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day 13: you are my home
Sasuke sleeps late. Laying awake at night, stirring. Sometimes he gives up, starts reading or goes out to enjoy the night sky. He wakes up early, when the sun is not or barely up. From the sound of a bird flying from a tree or another noise he can’t quite place. From Naruto stirring, breathing out too heavily. Anything that disrupts the quiet. He gives up then too. Wakes. Though he’s not as quick to get out of bed in the morning. He watches Naruto’s closed eyes and deep breaths for a while.
Not with envy — but heavy with something that comes closer to resting than his sleep ever has.
It takes him a while to get bored of it, or — closer to the truth — after a while he becomes worried about waking Naruto.
He loves Naruto and his endless chatting.
He cherishes his quiet moments alone, just when the sun is coming up, too.
So he gets up before Naruto’s breathing becomes lighter and he feels, somehow, less tired than he did before. His lassitude is almost like a given by now. He has found comfort in it. Found comfort in the noises that shake him every single time. Found comfort in waking up at every single one of Naruto’s turns or snores. Found comfort in these mornings, where he washes their rice and puts on the cooker, heats some water, stirs seaweed through their miso.
He’s slow, now. He figures it’s the arm too, not just his tiredness.
He figures it’s the comfort, the safety — he’d be just as quick on his feet if anything ever did happen. Lately he finds himself shocked at his mercilessness, how quick he is to kill, once Naruto is in danger. It’s a more drastic change than before. A big difference from slowly letting his coffee drip into his cup, like he does on mornings like this.
The house is cold, for fire country standards. It has beautiful golden light in the morning but stands in the shadow of a mountain the rest of the day. They had chosen it randomly.
Sasuke hadn’t wanted a house in Konoha; but he’d told Naruto he’d settle there if it meant staying together.
Naruto hadn’t wanted to stray far from his home; had still said he’d do anything for Sasuke.
Sasuke had wanted quiet. Naruto had wanted buzzing.
Sasuke had wanted an old house. Naruto wanted something new and bright.
The house is a lot of nothing.
A bit of everything, maybe, if you ask Naruto, ever the optimist.
They'd settled comfortably, without question, because the only thing they had agreed on was that they wanted to stick together. Wanted to live together. Stupid, it seems now. How they had decided to live together before even confessing. Naruto had held his hand in the hospital, they had slept in one bed in Naruto’s apartment, and suddenly they had decided they could stick together forever.
Or maybe they had decided that way before then.
The confession came later. On a quiet morning much like today. Still in their pyjamas. It had been the middle of summer.
As he walks into the room, Naruto wakes. He smiles, the way he always does when waking up seeing Sasuke. It’s as if he’s surprised every time. As if Naruto still believes that a reality in which they’re together is like a dream. “Still here, moron,” Sasuke mumbles. He says it often. There’s no bite in it, even though it translates to a won’t be getting rid of me.
He sounds more tired than he’d expected.
Carefully, he places their breakfast on the bedside table and opens the curtains. The sunlight falls into their room. The trees, especially the ginkgo tree in the middle of their garden colour a soft orange. Sasuke huffs. It’s as if the world is made for Naruto. Instead of mentioning it, he slips back into their bed.
Sasuke had wanted black bed sheets, Naruto orange.
They’d settled for blue.
He holds out a cup for Naruto to take. Instead, Naruto just looks at him for a little while. “Hey,” he breathes out. “Thank you.”
“Take it, idiot.”
Naruto breathes out a laugh. “Good morning to you too.” He takes the coffee from his hands anyway, puts it on his own bedside table in between papers and things that definitely do not need to be on there. When he comes back, he places a hand on Sasuke’s cheek. It’s warm from the coffee, though he only held the cup for a few seconds. “Did you sleep?”
Sasuke lets himself lean into the touch. “Hm— a little.”
“Sleep some more,” Naruto mumbles.
“No. Can’t anyway.”
Naruto knows arguing won’t get him where he wants to be, for once. It will only wake Sasuke more, leave him frustrated, maybe it will even have him yelling. So he leans in, softly lets their lips brush. “I love you,” He mumbles.
Sasuke nods against him, their noses brushing.
Naruto kisses him again, slow and a little deeper. He caresses Sasuke’s ear, his hair, and his cheek. Sasuke finds himself making a delighted sound into Naruto’s mouth, and finds Naruto grinning when they pull back.
“Thank you for breakfast.”
“Mhm.”
Naruto eats slowly, tries to explain his dream in between bites. Sasuke tries to listen, finds it impossible to put two and two together. He does nod along, lets his fingers run through Naruto’s hair once he’s done eating, waiting for Naruto to do the same.
They move to the veranda a little bit later. Their pyjama pants on, stupid matching ones. His is black, Naruto’s an ugly shade of light blue. It makes his eyes stand out, though, and Sasuke hates himself for letting the look get to him as much as it does. Every single time. Naruto takes the blanket with the excuse of wanting it for himself, but drapes it over Sasuke’s shoulders as soon as they settle outside and Naruto jumps off the veranda.
Naruto planted pumpkins, carrots.
Sasuke has learned to make tempura out of them.
As Naruto barges through the garden, the birds settle into their morning routine as well. They start chattering loudly, looking for food and generally destroying their tomatoes. Sasuke watches them, then goes back to watching Naruto.
Naruto who’s as bright and as orange as the morning light itself. Who kisses him slowly all the time now and who decided to live with him before he even knew that being in love with another man was an option.
It had been on a morning like this; them waking up in the bed they had been sleeping in for weeks, when Naruto had asked him: “Can’t it be you forever?” Sasuke had lost his breath and he’d refrained from saying it has always been us. Instead, he said: “If that’s what you want.” Naruto had felt the need to clarify; while they had already decided to stay together, this feeling was new. He explained wanting to kiss him. Sasuke had told him yes. He’d whispered sleepily: “I want that too.”
His bright boy.
Bright in the soft orange sunlight, holding up a pumpkin. “This one is pretty big!”
Sasuke leans his head against the door. “Mhm,” His voice sounds soft, distant. Naruto beams at him anyway, so it’s probably fine.
Naruto moves into the shed, slamming the door. He marches from one side of the garden towards the other side. He gets sunseeds from their storage, pours a handful underneath the tree for the birds.
And Sasuke watches him through heavy lidded eyes.
He watches and then, as the world slows down, he listens. Naruto humming. The birds singing, pecking the seeds and the vegetables. Heavy footsteps on the ground. The sound of a scissor. The wind. There’s nothing disruptive about it. It’s a world waking up.
He gives into it. Slowly letting himself sink into the thick blue blanket, letting his back and then his head fall against the creaking wood of their engawa doors. He distantly hears Naruto’s footsteps on the wooden platform, feels a soft pressure — a kiss, maybe — on top of his hair. Then, it fades again. The warm light and the incoherent humming of a song fades. Their house becomes soft, fades. The world around him fades.