Obviously he was being bated into some sort of in-depth conversation, but… he couldn't help it. He took the bite.

"Figure what out?"

Naruto cracked a cheeky smile and slumped forewords, so that most of his upper body was resting on the counter at that point. "What your deal is, obviously." He responded. "It's like… you're popular, and all these people like you, and the girls all want your ass like none other, but you're so damn grumpy all the time."

Sasuke scoffed. "People are annoying."

Shaking his head dismissively, Naruto went on. "No but it's more than that."

Disliking the idea of this boy who was still mostly a stranger to him attempting to psycho-analyze him, Sasuke decided to put an end to it once and for all.

"No." He said, stepping up to the counter and placing his hands on either side of Naruto, fixing him with a glare. "It's not. People annoy me. End of story. They're stupid and petty and greedy and irrational, and I don't like being around them for extended periods of time. I know it's probably unheard of in that stupid little head of yours, but not everyone is a people person. So stop trying to come up with excuses and explanations. I just don't like being around people."

He had expected Naruto to be crestfallen. He had meant to break something in that childishly optimistic heart, so that he could be left alone to do his cleaning. But Naruto was still there, smile and all, and though Sasuke continued to glare at him, it wavered in confusion.

"But you like me."

Sasuke wrinkled his nose in distaste. "No I don't."

Leaning forward, Naruto was now completely across the counter, almost nose-to-nose with Sasuke, dangerously perked on his stool by his knees, and wearing a shit eating grin.

"Yes you do. You say you don't but I know you do."

Sasuke stepped back. He hated stepping back, because stepping back was an admission of defeat, even if ever so small, but he felt weird being so close up to the blonde. "I don't know what gave you that impression," he said. "But you're wrong."

"I'm not!" Naruto instead, wiggling excitedly in his chair. "And do you want to know why?"

"No."

"You let me sit next to you every day for lunch. You let me talk to you even though you don't hardly ever say anything back. Sometimes you do talk back, and I've never seen you talk to anyone else before."

"I –" Sasuke tried to cut in, but Naruto pressed eagerly onwards.

"You always pretend to be reading your stupid books, but I know you're not because you're paying attention to me. You could have kicked me out of Neji's party if I was really bothering you that much, but you didn't. You're a complete asshole to me and call me names and tell me to go away, but you never actually do anything about it even though you probably could. And you wanna know why?"

Sasuke was sure he could probably guess the answer, and wanted to say that no, he didn't want to know, but figured he was going to get it either way, so he said nothing.

"It's because you like me."

As all of this absorbed, Sasuke came to the startling conclusion that somewhere, deep down inside, maybe Naruto was right. It was completely stupid, and the blonde idiot was the last person who he ever would have thought he would be interested in being around, but for some unknown reason he just kept coming back for more. He could go somewhere else for his break if Naruto bothered him that much. He could have thrown Naruto off the balcony at the party. I could just lock up and leave the stupid food booth forever if he wanted to… but in the end, he didn't.

Naruto looked on smugly as Sasuke's mind processed all of this. Sasuke glowered at him, but it was more in indignation this time around then outright irritation of any sort.

"You do, don't you?" He pressed.

"Shut up, idiot."

Naruto threw his hands up in the air triumphantly. "HA! I knew it! That wasn't a 'no' and you could have said it if you meant it! Congratulations, bastard, the first inch of that stick up your ass has been successfully removed!"

Sasuke gave into a long suppressed urge, and rolled his dark onyx eyes. Naruto grinned gleefully and stuck his tongue out, causing Sasuke to sigh heavily and shake his head as he went back to closing duties, Naruto babbling away behind him.

"Just you wait you bastard, I'm going to keep coming over here every day and slowly but surely we'll get that thing out! I know you'll miss it, because I'm sure you've grown quite used to it by now, but by the time we're finished you're going to realize that…"

Sasuke toned out the rest. He wasn't sure when this became about trying to get under the other person's skin, or making friends, or whatever Naruto was doing, but he supposed he would go along with it. Maybe keeping him around would be… well, it would be an interesting change in pace, at least.

-o-

The next day, during his lunch break, Sasuke brought got his regular cup of coffee and pulled out the same book he had been working on (sort of) over the past few weeks, and took his regular seat at the end of the counter. Just a regular, boring day like any other. He most certainly wasn't waiting for anything or anyone. Nope, not at all.

"Hey there, bastard!"

He looked up, briefly, from his book, and saw Naruto plonk down on a barstool… the one right next to him, not leaving any seat between as he normally would.

Hm. Well, as long as they were mixing things up…

"Idiot." He returned. "Fancy meeting you here."

-o-

.o.O.o.

OH MY GOD YOU GUYS. OH MY GOD. I AM SO SORRY.

Why did I leave this story abandoned for so long? I promised myself I would never be "that guy" and just look at me! I AM SO SO SO SORRY AAAARRRGHHHHH.

Thank you to EVERY SINGLY PERSON who has reviewed this poor, neglected story, especially all you brave recent reviewers who must have thought that it was a lost cause to ever hope for any conclusion… THIS IS FOR YOU!

I think a part of the reason I lost touch with this fic is because I started to feel like it was going nowhere. But I thought about it today at work, and realized that all I had ever really wanted out of it was to just sort of get Sasuke and Naruto to collide, conflict, and then sort of realize that deep down, they liked eachother and should be friends. And with that in mind, it was easy enough to conclude! I really hope it was worth the wait. D:

ANYWAYS, I hope you liked it, THANK YOU for reading and reviewing, and I PROMISE to never leave any of you wonderful readers hanging like that ever again! Muah!