Underneath the Sakura tree, Somei Yoshino

The second meeting
Chapter 2

“Atsjooo” Sasuke sprayed the screen full of saliva, ‘damn it’ the raven haired man got up and got a small damp cloth from the kitchen and wiped the screen. Sasuke had caught the cold after his trip to the Lake of Sakura last week, and he was feeling more drained of energy than usual. The image of the blond boy was still fresh in his mind even though it had been several days since their first encounter, Sasuke was not really sure why he remembered the blond boy still he had made some impression on him. Usually Sasuke forgot people he only met once fairly fast, God knows, names were something he could never remember, however the deep blue eyes were still freshly imprinted in his mind.

“Atsjooo” Sasuke sneezed all over the screen again “Fuck sake” Sasuke felt horrible, the pressure in his head was getting a bit much and the not breathing through his nose was the tip of the iceberg. ‘Better get some nose spray and some vitamins C or something, anything to get rid of this cold.’ Sasuke blew his nose and grabbed his coat before he headed out.

The blond had a late morning as usual; he stretched himself before he got out of bed and had a shower. Feeling refreshed he headed for the kitchen to make some breakfast, during this time his mind had begun to wander to a certain dark haired man. It had been several days since their encounter but Naruto just could not forget the dark eyes, he wondered if he stared into them for long enough if he would get lost. ‘Wonder what he is up to, I wonder if he still remembers me.’ Naruto could only smile at his own stupidity, why would he remember him they only met once, besides Naruto was a Host a job for people of the night. People like him can not afford to have something else than meaningless sex or relationships. The blond boy sighed, he felt lonely. ‘No time to feel sorry for yourself’ he told himself and began roaming around the kitchen for some food, after about 5 minutes of searching he gave up ‘I really need to learn to shop for food for more than one day.’ Naruto grabbed his jacket and keys before he walked out his door and locked it.

It was a nice and sunny day, the days were getting warmer as summer was approaching and due to that the street was filled with people soaking up as much sun as they could. Naruto usually slept through the day as he was always at work until 5 am and if he had a client he would stay out until the client was satisfied; usually it was not in the Host job description to entertain clients after hours. But after the rich business man, Orochimaru, had offered to pay double the cost for some other entertainment from Naruto, there had been some discussion between Iruka and Kakashi, who were the club owners, they had agreed if Naruto was okey with it. Of course, Naruto had not thought about it twice and accepted the terms, if some one was willing to pay double of what he usually got he was not going to say no. Ever since that day he had been Orochimaru’s exclusive Host when ever he came to the club, he wondered how long he had been Orochimaru’s exclusive Host ‘1? No wait it was coming up to 2 years. Geez had it really been that long?’ The blond boy was too occupied with his own thoughts that he did not see the man right in front of him before they bumped into each other.

“Ah Sorry” Naruto said and bent down to pick up the item the man had dropped. He looked at the front noticing it had the “In the Eternal” written on it, when the thought dawned on him ‘the man from the lake?’ He looked up and met the dark eyes ‘it’s him’ Naruto’s heart could not help but skip a beat, he was still unsure why this man had made such an impression on him.

“Here!” He said to the man and handed him the notebook.

Sasuke was too ill to actually pay attention to what was going on around him when he had bumped in to the blond boy. At first he did not recognise the boy but when his dark eyes met his blue he knew.

“Thanks” He had wanted to say something else but his brain wasn’t working to well so he just took the notebook from Naruto. The blond boy was just staring at him; he noticed the man did not look to good.

“Hey you okey mister?” he asked. Sasuke shuddered a little when he heard the blond boy call him mister, he was not that old.

“Yeah I’m fi …. ATSJOOO” again he sprayed his saliva but this time he had manage to contain it in his hands dropping his notebook again. The blond boy picked it up again noticing the man was going pale.

“Hey I don’t think you're alright …” Sasuke did not pick up the rest as he felt faint, he needed to sit down some where or else he would pass out. Naruto grabbed the man as he almost fell backwards, ‘better find a seat.’ The blond boy looked around watching all the people watching them, ‘people are way to curious’ he was feeling their eyes staring at them. ‘Crap he is beginning to be heavy, maybe it would be better to get him home and to bed’ Naruto spotted a taxi and waved at it to stop which it did much to Naruto’s relief.

It had taken some effort to drag the man into the taxi, the taxi driver had given them a weird look, Naruto searched for the man’s wallet and pulled out his driver's license.

“This address please” He said to the driver and showed him the card; the driver gave him another weird look.

“What?” Naruto said in an annoyed voice, the man shook his head and drove off.


Sasuke woke to the smell of porridge; he opened his eyes and found himself in familiar surroundings. ‘How did I?’ Suddenly he heard noises coming from the kitchen and Sasuke began wondering who was in his flat, he did not have any friends except for Neji and that annoying publisher of his Sakura who usually showed up unannounced to check up on the book and flirt endlessly.

“Ah you’re finally awake, I got some rice porridge for you” The blond boy walked up to the bed with a tray filled with a cup of hot tea and a bowl of rice porridge, Sasuke just stared at the boy still confused.

“How did you?”

“Sit up will you, easier to eat that way” the blond said and smiled.

“Answer my question, how did you get in here?”

“The key of course, how else?” the blond boy put the tray down in front of him and the smell penetrated his blocked nose, it smelled nice. Naruto could see the confusion on the man’s face and sighed with a smile.

“We bumped in to each other a couple of hours ago; you didn’t look too well although you said you were fine when I asked, but then you fainted and I had to take you home.” Sasuke could vaguely remember something about the street and bumping in to someone; he took the spoon lying at the side of the bowl and took a spoonful of porridge.

“How stupid can one get, walking around with 39°C” Naruto mumbled watching the dark eyed man eat the porridge, ‘well at least he is eating, his fridge is worse than mine’

“Why are you still here?” Sasuke asked after he had eaten half the bowl, feeling a little uncomfortable having the blond watch him while he was eating.

“Well I can’t just leave you, especially not in the state your kitchen is in. Do you ever eat?” Sasuke just gave him a glare, ‘of course I eat, just not here’ Sasuke thought realising that he actually never ate at home; it was always just a sandwich from the local shop when he actually got hungry.

“I went out while you were asleep and bought some flu medicine and some food, it should last you a couple of days, until you're healthy enough to get out of bed” Sasuke stopped eating and looked at the blond, of course not revealing anything besides his stone face.

“Your welcome” The blond said smiling.

“Thanks” the dark haired man mumbled and continued to eat; he had noticed the blond smiled with a forced smile, it looked like he too had a mask for the world to see and one he had when he was alone.

“I am Uzumaki Naruto by the way” The blond said

“Uchiha Sasuke” the raven haired man said not looking up from the bowl of porridge, he had eaten it all and he was a bit disappointed it was all gone. It had been a while since he had a proper home cooked meal and the porridge tasted so nice.

“Uchiha Sasuke, as in the author?” Naruto asked pointing at the bowl asking with his finger if the man wanted more, Sasuke nodded.

“Yeah the author” he watched the blond disappear in to the kitchen coming back with the bowl filled with more porridge, even though he did not show it he was happy for some reason he felt comfortable with the complete stranger bringing him home made food.

“That explains the notebook and the poem on the outside, I was wondering since the first time we met” Naruto said referring to their meeting at the lake. Sasuke did not want to ask about the blond’s job because he sort of knew already, and he was unsure if the blond would be to happy with him prying in his personal life because God knows how much he hated it when people did it to him.

“Shouldn’t you be at work” Sasuke asked the blond, who was looking through his bookshelf.

“No I called and said I wasn’t coming today” he answered finding the latest book Sasuke had written. “You want me to leave?” Truth be told he really did not want to leave the raven haired man, mainly because he was ill but there was something about him that made Naruto feel he could relax a little, not pull the mask off but he did not have to strain to have it on.

“No its okey” Sasuke could hear himself say, why he had said it he was not sure but he had said it. As he was eating the home cooked porridge the thoughts of their first encounter came to the raven haired man’s head and he remembered that Naruto had known the name of the poem and the author of it, the blond did not seem the type to have gone to the university so he was curious how the blond boy knew.

“How did you know it was ‘In the Eternal’ that was written on the notebook” the man asked as he looked at the boy who sat in the chair reading his book which had the title ‘Summer days’, for some reason he felt uncomfortable having the blond read his work mainly because he could not believe people liked the crap. How on earth all his books, the 5 he had written, became best sellers he had no idea.

“I did study literature at the Waseda University, although it might not seem that way. Ki no Tomonori’s poem ‘In the Eternal” is my favourite of his works, but I am more of a novel reader” Naruto answered still reading the book. Sasuke was a bit surprised by the answer, he was right; he did not seem to be the type to study literature.

“May I ask what happened?”

“A lot of things, mainly I got bored which is why I picked up the Host job during my second semester. Things are never boring at the club” Naruto smiled “But I think the main reason was my parents died in a car accident before the second semester ended.” Sasuke looked at the facial expression that seemed not to change, he was not sad or angry by the fact his parents were dead.

“Starnge isn’t it that I could not mourn them like a proper son should, for some reason I just didn’t like my parents”

Sasuke just sat there staring at the blond as he talked about his parents as they were strangers; he was not disgusted by it at all because the blond boy reminded him so much about himself. Sasuke came from a family filled with doctors and lawyers and it had been expected of him to choose one of the two careers, Sasuke on the other hand had no interest in any of them. It was not like he loved literature but it had been one of the studies and jobs his father resented the most, so just to spite his dad he had studied literature and became an author.

“Dunno if you remember the famous author Uzumaki Yondaime?” The blond asked and looked up at Sasuke who by this point stopped eating.

“You’re Uzumaki-sama’s son?” he said almost choking on his own saliva as he swallowed.

Naruto nodded “he he, not what you expected is it? Well nevertheless being a child of two famous authors the pressure to carry on the legacy is inevitable.” Surprisingly Naruto smiled.

“What do you write?”

“Nothing, I hate it. I hate the part of me that is expected to be an author just like my parents”

“So why do you read?” Sasuke could see why Naruto had ended up choosing a job as a Host, just like him he had picked a job that would have his parents turn in their graves, just to prove a point.

“Although I hate literature I can’t stop reading, it just happens automatically. I guess it is in the genes” Naruto smiled and sat down in front of Sasuke, he looked at the empty bowl and tea cup. “Finished?” Sasuke nodded and thanked him for the food, the blond took the tray and went in to the kitchen again. And after a couple of minutes he came back out yawning, Sasuke could see he was tired and wondered how many hours the boy had slept.

“Well you should get some sleep Uchiha-san, best medicine there is, is sleep.” Sasuke nodded and crept further underneath the duvet, he could feel he was tired and closed his eyes. But after about a minute he began to feel cold and sat up to look around for a blanket.

“What’s wrong?” Naruto asked

“Cold, where is the extra blanket?”

“Sorry I took it to have over me, here” he spread the blanket over the raven haired man.

“What about you?” he asked as the blond was finished.

He only smiled and took off his jumper and crawled over Sasuke. Sasuke froze as he felt the blond boy crawl over him, ‘what the hell is he doing?’ Then he felt the blond settle in next to him and an arm going around his waist, ‘is he doing what I think he is doing?’ Sasuke began to panic.

“Ehm what you doing?”

“Well you have all the blankets and I am tired, only slept about 4 hours. Besides nothing better than body heat to warm you up” the blond said snuggling closer to the man. The raven haired man did not move, he was still shocked of what the blond boy had just done but yet at the same time he did not dislike it. The heat coming from the blond boy’s body was nice and warm and he could feel his eyelids become heavier.

“Want me to move?” the blond yawned as he asked.

“No” the raven haired man said and the two fell asleep listening to the sound each others breathing.