Warning: Mention of suicide(nothing graphic).

A week later

Sasuke woke in the middle of the night with an heavy feeling in his chest. His throat felt raw, probably from screaming himself awake. It happened sometimes, less frequently now, but still. He had not had a nightmare like that in months

He sat on his bed, breathing heavily and turned on the lamp on his bedside table. He knew his door was locked so he did not worry about it when he heard the sound of Itachi steps in the stairs, definitely coming to check on him.

He stayed still for a while, Itachi probably had his ear against the door, waiting to see if any more distressed noises would come up. Sasuke breath in slowly, the presence of his brother was always a reassurance. Simply knowing that Itachi was on the other side of the door calmed him and when he finally heard Itachi moves away, he felt better.

He stood up from his bed and went near the window. He could not really see anything - it was still dark outside and with his light on he mostly saw his reflexion on the glass. The darkness outside seemed to be calling to him like a magnet.

He hesitated a little but he knew by now that he would not be able to go back to sleep after his night terror. He opened the small basement window and slithered his body outside.

Once outside, he slowly crossed the yard, barefoot, toward the dock where his parents used to attached a small boat. He hated that boat when he was younger, but the sight of it had always been comforting, even after his parents had died. And though he had never set a foot on it when his parents were alive, he had been destroyed when he woke up one day, a month after their death, to find out that the boat was not there anymore. That was the first time Sasuke had tried to kill himself.

Sasuke sighed and sat on the dock, holding his left knee against his chest while his right foot graze the water. He looked at the water, his head full of bad memories, and hoped that things would never get this bad again.

Sasuke silently sat there for hours, and when the sun finally rose he decided it was time to move. He stood up and walked back to the house, altering path at the last minute to go toward the terrace instead of through his window. He was pretty sure that Itachi was still asleep and that he would not realized that Sasuke had spend a huge part of the night outside.

He quickly entered the 4 numbers code to unlock the door and entered the house, only realizing that his feet were freezing once he stepped on the soft carpet. He looked up the mezzanine to see if Itachi's door is still close and went to his office to pick up his laptop once he saw that the coast was clear.

The night and the memories had been hard on him and he knew that he had to escape them. He putted his laptop on the small table near the front door and looked at himself in the mirror. Deciding that he does not feel like replacing his sweatpants with something less comfortable he putted his leather jacket on, grabbed his keys and laptop, and left the house for somewhere where he could write without any weight on his shoulders.

For the first time since he had changed his schedule, Naruto woke up early on Saturday. To congratulate himself, he decided to pick up a coffee at the Starbuck nearby instead of homemade coffee - his coffeemaker had broken two weeks ago and his instant tasted horrible.

When he arrived on Johnson Street, he first noticed the blue mercedes parked in front. He could not tell if it was the same as last week because he did not remember the plates. He parked his car, an old red Mazda 3 sport, just behind it and tried to look casual as he walked towards the Mercedes.

Bending to see the inside was not totally subtle, but he was not visible from the inside of the Starbuck and the owner might not even been in this building. He sighed hard when he realized that the tinted glass was too dark to see through unless he glued his face on it.

"I'd love to see what you got inside of you." Naruto said touching the hood with the tip of his index finger.

After some light petting, Naruto shook his head to regain his thoughts. He was suppose to get coffee then get to work, damn it! He jogged inside for his coffee and barely had to wait 2 minutes before ordering.

While he waited for his drink, he looked around the room and could not help but noticed a familiar face. The hot guy he had seen at the prison with Gaara last week was sitting alone in a boot with his laptop in front of him. Naruto was surprised to see him wearing a black t-shirt with grey sweatpants, it was completely different from his formal attire of last week.

The waitress gave him his coffee and looking at his watch, Naruto decided that he had time to say hi and asked how the visit went.

"Hey!" Naruto said, taking a seat in front of the man.

The other looked a little startled as he look up to him. "Hi?"

Even with the interrogation in his voice, Naruto was pretty sure he had been recognized. The guy seemed more curious about why Naruto would talk to him.

Naruto smiled. "We saw each other at the jail last week. Did you get the job?"

"The job?" Something seemed to click in the other man's eyes. "Oh! I wasn't there for a job. I'm writing a book and I needed a tour."

Naruto passed his hand through his hair, a little embarrassed by his mistake. He took a huge sip of his coffee to hide it. "Interesting. Can I ask what it's about?"

Sasuke had almost jumped when the man from last week had sat in front of him. He had been completely immerse on his story and did not thought that anyone would have stop to talk to him.

He hesitated a little when the other asked about his book but the other man seemed trustworthy to him and maybe he could help with some technical problem that he had. He opened the page where he had typed the layout and some notes about the prison and turned his computer so the other could read.

Sasuke pretty much stared at him as the man concentrated on his laptop. He was truly handsome. The features of his face were almost perfect. A strong jaw, a light stubble, an aquiline nose, and beautiful sparkling blue eyes . His face also had a nice symmetry, which was definitely a plus in Sasuke's opinion.

"This is interesting. Did you start writing the plot?"

Sasuke averted his gaze a little. "Yes, I have a couple of chapters for now. Could..." Sasuke paused but finally decided to ask. "Could you tell me what type of rifles they use at Millhaven? I asked but the guard refused to answer."

The man laughed heartily and Sasuke could feel himself blush a little. It was a really nice laughter. "I'm not surprise, Gaara is a sourpuss. You noticed the Smith and Wesson at his hips, yes?" Sasuke nodded. "Well other than that, they usually have Colt Canada C7 Service Rifle. It has a 30 rounds capacity magazine."

Sasuke took his computer back to write the informations down as the man kept talking. "I fired one a couple time and there's something special about it. The recoil force is directed backwards instead of upwards because the barrel is in the same axis with the buttstock. This also makes the accuracy of the gun really good."

Sasuke thanked him and the chatted a little more about weapons. After several minutes the blond man looked at his watch and his eyes grew wide.

He said. "I really need to get to work."

He seemed hesitant but after a moment passed, he drank the rest of his coffee and stood up. "Give me a second." The man walked towards the counter and Sasuke could hear him asking for a pen. He came back to the table smiling. He wrote something on his empty cup, right under the name that Sasuke had not noticed before then.

"Here. Give me a call if you need anything else!" The man putted his cup right in front of Sasuke, smiled, and left the coffee shop in a small jog.

Looking down at the cup with the phone number, Sasuke smiled.

The next day had Naruto anxiously sitting at one of the table in his dad's restaurant. He was still wondering if giving his number to a man he had met only twice and telling him to call him if he needed "anything" was a good idea. Naruto had felt some good vibe from him, but for god sake, he did not even know the guy's name. What if he gave him a booty call in the near future? Alright, the guy did not seem the type, and if he did Naruto was not sure that he would be able to say no. At least, not without a lot of hesitation.

Naruto sighed heavily, looking out the window. It would be worst not to get a call at all.

"Why the long face, son?"

Naruto jumped as his dad sat in front of him. He had been lost in thoughts and had not heard him approach at all.

"Nothing. Just a guy I met... I guess." Naruto answered gloomily.

Minato raised his eyebrow. "You guess or you know?"

Naruto could not hide anything from his dad. Ever since his mom had died of an undetected pancreatic cancer 9 years ago, his dad had become the most observant person he knew. Minato had become a completely different man after that. When Naruto was younger, his dad was rarely at home. He was the mayor of the town and had a lot of responsibilities. It was a good week if Naruto, Minato, and his mother had one family diner per week.

Naruto was 18 years old when his mom had died. She had spend almost the entire year alone because he was in college and lived out of town and because his dad was too busy. They had both failed to notice anything wrong with her, and so had she. She had been admitted at the hospital with stomach pain and had died two days after that. His dad had been there with her, but Naruto was in his exam week at school and his mom had told him that it was only a slight food intoxication. Naruto should have known better.

The doctors had told Minato that it was often a subtle type of cancer but that it was usually treatable when detect early. What a way to rub salt in the wound. After that, his dad had resigned his job as the mayor and Naruto had transferred from Ottawa University to Queen's University to be closer to his dad. It had been a really hard time.

After several month of mourning, his dad finally went back to working and with his savings, he opened a small restaurant near the university. Two years after that, when Naruto was about to turn 21 Minato had told him that he wanted to add his name to the list of foster homes available for kids in trouble in Kingston. Naruto had obviously agreed and three months later they had welcome a 13 years old boy in there house.

Naruto smiled, thinking of the sour look on Konohamaru's face the first time he had seen him. In the end, Konohamaru had loved it with them. His dad even adopted in a couple months after the beginning of his stay and now Konohamaru was a young 19 years old man. He still lived with their dad and was working as Naruto's secretary to make some money. Thinking about it, it had took them several years to get everything back together, but things were better now. They were great even.

Minato cleared his throat. "Naruto? You're still there?" He asked a knowing smile on his face. He was use to seeing Naruto lost in thoughts.

Naruto shook his head. "Yes, sorry!"

"It's fine, I had time to order lunch while you were lost in your world."

"I was thinking about mom."

Minato smiled softly and touched Naruto's hand across the table. "I often do that too. Now, talk to me about your mysterious guy and don't deflect again."

Naruto's shoulders sagged. "I don't even know his name. I saw him only twice, last week at Millhaven and yesterday at Starbucks. He's just so fucking gorgeous." Minato looked at him pointedly so Naruto added quickly. "He also looks like a really nice guy and I got a good vibe from him."

"Your intuition on people is usually really good. I don't get what the problem is."

"I told you. I don't know his name. I gave him my phone number but there is like 75% chances he won't call."

"You said he was at the prison last week, don't they keep record on who visits?" Minato asked.

Naruto coughed. "I tried that already, they didn't write his name because it was not a common visitation. I was thinking about asking Gaara, he was with him that day."

Minato laughed. "You should call him, Gaara I mean. Asked him the guy's full name." Minato winked at him and continued. "Maybe Kiba can run him up."

Naruto laughed awkwardly. "Ugh… I'll do that later."

"Naruto," Minato started using his authoritative voice. "I know you, you're going to have cold feet the second you're out of my restaurant. Call Gaara, now."

Naruto passed his hand in his hair. "Alright, alright. No need to go all dad on me."

He took his phone from his back pocket and dialed Gaara's number on memory. Three dials later, Gaara answered.

"Hey Gaara, it's me."

"Of course it's you. I can read, you know? What do you want?"

"You know the dude from last week? The one you had to walk through the prison." Gaara hummed. "Do you recall his name?"

"I'm not sure, Naruto. Sasuke something. I can't recall the last name. I wasn't really listening."

"That's rude, mate." Naruto said.

"You're one to talk. I perfectly well know that you're asking for his name so you can ask Tweedledum to look him up in the system."

Naruto sputtered. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Keep lying to yourself. I'll see you tonight." Gaara said, then hung up.

Naruto dropped his phone on the table. "I can't believe I did that. I feel like such a stalker now.

Minato laughed. "Don't worry about it, son. Just make sure he never learn about your stalkerish tendencies. You remember that time when you were young and you followed that little girl you liked to her home everyday. She was so scared when she saw you lurking in the bushes behind her house -"

Naruto interrupted him. "Dad! You promised to never mention this again!"

Some precisions: in this story, Naruto is a bit older than Sasuke. Sasuke is 24 and Naruto 27.

I wasn't going to mention Sasuke's suicide attempt, but the flow took me there and it happened. It's going to be a little bit more darker than I first thought, but nothing too major.

Hope you enjoy, see y'all!