Rubbing at his eyes tiredly, the blond covered a yawn with his hand as he sat up. He'd been up later than usual talking with his friends about his plans for the art project. It was nearly time to begin it. He had spoken with Deidara about it, he had agreed, saying "It's a very interesting idea, yeah."
Naruto had grinned and thanked him. Deidara told him he would even work on one, after seeing Naruto's portrayal first.

Today, he began his portion. It would take days for him to do the very beginning of it. He was drawing the silhouettes of men and women. Their outlines would be done and colored in with black colored pencil. Many of the words would be done in white pencil, along with some dark red paint, dark blue paint, and some of them even in neon orange pencil or paint, whichever he could find.

He dressed in loose black jeans and a black shirt with orange tiger stripes along the sides, a grin on his face, despite his tiredness. He worked slowly and carefully, so intent upon his work, that he was the last to pack up and leave. He grinned sheepishly at Deidara as he left. Deidara waved a farewell before returning his attention to Sasori who was sitting in the Art teacher's seat.

Upon checking his phone, Naruto saw he had a message from Zaku.
"If you're not too busy with your art, wanna hang with me? Don't care when, light classes today"

It'd been a while since they had hung out. Just the two of them.
The last time it had been just them two..., it had been when Zaku had kissed him.
Aw man, what if he thinks I don't like him? As Naruto fretted, he sent a reply, "Sure, not too busy, just finished art and that's last of the day"

Minutes later, Zaku responded.
"Sweet, wanna game for a while?"

"Yeah. Meet you there"

Happily, Naruto made his way to the common room in the dormitories. It had video games, darts, pool, dvds, air hockey.

Sitting on the couch with Zaku, a cushion a part, he glanced at the pale skinned boy. His eyes were intent upon the screen, they were beginning to play Soul Calibur III. Zaku chose his character, which turned out to be Talim.

"Talim?! You're going to be a girl?!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Just watch when I kick your ass," Zaku replied with a grin.

"Ha, right!" He retorted as he chose his character, Yunsung.

It was three wins to win, they were tied at two wins each.

"Told you!" Zaku laughed as he launched yet another spinny combo that ended with Naruto's character lying facedown once more.

"I haven't lost yet!" He tapped the buttons rapidly, for his character to get up and he did a combo which sent Talim flying across the screen as he regained a little health from each blow he dealt.

They continued back and forth a while longer.
Eventually, Yunsung threw Talim off the edge of the arena for the win.

Grinning Naruto set his controller down and turned to Zaku.

"Damn... Well, as winner..., what would you like as a prize?" Zaku asked with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

Naruto surprised himself by answering, "Well, how about another kiss?"

Blushing furiously as Zaku grinned and leaned in close, the taller stopped centimeters from the blond's lips, his darkeyes searching Naruto's.

"You sure?"

Nervously, Naruto gave a slight nod and then Zaku's lips were on his and he wrapped his arms around the taller, pulling his body closer. He felt Zaku smile into the kiss, one of his hands moving to gently cup Naruto's burning cheek in his cool palm as his other hand rested lightly on Naruto's upper back. Still blushing, he was slightly breathless when Zaku broke the kiss, leaning back before lightly resting the tip of his nose to Naruto's.

"You know..., I definetely wouldn't mind doing that again."

Naruto's arms fell back to his sides as he blushed and looked away, glancing back at the game screen.

"If you can beat me with a girl character," he replied, grinning at Zaku.

"You're on!" Zaku grinned, facing the screen and picking up his controller.

Zaku's warm leg upon his own was only a slight distraction as he again chose Yunsung and this time Zaku chose Seong-Mina. Needless to say, Zaku kicked Naruto's ass royally. He only got in a few hits before Zaku's character started stabbing him repeatedly with no way to interrupt. Naruto set the controller on the coffe table, sitting back with a sigh.

"Damn. I forgot about her."

Zaku laughed. "How could you?! She's the female version of Kilik."

Naruto groaned. "Kilik! That bastard."

"He's epic dude."

"I know but he's a bitch to fight."

"Right!" Zaku laughed again, sitting back with Naruto, looking over at him, his eyes drawn to the whiskers on either side of his face.

Naruto caught his gaze, self-conciously reaching up to touch his whiskers.

"They're cute...," Zaku said softly before leaning over to lightly run his very cold tongue over one of them.

Naruto turned an even brighter shade of red.

"Tasty. Not as good as pizza..., but still tasty." Zaku grinned before laughing at the look on Naruto's face.

Naruto laughed too, shaking his head.

"You liked it and you know it," Zaku grinned once more.

"Not as much as you," the blond retorted with a slight smirk.

Zaku shrugged and leaned back over to him, lightly pressing his lips to the blond, pulling away before the blond could kiss back.

"Dunno about you," he said as he stood, "But I have some homework I need to do before tomorrow."

"I don't have any but..., food sounds good...," Naruto said as he blushed, looking away from the stretching Zaku, whose shirt had started to rise to reveal his abdomen.

Zaku chuckled and lowered his arms.
"If you're still up when I finish my work, we can get some food?"

"Of course," Naruto grinned up at him.

"Sweet. Later man," Zaku ruffled Naruto's soft blond hair before walking around the couch and out the door.

A blushing Naruto sat on the couch a while longer. Thinking.
He hated labels, but couldn't help wondering what he and Zaku were. Friends with benefits? Almost-dating?
With a soft sigh, he shrugged to himself and turned off the ps2 and tv, returning to his apartment.