I'm so nervous about this chapter... You HAVE to tell me what you think about it.

You see, I'm kinda bringing an OC into this story... Because there was just no character that fit the part. Seriously. So yeah I have mixed feelings about OC's, sometimes they're well done and I like reading about them as much as the original characters, and sometimes they don't work.

Well, whatever you think it's too late to change anything now, this his how I imagined the story even before I wrote the first chapter, and I've wanted to write this chapter so badly... I don't know how many times I've written and re-written it in my head.

Now, hope you enjoy this chapter of mostly shameless fluff!


Chapter twenty-three: Outside the comfort zone

'

Waking up because of the doorbell was not how Naruto thought he'd start Christmas Day. Who the hell visited other people this early anyways? He glanced at the clock showing 2:07 pm. Okay, maybe not that early. But he was so comfy spooning Sasuke, even if his arm had almost fallen asleep.

When the doorbell went off again he sighed and carefully dislodged himself from around the sleeping Sasuke, realizing his arm actually had fallen asleep. Shaking it to get rid of the nasty feeling he fumbled around for a pair of sweat pants. They'd stayed up almost the whole night, just keeping each other company and cuddling, talking about things that felt important but didn't really matter the morning after. He smiled. There were so many ways of happy he felt right now.

Scratching his stomach he scrunched his face up in annoyance as the bell rang again, this time creating some kind of silly melody with the buzzes. He opened it, expecting to find either one of his friends or some stupid neighbor maybe, but before he'd had time to take it in the person on the other side shouted a loud 'Uncle Naru!' and jumped forwards to cling on his leg with the speed that only an excited child has.

Needless to say, Naruto was surprised.

"Yukio?" he asked, looking down at the small kid nuzzling his nose into the fabric of his pants. "What are you doing here? Where's your mom?"

"Mom went on a trip!" Yukio shouted, his eyes shiny and an excited flush on his face. "So I get to stay with you for a whooole week!"

Oh god. This wasn't happening.

"A… a whole week?" Naruto squeaked, freezing in shock. What the hell? "Why didn't she say anything yesterday?!"

Yukio frowned, thinking over Naruto's words carefully. Then he brightened up again.

"I remember! She said you should call her!"

He nodded importantly to himself, extremely pleased that he remembered what his mom had told him. Naruto just stared at him with a gaping mouth. That little bitch! (His cousin, not Yukio of course.)

"Okay, okay" he said, mostly to himself and trying to calm down.

No need to panic yet, Karin couldn't have gone far. He'd call her, she'd pick Yukio up and Sasuke wouldn't have to know anything about it. Right, good plan. He smiled at his might-as-well-be nephew, he really loved the little brat. It was a shame Sasuke would probably throw a fit if Naruto just woke him up and told him a child was going to live with them for a week.

"Okay Yukio, come in and I'll call her. But you can't touch anything! You hear me?"

Yukio nodded, his little head bobbing up and down exaggeratedly fast. Then he peeked into the hallway, shyly brushing his dark brown bangs from his face.

"Is Sasuke here?" he whispered, looking up at Naruto with wide dark eyes.

"Yes, he's sleeping. Now get inside, and be quiet. He'll get mad if we wake him up."

Naruto ushered the kid inside, grabbing the suitcase he'd left behind and carrying it inside. Then he directed Yukio into the living room, telling him to sit on the couch and wait. He snuck into the kitchen, grabbing his phone from where Sasuke had put it down last night and hurriedly found Karin's number, pressing 'call'. Oh she was going to find out just how much trouble she was in! When he'd told her about Sasuke yesterday, she'd almost looked shocked, later admitting that she might have had a tiny crush on him and maybe possibly stalked him a little. Not that he knew that of course. Really, the way she squirmed in discomfort and had a bit of a wild look around the eyes sort of made Naruto suspect she'd had more than a crush on him and now thought it was extremely embarrassing. Especially considering she was at least six years older than him! If he counted, it was probably more like seven or eight even!

"Oh hello Naruto" she suddenly answered in the phone.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" he hissed, starting to pace back and forth while still keeping an eye on Yukio over on the couch.

"There's nothing wrong with me" she said sourly.

"Well there has to be if you just dump your son outside my apartment on Christmas Day, expecting me to babysit him for a week! Sasuke hates kids! He'll get mad at me and it's your damn fault!"

Karin snorted, and Naruto could just see her giving him a disapproving look and pushing her glasses further up on her nose.

"The way you talked about him made it sound like he'd be fine with anything because he loooves you so much."

"That's none of your business!"

"Whatever Naruto, if you've managed to forget, you owe me a week of babysitting and I did mention I'd probably cash it in during the holidays. And you said it was fine."

"I said it was fine because you asked half a fucking year ago! I hadn't even met Sasuke then! And the least you could have done was say something yesterday!"

He'd unconsciously raised his voice, and when he glanced at Yukio he could see the cute little boy biting his lip with his shoulders slumped, staring down into his lap. Suddenly he felt really guilty; it wasn't Yukio's fault Karin was such a douche-bag sometimes.

"Naruto" Karin said, sighing and sounding less annoyed and more pleading, "I know I should have asked you first but this came up so sudden, please just take care of him this once."

"You're a terrible parent" he muttered, standing with his back to the couch.

"Well it must run in the family then" she snapped and hung up.

Naruto sighed, running a hand through his hair in frustration. True, there wasn't much good you could say about the 'parents' in their little family, unless you count his own mom and dad who were apparently admirable people. But still, she didn't have to push him around so much just because he was younger.

~Line breaker~

Sasuke groaned, feeling cold and pushing himself backwards on the bed to get closer to Naruto. When he didn't feel him, he frowned and rolled onto his back, blinking his eyes sleepily after turning on the light. The room was empty. Maybe Naruto was just in the bathroom. He made himself comfortable, burying his face in the pillow and smelling Naruto on it. He smiled to himself. Yesterday had been such a great day, even though he'd had to work a few hours.

He'd almost drifted off to sleep again when he heard some faint talking. He wondered if Naruto was talking on the phone or if they'd forgotten to turn off the TV last night. When the voice got louder he recognized it as Naruto's, and frowning he sat up and swung his legs over the edge, goose-bumps creeping up along them when hit with the colder air.

After putting on his jeans from yesterday, guessing Naruto must have taken the sweat pants he'd left on a chair, he got out of the bedroom in search of his boyfriend. He'd stopped talking, but Sasuke guessed he was either in the kitchen or the living room, there weren't really that many other possibilities. He walked into the living room seeing Naruto in the kitchen with his back turned against him, looking down at something. Then he heard a loud thump from one of the book cases.

Both Sasuke and Naruto whipped their heads towards the sound, freezing in spot at the sight that met them.

Sasuke could only stare in surprise at the small child looking at him with terrified eyes, the fallen book by his feet. He was short, kind of scrawny, with dark brown hair, even darker eyes and a cute little round face. He also wore a mustard-yellow long-sleeved shirt with a red dragon printed on it. He blinked. The kid got bright red and looked down, looking as if he tried to shrink down and turn invisible. Then Naruto grabbed him and dragged him back into the bedroom.

Once there, he let go of Sasuke and watched him uncertainly, as if afraid he was going to explode any second.

"Was that what I think it is?" he asked the nervous blond.

"Well, if you're thinking it's my cousin's kid, then yeah it's what you think."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

"And what is he doing here?"

"I'm so sorry Sasuke! But an emergency came up and Karin had no choice but to leave him here with us!"

Naruto seemed to shrink underneath Sasuke's glare, similar to what the kid had done. Sasuke didn't say anything for a minute.

"How long?" he gritted out eventually. He was peeved that Naruto's and his alone time was ruined, he'd looked forward to lots and lots of messy loud sex during the following days and that is obviously impossible with a child in the next room.

"One week" Naruto mumbled.

Sasuke cursed to himself and walked over to the window, looking out as if he could find a solution in the slowly falling snow flakes. He could feel Naruto walking closer, stopping right behind him and hesitantly putting his hand on his arm.

"Are you mad?" he asked quietly.

Sasuke sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. He wasn't so much mad as disappointed.

"What, she just rang the doorbell and left him here?"

"Pretty much" Naruto answered, squeezing his arm.

"He was touching my books" Sasuke remembered suddenly, making a move to turn around and head back to the living room.

"Hey, you can't get mad at him, he's only six years old."

"I don't care how old he is, if he damages my stuff I'm getting as mad as I want" he said with a scowl, but let out a small grunt when Naruto pushed him against the glass of the window.

"Well I don't care how much I like you, if you hurt him it's over" he bit out, boring his eyes into Sasuke who looked back surprised at the harsh words.

"I'm… sorry" he mumbled, and Naruto's eyes softened.

"No, I'm sorry" he said, letting go of Sasuke and stepping back. "It's just, he's a nice kid, he never does anything bad honestly, but he's sensitive alright? He really wanted to meet you when I told him how nice you are yesterday, and if you go out there yelling he's not going to talk for days." He lifted a hand to caress Sasuke's cheek. "I want him to be happy, just like I want you to be happy. And I know you don't like kids, I'll take care of him so you won't have to think about it."

"No, don't worry about it. I'm just a bit annoyed we can't have crazy sex every day. But I mean, they're your family, so…"

Naruto searched his eyes for a moment, then smiled in relief and gave him a kiss.

"Thanks."

"Hn. I guess I'll go say hi."

Sasuke took a deep breath, preparing himself and mentally going into that mode where nothing was able to shake his calm. He walked back, Naruto following behind silently, probably still a bit nervous. Sasuke frowned. He hadn't thought about the fact that Naruto really liked the kid, so really he had no choice but suck it up and be fine with it, not unless he wanted it to be over as Naruto so brutally had put it. It scared Sasuke that there was actually something that might make Naruto second guess his decision to be with him, and he promised himself he wouldn't let him. And if that meant he had to be all cuddly with a kid, then he'd do it until the kid got sick of him.

He found him on the couch, sitting with his hands in his lap and eyes downcast. The book had been put back, and Sasuke had a sudden strong and vivid déjà vu from his own childhood. He'd sit much the same way whenever his parents had guests, telling him to behave and not bother them. He shook the unease off his shoulders, and slowly walked forwards to sit down beside the little kid.

"Hey" he said.

"Hello" the kid mumbled, still refusing to look at him.

Sasuke glanced at Naruto for support, and the blond motioned at him to keep talking.

"I'm Sasuke" he said, not really knowing what to say but he could at least introduce himself.

"I'm Yukio. Do you have a book about dragons?"

Suddenly Yukio had looked up at him, his eyes brimming with hope but then quickly turning insecure again and looking down. He bit his lip as if he knew he'd done something wrong, and Sasuke felt another wave of unease. This child was uncomfortably similar to himself.

"Do you like dragons?"

Yukio nodded, blushing and watching him through his chin-length hair. It was an ugly hair-cut, and it bothered Sasuke almost as much as that hideous shirt.

"I think I have one" he said instead, standing up and walking over to one of the bookcases.

He swept his eyes over all the different covers, finding the one he looked for after a few minutes. He'd picked it up at the second hand shop for books that he frequently visited, albeit less often now, and he'd bought it because the pictures were really nice. He brought it over, blowing off the dust on top of it and then handing it to Yukio, who accepted it with awe. He carefully put it on his lap and opened it, picking a random page. There was a picture of a blue dragon breathing golden fire, and by the spidery text just underneath it Sasuke found out that it was protecting its mountain with treasures in it. It was pretty much just fantasy dragons that didn't even try to look believable, but what does that matter to a child?

Yukio moved his hand as if to touch it, but hesitated and looked at Sasuke for permission. He nodded, and the tiny little hand slowly followed the outline of the dragon's back.

"This book is amazing" Yukio breathed, his gaze transfixed on the picture as if it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

"You can have it if you want" Sasuke said, and apparently he'd said something good because suddenly there was a happy squeal and small arms hugging him, and he stared helplessly at the display of surprise affection.

Naruto came over, asking Yukio to show him the dragon too, and the boy excitedly pointed at it and then turned the pages, finding more pictures to admire. The blond looked at Sasuke with a wide smile, and Sasuke felt happy. He'd managed to be nice to the kid and Naruto was pleased with him. How much better could this have gone?

"I'll go get us some shirts" Naruto then said, and Sasuke stared at him in sudden fear.

Was Naruto actually leaving him alone with Yukio?

"Relax you'll be fine Sasuke" the blond said, winking at him before leaving.

Sasuke glanced at Yukio uncertainly, but the kid was happily entertaining himself with the book. When Naruto had been gone much longer than you need to fetch shirts, Sasuke began to squirm a little.

"Are you cold?" Yukio suddenly asked him, abandoning the book to look at Sasuke, though still appearing a bit shy.

"No, I'm fine." They were both silent, and Sasuke gnawed on his bottom lip. "Why do you like dragons?" he said on impulse, needing something to get rid of the awkward atmosphere.

Yukio blushed but looked kind of happy, absently tracing the points of a red dragon's teeth.

"Because mom says dad isn't here because he's a dragon tamer! And he had to stay with the dragons to protect the people, and we can't be with him because it's too dangerous."

Yukio said all this in a serious voice, making little gestures with his hands and Sasuke watched him in fascination. The child was so small, and yet it talked so coherently! Where was the screaming and crying and generally being incredibly annoying?

"So I want to learn everything about dragons so I can go help him when I grow up!"

Sasuke opened his mouth but shut it again. He'd been on the verge of telling the kid that there was no such thing as dragon tamers, but who was he to judge? And having an imaginary awesome dad sounded a lot better than his own real dad had been.

"I see" he said, smiling back when the little pink mouth split in a wide grin, something he'd probably gotten from his uncle.

"Sasuke can I talk to you for a sec?" came Naruto's voice from around the corner.

Sasuke scowled. Had Naruto been hiding there the whole time, spying on them? He stood up, leaving Yukio with the book and following Naruto, again, into their bedroom.

"So uh, I forgot to tell you but Yukio kinda doesn't have a dad" the blond said, rubbing his neck and grimacing at him.

"What do you mean kinda?" Sasuke asked curiously, putting on the T-shirt Naruto had thrown at him and then a sweater on top of that.

"That he obviously has a dad somewhere but my cousin claims she doesn't know who it is. Either that or she just won't tell. She was on some sort of working-trip abroad anyway so it could have been anyone."

Sasuke answered with a non-committing 'Hn' and sat down on the bed, patting the space beside him. Naruto sank down, leaning his head on Sasuke's shoulder and closing his eyes.

"He looks a little like you" he said after a few seconds of silence, grinning without opening his eyes. "You didn't have any random sex with a girl when you were a teenager did you?"

When Sasuke stiffened he looked at him, seeing the raven faintly worried.

"What you did?"

"What's her name?" Sasuke asked, not meeting his gaze.

"Karin."

"No, no I haven't."

"So why did you have to know her name?" Naruto asked in a suspicious tone, poking Sasuke's ribs.

"Just curious."

"Right" Naruto snorted, the thought of teenage Sasuke having sex with a girl hilarious.

"Can we really leave him alone like that?"

"He's fine. We didn't get any morning cuddling so…"

Sasuke smiled and put his arms around Naruto, kissing the top of his head. Seems like he wasn't the only one a little put out at the unexpected lack of sex they'd have the coming week.

~Line breaker~

Sasuke sat on the couch later that night, just lazily zapping through channels. Naruto was giving Yukio a bath, and Sasuke had almost been tempted to watch. He'd found the kid strangely fascinating, and it bothered him. It forced him to rethink his opinions of children and it made him uncomfortable. But really, it was difficult to not like Naruto's so called nephew, he was so well behaved. He wondered if Naruto's cousin was some sort of stern mother who didn't tolerate messing up, because in that case it wasn't so weird that Yukio reacted the same way he did when faced with a possible chastising.

He sank down deeper into the cushions, losing himself in discomforting memories of his childhood. When he heard tiny footsteps running towards the couch he was startled out of his daydreams, turning his head to see Yukio standing next to him and nervously playing with his bright green bathrobe.

"Naruto said I could watch TV with you" he mumbled, peeking up at Sasuke and brightening when he got a nod as an answer.

Yukio climbed up next to him, sitting close but not touching, watching the screen and his mouth forming into an 'o' when he noticed how big it was. He'd missed it earlier since he'd been so nervous, but now he stared and stared and Sasuke worried he might forget to breathe.

"It's so… big" he said. "It's like in a cinema!"

"Well, not that big" Sasuke said.

Dark eyes glanced at him.

"Can we watch Disney channel?" he asked.

"I don't know if I have that one."

"Oh" was the disappointed answer. "We don't have it either."

Sasuke started going through the channels, he'd changed the numbers on them once when he was bored so that his favorites were in the first ten and then on to his least favorite as the last number. Needless to say he seldom went further than thirty out of at least a hundred.

Reaching number 89 Yukio shouted at him to stop, eagerly leaning forwards in his seat and watching a show on what was, apparently, Disney channel. A few seconds and Sasuke was already bored out of his mind, but the kid next to him was laughing in sheer delight. So maybe there were a few annoying traits in this child.

Then Naruto joined them, sitting down beside Sasuke and throwing his arm over his shoulders, grinning at the choice of channel.

"Since when do you have this channel?"

"Yeah yeah whatever" Sasuke muttered, but his lips quirked without his consent when Naruto kissed him all over his cheek and ear.

They sat like that for an hour, and Sasuke lost himself in the show that apparently was a movie despite being bored, which might have had something to do with the funny comments Naruto whispered in his ear so Yukio wouldn't hear. When the show ended he tried to stretch, but found that one of his arms was occupied by a sleeping child. Well, this was a new experience.

"Aww isn't he cute" Naruto whispered. "We should carry him to bed."

Sasuke frowned.

"Did he brush his teeth?"

Naruto gave him a disapproving look.

"We can't just wake him up for something boring like that."

"Naruto he'll get cavities."

"He's going to lose all those teeth anyway, what's the big deal if he misses out once? Just carry him."

Naruto accompanied his words with a grin, standing up and making a move as if to leave the room.

"Wait you mean you want me to carry him? You're kidding."

But Naruto grinned, crossing his arms and waiting for him to pick the kid up. Sasuke looked at him horrified.

"I can't carry a child Naruto!"

"Why not? You can carry me."

Sasuke almost spluttered in indignation.

"It's not the same thing!"

But Naruto's grin didn't fade, and with a groan Sasuke turned his back on him and picked Yukio up bridal style, the kid looking even smaller than before in his arms.

"This is so weird" he muttered as he carried him over to the guest room where they'd placed an extra mattress Sasuke had borrowed from the old lady living next door.

Sasuke carefully put him down, the little face scrunching up before smoothing out again as he stayed asleep. Naruto was watching from the doorway, a fond smile meeting the raven when he turned to glare at him. Then he turned back, a blush adorning his cheeks as he swore quietly and pulled the comforter over Yukio's body.

"He can't sleep in his bathrobe Sasuke" Naruto said with an eye roll, walking over to the suit case and digging around for Yukio's pajamas.

"Well you put him to bed then" Sasuke complained, stepping back as Naruto with apparent ease stripped the kid and then dressed him again, the thin limbs limp and the lips slightly parted as he breathed calmly.

Naruto didn't answer, he just pulled the comforter back up and then watched Yukio quietly for a moment. Sasuke couldn't help but remember the conversation he'd had with Naruto one of those first nights about kids. He'd told Naruto of his loathing of the tinier part of the population, and Naruto had said… Oh god hadn't Naruto said he wanted kids in the future?

He watched his boyfriend smiling when Yukio turned over on his side, mumbling something in his sleep and nuzzling his face into the pillow. He looked so happy like that. They both looked so happy like that.

And suddenly Sasuke wasn't so sure that he hated kids anymore.


Fluff! What do you think?

And what, ignoring school, me? Never!