Naruto followed Sasuke up the three flights of stairs in silence, and once they reached the attic, Sasuke opened the door and gestured for him to enter first. Naruto walked to the center of the space, stood, and stared.

"Did you say this was all yours?"

The room wasn't big, though the large windows on both sides made it look airier than it was. There was a single love seat arranged in the middle of the room, and a desk which Naruto thought was set up for sound production lay on one side, complete with multiple speakers of different sizes and a professional-looking mike.

But what grabbed Naruto's attention more was the fact that there was a bass, an acoustic guitar and an electric guitar lovingly hung up on one wall. A keyboard set up in another corner, and a fucking flute on the shelf.

"Please tell me you don't play all of these?" Naruto asked, turning to Sasuke who was watching him take it in from his place next to the door.

"I don't play all of them."

"Really?"

"No, I do, but you said to lie?"

Naruto groaned "And you play the drums?"

"Not well, but I do play the piano decently enough."

Naruto sighed "Why are you like this?"

Sasuke smirked "To torture you?"

"Sounds about right." Naruto murmured.

Sasuke graced him with a real smile. Naruto watched how the rays of light from the window landed on his face, framing it so perfectly that Naruto was hit with a sudden and unusual urge to take a photo. He almost reached for his phone, but then he thought about the series of beautiful photos on Sasuke's feed and stopped.

"At least wait until I actually play something before you give me that look." Sasuke said, and Naruto noticed that a particularly smug expression had come over his face.

"What happened to your usual humility?"

"Hanging out with you might have given me an ego boost."

Naruto shook his head "Yeah right, like you don't have people falling all over you everywhere you go."

"You would know."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked frowning.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow "Just that you must be popular with women."

"What makes you say that?"

"Don't fish for compliments" Sasuke told him light-heartedly. "And stop grinning like that, it's obnoxious."

"Hmm" Naruto hummed "Just women?"

"Excuse me?"

"You don't think men would find me attractive?" Naruto's tone was curious, teasing, in direct contrast with the way his body had immediately started heating up at the question.

"Why would that matter to you?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto shrugged "Well you're gay but clearly women also find you attractive." He gave a pointed look to the door, thinking about Karin.

"So?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

Naruto paused, but found that he wasn't sure what point he'd been trying to make. After a moment, Sasuke just shook his head at him, and then closed the door behind him.

"Let's get this over with." He said suddenly.

Naruto said, somewhat accusingly "You perform on stage."

"Yes?"

"Well, then shouldn't you be okay with playing for others?"

Sasuke sighed "I'm fine with performing, it's something about playing for just one other person that I'm not a fan of."

Naruto raised his eyebrows "Are you that afraid of intimacy?"

He expected Sasuke to make a joke, but the other man just gave him a long look. "I was mostly thinking that it's very conceited, but I suppose you're correct. It's also intimate."

Naruto swallowed, and then flinched inwardly, wondering if it had been noticeable.

Sasuke smirked "You did say after spending a night with someone you always end up wanting intimacy, didn't you?"

"I guess, I come as advertised." Naruto said, his voice a little hoarser than he'd hoped.

Sasuke looked at him for a moment more, and then turned to face the instruments thoughtfully "Any requests?" He asked after a moment.

Naruto smiled "Dealer's choice."

Sasuke shrugged and after a moment moved to sit behind the keyboard.

"I thought you'd choose the guitar" Naruto told him, for some reason feeling a little nervous suddenly.

"It's probably because you wanted me to serenade you."

"Yeah, like one of those cool guys in teen movies who suddenly whip out the guitar to play for the main girl."

Sasuke turned to look at him over his shoulder "Did you just compare yourself to the girl lead in a high school movie?"

"Nothing wrong with that." Naruto said smiling.

"Of course not, glad to see you're so comfortable in your masculinity."

"Well, you've seen my abs."

"Right. The one true sign of masculinity." Sasuke said dryly.

"The six true signs." Naruto said grinning "And you definitely weren't complaining before." He snapped his mouth closed after, but of course, it was too late.

Sasuke, to his surprise, just snorted before turning back to the keys.

Naruto rushed over and sat on the ground by the keyboard, leaning against the wall.

Sasuke gave him a look "There is a perfectly good seat right there."

"Yeah but like…" Naruto trailed off, but when Sasuke kept looking at him expectantly he said "I can only see your back from there."

Sasuke gave him one of his indecipherable looks, and without further comment placed his fingers on the keys.

Naruto didn't recognize the piece he was playing, but he was taken aback by how the music immediately seemed to transform the space. It was a soothing tune, and Sasuke played it with no sheet music in a way that made Naruto feel like his fingers knew it by habit. Naruto sighed and leaned his head back against the wall, tempted to close his eyes, but also not wanting to miss out on experiencing the moment with his eyes.

It was one of those moments that he wished he could capture exactly as it was, to revisit as many times as he wished. The light falling in from the window, Sasuke's relaxed expression, and the notes filling the room with a feeling of contentment.

Sasuke glanced at him "You like it?" He asked, his voice quieter than before.

Naruto nodded, hesitant to speak.

Sasuke seemed to realize he was sincere though because he gave him an easy smile, which for unknown reasons gave Naruto a pang in his chest.

He wanted to do something then. Something insane, like sitting behind Sasuke and putting his chin on his shoulder as he played. He wasn't going to, of course, but he still let the image play in his mind. It was like when you pushed your tongue into a missing tooth, irresistible pain.

Naruto shook his head and tried to go back to the feeling of peace he'd had a moment before but couldn't quite get it back.

Sasuke glanced at him, and then without warning changed the piece he was playing.

Naruto listened for a moment, concentrating, and then looked up at him, excited "Hey, I recognize this!"

"I thought you would."

Naruto listened for a moment, and then looked up at Sasuke "Sing?"

Sasuke gave him a warning look. "No."

"Please?"

"No"

Naruto reached over and grabbed Sasuke's shin, squeezing it a little.

"Naruto" Sasuke sighed.

"Come on." Naruto said. "I love this song."

Sasuke looked down at him. Naruto held his gaze.

"…Alright. Just for a bit though."

Naruto grinned immediately.

Sasuke played the beginning part of the song, humming a little with the intro, before he started singing.

"Let me be your vacuum cleaner, breathing in your dust.

Let be your Ford Cortina, I will never rust.

If you like your coffee hot, let me be your coffee pot.

You call the shots babe, I just wanna be yours.

Secrets I have held in my heart, are harder to hide than I thought.

Maybe I just wanna be yours, I wanna be yours"

Naruto could hear Sasuke holding back a little, like he didn't want to get pulled into his own music. Still, his voice was deep, a little gravelly in a way that made the hairs rise on Naruto's arm, and expressive in a way he hadn't expected it to be.

Naruto found himself drawn into the song in that way that usually required headphones and a dark room or driving a car at nighttime. He felt like he was floating somewhere in the music and wondered briefly if Sasuke felt it too.

So, it was all the more jarring when Sasuke stopped singing before he'd even finished the song, only playing a few more notes to let the chorus end.

"Well," Sasuke said casually "That's that."

Naruto gave him a disbelieving look, still feeling a little disoriented by the sudden silence.

"Was that satisfactory?" Sasuke asked him dryly, though he looked amused.

"Satisfactory?" Naruto repeated. "You're just so…" He trailed off, shaking his head. Then not giving it much thought, he inched his way from the wall towards Sasuke's bench, and let his head fall on the side of Sasuke's thigh.

Sasuke seemed to go very still for a moment. He let out a breath that Naruto felt more than he heard. Then, somewhat hesitantly, he placed his hand on top of Naruto's head, letting his finger fall between the strands.

"You liked it that much?" Sasuke asked, half amused, half curious.

Naruto sighed "It's a great song. Don't let it get to your head."

Sasuke chuckled, running his fingers through Naruto's hair slowly. "I wouldn't dream of it."

Naruto went quiet at the feel of Sasuke's hand in his hair. He thought if he was a cat, he'd be purring pretty loudly right about now. But as he was fortunately or unfortunately, a member of the human species, he concentrated damn hard on not letting any sound escape him.

After a few minutes Naruto broke the silence "Is this what usually happens after your performances?"

"I can promise you this has literally never happened to me before."

Naruto chuckled and thought that he felt Sasuke shudder a little at the movement.

"Are you ticklish?" Naruto asked amused.

"No." Sasuke said immediately.

Naruto grinned but decided not to push it. Still, to his utmost disappointment, Sasuke removed his hand from his hair, putting it neatly in his lap.

Naruto, not seeing any way around it. slowly removed his head from his leg, and then the two of them just looked at each other.

"Well," Naruto said, "If the music thing doesn't work out, you can try your hand at becoming a masseuse."

"And here I thought you were so impressed."

"I was." Naruto grinned "That was a damn good scalp message."

Sasuke sighed "I would be a masseur. Masseuse is for women."

Naruto stared at him for a second and then groaned, hitting the side of his leg with an open palm.

"What?"

"Stop trying to impress me!"

Sasuke smirked "Why? Is it working?"

"…Kind of." Naruto said, except he couldn't quite summon their usual teasing tone.

He stood up, knowing that it was abrupt, but unable to help it. He was hit by a sudden burst of restlessness "Well, I should go."

Sasuke blinked "Sure." He stood up too. "Thanks again, for yesterday."

"You can consider us officially even now."

"You think?" Sasuke asked thoughtfully.

"I got a private performance and a head message, all you got was a lousy hospital pick-up"

"I don't know. The aftercare was pretty good."

"That's true. I did make you my famous scrambled eggs."

"Indeed, and they were almost completely edible."

Naruto moved to smack Sasuke again, maybe on the side of his head, but this time, lightning fast, he grabbed Naruto's wrist with his hand and held it in the space between them with a smirk.

"Uh" Naruto said, staring.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow and then slowly let go of his hand.

"Right" Naruto said. "You don't have to walk me out."

"What?" Sasuke asked confused.

"I know the way!" Naruto said, knowing he sounded a little unhinged. "Thanks for the song, yeah. I'll text you, or call, or yeah. Okay. Rest your head?"

Reaching the door in a few long, hurried strides, he turned back for a moment to see Sasuke giving him a befuddled look

"Well, Bye Sasuke. Happy weekend!" He called back, then almost ran down the stairs.

Almost, because he still had some dignity left.

Karin was sprawled across the coach watching something on the TV. She gave Naruto a puzzled look as he rushed into the hall.

"Leaving already?" She called after him.

"Yeah" Naruto almost opened his mouth to ask Karin to make sure Sasuke rested, but then thought about his insistence on keeping the accident to himself and stayed quiet. He'd just have to make sure he'd text and bug him about it himself.

"It was nice to meet you." He told Karin as he put on his shoes, and then added "Yeah, I'll…think about what you said."

As he scrambled out of the room, the last sight he saw was Karin's big grin at his words.