They didn't have a coach that was big enough for anyone to sleep on, because they were cheap-ass students and the house had come furnished with only armchairs in the living room. Besides Naruto would prefer to be in the same room as Sasuke since that was the whole point of keeping an eye on someone. He did have a sleeping bag somewhere, he just wasn't sure exactly where it was right now, but he could definitely go look for it. The bed was a twin, but it wasn't that small, but maybe it wasn't big enough? Maybe Naruto could pile some clothes on the ground and sleep on…
It was somewhere around this point in Naruto's ramblings that Sasuke managed to cut in "Naruto, I couldn't care less. Just don't try to cuddle if you want to keep all your limbs"
Naruto snorted "Your loss. I'm a great cuddler"
"I'll take your word for it." Sasuke replied dryly, as he followed Naruto to his bedroom.
Naruto felt a spike of nerves before he let Sasuke into his room. How much did his room reveal about him?
And since when had he felt shy about anyone seeing it?
He stepped aside and watched as Sasuke glanced around his room.
Well at least he'd tidied that morning when he'd been a restless ball of energy.
It was smaller than Sasuke's room, but much more heavily decorated. He had a few movie posters blue tagged to the walls. A big pinboard covered half of the wall above his bed and he had a huge calendar on there with all his uni schedule scrawled on it. He even used red pen to circle the dates around any deadlines, because even with the calendar right there, he was likely to forget about them. The rest of the board were covered with polaroids and photobooth strips. He had more photo frames on his desk too.
Sasuke walked there and then glanced back at Naruto "Do you mind?"
Naruto shook his head no, and Sasuke leaned to pick up the frames one by one. When he seemed to be looking at one for a while, Naruto walked to stand by his side, looking down at it too.
"Are these your parents?" Sasuke asked. "They look very young, but you look just like him."
Naruto smiled "Yes, this is from before they had me."
Sasuke glanced at him, and then looked back at the frames. He was too perceptive not to notice the lack of any photos with the three of them in it, and Naruto could almost the question forming in his mind. But since he was who he was, he didn't ask.
"I never met them, well, technically I did for a year, but I can't remember that. They both died in an accident a little after my first birthday."
Naruto had told many people this fact through his entire life. Sometimes it was an uncomfortable moment, sometimes it was fine. Often people said a version of 'I'm sorry', which as a response, Naruto didn't have any strong opinions on.
Sasuke kept looking at the photo for a moment and then looked up at him.
"Do you know a lot about them?" He asked.
Naruto smiled. "Yeah, I didn't know much for a long time, I was in foster care until I was 12, but then an old friend of my dad's adopted me, and I learnt a lot about them from him."
"Is that him?" Sasuke pointed to a photo of Naruto with Jiraiya at his high school graduation, both of them grinning obnoxiously for the camera.
Naruto nodded, looking at the photo fondly. "He is quite a character for sure."
"Are you two close?" Sasuke asked curiously.
"Yeah, it didn't happen immediately, but now we are."
Sasuke nodded and then pointed to a photo of Naruto and his group of friends from high school sitting around a restaurant table "Is that your ex-girlfriend?"
Naruto looked before he nodded, even though he already knew he had his arms around Hinata in the photo.
"She is pretty." Sasuke looked at the photo and then smirked at Naruto "Out of your league, even."
Naruto snorted "How nice of you to say that about my ex."
Sasuke seemed like he was going to say something else, when instead he squinted at the photo and said "She kind of looks like someone I know."
"You know people other than your housemates?"
Sasuke rolled his eyes.
As they moved away from the desk, Naruto felt like a weight was lifted off his shoulders. Sasuke had gotten an overview of his whole life story, tragedies included, in less than a minute and had taken it in stride, no awkwardness, no discomfort, no pity.
Naruto reached over and just tapped his hand over the back of Sasuke's shoulder, one, two, three times.
Sasuke turned to look at him. "Yes?"
"I'm glad you're here." Naruto told him with a goofy grin.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow "Yes, I'm also glad I got hit by a car."
"It was worth it to spend more time with me, wasn't it?"
"Indeed, I actually jumped in front of the car just to make it happen."
Naruto couldn't help but wince at the sentence "Next time, maybe just text?"
"Everybody texts." Sasuke said without missing a beat.
Naruto snorted "As if you of all people need to do anything extra to set you apart from everybody." Naruto immediately realized his mouth had gotten away from him again, but immediately was still too late.
Sasuke gave him a dry smirk, as if he realized what Naruto was thinking too. For a moment he looked like he was going to continue their exchange as usual, but then he went quiet.
Right, because Naruto had said he wouldn't flirt anymore. But since he had broken his own word within fifteen minutes, now Sasuke was the one who had to enforce the rule.
Why did he feel a little rejected though?
How had this happened? It almost felt like he didn't know how to talk with Sasuke without flirting, which wasn't a problem he'd ever had even with his girl friends, let alone his guy friends. In fact, he couldn't remember this being an issue even with girls he'd been interested in.
"I think it's your fault" he told Sasuke suddenly.
"Excuse me?"
Naruto just shrugged. Still, Sasuke seemed to realize what he was referring to on his own.
"I'm just irresistible?" He said in his driest tone.
"Why must it be so?" Naruto whined.
Sasuke shot him a look "Could you remind me Naruto, did you say you would stop flirting, or that you would intensify it? Because I seem to be misremembering."
Naruto groaned.
"I will stop, but can you stop being so…" Not sure how to complete the sentence, Naruto just grunted.
"How articulate." Sasuke said immediately.
"That! Stop doing that." Naruto exclaimed, pointing to him. "Stop being so quick, and maybe tone down the sarcasm and wit, and like, displays of intelligence, and stop teasing me so much."
Sasuke blinked "You want me to change my entire personality?"
"I think that would really help, yeah."
"I don't think I can do that." Sasuke said after a moment "Does that mean you'll try to grope me while I'm sleep?"
Naruto groaned, loudly, and headed towards the bathroom without another word
Naruto, trusting Sasuke to entertain himself for a little bit, took a quick shower and though it was only a little over 10, brushed his teeth too. He thought it was better if they called it an early night, since sleep was apparently good for concussions. He realized he hadn't had dinner either, but he felt that since Sasuke couldn't have solid food, he would also forgo it tonight in solidarity.
He also figured he could use the time in the shower, to like, think about what exactly was going on with him when Sasuke was around. Was this what they meant by bromance? Because Naruto had always thought that that was literally just two guys being close friends, like him and Kiba. But maybe he'd been wrong all along. Maybe bromance had referred to something like this all along, where you felt like this dude was super cool, and smart, and funny, and wanted to spend all your time with them. But you were also straight.
Huh. Well, maybe he should put a pin in that thought for the time being.
Naruto got out the shower and shook his head at his own reflection in the mirror. It was too fogged up to see anything though, so he leaned forward and wrote Sasuke sucks on the surface.
Then he sighed.
It was going to be fine, wasn't it?
He thought back to their interactions. Most of the times when he'd said flirty things, it was because he'd spoken what was on his mind without a filter, as usual. The problem was it seemed that a lot of the things that were on his mind when it came to Sasuke were very complimentary.
He nodded to himself. Yes, this was probably just because he was still getting to know Sasuke and was still impressed by what he was learning. Once they spent more time together, he'd eventually get used to him and things would feel more normal.
Somewhat satisfied with that conclusion, Naruto decided to go back to the room. Realizing that he hadn't brought a change of clothes with him, he wrapped a towel around his legs, and wanted to use another for his hair before he realized it was the only clean one left and he should probably leave it for Sasuke, in case he wanted to shower too. So, dripping water all over the floor he walked back to his bedroom.
Sasuke was sitting on his desk chair with his eyes closed. For a second, Naruto thought he'd fallen sleep but then as he turned towards the door, his hair moved to the side and Naruto saw that he had EarPods on.
Sasuke opened his eyes as he tapped on the earbud to stop whatever he was listening to, and then seeing Naruto, he paused with his hand still hovering over his ear.
Sasuke blinked. Was he staring?
Naruto couldn't help it, he started laughing "What? Like you've never seen a naked dude before."
Sasuke's eyes snapped to his face. He cleared his throat.
"You're not naked." He said neutrally after a pause.
Naruto felt a grin spread over his face "You can try to sound all cool now, but it doesn't change the fact that you were totally ogling me right then."
Sasuke looked up at the celling, as if praying for patience, and Naruto, feeling in high spirits, walked to his closest to pick up some clothes.
"It's alright Sasuke, I know I look good, and we're friends so you can look all you want."
"You seem to have an interesting view on friendship." Sasuke said from behind him.
After digging around his closet for a while, Naruto picked up two t-shirts, and two pairs of shorts and turned back to Sasuke. Who was, indeed, watching him with an expression of concentration on his face.
"Are you solving mathematical equations in your head?"
Sasuke shook his head "Trying to understand you is much more difficult."
Naruto raised his eyebrows at him "I don't know what you mean. I'm a simple guy Sasuke."
"Hardly." Sasuke muttered.
Naruto shrugged, and then held up the clothes "You can borrow something to sleep in, and feel free to use the shower if you want" Then grinning, he held up the orange shirt towards Sasuke.
Sasuke looked from him to the shirt, then to him again. Then, slowly, he stood up and started walking towards Naruto.
Naruto kept on grinning good-naturedly, but as Sasuke moved closer, he could feel his heartrate pick up.
When he was right in front of him, instead of pausing and taking the shirt Naruto was holding out, Sasuke took one more step, placing him fully in Naruto's space. Then he leaned forward, very slowly. Naruto's eyes followed his every move. Now struggling to keep the grin on his face, he found himself swallowing.
Sasuke paused and stared at him for a second, then smirking, he snatched the navy shirt out of his other hand, which had been hanging forgotten by his side. Quickly, Sasuke leaned away, turned, and walked to the door.
Naruto blinked at his retreating back.
What had just happened?
Sasuke paused by the door and turned back towards him, smirking. "I can promise you one thing Naruto, you will never see me in that color."
Naruto blinked again, and then looked at the hand he was still holding out in the air. Seeing its startled him out of his haze. He put the hand down and glared at Sasuke. Then, realizing he still held the two pairs of shorts, he balled up one of them and threw it at the other boy as hard as he could.
Without breaking eye contact, Sasuke caught it easily in one hand, his smirk widening.
"Put on some clothes while I'm in the shower." Sasuke told him, glancing down at Naruto's torso again for the briefest moment, and walked out of the room.
Naruto did indeed put on his clothes, but it took until he was drying his hair with the towel for his heart rate to fully go back to normal.
What the fuck?
Maybe Sasuke was some sort of a hypnotist. That was a real thing, wasn't it?
Naruto tried to imagine a scenario like what had just happened taking place between him and any other friend but couldn't even begin to do so. He shook his head. Yeah, there was definitely something about Sasuke.
What exactly, he wasn't sure.
When Sasuke came back, he was already fully clothed, and was drying his hair with the towel. His previous thoughts forgotten for the moment; Naruto found himself smiling at the sight.
"What?" Sasuke asked him, looking through his wet strands of hair at Naruto.
"You look different with your hair like that."
Naruto thought Sasuke looked cool with his hair styled the way it usually was, but with it just draping across his face like it was now, he looked younger and a little less… detached? Naruto wasn't sure how to explain it, but he felt a pang in his chest as he looked at him.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him "Does it not meet your standards?"
Naruto rolled his eyes, partly to cover that the comment had made him feel slightly flustered for no particular reason "No, it's like…I don't know, like when you look at a kitten."
Sasuke stopped drying his hair and straightened up.
"A kitten." He repeated tonelessly.
Naruto wasn't sure whether he wanted to grin or feel alarmed at the look on Sasuke's face "Yeah?"
Sasuke started muttering under his breath and Naruto heard something about 'never should have agreed to this' and 'kitten' and maybe bringing shame on his ancestors and all members of the queer community. It went on for so long that Naruto found himself moving between amused and concerned multiple times.
Eventually he thought he should interrupt "Don't you have a cat? The black one from your photo?"
Sasuke paused so suddenly that Naruto found the silence jarring.
"…No. It's not my cat."
"Okay?"
Naruto looked at the other boy, whose expression had gone completely blank. What was with that reaction? Was it maybe an ex's cat? Hmm… Naruto wondered if Sasuke had dated before. He said he didn't want a relationship now, but maybe that was because of a prior bad experience? It was interesting to think about what he would be like in a relationship. Surely, he'd share more with someone he was dating.
"I opened the toothbrush that was on the bathroom counter. I hope that's alright?" Sasuke said suddenly.
"Yeah, I put it there for you. We keep a few for overnight guests."
Sasuke nodded, then gave Naruto a teasing look "Overnight guests huh? Do you have a lot of those?"
Naruto snorted. The question was unlike Sasuke, and Naruto briefly wondered if he was trying to distract him from asking more about the cat. Still, he answered "Not really anymore, like I told you before, I tried that for a while, but grew tired of it quickly." Naruto thought for a second and added "Actually, you're my first overnight guest in a long time." before grinning at Sasuke.
Sasuke sighed "Is this how bringing someone home usually goes for you?" Then he paused and added thoughtfully "Though I guess you did get naked rather quickly."
"You said I wasn't even naked!"
"…Seriously? That's the part you want to protest to?" Sasuke shook his head. Though his hair was now mostly dry, Naruto still glanced at the few drops of water that fell down his neck at the movement.
When he looked back, he saw that Sasuke, seeming to have caught the glance, was already giving him his signature eyebrow-rise. But, for whatever reason, he chose not to comment. Which made Naruto feel both relieved and weirdly, a little disappointment.
"Uh, we should probably try to sleep soon. I'll have to wake you up every 4 hours though."
"I really don't think that's necessary." Sasuke sighed.
"Do you have no respect for medical professionals?"
Sasuke shrugged then added "Fine, I'm sure we'll both wake up with the same alarm anyway."
"Alright so," Naruto looked at the bed and then back at Sasuke "What's your side of the bed?"
Sasuke looked amused again "It's your bed Naruto, what's your side?"
Naruto thought about it "To be honest, I usually sleep sort of in the middle."
The corner of Sasuke's lip twitched up a little, but otherwise he kept his face completely neutral "Oh yeah? Me too. What shall we do?"
Naruto looked back at him for a moment and then said, "You're messing with me!"
"You make it so easy." Sasuke smiled, and of course, Naruto once again found himself wanting to tell him that he liked it when he did.
Thankfully, before he had the chance to do that, Sasuke walked to the bed and without any apparent self-consciousness, rolled over to the wall side. Naruto paused for a second, then placing his towel on the back of the chair, he turned off the light and walked to the bed.
"This isn't a twin by the way." Sasuke told him as Naurto sat down on the bed.
"It's not?" Naruto placed his phone above their head, where the headboard usefully doubled as a little table. He saw Sasuke had done the same.
"This is a double. We wouldn't fit on a twin without hanging over the sides or sleeping on top of each other."
"But you said it was fine when I told you I had a twin bed before!" Naruto, having just laid down on his back, turned to face him accusingly.
Sasuke was right in that the bed was big enough that there was still a space between them. Granted, a small space, but they could still sleep on it with no touching whatsoever.
Sasuke, who was already lying on his side, simply smirked "Well, you seemed very insistent."
Naruto felt his jaw hang open for a second, then he took the pillow from under his head and leaned over as if to place it over Sasuke's head.
Sasuke did not move to defend himself whatsoever. Naruto paused with the pillow an inch over Sasuke's face. He let go of it for a second, allowing it to drop on Sasuke's face without pushing it down, before he picked it up again and glared at Sasuke's still smirking face.
"You're lucky you have a concussion. You know my hands are tied."
"…an interesting sentence to say in bed."
Naruto stared at him, speechless. "You're…I…what?"
Sasuke watched him scramble for words with an increasingly amused expression.
"We said no more flirting!" Naruto told him eventually.
"No, you said you were going to stop flirting." Sasuke corrected in a neutral tone.
Naruto stared at Sasuke. He knew the other boy was only joking with him, but he wasn't sure how he wanted to respond. Eventually, not thinking of anything else he said, "Is this still just because I got you a box of pills?"
Sasuke didn't even miss a beat, still staring at Naruto, he said "This is because you walked around shirtless and dripping wet."
Naruto opened his mouth. Then closed his mouth. Then opened it again. Then he turned his face to look at the celling.
"You're just saying all this because you like getting a rise out of me!" He grumbled, for some reason, suddenly feeling a little annoyed.
He saw Sasuke blink from the corner of his eyes, his easy expression turning into one Naruto couldn't quite read.
Sasuke was silent for a moment, and when he talked his tone was different "I'm not sure I understand Naruto. Do you want me to be flirting with you for real?"
Naruto kept staring at the celling, not really knowing what to say in response.
"Yeah, I didn't think so." Sasuke said, his tone conclusive.
For some reason, Naruto was only more annoyed by that. He turned to face Sasuke again.
"Don't put words in my mouth." He said, and he had the sense they were both taken aback by the seriousness of his tone.
Sasuke didn't look away "I'm just not sure what you want from me in this situation Naruto. You told me in no uncertain terms that you're neither gay nor bi. But you acknowledge that you like to flirt with me, jokingly. You don't seem to like it when I don't flirt back, and you're also annoyed when I joke with you in the same way?" Sasuke didn't sound annoyed exactly, but neither did he sound pleased, and Naruto could hardly blame him.
"Do you even know what you want?" Sasuke asked him when the silence had dragged on for a while.
"…I want to be your friend." Naruto replied. He saw the look that came over Sasuke's face and he hurried to add "No I mean, I'm not just saying that to pretend none of the other things you said are valid. I know the way I'm acting must be confusing to say the least. But I just meant, that's the one thing I know for sure right now, okay? I really do want to be your friend. I know you're going to say we don't know each other that well, but I always trust my gut feelings about people, and to me, it already feels like we've known each other for a long time."
Sasuke's expression smoothed out a little as Naruto talked, and he didn't look annoyed anymore, but oddly, he seemed a little troubled. Still, he gave Naruto a small smile "You realize even that sounds like a line, right?"
Naruto sighed "I know, but I mean it. Do you really not feel it though? Doesn't it seem strange that last week this time, we didn't even know each other?"
Sasuke seemed to give it some thought but didn't end up saying anything in response.
Naruto shook his head, a little amused "You're such a cold bastard."
Sasuke glanced at him "Didn't you say that that's how I show affection?"
"You remember that?" Naruto grinned, "You're a good listener Sasuke, maybe you're the one who should have gone into psychology."
Sasuke snorted "Oh absolutely, nothing like a psychologist who encourages people to follow their worst instincts."
Naruto frowned at him "You're so harsh on yourself sometimes."
"It was just a joke." Sasuke told him after a moment, sounding a little annoyed.
"I know, but I get the sense that you really believe it when you say stuff like that."
Sasuke was quiet for a bit, then he said quite suddenly "I told you before Naruto, I'm not a project for you to fix up."
Naruto felt his own frown deepen "Who said anything about fixing? Why do you say things like that?"
"I just don't understand why you would care so much."
Naruto sighed "This again? Is it really so hard to accept?"
Sasuke didn't say anything, which was answer enough.
Naruto opened his mouth, but then closed it and frowned.
"What?" Sasuke asked him.
"I seem to be in a bit of bind." Naruto told him "Because if I tell you all the reasons why I do genuinely like you, it's going to sound like I'm flirting with you again. But when I don't tell you, you get all paranoid and self-deprecating."
A part of Naruto thought Sasuke might make a joke out of it, but instead Sasuke glanced at him for a second and then looked up at the celling.
"I suppose I just don't believe you have an accurate picture of me in your mind, that's all."
Naruto huffed "You do realize that's a little insulting to me, right? Like I'm too stupid to have a realistic view of you."
"That's not what I said."
"What did you mean then?"
When Sasuke didn't reply, Naruto shook his head "Don't you think you feel that way because you refuse to tell me more than the bare minimum about yourself?" Naruto, actually getting a little upset now, continued "And then you use the fact that I don't know everything to keep on believing that I only like you because I don't really know you."
The words seemed to settle in the air between them. Naruto wondered if he'd gone a step too far, but he couldn't bring himself to regret what he'd said.
He couldn't understand how someone like Sasuke, someone who seemed so talented and smart, interesting, and hard-working, and so damn funny, could find it so hard to believe someone could care about him.
Breaking the silence, one of their phones started vibrating above their heads, which made Naruto almost jump out of his skin. They both sat up halfway and looked at the table, where Sasuke's screen was once again flashing with what Naruto thought was the same caller ID from yesterday.
Naruto looked at Sasuke and their eyes met for a moment. Naruto just shook his head at Sasuke's expression "I'll give you some privacy."
He started sitting up to get out of the bed when Sasuke's reached out and grabbed his arm. Naruto threw him a questioning look. Sasuke looked conflicted, staring at his own hand on Naruto's arm, then he looked up at him and said "Just…you can stay, if you want."
Before Naruto had a chance to react, he let go of his arm and picked up the phone.
Naruto half expected him to start talking in another language, Japanese, he assumed, but still staring at Naruto, Sasuke simply put the phone to his ear and said "Hello."