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It’s late Sunday night, and there’s a thunderstorm. It’s one of those particularly vicious acts of weather, the type of storm with howling winds and lashing sheets of rain and thunderclaps so loud it feels like the earth itself is rendering loose.
Naruto is laying in bed, watching out his window as lightning fractures the sky. He’s drowsing in and out of wakefulness; he doesn’t usually sleep well during storms, but there’s a solemn sort of peacefulness in watching nature rage from the warmth of his blanket cocoon.
Naruto’s nerves startle at the small frisson of chakra rippling into existence. He’s wide awake instantly.
Naruto whirls around in his sheets, eyes bright and breath catching in his eagerness. Sasuke stands in the doorway of his bedroom, silhouetted against the dim light from the hall. He’s getting better at the whole portal thing.
(Last time Sasuke dropped in like this, his portal opened smack in the middle of Naruto’s coffee table and a stack of manga disappeared forever into some other dimension. Naruto’s still a little bit salty about it.)
“Sasuke! What’re you doing here?? Didja get rained out?”
“I was nearby. My tent blew away. Mind if I crash here?”
As if there could be any other answer.
“Sure, we can dry your stuff and get you a new tent tomorrow,” Naruto jabs his thumb at an overflowing laundry basket haphazardly shoved in the corner. “Uh, you can take some of my clothes if you want? That one has the clean laundry. Probably.”
Sasuke doesn’t respond, but pads over to the basket nonetheless. Naruto flops onto his back, politely averting his eyes to stare at the ceiling. He feels a little bad that Sasuke’s gear was ruined, but it does nothing to temper the thrill (and relief) of having him here. After the war, Sasuke writes often but rarely visits.
There’s some rustling and a wet plop as Sasuke pulls off his soaked clothes and tosses them onto the floor (Naruto makes a mental note to gripe about that tomorrow), and then a soft shuffling as he dresses. Then:
“Move over.”
“Eh?!” Naruto squawks. Sasuke hovers over him, a frown on his lips, and Naruto nearly chokes as he looks his friend up and down. Apparently Sasuke just put on the first articles of clothing he grabbed from Naruto’s laundry: a pair of plaid pajama pants and a solid orange t-shirt. It clashes horribly. Also the shirt’s too big, and Sasuke’s dripping hair is leaving wet splotches all over it. Naruto returns a scowl of his own - it’s the best he can do, because his poor brain is having a hard time processing the sight before him. “What’s wrong with the couch?”
“It’s terrible.”
“There is nothing wrong with that couch!”
“Then you go sleep on it,” Sasuke grumps, pushing at the pile of blankets and sidling in to occupy the edge of the mattress.
“You can’t kick me out of my own bed!” Naruto protests, scooting over to make room regardless. “Alright, alright, fine, but you better not hog the blankets, you ass!”
“Whatever. Just stay on your side, dobe,” Sasuke pulls the comforter over himself, turning his back on a bewildered Naruto.
“This is my bed. The whole thing is my side!”
---
Over the night, Sasuke ends up stealing all the blankets.
Naruto retaliates by sticking his ice-cold feet in the small of the Uchiha’s back.
They spend more time kicking each other than they do sleeping.
The next morning, Naruto wakes up to black hair tickling his face. He’s amazed he wakes up alive in the first place, considering how snugly he’s wrapped around the Uchiha, complete with one arm curled over his waist.
The hair moves. Sasuke is turning his head to look over his shoulder. He delivers a glare that could curdle cement.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Uhh... I guess I shoulda warned you I’m a cuddler?” Naruto says with a nervous laugh. How long has that bastard been awake, anyways? Naruto sets that thought aside, and pats at the wall behind him. “Hey look I’m still on 'my' side, so this one is all your fault!”
Sasuke responds by elbowing Naruto in the ribs and stalking out of the room in a flurry of blankets.
---
It’s still raining pretty hard Monday night, so Sasuke helps himself to Naruto's bed again. As they bicker over covers and territory, Naruto makes a mental note to buy a better couch and shoves a pillow between them to thwart any unsolicited spooning.
Somehow, Naruto still wakes up squished against the wall. The hair in his face smells a little bit like leaves and a little bit like his own shampoo.
The next night, they settle into their emerging routine with little more than half-hearted swearing and some pushing.
As this week turns over into next week, Naruto is automatically lifting the blankets so Sasuke can slide in beside him when he realizes that there hasn’t been rain for days.