11: Eyes

Sasuke lay half naked in his bed as he traced small circles on his lover's upper arm right where the orange t-shirt he had thrown on stopped. Naruto had long since passed out and the raven planned on joining him in sleep, but he was too busy thinking. How was he supposed to bring up what he'd discovered about the villagers without dredging up painful memories or feelings for the blonde?

"Mmm." Naruto hummed as he cuddled closer to his stressed lover. He woke up because his eye sockets itched but he was way too comfortable snuggled into Sasuke's right side to actually move at this point. Sasuke was tense and Naruto could sense it, so he wrapped his arms around the other man's black t-shirt covered torso and kissed whatever flesh was right in front of him, which just so happen to be the Uchiha's jaw.

"Hmmm." Sasuke sighed as his stressed muscles started to relax.

"What's bugging you?" The blonde yawned sleepily, and the raven tensed beneath him.

"... I went for a walk yesterday and the villagers were talking about you, and..." What was he supposed to say: your fellow villagers are assholes that are holding a meaningless grudge? There was something that seemed familiar about this situation, and he realized the irony that came with him being mad at people who were vengeful to the wrong person over the death of their loved ones. Oh how the tables had turned.

"Oh, so you know." A sad smile settled on the blonde's face as he released his lover and started rubbing at the bandages that covered where his eyes used to be.

"What do you mean, so you know?! You knew about this?!"

"Yeah, well, it was kind of inevitable. Someone always ends up pointing the finger my way when shit happens." Naruto leaned into a sitting position as he rubbed harder at his covered sockets.

"People are being total dicks to you and your acting like it's normal!" The Uchiha was way passed confused. He'd never once had anyone treat him as less than human before. He couldn't even begin to understand why the blonde seemed so uncaring about the whole ordeal.

"That's because it is normal for me. People don't like me. That's a fact. Sure their reasons for hating me are asinine, but it's not really anything new. People despise what they don't understand. That's just how it is, and no amount of fighting is going to change that." Naruto would be far more inclined to go into more detail on his thoughts if only his eye sockets weren't so damn itchy.

"But why-"

"Damn it!" Naruto cut him off as he jumped out of bed and stumbled his way to the bathroom, Sasuke right on his heels. The blonde ripped the bandages off one layer at a time until Sasuke could see his eyelids, and the shredded wrappings fell to the floor.

"What's wrong?! Are you okay?!" The Uchiha fretted as he gazed at his lover, and for the second (or was this the third?) time he realized just how much he really cared for the man standing in front of him. Even the thought of something being wrong with Naruto sent an overwhelming pang of fear straight to his heart. His pulse was racing as he watched the love of his life start rubbing at his eyelids as if he were in pain.

Then a miracle occurred. The blonde opened his eyelids to reveal two perfectly beautiful baby blue eyes. Gazing into the mirror of the bathroom Naruto froze. His cerulean eyes gazed back at him for the first time in what felt like forever. Although, Sasuke realized with a start, Naruto's eyes were a bit lighter in color than his old ones. He could tell when he looked in the mirror at their eyes side-by-side.

"I managed to reconstruct them using chakra and few old secrets." Kurama's voice rang out in the blonde's head. "Be grateful, brat."

"It was the Kyūbi. He..." Naruto trailed off and Sasuke suddenly realized that his own mouth was hanging open in surprise and closed it.

"You're so impossible." The Uchiha finally spoke.

"No, it's just-" Sasuke cut Naruto off by pulling his body flush up against his own and kissing him with all the passion he felt coursing through his veins.

"You're so impossible!" He repeated himself when they broke apart, gasping for air. "You're forgiving and kind and thoughtful." There are some emotions that Uchiha's just don't get. "You're incredible. You see the world so differently from everyone else. You understand and accept everybody around you. Even total assholes." Uchiha's don't get nervous, they don't get scared, nor excited, and all three at once. That's completely impossible, or so Sasuke had thought, until that day. A chuckle escaped his lips as he continued. "You're true to yourself and stand up for everyone who thinks that they can't be. I'll never find anyone else like you... Will you marry me?"

They both froze as the words escaped him. Naruto looked at his lover with his new eyes and suddenly he wanted nothing more than to laugh. Here they stood, both wearing nothing but t-shirts and boxers, and this man could propose as if he had nothing to be embarrassed by. He was so full of confidence that it didn't matter if he was half naked. Well, he's full of something alright. The blonde chuckled as he took in his lover's beautiful face. Sasuke almost seemed to falter at such a reaction but then Naruto burst out, "Eh, why the hell not?! Let's do it!" The blonde grinned triumphantly at the ecstatic expression such a response got. So what if they'd only been an actual couple for what, two days? Like he thought before, their whole relationship was messed up and backward, why not have this be backward too. Then he leaned in and kissed his love.

The two men weren't seen for at least a week after that, and everyone who went to go check up on them were greeted with such lewd noises that none actually had the courage to interrupt them.

"Happy Valentines Day people of 2017!" Yells excitedly at the top of my lungs.