Archive of Our Own

Sasuke didn’t like to meet new people, not at all. There was always the chance that something could go wrong.

He also didn’t like to elaborate, so he’d stop there.

Regardless of the first dislike, he found himself willingly at the door of a stranger holding an orange cat out in front of him like it had the plague, as he’d been carrying it for the past five minutes up the elevator.

And, if it wasn’t this person’s cat, then he’d have to go to other apartments to check, which would be a whole other pain in the ass to do. But the cat’s collar said that it belonged to this apartment- Room 304- so he hoped that it wouldn’t come to that. Not that he had much luck in many things.

He’d found an orange cat on his balcony. He didn’t want to know why it was there. The only thing that he could care to wonder was if the owner would force him to stay for tea to be ‘nice’. Ugh.

He tucked the cat under his arm as he reached out his other hand to knock on the door. The person had a welcome mat. It actually said ‘welcome’. He was willing to bet that the owner was either the cheeriest or the oldest person in the building.

He knocked three times and waited for about ten seconds before raising his hand to knock again, but before his fist could land on the wooden door, it swung open to reveal a kind-looking young man about Sasuke’s own age. He had fair hair and bright blue eyes. His soft smile wasn’t anything like Sasuke had ever seen before; not forced and polite, but rather open and caring, even though the man had never met Sasuke before.

And that was why he knew immediately that the man’s efforts to get along, if he made any, would be fruitless. He was what most would call a ‘people person’, and Sasuke was anything but. They were polar opposites- this stranger would likely be bad at reading people and good at talking to them, while Sasuke knew that he was good at the former and bad at the latter, horrible at the latter. There was no way that they’d ever be friends.

Not that Sasuke wanted to be friends with him. He wasn’t drawn in by that smile, nor did he feel warmth regarding those eyes. That may sound overly specific, but for the most part, it was true. He realized that he spent too much time staring at the other man at this point, though (See? He was bad at socializing).

He cleared his throat and held out the cat. “Uh, here you go.”

No ‘Hello’? Nice work, Sasuke.

“I think this cat’s yours? I mean, that’s what the tag says, but if not, that’s okay, I’ll find the owner elsewhere, I’m sure…”

The man laughed and gently took the cat from his hands. “Yeah, she’s mine. Where’d you find her?”

“She was just… on my balcony. I don’t know how she got there,” he replied defensively. God. This is so awkward. Let me leave.

At least, that was half his thoughts. Sure, he was ruining the conversation (first, staring, and now, this), but his upstairs neighbor didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he seemed completely unbothered, and knowing that made Sasuke feel comfortable talking to him. So, his other thoughts were: Don’t say something that’ll make him tell you to leave.

And that scared him. 

The man smiled. “Yeah, that sounds about right. She’s interesting, that’s for sure. One of my friends likes to joke that she can predict fortunes and do other crazy stuff.”

Sasuke couldn’t help but laugh a little at that. A cat who could tell the future. How crazy was that? He wouldn’t normally ask, but his neighbor acted like they were great friends who told stories all the time. No, he wouldn’t ask. He shouldn’t. It wasn’t his business and the other young man was just recalling something funny for the purpose of being polite. There was no need to ask, as much as he wanted to.

He knew he should leave before he said something embarrassing or overly friendly. The general tone that this guy gave off made him think he’d talk too casually and be offensive somehow. 

He also wasn’t sure where this worry was coming from- usually his only concern was leaving, but for some reason, he only wanted to leave a good impression. 

Maybe for now, he’d just leave the other man with his name.

“Uh, I’m Uchiha Sasuke.”

“Uzumaki Naruto,” he said with a smile that felt so genuine and warm that Sasuke couldn’t help but freeze for a brief moment.

He tried to smile back, but he wasn’t sure if he put the appropriate amount of joy into it or not. He had a problem with that. “Nice to meet you, Uzumaki.” How could he possibly put the same amount of kindness into his words that Uzumaki did?

“Oh! And this Kurama.” Sasuke raised an eyebrow in confusion before he saw his neighbor lift the cat up a little bit. Kurama. That’s the cat’s name. Got it. Uzumaki cleared his throat. “Do you want any tea? I have too much, to be honest. I bought some for my friends, but I bought extra because it’s tea, see, and I just had to buy more. Sorry, I really like tea, so- anyway, the point is, I have plenty, if you want some. It’s the least I could do since you found Kurama, although, I guess she found you, it sounds like.” He chuckled to himself.

“Uh, sure. I mean, yeah, some tea would be great.” All that time that he spent wondering if this would happen had not been spent wondering how to refuse. And how could Sasuke say no to Uzumaki? He had been nothing but nice to him, and- wait, since when did he care?

The other young man smiled even brighter. “Oh, great!”

Sasuke stepped inside when Uzumaki opened the door wider and held it open for him. Should I be here? He’d really only been to his one and only friend’s apartment before, so it felt weird ( different, not weird, his brain reminded him) to be somewhere else.

The layout of Uzumaki’s apartment was much the same as Sasuke’s- the front door opened to tiled hallway that went straight to the bedroom in the back of the apartment, but not before passing a main room and then the kitchen, following an open floor plan- but the decorations were much more colorful. There were paintings on the wall rather than mirrors, and the couch was a soft green rather than plain gray. There was even a chair that resembled a bird’s nest, hanging from a wooden stand. It was all very comfortable. 

As Sasuke took off his shoes, he heard Uzumaki pouring water in the kettle. “What tea do you like?” 

“Uh-” He pretended to think about it for a minute, but he knew what he wanted. “Do you have any blueberry tea? It’s fine if you don’t,” he added at the end. It was unlikely that he did have some, but he might as well ask.

Sasuke was surprised to hear: “Yup! I’ll have the same, I haven’t had that in a while.”

It wasn’t just blueberries, it was (judging by the kind that Uzumaki had) a mixture of blueberry and black tea, and it was amazing. This kind was caffeinated.

“This is gonna take a while to make,” Uzumaki commented. “You have good taste in tea.”

Sasuke hummed, unsure how to respond to the compliment. He had to say something, it was his turn to speak. “Do you lose your cat often?” He blurted. In his defense, that was the first thing that came to mind.

The other young man blinked, and then laughed loudly. It wasn’t that funny, it wasn’t meant to be, either, but Sasuke allowed himself a small chuckle at his own expense.

It might’ve been a little funny.

—

Sasuke called his best friend when he got back to his apartment an hour later because she’d left him with fifteen messages asking to call, and she picked up after two rings. They called every day, it was his fault for leaving his phone in his room. What could he say? He’d been lost in conversation with a stranger.

“Sakura, I just had the strangest interaction ever.”

He could hear her grinning over the phone. “And what might that have been?” 

“So, I get home from work, and there’s a stray cat on my balcony,” he said, recalling his confusion.

“Oh, really?”

“Yes, and- hey, don’t laugh, I’m being honest!” Sasuke sighed when she stopped trying to hide her laugh. 

When she finally stopped giggling, he resumed his story. “So I go to the cat, and-”

“And you interact with someone other than me for once? Sasuke, was the ‘strange interaction’ you told me about actually just between you and some cat?”

He sighed. Sakura was a great friend. She cared about him, and they’d been through a lot together. They’d been friends since they were just ten years old, and after they’d dated briefly before Sasuke admitted to himself and to her that he was gay as hell, they’d stayed friends. They kept in touch during college, when they went to different schools, and throughout every misfortune that went their way, they’d found each other in neighboring towns. Sakura heard about an opening at Sasuke’s office- the same job that she had, but with a slightly higher pay and closer to her best friend- and in the end, they’d not only stayed close after a decade and a half of knowing each other, but were also coworkers. It was only natural that there was a great amount of trust between the two of them.

If it were anyone else, Sasuke might’ve hung up on them and forgotten that they existed, but it was Sakura, his best friend since ten years old. Now, at twenty-four, she was the only person he’d enjoy hanging out with because most people just didn’t ‘get’ him, if that made any sense.

“Sakura, you know I love and trust you very much. So, you also know that this is important enough of an interaction that I had to share it with you.” Was he being condescending? Yes, a little, but what was friendship if not one irritating the other and the other irritating them back? What was friendship if you couldn’t trust them enough to not have to be worried that they’d leave you forever for teasing them, despite helping them whenever needed? “I need you to listen, this is kind of important.”

“Sasuke, you’re mansplaining again.”

“So I went to kick the cat out, but it has a collar, and basically, I discovered that it belongs to the guy who lives in the room directly above mine. So I returned the cat, and he- the owner of the cat- he invited me in for tea.”

“Oh, wow, sounds like a crazy day. You interacted with someone well enough to have them invite you in for tea!” Sakura applauded over the phone. “I had a crazy day, too, actually. After work-”

“I’m not done with the story!” He paused, not sure how to continue.

“Oh my God.” She gasped dramatically. “Are you saying that you actually accepted?”

“Well, yeah, I did.”

She started laughing. “Oh, wow. Wait, now I need to know more about this guy! You sure know how to make a girl interested in conversation, Uchiha Sasuke. Okay, what makes this guy different from other people? Is he hot? Or were you just being nice for once? It’s gotta be the first option, because that’s only natural for you, but then I’m thinking if you had a crush on someone, you’d just avoid them, so…”

“No, I was just, it’s like- okay, so basically, he-”

“How about you start with what he looked like?” She prompted. Sasuke thanked her silently for knowing that he needed a place to start. It was a blessing and a curse, in this situation. It would be easier to get his thoughts out this way, but it also meant that it’d be difficult to deny how he felt (not that he felt anything). She’d pick him apart to figure out exactly what he meant, trying to understand her best friend. It wouldn’t be hard for her, either. Sakura knew him well.

“He’s got fair hair and blue eyes.” Sasuke knew her well, too. She was probably wondering why he remembered his eye color.

She also knew that he was leaving something out. “And?”

“He has a really friendly smile,” he said grumpily, almost making it seem like that was a bad thing.

She didn’t say anything, and it took him a while to understand that she was waiting for something. She wouldn’t say ‘And how does that make you feel?’ but he could hear her thinking it. If they were in person, she’d be raising her eyebrows in expectancy.

“It’s like, I don’t know. It’s really bright and soft. It seems like he really wants to smile at me. It’s really genuine.” He forgot he was talking to Sakura and began to envision that smile again, a happy grin in his head. His mind couldn’t replicate such a smile, so he found himself attempting to make it brighter, or softer, or something. He tried to change it somehow to make it an exact duplicate of the smile he had seen. “I can’t really picture it. It’s too bright for my imagination. I guess because it’s so honestly kind, I feel comfortable around him.”

“Hmm, I see,” she said, as if she were a doctor listening to the patient’s symptoms. “I think you two should talk.”

“But Sakura, I-”

“What? Very few people can make you feel comfortable, especially if they’re strangers. Let me guess, you accepted the tea because you wanted to get to know him, but you couldn’t fish out a compliment because you were too nervous. That’s kind of funny, that he makes you feel comfortable but you’re too scared to admit that you find him attractive.” She laughed. 

He sputtered. “I never said-”

“Look, we both know that you suck at conversing and talking about your feelings. So you can either, I don’t know, fuck it out, or you can muster the strength to tell him how you feel,” she concluded. “And also, I know you don’t like him yet. You can’t get a crush just by looking at someone and spending an hour with them. But you clearly will eventually. I mean, listen to yourself! You know you want to spend time with him. So, figure out if it’s platonic or romantic interest, which I’m sure will come with time, and then if it’s romantic, just… ask him out on a nice date!”

He hummed. Like that was ever gonna happen. “Do you know me at all?” He asked, even though she’d just proved that she did, in fact, know him very well. 

“Maybe you’ll get lucky and he’ll ask you out. But you gotta get to know him first, so hang out as strangers and decide what you want from there.”

Sakura had amazing advice. Maybe by the time he’d found the courage to ask out Naruto, he’d find the courage to give her the embarrassing compliment she deserved, too.

“So, what’s his name?”

“Huh?”

“Well, I should probably know who the new addition to our group is.”

“Oh.” Yeah, that made sense, but part of Sasuke wondered why she was already looking to befriend someone she hadn’t even met. For a second, he wondered if maybe she already knew him. “Nar- er, Uzumaki.”

She paused. “What did you almost call him?”

“Naruto,” he admitted. “Uzumaki is his family name. We’re on a first name basis, so I almost called him-”

“ Already?” 

“Yeah.” He recalled how Naruto had told him, after an hour of conversation over tea, that he thought they’d be good friends, and insisted that he call him by his given name. He could practically see Sakura’s jaw drop as he told her this.

“Oh my God, do you think he was flirting?” She asked, before spilling words into the air, rambling to both herself and Sasuke. “Dude, people don’t just do that! People don’t just hand out first names! I mean, I guess it happens sometimes, but I feel like you two should be on a last name basis, if these were normal circumstances. And he offered it first! Oh, wow, you’ve met your soulmate. He’s straightforward, and you actually like to be around him, which is rare, and-”

“Okay, I get it,” he cut her off. “I might want to see him again. I’ll text him right now, okay?”

“ You exchanged numbers, too?”

“Why is this so fucking shocking to you?” It was shocking to him, too, to be completely honest. “I’m capable of making friends, you know.”

“Yeah, I know, but not on the first meeting! I mean, we’ve made it clear that you want to see him again, sure, but the Sasuke that I know would just hope that it would happen rather than guarantee it.”

“He gave me his number, you think I’m just gonna say ‘no’?” 

“Yeah!”

True. He normally wouldn’t care about whether or not he was too blunt about how he felt towards someone. “Well, fine.”

Neither talked as he typed in Naruto’s number. ‘ Hey, it’s Sasuke’

“Okay, it's sent.”

Sakura laughed excitedly. “Oh, this is great!”

“Don’t make fun of me if you convince me to ask him out at some point and it turns out that he’s straight.”

She laughed again. “I won’t, I won’t.”

—

Naruto responded to his text about four minutes later- a time that wasn’t too soon, but was soon enough after it was sent to show that he did care about seeing the other again. It was also pretty reassuring that he hadn’t given Sasuke a different number. If he had, it would’ve been embarrassing and a little infuriating to think that even after a first name basis, he didn’t want to talk to him.

Speaking of which, it was also really admirable of Naruto to show Sasuke signs that he liked him- in whatever sense that meant. To show that he was at least interested in becoming friends meant a lot to him. The feeling was mutual. 

Hi! :)

Sakura sent emoticons, too, but with a smiley face sent from Naruto, Sasuke felt like he was already that much closer to being able to see his real-life smile in his head. Maybe he was just relieved and happy that Naruto had responded, but Sasuke wanted to believe that he could see the joy in the emotion’s eyes, and the genuinity in the emoticon’s smile. Maybe he could feel the kindness just emanating from the room above his own. 

He was sure that there was more to the man he’d met earlier than just positivity, but he also knew that whatever it was would never take away from how he felt. He hadn’t felt like this in years, maybe even ever. With Sakura, he was forced to become acquainted with her through a group project in which he gained respect for her due to her ability to get work done despite being surrounded by idiots. He remembered her thanking him for not being one of them, and they exchanged jokes about the others at lunch that day. With Naruto, however, it was as if they’d been friends forever. He wanted to be more than strangers, and just as Sakura predicted, when they’d become more than strangers, he’d probably want to be more than friends, too. 

Dammit. 

But he texted Naruto back in spite of the impending doom that came with a developing crush. 

Hru 

Bland response. Bad form.

I’m good 

Thanks for texting me, I’m glad I have your number :D

Oh, wow. He was happy, too. That didn’t mean he liked him, though, and Sasuke wasn’t sure if he liked him yet, either. But he knew that it was coming. He’d like him soon enough, because there was no resisting such a kind smile and eyes that carried the sun.

In any case, it was his turn to make the next move in their friendship. 

Do you want to hang out sometime? I’m free most of the weekend except for Sunday afternoon.

It was Wednesday. Even if he wanted to see him as soon as Friday, that gave him plenty of time to mentally prepare himself, and plenty of time for either one of them to cancel.

Yeah, I’m free, too, so how’s Saturday afternoon? Do you wanna get lunch at the new place downtown?? 

Sasuke smiled as he typed, Sure, sounds great. 

—

Sakura had picked out his outfit. He told her he didn’t know what to wear, and she told him that he was overthinking it, while grabbing black jeans, a soft black sleeve shirt, and a gray button-down shirt with short sleeves to go over it. The new restaurant downtown wasn’t exactly fancy or expensive, but he wanted to look nice in case Naruto revealed that he wanted it to be a date. It would be embarrassing if his first date with someone he got along so well with turned out to be in a sweatshirt.

“You’ll be fine,” she reassured him. “Just be yourself.”

“That’s awful advice.”

Sakura crossed her arms. “No, it’s not. If he doesn’t like you as you are, then it would never work out as a positive dynamic in the end.” 

He hummed, considering it. She was right, as always. 

Naruto showed up with a nice outfit that fit his bright eyes and smile- no, he’d never shut up about that smile- perfectly. He wore a soft-looking light blue jacket over a white shirt. 

Sasuke didn’t care if he wore sweatpants, he was just happy to spend time with him. There was something so different about looking forward to spending time with Sakura than with Naruto. He loved his friend differently than the way wanted to love Naruto. 

And seeing him look at him with such kindness and gentle joy on his face made him want that love even more. 

Woah, there. Don’t go having a crush and proving Sakura right, part of him warned. But he knew that it was probably too late. He was already interested in the friendly blond. He wouldn’t be going back any time soon, and he wasn’t sure if that was unfortunate or not. 

“Hey! I’m glad we get to spend more time together,” Naruto said with a sheepish but contagious smile. 

Sasuke felt warmth. He didn’t say ‘ hang out,’ he said, ‘spend more time together’ . That could imply any number intentions, but more importantly, it didn’t help Sasuke deduce if Naruto wanted to be a friend or a partner.

In any case, he chose to look on the bright side for once. He was lucky that the other wanted to see him again at all, which might’ve been phrased in a kind of depressing tone, so he’d reiterate: he was glad he got to spend more time with him, regardless of what that time was spent doing.

Sasuke just told the truth. “Yeah, me too.” He was pretty sure he was smiling. No, he definitely was, and he had no intention of maintaining his usual careless facade. To be quite honest, it didn’t matter to him whether or not they became a couple. It felt like he just wanted to make up for lost time, as if Naruto was an old friend that Sasuke hadn’t seen in years. “I know we wanted to try that new restaurant, but if you’re not up for it, then we don’t have to go. We can do something else, or just hang out.”

“No, yeah, we can definitely go there,” he agreed.

Sasuke could hear Sakura’s advice in his head: Be yourself.

He wondered if it would be too forward of him to invite him over afterwards. Probably not, right? After all, they’d hung out before at Naruto’s place. It would just be returning the favor.

“By the way, I like your outfit,” Naruto commented. 

“Oh, uh, thanks. My friend picked it out,” he said, mentioning the last bit. “And you too.” 

Okay, how about this, his mind suggested. You go ahead and get lunch, and if it goes well, then you can invite him over.

The trees outside were starting to turn orange and red and yellow at the tips, signifying early Autumn. Sasuke was willing to bet that Naruto could keep the leaves from dying just by looking at them, but instead, he was looking at him.

Naruto must’ve caught him glancing at the trees. “Did you know that in Fall, the leaves just turn their true color? They aren’t dying.”

“Huh.”

Nevermind, then. Let them change color. It was more beautiful that way, anyway.

Conversation bloomed like a flower in Spring, after that. They talked about anything and everything, as though making up for lost time with an old friend one hadn’t seen in years, separated by years of struggle, finally together and at peace. Sasuke told him about his books (“I have too many,” he said, embarrassed). Naruto told him about who the character in the story reminded him of (“Yeah, my friend gives off the same sort of energy, I feel like.”). 

“Hey, Naruto,” Sasuke said at one point, “was the new restaurant… Did we pass it?”

Naruto gaped. “Maybe,” he admitted. “But it’s no big deal. I mean, we got a good conversation out of a wrong turn, didn’t we?”

He deadpanned, “It wasn’t a wrong turn. We literally just drove past it.”

“Oh.”

The two laughed like they were sharing an old joke that could never grow old. Sasuke couldn’t remember the last time that he felt so free with someone other than Sakura. To say that he wasn’t good at getting along with people was an understatement, but now, it seemed like Naruto was actually enjoying his company. 

“My friend wanted to thank you for getting me out of the house,” Sasuke laughed. “And I guess I should thank you, too.”

Thank you for being so kind.

“You’re welcome, and thank you, too.” Did Naruto smile with everything he said and did?

“What for?”

It seemed like he was holding something back as he responded, “For your company, I guess. Your time and genuinity.” 

“ My genuinity?” Sasuke was almost surprised. “You can’t just thank me for what I was thanking you for!”

Naruto looked at him briefly (keeping his eyes on the road otherwise), and then let out a sigh and a smile. It was nothing like Sasuke had ever seen before, it made his stomach do a happy little backflip. 

—

Two months. 

That’s how long it took before Sasuke decided, but he didn’t know how to say it. How could he admit to Naruto that his heart displayed a candle lit by joy whenever he saw him? Of course, he couldn’t say those words exactly, they were too sappy. How could he tell him that he liked him romantically and would like to take him on a date? Nope. Too formal and blunt.

He had finally figured it out, whether he liked Naruto platonically or romantically, and clearly at this point it was the latter. They hung out pretty often, seeing as they obviously didn’t live far. The question wasn’t when to tell him, it was how.

Sakura had also pointed out that he didn’t need to tell him at all. He just had to decide if he wanted to be romantically involved with Naruto, and to that, he told her that he sure as hell did. The moments went from walking with him and wishing he was holding his hand to noticing how soft his lips looked (he really wanted to kiss him) to thinking about him while… yeah.

“Why don’t you just buy him some flowers?” Sakura suggested. “I mean, if that isn’t a hint, then I don’t know what is.”

Sasuke spent that evening researching floriography to make sure he didn’t mess it up, in case Naruto cared about that sort of thing.

Of course, the easy solution (and the one that he tried to go with) would be to avoid him, but there was no avoiding him. Not when, after a day of neglecting his texts, he felt a surge of guilt that was so intense that he didn’t want to ignore it. It was like he had spent too long away from him. It wasn’t true, he hadn’t been wandering alone for years, but that day, it felt like he had. He thought to himself when the feeling was strongest, I can’t leave him alone again. 

He wanted to kiss him deeply and say, I’m home, but he settled for a text lying that he’d been busy with work.

So, he settled with some flowers. He wasn’t sure if lilacs were perfect, but the website said that they were. 

Sasuke almost threw them out after he bought them, but then felt bad. There was no way he could give them to Naruto, though. It was ridiculous. 

“Do you have any other ideas?” Sasuke asked. 

Sakura shrugged. “Just be upfront with him? I don’t know, I'm not an expert. In any case, I think he’s half-ready to propose to you with the way he looks at you, so just don’t worry about it.”

He frowned at her. “Fine, but don’t think you can laugh at me when it never happens.”

“He likes you, okay? Trust me on this.”

Sakura had never been wrong before, but there was no way that he could believe her on this. Why did he even want to ask him out in the first place? He knew he’d be turned down.

“You’re not going to be turned down, you know,” she encouraged him, as if reading his thoughts. “Even if you were to be, does he really seem like the kind of guy to stop being friends with you over it?”

Sasuke sighed. “No, it’s just-”

“It would be embarrassing? You’re a grown-ass adult, just get out there and ask him!” Sakura punched him friendly in the arm and smiled. “You got this, okay?”

“Fine,” he said.

She grinned, then, genuinely happy for him.

—

Sasuke paced back and forth in his room. 

He had to ask him, now that he told Sakura that he would. All he had to do was text him if he could come over, and then say it. So why was it so difficult? Sakura was right, he was an adult who should be able to handle things like this. Why couldn’t he? It was like he was a high schooler all over again.

He opened his messages on his phone, then closed the app, then opened it again. Okay, just type the text.

Hey, can you come over?? I need to ask you smthn.

He hesitated again, then hit send. Fuck.

And now, we wait. 

He didn’t have to wait long. Two minutes, maybe. 

The response came, Yeah, sure :)

And then there was a knock on his door.

God, Sasuke was so damn nervous. He should’ve made tea. Should he make tea now? That would be relaxing. He’d offer it when Naruto came in. 

He opened the door and upon seeing the other man’s friendly face, he relaxed ever so slightly. He smiled softly, and Naruto casually said, “Hey, what’s up?”

There was a hint of anxiety in those blue eyes of his, though out of selfish or compassionate concern, Sasuke wouldn’t have been able to guess if he didn’t know Naruto. It was certainly empathy. “Yeah, come in,” Sasuke answered after a pause. The sentence didn’t make much sense as a response, but it didn’t matter. Accurate articulation of words wasn’t exactly Sasuke’s top priority.

He sat down on the sofa with the other man, and started the conversation with a simple, “So,” and did not continue without a pause. “I've been trying to think of a way to say this for… a while now.” Sasuke felt like he was losing his regular character. Truly, all this time he’d spent stressing over this and Sakura was right all along- he just had to be himself. His usual, honest, blunt self. He had to get the truth out and disregard his care for the consequences.

But this time was different. It was like coming forward and apologizing, and he wondered why for a moment before realizing that both situations were a confession.

Naruto, too, could see that he was struggling to say what he needed to say, a characteristic that was, admittedly, unlike Sasuke. He raised his eyebrows and gave a soft smile in encouragement. He was too kind.

“I like you,” Sasuke admitted. He looked away from the other man, looked at his fidgeting hands. I should say something else, he thought, but he didn’t like to elaborate. He was used to laying out the truth and leaving it at that, and this didn’t seem like the situation to ramble.

He heard Naruto swallow and looked back up in surprise. “You’re amazing,” the blond started. “You’re honest, you’re smart, you’re kind, you’re sincere, and I could only hope that I wouldn’t lose my best friend. As new as our friendship is, it means more to me than you could know, and-”

“You don’t have to like me back.” Sasuke knew what Naruto was saying. He was saying that he valued him, but only as a friend. That was fine. It felt like a punch to the gut, but it was fine.

Naruto’s eyes widened. “Shit, is that how it came across? No, no way, I was trying to say that I didn’t know how to say that I liked you, too, but-”

Sasuke cut him off with a laugh. “God,” he said through small laughs. “We’re so stupid and- and oblivious-” His laughter echoed and Naruto’s joined him. Maybe it was nerves, maybe it was relief, maybe joy, but Sasuke knew he hadn’t laughed that hard, that honestly, in a while. 

It felt like a blur when he remembered it. A beautiful, anxious, delightful blur that he recalled with such tenderness and warmth that it seemed to send a wave of light into any moment he lived through. 

All he thought of when he envisioned that past moment was Naruto’s eyes, Naruto’s smile, Naruto. He wasn’t sure what he said, or how he confessed. He knew that he did, though, and that the gentle kiss that followed was made of silver and gold. 

And he also knew the fate of the flowers- they were given to him. 

Kurama- the orange cat- was welcome at Sasuke’s apartment anytime. He wanted to thank the cat for introducing him to the kindest man he knew.