Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or any of its associated characters!
Summary: Tired of being alone on Valentines day? Why not spend it looking for the love of your life? The Konoha Crew Residence Committee has developed a foolproof way to find them, right here on campus! Written for snsmonth23 - prompt: college AU. SNS, modern AU, roommate AU!
A/N: Back for day 12 with a a college/university AU! We're well away from Valentines day, but we're going with that theme anyway, haha. I hope you like it :)
Also, I figured I should mention it here too - I am still on ao3, but you need to be logged in to view my stories. It's just another precaution against all the AI scraping going on, although I know these are pretty open on here,,,,,ah well. But just so you know - I'll probably switch the settings back eventually!
Meet Your Match!
It's been kind of miserable, really. This whole experience. Sasuke had come to university to further his education, not develop an overzealous social life. The classes had been fine enough, although most of the "learning" was information he already knew, but he had some electives that gave him a challenge. That was something. But between the crowds outside of his room—and the crowds being brought within it—Sasuke's life had rapidly become filled with things he wanted to be no part of.
This is one of them.
"I don't get it," his roommate is saying, and he has that kind of voice that's just infuriatingly impossible to tune out. "Which one am I supposed to do?"
"It works two ways," his friend explains. Pink hair. Red jacket. She tends to punch first, and ask questions later. Sasuke pretends he doesn't know her name, but he does. It's Sakura. "You have to fill them both out. One is for your answers, and the other is for the answers you'd like your partner to have. Right? And then if your answers for what you're looking for match somebody else's, you match, because you're what they had in mind."
"As long as they don't take one look and start running," the other one says, thumbing through the pamphlet. Her name is Ino. Sasuke wishes he didn't know it either.
"Oi!" Naruto protests. "I'm not that ugly!"
"Yeah, but she is," Sakura says, and she's punched in the arm for her kindness. Sasuke's lips twitch, and he burrows himself further into his book. He's been demoted to his bed—apparently guests get his desk, and his chair. They've been helping themselves, at any rate.
"What's the next one?" One of them asks, and there's a flutter of pages again.
"Favourite colour," Naruto answers.
"Right, because that's a predictor of romance," Sasuke mutters. He can't help it. This is inane.
"It's just getting warmed up!" Naruto protests, and Sasuke hides the rest of his comments in these pages. He needs to focus anyway.
"What favourite colour is your lovergirl supposed to have?" Ino asks, ignoring them both. "Loverboy? Lovergirl never sounds as good."
"It doesn't," Sakura agrees. "Lovergirl or loverboy?"
"Lover none of your business," Naruto mutters, scribbling something down. Sasuke peeks over the top of his book for a little…longer.
"We should make Sasuke do one," Sakura says, and Sasuke goes back to pretending to read. "Everybody got one, right? In your dorm? We both did."
"Yeah, we all got one," Naruto says. "I think Sasuke's gonna kick us all out if we try, though."
"Correct," Sasuke says, flipping the page. Naruto gives his friends an apologetic smile, and Sasuke is the villain once again. He thinks he's been quite kind, thank you, about this whole invading his space thing. Naruto is an idiot, but he's a popular one. Attractive enough, with the way he draws people in. Sasuke is happy to be the opposite side of that magnet.
"Your partner surprises you with a coffee," Ino reads. "How do you feel?"
"The one that goes with it is this one, I think," Sakura says, thumbing through the other package. "Your partner looks pretty tired today. What do you do—get them a coffee is here."
"What if they avoid caffeine?" Sasuke mutters to himself, but Naruto overhears him.
"They—it's the concept!" he protests. "You could bring them tea or whatever."
"Ooh," Ino sighs. "I could go for a tea."
"Go for one, then," Sasuke tells them, and Naruto scowls at him. Sasuke gives him a look as if to ask what he, really, had expected. The learning curve when they'd first moved in together had been steep.
"We have to get to class anyway," Ino says. "We've got ten minutes."
"Shit, we do," Sakura says, jumping up. "Okay—we're off. Good luck finding your perfect lifelong lover!"
Naruto laughs and rolls his eyes, but waves them off. Sasuke breathes out his relief.
"You could try it, too," Naruto offers, and Sasuke's eye twitches. "Y'know. Instead of being a prick to everybody around you. Hey—maybe it'd match you with somebody who's a prick, too!"
"And we could team up to kick you out of my room," Sasuke says, switching to his notes. "What a time that could be."
"Two antisocial bastards driving me nuts," Naruto says, and Sasuke takes a moment to scan the back of his head. Not a long moment. But a—lingering one. "I guess none of the bastards would fill it out, though."
"No," Sasuke agrees. "We are unlikely to."
Naruto glances back at him, and Sasuke raises an eyebrow. They've at least come to—a truce, of some kind. Naruto grumbles at him, Sasuke snaps back, and somehow there isn't any offense that seems to be there, so that's—a good thing. A good enough thing. And it isn't like Sasuke despises his company. Not as much as he'd thought he would, when he'd first met the bright blonde ball of energy.
But it is—inconvenient. Naruto is a distraction. Sasuke is distracted almost all the time.
Naruto huffs out a breath, and there's that tension again. Naruto gets this—look in his eyes when he's just laughing to avoid questions. It's such an obvious motion. Sasuke doesn't understand why no one else has commented on it.
"So that's more people," Naruto mutters. "I don't get why I'm the only person who seems to want to do this. It's not that stupid."
Sasuke is a very kind soul. He keeps his thoughts to himself.
Naruto stares at him for a while, anyway.
"Why are you so desperate to do it?" Sasuke asks, once he's had enough. "Haven't you met the whole campus already?"
"I bring like ten people into your room and you think I'm talking to the goddamn world," Naruto grumbles, and he has no concept of it. It's been far more than ten.
Sasuke flips a page. Naruto does, too.
…
Naruto tosses the packages aside.
"Whatever," he mutters, and it makes Sasuke look up. Naruto flips his laptop open and grabs a textbook. Sasuke wonders what the hell has gotten him to want to study.
"Giving up?" he prompts, and Naruto doesn't turn around.
"It's—it's whatever, asshole, you're probably right. I've probably met them, and they're not—whatever."
The hardcover hits the desk with a slap. Sasuke's eyebrows raise.
"You've never listened to me before," Sasuke tells him. "Don't start now."
Naruto glances back at him. Sasuke stands up, and grabs one of the stupid things.
"Favourite way to wake up in the morning," he reads, keeping his face…neutral. Naruto snatches it out of his hands.
"It's stupid," Naruto says. "I get it. It's fine. Just thought it'd be—fun. Or whatever."
Sasuke breathes out, and resigns himself to the fact that idiocy is contagious. The envelope is still on his desk. He returns to it. He opens it. He…
Ugh.
"What the hell is a love language?" he mutters, flipping through the pages. Naruto turns—
"It's like a—it's the way you tend to show love. Wait, what are you—" he blinks. Sasuke scowls at the thing. "Is that—are you filling out yours?"
"Idiocy is stronger in numbers," Sasuke tells him. "Acts of service?"
"Like you like—you tend to do stuff for people. Instead of saying stuff to show—uh. Show your love."
"Hm."
Kissing in public. Music taste. Tendency to enjoy parties. Sasuke had to give it to them—the thing was comprehensive, if not an entire waste of time. But Sasuke's pathetic little effort had been enough, apparently. Naruto had switched back to filling it out, too.
"D'you—uh. What d'you put for favourite way to spend a night?" Naruto asks.
"What is this, a test?" Sasuke deadpans. "I don't share my answers."
Naruto snorts out a laugh and scribbles something down. Sasuke's still trying to think of how to answer the one about waking up in the morning. Even Itachi had been the victim of his more vicious attitude.
"Some of these are kinda hard," Naruto says, and Sasuke hums in agreement.
"I have no experience to pull answers from," Sasuke says. "I can't imagine I'm giving an accurate assessment."
"I mean it—I doubt it has to be perfect," Naruto points out. "Just close enough. Right?"
Sasuke isn't really interested in that. He's just happy to criticize.
"And what d'you mean—" Naruto asks, and he's spun around. "You haven't dated anybody?"
Sasuke blinks at him.
"Is this a surprise to you?" he deadpans, and Naruto looks caught out.
"Yeah," he says. "Yeah, uh. Kinda."
"You lecture me on my social incapabilities twenty times a day."
"I don't lecture! And that—some people are into that, anyway. Haven't you seen any of those—romance movies?"
"No," Sasuke says, massaging the bridge of his nose. "No, of course I haven't."
"It's a—there's a market. For people who can only be dickheads."
Sasuke snorts.
"Well," he says, flipping through the rest of his miserable quiz, "I'm not seeing the questions where I can indicate those tendencies."
Naruto lets out a laugh. Sasuke finds his eyes on it before he remembers looking up.
"The morning one!" he says, slapping the booklet open. "I crossed out all the answers and wrote don't wake me up. See?"
Sasuke presses his lips together to hold in the smile.
"That's not a bad idea," he mutters, turning around to do the same. He can wake up in the morning. He does, all the time. But if it was up to him?
Never.
Naruto laughs again, and Sasuke feels a small sort of—pulse, in his chest. Something warm. Satisfying. He ignores it with steady practice.
"You're gonna end up crossing them all out, now," Naruto says. "They do have a staying at home option for the date night, at least."
Sasuke flips to it.
"I suppose you chose the all-you-can-eat restaurant," he mutters, and that makes Naruto laugh, too.
"Okay, that's obvious, though," Naruto says. "Bet you—the dumb costume one. Bet you can't guess what I picked for that!"
"One of the options is a frog morph suit," Sasuke says. "Do you think I'm stupid?"
He gestures at the everything on Naruto's desk. He can barely fit anything on there next to all the frog statues and keychains and planters and cups—
"Damn it!" Naruto says. "Uhhh—best way to win me over after a fight?"
"With food."
"Uh—take my coffee?"
"Sugar, and more sugar."
"Sport of choice?"
"Basketball," Sasuke says. "You never shut up about that, either."
"We watched the game one time!" Naruto protests. "How do you know all this shit?!"
"You're not a particularly private person," Sasuke points out.
"Yeah, but you don't listen to me."
"Do I have a choice?" Sasuke deadpans. "Are you aware of the typical volume you speak at?"
Naruto squints at him. Sasuke turns back to the booklet.
"This is why you're just stupid good in class," Naruto grumbles. "You just retain this shit."
Well. Sasuke does give him that.
"My family is known for our ability to memorize," he says, shifting awkwardly at the compliment. "This booklet is far too long."
"Yeah, it—I didn't realize. Nobody's gonna finish this thing."
"Perhaps they'll pair us together," Sasuke deadpans, "in spite of gender preferences."
Naruto lets out a soft snort, but it—hesitates. It's inauthentic. Sasuke finds himself scanning the tightness in Naruto's mouth, and by the time Naruto looks up—
Sasuke hasn't looked away in time.
"It's—uh. Not that it matters," Naruto says quickly, "but I'm bi. So."
Ah. Well. Sasuke hadn't expected to get an answer to that question quite so efficiently.
"Twice the pool to choose from," Sasuke deadpans, and Naruto lets out a snort.
"Twice the people to get rejected by, more like," he says, and Sasuke looks at him, bemused.
"You bring half the campus into my room and think you're relatively disliked?" Sasuke mutters. His perfect date. He didn't know. Some time in the library with no one bothering him…not the most romantic of answers…
"Our room," Naruto corrects. "And it's still not that many people, bastard. You're the one who got like three cards this morning. Four?"
Naruto shoves himself back and rolls his chair over to the trash can.
"You threw out the chocolate too?! What the hell?!"
"I do not eat food from strangers," Sasuke tells him, "and you shouldn't either."
"That's bullshit," Naruto tells him, and Sasuke stands up to slap the box out of his hand before he can be an idiot.
"My brother was poisoned at seventeen," he snaps. "Don't touch that."
Naruto's mouth opens and closes again. His hand hovers in the air, like he can't quite believe what he'd just heard.
"Oh," he says, and it's quiet. Sasuke returns to sit at his desk. "I'm sorry. Is he—he's not—"
"He recovered," Sasuke says shortly, and Naruto apologizes again. Sasuke chooses the I don't care option for three questions in a row. It doesn't exist. He creates it.
"But that's—that's so shitty," Naruto is still saying. "Who the hell would do that?"
"The general public," Sasuke mutters, and Naruto stares at him for a while. Sasuke senses he's having some sort of a-ha moment.
"Can I help you?" he asks, flipping the page. Naruto doesn't get the hint. He does turn around, though.
Sasuke glances back and realizes, with some dissatisfaction, that the idiot is now…smiling. Sasuke narrows his eyes.
Naruto notices.
"Sorry!" he says, lifting his hands up. "I'm not, like—laughing. Just—you ate my leftovers the other day.
"You ate the first half," Sasuke points out, in protest. "It was obviously safe."
"What about my ramen?" Naruto asks. "I count the packages, y'know."
Sasuke blanches.
"That was revenge," he says, turning firmly around, "for you stealing my sandwich."
He hears Naruto's laugh, and the tips of his ears feel hot.
"Uh-huh," he says, and Sasuke firmly doesn't turn around. "Damn. Now I'm hungry. Wanna get some food?"
Sasuke rubs at his temples as he glances back.
Naruto's gaze—changes a little.
"Want me to go out and bring back some food?"
…
Sasuke blinks at him.
Naruto nods.
"Gotcha," he says, grabbing his coat. "Be back in a minute!"
Sasuke stares after his back.
The tough part about rooming with such a stubborn, antisocial dickhead was the times when he wasn't—like that. It was the toughest part, Naruto decided, paying for the coffee. Sasuke liked it black. He knew that, 'cause he'd thought it was his before, only to take a swig of what tasted like hell.
Sasuke was usually very—predictable. Sarcastic and smug and superior and—whatever, yeah, but then he'd have little moments of consideration and kindness and Naruto would feel like he was walking on his head. Everything was upside-down. What the hell was he doing filling out a match-making quiz, anyway? Just 'cause Naruto had been feeling a little sorry for himself—what else was new? When had Sasuke ever cared about—
But, see. That was the thing.
Sasuke did tend to care about that stuff. Naruto was noticing a pattern, and it made this all really…annoying.
"Thanks," he says, as the barista puts his package on the bar. Sasuke got ham and tomato. He didn't know if that was what he wanted, but Naruto was pretty sure he'd gotten that before. He could steal Naruto's cinnamon bun, too, but Naruto was pretty positive the guy was allergic to anything sweet.
He breathes out, and shoves the door open with his shoulder.
It'd been so much easier when Sasuke had just been—a one-dimensional dick. No complications. Although, this probably wouldn't last, anyway. Sasuke would do something to piss him off soon, and the weird flutter in Naruto's chest would fuck back off.
Naruto gets back to their room, and holds the bags in his mouth so he can unlock the door. Sasuke's still at the desk, but he looks up as Naruto comes in.
His eyes still look a bit…wide. Naruto doesn't know what he's looking for.
Naruto slides the coffee onto his desk and fumbles the bag over to him, too. It doesn't spill, which is something, but he's pretty sure he's messed up the sandwich.
"Thank you," Sasuke says, and Naruto shrugs.
"Yeah, no worries," he says, going back to his desk. No, wait, shit, he still has his jacket on. He tosses it—
No. No he doesn't. Sasuke will get all pissy if he doesn't hang it up properly.
He goes over to the coat rack, and Sasuke is distinctly watching him.
Naruto does a stupid little bow as he hangs it up, and Sasuke turns away with a snort. Naruto'll take that as a thank you.
"Okay," he huffs, "back to dating."
Or trying to. It wasn't like this was his first choice or anything. Naruto figured there was—somebody out there, who he'd like. Who'd like him, too. He tended to annoy everybody into leaving after a couple of hours, but surely somebody would be able to put up with him.
"Are you aware of what I order?" Sasuke asks, and Naruto pauses, mid-bite.
"Duh," he replies, and it tries to spit his sandwich out. Sasuke makes a face, and Naruto nearly chokes on his laugh. He swallows, and then he turns around.
"Did I get the sandwich right?" he asks. "I got whatever had the most tomatoes."
Sasuke gives him that weird little look again. His eyebrows barely raise, but it's as close as he gets to actually having an expression on his face, most of the time.
"You are aware."
"That you like tomatoes? Yeah, I put them in the fridge one time and you were ready to kill me," Naruto points out. "Of course I know you like them. You were gonna go to jail over them."
"You assume I'd be caught," Sasuke deadpans, and Naruto snorts.
"Creepy asshole," he tells him. "Add that on your dating thing."
"Will do," Sasuke says, and he grabs a pen. Naruto coughs out a laugh, surprised that he actually scribbled something down—
"They're gonna know you're not taking it seriously," Naruto says. "You can't fuck up every answer!"
"I'm only being honest," Sasuke points out. "If they aren't reasonably ready for what I have to say, the quiz is obviously flawed."
"One of the questions is about going out with friends and there's no option to say you'd never go," Naruto points out, "I'm pretty sure it's obviously flawed."
But he'd gone this far. Right? He looks over at Sasuke, and Sasuke's flipping through it again, a bemused expression on his face.
"I have a social life," Sasuke insists, and Naruto's eyebrows could fly right off his face.
"You know I live with you, right?" Naruto asks. "When?"
"You're gone for hours on end," Sasuke points out. "I could be doing anything."
"I'd believe you went to a study group," Naruto offers, and Sasuke rolls his eyes. "How come I haven't met any of your friends, then?"
"Because they'd tear you apart," Sasuke mutters, and Naruto thinks he heard wrong.
"'Cause what?" he asks, and Sasuke shakes his head.
"Nothing," Sasuke says. "I suppose you could."
"They'd tear me apart," Naruto says. "Why would they tear me apart?"
"Because you dress like a bitch ass straight boy," Suigetsu says, and he's splayed himself across Sasuke's bed. Wholly uninvited. "Right?"
"He's got you there," Karin agrees, and Naruto looks down at himself, rattled.
"This is—these are my home clothes!"
"What're your good clothes, then?" Suigetsu heckles. "Can't just be this."
Naruto stares between him and Sasuke, his mouth agape.
"Do you guys just talk shit about each other all day?" he asks. "Is that how you're friends?"
"Mostly, really," Sasuke says, returning to his work. They'd handed in the stupid little quizzes two days ago—with the results promised to come back to them in a week. Sasuke didn't particularly care for them, but Naruto seemed to be—anticipating them, in some sort of way.
"Aw, are we friends?" Suigetsu says, springing up. "Is that what you told him?"
"Are—are you not?" Naruto asks, and Sasuke levels Suigetsu's shit-eating grin and fluttering eyelashes with a steady, unamused glare.
"It depends on the day," Sasuke mutters, and Karin comes to sit on his desk.
"We get along, though," she says, and Sasuke grabs his notes before she can sit on them. "Don't we, Sasuke?"
Sasuke doesn't reply. Right now, the only person he likes in this room is Juugo.
"I think we're being too loud," Juugo offers, and no one listens to him.
"We should go out tonight," Suigetsu says, grabbing Sasuke's bedframe. "Since we're friends and all that."
Sasuke's eye twitches.
"Please refrain from implying I've ever been intimate with you."
"Why?" Suigetsu asks. "Look what it's doing to his face."
He nods towards Naruto, and Naruto is—not looking at any of them. He's completely flushed. It's right up the back of his neck.
"You scared of a couple guys flirting, straight boy?" Suigetsu calls, and Sasuke rolls his eyes. He doesn't speak for Naruto. He does—share a glance with him, though.
"That's enough, Suigetsu," Sasuke says, and Suigetsu rolls right off of his bed.
"Well. If I'm not appreciated, I'm going to go somewhere I will be," he declares, and Sasuke nods.
"Good. Go, then."
Suigetsu snorts out a laugh, and Juugo stands to go after him. Karin glances between the three of them before she says a quick goodbye, too. Say what you would about the three of them, but they did have an uncanny way of reading when Sasuke's irritation was reaching its breaking point.
"Well. Uh," Naruto says, and Sasuke swivels his chair around. "I see what you mean?"
"You're all red," Sasuke tells him, and that actively doesn't help. Naruto huffs out a breath that sounds like a groan.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he grumbles. "But you—you kinda just exclusively socialize with people who bug you, huh?"
Sasuke raises an eyebrow.
"Like me," Naruto clarifies, unnecessarily. Sasuke finds himself fighting a smile.
"It's a curse," he says, and it makes Naruto laugh.
"Okay. Alright. Uh. Does Suigetsu have a thing for you or something?"
"No," Sasuke sighs, "he just enjoys irritating me."
"Ah. Gotcha."
Naruto stares at him for several more moments, but he flinches away when Sasuke looks up. Sasuke slaps his notes on his lap.
"Ask."
"Huh—what?"
"You are staring. It is not subtle. Ask."
Naruto doesn't respond for a while. Sasuke, for once, can actually begin to read.
"It's okay," Naruto says quickly. "Sorry for staring."
He turns back around, and Sasuke frowns after his back.
…
He's the one staring, now. Naruto doesn't even comment on it.
"Did they bother you, then?" Sasuke asks, and Naruto seems surprised. "There's a reason I didn't try to overlap our guests."
"What? No," he says. "No, I just—that would've been a disaster, yeah."
He laughs.
"I think Ino would try to kill Suigetsu if he had a go at her."
Sasuke lets out a soft snort.
"Perhaps they ought to meet, then."
Naruto laughs again, and Sasuke—Sasuke's had enough of this textbook.
"I'm going to go for dinner," Sasuke says. "Hungry?"
Naruto blinks.
"Y-yeah!"
They go out to somewhere—fancier than Naruto's used to. Off campus, but Sasuke seems to know the way. Naruto doesn't know when he'd come all the way out here, either, but then—Sasuke's obviously kept some sort of secret social life Naruto hadn't known about. This was probably part of that.
He didn't really understand how he'd gotten wrapped up in it—Sasuke could be fun when he was being less of a dick (or, well, still a dick, but in a different kind of way), but Naruto's just as annoying no matter what he's up to.
Or, at least, he'd thought he was.
It's a bit of a bar and a bit of a restaurant. They get a booth in the back, and all the tables are hot and sizzling. They'll cook their own, here.
"I didn't know we had a place like this out here," Naruto says, sitting down.
"My brother found it," Sasuke tells him, and Naruto grins.
"Oh yeah," he says, thinking back. "I liked that guy."
Sasuke looks bewildered.
"When have you met him?" he asks.
"He helped you move in," Naruto points out. "Didn't he?"
Sasuke's lips thin.
"He did," he sighs. "That's right."
Naruto grins a little. He didn't remember much, but he did remember Sasuke's brother pretty much constantly giving him a hard time.
"Is there something that you normally get?" Naruto asks, and there is, apparently. Sasuke takes off his jacket and relaxes a little, and Naruto isn't sure he's ever seen him like this. Not even in their room. Sasuke is just—at ease.
"I can order," Sasuke offers, and he gets a drink, too. Sake.
What the hell. Naruto gets some, too.
They stay until the restaurant closes. Naruto can eat way too much, according to Sasuke, but Sasuke's the one who keeps ordering. He pays, which is something Naruto is not ready for. He's too stunned to even protest. The money's already gone by the time the noise escapes his mouth.
Sasuke rolls his eyes and doesn't listen to him. Naruto tries to shove money into Sasuke's hand, and Sasuke snatches his whole wallet.
"You'll get this back when you can be trusted with it," he threatens, and Naruto—Naruto—
"Oi! Get back here, you bastard!"
Sasuke doesn't know what's gotten into him. He goes out for food with Naruto three times in a row—twice for dinner, once for lunch. It soothes some sort of restlessness in him. He comes back energized—distracted, yes, but able to work in a way he hadn't however many hours ago. Naruto's full of smiles about it all, and Sasuke—
Sasuke finds himself feeling…some sort of way. It's the sexuality, he supposes, that's implanted the idea into his head. The stupid little quiz Sasuke had succumbed into taking. Naruto had been an idiot and that was it. Charming, sure, attractive, yes, but none of that meant anything to Sasuke. None of that had been relevant to him.
Now, it's all directed directly at him, and Sasuke doesn't know what to do with it. He's just—freezing. Succumbing to the fluster. Breaking, somehow. Laughing when he shouldn't have, ducking away as opposed to controlling his expression. Naruto gets in his face and Sasuke forgets to back away.
Naruto's friends come back to visit him, and Sasuke finds himself—annoyed. Even more so than usual.
They're monopolizing Naruto's time. That's the thought he's having. As if he has any right to it at all.
Sasuke scowls, and gets back to his work.
"So—hey, did you end up doing that dating thing?" Ino asks. "Did you hand it in?"
"I did," Naruto says, "I did, yeah. S'probably gonna be stupid, but it was kinda fun to—fill out."
Sasuke feels Naruto's gaze flicker to him, at least three times. The motion is not particularly subtle.
He doesn't turn, though. He doesn't particularly want to explain…what had possessed him. What was still possessing him.
"So did we—did you hear?" Sakura asks. "They're going to match us tomorrow. Apparently everybody's going to find out all at once."
"Yeah, apparently," Naruto responds, but he isn't nearly as excited as they want him to be.
"Do you think we'll get to see their answers?" Sakura asks. "Or do you think we'll just get, like—scores?"
"I'd imagine they'll keep it as vague as possible," Sasuke mutters. "To avoid revealing just how incompatible they had to go until they found a match."
Naruto snorts out a laugh, and his friends stare at him. Sasuke doesn't care. Sasuke has work to do.
"Did—" Sakura starts. "Sorry, did Sasuke fill one out, too?"
Sasuke keeps his face carefully, disrespectfully blank.
Naruto, on the other hand, starts sputtering out nonsense.
Subtle.
"He did," Ino says, interrupting. "Really?"
"No!" Naruto insists, and not a soul on this campus would have believed him.
"Wow," Ino says, staring at him. Sasuke decides his time is best spent in anything other than this conversation.
"Out of his own—did you make him do it?" Sakura asks, and Naruto—Naruto—
"I mean—yeah, pretty much," he gives Sasuke a nervous glance that matches his smile. "I think he mainly just talked shit in his answers about the whole thing."
Against his will, Sasuke feels his lips twitch. Damn it. He can see Naruto's smile growing from the corner of his eye.
"Although I kinda did too," Naruto says, and Sakura immediately starts scolding him. It's a successful distraction—they're caught up in the fact that people had worked hard on doing a nice thing, and that there was no reason for Naruto to be cruel to them in response. Naruto protests, but doesn't point out the obvious:
They really ought to have been talking to Sasuke.
He pretends not to listen, but he spends most of the afternoon trying to hold himself back from interjecting. Naruto's stupid little glances his way do nothing to help, and neither does his turn down for dinner—
They leave, and Naruto immediately turns his way.
"Sorry for outing you," Naruto says, and Sasuke shakes his head.
"It was mostly my doing," he says. "Are they afraid of me?"
"Are they—huh?"
"Afraid of me," Sasuke repeats. "So they level their criticisms at you."
"Oh," Naruto laughs. "Actually, maybe a little. I dunno. I'm easy to trash talk, though. Don't you do that all the time?"
Naruto has him there. Sasuke loses the fight against a smile in record time.
"You're stupid," he says, tossing his notes to the side. "Why didn't you go with them? Didn't you miss lunch?"
"Yeah, but aren't you cooking that stew thing tonight?" Naruto says. "You think I'm not gonna steal the hell outta that?"
Sasuke props his elbow on the table so he can massage his temple.
"I don't know when we decided that my meals would always be shared," he points out, and Naruto grins.
"Cook worse then," he says. "Can I help? I can cut stuff!"
Sasuke stands.
"You can cut everything," he tells him. "Grab the board."
Naruto leaps to his feet.
It's only after the sun goes down, and Sasuke goes to bed, that Naruto lets himself think. They've got furniture and boxes stacked up in the middle of the room to make it feel like a wall, which lets Naruto sit in bed and stare at it without looking insanely creepy.
And he can't really sleep, anyway.
He doesn't regret filling the thing out, but he—isn't really excited about it, anymore. He doesn't really want it. He's been wanting it less and less. Not that he isn't curious about the answer, he is, but…
Naruto grabs a bit of his blanket and rubs it between his fingers.
He just feels like it's going to…ruin something.
Which is probably wishful thinking. Almost definitely wishful thinking. Just 'cause he'd been having fun with Sasuke didn't mean he had any interest in him at all. It'd pretty much taken them the whole year so far to even get to friends, so—no. There was pretty much no way. And besides—Naruto didn't even know if he was attracted to men at all. The whole Suigetsu thing had thrown him for a loop, but then, that guy just seemed to like saying insane stuff to see what finally got Sasuke to react. The whole flirting bit could've easily been part of that.
But—still.
It kind of sucked to have this thing looming over them. Sasuke would find someone—someone probably pretty perfect, maybe another genius asshole like him—and Naruto—
Well.
People never really stayed too interested in him anyway. He tended to get on people's nerves, the longer he stayed around them. It was why this whole thing with Sasuke had thrown him for such a loop—if anything, all the time they'd been forced to spend together should have had Sasuke hating him more, not less. But he'd just kind of…started to like Naruto. It felt like he'd started to like Naruto. And it felt like Naruto had started to…
…
He bumps his forehead to his knees.
At least—maybe—it would be pretty funny. Sasuke would probably want nothing to do with whoever they paired him with—at least at first. The results were supposed to come first thing in the morning, so…he'd have to be ready by then. Excited by then. Sasuke would know something was up, otherwise.
Naruto breathes in and lays down. His blanket is an old one—given to him by one of his teachers when he'd found Naruto on the swingsets outside, after school, in the winter. He'd given him a coat and mitts and a hat and all that later, too. He still had those. He'd almost lost one of the mittens, once. It had blown right out of his hand when he was putting it on. He spent three days out in the snow, trying to find it.
And he had, eventually. He wouldn't have left, otherwise. He still thinks he wouldn't leave if he'd lost one, even now.
That was the thing about him.
People who did nice things for him just—stayed. In his head. Like he couldn't really forget them. They got locked in the back of his memories as something important and precious, and Sasuke—
Sasuke was going to be one of those people, too.
…
Naruto just didn't know how to let go of something like that.
The next morning, Naruto is immediately bothering him. He'd at least let Sasuke have his desk to himself for the first few hours—given that Naruto had still been asleep—but then he's awake, and Sasuke's checking his email, and Naruto has already spotted the one Sasuke had distinctly left unopened.
"Hey!" Naruto says, hovering over his shoulder. "Isn't that it?"
Sasuke's nerves spike.
He doesn't know why.
This will be a rejection, if anything.
"You can check your own," Sasuke tells him, and Naruto bounces on the spot.
"You're already in your email!" Naruto whines. "Just click on it!"
"Your phone is literally in your hand," Sasuke grumbles, but he clicks on it anyway. Better to get it over with…
Match! Uzumaki Naruto, year 1.
Sasuke stares.
Naruto stares, too.
"Wait," he says, "that's gotta be—hang on. Let me look at mine."
He stares at his phone with a furrowed brow, and there's a stone in Sasuke's stomach. It's making him feel sick.
"Uchiha Sasuke," Naruto reads. "That…"
He trails off. Sasuke suddenly feels as if he's—off balance. Too dizzy to stand. The room feels like it's spinning, he's not even moving—
"That can't be right. They probably just paired the two people that fucked with the survey thing the most," Naruto laughs, and it's filled with nerves. "Right?"
"You wrote on yours, did you?" Sasuke asks quietly, and Naruto nods. It was more rhetorical than anything. Sasuke knew he had.
"Yeah, you—some of the stuff you said made me laugh, so I wrote it in there," Naruto says. "Actually, maybe we wrote similar stuff since we kinda—kinda filled it out together. Right?"
Naruto laughs again, but Sasuke cannot find his humour anymore.
"Right," he says, and he hates how the word makes him ache. He didn't know what he'd been thinking. Of course Naruto would immediately seek a way out of this. What would have possessed him to want this?
Sasuke deletes the email, and goes back to his work.
Naruto…continues to hover over his shoulder.
"Sorry," Naruto says, and Sasuke has an assignment to do. He'll just focus on that.
"Don't be stupid," he says.
"No, it—maybe I should email them," Naruto says, turning around, "'cause that's—that's not really fair, that I screwed up your chances."
"Naruto," Sasuke says, "in no way did I actually want a romance out of this."
"But don't you—don't you want to know? Who they'd actually pair you with?"
Sasuke turns around.
"Wouldn't your time be better spent asking about your actual match?" he points out, and Naruto steps back.
"Well, I—no," Naruto says, "no, I think—um. I mean. I don't think they got it—wrong. For me."
Sasuke stares at him.
"But they obviously did for you!" Naruto says quickly, holding his hands up. "So we should—"
"No," Sasuke interrupts. "Back up. What are you saying?"
"Uh," Naruto says, "I mean—doesn't it—doesn't it make sense? I already speak bastard, so it just—it'd be easy for me, right? 'Cause I know you and I know what you're actually saying and that you get weird quiet when you just want people to leave and angry quiet when people are being too loud and twitchy quiet when you're trying to study but you're too stressed about it, and I—right?"
He looks at him. Sasuke feels frozen.
"Easy," he repeats, and Naruto's panic is visibly rising.
"Not—not easy like that! Easy like—like the feeling could—already be there. Or come—easy. Um," Naruto lets out an alarmed laugh. "I don't feel like I'm explaining this right."
"I don't think you are," Sasuke agrees, "because this is sounding like a confession."
Naruto's face blanches.
Sasuke sits up straight.
"I—I mean," Naruto says, "no, sorry, that—listen, I know that you, obviously, don't want anything to do with someone else, so—forget about it. I'll just—I'll delete the email, too."
He turns around, and Sasuke—stands up to follow him.
He leans against Naruto's desk with his arms crossed.
Naruto looks up at him with utter fear. He doesn't even manage to sit down properly.
"You would surely prefer going out to staying in," Sasuke points out, and Naruto—
"Well I—no," he says, "I kinda wrote that I'd just want to be wherever my, um, my partner was happy."
Sasuke narrows his eyes.
"You must have wanted your partner's favourite colour to be the same as yours," he says, and Naruto—
"No, I—I do like orange, obviously, but I like when orange and blue are next to each other. Like a sunset over the ocean type…thing. Um." He blinks, and then he looks at Sasuke.
"Why?" he asks. "I know yours is blue, but you—you didn't say orange for your partner. You…did you?"
"That's not the question," Sasuke snaps. "I understand that you've spent time getting to know me. I fail to see how any of this is a benefit to you."
Something slowly dawns across Naruto's face.
"Oh," he says, and he finally sits down. "Oh. You think that you…" He flinches, and something incredulous flashes across his face. "You think that the problem is that I won't be happy with you? Not that you won't—"
"That's irrelevant."
"No, it's really not—"
"I don't care," Sasuke snaps. "Answer the question."
"What's in it for me?" Naruto repeats, and Sasuke's nod is a jerk. "Um. Everything?"
Sasuke's lips thin. Naruto's mouth opens and closes.
"I don't—" he says, and he sounds breathless. "I really didn't expect to get this far. Really? Like if I—if I asked you to go on a date, you—"
"Why would you want that?" Sasuke asks, and he can't quite meet Naruto's eye anymore. "I don't understand."
Naruto lets out a soft laugh, and then he puts his face in his hands.
"Because I like you," he mutters, and it's completely muffled. "A lot. Too much. You're funny and stupid and fun and such a dickhead—"
He huffs out a breath and pulls his hands away from his face. He's all flushed, again. He's red, and smiling, and bright blue-eyed.
Sasuke swallows.
Naruto looks up at him like he's the goddamn stars in the sky.
"Stop looking at me like that," he whispers and the apology crosses Naruto's face.
The look doesn't lessen.
"Sorry," he says, but he doesn't look sorry at all. "Do you want to go on a date? Um. You put something about a library, right?"
Sasuke lets out a soft laugh.
"I did," he says. "Fine. We can go to the library."
"Okay! I'll—I'll get my coat!"
Naruto springs to his feet, but Sasuke—
Sasuke just stares at him.
"Okay?" Naruto asks, all bundled up. He'd brought Sasuke his coat, too. "You gonna be warm enough?"
Sasuke takes his coat with a nod. Naruto's smile is blinding.
"What did you say?" Sasuke asks. "For the date."
"Oh, uh," Naruto says, "I think just—anything with food."
He laughs and ducks his head. Sasuke feels a soft smile on his lips.
"The cafe, then," he says. "Come on."
He slips his jacket on, and Naruto forgets his keys. It takes a minute for Naruto to realize Sasuke has obviously remembered his. Sasuke tells him he's an idiot. Naruto tells him he's a dickhead. They make it to the library, and Sasuke orders for them both. They eat in the cafe, and Naruto finds three books he thinks Sasuke might be into. Sasuke spends a good hour flipping between them, with Naruto muttering comments over his shoulder. Sometime during the sunset, Sasuke tilts his head up to look at Naruto, and Naruto's smile falters, for just a split second. His eyes flick down.
…
Sasuke keeps that knowledge to himself, and spends the rest of the night smiling.
(He's the one who kisses Naruto, in the end. About two steps back into their room. Naruto has fifteen missed texts from his friends the next day, begging to know who he matched with. Naruto looks at Sasuke, and Sasuke rolls his eyes, but doesn't move.
…
Naruto sends them a selfie of them both.)
A/N: And that's it! I only have a few more ready. I'm sad to have missed Naruto's birthday, but I can never seem to keep up with everything I want to write all the time haha. Hopefully I'll be able to write a couple more prompts, but regardless - I'll see you on day 18 next!
Until then,
- Kinomi