Chapter 7

Sasuke was experiencing an emotion he hadn't felt in a long time: jealousy.

"Isn't it wonderful?" Sakura was saying in a breathless way he hadn't heard from a female since he'd left high school. "Isn't it the most beautiful room you ever saw? I never thought I could love the IRS, but since it was the cause of Kenji getting all these beautiful things, I could grow to love them. Don't you think so, Mr. Uchiha? Don't you think the room is beautiful?"

"Yes," Sasuke said grumpily, while telling himself that it was better to give anonymously than to flaunt your gift. At least that's what he'd heard. But he rather wished Sakura would look at him with her eyes sparkling like that.

He took a deep breath. "It is nice. The room looks great. Do you think the clothes will fit?"

"If they don't now, they will next week," she said, laughing.

Before Sasuke could give a cynical reply as he thought about how much these few pieces of furniture had actually cost him, since he'd had to buy the store, there was a loud, insistent knock on the door.

Instantly, Sakura's face went white. "They made a mistake and they want everything back."

Sasuke's bad mood left him and he couldn't help putting a reassuring arm around Sakura's thin shoulders. "I can assure you that everything here is yours. Maybe it's Santa Claus come early."

When she still hesitated, Sasuke picked up Kenji from the crib, where he was trying to eat the legs off a stuffed frog, then led the way to the front door, where he was greeted by the sight of a huge evergreen tree.

"Ho ho ho," came Naruto's voice as he shoved his way inside the house. "Merry Christmas. teme, ol' boy, you want to bring in the boxes from outside?"

"Naruto!" came Sakura's squeal of delight. "You shouldn't have."

Outside in the cold, Kenji sitting on his arm, Sasuke muttered, "Oh, Naruto, you shouldn't have," in a falsetto voice. "I paid heaven only knows how much for a bunch of furniture and she thanks the IRS no less. But Naruto shows up with a twenty-dollar tree and it's, 'Oh, Naruto.' Women!"

Kenji laughed, raked his nails across Sasuke's cheek in an attempt to pat him, then bit his other cheek in a kiss. "Why don't you do that to the divine Dr. Naruto?" Sasuke said, smiling at the boy as he hoisted a big red cardboard box under his arm and took it into the house.

"You can't do this," Sakura was still saying but looking at Naruto adoringly.

"Dad and I don't want a tree. We're just a couple of bachelors and we don't need the needles everywhere, so when a patient gave me this tree, I thought about the attic full of ornaments and thought Kenji would love the lights. Don't you think he will?"

"Oh, yes, I'm sure he will, but I'm not sure—"

Naruto cut her off by going toward Sasuke and holding out his arms to Kenji. "Come here, Kenji, and give me a hug."

To Sasuke's great satisfaction, Kenji let out a howl that made the tree drop quite a few needles. "Doesn't seem to like you, does he?" Sasuke said smugly. "Come on, boy, let's go try on some of your new clothes."

"New clothes?" Naruto asked, frowning. "What's this about?"

"Oh, Naruto, you can't believe what has happened. This morning we went to a store where the man was selling everything cheaply so he wouldn't have to pay taxes on it and Mr. Uchiha made them come and hang the wallpaper and arrange the furniture and . . . and . . . Oh, you'll just have to see it to believe it."

With a look at Sasuke, Naruto followed Sakura through the old house with its peeling paint and water-stained wallpaper, to have her open a door to a dazzling nursery. It didn't take much of an eye to see the quality of everything inside. The linens, the furniture, the pretty little prints on the wall, the painted wardrobe that held a few pieces of fabulous baby clothes, were all the finest that could be bought.

"I see," Naruto said. "And how much did you have to pay for all this?"

"Two hundred and fifty dollars, sales tax included," Sakura said proudly.

Naruto lifted a hand-embroidered sheet from the side of the crib. If he wasn't mistaken, he'd seen these in a catalog for about three hundred dollars each. "Great," Naruto said. "By contrast my tree and old ornaments look like nothing."

"How silly," Sakura said as she took his arm. "Your gift is from your heart, while this is merely from the IRS."

At that, Naruto shot a triumphant smile at his older brother as he led Sakura back into the living room.

"And I brought dinner," Naruto said happily. "A grateful patient of mine gave me a free dinner for two at a restaurant, but I persuaded the chef to make it a carryout for three. I hope it's still hot," he said as he looked up at his brother. "The food boxes are on the front seat of my car. Oh! and I hope you don't mind, but I signed you and Kenji up as guinea pigs to try a new baby food." At that he began to unload his pockets of baby food jars with hand-lettered labels, and Sasuke recognized his secretary's neat script.

"Rack of lamb with dried cherry and green peppercorn sauce," Sakura read. "And salmon cakes with cilantro sauce. They sound a bit high fashion for a baby, and I'm not sure he should have peppercorns."

"I think the company is trying to reach the top-end market. It's just in the planning stages now, so if you'd rather not be one of their test babies, I could get someone else to try them."

"No," Sakura said, taking the jars Naruto held out to her. "I'm sure Kenji will like them." Her tone said she wasn't sure at all. "Who is the manufacturer?"

"Hiro and Company," Naruto said as he winked at Sasuke, still standing by the door, still holding Kenji, still scowling. "Come on, old man, don't just stand there; let's get everything inside so we can eat, then decorate the tree."

Sasuke handed the baby to Sakura, then followed his brother outside.

"What in the world is wrong with you?" Naruto snapped as soon as they were away from the door.

"Nothing is wrong with me," Sasuke snapped back.

"You hate it here, don't you? You hate the noise and the falling-down old house, and Sakura is boring compared to the women you're used to. Didn't you date some woman with a Ph.D. in anthropology? Didn't she save tigers or something?"

"It was fish. She saved whales, and she smelled like seaweed. There is nothing wrong with me. So Hiro made the dinners and the baby food?"

"Is that what's bothering you? That I took credit for what you'd paid for? Look, if you want, we can tell her the truth right now. We can tell her you're a multimillionaire, or is it a billionaire by now, and that you can afford rooms full of baby furniture from what you carry in your pocket. Is that what you want to do?"

"No," Sasuke said slowly as Naruto loaded his arms with boxes of Christmas ornaments. They were boxes he'd seen all through his childhood, and he knew everything that was inside them.

Suddenly Naruto stopped and stared at his brother. "You're not falling for her are you? I mean, you and I aren't going to have to compete for a woman, are we?"

"Don't be ridiculous. Sakura isn't my type at all. And she has no concept of the future. I don't know how she means to support that child on the small amount of cash she has coming in. She has no work or prospect of work. She can't do anything at all except clean things. But in spite of her situation, she has more pride than anyone I've ever met. If you told her who I was, she'd kick me out, and no doubt throw all the furniture into the street after me. She spent this afternoon scrubbing that car Hyuga gave me so she could pay me back the two fifty. If you knew . . ."

They were walking toward the house, and Sasuke was still talking.

"Knew what?" Naruto asked softly.

"The women I date ask for five hundred just to tip the maid in the toilet. That fish woman. She was dating me only so I'd make a donation to her whales."

"So what's your problem then?" Naruto asked. "Why are you so surly?"

"Because my little brother duped me into spending time in this one-horse town and going to baby stores and carrying old Christmas ornaments. Get the door, will you? No, the other way. You have to pull inward, then turn the knob. Is that your phone ringing or mine?"

"Mine," Naruto said as soon as they were in the house. "Yeah," he said into the receiver. "Yes, yes, that's good. I'll be there as soon as I can get there." As he turned the phone off, he looked up at Sakura, Sasuke, and the baby with regret. "I can't stay. Emergency."

"I'm so sorry," Sakura said. "After you did all this work and now you can't stay."

"Yeah, it's a shame," Sasuke said as he held open the door for his younger brother. "But when work calls, you have to go."

Frowning, Naruto made his way to the door. "Maybe we can put up the tree tomorrow. I'd really like to see the baby's expression when he first sees the lights."

"We'll make a video," Sasuke said quickly. "Now, I think you'd better go before somebody dies."

"Yeah, right," Naruto said after one last look of regret tossed to Sakura. "I'll see you—" He didn't finish his sentence because Sasuke shut the door in his face.

"You weren't very nice to him," Sakura said, doing her best to frown at Sasuke, but he could see a hint of a smile about her lips.

"Horrible," Sasuke said agreeably. "But now there's more food for the two of us. And, besides, I'm much better at tree decorating than he is."

"Is that so? You have to go some to beat me. Why I've decorated trees that have made Santa weep."

"I decorated a tree so beautiful that Santa wouldn't leave my house and I had to push him out into the snow, and when he still wouldn't leave, I had to drive his sleigh and deliver all his gifts."

Sakura laughed. "You win. Let's see what's in these boxes."

"Nope. We eat first. I want to try this new baby food on Kenji and see what he thinks. Does this fireplace work?"

"Better than the furnace," Sakura replied.

"I repeat, does this fireplace work?"

Sakura giggled. "If you open the damper very wide and build the fire way back against the wall, it's okay. Otherwise it smokes a lot."

"Had experience with it, have you?"

"Let's just say that I had some pork chops in the freezer and after the first time I tried to make a fire in there, they were smoke-cured hams."

It was Sasuke's turn to laugh, and when he did, Kenji started to laugh too, banging his hands on his legs and nearly knocking his mother down.

"You think that's funny, do you?" Sasuke said, still laughing as he took the boy and tossed him into the air. Kenji was so delighted at this that he squealed until he got the hiccups, then Sasuke tickled him and he squealed some more.

When Sasuke stopped, hugging the sweaty baby close to him, Sakura was looking at him in a way no woman had ever looked at him before. "You're a nice man, Mr. Uchiha. A very nice man."

"Want to call me Sasuke?" he asked.

"No," she said as she turned away. "I'll heat dinner while you light the smoker."

For some reason her refusal to call him by his first name pleased him. He set Kenji on the floor, then started building the fire. It took a while because every three minutes he had to pull Kenji away from a life-threatening situation. But at last he had the fire going without too much smoke, he had Kenji interested in his watch (it would never be the same again), and Sakura entered the room with an enormous tray full of food. There was also a bottle of wine and two glasses.

Sasuke held up one of the glasses, watching the colors in the lead crystal. "Naruto does know how to live, doesn't he?"

"I feel guilty eating this without him," Sakura said. "After all, it was his skill as a doctor that earned the meal."

"We could always wrap it up, put it in the refrigerator, and he can have it tomorrow."

Sakura looked down at the beautiful meal on the tray. There was a salad of baby lettuces and vegetables, roast lamb, potatoes . . .

She looked back up at Sasuke. "I don't have any plastic wrap."

"That settles it then. We'll just have to eat it ourselves."

"I guess so," Sakura said seriously; then they laughed and dug in.

Kenji sat on Sasuke's lap, a huge bib around his neck, and ate everything that was offered to him. Whatever Sakura had thought about his not liking solid food was disproved by the way he downed a whole jar of lamb with peppercorns; then he started in on Sasuke's mashed potatoes with garlic.

"But I thought babies liked bland food," Sakura said in amazement.

"No one likes bland food," Sasuke said under his breath.

Thirty minutes later Sakura had nursed Kenji until he fell asleep, an angelic smile on his face. "Do you think it's the food or the new room that's made him look like that?" Sakura asked as she looked adoringly down

at her son in his new crib.

"I think he's happy because he has a mother who loves him so much," Sasuke said, then smiled when Sakura blushed.

"Mr. Uchiha, if I didn't know better, I'd think you were flirting with me."

"I guess stranger things have happened," he said; then when she looked confused, he said, "Come on, woman, there's a tree to decorate."

In all his life, Sasuke knew that he'd never had as much fun decorating a Christmas tree as he had with this one. As children he and Naruto had complained every minute they had to spend on the task. Without a woman in the home, there was no smell of cookies baking, no music playing, just their dad, who was his usual grumpy self.

Now, as Sasuke strung lights that Sakura had untangled, he found himself telling her about his childhood. He didn't bother explaining why he had lived with Naruto when he was supposedly only a cousin, and she didn't ask. In return Sakura told him about her childhood. She had been an only child of a single mother and when she'd asked who her father was, her mother told her it was none of her business.

Both of their stories were rather sad, and definitely lonely, but when they told them to each other, they made jokes, and Sakura started a contest to see who had the grumpiest parent. Sakura's mother was a fanatically clean woman and hated Christmas because of the mess. Sasuke's father just hated having his routine disrupted.

They began fantasizing about what a marriage between the two of them would be like, what with Sasuke's father playing poker and flipping cigar ash all over the room and Sakura's mother with a vacuum cleaner permanently attached to her right arm.

They went on to speculate what kind of children these two would produce and decided that they themselves were actually perfect examples of what would happen if their two parents mated. Sasuke was so serious his face nearly cracked when he laughed, and Sakura lived in a house that would make her mother's heart stop beating.

"It's beautiful," Sakura said at last, standing back to look at the half-finished tree.

"I wish I had a camera with me," Sasuke said. "That tree deserves to be immortalized."

"I don't have a camera, but I can—" She broke off and grinned at him. "You finish with the tinsel while I make a surprise. No, don't turn around, look that way."

He heard her scurry off into the bedroom, then return and sit down in the ugly old sunflower chair. He was dying to see what she was doing, but he didn't look. Not until he'd strung the last of the tinsel did she tell him he could turn around.

When he turned he could see that she was holding out a piece of printer paper and there was a pencil and a book on her lap. He took the paper and looked at it. It was a delightful sketch of him struggling with the wires of a dozen strings of lights, the tree just behind him. The picture was whimsical, funny, and at the same time poignant, making him look as though he was putting a lot of love into the project.

Sasuke sat down on the sofa, the sketch in his hand. "But this is good."

Sakura laughed. "You sound surprised."

"I am. I thought you said you had no talents." He was very serious.

"Not any marketable talents. No one wants to hire someone to draw funny pictures."

Sasuke didn't respond to her remark. "If you have more of these, get them and bring them to me."

"Yes, sir!" Sakura said, standing and saluting him. She tried to sound lighthearted, but she rushed to obey his command, and in seconds, she handed him a fat, worn, brown envelope tied with a drawstring.

Sasuke was very aware that Sakura was holding her breath while he looked at the drawings, and he didn't need to ask if she had shown them to anyone else, for he knew she hadn't. For all that she put on a brave act, life with a drunk like Kenichi Senju had to have been difficult.

"They're good," he said as he lifted the papers one by one. The drawings were mostly of Kenji, from birth to the present, and they were quite clever, showing all the things a baby could get into. There was one of Kenji with wonder on his face as he looked up at a balloon, his hands reaching for it eagerly.

"I like them," he said as he carefully put them back into the envelope. The businessman inside him wanted to talk to her about publication and royalties, but he reined himself in. Right now he thought that all he should do was give her praise.

"I like them very much and I thank you for showing them to me."

Sakura gave him a smile that threatened to break her face in half. "You're the only one who's ever seen them. Except my mother and she told me to quit wasting my time."

"And what did she want you to do?"

"Become a lawyer."

At first Sasuke thought she was joking, but then he saw her eyes twinkling.

"I can see you defending a criminal. 'Please, Your Honor, he promises that he won't do it again. He gives his word, hope to die. He'll never murder more than the twenty-two little old ladies that he has already. Pleeeeaaaaasssseeee.' "

It was such a good imitation of Sakura's tone of voice that she picked up a pillow and tossed it at him, watching him do an elaborate duck as though he might get hurt by the flying object. "You are a horrible person," she said, laughing. "I would have made an excellent lawyer. I'm quite intelligent, you know."

"Yes, very, but you do tend to love the underdog."

"If I didn't, you wouldn't have had any place to spend Christmas," she shot back.

"That's true," he said, grinning. "And I thank you for it." As Sasuke said this, he looked down into her eyes and realized he wanted to kiss her. Like he wanted to continue living, he wanted to kiss her.

"I think I better go to bed," she said softly as she got up and went toward her bedroom. "Kenji is an early riser and there's a lot to do tomorrow." She was halfway into the room when she turned back to him. "I didn't mean to sound as though I was doing you a favor by allowing you to stay here. The truth is, you've made this Christmas wonderful for Kenji and me. Both of us enjoy your company very much."

All Sasuke could do was nod in thanks. He couldn't remember anyone ever telling him that he was enjoyed just for his company. "Good night," he said, then sat for a long time before the dying fire, thinking about where he was and what he was doing.