Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Soup's On	By : OfFansAndFlames Category: Naruto AU/AR > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 1793 -:- Recommendations : 4 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters mentioned. I make no money on this fiction.

Chapter List
- 14
- 15
- 16
Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed! I really wish this website offered a way for me to respond to all the awesome comments that have been left. I hope everyone enjoys this chapter. :)

When Sasuke opened the closet, Naruto faced the wall, obstinately refusing to rotate towards him for the first several seconds. When he finally turned, he stood clumsily with water in his eyes. Sasuke arched an eyebrow at him.
"Naruto, were you just crying?"
Naruto frowned, gently pushing Sasuke in the arm.
"It's fucking dusty in here! It's all in my eyes and shit like mad! ...The dust!"
Sasuke snickered, stepping back and allowing Naruto to exit. He wondered if this guy could ever get through chick flicks with dry eyes. The guy could be a total softie, but he supposed that was one of the things he liked about him. As Naruto sat down in his sleeping bag, Sasuke moved to the bed.
"Now Sasuke... Not to beat a dead horse, but if you steal again, I'll punch your fucking lights out."
Sasuke paused for a moment and shot Naruto a quick look. Perhaps not the best choice in phrasing on Naruto's part, given the situation. Sasuke was beginning to realize that stealing posed a very direct threat to his physical wellbeing. He chuckled under his breath, ever so slightly.
"Don't have to tell me twice. Now good night."
He flicked the lights off, finally curling up in his bed. The air his room was particularly chilly tonight, but Naruto had assured him that he was warm in the sleeping bag. Sasuke curled up under the comforter, attempting to go to sleep. His fingers and toes tingled cold, but his chest felt stuffy and tight.
However tired his body and mind were, slumber was evading him. Instead, he kept remembering situations that he had long wanted to forget. He remembered smoke, blood, charred skin, and sterile hospital rooms. With each disturbing image, he attempted to reroute his thoughts to neutral subject matter, which somehow let his mind to similarly unsettling thoughts. It didn't take much to trigger him, Sasuke found.
A couple weeks after his parents' death, a simple burning paper nearly triggered a panic attack. A napkin had fallen over the stove burner, a thin black smoke triggering the fire alarm. Before Sasuke was even aware of what was happening, he was on the ground, clutching his chest with unsteady fingers, hands drenched in sweat, and hyperventilating so badly that he feared that he would either pass out or vomit. Fortunately, his brother had been home. Itachi had been ill equipped to deal with this sort of situation at the time, but his simple presence had been enough to keep Sasuke relatively grounded.
His psychiatrist had diagnosed him with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder a couple months after the incident. He told Sasuke that it played into his angry outbursts, distrust in humanity, and withdrawn attitude. Sasuke, however, didn't like to make excuses. For better or for worse, his choices were his responsibility.
His psychiatrist also told him that as time passed, the flashbacks would become less frequent and would affect him less. This seemed to be true, and he wondered how long he'd actually qualify for the diagnosis. Still, it made nights like these no less frustrating.
No one would know of this, he decided. As far as his friends would realize, his parents' death slid off him, leaving him unscathed and stronger than ever. Only Itachi knew the truth, simply because he had to file the insurance claims for his psychiatric care and medication. Sasuke would have done everything in his power to ignore it, but he could only pretend for so long in his own home.
He turned over from his stomach to his side, to his back, then to his stomach again, a slight but generalized anxiety buzzing around his body. Finally giving up on sleep for the time being, Sasuke went to the restroom for a glass of water, setting it beside his bed and sipping as he lay down, careful not to spill.
"Can't sleep?"
Sasuke was unaware that Naruto had been awake. He had been quiet so as not to disrupt him.
"Doesn't look like it."
He could barely hear Naruto ruffle in the sleeping bag.
"Would it...help if I joined you?"
Sasuke bit his lip in contemplation. It seemed like a forward question, but given what happened outside earlier that night and how Naruto comforted Sasuke after the fight, it wasn't uncalled for. Sasuke hadn't had anyone sleep next to him since he was a child. He wondered what it would be like. The dynamics of their relationship were steadily changing, and he wondered what the future held.
"Sleep wherever you're most comfortable."
Naruto knew Sasuke well enough by now to interpret that. If he hadn't wanted Naruto in his bed, he would've told him so. Therefore, by default...
Naruto abandoned his sleeping bag, slipping under the covers on the opposite side of the bed. A forearm's length of space lay between them, somehow managing to seem minute and vast simultaneously. Naruto slept on his back, his eyes facing the ceiling, while Sasuke slept with his back to Naruto. Naruto's weight on the mattress shifted Sasuke back, his body slightly leaning towards Naruto. He hadn't expected tonight to end up like this, but despite everything, he was alright with it.
Sasuke tried not to keep Naruto awake, gracefully turning onto his back a few minutes into the night. Naruto, however, was completely alert, turning his head to glance at Sasuke. Naruto could tell the difference between simple antisiness and anxiety. Sasuke's brows were knit, his eyes shut tightly.
"Your mind's playing tricks on you, hm?"
Perhaps engaging Naruto in conversation would be less aggravating than this futile tossing and turning. Naruto had been kind to him tonight, and Sasuke was very glad for his presence.
"Yeah."
Naruto turned onto his side, facing Sasuke.
"Wanna talk about it?"
Sasuke shrugged. Did he?
"I'm not sure it would help."
Naruto smiled at Sasuke.
"Wanna try?"
This was supposed to be his friend, not his shrink. He didn't want Naruto to believe he had any issues at all, but after what Naruto had observed tonight, he realized that this was wishful thinking. Sasuke rested his forearm over his eyes, trying to keep the lights from his window from keeping him awake. Even the streetlights were becoming a nuisance. Speaking of these things seemed a little daunting, but he believed that he could trust Naruto. He might as well try.
"Why not..."
It wasn't as if the majority of his secrets hadn't been ripped out of hiding tonight. Naruto raised his brow dramatically, doing his best to look intelligent and sophisticated. He would put on his therapist hat now. Sasuke merely smirked, rolling his eyes as he barely made out Naruto's exaggerated expression around his own forearm.
"Is it about the fight?"
Sasuke shook his head.
"Not really."
Sasuke held a long silence, surprised that Naruto hadn't jumped to a response. Perhaps he could tell that Sasuke had more to say.
"More just what it reminded me of," Sasuke forced out.
Naruto paused.
"You mean your folks?"
Sasuke nodded, frowning. It might have been simpler had it been a stranger who he would never see again. He feared revealing too much to Naruto. He didn't want to be seen as weak, or perhaps even worse, self-pitying.
"Sasuke, if you don't mind me asking... What happened to them?"
Sasuke took a shuddering breath, silently so that Naruto would hopefully not hear. Naruto did, however, feel Sasuke's weight shift on the mattress.
"Our house caught fire. Some faulty wiring, and it hit the water heater. No one in the house survived past that night."
Naruto sighed, shaking his head. Even by his standards, this was some heavy stuff. He didn't want to tell Sasuke he was sorry again. He knew he didn't need to hear that.
"Is that why you moved last year?"
"Yeah."
That explained a lot. Naruto had wondered where Sasuke's parents slept. He assumed they did something like converting the attic to a third floor, as one of his foster families had done. Given their frequent "business trips" and the house size, it might not have been necessary to take rooms on the second floor.
Sasuke appreciated his space, and Naruto hadn't previously wanted to be pushy by inquiring about his parents. It also explained why the house was so sparsely furnished and decorated, and why there were no old pictures of Sasuke or Itachi. Most things looked relatively new. They apparently hadn't had much time to fill things out again.
Naruto frowned. It was ironic that both of them had lost their homes, in one sense or another, within the past year. Of course, in both of their cases, there was much more to it than that. Naruto had seen Sasuke as someone from a different world entirely. Perhaps they were not so different as he believed.
"What were they like?"
Sasuke didn't think much before answering.
"They were good people."
Naruto the left corner of Naruto's mouth pulled up as he repositioned himself on the sheets.
"That's good, but I didn't mean that…"
Sasuke turned to Naruto, their faces closer to each other now. Naruto's breath misted against his nose.
"Then what did you mean?"
Through the darkness, he could see the gears turning in Naruto's head.
"Well… Did they sing in the car?"
Sasuke arched a brow, replying dryly, "What is this, a Facebook survey?"
Naruto grunted.
"C'mon, humor me. Give me some details to go on."
Sasuke sighed. How was this relevant again? Well, it was a distraction, at the very least. He'd gone this far already, so he might as well just roll with the punches.
"Fine... I never heard my father sing, ever. He didn't mind other people singing, but he was never very animated. My mom would sing in the car sometimes when there were long silences. She never sang loudly though. Kind of softly and under her breath, but she was on-tune."
Naruto beamed back at Sasuke. He felt that the more Sasuke spoke like this, the better he got to know him.
"See, that told me a lot more about your parents. I already assumed they were good people. They raised you and your brother, after all."
Sasuke took in Naruto's face, trying to analyze the blond's thought processes. His mind didn't work like the others', and it intrigued him.
"You have a weird way of looking at things."
Naruto seemed to take that as a compliment, the smile seeming to gobble up the lower half of his face.
"'S cuz I watch."
"A people watcher?"
Naruto nodded emphatically, and Sasuke judged that he had hit upon one of those topics that Naruto liked to blabber on about. At the moment, he didn't mind. It was a welcome distraction.
"Hm. Creepy," Sasuke teased.
Naruto pouted.
"Shut up. Ya know, it's funny because I've always talked too much, instead of thinking. I was more of a doer than a watcher, but since I haven't had much to do or many people to talk to lately, I ended up a watcher."
He'd been right about one thing; this kid was different. Sometimes downright weird. But for whatever reason, he found himself listening much more carefully than he ordinarily did. To Sasuke, "weird" was not a bad thing.
Naruto continued, "That's what I liked about the park so much. There are so many people to watch. And you find out there are all sorts of people, and all sorts of things that can tell you more about them. Like how quickly they walk, where their eyes go, how much they look around, what they're carrying and how tightly…"
As vapid as Naruto ordinarily seemed, Sasuke would not have guessed that he had put that much thought into observing others. He supposed that there was little else for him to do. Naruto hadn't lost any steam.
"Then you wonder where they came from. Maybe they have on a suit, or are carrying a book or half-eaten leftovers from that deli around the corner, and it's probably still on their breath. You watch them and try to guess if they would sing in their car, or if they're upset that kids these days can't read cursive anymore."
The way Sasuke regarded Naruto was at times almost confused. Sometimes the most unexpected, uncharacteristic things left his mouth. Naruto was perhaps nowhere near as simple as he let on. It was interesting to Sasuke. These were all things he knew on some level, but to focus on them to this extent... It was something people rarely did.
"You're right. You do talk too much."
A pout in his voice, Naruto responded, "Asshole."
Sasuke smirked, finding comfort in the familiarity of teasing his friend. He paused, discovering that he did, actually, feel better. He was surprised. His brother was generally the only soul able to comfort him.
"So, do you think I sing in the car?"
Naruto turned his whole body to face Sasuke, scooting up closely to him to fully analyze Sasuke through the darkness. Sasuke crinkled his brows in mild disturbance, edging away from him.
"Hm… Only rarely. When you're trying to think about something else, and you know no one can tell."
There was silence between them after Naruto spoke, and Sasuke could practically feel Naruto's enthusiasm, his impatience to know if he had gotten it right.
"Alright, Naru. I have to wake up early tomorrow. Let's go to bed."
The new nickname did not escape him.
"Heh."
No other words between them were needed. The odd thing was that Naruto was precisely right, and Sasuke had no doubts that Naruto was aware of it.
- 14
- 15
- 16
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Soup's On