I'm just going to upload the rest of the chapters before I change my mind. I happened to realize that people actually do read this and now I'm really self-conscious about my grammar... It's a weird mix of English, Finnish, German and Swedish. I hope it's not too confusing and painful to read. I should have someone to check the grammar for me, but right now that's not going to happen. I'm just gonna... Leave this here and go hide somewhere.

Chapter 10.

Sasuke rushed down the stairs with amazing speed and agility, considering the hangover that was looming unpleasantly in his body. As soon as he reached the lobby, his eyes started to frantically skim through faces, desperately trying to find Igleheart or Alistair. Three middle-aged ladies seated on the couch spared him a few shunning glances. Excluding them, the lobby was practically deserted.

Feeling anxiety settling in his mind, Sasuke walked up to the receptionist. "Excuse me. I was wondering if you happened to know whether mister Igleheart has already checked out?"

The receptionist smiled tranquilly. "Oh, yes. He told me that you would probably come looking for him. He told me to give you this..." The receptionist handed a small folded letter to Sasuke. "Have a pleasant day."

"Thank you", Sasuke muttered. He wasn't willing to look deeper into his despair right then and there. Only with a little bit of hesitating, he opened the letter.

'I got tired of waiting, so I left.'

Sasuke folded the letter and stepped into the elevator. The reality of his fuck-up was starting to dawn on him in a whole new level. He was scared to analyze his own thoughts any deeper, even thought the voice inside his head was already mocking him about how thoroughly he had managed to screw up in the last 24 hours.

When he got to his room, he sank on his bed, unable to decide which one of his failures was worse. He had lost a great business deal, thus damaging his career (maybe permanently). On the other hand he had done something much worse with Naruto. A (supposedly) passion filled night with his co-worker sounded definitely much much worse…

Sasuke tossed his bags to the floor of his hallway. The peaceful darkness and familiar coolness of home felt almost comforting, when he tiredly moved through the corridor. He was in desperate need of a quick shower.

Sasuke was really trying not to think about it – he really was – but he could almost swear that he was still able to smell Naruto's scent on his skin. He felt extremely uncomfortable when he stripped off his clothes, letting them fall on the bathroom floor. He didn't really care.

The warm water did calm him down a little bit and Sasuke hoped that he could just stay there forever, in the safety of his shower curtain. He didn't want to go back to work. There would be a meeting concerning the cancellation of Igleheart deal, he knew that. Mister Sowenger would scold him and they would have to discuss Sasuke's future in the organization. And still Sasuke knew that what he was fretting the most was really the fact that he would have to meet Naruto…

Sasuke had been able to sneak out of the hotel without bumping into the younger man, and frankly, he didn't have any idea what he was supposed to say when they did meet. He knew that he was acting like a coward – for god's sake, he had asked the receptionist to call Naruto's room and inform him that Igleheart had left. Sasuke was certain that acting like nothing had happened would be the easiest... But still his mind was filled with barely-there memories from last night. They felt unreal and oddly familiar at the same time, and he really didn't want to remember how Naruto had felt beneath him, but he did–

Sasuke really hoped that Naruto remembered less than he did.

He knew that he was running late, but he simply couldn't risk ending up in the conference room alone with Naruto. He had spent almost the whole night trying to figure out what to say to the blonde, but he was out of ideas. The plan B was to ignore the dope completely…

Sasuke inhaled deeply and stepped into the conference room. "Good morning Mr. Sowenger. I'm terribly sorry that I'm late."

Mr. Sowenger spared him a stern glance, but nodded approvingly. "Don't let this become a habit. Twice in a row is more than enough."

Sasuke gave a quiet 'hn' and sat down, busy avoiding the blue eyes on the opposite side of the table.

"Naruto already enlightened me about the situation", mister Sowenger explained. "If you have anything to add, feel free."

"That depends on what you already know, sir…"

"Yes, yes of course... Naruto?"

Sasuke shifted his gaze towards Naruto, since it would have been rude not to look.

Naruto was twitching on his seat in an awkward manner. "We were having dinner with mister Igleheart – just as planned – and during the evening he ordered us far too many drinks. Um… He was pretty much encouraging us to drink too much and we just… We slept through the meeting."

Sasuke swallowed dryly. "Nothing to add, sir."

"Yes. I must say that I do understand the situation quite well. Igleheart's character taken into account… I'm pretty sure that if you had declined the drinks, he would have cancelled the deal anyway. So there's not much you could have done… But it's really weird that neither of you managed to woke up. It's not like Sasuke to sleep in."

"Sir, I–"

"That was actually my fault", Naruto quipped in. "I was so wasted that Sasuke had to help me back to my room. He waited on the couch so I would calm down a bit and he must have fallen asleep, too. And, um, we kinda forgot to set the alarm, so..."

"Ah, well." Mister Sowenger massaged his temples. "That's very unfortunate, but there's nothing we can do about it anymore. But still... I'm afraid that we have to forget that promotion… The word about your failure has already reached pretty much everyone, even the human resource management, and people would be pretty upset if I went and promoted someone who cost us one of our biggest investors."

"That is very reasonable", Sasuke noted.

"Well then. Let's forget all about this and get back to the business. I'm going to stop by Irene's and see if she has any fresh donuts."

When mister Sowenger left the room, Sasuke stood up hurriedly and strode out of the room without looking back. He wanted to get as far away from Naruto as possible. He didn't really want to know why the blonde had pretty much taken all the blame… Something about the whole situation seemed off.

Sasuke shook his head. He should just concentrate on work. But first he needed a big cup of black coffee.