Chapter 7 – Roll With The Punches
It was another big party tonight; the club was packed to the brim with dancing bodies, alcohol was flowing and being spilled all over the place and Naruto frowned at the thought of having to clean it up.
"Oi! Blondie!" Naruto turned to see who was calling him; it was Kiba and Hinata two of his best friends. He grinned and slid past Sakura to get to them at the other end of the bar. Fist bumping with Kiba and sending a smile at Hinata, he fixed the pair their usual drinks.
It was strange seeing them out on such a busy night; Hinata was more of the reserved type, not someone he would have pictured in this crowd.
"What are you two doing here on a night like this?" He asked, tilting his head in the direction of the gyrating mass of people. Kiba shrugged and took a large gulp of his beer, before they actually had a chance to answer properly, the crowd split to reveal two men brawling on the floor.
Naruto cursed and glanced to the door, Kisame was trying to wade through the crowd and Kakuzu was nowhere to be seen – hopping over the bar, Naruto made a beeline for the men and grasped the closest one, dragging him back and off of the other guy.
"Get the fuck off of me" The guy growled and Naruto caught sight of Kisame hauling the other man out of the door.
In the moment when he took his eyes off him, the guy got an arm free and turned, punching Naruto in the nose. Flinching, he felt blood trickle out of his nose and he stumbled back, watching as the other man was about to go for him again.
Suddenly, the guy was floored by a very angry Uchiha and was knocked out within a few solid hits. Kisame returned with Kakuzu and they managed to remove Sasuke from the man and carry the unconscious body out.
The music stopped and Itachi appeared at the mic. "We apologise for that, we will make sure that the two men who started this are banned. Please continue to enjoy your night" The drunken crowd cheered and quickly forgot about the mishap, though Naruto was dragged into the staff toilet by Sasuke, who still looked like he wanted to murder someone.
"What the fuck were you doing? You could have been seriously hurt!" Sasuke yelled at him, but stopped when Naruto didn't respond. "I'm sorry, I was just worried" Naruto was pulled into Sasuke's chest and the pain in his nose was suddenly all he could think about.
He backed away and looked in the mirror; it didn't look broken, but he had blood from his nose to his chin.
Pale fingers grasped his chin and turned his face towards Sasuke's, who was now holding a wet cloth and was dabbing at the blood, slowly cleaning it. Once it was clean and the bleeding had stopped, Naruto leaned up to kiss Sasuke, keeping it chaste.
Sasuke sighed and rested his forehead against Naruto's. "Go home, I don't want you fainting on me" Naruto tried to argue but Sasuke just shot him a blank look.
"I'll come over after work if you want me to" Naruto nodded and walked out of the bathroom to grab his stuff, watching Sasuke make his way to Itachi.
~S*N~
Naruto was curled up on his sofa with a bag of ice on his nose in an attempt to reduce swelling, with a cup of hot chocolate in his hand. He loved time when he got to just watch crap on TV that normally Sasuke would never let him watch - or at least not while he was around.
When he heard a door open and close, he removed the ice and glanced into the corridor to see Sasuke shuffling in and shedding his coat and shoes.
"How's your nose?" Sasuke grasped his chin to tilt his head around to get a general better look at his nose. It looked pretty normal, so clearly, the guy's drunken punch wasn't as strong as they had first thought. "Still cute" He muttered and leaned down to steal a kiss off Naruto who pouted and finished off his chocolate, putting the mug safely out of reach.
"Sit, watch some TV with me, I want to snuggle" Sasuke shook his head, normally people don't demand a 'snuggle' it just happens, but Naruto was never normal.
Slinking onto the sofa next to Naruto, he threw his arm around the back of the sofa and let Naruto lean onto his shoulder.
"How was work?" Sasuke just grunted and rubbed his eyes; it had been boring and tiring after Naruto had left, as they had an extra person to cover for at the bar.
Half an hour later, Naruto yawned and shut his eyes, now tucked into Sasuke's front. "C'mon Dobe" Sasuke slid out of bed and turned the TV off, picking the napping blonde up and carrying him up the stairs and into bed. Looking at the childlike expression on his sleeping Dobe's face, he smiled softly and got in next to him, tucking them in and spooning the body next to him.
Itachi often questioned why he didn't just move in to Naruto's, instead of bunking with him - though Sasuke adamantly argued that he was not 'bunking', he was very much permanent.
Naruto just liked company, as did he even though he rarely admitted it to his face. But how can you move in with someone who you don't label yourselves as boyfriends? That line had to be crossed first, and the more Sasuke didn't see anyone else, the more he wanted to make the Dobe only his forever.