Naruto was having the time of his life.
Currently, he was hanging out with his closest friends Kiba and Gaara at the Santa Monica beach, right next to the pier. Naruto and Gaara had been roommates for three years in college, while he and Kiba had grown up together. Naruto had invited Gaara to his home during the summer break, and Kiba suggested they head down to the pier for some fun in the sun.
They were in swimming trunks laying on the sand near the shore. Kiba had brought his bike, Naruto his longboard, and Gaara his rollerblades. Gaara was old school like that. They were all pretty tired from racing around, though the real competition was between Naruto and Kiba, since Gaara just liked to stroll calmly more than anything. Of course, Kiba had won all the races because there was a lot of sand on the small road right off the sand and Naruto had to be a lot more careful about skating around random sand piles or risk headplanting into the cement.
"Come on! Let's go to the ferris wheel already!" urged Naruto. Even though he'd been living in Southern California his whole life and had grown up pretty much on the beaches, he'd never gotten a chance to ride a ferris wheel before. Gaara admitted he'd also never been on a ferris wheel before, so they had planned on riding the ferris wheel on the pier beforehand.
They left their stuff in Kiba's car, and walked to the pier where there were many shops and stalls with food, desserts, souvenirs, and games. Most importantly, the ferris wheel was near the end of the huge pier, and they made their way there slowly, enjoying the sights, the people, and the seagulls crapping on those people.
They had been walking around for just a couple minutes when Naruto noticed this one guy. He was tall, with broad shoulders, and dark black hair. He looked somewhat thin, yet Naruto noticed the slight bulge in his biceps and legs since he was wearing a blue tank top with black board shorts. What he noticed the most, however, wasn't this guy's appearance, although Naruto couldn't remember ever seeing a more handsome guy ever. It was his aura, so to speak, that attracted him to this guy, though if he had to explain it to someone, they'd probably think he was nuts. Maybe it was the way he looked so serious and aloof even when he was hanging out with that crazy looking guy with silver hair and pointy teeth. He just felt drawn to him, as if he'd known him in another lifetime or something weird like that.
Naruto had been on their trail for a short while now. He urged his group to the next stall when he noticed the two guys getting away, and he stopped at a closer stall when the two guys stopped. Kiba seemed all to oblivious to this, and if Gaara noticed, he didn't say anything. At one point, Naruto got close enough to hear part of their conversation.
"…such a prick, Sasuke!" said the weird one. 'Sasuke' thought Naruto, glad to have finally put a name to the face after zig zagging from stall to stall.
The Sasuke guy just replied with a "hmm."
When Naruto caught sight of the base of the ferris wheel, however, all thoughts of Sasuke disappeared, and all he could think of was 'ferriswheelferriswheelferriswheel' as he followed the ferris wheel all the way to the top. It was bigger than it seemed from far away, and the passenger cars were colorful. He was excited enough for himself and Gaara, who didn't seem all that excited. Gaara just stood there staring at the top of the ferris wheel with a scowl.
"No."
ferriswheelferriswheelferriswheel …. ? …. For a second, Naruto thought he was hearing things. When he looked at Gaara, he became bewildered, "Whaaaat? What do you mean 'no,' Gaara?"
"No."
Naruto turned to Kiba, to try and make him coerce Gaara to get on, only to find that Kiba was eyeing a group of girls. Naruto grew scandalized, "Oh come on guys! We agreed on this already! Gaara, come on you can't chicken out! Kiba, you aren't seriously about to ditch us for... Kiba!" Naruto watched, wide eyed as Kiba sort of swaggered over to the group of girls without even paying attention to the friends he'd left behind.
"Uuugghh! I can't believe this guy! What the hell! Gaara! Gaara, come on!" Naruto urged, only to watch as Gaara finally took his eyes off the top of the ferris wheel and stepped back, away from the ferris wheel. Groaning in disbelief, Naruto put both his hands in his hair and grumbled about why life was so unfair, as he made to follow Gaara. It was then he remembered he'd been following the Sasuke guy...
Sasuke really had no idea how he kept getting dragged to these things. It wasn't as if he particularly enjoyed Suigetsu's company. Suigetsu was just really persistent and unrelenting when it came to him. At least this outing would shut him up for at least another week about Sasuke not getting out enough. Last week's outing had hardly been fun at all. At least this time, Suigetsu kept getting distracted with every stall and would leave Sasuke alone for bits.
"You, Sasuke, will find yours soon."
He still felt pretty annoyed at what that girl had told him about soul mates. 'Soon,' that was so vague it could mean 'soon' as in one week or 'soon' as in one year. He didn't know why he was still running her words over his mind. One thing he had noticed, though, was that she never mentioned a "she" in all of her musings about Sasuke's supposed "soulmate". If that meant anything at all to Sasuke, it meant that at least she'd been able to figure out that he didn't exactly roll on the straight side. Although maybe that was just a coincidence on her part.
"…Your mate has a sense of humor, because I can see that you hardly have one." At least she was right in that regard, though anyone could've figure that out from being around him for five minutes. "Your mate is bright and friendly, easily delighted, eager, gracious." Oh great, that's just what he needed-an over the top, optimistic nut job. "Your mate can also be naive and rash, bold, hotheaded…" He didn't believe in her words, yet at least from this description, things would supposedly be interesting, since Sasuke knew he was pretty unfriendly, levelheaded, and rational. "Even in appearances, you are opposite…" What did that even mean? Was his 'other half' going to be short, white-haired, white-eyed, and covered in rainbows? As if… He needed to stop ruminating over this...
Maybe he was being paranoid. Maybe her words had made him overthink every little thing. Maybe all these coincidences were just his own self-fulfilling prophecies… Then again, he came from a somewhat prominent family and he'd been raised to always be cautious, alert, and suspicious.
There was a group of guys that seemed to be trailing him and Suigetsu. He didn't want to turn around completely and risk letting their pursuers know that he'd caught on. He'd already led them in a sort of zig zag, going from games to souvenir shops just to test and make sure they were the ones being trailed. Sure enough, whenever he moved with Suigetsu, a blonde guy looked up quickly and not-so-subtly followed them afterwards.
There were three of them: a blonde, a red-head, and a brunette. The last two did a much better job at being inconspicuous, while the blonde must have been an idiot for being so obvious. Though at times, Sasuke wondered if he was just making everything up. They didn't seem to have any ill intent... They seemed roughly his age and acted like teenagers, especially the blonde one. He seemed to laugh at every other thing his 'friends' said. He seemed to smile very easily at everything he saw at the stalls when he wasn't looking at Sasuke and Suigetsu, and he seemed all too eager to move onto the next stall whenever Sasuke moved. Sasuke of course, watched all of this from the corner of his eyes. He'd told Suigetsu, and though Suigetsu was very much less wary, he still informed Sasuke what they were doing.
Even Suigetsu seemed to think the blonde was way too obvious to be any sort of spy. There was even a point when their trio of stalkers got relatively close. Sasuke immediately muttered that they should lead them to a less populated area, confront them, and maybe kick their asses. Suigetsu just laughed, "You're such a prick, Sasuke!"
Sasuke hmmed. He was trained in Krav Maga as a black belt since his family knew there could be creepers anywhere, so he wasn't all too worried about being ambushed, especially right in public. He sized them up: the red-head was the darkest looking one, though he was also the skinniest and probably wasn't very strong; the brunette and the blonde both seemed similar in build- - they might be more of a challenge.
After a couple more minutes of dawdling around, Sasuke finally decided to confront those idiot stalkers. There was no point in waiting to see be surprised if they suddenly did anything. It'd be better if he was the one who surprised them. When he turned and saw them, though, the red-head was staring at the ferris wheel, while the blonde looked bewildered, "… 'no', Gaara?" he heard the him tell the red-head, rather heatedly.
Sasuke walked a little closer while Suigetsu was distracted. This was the perfect chance if they were fighting among themselves.
When the blonde turned to the brunette- - Kiba, as he heard- - Kiba was already heading over to a group of giggling girls. And then Gaara was stepping away, and Sasuke finally wondered if maybe they were just regular people at the pier. The blonde looked frustrated as he groaned... Maybe it was just the blonde who was following him...?
"…Even in appearances, you are opposite…" Sasuke had dark black hair, really dark brown eyes, and pale skin. He walked even closer to the blonde, almost drawn to him, and he was shocked when the blonde turned and widened his eyes as he saw Sasuke just a few feet away from him. He had bright blonde hair, light blue eyes, and tan skin, only one or two inches shorter than himself. Opposite? Blonde hair, blue eyes, tan skin versus black hair, black eyes, pale skin... Is that what opposite meant?
Before Sasuke knew what he was doing, his hands had already reached up to pull at the blonde's face, and he'd drawn him into a hard kiss. It lasted for a good eight seconds before Sasuke half-regained his senses, released the other guy's still shocked face, and promptly proceeded to punch him in the face.
"… What the hell?" the blonde's muddled voice came from the floor, as he sat there in complete shock holding the left side of his face. He looked up at Sasuke completely bewildered and confused.
Sasuke, on his part, had no idea what in the world had possessed him for those ten seconds where he'd kissed the blonde and then punched him. It was almost as if he'd had an out of body experience, watching from the outside as his body moved on its own. His slightly widened eyes were the only indicators of the confusion that was his own brain at the moment.
"To hell with it…" Sasuke groaned as he pulled up the still-shocked blonde and led him away to a more private place...
Naruto was so confused. No, he was more than confused! He was baffled and shocked and stunned, and all those other synonyms for his utterly confused brain.
This Sasuke guy that he'd been admiring had just pulled up to him and kissed him in the middle of the pier… And then he'd gone and punched him! Now he was being led by the hand to God knew where while he held his throbbing cheekbone. He didn't know why he still hadn't punched the guy back or why he wasn't even putting up any resistance. Maybe he was still in shock at the sudden kiss...errr and the punch too!
They came to a stop near the restrooms at the edge of the pier, where there were less people. Sasuke let go of the blonde's hand and sat down on a bench. He sighed as he buried his face in his hands.
"Before you leave, I feel like I have to warn you that you have two options here. You can either choose to go at this life alone, with only your half of your soul… Or, you can choose to embrace this other half and have companionship."
It seemed like his 'soul' had already made the decision for him. At this point, he didn't know what to believe except that his body had betrayed him... The blonde sat down slowly a couple feet away from him still holding his slightly red cheek. They both sat there for a couple minutes... Sasuke was weighing the pros and cons about what he wanted to do, until he finally sat up straight and looked up with what he hoped looked like a half-guilty face. "What's your name?" he asked.
"Naruto," the blonde said without even considering that he shouldn't give out his name to a stranger who had punched him. He didn't realize this until after he had already said it, and he narrowed his blue eyes at Sasuke.
Sasuke murmured something under his breath, and finally said, "Look, Naruto... My name is Sasuke, and I'm… I'm really sorry… I don't know what... came over me. I don't make a habit of... doing stuff..."
All of his words seemed to fail him as Naruto turned to look at him. And he began to laugh and laugh and laugh as Sasuke looked startled. "Haahaha! Sorry…? haahaa…! hahahaha.. Sorry!" And then, he seemed to sober up, "Sorry?! What the hell does that even mean, bastard?!" He growled, "Who the HELL goes up to someone and randomly gives them the kiss of their life and then decides to punch them in the face?!" Naruto seemed to struggle with himself as he gestured widely with his hands, "I mean… I mean, what the hell, man!"
Sasuke finally composed himself. He still couldn't look Naruto in the eye. He wanted to explain what that stupid girl had told him last week, and he wanted to explain that he hadn't meant to kiss him or punch him... Well, maybe punch him for following him around... Then, something small sort of clicked in his head, 'kiss of their life?' Sasuke looked up at Naruto finally, who seemed to still be fuming. Bright… Easily delighted… Eager… Hot-headed… Even in appearances… Naruto seemed too stupid to have been following Sasuke for his family name... If Sasuke was right, and Naruto had been following him because he was attracted to him, then...
Rather slowly, he scooted up to Naruto with a determined look on his face, while Naruto just narrowed his eyes at him even more in suspicion. Sasuke reached up slowly to Naruto with both hands as he grabbed Naruto's hand and pulled it away from his cheek and with his other hand grabbed the back of Naruto's head and drew him in for another kiss.
Surprisingly, Naruto didn't pull away... Though he was rather startled, since he seemed to jump at the contact. Maybe it was because Sasuke was being rather gentle. It started with a short peck and then a slightly longer one. Then Sasuke held his lips over Naruto's and moved them softly.
In a matter of minutes, Sasuke had closed his eyes and was extremely delighted inside when he found that Naruto began responding. Sasuke opened his eyes just a bit to find that Naruto had also closed his own eyes... he probably realized that Sasuke wasn't going to punch him again.
Their lips grazed and caressed each other in slow, deliberate motions. Both seemed hyperaware of the other's movements. They both shifted in towards each other. Naruto put his right hand near the top of Sasuke's back for lack of a better place to put it. While Sasuke still held Naruto's left hand with his own right, and his own left hand was holding Naruto's head in place.
This is nice, they both thought unconsciously. Just a couple of minutes after, the newness of the kiss faded... along with the gentleness. The kiss turned deeper and deeper, until they both longed for more.
Their lips seemed to melt into each other and their hands began roaming. Neither of them would be able to explain when it actually happened, but Naruto ended up sitting on Sasuke's lap, both knees to either side of Sasuke's hips while Sasuke sat on the bench with his back to the railing. He held Naruto with both hands on his lower back, while Naruto held Sasuke's head in place with both of his hands.
This is life, thought Sasuke.
"~Ehem~"
They had no idea how long they were there. They weren't aware of the couple of girls ogling them, nor were they aware of the person clearing their throat. At the moment, all either could think of was how perfect and complete they felt in each other's embrace.
"~EHEM~"
This is too much, Naruto thought, but it's like I'm complete right now…
"~~EEHHEEMM!~~"
All at once, the moment was over and both Sasuke and Naruto split apart faster than a blink of the eye... Both sat on the bench now, a foot away from each other and breathing heavily as they finally noticed the crowd of girls fanning themselves while trying to stop their nosebleeds.
"Finally!" cried Kiba. "God! Naruto, you didn't even tell me you were gonna meet a guy here! And here I was feeling all guilty because I left you and Gaara..."
Naruto had the decency to look sheepish as he rubbed the back of his head with his hand, "Kiba, it's not what it seems!"
Kiba just lifted an eyebrow, "Ha! Really? Then what is it? Because to me it seems like you two were about to eat each other's faces! Look man, it's alright... You do what you gotta do... I was just gonna tell you that I found this awesome chic... and - Gaara's actually the one who started looking for you first. He said he saw you sucking face with some other guy~~ haha oh man! I totally didn't believe him! I saw like, 'Nahh, Naruto would've told us if he were meeting someone here' haaa!~~ and then Gaara said he was gonna go build a sand castle by himself. The guy loves his sand... haha! he's kind of a freak! Apparently not as freaky as you two going at it, though.."
By the end of this, Naruto had finally caught his breath, "Ohh, okay.. Well..."
"So yeah dude! Next time, let us know in advance when you have your... needs... and we'll leave you alone." Kiba began walking away towards a girl, but he turned around one last time and smiled deviously, "And remember to use a condom!"
Naruto was flushed by the time Kiba was finally out of eyesight. He stared straight ahead and couldn't turn to look at Sasuke, until Sasuke spoke up a couple minutes after just sitting there.
"...Was that... It wasn't too much... Was it?"
Naruto finally turned to look at Sasuke and saw that while Sasuke was facing him, his eyes were staring at the floor off to the side, his cheeks held a slight pinkish tinge that made Naruto smile. He drew closer and pecked him softly. And then, Naruto saw the most beautiful thing he thought he'd ever seen in his short 21 years of life: Sasuke met his eyes and smiled.
They ended up talking the rest of their time together. They walked around a bit until Naruto expressed his desire to go on the ferris wheel. They rode together, and at one point interlocked their fingers together as their car neared the top and they looked out into the ocean. Neither knew where this was headed.
...You can choose to embrace this other half and have companionship...
On their anniversary four years later, Sasuke retold Naruto everything that had happened with the fortune teller the week before they first met. Sasuke himself hadn't believed in soulmates for his whole life before he'd met Naruto - - but with Naruto, everything felt complete. He felt able to handle more positive emotions- - and sometimes show them too.
Naruto, on the other hand, had believed in practically everything before he'd met Sasuke - - but with Sasuke, he felt like he only believed in Sasuke himself as his own. He'd never felt more alive. It was everything wonderful he'd never felt growing up alone.
A/N: hahaha how'd I do? I should've probably made the ending longer... but I ran out of ideas, and I'm not comfortable writing intimate scenes.
I read on tumblr one time that most people don't believe in "soul mates" or "love at first sight" or all that fate stuff - EXCEPT when it comes to their OTP. When it comes to their OTP, almost anything and everything is possible and acceptable.
I got this idea from a prompt on imagineyourotp on tumblr.
