"Is it cruel or kind not to speak my mind,
and to lie to you rather than hurt you?
Well I'll confess all of of my sins
after several large gins
but still I'll hide from you,
hide what's inside from you."
-Music When the Lights Go Out, The Libertines


Naruto was leaning against the bed, indulging in a fat piece of Sasuke's mother's pie (he shuddered at the possible euphemism). He'd borrowed his mom's laptop and, for the last half hour, had been sending out all appropriate e-mails to people at work. Kakashi returned an e-mail right away, congratulating him on "shacking up with some transexual Thai prostitute in search of his/her green card ;p".

"You keep making weird noises and grinding your teeth. Are you okay?"

Sasuke glanced at his roommate, who had the prongs of the fork pressed against his chin. "You know, you're more than welcome to go into the other room."

Naruto shovelled another piece of pie into his mouth. "But I'm not tired yet. This is kinda fun really. Like a sleepover. I can't remember the last time I did that."

"Uh huh. So what do you call it when you spend the night at Ino's place?"

"Oh great," Naruto said, wiping the corner of his mouth with his hand. "More 'Naruto is a manwhore' jokes. You should've been a stand-up comedian instead of whatever it is you do."

"I thought about it. But when I got put on the wait list for Clown School I didn't have much of a choice."

Naruto started choking. He pounded his fist against his chest several times. "Is this you in a good mood because I can't recall you ever being this funny back in the city."

Sasuke smirked as he finished sending an e-mail to his team, reminding them that even if he wasn't there for tomorrow morning's meeting that they should still go over the Power Point presentation he'd attached regarding the project schedule.

"Don't get too excited. It's probably the wine," he said.

"And after midnight you'll go back to being a pumpkin?" Naruto set the plate down on the floor, put his arm on the edge of the bed, and smiled up at Sasuke.

"Or a gremlin," he replied.

"I guess this means I shouldn't stick your hand in a glass of water and wait for you to piss yourself. The last thing I want is to see gremlin versions of you with Mohawks."

"Oh. Stripe? I always liked him," he said, distracted as he typed up what would hopefully be the last e-mail for the evening.

"Figures," said Naruto. "You seem the type to empathize with the villain."

"Coming from you, I'll take that as a compliment. Besides," Sasuke glanced at the time on the computer screen, "We have two more hours before you even have to worry about it."

"Hey, Sasuke. If you could have any superpower, what would it be?"

"Do I even want to ask what train of thought led to this question?"

"Ah, it's not that complicated." Naruto scratched the side of his nose. "It's just that talking about villains made me think of the Dark Knight, and then I wondered if I was contradicting myself because I was pretty in love with the Joker."

"Makes sense. I don't know, Naruto. I guess I'd choose invisibility," he said as he deleted the newest message from Kakashi without reading it.

"That doesn't surprise me." Naruto stretched his arm out over the bed, alongside Sasuke's leg. "I'd fly or something."

"What if you get sucked into a jet engine?"

"I'll have to hope that Sully guy is flying the plane so that it can land safely onto the Hudson."

"How surprising," Sasuke said sarcastically. "You've just been sucked into a jet engine and your only concern is for the passengers' safety."

"Well I'm already dead, right? It'd be my fault their lives were at risk, so it's not like I'd want them to crash and die because of me or anything."

Sasuke hummed, amused. He started browsing on Google, searching for updates about the weather. The rain hadn't stopped. It pounded on the roof like the pattering of dozens of tiny toddler feet.

"Hey, I'm gonna bring my plate to the kitchen."

Sasuke looked at his roommate as he began to stand, empty plate in hand.

"Cool," he said.

"You're such an asshole. When I come back, I'm gonna smack you around a little."

He smirked. "Only a little?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Your mom should've beaten you more as a kid."

Sasuke ignored the comment and turned away to focus on the weather radar spread across the screen. "When you come back, you're going to take a shower. You stink."

"Do I?" Naruto sniffed his armpit. "Hm. Maybe you're right. Can I borrow some clothes? A towel?"

"Whatever."


On his way to the shower, Naruto had dropped off their second bottle of wine they'd left unfinished in the kitchen. He'd brought two drinking glasses with cartoon characters from the 80s on them instead of proper wine glasses. Naruto had made it fairly clear that his glass was to be the one with Optimus Prime on it, and Sasuke would have to settle for Papa Smurf. Sasuke wasn't entirely sure why his mom had kept them in the cupboards after so many years. She had gone to bed early, complaining of a headache. He didn't blame her as that was often the result of being in the presence of Naruto.

Gently, he closed the laptop and set it to the side of his desk. He stared at the newspaper articles and photos on the cork board as he traced the outline of Papa Smurf's red beanie hat. He could just barely hear the shower over the rain beating against the window. Every once in a while, the wind howled and a branch on the other side of the house would scrape against the siding. He frowned a little; Naruto had started to sing.

As he read the headline for one of the article clippings over and over, he also studied the accompanying photo for a long time. It was of him and two other children from his elementary school. He'd taken first place in a spelling bee. All three of them were holding up certificates. The other kids were smiling, looking straight into the camera. His younger self had one hand in the pocket of his corduroys and had turned his chubby, scowling face away from the photographer.

What a brat he'd been.

"Whatcha staring at?"

Naruto entered the room, wearing a pair of Sasuke's old pajama pants and was towelling off his hair. He leaned over Sasuke's shoulder, trying to read the article.

"Hey is that you? Shit, it is you! Sasuke Uchiha wins Ulster County spelling bee!" He laughed, even as Sasuke pushed him out of the way.

"You're dripping on me. Do you mind?"

Naruto threw the towel around his neck and sat on the edge of the bed, making the springs creak. "Somehow that doesn't surprise me. I noticed all the trophies earlier. I guess you must've been pretty popular, eh? What being smart and good at sports."

Sasuke gave him a good look, reading Naruto's expression. He drew the glass to his lips without thinking and sipped the wine. "No. Not particularly."

Naruto met his gaze. "Oh. That's too bad." He smiled. "I was gonna ask earlier, because you don't talk much about yourself, but, uh, the family portrait downstairs? You look a lot like your brother. You never told me you had one."

For just the briefest instant, Sasuke shut his eyes and then opened them, conscious of the way his features hardened.

"Don't you think there's a reason some people choose not to talk about themselves?"

Naruto's shoulders slumped, and he looked away. "Sorry. I suppose I shouldn't have asked."

There were a few minutes of awkward silence between them before Naruto got up and poured himself a glass of wine.

"Y'know," he said, glass rim touching his bottom lip, "I don't wanna pry, but I'd really like you to trust me. To listen or whatever. About anything."

"I'm fine."

"Okay." Naruto's voice was soft and filled with a patience that made Sasuke unreasonably angry. His roommate stood near the desk, staring at the trophies on the shelf. He picked one up. "I used to play baseball when I was a kid, too. Don't remember getting any trophies. It was just me and a few other kids in the neighbourhood. Older boys mostly."

Sasuke watched him as he ran his fingers over the engraved text on the trophy plaque, trying to imagine Naruto as a kid. It wasn't terribly difficult. He was probably a bigger pain in the ass than Sasuke had been. A few questions sprung to mind, but he couldn't be bothered to ask. He didn't want Naruto to think he was interested.

"That night after the show, after we went to see Jiraiya?" Naruto looked down at him, waiting for Sasuke's acknowledgment that he remembered. "I told you I stuttered as a kid. Well, a lot of the boys would make fun of me except this one guy. He was maybe only two or three years older than me. He died a little while ago. " Naruto frowned, shook his head, smiled again though it was faint. "Well, he sorta took me under his wing and stuck up for me. Not that I couldn't take care of myself. But I was sorta smaller than the other boys my age..."

Naruto trailed off as he walked toward the window and rubbed the back of his neck. Sasuke stared at the tattoo on his arm. The black ink appeared faded under the glow of the ceiling fixture.

"I'm sorry," Sasuke said quietly. He cleared his throat.

Naruto turned to him, raising an eyebrow. He tilted his head, confused. "Sorry about what?"

"To hear about your friend."

"Oh." Naruto's hand clenched more tightly around the glass. He turned to look out the window again. "I hadn't seen him in a very long time. Ran into a mutual friend of ours and heard about it. Overdose. I guess he hung with a bad crowd."

"I guess so."

Naruto laughed, but the sound of it was strange.

"It's probably these stupid cups, huh? Making me nostalgic. That and the rain and all your old childhood stuff. Plus it always feels different when you go out of the city, don't y'think? It's like being in a bubble. Sometimes I forget places exist outside of New York."

Sasuke drank a bit more wine before answering quietly, "Me too."

"I like your home though. It's very warm. Your mom is nice. She seems proud of you. I think maybe I expected something different when I came here, but it also suits you so well."

"Naruto," he started to say something and paused at the look on Naruto's face. He rubbed the tip of his thumb underneath his chin and settled his arm along the edge of the desk.

A loud clap of thunder interrupted the moment and caused the house to shake.

Naruto was watching him with an odd expression, lips pressed firmly together. It didn't look right. Suddenly, he appeared more tired than Sasuke had ever seen him. His gaze dropped to the tattoo on Naruto's wrist.

"Sit down," he said, averting his eyes. "You're making me nervous, idiot."

Naruto didn't immediately respond, but, after a minute, he did go to the bed and sat down on the edge. Then he pulled himself toward the middle of the mattress, careful with his wine, and leaned against the headboard.

"Comfortable? " Sasuke asked, turning around in the chair to face him better.

"It's cosy, yeah." Naruto's eyes had started to droop. Soon, he closed them as if he had every intention of falling asleep there.

"So," Sasuke said, and he blamed the wine for his desire to keep up conversation, "Is Gaara going to have my head because he won't get his car back tonight?"

Naruto cracked a smile. "He'll have mine before he has yours. Nah, I called him after I called Neji. Before I even told him what was going on, he wanted to make sure I wasn't driving around in the storm."

Sasuke refilled his Smurf glass, eyeing Naruto's to see if his needed to be topped up as well, but it was half full. "You two are close."

Naruto's smile grew broader. He began to spin the glass in circles where it rested on his thigh. "Yeah. I'd say he's my best friend. Don't know what I'd do without him."

"How nice."

"You don't like him very much do you," Naruto stated.

"I'd say that should be fairly obvious. Not that he cares much for me either. I believe the first night we met, he told me he hated me."

"He was just jealous," Naruto said, flippantly enough that Sasuke raised his eyebrow in curiosity.

"Jealous? Of what?"

Naruto sighed. "Let's just say he's sort of possessive of his friends. Or should I say protective? He didn't want me to move in with you."

Sasuke found some pleasure in the fact he'd annoyed Gaara. "Is that so."

"Don't look so pleased with yourself," Naruto said lightly. "What about you? Do you regret letting me move in?"

"Always," he answered, half-meaning it.

"I don't regret it. I'm glad I met you."

"You don't even know me, Naruto." Sasuke licked his lips. "If you really knew me, I doubt you'd want to stick around."

"That's a weird thing to say. Why do you say that? You're moody and irritable, but I still want to get to know you. Are you a water sign? That would explain things."

"Water sign?" he asked, disturbed by the sudden shift of their conversation to something so banal.

"Yeah. Ino's into that sort of stuff. Horoscopes, astrology. Don't you know what you are?"

"Fire, maybe?" Sasuke answered indifferently. "I'm a Leo."

"Oh. Hm. I'm air apparently. Wonder what that means."

"Probably that it's a bad idea for us to be in a small space together," he said drolly.

Naruto snorted and held out his glass toward him. "Maybe. Depends on whether or not you like explosive forces or not, I guess. I'm game if you are."

Sasuke took the glass and poured his roommate some more wine. "You're a moron."

"So you say. Thanks." He sat up to grab the glass and crossed his legs underneath him. "I," Naruto stopped, looking uneasy at first and then determined. "I hope you don't mind me saying this, but I was sorry to hear about your Dad."

"You never quit, do you?"

Naruto nodded. "No, I really don't."

"It seems we've both lost important people."

"Yeah..."

Sasuke lowered his head, fingering through his hair as it fell out of place from behind his ear. "My father worked himself to death after my brother ran away." He raised his eyes, looking out from under his bangs. "Is that what you wanted to hear? I was about 16 when Itachi disappeared. It was shortly before his 21st birthday. It wasn't more than a year later that my father had a heart attack at work and died before the ambulance reached the hospital."

Naruto remained quiet as Sasuke covered his face with his hand. The rain had become something of a roar in his ears. The bed creaked, and when Sasuke finally removed his hand, Naruto was standing in front of him. He took the glass Sasuke had been holding so tightly and set it on the desk. He didn't say anything, and he didn't do something as suicidal as try to pull Sasuke into a hug.

He thought the lights flickered. Through a fog, he saw Naruto pull the bed covers back. Sasuke heard the sliding sound of the blinds closing with a quick squeak that made him wince. The glasses clinked together as Naruto grabbed them with one hand, while throwing the towel around his neck. Sasuke couldn't bear to look him in the eye. Besides, he was suddenly too tired to keep them open.

"Get some sleep," he heard Naruto say as he turned off the desk lamp and picked up the empty wine bottle.

"You don't have to do that," Sasuke said hoarsely. The sweetness of the wine had made his throat raw.

"Wake me up whenever you're ready to go in the morning, alright?"

Sasuke ran his fingers through his hair. Tilting his head back, he drew in a deep breath and released it. His eyes slowly moved to the door when he heard it shut. Thunder rattled the house as he continued to stare at the door. He could hear Naruto going down the stairs to the kitchen. He heard him come back up again. He thought he heard Naruto pause by the door, but he couldn't say for sure. Down the hallway, the door to Itachi's old bedroom closed.

Without undressing or turning off the lights, Sasuke got up from the chair and crawled into his bed, still warm from where Naruto had been sitting, and, within a few minutes, had fallen asleep.


TBC