Has it really been that long since an update?...

"Hold the bus!" Naruto called, sightly panting as he wobbled toward the city bus. He waved his arms and, thank the heavens, the bus driver waited for him to climb aboard. The blonde paused before stepping on, making sure the driver wouldn't just take off right before he got on. That had made him late to school last time. Since Sasuke had taken reign of his people, school had become safe enough to endure again. Naruto entered the bus, blue eyes searching for a seat.

Most of the people avoided his eyes, some stared with open disgust at his seven month belly. An old lady moved her purse into the empty seat next to her when Naruto had taken a step toward it. He found a seat next to a window, a bit away from the rest of the passengers. He was getting to school early so he wouldn't be caught in the crowd.

At the next stop, a woman with three children entered the bus. The mother glanced at Naruto, her eyes surprised at his pregnancy, before sitting in the seat across from him. One of her children—maybe 7 years old—had to sit next to him because the bus had grown too full. The boy stared him up and down with that little innocent look of his. Naruto quickly grew uncomfortable. He could see the mother watching them. Normally, Naruto would engage the kid in a game or atleast say hello, but he could sense that him talking would only make things—

"You're having a baby?" The boy asked, pointing a finger at Naruto's stomach. A blush flew to the blondes face. He nodded. The boy grinned and asked, "Is it gonna be a boy or girl?"

"A-A girl." Naruto answered. He glanced up at the mother who seemed uneasy at her child's new interest.

The boys face lit up and he leaned in closer to Naruto. It made the blonde want to cry—the kid hadn't been touched by the ignorance of the society they lived in, yet. He was a cute kid, with spikey brown hair and a missing front tooth. He had a dark blue bandana tied around his forehead and continued to grin at the blonde. The boy reminded Naruto of when he himself was younger. "Sir, what are you gonna name her?"

Naruto wanted to chuckle at being called 'sir'. He wasn't use to this kindness anymore. "Well I haven't thought about it much, but I know I want it to be meaningful. It has to be a pretty name for her." It was true, Naruto had done a bit of research into names for his daughter but none of them felt right. Who knew it would be so hard to find a suitable name? He thought about people he could name her after—Kushina, Mito, even Temari—but it just didn't seem to fit. He'd spent about an hour on Gaara's computer searching through the web. He knew e concept of her name had to come from—

"Oh, this is my stop!" Naruto said suddenly, pulling himself from his deep thoughts. The bus was pulling over less than a block away from the high school. Naruto stood and looked down at the boy, "It was nice meeting you... what's your name again?" He smiled.

"Konohamaru!"

"Konohamaru." Naruto shook his little hand. He wobbled toward the front of the bus, threw a wave over his shoulder toward the boy then slowly exited. He stood safely on the sidewalk and caught his breath, suddenly winded. He happen to glance up at the bus as it pulled away, seeing the mother scolding Konohamaru and yanking him by his shirt to sit down. A sinking feeling overcame Naruto as he stood there watching the bus move on down the street.

But he managed to drag himself to the top of the stairs of the school, standing before the front doors. He couldn't do anything to help Konohamaru—in reality, anything he did would further harm the boy. Naruto pulled the door open, too deep in his depression to notice any of the looks he was getting. This went on for several moments, but then it became too much. Most of the students had gotten somewhat use to his pregnancy but it seemed as though all of this had reversed, everyone looked pissed once more. The blonde braved analyzing some faces, yeah there was new anger. He happen across Ino's smirking face, and she nodded her head toward something. Naruto looked.

It was his locker—there was a heart-shaped note tapped to the center of his locker. Naruto looked around, the other students were angrily waiting for him to read it. The blonde took a deep breath, wondering what kind of harm this note would cause. He slowly peeled it away from his locker, reading the card. There was a quote:

The love game is never called off on account of darkness.

Naruto recognized it as a Masson quote. Underneath it was signed but he already knew who had sent it, of course it was—

"Who sent you that Valentine?" Sasuke asked his hand snatching the card from Naruto's hand, his eyes analyzing its writing.

The blonde watched the raven strain emotions over his face, before speaking. "I thought it was you, but I was wrong." Kiba had sent it. Naruto waited patiently for Sasuke to shake the anger off, the blonde played with his own fingers. "Look, Sasuke, it's not—"

"Does he not understand that this is wasted effort? I can send you millions of valentines if you want." Sasuke interrupted, swinging the note as if it were trash. "I assumed you wouldn't want anything—especially from me or dog-boy. But if its cards you want I'll arrange for some to be delivered to you. What candy can you still eat? Are you allergic to any flowers?" Sasuke rattled on about the gifts he would be sending to the blonde until he realized he was getting no answers. "Naruto?"

Instead of answering the other male, Naruto was looking at their surroundings. People had gathered once he had reached the note, but once it became apparent that it wasn't from Sasuke, the small crowd had dispersed. He sighed, leaning against the lockers. "Sasuke, I don't want you valentines, my feet hurt and I'm going to class. I didn't even remember it was Valentines day." To his surprise the raven shut up and nodded, handing him back the red note. "Thanks," Naruto secured it in his bag and brushed past the raven, not looking back but feeling his eyes boring into the back of his head.

-Line Break-

The lukewarm water trail down Naruto's back, rinsing away the shampoo that had to double as body wash. He'd run out of soap a couple days ago. But the stamps came in 3 days and he would be fine. He lifted his belly, washing under it and feeling his little girl muse at the soft feeling of being within his arms. It made him smile. But the moment was interrupted at the sound of his doorbell and Naruto leaned down to shut the water off.

He dried himself as quickly and safely as he could with seven months of baby hanging from his body. He throw on a t-shirt and sweats before making his way to the door that had been rung twice more. "I'm coming, I'm coming!"

Opening the door, he saw no one. But he glanced down to see a head of dark locks, looking up at him. "I thought you weren't going to open up. I was gonna stay here all night." Sasuke said, getting to his feet.

"You can just sleep in front of my porch—what would the neighbors say?" Naruto joked but didn't really laugh. He looked the raven up and down. He was carrying a blue paper bag, the label was something French and it looked expensive. "What's that? I told you no valentines, bastard."

"I know, idiot. It's not a valentine." Sasuke assured him. He motioned to the apartment. "May I come in and show you?" Reluctantly, the blonde stepped aside and the other male strolled in, grin on face.

"Okay, now sit on the couch." Sasuke said. When Naruto made no movement to obey Sasuke shook his head. "Would you please just trust me on this? It's not what you think."

"I trusted you once and now look at me." Naruto shot back, hands on his hips. Just what was Sasuke up to? It made him nervous. "You can't just burst in here and tell me what to do."

Mood swings, huh? Sasuke smiled. "Please?" After several moments, Naruto finally did as he was asked. He sat down with a huff, crossing his arms over his chest. Sasuke sat before him, on the carpet, facing his feet. The raven began rummaging through the bag, "So, where's Gaara this fine evening?" Small talk would keep Naruto from kicking him out.

"Neji took him out on a romantic dinner and hotel." Blue eyes watched as Sasuke took out a small bottle. "What's that?" He asked again.

"It's not what you think." Sasuke squirted a white liquid from the bottle and rubbed it between his hands. Then he grabbed one of Naruto's feet and started to... massage it. "It's not a valentine, it's not a five-star trip to the spa, but it's a simple, amazing at-home foot massage." He chuckled at Naruto's dumbstruck expression.

The blonde couldn't keep his mouth up. Of all things... this was what the raven had been planning. Somewhere within his chest, Naruto felt warm. He wanted to giggle because Sasuke was tickling his feet and because it had to be the most endearing thing he'd ever seen. It was such a kind gesture, someone was treating him like he wasn't a monster—not to mention how good it felt. Walking around with this baby had really put some work onto his feet and back. "Sasuke..." But it was all wrong, they should not be cooped up in his pathetic little apartment acting like this.

"Don't make me stop. It's only a foot massage, Naruto." He said but they both knew it meant more. Sasuke was being there, being there for Naruto. Loving him... "I love you, Naruto." This time it came out with ease, like the raven already knew it was fact, the only person still in denial was Naruto. "Sit back and enjoy this."

Somehow, a foot massage had turned into a calf massage, then into a bare back massage. Currently Naruto was trying to ignore the hot breathing along his neck that Sasuke was producing on purpose. Sasuke had convinced him to sit on his lap, claiming he could support their weight. Each movement of the ravens hands was slow, precise, and sensual. Which was turning into a problem all on its own with the blondes hormones having a mind of their own. This was dangerous territory. Sasuke even had the nerve to place soft kisses along his shoulder blade, so soft that Naruto wasn't completely sure he was doing it. They were being bad, bad, bad.

Finally the massage had stopped, the raven wrapped his arms around the blondes torso, feeling the bare stomach, "I want it to be like this." Sasuke placed his forehead between Naruto's shoulders. "It's nice right?"

"Yeah," Naruto bit his lip, now was not the time to cry. "It is."

The other male shifted their positions, so that they were looking at each other. Sasuke leaned his face in close. "I don't mean to cause you any confusion, I'm not trying to hurt you. I just want to show you what I can give you. Not necessarily with money either. I just want you, Naruto."

Naruto swallowed thickly, nodding his head. Their hair brushed with each nod he gave. "I believe you, I believe you love me. And I... I love you too. But I told you already—I can't do this—us right now."

Regardless, Sasuke smiled. "Honestly? Then why wait?" Sasuke placed a hand on the pregnant males stomach. "She isn't going to wait." Naruto still shook his head. "Okay, okay. We can do it your way. But I want you to move in with me."

"Bastard." Naruto rolled his eyes. "As great as that might be, I don't know if that's such a good idea." Living in the Uchiha house would be like stepping into a new world. There were rules and manners, he remembered from going there as a kid. But when he was little, he could leave if things got different. Naruto reached down to put back on his shirt, Sasuke handed it to him.

The raven smiled bashfully now. He reached up to touch Naruto's cheek. "I thought it would be harder to win you over again, I'm probably sounding like a school girl. I had prepared for the worst. I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be sorry, I can't resist, that's just how I am." No matter what he and Sasuke went through, they were drawn to each other. It was like an unexplainable force of nature, a stroke of destiny. Naruto didn't have the strength to fight it, especially when it massaged his feet. "But what's this win over thing?" Sasuke looked alarmed but saw that Naruto's face was playful. "I said we could try for some sort of relationship in the future. That could be a long time from now." The blonde shrugged.

"Yeah, when you think about 10 years from now. But not when you think about when our kid will get here."

"True."

The raven paused—hesitated, then reached down and grabbed something from the bag he had brought. He froze, then said, "I'm going to leave this with you." It was a small black velvet box.

Naruto immediately tried to scoot away from the other male, too shocked to even think about what was inside. Sasuke had lost his mind. "Are you serious? This isn't a game! Think logically, Sasuke." Naruto blushed.

"Nothing is logical when you're in love. You just don't understand what this does to me." Sasuke pulled the blonde back to him, pressing as close as the belly would allow. "I'm nowhere near stupid, dummy. I know this little box contains a huge commitment, I'm not asking you yet, am I? Just keep it with you. Eventually you're going to have to wear it but... I've never been truly in love, Naruto. I don't even know how to go about this."

Sighing, the blonde let a small smile creep onto his face. "For starters you can stop sounding like a romance novel! I don't want my baby to come out cheesy."

"Will do." The raven ran his hand down Naruto's chin, leaning down and placing a smooth kiss against his lips. He pulled away and looked into blue eyes. "I think I lost my mind somewhere between all this."

"What if this is just my hormones acting up? Making me emotional and vulnerable?" There was that chance. Tsunade had him on all kinds of pregnancy meds, his moods were changing by the minute. Maybe, at this very moment, he was swinging towards Sasuke. But what if after having the baby his feelings changed? It scared Naruto. Things were somewhat clear for once but the chance that it could all be muddled was still there.

"I don't know, could be. But even if it is, I don't regret a single thing." Sasuke stole another kiss. Naruto relaxed, letting his mind get carried away.

There wasn't a lot of things Naruto could say about the thing called love. He could say that it ruined his life because it was stolen from him when his parents died in a car crash. He could say its false because he ended up pregnant after a one-night stand. He could say it torments his every days because he and Sasuke could never get it right. Or he could say its the the most wonderful in the thing in the world because his mother saved him, he's going to have an amazing daughter, and Sasuke turned into a hopeless romantic. That wouldn't even take a mouthful.

Please remember how old Sasuke and Naruto are. Their ages contribute to their logic and feelings. Review, and a warning that next chapter shall be SHORT but VERY important.