Luck

It’s not that he had anything against salad. It was just. . .well, what sort of perfectly sane college student (excluding pretty much every sorority girl he knew, but then again, sanity among them was a fairly questionable topic) actually chose to eat it? Really, it wasn’t as though Sasuke needed to be on a diet. The kid worked out religiously everyday without fail. He would know; he practically lived with the guy now.

Which kind of explained the whole salad thing. Sasuke liked them. Add that to some weird clear broth soup, though while not half bad certainly wasn’t anywhere near as delicious as his left over Cup Ramen, and the Uchiha heir seemed quite content to call it a lunch. Or dinner. Naruto sometimes wondered when it was Sasuke actually bothered to eat a decent meal, or how the Uchiha heir had ever managed before he had actually come into the other boy’s life.

At least now there was no denying that Sasuke’s fridge was full. Usually emptied within a few days too (which was perfectly fine because it’s not like the Uchiha didn’t have money to spare). Ok, so maybe Sasuke did eat because Naruto was certain he didn’t eat that much. He’d gotten along just fine on campus food and ramen for the last three and a half years after all, and he sure as hell wasn’t getting fat.

“Oi, Sasuke,” the blond called out as he kicked open the door leading to one of the architecture studios. He glanced around the room, though the presence of the dark-haired young man was hard to dismiss. Especially when Sasuke was the only one currently using the place. Naruto had run into a few others kids running about the hallways, faces he vaguely recalled only because he had seen them around here before. Sasuke didn’t seem to keep tabs on them either though because Naruto never got anything in the way of names. “You’d better eat some of this pizza, asshole.”

Sasuke didn’t even look up from the design he was working on. Had been, actually, for the last three hours. Fingers moved fluidly over the crisp white plane of paper, hovering just above the surface to avoid smudging any of the lines he had so carefully etched into being. Not that it took a lot of effort. He was far too good at this point to make such a freshman mistake. It impressed Naruto nonetheless, and that always made him smirk. Like it was really all that difficult. Then again, sometimes he was certain the blond would have marveled over the fact that you could, in fact, stay within the lines when coloring.

“Don’t put it anywhere near this, moron, or I may be forced to kill you,” Sasuke stated, the threat uttered with the air of I could really care less but delivered with a flick of his gaze upward. A warning that was worn rather than spoken. Naruto knew all too well about those now.

Taking up residence on the table in front of Sasuke’s, the blond set the pizza box down with a sharp crack. His answer to the threat.

“This better not be another all-nighter.”

Honestly speaking, Naruto knew quite a bit about all-nighters. He tended to pull them more often than not, and then cursed himself when he was running ten minutes late to his exams and all the information was flying out of his skull with every step he took to get to there.

But that had been before he had met Sasuke. Well, before they had started this little thing between them, where he kinda, sorta ended up spending more nights in Sasuke’s bed than falling asleep wherever he found the room to in his own apartment. And like it or not, Sasuke was really warm. . .. and he cooked breakfast. And it kind of made him hate it when Sasuke forgot that he just might be waiting for him to come home and he was, instead, left with an empty bed.

“Tch. . .does this look like it’s going to be, moron?” Sasuke muttered. Shifting his ruler, he brought his pencil down once more. Anyone with half a brain could tell that what rested on his sheet was a practically complete design. He only needed to ink it, maybe add a bit of color for embellishment. Nothing that would take too long. “Besides, it’s not like I called you here.”

“Just go ahead and be a callous bastard to the one who brought you dinner.”

“Did you get a salad?”

Naruto clicked his tongue in annoyance. Did he get. . .just how long did he think they’d been together? He was slow, not stupid, and that was only some of the times. “Of course, I got your damn salad.”

“Good. Now eat it.”

“Fin. . .wait. . .what?!”

Sasuke merely straightened himself up, set his pencil down as though he hadn’t even heard the confused reaction. Then, Naruto caught the quirk of lips upwards and knew that somewhere in the midst of all of this, something had gone according to Sasuke’s twisted little plan. Walking over to the other side of the table, the Uchiha heir eyed the pizza box before taking a napkin and helping himself to a slice.

“You eat too much crap, Naruto.”

The blond merely mouthed a response as he watched the Architecture major bite into what should have been his first slice. Why would he buy a salad when he had just ordered himself a perfectly delicious pizza? Sasuke was spending way too many hours cooped up in this place. It had to be the white walls. Or maybe the paint fumes coming from down the hall [proper ventilation his ass. In either case, Sasuke was clearly not thinking straight.

“I do not!” he finally managed to spit out. Defensive, and rightfully so he felt. “What the hell, Sasuke? I eat perfectly fine! I even eat that crap you make. . .”

“Japanese food,” Sasuke corrected without the least bit of annoyance. It was merely a second nature sort of thing that came along with a cocky little smirk. A habit anyone would pick up when dealing with Naruto almost daily.

“Ramen is Japanese!”

“Not that shit you eat.”

“Yeah. . .well. . .whatever. I still like it,” Naruto concluded sullenly. There was nothing wrong with his ramen, even if it wasn’t authentic, good-enough-for-those-with-massive-sticks-up-their-asses ramen. Pft. Sasuke acting like he was so much better because he knew what real ramen was. “Why are you being such an ass tonight?”

Popping the plastic lid off of the salad’s container, the blond grumbled to himself. He stabbed into a portion of lettuce with undue vehemence when Sasuke failed to answer in a timely manner. Redirected aggression is what they called it. Throwing at glare in the Uchiha’s general direction, Naruto chewed loudly with undisguised irritation.

Sasuke, meanwhile, simply tore off another piece from his pizza slice and scanned over his work.

“Real mature, asshole! Just ignore me then!” Naruto spit out between bites. He didn’t even know why he bothered to come here. It wasn’t as though he hadn’t experienced this before with Sasuke, but he was generally expecting these episodes when they occurred now. Either he knew he had done something that was bound to rub the Uchiha heir the wrong way or Sasuke just radiated a certain brand of pissed off that clued him into the dark-haired boy’s mood. But when they had talked on the phone earlier there had been nothing littering their conversation that made him believe Sasuke was in a petulant mood.

Apparently he wasn’t so good at reading people over the phone.

Depositing the crust of his pizza into Naruto’s salad container, Sasuke slid off of the table and made his way over to his messenger bag. He pulled out a bottle of water and chugged about a third of it before capping the bottle and tossing a rather cold (though somewhat angry, it seemed) glance at Naruto. And still, there was that faint trace of absolute arrogance that knew nothing other than absolute supremacy.

“Some kid was telling me you have a rather small cock.”

It was simply stated, as if Sasuke had merely been informing Naruto that he would be ready to leave within the next hour. Wiping his hands on a napkin, the Uchiha heir studied his partner carefully, critically before turning around to select a pen and starting once more on his assignment.

Naruto, however, was quite bewildered. It was the comment from left field, or more like the foul ball that blindsided some unsuspecting fan as they were returning to their seat. Who the hell would even. . .

“Ah! That pervert!,” Naruto cried out, nearly dropping his food all over the floor below. He didn’t even know how to begin explain that, least of all try and comprehend why Sasuke seemed so irritated by the whole thing.

The Uchiha heir glanced up only once, when silence had settled over the room. Expectant, but not about to pull the words, syllable by syllable, from the blond’s mouth.

Running a hand through his hair, Naruto thought of the best way to approach the matter. It’s not like he and Sasuke had ever really declared anything. The whole sleeping together and sharing apartments and hanging out had just kind of happened after that one night. Sasuke put no label on it, and Naruto had offered none. He had just accepted it because it had felt good. He liked having something like home to come back to after classes. He liked having someone who seemed to want him around, who acknowledged him even if it was through pointless arguments. Like this one that was about to start if he didn’t think of something to say.

And he really didn’t want to spend the night at his place. Without air conditioning, it was going to be sweltering and besides, he hadn’t even bothered to stock his own kitchen what with having spent the last week at Sasuke’s. Naruto set his salad aside, looked around the room before getting annoyed by the fact that Sasuke was once more working on his project like nothing had been said.

“It’s not. . .”

“I know it’s not,” Sasuke cut him off. There was that arrogant smirk climbing over his lips again, a look Naruto just barely caught as the Uchiha heir shifted to reach a new portion of his sketch.

“If you know, then I’m not going to bothe. . .”

“Explain it, Naruto.”

There was no room for argument in that statement. A command really, and everything inside of Naruto balked at it. Like he was going to let this self-assured bastard act like there was nothing wrong with them when there was obviously something he hated about the idea of some guy talking about the size of his. . .

“You should be telling me! That kid’s a part of this department and apparently in our graduating class. If anything, you should know the freak. . .” Naruto began. Flustered and frustrated, and the fact that he really just wanted a slice of pizza was grating on his nerves. He could have been eating his second slice by this point. Sasuke was such a dick sometimes. . .

“I was in the bathroom, minding my own fucking business when this kid just started staring at me, and I thought maybe he was interested in me or something because he was kind of intent about looking at it, and I just cleared my throat, and he gave me this weird look and just said I was small. . .” – Naruto took a breath here – “. . .I told him I wasn’t, and he just gave me that irritating smirk you sometimes get when you think you’re all right about something, and it pissed me off. And now every time I run into that jerk, he gives me this blank look and then is all like ‘Oh, it’s the no-dick kid’, and the only reason I haven’t punched him in the damn face is because it would get me banned from this building.”

Sasuke had to admit, Naruto was pretty fucking cute when he got exasperated. Annoying, maybe just a bit, but still cute when defending his honor. He could only give that as his reason for why he had begun to laugh partway through the blond’s explanation. Well, that and the fact that he knew it would piss Naruto off, and there was something rather enticing about the blond when he was all worked up.

“You know what? Fuck you, Uchiha,” Naruto growled when he heard the noise Sasuke was making over his well-intentioned explanation. Ripping open the lid of the pizza box, he grabbed the nearest slice and tore into it. Chewed roughly for a moment before pointing a finger at Sasuke accusingly. “YOU KNOW EXACTLY HOW. . .”

The door pushed open at that moment, a head popping in with an oddly cheerful Sasuke that died away the minute the rest of that statement came bolting out of Naruto’s mouth.

“. . .BIG MY COCK IS. “

Sasuke was fairly certain he could feel Sakura choking on her own spit (and probably inner rage). Which really just made the situation all the more amusing. A glance up informed him that Naruto was blushing just as he had expected the blond would.

“Sa…Sa…Sakura. . .hi.”

A pretty weak comeback, Naruto knew that much, but Christ, what the hell was he supposed to say after someone walked in on that? “This isn’t. . .I mean, it’s not. . .”

“Yes, it is,” Sasuke supplied. He wasn’t about to let Naruto’s stuttering bout of idiocy give anybody the wrong impression. Not that it would stop the girl from pursuing her usual course of action, which he anticipated would start within the next five seconds.

Though, it was going to be interesting to see how this all played out. Sasuke smirked, then traced another flawless line over his design.

The door shut with a reverberating clang, one that barely fazed Sasuke and seemed to send tremors quaking down Naruto’s spine. The blond slide from the table, abandoning his pizza slice in the box. He could do cold pizza, but trying to act all nonchalant, I’m-totally-above-this like Sasuke was simply not an option for Naruto. He’d had enough run-ins with the pink-haired girl since Christmas to know that there was never really any such thing as escaping a woman’s wrath. It would find you, particularly when you least expected it, and it would hurt. Naruto slid up alongside Sasuke, hoping that his proximity to the other boy would somehow deter the worst of Sakura’s anger.

“I didn’t mean for you. . .”

“How could you even say something like that, Naruto?” she shrieked (or whatever that was she did because she was obviously making an attempt to conceal her reaction from Sasuke by hissing with an strange strident edge into the his ear). She gave the skin of his bicep a hard pinch and twist before turning a sweet smile on the Uchiha heir. “Sasuke, how can you let him talk to you like that? It’s so degrading. . .”

“Owowowowow, Sakuraaaaa. . . “

“Shut up, Naruto! I’m not talking to you.”

Seeming relatively unperturbed by the events happening at his side, Sasuke continued to polish off his assignment. It’s not like this really concerned him. Besides, he did have to finish this if. . .”Naruto, if you want me to be home tonight, then take your fight elsewhere.”

“My fight?” Naruto cried out. “How is this mine?! You started this by talking about Sai!”

“Oh, so he has a name.”

“Who is Sai?”

“Not now, Sakura. Can you please let go of my arm?”

“Tell me who Sai is.”

“He’s some art kid who keepstalkingaboutmypenis.”

“Who the hell wants to know about your penis, Naruto?”

“I’m trying to finish this assignment. Tch. . .take it outside.”

Tugging his arm free of Sakura’s (iron) grip, Naruto muttered something to himself that merely earned him a withering glance from Sakura, who was not at all impressed with the way things had turned out. The blond began to rub at the spot of his arm that had just been sorely abused, pouted when he noted the blossoming of red that he was certain would bruise to some degree.

“Man, Sakura. . .Did you have to be so mean? That hurt, you know!” he muttered, sulking.

With a soft clearing of her throat, Sakura peered over Sasuke’s shoulder. Effectively ignoring Naruto’s complaint. It’s not that the topic was particularly upsetting. It was just that there had been rumors circulating for awhile, and she was fairly certain she had caught something about coming home from Sasuke’s mouth just before things got out of hand. “Sasuke. . .you really shouldn’t encourage Naruto to talk like that. It’s not something you need to bother yourself with, right?”

She was trying. Oh, she was trying.

“I don’t really care.”

“Eh? But before, you would. . .”

Sasuke sighed, irritation obvious in the way he ran his hand roughly through his hair. Merely looking at Sakura from the corner of his eyes, he said, “That was before. Which obviously implies it is not now.”

Not particularly scathing, but hope was a funny thing. She offered him a small smile, one whispering of a blatant attempt at disbelief. Because this wasn’t going where she believed it to be. “Do you really think it’s ok to be wasting your time with him though?”

Naruto, in the meanwhile, had gone off to examine his arm in a nearby shard of a mirror that someone was probably hoping to use in some sort of project later on. Not that he cared. Wasn’t like he was touching it or anything. Just looking, especially at the way it caught Sasuke’s face. It almost made him feel bad for Sakura. After all, he’d suffered through that callous look before. Coolly arrogant in the way that made you want to hate and admire Sasuke all in the same breath.

But then, and he just barely caught it before Sasuke returned his attention to his work at hand, there had been that smirk. That oddly knowing, strangely confident smirk that he knew as well. It was the one that made Naruto smile despite himself.

“I don’t really consider the last three months we’ve been fucking each other a waste of my time, Sakura, if that is what you are implying.”