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Sorry this chapter's a day late! My lovely little Elf took me out on his day off!
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Chapter 11.
Their Pearls, Our Lies.
On Christmas day, Sasuke hoped that he would be able to slip back into his home undetected. However, his family were one of those families from old wealth, who always motioned out of bed at the crack of dawn and put their 'Christmas outfits on.' Naruto's family didn't dress up for Christmas, Sasuke thought enviously, they stayed in their pyjamas – they needn't dress up in front of their family like they were a gaggle of potential clients in need of impressing.
"You're home then," Rin's voice startled Sasuke as he slipped his shoes off by the front door.
"Yeah," he looked up at her guiltily, she was wearing a pale rust coloured flapper dress, looking stern as she fussed over a vase filled with ponsettia.
"We were worried about you," she told him, staring down into the crimson bouquet.
"No need, I was at my boyfriends, just waiting for things to settle," Sasuke shrugged, casting his keys into the bowl on the side table. Rin's eyes lingered on the faded Kasabian t-shirt hanging off Sasuke beneath his parka, he glanced down at himself and then averted his eyes quickly. If there was one part of doing the walk of shame that Sasuke hated, it was coming home in someone else's clothes, because then everybody knew what you'd been up to the night before; everybody knew that at some point your own clothes had come off. "I think I'll go grab a shower and get dressed, I'll be down after that," Sasuke mumbled, hurrying past Rin and holding his parka close over the t-shirt as he went.
"Hi, sorry I'm late," Sasuke panted, jogging into the living room where the rest of his family had gathered; like bees to a hive. Sasuke's 'Christmas outfit,' had to be the laziest of his entire family, he observed. He'd thrown on a dark, V neck cashmere jumper that his mother had bought him years ago to wear to university interviews over the top of a powder blue shirt, and coupled the two with his least holey jeans. Whereas, the rest of his family looked ready for an audience with the queen, all glittering and shimmering like exotic birds.
"Not to worry, Sasuke," Mabui beckoned him to a place on the floor beside her, "We're all still waiting for Shisui to stop waging war against global warming – apparently, it's gone too far this time, robbing us of snow at Christmas, never mind all the polar bears that have lost their homes," she rolled her eyes and grinned fondly up at her husband, who poked his tongue out at her.
"You'll be sorry, Mabs," he sniffed and she chuckled.
"I'm sure I will, Shisui, but I don't think I giant parasol over the North of England would quite do the trick, like you're suggesting." She pinched his cheek and he batted her away with a grin.
"Here, just take a present and shut up," he snapped, clouting her around the head with a box wrapped in pristine gold paper. How was it that all of their wrapping paper matched? Did their family correspond and agree to coordinate? Couldn't they bear to be like the Uzamaki's and live in their explosion of chaotic colour? Was it in case that much disorder gave them funny ideas, original ideas?
Sasuke unwrapped a plethora of ludicrously expensive clothes from his cousin's, and thanked them all politely. If he'd been part of any of his friend's families, maybe he would've gushed excitably over the gifts, or even hugged his family; but that wasn't how they functioned in the Uchiha household. He might get away with a half-human reaction from Shisui and Mabui, that was entirely down to Mabui however.
"What's this?" Mabui was rattling a small gift from a twitchy looking Shisui.
"Just open it, Mabs," he mumbled and she pursed her lips at him.
"Goddamn Shisui, I swear if it's another pair of toenail clippers or something revolting, I will leave you," she narrowed her eyes at him as she tore the paper off revealing a small plum velvet box. "Don't be fooled," she muttered to Sasuke, "he gave me a facial hair bleaching kit last year, hidden in a Jimmy Choo shoe box." She cast Shisui a filthy look and then opened the box. A huge round diamond, with a crown of smaller diamonds and pearls, sat on a rose gold band rested against a lavender silk cushion. A ring. The ring. "Well," Mabui began sounding hoarse, "that's not toenail clippers."
"Yeah, that shocked you, didn't it?" Shisui laughed nervously, studying Mabui's face closely. "So, will you?" He floundered, "you know, marry me?" Mabui blinked and then looked up at Shisui.
"Yeah…I mean, yes," they both looked like they'd just been doused in icy water: utterly stunned.
From the corner of his eye, Sasuke saw Izumi get to her feet and slip away to the kitchen.
"Iz," Sasuke admired Izumi's slight back, her shoulder's working as she slammed dishes about in the sink with much more force than they required. "Iz, what's going on?" His eyes followed her as she snatched for a tea towel, looking ghostly in the lightless kitchen. "Were you hoping Itachi would propose to you or something?" He quizzed and Izumi let out a high pitched, hysterical laugh.
"Marry your brother? Don't make me laugh, Sasuke!" She snapped, dropping a plate into the sink with such vehemence that it split right down the centre. "Oh, for God's sake!" She cried, and Sasuke sprung forwards to retrieve the porcelain shards from the soapy water before Izumi had a chance to injure herself on them.
"Then what – what is it, is it something to do with his drinking?" Sasuke struggled for inspiration.
"I wish, I fucking wish it was that simple, Sasuke, I really do!" She said in a thick voice. "But it never is, with Itachi, is it? It's either all or nothing isn't it?" Sasuke stared at Izumi helplessly as her throat began to work and she pinned herself against the work surfaces, gripping them so hard her fingers went raw; like the formica tops were anchoring her.
"Then what? What would make Itachi…"
"We were going to have a baby," She whispered, closing her eyes, "we thought we were going to have a baby." She opened her eyes looking dark. "But, I lost it, I had something called an ectopic pregnancy. We thought we could cope – thought we could just try again; but as luck would go three months later I was in hospital with chronic pelvic pain…"
"I thought you were in hospital to have your wisdom teeth removed?" Sasuke asked in a tremulous whisper.
"We lied to you Sasuke, we lied, because as fate would have it, I've got endometritis and can't have babies." She gave an unnatural crow of manic laughter.
"Izumi," Sasuke whispered, watching her crumble before his very eyes. "Why didn't…"
"Why didn't we tell you?" She asked shakily. "You're all that way away in Bournemouth most of the time, Sasuke," she explained in a quaking little voice.
"Iz," Sasuke shook his head in disbelief and then caught hold of her shoulder, "don't be a twat." He murmured as he pulled her against him; one hand on the back of her head the other grasping the midpoint of her spine. He could feel her shaking beneath his hold, and in that moment, he despised his brother. He couldn't blame his brother for Izumi's inability to have children, but he could blame him for Izumi's loneliness. "It'll be okay, Iz," he whispered into her crown.
"Maybe I chose the wrong brother," Izumi sniffed thickly into Sasuke's front and he pulled a face down at her.
"You're about seven years too old and barking up the wrong tree; I'll be engaged to a boy in a few months, Iz, your counterparts just aren't for me, I'm afraid." Sasuke smiled sadly, swiping a few tears from her cheeks. "You make one hell of a fine honorary-sister though," he smiled, patting her cheek and she emitted a watery little chuckle.
"Thanks, Sasuke," she whispered…
In a selfish way, Sasuke was glad when the Christmas holidays ended and he could return to university. His holiday had been so packed with unpleasantness, that he'd completely neglected his dissertation. This meant that he was spending hours in the university library, pouring over fusty old texts, or gazing at a glaring screen until his seizures became so disarming he had to stop. Some nights he didn't even get home, and simply crashed and burnt in the commuter's lounge, and had to sprint to his lectures wearing yesterday's clothes, stinking of whoever's body had slept on the lounge sofa before him.
One good thing had come of their return though; Naruto's proposal had been given the go ahead, much to their utter relief.
On his way back to the maisonette, Sasuke had stopped off to pick up Chinese food. They were surviving off more and more takeaways these days. The idea of cooking piled on top of all the work they were doing towards their final projects, was like the final kilo that finished Buckaroo off.
"Yo, dude, I'm home," Sasuke called as he managed to stagger through the front door. "You won't believe who I passed on the way back from the library…" He said as he slipped his jacket off with some difficulty, given the amount of food he was carrying.
The he paused, there were an unfamiliar set of two pairs of shoes, and two coats neatly placed by the door. They were too dated to belong to a fellow student, had their landlord dropped by with his wife? Sasuke began to panic, they hadn't yet filled the hole in the wall that Jugo had caused playing swingball indoors.
Sasuke deposited the Chinese food quickly on the floor and hurried through into the living room. It wasn't their landlord however.
"Sasuke!" Mikoto Uchiha beamed from her position on the sofa.
"Mum…Dad," Sasuke said in a strangled voice of utter surprise, spying his father beside his mother. "What're you…"
He caught sight of Naruto, squashed against the arm of the sofa, apparently trying to put a polite distance between Sasuke's father and himself.
Suddenly it hit Sasuke:
The lie. No. The lie! THE LIE! The lie about Temari! No, No, No! Naruto couldn't know!
As Sasuke met Naruto's dark, hollow gaze though, he realised it was too late, Naruto already knew…
*GASP* ...Hope you enjoyed, please review x