Summary: Snow was falling, and one soul struggles with memories he'd rather not remember, and memories he'd like to remember but which are shadowed over. Asking for forgiveness and receiving it, he gets more than he even hoped for.

Pairings: SasuNaru

Warnings: No real warnings to give. No pairing bashing, no character bashing, no swearing. Very obvious hinting of sex but no actual lemon, questionable stability of mind for one of the two, and hinting of darker pasts on both sides.


It's cold, is the only thing he thinks before he numbs himself again, ignoring everything around him. He also thinks that maybe he should feel embarrassed or disgusted for waiting on the doorstep for someone he wasn't even sure would accept him, it has something to with his pride, but he can't remember anymore, he's numb.

He looks at the falling snow without seeing it, watching his breath forming some sort of fog before disappearing, mixing with the air, and it leaves an image for a split second that reminds him of his mission to the Mist so many years ago. But he doesn't divulge into his memories, he doesn't like to divulge in his memories because there are many darker, worse memories he'd rather not relive.

It's night, the stars are covered by clouds, but the snow makes up for it. Everything is in a white glow because of the streetlights, and the snow on the ground reflects everything, it makes everything look so pure. In this light he can even see individual snowflakes, but only when he concentrates, and he doesn't want to concentrate (because memories come up when he does, and he doesn't want that), he rather likes to be numb.

He thinks that if he stays out long enough that maybe, just maybe, that he will fall asleep and forget those memories he wants to forget, but he doesn't know why he thinks that way. Between all those dark thoughts and memories there were little parts which were so light – a voice, a face, a set of beautiful eyes – that makes him think of better memories, but the darker ones always drown the good ones.

It's cold, he thinks again and he wonders, will it get warm sometime? He hopes so. He remembers a time where he had been warm, not in a physical sense, but it was a warmth he remembers, it settled deep into ones bones and it makes one smile. But he doesn't clearly remember the time where he had such warmth, it was so long ago, so long ago where he'd smiled. Although, he doesn't even remember what a real smile feels like, but he remembers a face which looked very beautiful with a smile. Of all faces he remembered (the light and the dark ones), he liked that face the most.

"Sasuke? Is that you?"

He looks at the person with that voice, and he sees the face he likes so much, and remembers he likes the face's voice too. He looks at the face, sees the most beautiful eyes he's seen in his life, sees every strand of hair piled on top of the head of the face, sees the smooth skin of the face. He remembers times with that face where he had been content, not with the same warmth like he had once so long ago, but he was sure he would've been happy if his ambition of that time hadn't weighed him down so much. But he had been content, he hadn't felt so content before the face had been there. There was a time between that warmth and that contentment where he'd been very lonely, but he doesn't remember why.

"What are you doing here? Are you okay?"

The face is in front of him now, he sees the face's eyes, he likes them the most; like sapphires crushed into millions of shards, refined with stardust and polished with the ocean. He sees the hair, and it reminds him of early spring's sun rays, though he doesn't remember from where he knows this, and sees a few snowflakes in the face's hair. He sees slightly tanned skin, and along with his hair, it frames his eyes which glisten in worry, and he thinks the face looks very beautiful to him at the moment.

"Naruto,"

He breathes it out like a silent prayer, asking for something, although he doesn't know for what he's asking. There was an unasked question he wanted answered, needed to be answered. And he watches as the worry lessens and how pity (no, not pity, his mind chides, sympathy) comes to the face's—no, Naruto's—eyes, and he has the unexplainable desire to see those eyes swim with other emotions (lust, anger, embarrassment, annoyance, love), but he can't remember with what emotions.

Naruto stands, "Come on, you got to be freezing, how long have you been here? Silly man you are, sitting here while it's snowing. I'll make us some tea, you need a bit of warmth in you, ne, Sasuke?"

He looks up at Naruto and he thinks that in the light of the streetlights and snowflakes, Naruto looks so pure it makes him speechless. The eyes looked like sodalite, his hair white, his skin looked white, not pale but white, and Sasuke thinks that Naruto looks like deity of purity, and if not of purity, then of snow. Not innocence; those sodalite-like eyes weren't innocent, they've seen bad things, nearly as bad as what Sasuke's seen.

But despite his awe, he stands and is only slightly disappointed that in this angle Naruto doesn't look so pure, but it passes when he sees those sapphire eyes and decides that he likes those better.

He is given a towel and is seated on a chair in the kitchen, a warm mug of green tea in his hands, and as he watches Naruto walk around the kitchen, he feels warm. Not the warmth he barely remembered from so long ago, but he knew it was a start.

The night is spent talking and, as the night went on, he grew warmer. He didn't know how or when or why, but at one point they had kissed, it was a bit too brutal for an actual kiss, he thinks later on, but it was a kiss for them. Even with teeth clashing, tongues brushing, saliva exchanging, Sasuke felt inside-out warm for the first time in years.

Years of accumulated pain, loneliness, stress, yearning, longing and other emotions had just exploded in that moment. Rushed movements weren't fast enough, impatience was great and neither had wanted to waste time, from the point of view of an outside it would resemble rather impersonal and distanced, like a one night stand, but to the two it was an explosion of emotions bottled up and finally set free, it was a relief, and unspoken relief that would be looked at later when there wasn't such a heat.

Morning was about to come when they finally rested, the kitchen as well as the bedroom reeked of sex and sweat, mixed with the scents only being identified as Naruto and Sasuke. The house was in a disarray; strewn clothes crumpled on the floors, tables, cabinets and even over a lamp, white spots marking a few surfaces (both horizontal and a few vertical) and two mugs lying on the kitchen floor, long cold tea staining the tiles.

Sasuke watched as the sun peaked out of the horizon, watched as the sun's rays lightened Naruto's hair even more, his face resembling like that of a child. It had stopped snowing but every roof glistened with the laying snow like diamonds, but he didn't care about that.

He looked at Naruto again, and saw how pure he looked with his currently child-like face and bright hair, he would say that Naruto looked innocent if it wasn't for the fact that he knew of his eyes. But despite that, he thought Naruto looked like the purest thing despite knowing that he had the whole night sex and that he could beat a majority of people with his ninja skills.

It's warm, he thinks, and he's startled thinking that. He is warm, and it is a warmth that had settled in his bones and in his muscles, and as he sees how the sun slowly lifts into the sky, he smiles.

"What are you smiling about?"

He looks at Naruto (at the face, the beautiful face that enlightens his memories), his voice heavier because of the screaming, pleading, begging from last night, but he can hear the emotion underneath, the love. He looks at sapphire-crushed eyes, and his heart swells, seeing the understanding, and the unasked question of last night is answered.

He was forgiven, he had been forgiven long ago, he'd never been blamed in the first place.

Still smiling, he says, "It's warm."

He could see how Naruto didn't exactly know what he meant, but Sasuke thinks that Naruto knows what he's talking about. Sasuke thinks that maybe, just maybe, Naruto will give him a bit of his purity. He knows it is impossible, but he is happy anyway because Naruto has enough purity for the two of them, he knows that everything will only get better from here on.

Despite Naruto's slight confusion, he smiled and silently said "Okay" before falling asleep again.

With all darker memories momentarily vanished from his mind, Sasuke let himself bathe in that warmth, letting it all wash over him, and fell asleep soon after with a small smile on his lips.

He slept peacefully and content for the first time in years.


Author Note:

I started purely random, but the idea came (sort of) from the stories of Imperial Mint, who actually writes ItaNaru, but I love her stories, they're so well written and they have such lovely plots too, in my opinion. Well, this was inspired not only by her stories but also by September's songs, listed here; Satellites, Walk Away, End of the Rainbow, Resuscitate Me, Heat Rising and Party's in my Head. And maybe a few Glee songs and the song "I follow rivers" by Triggerfinger at the beginning, but it was mainly September's songs.

I like this, I wanted to write something written in this form for a while now, and I wanted to write a SasuNaru story finally. I'm open for any pairings really, but I favor SasuNaru slightly over the others, ItaNaru close behind thanks to Imperial Mint.

I noticed how some authors say how innocent Naruto looks, I believe that's a whole lot of bullshit. The ninja/shinobi world is never innocent, and with Naruto's past I can hardly think he'd be innocent, but pure fits somehow. Many authors say how Naruto is the light illuminating Sasuke's darkness, which is fine to be using, but I wanted to use something new.

I'm not sure about the ending, so please review on that please. Criticize, flame, insult, it's all fine with me , but don't say anything about the pairing itself or anything like that, let's all behave a little mature here, okay?

Please review and tell me what you think!