A/N: Hey guys! It's been a while since I've posted a story, and I apologize for that. But, believe me, I have tons of ideas brewing! :D Most of my stories are just sooo long -add to that my usual inability to complete anything- and you understand my problem. Especially since I don't often focus on a certain thing. But tonight I was like, you know what? I'm going to finish a story if it's the last thing I do! So, here you guys go. I'd like to introduce to you -drum roll- Because of His Hair! I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: -Reads paper- Hold on. -Keeps reading- Wait, one second. -Reads- Gah! -Throws paper- I still don't own Naruto. Sorry, guys. :C

xoxox

Today begins my very weird, curious, and important quest, received as a dare during a game between a few teammates. I am to touch Sasuke Teme's hair and report the qualities that it possesses to the group. How hard can that be, right? I'm always near Sasuke, and I could easily shove my hands in the black mane during a fight, but it's just scary to think about.

I mean, sure, girls compare hair all the time; they'll show it off after a shower went really well or something and suggest that their friends pet them down or brush it. But for guys it's a little different. If I skipped up to dog-boy brunette Kiba Inuzuka and said: 'Hey man, feel my hair, I used conditioner this morning,' I'd probably receive a good knock to the jawbone. Not to mention the time I rubbed girly Neji Hyuuga's long locks out of sheer wonder, and he shoved me into a wall, assuming I wanted his lower parts.

Not that I touch a lot of people's hair, but also not that Neji's special or something. I just couldn't get over how long and pretty he'd grown it out, and it looked silky, so I figured it wouldn't be a big deal. I mean, if he didn't want people to touch it, why would he make it so appealing? Like come on, common sense, Hyuuga. That's like when girls wear tight dresses with their chest mounds hanging out and yell to Jesus when you look.

So yes, my expedition was strange, but, to be honest, I was also pretty curious. I mean, Sasuke was kind of a jerk-off, so It wouldn't be fair if he had majestic hair. Yet, I couldn't help but feel that wiry greasy locks wouldn't suit his 'perfect' persona.

I've known him for quite a bit, so you may wonder why I haven't tested it yet, but that's cause I don't want him to get the wrong idea. You also may wonder why I don't just decline the dare if it's so troublesome for me. That is where the importance factor comes in.

You see, my pride is sort of on the line right now. If I can't do the simple act of feeling up his head, my chicken dare is to become a servant to my freaky female companions that participated in our game. And with their strong obsession for the Teme, It's a win/win in their position either way. One option is a slave for a day, and who doesn't want that? The other hand gives them knowledge to fuel their weird Sasuke hair fetish fantasies.

So, since Sasuke was better than pushy women, I followed him around in secret since I woke up, looking for an opening.

His day began with a simple walk around the village, and it was easy for me to watch from the roofs of buildings. I noticed from my observations that he rubbed his arm a lot and stopped to stretch his back any chance he could. Concern flooded me before I remembered that I didn't care, and he was probably just out of shape and getting really old. My plan wrote itself when he stopped in a shop to get some food for breakfast. After all, I couldn't touch what I couldn't reach, right?

I slid in the seat next to him and he raised a brow but didn't greet me or anything like the jerk he was.

"Hey Sasuke." I smiled as pleasantly as I could.

"Hey dobe."

I frowned at the familiar insult but remembered that I had a mission and couldn't fight him until it was over.

"Whatcha doin', teme?"

Both of his eyebrows lifted at my question and he waved his food in my face.

"Are you that much of a moron?"

I felt my blood begin to boil at his taunting but bit my lip and forced myself calm.

"What are you doing today?" I rephrased.

"Uh, I don't know." He said awkwardly, obviously not expecting the curiosity.

"Wanna hang out?"

"I'm busy."

"You said you didn't know what you were doing!"

"I know what I'm not doing, and that's 'hanging out' with you."

"Oh come on, Sasuke. That's mean."

He sighed and took another bite of his food, chewing thoughtfully.

"Did you have anything in particular you wanted to do?" He asked after swallowing.

"Not really." I admitted, rubbing the back of my head.

"Then why are you involving me in your plans?"

"Cause, uh," I knew what needed to be said to make things go smoothly, but I felt my cheeks turn red before the sentence was even mumbled out. "I just wanted to spend time with you, I dunno."

He lifted an amused, perfect brow and shook his head.

"Okay, I guess." He said, defeated.

"We could go to my place?" I suggested.

"Maybe I'd agree if you told me that you hired a maid. If not, then let's go to my house."

I stuck out my tongue but nodded heavily, vaguely aware that I would be stepping into foreign enemy territory. Lots of things could happen in a house. Lots of things could go wrong in a house. Lots of bodies could be found in a house.

I shivered at the image of someone drawing a white line around my beaten and bloodied corpse.

Sasuke looked at me in question, finishing off his meal.

"Just thinking." I laughed.

"That's a first." He said in a strange tone in, which I realized to be an attempted joke.

I smiled nervously, and we both arose from our seats.

No words were shared as I followed him through twists and turns to his home. I always expected an evil lair where even the grass refused to grow, so when we stopped in front of a basic yellow apartment building, I was caught off guard.

"What? It won't eat you. You coming or not?"

I nodded and then scrambled to catch up to Sasuke as he walked through the entrance.

The awkward air continued once we reached his room and he offered me a seat on his bed, obviously not used to company.

"Nice place." I tried.

"Thanks." He replied, standing rigidly by the door, probably wondering why he ever agreed to this.

We resided in silence for a bit, just observing the house like it could move. Sasuke seemed to notice everything even slightly messy, obviously itching to clean it up since I was over. I was just taking in how normal everything was. He had posters, CDs, unnecessary knick knacks, a TV, and a frumpled sheets on a large bed. After a while I got pretty fed up. I was getting no closer to feeling his hair.

"Come on, what are we being so weird for? We're not girls." I laughed.

He nodded and finally sat on the bed next to me.

"So, that last mission was fun." I started, searching left and right for conversation. I didn't even remember that last mission.

"If that's your idea of fun, I don't know how I'll be able to handle today; that crazy lady tried to burn us alive." Oh that one.

"Right! But then Sakura took her side and said she was just mad cause we didn't like her food." I cried, using wild gestures to express my disapproval.

"So, when someone doesn't like my meals, It's perfectly acceptable for me to light them up in flames?" He frowned, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I guess, unless you're serving Sakura, cause I guess it's okay when it's her. She didn't like the food either but somehow managed to escape a front row seat in fire city."

"I don't ever plan to cook anything for her anyways."

"Can you cook?"

"Yeah; not all of us live off Ichiraku's and cup noodles."

"I don't believe you! Make me something!"

"Why didn't you eat at the shop you walked into?"

"Uh, I wasn't hungry then."

He raised his brows to show me exactly what he thought of me going somewhere just to talk to him.

"But you're hungry now?"

"Yeah."

"And you expect me to cook you something to eat?"

"Uh, yeah. You're the host!"

Sasuke sighed heavily but reluctantly agreed. He stood and started walking to where I assumed the kitchen was located.

"You promise not to catch me on fire, right?"

"You promise to like my food, right?" He countered, not looking back.

I smiled and followed his retreating figure into the newly lit room.

"Sit." He commanded, quickly washing his hands with a strongly lemon-scented dish soap, and I made myself comfortable at his kitchen table. He took great care in scrubbing, and there was a part of me slightly pleased knowing that he wouldn't contaminate my food with any strange Sasuke germs that I was sure he had.

He didn't ask what I wanted like he was a God and knew everything, so I glared at the back of his head as he began to pull out ingredients. After a glance back he told me that he was the one cooking, so like what he made or starve.

He threw some sausage and hash browns with a splash of cooking oil in separate pans, mixed egg in another buttered one. When he brought out a knife and began chopping away at a block of cheese, I gathered that he was making me an omelet.

After a while, the sizzling aroma of a perfect breakfast filled my nose, and my mouth began to water. So the Teme could cook. I watched his back muscles move through his tight shirt as he flipped, stirred, and sliced, and found it oddly appealing. I was almost tempted to stand and wrap my arms around the boy, but pushed away the thought as soon as it came.

I then wondered why exactly he was cooking for me and why he let me in in the first place. He said he wouldn't cook for Sakura and it was obvious he didn't usually have guests, so was I special? Did he not mind me as much as he says he did? I mean, I sure wouldn't put the effort into cooking good food for someone I hated. Sure, I considered Sasuke a stupidly perfect older brother, but what did he think of me? Why I even cared enough to get lost in thought about it was a question for another day.

I was brought out of my daze when Sasuke deposited a plate in front of my face and sauntered across the kitchen immediately after. I glanced at him and he had a hand on his fridge door, watching me like he was waiting for an answer.

"What? Sorry."

He sighed.

"I said, do you want something to drink? Orange juice, milk?"

"Uh, milk's fine." I nodded. "Thanks."

I watched him pull out a glass from his cabinet and pour the white liquid into it. He returned the carton to its' original location before setting the cup before me and sitting down himself.

He watched me expectantly, and I realized he wanted to know what I thought.

I forked a bite of the steaming omelet in my mouth and sighed happily at the mix of spices and sweets; it was a blend that of course Sasuke had perfected.

"You can put your lighter away, this is good."

He relaxed and smiled.

"So, who taught you how to cook?" I questioned after a few minutes of content chewing.

"My brother."

I nodded.

"Was he this good?"

"Yeah, he was a great cook. I wanted to be better than him, so I made him teach me." Sasuke leaned back a bit in his chair, corrupting his earlier flawless posture.

"Obviously things went well with that." I mumbled, shoveling in more food. I didn't care if I looked like a pig; I really couldn't get over how fantastic it was, and it wasn't like I had anyone to cook for me like that at home. Plus, if he wasn't anyone else's chef, somebody ought to take advantage of it.

He chuckled and nodded.

"I guess so. I've never had a problem with my food."

"Then again, you never have a problem with anything." I jested, leaning across the table to poke him in the nipple.

"Not true." He swatted at me and crossed his arms again.

"Pfft, really?" I laughed in disbelief and pulled my hand back to my fork.

He stared at me for a while in internal turmoil of whether to offer the next peice of information or not.

"I can't whistle." He admitted, rubbing his arm.

"No way! The great Uchiha Sasuke can't whistle!?" I hooted.

"Shut up." His cheeks pinkened.

I felt a little bad since he willingly told me that private information, and I used it for jokes, so I decided to right my sins and make it up to him.

"I'll teach you!" I smiled.

"You might hurt yourself, dobe."

"Shut up, teme! I'm a great teacher!" Though I'm sure Sasuke didn't like the idea of me being better at anything than him.

He chuckled.

"Finish eating and show me what you can do."

I grinned and pumped my fist.

We spent the next, I kid you not, two hours working on his undeveloped skills until he could whistle like no other. Up and down, left and right, any song I threw at him.

"Congrats, now you're perfect." I laughed from my position next to him on the floor.

"Why do you always call me perfect?" He questioned, and I then realized how weird it could be for him.

"I dunno, I've just always thought that." I admitted.

"You've always thought that I was perfect?"

"Yeah! Everybody loves you and you do everything right."

"I just work hard. And people don't love me. They love my name and face."

"I work hard, too!"

"Then maybe you're perfect as well."

Both our faces lit up after he said that, and we looked away for a second.

"But, not everyone loves you for that, you know."

"Yeah?" He questioned.

"Yeah. I mean, Kakashi doesn't care about either of that, and me neither."

"You do realize you just said that you and Kakashi both love me."

I didn't answer, trying to figure out a way to go back in time and change what came out very wrong.

"Wanna play video games?" He asked, trying to clear the awkward.

I nodded and sat up, grabbing my ankles and pulling my knees to my chest.

"You have anything good?"

"Probably. What type of game do you wanna play?"

"Dunno, can I see what you've got?"

"Yeah."

We crawled over to the entertainment stand supporting his TV, and he slid out a drawer full of colorful plastic disk holders and a few aging, fat cartridges.

"Wow, that's like triple my collection."

He shrugged awkwardly.

"Gamer nerd!" I smiled, fingering through the patterned titles. "Shit dude, you have the original Mario Party for the Nintendo 64?"

"You wanna play that?" He questioned, swinging open a cabinet to reveal his systems.

After I nodded, he reached for his 64 and started plugging everything in.

We knelt around the black box of memories, and he was struggling to get the thing to start.

"Blow in it." I laughed as he flipped the switch on and off repeatedly.

"You do it." He muttered, pulling it out and shoving the cartridge in my face.

I chuckled and blew into it while he held it. Then I bent over, pressed down the flaps on the system, and breathed in there, too, noticing vaguely that it was like I was teasing a robotic woman.

We sat crossed legged against his bed when it finally worked, and I'm sure he was inwardly cheering as much as I was. After the loading and start screen, we went into the virtual warp pipe and casually picked our settings in midair.

"I forgot how weird this was." I laughed as toadstool jumped in after us, feet dancing. "How deep is this pipe anyways?"

"What I wanna know is why we would jump into a pipe anyways."

I laughed and decided I wanted to be Yoshi cause dinosaurs were cool. I expected Sasuke to go with creepy Wario or Donkey Kong but instead he picked Luigi. I then went back and picked Mario instead.

"Well you can't have Luigi without Mario!" I explained at his silent question.

He chuckled and picked Princess Peach and Yoshi for our opponents. Apparently he didn't like Wario or Donkey Kong either. After picking the game board of Yoshi's Island we started the 60-turn game.

We fumbled through silly mini-games, avoided the creepy large Bubba fish, told terrible jokes, and collected coins and stars. We commented on how much of a jerk-off Bowser was, I mean come on: 'You don't have enough coins for a star, how about I take what you do have, then?' I told Sasuke maybe he should change his name to Bowser, and he shoved me and pouted.

After cursing Sasuke for successfully beating me, twice, I announced that I was hungry again. He thought for a moment then agreed, clicking off the game and wandering to the kitchen. I'm pretty sure he just expected me to follow because he didn't ask.

I eventually gave in and found his head in the refrigerator.

"How hungry are you?" He asked, hearing my steps.

"What do you mean?"

"I took out chicken to make Alfredo sometime soon but that'll take at least 30 minutes."

"I think I can suffer silently for that long, go ahead."

He nodded and rummaged for his chicken. I watched as he grabbed a pot and a clean pan as well.

"Can you get the noodles out? They're the wide ones in the blue box in that cabinet."

"Yeah, sure."

"Oh, and the sauce? It's at the bottom."

I grabbed the requested items and set them before him. He filled the pot with hot water before placing it on the stove and then pulled out a cutting board and large knife. Sasuke started chopping the pink chicken into little chunks and dumping them in the pan. When he completed his job, he asked me to turn on the water for him so he could wash the raw germs off his hands.

I was sort of bored and felt useless, so after he finished and started seasoning the meat, I scooted to the sink, grabbed the present rag, soaped it up, and began scrubbing the pans he used for my earlier meal.

"You don't have to do that." He said, not looking from his spicing.

"I know."

Sasuke turned on the stove, and I heard the chicken start to sizzle and pop as the pan heated.

"Thanks." He finally said.

I didn't respond cause he already probably felt awkward enough and instead decided to lather the dishes in silence. I took my time to make sure they were clean and rinsed them fully. Then I started wiping down his counters, all the while wondering why because I didn't even do that at home.

"Move." He said, carrying his pot of cooked noodles to be drained. He quickly rinsed the strainer and set it over a pie dish so he could separate the chicken from the grease.

I began drying his pots as he mixed the room-temperature cheese and chicken in with the noodles before turning them on low to heat back up.

He took out two bowls and forks, setting them on the table.

"Do you want me to put these away?" I questioned, nodding to the dishes.

"It'd be appreciated. Water, Coke, or Sprite?"

"Coke." I decided loudly over the clanking of pans.

"Can you stir the Alfredo?" He asked as he rummaged for my desired beverage.

I set the pan down, shut the cabinet door, and hurried to pick up the spoon and fold the noodles in the pot until I was satisfied.

"Thanks."

"Yeah, how much longer til I can chow?"

"A few more minutes." Sasuke soothed as he plopped the appropriate cans down on the table.

I nodded and glanced at the time, vaguely noticing how late it had gotten. I started to get a bit let down at the thought of leaving. Sasuke's house and company was more comfortable than I thought it'd be. It felt like we were a tiny family. But, tiny or not, it was better than we originally had.

He followed my eyes to the digital clock, a frown appearing on his face.

"You thinking about leaving after you eat?"

"I probably should. Shouldn't be running around outside after dark." I nodded, sadly.

He agreed and turned off the stove, bringing the pot to the table and scooping the creamy mess into our individual bowls.

As slowly as we ate, dinner still ended too soon, and even my suggestion of washing the dishes didn't prolong our time very much.

I stood in his doorway, slipping on my shoes with reluctance. That earlier craving to touch him returned, and as I stared at him pout, I finally decided to assuage my mind. I stepped towards him, reached out, and awkwardly wrapped my arms around his waist in an embrace. I felt his chest stiffen but slowly relax as he draped his arms around me and pulled me closer.

"Thanks for coming over today." He mumbled.

"Thanks for agreeing." I smiled into his shirt.

Yeah, we probably hugged longer than we needed to, but he was warm and I was enjoying myself.

Then that warm moment ended and he was waving me off as I walked down the carpeted hallway.

When had Sasuke gotten to fun to hang around with? Here I was literally dejected over leaving his house, he who was someone I could see anytime I wanted. Yet, here I was, walking as slow as I could, searching to find any excuse to turn around and run back into his arms.

Okay um, I wasn't sure about the running into his arms part, but I did want to see him again. I guess now I understand the saying "I miss you already."

It was also strange that as long as we'd known each other, today was the first day I'd stepped foot in his house. Maybe we crossed a new boundary; maybe there was a line that I ignored that said if we stepped over it I'd feel weird feelings. Maybe I just never knew him enough to realize he was actually pretty cool.

I mean, when me and the Teme hung out, we were usually doing something physical so we didn't have much time to actually talk and think about emotions and stuff. Any time we weren't playing a game or something, we were usually with a few more people who kept things from turning awkward. But today it was just me and him, and, with all the talking that occurred, things got weird fast. But if that was the case, why was I so desperate to return? Was it a good weird?

Stupid Sasuke for being so appealing.

I trudged down the steps and threw my hands behind my head while trying seem indifferent about the whole leaving situation, wondering how Sakura would feel if she knew I hugged her dreamboat.

Sakura.

God damnit.

From the man at the reception desk's point of view, I crossed halfway across the lobby, pivoted 180 degrees, retraced my steps, and stormed right back up the stairs.

"Sir?" I heard him call after me.

Touching his hair, touching his fucking hair! How did that manage to slip my mind? Of all the time I spent with him I had plenty of openings but I didn't cop a feel! That was the whole reason I was there! How did I forget the fucking dare!?

I raced down the hallway and banged on Sasuke's door.

I needed more time to complete the mission, but what on earth was I going to say when he answered?

Shit, shit, shit. What to say? What to do? Why didn't I think about this beforehand? Damn my rash personality.

He finally opened the door with a brow raised.

"What, moron?"

Got it.

"Can I spend the night?"

xoxox

A/N: And there you have it! What do you lovelies think? 'S it okay? :D This is going to be two chapters. I hope you enjoyed, and please review if you have the time!

xoxox