Author's Note:

Hello! Back with another update! From this point forward, my writing style is a lot better from what it used to be. Maybe one day I'll go back and edit the previous chapters, hmm...

Hope you like this one! :)


Chapter Seven - Giving in

"Hnnng," Naruto held his grumbling stomach, face contorted in a scowl.

"Just go eat something already," Sasuke's muffled voice came from the bed. "I'll be fine." The room fell silent for a moment and then some shuffling, and then…nothing. He waited for the door to open, footsteps, any noise indicating Naruto was leaving the room but there was only silence. He peaked from under the blanket. A sturdy, behemoth of a tanned man stood beside his bed, hands submerged into his pockets, crystal clear eyes slightly squinted and fixated on his blurred ones, as if waiting for him to dissolve.

"What?" Sasuke asked hesitantly.

"As much as I trust you," Naruto crossed his arms, "I don't. Right now." He narrowed his eyes even more on Sasuke.

Sasuke sighed.

Of course Naruto would be worried. Especially when there wasn't anything he needed to worry about…

"I'm not going to use again," Sasuke threw his head back down on the pillow. He rolled over on his stomach when he heard Naruto's footsteps coming closer. He kept his head turned away.

"How can I be sure?" Naruto's voice was suddenly softened, and Sasuke could barely keep up with the sudden shifts.

"Because," Sasuke mumbled into the bed. He mumbled something else but Naruto hardly heard it.

"What? I couldn't–"

"I said I want to get clean," Sasuke heaved himself upwards and sat on his knees. "I want to get off the shit. I'm done." He could feel his frustration forming in the shape of tears in his eyes, but he wasn't actually crying. "All it does is cloud my mind and gives me false hope and it's all for nothing, I know that. I don't want to live that way anymore." He wiped his cheeks vigorously. "So, go downstairs and fucking eat something."

He stared down at Naruto.

He stared up at Sasuke.

Two frustrated men caught in a staring contest. Until the loud, unmistakably hungry grumble erupted from Naruto's stomach again.

"Fine," Naruto broke first. He stood up, pulling his phone out of his back pocket.

12:46 PM. 16 texts from Kiba. 3 from Sakura. 1 from Itachi.

He sighed, looking back at Sasuke who was bent over, face shoved into the pillow again.

"Call me if you need anything," he waited for an answer.

Nothing.

"Sas?"

"Just go!" Sasuke's voice was muffled but the blond heard him loud and clear. He lingered above Sasuke for a second, before deciding he trusts him enough after that halfhearted declaration of adopting healthier life choices. Halfhearted…maybe. But it was a start. And Naruto could feel the small smile forming on his lips.


'Shut the fuck up, you dog!' Read Naruto's reply to Kiba's insane chain of texts insinuating many things. About him. And Sasuke. About him with Sasuke. Doing things that made Naruto's mind go haywire–

His insides were throwing a tumultuous fit. His ears flared up a bright red and his lungs forgot how to breathe–

It's not like Kiba wasn't on to something. Naruto was well aware of the…thing he's…developed for Sasuke. 'But he didn't have to be so damn descriptive!' Naruto shook his head in disbelief, smiling all the same and shoved his phone back into his pocket having reached the kitchen.

He figured he should look around the fridge and the cupboards for anything he could quickly put together so he could run back upstairs to Sasuke. He'd managed to find some cold cuts and a few of his favorite vegetables in the fridge and settled on making himself a sandwich.

Now to find the bread. He scavenged the cupboards, failing to notice the big, intricately carved breadbox sitting atop the kitchen island, next to a modest silver vase full of blossoming white jasmine. With the last spark of hope, he opened the tall door of the last cupboard he hasn't looked into yet praying for bread.

He was greeted with an entire shelf of flavors upon flavors of instant ramen, instead.

A light scoff, with a small smile. 'That bastard.'


The second Naruto bubbly walked into the room, a loud, irritated moan erupted from the man still curled up on the bed.

"Jeez, if you hate me that much–"

"Ugh, shut up dobe," Sasuke groaned, rolling onto his back. "It's not you." Naruto sat on the edge of the bed, curiously looking over Sasuke as he ate his spicy miso ramen. Sasuke looked at Naruto. The blond was obviously waiting for an explanation; it was all over his stupid, tantalizing face…

He peeled his eyes away so he could speak.

"It's just–" he sighed. "I was having thoughts…" his eyes unwittingly landed on Naruto's mouth. Watching him slurp the noodles messily. He noticed how much pinker his lips would get when Naruto ate–

"…lloooo? Sas?" His eyes snapped to blue ones. "Thoughts about what?" Naruto asked attentively. He inhaled sharply and sat up, despite the tremendous pain in his bones, and turned to the side trying to avoid the blond completely.

"Thoughts about," Sasuke pulled at his blanket, wrapping it around himself, and his voice felt as small as he did, "…using again." But it wasn't only that. He had worse thoughts, darker thoughts. Thoughts he doesn't think he can bring himself to voice.

Naruto placed the near-empty cup on the floor and slid closer to the huddled man. "Why?"

"Why?" Sasuke glared at the blond. "Seriously?"

"Yeah," Naruto's eyes were firm. "It's only been a day, and you're doing great. I think. So why throw that away? And besides, what happened to that whole 'I wanna get better' thing?"

"They were just thoughts, idiot. It's not like I was going to throw away anything." To him, it almost sounded as if Sasuke's little outburst wasn't aimed at him…but at Sasuke himself. So, Naruto didn't respond. He simply sat in silence…and bit his tongue. He bent his head forwards a little, and saw Sasuke's angry face staring at the floor. He watched as the head of silky black hair drop with a quiet sigh.

A moment passed.

"Everything hurts," said a small, quavering voice. Sasuke swallowed the lump in his throat. Fighting the tears that were blurring his vision with reason this time, unlike the others he'd shed. The ones that seemingly fell only for the sake of watering his cheeks.

"And…I'm so fucking tired," it was a broken sigh, and one that held enough power to sink Sasuke further into his mattress.

Naruto brought his arm up behind the pale, slender body wrapped up in a plushy mess and hugged him close. Sasuke let his head rest on the broad shoulder, closing his eyes and giving in to his emotions yet again. He cursed himself for being so weak. Again. He felt in the past day alone, as though his heart wasn't on his sleeve, but rather on the floor in front of him for Naruto to step all over. Or use as a soccer ball. Or avoid it entirely. And every time he'd go to reach for it, it kept rolling farther away. Sasuke is not accustomed to having shown so many – too many – emotions like this. It was exhausting, on top of the withdrawal.

As if the blond could read his mind, Sasuke felt the other arm encase him entirely.

They sat in silence for a long while. The cup long forgotten by the bed's foot, the text messages left unread. The only thing that matters to Naruto at this very moment was the hurting brunette in his arms.

But if he was being completely honest with himself…

Sasuke was always the only thing that ever mattered.

He just wished he knew what to say to make Sasuke not go back to doubting himself again. To keep him here, and stay strong enough to keep fighting. He might have gotten away with it this one time, but…it didn't feel like the right thing to say. Looking back at it now…it didn't feel right – it only made Sasuke…mad. Maybe he rushed it? Maybe he couldn't help him the way he thought he could? Maybe he was just in over his head…


The room was overtaken by a golden wash of the setting sun. It coated everything. Spreading mottled shadows across the room, moving and shrinking as time went on. Time in which, Sasuke had thrown up again, sweated like the sun was three feet above him, he'd cried again, and fell cold again, and Naruto finally put space between him and the frail man–

Although it wasn't voluntary.

Sasuke managed to slip away from the blond's unrelenting hold, only to pace back and forth. Walking around seemed to relieve him, all the tenseness in his limbs and anxiousness seemed to be at ease when he moved. He didn't need to look at the blond to know he was staring right at him.

"Don't you have anything better to do?" Sasuke muttered in a muddled state, hand pressed against his abdomen.

"Nope," he said popping the 'p'. "I already told you, Sas, I made plans with you."

"Wasn't that yesterday?"

"Plans for the entire weekend." He said nonchalantly, nodding his head up slightly. Sasuke halted in front the window and fixed his strained eyes on the tree outside. The old tree…he used to climb as a child. "You sorta disappeared on us for a couple weeks and I missed you," he shrugged with that same nonchalant attitude.

"Besides, you made me promise not to leave you alone." His voice unexpectedly quieter. "Remember?"

Sasuke kept his head taut straight, eyes still on that tree through his window. He could feel the heat break out in his cheeks and up his ears. He'd forgotten about that. He'd forgotten most of everything, and he liked it that way. He liked barley having any recollection of the past as it had been the reason he had started using in the first place; he wants to forget. But forgetting always seemed to come back around and bite him. He could…pass it off as the withdrawal or the drugs having messed with his brain but he knew the blond couldn't possibly be that oblivious.

…Right?

Naruto has to have figured something out by now. Anything. The way he'd been so far, the words he says – surely there was something there…

There had to be.

"Sasuke?" Naruto called out apprehensively. He could see clear as day the sudden pop of color spreading on Sasuke's neck, his ears, but he couldn't see his face. He could only see Sasuke's back and the tension in his body, how stiff he'd gotten. Unmoving.

"It's only going to get worse," Sasuke whispered.

"And I'll still be here."

A moment of silence. Naruto's eyes on Sasuke. Sasuke's on the tree outside. Naruto's mind wondered back to what Sasuke had silently promised him. He wanted to wait until Sasuke was better, but if things are going to be as bad as Sasuke seems to believe, Naruto needed to know. He didn't know why knowing his reasons were important right now, he just had to know. It was something in his gut…

"Sasuke," Naruto stayed put on the bed, "Look at me."

Scared, unsure, hesitant black eyes slowly turned to look at the blue ones. Big, round blue ones that wring up such a demand that made Sasuke's already devastated stomach churn even more.

"I need you to tell me why."

'Is he serious?' Sasuke thought. His eyes flickered over Naruto's face. 'Does he really…'

"You're not going to like it–"

"You told me that already, but here I am asking you again." The blond's voice was firm but it had a softness to it. "I think we're beyond the point of trying to trust each other, aren't we?"

Sasuke swallowed, hard.

He slowly nodded, his eyes now making full contact with Naruto's, and suddenly he's reminded of all the years the big formidable blond had stuck beside him. Relentless. Completely and utterly relentless, persistent, undisturbed–

Eternal. Naruto's care seemed eternal in those pools of blue.

"Then talk to me," A plea from those lips. Another plea the Uchiha elicited from the blond and his heart can't take any more. He searched in the deep blue for anything to tell him to keep his mouth shut but all he saw was…

Worry. So much of it.

Worry was not a good look on such beautiful eyes. Those eyes lodged in a beautiful head of blond, mounted on sinewy shoulders, tight muscles under beautiful smooth tanned skin bringing solid abs into relief–

Naruto watched Sasuke rake his dark eyes over him, deep in thought. He left him to his musing; Sasuke might finally be thinking clearly for once in a long time.

–that's as far as Sasuke is letting his mind wander. It took all of him to rip his head away from the blond still sitting on his bed. He stared out at the tree again. Maybe he could open up. Maybe he could let Naruto in. After all these years, Naruto has proven to be a trustworthy friend. More than that, even. A lot more. If there was a single person on this planet Sasuke would give his life to, he was sitting a few feet behind him.

It's about time Sasuke gave in to Naruto.


Notes:

In case you missed it, my first one-shot fic from my monthly fic challenge is up! It's titled 'For The Hell Of It', if you'd like to read it :)

See you soon, friends,

Vernie