A/N: Written for the October round of Naruto flashfics. Pornthing from a gen writer. Consider yourself warned.
xxxxx
out through the curtain
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They all have nightmares.
Suigetsu's are the worst. When awake, his grinning death mask is proof against fear, but when he sleeps he is laid utterly bare. They have only been together for a handful of weeks, but Sasuke has already lost count of the number of times he's woken in the middle of Karen's watch to the muffled sound of Suigetsu screaming into his pillow.
He has not lost count of the number of times he's woken up to chill flesh burrowed into his side and a suddenly wet mattress: three. Suigetsu nearly died the first time, but apparently whatever horrors his nightmares held were worse than any Sasuke could visit on him, because he came back the very next night.
When morning comes, Suigetsu is always back in his corner of the campsite as though he'd never left. If it weren't for the wounds they leave on each other Sasuke might think his nocturnal visits only dreams.
As it is, he knows better.
What it is Suigetsu comes searching for in the darkness is a mystery. He is a warrior, it would be strange to think him weak enough to be searching for something as banal as comfort. He has tentatively decided that Suigetsu does it to feel power over someone who has power over him.
If that is all he wants, Sasuke is happy to give it to him. It matters little in the daylight, and the pleasure is a sweet interlude to the stench of death they soak in all day long.
If it pleases Suigetsu to feel Sasuke arching under him, to hear through his ribcage the helpless sounds he swallows, to taste his sweat and see him come undone, then it hardly seems an obligation to let him do as he wishes.
If the others know, they have said nothing. Whether out of respect for their comradeship-- unlikely-- or fear of their leader, or something entirely different, Sasuke doesn't know. It doesn't really matter. If they ever feel the need to bring it up, they will, and it will be dealt with then.
Until then, Suigetsu's nightmares will continue driving him into the closest warm place he can find, and Sasuke will keep letting him in.
xxxxx
Suigetsu wakes ravenous.
He is always hungry. For a body made completely of water, it can feel remarkably hollow sometimes.
The empty space around him drives him mad. It is a source of great frustration to him that he cannot even remember what it is in his dreams that terrifies him so, but whatever it is, the spinning feeling of lying in the dark without being able to see anything reminds him of it enough to make him sick.
Clawing his way blindly out of his blankets, he makes his way by intuition and memory across the campsite to where Sasuke is sleeping, or at least lying very quietly.
With a sigh, Suigetsu kneels and drapes himself over Sasuke's half-curled form, blankets and all.
He was right. Sasuke is awake. The sudden weight elicits no more reaction from him than an insect bite— a minute twitch, and a breath cut short. Suigetsu continues, tightening his arms around Sasuke's shoulders and burying his face in the hollow of his throat. He smells like ashes. He always smells like ashes, like anything in him which was once alive and vibrant has been burnt and crushed to nothing by the force of his resolve.
"Our lives suck," he murmurs into the steady pulse of Sasuke's jugular vein. It is a mark of Sasuke's confidence that he displays no fear despite Suigetsu's teeth being one spur-of-the-moment decision away from tearing his throat out. He knows that it is not overconfidence. Suigetsu would never even get close enough to draw blood.
Sasuke makes a resigned sound low in his throat. "Another nightmare?"
Suigetsu isn't fooled. Every line in Sasuke's body is tense-- he was waiting for this, hoping for this, and they both know it.
"Let me in," says Suigetsu. It isn't a polite request.
He draws back, and Sasuke opens the blankets for him. Suigetsu slips in and curls around him like an otter, basking in the merciless heat of Sasuke's skin. It is a cliché, fire and water, but one he thoroughly approves of.
Making a snap decision, he seizes Sasuke's face between his hands and kisses him ferociously, drawing blood as he pulls away. To his surprise, Sasuke follows him up, propping himself up on his elbows and catching up with a sharp bump of cheekbones and teeth. Teeth, not nearly as sharp as his own and thus far more painful, sink into his lower lip. He tastes blood.
He understands— he can take nothing from Sasuke that Sasuke does not give freely, or he will immediately take it back. It is fair. Fairness is good. Their world has far too little of it.
Smirking to himself, he trails red kisses down Sasuke's chest, leaving crimson marks with every glancing touch.
As Suigetsu nears and passes his navel, Sasuke's breath hitches and turns shallow and quick. Enjoying himself, Suigetsu takes a quick detour and delivers a sharp bite to Sasuke's hipbone, leaving a ring of purpling marks which will still be there next morning. Sasuke sucks in a shocked breath, but does not cry out. He is too familiar with pain to be defeated by it, even in a surprise attack.
"Stop messing around," he snaps under his breath.
Suigetsu smiles wolfishly, and to be cruel, pauses for several more moments and simply breaths. The cool air from his mouth sweeps leisurely over Sasuke's cock, making him jerk and twitch most satisfactorily.
"As you wish," Suigetsu whispers, and swallows him whole.
Sasuke snaps rigid and makes an almost inaudible noise at the back of his throat. Its pitch and timbre are very familiar to Suigetsu-- he memorized them the very first time, and they never fail to make him feel triumphant.
He spends long minutes lavishing attention on Sasuke with his tongue and lips, keeping his teeth carefully out of the way, until Sasuke is nearly bursting out of his skin. He never continues until this point is reached-- it is almost a matter of pride, that Sasuke's body should beg for it even if his mouth never will.
Positioning himself carefully over Sasuke's shaking body, he gives a wolfish grin. "Say please," he says, even though he knows his leader would never give in to such base torture as this.
"Suigetsu," Sasuke replies instead, in the tone of voice he uses almost exclusively for battle orders.
He had never realized how truly effective that tone was. He realizes now, as his body moves on its own before his brain can catch up. Turning just one part of himself partially liquid, he sinks down and impales himself. Once Sasuke is fully encased within him, he turns himself back into flesh and blood and tightens viciously around him.
This time even Sasuke's legendary self-control cannot keep up— he moans, deep in his chest, so low it's only audible to Suigetsu because he's so close.
When he begins to move, it is cruelly slow. He is waiting for Sasuke's impatience to get the better of him. Until it does, he will continue this torment.
It doesn't take long. It never does. Bare minutes later, Sasuke growls and seizes him by the arms, turning them in the air until Suigetsu lands with a muffled thud on his back with Sasuke on top of him. Like this, the heat is nearly unbearable, trapped between Sasuke and the ground.
That in and of itself is one kind of bliss.
Another kind begins when Sasuke hunches over him, pressing their cheeks together, and begins to move in earnest. He is not smooth, not careful, not patient in the least. He hammers away like the world is ending around him. In a way, Suigetsu thinks perhaps it is.
Reaching up, he drags his fingers leisurely down Sasuke's back, leaving long furrows. Sasuke doesn't even seem to notice. His gasps in Suigetsu's ear are quickening already— he must have been particularly desperate tonight, his haste is greater than usual.
His urgency is contagious. Suigetsu had originally planned to drag it out, make every second burn and smoke, but now he finds he doesn't want to wait after all. Shifting under Sasuke, he lifts his legs and digs his heels into his thighs, drawing him closer and deeper until he starts having trouble figuring out which heartbeat belongs to whom.
He's saying things into Sasuke's ear, he realizes, quiet and filthy things which are quickly driving both of them mad. His mouth is moving all on its own, his brain completely detached from the proceedings as of five minutes ago.
His cock is grinding against Sasuke's belly. He won't last long like this.
All of sudden, Sasuke tenses above him, and Suigetsu realizes that neither of them are going to last at all, period.
He reaches up and clamps one hand over Sasuke's mouth, barely beating Sasuke to his own. This is a tradition of theirs, if they can be said to have traditions. Sasuke's fingers burn against his skin. His are only warm, but already so much warmer than their usual chill state.
Sasuke has drawn back far enough for Suigetsu to see his eyes, glinting in the dark, and the small victorious smile playing about the corner of his lips.
It's enough to drive him over the edge, and he pulls Sasuke over the edge with him.
This they saw coming, and so they are completely silent as their bodies writhe against each other frantically, eking the last few seconds of ecstasy out of the moment until they are wrung dry.
Utterly spent, Sasuke collapses atop Suigetsu, his breath coming in short, heavy sobs.
In a rare moment of weakness, Suigetsu allows himself to run his fingers through Sasuke's thick hair and trap him close for a moment.
It isn't about love, but it isn't entirely about power, either. It's something else neither of them can name.
The nightmares are just an excuse.
XxxxxX
A/N: Agh. There is a reason I don't write porn.