Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or any of its associated characters!

Summary: COMPLETE (new chapter up everyday - total of 35 chapters!). Sasuke's a writer whose been writing the same words for years. He's tired, he's annoyed, and his money situation is...pretty messed up, even by student standards. Enter Naruto. Modern AU (College/University), Sasunaru/Narusasu. Posted for Sasuke's birthday!

A/N: A bit of a shorter one today! I hope you like it! (Also, anon, since I can't reply to you: there is no positional preference in this story. It's SNS!)


Enter Naruto

Chapter 24: Christmas Morning

On any other Christmas morning, Naruto would have been up at the crack of dawn, banging on his parents' bedroom door.

On this particular Christmas morning…he was still up at the crack of dawn.

But he wasn't about to go waking everyone up—Sasuke hadn't fallen asleep for ages and he wasn't sure how well Itachi would have managed to sleep, either.

On the other hand, he was definitely going to wake up Sasuke if he kept rolling around and sighing like this.

He snuck out of the bed, considering his options. Maybe he could make himself a hot chocolate or something—just something warm and calming enough to let him doze off again…

He wandered around the kitchen, yawning a little, only to stumble into—

"Kakashi?"

"Morning, Naruto," Kakashi yawned, still clad in his pajamas.

"Why are you awake? You hate getting up when you don't have to."

Kakashi waved a hand.

"You wake us up at this time every Christmas. My body's used to it by now." He paused as Naruto laughed. "That—and the car woke me up."

"The car?"

"Mhm." Naruto followed Kakashi as he wandered over to the coffee pot. "Itachi's gone somewhere."

"Itachi left? Already?"

Kakashi pressed a few buttons on the coffee maker, nodding.

"Why?"

Kakashi gave him a helpless look, arms in a shrug.

"The kids don't tell me things, Naruto." He turned around, leaning against the counter. "That's why I read their diaries and call it my job."

"…You're a weirdo."

"Mhm." He ruffled Naruto's hair.

Naruto took a moment, glancing at the window.

"D'you know if he's coming back at least?"

"He wasn't sure, but said he'd be in touch. Through Sasuke, I imagine."

Naruto nodded. That made sense. He hoped Sasuke would be okay with it.

There was a pause.

"Alright. Want to help me finish the cookies?"

"Without dad?" Naruto grinned at him.

"Yep. It'll be a disaster."

Naruto laughed.

"Let's do it."


Sasuke awoke to the sound of laughter. He yawned, rolling over—

Ah, right. He was at Naruto's house.

He turned, stretching a little. Yesterday's events came back to him softly, and he let out a sigh. They were painful, but…it really wasn't any different than what had been weighing on him for the past two years. His father was still his father—and, now, at least, he knew his mother held some regrets. He swallowed, listening to the muffled voices from downstairs. He could pick out each of them clearly—Naruto's easily above the rest.

He sat up.

The least he could do—after yesterday—was enjoy today.

He had, however, left all of his things downstairs. He sighed, opening the door. There was the slightest chance he could sneak by without anyone noticing—

"Sasuke!" Naruto spotted him immediately, running towards him—he was still in his pajamas too.

Naruto kissed him, smiling wide.

"Merry Christmas!" He rested his arms around Sasuke's shoulders. "We fucked up the chocolate."

"You—what?"

Naruto made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a snort—and pulled him into the kitchen.

"Sasuke's awake!" Kakashi said, holding up a wooden spoon that was covered in a charred, black substance. "We can do presents!"

"We can do presents after you stop trying to set the kitchen on fire." Iruka grabbed the spoon out of his hand. "Good morning, Sasuke!"

Everyone still seemed to be in their pajamas, at least, so Sasuke was hardly out of place—but—

"Where's Itachi?"

The kitchen paused.

"He had to leave," Naruto answered, turning to Kakashi.

"Early this morning," Kakashi elaborated. "I'm not sure why. He said he'd be in touch."

"Oh." Sasuke frowned. Not that his brother was the most social of types, but to leave without saying goodbye—after yesterday, especially…

Kakashi squeezed Sasuke's shoulder.

"We've been demoted to icing," Kakashi told him. "Want to help? It's better the longer everything sets in the fridge."

"Ah—alright."


One very sugary hour later, it was time for presents.

Naruto pulled Sasuke into the other room, where all of the presents sat under a heavily decorated tree. The decorations weren't fancy—most of them were handmade from the looks of them—but they made for quite the spectacle, as a whole.

A colourful mess of a Christmas tree. Sasuke hadn't expected anything less.

"Okay," Naruto crawled over to the tree, "this one's for…Sasuke."

Sasuke blinked, taking the box from Naruto.

"That's from us," Iruka told him, pausing as Naruto grabbed another small, thin package, "and so is that!"

Naruto laughed, and then reached out to grab something else.

"Here," he tossed the package at Kakashi, who caught it with minimal panic, and then reached out for another one, "and one for dad. There—we all have one!"

"Who is this from?" Kakashi said.

"Me," Naruto said, "and the other one is for both of you from Sasuke."

Sasuke's fingers paused where they had been fiddling with the tape. He wasn't completely satisfied with what he'd done for Naruto's parents, but Naruto had seemed to like it, so—

"Aw, you guys!" Naruto had a big grin on his face and was pulling a big, fuzzy blanket out of its wrapping. "It's so fluffy!"

"For the winter, you know." Iruka smiled, finishing unwrapping Sasuke's ornament. "Oh! Sasuke—this is my favourite photo! Thank you so much."

Sasuke nodded, cheeks burning as Iruka immediately stood, moving aside ornaments so Sasuke's could settle in—right in the middle of the tree. He swallowed, busying himself with his own present. It was difficult to unwrap it without hurting any of the paper—Sasuke was very conscious that this present had not been wrapped by a store, like his had tended to be—but he slowly managed.

"It's nothing big, but—Naruto said you didn't have one," Iruka said as Sasuke pulled the coffee maker out of the box.

"I don't." His voice came out much thicker than he intended it to. "Thank you."

"There's something in the card, too," Kakashi interjected, reaching over Iruka to grab another box, "and then this is for both of you."

"Ah—thank you." He felt the edge of the envelope, feeling a bit overwhelmed. He wasn't sure why he was reacting like this—it had been a little while since he had had a Christmas, but…

He glanced down at the card, swallowing. A small piece of plastic fell out, into his hand—a bookmark, from the look of it. Apparently Kakashi or Iruka had had a similar idea to his, because this bookmark was a photograph; Sasuke recognized it. It had been right after the first time they had gone to the movies—he could see Ino's hand reaching out to hold the camera, Sakura smiling as she leaned over her shoulder, Kiba putting up two fingers over Naruto's head, and Naruto, right in the middle of the photo, Gaara on one side and Sasuke on the other—

He swallowed, gently cupping the bookmark in his hand. This—this and the card—he could recognize Iruka's handwriting and he knew—he knew from Naruto's cards—that he would have to read it later—when he was alone, and maybe a bit more emotionally stable—

"Aww, Sasuke! We can match!" Naruto laughed, throwing something at him.

"It's been awhile since I made any," Iruka said, smiling.

"Now I can stop making you borrow mine!" Naruto laughed.

Iruka gave him a bright smile. Sasuke clutched onto the pajama pants—navy blue, with little orange swirls, to match Naruto's orange with blue swirls—made, for him, by Naruto's father—feeling something…something…

He swallowed.

Why did his throat feel so swollen?


"I'm going to check on the food," Iruka said after they'd nearly finished. "We'll clean this all up later."

"Okay!" Naruto grinned, making no motion to move as his parents left. He eyed Sasuke.

"Wanna open your present now?"

Sasuke glanced up, as if Naruto had broken him out of his thoughts, but nodded.

"Your present—I have to get it," Sasuke said quickly, "and it's not wrapped."

"I don't mind." Naruto grinned, happily sitting with Sasuke's gift in his lap. It might have been Naruto's imagination, but he thought Sasuke looked a little nervous as he shuffled back and—oh, he had hid his present behind the couch.

Naruto closed his eyes as Sasuke turned back around.

"I'm not looking," he said, hearing Sasuke shuffle closer. He smiled at Sasuke's muttered "usuratonkachi…"

He heard something be placed in front of him—had Sasuke sat down? He wasn't sure…

"Can I open my eyes?"

"It's nothing—great," Sasuke said. "I—it's—"

Naruto opened his eyes—and he felt his breath lodge in his throat. It was a very beautiful—and very detailed—and very orange—terrarium. Complete with orange-tinted glass, orange plants (even some with orange leaves!), and, plucked in the moss, a small wooden sign painted in what Naruto could only assume was Japanese—

"It says usuratonkachi. I—"

He kissed Sasuke to cut him off—and then again, and again, and three more times—

"Sasuke—this is—" Naruto felt like his heart was going to burst, "I love it. I love it. How did you find this? I've never seen anything like this—like at all—I—"

He hadn't. Not with these plants and not with these colours—

"I made it," Sasuke said quietly, and Naruto's head jerked up. "You didn't have any plants in your place, so—"

"You made it?" Sasuke was amazing. Sasuke was the most talented, wonderful man in the universe—

"Well—I—I bought the plants and planted them, but—Gaara helped—"

"Sasuke! You talked to Gaara?!" Naruto kissed him again before he leaned back to stare at the gift in wonder. "You did so much!"

"I didn't—"

"It's amazing," Naruto cut him off, staring him dead in the eyes. "Thank you. I love it. I really, really do."

Sasuke's mouth shut and Naruto felt his cheeks start to hurt with how wide he was smiling. His gift suddenly seemed to pale in comparison to Sasuke's—he traced the edge of the sign with his finger. How ridiculous that an insult made him feel so unbelievably giddy…

"Here." He passed the package to Sasuke. "Um—my wrapping sucks, I know. I tried—I really did."

Sasuke snorted, turning the package over in his hands. Naruto grimaced a little; it really did look worn for something that had only been wrapped a few days ago. The book had turned out...well, the fact that it functioned at all was a miracle in itself. It obviously wasn't perfect—some pages were unevenly spaced and the book tended to flop open in a specific way and Naruto just didn't know why—but he was still pretty proud of the work he'd put into it. Of course, now that he knew how much work Sasuke had put into his present…

Sasuke started to open the wrapping and Naruto felt his stomach do a flip.

"This is…"

He turned the book over in his hands.

"Ah, it's the—"

"Tablecloth from the coffee shop," Sasuke finished, brow furrowed.

"Yeah," Naruto breathed, sitting back on his heels. He resisted the urge to grab the book from Sasuke's hands—he wasn't even sure why he had that urge in the first place—

He heard Sasuke suck in a breath.

Naruto opened and closed his mouth. He wanted to ask Sasuke if he liked it—but Sasuke would obviously say yes and that wasn't the point…but from the way he was holding it—delicately, almost reverently—

"This is..." he said again, "how did you do this?"

"I—uh," Naruto shuffled closer to Sasuke, "you can kinda see it in the spine, how I did it. I had to like—well, I used glue and then I ended up trying to sew it. It turned out okay, I think…?"

The last part ended up as more of a question than a statement as Naruto looked up at Sasuke, trying to gauge his reaction.

"You made this?" Sasuke's voice was almost a whisper.

"Yeah."

"You—" Sasuke paused, "how did you get the cloth? How did you—"

He flipped through the pages, and Naruto gave a soft laugh.

"I begged for it. I wanted to use something—like, y'know—I thought, since that was where we met…"

Sasuke reached the end of the book, and ran his finger down the page, eyes a bit wide.

"Oh yeah." Naruto had written a message on the back cover. He hadn't been able to decide on anything for the longest time, so he had ended up only writing 'for the book that made me fall even harder – Naruto'. It wasn't great—obviously he had loved Sasuke before the book, it had just really, really made him feel it and god was he ever going to stop second guessing himself—

"It was just 'cause—when I finished reading, y'know, I thought—"

Sasuke kissed him with such force that he went toppling backwards—only narrowly dodging the Christmas tree. He felt the book between them—and Sasuke's hand, as Sasuke clutched it to his chest—Sasuke crawled overtop of him, still not letting go—

They broke apart for air, but Sasuke barely pulled away. His eyes were dark and deep and swirling with something that had Naruto's breath long gone—his parents wouldn't expect them for a little while, right? They could disappear upstairs…


Naruto rolled over, smiling. Something about the way Sasuke made him feel…he had never felt so content.

"I love you." His voice was still full of air—he could never quite catch his breath after Sasuke kissed it away.

Sasuke gave him a tired smirk.

"So you said."

"Mhm," Naruto smiled, "I wanted to say it again."

Sasuke poked his cheek.

"You're a sap."

Naruto only smiled.

Sasuke turned, lying on his back with a sigh.

"I don't want to move."

"Then don't.

Sasuke snorted.

"We'll have to get up eventually."

"Mm," Naruto snuggled closer, "that can be future Sasuke's problem."

He turned his head to face the blonde.

"I haven't checked my phone in days, Naruto."

"Ugh," Naruto forced himself to sit up, giving Sasuke a grumpy look, "buzzkill. Go get it, then."

"Right this second?"

"Yeah," Naruto squished his cheek against his fist, "Itachi might've texted you."

That was…a good point. He sighed, rolling over. Where had he put his phone? The last time he had used it…

Well, it was probably still in a pile of clothes somewhere.

With a groan, he sat up. As luck would have it, his text tone chose just that moment to go off.

Naruto gave him a bright look.

"Well, there you go."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, reaching for where he had heard the sound. It was on its last few percent, he noticed.

'Stopping by for a minute.'

Sasuke frowned.

"What's up? Is it Itachi?"

Sasuke glanced back, nodding.

"He's on his way back, I think."

"Oh—perfect timing."

He texted back a quick, 'Alright.' before turning back to Naruto.

"We should tell your parents."

"Mm, true. I'll let them know. D'you think he'll stay for dinner?"

Sasuke frowned back at his phone.

"I'm not sure."


A/N: Thanks for all your support!

See you tomorrow,

- Kinomi