The war hadn't even ended two months ago and Sasuke was already prepared to start another, if only to escape the incessant boredom his life had become since.

That wasn't strictly fair, if he's being honest. And if there's one thing he has time for now, its brutal honesty. There's little else to fill his waking hours, now that he's been released from the dank seclusion of Konoha's prison system. Still, he can't help but complain, if only to himself as he sulks on Kakashi's tiny sofa for the third day in a row.

Even his probationary host seems to pick up on his doldrums.

"This isn't quite what I imagined when I agreed to supervise your house arrest," the man comments blithely as he sets a plate of impeccably prepared gyoza on the side table to Sasuke's right. It's the one positive to living with the man— Sasuke's hasn't had an honest home-cooked meal in years, and his former teacher's aptitude in the kitchen had been a pleasant surprise, "I had prepared for more… megalomania. Or something."

"Sorry to disappoint," Sasuke mutters, fingering one of the dumplings contemplatively, not even bothering with the chopsticks placed neatly to the side. They're sure to be delicious, but he isn't all that hungry these days.

"You used to be interesting," Kakashi sighs, "Troubled and unstable, sure. But I thought you and Naruto had worked through all that. What's happened to you?"

"It isn't that simple," Sasuke scoffs.

Because it isn't as if one fraught, cleansing exchange at the base of a battle torn valley was enough to fix everything that was wrong with the world. With them. With himself.

It isn't as if he wants to feel like this. Unsettled. Despondent. Aimless.

"Naruto's been asking about you," Kakashi notes, switching gears with transparent intent, "I expected you two would pull some sort of stunt to sneak you out of here, if I'm being honest."

Sasuke curls in on him self, slouch deepening.

He hasn't seen Naruto since he was released from his incarceration.

Kakashi doesn't seem dissuaded by his reticence, "Mah, I see you, you know. You aren't sleeping."

"I sleep fine."

"Is that why you spend half the night staring out my window then?"

Kakashi's wrong. Sasuke can sleep just fine. He just doesn't want to—the twinkling of Konoha's autumnal sky more of a refuge than his dreams of late.

And if he sees a falling star and makes an idle wish, well—what does he have to lose at this point?

Two days later, and it isn't Kakashi who shoulders open the apartment door.

"Oi—bastard!"

Sasuke twists around from where he'd been standing before Kakashi's mounted book shelf, staring at the book spines and contemplating… something drastic.

Naruto's abrupt arrival certainly douses that horrible impulse swiftly enough.

"What the fuck are you still doing here, huh?" Naruto shouts, stomping into the apartment and looking ready to shake Sasuke by his collar. He's wearing a green t-shirt and obnoxious orange shorts—looking so foolish and casual Sasuke feels his brain forcefully recalibrate.

"I'm under house arrest," Sasuke reminds him, scowl curling over his features, "I'm supposed to be here."

"As if anyone actually expected you to do that," Naruto scoffs, crossing his arms— whole and prosthetic—over his chest, "You're just being a stubborn dick—but what else is new, y'know!"

"… The terms of my probation were very clear," Sasuke feels the need to remind him.

Granted, it isn't those terms that kept him stoically homebound—he has enough sense to acknowledge that at least.

"Fine—whatever," Naruto huffs, tossing himself on the couch in a flop of limbs, "We'll just hang out here then if you're gonna be like that."

Sasuke blinks. What the fuck was Naruto talking about? Hanging out? They've never done anything of the sort without some sort of precedent—training or missions or finding increasingly ridiculous ways of clocking what their teacher looked like under that mask of his.

"That isn't necessary," Sasuke says—though even as he voices the words, a trio of clones is storming through Kakashi's door, arms piled high with bags and boxes.

The fuck—was Naruto moving in?

The alarming thought dissolves quickly enough, as the bunshin begin to unload their bounty. A slew of takeout containers and most bafflingly—alcohol bottles.

"Hey— what's all that?" Naruto jerks up from the sofa, waving his arms erratically at the spread before picking up a bottle of what Sasuke recognizes as high quality sake, "I didn't tell you to buy this!"

"We didn't buy it," one of the clones squawks defensively, yanking the bottle from his progenitor, "Baa-chan did!"

"Well take it back!"

"But we just brought it all here," the clone whines, "It's heavy, y'know!"

"It's fine," Sasuke interjects, wandering over to the table to inspect the haul for himself, picking up a bottle of umeshu and scrutinizing the label.

"Whadya mean 'fine'?" Naruto huffs, "Drinking is one of the shinobi prohibitions, stupid."

"Since when do you care about shit like that?" Sasuke asks, twisting the cap off the wine with his teeth and taking a cursory sniff of the contents, "Booze, money, women—as if that sort of thing has any bearing on a shinobi's skills."

"I know that," Naruto sneers, picking up a bottle of his own to glare at it critically, "I mean, Ero-sennin and Baa-chan are proof of that, aren't they? Hey, was Orochimaru—?"

"You don't want to know."

"… Yeah, probably not, y'know," Naruto frowns at his bottle thoughtfully, "What about you though?"

Sasuke glances at him through his lengthening fringe, "What do you mean?"

"I dunno," Naruto hedges, fidgeting with the label on the bottle in hand, "I mean—I guess you haven't really been doing much about money, right? But the other ones—is that something—"

"As if I'd care about anything like that," Sasuke grunts, even as he takes an experimental swig of the wine, "But there's a first time for everything, isn't there?"

At this point, it really couldn't hurt, could it? Maybe it would take the edge off the pervasive feeling of despondence that haunts his steps these days.

At least that's what's Sasuke tells himself as he takes another swig.

Across the table Naruto throws up his hands, dispelling the clones in three wispy puffs of smoke as the original reaches for a bottle of his own, "Whatever, weirdo. Though if you turn out to be some kinda drunk I'm gonna be so pissed, y'know."

As it turned out, maybe there was something to this drinking oneself into oblivion thing after all. Sasuke should have learned by now not to be so presumptive.

Though that wasn't the only thing he learned.

Even through the haze of intoxication that settles over his thoughts, it is readily apparent that he and Naruto are not having the same experience.

"Why isn't it working?" Naruto grumbles, grimacing as he tosses back the last of the fifth bottle of sake he's finished by himself.

From his own lackadaisical sprawl across the couch Sasuke watches on in muted amusement as Naruto starts turning over bottles, only to be met with meager drops for his trouble. For himself, Sasuke has been nursing his second bottle of plum wine for the last hour after draining his first. And if the way the world's edges have become soft and vague was any indication, he would say the swill is working just fine.

Privately, Sasuke thinks it's likely the Kyuubi's influence fucking with Naruto's metabolism.

"Perhaps you just haven't had enough," he says instead.

"We don't have anymore," Naruto throws up his hands, "Because someone broke half the bottles—"

"That someone was you."

"Only because you wouldn't share the stuff that doesn't taste like ass, ya know," Naruto shouts, waving his hands over the collateral damage of their resulting scuffle.

Sasuke shrugs, taking another pointed gulp of his very much palatable drink.

"Ugh, fine," Naruto frowns, forming a familiar hand seal.

The clone that appears holds out its hand expectantly, and Naruto hands over a swollen green bundle that has Sasuke sitting up in his seat.

"You still have that thing?" Sasuke asks as the clone wanders out the door.

"What thing?" Naruto mumbles as he cracks open a take out container of noodles.

"That… thing you call a wallet," Sasuke mumbles, hauling himself off the couch to join Naruto at Kakashi's table, lured by the smell of food— he's starving all of a sudden, "Why haven't you gotten rid of it?"

"Why would I get rid of Gama-chan?" Naruto asks in clear alarm, "I love him!"

"Because it's a coin purse and it's old," Sasuke sniffs taking another drink as he pokes through the boxes and containers of food, "Isn't it about time you got a real wallet?"

"Shut the fuck up," Naruto snaps, chucking a pair of chopsticks at Sasuke's head that he entirely fails to dodge—maybe there was something to that booze prohibition, at least, "I won't let you disparage Gama-chan like that—take it back!"

Sasuke snorts, looking up from his scavenging to meet furious blue eyes, "It's just a dumb purse—what's the big deal?"

"He's not just a purse," Naruto snarls with rising ire, "Ugh, you wouldn't understand!"

"I wouldn't?"

"No!"

"Why not?"

"… Because, ya know!"

Sasuke watches Naruto carefully—the hunched shoulders, the fidgeting hands, the way his eyes refuse to meet Sasuke's. Naruto's being evasive, and Sasuke isn't sure why. But he has enough self awareness at this point to recognize the way his heart measurably softens at Naruto's protectiveness of the stupid little purse.

Even after all this time…

It isn't as if he doesn't know what Naruto's referring to, after all. Maybe it was time to come clean—what did he have to lose at this point?

"Because it was a present?" Sasuke asks blithely. When Naruto's startled gaze snaps to his own, Sasuke doesn't look away, "You didn't get any presents growing up—you think I wouldn't understand something like that?"

"No—yes," Naruto sighs, swiping an agitated hand through his hair, "I dunno—it's different, okay? And that—that's fine. We don't gotta understand everything about each other all the time. It's okay."

"But why wouldn't I understand this," Sasuke doubles down, liquor making him dogged and bold about it in a way he knows he couldn't otherwise be, "You should know I—"

"You didn't," Naruto cuts him off, looking away, "Not like this."

"… Will you let me finish?" Sasuke huffs, but hands over what remains of his plum wine, as an olive branch—Naruto accepts it with eager hands, "You should know I know all about your wishes, usuratonkachi."

"My what?" Naruto blinks at him over the lip of the bottle.

"Wishes, idiot."

"… Did Sakura-chan tell you or something?"

It's Sasuke's turn to blink in bewilderment.

"Sakura?" he asks blearily, "What would she know about it?"

"What wouldn't she know about it?" Naruto asks pointedly, confused frown fading into a scowl, "As if she wasn't there, asshole."

"… I don't think we're talking about the same things anymore," Sasuke murmurs, almost to himself.

"I think you're drunk and not making any sense," Naruto whines, waving his arms about and spraying the both of them in wine in the process, "And I can't so it's not fair!"

"That wallet," Sasuke says, slowly, for Naruto's benefit and his own as he organizes his spinning thoughts, "It was a birthday present, wasn't it?"

Naruto stills, looking at Sasuke with open suspicion.

"Yeah… yeah it was. How would you know that?"

"Who did you think got you the stupid thing?"

Silence reigns between them for a few long beats. But it doesn't last long before—

"Eh?!" Naruto gasps, reeling back from the table, "That was you?"

"I thought you would have figured it out ages ago," Sasuke scoffs, peering down into his drink self-consciously, "Perhaps I overestimated your abilities after all."

"How would I have—no, no, no, hold up. That was you?"

"Obviously."

"Not obviously, you—you shitbag!"

"Is that how you treat people who gives you gifts?"

"No! I—shut up! What would you even know about it, huh?"

"Giving gifts?" Sasuke asks, dragging a finger around the lip of his bottle, casting Naruto what he hopes is a knowing look, "Or making wishes?"

Naruto freezes, mid-tirade.

"W-wishes?" he stammers, folding his arms over his chest, "Who said anything about—I didn't—s-stop saying weird shit. You're drunk and I don't wanna deal with you complaining about it tomorrow."

"Who says I would complain about it?" Sasuke asks, "And what's more—that I would complain to you specifically?"

"Of course you'll complain, you stoic idiot," Naruto huffs petulantly, "And who the fuck else are you gonna complain to? And don't pretend Kakashi-sensei, because he's already told me how you're tight lipped as shit with him."

"… As if he's the only person I know."

"Oh yeah?" Naruto asks, "Who else have you spoken to in the last, like—three weeks?"

"… Shut up."

"That's what I thought," Naruto smirks, "Looks like you're stuck with me until you learn to play nice again."

"I didn't ask you to come here, you know."

"You didn't have to, stupid."

Sasuke pauses, remembering quite clearly the view of the night sky through Kakashi's window the night before.

"Is that so?" he wonders distantly.

"Yeah," Naruto answers absently, turning back to his—second—carton of ramen, "Get used to it, y'know."

Get used to it, huh? Get used to what, exactly. Sasuke can't help but wonder.

So much was different now. So much had irreversibly changed in no time at all—and almost all of it at the hands of the very man before him, inhaling ramen like it was air and not a recipe for a heart attack. How was Sasuke supposed to get used to a force of nature like Uzumaki Naruto?

Probably not getting drunk with the idiot would have been a good place to start. As it is, Sasuke can feel his faculties slipping farther and farther out of reach, as the drink further winds its hazy grip around him.

And yet he can't seem to stop. Thinking, drinking, talking—he would be better off not, he knows. And yet the loose limbed ease that the indulgence offers is too comfortable to ignore.

"Why would you even do something like that?" Naruto says out of nowhere, causing Sasuke's muddled thoughts to come crashing to a halt, not following the moron at all.

"… What?" he asks, before it occurs to him to cover up his [WORD] state.

He very nearly falls out of his seat, glancing over at Naruto and seeing the obscenely fond look being directed his way, where Naruto has his cheek pillowed on his arm now.

Naruto snorts, breaking whatever tenderness had caught Sasuke so off guard, "Since when did ever go around giving out presents. We didn't even know each other like that."

"Tch," Sasuke scoffs, hating the way his face heats, "You already know."

"Know what?"

"That I…" Sasuke hedges, "That it wasn't so simple."

"Huh," Naruto mutters, sitting up and rubbing his nose, "I guess. Still a little weird though, y'know."

"It isn't weird," Sasuke answers blandly, oddly defensive, "I heard you that day. At the river."

All at once Naruto's face shutters, "What?"

Glancing at the ceiling, the memory washes over Sasuke.

"'I don't want anyone spitting on me or stealing my stuff,'" Sasuke recites, "'I don't want anyone breaking my stupid windows or turning off my damn heat! I just want everyone to leave me the fuck alone. And would it kill anyone to give me a birthday present for once.' That's what you said."

"I know what I said," Naruto bristles, "You were spying on me?"

"Yep," Sasuke answers with remarkably little shame, still staring at the ceiling.

What was the point in lying, at this point? He had very much been spying, back then. Oddly compelled and curious about his strange, lonely classmate.

It's a feeling that happens to resonate with how he feels now. About Naruto. About this compulsion that exists between them, that he'd fought for so long. And yet here it is, warm and tight in his chest. Even that nascent curiosity is there, waiting. Wondering. Who is Naruto now? Who are they now, after the ravages of time and trials and trauma? Sasuke doesn't know.

"I want to know," Sasuke finds himself saying allowed.

Looking understandably befuddled, Naruto cocks his head and asks for the second time, "Know what?"

"You," Sasuke answers simply, "Me. Us."

Perhaps if he were less drunk. Less lost. Less lonely. Just less, he would feel embarrassed about the vulnerability, but he's not. At the end of the day, the terrible things Naruto knew about Sasuke vastly outweighed any humiliation he could bring upon himself now. The room's gentle spinning also does a lot to quell any unease.

At least until his vision is suddenly filled by tanned skin and blue eyes, and Sasuke finds himself in rearing back, and once again nearly toppling from his seat. Startled and dismayed by the sudden proximity.

It's only when his gaze slides to Naruto's lips that he realizes the idiot is actually speaking to him.

"—better not be fucking with me, y'know. Because it's not fuckin' funny! What the fuck does all that mean?"

"Why would I be fucking with you?" Sasuke asks, blinking lazily, "What would be the point?"

"I don't know," Naruto shouts, throwing his hands in the air, "I just don't get you sometimes. Fuck—I think you've had enough," Naruto says, reaching to take the nearly drained bottle from Sasuke.

Sasuke scowls, pulling it farther out of reach, "Hey—"

"No, no, I think you're done for tonight, y'know—"

Sasuke arches his back to keep the bottle out of reach, made more difficult by the way Naruto scrambles into his lap in pursuit. Neither of them realize what they're doing until it's too late, Naruto his craning over him and Sasuke can feel the front two legs of the chair coming up off the ground—

And then they're falling— the world spins, but Sasuke hardly feels the impact of meeting the floor because plush lips are mashed up against his own for the third time in their lives.

For a long moment he's too stunned to even react. How many times can this possibly happen to two people before it isn't just coincidence?

But then the alarm fades once more, lost beneath the tides of his swimming coherence, and things go… fuzzy.

He doesn't know how long his fugue lasts— just that when his attention returns, his arm his around broad shoulders and Naruto's lips are still very much smothering his own.

Or more accurately— he realizes with a jolt— his are doing the smothering, because Naruto isn't actually moving at all.

Pulling back, Sasuke winces as his head collides with the hardwood floor. Above him, Naruto looks gobsmacked. Frozen in something like catatonia as he stares down at Sasuke with a blank look.

Sasuke licks his lips, strangely unbothered, "Hn. Sorry."

Naruto's mouth opens and closes a few times before he manages to croak out, "Sorry? That's it?"

"…Yes?" Sasuke asks, confused. Naruto's reaction makes him feel like he's done something wrong, but he just can't place what right now.

Naruto sighs feelingly as he sits up, wiping the back of his bandaged wrist over lips Sasuke can't seem to stop staring at. He's still in Sasuke laps when he says, "C'mon, jerk—let's get you to bed."

"Hmm," Sasuke agrees, despite not actually understanding what's being asked of him until Naruto is suddenly standing, hauling Sasuke up with him.

The room spins, and Sasuke distantly hears the hollow clatter of a bottle being kicked aside and Naruto fumbling with something, before he's suddenly on his back, splayed out across Kakashi's spare futon. Naruto had rolled it out beneath the window, leaving Sasuke staring up at the sky.

"Just go to sleep, idiot," someone says, "I'll still be here when you wake up, I promise. Even if you're probably gonna wish I wasn't, y'know."

He vaguely feels a warm presence at his side, shifting a blanket over him before harsh fluorescent light is gone and Sasuke sighs in relief.

The stars are hidden by clouds tonight. That's the last thing he consciously thinks before he's slipping away, caught up by sleep's insistent currants.

When he wakes, it can't be long after, he knows. The sky is still dark out the window, and Naruto is still cuddled up next to him, snoring softly. Despite the unsettling experience of his blurry memory, Sasuke hasn't forgotten. What he'd said. What he'd done. But he must still be a little drunk, because panic doesn't immediately grip him.

He's too tired for it, he thinks. It's easier to just… drift. Accept what happened for what it was. Stomaching the consequences can be a problem for tomorrow Sasuke.

With a grunt, he turns onto his stomach under the blanket. Rubbing his crusted eyes with his fist, he turns his sights on the sky once more.

The clouds are gone.

The snoring stops.

Sasuke allows his gaze to drift over to where Naruto is curled on his side, watching Sasuke watch the stars.

Choosing to ignore him, Sasuke looks away. As always, the stars welcome his attention.

"Do you ever make wishes?" Naruto asks softly, as Sasuke hears him shift gently beneath their covers.

Kakashi must be home, if Sasuke had to guess. Nothing else explains Naruto's quiet restraint. God knew Sasuke had given him enough ammunition for a proper tantrum, before passing out.

"I suppose," Sasuke answers, bolstered by the silent shield of Kakashi's hidden presence.

Naruto hums, but doesn't otherwise respond.

Eventually, his silence draws Sasuke's gaze once more— almost convinced his friend had fallen asleep once more, if not for his unnatural stillness.

"You?" Sasuke asks.

"Yeah," Naruto says, voice rough, "But that probably doesn't surprise you."

Sasuke nods. It doesn't.

He doesn't even need to ask what Naruto might've wished for, remarkably confident in what Naruto's silence says so loudly.

Naruto's eyes look almost silver, in the moonlight streaming through the window. It looks wrong. Sasuke didn't even know he'd held any sort of opinions about Naruto's appearance, until tonight. But he's filled with them, in that moment.

Whether its more of that peculiar confidence or the residual effects of the alcohol, Sasuke doesn't know—but he leans over Naruto anyway. Not expecting anything, but also expecting… everything. All at once.

This time, it's Naruto's arms that wind around Sasuke's shoulders.

Maybe there's something to this wishing business after all.

14