Chapter 8

The next morning, Sasuke was a flurry of motion. "Gotta get down to the community center, where they're holding summer school, sit through four hours, then I'll be back here," he said as he sat lacing up his sneakers. "You can help me with the math."

Naruto crawled to the ladder to watch Sasuke's wobbly descent. "What should I tell Iruka?"

"Nothing. I'll talk to him on my way out."

"Okay. Sasuke?"

Sasuke stopped his unsteady decent and looked up.

"I'm glad you came back."

A sudden, unbelievably gorgeous smile transformed Sasuke's normally sulky face to one of striking handsomeness. "Yeah...me too. I mean whatever." He was gone a moment later.

Naruto remained where he was, stunned. Just stunned. He'd never seen Sasuke smile before, and now that he had…

Slowly, he crawled to the wall and sat, leaning against it. Unable to quite believe it, he put a shaky hand over where his heart was thudding along in happy amazement. His brother's hot, but... "Whew," he said in awe. A nervous laugh escaped him, as he sat replaying the smile over and over.

Sasuke was having similar difficulty. He sat with the ten or so other High Schoolers taking summer school, most of whom were thick-necked jocks or hormonally challenged girls. He had a tiny portion of his mind directed at his Science teacher, who was teaching this course, but most of his focus was on last night. Most specifically, the part of the evening that had taken place in the kitchen. Sitting at the very back the way he was, elbows on his desk, hands clasped before his mouth, Sasuke relived every word.

All right, if he was honest with himself, he was only really interested in the last bit at the end, before they'd gone back to the tree house.

Naruto bumping his chest. "I'm not letting you go."

That. That right there.

He must have replayed those few seconds a thousand times since waking up this morning. He'd had to get his ass out the tree house before his boner was noticeable, and now…now his body went through a heat wave as he relived that chest-bump for the umpteenth time.

As his teacher began making her rounds between the desks, handing out that day's work, Sasuke clenched his teeth hard. He finally looked at something that had been sitting in his head pretty much since his night at the home.

He wanted to fuck Naruto.

No, that wasn't quite right. He could admit that he wanted more than that from Naruto, he just wasn't quite sure what else-

"Well, Mr. Uchiha." His teacher stopped beside his desk, and gave a satisfied smirk. "If you hadn't passed your other exams with such flying colors, thereby demonstrating what I always knew, which was that you have an exceptionally sharp-"

"Bitch, just give me my work and step the fuck on," he grated. He didn't appreciate his thoughts being interrupted, and especially couldn't stand this hag.

Face tightening with frigid insult, she dropped a stack of papers at least a foot high on his desk, and marched away to the sniggers of the rest of the class. Leafing through it quickly, he saw that yesterday's work was included. Forcibly putting thoughts of Naruto out of his mind, he began with yesterday's load first.

He did check his watch, though, to see how long he had before he could be back at the home.

About twenty minutes into it, he noticed the lug to his left sneaking peeks at his paper. Sasuke glanced up to make sure his teacher had her nose safely buried in her novel, before he slipped his knife from his sleeve far enough for the kid to see.

Kid got the point.

Naruto found that helping Iruka out that day wasn't half as loathsome as it usually was. He had the knowledge that Sasuke would be back to get him through several screaming hours of noisy kids and endless requests for piggyback rides, before a knock on the front door sounded sometime around mid-afternoon. He was yanking the thing open a moment later, and there it was, the smile he hadn't stopped seeing since that morning.

It wasn't as wide as before, or as unselfconscious, but it was still there. Sasuke seemed to become aware of the fact that he was returning Naruto's wild grin, and schooled his face to its more usual lines. Naruto wasn't put off a bit. "You're back." His eyes dropped to the huge bag of take out. "And you brought food. I think I love you."

Sasuke used the excuse of ducking into the place to hide his embarrassment. Honestly, jerk acted like he'd never seen food sometimes. "I'd have been back sooner, but I detoured home to get my math books. Thank God my bro was out at the time. Avoided a scene."

Naruto looked outside and found the books, a good seven of them, stacked beside the door. He hefted them in one hand, and led the way out to the tree house.

-oOo-

Once there, Sasuke distributed the food first thing. Burgers, fries, onion rings, nuggets, and soda galore. "Wasn't sure what you liked," he began.

"I had half a Pop-Tart this morning," Naruto groaned, wolfing into the first burger he could lay hands on. "I'll eat anything."

"Least you ate. I didn't have anything," Sasuke admitted. "And my head is killing me. Didn't even make a dent in my assignments."

"That hard?"

"Long hand," Sasuke corrected him. "Stupidly left my laptop at home before class today. I can type ten times as fast as I can write. I got it now, though." He thrust his chin at where his bag sat.

Naruto eyed Sasuke's bulging bag as they ate. "Looks like a lot of work."

"Oh." Sasuke put down his burger, and wiped his hands. "Before I forget, hand me that Algebra book behind you."

Naruto pretended not to hear.

"Dude? The book?"

Forced to, Naruto glanced behind himself. He could see the seven books, and spent some time staring at them, before he took the second one from the bottom, and handed it over without looking at Sasuke.

Sasuke took it, looked at it, then looked at Naruto's downcast eyes. Naruto was staring intently at his burger, chewing with concentration. Something niggled Sasuke's memory. "This is Geometry. I said Algebra."

"I'm eating."

"It's right behind you."

Naruto slurped long and hard from his soda.

Sasuke set the book down. Without looking up at Naruto, he said, "That night I came here. The first time. I wrote some shit about you on that first assessment form. You acted like it didn't bother you, but you didn't read it, did you. You can't read?"

Naruto's face didn't change, but it did go very red as he refused to look at Sasuke. Then he suddenly threw his burger as hard as he could, narrowly missing Sasuke's head, and stormed to the window. He leaned on the crossbar, his entire body tense with anger.

Sasuke remained where he was. This so wasn't his scene. Being supportive, saying encouraging things, smoothing ruffled feathers. Not his deal. He calmly took a fry and dipped it in ketchup. Ate it. Bit into a chicken nugget, and stared thoughtfully at his teeth marks. Sipped his soda. Reached for an onion ring. The soda again. Another fry.

Naruto turned and glared at him warily. "What, no wisecracks?"

"You still good at math?"

"I guess?" Naruto shrugged impatiently. Sasuke looked like he couldn't care less, something that went a long way toward diffusing his sudden panic at being ridiculed.

"Then we're in business. Algebra book's that red one. No, the other red one, the Algebra I book."

Naruto took it, opened it, and snorted. "The hell's this? I don't know this shit."

Sasuke jerked his head up, food forgotten. "What?" He got to his feet quickly and came over. "No, you have to know that, I'm counting on it! Test's next week, man! You said you had this shit on lock!"

Naruto shrugged helplessly, gazing down at the pages. "I said numbers made sense, not that I knew this stuff!"

"Iruka said you were good at math!" Sasuke pushed both hands through his hair, turning away from Naruto a minute. He swung back immediately. "Dude, please. Okay? I'm begging."

Naruto's eyes were wide, but he shook his head. "I'm sorry…I mean I do know some math."

"What's the square root of 815?"

"What's a square root?"

"Fuck, Naruto! What the actual fuck do you know about math?"

"Um, the basics? Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division? I never went beyond a certain point."

Sasuke nearly screamed, but took a deep breath instead. "Fine. Okay uh…eleven times eleven?"

"121. Easy."

Sasuke had no idea if that answer was correct. "Oh? How about…121 times 121?"

Naruto didn't even hesitate. "14,641."

"And…that number times itself? Divided by 13?"

Naruto was answering almost before Sasuke stopped speaking. "16,489,144."

Sasuke went to his stack of math books and selected the thinnest one. He flipped to the beginning. "This is my remedial math book, messes with the basics. The first section deals with reviewing the stuff you said, before heading into fractions and shit. Here. Look at this. You understand this?"

Naruto looked at the page Sasuke held up in front of him. By focusing on the sample problems instead of the written explanation, he was able to work out what he was seeing. "Yes."

Sasuke slowly turned the page. "How about that?"

Naruto took the book and flipped the pages himself. On every other one, a new lesson was explained, with both a written example and a math problem. Sometimes several problems, as each step of a process was carried out. Before long he was immersed in the numbers, Sasuke forgotten.

Breathing a sigh of cautious hope, Sasuke stacked the textbooks next to where Naruto slid down, in order of discipline and difficulty. He then went to his book bag, took out his laptop, and began the first of half a dozen essays.

-oOo-

The food was cold, but that didn't stop either boy from returning to it periodically over the next several hours. Sasuke was sweating through a Chem paper when Naruto looked up and said, "Ah. Now I know what a square root is. The square root of 815 is 28.5482048472, in case you still wanted to know."

Sasuke just shook his head and snorted. He did note that Naruto had finished with both Algebra books, though. Fucking genius in his own right.

-oOo-

Finally, when it was just past midnight, Sasuke threw his pen down with a groan and shoved the heels of his hands into his eyes. His laptop's battery had died hours ago; he was back to writing his papers long hand, and his forearm was killing him. "I'm done for tonight."

"Me too." Naruto closed the Calculus textbook with a sigh. "My brain's fried, man."

Sasuke crawled over to him. "Huh. Least you're done done. I got two months of this to look forward to."

Naruto turned his pounding head to look at him. "Does that mean you'll be studying here for those two months?"

Sasuke suddenly had no interest in his aches and pains. It was just him and Naruto, and the shadowy interior of the tree house.

'I'm not letting you go.'

"I don't know," Sasuke mumbled. "You mind?" When Naruto didn't answer, he turned to look at him. There was a small frown between the blue eyes. "What?"

"You already know I don't mind. You sleeping here that long too?"

Sasuke thought about it. "Probably not. We're both wearing the same clothes we changed into at my place. I could do with a new set."

The conversation fizzled. Exhausted as they were, they sat there against the wall, side by side, just gazing sleepily into each other's eyes.

Without meaning to, Sasuke let his stare fall to Naruto's mouth. When he met his eyes again, it was to find Naruto looking at his mouth. Sasuke hesitated. He sat there silently telling himself to man up, to do it, just do it, but then Naruto looked away with a shaky little laugh. The moment was lost, and Sasuke was able to look away himself, more than a little relieved.

Naruto was no trickin' twink down in Oto, he told himself. He could admit that he'd never been in this kind of situation before. Just jumping Naruto's bones probably wasn't the best way to go, but then what did one do? Ask them out? Sasuke had to refrain from snorting. He didn't date. Ever. Did not do that whole boyfriend scene. When he wanted to fuck, he fucked. End of story.

The next day was the same, down to Sasuke showing up early in the afternoon with bags of take out, only this time he had the charger for his laptop.

They worked in the home's kitchen this time, so Sasuke could use the wall outlet to keep his laptop powered. After they'd eaten, and before Sasuke got lost in his assignments, Naruto intended to give him a refresher course on math, Uzumaki style. Iruka found a battered whiteboard for them to use, and a few dry erase markers. This was propped up on the counter.

"Right," Naruto said. "Just so I have an idea of what's going on in your head, how much is nine plus seven?"

Sasuke's face could only be described as 'deer in headlights.' Naruto saw his mouth moving slightly as he tried to solve the problem mentally. He waited.

"Fourteen?"

"Try again."

This time Naruto caught the finger movement beneath the table. Sasuke was counting.

"Eighteen?"

Naruto turned toward the whiteboard. "Why don't you do one of your assignments. I need to write a few things down."

"Uh, yeah. Cool." Sasuke reached for his laptop gratefully, arming sweat off his brow as he did.

Iruka peeked into the kitchen once, and asked if they needed anything. Neither boy replied beyond a grunt. He stood in the doorway a moment, watching the intent look of concentration on Naruto's face as he scribbled on the board, and the equally focused attention Sasuke gave his screen. What do you know...Kid surprised me after all. And changed Naruto completely. He'd never seen Naruto so full of purpose. Shaking his head, he quietly left them alone.

-oOo-

"All right, look here," Naruto said a couple of hours later.

Sasuke saved what he was doing, closed his laptop, and smoothed his hands nervously onto his jeans. He had to squint at the whiteboard. "What's all that?"

The whiteboard had been divided into four columns. Each column was packed with tiny writing. "These are facts for the four basics. Adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. Memorize them."

"…What?"

Naruto gestured at Sasuke. "You can't even add. You're getting hung up on quantities. These are the basic facts, so memorize them, without thinking about how the answers work. Once you have these in your head, and you learn a few procedures, the brain will hopefully take over and do the rest."

"But…" Sasuke understood nothing. "I don't get it."

Naruto wondered if this was how his teachers felt every time they tried to teach him how to read. He could not understand how words worked to save his life. Gritting his teeth a moment, he gave a tight smile. "Memorize. What's on. The fucking. Board. Do you understand that?"

Skeptical, Sasuke got up and came to the board, running his eyes over each column once, then again. "Okay…now what?"

Naruto was impressed. "Dude, that's it? You know it that quick?"

"No…but it's in my head."

"So you know it?"

It was Sasuke's turn to lose patience. "Yeah, okay, if that works for you. I know it."

"Nine plus seven?"

Sasuke blinked, but didn't look at the board. "Sixteen."

"Sweet," Naruto grinned. "Let me show you what happens when we add zeros in the mix…"

-oOo-

For the next few hours, Sasuke suffered through a math lesson that wrung his formidable brain dry, but that was nonetheless entertaining. Naruto used odd scenarios or objects to illustrate the steps of math procedures. Sasuke took notes, and asked question after question, but by ten he was cautiously solving a simple algebraic equation. When he was done, he sat back and stared at his handiwork, eyes nearly shining with pride. "Holy shit, I did it. I actually did it. Is it right?"

"You can check it yourself, the way I showed you."

"Man that'll take too long, just tell me."

"It's right."

Sasuke let out a hoot of triumph and relief, sliding down in his chair until Naruto reached out and caught him with a laugh.

"Okay, one more paper, then I'm calling it a night," Sasuke said when he'd straightened up. "I owe you big time."

"Seriously, don't mention it. We haven't even hit the hard stuff yet."

"Ugh, don't mention that."

Naruto snorted out another laugh. Propping his chin on one hand, he pretended to doodle on the tabletop with Sasuke's discarded pencil. What he was really doing was watching Sasuke surreptitiously.

He hadn't slept much at all last night. Not after that thing that had happened when they'd been sitting side by side. He wasn't even sure if it was a thing. He only knew that Sasuke had looked like he was about to kiss him, and he'd wanted it to happen. Wanted it more than he'd ever wanted anything. And then he'd chickened out at the last second and turned away.

He couldn't say with any certainty whether or not he liked Sasuke. He didn't know if he did. Like seemed like such a safe, tame, unassuming little word. He liked the color orange. What he felt around Sasuke was so much more than that, had so much more intricacy. There was nothing straightforward about what he felt.

On the one hand, he hated some of the things Sasuke did, and his attitude…while at the same time applauding it in some dark, violent part of himself. Sasuke did all the things he didn't have the balls to do. On the other hand, he adored Sasuke's vulnerability, the way it was these episodes of defenselessness which allowed him a toehold in Sasuke's regard. He'd forced himself in, forced Sasuke to see him for who he was: someone he could be vulnerable and defenseless around.

But being around Sasuke was hard, too. It was hard not to feel hurt or react angrily to everything he said. Hard to stand up to him and defend himself while still showing him that he would never step on him when he was down, like in the convenience store. It was hard not to be afraid whenever Sasuke left the home. The big, bright, glittery world of people with lives was out there…what was there in the home to bring Sasuke back?

There's me, Naruto thought with embarrassment. Just me, and he definitely keeps coming back.

And then there were all the jagged pieces of Sasuke. The pieces that didn't fit in with all his darkness. Like shiny jewels caught in tar or quicksand, or some other substance that could consume them. Could, but so far hadn't. And the longer he was around Sasuke, the more those jewel-like parts of him became visible.

Looking at him, at the bent head, the sharp eyes, the handsome mouth, Naruto felt…odd. He couldn't describe the feeling. It was all over his body, yet concentrated in his center. He felt tingly, and hot, and cold, and numb. It was a strangely physical feeling, even while his mind spun with thoughts and his chest ached with emotion.

Sasuke glanced up at him and caught him staring. "What?"

I don't like you. But I love all your ugly beautiful parts. "Nothing. Tired. I'm hitting the sack." He managed a realistic yawn, got up, and left the kitchen.

Shrugging, Sasuke went back to his computer.