Once Upon a Sunset.

Summary: They don't have forever but they can try and make it. NaruSasu. Oneshot.

Author's Note: Clara wanted a fanfic about Naruto and Sasuke including cherries and a blanket. So here we go. Please review? Also, if you like roleplaying and yaoi, I encourage you to check out the link in my profile. Thank-you.

The sun is low on the horizon, slowly making its well-deserved descent for the day. The eternal sky is void of rain clouds, unmarred and touched with a soft pastel pink, each stroke and hue coming together to form one perfect picturesque sunset. The land-bound scenery isn't so bad itself; the trees are empty, the leaves lying around their bases. They look so desolate and dead standing there. Desolate, yes, but indescribably beautiful at the same time. The branches reach for the sky and yet they never quite make it, never quite reach the high heavens. There is no grass; instead, wild rose bushes and shrubbery cover the flat earth, each as painful as they are beautiful. Beware of the thorns, the breeze whispers through the trees.

To complete this autumn fairy tale is a boy. Two boys, actually. One with a head of pure sunlight and eyes that hold the ocean. The other's head is swathed in midnight black, his gaze alive with the ashes of his past. One light, one dark; complete. They sit there amongst the shrubbery on a hillside as they witness the beauty of nature. They sit side by side, companionably. Ashen-eyed child (or is he a man? he holds himself like one) comments disdainfully on the pink of the heavens, comparing them to the over esteemed pigment of spring's blossoms. Such an idle comment and yet the midnight crowned boy is speaking of much more than blossoms and hues. He's searching for reassurance.

The boy with the sunlit halo has a soft, secretive smile on his face that very few see. Midnight crowned boy is one of the only to see this soft, sensitive demeanor from the boy with the seas (not disease) in his eyes. Sunlit halo (whose name is actually Uzumaki Naruto) hears Uchiha Sasuke's (ashen-eyed, midnight-crowned) unasked question and for a moment, he contemplates leaving it unanswered. Keep him guessing. No, thinks Naruto, he won't ruin their day like that. They have few as it is.

"The sky is pretty, Sasuke. Pretty, but empty. At first, I loved it. Then I envied it. Now it envies me," ocean-eyed Naruto says lazily, flashing a brilliant smile at Uchiha Sasuke. His words are riddled with innuendo; is he speaking of the sky or is he speaking of a person? Whatever his meaning is, Sasuke seems assured. He gives a short, sharp nod of his head, tilting it slightly as his (ashen) eyes meet Naruto's own swirling whirlpools. The sky lies before them, forgotten. So pretty to look at – but then, they have little choice. It's always going to be there.

There's an old blanket spread beneath them, patchwork and frayed. Naruto had found it in his empty linen cupboard. Everything is empty in Naruto's house. Everything was empty in Naruto's life. Then along came Sasuke (equally alone, equally empty) and they found a way to fill each other's lives (albeit, bitterly). Enemy's turns to rivalry turns to friendship turns to brothers turns to ---

"I bought cherries," Sasuke says, breaking the comfortable silence. There's that smile again; soft, secretive and solely for Sasuke. The sky is pink. It must be reflecting on Uchiha Sasuke's cheeks because Uchiha Sasuke does not blush. Blushing is for simple-minded girls like Haruno Sakura (and there it is – sunsets and blossoms) and Uchiha Sasuke is every part the man. He makes sure Naruto knows this (when they're fighting, when they're talking, when they f--). He takes out the cherries from where they have been hidden and hands them to Naruto, looking away immediately. Sasuke doesn't like Naruto to know that he has a good heart. He doesn't like anyone to know this and most people actually swallow this façade. Not Naruto though – no, Naruto knows that Sasuke's heart is as pure as daylight. A lot of bad stuff has happened in Sasuke's life and sometimes it just takes a friend to clean away the cobwebs.

Naruto opens the brown paper bag and offers a cherry to Sasuke who pretends he can't see him. As if he could ever not notice Naruto whose smile sheds light onto his soul and his laugh fills up the spaces in between. Naruto whose unconditional love ("I don't need you, dobe.") was more than he could ever ask for ("Tell me you don't want this."). Moments pass and Sasuke turns back to face Naruto and accepts a cherry. A delighted smile grows on Naruto's face. Sasuke wonders if it hurts to smile that much.

Naruto tries to tell Sasuke so many things with his eyes. There are words that Sasuke can't quite commit himself to and so Naruto has learnt that sometimes silence really is golden. Sasuke devours the cherry, spitting out the pip quickly – efficiently. He has little time or patience for idyllic consuming. Naruto's still trying to catch Sasuke's eye, trying to tell him so many things with a gaze. Sasuke looks onward and finally Naruto, growing impatient, half jumps and half flies at Sasuke and tackles him to the ground, Sasuke's face coming to rest (with an onomatopoeic squishing sound) upon the bag of cherries. Oh dear.

Sasuke raises his head and Naruto doesn't even bother to stifle his laughter. It rings in the air, a happy heart-warming chortle. If the pink sky is reflecting off Sasuke's face now (because only the sunset – Sakura – blushes), it's impossible to tell through the cherry stains. Naruto is telling Sasuke many things with his eyes now, some which Sasuke finds annoying but most of them desirable. Compromising. And he cannot stay angry at Naruto – not for the life of him. Instead, Sasuke finds a smile growing on his own face and it warms Naruto's heart better than any empty sunset ever could. That's beauty.

Once Naruto's laughter has died down, he bows his head as if to whisper a secret in Sasuke's ear. But, no, it's not his ears that he's going for. It's his cherry-stained cheeks and it's definitely no secret. Sasuke squirms and makes murmurs of protest when he feels Naruto's tongue licking at his cheeks. He's a boy (a man?) not a cat. He tells Naruto this and Naruto raises his head long enough to tell Sasuke that he is also a bit of a fox with a devious glint of his eyes. Sasuke sighs and that's all the permission Naruto needs.

Much later when the sun seems like only a distant dream and the pink sky has darkened from pastel pink to plum to midnight black and the stars have come out to shine for two land-bound young men (not boys, no, look how they hold themselves), Naruto and Sasuke watch (each other). A stained red bag is the only giveaway that there was a bag of cherries with them and the patched and frayed blanket lays beneath them, torn but warming. Naruto really is whispering things in Sasuke's ears now, sweet nothings about star-crossed lovers and beginnings with no ends and clouds reflected in puddles ("…like walking in the sky…") and Sasuke can't even manage a disgruntled grunt. He's too content here, just lying with Naruto under Heaven's watchful eye. Not that he really believes in Heaven; if it does exist, he's got it right now, whispering in his left ear.

The man with the sunlit halo watches a lifetime pass before his eyes as the midnight crowned man stares back. The tide comes in in Naruto's eyes as he feels himself grow drowsy, arms wrapped about ashen-eyed Sasuke who looks equally sleepy. Soft, secretive smiles are exchanged.

The sun will rise soon, as it always does. It will drift up from the horizon, shedding its light and it's brilliance upon the empty sky. The sky will still be empty but it will be pretty. Beautiful. And then they will have to leave and go their own ways so as to not raise any suspicions. Green-eyed Sakura would go green with envy if she only knew. But she won't. The sun will rise soon and with it bring another day with more lies to be told so as to protect these moments in between.

They don't have forever but they can try and make it.

Once Upon a Time…

-End-