written for a friend, hope he likes it and you too, dear readers

home is the right people

It was almost surreal that Sasuke stopped so often at Orochimaru's not so secret hideout. Then again Suigetsu was not one to judge, he decided to stay with the sannin after all, and so did Karin and Juugo, like they hadn't been victims of the man's scientific curiosity and lack of ethics themselves.

But at end, Suigetsu thought, all of them needed stability, some semblance of permanence. And time, and probably fighting two wars, mellowed down Orochimaru. It wasn't as if he wasn't the ruthless man he was before or that he stopped wanting to know everything there was to know about jutsus and it's not like he didn't want to take his research to the last consequences, more than anything it was just that he was tired.

All of them were tired. Suigetsu already felt like an old man sometimes, like he had already seen too much, done too much. If he felt like that he couldn't imagine the weight on Orochimaru's shoulder, or on Sasuke's for the matter.

Sasuke came by what Suigetsu felt safe to call often. He was always on the move, chasing leads on people that could threaten the peace they all fought so hard to achieve, but somehow he always found time to come here. As far as Suigetsu knew he stopped here more often than he did at Konoha where his daughter was still waiting to meet him for the first time. He wondered if Yamato, always keeping them in close surveillance, had reported this. At the very least it was safe to assume that Naruto knew.

Suigetsu didn't question it however, he knew Sasuke well enough to be sure he wouln't get any answers and it wasn't like he was especially curious for knowing. He could make a guess and he thought he was pretty spot on. And if he wasn't right he didn't want to know.

They, Karin, Juugo, himself, they were Sasuke's friends. They didn't travel the world together and almost got themselves killed together to be less than that after all. The three of them may not knew everything about Sasuke but they knew enough. More importantly they always backed him up, always went along with his crazy shit and knew when to tell him to stop, even if he never listened. Honestly, he couldn't have gotten himself better friends.

Sasuke harbored some sort of respect for Orochimaru too, so he came to see his friends and his sensei.

Nothing weird at all.

Suigetsu liked to think there was nothing weird about any of this even though there definitely was.

Most of the time Sasuke came, stayed a few days, they talked about nothing, he helped around in the lab or he sat in a corner and watched them work. The four of them went on errands together or they had very light sparring sessions, or they simply sat together and enjoyed their silent company. Most of the time they were just a group of very tired friends.

But then, there were other times in which, on top of all of this, Sasuke and Suigetsu spent the night together.

Suigetsu didn't question it at all the first time Sasuke went to him seeking something different than what usually laid between them. He just stood there in the middle of his room looking at Sasuke and said:

"So we are doing this now, huh?"

He was tired after all, tired of the war and the secrets and the sob stories of a past everyone's was so desperately trying to leave behind. He didn't have it in him to argue with Sasuke about this, about why he wanted it, why now, why with him. He knew Sasuke well enough to know he wouldn't get any answers and he didn't want to get them.

He knew enough. And he wasn't gonna say no to a good fuck.

So sometimes Sasuke stopped by and they did all the normal things they did and then, at night, Sasuke came to his room and they had a good time.

Suigetsu thought, the first time, that this was going to be a onetime thing, or that Sasuke wouldn't acknowledged it ever again or that he would leave immediately and pretend they hadn't just have sex. To his immense surprise, Sasuke stayed to sleep with him, he always stayed.

The whole thing had become not only a habit but a ritual of sorts. A ritual of intimacy and trust, of friendship and love.

Suigetsu wouldn't said he loved Sasuke as a lover and he didn't think Sasuke felt that way either, but there was definitely more than fucking to what they did.

It was obvious in their occasional pillow talk. Sasuke wasn't a cuddler and Suigetsu wasn't either, so they just laid side by side enjoying their afterglow and the calmness that washed over them once they were done. Sometimes Suigetsu talked, because he had never been one to know when to shut up so he just babbled away. Sasuke seemed to enjoy his speech, otherwise he would tell him to shut up.

Other times, the conversations turned inevitably serious.

"I feel bad about this," Suigetsu said once, suddenly, laying flat on the mattress and looking at the ceiling like he wanted it to fall over his head.

Sasuke, sitting with his back on his pillow and the one he stole from Suigetsu, asked him:

"Why?"

"You know how Karin still feels about you," he said "and I do."

Sasuke had mediated his answer for a very small time.

"Karin and I already talked about it. About everything."

"Even about this?" Suigetsu asked, a little panicked, turning his head to look at Sasuke.

"Of course no you imbecile," Sasuke said immediately, frowning at the thought "I mean about what she feels and…about what I feel."

It would've been impossible to have a conversation like this with Sasuke before, but the war and its resolution and his years in pilgrimage looking for himself and whatever he found, mellowed him down too. Around them, around his friends, around Suigetsu, the ever present walls around his self opened, if even just a little, if even just a moment.

"And…?" Suigetsu pressed.

"And nothing. We already sorted this out, even if we tell her about this it won't be a problem."

Before Suigetsu wouldn't have believed that but Karin had also changed and even if her emotions still ran hot she knew better now.

"If you say so," Suigetsu agreed "when did you two even talked about this?"

"It's been a long time, when Sakura was going to give birth to Sarada."

"What?! That long?! She didn't tell me!" He complained "I mean, I knew something had happened because she wasn't screaming murder about the whole thing but— I can't believe she didn't tell me."

"Why would she?" Sasuke asked in disbelief "does she tell you everything?"

"Of course, because I'm his best friend, I'm the best-est of friends all of you have and you don't have the courtesy to tell me these things."

Sasuke scoffed.

"What? You don't believe me?" Suigetsu sat up to be at Sasuke's height "I have the thoughtfulness of fucking you and letting you fuck me and you don't believe me?"

"Shut up," Sasuke barked but it was half-hearted and the corner of his lips was betraying him in a shy smile.

Before seeing Sasuke smile was akin to witnessing a miracle. He smiled more often now, now that his thirst for revenge didn't rob him of the luxury of feeling something else.

"Make me," Suigetsu said in defiance with a cocky smile.

Sasuke didn't answer. He just rolled to lay on top of Suigetsu, holding himself up with his only arm, and kissed him.

It was slow and deliberated, very different from the first kiss they shared that night. Slow, deliberated and terribly intimate. It served at its intent though, Suigetsu did shut up… at least until Sasuke started riding him.

[Days after that, when Sasuke was already gone again, Suigetsu had a very awkward conversation with Karin about how they should probably soundproof his room because it was impossible to sleep with their damn moans echoing in the hallway.

Juugo agreed. So did Orochimaru. Suigetsu got so warm with embarrassment he pretty much melted away.

And then, a few hours after that conversation, Suigetsu had another very awkward but very serious conversation with Karin.

He didn't want this to get between them and he would stop it if it make her uncomfortable. It was a conversation it would've been impossible to have before too. Before he would've probably shove it in her face, that Sasuke had preferred even him over her or something equally hurtful. But before, Sasuke surely wouldn't have initiated this anyway.

Things were different now.

Karin appreciated his thoughtfulness but assured him all was well, that was a ship that had sailed long ago, she said, and even if she was never going to stop loving Sasuke, she wanted different things for herself now.

So all was well.

"But…" Karin had said, biting her bottom lip and blushing "is he…good in bed?"

"Not as good as me," Suigetsu had answered with a wink.

Karin hit him but the corner of her lips was betraying her with a small smile and while they yelled at each other in the ritual of their friendship, Suigetsu thought she would've been good for Sasuke.

Some things, however, were just simply not meant to be.]

Even if Suigetsu didn't asked Sasuke directly about why exactly they were doing this now, he still wondered about it.

The desire to know wasn't an ever present thought but something that came to him when, inevitably, Sasuke would had to go again. The few days Sasuke spent with them were…something else.

It was reminiscent of their time as Hebi and then Taka, and at the same time totally different. They weren't on the move all the time for starters, and there wasn't any goal to accomplish or anyone to kill, but the constant company they shared was familiar enough to take Suigetsu back to worse, but certainly more entertaining days.

When Sasuke came nothing in their routine particularly change at all, Sasuke simply fell into place with the rest of them and it was like he had always been there. It was precisely because of this that, when he left, it felt like something was amiss.

In was in those moment that Suigetsu couldn't help but reflect about what he and Sasuke had going on.

Sasuke had never been a happy person. None of them really were, maybe that's what made it easier to notice when they were actually happy, and it was evident that all them were a lot happier that they used to be. And it was evident that Sasuke was a lot happier when he was with them.

He seemed particularly happy when he and Suigetsu were together, and maybe it was just because sex was a happy, pleasurable activity, or maybe there was something more going on there that Suigetsu didn't understand. He had no way of knowing and he was not going to ask.

He didn't have to anyway.

"Are you okay with this?" Sasuke asked him one night.

The inquiry took Suigetsu by surprise, they hadn't even done anything yet tonight and Sasuke's tired, almost defeated tone made it seem like it was already time for deep-pillow talk-that-we'll-never-talk-about-again.

"Yeah?" Suigetsu said tentatively "I mean, why I would be stranding your hips, naked if I wasn't?"

"That's not what I meant," Sasuke retorted, his hand firmly on Suigetsu's milky hips.

"Then what did you mean?"

Sasuke thought long and hard about his answer.

"I was wondering if you were still okay with our arrangement."

"My point stands, why would I be stranding your—?"

"I mean, don't you want something more?" Sasuke asked, watching intently into Suigetsu' eyes.

"Do you?" Suigetsu asked quietly then.

Sasuke shook his head no.

"Then why are you asking?"

"I…"

It was weird that Sasuke were at loss of words, not because he always knew what to say, quite the contrary, but because when he didn't know what to say he usually just shut up. It was clear now that he wanted to say something and didn't know how.

"I was wondering if you were gonna ask of me something I can't give you too." He whispered.

Sasuke's expression didn't change at all but he may as well be crying, Suigetsu didn't need him to do anything else to understand the weight of what he was saying.

"What do you mean?" He asked and pressed down on Sasuke's shoulders to show him he was taking this seriously.

"I don't want to go back to Konoha," Sasuke said "And I don't want to deal with anything that awaits me there."

"Then don't," Suigetsu said, as if it were that easy, as if it were possible "stay here with us."

Sasuke scoffed sadly and then put his hand on Suigetsu's nape and brought him down for a kiss.

It was slow and intimate, and it showed Suigetsu why Sasuke wanted this, why now, why with him. It was selfish, as everything Sasuke ever did but it was okay, it was something Suigetsu could give to him.

This was something Sasuke had chosen for himself, after all.

This ended very suddenly but when i was editing i couldn't think of anything to make the ending less...sudden lol and there were themes in the ending that i wanted to explore but when i got there i got nothing so it just ends like it does, I tried.

I'm pretty sure this sounds really ooc but idk man, at this point idek what canon is anymore and my eternal dissapointment about how things turned out always makes me write shit like this

i'm tired so they are too i guess

Thanks for reading, every comment will be appreciate!

Hope you liked it!