Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto (wish I did). The only thing I own is the fire calls and the plot.
Summary: Being a firefighter is a tough but rewarding job. On one particular scene, Naruto saves a man who worms his way into Naruto's brain and he can't stop thinking about him. As a thank you, Sasuke takes Naruto out to dinner, what will happen next?
Warnings: AU, boyXboy, SasuNaru, NaruSasu.
Here is chapter four!
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Naruto laid in his bunk and sighed happily. He was finally back at work. The last six weeks had been wonderful. His dinner date with Sasuke at his house had gone well and had turned into a lot of other dates. By their fifth date, Sasuke had suggested that they become an item and Naruto had enthusiastically agreed.
"Naruto, what would you say to being my boyfriend?" Sasuke asked as he sipped his glass of wine at dinner. Naruto sputtered over his pasta. He coughed for a moment. He cleared his throat and looked at the raven across the table from him with a big smile.
"I would say yes, I would like to be your boyfriend." Naruto said brightly. He reached his hand across the table and took the pale one into his. "This makes me so happy." he said holding onto the cool pale hand. "Do you want to be my boyfriend?" Naruto asked Sasuke softly.
Sasuke nodded. "Yes, I do." he said blushing at the contact between the two. They had yet to kiss or do anything beyond hugging and holding hands occasionally, but that ways one thing that Sasuke liked about Naruto, he didn't push Sasuke into anything. He let Sasuke set the pace. Once they had left dinner, Naruto walked Sasuke to his car and opened the door for him. Before the raven could get into the car, Naruto turned him around and softly pressed his lips to Sasuke's. The kiss was soft. It was perfect. Sasuke smiled as he pulled back. He then leaned in and placed his own kiss on Naruto's lips.
Naruto placed his fingers on his lips as he thought of Sasuke's lips on his. He loved the feeling of the raven haired man's soft lips on his. His next thought was of the day that he got his new tattoo. He had been waiting years to get this tattoo done and he was finally getting it done. To his surprise, Sasuke had gone with him to get it done.
"Sasuke, I am so nervous!" he said as he and Sasuke stood outside the tattoo parlor. The other man shook his head and pulled Naruto into the shop.
"Don't worry about it, dobe, I know the artist and he is wonderful." he said as they went towards the counter. Before Sasuke could ring the bell, a pale man who looked like he could be Sasuke's twin came out from the back room. "Hey, Sai." Sasuke said with a small lift of his hand.
"Hello Sasuke, what can I do for you today?" Sai asked as he leaned over the counter with a creepy smile.
The smile made Naruto shudder softly but he let Sasuke continue talking to Sai. "My boyfriend," Sasuke said motioning towards Naruto, "would like to get a tattoo done." Sai nodded and then turned to address Naruto.
"Do you know what you would like done?" he said as he pulled out a sketch book. Naruto nodded and handed him a picture of an angel kneeling as though he were crying. Sai studied the picture and nodded. "I can work with this." he said as he turned to his desk and began to work.
Sasuke smiled at Naruto softly. "Why don't we grab lunch while we wait?" he said reaching for his hand. Naruto nodded and took Sasuke's hand into his and left the parlor to get food. When they returned a little over two hours later, Sai was ready to begin Naruto's tattoo. It would take most of the day, which didn't seem to bother either male. Sasuke stayed the entire time watching as Sai worked over Naruto's tan and well toned back.
For the first few days, Naruto's back had really itched but he knew he couldn't scratch it. Thank god for Sasuke and Sakura helping him to keep the tattoo taken care of. While he had enjoyed his time off, he was excited to be back at work. He had missed the action and the routine. Before he could settle into his favorite chair in the dayroom (1) the dispatch tones came through the station.
"Engine 22, Ladder 15, Medic 7...Engine 22, Ladder 15, Medic 7. Respond to the area of 858 National Drive. Reference 10-70 Residential."
Naruto jumped from his chair and made his way to the truck. On the ride he and the others listened to the dispatcher as Iruka tried to get more information. He was ready for a good fire. While he had wanted a good fire, he had wanted everyone who was there to be safe. He knew that wasn't the case when he got on scene and saw a middle aged woman panicking in front of the house. She was screaming about her children while being held back by a police officer who was there. Their first goal had been determined for them, they had to save the children. Naruto and the others went through the house putting out the fire as they made their way to the upstairs bedrooms. Naruto tried to open the door he had found but he couldn't, something was blocking it. Taking his axe (2) he beat the door down and entered the room. He looked and felt around, his heart sinking when he felt what he had come to know as a person's leg. He followed the leg up to a body in front of a closet door. He had found the eldest daughter. He opened the closet door and found the two younger daughters. They were huddled together, all three were dead. He was too late. He gathered the two small girls into his arms while Kiba gathered up the eldest girl and they made their way down the steps and out to the yard. Tears rolled down his face when he saw the mother of the girls crumple under herself and into the arms of the cop.
He placed the two girls on the stretcher and took his helmet off and his mask. The tears made marks down his sweating face as he tried to pull himself together. He made his way to the sobbing mess that was the mother and hugged her to him. He rocked her as he whispered that he was sorry. "I'm sorry, if I had been a little faster…" he whispered. Sakura watched him and the woman cry. Death on any fire scene was hard, but the death of a child was the worst. All she wanted ways for those three little girls to wake up and be okay. A single tear rolled down her face as she covered the bodies and prepared to call the coroner.
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It had been 24 hours since he saw those girls. 20 hours since he had gone home. 5 hours since the last nightmare. Naruto laid on his bed and stared at the ceiling. He didn't want to be alone but he couldn't talk about what happened, or rather, didn't want to talk about it. If he didn't talk about those girls, they wouldn't have died, he wouldn't have been the one who found them. If he didn't think about them then the nightmares would go away, right? He sighed and decided to call Sasuke as see if he wanted to come over, maybe having his boyfriend, he smiled at the thought, over at his house, his sadness would subside. After a couple of rings, Naruto heard Sasuke's silky voice come over the phone.
"Hello?" came the voice
"Hey, Sasuke, it's me." he said with a smile.
"Oh, hey Naruto, what's up?" Sasuke's voice perked up a bit, making Naruto smile a little more.
"I uh, I was wondering if you, you know, maybe wanted to come over." he said nervously. There was a silence on the other end for a moment before Sasuke's voice invaded his ears.
"I can't right now, but I can come over after 3 today." he said softly. Naruto sighed softly.
"Okay, that's fine. I'll leave a key out for you in case I've fallen asleep." he said with a chuckle. Sasuke laughed as well and agreed that would be a good idea. Naruto placed his spare key outside under his welcome mat and went back inside to watch some television before Sasuke got there. Before he could stop himself, Naruto had fallen asleep.
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The flames grew higher and higher, the three figures grew smaller and smaller. Naruto ran after them as they screamed for help. "I'm coming!" he screamed reaching out for them. His breathing was labored.
He continued to run after the three figures until he found himself in front of a door. The door looked familiar but he couldn't place it. When it tried to open it, the door didn't budge. He pushed again and again until he felt the axe in his hand. He beat the door down. He was in the room of the little girls. The first one came up to him, face covered in soot and tears.
"Why didn't you save us?" came the sad little voice. "We were calling for help." She disappeared.
"Wair! Come back!" Naruto cried. He felt his pants being pulled on. He looked down and saw the younger two girls. They looked like the older one, dirty and sad. They held hands and cried out to him.
"We heard you coming! You weren't fast enough! We are dead because of you!" came the two voices.
"No! I tried! I really did!" he cried out reaching for them. Suddenly a hand appeared on his shoulder. He turned and saw Sasuke's face the way he had seen him the night his house burned.
"You failed them, Naruto. You aren't a hero. You are a failure." came a hiss from Sasuke's lips. Naruto cried out to him.
"No! I...I tried!" he cried out. Suddenly he was alone in a burning inferno. "Wait! Come back!" He screamed the tears running down his face. "I tried! I tried to save you!" he screamed out into the flames.
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Sasuke opened the door to Naruto's home after no one answered the door. "Naruto!" he called out as he entered the home. No one answered. Sasuke continued to call out to Naruto as he made his way to the living room, assuming that Naruto had fallen asleep on the sofa. He began to smile when he saw the blond man asleep on the sofa until he saw the tears running down his face. The raven rushed over to the sleeping blond and shook him as he called out his name.
The sleeping man shot up with tears in his eyes. His breathing was shallow, he didn't know what was happening, all he knew was that he in his home, he was crying, and someone was hugging him. He turned softly and saw Sasuke. Sasuke was hugging him.
"Naruto, w-what's wrong?" Sasuke asked as he rubbed Naruto's back. There was no response. The only thing that was heard was the sniffling of the blond man in his arms. Sasuke held Naruto for a bit longer before he pulled back and looked at the blond. "Naruto, please tell me." Sasuke's eyes plead with Naruto to open up and tell him what had shaken him. Naruto shook his head softly.
"It was just a bad dream." He said closing his eyes and pulling a fake smile to his face. "It's nothing." He mumbled as he felt Sasuke's slender fingers wipe the tears away from his eyes. He opened his bright eyes and looked at Sasuke's dark eyes so filled with worry.
"Are you sure? Are you sure you are okay?" Sasuke asked softly looking over Naruto's face. The blond nodded and smiled. Sasuke smiled back softly and kissed Naruto's forehead. "Well, just promise me that you will tell me if something is bothering you." He said as he moved to sit next to Naruto.
"I will, I promise." Naruto said trying to keep his mask in place. The voice inside his head screamed at him to open up and tell Sasuke everything, trust him, confide in him, but he couldn't. Naruto couldn't tell Sasuke that he had failed, that three girls were dead because of him. Naruto snuggled up to Sasuke and changed the channel on the television. This, this feeling, was exactly what Naruto needed.
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It had been a few weeks since that call. Naruto couldn't even bring himself to think about it without crying. He had lost his happiness, his pep, his spunk. It wasn't enough for people who didn't know Naruto to notice, but Kiba, Sakura and even Sasuke noticed. Sakura and Kiba didn't say anything or do anything but Sasuke, Sasuke was getting tired of seeing his boyfriend fake being happy. He knew all the signs, he knew what it looked like when Naruto put his happy mask on and he was sick and tired of it. Sasuke had determined that he was going to get to the bottom of why Naruto felt the need to lie to him and others and pretend that he was okay.
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Dayroom: basically a living room for the firemen, we spend most of the day in there hence the name dayroom
Axe: We are required to carry a tool with us when we go into a fire.
So, this call happened to my dad a few years ago, on the 9-1-1 tape, you can hear his voice and him trying to beat down the door trying to get to the girls. After that, he wouldn't look at me for three months and for those three months I had no clue what I had done to him. I wish he had told me about it when it happened, but like Naruto, he internalized his pain.
How will Naruto deal with it? How will Sasuke get him to open up? Is their relationship strong enough to survive this depression and pain? Find out in the next chapter!
I hope these footnotes help to make sense of some of the terms that we use. Please leave a review and let me know what you think. You guys rock! Much love! Till next time!
