I rang Sasuke's doorbell. It was time to put what I've gathered and learnt from the sleepover into good use!
The door opened, and I hugged him. "I'm here!"
Step one. Embrace him warmly.
I looked up, and it was actually.. Itachi.
Oh god, I haven't spoke to him since that incident.. I quickly retracted my arms and awkwardly put them in my pockets.
"Sup' Itachi.. How have you been?" I avoided eye contact. He looked delighted to see me and he took his turn to hug me. "Good. Good to see you, Naruto." He squeezed me tightly. His chin rested on my shoulder and hands around my back for a few long seconds before he released me.

Sasuke was on the stairs, seeing all of this but he didn't say a word. Then again, he was kind of doing this challenge for his brother. For me to stay single for awhile. And I did it, so I could beat him! It was like a race, I finally overtook the Uchiha and I was so close to the finishing line, I could feel it.

"Hey Sasuke!" I ran up the stairs, and I embraced him tightly.
Repeat: step one.

Itachi was at the bottom of the stairs, Sasuke frowned and pull himself away from me. He dragged me into his room. "Didn't I say keep this between us? Why'd you do it in front of Itachi?"
"Why not? Friends can hug too."
Step two: play with your hair.
I started twirling my own hair.
"Why do you smell like that, you're acting weird." Sasuke sat on his bed, raising his eyebrow.
Step three: Put on Sakura's favourite perfume!

I jumped onto him cheerfully, "Did you miss me?"
Step four: Be very emotional ; Show and say everything you feel!

"Yeah, of course I missed you." Sasuke overturned me and landed on top of me instead.
"Aw, you're so sweet Sasuke!" I tried to make my voice a little more high pitched.
"Now don't be so naughty and get off me!" I playfully hit his thigh.
He pinned me down and whispered into my ear, "And what if I don't want to?"

"Are you sure you don't want to?" Smiling, I swooped one of my leg from under him and kicked him right off me. It was so sudden, that he didn't expect it. He fell right off the bed.

Step five: Be violent when things don't go your way.

Sasuke scratched his head, confused. "Are you having some sort of mood swing?" He shook his head, took a deep breath and turned on the laptop. "I'm having trouble with this topic, let me ask Itachi for some help." Sasuke left shortly after he turned on his laptop, I didn't even have time to stop him. I just wanted it to be the both of us, but its obvious Sasuke wants to bring in Itachi.

There is no way an Uchiha would ever need help.

Itachi politely knocked on the ajar door before stepping in. "Sorry it took so long, Naruto. But I got it all fixed. Internally and externally." He handed over my laptop to me.
"T-Thanks.." I was surprised he managed to salvage it despite the damaged. So he was trying all this while to fix it?
"I wanted to get you a new one, but I figured you had a lot of personal memories with this one. So.."

"You saw the pictures?!" I jumped off the bed, irritated.

"I did, when I was retrieving the corrupted files of the presentation." Sasuke stepped into the bedroom and conversation.

"You!-" I wanted to get angry, but I realized I couldn't. That it would be unreasonable for me to do so. After all, he did help me to get back all the data. And Itachi helped to fix the laptop.
If it weren't for them, I might not still have the only pictures I have of my parents.

I miss them so much.

I sat back down onto the bed again, tears started welling up in my eyes as I squeezed my laptop towards me. Putting it against my chest. "They gave me this laptop for my 15th birthday. Shortly after they... they.." I muttered, unable to hold back my tears. They eventually escaped from my eyes and leaked down across my cheeks.
"I really miss them.." I whimpered. I buried my face into Sasuke's arms. Sasuke gently patted me on my back while turning to Itachi as he stood there, feeling useless and pained probably because I turned to Sasuke and not him for comfort.

Sasuke sighed, sitting down onto the bed beside me. "It's alright, Naruto. I'm here for you." Feeling defeated, Itachi silently left the room.
But at during time, I never thought that I was hurting someone else while I was hurting, myself. I was too focused on my own pain to realize that someone else was pained because of me.

And even though, I knew Sasuke wasn't genuine with his concerns, even though I knew it.. it just felt safe arms. And I don't know why I chose the younger brother over the older one even though, again, I knew the older one was genuinely concerned about me. After all Itachi did for me. And all Sasuke did was flirt.

Am I losing my mind?

I wiped away my tears and pushed him away with all my strength once I realized what I was doing. He fell off the bed again.

He sighed again as he tolerated me. "I'm fine! Let's just start on the project." I swung open my laptop and turned it on, placed it on my lap and started working on it.

Sasuke was much quieter than usual. He was on his study table, doing research and studying by himself as I did the same. It was surely a rollercoaster ride night.

We did our study and research with as minimal interaction as possible. Why? I don't know either. Something just didn't feel right.
It felt like we were just not in the mood to fool around with one another.

Maybe Sasuke decided to give me some space and a break from the game after my meltdown.

Maybe he's quite an alright guy after all.