Chapter 8. Triple fun.

"I think I'm going to be sick...", chocked out Sasuke, pressing his hands to his ears and rocking from side to side. "...or at least-deaf".

Ki arched his brow in a questioning manner and turned to Sasuke, taking the mic away from his lips

"You don't like my 'I will always love you?'" he pouted. "Wait for the final note!"

"NOOO!" Sasuke jumped on his feet and rushed towards the door that appeared to be locked from the outside.

"And I-aaaaa-i -wi-iiiil a-o-o-lwa—ee-is l-aaav- you-uuu! "

"Mamma" was the only thing Sasuke managed to press out of himself, realizing that he was trapped and condemned to listen to the end. With no other choice, he retreated back to the sofa, cursing Ki,Whitney Houston and the inventor of karaoke machine.

To his luck the door opened and Ayano came in carrying a bowl of fruit, a shopping bag and some drinks.

"Sorry for taking the key, but I didn't think you would hear me if I knocked on the way back. Yeah, I know it took so long and they didn't have anything better than this..." she pointed at the fruit platter "...so I had to run the convenience store across the road" she said, smiling and setting up a generous bottle of sake on the table along with beer tins and some snacks. When the unpacking was finished, Ayano commented on Sasukes' suffering facial expression.

"Hey, Sasuke-san. Are you alright? You look kindda pale. Has Ki been entertaining you while I was gone?"

"Entertaining? You call 'this' an entertainment?!" Sasuke exclaimed in utter shock, then he opened a can of beer and poured some into his glass. He definitely needed a drink now. Ki landed next to him on the sofa, feeling very much satisfied with his performance, while Ayano was searching for some background music on the karaoke machine, considerably having switched off the microphone and lowering the sound in advance so that it was even humanly possible to hear each other and not only guess or read by ones' lips.

They nibbled on the fruit and had a nice chat about nothing and some other stuff, helping themselves with more serious by percentage of alcohol beverages.

"Are you sure it will be alright, Ki?" Sasuke asked in a while, still hesitating and he added " I don't want to be a bother ".

Sasuke hated being in debt to anybody, and even more he hated asking for favors.

But the funny thing with these two was exactly simplicity with which they looked upon things, not over thinking, not waiting for anything in return.

"C'mon, man. It's anyway standing empty. We hardly ever go there. When was it last time we dropped by to water the flowers, Ayano?"

Ayano smiled reassuring and took Sasukes' hand in hers.

"Don't worry. It's totally okay. There is nothing fancy of course and only one room, but everything needed is there. My grandma used to live there. But now it's like two years she's dead and I still didn't manage to get rid of the apartment. I don't actually want to sell it and I would only be glad if someone lived there. Just on the terms that you gonna take care of the plants!"

"Sure" Sasuke shrugged his shoulders.

Despite how easy it sounded Sasuke felt like no one had ever done anything like that for him, not so that he had ever been in such situation before. But it had always been him and Itachi. No one else he could rely on. No one else was there to rely on. Now it would be only himself. No Itachi.

"Well, shall we say 'kanpaiiiii'for Sasukes' new home?!"

"Kanpai"

"Kanpai!"

And they brought all three full up glasses together until the dangling sound and emptied them in one go. For good luck.

After a couple of more rounds of stronger drinks and some half an hour of pleasant chat Ayano concluded.

"Now it's your turn to sing, Sasuke-san! You get to pick a song and me and Ki are going to be your patient audience" Ayano clapped her hands in anxiety and Sasuke only sighed. How could he really say no now after all what they had done for him?

"Yea-yeah..whatever". Sasuke lifted a hard-cover black leather folder with the list of the songs and ran his eyes up and down the list, turning the pages.

"It's nothing here I know" he said, still looking at the songs and mentally preparing himself for the first in his life karaoke-performance.

"C'mon, man! It can't be that hard! Just pick up anything, you'll get the words on the screen anyway and the rest is up to natural talent" Ki said with the face of a professional who knows what he's talking about, for what he deserved a light smack over his head from Ayano. Then Ki filled up his glass again and emptied it, then briefly kissed Ayano on her cheek, cuddling and being generally entertained by the situation.

Sasuke sighed deeply, also emptied his glass in one shot, poured in himself one more portion of it, chased it down with an olive, then announced in a deadly voice:

"Jon Bon Jovi 'It's my Life"…

Ayano squeeked at the song name and jumped up, clapping her hands fan-girl style and directly got pulled down by the skirt back into the sofa, by Ki.

Ki smiled approvingly.

"Oh,man! Great choice I love this song!"

Sasuke cleared his throat and then pressed the microphone as tight to his mouth as he could without losing the ability of moving his lips in sound-producing purposes.

The music started. Sasuke tried mimicking the first roars in the beginning of the song, putting as much of his vocal capacity into the plastic-slash- metal pipe in his hand.

"Man, you gotta switch the mic on, it's a button on the side", hinted Ki and Ayano gently giggled at the comment.

Sasuke cussed, found the button and quickly worked out not so hard system of rules when it comes to singing karaoke- no to hold the mic too close to the mouth, not to shout full lung-strength, not to sneeze/ exhale close to the microphone and ..to read the words on the screen and sometimes listen to musical accompaniment..

'Itz maaai laaaaa-iif!' Sasuke stretched the last part, even though it was not really necessary. Then he ran the hand through his hair, bowed to the 'audience' , feeling surprisingly excited, sweaty and -...fucking good!

The music finished and Sasuke approached the sofa, proudly gazing at his stunned friends. He poured a drink for himself and emptied it in one shot, waiting for the praise.

The first one to speak was Ki.

"Man! That was...torturous!"

Sasuke choked on his drink

"wh-what?" he thought he had done quite nicely..okay, maybe not everything was completely in tones but the refrain he knew by heart..almost. And then this culmination notes...

"It couldn't be worse that your 'always -hang-you' or whatever it was'!"

"'always-love-you'", corrected him Ki

"whatever!"

"and yes, it was worse, Ayano, tell him!"

Ayano didn't answer at first. She couldn't, as she was dying of laughter...literally rolling on the floor.

"Oj, Sasuke-san!.. It was so... priceless! ...Oh...you are even worse than Ki!"

Ki nodded to him with the expression that said "you see, 'even-worse-than-Ki' is ..really bad!"..

Sasukes' embarrassment vanished and they really had a damn good laugh together. After a certain amount of rounds of drinks- they even sang a couple of songs in a drunken quire, not really bothering about song choice, words and in the end even melody. It was a pure combination of incoherent sounds with musical background. And that was a bad-sounding karaoke. Luckily for the workers and the other customers, the sound-proofed walls were of a really good quality.

N/A: I know, it's a really light chapter, and it's no Itachi in it, but please be patient. He has to work out what to do with his feelings towards Sasuke. I will try to update soon, but it might take a while due to my work and the other fic. Love you all,