The Theory of Happiness (1a/1)
Ugh, I'm so miffed. Not only did I go past the 10k mark, I had to split this. But okay. The reception to Sasuke's aunt's wedding. Let's jump on it again. Like Hot Butter Popcorn Apache.
I had the first part up a fraction of a second, nearly scrapped the blasted thing after taking it down because sometimes I really can't with myself, took a little turtle time I forced myself to cut short, but now I feel better. Not about the fic itself--goodness, no, the sheer level of candy floss sap is awful--but just that feeling of finishing something, it's not too bad. Plus, Sai's in here. And it's no secret how much I adore Sai.
Sudden disclaimer: Even though this is an AU, I really do try to take elements from canon (except the Sasuke liking natto thing), which is why I think this one took me so long. It's hard trying to keep characters "IC" when major canon events don't take place. No, seriously, this one was hard.
It's not everything that happened during the wedding but a good chunk of what was already mentioned. It takes place right after Lead Me and before Like Nobody. Alas, Sasuke's aunt finally gets her name that I already gave her a long time ago. I choose Kayou, from the voice actor who voices nekobaa from the anime and went with that, since she doesn't have a name (that I know of).
Finishing this was actually a request, which is what inspired the first two parts. It kind of reads like onbb, except not, so I don't know how to feel about that. I just think Naruto's this kind of guy who'd put Sasuke on the spot like that, Sasuke, too, which is why he's really not upset at the way Naruto went about it. They'd both jump headfirst into really big decisions, because they're both idiots.
Although I don't take responsibility for what happened after that...cause it was just this...backlash that was so hard to streamline.
Of course Sai's in here. Being Sasuke's cousin, though, I think gave me more leeway than I'd usual. Since I write him as a troll. Because it's Sai. And I like him like that.
Tamaki was a little meh, but I'd picked nekobaa as the aunt, so was I stuck. I tried to do what I could with her, based on the anime. I actually kind of like her. I just hope she came out all right.
Obito was tricky. I ended up trying to combine three different personalities, because of spoilers, and made a lot of canon and Japanese hidden in English references, but I enjoyed him.
And the big one, Itachi's conversation with Naruto, well, first, I'll say their relationship is...special. I think I was poking fun of the older sibling trope, and the two of them both being big brothers, I think that allows for this unspoken mutual understanding. And maybe there's an element of teasing that's behind Itachi kind of taking a big brother role towards Naruto, because he does like Naruto. Likewise, Naruto respects him, especially since Itachi is so important to Sasuke, but, at the same time, he's not going to stop being himself. He can be a pretty snarky guy.
It's just that sometimes Itachi catches him off guard and keeps tripping him up where he stands. Like the whole fugu thing. Fugu is the infamous pufferfish that can be fatal cuisine, but then Itachi also tells Naruto about Sasuke resembling a pufferfish, which I think is something Naruto appreciate.
I don't know. There are so many things going on, but I hope I was able to convey the more subtle aspects of their relationship.
Also, there's Mei here again. I still ship the impossible and regret nothing.
Except writing this.
*passes out*
***
Characters: Naruto/Sasuke, Sai, Tamaki, Obito, Itachi, Mei
Rating: PG-13
Words: 14,749
Summary: “It’s still a wedding, isn’t it?”
The air’s a passing breeze that whips across his cheek, a cool prickling against his skin evoking the same strange sense of familiarity that had Sasuke fleeing the Heian ballroom on the second floor and taking refuge in the open-air bath on the roof.
He quickly dismissed himself from his parents, leaving them with some feeble excuse he doesn’t even remember saying, the murmur of his own voice a memory vague unlike the sight of startled blue eyes.
Long strides took him from the banquet hall to the hotel’s stairwell, where he let the heavy door shut behind him. It was slammed open before it had a chance to close, though, nearly hitting the wall with a harsh screech immediately drowned out by the loud echo of Sasuke in the narrow stairwell.
He didn’t stop, passing the exit door leading the fifth floor at the call for him to wait. The pounding of heavy footsteps followed. They clanged off the walls, grew louder and continued to loom closer as he opened the door to the twelfth floor.
To the right of him was the unattended entrance to the rooftop’s outdoor bath. He already knew no one would be there. His aunt practically leased Hotel New Tanaka for the rest of the night, but it wasn’t even eight yet. The majority of his family was probably still downstairs, a hundred or so people floating between the lavish receptions held across separate venues spanning three different floors.
Aside from his parents, there’s a small chance anyone else took notice of him leaving. In that kind of atmosphere, it’s doubtful anyone even gave a second thought to Naruto following him.
Once heavy footsteps become light, tread with an evident restraint that gradually brings Naruto to stand in front of him, and Sasuke sighs when Naruto takes a seat on the uncomfortably small wooden stool beside him.
It’s quiet between them for a while. Underscored by the faint rush of water and rising steam, the silence stretches for a moment or two Sasuke doesn’t care to measure with time. The soft light from the lamps above them illuminate the heated water below, and he stares at the wide end of the bath tapered on one side by large grey stones smooth beneath the soles of his black dress shoes.
The short legs of the stool scrape against the levelled rock as Naruto shifts. “...you know we’re not allowed to wear shoes in this kind of place, right?” he says. “The sign on the door out front said so.”
Folding his arms over his knees, Sasuke leans forward with a low hum. He lays his head on top of his arms, forcing another sigh as he turns to face Naruto.
“As comfortable as these little stools actually aren’t, looking down from up here on the roof, it gives a really nice view of Yamaguchi,” Naruto says. “Sitting with you under the stars like this, it makes the mood feel really roman-”
“Don’t say it.”
Naruto chuckles, rolling up to his elbows the sleeves of his white dress shirt. Hands clasped together, forearms resting on top of his legs, he leans over, catching Sasuke’s gaze. There’s a slight narrowing of his eyes, making Sasuke the focus of a momentary discerning glance, but then Naruto smiles a little, keeping his expression light. “It’s bad enough you like to leave me on my own with your brother, but you weren’t trying to leave me to fend for myself against your parents, were you?”
The words are almost enough to make Sasuke smile, almost, but he doesn’t reveal a small upturn the corner of his mouth that nearly does come through. “No.”
“...then what I said back there,” Naruto says, voice lowering with the beginning traces of a frown, “you’re not mad at me for that, are you?”
Sasuke purses his lips, swallows and tries to keep steady his voice already on the verge of wavering. “I’m not mad, Naruto. I just...just needed some air.”
“Some air?”
“Yeah.” Sasuke inhales, closing his eyes then opening them again with an exhale. “But introducing yourself to my parents like that, what were you thinking? It’s my aunt’s wedding.”
“It’s still a wedding, isn’t it?”
Slowly, Sasuke sits up, letting his arms fall to lie in his lap. “...what are you saying?”
“Asking your parents to accept me, wanting them to take care of me like a son from now on, what’s so wrong about that?”
Sasuke’s more than well aware his mouth is gaping. He felt the slow movement a gradual parting of his lips that normally precedes something even remotely intelligible coming out, but this time nothing did. Nothing does. There’s no sound at all. Caught in some kind of stupor, stilted, he can only stare.
“You remember what I told you earlier, right,” Naruto says, giving him this small deliberate grin Sasuke knows had the potential to be a shit-eating mess if Naruto wasn’t consciously holding it back, “about being a good brother-in-law?”
“I didn’t think you were being-” Sasuke groans, knocking over his stool while bending knees that straighten as he stands.
Of course, Naruto stands with him, stays right beside him with that same stupid grin still somehow able to make Sasuke’s breath hitch even after all this time. “Get away from me, Naruto.”
“You don’t mean that. Not after letting me follow you all the way up-”
“If I wasn’t so concerned about making a scene on my aunt’s wedding day, I’d kill you.”
“That’s, um, reassuring, I guess?” Naruto says, making another stupid face because he still hasn’t stopped grinning.
“I can’t believe you actually-you’re just so...”
“I’m what?”
“You’re so...you.”
Naruto’s eyebrows rise with a confusion obviously feigned, obviously teasing coupled with the grin that simply won’t die. “I’m me?”
Sasuke tries to curb his frustration with his fingers curling into a fist defying the increasingly strong urge to hit Naruto. He closes his eyes instead. “You’re such a...such a-”
“Hey, relax.” Naruto laughs, placing a hand on Sasuke’s forehead that moves to push away the hair fallen over Sasuke’s eyes. “I only wanted to make a good first impression, okay.”
“Naruto...”
“I wasn’t trying to embarrass you.”
“You didn’t embarrass me.”
“If you could only see your fa-”
“I don’t blus-shut up, Naruto.”
The slight weight of Naruto’s forehead resting against his own prompts Sasuke to open his eyes. Sighing, he lets himself sag a little, held rapt beneath the gaze of vivid eyes almost too blue, and he shivers at the warm breath from the lips so close to his. He reaches for Naruto with thumbs absently trailing along the sides of his face, kisses him languid and lush, but he pulls back because he doesn’t want to give Naruto the opportunity to even think about getting carried away.
“I’m sorry,” Naruto murmurs, pressing his lips against the corner of Sasuke’s mouth.
“No, you’re not.”
Naruto makes a low noise in agreement. “Yeah, I’m not sorry.”
Sasuke snorts, pushing away from him with a shove hard enough to make Naruto stumble but not fall, because he’s not going to admit he doesn’t want Naruto to be sorry, either.
Naruto just laughs, though, overtly obnoxious and exceedingly pleased, like he knows what Sasuke’s thinking anyway, as if a simple shove could possibly be enough to convey a gamut of emotions becoming increasingly difficult for Sasuke not to let show around him.
Yet with Naruto, Naruto who already knows him so well, to Naruto, sometimes, even the most trivial thing can be more than enough.
“Come on, Sasuke-wait.”
As Sasuke begins to walk away, arms grab him from behind, pulling his back against Naruto’s chest. The loose hold stops him right in front of the exit, but he doesn’t try to break it. He keeps his gaze ahead, fixed on the large, stylised character reading men printed in white over the wide blue cloth hanging from the open doorway.
Naruto rests his chin on Sasuke’s shoulder, breathing against Sasuke’s neck. “So...”
“My jacket’s probably wrinkled enough as it is, and you’re making it worse. Let go.”
“Not going to try to run out on me again?” Naruto says, but he doesn’t hesitate to comply, lets out this self-satisfied little sigh, and circles around to stand in front of him wearing a soft kind of smile so ridiculously simple that makes him look so incredibly stupid.
“I look stupid, huh? That’s what smiling at you gets me?”
Sasuke gives a light hum, reaching again with both hands for Naruto’s face. “It does.”
“Well, since I’m starting to feel kind of cold, would I still be stupid if I said I really wanted to jump in the bath right now?”
“...idiot,” Sasuke breathes, “you shouldn’t have left your jacket at the table.”
“Maybe,” Naruto says, prolonging each syllable, “unless you want to find another way of warming ourselves up out here?”
“Why are you always so-”
“Shh. I think we were almost having a moment.”
Sasuke laughs soft at Naruto’s grin, easing into another kiss quiet and brief.
Leaning closer, Naruto makes a low noise content at the fingers threading through his hair. “Ready to head back inside?”
Sasuke breathes in and breathes out. His hands tug with a light grip gentle on Naruto’s hair. Again, he breathes in then releases a long sigh. “...okay.”
“Okay?”
“Okay.”
...
With a quick press of a button, they take the elevator back to the ballroom instead of the stairs. Ten floors of not so subtle teasing provoking Sasuke’s not so subtle, far too specific and carefully thought-out almost not threats to do unmentionable things to certain parts of his body he’d rather not think of, they reach their destination.
It isn’t until the elevator opens, however, that Naruto finally admits that the idea of introducing himself to Sasuke’s parents with the open confession of his feelings about Sasuke was actually inspired by the conversation he had with Itachi this morning-the same conversation from earlier when Itachi offered to treat him to lunch at Shinoda tomorrow for some kind of mini fugu-themed high level cuisine, but Naruto avoids bringing that up again.
He also makes a strategic decision by taking caution in not bringing up the subject of Sasuke’s cheeks, either.
“With your parents,” he says, “your brother said it was best to be less obviously direct.”
Sasuke stills, eyes wide for a moment before he all but flings Naruto though the elevator doors, a hand on Naruto’s arm dragging him towards the other end of the dimly lit hall, far away from the collective noise coming out of the banquet room.
“Taking advice from my brother,” he hisses, “you two talk to each other behind my back?”
Naruto isn’t sure if Sasuke’s going to strangle him or kiss him. He isn’t sure about a lot of things concerning what Sasuke might or might not do, even if Sasuke’s never actually tried to strangle him before. As torn as Sasuke looks between the two, though, really, Naruto would prefer the kissing.
He likes that.
“We talk sometimes. Or actually, we’ve talked a couple times. Not a lot, but enough, I should think.” He spares a thoughtful glance to the ornate light fixture on the wall, distracting himself from the red barely tingeing Sasuke’s slightly puffed cheeks. “Although I’m not sure that he ever gave me a choice about it.”
Sasuke deflates against him, squeezing Naruto’s arm a little too hard. “Naruto...”
“He made me voluntarily give him my number, you know.”
“No one can force you to voluntarily do something. That defeats the purpose of doing something voluntarily.”
“Your brother can be really convincing when he’s being nice.”
Letting go of Naruto’s arm, Sasuke raises his head. “He’s always nice.”
“Which is my point.”
Sasuke gives him a funny look. “You were forced to voluntarily give my brother your number because he’s always nice?”
“Exactly.”
Sasuke blinks.
“He just has this way of looking at you. Like the first time we met, the way he just kept smiling at me. Your mom did it, too. Earlier, when you told her who I was, she didn’t stop smiling at me.
“I mean, both your parents were really nice to me, formally nice even, but right then, it kind of felt like your mom was staring me down. Really hard. Like that thing you do sometimes, when you get this really cute little smile that makes me think you’re going to kiss me or something but then you just end up causing me pain-yeah, almost like what you’re doing now if you were smiling. Except a whole lot worse. And you’re not a girl.”
Sasuke’s left eye starts to twitch.
“Not that I’m saying you look like your mom or anything. Only, you kind of do. Because she’s your mom. So looking like her, that kind of thing really can’t be helped. Just like I-”
“I should have pushed you off the roof when I had the chance,” Sasuke murmurs, pulling back from a kiss too short-lived. “At least I wouldn’t have to deal with you talking so much.”
“Or you can keep doing that.” Naruto shrugs, but the grin curling his lips starts to turn playful. “I don’t mind. Really.”
Hasty fingers reach to tug on blond strands, again briefly bringing Naruto’s mouth against his, and Sasuke sighs, reluctantly letting his hand fall from Naruto’s hair.
“Still nervous?”
Sasuke gives him this quiet kind of smile, still a little more strained than it normally would be, but at least it’s better than the attempts from earlier. “Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that?”
Rubbing his hand along Sasuke’s arm, Naruto nods with a low hum. “You should. Being around your whole family, it’s weird that they’re so polite. Not even the expected normal polite but ridiculously polite.”
“What’s wrong with being polite?”
“Nothing. I’m just wondering how come you’re the exception.”
“They don’t know you like I do.”
“Hey-”
“Come on. I don’t want anyone to think we left early without saying anything.”
Naruto jogs a few steps to catch up with Sasuke leading them towards the ballroom. “Because you suddenly have the need to pretend you can be polite.”
“Only when I’m not around you. But since we’re sharing a table with Itachi and-”
“Wait a minute-I thought it was just going to be the two of us? Sitting alone. Together. Without your brother. You know. As in me and you. And not Itachi.”
“Like you didn’t already see the place cards.” Sasuke smiles a little, another hesitant curve to thin lips that almost slips away, and then he starts to laugh, low and soft but noticeably less tense. “You’re not getting cold feet on me, are you?”
“Me?” Naruto scoffs. “No. Even if Itachi has the home field advantage, at least we’re still sort of in a public setting.”
Smile fading, Sasuke stops, abrupt, right before they reach the double doors held wide open. He lowers his head, face shadowed from the soft light in the room escaping into the dim hall. “When you say things like that, Naruto,” he whispers, nearly lost beneath streams of conversation already loud against the music playing faint in the background, “when you-I don’t...what am I supposed to do?”
Hard, Naruto swallows, but he makes a reach for Sasuke’s hand, giving it a firm squeeze with his fingers laced between Sasuke’s only slightly shaky this time around. “...stay with me?”
Continued
I had the first part up a fraction of a second, nearly scrapped the blasted thing after taking it down because sometimes I really can't with myself, took a little turtle time I forced myself to cut short, but now I feel better. Not about the fic itself--goodness, no, the sheer level of candy floss sap is awful--but just that feeling of finishing something, it's not too bad. Plus, Sai's in here. And it's no secret how much I adore Sai.
Sudden disclaimer: Even though this is an AU, I really do try to take elements from canon (except the Sasuke liking natto thing), which is why I think this one took me so long. It's hard trying to keep characters "IC" when major canon events don't take place. No, seriously, this one was hard.
It's not everything that happened during the wedding but a good chunk of what was already mentioned. It takes place right after Lead Me and before Like Nobody. Alas, Sasuke's aunt finally gets her name that I already gave her a long time ago. I choose Kayou, from the voice actor who voices nekobaa from the anime and went with that, since she doesn't have a name (that I know of).
Finishing this was actually a request, which is what inspired the first two parts. It kind of reads like onbb, except not, so I don't know how to feel about that. I just think Naruto's this kind of guy who'd put Sasuke on the spot like that, Sasuke, too, which is why he's really not upset at the way Naruto went about it. They'd both jump headfirst into really big decisions, because they're both idiots.
Although I don't take responsibility for what happened after that...cause it was just this...backlash that was so hard to streamline.
Of course Sai's in here. Being Sasuke's cousin, though, I think gave me more leeway than I'd usual. Since I write him as a troll. Because it's Sai. And I like him like that.
Tamaki was a little meh, but I'd picked nekobaa as the aunt, so was I stuck. I tried to do what I could with her, based on the anime. I actually kind of like her. I just hope she came out all right.
Obito was tricky. I ended up trying to combine three different personalities, because of spoilers, and made a lot of canon and Japanese hidden in English references, but I enjoyed him.
And the big one, Itachi's conversation with Naruto, well, first, I'll say their relationship is...special. I think I was poking fun of the older sibling trope, and the two of them both being big brothers, I think that allows for this unspoken mutual understanding. And maybe there's an element of teasing that's behind Itachi kind of taking a big brother role towards Naruto, because he does like Naruto. Likewise, Naruto respects him, especially since Itachi is so important to Sasuke, but, at the same time, he's not going to stop being himself. He can be a pretty snarky guy.
It's just that sometimes Itachi catches him off guard and keeps tripping him up where he stands. Like the whole fugu thing. Fugu is the infamous pufferfish that can be fatal cuisine, but then Itachi also tells Naruto about Sasuke resembling a pufferfish, which I think is something Naruto appreciate.
I don't know. There are so many things going on, but I hope I was able to convey the more subtle aspects of their relationship.
Also, there's Mei here again. I still ship the impossible and regret nothing.
Except writing this.
*passes out*
***
Characters: Naruto/Sasuke, Sai, Tamaki, Obito, Itachi, Mei
Rating: PG-13
Words: 14,749
Summary: “It’s still a wedding, isn’t it?”
The air’s a passing breeze that whips across his cheek, a cool prickling against his skin evoking the same strange sense of familiarity that had Sasuke fleeing the Heian ballroom on the second floor and taking refuge in the open-air bath on the roof.
He quickly dismissed himself from his parents, leaving them with some feeble excuse he doesn’t even remember saying, the murmur of his own voice a memory vague unlike the sight of startled blue eyes.
Long strides took him from the banquet hall to the hotel’s stairwell, where he let the heavy door shut behind him. It was slammed open before it had a chance to close, though, nearly hitting the wall with a harsh screech immediately drowned out by the loud echo of Sasuke in the narrow stairwell.
He didn’t stop, passing the exit door leading the fifth floor at the call for him to wait. The pounding of heavy footsteps followed. They clanged off the walls, grew louder and continued to loom closer as he opened the door to the twelfth floor.
To the right of him was the unattended entrance to the rooftop’s outdoor bath. He already knew no one would be there. His aunt practically leased Hotel New Tanaka for the rest of the night, but it wasn’t even eight yet. The majority of his family was probably still downstairs, a hundred or so people floating between the lavish receptions held across separate venues spanning three different floors.
Aside from his parents, there’s a small chance anyone else took notice of him leaving. In that kind of atmosphere, it’s doubtful anyone even gave a second thought to Naruto following him.
Once heavy footsteps become light, tread with an evident restraint that gradually brings Naruto to stand in front of him, and Sasuke sighs when Naruto takes a seat on the uncomfortably small wooden stool beside him.
It’s quiet between them for a while. Underscored by the faint rush of water and rising steam, the silence stretches for a moment or two Sasuke doesn’t care to measure with time. The soft light from the lamps above them illuminate the heated water below, and he stares at the wide end of the bath tapered on one side by large grey stones smooth beneath the soles of his black dress shoes.
The short legs of the stool scrape against the levelled rock as Naruto shifts. “...you know we’re not allowed to wear shoes in this kind of place, right?” he says. “The sign on the door out front said so.”
Folding his arms over his knees, Sasuke leans forward with a low hum. He lays his head on top of his arms, forcing another sigh as he turns to face Naruto.
“As comfortable as these little stools actually aren’t, looking down from up here on the roof, it gives a really nice view of Yamaguchi,” Naruto says. “Sitting with you under the stars like this, it makes the mood feel really roman-”
“Don’t say it.”
Naruto chuckles, rolling up to his elbows the sleeves of his white dress shirt. Hands clasped together, forearms resting on top of his legs, he leans over, catching Sasuke’s gaze. There’s a slight narrowing of his eyes, making Sasuke the focus of a momentary discerning glance, but then Naruto smiles a little, keeping his expression light. “It’s bad enough you like to leave me on my own with your brother, but you weren’t trying to leave me to fend for myself against your parents, were you?”
The words are almost enough to make Sasuke smile, almost, but he doesn’t reveal a small upturn the corner of his mouth that nearly does come through. “No.”
“...then what I said back there,” Naruto says, voice lowering with the beginning traces of a frown, “you’re not mad at me for that, are you?”
Sasuke purses his lips, swallows and tries to keep steady his voice already on the verge of wavering. “I’m not mad, Naruto. I just...just needed some air.”
“Some air?”
“Yeah.” Sasuke inhales, closing his eyes then opening them again with an exhale. “But introducing yourself to my parents like that, what were you thinking? It’s my aunt’s wedding.”
“It’s still a wedding, isn’t it?”
Slowly, Sasuke sits up, letting his arms fall to lie in his lap. “...what are you saying?”
“Asking your parents to accept me, wanting them to take care of me like a son from now on, what’s so wrong about that?”
Sasuke’s more than well aware his mouth is gaping. He felt the slow movement a gradual parting of his lips that normally precedes something even remotely intelligible coming out, but this time nothing did. Nothing does. There’s no sound at all. Caught in some kind of stupor, stilted, he can only stare.
“You remember what I told you earlier, right,” Naruto says, giving him this small deliberate grin Sasuke knows had the potential to be a shit-eating mess if Naruto wasn’t consciously holding it back, “about being a good brother-in-law?”
“I didn’t think you were being-” Sasuke groans, knocking over his stool while bending knees that straighten as he stands.
Of course, Naruto stands with him, stays right beside him with that same stupid grin still somehow able to make Sasuke’s breath hitch even after all this time. “Get away from me, Naruto.”
“You don’t mean that. Not after letting me follow you all the way up-”
“If I wasn’t so concerned about making a scene on my aunt’s wedding day, I’d kill you.”
“That’s, um, reassuring, I guess?” Naruto says, making another stupid face because he still hasn’t stopped grinning.
“I can’t believe you actually-you’re just so...”
“I’m what?”
“You’re so...you.”
Naruto’s eyebrows rise with a confusion obviously feigned, obviously teasing coupled with the grin that simply won’t die. “I’m me?”
Sasuke tries to curb his frustration with his fingers curling into a fist defying the increasingly strong urge to hit Naruto. He closes his eyes instead. “You’re such a...such a-”
“Hey, relax.” Naruto laughs, placing a hand on Sasuke’s forehead that moves to push away the hair fallen over Sasuke’s eyes. “I only wanted to make a good first impression, okay.”
“Naruto...”
“I wasn’t trying to embarrass you.”
“You didn’t embarrass me.”
“If you could only see your fa-”
“I don’t blus-shut up, Naruto.”
The slight weight of Naruto’s forehead resting against his own prompts Sasuke to open his eyes. Sighing, he lets himself sag a little, held rapt beneath the gaze of vivid eyes almost too blue, and he shivers at the warm breath from the lips so close to his. He reaches for Naruto with thumbs absently trailing along the sides of his face, kisses him languid and lush, but he pulls back because he doesn’t want to give Naruto the opportunity to even think about getting carried away.
“I’m sorry,” Naruto murmurs, pressing his lips against the corner of Sasuke’s mouth.
“No, you’re not.”
Naruto makes a low noise in agreement. “Yeah, I’m not sorry.”
Sasuke snorts, pushing away from him with a shove hard enough to make Naruto stumble but not fall, because he’s not going to admit he doesn’t want Naruto to be sorry, either.
Naruto just laughs, though, overtly obnoxious and exceedingly pleased, like he knows what Sasuke’s thinking anyway, as if a simple shove could possibly be enough to convey a gamut of emotions becoming increasingly difficult for Sasuke not to let show around him.
Yet with Naruto, Naruto who already knows him so well, to Naruto, sometimes, even the most trivial thing can be more than enough.
“Come on, Sasuke-wait.”
As Sasuke begins to walk away, arms grab him from behind, pulling his back against Naruto’s chest. The loose hold stops him right in front of the exit, but he doesn’t try to break it. He keeps his gaze ahead, fixed on the large, stylised character reading men printed in white over the wide blue cloth hanging from the open doorway.
Naruto rests his chin on Sasuke’s shoulder, breathing against Sasuke’s neck. “So...”
“My jacket’s probably wrinkled enough as it is, and you’re making it worse. Let go.”
“Not going to try to run out on me again?” Naruto says, but he doesn’t hesitate to comply, lets out this self-satisfied little sigh, and circles around to stand in front of him wearing a soft kind of smile so ridiculously simple that makes him look so incredibly stupid.
“I look stupid, huh? That’s what smiling at you gets me?”
Sasuke gives a light hum, reaching again with both hands for Naruto’s face. “It does.”
“Well, since I’m starting to feel kind of cold, would I still be stupid if I said I really wanted to jump in the bath right now?”
“...idiot,” Sasuke breathes, “you shouldn’t have left your jacket at the table.”
“Maybe,” Naruto says, prolonging each syllable, “unless you want to find another way of warming ourselves up out here?”
“Why are you always so-”
“Shh. I think we were almost having a moment.”
Sasuke laughs soft at Naruto’s grin, easing into another kiss quiet and brief.
Leaning closer, Naruto makes a low noise content at the fingers threading through his hair. “Ready to head back inside?”
Sasuke breathes in and breathes out. His hands tug with a light grip gentle on Naruto’s hair. Again, he breathes in then releases a long sigh. “...okay.”
“Okay?”
“Okay.”
...
With a quick press of a button, they take the elevator back to the ballroom instead of the stairs. Ten floors of not so subtle teasing provoking Sasuke’s not so subtle, far too specific and carefully thought-out almost not threats to do unmentionable things to certain parts of his body he’d rather not think of, they reach their destination.
It isn’t until the elevator opens, however, that Naruto finally admits that the idea of introducing himself to Sasuke’s parents with the open confession of his feelings about Sasuke was actually inspired by the conversation he had with Itachi this morning-the same conversation from earlier when Itachi offered to treat him to lunch at Shinoda tomorrow for some kind of mini fugu-themed high level cuisine, but Naruto avoids bringing that up again.
He also makes a strategic decision by taking caution in not bringing up the subject of Sasuke’s cheeks, either.
“With your parents,” he says, “your brother said it was best to be less obviously direct.”
Sasuke stills, eyes wide for a moment before he all but flings Naruto though the elevator doors, a hand on Naruto’s arm dragging him towards the other end of the dimly lit hall, far away from the collective noise coming out of the banquet room.
“Taking advice from my brother,” he hisses, “you two talk to each other behind my back?”
Naruto isn’t sure if Sasuke’s going to strangle him or kiss him. He isn’t sure about a lot of things concerning what Sasuke might or might not do, even if Sasuke’s never actually tried to strangle him before. As torn as Sasuke looks between the two, though, really, Naruto would prefer the kissing.
He likes that.
“We talk sometimes. Or actually, we’ve talked a couple times. Not a lot, but enough, I should think.” He spares a thoughtful glance to the ornate light fixture on the wall, distracting himself from the red barely tingeing Sasuke’s slightly puffed cheeks. “Although I’m not sure that he ever gave me a choice about it.”
Sasuke deflates against him, squeezing Naruto’s arm a little too hard. “Naruto...”
“He made me voluntarily give him my number, you know.”
“No one can force you to voluntarily do something. That defeats the purpose of doing something voluntarily.”
“Your brother can be really convincing when he’s being nice.”
Letting go of Naruto’s arm, Sasuke raises his head. “He’s always nice.”
“Which is my point.”
Sasuke gives him a funny look. “You were forced to voluntarily give my brother your number because he’s always nice?”
“Exactly.”
Sasuke blinks.
“He just has this way of looking at you. Like the first time we met, the way he just kept smiling at me. Your mom did it, too. Earlier, when you told her who I was, she didn’t stop smiling at me.
“I mean, both your parents were really nice to me, formally nice even, but right then, it kind of felt like your mom was staring me down. Really hard. Like that thing you do sometimes, when you get this really cute little smile that makes me think you’re going to kiss me or something but then you just end up causing me pain-yeah, almost like what you’re doing now if you were smiling. Except a whole lot worse. And you’re not a girl.”
Sasuke’s left eye starts to twitch.
“Not that I’m saying you look like your mom or anything. Only, you kind of do. Because she’s your mom. So looking like her, that kind of thing really can’t be helped. Just like I-”
“I should have pushed you off the roof when I had the chance,” Sasuke murmurs, pulling back from a kiss too short-lived. “At least I wouldn’t have to deal with you talking so much.”
“Or you can keep doing that.” Naruto shrugs, but the grin curling his lips starts to turn playful. “I don’t mind. Really.”
Hasty fingers reach to tug on blond strands, again briefly bringing Naruto’s mouth against his, and Sasuke sighs, reluctantly letting his hand fall from Naruto’s hair.
“Still nervous?”
Sasuke gives him this quiet kind of smile, still a little more strained than it normally would be, but at least it’s better than the attempts from earlier. “Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that?”
Rubbing his hand along Sasuke’s arm, Naruto nods with a low hum. “You should. Being around your whole family, it’s weird that they’re so polite. Not even the expected normal polite but ridiculously polite.”
“What’s wrong with being polite?”
“Nothing. I’m just wondering how come you’re the exception.”
“They don’t know you like I do.”
“Hey-”
“Come on. I don’t want anyone to think we left early without saying anything.”
Naruto jogs a few steps to catch up with Sasuke leading them towards the ballroom. “Because you suddenly have the need to pretend you can be polite.”
“Only when I’m not around you. But since we’re sharing a table with Itachi and-”
“Wait a minute-I thought it was just going to be the two of us? Sitting alone. Together. Without your brother. You know. As in me and you. And not Itachi.”
“Like you didn’t already see the place cards.” Sasuke smiles a little, another hesitant curve to thin lips that almost slips away, and then he starts to laugh, low and soft but noticeably less tense. “You’re not getting cold feet on me, are you?”
“Me?” Naruto scoffs. “No. Even if Itachi has the home field advantage, at least we’re still sort of in a public setting.”
Smile fading, Sasuke stops, abrupt, right before they reach the double doors held wide open. He lowers his head, face shadowed from the soft light in the room escaping into the dim hall. “When you say things like that, Naruto,” he whispers, nearly lost beneath streams of conversation already loud against the music playing faint in the background, “when you-I don’t...what am I supposed to do?”
Hard, Naruto swallows, but he makes a reach for Sasuke’s hand, giving it a firm squeeze with his fingers laced between Sasuke’s only slightly shaky this time around. “...stay with me?”
Continued