The last installment of 'All Week Long' finally is here! I think this is probably the first chaptered story I've ever actually finished, haha.
I hope you enjoyed the ride. Have fun reading!
Dusk settled upon the city, blanketing the ground in mauve mist, the last of the sunlight drifting down below the horizon. Remnants of colored light still dappled the skyline, slowly fading into the lavender-gray that layered the canvas of the sky. From his vantage point on the roof of the Hokage's building, Sasuke could see the town in its silent, familiar entirety.
It was here that Sasuke really breathed; here, where the air was clear and content, where the noise and hustle and bustle of the city couldn't reach his ears, where he could connect with the earth and the sky and life, where he felt at home.
He didn't feel at home in the Uchiha compound any more. The blood that still cried out to him from the walls, the voices that still rang in his ears; they made the solitary living he needed impossible. The general feeling of death and suffering and homelessness suffocated him, and he couldn't stand it.
He didn't like the hotels he picked out occasionally. They were used and dirty and didn't speak to him like home should; the smells were unfamiliar and the feel of the place didn't suit him. Their cramped collection of furniture, the walls sticking out every which way--they cluttered his head and boxed him in, and he hated that.
He never really felt at ease on missions, even though that was to be expected; the feeling of eyes on you every time you turned, how he dared not sleep on his side for fear of leaving his back unguarded. Every crack and snap of leaf and twig sent him into throes of paranoia.
But up here was a different story. Here was familiar; he'd always fled here when he'd had a bad day, when his father had yelled at him, when he'd been frustrated with himself. He knew the way up here, the way down like the back of his hand. He knew the sounds the night would make, the songs of the birds in the morning and the owls at night. The scents of the air, the woodwork soothed him; it was clean and natural and unmarked but for his presence. It took him a long time for him to get comfortable with a new place; but this rooftop had pulled him in and made it home.
In some ways Sasuke felt out of touch with the world. If he couldn't feel at home in a house, where everyone else lived and had no qualms with, that made him a little more than odd. He had problems with walls, with structures, with enclosed spaces; he couldn't stay in one space for too long if the air simply didn't feel right. He didn't even appreciate being touched in the wrong spot, the wrong humor, the wrong way. He didn't welcome physical contact from most people, period. And physical contact made up a great portion of human communication; no wonder people generally misinterpreted him.
"Hey."
Sasuke turned. His heart hadn't raced, his pulse hadn't sped up; no, because he knew that voice. He knew that voice better than he knew his own.
A smile sparked on his lips. "Hey, Naruto."
The one person who had never misinterpreted him, who understood his drawbacks and fears and his passions, the one person who really, truly knew him. The blond boy, crossing the rooftop to sit behind to him, who could touch him in a way that only ever felt right.
Who meant more to him than the world.
Naruto's hand reached around and found Sasuke's, traced his wrist, pressed against his palm, laced their fingers together. His hand was warm and strong and comforting, like the rest of him; holding Sasuke together when he thought for sure he would fall apart.
Sasuke smiled and leaned back, allowing Naruto's arms to settle around him as he rested his head in the hollow between shoulder and neck. This had never felt wrong; everything about he and Naruto was right. Their day-and-night dynamics, their opposite personalities, the purity of everything they had. They existed simply to be; together, to be day and night, to be sunshine and thunderstorms, to be one another's everything and anything.
On this rooftop, he felt at home.
In Naruto's arms, he felt at peace.
(end.)
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And that's the end! I hope it was fitting.
If you review, that would be like cookies for a fat kid. (Hint: press the pretty button in the corner, and drop me a review. I'm not above begging xD)
