Errr…

Contents: Alternative timeline.

"Naruto." Sasuke cleared his throat to catch his friend's attention.

"Hm?" Blue eyes blinked back while his mouth was stuffed with ramen.

He could do this. Actually, he rehearsed the speech all night, he didn't have the luxury to even get a wink of sleep. His eyes were dyed in red and this time it wasn't caused by Sharingan ability.

"Naruto." Sasuke repeated again, just to revalidate his confidence on the issue.

Apparently, Naruto appeared to realize the graveness of this situation, because he placed his chopsticks to rest on the cup noodle to stare intently to his friend. Sasuke coughed again in the tense silence lingering, when he gathered enough wits, and decided to tilt his head upwards, to meet Naruto's gaze.

Azure hue filled his vision, the clarity on his eyes were so evident that Sasuke choked a little and his supposedly genius brain went poof—all the words flushing away.

"Huh…" Was all he could muster to speak.

Naruto leaned his body nearer, a curled eyebrow placed in his face.

"Huuh…" Sasuke noticed that he probably was looking completely ridiculous now, so he cleared his throat again.

Naruto picked up his cup noodle again, blowing the hot steam coming from the food as if he was giving some space for his friend to think.

"Youhavetomarryme." Sasuke blurted out in one breath.

The blond was in middle action to chomp his noodle when he widened his eyes. "Say what?" Maybe he needed to go to doctor tomorrow. His hearing senses were slightly impaired because there's no way that Sasuke would say—

"You have to…marry me." Yeah, that.

"O…kay…" Naruto placed his food on his kitchen table and it was his turn to collect some time to recompose. "Why…? Why do I have to marry you?"

Sasuke virtualized another awkward cough as he attempted to return to his grumpy self. "The council. Due to circumstances…" He narrowed his onyx eyes in a glare. "It was established that, if an Uchiha desired to regain his citizenship, he is obliged to seal a marriage with a resident that was born and lives in Konoha."

Naruto blinked.

Sasuke cleared his throat. "And their deadline is in the next three weeks."

"Whoa, harsh."

"Hn."

Naruto looked again at the cup noodle laid away, torn between shrieking like a headless chicken or explode from overload of information. Since all this decision was starting to throb his head and this entire situation screamed bizarre, he contemplated the next question.

"Eh…but I'm sure that there are a lot of people who fit in your description. Doesn't have to be me."

There, Sasuke coughed again, his discomfort lowering some decibels as he muttered something intelligible, but there was a distinguishable blush tinting his cheeks.

"Wh—?" And that's it, Naruto's going to the doctor today. His ears need a good cleaning.

"I want to marry you." Sasuke turned his head sideways, averting his eyes from Naruto's.

"…oh." It was now Naruto's turn to blush from the implications, fidgeting from his seat.

There wasn't anything surprising about Sasuke's confession. Alright, the proposal was…mind-boggling, though it was something between them that they knew it would happen sooner or later. The lingering feelings that slowly increased until it overflowed naturally. They already took their time to swallow and accept it, the next step was only putting into tangible form.

And Naruto already knew Sasuke enough to understand that this will be the extent that Sasuke would extract his feelings, since he had too much pride to openly admit it. They were both stunted emotionally in many departments, so only with a nudge of fate they would be able to reach what they were reaching today.

The cup noodles were already cold, the chopsticks were creating shadows to signalize the sun settling down on the horizon.

Naruto still rolled his eyes in mock impatience as he picked up his food and emptied on the sink under the questioning graphite eyes.

"And you call me an idiot." Naruto flashed his infamous grin much to Sasuke's relief as the blond opened the door and motioned with his head to exit their apartment.

Because nothing else would be better than a cozy place at Ichiraku Ramen where they could talk and bicker as the usual days.

AN: That's a romantic moment right? That's a romantic moment, right?!?!?! I…I…failed…right…? (bawls)