When Love Fades

Chapter 15 - Too little, Too late II

Sasuke looked at his watch and realized he had better start packing up if he wanted to be home before Naruto. He felt anticipation flicker through him at the thought that Naruto would finally be home. Naruto had been gone overnight for work once or twice, but this was by far the longest Sasuke had been apart from the blond since they started dating back in college.

Luckily, work had kept him distracted, but even with his busy schedule, he had missed Naruto over the past week. It didn't matter that Naruto was often asleep when Sasuke got home... there was something about coming back to find his lover in their bed that steadied him. He had gotten used to seeing his boyfriend's camera equipment charging on the small table in the living room, his shoes by the door, or printouts of Naruto's latest project on their coffee table. The past week had felt unsettling coming home every night to a dark, empty apartment. He had gone shopping the night before to get the ingredients for Naruto's favorite homemade ramen. It was a little bit of a pain to cook, but Sasuke wanted to do something in lieu of a belated celebration of Naruto's big project. He had tried to brush off Itachi's words over the past few days, but some of what his brother had said had stuck.

Sasuke had just zipped his bag closed when his office door opened and Suigetsu stepped in.

"Hey!" Suigetsu glanced at Sasuke's bag. "Were you heading out already? Good thing I caught you. The software guys have a question about the device, and we need you to come down to the team room."

"Have Hyuga handle it. He knows the device as well as I do," Sasuke said, slinging the bag over his shoulder.

Suigetsu's eyes rose in surprise. Sasuke never tried to pass off something like this to someone else. "Sasuke, what the fuck? The question they have is about your part of the design. They have a meeting later tonight with the head of the division, who told them specifically to talk to you about this. You're the team leader. You can't just... leave!"

Sasuke sighed. No. He couldn't just leave. God fucking dammit.

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Sasuke opened the door to their apartment, frustrated that he was almost an hour later getting home than he'd planned to be. He had left before the meeting was over and just told them to call him if they needed anything further, ignoring the shocked (and slightly displeased) looks on their faces. The lead of the software team had been annoyed, but Sasuke had already explained everything about the design twice. It wasn't Sasuke's job to hold the guy's fucking hand.

His eyes latched immediately onto Naruto, who was sitting at the kitchen table working on his laptop. The blue eyes looked tired and slightly wary when they met his.

"Hey," Naruto said, giving Sasuke a half smile.

Sasuke returned the smile, closing the door behind him as he took off his shoes. He didn't want to think about how much better it felt to come back to the apartment knowing Naruto was inside. "Hey. I thought I'd get back earlier, but I got pulled into a meeting just as I was packing up."

Naruto shrugged, looking back down at his laptop. "No worries. I hadn't really expected you to be back so early anyway."

Sasuke frowned slightly at that. Sure, Sasuke worked late a lot of nights, but Naruto had been gone for a week. Why wouldn't Naruto expect him to come back and see him? Sasuke looked at Naruto closely, but there was no sign of anger. Not that it was usually hard to tell if Naruto was pissed off. He wasn't one to hold back his emotions at all. But something definitely seemed off in the way Naruto was barely looking at him. They hadn't seen each other in a week, and Sasuke had expected... something.

"The project is going really well," Sasuke said, setting his bag on the kitchen table. "Neji and I gave a presentation to the board yesterday, and they were impressed. We might even finish ahead of schedule. Then things will calm down."