4Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or any of its associated characters!
Summary: A series of ficlet requests - details on my tumblr & twitter. All SNS, ranging from modern AU to canonverse. I will give a vague summary at the top of each so you can decide if you'd like to read them!
A/N: Aaaaand I'm back! I finished some of my other things and I've decided to try and keep this going for the whole month of June, so please let me know if you donate! The best way to contact me is still through tumblr or twitter - both are kinomiakai. FFN hates links, so I can't link you to the page unfortunately!
This ficlet was requested by weeped on tumblr, who wanted some angst/jealousy/pining modern AU with a happy ending! I hope this delivers :)
Ficlet Series
7 - Angst/Jealousy/Pining Modern AU
He'd been here every day.
Sasuke swallowed his coffee, keeping his back firmly to the window. Naruto laughed at something out there—loud enough to be easily heard through the closed glass door. They were still working on the garden—the two of them, together—as they had been every other day.
Every day this week, so far. Visiting, every now and then, for a few months before that. Slowly and consistently raising their time together until it culminated in this...
Sasuke turned his phone screen back on so he could pretend to be looking at it. It was either that, or turn around—that or leave, that or help, and all of those things were impossible. All of those things stayed impossible. The first day Gaara had come in, Naruto had lit up like the sun itself, and Sasuke—
Sasuke had known. Right then.
He breathed in the steam of his mug.
He'd tried to deny it. He had. But then Naruto had waved him off—citing something about Sasuke's previous insistence that Naruto be the one to tackle the garden, and Sasuke had stood still as the door was slid shut behind him. Behind them. Closed, as it had been. As it had felt, every time they were together. Sasuke was an outsider, there.
He breathed out.
Naruto's laugh filtered through the door again.
It would be easier for him to leave. He knew that. Easier for him to shut himself away as opposed to sitting here and living in the feeling of Naruto doing it to him instead, but—
But Naruto had asked, no less than seven times, what was wrong. Naruto had frowned and his gaze had been steady and Sasuke couldn't keep telling him his migraine had lasted another day. Naruto could tell something was wrong and if Sasuke didn't start managing to convince him otherwise—
The door slid open.
"Hey!" came Naruto's loud, breathless laugh. "Want some mud with that sludge you're drinking?"
"You—"
Naruto stuck his hands in Sasuke's face, and Sasuke nearly tipped his chair right back—
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Naruto laughed, catching him in a sweaty, hot, shirtless hug— "Jeez. It's just some dirt, you priss."
He pulled back with a laugh, and Sasuke surreptitiously checked if his heart still beat.
"I—you made me spill my coffee," he muttered, flicking it off himself as he stood. He needed to—
Naruto stuck the roll of paper towels under his nose.
"Yeah," Naruto said, "sorry. I didn't think you were holding it."
Sasuke took the roll with a raised eyebrow, and Naruto's grin widened.
"There he is," Naruto said, pulling back. "How's your head?"
A mess.
"Fine," Sasuke muttered, patting away at his fallen coffee.
Naruto let out a small noise, and Sasuke glanced over to see him...finishing the last of some water. Just doing that. Not tilting his head back, not exposing his throat or his skin or flexing his glistening torso in any way that had Sasuke's gaze—
"Naruto," came Gaara's voice, and Sasuke was forcibly ripped into reality again. "Did you—"
"Get water? Yeah, I've got you."
Naruto scattered himself around the kitchen, and Sasuke turned his pathetic attention back to his phone.
"How are you this morning, Sasuke?"
For god's sake.
"Just fine," he said, letting Naruto's gaze give him the strength to look Naruto's not-yet-publicly-acknowledged-boyfriend in the eye, "thank you."
"His head's better!" Naruto announced, spinning himself back to hover over Sasuke's shoulders. "That means you have no excuse not to help. Right?"
Sasuke peered up at him.
"I thought you said I was forbidden out there."
"You said that," Naruto laughed. "C'mon!"
He pulled Sasuke to his feet, and Sasuke—let himself go. He stumbled his way into the sunlight, breathing in the heat as it slapped him in the face.
"So, uh," Naruto said, letting him go, "we were thinking—what were we thinking?"
He turned back to Gaara, and Sasuke held his selfish tongue behind his teeth. We. He thought he might hate the word.
"These all need full sunlight," Gaara answered, and Sasuke forced himself to listen. "So anywhere in that corner should be fine, if the past few days are anything to go by."
"Gotcha. Sas—you gonna be okay in that?"
Sasuke frowned down at himself.
"You dragged me out here. What am I doing?"
Naruto pushed a shovel into his hands.
"Dig!"
Sasuke huffed out a breath and obeyed, giving him enough time to toss his sweater to the floor and pull the socks from his feet. There was a set of Naruto's sandals he always used when out here, although—
It was another thing he questioned, now. Did he give Naruto back the sweaters in his closet? They weren't his own. He'd started to think he had some sort of right to them, the past few years—the same way he'd convinced himself he had some sort of right to Naruto's heart—
Fuck it.
He took the sandals.
If they decided he required a talking to about boundaries, so be it. Naruto hadn't even felt it necessary to warn Sasuke before springing this on him—this horrible, crawling realization—
"Here alright?"
He stabbed the shovel into the ground.
"That's—Gaara—s'that good?"
"That should be alright," said his voice, and Sasuke closed his eyes as it came closer. "Don't dig too deeply; that location would suit the lilac, I think. Naruto?"
"Yeah! That'd be awesome. Okay, Sasuke? I'm gonna keep watering."
He flittered off, and Sasuke's grip tightened on the shovel before his boyfriend did the same. One day, he was sure, they'd need to have some sort of heart to heart—if this lasted, which Sasuke—which Sasuke—
He breathed out, and his breath tasted bitter.
Bitter. Bitter, angry, betrayed, frustrated—and for what? Because he'd fooled himself? Because Naruto had been kind and caring and annoying and perfect and let Sasuke stick to his brilliant side—and this is how Sasuke had deigned to repay him? This is how Sasuke wanted to repay him? Spitting out sick, selfish feelings that were all but proven one-sided—giving Naruto nothing but guilt to taint the happiness he should have been feeling every day of his life?
What a wonderful friend he was turning out to be.
He stabbed the shovel into the ground again. He was—
Cold?!
Sasuke flung himself three feet into the air, spinning around to face a—
Grinning Naruto, holding a hose.
Sasuke raised the shovel higher.
"Bold move, Uzumaki."
"Yeah? Bring it, Uchiha."
Sasuke dropped the shovel and leapt for the hose. Naruto laughed and reared it up, pressing down on the nozzle to spray the cold down Sasuke's shirt—but Sasuke wrestled it out of his slippery hands, and Naruto yelped as Sasuke chased him down into the corner behind the porch—
"I yield, I yield, I yield, I—" Naruto laughed, and shook his hair like a dog as Sasuke finally relented.
Blue eyes met his, and Naruto's lopsided, wet grin widened.
"Just kidding."
"You—"
The hose slipped from his grip as if it was nothing and Sasuke scrambled back as Naruto turned the spray back on him again, running after him with a cackling laugh—
"Naruto."
"Ah—oh," Naruto let out a small laugh, and the water dropped. "Crap. Um. Sorry, Gaara."
The man gave Naruto a look, and Sasuke's good mood crumbled as quickly as it had come. It was a gentle, searing reminder—although, in the back of Sasuke's selfish mind, he found some satisfaction in the way he'd pulled Naruto's attention back to him…
He sighed, and turned back to his shovel.
He hated that part of his mind. He hated himself for indulging in it. Why was it so difficult to just be happy for him? Why couldn't he find peace in that fact? If their roles were reversed, Naruto would just as easily smiled through this pain as he did through any other—
"Lilac time!" Naruto announced, and Sasuke shifted back. "That's good—I think that's deep enough. Gaara, is that—?"
"Looks alright to me," Gaara replied, and Sasuke...went to dig another hole. There was a smudge on Naruto's forearm—looking an awful lot like a muddy handprint, and there was no mud to be seen on Sasuke's hands. Naruto didn't seem to notice, though, and maybe Gaara hadn't either, but Sasuke noticed, Sasuke noticed, Sasuke noticed—
"Whoa, holy hell, Sasuke, you're going so fast—hang on, hang on," Naruto laughed, "lemmie get another plant. What's our next one, Gaara?"
"Weigela. Here."
He passed the plant to Naruto, and Sasuke backed away.
"If you'd like to water the lilac, Sasuke…"
Sasuke took the hose and didn't look up. Fine. Fine, this was his life, now. Naruto would smile and laugh and run off with the person he loved, and Sasuke would sit in the garden and water the lilac.
"The weigela, too."
And the weigela, too.
"That's the last of them," Naruto said, hopping to his feet, "right? That's it!"
"That's it."
"Woo-hoo!" Naruto said, punching his fist in the air. "I need a shower. And water. C'mon, we'll—I can grab some towels so we can—"
Naruto's voice trailed off, and Sasuke...let him go. Let them go—because Gaara wandered in too, into a house that Sasuke was wondering if he even had a place in anymore. He let the hose drop from his fingers and walked around the side—back to where he'd chased Naruto—and sagged onto the ground.
Into the puddle. Whatever. He was wet anyway.
It wasn't so much the fact that Naruto could love someone else. That had been...that had always been a possibility. Sasuke liked to think he'd come to terms with the fact long ago. He hadn't, of course—it still seared like a brand being burned into his chest—but he pretended, sometimes, that he could have accepted it. But then...but recently, it had felt like…
No, not only recently.
They'd gone from bickering archenemies to reluctant teammates to accidental friends. And from there, it had only gotten worse. From there, they had only gotten closer—Naruto went from a friend to the friend, to his best friend, to one person who lived and breathed and still managed to actually understand Sasuke from the inside out. They'd spent more time together than without, and moving in together had only been the natural next step with the amount of time Naruto had slept over at Sasuke's place…and Sasuke had acknowledged this feeling before then, he'd known it before then, he'd settled it in himself and told it to keep quiet, but—
Sasuke breathed out.
But then, Naruto had sat just a little too close. He'd slept in Sasuke's bed and borrowed his jeans. He'd hugged him when a tap on the arm would do, and he'd stayed for so many moments that Sasuke had been able to realize he still wasn't breathing before Naruto went away—
A thousand signs, and Sasuke had read them all wrong.
And that…
That was what really hurt, right now.
He'd really let himself hope.
Sasuke let out a trembling, thick breath and put his face into his hands.
"...Sasuke?"
Shit.
Sasuke's head snapped up.
"Hey—hey," Naruto said, jogging over with a gentle voice and bare feet, "what's going on? You—"
"Nothing," Sasuke said quickly. "I'm fine."
Naruto snapped a hand to his shoulder before he could stand, and Sasuke froze.
"No," Naruto said. "No, you're not."
Sasuke breathed in.
Naruto slowly leaned down until he sat beside him properly. Or improperly, Sasuke thought—this was far too close for comfo—
"I feel like I should apologize," he said softly, and Sasuke's head jerked up.
"I've been kinda—kinda forcing you two to be friends. You and Gaara, I mean. I wanted—anyway. I shouldn't've just busted him here—this is your house, too, and I—"
"It's fine, Naruto," Sasuke said, looking down again. "You can date whoever you want."
There was a beat. Was Sasuke not supposed to have known? Perhaps not. But then, it hadn't seemed to be something Naruto was trying particularly hard to hide—
"Sasuke. I'm—" Naruto said, and it nearly sounded like a laugh— "I'm not dating Gaara. He's my foster brother."
Sasuke's head jerked up.
Naruto laughed.
"Did you think—oh my god. Sasuke, you dumbass—he's got the tattoo on his forehead! How many of our friends have that?!"
"...Kiba," Sasuke offered, and Naruto faltered.
"That—uh. Shit. Besides Kiba! Tha—"
"Neji."
"You—fuck. Shit, okay—" Naruto let out a breathless laugh, and Sasuke's eyebrows raised right with it— "but you—okay, but I thought you—that's why—I thought that's why you stayed inside! The first day—when I told you to stay—I thought you knew we had to talk about—I mean you know all the shit that happened to me but Gaara has his own crap and I didn't—y'know—It's his stuff to tell, so I—"
Naruto sagged out into a small laugh, and Sasuke blinked.
"...Oh," he said, and Naruto laughed at him.
"I can't believe you didn't know," Naruto said, shaking his head as he reeled back. "Is that why you hated him so much? 'Cause you thought—"
And all at once, Naruto's mind caught up with his words.
The silence rang in the air.
Sasuke kept his breath in his chest and Naruto stared at him, the smile sliding from his face, his eyes darting all over Sasuke's face as if willing him to break, willing him to give it away, willing him to—
"Yes."
It was like a breath. Sasuke wasn't quite sure he'd given his mouth permission to say it at all—he wasn't sure it hadn't just escaped from his mouth, like a feeling that had been building in his chest for far too long—
"Oh," Naruto said, and Sasuke was struck silent. "...Oh. That—um. Um. Really?"
He looked up with the word, voice as filled with disbelief as his eyes—
Sasuke tilted his head in a soft, unspoken agreement, feeling as if his throat had sealed up—surely, this—surely, Sasuke hadn't misinterpreted this again, surely, surely, please—
Naruto moved forwards.
It took a moment for Sasuke's mind to catch up. A moment of Naruto's lips on his—his hands on either side of Sasuke's face, his lips soft but firm, his hands tender but shaken—
Naruto pulled back, and the air trembled between them.
"Oh," said Sasuke, and Naruto let out a soft, relieved exhale. He fell with it, tumbling into Sasuke's arms—Sasuke caught him and held him there, his mind reeling with the feeling—
"God," Naruto breathed out, "this makes so much sense. I thought I'd done something to—"
Naruto pulled back, wiping at something on his face—
"The—crap. I gotta go apologize, c'mon, we gotta go apologize—"
"What?" Sasuke said, letting Naruto pull him to his feet. "Why?"
"'Cause I'm about to third-wheel Gaara again," Naruto said, with a soft, thick laugh. "He kept getting mad at me for that."
Sasuke's mind reeled. What? When? The only times Sasuke could think of were when—
Oh.
Naruto slid the door back open, keeping a firm grip on Sasuke's hand, and—
"Sushi," Gaara said, sitting at their table.
"The—uh, what?"
"Sushi," Gaara said again, looking up. "I believe your words were 'if I ever actually have the guts to kiss him, I'll buy you dinner for a week.' I'd like sushi."
Sasuke's heard jerked to the side, and Naruto rapidly grew redder—Gaara lifted a casual finger to point at the window that peered directly into the place they had just be—
"Gaara," Naruto strained out, "oh my god—"
"Oh, congratulations."
"That—no! You traitor!"
"Would you like to know what else he said?"
"No!"
"Yes," Sasuke said, immediately pulling up a chair—
"No!" Naruto yelled, pulling at him. "No, no, no, you're not friends, this isn't happening—get up, Sasuke—"
"Three days ago, when you went to lie down for your migraine, he—"
"Gaara!"
A/N: There's number seven! I'm glad you've been liking these little bits. This one turned out bigger than intended, haha - but I hope you liked it!
Until next time,
- Kinomi
