Rating: T

Warnings: Crack AU, family feels, snark, language, name-calling, mentions of injury, etc.

Word Count: ~2300 (complete)

Pairings: Sasuke/Naruto

Summary: Part 4 of the Criminals 'verse. As a child, Sasuke only remembers meeting his cousin Obito once.

Notes: This was intended to be part of the next, much longer installment, but ended up not quite fitting anywhere. However, since it stands alone pretty well (at least within the framework of this universe) I figured I'd post it anyway. That, and I was just in the mood to write goopy SasuNaru boyfriends, because I should never read discussions on 699/700/Gaiden as they only depress me.

(Title is from Halsey's Color, because consistency is for pansies.)

When the Lights Came Through

As a child, Sasuke only remembers meeting his cousin Obito once.

It's Christmas Eve, dark and cold and snowing heavily, and Sasuke is in the front hall, playing with a train set his father gave him. The bell rings, and even though he isn't supposed to, Sasuke runs to open the door, because his mother and father are in their bedroom, where sound carries poorly, and Itachi is listening to music with his headphones in.

When he manages to undo the locks and chains and drag the heavy door open, it isn't Uncle Madara waiting there, as he'd expected. It's a much younger man Sasuke has never seen before, wearing a sweatshirt instead of a heavy coat, with a patch over one eye and deep, angry-red scars carved across one side of his face. He stares at Sasuke for a long moment, his remaining eye wide and almost scared, but he doesn't move or say anything.

Sasuke, all of six and very confident about it, meets his stare and says, "You look like a pirate."

At that, a quick, hesitant smile flickers across the man's face, and he drops his small knapsack onto the steps, going down on one knee so that he and Sasuke are of a height. "Thanks," he says, low voice slightly rough, the way Madara's had been before he quit smoking. Then he touches a finger to his lips and adds very seriously, "I'm actually a ninja, though."

Even at six, Sasuke doesn't believe lies, whether they're the cheerful, well-intentioned ones grown-ups tell or not. But…looking at this man, he isn't able to find it in himself to do anything else. Because of that, and because he knows that ninjas are always secretive about things, he nods solemnly, silently vowing to keep it a secret, since the man has trusted him enough to share it.

"Oi, Tobi!" someone shouts. "Good?"

Sasuke looks past the man, out into the thick drifts of snow, and sees a battered black car waiting by the curb. There's a dark-haired man standing by the driver's door, watching the scarred man, who rises to his feet and turns to wave.

"Thanks, Zetsu," he calls back. "Happy Christmas!"

The man waves in return, then slides back into the car and drives away. Sasuke looks up at the stranger as he picks up his bag again, and then asks, "Your name is Tobi?"

"Just a nickname," the stranger says lightly. "I'm—"

There's a cry, sharp and startled and full of overjoyed disbelief, and from behind Sasuke his mother gasps out, "Obito!"

A single dark eye lifts, and the man gives her a crooked smile, nothing at all like the one he'd offered Sasuke. "Aunt Mikoto," he says softly. "You haven't changed."

When Sasuke glances back at her, his mother has her hands pressed over her mouth and tears in her eyes. Her gaze is fixed on the scars in the man's face, and she looks somewhere between elated and horrified. Then she shakes her head, gives a choked laugh, and bolts towards them, dressing gown flapping behind her. The man—Obito—catches her up in his arms like it's a movie, spins her around and hugs her tightly as she cries into his shoulder.

"Sorry," he whispers, just loudly enough for Sasuke to hear. "Sorry, sorry, sorry. I tried to get back sooner, but I couldn't. Sorry."

"You should be," Mikoto agrees, her voice thick with tears. "Oh, Obito, we thought you were dead!"

Sasuke doesn't look at the family shrine very often—it's all people he doesn't know—but…there's a picture on there of a boy, laughing. Sasuke doesn't remember meeting him, and the one time he'd asked Itachi about it Itachi had simply said a cousin.

Maybe this is that same cousin.

(More proof, Sasuke thinks, entirely satisfied, that he really is a ninja.)

Smiling a little, he closes the door, and goes to introduce himself. When he does, Obito laughs, says, "You got so tall I didn't recognize you, Sasuke, sorry," and sweeps him up onto his back.

Then Sasuke's father wanders in, curious about the noise. He catches sight of Obito, pales dramatically, and trips over his own feet. Sasuke doesn't bother worrying about it, because Obito is talking about taking a boat across the ocean and Sasuke wants to know if he'd met any pirates there, and—

And less than a day later, Obito and Fugaku and Madara get into a loud, vicious fight in the study, and Obito leaves bare minutes afterwards, only pausing to kiss Sasuke's forehead and ruffle his hair.

"Take care of them for me," he says quietly, crouching in front of Sasuke's chair. "And take care of yourself, Sasuke. I want something to come home to, okay?"

"You are coming home, right?" Sasuke asks, because he's six and this cousin he's never met before is his new best friend and cooler than anyone except maybe Itachi, and Sasuke doesn't want him to leave.

Obito smiles at him, warm and bright despite the still-fading scars on his cheek, and says, "You won't even have time to miss me."

Maybe, he sometimes thinks years later, walking home from school in the sunlight with his boyfriend bouncing next to him, that's why he really noticed Naruto. That first day after Naruto changed schools, he'd been on the playground, and his smile had looked just like Obito's: brilliant and happy with too much else buried underneath. Sasuke had looked at the small boy sitting alone on the swing, watching all the other children with their friends, and when a teacher had asked him if he was all right he'd given her that exact same smile.

At six and a half, Sasuke had seen it and promptly dropped his ball. He'd run, pulled Naruto up off the swings, and said, "Play ninja with me."

Naruto had blinked at him for a long moment, completely shocked, and then laughed and thrown his arms around Sasuke's neck.

"Sure!" he'd agreed, as bright as the sun, and since that day Sasuke can count the number of times they've been separated for more than a week on one hand.

"What's up, bastard? You look constipated."

The curious voice pulls him out of his thoughts, and he casts Naruto a small smile. "Just thinking," he answers. "I'm fine."

Naruto hums, unconvinced, and crosses his arms behind his head, tilting his face towards the sun. "Wanna go to the park?" he suggest casually.

Sasuke isn't fooled. Their spot is in the park, just past the lake where the path turns sharply. A short ways into the woods, there's a tiny shrine set into a hill, and the area around it is quiet and green and undisturbed. It's where they first kissed, and where both of them tend to retreat to when they're unhappy.

But right now, he's not unhappy. The day is bright, and Naruto is beautiful in the sunlight, and around them the leaves are just starting to turn colors. Sasuke hasn't seen Obito in over eight years, the memories faded and a little dim, that last smile mostly lost beyond the echoes he can sometimes see in Naruto's, but…that's okay. There's still a tiny, niggling, mostly foolish part of Sasuke that believes Obito's claim that he's a ninja, no matter how silly, and he's certain that his cousin is all right. That wherever he is, he'll come back.

"How about we get ice cream instead?" Sasuke proposes, catching Naruto's hand in his and squeezing gently.

Naruto laughs, bumping their shoulders together, and his hair smells like an autumn wind. "Definitely," he agrees. "It's your turn to buy, bastard."

"It is not, dead last! Learn to count!"

"Hey! Thursday doesn't count—it wasn't one of our regular days, and you volunteered!"

"You know, I could be dating Neji. I'm sure he wouldn't try to skip out on paying."

"Yeah, and I could be dating Sai."

Sasuke grimaces, scarred for life by the mere idea of it. He definitely, certainly doesn't pull Naruto a little bit closer in well-hidden jealousy. "You wouldn't," he says flatly.

Naruto stares at him challengingly for a moment longer, then relents with a laugh. "No," he agrees, "I wouldn't."

Sasuke smiles back without even meaning to, and lets Naruto lead him through the slanting afternoon sunlight.

The next time Sasuke sees his cousin, he's fifteen. It's winter again, the beginning of January, and the wind has teeth as he follows Itachi into the airport terminal. It's impossibly early in the morning, and the rest of the drab grey building is empty, but there's a group of nine people emerging from the gate. A thin, redheaded man is leaning on a woman with blue hair, while a bubbly blonde bounces next to a much shorter redheaded man. A tall man with dark hair and rough skin is hauling a trio of large bags, while two more men flank him. And then behind them—

Dark hair, scarred face, black eyepatch—he's the same as Sasuke remembers, though his scars aren't an angry red anymore and he looks a little older. He's got a crutch under one arm, while the other is draped over the shoulder of a small woman with short brown hair. At the end of the ramp, he and the woman pause, and the others turn back. Obito says something, weary and warm, that Sasuke can't quite make out, and then touches two fingers to his brow in lazy salute. The blonde laughs, waves, and hooks an arm through the short redhead's, steering him away. The rest follow, one at a time or in pairs, until Obito and the woman are alone.

It's only then that Obito turns his dark gaze on Itachi and Sasuke, but when he does, his smile is brilliant.

"Hey," he says, as though he hasn't been all but missing from the face of the earth for the last nine years.

(Sasuke had asked, every holiday afterwards, when Obito was coming back. But his mother had just looked sad, and his father had just looked angry, and Itachi hadn't known any more than him. Every year Sasuke has asked and received the same answer, until finally just a week ago his father had hung up the phone with a peculiar expression on his face and said, "Obito's coming home.")

Sasuke should punch him. He really, really should.

Instead, he ducks around Itachi and hugs him, careful of the crutch.

"You're late," he huffs, and what he means is, I had more than enough time to miss you.

A callused hand settles on his hair and ruffles it gently, and for once Sasuke can't even bring himself to mind. "Sorry, Sasuke," he murmurs, the way he apologized to Mikoto so long ago. "Got lost on the road of life. It won't happen again, I promise."

That's the stupidest excuse Sasuke has ever heard, and he punches Obito in the arm for it, albeit lightly. The woman laughs at them, transferring the duffle bag she's carrying to Itachi.

"Check-ins once a week," she reminds Obito sternly, then waves at Itachi and Sasuke and hurries after the other seven passengers.

"Later, Rin! Don't eat anyone!" Obito calls after her, and laughs at the gesture she makes in response. Then he turns that bright, warm smile on his cousins and slings an arm around Sasuke's shoulder. "Let's go home," he says softly, and Sasuke will not admit it under pain of death, but he's never been happier to hear anything before.

What he says, of course, is, "What, they couldn't give you two crutches? Did you piss off the nurses or something?"

Obito laughs, startled but happy, and leans a little more of his weight—not much, not nearly enough, because Sasuke can feel ribs under his thin sweater—on Sasuke's shoulder. "Not at all," he says cheerfully. "I just told them I've got a cousin who's the perfect height, so they said I should just make use of you."

"Asshole," Sasuke grumbles.

"Brat," Obito returns without missing a beat, and Itachi just shakes his head at both of them and ushers them out to the car.

(As it turns out, the actual reason Obito only has one crutch is because he chucked the other at an obnoxious tourist he caught littering during their layover in Rome, and Rin refused to get it back for him no matter how much he threatened and begged. Sasuke laughs at the story, mostly because he doesn't know yet that this more or less sets the tone for all of Obito's interactions with the human race.

Looking back on it, Sasuke feels he probably should have bailed out of the car on the freeway right then and there, and saved himself a lot of trouble in the long run.)