For disclaimers, warnings, etc, please see Prolog
A/N: for those of you who wanted lemon, I wrote a NC-17 fic set in this same AU, only five years in the future. It's in adultfanfiction-dot-net entitled "Taken." Hope some of you check it out and please don't be too lazy to review! Also, I'm notice that I'm renaming the fic to the "Domesticity Series," because I think that sounds cooler. ;)
Chicken Ramen for the Soul, part 2
--maldita
Sasuke left Sakura's house in a worse mood than he had entered it. Beside him Naruto was withdrawn and quiet, staring at the ground. The visit had been awkward for him from the start.
Naruto had knocked on Sakura's door, shuffling his feet and holding the carnation, while Sasuke had remained slightly to the side and was therefore, out of sight. Sakura's parents answered the door and had been obviously hesitant to let Naruto, their daughter's teammate, enter their house. They said Sakura was fine and would probably be joining them again in a day or two and that there was no need to disturb her so late in the evening. It had been six o'clock. It wasn't until Sasuke stepped forward and said that he wanted to see Sakura too that the two of them were allowed inside. And even then it was painfully clear that Naruto was not really welcome inside their home. It made Sasuke grit his teeth.
Seeing Sakura made things a little better. Naruto cheered up instantly and Sakura looked really pleased that they visited her, even if she couldn't really talk because of a sore throat. Naruto had blushed when he gave her the carnation and Sakura had smiled genuinely if wanly at him. Her eyes had strayed to Sasuke though, and he caught the slight slump of Naruto's shoulders when the blond noticed. Then Naruto perked up and said that it was actually Sasuke who picked out the flower and Sakura smiled so brightly even Sasuke, as surprised as he had been at Naruto's announcement, had to smile back. Naruto had forced out a laugh.
When they left, Naruto actually bowed to Sakura's parents. It was so unexpected and unusual that Sasuke almost tripped over his own feet. Naruto wouldn't even bow to the Hokage. Sasuke himself had only mumbled a short goodbye.
Anger and frustration roiled in Sasuke's stomach. He seriously wanted to beat someone up. He had come very close to shouting at Sakura's parents and the only thing that stopped him was that he knew Naruto would just end up suffering for it if he did lose his temper. Although, he was pretty sure he scared Sakura's parents just a little when he had looked at them with those eyes when Naruto's back was turned. Well, they deserved it.
Sasuke shook off his thoughts and looked up to realize they were almost at Naruto's apartment. He glanced at the unusually quiet genin beside him. "There's still nothing to eat at your place."
Naruto snapped out of his thoughts with a visible flinch. "Huh? Oh, yeah. Um, I don't really feel like eating. I think I'll just take a bath and turn in."
That had Sasuke blinking in surprise. Naruto, too tired to eat? "Okay."
"I'll leave the door unlocked so you can get in," Naruto said before going inside the building.
Sasuke stared at the retreating back before starting to walk off to the conveni. Then he paused for a split second before disappearing from sight.
--
Sasuke could hear the bath running when he stepped into the apartment. After muttering tadaima—and feeling foolish about it—he quickly took off his shoes and went to the kitchen.
Ten minutes later Sasuke was eyeing the bubbling concoction in the pot warily; was it supposed to smell like this? Maybe he'd put too much ginger... And the color was kind of weird too. Crap.
The bathroom door opened and closed and Sasuke sensed rather than heard Naruto walk towards him, apparently lured by the smells wafting from the cooking pot. Suddenly, Sasuke got the insane urge to throw what he was making—pot and all—out the window. He tensed as he felt Naruto stop just behind him and look over his shoulder.
"Okaeri, Sasuke. Um, what's that?"
He gripped the ladle and glared at the overly-fragrant liquid, its odd muddy color taunting him. He flushed.
"Ramen!" Naruto exclaimed, peering at the contents of the pot and sniffing loudly. "Sasuke, you made me ramen—and not the instant kind either!"
Sasuke looked at the grinning boy beside him and relaxed, just a little bit. "Shut up. I didn't cook it for you, dobe."
"Eh? Then why're you making it?" Naruto asked curiously. "You hate ramen."
Sasuke deliberately stirred the noodles. "It was on sale."
"Okay," Naruto said, eyeing Sasuke's impassive face skeptically before continuing in a cheerful voice, "hey, I can have some, right?"
"I thought you said you weren't hungry," Sasuke pointed out.
The blond looked at him like he was crazy. "Sasuke, it's ramen," Naruto said like that explained everything.
Sasuke rolled his eyes, feeling very much put upon. "Fine. Set the table then."
Naruto gave a loud whoop then turned suspicious slitted eyes on the boy in front of the stove. "You're not lying, are you? Because you gave in way too easily and you never—"
"Shut up, dobe! Do you want me to change my mind?" Sasuke turned to Naruto, brandishing the soup ladle threateningly.
"Geez! Okay, okay," Naruto held up both hands placatingly, "just checking!" He turned to get the dinnerware from the cupboard, and Sasuke could hear him muttering about moody weirdos all the while.
Sasuke turned his attention back to the cooking pot and promptly cursed under his breath when he saw the soup was just about to boil over. He quickly turned down the heat and stirred the ramen, deciding that it was probably time to add the vegetables and fish cakes. Behind him he could hear Naruto humming the refrain of some popular song to the clink of dishes being put on the table.
Not for the first time that night, Sasuke wondered what the hell did he think he was doing. So the dobe was feeling down. So his crush's parents hate his guts. So what? Did that mean Sasuke had to go out of his way to comfort the idiot? No, it did not; and yet here he was, cooking the dobe's favorite food. Fuck. When had he turned into such a pushover?
He glanced at Naruto. The idiot was sitting at the table and staring into space, smiling stupidly. There was drool coming out of his mouth. Sasuke frowned and returned to cooking.
Then again, it was only logical to make sure the retard didn't go to bed starving. He knew how loud Naruto's stomach rumbled when empty. The noise would have probably kept Sasuke awake the whole night and gotten him angry. Then he would have had to kill the idiot, and then Team Seven would permanently be stuck doing nothing but D rank missions. Well, it probably wouldn't have gone quite that far, but he would definitely have been kept awake by Naruto's stomach growling, at the very least.
After giving the ramen one last stir, Sasuke turned the stove off and put on oven mitts in the shape of Tonton and took hold of the pot's handles and put it on the table. The soup had barely settled before Naruto pounced on it, serving himself a generous portion of the stuff and, after a hasty "itadakimasu," immediately picking up his chopsticks to eat.
Sasuke rolled his eyes and took off the mitts, not bothering to scold Naruto for his complete lack of table manners. He knew it would never sink in anyway. After serving himself a much more cautious amount of ramen, and giving his own thanks for the meal, Sasuke took his first slurp.
And gagged.
Holy fuck, that was foul! Sasuke resisted the urge to spit. He made a grab for his glass, drowning the sharp taste out with water. Once his glass was empty he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and stared wide-eyed at his bowl and the ramen mockingly staring right back at him.
Apparently he had put too much ginger, and salt, and pepper. The noodles were limp and so were the vegetables. And the chicken was not so much undercooked as practically raw. Sasuke clenched his fists and glared, very much aware of the fact that his face was hot.
Dammit. He hated not being good at something. He always made it a point to succeed and excel at anything he did and it pissed him off that the one thing, the one thing he couldn't do well was something as simple as mixing ingredients in a pot. And what's worse, now Naruto knows it. Sasuke swore that if the dobe said anything he was going to nail his ass to the—
"Hey, Sasuke, aren't you going to eat that?"
Sasuke jerked out of his thoughts, looked towards Naruto, and blinked. His bowl was empty. And there was a piece of noodle sticking to his cheek.
"You ate it?!" Sasuke asked, horrified and a little nauseated at the same time.
Naruto gave him a 'well, duh' look. "Of course. So, are you eating yours?" He pointed at Sasuke's almost-full bowl of ramen. "'Cuz I'm still kinda hungry."
"Sure," Sasuke said warily, pushing his bowl towards the blond. Was it possible that the dobe was actually too stupid to realize that the food tasted awful? He watched with a kind of disgusted fascination as, slurp by messy slurp, the terrible tasting ramen disappeared into Naruto's mouth.
"Y'know," Naruto began conversationally in between bites of ramen and gulps of milk, "if you tasted the food while you're cooking it, you could probably make it taste a helluva lot better."
"Er, you can tell it's bad?" Sasuke eyed the blond suspiciously.
"Duh." Naruto rolled his eyes. "It tastes like crap."
Sasuke growled.
"But like I said before," the blond continued casually, "you made the effort and everything, plus, it's ramen, so of course I'll eat it. Besides, I know you don't like it when I go on hungry."
And because that sounded an awful lot like 'because you care about me,' Sasuke snapped out of his semi-daze and glared at Naruto. "You're wrong. I couldn't care less if you starved, idiot."
"Yeah, yeah," Naruto said, waving off the brunet's anger with his chopsticks. "Hey, d'you think you can make some pork barbecue ramen next time?"
Sasuke felt a vein pop. "Who the hell do you think I am, your servant?!"
"Ah—hey! No, not the ramen!"
"Shut up, dobe!"
"Don't call me dobe!"
--
Later that night, after the two of them had cleaned up the mess they made in the dining area, Sasuke tried to get comfortable in his sleeping bag. He mentally cursed idiot blond ninjas and vowed to leave the apartment as soon as possible. Tomorrow, definitely.
"Hey Sasuke," the idiot blond ninja said from the bed.
"What is it now?"
There was a slight pause, then a quiet, "Thanks."
Sasuke stilled. "Yeah," he said, suddenly not as angry as he was just a moment ago. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight."
Sasuke closed his eyes, the sound of crickets and Naruto's quiet breathing slowly lulling him to sleep.
Well, maybe he won't leave tomorrow. Next week will probably be soon enough.
--
End, Chicken Ramen for the Soul!
--
A/N: I hope you guys liked it! This might be the last chapter I'll be posting for a while (around 2 weeks) 'cuz midterms are coming up. --;;
Gi wo...: well, I can write longer chapters, but that would also mean that I wouldn't be posting as often.... --;;;
Jadetiger, Chaotic Demon, Crazy DOOM Kitten, & Strawberry Noodle Bunny: Thanks so much! I hope I was able to make this part interesting and still in-character... don't be afraid to tell me if I fell short though so I can change it!
Pinky-cat: lemon at adultfanfiction-dot-net!! Check it out and review, please!
ILLK & HikariChang: Um, I'll try to work on a chapter that will deal with Sasuke being jealous... because that's an interesting concept and I'm kind of curious as to what can make Sasuke jealous. Hm..
Hieisbestbuddy: hehe, probably no updates in a couple of weeks though, sorry. And I'm not sure myself when/if Sasuke and/or Naruto will say those three little words in this fic. Much more likely they'll say it in the other fic I'm working on. The one I'm pimping out like mad in adultfanfiction-dot-net. Hehe. Nothing like a little self-promotion!