A/N: Hello readers. First of all, I want to thank you all for the hits, favorites, alerts and comments. Further I decided to make a plan for uploading. I have over 50 chapters done on this story, so I'll upload it every Monday, Friday and Sunday from now on.
So, have fun with this chapter.
Naruto was left behind, perplex for a moment. He needed a few minutes to get what just happened. And the more time passed the angrier he became. And... the more it hurt.
Before he could think he jumped up and ran after the raven, catching him in front of the other's bedroom.
"Stop fucking bastard!" the lad yelled, dashing next to the door. He took a deep breath and hissed, "Why the hell are you acting like that?! Why don't you trust me?! Fucking answer me!!!"
Sasuke turned his head, a cold, bastard-smirk over his lips. That look hurt the blond even more than his words did.
"I should trust a human? Don't make me laugh..." the dark-haired whispered, barely opening his mouth... Hiding his teeth, like he was talking to a random guy he met at school. "Besides, an idiot like you wouldn't understand what I say, even if I choose the most simple words I know." he added, neutral. But then his voice became colder than ice, his eyes hostile and distant. "You said it yourself: You've never had a family. But I did. And you'll neverunderstand how I feel or why I think about my 'family' the way I do." He lifted his hand and grabbed the doorknob, ready to enter his room. He had to think, he had to calm down, he had to figure out how the hell he managed to dish the dirt so easily when he talked to the human boy.
Suddenly warmth ran over his hand and he stared down, seeing a tan hand over his own one.
A soft, calm voice breathed, "I want to understand it. To understand you, Sasuke." A gentle smile was over his lips and he slowly lifted his other hand in order to touch the vampire's shoulder, showing him some encouragement.
But all he got was a rude removing from the knob and a short, "Like you would take care of someone other than yourself." hit his face. Before he could even move the Uchiha stepped into his room and slammed the door shut.
With the blow the youth woke up, jerked to the door and started battering the wood violently.
"Open the door! Now, teme!" he shouted against the dead material. The raven – of course – didn't answer, no, he even switched on his personal stereo, hearing some loud heavy-metal stuff. Naruto stared at the door, trembling, and yelled, "Yeah, I'm fucking used to be selfish! And yeah, I'm just helping Gaara so that he's in dept with me!" The Uzumaki knew that Sasuke was aware of that, he just knew it. Being a master of facial expression the vampire knew the ropes and he surely had looked behind the poker-face the Uzumaki had built up.
He punched the door and yelled, "Being an 'I-know-anything-better'-teme, tell me why on earth I knock my egoism so fucking easy on the head! Tell me! Why am I caring so much about a bastard like you?!!" He was so angry hot tears streamed down his cheeks, wetting his lips and leaving the flavor of salt back. Sobbing lowly he pressed his forehead against the door, his face becoming wetter and furrowed his brows. "Why does it hurt so much, bastard...?" he whispered and breathed quietly.
The next sound came from the maindoor when the blond slammed it shut.
After almost an hour the red-haired said, neutral, "You've changed." The blond tilted his head in order too face the other.
"What do you mean?" the Uzumaki asked, turning back to the view of the city. They were standing on top of the drying-out centre and along the edge of the building was a high louvre so it was almost impossible to jump off the roof.
"You would have never came to me with a problem in the past." Gaara answered, sitting down with the back on a huge drainpipe.
"You would have been too high for listening to me in the past." Naruto defended himself and sighed, watching the many houses of the city. Once more silence grew on the roof and the younger slided down on the louvre until he sat opposite the red-haired. They watched each other without looking away or moving, except for their blinking.
"I lost you completely." the older said after a while, resting his head on the pipe behind himself. The smaller man rose his eyebrows in confusion. "You won't come back to me." the other added and Naruto sighed heavily.
The bright-haired stared and replied, "I let you take long enough advantage of me. We'll never get into a relationship again." Azure blue met pale green and Gaara broke the eye-contact, looking over the city.
"I don't think it's a good idea to come to me when you have problems with accepting yourself." he said, not turning away from the view.
"It would be really pleasing if you could talk clear." the blond growled. He wasn't in the mood for figuring out what his friend wanted to say. He was in the mood for absolutely nothing.
"Sasuke." the red-haired said and the Uzumaki flinched. "You want him. More than anything else in your life. And you don't know why, as well as you don't want to accept that." the older listed the facts with a neutral voice, not seeing how much the youth widened his eyes and dropped his chin.
"How the hell do you know that?! I-it's completely right! Believe it!!!" Naruto gasped, surprised. But now he knew why he went to his friend – he seemed to know anything what weighted him down. "... Do you know what I should do as well?" The older shrugged his shoulders.
"Why asking me?"
Naruto lifted one hand and listed, rising a finger for every point, "Well, you're intelligent, older and more mature than me." Gaara looked back neutrally, causing the younger to sigh. Even his friend was no help at all.
Suddenly something else crossed his mind and he asked, "Have you ever told Sasuke how I got these?" He ran over the scars on his cheeks, three on every side.
"Not as far as I know." the other replied and the blond crossed his arms over his chest. What should he do?
The Uzumaki left the ice cream parlour with his popsicle, followed by a taller blond man. They walked into a small park and the youth sat down on a bench while the other went over to a snow-hive.
"Deidara? May I ask something?" Naruto broke the silence and licked his ice. The vampire nodded, busy doing something with the snow. The human brushed his thump over his stick and murmured, "When Sasori bit you... did you feel... … attracted to him?" The older stopped, lifted his head with wide eyes and a huge grin.
"Seems someone is in love, hm, aren't you, Naruto-kun?" he grinned and the other blushed deep red, shaking his head helplessly. But soon the older giggled, "Hm, just a joke." He knelt down to the hive and told, "With the first bite Danna transformed me, hm. I felt incomplete without him for, hm, two weeks I think. But now it works," He patted the snow so the hive became hard. "We are not friends or something deeper – we just keep us company. 500 years are a long time, you know, hm." Naruto gasped in wonder. A half century? Surely anybody would have got tired after such a long time.
Meanwhile the vampire inflamed a long, brond bond and stepped back, his eyes sparkling in pleasant antipation. "Art is a..." he whispered, his body trembling.
The Uzumaki just wanted to ask about the matter when the hive blowed up four feet, parts of it floating away and the little snowflakes hovering down slowly. "BANG! HM!" he ended and smiled all over his face.
Oh crap... Sas'ke was right about the stuff with the 'Art is a bang'..., he thought, somehow a bit nervous. He just hoped the blond hadn't planned to blow up some vivid beings like humans, for example. The youth lowly swallowed, concentrating on his ice.
Deidara fell on the bench next to the younger, grinning all over his face. But he turned serious and added, "Summed up – I was in love with Danna just at the beginning. Some kind of puppy love, hm."
"I see..." Naruto whispered, deep in his thoughts. He still hadn't an answer and his mind was a helpless mess. And, worse, he hadn't found a solution how to go on yet. The only thing he knew for sure was he had to stop pushing the Uchiha so hard. The raven wouldn't open himself to him as well as he would never make the first step.
An exhausted sigh escaped his throat.
Naruto took a deep breath before he turned the key and opened the door to the apartment. He stepped inside and put off his shoes, closing the door lowly. Blue eyes looked around, a bit insecure.
The young man had decided to try talking to the dark-haired, but he didn't figure out how he wanted to do it. At the park he was completely sure he would get some kind of sensible idea until he reached his living-pla-...
A weak smile was over his lips and he breathed, "I'm home." He went down the corridor looking for his homemate, but there was not a single trace of the vampire. With a sigh the youth checked out the kitchen and found a plate with a meal on the table with a small note with '2 minutes, micro-wave' standing on it. The Uzumaki smiled and switched on the machine and watched the plate circling around until a noise came from it, signaling the helping was ready. The blond took the plate but hissed, "Ouch! Hot hot!!!" He shook his hurting hands and glared at the hot plate, narrowing his eyes. "Stupid thing...!" he growled, taking his chopsticks and a bottle of lemonade. He pressed his hands together for a few seconds before he ate his meal.
Thinking of it it was really late, almost midnight. But the bright-haired didn't feel tired yet, probably because he was used to changed bed-times. The vampire usually slept in the afternoon and on the weekend or on holiday he used to sleep in the morning so the human attuned to him. Just for the sake of the harmony in the apartment. Sasuke could be a real bitch when he didn't get enough sleep, as well as Naruto turned into a stroppy cow when he was woken up too early.
Comparing the times, the Uchiha should have been still awaken. A perfect chance to talk to him, or at least to apologize. The whole banding-story and the weird family affair seemed to be a sensitive, absolute verboten deal. Neither the Uchiha's nor outsider like Kakashi and Deidara lost a single word about the past and even if the blond hated it – he had to respect that fact. He just hoped Sasuke would tell him the story by himself sometime.
But when the older didn't trust him, he would never open his mouth.
So first of all Naruto needed a good base to built up a connection. Why he wanted it so badly, to hear the story behind the silent, distant vampire, he didn't know. But the urge to get closer to the raven was strong enough to let the Uzumaki stand up and walk to the other's bedroom. It was the only place he didn't check out, probably the older was in there, like every time he retired.
Before he could prepare some plan he stood already in front of the dark, wooden door and swallowed, knocking softly on it. "Sasuke?" he called but – as he expected – no one answered him. He sighed and tried to push the doorknob for entering, just to see if the vampire was in or went out while he was around. But when he opened the door some inches it was slammed shut in front of his face. Well, at least the vampire was obviously in his room.
In theory he could go on with his plan now... … But, well, which plan? He had absolutely no idea what he should do. The Uchiha always talked about his ears that hear 'everything', so he should be able to hear the human through the door as well, shouldn't he? What was he going to tell the raven anyway?
Something personal... But what?
Naruto swallowed, resting his forehead on the wood. He closed his eyes and licked over his lips. It was still hard talking about what happened to him in the past, even if he managed to escape that all.
"You know, when I was in the orphanage Gaara entered one day. I was twelve, I think, and he hated me. He used to hit me and when I told the carer he did it even harder. I had to invent thousand of alibis and he never stopped hurting me." He paused, biting his lips. "... There was a man, a carer. Mizuki. No pairing wanted to adopt me, they didn't even look at me. He took advantage of it and one day he told me there was a family which wanted to take me with them..." He opened his eyes, swallowing. He had believed the man. "He took me into a room behind the orphanage, pushed me inside and closed the door behind us. I got scared and I asked what we were doing, when he started to... touch me..." The blond started trembling, feeling the urge to throw up. He felt disgusted thinking Mizuki ran his dirty hands over his body, even if it happened many years ago.
"I tried to get free and screamed, but no one heard me. I had already given up when suddenly the door flew open and Mizuki sank down with a yell in front of me. Before I could do anything Gaara graped my hand and ran away with me. He had saved me that day." A weak, painful smile was over his tan lips. "He saved me from that sick child abuser, but on the other hand I thank him the scars in my face as well as the tatoo. Once, he and his dealers roughed me even so badly I was on hospital."
He paused, one last time before he ended. "Tell me, Sasuke – do you think friends do such horrible things to you? Do they beat you up, hit you and almost kill you? I don't think so." A true smile made his way over his face, hoping the raven got the message he had to him. "In my opinion friends help, consult and protect each other. They trust each other and share personal things. And they aren't only there if they need something or if they are needed, but always. I think friends are the most important company you'll ever have. What do you think, Sasuke?"
The Uzumaki waited for an answer, but he got only silence. But what else did he expect? Like the stuck-up bastard would open the door and tackle him with tearing eyes and a girly voice, crying out how glad he was Naruto wanted to make friends with him.
With a heavy sigh the youth turned away and headed the living-room. Arrived he switched on the TV and pushed in 'Titanic'. After all, he was everything but tired and he wanted to watch at least one of the films he borrowed from the sick dogface.
But suddenly the exhaustion of the last days overwhelmed him and before he could even switch of the television he had already fallen asleep on the big, soft sofa.