Chapter 10, "Mad makes sense when in love"

"Wow," Naruto mumbled.

"You don't like the menu?" Sasuke lowered his, glancing at Naruto, and tryed to decipher his expression.

"I like it. I don't get what any of the dishes are, but from the prices… I better like them," Naruto dropped his menu as well. "But how come we're here?"

"What do you mean?"

The blond pursed his lips. He didn't know how to ask without offending Sasuke. "I don't want to be rude; but you're so miserly. I always thought you're the kind of boyfriend who would pimp me out for money, or… toilet paper."

Sasuke took a deep breath, trying not to get offended. He faked a stiff expression and stated, "Well, you'll have to blow the maître d in the bathroom later for the twenty percent discount."

"…" Naruto's jaw fell.

"I'm kidding."

"…"

"Naruto, I'm kidding."

"Are you sure?" The blond spoke in disbelief.

"You really think I'd make you do that?" Sasuke asked, now actually offended.

"Not at all," Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "But, wow, you're a good actor. Pokerfaced. I always giggle when I lie."

"If you don't know what to order; I'll order for you."

"Okay, but no toads or snails…" He made a face. "Yesterday I had a dream I ate a scroll toad."

"Scroll toad?"

"The dream had subtitles too."

Sasuke stared at the other for a few seconds before chuckling. "Are your dreams always this strange?"

"You have no idea. Kiba suggested once that I write my dreams in a book."

"That would be…" Sasuke smirked. "The grammar would be horrible."

"I'm not stupid, you grammar Nazi. It is just that; sometimes I choose to give my neurons a rest. See I know what neurons are. Plus, I'm hot and rich. I don't need to be smart," Naruto, teased Sasuke, poking his tongue out.

"Does that make me your sugar daddy?" Sasuke asked winking.

Naruto suddenly froze. "Wink again."

"No," Sasuke stared back at the menu blushing. He realized what Naruto wanted to see.

"Sasuke, wink again."

"Why?"

"You can't wink, can you? You closed both eyes earlier," Naruto smiled, poking Sasuke's cheek. "Do it again. It's cute."

"Hn…"

"Do it and I'll give you a kiss."

That sentence grabbed Sasuke's attention. He quickly turned to face Naruto, and nodded, asking if Naruto was actually serious. The blond nodded in response. Sasuke then blushed a deep shade of red, checked around to see if anyone was looking, and then winked closing both eyes as the same time.

Naruto grinned widely, staring at Sasuke. The man was normally stiff, but sometimes he was downright adorable. In fact being rigid was the one thing that made his gaffes much more charming than usual. He then smiled when Sasuke pointed at his cheek. "Impatient."

Naruto leaned in and quickly planted a kiss over Sasuke's milky cheek, before backing away and hiding behind his menu. Sasuke didn't poke at it though, he was red-faced too.

XXXXXX

Later, after the dinner was over, Naruto and Sasuke stood in a dark alley. The raven leaned against Naruto who was propped against a dusty wall. Their nose touched, and they could hardly control their giddy smiles.

The blond bit his bottom lip, staring at Sasuke's. Pink, plum, and delicious, he thought. He poked his nose against Sasuke's teasing him, but then pressed his finger against the other's lips when he went in for the kiss.

"Tease," Sasuke whispered. "Let me kiss you." He pushed in for the kiss, but Naruto looked to the side, the kiss landing on his jawbone. That didn't stop Sasuke who attempted again to kiss Naruto only to end up kissing his shin that time around. "Tease," he repeated.

Naruto giggled, occupying his fingers by playing with the buttons on Sasuke's shirts. He opened a few, and let Sasuke close them. And then opened them again, and looked at the other defiantly.

"You want my shirt off," Sasuke whispered in the other's ears huskily. "Do you want me to strip for you?"

"Depends? Do I have to stuff tips down your jocks?"

"I wear briefs," Sasuke smiled. "And anything to get your hand-"

Naruto bit the other's lips quickly, backed away and whispered, "Moving too fast. I… I'm not ready yet."

"…"

"I have an idea. It's silly…"

"But you are going to say it anyway?" Sasuke smirked.

Naruto nodded, "Do you know the love tokens. The coins with inscriptions like 'Good for one kiss', 'breakfast in bed'... 'Take my virginity token'." He whispered the last one.

"I don't, but I get the idea."

"How about… I buy you a piggybank…" Naruto blushed. "So we don't rush into it."

Sasuke smiled. The idea was a little odd and childish, but so was everything when it came to Naruto. "So, one token? First base. Five tokens? Second. Ten tokens? Third base. Fifteen…"

"Is it too childish?"

Sasuke nodded, nose touching Naruto's. "But I like it. You know, saving is my favorite hobby."

Naruto pouted, "Oh… Now I'm afraid you would keep on saving, and never swap them in."

"I'm pretty sure I'm going to order some tokens online. I'm ready to swindle the system to my advantage. Hey… Can I get an overdraft?"

"Already?" Naruto whispered already pulling in Sasuke for a kiss on the lips. One. Two. Three soft kisses.

When they were done, Sasuke suggested that they should go shop for a moneybox before the night was over. He pulled Naruto away from the wall, and then pretended to dust Naruto's back, while in reality spanking Naruto twice.

"C'mon!" Naruto pouted cutely as he walked out of the alley.

At the end of the night, Sasuke walked Naruto until the door of his room. In any other situation, he would have walked him only to the mansion's gate, but he knew Naruto's habit of getting lost even in confined spaces. He stood with his frog shaped moneybox under one shoulder.

"I'm sorry you had to carry gama-chan all the way through the city," Naruto smiled sheepishly. The frog-bank had attracted his eye earlier and insisted that it was the one, regardless for the fact that it didn't fit in any of the gift bags. Instead Sasuke had to carry it, and receive awkward stares through out their date.

"I thought you were going to pick something orange," he smiled. "But this one is fine too."

"Gama-chan!" He corrected the other.

"So… When am I getting my first token?"

Naruto pushed him away friskily, before getting into his room, and shouting, "Get a taxi. It's too late to walk alone."

"Tease," Sasuke muttered again under his breath.

Once Sasuke was gone, and Naruto was changed into his pajamas, he sat alone in the room. He swore it was big enough for him to hear an echo every time he spoke. Maybe, he should have asked Sasuke to stay over. But he decided he did the right thing. The next day was February the 18th, and it had always been the longest day of every year for him. It was too early with Sasuke to have him spend that day with him.

It was eleven forty five. Fifteen minutes until the eighteenth. Twenty minutes until the hour both of his parents died after… He hated thinking about it. In fact, he was usually successful in keeping it out of his mind three hundred and sixty four days a year. The forty-ninth day of each year was the only one in which the thoughts were too compelling to ignore.

He looked up again at the clock. Only two minutes passed. God, it was going to be a long day. He fisted his hair before deciding not too dwell. He jumped onto his bed, and sunk in the ostrich feather-filled mattress. He opened the TV, and zapped through the channels randomly.

The thoughts and memories were scratching at the back of his head, itching to be heard. To take him over. He didn't want to give in, but he couldn't take over either. He wished he was too young to remember that day, but that wasn't the case. He wasn't young enough to have no recollection, and wasn't old enough for it not to scar him profoundly.

Once again, he looked back up at the clock. Only five minutes to go until mid-night. Until the thoughts hijack him for twenty-four hours to come. He pouted, clapping his hands twice for the light to turn off.

"Better sleep."

He wrapped the bed cover around him tightly, completely hidden beneath it. In the darkness, he glanced at the watch on his mobile phone until the light was dimed. Each time he would press ant button again, so he could get to gape at the time, as if he was torturing himself.

One minute to go, he thought.

Right then, he heard the door open slowly, and footsteps walked closer to his bed. Someone slid under the bed sheets, and hugged his back. Someone warm. Someone familiar.

"You came?" Naruto whispered.

"I was always here," the other whispered, rubbing Naruto's arm for warmth. "Always will too."

"Kiba," he whined before bursting into tears and shivers.

"It will be okay, pup. I'm here," he hugged him closer to his chest, planting random kisses on his head. "It's going to be okay."

XXXXX

When the morning came, Naruto rose still curled up in Kiba's embrace. He had fallen asleep the day before, exhausted from crying. In fact, his eyes were still a tad red, a little sensitive to light.

Kiba broke away to answer the ringing phone. He slowly massaged the side of the other's thigh as he spoke to Shikamaru on the phone. "Yeah. He's better now…"

Shikamaru said something, and Kiba answered, "No, I'm taking him out anyway."

Once he was done, he tossed the phone away.

"Are you guys talking again?"

"Not quite," Kiba mumbled, a little calmer than usual. "But… maybe I overreacted."

Naruto grinned jumping out of bed and cheered, "The dynamic trio is back again."

"With a blond skank," Kiba muttered under his breath. Only for Shika's sake was he going to act civil, but as long as Shikamaru wasn't there all is fair in love and war.

"I'm not that skanky," Naruto pouted.

"Temari," Kiba pointed, before noticing the love tokens on the night stand. He looked back at Naruto, who leaned against the stand to veil the metal coins.

It was quite obvious to Naruto that Kiba had seen the tokens and already deduced their significance. He smiled halfheartedly not knowing what kind of reaction Kiba was going to give. Surprisingly, the dog lover just smiled back politely. Underneath the shell, it wounded him.

To break the silence, Naruto faked a wide grin and inquired, "So you're taking me out today?"

"Yeah," Kiba smiled before walking in the direction of the bathroom. "Do you want a bubble bath first?" He smiled knowing quite well that Naruto second most favorite activity after eating ramen, was soaking in soapy water and flooding the bathroom. It still made him happy to be around Naruto, regardless of everything.

Naruto followed the other to the bathroom, and started to strip to his boxers while watching Kiba fill the tube and add the foam.

Fast-forwarding a few minutes, Naruto soaked up to his neck in foam, as the water brimmed over the edges of the tub. He blew bubbled at Kiba, while the other styled the other's hair into spikes with the froth.

"Pretty," Kiba chuckled checking out Naruto's mane. "You were a punk rocker in another life."

"I was a fox in my last life," Naruto joked pointing at his whiskers.

"A fox? Nah, foxes are cunning. You're cute and…" he poked Naruto's nose. "Puppy like. A Golden maybe." He scratched behind Naruto's ear, who curled up.

"Tickles!"

"Whoever you were in your past life, you broke many hearts," he spoke, his words hitting a little to close to home.

"It's not like me."

"The problem is, I think it's almost too typical of you to do it and not even realize it. It makes it hard to get mad at you… The fact that you always have good intentions," Kiba continued.

"Why do people assume I'm stupid? I'm going to surprise you all one day."

The brunette chuckled, drawing Naruto closer to him until the blond was on his lap. He played with the water, letting it drape over Naruto's tanned arm. He gaped at the side of Naruto's face, suds gathering on his cheek-bone. He smiled, and then he noticed some covering the birthmark on Naruto's shoulder. He wiped them off before kissing the spiral mark softly. Naruto was truly extraordinary. It made sense why he loved him all these years. Perfect sense. In fact, how could anyone sane not love Naruto? He couldn't get it, but he was biased after all.

"Naruto…"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

- To be continued-

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