happy halloween!!!!

. . . so i'm late sue me. this was written two weeks before halloween, and typed the night before, but i was too tired to post it, and i didn't have the time halloween. yeah, so i'm rambling. any way, this is a short story that i wrote half asleep, but i love the idea for it, so i decided to put it up as the halloween fic.

pairings: sasuXnaru, naruXhina, nejiXhina, sasuXsaku, nejiX? and. . . i think thats it.

disclaimer: do not own, and maybe (maybe not) thank god for that.

Masquerade

Twirling and gliding. Dancing as gracefully as swans across a lake. Separating from their partners, lover after lover, before meeting once again, hands instantly finding their place on familiar bodies, a sea of faceless bodies dancing to a beat of an eternal orchestra.

To more joined the ranks of the mindless dancers. One white plain mask, yet it held an unfamiliar beauty, like a tortured god. The other was black; embroider with jewels, and feathers. Elegance, power, riches, and beauty, all written I every line, but at the same time, it held a grotesque shame, and ugliness so intolerable that people flocked to it.

Their hands met, pale on tan, theirs bodies molded perfectly together. Without ending, the orchestra started a new song, slow and flimsy, like the remembrance of a dream, or the memory of a childhood meeting.

Neither spoke, knowing a single syllable, a single sound, could break the web of autumn magic that had been spun around them. Onyx molded into blue. Azure drowned in black.

They separated, joining hands with others, before meeting in the middle caressing the other like a lover lost and then found. And with a twirl, apart again, eyes begging for the others touch, the momentary forever ness of the others warm breath on their cheek or neck.

They met again, handing finding their places without thought, faster than the eye. They were ignorant to the world, but each other, and their caresses that they both gave and received. Gliding with perfect movements to the sea around them, they were lost in the possibilities. Lost in their hopes, dreams, lost in a future that did not exist, for more reasons than they were male.

Their hands, eyes, body, spoke for them, saying all the things they wished they could say to each other. Asking questions of the others life, telling them their fear of being not forgotten, but unloved. Speaking confessions of love that they knew by heart, speaking of forever . . . even if forever was only an imaginary comfort to them.

And then it ended. They drew back as through burned by the very flames of hell that hide in the others touch. The music ended without ending, as others took their places, or partners changed. They stared at each other, lost on purpose once more before reality descended.

"Naruto . . ."

It was a voice of a seductress, of a sinner telling of the ultimate freedom, a high that was unreachable. All the other could give was a shattering, shuttering sigh. The sigh of someone broken, like eve after tasting the forbidden, her perfect illusion shattered.

The white mask was removed as pale skin searched a tan face, ghosting over soft cheeks, feeling the smooth whisker like scars. Another sigh, this time filled with longing.

" . . . Naruto."

He shivered at his name, spoken like a lovers. The long fingers fell away, and he flinched, stopping himself from stepping forward. He didn't hesitate in reclaiming his mask, and turning away.

He didn't belong here. They couldn't do this; it was both forbidden and dead. Their was more at stake then simple lives of immortals, or riches and status. He walked away, his grace still present in his lean figure, but the life was gone. He moved once more like the corpse he was.

The on lookers in the shadows, and again, he returned to his cell mates, wrapping his arms around the light blue waist of the dead girl in a light grey mask. Her matching eyes were fixed on a dancing man, long black hair moving with him as he spun his partner in perfect circles. A single tear escaped her mask, but disappeared into her soft lips, leaving a faint line of red behind, the only sign of her distress.

He held her close, his own eyes o the black mask. He watched those onyx eyes that moments before held a spark of life in his arms return to their cold indifference. Arms were wrapped around his waist, a smile of pure happiness on the pink masked wenches face, but even that seemed tainted and broken. His azure eyes looked back, starring into a darkness that had a light only he could find, and his heart chattered a little more.

He hated the Halloween ball, taunting him with the nearness of his beloved, and at the same time he loved it. Out of all the days of the year, every century, this was the only day he could be so close to him. At the moment though, he longed for the end. Longed for the rise of the sun that would put the eternal dances to sleep once more.

Their one dance was over, and this, this was true hell, where every masked face was the devils own, laughing his non-existent heart out at their pain.

End