AN: oh look another modern AU SUCK IT BITCHES I DO WHAT I WANT and no these might not all make sense to you but they have a purpose okei

Having been best friends since the tail end of middle school (once he had managed to grow up a bit and she had managed to stop viewing him as a total nuisance) Naruto and Sakura were privy to knowledge about each other that pretty much nobody else knew. Even Sasuke didn't know the things Sakura knew about Naruto, and Ino was exempt from knowledge of certain secrets of Sakura's that Naruto was trusted with.

But there were also things that just... didn't manage to come up between them. Sometimes those things had to happen on a rare random occurrence, and then it was, on the honour of a pinky-promise, sworn to be kept only between them and not to become the common knowledge of their other friends. Things like Naruto's love of gardening (which she had only found out when they moved in together after they started college and he brought his favourite lily plant with him for the balcony area) or Sakura's complete collection of all the Icha Ichas ever written, hidden away where nobody would ever see (unless a Naruto happened across the shoebox full of them in the back of her closet while searching for a scarf).

Sometimes those things were revealed at 3:15 in the morning on a Sunday, without much warning at all.

It had been three months since they had moved in together, and so far, no problems. They had stayed up kinda late watching horror flicks, and once the popcorn ran out and the blonde started dozing, they had decided it was time for bed. The two had gone to their respective rooms, and had a day of papers and homework planned for the next day. She had fallen asleep quickly and soundly, without a lingering fear of any of the monsters from their marathon, and without really noticing the storm gust in, the rain slamming against the windows and building with a gusto.

Unlike her roommate.

She wasn't awake to hear the thunder as it began to roll, or see the lightning flash outside. Or at least, she hadn't been.

"Sakura... Saaaaakura... Sakura-chan, please."

The voice was trying to pull her from the sweet, sweet embrace of sleep, and she grunted her discontent. A hand gently nudged her shoulder, and when she only huffed as a reply shook it. Finally, she rolled over and snapped her eyes open, ready to growl at who she already knew was there.

"Naruto! What the hell is so important tha—"

She was cut off by the look she saw on his face as another clap of thunder rattled through the apartment. He looked... Scared? More like mildly terrified. His brow was furrowed and his eyes looked frantic, his mouth grim and though all she could see by was the light from the hallway, she could tell he was paler than normal. The roseate sat up, concern flooding her.

"Hey now, Sunshine, hey," she coed worriedly, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and bringing him in close, feeling his tighten around her waist and his face burrow into her shoulder. "Sunshine, what's wrong?" she asked after a long minute, her hand stroking up and down his back comfortingly. Another peal of thunder—this time she could feel his body tense in her hold, and she was able to connect two and two.

"'m scared of thunder," he muttered, like it was a dirty confession rather than a simple fact. In any other circumstance, she might have laughed at him—but the state he was in gave her the strength to bite it back to a slight smile before she pushed him back gently by the shoulders, and slid over closer the edge of her bed.

"Well, come on," she told him, flipping back the sheet and patting the cleared space next to her. A look of relief settled on his strained features, and he quickly sidled right next to her, not giving her the chance to take her offer back. She rolled onto her side, facing away from him, and felt his almost abnormally warm body meld to her, an arm around her waist and his soft breathing at the back of her neck. The close position didn't feel strange to either, and already her lids were feeling heavy again as he found comfort in her presence, as much as she found contentedness in his.

After that night, it became a given she would have a bedmate during storms, and it was also a given that no one found out about his secret fear. And that was just the way it was.