Chapter 6: Disgruntled discussion.
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I swear I didn't mean this to go so long without an update. And for the standard disclaimer and warnings I own nothing I'm but a poor art student, and this deals with men loving each other and cursing... There shall always be some cursing. And I claim no ownership of any Naruto character.
::: Translation notes :::
Donburi with Katsu-don –a rice dish served in a porcelain bowl with various kinds of ingredients on top, and this constitutes a complete meal. Typical ingredients include fried pork cutlets (katsu-don)
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The blond headed into the kitchen, in no real rush to explain things to his house guest. Absently trying to loosen the sore muscles in his back. The disgruntled young man left the comfort of the sofa so he could trail after Naruto. His initial outrage had begun to fade and diminish, in turn his confidence quickly followed in suit. It was much easier to ignore things when you're blinded by anger. He suddenly felt very unsure of himself, not quite certain what was expected of him. Or what he was even doing in the room, he should have returned to the streets already. Many things hadn't accrued to him, like how very little he knew about the stranger he was leeching off of. All he knew was the other man had been very kind, and worked long hours. "Are you planning on staying?" Naruto glanced over his shoulder to better see Sasuke. Ebony colored eyes swiftly looked away, suddenly looking very nervous. "I don't know…." Letting the indecisive answer slide, his host turned his attention back to the kitchen, with a look of blatant awe upon his face. "You did a really amazing job! Everything is so clean!" The shorter one shrugged looking a tad embarrassed, but thankful for the change in topic. "I was just killing time." Naruto just grinned at him, poking around the cabinets for a pan. "You wanna help me make breakfast?" The whiskered one quipped, holding up a bowl in peace offering. "Uh I'm not very good at cooking…" Sasuke muttered, excepting the glassware hesitantly. "I'm sure even you can mix eggs!" Naruto explained pleasantly, passing along the 4 eggs he'd retrieved from the fridge. The dark one looked doubtful even with the extra encouragement.
The soft morning light cast its pastel hues through the windows of the modest apartment, its inhabitants had fallen into a quiet reflective silence. The sounds of dishware and pans being shifted and put to use creating a harmony of homely sounds. Comfortable and unobtrusive in its symphonic glory, it seemed to sooth both their nerves and relaxed them into a more casual discussion. The dark haired guest perched at the counter as he scrambled the eggs to be fried; he faced the back of his exhausted host. Who had been preparing some sort of batter, his knowledge of English food was too limited to guess what it might be. But he did observe the blonds movements with rapt interest, there was something very confident about the other. He seemed comfortable even when dealing with complete strangers, moving and speaking without hesitation. Unlike his own tentative attempts, only anger seemed to loosen his tongue. He was snapped out of his musing by a rather florid wave of the others hand. "Do you like waffles?" He gave the "head chief" a blank look, pausing in his mixing. "Never had them… They sound weird though…" The blond chuckled, flashing a smile and stated that his guest was "In for a treat."
Sadly their comfortable environment was disturbed, at least in Sasuke's opinion. By the appearance of Naruto's very exuberant neighbor, Sakura had let her self in and immediately pounced upon her fair haired friend. Sasuke sneered in a show of blatant disgust, as the pink scourge dangled from Naruto's neck. "Wow who the hell cleaned?!" The blond looked down at her and pointed to his guest. "Sasuke did." Green eyes turned on the brooding young man; she smiled without any sign of the previous days misgivings. "Oh so the little street rat is still here!" Ok maybe there were a 'few' misgivings. The blond laughed nervously as he began to worry he might have to restrain a quietly seething Sasuke. "Please be nice?" Sakura just grinned playfully, ignoring the others dirty looks. "I was just joking! Lighten up you two!" She disengaged herself from the Naruto and attempted to give Sasuke a friendly pat on the arm. But the quiet guest just glared and shied away from her touch, which in turn caused her to frown. Sighing Naruto started to pry waffles out of the waffle iron, leaving them to the bickering.
Sakura gave the blond an evaluating look, and didn't look terribly pleased. "You look like hell." He looked sheepish, and quickly offered her breakfast. Unfortunately for him Sasuke decided then to speak for the first time since the pink girl showed up. "That might have something to do with the fact he didn't get home till 7 am." The blond instructor cowered under his female friends glare, scooting away from the rather menacing young woman. Sasuke smirked and poured the mixed eggs into a frying pan. In retribution Naruto used a fork and a few well placed jabs to get his guest's attention. "On Fridays I'm in class until 6pm, so I'll stop in for a few hours. But then I'm expected at work, and won't be home until 7am again." The other young man nodded, although frowned a bit, along with Sakura. Who felt compelled to ask a few questions "I thought you got home at 2am??" He shook his fair head. "I agreed to take care of things for Asuma for 2 days, so last night and tonight I'm working late." Sasuke fidgeted slightly, not sure if he wanted to say anything in front of Sakura, but seemed to give up since she didn't appear to show signs of departing. "Do you want to have dinner before work? Since I uh-could prepare something, I guess…" He mumbled, refusing to meet the others eyes. Sakura sniggered from the side and Naruto instantly grinned. "Does this mean your staying?" The hopeful tone the instructor used didn't make his answer any less embarrassing, and he dragged a hand through his ebony locks in frustration. "Yeah I guess-but only for a little while!" He snapped, wishing he could squelch the blush that kept threatening to consume him. Refusing to pay attention to Sakura who was snickering behind her hands, and certainly refusing to acknowledge the pleased blue eyed instructor. "Your going to get a job right? Not that you wouldn't make a lovely house wife." The pink haired girl ventured once she had gotten her self back under control. Sasuke didn't answer due to the fact he was too busy cursing and trying to pry himself from the death grip Naruto had gotten on him after the first lunge he made at the pink wench.
Silence had once again fallen upon the apartment, Sakura and finally left at Naruto's request, and Naruto himself had finished getting cleaned up and dragged himself back into the cold. But not after giving Sasuke some money and instructions on how to get to the grocery store. This had been much to his relief since the blond had very little that would work well as a proper dinner. Ignoring the others rather weak argument that instant Ramen was a good meal. Doing the dishes hadn't taken very long; while he was aware he didn't have to do them, it made him feel slightly more at ease in the apartment. There was something undeniably relaxing about the swish of warm soapy water and the rhythmic swiping of a rag. Eventually he dragged himself from the solitude and warmth of the apartment heading into the icy bustling streets. On his trip to the store he picked up a newspaper and spent a portion of his afternoon pouring over the job section, munching on a box of crackers and gnawing absently on the pen he had been using to circle various work venues. And spent a very irritating amount of time making inquiries about the positions he had been considering, which seemed to involve to much talking for his comfort. Most of them turned him down or were just simply out of the question, but he had arranged 3 interviews for later that week. Feeling a tad triumphant the dark haired young man set about getting dinner started. After all there were a few things even he could make without screwing up, he thought as he shifted a bag of rice.
Not to far across town Naruto had spent his morning tiredly taking notes until he finally got to head down stairs to the school's café, hoping to catch a nap during the hour long gap he had between classes. However his sleep was cruelly disrupted by a prod to the head, blue eyes blinked sluggishly and he looked up to see Temari perched on the corner of the cafeteria table. The older woman grinned down at him, as she greeted him cheerfully. Groaning he dropped his head back onto his folded arms, praying she would go away. "What do you want Temari? And if it involves me carrying boxes for you, forget it." She gave him a rather fake looking pout, glancing at him as she smoothed her mini skirt. "I'll have you know Naruto, I'm here to make sure your coming to my party Monday night, and I only asked you to help me move once!" He raised an eyebrow slightly, glancing up long enough to express his doubt. "Who's going to be there?" She nodded her fair head and slid off the table top. "You know, the 'usual group'." Naruto nodded slightly, yawning and making a rather dismissive gesture. "Yeah fine I'll be there, but I'll probably be dragging along my new roommate." She gave him a bemused look, "You have a new roommate?" He shrugged nonchalantly, "Officially starting today anyway, it's kind of a long story. I'll tell it to you another time." Temari gave him a skeptical look but left without further questioning, much to his relief. She was a little over a year older then him and was known for having quite the attitude, they attended the same college. But he had originally met her at a marital arts competition; her older brother had been a contestant. Which had led to one of his stranger friendships, that involved him being invited to parties and being coherence into moving furniture. His watch went off and startled him out of his near sleep daze causing him to groan; of course it was time to get to his humanities class. And so his day crawled on…
6 pm and the last bell of the day came slowly enough, he was ready to cry out of joy when he finally got to stuff his books into his broken in backpack and shuffle his way to the door. Walking home and thinking warm fuzzy thoughts about his bed and the 3 hours extra of sleep he could snag before having to head to work. In his rush for sleep it seemed to have slipped his mind that he wasn't alone when he reached the ever elusive apartment. Which caused him to nearly jump out of his skin when he walked in, and found Sasuke digging through the silver ware. "Oh hey Naruto…" He laughed silently at his own forgetfulness and waved at his new roomie. "Hey what smells so good?"
Sasuke tried vainly to hide his embarrassment as he moved a pot over to the table top. "Um well I made donburi with katsu-don…" The blond was staring at him with an expression that mirrored a begging puppy, and that disturbed him a lot. "Sit down and cut it out!" He grumbled and motioned Naruto to take a seat and the counter commonly used as a table. And the blond was eating as soon as he was handed a bowl, it was hard to tell which of them was undernourished. Sasuke himself wasn't as famished, since he had found he self snacking ever since he got back from the store. The kitchen and living room scattered with various bags of chips and crackers of the salty variety. Since he had never had much of a sweet tooth, but that aside he was still able to put away two helpings of rice and pork.
The whiskered one smirked at Sasuke, "What did you say earlier about being bad in the kitchen?" The dark haired young man fought back an instinctive blush. "Even I can make a few traditional dishes…" He muttered before taking another bite, there was a pause in conversation while they ate. Until finally the blond broke the silence with a question. "Hey Sasuke how old are you?" Naruto asked with great curiosity, his roommate paused. And for a moment he didn't think the boy would answer, until Sasuke mumbled out a quiet "18" The blond as always smiled reaching over to ruffle the others hair. "Heh, your two years younger then me!" Sasuke glowered and moved away from the offending hand, and the blond continued his interrogation. "So are you thinking of attending college?" The dark haired one shrugged, seemingly disinterested. "At the moment, no." Naruto blinked in confusion. "Why not?" Sasuke just shook his head. "There's no real point." This displeased the blond. "But don't you want to get a good job??" The other just snorted and shot him a negative look. "As of yet I haven't found anything worth the trouble." Naruto frowned again looking a tad put out. "Well then what are you going to do with your self genius?" Sasuke glared at the barb. "There is plenty of work that doesn't involve a college degree." He snapped angrily. The instructor bit back a heated response and returned his attention to his food. And a tense silence fell upon them once more.
Once they were through Sasuke began picking up the now empty bowls. Without offering to help Naruto headed back to living room to empty out his bag. Sasuke did the dishes and refused to care or give the blonds silence a second thought. Although he did wonder if perhaps his decision to stay had been a bit premature, as he put away the freshly dried glassware. And he found him self struggling to reach the top shelf were the plates were supposed to go, he almost yelped in surprise as a tan arm reached past him and took the plate. And with an obnoxious amount of ease, neatly slid it into place. Glancing over his shoulder he found Naruto giving him a rather apologetic look, seemingly hoping to make amends.
Until that point it hadn't really occurred to him there was a big physical difference between him and his new roommate, but with Naruto looming over him it was hard not to. And certainly not pleased to realize how very delicate he appeared next to the other. Naruto was tall and broad shouldered with a healthy tan, with what could definitely be considered an athletic build. While he himself had an almost willowy look about him, all slim and pale skinned. It wasn't to surprising that the blond's clothes were so loose on him. It bothered him and he had a feeling it was going to irritate him for a long time to come.
Naruto cleared his throat catching his attention once more. "If it'd make it easier for you, we could move the plates lower…" The shorter male immediately glared in response, huffing slightly and shoved a glass onto it's shelf. "Their fine were they are, I'm not that bloody short." He grumbled, giving the chuckling blond a nasty look. "What ever works for you Sasuke!" Naruto smiled widely, eyes dancing with amusement. Irritation aside, the mood seemed to have changed with injury to his masculinity. The atmosphere turning to something more companionable, a welcomed change for both of the rooms inhabitants.
"Oh I meant to mention it earlier, if we move all the junk out of the room down the hall, you can have your own room. There's a futon rolled up in there, but if you want a real be with a frame and mattress I think my sensei has an extra one I can get for you…" Naruto added helpfully, the other young man nodded slightly. "Yeah I guess that would be ok…" The instructor brightened. "Great I'll let him know and we can probably pick it up on Monday." He stopped for a moment as he remembered something. "Oh yeah, we're going to a party that night!" Sasuke raised an eyebrow in silent question. "Eh one of my friends invited me and I told her I'd be bringing you too… Since well I didn't think it would be nice to leave you here… And well you can meet some of my friends?" He almost started to inch away at Sasuke's rather baleful expression. "No" was the deadpanned answer, Naruto whined in response. Which was followed by a rather pointless and hour long argument that resulted in a victorious blond and a sulky raven haired young man.
At 9 pm the very exhausted Naruto left for work, once again leaving his new roommate to his own devices. Which as what seemed to being rather normal ended up with Sasuke starting to clean out the second bedroom. After an evening of moving boxes, rearranging a few pieces of furniture and raiding the linen closet. He was able to finally crawl onto the futon and curl up for the night.
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(Writers rambling and notations only for the very bored)
Really while I am sorry for the time it took to get this chapter put together I was working out timelines and what not. Since I currently have no idea how long it will take to wrap this up. I also don't want to rush anything since I'm writing this for pleasure, not to give myself something to stress over. Oh and sorry if the end of the last chapter was weird at all, it was about 3 am at that point.
I should warn you (beloved) readers that if you think this is going to be a *pop* *bam* *swoon* "take me now!* fic your wrong, I like gradual change. I'm aiming for a more realistic wooing. Its not going to be an instant kick to the head by cupid sort of thing, so get ready for the long haul kiddies. I'm wrapped up in my own little Naruto AU world. But it takes all my will power to not kick things up a notch, really it does. Oh the couplings I could make! The potential havoc I could bring is endless. And lets not forget all those lovely "love triangles" my lips are sealed I shall disclose nothing! NOTHING! ^_~
Hmm I'm making Sakura act like a spaz and Sasuke was OOC… what ever I never said I was going by the book.
And Jekyll has been forgiven, well not that I was actually angry at her before. ^_^
Oh and for those interested I've created a "writing blog" at – http:// -remove space- www.greatestjournal.com/~sw/ I plan on posting all short things I don't plan on posting here. I have been writing snippets lately and they seem to short to post officially.