Next Chapter. Hopefully this one is readable. Sorry for the tech error.
For a few long moments Naruto was unable to say anything. The pure shock having stolen his words. This was of course acceptable to the Uchiha who figured it was too early in the morning to be as loud as Naruto usually was anyways…still the Uchiha had to comment on the blonde's attire, it was just too good to pass up.
"Nice pajamas." He said dryly and he felt his stomach do the girliest little flip in of excitement as the blonde blushed pure tomato red.
"Nobody asked you Teme. For your information I happen to like these pj's." the defensive tone Naruto used reminded Sasuke of times past.
"I'm sure you do all the same go change so we can get breakfast." At the torn look on Naruto's face Sasuke sighed, "I'm not trying to take you somewhere to ravish you" however enjoyable that would be, "Consider it an apology breakfast if it makes you feel better."
Naruto nodded slowly at this, almost as if internally he were justifying what he was about to do. "Sure." He conceded, then stepping back he did something Sasuke never thought his blonde would do, "Would you like to come in and have a seat while I get ready?" The blond raised an eyebrow at Sasuke's lack of belief, "You look almost surprised, I'm not rude enough to make you wait outside when you're taking me to breakfast." Sasuke shrugged off his surprise and bit back the snarky comment that sprung to mind. It wasn't the dobe's fault that Sasuke had waited outside for four hours…
"The choices I make…" he mumbled under his breath.
"What was that?" Uzumaki innocently asked.
"Nothing," Sasuke waved the blond off as he followed the same blond inside and was instantly amazed.
Every visible vertical surface told a story. Cityscapes, portraits, each photo was expertly taken, and hung with care. Sasuke searched for some word to describe it but found that he couldn't conjure up one that seemed to fit the room he was seeing. Naruto, of course noticed. "It's pretty different from the home huh?" he smiled almost sadly, "For one I clean now. Anyways, I've been here almost three years now. Moved here my junior year in college. First year I lived with Sakura. Next two I was in the dorms."
"What did you do to school for, Photography I guess huh?" Sasuke asked taking in every word the blonde was saying as lost history he was almost desperate to learn.
"English actually." Naruto shrugged feeling awkward at how Sasuke seemed to have forgotten about their last two encounters, "How about you? Did you ever go to school?"
"Yeah." Sasuke said distractedly he was truly entranced by all the photos Naruto had, "Got my Master's in Business. Did you take all of these?"
"Yeah. It's amazing how civil you're being." The blond couldn't help but poke at something that seemed too good to be true.
The raven turned towards the blonde, a single eyebrow raised, "Is that a complaint? Such sass. We'll talk more over breakfast, now go get dressed." Naruto's own eyebrow raised at how Sasuke seemed un-angered by said sass, but shrugged it off. Sasuke on the other hand was relaxed. This behavior was much more what he had expected from the dobe. This was something he could handle. The back and forth banter that didn't possess the resentment and anger of their last two encounters. Well he was relaxed until he thought about how Naruto would have to take his clothes off in order to put different clothes on, and as truly adorable his ramen pj's were, the thought of them off was just so much more appealing.
"Do you want a cup of coffee while you wait?" Naruto's words briefly snapped the Uchiha back to a more appropriate place. Just long enough for said Uchiha to toss a snarky comment his way.
"No Hostess, I want you to go get dressed," Sasuke smirked that classic Uchiha smirk which grew at the glare Naruto sent his way. Still the blonde complied and disappeared into the backroom without further comment. Leaving Sasuke to return to his lewd thoughts, "tormented" with mental images of the dobe shirtless. And pants-less. No underwear would be nice too…
The fantasy was short lived however, as it didn't take long for Naruto to dress and come back into the living room/ kitchen area. "So where're we headed?" The blonde locked his apartment behind him and led the raven downstairs. Sasuke wordlessly handed Naruto the card Kiba had given him the night before. The way the blonde's face lit up told him that certain things hadn't changed. "I love this place!" he happily bounced alongside the raven. The thought of food making him forget his nervousness at being so close to the Uchiha for the first time in years.
Still there was one thing. The restaurant on the card was a diner not a ramen shop. This mildly surprised Sasuke who commented as much.
Naruto chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck in response, "I lived the top ramen life during college. I still love the stuff, don't get me wrong. But I have no desire to eat it every day and I never want it for breakfast again."
"I thought the day would never come." Sasuke commented dryly ad the blond laughed good naturedly.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah I know…"
Breakfast was pleasant mostly because the duo didn't bring up all the tough questions that plagued both their minds. Sasuke pointedly kept the topic on Naruto and his life these past six years. He asked about Naruto's friends, his job at the dojo and as a photography. Sasuke was particularly interested in the photography. At the home he had never once realized that Naruto was into such a hobby and seeing the pictures on the dobe's wall had revealed photography to be a huge part of his life. Sasuke pointedly avoided the topic of why Naruto had left, even though the entire time that was the question that burned brightest on the raven's mind. He instead asked about Naruto's job and friends. Of course when talking about friends Kiba came up.
Sasuke couldn't help but feel his mood sour at the mention of the brunette, even though that brunette was the reason Naruto was sitting there now. Naruto had said they were friends with benefits after all.
"So Kiba. He's an-uh good friend of yours?" Sasuke asked tentatively.
"Yeah," the blonde chirped unaware of the tension in the other's shoulders.
"Do you have a lot of friends like Kiba?" Friend's with benefits was Sasuke's meaning.
"Oh yeah tons!" the blond chirped not realizing this, "There's Kiba, Hinata, Sakura, oh and Gaara and his boyfriend Neji- those to together are especially a blast!" Sasuke felt his temple twitch.
"Oh I see…" at Sasuke's tone the blond paused.
Naruto squinted his eyes at the man before him, "why do you look so upset? Do you not have friends like that?"
Sasuke briefly thought of Ino but shook his head, "Not that many, no."
Naruto frowned, "Aww man you should get more friends like mine then. Actually I'll introduce you. They might not like you at first but I'm sure they'll be down after they get to know you."
"No I think that's okay…" Sasuke grimaced, at the thought of his dobe with all those people. His temper was in danger of flaring again and Naruto paused sincerely this time, clearly noticing that the raven was reacting very strangely to Naruto having friends.
"Sasuke? Why do you seem so upset right now?"
Sasuke gritted his teeth, "It's nothing, it's really not my business how many FWB's you have."
"FWB's?" the blonde seemed sincerely confused.
"Friends with benefits." Sasuke clarified, "That's what you said Kiba was last night, and you said you had tons of friends like him…"
Naruto's face flushed red with horror for a brief moment before he rocked back in his chair from laughter, "You've been sitting here thinking I've been naming off fuck friends! Oh God, no wonder why you look so green!" Naruto's laughter was the kind that brought tears to the eyes, and as he gasped in laughter Sasuke felt no desire to join in. He instead waited as patiently as he could manage to for the blond before him to regain his self control.
When at last the laughter stopped Naruto was able to open his eyes and see how displeased the raven looked, "Oh God I'm sorry S'ke. I was being drunk and petty last night. The only FWB I've ever had is Sakura and we haven't messed around in months since she got her new beau. I lied about Kiba and me ever having sex. We're not that kind of friend I swear." Naruto's words were sincere.
Sasuke was caught between strangling the deceptive blond and crying in relief. Since both actions were too emotional he declined to do either, instead placing a noticeable frown on his face to show his displeasure.
"God I really am sorry Sasuke. I was being really petty last night you probably didn't deserve that or getting left on the porch, or all the jabs I made…"
"It doesn't matter," Sasuke shrugged, "Like you said, we've both screwed up a lot so we'll just have to have more apology breakfasts. Dinners and lunches too, actually. We've both screwed up royally so we're very deeply indebted to each other and I can't quite say how many of these we'll have to do, but tons of them for sure…"
Naruto felt his heart melt a bit at the casual words of the man before him and he was just barely able to resist the urge to leap across the table, so that he could hug him, the coffee, empty plates, and orange juice between them be damned. Instead he just nodded, true hope budding in his heart for the first time in years.
After breakfast the raven walked Naruto home, dropping him off at the door of his apartment with a wave goodbye and Naruto went about his day as usual.
But the next day Sasuke was back again true to his word. This time Uzumaki was ready, bouncing out the door as soon as Sasuke knocked with a cheerful "hello!"
Several weeks in Sasuke rang the doorbell and instead of a cheerful blond bouncing out he was dragged inside instead. "Let's eat here today!" the blonde had chirped, leading the raven to the bar in the kitchen, "What do you want in your omelet?" And so the routine changed to breakfast at Naruto's instead. One day during their routine breakfasts Sasuke's cellphone. Answering Sasuke had gone into Naruto's bedroom to talk, shutting the door.
Coming out the raven had frowned, "I just got called into work. We'll have to make up this meal later," he apologized.
Naruto had nodded unoffended, "How about dinner tonight then? I'll be done at the dojo around seven tonight so a late dinner about 7:45?"
"I'll try, but I don't know how long this will take. I'll call if I can but if I don't please don't wait up, kay?"
The blonde again nodded in response, "Got it, speaking of, what is your job anyways? You never talk about it."
"We'll talk about it next time. I have to go now. I'm sorry." With that he was gone, leaving a very curious blonde behind.
Sasuke walked quickly to the front of the apartments, seeing the black car waiting for him, "How did you know I was here?" he asks the driver accusingly. Tension hangs heavy in the air.
Itachi looks dully at his brother, "What does it matter? Just get in the car."
Again sorry for the glitch. Don't know what happened. Hope you enjoyed.