A simple phrase tattooed around Naruto's slender wrist, hidden by an array of brightly coloured braclets.
Inky black against honey brown skin.
Hidden to everyone but him.
It's ingrained in his mind from now until kingdom come.
Every elegant curl of each perfect letter burnt into his minds eye.
Hidden to everyone but him.
It's a reminder of a ghost that used to haunt his life, a ghost which now resides in his dreams. A voice to every thought, echoing around the corners and along the empty corridors.
The tattoo had been the first thing Naruto Uzumaki had ever brought for himself, had been curled around his wrist the second he turned sixteen and escaped from the orphanage.
Just a simple phrase he lived by when he had nothing but his hope.
Hidden to everyone but him.
It wasn't to commemorate the ghost, even though it was solely his, he hadnt even known him when he'd gotten the tattoo. It would be three long, hard years until they would meet; Naruto was nineteen, living alone in a grungy apartment struggling to pay rent. Alive, free and studying childcare at a community collage whilst working part time at the local nursery. Not the life he was gunning for but a life all the same.
One wet, mild Thursday in April his life was hit by a hurricane in the form of a tall lithe boy with messy black hair and even darker eyes bardging into his apartment and demanding the spare room, throwing around the surname 'Uchiha' and damp fifty dollar bills, and, well, who was Naruto to say no?
Even if sometimes, alone and cold in the night he wishes he'd simply closed the door, the fact that he hadn't would never change. His door would always be open for Sasuke Uchiha.
They despised eachother at first, yet even that is an understatment.
Every word they uttered became a battle of sharp tongues.
Sasuke eloquent and hypercritical; tearing Naruto down in a clinical manner whilst Naruto was brash and sarcastic, spitting hard truths straight from the heart.
Slicing at each other until the bones were bared and splintered.
Sasuke was like pure darkness, an abyss swirling in onyx eyes.
A natural born preditor who could find anyones weakness's before shoving it down their throats.
Things hidden to everyone but him.
He was so cold he burnt whoever touched him, hardened by a life so different to the one Naruto suffered, a confusing kind of cruel Naruto couldn't grasp. Whilst Naruto was bullied and beaten outright Sasukes torture had been all inside his head, twisted words from people who were supposed to love and care for him. Before his world caved in and destroyed itself.
After all its harder to have it taken away then never having it at all.
Yet as they laid there, after they had torn eachother limb from limb, when they were both completely and utterly shattered and collapsed on their living room floor it seemed natural for Sasuke to reach over and stroke the tattoo around Naruto's wrist before winding their fingers together. It seemed natural when his barriers shuddered and fell, busting open the flood gates until suddenly, suddenly Sasuke was warm, compassionate, a lost, lonely terrified little boy who was desperate for love and comfort. A three dimensional person with humor and heart.
But only for Naruto, the key to his lock.
Hidden to everyone but him.
Sasuke was obssessed with Naruto's tattoo, consumed by the simple phrase and its meaning.
Constantly tracing the letters with elegant fingers, "This is us," he'd murmble, lips pressed against the fragile skin of Naruto's wrist, "Always."
Every word like a prayer making Naruto's heart want to explode out of his chest and repaint the walls.
And maybe Naruto was a little too attention deprived, a little too desperate for love to realize that maybe, just maybe their relationship wasn't quite healthy.
That maybe it was just a little too heavy for two people so young, too intense and, well, obsesive.
That all the darkness contained in one person was damaging that, being around it would eventually dimisinsh his own light.
But Naruto was foolish and hopeful and Sasuke was beautiful and coverted and HIS.
His warm. kind, loving, protective Sasuke.
Hidden to everyone but him.