Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story nor do I make any money from using them in this silly, silly worded out piece of my mind.
A/N: I was cutting onions. What an exciting day.
Naruto has watched and Naruto has noticed. Sasuke doesn't cry. It is not allowed, boys don't cry, let alone a ninja. But Naruto knows that there must be unshed tears there, behind Sasuke's eyelids, hidden in the lachrymal duct.
Naruto should know, he has too. But at least he sometimes can't help it and just cries. Sasuke just suppresses it and gets more stuck up as days go by; this is Naruto's analysis.
He wants to help the other boy, his friend, and gets an idea when he watches Teuchi work at the ramen stand.
- - - - - - -
Sasuke doesn't understand how Naruto managed to talk him into making food for the boy. He shouldn't care, Sasuke should be cold and distant, and that he is. But Naruto makes an exception, and Sasuke is irritated.
Years have gone by and they have been through so many things, too many so utterly pointless and avoidable things that had hurt and destroyed. And Sasuke feels so tired now that it's all over and the only thing left to do is to settle into a rhythm of a normal ninja. Kill, kill, sleep, kill, eat and fuck and kill and sleep and fucking kill again.
Sasuke is chopping lettuce as Naruto hops in through his window, smiling like he always does, for the both of them, Sasuke has heard him say. That smile makes his precise chop a bit harder and his steady rhythm of chopping so finely goes wrong as his pleasantly sharpened knife hits the chopping board a bit too hard.
"Use the door," Sasuke's expression is dark and gloomy, "fucking moron," and Naruto has to smile even harder to make up to the laws of Universe that wants to keep things in balance.
Naruto is a man of action, he does not stall. He goes behind the moody Uchiha, pressing his body against his back and wraps his tanned arms around the others. It was purely meant to keep Sasuke still, prevent him from escaping or killing Naruto, which would be rather unfortunate.
He is in control of Sasuke's hands now, moving them wherever Naruto's hands want to go because Naruto's physical strength is insane compared to a normal human. All Sasuke can do is to strike him with electricity, but he does not do that and Naruto thinks he has to move quickly before that happens.
He replaces the lettuce with an onion he has brought just for this purpose. Sasuke's hand is still holding the knife, stiff and trembling slightly for reasons beyond Naruto. But it does not matter, because Sasuke hadn't barbequed him yet and Naruto does not see the angry red that has spread through Sasuke's face.
Naruto's grip on Sasuke's hand tightens, Sasuke's hold on the knife tightens. And then they cut the onion in half together, neatly and beautifully, building their own rhythm of chopping that Sasuke has never felt before. Naruto starts to think of this kind of like they are doing something erotic together, both of their hands working together to bring one of them into satisfaction.
But that is not it, they are just cutting an onion together. And soon the smell of a thoroughly killed onion would spread over to their faces. Naruto thinks that onions must be the most empathetic beings on earth to have that kind of reaction on the ones who want to eat it.
Sasuke tries to close his eyes. It stings and burns his eyes so badly that the tears are ready to rip his eyelids apart just to get out. He has always hated them, onions. And he hates them even more when this one forces the first tear to roll out of his eye.
Naruto is feeling the effect too, letting his own tears fall out without fighting back, ignoring the sting and focusing on the little he can see of Sasuke's face. He has to blink a lot, because his sight keeps blurring. He doesn't want to miss the fascinating sight of Sasuke's forced out tears.
The onion has served its purpose, and Naruto lets go of Sasuke's hand, retreats off the boy's back completely to see the fruits of his efforts in full scale. He can feel the effect of the dreaded onion already leaving him, the tears are stopping their running.
Sasuke's however, wont stop, and Sasuke doesn't know what to do. He hasn't cried in so long, and now something as stupid as an onion has made the buried nuisances come to surface and he does not know how to stop them.
Along with the tears comes thoughts and memories that make it seem like he really has a reason to cry and so he cries even more although he does not want to.
Naruto keeps watching, observing and it takes him a while to notice that it isn't because of the onion anymore. He has set all them loose and it's all Naruto's fault and Sasuke was in so much pain because of all of it.
He doesn't know what to do, so he just wraps Sasuke in a comforting hold, presses that weeping face into the crook of his neck and whispers things that might be comforting but don't really mean anything.
"Stupid, fucked-up jerk," Sasuke's hair is soft when he runs his fingers through it, "crying like that," his shoulder was getting wet but it didn't matter, "you make me want to cry too."
The back of his eyes are burning, begging to water again because the feeling was too much for his being to bear. So he cried, they cried, because of an onion, over all that was lost and things that weren't gained. Life and death and one so fucking sympathetic onion.
And, even though he had brought this on himself, Naruto thought it was such a shame that it kept raining on even though it was such a beautiful day.
- - - - - - -
Their eyes are red and puffy, raw from crying and Sasuke's refuses to leave his house. Although clearly unwanted, Naruto does not leave either. The village of Konoha deemed him unwanted but he did not go away, so how was this any different?
They sit on the couch, their faces slightly reflecting light that the TV is producing. Naruto is sitting so close that their sides are pressing together, but Sasuke doesn't move away, just sits there and stares at the poor comedy the blond has decided they should watch after their little breakdown.
"Teme," Naruto's voice is accusing and his fond insult sudden, "I never got my food," the voice is whiny now, annoyingly high-pitched and it makes Sasuke's ears press back against his skull.
"Fuck you," he says, but stands up anyway, away from Naruto's warmth. After all, he had an onion to fry, burn and freeze, poison and then feed to Kakashi's dogs. He had missed the obsessing need to get revenge.
In the living room, Naruto keeps smiling because he thinks he still needs to balance the pouting of Sasuke, but he doesn't know that he doesn't have to, because Naruto does not see the small, content smile on Sasuke's face as he steps into the kitchen
-END-