Work Text:
Froggy: Your healing skills are so good!! Wanna stick together for another dungeon?
UltimateDefense: Sure.
Froggy: 〔´∇｀〕
UltimateDefense: Use that thing one more time and I’ll block you.
****
Naruto tiredly plopped down onto his bed, burying his face into his pillow with a grunt. It was nearly 8 pm and he had just come home from ice hockey training. Their trainer had been in a particular bad mood today, probably still sulking over their latest loss at the inter college tournament from three days ago. Suna had beat them by 5 points, eliminating them in the semifinal. The mood had been down – that was until today, when their coach had shown up with a new glint in his eyes, making them listen to an entire speech about the power of youth before absolutely wrecking all of them in training. Needless to say, Naruto was glad that it was finally over. Tomorrow would be the last day before Christmas break, which meant this would have been the last practice for quite some time. He would miss it, surely, but after the eventful season Naruto didn’t mind a little break from everything. Well, it also meant there was more time to spend on other things.
Clumsily, he shifted while trying to reach into his pocket – fishing out his phone. The display screen lit up, displaying a photo of his cat Kurama, which was as always staring back at him with a blank, uninterested look. The blonde unlocked it, clicking onto his messenger app and pushing the call button from his top contact. He brought the phone closer to his face, placing it onto the pillow right next to him.
It took around 10 seconds for the other to pick up.
“What is it?”, Sasuke answered, an undertone of annoyance in his voice.
“Bohoo.”, Naruto mused, “Someone got out of the wrong side of bed today, huh?”
He wondered if Sasuke was rolling his eyes at him. Then again, he wondered what kind of color those particular eyes would be-
Naruto shook his head. He wouldn’t go there again. Not now. He was too tired.
Sasuke sighed eventually. “I’ve still got some assignments due to tomorrow.”
Naruto’s face scrunched up. “Right before Christmas?”
“Better than over Christmas.”, Sasuke grumbled. Naruto couldn’t really argue with that. Taking care of everything now was definitely better than having to deal with it during the holidays. He pressed his face into the pillow to stiffen a yawn.
Sasuke seemed to have caught it nevertheless. He was always much more attentive than Naruto with those little, seemingly unimportant things.
“Are you tired?”, he asked.
Naruto turned his face towards the phone again. “A little. I just finished practice.”
“So late?”
“I know, right?”, he huffed. “Coach Guy was unrelenting today.”
Sasuke let out a small laugh. “He’s still mad at you guys?”
“He sure is.”, Naruto joined in, a large smile spreading over his face. “You should have heard him – talking about how this is the peak of our youth and that we have to grasp every chance now, we’ll definitely win next time if we just keep training even more and-“ He was chattering again. For a moment he halted, thinking about how Sasuke had actual work to do, instead to listening to his rambling. “…sorry.”, he breathed out, calming down a little. “You probably want to keep working on your assignments, right? I don’t want to keep you from- “
“It’s fine.”, Sasuke cut him off. “I needed a break anyway. I already started to wonder where you’ve been until now.” There was a certain kind of softness to Sasuke’s voice that made Naruto’s heart stagger for a moment. He quickly pushed it aside.
Instead, he tried his best to seem unaffected, choosing to tease the other boy. “Aww, did you miss me that much?”
“Not at all.”
“Liar.”, Naruto smiled.
There was a moment of silence between them. Naruto closed his eyes – there was once again this giddy feeling, a fluttery sensation in the pit of his stomach that kept overwhelming him more and more each time he talked to Sasuke. He never would have thought – two years ago when he had started pestering a stranger in an online game, coaxing the other to help him through various dungeons - that at some point he wouldn’t be able to get him out of his head anymore. At some point Naruto had asked for his phone number, so that he could contact him more often. They had started texting, most of it completely unrelated to the game. One afternoon, Naruto sent a voice message while running to catch a bus. To his surprise, Sasuke had sent one back.
Naruto would never admit that he had listened multiple times to a mere “Hn. Idiot, watch your steps.”
Their first call had been late at night. Naruto had received bad news that day - his godfather Jiraiya had been in an accident. He still remembered the pain as he was blankly staring at the grey hospital wall, the only sound being the occasional humming of the waiting room’s soda machine. They were still operating, and no one had given him any significant information yet. His vision had partly been blurry the moment he felt his phone buzz. Slowly Naruto took it out, his eyes widening as he read the name on display.
Sasuke’s voice had been quiet. He had been worried. He had stayed on the phone with Naruto all night – until the surgeon had stepped inside the waiting room, telling him that Jiraiya would be okay.
From that point onwards, phone calls had almost become a daily routine, usually with Naruto blabbering about his day and Sasuke listening, giving his input occasionally. They got closer and the flutter in Naruto’s stomach grew constantly, getting harder to ignore with each passing day. He started wishing for Sasuke to be closer, to be next to him – to truly get to know him. He wondered how it would be, would it be different from their current relationship? Would it be worse? Would it be better? Those thoughts were swirling in Naruto’s head, making him crazy.
One day he sent a phone of him petting Kurama. Sasuke commented on how the cat absolutely wanted nothing to do with Naruto. Naruto wanted to prove him wrong – asking him to face chat so that he could prove how much his cat secretly adored him. His hands had been trembling slightly, waiting for Sasuke’s response. He wondered if Sasuke would just call him.
Then, everything shattered.
Sasuke: I’d prefer not to. Texting and talking on the phone is fine though.
Naruto: Oh…yeah, sure
Neither of them had brought it up ever since.
“Did you fall asleep?”, Sasuke’s sudden question pulled him out of his thoughts.
“Huh?”, Naruto asked stupidly.
“You have been quiet for a while now.”
“So were you.”, the blonde pouted.
“I’ve been working on one of my essays.”, Sasuke sighed.
“Ehhh, while talking to me?”, Naruto shifted in bed.
“You weren’t saying anything though.”, Sasuke contemplated.
Naruto let out a laugh at that. “What a bastard.”
For the next hour Naruto told Sasuke everything about his day. Sasuke explained his essay’s topics, as well as his plans for the upcoming break. Naruto was smiling like an idiot the whole time, listening closely.
He started feeling bold again, he couldn’t help the next words that came out of his mouth.
“I wanna see you.”
Sasuke went quiet almost instantly. Naruto bit his lip.
“…Naruto.” He hesitated for a mere moment, seeming to think it over. “It’s....getting late. I should finish my essay.”
There was suddenly a lump in Naruto’s throat, his quiet “ok.” being barely more than a whisper.
“Good night.”, Sasuke mumbled, ending the call. Naruto kept staring at the screen, watching it go black half a minute later. His earlier happiness seemed to dissipate, leaving his body cold. He turned around again, hiding his face into the pillow.
Sasuke kept staring at his phone. He knew he was acting like a lunatic every time Naruto so much as hinted at them seeing each other or at least video calling. But he couldn’t help it. When Naruto had first sent him that picture some months ago (he was constantly staring at it several times throughout the day) he realized that they could never meet – officially. He knew Naruto. Well, not know – they never spoke to one another in real life, but they were going to the same college. Naruto was the ice hockey captain of their school, everyone knew him. Whereas Sasuke often hid behind books, shunning most people – going home to keep studying or play different video games. Everything might change if Naruto were to find out who he was, he’d probably lose interest quite quickly. And sadly, as much as Sasuke had wanted to deny it, loosing Naruto, even if only the way they are now, would hurt. This is exactly why he avoids people, it’s just so annoying to deal with all of this.
Sasuke bites his lip as his phone buzzes with a new message from Naruto. “Goodnight Sas.” He had ended the call before Naruto had the chance to say it. This was getting harder each time. Sasuke had thought that Naruto would just give up after some time, but he kept asking again and again, each time sounding more hurt about Sasuke’s refusal – making it harder. Sasuke wondered if one day the other would lose interest either way.
He pushed the phone away, letting his head fall onto his desk, eyes closed. “Usuratonkachi.”, he mumbled in frustration.
****
The next day Naruto couldn’t shake off the dark cloud following him around, ever since his call with Sasuke last night. He kept thinking it over and over – why Sasuke would so vehemently be against revealing his face. In Naruto’s opinion there were multiple possibilities and all of them were horrible. For once, it could be related to Naruto’s own picture that he had sent, maybe Sasuke took one glance at it and didn’t like him. This might be his way of turning Naruto down gently. But on the other hand, they had never really talked about anything more than friendship, this was only about Naruto’s own feelings mixing into his logic. There are even worse scenarios though. All of this could be a farce. Sasuke could have lied to him all this time – about his age, his name, everything really. Maybe he was enjoying making fun of Naruto. He groaned, raising his hands, and running his fingers through his blonde hair. Several heads turned, staring at him in confusion at his unexpected outburst.
“Sorry.”, he mumbled sheepishly. It was probably strange to see him this moody, especially on the last day before Christmas break, when everybody was on top of the world. He let out a small sigh and kept walking down the hall, making his way to the sports hall.
As there would be no training for some time the hall was used otherwise - there would be a Christmas party tonight and everything had been decorated, making it look pretty festive. Naruto peeked inside, taking it all in. In one corner there was a large Christmas tree, covered in fairy lights and glitter balls. Several tables were pressed against the walls – covered by some blue cloths with small snowflakes drawn upon them. These would probably be filled with all kinds of foods and drinks tonight. They had also prepared a small stage, with jukeboxes and a separated place for a DJ.
“Naruto!”, a female voice suddenly pulled him out of his thoughts, demanding his attention. He watched Sakura climb down from a small ladder, so he slowly stepped inside the sports hall to approach her.
“Hey.”, he greeted her, coming to a halt right next to her – taking a moment to look up, studying the decorations she had just hung up. He scowled, “What are those supposed to be?”
“Christmas wishes.”
“Eh?”, Naruto narrowed his eyes at her. The boy looked up once again, watching the different cards – none of them resembling the other, while all of them were attached to a string to hang on the wall.
Sakura only rolled her eyes at him. “These are cards with Christmas wishes written onto them. We thought it would be a good idea, and of course, look nice if we collected them from as many students as possible and hung them up.” She looked up at her work, her green eyes filled with pride. “Who knows”, Sakura shrugged. “Maybe some of them will come true. Christmas magic and all of that.”
He blinked. Christmas magic, huh?
Naruto averted his eyes for a moment, thinking. It was a sweet idea indeed and Sakura was right, those were definitely extraordinary decorations.
“Do you want to put one up, too?”, Sakura suddenly asked him.
Naruto’s face broke into a grin. “Of course!” It seemed like fun, so he had to.
She let out a laugh. “I’m surprised your wish isn’t up there yet, to be honest.”, The girl scooted closer, wiggling her eyebrows. “What will you wish for?”
“Isn’t that supposed to be a secret or else it won’t happen-“
“This isn’t like wishing upon a star, Naruto.”, Sakura shook her head.
“But it might as well be!”, the blonde pouted. “You’re sabotaging my wish before I even had the chance to put it up there.” That earned him a knock on his head. “Ouch-“
“You’re an idiot.”, Sakura spoke dryly. She then moved past him, making him turn around as Sakura slowly made her way towards the door. “I’ll go look for Ino to see if she’s done with the flower arrangements. Feel free to fill out a card and put it up there in the meantime if you want to.”
“Okay! Will do.”, Naruto chirped. “Thanks, Sakura.”
After she was gone, he pulled out a blank white paper from his bag, frowning as he took one more look at the other cards - all of them neatly styled along the string, in different colors and shapes. None of them were completely white and improvised like his own was. Naruto shook his head. This wasn't about the card; it didn't matter what it looked like. This was about his Christmas wish, nothing else really. After taking out a pen he started scribbling down his thoughts, the one thing he had been dreaming about for the past year, ever since he asked that healer in an online game to tag along for more dungeons. It had all started back then.
I just want to meet Sasuke.
He looked around, trying to find a good spot to hang up his card along the others, moving the ladder a bit when he finally found one. Naruto lost no time climbing up there, carefully folding his paper to make it at least look like some kind of card among the others. When he was done fixing it Naruto gave it one last glance of approval, smiling to himself as he thought about Christmas magic and Christmas miracles, starting to feel a bit giddy already. After all, there was nothing to lose.
Sasuke walked down the hall, vehemently trying to blend out his brother's voice talking about the upcoming family dinner tonight. Itachi had once again come to pick him up from college on his own way home - since his brother was working abroad, only ever being home for holidays such as Christmas for those past two years. Even though it was nice to finally have him home again, Sasuke was still sunken deep into his own thoughts - still thinking about last night's call with Naruto and how abruptly it had come to an end. He couldn't stop thinking about the hurt in Naruto's voice.
"Sasuke?", Itachi seemed to have caught on that he wasn't truly listening, making his little brother look up. He smiled softly, raising his hand to poke Sasuke's forehead. It was a stupid habit ever since they were children, but something they still couldn't completely let go off, not even now.
Sasuke pouted, rubbing his forehead in feigned annoyance like he always did, "What is it, Itachi?"
"It seems you're daydreaming quite a lot these days little brother.", there was a glint in Itachi's eyes, glorious, as if he had just discovered some kind of hidden truth despite being gone for so long. Sadly, he always had a sharp eye, especially when it came to Sasuke.
"I don't know what you're talking about.", Sasuke mumbled, as he kept walking, trying to ignore him. They would pass the gym on their way out, luckily there seemed to be ongoing preparations for a party tonight so there was no way he could encounter anyone from the hockey team, especially not their loud captain.
"Mom noticed it too.", Itachi continued, trying to catch up to his brother, "That particular dreaminess seems to be connected to daily phone calls with a certain boy, you're making all of us really curious." His smile turned into a knowing smirk. Sasuke quickly averted his eyes, not trusting his own face right now not to reveal at least a faint blush and betray him. He hadn't realized that he had been so obvious. How stupid of him.
He quickened his pace, trying to get ahead of Itachi, putting as much distance between them as possible. He was done discussing any of this, not right now.
Looking up again there was a quick moment, a little too late he had realized that someone was just on his way out of the gym before he crashed right into him. The blonde was caught completely off guard too, stumbling back and out of reflex pulling Sasuke down with him as he fell backwards.
Both landed clumsily onto the ground, Sasuke letting out a groan when he pulled back, freeing himself from the other boy's grip. "Watch where you're going, stupid-"
His voice died down almost instantly, as he met wide blue eyes staring right back at him, mouth agape. Shit. Why was he here?
There was no way Naruto wouldn't recognize his voice, but maybe-
"Sasuke!! Are you ok?"
And, of course, he forgot about Itachi who just had to call out his name to seal his fate. Great.
At that, Naruto's eyes widened even more.
Itachi had caught up by now, standing right next to them to assess any damage done. "Are both of you ok?", he addressed Naruto now too, yet the blonde didn't seem to register any of it right now - he was still staring, for once completely speechless about the situation presented to him out of the blue.
Sasuke's fight or flight mode suddenly activated under the intensity of the other's gaze. He tried to pull back, to get up onto his feet again, but Naruto moved too, grabbing his arm again to keep him from leaving.
Sasuke's whole body froze at the touch.
"Sasuke?...Are you...?", his voice was unusually quiet, stunned even. Sasuke felt a lump in his throat. He couldn't help but nod slowly, completely dumb founded. There was no point in lying here anyway. Out of all the possible scenarios for their first meeting he would have never expected something like this. Something utterly stupid, he was in no way prepared for. The universe must surely hate him, there was no other possible explanation. Naruto was still staring up at him - it was almost surreal. Everything around him seemed to fade, his whole focus set on Naruto's face only - onto the stupid grin suddenly spreading all over it.
"Wow. This Christmas wish thing sure works fast.", Naruto suddenly let go, letting out a laugh as he leaned back onto his arms.
Sasuke didn't understand anything anymore. He just frowned, "What?".
Itachi, who was still standing next to them, also gave his brother a confused look.
Nevertheless, Naruto still seemed amused, "I mean I had little hope for it to actually work at all, but me running into you after only a few minutes I mean what are the odds, how did you even get here-"
"We go to the same college, usuratonkachi.", Sasuke stated plainly. He tried to keep it as simple and unaffected as possible, even though his heart was pounding uncontrollably. Somehow, even though he had dreaded meeting Naruto for the first time nothing seemed truly different from talking over the phone, he couldn't help but fall back to his usual nickname for the blonde. It wasn't strange at all. It came to him as easy as breathing.
Naruto seemed taken aback for a moment though. At least, that was until he suddenly leaned forward again, once more taking a hold of Sasuke's arm. Sasuke felt his skin burn everywhere the other touched him. It was exhilarating. He didn't want the other to let go.
"Wait wait wait.", Naruto blinked at him, "You knew??" He readjusted, narrowing his eyes at Sasuke. "Why didn't you say anything?! All this time we went to the same college-"
Sasuke clicked his tongue, averting his eyes.
Luckily, right then, Itachi cleared his throat - making both of them look up at him. He smiled.
"Are you a friend of Sasuke?", he looked at Naruto, yet held both hands out for them to help them finally get off the ground. While Naruto took it without missing a heartbeat, Sasuke dismissed him, getting back to his feet on his own. He beat the dirt and dust off his pants.
"Hello. I'm Itachi, Sasuke's older brother.", Itachi introduced himself.
"Ohh makes sense! I heard so much about you!!", Naruto's face lit up almost instantly. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki! Yeah, Sasuke and me, we're really close-"
Sasuke punched him into his side, stopping him from babbling. He couldn't believe this idiot. Technically they just met for the first time.
"Ouch, Sas-"
"Shut it, usuratonkachi.", Sasuke frowned. It was really too easy to fall into usual patterns.
Naruto let go of Itachi's hand, turning back to completely face Sasuke again. For a moment he had an unreadable expression, watching Sasuke closely - his ocean blue eyes not leaving him even for a mere second. He seemed lost. Sasuke opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but his words died down along with his brain and every coherent thought as Naruto suddenly rushed forward pulling him into a hug. A hug. Sasuke blinked as the air got knocked out of him all at once. He could feel Naruto's arms tightening even more around him, slowly pulling him closer.
"Sorry for running into you.", he heard Naruto whisper into the crook of his neck, "But…I'm happy that it finally happened, you know."
Before Sasuke could even answer, the warm breath on his neck, as well as the touch, was gone. Naruto leaned back again smiling brightly, "Well, it was nice to meet you, Itachi.", he turned to Itachi for a moment. "I wish both of you a merry Christmas."
"Likewise, Naruto.", Itachi smiled back, before turning back to his brother. "We got to get going now, Sasuke."
"Yeah.", Sasuke nodded on auto pilot, his voice a bit raspy. He met Naruto's eyes again.
"Wanna meet up sometime during Christmas break?", the blonde asked, his voice a tiny bit smaller than before, shyer.
Once again Sasuke nodded. He did so by pure reflex again, as his brain was still offline ever since the other had hugged him.
It was unfair how Naruto's grin made him even more special - even more handsome. Especially since right now, in this moment, it was directed only at Sasuke.
"Great.", the blonde chirped. "I'll...text you then."
"Just call me.", Sasuke averted his eyes, trying to hide his blush.
"Okay!", Naruto let out a small laugh. "See you then. Gotta go now." He waved at them, before stepping past Sasuke, walking away backwards as he once again wished them Merry Christmas.
Sasuke kept staring out of the car's window, barely taking anything in - still completely lost in his earlier encounter with Naruto. He couldn't believe how easy and natural everything had been. He had read countless stories about awkward real-life encounters, about friendship's ending because somehow people didn't click anymore after meeting face to face, about noticing how different someone was despite how they had seemed to be on the internet - it had scared him, the possibility of losing Naruto. But for him, it hadn't felt different at all. Something had finally fallen into place - just like a missing puzzle piece he seemed to have suddenly found. All this time he had been such a fool.
The raven took out his phone, opening Naruto's chat.
"We can meet up tomorrow if you're free."
The incoming call came almost instantly.
"About time, asshole.", he could hear Naruto smile even through the phone.
Sasuke couldn't help but let out a small laugh. "Yeah."
Indeed, it was about time.
Bonus: One year later
They were currently sitting on Sasuke's couch - Naruto sprawled all over him with his back leaning against Sasuke's chest after playing a game on the console. Sasuke was wearing one of Naruto's ice hockey jerseys, as he was idly running his fingers through blonde locks. He was looking over Naruto's shoulder when a new text message from Sakura arrived. She was one of Naruto's friends he actually came to like having around, at least after she had let go of her initial crush on him. It had been quite funny though, those first weeks after Naruto had introduced him as his friend Sakura had tried flirting with him countless times. It had escalated at some point, leaving Naruto to step in (he still denies being jealous) and finally confess his feelings to Sasuke. Sakura luckily backed off after seeing them arrive hand in hand. They have come a long way since then, now being able to be quite good friends, which Sasuke was grateful for.
Naruto clicked onto Sakura's chat box right away, opening a picture she had just sent him. Sasuke frowned at the odd sight. There were merely some colored cards hung onto a string, he didn't understand the way Naruto instantly lit up, grinning brightly in his arms. Sasuke mockingly poked his cheek.
"What's this supposed to be?", he asked.
"Ohh!", Naruto turned around, excitement written all over his face. "It's actually something she did last year too! People can write a Christmas wish onto these and everyone hangs them up for the magic to work!"
Sasuke snorted, "The magic to work? What are you, five?"
"Laugh all you want, but it does work!", the blonde shifted, turning to let his head fall onto Sasuke's shoulder, leaving a small kiss on the other's neck. "I tried it myself; you know. It's bulletproof."
Sasuke gave him an incredulous look. "What did you wish for? More Ramen?", he teased.
"You."
"Huh?"
Naruto hid his face into the crook of his neck, "I wished for you.", he mumbled. "I hung up my card mere minutes before we first ran into each other last year. It works. My Christmas wish came true."
"You-", Sasuke blinked, suddenly at a loss for words.
There was a moment of silence between them.
"It definitely works, that's all I'm telling you.", Naruto eventually repeated once again. Sasuke could feel the blonde's arms tightening around him.
He stared at the cards in Sakura's picture. He had always wondered what Naruto had meant by telling him how fast his Christmas wish had worked that day.
Well, now he knew.