Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Reckless Hearts	By : MagicalReality Category: Naruto AU/AR > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 3717 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I make nothing from writing this.

Chapter List
- 19
- 20
Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. I don't make any profit from writing this.
This is the end.

Epilogue

Itachi knew he hadn't been the best brother growing up. Sasuke was a clingy child and at the time he didn't have the patience for it. Itachi loved this brother but coddling him had never been something he indulged in. He was softer now that he had his own child, but comforting someone else had never been his strong suit. He was using that as his excuse when he saw his brother again a few weeks after he'd called off the wedding.
"You do know it's four in the morning, right?" Itachi greeted him as he opened his front door wider. The word pathetic might've been an understatement. Sasuke looked abysmal. He obviously hadn't been sleeping well and although he looked clean he still reeked of alcohol. "I hope you didn't drive yourself here in that state." Itachi sighed.
Sasuke was silent as he stepped into the house unsteadily. He clung to the wall for support and threw a glare at Itachi over his shoulder. It was glassy and unfocused.
Itachi closed the door quietly behind him and grabbed Sasuke's elbow, guiding him to the kitchen where he could get some aspirin and water. He pushed his brother into one of the chairs and pulled a glass from the cupboard above the stove. He filled it with water and then set the glass and two aspirin in front of Sasuke.
"I don't need the pills." Sasuke said quietly as he took a sip of the lukewarm tap water. Itachi wanted to disagree with him, but his brother already looked like the world was on his shoulders.
The only sound in the kitchen for a while was the clock on the wall. Half an hour passed before Sasuke's glass was empty and Itachi felt enough time had gone by that he could finally get some answers. He took the glass to the sink and thought about the best way he could start the conversation.
The last time they'd seen each other was the rehearsal dinner three days before the wedding. Itachi was both surprised and frustrated that his brother had kept the charade going for as long as he did, but things had fallen apart quickly. Sasuke had shown up to the dinner with a flask hidden inside the pocket of his jacket, reeking of alcohol and arguing with someone over the phone about prices for plane tickets. Things had just devolved from there, turning their rehearsal dinner into a screaming match between Sasuke and their father. It ended with Sasuke disappearing for a few days and Itachi having to pick up his mess. He still hadn't managed to smooth things over with the rest of their family.
"I don't know what to do." Sasuke confessed, really looking at Itachi for the first time since he got there. "I've never felt that way about someone before. What if he's the only one?"
"He won't be the only one. You're still young, Sasuke, you'll meet someone else who makes you feel that way again." Itachi said automatically. Sasuke seemed to deflate all at once. It obviously wasn't the answer he was looking for, but Itachi wasn't sure what else to tell him. He didn't see any way for his brother and Naruto to reconcile after everything that had happened.
A moment passed where neither of them spoke, each lost in their own thoughts. Itachi really wanted to go back to sleep but he didn't want to leave Sasuke on his own.
“We'll finish talking in the morning.” Itachi sighed, rubbing a hand across his face and down his neck. Konan was going to be angry with him for letting Sasuke into the house in this state. “You can stay in your usual room tonight.”
“I don't want your pity.” Sasuke said childishly, but he let Itachi pull him up from the chair anyway. It was difficult to get up the stairs and Sasuke had a hand on the wall to keep his balance but they made it to the guest room in once piece.
Itachi got Sasuke onto the bed and helped him out of his clothes. He placed them on the edge of the bed where Sasuke could reach them in the morning and left the room after saying goodnight. Konan was thankfully still sleeping when he got back into their room and he was quiet as he slipped into bed next to her.
He wasn’t really surprised when he woke up a few hours later to find Sasuke was already gone.
*~*
Sakura was angry, not just for Naruto but for the poor girl Sasuke had been dating. Kiba had told her the story on the drive back to his house and never mind how he’d even gotten that info. She suspected it had everything to do with that older woman he was talking to but none of that would ever excuse him for using that slur.
She tried her best to be there for Naruto. She went over to his house on the weekends and curled up with him in bed, her laptop settled between them with Netflix running. He spent most of that time sleeping or sniffling into his pillow so whatever they were watching was just made into background noise. She didn’t know what she could say to him. Telling him he would get over Sasuke at this point was only going to make him angry so she settled on just being there for him.
Things were strained between Kakashi, Iruka, and Naruto. She could feel the tension as soon as she walked in the door. She knew it was because of Sasuke and just left it at that. It wasn’t her business and she didn’t want to pry. It would work out on its own eventually.
Naruto’s birthday came and went. She left his presents on the table next to his bed in the hopes that they would cheer him up at least a little. They sat there unopened for the better part of a week before she decided to open them herself. Naruto spent all night reading through the strategy guide Shikamaru had gotten him so she counted it as a win.
They spent Halloween outside on the porch instead of trick or treating like Naruto would’ve wanted. She was all dressed up and ready to leave but he was still in his pajamas. He hadn’t been to school that day, just like he hadn’t the day before and the day before that. She usually brought him the homework but who knew if he was actually doing it.
There was a bowl of candy by their feet that Naruto was slowly eating out of. Sakura gave out what she could to the kids that passed the house but most of it was gone.
“You know what the worst part is?” Naruto asked her as he reached into the candy bowl for a tootsie roll. There were wrappers spread around them, some on the grass and others in the bowl itself. “The worst part is I should’ve known better. Seriously, what grown man wants to be involved with a teenager?” he sighed.
Naruto flicked his wrapper into the bowl and stood up, dusting off the back of his pajama pants. Most of the porch lights on the street had gone out and there were barely any kids left on the sidewalk. Sakura wanted to reach out for his wrist so she could pull him back down to sit with her, try to understand what had been going on in his head the last couple of weeks. They used to tell each other everything but now they barely talked.
Sakura sighed as she stood up and shook the wrinkles out of her skirt. She heard the door open and close behind her. Tears burned in her eyes but she blinked them away and bent to pick up the candy bowl. She was straightening up when Naruto came back outside holding two cans of their favorite soda.
“Aren’t you coming inside?” he asked with a frown. “I know I said I wasn’t in the mood for trick or treating but we can at still watch some B horror movies, right?”
He looked so earnest about it that she couldn’t help but laugh. Sakura tilted her head, considering. She could see how Sasuke would’ve fallen for him. Naruto was a little brash but he was a good person. Anybody would be lucky to have him in their life.
“You’re not going to get scared, are you?” she teased, letting Naruto coax her back into the house. She took off her costume as he pulled blankets from the linen closet, ranting loudly about how ghosts weren’t real and ‘you can hold my hand if you get too scared, Sakura-chan’.
She smiled as she watched him. It might’ve been hard now, but he was going to make it through this. She was going to make sure of it.
*~*
Sasuke knew it was only a matter of time before he ran into Naruto again. They lived in the same town and it wasn’t that big. It was just a quick glance because the blond was turning into a shop down the street but it was enough to make Sasuke fumble the box in his arms. He nearly dropped it but Ino was there to shove it back into place.
“When did you get so clumsy?” she frowned, moving around him to get more boxes from the moving truck behind them.
After breaking off his engagement to Karin, Sasuke had decided he needed a change of scenery. His new apartment was closer to the bar and sat between two tiny shops. It was a little over his price range at the moment but he liked the area and the rest of the tenants seemed like decent people.
“What the hell are you just standing around for? Get moving!” Ino nudged him in the back with the box in her arms as she walked around him back into the building. Sasuke shot one more glance down the street before following her inside, convincing himself he’d been seeing things.
Later on, when the last of the boxes had been settled in his living room, Sasuke sat back on his couch and let himself sink into the cushions with a tired sigh. It’d been months since that night in Naruto’s room and he could still remember the look on his face. It haunted him some nights that he had put such an expression on someone else’s face, like everything they’d ever known about the world was a lie. In Naruto’s eyes, it probably was.
Sasuke sighed and turned his head towards his phone on the side table. He still had Naruto’s number in his contacts. If it was still the same he could probably…
He quickly shook the thought from his head and heaved himself up from the couch so he could finally break in his new bed. He didn’t think about Naruto as he changed into some loose fitting sweat pants and definitely not as he crawled into bed. If he thought about him a little before he fell asleep, well, no one was going to know but him.
*~*
Sakura’s mom owned a flower shop downtown between a dusty record store and a small supermarket. Naruto had spent a lot of the summer there working for minimum wage arranging bouquets and sweeping up the stray petals. It was the last place he ever expected to run into someone he knew, especially the guy that had broken his heart. Sasuke looked just as surprised to see him as Naruto did, though you couldn’t tell with the bored look on his face. The guy had an amazing poker face.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Naruto growled out, coming around the counter to push Sasuke back with a palm to his chest. Naruto ignored the shiver that went through him at the simple touch. “What, are you stalking me now or something?” he asked.
“I live down the street.” Sasuke told him.
Naruto opened and closed his mouth, lost for words. He’d been working in this flower shop all summer and hadn’t seen Sasuke once the whole time.
“For how long?!” he exclaimed.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow, “About three months now.”
It was awkward. That’s the nicest way Naruto could’ve put it. Here they were, standing in the middle of a flower shop, silently staring at each other. He didn’t know what to say and Sasuke had never been much of a talker to begin with. It was so fucking awkward.
“Did you want some flowers?” Naruto finally blurted out, seemingly startling Sasuke out of whatever weird stupor he was in. “You don’t exactly look like a flower guy, though.” He laughed nervously. Naruto took a step closer to Sasuke, pointing to the hanging potted fern next to him. “Maybe you need some plants to put a little life into your, uh, place! That is, unless your, um, partner? Doesn’t like plants or something.”
He felt stupid as soon as the word left his mouth. Now it sounded like he was fishing for information, which he wasn’t. He was just trying to make a sale and if he just so happened to need to know this kind of thing, then it wasn’t his fault. Naruto let his arm drop back to his side, feeling hot with embarrassment.
“I live alone.” Sasuke said quietly. He had shoved his hands into his pockets and was staring at the fern like it could tell him what he was supposed to do next.
Naruto ducked his head and rubbed at his neck nervously, feeling the awkwardness starting to build again.
“You didn’t come here for flowers, did you?” he sighed. Naruto turned around and stepped back behind the counter, feeling Sasuke’s eyes on him. He didn’t move from where he was still standing by the fern. “Why are you really here, Sasuke?” he asked the man.
The guilty look on the man’s face didn’t inspire any hope. Naruto gave him a pointed look as he crossed his arms over his chest. Finally, after what seemed like ten minutes had passed, Sasuke finally opened his mouth though it wasn’t anything Naruto had been expecting.
“I thought I was seeing things.” Sasuke told him. “I had to make sure.”
Naruto didn’t know how to reply to that. He looked down at the counter, trying to think of something to say. He heard Sasuke step closer to the counter; heard him sigh out heavily. Naruto’s heart started beating faster and his palms got sweaty.
“For what it’s worth, I never meant to hurt you.” Sasuke mumbled, his voice sounding pained.
“Yeah, well, you did.” Naruto shot back, glancing at him briefly. He tapped his fingers on the countertop and flinched away when Sasuke suddenly reached over to touch his hand. “So I’m real. You weren’t seeing things. Are you just gonna hang around now?” Naruto swallowed and finally looked Sasuke in the eye.
Sasuke took a minute to answer, his eyes darting over Naruto’s face. After a minute he finally shook his head.
“Not if it bothers you so much.”
“Okay.”
Sasuke stepped back away from the counter and shoved his hands into his pockets. He tilted his head to the side, his gaze sliding over Naruto one last time.
“I’m just down the street if you ever want to talk.” Sasuke said in parting, backing up towards the door as Naruto watched. “Maybe we can get a coffee some time.”
“Yeah, maybe.”
Sasuke took his answer at face value and nodded before he left the store, back onto the street outside. Naruto felt his muscles slowly relax the longer he stood there. He let out a sigh and dropped onto the stool next to the register, running a hand over his face.
Naruto knew it was stupid. Sasuke had really broken his heart, made him feel terrible about himself. He should pretend Sasuke never came into the shop today, decline his invitation. There was a tiny part of him, though, that wanted to see that bastard again. It probably wouldn’t be right away, but maybe one day he would be able to put everything behind him.
Only time could tell what direction he would go.

End
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Reckless Hearts