Chapter Text
Sasuke’s 30th birthday falls on a Wednesday, a weekday. A workday.
So last night, when Naruto sent him a greeting and Sasuke didn’t reply, he doesn’t blame him. Sasuke is in America, has been for about two years or so for business to gather experience with their company’s overseas entities. He probably won’t get a reply for at least another few days. Sasuke’s an important person like that. As expected from an alpha of his background.
Him, however. A replaceable asset. He’s a delivery truck driver, a dangerous job for an omega. Any job that requires an omega to face different types of people every day can turn out dangerous, which is why Naruto is thankful his delivery company takes great measures to protect its omega employees and give them equal opportunities.
He’s on his pickup route now after having lunch in his truck. It’s his last pickup for the day, from a clothing shop. He deposits the box into the truck and then makes his way back to the distribution center, grateful for the end of a long day. He’s been having headaches from the heat, and taking too much medicine isn’t going to do him well.
“You best get home,” says his supervisor, a beta, handing him a fresh scent blocker patch, something the company provides for free on workdays. “Put a fresh one on before you leave, okay?”
“I will,” Naruto takes the patch.
“Thank you for your hard work,” they say to each other before Naruto heads to the lockers, and the supervisor returns to the floor for some overtime. (1)
After changing out of his uniform, he peels off the expiring scent patch from that morning and applies the new one before leaving. The trains aren’t as packed since it’s the summer and the children and students are out on their holidays.
In the July heat, his temple and nape pulse from the headache. When Naruto steps out of the train station nearest to his apartment, he can’t resist going into the local Family Mart to get an iced coffee to cool himself down, even though the night is falling. It’s something he and Sasuke used to do all the time before the responsibilities of adult life, and Sasuke’s family obligations, caught up with them. Together with the iced coffee, he checks out some fried chicken and curry rice for dinner.
Naruto remembers that one night, when they’re both twenty-three. At the time, Sasuke was a year into his internship after graduating university, and Naruto, who chose not to continue his education, was working two jobs. They had a conversation over konbini iced coffee that has been tormenting him for the last few months. (2)
“If we’re still single when we’re thirty,” said Sasuke solemnly, “Let’s marry each other,”
He answered before his brain could catch up with the proposal. “Sure!”
Naruto, who has always had a hard time dating even until now, back then thought Sasuke would have no problems getting himself an omega of good background with how well connected his family is, assumed the alpha was joking.
It hadn’t been brought up once since then. After all, why would Sasuke settle? Why would an alpha like him, from a powerful wealthy family, choose to bargain for marriage with an omega with literally nothing to offer? Sasuke hadn’t even mentioned a mating bite. Why would an alpha like Sasuke not want to bite?
He never forgot it, but he also doesn’t think about it that much.
Until his phone received a message from said alpha a few months ago.
I’m turning thirty.
Then his heat, hit him. It was one of the worst heats he’s ever had, so after that, he went and had an implant put in.
And like always, he spent this laborious heat thinking of Sasuke.
Sasuke, an executive at his family’s company, earning millions from his shares and stocks, absurdly well connected with other wealthy families and companies, one of Japan’s most eligible bachelors (even if they don’t know it), made a deal with him seven years ago. That if they’re still single by thirty, they’d marry each other. (4)
Naruto has seen the people who decorate Sasuke’s arms come and go. There have been many, and Naruto tries not to think about it too much. There have been models, idols, other heirs, and countless others from rich families. Sasuke has also been seen multiple times with Princess Kako and with Princess Mako, has been known to bump shoulders with the Crown Prince and Princess on occasion, and has met the Emperor and Empress many times. After all, the Uchiha have control over a vast network of companies that bring in enough money to significantly dent the country’s GDP, enough to warrant an invitation to tea with the Imperial family multiple times. (3)
It's a wonder at all that Naruto knows someone that important, let alone be a best friend to one. He’s never been adopted out of the care system, basically graduated from the orphanage like he did his public high school, where he met Sasuke. Which also confused Naruto, because why would an heir like Sasuke choose to go to a public school instead of a private one? Where he would be surrounded with other heirs and other children like him.
Sasuke had everything on a silver spoon yet chose to mingle with the common people. He chose to go to The University of Tokyo, without the option of going to a private university. Sasuke is that smart that he got in without reviewing for the exam and without a backup plan to get into a private school. While Naruto, who didn’t have the resources to go and finish his education, was working full time since high school so he could save up enough for a deposit on an apartment, so he’d be ready when the orphanage decided to let him go. (11)
Naruto brushes his thoughts off as he enters his apartment.
He’s sure now that the headache is from the heat, when it abates after a long, hot shower, and he’s comfortable in the refreshing cool air the air-conditioner blows into the apartment. He’s been mulling it over the last few weeks, quitting his job. He’s not sure what he wants to do next, but he is sure that the job should have air-conditioning. A waiter at a café, perhaps? He did tons of waiting tables in high school, so he knows he won’t have trouble getting hired. But he’ll have to submit his resignation soon, unless he wants to suffer through the rest of the summer with a pounding headache.
He sits down at the table to have his reheated curry and chicken, but before he gets to even halve his food, his phone chimes.
From: Uchiha Sasuke
Thank you. I appreciate you remembering. Work’s been a little heavy. Being important at work isn’t as fun as it sounds, so I can’t reply as often as I want to. Hopefully that’ll change since I’m coming home next week and will have some time off before I go back to work, and I’ll do my best to make more time for leisure and meet with you more often. Let’s go somewhere to eat. You pick. See you soon.
Naruto bursts into a giddy giggle. Sasuke’s coming home!
But then that’d mean he’d cash in on their deal, which terrifies the shit out of him.
But Sasuke’s coming home and Naruto can’t help but feel so excited. More excited than he is terrified of that deal.
So excited that he sends a reply before he can think about what he just sent.
Uzumaki Naruto
It’s a date!
Mortified, he tries to unsend it, but Sasuke’s already seen it.
From: Uchiha Sasuke
Hahaha. You bet. I’m heading to work now. Thank you for your hard work today. Sweet dreams. Good night.
Uzumaki Naruto:
Excited to have you back home! Good morning and good luck at work today. Please do your best!
Naruto spends the next few minutes rereading and rereading Sasuke’s texts.
He’s coming home.
Naruto spends the next days with a pep in his step that even his manager notices. He blushes when he gets teased that they think it’s an alpha who’s made Naruto so happy. They’re not wrong, but they’re not entirely right either. It’s not like they’re in the middle of courtship.
Which is why his manager is perplexed when he submits his resignation, on a Friday morning, with his last day marked in two weeks.
“Well, if it’s affecting your health, I can’t do anything about it,” he sighs. “Why didn’t you tell me you’d been having headaches? And getting dizzy? You could’ve crashed! I could’ve done something,”
“Ah, well. I didn’t want to bother you,” says Naruto, “And I don’t want my doctor to add more medication, so I’m trying to manage the environment instead. I am very sorry to disrupt the business,”
The manager sighs again. “Do you want to eat up your leaves?”
“If that’s okay? If not, it’s okay. I’ll try my best,”
“No, no. You go and take the next two weeks off and get some rest. I’ll take care of everything. Do you already have a backup?”
Naruto shakes his head. “But I have a friend who recently moved back to Japan, so I might help him get settled,”
“Well, he better pay you,” his manager laughs. “Do you think you can get through today?”
“I’ll do my best!”
“Alright, go. I’ll see you later,”
And Naruto goes on his last day. When he gets back, the office-based personnel send him off with a goodbye cake and takes him out to dinner.
After the dinner, he rushes over to the shopping district to get Sasuke a gift. Sasuke’s got everything, but he’s not difficult to find gifts for. He likes useful things, so he decides to visit a stationery store and get him the nicest diary he can use at work. The generic ones that have no dates so he can write those down himself. And a nice pen.
But Naruto secretly hopes that Sasuke would write personal things in it so that he’s not always thinking about work.
“For someone special?” asks the girl at the counter.
“Yes!” he answers. It’s expensive and Sasuke’s never really been the showy type, but he did like quality things.
“Would you like me to wrap it for you?”
“You can do that?”
“Of course!” she says excitedly. “It’s for someone special, isn’t it?”
Naruto brightens into a smile. “Yeah! How much should I add?”
“It’s on me,” she winks at him, then gestures to the small sign that says wrapping service starts at ¥300, depending on the size.
“You’re sure?” says Naruto, ready to hand over the coins.
“I’m sure,” she says.
“Oh, wait, can I insert a note in?”
“Of course!” she leads him over to another counter, where she lets him scribble something on a piece of nice paper, then expertly wraps the diary with fancy looking paper.
“Thank you so much!” says Naruto when she hands it over.
“Whoever it is,” she says, “snatch them right up!”
Naruto laughs.
When he gets home, he does his laundry and chores done to get it out of the way and frees up his weekend, before going out for a late walk to buy some necessities at the nearest Family Mart.
Just as he’s about to lock the door to his apartment, his phone chimes.
Uchiha Sasuke
I’ll be arriving tomorrow. The plane lands at 5pm local time. Gonna get some sleep first if I can. It’s going to take a while to adjust to the time difference. I’ll meet you on Sunday.
Uchiha Sasuke
What’s the nearest station to your apartment? I’ll meet you there. I don’t mind if you choose ramen like always.
Naruto locks his door first before typing in his reply.
Uzumaki Naruto
Wait, don’t you want to rest for a few days first?
Uchiha Sasuke
I’m okay, I promise. I’m not going to be able to sleep properly anyways.
Uzumaki Naruto
By bullet train, I’m about two hours away from Shibuya Station. By express, about four hours. Is that ok? If I’m too far I can go somewhere nearer to you, where we can meet halfway. That way, you can also pick where you want to eat. I’ve been liking beef curry lately.
The reply is instant.
Uchiha Sasuke
No, I’ll come to you. I’ll check for bullet train tickets. But if there aren’t any, I’ll take the express earlier and find a hotel to stay at if we stay out too late. Also, beef curry sounds great.
Uzumaki Naruto
I can meet you at Nagano Station, so you don’t have to walk after getting off the bullet train. Does 1130 sound good?
Uchiha Sasuke
1130 is good. I’ll book a ticket for 0900.
Uzumaki Naruto
Great! Excited to see you again, finally. Have a safe trip and see you soon.
Uzumaki Naruto
I still think it’s better if you stay at my place so you can see my apartment! So that you don’t have to spend unnecessarily on a hotel you might not even like. I’m about to renew the lease in a few months, so I think I have to get on that…
Uchiha Sasuke
My, my, what a naughty omega, inviting an alpha over.
Naruto blushes. He forgot.
Uzumaki Naruto
Don’t tease me! Okay fine, go find a hotel. Don’t sleep at my place. (* ￣︿￣)
Uchiha Sasuke
Hahaha. After we eat, come with me to get pajamas at Uniqlo and then you can keep the pajamas.
Uzumaki Naruto
You don’t have to, but I’m all for new pajamas! I’m gonna go out and buy dinner at the konbini. Try to rest during the flight.
Uchiha Sasuke
Be careful. See you soon. Good night.
The excitement of seeing Sasuke again and more often gives Naruto goosebumps.
He spends the whole Saturday cleaning his apartment. It’s not that his apartment is dirty, he just wants to look presentable. Getting that foldable foam sofa bed instead of just a sofa a while back was a good idea. He never really has anyone over, but being prepared couldn’t hurt. And he washed the spare sheets he had for the sofa bed first thing before anything else to make sure it’s dry when he’s done cleaning. (7)
His apartment is small, not as small as the room he stayed in after high school (he has a tub now!), but enough for him. He never had the chance to visit Sasuke’s house when they were kids, and Sasuke would always offer to visit him at the orphanage instead. After high school, they’d usually just hang out at malls, or he’d visit Sasuke’s apartment near the university. When Sasuke graduated and started working in the family company, the cost of living in Tokyo was proving to be too much for Naruto already. So, while Sasuke got busier and busier as a company employee, Naruto had moved further and further from the capital, which is why he ended up settling down in a place four hours by train ride from Tokyo.
Spending time with Sasuke has gotten sparser and sparser, limited to quick messages, five-minute video calls every now and then when Naruto felt like bothering Sasuke. Sasuke always answered, despite being busy, but Naruto understood quickly that Sasuke is not an ordinary person and therefore should not be bothered with pointless video calls. While video calls became sporadic, video messages became more often, and Naruto didn’t care whether Sasuke replied or not. It was enough for him when Sasuke had time to send whenever he wasn’t busy, or when he reacted to messages.
It’s been a long time since they’d spent time together, and Naruto is so excited. So excited that he did some spring cleaning even though it’s the middle of summer, gave his plants a bit of extra water to keep them refreshed for longer, put a light scent on to put the odors at bay since Sasuke doesn’t like strong scents, and got some fancy green tea for the alpha, even though that’s a bit more expensive and out of budget. (5)
He just hopes their unmated scents don’t trigger each other’s heat and rut. After all, his scent is everywhere in the apartment, which is why he’s cleaning so much. But he's confident his implant is going to keep his heat at bay.
He decides to eat something else other than Family Mart today and has brunch at a nearby food chain, of fried salmon, picked vegetables, miso soup, a small portion of thinly sliced beef, and a cup of rice with some cold tea. He likes to think Sasuke would be proud that he’s eating better now. (6)
By the time he’s back at his apartment, the sheets and pillowcases are dry, so he sets that aside, ready to be used when Sasuke arrives. He looks at the folded-up foam sofa bed and giggles, excitement again filling his every fiber at the thought of Sasuke spending the night with him.
He takes a nap in the afternoon, then wakes up to watch TV to kill time, then goes out to buy dinner at Family Mart before the sun goes down. On his way back from the convenience store, his phone chimes.
Uchiha Sasuke
Plane just landed. I’ll be home in a bit then rest a bit more. I’ll see you tomorrow. Looking forward to your beef curry spot.
Naruto quickly types in his reply, and they exchange messages until Naruto reaches his apartment to eat dinner.
Uzumaki Naruto
I’m glad you arrived safe. I know you like iced coffee in this heat but please don’t and try to get more sleep. I’m excited about seeing you tomorrow. I’m having crab onigiri for dinner tonight and I grabbed some pudding for dessert.
Uchiha Sasuke
That sounds so good. I’ll probably not listen to you and grab a good strong glass of iced green tea latte somewhere, but I did grab a bottle of cold tea from the vending machine. I’m sweating out of my clothes already. The heat is insane. (8)
Uzumaki Naruto
I’m trying to lower my electricity consumption, but it’s too hot to keep just the fan going! I have the AC on dry to help keep the apartment cool. Are you waiting for the train now?
Uchiha Sasuke
No, a company car is picking me up. If you’re hot, turn the AC on. Don’t let yourself get sick.
Uzumaki Naruto
Okay, that’s good. Have a save ride home. Keep safe, okay? I’ll let you rest now. Good night.
Uchiha Sasuke
See you tomorrow.
Naruto doesn’t know why he’s up bright and early for Sunday. (It was 9am.) Maybe he’s that excited about finally seeing Sasuke again after two years of being on the phone. He checks his phone and Sasuke’s name is the first thing he sees in his notifications.
Uchiha Sasuke
Already got on the train.
With it is a photo of the train window with a bottle of green tea on the food tray.
Uzumaki Naruto
See you soon!!
He already took a shower last night, but after a light breakfast consisting of an onigiri and a cold bottle of black lemon tea from Family Mart, he takes another shower for good measure, goes through his skincare, after bath hygiene, and lathers on a good amount of sunscreen on his face, and slaps on a fresh scent blocker.
He’s outside Nagano Station at exactly 11:30am. The heat is unbearable, and he tries to escape it by standing in the shade of a building, popping an ibuprofen, and washing it down with a bottle of tea that’s warmed up far too fast for his liking. He messages Sasuke which exit he’s at, which is four-minute walk away from a good curry place.
Uchiha Sasuke
Just got off. On my way to you.
Vibrating with excitement, Naruto tries to stay still, lest sweat harder than he already is. From across the street, Naruto watches as people pour out of the exit. One tall one with a dark head and a face mask, with a black tote on his shoulder, wearing a navy shirt, white pants, and rubber shoes makes his way straight toward him.
“Naruto!”
A smile graces Naruto’s face, reaching his ears and crinkling his eyes. “Sasuke!” he waves a hand high up in the air.
Naruto doesn’t understand the utter relief that washes over him when he sees the alpha. Like a weight on his chest is lifted. Is it because Sasuke’s finally home safe? Is it because he hasn’t seen him in person for so long? Is it because he’s looking forward to spending more time with him? It’s like there’s a tug of anxiety that hasn’t left him since Sasuke left Japan. But now that he’s seen him, it’s like that tug has snapped off him and let him go.
He waits for Sasuke to cross the street before slamming his entire body into him, pressing his nose into Sasuke’s shoulder, into the freshly laundered shirt, and into Sasuke’s own scent. It’s this scent that’s always a warm comfort to him, where he knows he’s always safe. Of warm coals, freshly cut grass, and spring water, bits of scent coming through that scent blocker.
“I’m home,” Sasuke breathes with relief, welcoming the tight hug and relaxing into it.
(9)