Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Chapter Thirty-Five: Reprise
Naruto groaned and rolled out of bed. Fucking Sarah, always waking him up at fucking—
Naruto jerked the door open and glared at the grinning brunette.
"Morning, blondie!"
"Tch." Naruto turned and shuffled back to his bed. Sarah squealed in protest and closed the door before jumping on his bed.
"Bad blondie! You can't become a bed potato again just because the show is over! You sold a lot! And you have to work hard for the next one coming up, right!?" She rocked the bed and giggled when the tan arm swatted at her. She loved seeing a grumpy, mostly-naked Naruto, it was so cute!
"Go away; it's not for another four months…"
"Yeah, and you barely got enough for this one in six months!"
"That's because—" Sarah perked when a blush over took the tan face before it hid in the pillow. "Why the hell are you here?" came the muffled voice.
"Oh, John's out of town for a week or something or rather, and since you and Gaara don't really hang out anymore for obvious reasons and Kiba and Hinata are too busy making out, I'm your only hang-out buddy right now." She plopped down and snuggled the warm blanket-covered blonde. "And you're so adorable in the morning."
"Get off."
Sarah smirked and pulled her cell phone out. "Do I need to call Sakura again?"
She giggled when Naruto shot up and grabbed for the phone with a horrified expression.
"God, no!"
"Then let's get to work, okay? I brought you more supplies. They're in my car, so don't lock me out or I'll call her!"
Naruto groaned and flopped back down into his pillow. Women.
:break:
Sarah whistled as she passed through the lobby from Naruto's apartment building to the parking area. She paused and turned slightly in surprise.
Was that…?
She grinned and barely kept back a cheer as she jogged up to the black Mercedes parked four spaces from her car.
She slapped her open palms against the passenger window and giggled when the flustered raven jumped like he'd just been shot at.
The big black eyes stared at her and she gestured for him to roll the window down. He did so and watched her with wary, dry eyes as she leaned in.
"Bout time your punk ass showed up!" Sarah smirked as realization bloomed on the pale, drawn face. "Nice to see you again, Sasuke."
"Sarah, wasn't it?" The raven sighed in defeat at his steering wheel. Just his luck.
"I'm so flattered that you remember! Here to see lover boy?" She purred insinuatingly and smirked when she received a jealous glare. "I do hope you will wait until I am done with him before you make your dramatic reappearance into his life. I have some things to drill into his head. Shouldn't take much more than ten minutes or so." The raven glanced up at her and she could see the fear shining in the dull eyes. Damn, they were both a mess, weren't they? "Don't worry, I'll make him in a better mood before I leave and I'm sure he'll be as chivalrous as always."
He glanced away and Sarah hummed in discontent. He was such an awkward little man.
"Oh, do you want him dressed before I leave?"
"What?" The onyx eyes narrowed at her and she barely kept from smirking evilly.
"I just woke him up, so he's in boxers—those really weird teal ones, you know?" Sarah snickered at the barely contained possessiveness in the raven's eyes. "Anyway, don't chicken out and I'll be back and give you more directions than a letter and a number for his apartment, okay?" She grinned and strutted to her car to gather the canvas and paints she'd picked up for Naruto as a congratulations for his next gallery.
Sasuke watched the girl carry the supplies into the building before he let his forehead fall back onto the steering wheel.
:break:
"What the fuck are you so happy about?" Naruto growled as Sarah bounced back into his apartment as he was pulling up his pants.
"Oh, nothing!" Sarah chirped and dumped the supplies on the messy bed. "I'm just so glad that your life is coming together!"
"Whatever…" Naruto rolled his eyes and tugged a T-shirt on. He dug in the pockets of his jeans from the day before and flopped back onto his bed.
Sarah paused in the middle of setting up the easel when she smelt smoke. She whirled and almost had a heart attack when she saw a cigarette between the long tan fingers.
"What the fuck are you doing?" She shrieked. "Since when do you smoke?!!"
Naruto smirked and tapped the ashes into the ashtray Sarah hadn't noticed before. "Few months."
Sarah clenched her fists and barely held back from swatting the cancer stick from Naruto's hand.
"There, I'm putting it out." Naruto sighed and watched the brunette stalk to him. He gasped when her palm made contact with his cheek. He'd been anticipating the slap, but fuck, that hurt.
"Are you trying to kill yourself?!"
Naruto chuckled and wrapped his arms around Sarah's waist and nuzzled her abdomen. "Ah, that's what I needed. Dumb ass, I'm not actually smoking, I just watch the ashes and smoke. Didn't you notice it in my recent paintings?"
Sarah blushed slightly at his warmth and thought back to the gallery. Oh!
"Is that what all those curvy things were?"
Naruto chuckled again. "Yeah. And I usually open the window, but I wanted to piss you off."
"Why?!"
"Cuz I needed to wake up." Naruto cooed and snuggled tighter to Sarah's side before he released her. "Oh, what did you do with the painting that was on the easel?"
"There wasn't one." Sarah stared at the weird blonde warily. "You're not on drugs, are you?"
Naruto looked up at her in surprise and started laughing. "Hell no." Sarah 'hmph'ed and watched Naruto find the painting he'd apparently lost. She raised an eyebrow at the cloth that was covering it.
"Another Sasuke one?"
Naruto blushed slightly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah…"
"Why haven't you talked to him?"
The golden eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You mean besides the fact that he obviously doesn't want to hear a thing I say?" Naruto shrugged. "I had to work on the gallery—you even said so yourself that I barely finished as it was."
"Hm."
"Hey, you wanna help me with breakfast?"
Sarah grinned. "No, I have a lot of errands to do; I just stopped by to drop this stuff off."
"Oh, thank you."
"'Course, blondie." Sarah grinned and leaned up to kiss the tan cheek.
"Next time, though, please don't come before noon. Sleep is sacred to an artist, you know." Naruto grumbled as he led her to the door.
"But if I don't wake you up, you'd never get out of bed! See you later, babe. Have a good day, okay?"
Naruto blinked as she skipped down the hall. That was weird.
The blonde shut his door and stretched as he walked to the small kitchen. His stomach growled loudly and Naruto patted it reassuringly. "I know, I know, you want a big breakfast, huh?"
Naruto switched on the vent hood and took out all the necessary bowls and pans and grabbed the morning foods he had bought the other day. He hummed to himself as he mixed the pancake batter and was about to switch on his electric whisk when he heard a knock at the door.
Had Sarah changed her mind? Naruto squinted to see if he'd locked the door and called out for the person to enter when he saw the locks were undone. Naruto sighed as the door crept open. Sarah was taking her sweet ass time…
Naruto almost dropped the mixer when the door gave way to a worn out raven. The blonde swallowed thickly when the dull onyx eyes looked up at him.
"Shitsurei shimasu." Sasuke whispered with a small bow.
They stood for several moments just staring at one another before Naruto snapped to his senses and jumped.
"Ah, douzo, just put your shoes by the door and come sit down." The blonde watched the Uchiha slip off his shoes and close and lock the door out of the corner of his eye. The raven shuffled to the bar that was Naruto's only dining area and pulled himself up onto one of the stools. The blonde's face scrunched slightly in a frown as he observed that the bags under the raven's eyes looked even worse in the dim light of his apartment, and his clothes were baggy around his skinny frame. The pale face was pallid, and the nose stud glittered mockingly, as if it was absorbing the raven's life energy for itself. Naruto shook his head out of the clouds and set his mouth in a determined frown. "How many eggs do you want?"
"I don't—"
"Sasuke." The raven looked up sharply in surprise at the deep, commanding tone. "You're not going to come into my domain looking like an anorexic zombie and not expect to be force-fed. Now, how many?"
Sasuke scowled. "I'm not anor—"
Naruto chose that moment to turn on the mixer. Sasuke scowled deeper at the loud buzzing. Sasuke glared at the blonde and noticed that the blue eyes looked a little more alive and sincere than at the art gallery, but his lips were chapped and the blonde hair was longer and messier than desirable. And Naruto looked almost half as tired as Sasuke felt. Which was really fucking tired. Naruto turned off the mixer and tossed it into the sink behind him.
"You were saying?"
"Two."
"How about three in an omelet?"
"I've never had an omelet."
"Then you can try something new today."
Naruto avoided the raven's gaze and cracked and stirred the eggs.
Sasuke swallowed thickly—it was now, or awkward later.
"So tell me what I walked in on half a year ago."
Naruto almost dropped the egg carton. He recovered quickly and slid it back into the fridge and pulled out good omelet vegetables.
"The whole story?"
"Of course, dumb ass."
Naruto glanced at Sasuke and the raven relaxed naturally at the playful sheen to the azure eyes. The blonde returned to preparing the omelets and didn't look up as he started talking.
"So I woke up that morning super excited because you were coming home the next day, but it was New Year's eve, and since you weren't there, I had to find a drinking buddy." Sasuke's stomach dropped out and suddenly the smell of the cooking eggs and vegetables was nauseating. "Kiba was busy with Hinata so I got Gaara and we had a nice day, got totally smashed. We went up to my dorm room because we had decided already that a totally drunk Gaara in the snow wasn't such a great idea so he was going to crash on the floor. We got there, barely able to stand, and I stripped down because I'd spilt beer over myself and whatever, just passed out with Gaara giggling while watching porn."
Sasuke's brow knitted. Wait, if he passed out—
"And then I had a sex nightmare…" Naruto drifted off as though it was painful to talk about and Sasuke saw the tan hand clench around the spatula. "It would have been a sex dream about you, but everything was wrong…" Naruto inhaled deeply. "And you saw how I woke up. I was even more confused and shocked than you were." Naruto flipped the egg over and put the vegetables inside and waited to fold it. "Apparently I'm the same general size and shape as one of his sex toys and he was horny and didn't have Lee…"
"…but there was a condom…" A bright pink one, actually.
Naruto rolled his eyes and tried to smile. It hurt Sasuke's chest. "Apparently Gaara is O.C.D. about the cleanliness of his sex toys and uses a condom every time, and cleans them after anyway…"
Sasuke leaned back with wide eyes. Naruto…hadn't even been conscious. Holy fuck.
"Do you want me to call him? I know it sounds kind of ridiculous…" Naruto shoved an omelet on a paper plate and plopped it in front of the raven and tossed him a plastic fork.
"No…how's Lee taking it?" Sasuke bit his lip and cut the folded egg up.
"Gaara is banned from alcohol henceforth and got suspended from all sexual release for like two months...and it was pretty awkward between us for a while, but he's good now."
"And… you?"
Naruto sighed and Sasuke's chest clenched. There was half a years worth of pain and exhaustion in that sigh.
"I couldn't stand to think of him for awhile. I yelled at him and kicked him out after I realized I couldn't catch up with you and didn't see him for like a month, but then he and Kiba came and knocked some sense into me to get over losing you and to work on the gallery. I wasn't very comfortable being alone with him, but that didn't happen often. I flinched when he touched me for a while too, but I got over it. I figured it was all just a huge, scarring mistake and since I don't even remember it, there's no use staying so hung up over it."
Naruto poured the pancake batter into a skillet and nudged it.
"So that's just about everything I tried to tell you for a month straight…"
Sasuke's breath locked in his chest in guilt. Fuck, he couldn't even begin to imagine his best friend raping him in his sleep. That was like this brother—oh god, the egg almost came up at that thought.
"So enough about that, what's up with you—besides eating nothing but fast food and becoming malnourished? How's Fuuko?"
Now that Naruto was looking up at him again, Sasuke couldn't stand to look at the blonde. The vegetables were an interesting color… "She still asks for you."
"She's talking?"
"Yeah, a little, and she's starting to walk a little too. She scares Kisame."
"Nice."
Naruto shoveled four pancakes onto Sasuke's plate and stacked the rest onto another plate on the counter and drowned them in syrup.
"When was the last time you slept the whole night through, Sasuke?"
Sasuke looked up in surprise and bit his lip, debating on whether to tell the truth.
"Since…the last night before I left for Japan."
"Jesus, Sasuke! When you're done, I'm not letting you out of here until you take a nap!"
"You can't keep me here." Sasuke protested, finally meeting the blue orbs.
"Like hell I can't. You're fast, but you're also at least fifteen pounds underweight, I'd have no trouble hurling you onto the bed."
Sasuke couldn't help the tiny blush that fanned across his cheeks at the end of that sentence.
"Tch."
They ate in silence and Sasuke conceded to wrapping up in Naruto's bed since the food the blonde had served him had been more warm, real food than what he had eaten in the past two months.
Sasuke couldn't help the happy sigh that escaped him when he was engulfed by the spicy citrus scent of the blonde. The raven snuggled deep into the covers and promptly passed out.
:break:
Sasuke groaned quietly and curled further into the orange bedding before he stretched out and blinked groggily. Shit, he couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this relaxed. He let his arm flop over the edge of the bed and yawned before waking up fully. He glanced around the room for Naruto. Oh, that sound was the shower.
The raven sat up and studied the apartment. I was more like a loft, considering that besides the kitchen and what Sasuke guessed to be a closet and the bathroom, the entire apartment was one uninterrupted space. The bed was shoved in the far corner on the right of the door, just like it had been in their dorm, and across the way was a desk with a computer on it that Sasuke knew must have been stashed with all sorts of art materials. Sasuke rubbed his eye lazily and glanced at the nightstand beside him. He frowned slightly at the pack of cigarettes and the ash tray. Naruto wasn't smoking again, was he? He picked up the shiny orange phone and pushed a key to get the time. So he'd slept for a couple hours…
Sasuke heaved himself off the soft bed and located his own phone and stuck it back in his pocket. He walked towards the large easel, curious as to why it was covered. Naruto had never covered his painting in their dorm—even when they were nudes that made Sasuke growl practically non-stop. The raven glanced at the bathroom door and listened closer to make sure the water was still going. Reassured, he pinched the end of the white, paint-smeared clothe and pulled it up.
The black eyes widened in surprise and narrowed in a small, painful smile. It was a portrait of him praying. Sasuke flexed his right hand when he realized that his bandaged hand was the center point of the half-finished painting. The background was already filled in, as well as Sasuke's basic shape and colors. Only his face was missing. It was somewhat disturbing to see. Sasuke let the cloth fall back and glanced around at the bare walls before he sat down on the bed.
The raven wished it were winter so he could at least keep his hands busy with his sleeves or gloves instead of looking around awkwardly. His mouth twisted in a smirk when it dawned on him how easily his Uchiha training disappeared with the blonde. It was almost shameful and he had half a mind to call his father to hear the sweet disappointment the man would surely express. Sasuke really hated being an Uchiha—but he was supposed to be proud of it. It led to very ambivalent feelings on Sasuke's part. Itachi had it a little easier because his natural demeanor was close to the desired behavior of an Uchiha, but Sasuke had always been more…human…
Fuck, Sasuke hadn't even really realized that Itachi was mortal until he'd shown a tiny bit of reluctance at taking the girlfriend that their father had forced on him.
He wondered vaguely how Fuuko would turn out. She was so bright now—nothing like how he and Itachi had been as babies from what he understood. He felt an odd urge to rush to his father's house and whisk her away. But maybe, if she grew up with Naruto as another brother…
Sasuke looked up from his musing when the bathroom door opened and Naruto entered the room. The raven could immediately feel the steam leak into the rest of the apartment and warm his face as he watched Naruto dry his hair silently.
The blue eyes drifted up and Naruto jumped slightly when they met with the coal eyes.
"Oh, you're awake! You scared me!" The blonde chuckled and put a hand over his heart dramatically.
"Hn." Sasuke let a small smile curl on his lips as he watched the blonde pout and toss his towel. The onyx eyes stalked Naruto's walk to the refrigerator.
"You feel any better?" Naruto asked as he reached into the white appliance and Sasuke's smile grew when he heard the casual concern in the blonde's voice.
Sasuke waited until Naruto joined him on the bed and handed him one of the bottled waters that Naruto had fetched. "Better than I have in almost a year." Sasuke informed the surprised dobe honestly.
"That's good then. I seriously thought you were going to pass out on your way home if I let you drive home." Naruto grinned at him and Sasuke loved the warm fluttery feeling in the pit of his stomach at that grin. The raven jumped when the blonde fell back on the bed with a small 'oomph'. Sasuke felt a blush bloom on his cheeks again as he stared at Naruto's exposed navel as the blonde squirmed further onto the bed. There was a dark blue stud in his belly button… "It's really warm…"
"Huh?" Sasuke's eyes snapped up to the blonde's face and was surprised at the small, concerned frown on the tan face.
"It's warm from when you were sleeping." The blonde clarified. "Do you have a fever? You look a little flushed…" Sasuke froze as a tan hand caressed his forehead. "And considering what poor health you're in…" The hand trailed down to rest against Sasuke's flushed cheeks. "You're warm, Sasuke, do you need some medicine?"
"N—no, I'm fine." The Uchiha resisted the urge to lean into the retreating hand. His hand shot out on reflex and grabbed the large warm hand. Sasuke blushed more when the blue eyes widened out of the frown. "Ne, Naruto…"
"Ah?" Naruto looked dazed as Sasuke leaned over him slightly.
"Are you…single?" Sasuke looked deep into the now-amused eyes. God, if the dobe made a dick out of him, he swore—
"Only if you ask." Naruto practically purred, a little smile curling his lips.
"Dobe." Sasuke smirked and leaned down to close the distance between them.
"Teme." Naruto smirked back and intertwined his fingers with Sasuke's. He tipped his head back to meet Sasuke's warm mouth. Sasuke had never felt as relieved as he did when the chapped lips moved against his own.
Sasuke pulled away from the chaste kissing a minute later and watched the smirk on Naruto's face warily.
"Sure took you long enough, bastard."
"Urusai dobe."
"Heh." Naruto chuckled and grinned.
Sasuke returned the grin whole-heartedly and leaned in for another kiss.
Tsuzuku
*sigh* and all is right with the world. So, another time skip :heart: and then another…the end is in sight :dramatic chibi: