Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or any of its associated characters!

Summary: COMPLETE (new chapter up everyday - total of 29 chapters!). Some people are assholes. Some people are kind. It's when those are the same person that things get real confusing. Minor character death. A fic about grief, healing, and hope. Modern AU (office AU), Sasunaru/Narusasu.

A/N: Okay, so! Yes to internet, but no to a place to charge my laptop ;P SO I am posting this with the utmost of urgency to preserve what little battery I have! We're headed to Shirakawa-go tomorrow and staying in an even more rustic area, so I might not be able to post then - just as a warning! After that, we'll be in hotels so I should be able to make it work. (In other news, I'm posting this from a futon! On a tatami mat! I'm wearing a yukata as we speak! This is so cool.)

This chapter is a little bit shorter, as is the next one. I hope you like them!

Something Good

Chapter 11: Rewind

Sasuke barely made it to the office on time.

He'd woken up on his third alarm, with half of his body still asleep and the other half feeling entirely nauseous—

And his phone still on his shoulder.

He didn't know who had fallen asleep first. He hoped it was Naruto. It likely was, from the way his phone still held a silent call with minutes ticking past the three hour mark—

He'd hung up the call, and promptly skipped both the coffee and the breakfast that morning.

Of course, now that he was here, he was starving. And exhausted, but that was to be expected. He'd been awake for at least two hours of that three hour conversation. He hadn't checked to see if Naruto had made it in—probably to the man's benefit, the chances of him being on time were incredibly slim—but he would, once he finished everything up here.

"You've reached Byakugan, how may I help you?"

"Sasuke Uchiha calling for Neji Hyuuga."

"One moment please."

Sasuke tapped his fingers along his desk as the hold music began to play. The sooner he got the important business out of the way, the sooner he could have that energy crash that he could feel waiting to stri—

"Sa—hey, sorry," Naruto's voice fell to a hush as soon as he slipped in enough to see the phone held to Sasuke's ear.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"The—um." Naruto tucked a bag under his arm as he pulled a coffee from the paper tray and slipped it onto Sasuke's desk—and the bag was quick to follow.

Sasuke blinked at them.

In the next moment, Naruto had already slipped back out—the door gently shutting behind him. Sasuke tucked the phone in so he could hold it with his shoulder, and hold the cup in his hands—

Black, extra-large, and with Naruto's name written right on it. Sasuke couldn't help but snort. And the paper bag held something warm and savory, if the smell was anything to go by—a sandwich, or something…?

Sasuke pulled the package from the bag, and a small piece of paper flicked out with it.

He caught it between his fingers.

A post-it—yellow and small—with messy handwriting that simply spelled out 'thanks.'

"Neji."

Sasuke opened his notebook, slipped the note in, and flipped it shut.

"It's me. Do you have time to talk details this morning?"

Naruto hadn't, actually, ended up being late.

He was exhausted. And he felt like shit. And everything still really sucked, but—

That had been a really nice thing that Sasuke had done. That had been a really nice thing that everyone had done. He had really good friends.

Naruto let out a breath.

He had such fucking good friends.

And the breakfast for Sasuke was just a start. He was gonna make sure he thanked everybody—properly—before he forgot to. They'd dropped everything to be there for him. And the aching pain stil pulsed under his skin, but there was a warmth there, too, and try as he might, he couldn't bring himself to ignore it.

"Hey, Sakura." It was him sitting on her desk, for once. "Wanna get lunch again today?"

Sasuke, predictably, started to crash around noon. His energy had dipped around 10:30, and there was only so long the adrenaline and caffeine could keep him going…

He sighed, sent his last email, and put his head in his hands.

He could fall asleep like this. He could so very easily fall asleep like this. He had enough time in his lunch break to either sleep or eat, and right now, it was looking like…

The doorknob turned, and Sasuke's spine was instantly straight. He might not be able to be awake, but if he could fake it—

"Oh, it's you." Sasuke relaxed with a sigh. There was no sense in putting on faces around Naruto.

Naruto shut the door with his back and shot Sasuke a grin.

"It's me? Are you disappointed?"

Sasuke put his head back in his hands.

"Endlessly."

"You look like shit." Naruto's voice sounded much closer than it had a moment ago.

"Thank you," Sasuke said, unmoving, "so very much."

"Wanna take a nap and I'll bring you food?"

Sasuke pulled back and squinted at him.

"What's with you and making me eat?"

Naruto grinned.

"Probably the same thing that's with you and making me drink water."

Sasuke collapsed into his hands again.

"Go away."

"Will do. Was the sandwich good? You like stuff like that?"

"Yeah," Sasuke told the darkness, "it was fine."

"I'll take it." Naruto's voice became just a little more distant— "Wake you up in an hour!"

"Mm…"

Naruto made sure they went to Chouji's. It was like a take two—like a rewind and a restart—and Naruto wanted the chance to really be there. Really talk to everyone. Thank them. Sneak off and pay for lunch, and laugh when they all yelled at him for it—

And he'd left early, again, but that had more to do with getting back on time. He wanted to call Tsunade, because she'd had the appointment this morning, and he'd have to wake up Sasuke, too...the original plan had been to drag him along, but from the look of him, he'd be lucky to make it out the door—

"What're you smiling about?"

Naruto glanced over at her. Sakura had jumped in his car on the way over, saying something about not feeling like driving. Funny, how she'd said that after she'd heard Sasuke wasn't coming.

Naruto tapped his fingers along the steering wheel.

"...Did you know Sasuke had only been with the company for two years when we started?"

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sakura turn towards him.

"Really? I thought it was longer."

"I know!" Naruto flicked his turn signal on. "That's what I said."

"Did this come up...yesterday?"

Naruto fought the urge to glance at her, keeping his eyes on the road instead. There was a note of something in Sakura's voice that he couldn't quite pick out…

"Not—uh," Naruto let out an embarrassed laugh, "not when we were together. I kinda called him in the middle of the night."

There was a pause.

"You—"

"He's really good to talk to, okay? Not just about this but especially about this—and he's been really," Naruto ran a hand through his hair and let out a breath, "really decent about this whole thing, and I just—he's been—"

"You don't have to defend yourself," Sakura interrupted quietly. "I know he's been there for you."

Naruto sagged in place.

"...Yeah," he said quietly. "Yeah, he really has."

It was weird. It was completely fucking bizarre. Their relationship had been a mess since the start—a stupid, yelling, back-and-forth mess of a relationship, but he hadn't realized how...comforting that mess was. Sasuke called him a moron and Naruto relaxed. He called Sasuke an asshole, and he relaxed even more. But then—

(You know you're not genuinely stupid, right?)

Maybe they'd never really meant either one.

"You getting that crush I was supposed to have?"

"Oh fuck off, Sakura." He slapped at her arm as she laughed—

"Gonna start writing Mr. Naruto Uchiha—"

"No, Jesus—you know you completely overdid it," Naruto said, quickly merging lanes. "He was freaked the fuck out."

"Good. All the less chance of him actually reciprocating."

Naruto's lips twitched. Well...

"I did, uh," he said, quickly changing the subject, "tell him you were totally over him, though. You might need to find a new beard."

Sakura groaned, and slanted her chair all the way back.

"Don't fall asleep!" Naruto said, waving a hand her way. "We're almost back!"

"Ugh, that's worse," she muttered, dutifully pulling the seat back up. "My parents just got off my back…"

"We can fake being together, if you want."

"No," Sakura said, "no, that whole thing in high school killed that option. They'd see through it right away."

Naruto laughed and pulled into the parking lot.

"Sorry, Sakura."

"No you're not, you butthead."

"Butthead? Did you seriously just call me a bu—" Naruto put the car into park—

"What? Is Sasuke the only one allowed to insult you now?" Sakura said, unbuckling her seatbelt—

"What?! Sasuke is not—"

"Naruto and Sasuke sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S—"

"Get out of my car!" Naruto laughed, shoving at her—

He heard Sakura's laughter even as the door closed. She gave him a cheery wave, and he stuck out his tongue.

Stupid Sakura.

Stupid Sasuke.

Naruto let out a breath.

Okay. He had about twenty minutes to spare.

Plenty of time.

"Hey granny," he said, as Tsunade picked up the phone, "how'd it go?"

A/N: That's it for today! Pretty little compared to the last two, huh? But I hope you still liked them!

See you Shirakawa-go (hopefully!),

- Kinomi