Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter 1

“Suke! Can we have ice cream?”

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before counting to ten. A little trick he had learnt the other day which worked perfectly when he needed a glass of wine but couldn’t get it.

“Not now. I’ll get you some later.” He answered to the little child that was holding onto his hand for dear life as if the moment he let go, he’d lose him forever.

Tobi pouted rather loudly even if the gesture was absolutely silent, he looked up to him from his knee and pointed to the ice cream section with emphasis that Sasuke ignored easily.

“Can we get them now?” Tobi asked using his squeaky voice which only worked on their neighbor but never on Sasuke. He seemed to be immune to such mundane actions of fake kindness even if Mrs.Cozin thought he was being weird.

“Later.” He replied before pushing the chart away and pulling the kid with him because if left alone, Tobi could and would stay an inch away from that specific section until literally anyone took pity on him and decided to buy him anything he wished for.

Tobi whined rather audibly which gained the unwanted attention of many individuals who raised either an eyebrow or glared at him as if he was the one who was crying and not the six years old at his feet dragging his entire body and crying, whining, and to top it all off, still pointing to the ice cream section.

“Tobi! Stop!” He whispered a little loudly only for the child to hear before finally deciding to ignore the protests from his back and turning around to hold the kid in his arms who immediately wrapped his tiny arms around his neck but didn’t stop sobbing which, once again, caused many glares and weird looking glances as if he was abusing the child rather than trying to give him a decent sleep schedule.

Pushing the chart to the isle, he waited behind the queue like a normal human being and fuss over how long it was or how it would take several minutes to reach the cashier and pay for the stuff they’ve gotten which weren’t much, a pack of cheese, a loaf of bread, some rice, and frozen chicken breasts because Tobi only ate that.

After approximately of seventeen minutes, he was finally at the desk where he immediately started to place the items with his unoccupied hand due to the weight of the sleeping child the other was holding before paying for everything and leaving the building for his old school car that gained a lot of peoples attention because Sasuke seriously did not have the time to pay for a bigger insurance and that 18th century car had to do wether it liked it or not.

Putting the items in the back seat, he placed Tobi, who still remained blessedly sleep, onto the front seat and took the wheel to get out of the parking lot. It was this small market that sold so many useful requirements that the bigger companies had but were too exorbitant to get so Sasuke, like the smart idiot that he was, took the chance of saving some well needed money and ran errands in that cheaper market.

He had finally managed to get some better payment from the new job he had taken and got some well needed utensils and groceries and he also had enough to pay rent and the annoying bills that were adding up. No savings, but it was okay. The requirements were checked at the very least.

Turning the wheel to the right, he finally got to the road and drove ahead to get to the inner parts of the city. He didn’t really have anywhere else to go and Tobi was still sleep to go anywhere that exciting anyways, not that he could pay for anything but it would’ve been nice to go somewhere fun for a change rather than home and work and grocery markets or fucking drugstore because Tobi got sick all the time and Sasuke himself wasn’t the healthiest person on the planet.

He had recently started working in that thrift shop and it payed well enough even if it was a dead end job but Sasuke couldn’t possibly care any less about his future, he had dedicated his whole life to Tobi and paying after both of them plus trying( desperately) to disburse enough money to the addiction center where his older brother was(wasn’t) healing from. The doctors had lost hope, actually and according to the recent psychologist, Itachi was hateful and a little arrogant also, he did not want to get better.

Sasuke had tried a little harder not to cry that day.

His older brother also despised him. Literally did not wish to see him and he also mentioned it quite often when Sasuke had enough confidence and actually visited. Itachi was, apparently, way too deep into that shit to care about anything else although, Sasuke cared for him, he couldn’t just forget his older brother who had always been there for him. He couldn’t just leave him alone specially since he needed help more than ever.

Even if his brother wanted nothing to do with him. The experts said that it was the drug talking as if it was one of his brother’s many demons that wore his face and spoke in his tongue but Itachi spoke about how Sasuke had always been a burden or if only he hadn’t been born then mom would still be alive, dad wouldn’t have committed Suicide, hell even Itachi wouldn’t have been in an addiction fucking center so Sasuke knew that Itachi had to had thought about that at some point. And perhaps he really did feel that way and it wasn’t the drug speaking, maybe it was actually his brother.

Maybe Sasuke was way too paranoid to begin with. Or maybe he was just too logical.

Maybe he was both, he did think the monster under his bed were still quite real after all. He still had nightmares about the evil clown and he couldn’t stare at the darkness of his closet for too long, it wasn’t like he had someone he could talk to, not that he even would. The only person was Tobi and he was six, Itachi would laugh at his face and Sasuke wasn’t the most chatty person out there.

Was he too childish?

He was nineteen years old so perhaps he wasn’t that much of a kid anymore. His neighbors thought that he was, he disagreed strongly. He’d just close his eyes and pretend that Itachi still gave a fuck.

Stopping the car in front of the building, he unbuckled his and Tobi’s belt before getting out of the car to grab the bags and wake the kid. A few shakes on his shoulder did the trick as the toddler cracked dark eyes open only yawn adorably, at least to some, Sasuke was just concerned about the length he could open his mouth.

Was that normal? He hadn’t often seen children when he had been a kid himself, he had been homeschooled because his dad couldn’t be bothered and Itachi was sharing the same fate as him.

“Are we there yet?” Asked the tiny little being that Sasuke had no idea he existed until a year ago when one of his older cousins had died( somehow) and the child had no one who could take care of him. Naturally the government had tried to contact the kins and after receiving nothing from literally anyone else they had tried his older brother and due to the obvious circumstances, Itachi was preoccupied and it only left Sasuke.

He had outright refused at first because there was no way he could take care of someone else much less another human being who needed extra care-

Curse him for being a softie because after hearing his squeaky voice he had caved.

“Yeah..c’mon, we’ve gotta go.”

Closing the door after Tobi had reluctantly walked out, he locked the car and guided the sleepy child into the building, right into the elevator and pressed the door close to take them up to their floor. As soon as they had entered, Tobi leaned against his leg and took his pant in his fist. Sasuke placed his empty hand on the smaller raven’s head to reassure the child who was still kind of dazed and probably would fall asleep the moment they were back home.

Sasuke used to live in Brooklyn for a couple of years when he was still in foster care and his brother didn’t have shit to do with him, then he received Tobi when he was eighteen and college hadn’t been good bad and he couldn’t stay in that tiny apartment complex so he moved to Queens, got an apartment that was slightly bigger than the last one but he totally forgot about College and his education simply because there was no way he could take care of Tobi and study and work as well.

Before Tobi came to his life, he had decided to study to become something like a psychologist so that he could have a chance of helping his brother but that…didn’t work.

Not that he was ungrateful, Tobi was the best thing that ever happened to him. Sure, he had been a bit snarky and problematic at first, didn’t know what to do with the child, had no idea what to feed him, how to care for him when the kid kept asking for his dead father who also happened to be the cousin that Sasuke had no idea was even related to him.

Having Itachi with him in that time would’ve been a bless but after telling him that Shisui had a secret child, his older brother had rolled his dark eyes which contained darker circle underneath them before telling him that such thing did not matter to him and that Sasuke could do him a favor by getting lost.

After the door was opened, he pushed the kid lightly to get him going before going into the hallway and standing before the door. He had been fishing for his keys when the door to the other house which was closest to his own opened and a blond man came out looking dazed, with lipstick marks over his lips and a girl who came out after him with half of her shirt opened and and bite marks marinating her entire chest or what could be seen from it.

He immediately placed his hand over Tobi’s eyes and pushed the child behind him as he regarded the couple with narrowed eyes. They didn’t seem to notice him as they both flirted with each other, it made him disgusted and Sasuke had no idea how to handle the situation. Normally, he’d only roll his eyes and go inside but there was a child at his hip and he doubted a kid that young should be at the hearing range of such filthy sentences.

“Excuse me.” He said sharply making both of the other individuals flinch and turn to look at him with their colorful eyes. He hated both the color green and blue and both of these idiots possessed them.

How wonderful.

“Oh..sorry, didn’t see you there. Are you from around here?” The blond man asked. He had a visible stubble at his chin and he could only tell because the damn light reflected on his sun kissed skin and made him glow with that stupid stubble that he probably hadn’t bothered to shave.

Thank god that Sasuke had DNA problems and couldn’t grow body hair except for his eyelashes, brows and head. His brother and dad had also been like that, absolutely porcelain skin and no hair. Tobi did not receive the blessing gift from his father though.

The kid was quite hairy.

“I live here. Could you two get a room and not tangle into each other in the hallway?,” he pointed to the child who still had his eyes covered by his much larger hand.” Children pass everywhere.” He added.

The blond followed his line of vision and quickly pushed half of his body inside upon noticing the youngest member of the place before stretching his hand and pulling the glaring girl inside as well.

“I’m so sorry! I recently moved here, didn’t know someone else lived here.” The blond explained with big blue eyes that Sasuke was starting to get annoyed at before beaming from ear to ear.

It could’ve been just Sasuke’s mood that particular day but it only made him angrier.

He took his hand off Tobi’s face, finally found his key from his pocket and opened the door before pushing the child inside ignoring the bewildered expression on his tiny face before closing the door sharply.

“Isn’t this an apartment complex?! Why would you be the only one living here?” He asked using the same tone that his brother had when he was about to scream at him to leave, the one that his father had used when he was about to land a sharp slap to his already bruised cheek and the one that Sasuke had heard enough to learn.

The blond narrowed his eyes, glared before coming out of his house with the pink haired girl on his heel who regarded him with green eyes as if he was some unworthy bug that was bothering her.

“I didn’t think about it, what’re you mad at?” He asked warningly, a clear hint of anger in his voice that Sasuke couldn’t care any less for.

“I think he’s just jealous that after having a kid he hadn’t had any.” The girl added without missing a beat which finally managed to break whatever had kept him together for the better part of that morning.

“What made you think that I’d be jealous of a wannabe whore and a blond whose dick had just been dried?”

“Hey!” The both yelled at the same time before the blond shoved the girl to his back and walked up to his face, annoyingly, and for some unfortunate reasons, he was an inch taller than him which made Sasuke’s blood boil to no end.

“What the fuck did you just say, bastard?!” He yelled at his face, being just a step away from his entire vision before Sasuke crossed his arms that still held onto the grocery bags and raised his eyebrows.

“I’d brush my teeth after sex, you still smell like her unmentionables.”

He should’ve seen that fist coming.

It connected with his right cheek because Sasuke moved away soon enough for it to avoid his nose and thankfully, it would only bruise rather than break bone. Didn’t mean, it hurt any less though.

The blond was on him as soon as he had stepped away, he grabbed the collar of his hoody and shook him a couple of times which made Sasuke let his bags fall to the ground and push against the blond’s chest hard enough to surprise and thrusting his leg between the taller one’s and before the bitch could balance, he was on the ground.

They locked eyes for a few seconds, both glaring all the shape objects at each other before the blond got up swiftly, making Sasuke tense up and prepare for another round just as the door opened and Tobi stuck his head out with tearful eyes to look up to them.

“ Is everything okay?” He asked with big eyes as he sniffled a couple of times.

Sasuke pressed his lips together before looking away from his wet eyes and pushing his head in, closing the door and glaring back at the blond and the girl who had come up next to him.

“Forget it, Naruto. You’ll beat him up later. I’m actually feeling sorry for his kid.” She said as she moved back to the house next to his own.

The blond( Naruto, what a weird name) glared some more before looking from up and down as if trying to tell if he had enough worth, before rolling his eyes and following after her.

“This isn’t over, you piece of shit. I’ll get your ass later.” He said warningly before closing the door sharply leaving him alone in the hallway with his aching cheek, his back to his door and the groceries all over the floor.

Maybe he should’ve just kept his mouth shut. Was it so hard?

He crouched down and begin putting the items back into the bags when his doo opened again and Tobi’s tiny footsteps brought the child to his line of vision.

“You okay?” He asked with a tearful gaze, some tears falling down his round cheeks and some of them stubbornly clinging to tear ducts.

Sasuke sighed before bringing his hands forward and brushing the wet marks away with his thumbs. He held the kid’s face in his hands for a couple of seconds, wondering how a face so tiny could fit right into grasp before showing him a smile that probably looked crooked, he couldn’t tell when was the last time he had smiled, or if the hurt of his face was because of the unfamiliar gesture or because his cheek was beginning to bruise.

“I’m okay.”

“Why was he mean to you?”

“I don’t know?”

“Is it because you’re Sasuke?”

“Yeah…cause I’m Sasuke.”