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Outside of work and school commitments, Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto don’t really have many routines. Not at home, at least. But they have comforts, things they do after shitty days or when they all need a break.
Some days they catch it in advance. Mornings when Naruto’s a little quieter and shrinking in on himself, when Sakura’s trying to fill up space and get everything done and perfected, when Sasuke is still and quiet and almost-lifeless.
Some days they don’t. And that- that’s not great, but it can’t be helped. They’re only human, and Sakura reminds herself of this when she comes home to find Sasuke sitting on the couch, staring at a black TV.
“Sasuke?” She asks quietly, voice breaking the silence. She wants to wince at the noise, wants to take back the word, because silence sometimes seems easier. Silence can be a quiet comfort at times, and you don’t have to go searching for words. But sometimes Sasuke gets stuck in his head and the silence isn’t good then.
Sasuke seems to come to himself with a flinch, lifting his head to catch sight of her standing in the doorway. He doesn’t smile, just blinks—slow and languid. It’s the evening so it makes sense that he’d be tired, but this feels off to Sakura. “Hey,” he says, voice soft, but he’s answering, communicating, and that’s a good sign normally. Before she asks anything else, he continues, “I’m just- tired. Stressed. Everything’s exhausting.”
If Sasuke was anything like Sakura, he’d probably cry then. That’s how Sakura gets when she’s tired and exhausted and stressed. She just has a breakdown, chaotic and messy and a whirlwind of tears and feeling shitty. Then she takes time off, works her way up to being somewhat alright, and with Sasuke and Naruto, keeps going. Sasuke’s not like that though. He rarely cries. Sometimes Sakura thinks it’s a worse way to cope.
“Burnt out?” She asks instead of saying all these things on her mind. The university semester ends in a few weeks and the projects are piling on. And with everything else going on? It feels like bad news after bad news with little good to make things better.
Sasuke sighs and nods. He looks small, sitting on the couch, posture proper even when he’s so incredibly tired. Just looking at him makes Sakura feel exhausted, the press of stress against her spine, the weight of pages and pages of articles to read, the demands of assignments that make up over twenty per cent of her grade.
At the very least, it’s Friday—not that it means they can relax. Just no classes tomorrow. However, Naruto has a group meeting for some assignment and both Sakura and Sasuke have work at various times. It’ll be a long day. But it’s not an important day. They don’t have to be up early tomorrow morning either. And that means-
“Movie night I think,” Sakura says, fishing her phone out of her pocket. She tosses it to Sasuke, who usually doesn’t have his phone on him when he’s home, “Text Naruto and tell him to pick up takeaway and some snacks on his way home, yeah? I’m going to shower, change into pyjamas, and grab the blankets. You should get into some comfy clothes as well.”
The phone hangs from Sasuke’s lax fingers. Sakura pauses in her movements and meets his gaze. “Please? For me, if not for yourself.” She doesn’t like guilting Sasuke into doing things, tries to avoid it whenever possible, but she—and Sasuke—know that this is fine. If he really didn’t want to, or didn’t want company, he’d be in his room rather than out in the lounge.
Sasuke tightens his grip around Sakura’s phone and grunts, entering her passcode in response. Sakura smiles at him, ruffling his hair as she passes on her way towards her room. Once there, she dumps her backpack on the bed, pulling out the laptop to put it on charge. Everything else can be dealt with later, she decides, as she kicks of her shoes. Instead, she grabs comfort clothing and heads to the shower, feeling piles of articles to read glare into her back as she does so.
Half an hour passes before Sakura returns to the lounge room. Sasuke isn’t in the same spot, which is great, and he has a water bottle beside him now as well. Like Sakura, he’s changed into comfort clothes—tracksuit pants and a shirt that might be Naruto’s, based on how shoulders are far too large and the collar stretched.
From behind him, Sakura scuffs her foot on the ground and dumps a bundle of blankets over his head. Sasuke shakes them off him and places them in a somewhat neat pile beside him. He hands Sakura her phone back. “Naruto should be home shortly,” he says. “Your phone’s also going to die soon.”
“That’s fine,” Sakura says, and fishes out the portable charger she’d brought from her room. “Think of any movies to watch?”
“Not sure. I scrolled through Netflix for a while but didn’t really select any. But I’m feeling like good-feel movies? Or ones dealing with found family.”
“Those are always good,” Sakura says with a grin. The door opens before Sasuke can respond, and Sakura is quickly getting off the couch. Sasuke follows, though slower, and has draped a blanket around his shoulders.
Naruto meets them in the kitchen, a wide grin on his face. “Hey!” He says cheerfully. “I got takeaway. Thai, this time, since it’s not too hard to keep contained and we shouldn’t have to wash our hands after eating. Got everyone’s normal.” He dips his head to a green, reusable grocery bag. “There are snacks in there.”
“You’re a gem,” Sakura says, before she makes a shooing gesture at him. “Now, go get changed and set up for relaxing! Sasuke and I can take care of this.”
Laughing, Naruto flees beneath Sakura’s hands, only pausing to ruffle Sasuke’s hair. “Alright, alright, I’m going!”
As Sasuke starts organising the Thai food, Sakura checks out the bag of snacks. Naruto had, of course, gone for everyone’s favourites. Sakura grabs another water bottle for herself and places it in the bag, before dropping it off in the lounge. Returning to the kitchen, she helps Sasuke take out the plates. By the time they’re set up with food and got Netflix open, Naruto’s returned in shorts because he is a furnace and never gets cold. Sakura wishes that was her life.
“Didn’t get you a drink as I wasn’t sure what you wanted,” she tells him as she points to his plate. “Any ideas on what movies to watch?”
Naruto slips down next to her so that she’s in the middle between the boys. “Hmm, not really,” he says. “I’ve heard that The Old Guard is good? Did either of you have any ideas?”
“Potentially Studio Ghibli films since they’re now on,” Sasuke says quietly. “Now You See Me is good as well, but we’ve all seen it before.”
“Do we want to see something we’ve seen before or something new?” Sakura says between mouthfuls. At this point in time, they’re more likely to eat dinner without making a decision.
Naruto attempts to say something but it’s ruined by his mouthful of food. “What’d you say?” Sasuke asks, peering around Sakura with something that’s almost a smile on his mouth.
“I said, what if we watch new films for a bit and then queue up something we know later?”
“Birds of Prey is on Netflix! Since when?” Sakura says, interrupting Naruto. She steals the remote from Sasuke and nudges him so that he keeps eating. “Okay, we’re watching that. And we’ll watch The Old Guard since Naruto heard good things about it. What do we think of The Spy Who Dumped Me? That looks funny.”
“And like it has great friendships,” Naruto says.
“You got me there,” Sakura says with a grin.
“We can watch Studio Ghibli after that,” Sasuke adds. “I’ve been wanting to see some of the ones that I haven’t yet.”
“A solid plan,” Sakura says, and she types the name of the movie into the search bar. It comes up and she clicks it. The movie begins.
Partway through the movie, Sakura decides she’s had enough of plates sitting on the ground and decides to put them away in the kitchen before someone—likely her—steps on them. When she comes back, Sasuke has migrated closer to Naruto and has his head resting on Naruto’s shoulder, eyes closed. Sakura smiles at the scene.
She drops down next to Naruto and cuddles up to him as, on-screen, Nile decides to take on a building full of bad guys to get to her family. Automatically, Naruto places an arm around her shoulders and she presses a chaste kiss to his cheek. “Love you,” she says quietly.
“Love you too,” Naruto replies.
From beside him, there’s a grunt as Sasuke shifts and opens his eyes. Not asleep then, Sakura realises. “Love you both,” Sasuke says, words slightly slurred, and he reaches across Naruto to hold Sakura’s hand, squeezing it gently. “Thank you for this.”
Nile saves her family and, on the couch at home, Sakura feels her body is infused with love. It’s the only thing she can feel, the only thing she needs to love. She doesn’t know where she’d be without these two, wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but at their sides.
“Always, Sasuke,” she replies. “You’d do the same for me.”
Beside her, Naruto hums, and pulls a blanket from the back of the couch to fall over their shoulders. “We all would,” he says and Sakura knows this, but it helps to hear it. Feels a certainty, when heard aloud.
Perhaps it’s not late, though it’s dark outside. Perhaps the day hadn’t been perfect, but Sakura’s home with those she loves. She sincerely doubts life could get any better.