ImmediatelyWriting's One Shots

#64. Naruto - Sasuke/Naruto) Naruto's Love Language Is Food (and he hates it)

Summary:
Naruto was never really a picky eater. He never really cared that he only ever ate the very cheapest of foods. He also never really cared that he spent most of his meals alone. He'd gotten used to the taste of loneliness.
But when his bonds with Team 7 start to grow stronger - especially his bonds with Sasuke - he begins to realize how tasty shared meals are. The loneliness, in contrast, starts to leave a bitter aftertaste. Naruto never wants to taste that loneliness ever again.

Fandom: Naruto
Ship: Sasuke/Naruto
Genre: Fluff, Angst, Emotional hurt/comfort

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Naruto never considered himself to be a picky eater. Having grown up with little money to spend on food or clothes, he grew up with the cheapest of cheap supplies.

He didn't care whether his breakfast was a full meal with rice and chives and beef or just a simple cup of instant ramen. He was fine with anything, as long as he had something to eat when he woke up hungry in the morning.

He also never thought of himself as being picky about where he eats. Whether it was in his own apartment, still half asleep, or at the ramen place or even on his way to a mission. And even though he started preferring to eat in company since he became a part of team 7, for the longest time he wasn't even picky about the people he ate with; always being home alone had made him immune to worrying about silly things like that.

He wasn't picky about anything, really.

Or so he thought.

Something changed in him recently. Something that made him feel alone all of a sudden, when he woke up in the morning and had to swallow down the instant ramen that suddenly tasted like wet carton, but too dry to swallow at the same time.

Something had caused him to change and, God, did he hate it!

He hated even more that he knew exactly how it started. It all began with a stupid decision, he's not sure he should've made. He hadn't expected for it to change him so much, though. One moment changed his life and he cannot turn that back now.

-☯-

It'd been a normal day, with a normal mission, until tragedy struck.

Okay, maybe Kakashi running out of steam nearing the end of an attack and both Sasuke and Naruto getting hurt so badly that they needed medical attention as soon as possible, wasn't really a tragedy; that happened all the time. But this time was the last straw overflow, it was the start of Naruto's change of heart.

If their mission had gone right, they wouldn't have ended up in the hospital. If Kakashi-sensei hadn't gotten wounded, Naruto wouldn't have complained about having to go home alone that night, even though he was expecting to be around him team for another day or so. If Naruto wouldn't have grumbled that to himself out loud, Sasuke wouldn't have suggested that Naruto came to his apartment, claiming that it was closer to the hospital and all.

Naruto hadn't expected anyone to hear him, since he was walking out of the hospital and into the dark night all on his own when he said it. But when he turned around, he found Sasuke standing there. Sasuke had his hands deep in the pockets of his pants and his eyes were directed at the floor when he mumbled a question. "Why don't you sleep over at mine?"

"What?" Naruto asked, confused as to why his rival was suddenly acting so friendly; normally Sasuke would never suggest something like that, even though the both of them lived alone and Naruto couldn't imagine that Sasuke wasn't even a bit lonely on nights like these.

"I'm just saying that if you need a place to stay while we wait for Kakashi-sensei to wake up, you're allowed to crash at my place for the night." He shrugged and walked past Naruto. "Unless you don't want that, that's fine with me too."