A/N: I am so bad at updating :l I hope many of you have not given up on me! But I'd still like to thank all those who have faved and followed thus far. To those who took the time to review, I love you even more!
The story is moving on pretty slow, I know, but it will pick up after this chapter :)
Chapter 10: Blue or Orange?
Sasuke followed Naruto into his bedroom where their black and white suits were displayed side by side on Sasuke's bed. He watched and somehow knew that the blonde was going to gripe about something to him. Naruto always did at some point in their days together, but the dark-haired man wasn't too sure what that something would be until Naruto stopped in front of his suit.
"What's this?!" the blonde shouted holding a blue tie up. He whipped around, holding the offending piece of material. "I thought we agreed that you would wear the orange tie!"
Sasuke mentally sighed. He should've known. "I thought we already discussed this—I don't like orange. No matter how many times you say it, I'm not gonna wear it," Sasuke stated as he walked over. "Besides, is this your wedding or mine? I like blue. Deal with it."
Naruto made a face and haughtily gave the tie back to Sasuke when the man reached for it. "Che, I thought you would've changed your mind after the twentieth time," he muttered crossing his arms.
"You should know how stubborn I am," Sasuke said, placing both suits into the closet. "After all, you did chase me for the last couple years."
The blonde man flopped onto the bed. "Aaagh! Don't remind me!" he yelled out. "You were such a pain in the ass….Actually, you still are!"
As the blonde continued to complain, Sasuke went to go brush his teeth. He had been quite the trouble back in the day and probably still was. "Hey," Sasuke called out from the bathroom. "Go brush your teeth before you forget!"
"Later!" Naruto called out lazily.
"Your 'later' is the next morning!"
Then Naruto mumbled back a reply that Sasuke couldn't make out, but not trusting the blonde's words anyways, he grabbed another tooth brush. Shoving his own into his mouth, Sasuke squeezed some tooth paste on to Naruto's brush, put it in a cup of water and brought it out. He pushed Naruto over on to his back with his foot and shoved the cup in front of the man's face.
There was no way Sasuke was going to let this person sleep with him if the blonde didn't brush his teeth. It happened once before and Sasuke felt like dying when he smelled Naruto's morning breath the next day. It was how he had woken up.
Just as the blonde was about to gripe, Sasuke interrupted. "Brush or go sleep in your own home," he threatened between clenched teeth. Somehow, with a tooth brush in his mouth, the man still looked formidable.
"Fine!" Naruto sat up and grabbed the cup. He frowned all while doing so.
Brushing along the way to the bathroom, Sasuke added, "Your teeth will go rotten if you don't brush every night."
"Not as rotten as your personality…" the blonde muttered and was earned a glare. Naruto just grinned in response.
Letting the insult slide, Sasuke returned to properly cleaning his teeth. After a minute and half, he finished his nightly routine and returned to the bed. Naruto had gone to the kitchen to finish brushing his teeth and whatever he needed to do. When the blonde returned, the other man was already sitting in bed. He asked, "Why didn't you just use the same washroom as me?"
"I don't like sharing the bathroom," Naruto simply answered.
For some reason, that response irritated Sasuke. "Does that mean you don't like sharing beds either? Fine, then you can sleep on the—"
"I never said anything about that!" Naruto cried pouncing on to the mattress. "Teme, don't purposely misinterpret my words!"
After a few moments of pulling blankets, pushing, and kicking, the two managed to settle down. Sasuke stilled in his bed. Naruto was on his left. They were two grown shinobis sleeping side by side. Wasn't it strange? Sasuke knew that he had already agreed to this arrangement, mostly because he wanted Naruto to stop nagging at him before the wedding, but it seemed awkward now. The only person he had shared his bed with was with Itachi, and that was years ago.
"Oi, Naruto."
"What?"
"The lights are still on." Before Naruto could retort, Sasuke added, "The last person that gets into the bed has to turn off the lights. How many times do I have to tell you that?"
Naruto made a noise that was between frustration and groaning. Then Sasuke couldn't believe what the blonde did next. He saw the man form the familiar variations of the tiger hand seals and before Sasuke could say anything, a shadow clone appeared in a puff of smoke. After arguing with the original Naruto about laziness, exploitation, and being the summoner, the clone went to turn off the lights. Only the faint glow of the crescent moon lit the dark room.
"Happy?" Naruto said and the clone disappeared.
Sasuke wouldn't complain about the darkness but the method was in need of scrutiny. However, he'll ask another day. Instead, Sasuke needed to be reminded of why they were sleeping in the same bed. It wasn't like it didn't happen before, although, most times had been accidents or were unavoidable. Their current situation was clearly consensual.
"I won't comment on that," Sasuke muttered. He looked at the ceiling for a while and then asked, "Other than you being my best man, why are you sleeping with me again?"
"Because we're friends! What's wrong with sharing beds anyways?"
Of course the blonde would ambiguously answer the question followed by another question. Sasuke sighed and turned to look at the blonde, who, to the other man's surprise, was already staring at him. "What's wrong?" Sasuke repeated with a raised brow. "Is it normal for you to share beds with grown men?"
"Not really." Naruto shrugged, "Other than you, I share beds with Sai all the time. You're both my friends so why does it matter if we're men? We're not screwing with each other or anything."
Sasuke just stared. The blonde shared beds with Sai? That annoyingly pale bastard with the belly shirt who always seemed to cling to Naruto without reason?
"Wow, Sasuke," said Naruto with smirk, "I didn't think you were so judgemental."
The dark-haired shinobi glared at the blonde. "I'm not." Only when it comes to you, he thought to himself.
"Anyways," said Naruto turning on to his back, "get some sleep. Big day tomorrow."
"That's it?" Sasuke asked, mildly taken back. "You usually talk non-stop until I have to shut you up. Finally deciding to be mature for once?"
Naruto turned back to Sasuke with a serious expression. "You're getting married tomorrow. The reason I wanted to spend today with you is because we won't have times like this anymore. I want things to turn out well, so I don't want to end the day with a fight."
The blonde was right. Sasuke wouldn't be spending times like this with the other man anymore. His life would be devoted to Sakura. She would be the one he would argue with and she would be the one laying in his bed when night came. Actually, it all seemed a little surreal, something Sasuke couldn't really imagine. The woman hadn't marked his place enough—not the way Naruto did at least. The man even had his own tooth brush and face towel in Sasuke's bathroom; his own cup in the kitchen and left over food in the fridge (although all removed recently)…but Naruto wasn't the one Sasuke was going to marry.
"So you are serious," the dark-haired man murmured. In the dim lighting, Sasuke could see Naruto blink.
"That's right, now go to sleep!" Naruto huffed and turned back, his profile being silhouetted against the faint moonlight.
Seeing the blonde so quiet unsettled Sasuke, but he closed his eyes anyways without a word more.
The water ran freely from the tap until Sasuke turned it off. He carefully spat out tooth paste residue and rinsed his mouth from the water in his cup. He washed his face, blindly reached for a towel, pat down his skin, and realized that it was an orange towel he was holding. Of course it was still here like the blonde's tooth brush. The man wouldn't want to return here after the wedding fiasco.
Sasuke carefully returned the towel to the hanger alongside his navy blue one, and switched off the lights as he exited. He walked in the dark, his eyes not fully adjusted yet. When he reached his bed, he pulled back the blanket, crawled in to the left and settled himself down. Slowly, he blinked, tired and weary. It would be another hour before the man would fall asleep, staring at the empty half side of the bed.