Nine

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Sasuke helped Naruto set Nana's old Formica table in the shop's backroom with paper plates and such.

"It's a wee bit knackie, your kitchen set," he said, running his hand over a chair back.

Upholstery in red and gr plastic, each back was centered by a raised red rose set in a recessed gray sare, the rose and square both outlined in brass upholstery tacks.

"Gaudy, you mean,"Naru said,"but ultra-modern when Nana was a bride." With a wave of grief, Naru looked down and opened a bottle of cola.

"I'm . . . sorry for your loss," Sasuke said. "I can see that you miss her."

"I do. Thank you, but how did you know?"

He indicated the stacks he'd made of Naruto's papers. "The funeral bill, then you got misty-eyed when you talked about her. You must get lonely now that you're alone in this big old house."

"What makes you think I live here alone?"

"I asked Gaara. I was afraid you might be-I mean . . . well, I asked, and I have a proposition that might solve our problems."

Naruto straightened. "What problems?"

Sasuke came as close to an eye-twinkle as Naru had seen. "Give me thhandyman job in exchange for the room."

Naru spilled plastic utensils all over the table. "Are you out of your mind? Besides, I need somebody who can keep books."

"That's me. Do we have a deal?"

"Of course not."

"But your friends-"

"Are certifiable. Thet are." Naruto ran in the house to answer the kitchen door, and getthe pizza. "I only want a part-timer," he said coming back, "and a month's rent is way more than the job is worth in a month. Plus I planned to rent the room for more than a few days." He opened the box.

"I'm not here on a flying visit. How long a lease do you require?"

Naru plopped a piece of pizza on Sasuke's plate, sauce splattering his turtleneck, though he pretended not to notice. "I'll work at no charge, if that'll help. I'd rather not face the bloody paperwork of a work visa, at any rate. Thaway you'd have rent and a handyman/bookkeeper. It's a win/win situation?"

"It's a too-good-to-be-true situation." Who worked for nothing these days? He'd like to keep Sasuke around just to find out what he really wanted. "How many carousel carvers do you think will show, now that I took Kyuubi on the Roadshow?"

Sasuke juggled his pizza, and lost the fight. "Kyuubi?" he asked pulling a foot-long cheese string from his lap.

Naruto tried not to laughed. "I decided to name him."

Sasuke took a napkin and wiped his lap.

"Wait," Naru said going around to his side of the table. "Wow. Face down. Cool. Let me get it."

The way his head popped up, Naru figured he expected him to swipe at his package the way he'd been doing.

"Have at it," he said with a cocky head-tilt.

Naru grabbed a bottle of stain remover off the shelf behind him, and sprayed Sasuke's crotch.

"Bollocks!" Sasuke shouted as he jumped from his chair.

Naru sprayed the back of his neck, and Sasuke ran from the reeking mist.

"Are you daft?" he asked from halfway across the room.

Naru, hiding a smile, showed him the bottle. "Stain remover, see? Throw your jeans in a washer and they'll be good as new."

"Did I have sauce on my neck as well?"

Naru giggled. "I was toying with you. How many carousel carvers do you think will come look at my kitsune?"

His surly Scot scratched his beard, as opposed to smoothing it, cautious maybe, as oppsed to fustrated or thoughtful. He shrugged. "One, possibly two."

"That was my guess as well. Will you excuse me for a sec? I need to make a call." Naruto went out on the porch and closed his hand around the cellphone in his pocket.

Despite his attraction to the shag-maned Scot with his wide shoulders and a brogue that could charm the moon from the sky, he worried Naru. He'd be nuts to rent to him. But how to resist the income with a mountain of debt?

Sure Sasuke had saved his skin with the little boy, having him take pictures, in case of a lawsuit, and charming the g-string off the kid's mother. But Sasuke'd had him purring, too. Since when could a man charm him with snark and get away with it?

Naruto took out his phone and hit speed dial.

"Hey," Hina said, when she answered. "Did you jump his bones yet?"

"Twice. Once on Nana's ugly old table, and once on the kitsune case. We got a standing ovation from the tourists in the trolley."

"So what's your problem?"

Naru sighed. "I think he's trying to charm me out of my kitsune."

"Do tell."

"That wasn't euphemism."

"Well he wasn't using any charm on you when I was there. Growls, yes. Charm, not so much. Has he changed personality?"

"No and no."

"But you're charmed anyway? Interesting."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Hina, stop gloating and listen. He wants to rent a room."

"And you want to rent it. So what's the problem?"

"I can't decide if his offer of a gallop on his wooden charger works for, or against, him. Then there's the matter of a background check. Get this. He's willing to be my free handyman/bookkeeper. Any chance the judge knows anything yet?"

"Just got off the phone with her. Sasuke MacKenzie lives on One Caper Burn Lane, Caperglen, Scotland, like his MacKenzie forebears for centuries. He's a successful carousel carver, has never dealt in antiques, has no arrests, not even for jaywalking. In short, he has nothing to hide. So, what are you gonna do?"

Damn it. Hinata was right. Whoever took the room would be a stranger. And something in Sasuke MacKenzie spoke to him on a gut level, something basic anf familiar and . . . vital.

Sasuke's dicomfort around people and his terminal crankiness amused him. Naru liked his determination and work ethic, his athletic body and dark Scot's features, even his black, not-blue, hair. Naruto like Sasuke, damn it. "I should be committed for considering this."

"Yes!" Hinata shouted.

Naru hung up. He found the Scot on his back on the floor beside the Kitsune case, trying to examine the kitsune's underbelly.

"See anything I should know about?"

Sasuke jumped and smacked his head on a bookshelf. "Bollocks!"

"Wow, two concussions in one day." Naruto's chuckle escaped as he bent to help Sasuke up, though he was so big, Naru felt foolish and-oxymoronically-petite in the attempt.

"What can I do to talk you into renting me that room?" he asked. "I have a headache, and I'd like to lay down."

"Here's the deal. I was going to ask for a three-month trial period of any applicant."

"Fine,"Sasuke agreed. "That's fair. I'll rent the room for three months." He reached for his back pocket. "How much per month?" he asked. "I'll pay in advance."

Naruto's heart raced. Three months in advance would put a temporary stopper in every compounding debt. "A thousand a month," he said, "plus a month's rent rent as a damage deposit, which I'll return when you go."

"For one room? Do you have Scot's blood in you, ladsy?"

"I'm renting more than a room. You'll have the run of the house."

"Which I presume does not mean that I get to come and go on all fours through a hole in that scullery door?"

Naruto huffed. "It means you get free use of the living room, the remote, the library and kitchen, the computer-"

"How about three square meals a day?"

"That's right, you cook. So yes, great idea. I'd love it. Thanks."

Naruto stopped baiting him when Sasuke started peeling hundred dollar bills from a wad that any red-blooded American would bank, and fast. "Cash? What are you doing with all that money on you?"

"I hate debt," he said

"You'll get robbed!"

Sasuke opened Naruto's palm, placed the cash inside, and closed his fingers over it. "Naruto, darlin', I just was."