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Third Time's the Charm	By : Sasunarufan13 Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male > Naruto/Sasuke Views: 796 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor make profit of it. Kishimoto owns it.

Chapter List
- 1-Third Time's the Charm
- 1
Author's note: It's not exactly Valentine's Day here anymore, but have this regardless. Something I came up with on the fly. Long day of classes, but passed all my exams, so have this as a mini celebration of sorts? I don't know, it's something I guess. I'm working on the other updates which hopefully - FINALLY - will be posted soon.
Warnings: Naruto's pov; AU; Naruto's parents are alive; some minor violence; not for Sakura fans I guess in a way; some teen angst; some fluff; Valentine's Day fic; slash
I hope you'll like this!
Third Time's the Charm
Ever since he was young, Naruto had loved hearing the story of how his parents fell in love. How dad had gathered all sorts of red flowers he could find, so many they had barely fit in his arms, and had walked up to mum who had just finished beating the absolute crap out of some bullies. The bullies had been taunting her about her red hair, but had clearly underestimated how she would react. Instead of crying, she'd wiped the floor with them, sending them off crying. She'd still been standing there, knuckles bruised and bloody, her lower lip split and her dress torn at her side when dad had shown up with the flowers, completely unperturbed.
They had started going out not too long after that particular Valentine's Day and eight years later they had married each other.
Their love story was one of Naruto's absolute favourites and the moment he was old enough to know what a crush was, he secretly started dreaming of having his own fairy tale romance just like mum and dad. How amazing would it be to fall in love just like mum and dad had done?
So when he started crushing on a sweet girl named Shion when he was twelve, he couldn't help but hope that this would end the same as his parents' story. He got to know her after she'd joined their class and he'd been designated to show her around the school; the sensei jokingly stating that with how many pranks Naruto had pulled all around the school, he knew the place the best. Which was kind of true, actually, because Naruto did know a lot about the school's layout.
He had no trouble showing the new student where to find everything and to his amazement she didn't even mind that he could be quite loud and boisterous at times! The more they talked, the more he started to like her. He thought her long blonde hair was very pretty and her light purple eyes very captivating. She laughed at his pranks and even stood up for him when some boys in their class made fun of his bad mark for mathematics!
When he told mum about her, mum laughed and ran fingers through his hair. "Sounds like you've got a little crush on her, huh?"
It confused him for a bit, because he had no idea yet what exactly a crush was, but if that was what he was feeling, then he really liked it! He had no idea yet whether Shion liked him back, but she laughed at all his jokes and didn't mind spending time with him during their breaks, so that was a good sign, no?
Feeling cautiously optimistic, on Valentine's Day he presented her with a small bouquet of daisies, because he knew those were her favourite flowers and she would always lit up at the sight of them right outside their school building.
But when he offered them to her, however, smiling shyly, she bit down on her lip and took a step back. "I'm sorry, Naruto-kun," she smiled awkwardly; her pretty purple eyes flitting from side to side, looking everywhere but at him. "But I actually like someone else."
"Oh." Feeling awkward, and a bit hurt, he wasn't going to lie, Naruto lowered his bouquet, smiling embarrassedly. "No, erm, that's fine. Totally cool! Erm, I hope he likes you back."
She smiled prettily, blushing as she clasped her hands together. "Yeah, I hope so too," she murmured; her gaze darting towards their right.
He looked as well, concealing a sigh just in time when he realised who she liked. Hyuuga Neji; the most popular boy in their class. He was considered the most handsome one of them all and in spite of having long hair, nobody ever dared to make fun of him for it.
It figured that Shion liked him; all the girls did after all. Naruto had just hoped that Shion would have been different.
She didn't even notice when he walked away, throwing the bouquet in the trash can.
"I'm sorry, sweetie," Mum sighed that evening, brushing a kiss over his forehead. "I'm sure you'll find someone else in the future who will like you back. Don't worry about her; if she can't see what a catch you are, then it's her loss."
"Yeah," he smiled weakly and hid his face in her sweater when he hugged her; trying to ignore the weird heavy feeling in his chest.
Neji didn't like Shion back. It only made Naruto feel a bit better.
His second crush developed when he was fourteen, on a pretty pink haired girl named Sakura. He'd joined her class after he and his parents moved to be closer to dad's work and he only felt slightly overwhelmed at the sight of so many new classmates to meet and hopefully befriend.
He noticed Sakura immediately because of her bright pink hair, but her light green eyes sent butterflies flying through his stomach almost immediately. She looked like some kind of fairy princess and even though she never really spoke to him, he couldn't help but crush on her regardless, in awe of how smart she was and how quick she was to tell everybody off if they dared to remark on her high forehead. In a way she reminded him a bit of mum, what with being taunted for something she could do nothing about. Just like mum, she didn't take the taunting lying down, even though her weapon of choice were sharp, mean comments instead of her fists.
Even though they hadn't spoken much with each other, Naruto figured that perhaps presenting her a gift for Valentine would be the start of something between them, would let her see him as something more than the classmate she occasionally looked at.
Finding the perfect present for her, however, turned out to be a bit more difficult than it had been for Shion, precisely because they hadn't talked much. One day before Valentine, though, he came up with the perfect gift: a card in the form of a cherry blossom. He thought it was a cute reference to her name and dad agreed with it, helping him with the cutting and gluing process of it, because mum was a bit too clumsy for that.
Well, mum said she lacked the artistic ability, dad said she was so clumsy she would cut off her own fingers. To avoid possible bloodshed, dad helped him with the flower card while mum supervised from the other end of the table, excited about her baby's new crush.
Even though Naruto protested her using the word baby to refer to him, he couldn't help but be excited all the same, hoping that his gift would be the start of something new. There was no way Sakura would dislike something as original as this card, right?
It wasn't the start of something new. As a matter of fact, when looking back on it, Naruto would say it was the start of something awful. His cute card had got Sakura's attention all right – in entirely the wrong way.
Holding it out to her, right before their first class, he watched with a sinking stomach how she wrinkled her nose, as if she'd smelt something completely disgusting.
"A card, really?" Sakura said, wholly unimpressed. "That's all you can come up with? Talk about original," she snorted, crossing her arms.
He looked down at the card, uncertain. "What's wrong with it? I thought it'd be cute because of your name. I even made it myself!"
"Well, instead of wasting your time with making that crap, you should have spent that time studying," she sniffed. "You definitely can use the extra time." With that she flicked her hair back and walked into the classroom, completely dismissing him.
Leaving him standing in the corridor with cheeks fire red with shame while around him, some classmates snickered.
"You say the word and I will find her and accidentally trip her so that she'll have a reason to sniff when she breaks her nose," Mum swore, pulling him into a warm embrace.
"Why give her a reason to sniff when it's easier to make it so that she won't sniff ever again?" Dad remarked idly, but his eyes were sharp with concern when he took the seat next to his downtrodden son, holding out a mug of hot chocolate. "Here, Naruto. Don't give her the time of the day anymore; she isn't worth it."
"She's definitely not," Mum said vehemently, even while her fingers ran gently through his hair and across his shoulder. "Bitch better hopes I don't come across her any time soon or I'll give her a reason to cry about her forehead."
"It's fine, mum," Naruto muttered, cradling the warm mug between his hands, even as he enjoyed her soothing caressing.
She looked at him with soft eyes. "Cheer up, sweetheart. There are much better people out there for you. I'm sure you'll find them one day."
"Yeah," he smiled weakly. "One day."
He wasn't so sure whether he could find it in him to try to give someone a Valentine's gift for the third time, though. It seemed he never had any luck with it.
He was going to give his Valentine's present to Sasuke. No buts, or ifs about it.
Well, that was what Gaara said anyways, his best friend's presence like a looming shadow behind him as Naruto fidgeted in front of Sasuke's locker.
Not long after his disastrous second attempt of giving a Valentine's Day present, he had met his two best friends: a red haired, rather surly looking boy named Gaara, and a dark haired boy named Sasuke, who'd been dubbed the heartthrob of the school the second he had set foot inside of it. Oh, of course there were quite some people crushing on Gaara too, but his glare tended to keep people at a suitable distance.
"You keep saying I glare so often, then why are people still bugging me?" Sasuke snapped after having rejected a girl once again to Gaara's sadistic delight and Naruto's sympathetic wincing.
"Because while you glare like you hate people, Gaara glares like he's about to kill someone," Naruto replied matter-of-factly before chancing a glance at Gaara. "No offense, dude."
"None taken," Gaara replied calmly.
It was true. Gaara's glares could kill someone if they dared to linger too long around him – Naruto being the only exception with Sasuke being tolerated because of Naruto. Sasuke, on the other hand, was still a bit more polite than Gaara was – a bit, not necessarily that much more – and therefore deemed more approachable than the red haired boy.
Well, approachable until Sasuke unleashed his scorn of course, depending on how much the person in question irritated him.
Naturally, because Naruto was that much of an idiot, he had ended up falling in love with Sasuke nearly a year ago. Because of course he couldn't make it easy on himself: he just had to crush on the guy who was not only one of his best friends, but also the most popular guy in the entire school.
And Gaara, the absolute douchebag that he was, had figured it out and had been pushing Naruto to confess ever since, which marked it two months since he'd discovered Naruto's embarrassing secret.
"Why not confess to him? Pretty sure he likes you back," Gaara had stated a week ago, during one of the rare moments when Sasuke hadn't been around.
Not even Naruto choking in his water had stopped his best friend from adding, "Because at this point it's getting pretty embarrassing watching you ogling him every chance you get."
"And what if he doesn't like me back, huh?" Naruto had snapped, his stomach twisting ugly at the absolutely fuck fest that would result of that.
"Then he's an idiot." Gaara had shrugged, sipping from his juice. "And I'll knock his teeth out if he upsets you too much. What do you got to lose?"
Sasuke's friendship for one. That was the most important thing he was afraid to lose. Naruto had been determined to ignore Gaara's needling, unwilling to humiliate himself, but Gaara was even more stubborn than he was.
And that was how Naruto found himself in front of Sasuke's locker on the fourteenth of February, nearly crushing a small bag in his hands in which he'd put some chocolates in the form of tomatoes. Chocolates he'd ordered himself because obviously that particular form wouldn't be sold at the store. Why a tomato? Because for some unholy reason Sasuke actually loved eating tomatoes. Even had it as his favourite food, that was how weird he was. Naruto couldn't complain too much about his weirdness, though, not when it led to the guy being best friends with him even after nearly four years.
In a fit of craziness, Naruto had thought it funny and fitting if he offered Sasuke chocolates in the form of tomatoes, because well … Clearly he'd lost his mind.
And his nerves. Sweat was starting to bead at his temples and he felt uncomfortably hot in his uniform, even though it was still freezing outside.
"Naruto, I swear to god, if you don't put that bag in his locker right the fuck now, I will shove my shoe so far up your arse you'll be coughing up the shoelaces for weeks," Gaara said calmly.
"Oh my god, all right, I'm doing it!" Naruto exclaimed and hastily opened the locker before Gaara would make good on his threat.
And he would. Gaara never made idle threats.
"If he dumps me as his best friend, I'm going to kick your arse," he threatened in return, slamming the door shut again after he'd shoved his bag into the metal locker. His cheeks felt on fire; he probably looked just as red as Sasuke's favourite food right now.
"Sure, but that's not going to happen," Gaara said easily and picked up his bag. "Now come on before the girls arrive and realise you know the combination to his locker."
Naruto grimaced and hurried after Gaara. Yeah, he definitely did not want to be around that. Girls nowadays were even more vicious than they had been back with Neji.
The whole day Naruto walked around with a cramped stomach, fearing he would throw up any second now. Sasuke didn't show at all that he had discovered Naruto's present, but that might be because Sasuke usually didn't open his locker during the day. Which meant that Naruto had until the end of the school day before his life might be completely ruined.
"You're being dramatic right now," Gaara droned, tapping his pencil idly against the desk as they listened to Ibiki drone on and on about … whichever kind of invasion they were talking about now. Naruto wasn't sure.
"Excuse me if I'm not looking forward to losing one of my best friends," Naruto hissed, too nervous to look at Sasuke who sat two seats in front of them.
"You're not going to lose him," Gaara said placatingly. "He's your best friend, remember? Even if he doesn't feel the same – doesn't mean he's going to drop you."
"I hope you're right," Naruto muttered darkly, staring unseeingly at the page in his handbook.
"Besides, where else is he going to find someone who will put up with his bullshit?"
Naruto covered his snort just in time before he would alert Ibiki. "He says the same thing about you, you know?"
"Yeah, I know, but at least I own up to my bullshit. He doesn't."
Naruto just shook his head and sighed. At least they got along well enough to not kill each other.
The last school bell ringing went hand in hand with Sasuke still acting normal, which at this moment meant he and Gaara were riling each other up, trying to see how far they could push each other before the other one would explode.
While a part of Naruto was glad with that familiarity – well, not glad, but he'd got used to their arguments by now – another part, one that was growing steadily with each second that passed, was becoming paranoid, wondering whether Sasuke had noticed the little bag already and if so, why wasn't he saying anything?
Or, Naruto's stomach sank and he swallowed with some difficulty, maybe the lack of reaction was Sasuke's answer. Maybe he was ignoring the bag on purpose, letting Naruto subtly know through that that he wasn't interested in anything more between them. That … sucked really badly. Really, really badly. But at least Sasuke was still willing to be friends? That had to count for something, right?
Trying to hold on to that optimistic thought was difficult, though, when he realised despondently that his third crush was also turning out to be nothing. Guess the whole 'third time's the charm' bullshit wasn't so true after all.
"You ready to go?" Sasuke called out, halting his argument with Gaara long enough to look back at Naruto.
"Yeah, give me a sec, I need to take a book from my locker," Naruto said, dropping his bag on the floor while he opened his locker.
The black simplistic bag had him abruptly stopping, his hand hovering stupidly inside the locker as he stared at the unexpected present. The bag definitely hadn't been in here this morning, so who had …
Heart thudding faster, he reached out and opened the bag with trembling fingers; his breathing embarrassingly loud in his ears.
Five chocolates in the form of frogs greeted him. A note stuck to the side.
How about we enjoy our gifts together?
S
He was still gaping at the bag, a blush steadily creeping up his cheeks, when Sasuke appeared next to him; his own bag swinging between his index finger and his thumb.
"You're an idiot for getting these in tomato form," Sasuke informed him; his dark eyes gleaming. "But I suppose you're my idiot now completely, huh?"
"Bastard," Naruto managed to choke out before he couldn't help himself and slung his arms around Sasuke's neck, hugging him tightly; using the embrace as an excuse to hide his teary eyes. The butterflies in his stomach exploded when Sasuke hugged him back; soft lips brushing against his temple.
Guess third time was the charm after all.
The End
AN2: Not exactly something complicated, but I at least managed to get something down. An achievement nowadays.
Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.
I hope to see you all back in my future stories! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!
Cuddles
Melissa
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Third Time's the Charm