On a Sunday morning, Naruto woke up with the strangest feeling of heaviness in his chest. He remembered having a dream and feeling like it was all very real. He lay there a moment, trying to recall bits and pieces as if reconstructing a broken piece of glass. Sasuke lay next to him, facing toward Naruto but on his stomach, one hand reaching out far enough to almost touch Naruto's elbow. That felt familiar, too. Sasuke had been in his dream, but, looking at him now, it wasn't the Sasuke before him. The shoulders had been more narrow, his entire body less muscular, and he'd definitely been shorter.

Naruto observed the way Sasuke's bangs lay in a slant across his forehead, and, very tenderly, he brushed them to the side.

Sasuke's eyes opened.

"Hey," Naruto said.

"What are you doing to me while I'm asleep?" He found Naruto's hand on the bed between them and grabbed for it.

"If I told you that," Naruto replied, "It wouldn't be a surprise anymore."

The dark-haired man snorted. "I doubt it compares to what I've done to you."

"Mm." He held on to Sasuke's hand but gazed up at the ceiling. It sounded as if rain was beginning to beat against the bedroom window.

Sasuke snuggled closer, resting his head on Naruto's left shoulder and holding him about the waist.

"You seem sad."

"I do?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah. Tell me? Bad dream?"

"Maybe."

"Is it because you tried to search for spoilers for The Walking Dead premiere last night?"

Naruto sighed. "We all know it's going to be Glenn, Sasuke. Just like in the graphic novels."

"I actually think it will be Glenn and Abraham."

When Naruto didn't laugh, Sasuke raised his head to look at him.

"What's up, Naruto?"

"It's nothing. Just a dream I had. About you, I think."

"Me? A dream about me made you sad?" Sasuke sat up all the way, crossing his legs beneath him. They were both sleeping in the buff, so Sasuke draped the sheet across his lap for modesty purposes.

"I don't know why it ended up being sad," he replied carefully, biting at his lip. "Because we were in bed, just like this. Except I was lyin' on my side, and spoonin' you from behind."

Sasuke moved his elbows to his knees, cradling his chin in his folded hands as he waited patiently for Naruto to continue.

Naruto gazed at him and felt another strange pang of loneliness that he didn't quite understand. "Maybe it wasn't you?"

His boyfriend raised an eyebrow. "You were in bed with someone who wasn't me?"

"No, I mean I think it was you, but… it wasn't you."

"Please tell me it wasn't my brother," Sasuke muttered and picked up his pillow to set on top of his lap. He folded his arms over it while brushing a thumb across the fabric.

"No. It wasn't your brother." He did actually grin this time. "It was your hair, definitely. I'd recognize it anywhere, though it was shorter than you wear it now, choppier."

"Hmm."

"Your build was different, too. Like… oh God, maybe you were younger?"

Sasuke smirked. "You dreamt of a younger me? Why, Naruto. I didn't know you had such fetishes."

Naruto glared. "Hey, you even smelled the same, okay? Besides, it was only a dream."

"But you haven't explained what made you sad. If you don't tell me, how can I fix it?" Sasuke leaned over and reached for the necklace Naruto happened to be wearing.

Naruto grabbed for Sasuke's hand and held it before lowering it to his chest. He played with Sasuke's fingers for a while, folding them together or curling his own forefinger around Sasuke's. Sasuke, being a competitive bastard, turned it into an impromptu thumb war.

"You can't fix everything," Naruto murmured, watching while Sasuke kept trying to pin his thumb.

"I can. If you tell me what it is, I can."

He smiled a bit. "I dunno, honestly. It was you and me in bed. Or, I was just gettin' into bed with you after takin' a shower, and I cuddled up against you with the intent of givin' you a handjob - "

"Wait, you gave younger dream!me a handjob?"

Naruto took advantage of his surprise to give Sasuke's thumb a final pin down; Sasuke noticed and frowned.

"You cheated."

"I didn't. I just took advantage of my opponent being distracted."

"Well, did this younger me say anything to make you sad? Do I need beat my younger self up?"

"No. I think… you were kinda cute, really."

"Me? I was far from cute in my younger days. How young are we talking exactly? Should I report you to the authorities?"

Naruto scoffed. "You were… maybe legal. You had to be close to 18… but… probably younger. Sorry."

"You diddled me."

"I only halfway diddled you. Maybe. Besides, you seemed to like it… although you were sayin' somethin' about boundaries."

"Boundaries?" Sasuke repeated.

"I dunno what you meant by that. But when I started to give you a reacharound, you certainly weren't complainin'."

Sasuke, letting go of Naruto's hand, let his own hand wander across Naruto's stomach, where he tracked his palm lightly across the tanned skin until sliding it beneath the sheet.

"I would never complain about a reacharound from you," Sasuke said while placing kisses to his chest and, rolling over, even to the base of his neck.

"Maybe the dream itself wasn't very sad, but… when I woke up I felt sad."

"Because you didn't get to finish molesting my teenage self?"

"That, too." He smiled at first, but then the corners of his mouth turned downward. "It's a foreboding feeling."

"You shouldn't have binge-watched Stranger Things like that. Did the demogorgon come along and drag you to the Upside Down?"

"It's not funny. It's a sad feeling in my chest. Heavy… like… somethin' bad's gonna happen. To you or me, or both of us."

"Naruto," said Sasuke, "It's only a dream."

"Well, whatever dream world you and I are in, I don't want us to suffer or anything."

Sasuke, instead of trying to molest Naruto further, guided his hand up the length of Naruto's torso. A finger traced an imaginary path across the lines of his abdominal muscles, up the center of his chest, and then just underneath the curve of his collarbone. He squeezed Naruto's shoulder.

"I don't want you talking to younger me," Sasuke said ominously.

"Huh?" He tried to look him in the face, but all he could see was dark hair.

"I don't know what he might say to you."

"What are you talkin' about, Sasuke?" He attempted to sit up, but Sasuke's arm kept him down.

"I was an asshole back then. I told you that once. That you wouldn't have liked who I was back then…"

"Yeah, and I also told you that no matter who you think you are or were, there's no other you but you. Plus, you still had parents, didn't you? Could you have been that much of an emo child before all of that dead parent angst?"

"Harsh," said Sasuke.

"Hey, I'm in that club, too."

"No. You still have a parent."

"Sorry, Sasuke. I didn't mean anything by it."

Sasuke nodded against him and then rolled the other way so that he was on his back. Naruto watched him, feeling guilty, before he rolled onto his side, head supported by his left hand. He placed his hand on Sasuke's taut stomach.

"Sasuke?"

"It's nothing. Only thinking about what I was like back then… even before my parents passed away… things weren't always easy."

"Wanna… talk about it?"

Sasuke gave him a rather droll look, but Naruto smiled nonetheless.

"You never tell me stories about you in high school," he said. "You hear that stuff about me from Kiba all the time."

"Sorry I don't have any high school friends that you can talk to. I'm sure there's a reason for that." Sasuke shut his eyes. "I don't think I've stayed in touch with anyone from that time."

"Yeah, I guess you and that Sai-guy must not have been very close."

Sasuke shook his head. "No. Definitely not. I think it was… looking back, I…"

Naruto patiently waited, his heart aching as Sasuke struggled to find his words - something he did so rarely.

"We don't have to talk about this."

"I don't mind," Sasuke told him quietly. "It's just painful at times. To think about my relationship with my father. Before I came out versus after. He was always so proud of me before then, and when I finally gathered the courage to tell him - "

Naruto shifted closer, so that he could rest his head on Sasuke's shoulder and tuck up against his side.

"It was like nothing was ever going to be the same between us after that," Sasuke finished.

Naruto could hear the sound of his quickening heartbeat. "He kicked you out, right?"

"It's not that he kicked me out," Sasuke explained, "It's…"

"Sasuke, really. You don't have to talk about this."

"He wouldn't talk to me, he wouldn't even look at me or acknowledge me. It was like I was invisible. Mother didn't want to go against him. She tried to defend me, and, Itachi was away at school, so… I had to find a place to crash for a while. Eventually, father did talk to me, but it was always strained. After the funeral, I regretted telling him. I should've dealt with it. I could've lived my life without letting him know that side of myself - "

"Sasuke," Naruto mumbled, throwing an arm across Sasuke's waist and holding him. He kissed the other man's pale skin, dragging his lips across until he was able to press them to Sasuke's throat.

"What would you have done?" He turned his head, looking at Naruto directly. "Naruto. In my place, what would you have done?"

"I don't know. I think… you did the right thing. Your father, even if he was surprised or upset at the time, wouldn't want you to have lived a lie. Even if he didn't understand, deep down, I think he would've been proud of you for bein' honest, and he would've wanted you to be happy."

A single tear fell from beneath Sasuke's closed eyelids. It broke Naruto's heart.

Gently, he cupped one of Sasuke's cheeks and kissed him on his chin, his jaw, cheek, eyelids, and forehead until Sasuke's arms began to wrap around him, pulling him down and - closer.

"I want to believe," Sasuke said in a slightly trembling voice, "That you and I met at the very moment we did because we were meant to. You're everything to me now, Naruto. Everything. My friend, my family - "

"Shh, Sasuke." Naruto kissed away the tears that kept falling. "Don't be sad. We're family. You have Itachi, and dad, and Kiba and Ino. We're all your family. You're not alone."

He held Sasuke tight while the other man buried his face into Naruto's neck and sobbed. All Naruto could do was gently stroke his back and occasionally comb fingers through his hair in an attempt to soothe him.

"It's all good, Sasuke," he whispered. "We met, and you're the best thing that's ever happened to me in all my life. The absolute best thing."

"I love you," Sasuke said brokenly. "I love you."

Naruto's eyes squeezed shut as he held Sasuke tighter. "I know. I love you, too. I'll always love you. Sasuke."