The following morning Sasuke pretended they hadn't even spoken in the night, which came as no surprise to Naruto. He still didn't know quite what he had been trying to say but he had, at least, stopped crusading that the kittens needed to go. He had simply become passive aggressive about it instead.

"Stupid fucking cats," Naruto heard him mutter from the bedroom as he walked past, peeking his head round the door to find out what was going on.

Sasuke was frowning in disdain at some items of clothing he had laid out on the bed before heading off to shower. He whipped his head round to face Naruto, his wet hair flicking droplets of water around as he did so.

"Move it."

Naruto stepped into the room and removed the kitten sleeping on Sasuke's clothes with a sigh, putting it down on the floor. Sasuke regarded the clothes carefully, muttering something about hair as he stomped over to the wardrobe to find new ones.

Naruto picked them up and headed wordlessly out of the room, opening the kitchen drawer for a roll of sellotape. His boyfriend was such a drama whore sometimes.

By the time Sasuke had clomped back into the room dressed in new clothes and threatening to kick up a storm about the incident, Naruto was holding out his hair-free garments.

"Sellotape," he said simply. "It picks the hairs off without marking the clothes."

Sasuke snatched them back. "They're banned from the bedroom," he declared sharply before heading off again, almost falling over one that had decided to walk just behind him. He growled at it, steadying himself on the wall and trying to ignore Naruto's chuckling.

Once he was gone, Naruto sighed gently and swirled his coffee around in the mug he was holding. He had brought the kittens in to prove a point more than anything- that the house was as much his as it was Sasuke's. Sasuke had allowed him to officially move in but he had only moved the essentials and occasionally still slept at his own place. His rent was due shortly and he was unsure whether to pay it since he technically had another home.

He didn't feel welcome in it though. It was clearly Sasuke's home still, with small elements of Naruto that Sasuke attempted to hide. The only thing he didn't remove to a small corner of the bedroom was the bright orange toothbrush in the bathroom but Naruto wouldn't have found it surprising if even that ended up thrown hastily in a cupboard sometimes when it reminded Sasuke just a little too much of what they now were to each other.

Well, Naruto had thought, try and hide three inquisitive kittens you asshole.

They weren't pet store kittens at all. They were the litter of a friend who had wanted to find new homes for them- Naruto had set up a deal with him that he'd take all three just for a few days which his friend had agreed to, albeit with a little confusion.

He got up and scooped up the gray one that had nearly tripped Sasuke over, heading into the bedroom. Sasuke was seated on the windowsill, studying the front garden intently and ignoring Naruto's entry.

"Oi," Naruto called, stepping across to him. "Catch."

He held the kitten above Sasuke's lap and let it go, not high enough to be of any distress but enough that Sasuke would instinctively put his arms out. At least, that was what Naruto suspected. Sasuke simply looked up at him, one eyebrow raised as the kitten landed in his lap.

"Take it away," Sasuke asked evenly.

Naruto seated himself on the large bay windowsill as well, shaking his head stubbornly. "Not until we've talked. What were you trying to say last night?"

Sasuke's eyes widened just slightly before he covered it well and glared instead. There was one unspoken rule about their partnership- Sasuke was the only one who was allowed to initiate talks about feelings and all that other stuff he detested to think about.

"Nothing," he replied, glancing down at the kitten. It was purring, rubbing its head on his leg contently. He gritted his teeth and resisted the urge to push it on the floor for its insolence.

"The goldfish," Naruto tried again. "Your goldfish- the one you killed. Your parents were right, that was irresponsible."

"Naruto..." Sasuke growled at him, unsure of what the hell he was getting at and wanting him to make the point very quickly.

"But," Naruto continued. "Kids do that kind of thing. Sometimes they make mistakes and sometimes they can be pretty huge suckers, like killing a pet or really hurting someone in a fight when you didn't mean to. When I was a kid my Dad was always taking me to hospital because I did some really dumb shit to myself- I mean, I sprayed deodorant in my eye once, how stupid is that?"

Sasuke didn't respond, not even giving him a weak smile or a chuckle. He was, however, clearly listening to whatever Naruto was trying to say.

"But you know, if you don't make mistakes you can never learn," Naruto told him quietly. "And no-one is perfect, not you or me or our parents or anyone."

Sasuke regarded him carefully for a moment before finally speaking. "They punished me for it," he replied, his voice low. "They warned me it would be my responsibility and I failed to maintain that."

"Punished?" Naruto echoed, concerned for a moment. Sasuke's parents were nice enough, if a little strict with Sasuke at times, but he couldn't imagine them doing anything that might have scarred Sasuke so horribly he couldn't bear to even be in the same house as an animal.

"They wouldn't let me get rid of it when it died," Sasuke replied after a moment, his voice oddly tense. "They wanted to remind me what I'd done."

"Fucking hell," Naruto breathed, everything finally slotting into place. "So they made you keep a dead fish in your room to teach you to be more responsible?"

"Something like that," Sasuke shrugged awkwardly. "Of course, after forgetting about it I couldn't stop thinking about it. I kept looking at it and hoping it would come back to life so I could forget my mistake, but of course it didn't happen."

Naruto listened, morbidly captivated by what he was being told. He could see the logic behind his parent's decision but holy shit it was pretty brutal. It might teach responsibility but it wouldn't necessarily do great things to Sasuke's psyche either, which it clearly hadn't.

"What happened to it?" He found himself asking.

"It started-" Sasuke cut himself off, turning back to the window. He finally gently shoved the kitten off of his lap, bringing his knees up to his chest instead. "It began to decompose," he tried again, and Naruto saw the sharp flash of pain in his eyes.

"Didn't you ask them to get rid of it?!" Naruto cried out, appalled. "What the hell, Sasuke!"

"I never once asked," Sasuke replied, shaking his head. "The day it happened and they told me that was what they wanted me to do, I made it clear I didn't want that to happen. So they explained that getting rid of it would be the same as erasing the mistake, and they wanted to be sure I would never make the same mistake again."

"Did you feel guilty for forgetting about it?"

"Of course I did."

"Well, surely that was your lesson learned then?"

Sasuke exhaled, running a hand through his hair. He looked disturbed, Naruto realised, though he certainly couldn't blame him.

The kitten Sasuke had evicted had padded over to make itself comfortable in Naruto's lap instead, which Naruto gladly let it do. He put one hand on its back and kept his eyes on Sasuke, waiting for him to continue in his own time.

"I was an irresponsible kid in general," he eventually spoke, his tone bitter. "I think they were fed up with it."

"Almost all kids are irresponsible," Naruto pointed out. "Don't try and justify it, Sasuke, I know you love them and all but that was pretty fucked up of them."

Sasuke glared across at him and he instantly quieted- they both knew Naruto was right, but that didn't mean Sasuke wanted to be told that.

"So what happened to it in the end?" Naruto asked. "I imagine it's not still there, right?"

"No," Sasuke shook his head. "Eventually I flushed the damn thing down the toilet. It was giving me nightmares."

Naruto grinned at that. "You should have done that in the first place."

"I was too obedient," Sasuke explained simply. "They were satisfied I learnt my lesson though."

They lapsed into silence, which was eventually broken by Sasuke sliding off of the windowsill and quietly leaving the room. Naruto didn't pursue him, still mulling over what he had found out. He stroked the kitten in his lap gently and felt marginally guilty- a simple trick to try to get Sasuke to face the glaring problem of their residency had forced his boyfriend to face another demon instead.

"How many skeletons are in your damn closet?" He muttered to himself, tickling the kitten behind the ears. It purred and pushed against his hands, content with the interaction.