Author's note: Got some nice sleepy time for you guys!
Thanks to the following reviewers: Iraheta 127; 666snoopy; Kaoribirdy81; Frenchip73; Nellana; richon; sasunaru1214; Kalos; KitsuneJen; SehunsBae37
Warnings: Minor time skips; sleepovers
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Kishimoto owns it.
I hope you'll like this part!
Chapter 5: Softening
Sasuke expected Naruto to start grinning, exclaiming he'd just been joking, but the Omega just looked at him expectantly. He was actually serious?
"A sleepover, really?" he couldn't help but scoff in disbelief. "What are we? Thirteen years old?"
"Hey! Sleepovers are timeless, okay? There's nothing wrong with them, no matter our age!" Naruto protested immediately and punched Sasuke's shoulder.
Sasuke very much doubted sleepovers were truly that timeless, but he felt so drained he couldn't find it in him to keep arguing about it. There was still one issue he couldn't help but point out however.
He shook his head and sighed, "I don't have anything to change into." Sleeping in his clothes would get uncomfortable; he knew from experience. He'd fallen asleep fully clothed a couple of times before and those times hadn't been a pleasant sleep.
Seemingly accepting that as Sasuke's agreement to stay the night, Naruto grinned and crawled off his bed, making his way to his closet. "Don't worry about that; I've got some things you can borrow."
He riffled through his wardrobe for a little while before turning around with a triumphant look on his face, holding up a pair of black shorts and a dark blue shirt in the air. "Here, some shorts and a shirt; they should fit you."
The shirt looked very loose, as if it was several sizes too big. It confused Sasuke, because why would Naruto buy oversized clothes when the rest weren't too big? For some reason Naruto's cheeks started to redden and he shuffled his feet, which only served to confuse Sasuke further, because what could possibly make Naruto feel embarrassed?
"Here, put these on. I'm going to tell my parents you're staying the night," Naruto said abruptly and quickly shoved the bundle in Sasuke's hands before leaving the room to go downstairs.
Sasuke stood there for a moment, staring down at the clothes. A faint scent clung to the fabric; it wasn't a chemical one coming from a fabric softener or some kind of perfume, though. It took Sasuke a couple of seconds before he realised that the scent had to be from Naruto himself. It was a bit surprising that his scent would still cling this strongly to clothes that were freshly washed, but it wasn't as if his scent was unbearable either.
After exchanging his own clothes for the set Naruto let him borrow, he hesitated briefly before exhaling loudly and picking up his phone. He stared down at the dark screen, but it wasn't as if he could get away with not informing him. While the older Alpha could get quite scatter-brained at times, he would notice that Sasuke wasn't spending the night at home.
Me 07.59 p.m.
Spending the night at Naruto's home
If he had nursed the faint hope that Kakashi was too occupied to notice the message, his hopes were instantly dashed not even a minute later when his phone vibrated with an incoming message.
Nosy Idiot 07.59 p.m.
You're staying at his place? What happened?
Perhaps he was still feeling more off kilter than he had expected after having told his story for the first time, maybe it was because for once Kakashi wasn't making a stupid joke, but he found himself replying truthfully to Kakashi's question.
Me 08.00 p.m.
Told him what happened to my family
This time Kakashi's reply took a bit longer to come through.
Nosy Idiot 08.02 p.m.
K, thanks for letting me know. I'll see you in the morning?
Me 08.02 p.m.
Yes
Right as he placed his phone back down, rushing footsteps on the staircase could be heard and a couple of seconds later Naruto stepped back into the room. He appeared a tad surprised to see Sasuke already changed in his clothes and he cleared his throat; a light pink hue still dusting his cheeks.
"They're okay with it. Do you have to call your guardian or so?"
Naruto's parents were completely okay with an Alpha spending the night at their home? Sure, so far they hadn't been rude to him or let him feel unwelcome in any way, but there was a difference between being okay with him spending a couple of hours at their house and him spending a whole night at their place. They really were all right with that?
"They're okay with me staying the night? Just like that?" he asked incredulously.
To be quite honest when Naruto had suggested Sasuke could spend the night, Sasuke had fully anticipated that at best Naruto's parents would allow him to stay a couple of hours longer. Not an actual full night, thought.
"Of course, why wouldn't they be?" Naruto questioned surprised, tilting his head to the left, as if Sasuke was the one asking weird questions here.
"Because I'm an Alpha and you're an Omega?" Sasuke said slowly, furrowing his eyebrows.
He might not be very social, but he was pretty certain that a lot of parents wouldn't be okay with having an Alpha spend a night around their Omega child, whether the kids in question were friends or not. Friendship or love didn't really tend to matter in these cases; a lot of parents simply weren't comfortable with having an Alpha spending the night with their Omega child. It was on the same level of having a boy spend the night at a girl's place.
Naruto laughed merrily and waved his hand, as if the very notion of their Classes potentially being the issue was laughable. "They know we're friends! There's nothing weird about you staying over!"
Well, if Kushina and Minato really didn't have any problems with it, Sasuke wasn't going to keep arguing. It wasn't as if he had been planning on doing something weird anyway.
"Fine, where am I going to sleep then?" he asked, trying to remember if Naruto had mentioned a guest room before.
Naruto's grin became a bit crooked when he answered sheepishly, "Erm, in my bed?"
Sasuke stared at him. This time Naruto really had to be joking, right? There was no way he was actually suggesting Sasuke shared the bed with him.
"What? I don't think you want to sleep on the floor and it's not like we have an extra guest room," Naruto said in defence, pouting slightly.
He actually was serious. Did he possess no self-awareness at all? Or even a shred of self-preservation? Yes, Sasuke wasn't planning on doing anything to him, but it was the principle of things! Honestly, this guy …
"You better not be a kicker," Sasuke warned resigned. "Do you have at least an extra toothbrush?"
"What, afraid you'll get my cooties?" Naruto teased and laughed even when a pillow hit him straight in the face.
Naruto did have a spare toothbrush Sasuke could use. After Sasuke was finished in the bathroom, he made his way back to Naruto's bedroom, picking up the incomprehensible mumbling of the television downstairs.
Naruto was only just pulling down his shirt over his head when Sasuke entered the room, giving the dark haired boy a view of his flat stomach before Naruto wiggled his arms through and shoved his shirt down.
"It took you this long to get changed?" Sasuke asked unimpressed, lifting an eyebrow.
It earnt him a huff and a slap against his arm as Naruto walked past him. "I was putting away my stuff first, dickhead. Didn't think you'd want to sleep on a study book. I'm going to brush my teeth now."
Sasuke hummed in acknowledgement and for a lack of anything better to do until Naruto was back, he also gathered his school supplies and put them in his backpack. There was no point in continuing when he knew he wouldn't be able to concentrate on the assignment.
The rain had let up a little bit by now, the sound of the drops nothing but vague background noise. He sat down on the desk chair, wondering how this sleepover was going to work. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd shared a bed with someone. It had to have been with Itachi, back when he'd still been a little kid. There had been a period of time when he'd been afraid of storms and he would either find himself squished between his parents in their bed or cradled within Itachi's arms in his brother's bed as the older boy would tell him stories to keep his mind off the lightning and the thunder.
Sometimes he hadn't even needed the excuse of a storm to climb in his brother's bed; a nightmare would have been reason enough for it and Itachi had never shooed him off. He might have occasionally teased Sasuke about wanting to share the bed with his big brother, but he had never actually ridiculed him for it.
"All right, you a wall kind of guy or do you prefer to sleep at the door side?" Naruto wandered back into the room, flipping on the light on his nightstand.
Sasuke blinked, not having expected the question. "Don't really have a preference. You?"
"Mum always says I can fall asleep anywhere, so it doesn't matter to me," Naruto replied and lowered the blinds, blocking out most of the rain noise.
Sasuke considered the position of the bed and the open doorway before suggesting, "You the wall side?"
"Sure, sounds good to me," Naruto grinned and instantly crawled underneath the covers. Upon catching Sasuke's blank stare, he flushed slightly, fidgeting with the corner of his blanket. "What? I figured you wouldn't be in the mood for any sort of game after all that. Or aren't you ready to go to sleep yet?"
If he really had to, Sasuke thought he could stay up longer, but truthfully he felt tired. More tired than he normally would be around this hour, but then again, it wasn't every day that he laid his heart bare and confessed what had happened to his family.
So, ignoring the voice that warned him this was pretty inappropriate even with Kushina's and Minato's approval, he went over to the bed and got underneath the covers as well. The heat radiating from Naruto's body was impossible to ignore and he couldn't help but tense up at first; the narrowness of the bed forcing their legs to bump against each other.
Whether conscious of Sasuke tensing up or not, Naruto kept to his side, even pulling his legs away slightly. "Can you turn off the light?"
"Sure," Sasuke muttered and leant over to flip off the switch, blanketing the room in darkness instantly. "Remember," he mumbled as he gingerly laid down and immediately got hit by Naruto's pure scent clinging to both the boy and the pillow, "you kick, I will kick you straight back and out of the bed."
"So violent during your first sleepover," Naruto huffed.
Sasuke was pretty sure he was actually sticking out his tongue right now, so in retaliation he flicked Naruto's shoulder, making the blond boy snicker.
"Yeah, yeah, I remember."
"Good."
He thought it would take him a long time to fall asleep. Not only was this the first time he was sharing the bed with someone since his childhood, but this was also his first time spending the night at another place. The sound of the house settling were different from the ones at the house he shared with Kakashi and he laid there, listening to the pipes clinking quietly and some trees outside noisily creaking their branches. Two cars passed by the house; one engine louder than the others and then the street grew silent once more.
Next to him, Naruto's breathing was gentle, easy, and the mattress groaned softly when he shifted onto his side with his back to Sasuke. This close there was no ignoring his scent nor his proximity and before Sasuke realised it, he was lulled to sleep by the familiar citrus scent lingering all around him.
Naruto accidentally kicked Sasuke once in the middle of the night. Thus Sasuke had no choice but to slip over him and push him straight out of the bed in retaliation, because he had warned him.
"You're such a goddamn dick," Naruto hissed and scrambled back into the bed.
"I warned you," Sasuke mumbled sleepily and smirked when Naruto huffed loudly.
"I'll get you back for this," Naruto warned him, but Sasuke wasn't worried.
It was hard to take a threat seriously when the one uttering it was like a kitten seeking out warmth by burying itself underneath a blanket.
When he woke up a couple of hours later, it was to a weight pinning down his arm and his chest. The blinds hadn't been completely lowered and some early daylight was wriggling its way through the cracks, turning the darkness of the night in the room to a dim one. It was just light enough for Sasuke to look down and see Naruto sprawled on top of him, still fast asleep. His face was slack and peaceful and his fist was loosely curled into Sasuke's shirt, wrinkling the cloth.
He was also incredibly warm, almost too much so, but Sasuke couldn't find it in himself to move. Instead he remained in the same position, watching the dimness of the room lightening up bit by bit while downstairs the first noises of breakfast being prepared could be heard.
He had expected either Minato or Kushina to come check on them, but neither did, and so Sasuke laid there until Naruto finally woke up with a cut off snort, lifting his head off Sasuke's chest.
Naruto looked around confused with half-lidded eyes, rubbing his forehead slowly. His gaze landed on Sasuke then and his eyes cleared up slightly, recognition chasing away the last vestiges of sleep.
"Sorry, were you awake for long?" Naruto apologised immediately and scratched the back of his head. "I tend to sleep long during the weekends."
"Not that long," Sasuke said and for all he knew it wasn't that much of a lie. Time always had an odd way of ticking away when one was in bed anyways.
"Did you sleep well?"
Sasuke hummed in confirmation, which for some reason had Naruto narrowing his eyes and digging the tip of his index finger into Sasuke's sternum.
"Yeah, I bet you did after you kicked me out of my own bed!"
"First off, I warned you what I would do if you ended up kicking me," Sasuke smirked. "Secondly, it's not like I kept you out of your bed entirely after that."
"You wouldn't have even dared to do that," Naruto muttered darkly. "Still think it was a gross overreaction when I didn't even know what I was doing."
"Well, you didn't kick me again, so I guess the lesson stuck," Sasuke said lightly and slipped out of bed before Naruto could swat his arm.
"And people say I'm a menace," Naruto muttered with a pout, before getting out of bed as well.
Once they were finished in the bathroom, they went downstairs where Kushina was making pancakes and Minato was sitting at the table, reading the newspaper and cradling a cup of fresh coffee in his hand. He was the first one to greet them with a smile; his blue eyes gliding from his son to Sasuke without any discernible emotion.
"Good morning. I didn't expect you two to be awake already," Minato said amused.
That had Kushina checking the clock and she whistled in surprise before briefly stepping away from the stove to ruffle Naruto's hair, making him whine and trying to dodge her.
"If we had known having Sasuke stay the night would actually make you get up at a decent hour, we would have suggested a sleepover a long time ago," she joked; her grin widening when Naruto's whining increased.
"Eight thirty is not a decent hour during the weekend, mum," he complained and traipsed over to the stove to look in the pan. "Pancakes?" he said surprised.
She hummed. "Was in the mood for some pancakes," she said airily. "You got a problem with that?"
"Not at all," Naruto grinned and skipped over to the cabinet to grab the chocolate sauce. "Sasuke, you want some pancakes too?"
"Sure," Sasuke agreed easily, because Kushina was giving him that particular look that stated she wouldn't accept a denial out of politeness. She'd given him that look a couple of times before; he was getting better at reading her.
At his agreement, she beamed and flipped over the pancake one last time before sliding it onto a plate and starting on the next one.
When Sasuke sat down, Minato cast him a glance.
"You feeling better?" he asked quietly as Kushina and Naruto started to argue whether whipped cream would be suitable during the morning.
Sasuke had no idea how much Naruto had told his parents, but he nodded. "Yeah, I am."
Because he did. The morning after the anniversary of his family's deaths had never felt this unburdened before. The grief was still there, would most likely never go away entirely, but for some reason breathing and talking … went a lot easier this time.
Kakashi waited until he had closed the front door to ask, "You doing okay?"
"Yeah, I am," Sasuke answered and this might perhaps be the first time he wasn't lying through his teeth when asked this question the morning after.
That was something Kakashi clearly took notice of, because he smiled and crossed his arms, supporting his shoulder against the wall. "I'm glad. How did he take it?"
"He didn't start pitying me or started treating me different, so …" Sasuke shrugged and removed his shoes. "I guess it went as well as could be expected."
"Which is saying a lot considering you never wanted to talk about it before," Kakashi couldn't help but point out.
Sasuke stared down at the floor and pursed his lips. His next exhale left him in a huge sigh and he bent down to grab his house slippers. "Guess he's just easy to talk to," he muttered.
"I guess he is," Kakashi said easily and they shared a companionable silence as Sasuke finished putting on his slippers and hanging his coat away.
Then Kakashi had to go and ruin it like always.
"So considering you sprang that sleepover on me without any warning, I feel the time has come to remind you about the birds and the bees and everything that it entails," he said faux solemnly and ducked out of the way just in time to avoid having a shoe busting up his face.
"You're a goddamn idiot!" Sasuke hissed and stormed upstairs, but not before Kakashi called after him in a sing-song voice, "Just add condoms to the grocery list when you need them, all right, no need to be shy!"
He was an idiot, pure and simple. How the hell nobody had beaten the hell out of him before, Sasuke did not understand.
After the first sleepover, it became easier for Sasuke to let his guard down. He would never personally ask to stay the night, because he didn't want to be presumptuous and he definitely did not want to land on Kushina's and Minato's bad side, but he didn't put up a protest either whenever Naruto would suggest he stayed the night.
He would most likely never admit it aloud, but spending the night with Naruto – it made sleeping easier. It shouldn't be, not after how long he had spent on his own, but it was and it made spending the nights in his own bed a bit harder nowadays. Perhaps it was simply the scent of an Omega being as soothing as all those research papers had claimed it to be. Maybe it was simply because Naruto was his best friend who didn't judge him about his past or regarded him any differently after hearing about it. Whichever it was, the nights spent at the Uzumaki home had Sasuke experiencing a more peaceful sleep than he had had in years.
The more restful nights made it easier to interact with Kakashi as well, a fact which hadn't gone unnoticed naturally by the older man.
"So you've been friends with Naruto-kun for a while now, hm?" Kakashi said the evening after Naruto's birthday.
Sasuke had spent the night at Naruto's place after celebrating his birthday by taking out the blond boy to the local ramen stand. In a morbid way he had been impressed by how many bowls Naruto had managed to put away – his wallet had been slightly less impressed.
Knowing where Kakashi's new subject of conversation was heading, Sasuke found himself wishing he had chosen to spend another night at Naruto's place.
"Yes," he answered curtly, hoping that his tone would make Kakashi back off.
Of course it didn't. It was Kakashi after all.
"How about you bring him over to our place?" Kakashi suggested, idly dipping a piece of chicken in sauce. "I feel like I'm being left behind here with his parents having met you already and me not even knowing how your best friend looks like!"
Sasuke could try to deflect, but there was only so much stalling Kakashi would allow to happen. So resigned, he sighed, "Are you going to behave when I bring him over?"
Kakashi rested his hand against his chest in mock offense. "Of course I'm going to behave! Who do you take me for?"
Somehow that didn't sound as reassuring as it should have.
Sasuke was right to be suspicious.
"He's afraid I'm going to tell you all sorts of embarrassing secrets about him," Kakashi said and winked at Naruto. He was wearing a mouth mask again, getting over a cold.
Sasuke had finally deigned the time ready to introduce Naruto to Kakashi, but he was quickly having doubts about that decision when considering the mischievous glint in Kakashi's eyes.
"You don't have any embarrassing secrets about me, you idiot," Sasuke hissed and kicked him square in his leg.
"He's always such a delight to have around," Kakashi snorted and lazily returned the kick while Naruto stared at the both of them baffled. "I'm glad to finally get to know you, though, Naruto-kun. I was wondering who had managed to crack his shell." His dark eyes definitely glittered now.
"Erm, well, it's nice to meet you too," Naruto smiled friendly.
He clearly had no idea that being friendly to Kakashi was like giving him a hand and not expecting him to take the whole arm with it. His naivety was an endearing but dangerous trait to have around someone like Kakashi.
"Well, you've seen him, we're going to my room now. We have a literature test tomorrow and I need to help him study," Sasuke said tersely, wanting to get upstairs as quickly as possible before Kakashi really started proving he was an idiot. He stood up and tugged Naruto up by his arm.
Kakashi's eyes positively shone evilly when he chuckled, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."
This time he was too late to duck and the magazine hit him square against his head.
While Sasuke spent a lot of nights in Naruto's room, the both of them had an unspoken agreement that Sasuke stayed away during those days when Naruto's heat arrived. They never discussed it, but Sasuke figured that Naruto would be more at ease when he wouldn't be around during that time. A heat was a very private matter and Sasuke didn't want to make Naruto uncomfortable.
Naruto's heats in general wasn't something they discussed, though Sasuke had a feeling they could be quite annoying at times. Naruto never directly complained about them, which made his text in December all the more surprising.
Naruto 03.36 p.m.
Fuck this heat. It can go fuck itself with a rusty nail
The rather explicit complaint had Sasuke blinking. He knew Naruto's heat had started yesterday; not only because Naruto had texted him about it, but also because his scent had changed in that peculiar way it always did whenever he approached his heat. Sasuke didn't know whether Naruto was aware of it, but his scent would always subtly change whenever he was about to enter his heat. He wouldn't even need to text Sasuke to warn him; his scent was enough of a warning.
This was, however, the first time Naruto actually complained about his heat to him. He didn't think the other boy really expected an answer – what did one even say to a text like this one? But, he rolled his lower lip between his teeth, he wanted to do something all the same. Wasn't there something he could do to help Naruto out?
He mulled this over as he walked to his car. Hadn't there been something on those forums he'd read a while ago? Something about an Alpha's scent? And clothes?
He rapped his fingers against his steering wheel when the memory of that forum fully resurfaced. Right, one of the members there had said that having an Alpha's scent during their heat really helped them out. Could that be something he could do for Naruto? He could drop off a shirt of him; maybe that could make his heat slightly more bearable?
It was worth a try.
Kushina opened the door with a surprised smile. "Hey there, Sasuke-kun. Didn't expect to see you today."
"I was doing the laundry when I realised I had accidentally taking a shirt of Naruto's back home," he lied with a straight face and handed over one of his white shirts. "I figured I would drop it off before I forget it again."
As openminded as Kushina and Minato were, he wasn't certain whether "Your son is in heat and I read that an Alpha scent might help him. Would you mind giving him one of my shirts?" would go over that well. They still might take it the wrong way and he didn't want to piss them off or bring out their protective instincts.
"Oh, you shouldn't have gone through the trouble," she reassured him but accepted the shirt. "Thanks for dropping it off. I'll give it back to him."
"No problem. Tell him he can text me when he's feeling better. I'll collect his homework in the meantime," he said before going back to his car.
He wasn't certain whether his shirt would really be that much of a help, but at least he had tried. Hopefully it would help ease Naruto's discomfort somewhat.
AN2: Yes, Sasuke, your shirt will definitely ease Naruto's discomfort ...
Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.
I hope to see you all back in the next chapter! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!
Cuddles
Melissa
P.S. For more information about my upcoming and posted stories, please visit my profile.
