Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

I went to Otakon, but forgot to search around for my fans XD I was Itachi on Friday, but on Saturday I had on a pink wig and a red bear hoodie... while carrying, like, two yaoi paddles XD if you saw me... w00t! Also, I plan on opening my own booth at Artist's Alley at Katsucon AND Otakon next year so I can sell my art. Also, if you're a fan, you'll be able to buy copies of my fanfics in book form Just some silly little idea my friend and I came up with as soon as we got back from Otakon. Yeah... it'd be a good way to make cash.

The large grandfather clock struck twelve while Sakura was offering her friends tea. She'd matured a lot in the last five years and dressed more like an adult than a child, her short pink hair no longer covered with disgusting hairspray. She sat down next to Naruto and handed him a plate of cookies she'd just finished making, also handing a plate to Sasuke, as well. With a bright smile, she began talking, her voice still as loud and cheerful as always.

"I'm so glad that you're not... well, you know," she looked at Sasuke. "And I'm thankful that you can help Silo. I can't wait until Melee's gone, she's such a bitch," she said without pause, crossing her arms. "By the way... where is Silo?"

As Sasuke quietly nibbled on a white chocolate cookie, Naruto replied, grinning behind his cup of tea.

"Why, he's out shopping with the boys!"

Sakura blinked and lowered the pastry from her mouth, almost dropping it on her lap. She pursed her lips together, then they twitched upward and she let out a loud laugh, startling Sasuke a bit, making him break his cookie in half between his teeth. He frowned and chewed, never liking big bites of anything. Glancing over at his two friends and taking in their expressions, he could tell that going shopping was... a very good thing? He didn't understand how, but they knew Silo more than he did and knew what made him better, so he just wiped the thought from his mind.

xXxXx

Majik pressed his palms and right cheek against the glass of Victoria's Secret, eyeing the lingerie and wall of lotions with curious violet orbs. Never in his life had he seen so much... pink. There were a bunch of women inside, looking at the panties and bras in fascination, with their cellphones against their ears, chatting about lunchdates and such. A girl around his age was sorting through a rack of undershirts and as she lifted one from the rack, she spotted Majik and screamed.

The black and white-haired teenager backed away and stumbled over Haruka's foot, falling backward onto Silo, who in turn, tumbled over against Othello. It was a chain reaction that caused the poor crossdresser to slam against the T-Mobile counter in the center of the mall walkway and fall to the hard floor. The boy had been invited to go shopping by Silo, but he'd though his two other friends wouldn't like him tagging along. Strangely enough, Haruka and Majik welcomed him into the group with open arms. Haruka was never one to be jealous and Majik was just... Majik. His motto was "the more people the better! One step closer to finding a potential bed partner, ja?.!"

"Are ya ok?.!" Majik ran to Othello's side and helped him up, carefully. "I didn't mean to, the ugly girl just scared me," he grinned cheekily as Othello smiled lightly and stood, dusting his short skirt off. He ran his fingers through his perfectly straight hair and apologized to the scowling T-Mobile workers.

"It's ok, I'm not hurt."

Silo watched the interaction, thankful that God was being generous to him the past few days. He'd always thought about how the three would get along if they met and his answer was right in front of him. Of course, Haruka wasn't saying much, but that was Haruka; Silo didn't expect him to. Rubbing his sore arm where Majik had slammed his head into, he turned to the partially blind male and smiled.

"Your foot's alright, isn't it?" he asked, looking down at the boy's expensive looking boots. He'd noticed that his friend was wearing a lot of name brand clothing these days, but didn't care much about it. As long as Haruka was still kind and caring, Silo couldn't care less about what he wore.

Haruka nodded and pushed his hands into his coat pockets. It was almost winter and it was starting to get really chilly out, so each one of them had put on a light coat and gloves. Blinking softly and slowly, Haruka swore he could almost see his best friend's face, but then it was gone. Suddenly feeling a hand wrap around his, he glanced down, seeing the outline of Silo's arm reaching to him.

"Come on, we're heading to American Eagle," the crow tugged him along and Haruka could hear Othello and Majik talking about something along the lines of clipping feathers off of birds... He was about to share an opinion with Silo, but the shorter boy beat him to it. "They're cute together, aren't they? Maybe it's one of those love at first sight things like on television," he smiled dreamily. "I've wanted something like that... To fall in love with someone the moment I saw them... But I know it doesn't work like that 99 of the time."

Haruka remained quiet the rest of the way to the outfitters store, only throwing in his two cents every once and a while. He also found his fingers wrapping around Silo's as the entered the store, causing the crow to blush and retract his hand politely. Haruka wished he could see Silo's face, so he could see what he was thinking... He admitted to liking his friend, he had since he was younger, but... he didn't want to take anything further because he was sure Silo didn't want a boyfriend with a handicap. Even though he was going to get his vision back, he still felt like he wasn't good enough for Silo. The boy was perfect to him in every way and it would take a miracle for Haruka to be up to his standards. That's how he honestly felt.

"I'm using my credit card to buy everyone some clothes, so don't bother getting your money out," Silo declared happily.

Othello sighed, pocketing his gift card. He really wanted to use it... It had kitties on it.

"Ya rich or somethin', Little Miss?" Majik asked, raising a brow. He wiggled his gloved fingers in the air, getting the stiffness out of the joints. He watched as Silo's face lit up.

"Not really, but I got a good bit of money from a modeling agency last month. They asked me to be a model in one of their clothing magazines, so I accepted and they gave me $1,000. Then my dad got me a credit card and a bank account and ta-da," he let out what sounded like a cross between a laugh and a giggle. It was decided then and there that that sound was the cutest thing the other three boys had ever heard. "So I'm going to use all of it while we're shopping tonight. Better than Melee using it to buy sex toys..." he coughed and a light pink dusted across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose.

"Oh, is that why you have that box under your--" Othello was cut off with a hard smack to the back of the head. The pink-haired crossdresser loved Silo dearly, but wasn't very fond of the strength he gained from being around Sakura. Over the years, the two had trained at gyms and had gained monsterous strength. So despite Silo's soft looks and girly curves, he was as strong as any muscled or buff man.

"Don't bring that up," Silo hissed dangerously and began searching around for clothes, leaving behind and mumbling Othello and two other stunned males.

"Little Miss is so strong!" Majik crooned loudy, laughing and skipping away to find his own clothes. But after a while, he sort of gave up, not liking the style of the clothes very much. He had his own style, his own image, and that did not include Oxford shirts and bootcut khaki pants. It did include, though, hobo gloves, ripped jeans, and funny shaped winter hats.

Haruka had Othello help him out with clothes, since he couldn't really see what was around him. The crossdresser also stated that he was an expert when it came to fashion and what looked good on certain people, so he plucked a bunch of different outfits from their racks and shoved Haruka into a changing room. Silo was a quick shopper, so he as already trying on various clothes; and Majik was busy shrugging on the American Eagle clothes and standing in the display window, pretending to be a plastic model. He managed to scare a bunch of kids, some teenage girls, and two old men.

Othello looked over his work and brushed his hands together, grinning like a maniacal bad guy in a cartoon. He ran his tongue over his glossy bottom lip and reached up to fix Haruka's shoulder-length silver hair, envious of the beautiful color. It was rare, but people were born with natural gray or silver hair. He was jealous that Haruka was one of those people.

"Now, let's go impress Birdie, hmm? You might not be able to see him, but he can see you and you'll take his breath away," he stated with a twirl of his finger, his neon green nails shimmering under the store lights. When he received no reply, he snickered. "I've noticed that you seem to... have a crush on him. You haven't seen him in almost ten years, so why? Did you like him when you were kids?"

Haruka nodded. "I didn't know what I was feeling back then, but once he left... I talked to my father about it and he told me. And not once, in these nine years, has that feeling dimmed."

Smiling widely, Othello patted him on the shoulder kindly. "Childhood crushes can sometimes lead to something more. And you know," he started with a cat-like smile. "Silo talked about you a lot. I think he likes you, too."

Letting his lips twitch upward, Haruka opened the stall door and stepped out. He used to have a seeing eye dog, but the animal had been given to another family a few months ago when the doctor's stated that he was going to gain his sight back. He would've liked to keep the tiny dog, Pakkun, but Iruka was fussy when it came to keeping the house tidy and if the dog wasn't essential, it was going to be given to someone else. They ended up giving the canine to an elderly couple on the other side of the city.

"I would hope he does, but--"

"Haruka-kun, you look so handsome," was what Silo said as soon as Haruka stepped out of the changing room. The silver-haired teen was taken off guard, but smiled politely. He was in dark jeans (Indigo Rustic Wash), had on an AE Cross-Campus shirt that was a perfect color blue, and wore a black and white striped tie that was loose around his neck. He did, indeed, look dashing.

"You do, too," the words came out of Haruka's mouth quickly and Silo blinked, blushed, then started laughing lightly.

"Can you even see what I have on?" the crow smiled.

"..."

"That's what I thought," he giggled. "No need to flatter me--"

"Because he already knows he looks gorgeous. Cocky little punk," Othello piped in, earning him a glare and pout. The cute pout cancelled out the narrowing of eyes, though. The glare only worked for Naruto, basically.

Silo had on a soft pink AE Union shirt with a dark red tie and Dark Tinted Crackle Wash Pants (A/N- Umm, go on the American Eagle website? XD). He was fiddling around with the tie as he spoke, tapping the heel of his left sneaker against the clean floor. Majik leaped out of the display window a few seconds later, laughing like an idiot as he mumbled to himself about scaring that same girl from Victoria's Secret. He blinked when he saw Silo and Haruka, though, bursting out into a huge smile that reminded Silo of a cartoon character. There was a moment of silence before Majik pounced and wrapped his arms around both Silo and Haruka's neck, yanking them down.

"Ya guys look so CUTE!"

Haruka sputtered, effectively punching the loud teen in the gut before his neck could snap off. Majik winced, whined, and let go, falling to his knees on the floor. Silo stood up straight and rubbed his sore neck, frowning down at Majik.

"What was that for?.!"

Majik coughed and stood, his heels making a screeching sound against the floor. He gripped his stomach and pouted.

"I just thought ya two looked cute... Is it my fault your cuteness made me wanna glomp ya?"

Haruka glared and Silo folded his arms over his chest, while Othello sighed and rubbed his temples, groaning about annoying new friends.

He just wanted to go home.

xXxXx

Sasuke lifted himself from his wheelchair, the humming sound of the bathroom background music to his heavy breathing. His arms shook with the weight of his body and he gritted his teeth, his whole frame throbbing. He'd ignored the pain ringing throughout his body all day, but now it was unbearable. It felt as if he was burning under his skin, but he knew it was only an effect of his body getting used to moving normally again. Lowering his cold feet to the tiled ground, he hoisted himself up and grunted as he put all of his weight on his legs.

He'd snuck away from the slumbering Naruto to take a shower, hoping to actually do something himself for once. As much as he loved Naruto showering him with attention, he felt useless. Stumbling into the shower, he stripped himself of his clothes and tossed them on the floor, not caring about folding them. That was when he finally noticed the scar on his chest from the surgery to remove the bullet. It was a small, light-colored mark that was close to his side, shaped almost like a pear, he concluded, pressing his fingers against it.

Closing the curtains and turning on the water, he blinked his eyes and closed them, noting how his legs shook from the weight of his body. He hoped he wouldn't collapse because then that would wake the blond idiot up and he'd have to deal with many shouts of "what did you think you were doing?.!" "stupid teme!" and "fuckin' idiot, get back in your wheelchair!"

He grabbed a washrag and lathered it with soap, running the cloth over his oddly smooth skin. As he showered, he thought about how Naruto had been acting toward him since he'd woken up. There was a small difference between the blond he knew before the shooting and the one that had been sobbing and gripping his shoulders the other night. He felt stupid for hoping that... for hoping that his friend actually felt something for him. But the phrase "ya don't know what ya got 'til it's gone" was nagging at him. He would've liked to have a more literate version of the staying imprinted in his mind, though.

He was drawn out of his thoughts by a loud crash, then a whining curse of "Did you see the teme, Sakura-chan?" come from the hallway. Sakura had come over and stayed the night, saying something about wanting to search through the many bags of clothes she was sure Silo and his friends would bring home. The raven realized that one of the many new obsessions Sakura had now was to either shop with Silo or to go through his new clothes and squeal over how handsome he would look. He admitted that Silo had, indeed, grown into a very attractive young teen.

"Mmm, I think he went into the bathroom," the pink-haired woman replied as her voice drifted from the living room, followed by the wailing of a female in a Korean drama she was watching.

There was a booming clunk, then knocking on the bathroom door. In the shower, Sasuke actually sighed and rolled his eyes, but let a smile slip onto his face. He really enjoyed the attention Naruto gave him, but being the mean duck-butt he was, he decided to play with the dobe a bit, to get a rise out of him. He missed the male lashing out at some of the things he used to say. He then realized that it seemed like just yesterday that he was in the car listening to Naruto sing, but in reality... it'd been nine years and the male had changed and matured.

"Oi, teme! If you wanted to wash up, you should've told me!"

Sasuke snorted and smirked. "Why? So you could grope me, Dobe?"

There was a silence, then a frustrated growl, followed by the sound of something being fished out of a jar. Sasuke then remembered Sakura saying something about a tiny screwdriver being hidden inside the bamboo vase by the bathroom door. Cursing, he pulled back the curtains of the shower after rinsing all of the conditioner out of his hair and reached for the closest towel sitting atop the marble counter, his legs buckling beneath him. He tried to wrap the material around himself, but then the door opened and the mist of the room wafted into the hall, making Naruto's bright blue eyes hazy. The raven crumbled to the floor and he winced painfully as his shoulder slammed against the counter, his hand knocking off a can of shaving cream and Silo's periwinkle hairbrush.

"Shit, are you ok?" Naruto bent down and if he weren't concerned and worried for his friend, his eyes would've been trained on the naked body of said Uchiha. He helped Sasuke up and sat him down on his wheelchair which was scooted up against the toilet, ignoring the other male's nakedness, but not completely. He still had the reflex of looking right between the legs, almost smiling to himself as he did so. "Now what did I say about wheeling your crippled self around the house without me?" he scolded Sasuke, wagging his tan finger back and forth.

Sasuke put the white towel over his lap, a little embarrassed. "I'm not answering. And I can go somewhere alone if I wish to do so, Dobe. I don't need a watch dog."

Naruto scoffed and smiled brightly, grabbing Sasuke's dirty clothes and wheeling him out of the bathroom and back into his own bedroom. He left Sasuke's side to go into his closet and search around for some clothes he believed would fit the younger Uchiha. He'd ended up very frail and skinny while in the coma and it'd be hard to find some fitting clothes for him since Naruto had a muscular and jock-like build.

"Uhhh, you don't mind wearing orange, do you?"

The raven narrowed his eyes, flexing the muscles of his calves as he sat there, trying to train his muscles so his legs wouldn't give out again. "What kind of orange?"

"Um, well, crossing guard orange?" the blond scratched the back of his head and began searching for another shirt. "Nevermind, you wouldn't look good in that color. I think I'll go with black; simple and slimming, even though you're scrawny enough."

Sasuke almost flinched, wondering how Naruto could lower someone's self-esteem without even meaning to. He looked up as the businessman came out with a small black shirt and a pair of red boxers.

"I'd give you some of Silo's pyjamas, but he hates it when others wear his clothes. You know, as he grew up, he began to get like his mother..." he shivered, but laughed nonetheless. "At least he's not an overbearing bitch, though-- Oh, let me help you ut on those clothes!" he just remembered Sasuke had collapsed in the bathroom and probably wouldn't be able to shove on his own clothes. He yanked the top over the raven's head and received a growl in return for his good deed. "Hey, don't growl at me, Teme!"

"I can put my own clothes on. I'm not retarted, idiot, I only have weak muscles," they both smiled at that and while Sasuke let out a breathy chuckle, Naruto broke out into cackles which Sasuke couldn't help but adore. He'd missed his dobe so much.

As if reading his mind, Naruto spoke.

"You know? I really, really missed you..." the blond exclaimed. "I've been doing great without you, but I think I would've done so much better with you, especially Silo. And I've been meaning to mention something to you all day, but it's either slipped my mind many times or I just couldn't find the right time to tell you..." he scratched the back of his head, ruffling the golden locks about cutely. Even as old as he was, he had an adorable and childish charm to him, his soft cerulean eyes captivating as he stared at Sasuke. "The day you were shot, you-- well, you told me that you... loved me, right?"

Sasuke actually felt his cheeks flush in embarrassment.

Naruto didn't laugh or grin, he just smiled handsomely and tossed the red boxers onto Sasuke's lap. "Well, after you 'died', I realized that I didn't need to find some pretty girl to be Silo's mother, what I needed was you, but..." he laughed softly, "you were gone and I regretted never noticing those dormant feelings... I hated myself for being so oblivious to your feelings and for not realizing that what I felt for you was more than brotherly love... You know, as they say, 'ya don't know what ya got 'til it's gone'."

Sasuke wanted to cry and laugh at the same time, hearing that his feelings were actually returned and that that same stupid phrase was in the blond's head as well.

"I'm not that great with expressing my feelings, what with me being a guy and all," Naruto joked, running a large hand through his hair, "but I really want to give a relationship a try. I know I'm going about telling you this fast, but... that's just how I am. Hopefully, you're not the kind of guy who expects a romantic and sickeningly sweet decleration of love...?"

Choking on a laugh, the raven let his lips twitch upward.

"Not at all, I find your way of going about things endearing and cute."

"Cute, eh?" Naruto wiggled his brows. "Well, I find everything about you cute, Teme," he purred. He was glad he could finally let out some of his inner pervert and he knew Sasuke would enjoy it, since he figured the day they acted out the sex scene all those years ago did, indeed, end in a happy ending.

Sasuke held back an uncharacteristic blush and snatched the red boxers from his lap.

"I'm tired, so let's compliment each other tomorrow," he wheeled himself back to the bathroom so he could change, eaving behind a whining Naruto.

The blond turned his whine into a laugh as Sasuke disappeared down the hall, happy that he was finally going to be in a relationship for the first time in almost ten years, with someone he did indeed care about. He plopped down on the bed and tapped his chin in thought, furrowing his golden brows in thought.

"And all those years I said I was straight and that I'd end up with some sweet and pretty woman..." he snickered.

He envisioned Sasuke in his head, the Uchiha bitching about fans while taking a whiz in a local bar's bathroom.

Smiling, he rolled over, waiting for Sasuke to return.

And look at what happened, I fell in love with someone completely different... Not to mention he has a penis.

As the sounds of the drama Sakura was watching drifted into the room, along with the sound of Sasuke's creaking wheelchair in the bathroom, Naruto felt himself drift off to sleep, oblivious to the sound of the front door opening which was accompanied by a cheerful Majik and Othello.

Even as his body and mind fell asleep, the smile still remained on his face.