Disclaimers: I'll say this and I'll keep saying it until my stories are done: I do not in any way word or form, paper or digital, reality or fantasy, do not own anything in the Naruto verse. I only own my OC and that's fine with me.
Author's Note: for the life of me I could not top that last chapter LoL But alas I've come up with something that has made my tooth ache in sweetness. Yes, it has taken me this long due to the fact I wanted something…. Just something and this just might be it. This is short yet sweet and next chapter's up in a couple days. Hope you all Enjoy!
Dinner Laundry
5 blocks away in some other direction, I wasn't looking, the boys stopped or more like Sasuke stopped and dropped Naruto on the dirt, who is still slurping his noodles and not knowing what just happen.
"Hey old man-" Looking up from the now finished bowl, Naruto raised his hand to gesture for the man that runs the ramen stand but stopped, looking stumped at this change of scenery.
'How in the hell did I get here?' he thought to himself and when he looked up to see Sasuke swiping the sweat off his forehead did it click.
"What the Hell Sasuke! Can't a guy enjoy a bowl of ramen without you going psycho over a couple girls mooning over you?"
"Mooning over-. Naruto were you even listening to what they were saying?" Sweeping his arm in the direction of where they just come from.
"They were talking about you so I tuned out" Standing Naruto dusted himself off
"They were talking about us, like we were-" Sasuke couldn't finish that sentence without blushing and Naruto noticed the slip.
"Like what Sasuke? Like we were… on a date?" Naruto smirked when Sasuke whipped his head at him and tilted his head at the dark hair genius.
"I dunno what you're worried about Sasuke-kun, those girls didn't seem to mind if you have a little rendezvous with little ole me" that blush that was kept back with a good control broke at Naruto's words and at Naruto's slowly coming closer.
"But like I said: it'll be Sakura-chan or Ino before it's me" Flicking a finger at Sasuke with that Naruto turned and walked away.
"You are going to buy me dinner since you interrupted me at a much needed binged ramen eating, Sasuke-teme and believe me: it won't be cheap!"
OOOOO
Indeed it was true, it wasn't cheap and at the end, Sasuke was in debt to the restaurant owner.
"Idiot. You knew I didn't carry that kind of cash with me"
"Of course I did but if it weren't for you taking me away from that much needed ramen then you wouldn't be in this mess" Rubbing his stomach and smiling at the dark haired Genin as he glared at his blonde haired teammate. "Besides, I distinctly remember someone saying they do 'anything' to get out of a situation"
Sasuke groaned and Naruto laughed, clapping him on the back. Sasuke ignored Naruto for the most part, going as far as not paying attention to where they went and like earlier when Sasuke first walked out his apartment building, didn't know where they were headed until Naruto stopped but Sasuke kept going. Noticing the absentness to his sides, Sasuke turned around:
"Why'd you stop for?"
"Cause you live here?" Sasuke looked up too see that indeed it is his building.
"Oh" Sasuke tried not to sound disappointed but the thought of going home alone didn't sound right anymore. Naruto noticed of course and gave a small smile, shoving Sasuke to the entrance.
"Grab an overnight bag, Sasuke and I'll wait" Walking over to the entrance steps, Naruto sat down and waved Sasuke to the door. Showing nothing on the outside, Sasuke nodded and walked in but once the door closed behind him did Sasuke smiled and rushed up the steps.
As Naruto sat outside watching the stillness the evening brought and listening to the occasional meow or bark from a distance, he was shaken from his scoping by Sasuke.
"You ready?" Naruto ask as he stood up and dusted his jeans. Sasuke nodded and they took off, not laying a word on their way to Naruto's building.
Once they got inside Naruto apartment, Sasuke tossed his bag in the room and went to the kitchen to pour himself some water. Naruto shook his head and went to the room to change out of the red shirt to a more comfortable one. Picking up a laundry basket, he filled it with Sasuke's dirty clothes from the room and the bathroom. When he got out of the bathroom with a pile of clothes did Sasuke notice.
"What are you doing?"
"What we are doing, teme, is that we are going down to the laundry room so you can do your laundry. I'll hang out with you until they are finish but I'm not touching your clothes again until they are clean and ready to be folded" Shoving the basket to Sasuke, Naruto smiled and went to the room again to pick up a deck of cards because it's gonna be a long night, plus the detergent and dryer sheets. Holding the basket full of his clothes, Sasuke stared at Naruto for a second before giving a small smile and headed out the door after the blonde.
"I didn't know you had a laundry room in this building, I don't see you doing your laundry"
"True, but have you seen any of my dirty clothes lying around" Sasuke shakes his head "That's because while we are busy at school, training or whatever, my clones clean my apartment and do the laundry"
Sasuke stops on the main floor and thought about it as Naruto kept going to the lower level to where the laundry room is.
Sasuke has noticed the apartment is neater, he doesn't really see any of Naruto's dirty laundry lying around like he used to when he first came by and the only cleaning they do is the dishes after they finish eating. Shrugging it off, Sasuke followed the blonde down to the lower level. Coming to the open doorway, he can see Naruto getting 3 of the washers ready for Sasuke. Looking around the room, you can see the washers are on the right side of the wall while the dryers are on the left side and in the middle is a table long enough with a sink on the far side ahead.
"Now then, do you remember how to do laundry?" Sasuke's eye twitch at that
"Of course I do dobe" He growls at Naruto who hold up his hands
"Alright, sheesh, just asking. Do what you gotta do and I'll get the cards ready. Detergent is there" Pointing to the box on one of the washers, Naruto jumped on one side of the table and began to shuffle. Sasuke got to work in dividing the clothes to whites, color and dark to each of the washers, adding the measured detergent and pushing the right buttons, the washer came to life to do what it's made to do. Dusting his hands, Sasuke jumped up on the other side of the table and waited on Naruto to start dealing.
"Alright, aces low, Kings high and bets? No bets this round" Naruto animatedly said while dealing.
"Bets? What would we bet?" Naruto shrugged at Sasuke's question.
"I dunno, anything we have in our pockets…. or cookies" Sasuke smiled at Naruto's eyes lighting up at the mere thought of betting cookies.
"Yeah, I don't think any of the stores are open this late and you are going to need to go shopping soon by the looks of the cupboards this morning" Pick up this hand of cards, Sasuke arranged a couple before tossing 1 away.
"Yeah, can do that tomorrow after training or whatever we are doing with Kakashi" Naruto also rearranged his hand, tossed 1 and picked up a card.
"Hn"
Tossing a card and picking up a card.
Tossing a card and picking up a card.
Tossing a card and picking up a card
"Aha! Gin!" Throwing his hand down, Naruto made a full house, making him the winner of this round.
"That was quick" Sasuke comment as he showed his hand of an almost royal flush and tossed them with the pile. Gathering the cards, Sasuke began shuffling them while Naruto sat across smiling on his first win.
"You know, if we were betting, I would have been munching on cookies right now"
"True, then in the end I'll win due to the fact that I'll still have my cookies and you'd have none left" Dealing the cards, Sasuke smirked at a sheepish looking Naruto who is rubbing the back of his head. Picking up his hand, Naruto tossed 1 after arranging them. Sasuke did the same and the game continued.
Minutes passed without a word from either, except:
"Gin"
Minutes passed again.
"Gin" A chuckle
Minutes again
"Gin" a growl
Minutes
"Gin" an irritated hiss.
"Naruto, you're cheating!" Sasuke accused a laughing Naruto, throwing his cards down and leveling Naruto with a glare
"How?" Naruto smirked but the buzzer rang from the washers, signaling they are done.
"I don't know how but you are cheating" jumping off the table and going to the washers to unload to the basket to the dryers on the other side of the room. Tossing in the dryer sheet, Sasuke closed all 3 of the dryers and stomped back to the table. Snatching the deck of cards, Sasuke pointed a finger at Naruto.
"I'll be dealing from now on so I know you're not cheating" Shuffling the cards.
Naruto gasped and brought a hand to his chest in mock hurt.
"That hurts, Sasuke. That you would think I could cheat" Chuckles then waves it off "You don't have anything to bet with so I ask: why would I cheat"
"Aha, so if we were betting then you would have cheated, I knew it!"
"I didn't say that"
"It was implied"
"No it wasn't"
"Yes it was"
"No it wasn't"
"Yes. It. Was" Dealing the cards without breaking eye contact, the 2 stared for a good hard minute. Then Naruto blew some air and broke the contact. Silence as Naruto picked up his cards and looked at his hand, pressing his lips together, tossed a card.
"OK, riddle me this then genius: How could I cheat when we were taking turns shuffling and dealing the cards while each of us was paying attention to the other?"
Sasuke brows furrowed at the question, how indeed did Naruto cheat if he himself was dealing the cards too? Looking up and over Naruto's clothes, he can tell there's no way to hide anything in the short sleeves of his tee or his jean shorts plus Naruto has been fidgeting, finding a comfortable way to sit for a long period of time could get to you. So from all that fidgeting, not once did Sasuke see anything being hidden from him underneath Naruto and tossed a card.
"Ok, I'll give you that. BUT I know you've been cheating, how else could you win every game we've played" Naruto snorted.
"Maybe because you suck at cards, Gin" Showing his hand to a stunned dark haired teammate.
Sasuke growled in frustration and roughly tossed his card on the table. Reaching over and grabbing the blonde by his shirt, Sasuke jerked him closer until they are nose to nose.
"How did you cheat" Sasuke quietly said through clenched teeth.
"heh heh, Sasuke" Naruto chuckled nervously and patted Sasuke's hand on his shirt to try to calm him down.
"How" Sasuke asked again, tightening his grip.
"I didn't. You weren't paying attention to the cards you were throwing and it was the cards I needed to win. You helped me, Sasuke" the grip loosen.
"What"
"You were paying more attention to what I was doing then what cards you were throwing, that's how I won" Grip is gone, Sasuke is confused and Naruto watched as he shifted away so he doesn't get man handled like earlier.
Realizing that Naruto is right, Sasuke buried his face in his hands and groaned. After a minute, Sasuke rubbed his face and picked up the cards, shuffling them.
"Okay: new game. Crazy eights countdown and loser folds my laundry" Dealing the cards.
"You're on and you're gonna lose teme" Picking up his hand when Sasuke finished and put the deck of cards down only to pick up one card and drop it face up.
"Yeah right, there's no way to cheat in this game dobe" and the game begins.
OOOOO
30 minutes later the air in tense, so tense you can cut it with a kunai to butter your toast and neither of the boys are letting up. So intense that when one lady came down to do her laundry, she felt the air and turned right back out, neither boy noticed of course.
One last card held in each hand as Sasuke other hand is on top of the cards, ready to flip.
Naruto held his breath.
The card is flipped.
But neither moved.
It's not a card they were looking for. Hand ready to flip another card and both boys held their breath.
Flip and whoosh!
"I win!" both shouted at the same time when they slammed down their cards simultaneously.
"No I win!"
"No I win!"
"I win!"
'BUZZZZZ!' the dryer signaled and ended the boys shouting match. Sasuke got off the table and grabbed the basket to fill with the now dry clothes while Naruto gathered the cards and put them away. Jumping off the table just as Sasuke came back and dumped the clothes on the table. The boys began folding items of clothing, Naruto passing any under garments to Sasuke who took them and set them aside. Then Naruto started chuckling.
"What's so funny dobe?"
"Just realized something teme"
"What?" Naruto chuckled some more
"Why did you grab another overnight bag when we just did your laundry" Here Naruto laughed out loud when Sasuke stopped, thought it over and face palmed his face.
"Idiot"
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