Notes at end yo

[DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto or the characters, they belong to M. Kishimoto.]

Sasuke looked him dead in the eye and smirked. ''Don't get so full of yourself.'' No nickname was used.

''Sasuke, I'm your friend right?'' He asked. It came out high pitched. Sasuke blinked too slowly.

''Fuck you, Naruto. I never needed you.''

He grabbed Sasuke's shoulders. His arms didn't move. He looked up and Sasuke was gone. He felt a warm breath on his neck and shivered. He heard Sasuke's deep voice next to his ear.

''I hate you.''

This time his voice did work. ''Sasuke, I just want to help don't you understand?'' He cursed at how pleading and weak he sounded.

Suddenly Sasuke stood in front of him again, now on the edge of a strange cliff. ''Sasuke..''

''I don't need help, idiot.'' He took a step backwards. He whispered something Naruto couldn't catch.

Naruto ran forward but the cliff kept going back along with his steps. He stopped and watched as Sasuke stepped off the edge and let himself fall into the depth below.

''Naruto..'' Was that Sasuke's voice? He ran to the edge and saw nothing but a swallowing darkness.

Again, the helpless voice called out to him. ''Naruto!''

''Sasuke!'' He cried, wanting so bad to keep his friend from leaving him.

''Naruto. Naruto.''

His eyes flew open and he winced so hard he flew off the couch, dragging his friend along with him. They landed in a heap of blankets and limbs. Sasuke grunted and Naruto blinked down at him. Oh.

''What were you dreaming about?''

Naruto smiled broadly, glad Sasuke was in his arms. ''s' nothing, S'uke,'' he grinned.

Sasuke sighed. ''Get off me.''

Naruto chuckled and stood up, helping Sasuke up too.

That night, when Sasuke took Naruto's offer and laid down next to the blond in his bed, his mind was strangely calm. Naruto's smell filled his entire mind and he could feel a muscled arm pressing softly against his own. He listened to Naruto's calm breathing and let his eyes roam the boring ceiling.

For some reason he'd thought Naruto was somebody who snored so loudly the entire country woke up, but now that he thought about it, he wasn't at all.

Suddenly his stomach seemed to fold in on itself. He was so fucking selfish. Self-centred, pretentious. All of it. A wave of guilt hit him and he quickly spoke up.

''What was your childhood like, dobe?''

A soft intake of breath moved the cover that held them both warm and comfortable.

''Why the sudden interest?''

Sasuke huffed and placed his left hand under his pillow, supporting his complaining neck. A habit he was beginning to copy from the guy next to him. ''Just answer the question please.''

He needed to know now. What had he been missing out on all this time? Did Naruto have any triggers? Did he have the best childhood you could imagine? Had he ever spoken about his parents?

''Nothing too exciting, I'm afraid,'' Naruto chuckled softly. ''My parents died when I was very young so I've been living with a foster parent my whole life.''

Sasuke felt a pang in his gut. It reminded him of his own parents, but also made it painfully clear how little he knew about Naruto. Who was the boy next to him, calming him so much he felt dazed and awake at the same time?

''Tell me about them.''

Naruto's eyebrows raised in an amused fashion. ''Damn Sasuke,'' He grinned, not bothered by the request. He loved his life, no matter the bumps in the road.

''His name is Iruka. How should I describe him.. He's very clean. I mean very. He's been my weight to keep me on the ground for as long as I can remember, ya know! He wears stupid oven mittens when he's cooking and he loves baking his mother's pie recipes, which taste like the fucking clouds dipped in sugar, I'm telling you.''

Sasuke snorted at the stupid comparison. As Naruto talked, he felt like he could breathe a little easier. He wanted to know everything there was to know. Nothing about him was important right now. Just Naruto and his life, and it felt great.

''He's dating Kakashi,'' Naruto blurted out, a small blush grazing his cheeks.

Sasuke's expression was priceless and Naruto laughed his full sounding laugh, filling the room with his sound and making Sasuke smirk in contentment. ''That's.. No actually I don't want to know about it at all, go on.''

Naruto shook his head slightly, his cheeks hurting slightly from grinning so much. Sasuke was listening to him. Actually listening and showing interest, and for some reason it felt like it meant a lot. He didn't want attention per se, but knowing Sasuke didn't forget about him sent a tingly feeling to his heart. Silly, but nice.

''Yeah, you honestly don't want to know. Like, this one time when I walked into the kitchen Kakashi was sitting there in this freaking-''

''Naruto,'' Sasuke's warning voice stopped him.

He chuckled. ''Right, right. Anyways, I've been living on my own for a while now. Well, until I kidnapped myself and held myself hostage in your house, that is!''

Sasuke let his head roll to the side to stare at Naruto, who was stretched out on his side of the bed, arms behind his neck and eyes closed to the ceiling.

''Anything else you wanna know, detective?''

Sasuke huffed but gave it a second. ''What about your.. whiskers?''

Naruto snorted slapped a hand over his eyes. ''Yeah, I was kinda drunk. But also barely drunk at all, to be honest, mostly just stupid. Kiba and I we ehh.. Our ego's get out of hand sometimes and we decided to get face tattoo's one night when we were challenging each other. Gaara went along too, although he was actually drunk off his ass.''

''Gaara has a face tattoo?''

''Yeah, under all that hair it says 'Love' on his forehead in Japanese kanji. 'Love', Sasuke, on Gaara's forehead. His forehead!''

Sasuke clasped his hand over his mouth to stop the girly giggle that was bubbling in his throat from making it into Naruto's ears. He had to ask Gaara about that one day, he noted.

After a minute of listening to Naruto's breathing he spoke up again. ''they look good.''

Naruto turned his head to Sasuke and stared at him, wondering what he was taking about.

''The whiskers, you idiot. They look nice on you.''

Naruto felt his face heat up to sun temperature in a second, and hastily returned to looking at the ceiling. ''Thanks, teme,'' he said softly.

During dinner on Sunday, there was peaceful silence. The usually talkative Naruto seemed contemplative, and stoic Sasuke was silent as ever. Naruto looked at Sasuke from under his bangs as he ate. He smiled softly and lifted his head. He swallowed his particularly big bite of food and squeezed his fork in his fist.

''You know, Sasuke,'' he began, getting the attention of Sasuke, who lifted his gaze to meet his. Dark eyes looked confused and his smile stretched. He probably looked like a goofball, but he couldn't help the butterflies in his stomach as all of Sasuke's attention was focused on him again. Silly.

''I think I'm in love you,'' he admitted openly. He grinned with all of his teeth for a second before casually continuing with his food. There. He'd said it.

Sasuke stared at the top of Naruto's blond head with unusually open eyes.

It felt a little too real of sudden. In love? With him? What was he supposed to say now? Naruto seemed to just go on with his musings, but he knew it wasn't normal for him to not say anything in return. He was overthinking this. Shit.

Naruto looked up again, meeting Sasuke's plain empty stare. He let the smile slip off his face almost completely. ''Does that even mean anything to you?'' he wondered, suddenly slightly irritated.

Sasuke's throat felt like he'd swallowed sandpaper instead of dinner. His mind was spinning like crazy trying to come up with something, anything to say, but he blanked out.

Love? They'd went on a date, yes. He'd actually enjoyed it a lot. They had slept in the same bed and kissed. Were they together? Was he in love with Naruto? Suddenly he felt stupid for not being prepared for this confession. Shouldn't he know if he loved Naruto or not for sure? Did it mean he didn't love him if he hadn't said 'I love you too' immediately?

Naruto put his utensils down with a frown. ''What the hell Sasuke? I just told you I'm in love with you!'' He crossed his arms.

Sasuke lowered his gaze to his plate and listened to Naruto's deeper than normal voice. ''I don't expect you to tell me you love me too out of a sudden, but you can't say anything?''

A silence stretched. Sasuke looked into Naruto's eyes deeply, trying to communicate without speaking, like they usually seemed to do. 'I'm sorry, but I just don't know what I feel', 'I hope you know how fucking much you mean to me, but I've never loved anybody before and and I don't know what to do with myself.' Was that it? Did he really love him? Why couldn't he say anything?

He'd loved his mom before she'd lost herself. He'd loved his brother a very long time ago. Was Naruto going to disappear from his life if he told him he meant everything to him?

''I..'' What was there to say? What was a confession going to do? What if Naruto was just joking around? Maybe Naruto had had many girlfriends and boyfriends before and he was just playing with his heart.

He huffed angrily, forgetting Naruto was waiting for a response entirely. His head snapped up when he heard Naruto's chair screech in protest as Naruto stood up suddenly, palms flat on the table.

''Never mind, Sasuke. I'm going to bed.'' He walked away with his hands stuffed in his pockets, his aura screaming violence and anger.

Sasuke finally placed his utensils down and leaned back in his chair. He'd fucked it up completely. Of course he loved Naruto, right? What else would he call this feeling?

The warmth that spread through his every fibre whenever Naruto smiled at him and him alone. The tingles those incredibly vibrant eyes sent to his heart. The weakness in his knees whenever Naruto touched him. His unusual urge to smile whenever close to his sunshine.

Of course he loved him. Then why couldn't he just say it? What a fuck up. Naruto was hurt now, because of him.

He cleaned up the plates and cups with a distant gaze and decided to go outside. The sky was almost purple, pretty if he'd been paying any attention. He couldn't stop thinking about the hurt look in Naruto's eyes.

Naruto curled into himself on his bed, groaning in frustration. He was being childish. He knew damn well how hard it was for Sasuke to let himself get attached to people. He also knew Sasuke loved him. Of course the bastard did. All those little signs told him enough, but this stubborn part of his brain needed to hear it from Sasuke's mouth. He needed to hear it so bad he'd fucked it up.

What if Sasuke didn't love him? Would he still be here if he didn't think he loved him? Was he staying here because he hoped Sasuke returned his feelings or was he really as nice a person as people told him he was?

It was stupid enough to force Sasuke to think about it. What if he really didn't feel anything and he was just playing around with Naruto to fill some sort of hole in his heart. Wasn't that enough though? He would want to fill every emotional emptiness Sasuke felt, whether that was bad for himself or not.

His eyes stung with unshed tears. Why was their relationship so weird? Should he be more straight-forward? He wanted to be with Sasuke. That much he knew. He wanted Sasuke to be his and his alone, so bad. He wanted Sasuke to tell him he felt the same.

The warmth that spread through him whenever Sasuke smirked at him and him alone. The tingles those dark eyes, full of emotion sent to his heart. The heat in his cheeks when he was caught staring at Sasuke's profile. The urge to hold him, all the time. To protect him from everything that wasn't Naruto.

Sasuke walked along the empty road, wind prickling his naked arms. He hadn't bothered putting on a coat, but was glad he'd managed to find his black shoes in his dazed state. He didn't know where he was walking, just that he needed some fresh air.

How could he be this stupid? If it weren't for that blond idiot he'd have killed himself a long time ago. If it weren't for that stupid Uzumaki he would've been crying himself to sleep every night.

He asked him for something one time and he can't say anything nice? Jesus.

His steps slowed down as he felt eyes on his back. He felt spark of hope. He was about to turn around when a hand clasped over his eyes and a hard chest pressed into his back. Before he had time to yell, a cloth that smelled of death and sickness was pressed to his nose and mouth.

Almost immediately he felt his world swim as he struggled in the iron grip on his arms. His screaming came out as muffled protests through the cloth. His felt his vision grow smaller and went limb. His world was dark as he felt himself getting picked up and thrown over a broad shoulder and he lost consciousness.

leave reviews pleeease uwu

so sorry i take ages to update man school has me face down on the floor most of the time lmao.
I'll do my best to write lots and lots quickly!

I hope you are having a wonderful day and i wish you the best uwu you're amazing just being who you are:3