SasuNaru
Unbetaed
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"Would it make you feel better if we went upstairs?" Sasuke stared at the distraught young man. At least, he felt distraught. Gave off waves of distress from the slump of his shoulders and the listlessness of his eyes as Naruto continued staring at the soup container.
"No. Why would it make me feel better if we went upstairs? I'd just be confused and upstairs then instead of confused and down here."
Sasuke gave a roll of his eyes.
"Because upstairs is a little room, an attic, where people threw all the most disturbing things found in the house." He explained. "You know. Secret things like gossip and stories that would probably captivate your profound thoughts and get your mind off of whatever's happening to it. Come on, I used to beg my grandparents to go in there."
"No. No. I want to go to sleep." Naruto rose and headed upstairs. "I'll see you tomorrow, Sasuke. No hard feelings about not getting to go up tonight?"
Sasuke looked like he wanted to argue but closed his mouth and decided against it.
"Yeah. We can check it later. Tomorrow. I guess." The other man walked up the steps behind the blonde.
The bed was plush and welcomingly disarrayed. Naruto just fell into it, snuggling into the nest of blankets while Sasuke watched, amused, from the doorway before joining him on the bed.
Something moved over him. Naruto looked back and watched Sasuke pull the covers over his shoulders.
"You sleep like a kid." The low laugh in Sasuke's words warmed the blonde. Sasuke was near his face when he said them and his hot breath ghosted pleasantly across the blonde's forehead. And when Naruto looked up, Sasuke was so close that he could taste the warmth he emitted. It tasted like the first sip of hot cocoa on a snowy winter night and spread through his body like it too.
Sasuke shifted and brought himself closer. He tucked his legs underneath him, now looming over Naruto even though he was scant inches above the blonde. Sasuke licked his lips.
Naruto sighed and the breath touched the other man's lips. They parted.
The night was loudly silent, humming between themselves, around themselves. It was cold and strummed notes throbbed through the sky. All prior confusion muddled the blonde's mind so that all he could think was a hurtful pounding at his temple and the heat rolling off Sasuke.
Sasuke cupped the blonde's face.
Naruto closed his eyes. His lips parted automatically this time.
"I'm going to kiss you." Sasuke ghosted the words over Naruto's lips. He smelled like dust and big and solid.
"What?"
Soft. Warm. Insistent. It was a dry kiss that lasted too few seconds. And all Naruto could remember afterwards was the dry glide of silk on petals.
"Well. I'll see you tomorrow then." Sasuke pulled back unfazed like he was used to kissing boys good night, which Naruto hoped he wasn't in a fit of jealousy. The blankets rustled noisily between the silence.
"Bye.", the blonde whispered. He held his cheek where somewhere in the kissing Sasuke had touched. It tingled still. Blushing, Naruto fell back in bed suppressing the urge to scream.
His head hurt, but he just wouldn't think about all the confusing parts, opting to revel on the matter of Sasuke's kiss and the ensuing giddiness.
Long after Sasuke was gone, Naruto crept under the covers looking for sleep. Except, the bed turned lumpy and cold underneath him. Halfway into the night, Naruto folded back the covers and reached for his bulky cell phone. Thanks to the poor signal strength, all he could use it for was as a clock. And he could sure use a heart to heart chat right now.
The phone said it was late. Screw it. He might as well give up and get something done. The sheets crinkled underneath him as the blonde got up, raking in bed head into place. And yelped. His dirty clothes pile wound around Naruto's feet, assisting him in meeting the floor. Pain blossomed from his forehead and ankle.
"Ow! Damn it." The blonde rubbed at his foot. It had caught and slid on the smooth surface of a book. The diary of the Sakura who Sasuke thought was pretty or something. Picking it up, Naruto settled against the bed with it in his hands. He flipped through it.
There were maybe thirty entries. About the span of two months if she was at it everyday. Looking at the dates, Naruto found it was about three months.
It began in the middle of April with the weather painstakingly noted on each entry.
I am sad today, but that is no way to begin a diary entry. I want to, am obligated to, but won't talk about the latest dress fashion from England. Instead, this entry will be devoted to my brother. May his indifference live long…
After a few more paragraphs of caustic sarcasm, Sakura finally continued her record.
…maddened by my touch. Today at Breakfast, he knocked the pitcher over when Obito reached for his arm. And upset the milk bottle by the door to avoid Ino who was coming in after her daily walk. He won't talk to me. Or when he does, he grumbles about over sensitivity. And I can't help but think…maybe he is finally tired of supporting three, younger siblings who lay in unproductive creativity. I don't know what to do with him.
The hours past and so did the diary's pages. It was good that he had given up on sleep that night, because the night was about to give up itself into day as well.
May, 25.
I'm starting to grow jealous of all the time brother spends with Ino. After a proper time, and I write proper with the nastiest of voices, may it be read so as such, he rushes to help Ino with her latest opus. And it isn't like we others don't need help. Obito agrees and commiserates with me. All night we hear the strains of piano music coming from Ino's room. And when Obito bothered brother about it, brother smiled and said Ino needs to complete her work before she gets sick. While it is true that Ino's been getting wane and paler, I just can't help but be upset. It's only natural. It's only instinctual. Speaking of
illness, there's an odd disease or murder going around…
June 18,
…she's growing sicker. It's an odd feel on life to be glad, worried and guilty at the same time. Ino's always sleeping now and if her manuscript weren't set to be finished soon, I'd tear her away for a vacation. As a result, brother has been taking more interest in my work…
…Three more bodies have been found. All the people were teens poised to become great. The coroner declared that it wasn't a disease, at least no disease he'd ever heard of. The police suspect manslaughter, but their families all hold to an exotic virus. Apparently the murders began with days of fatigue. It's silly, but as I'm writing now, I amuse myself by thinking this diary may be discovered later on as a clue to some great epidemic.
As the days flew by her writing became shakier. Words were missing in sentences and once or twice the words dragged off into a line of ink as if she'd fallen asleep writing. Naruto closed the book and stared down. His cell phone said it was already five in the morning. And then it was nine with the morning sunlight edging its way behind the heavy curtains and loud knocks and yells at the door.
"Naruto! Answer the door.", the blonde scrambled down the stairs, still in the clothes he slept in and opened the door.
Sasuke paused in mid yell before schooling his expression back into bored arrogance.
"Sorry. I thought you were still sleeping." He took in the crumpled clothes, marks on the blonde's face from the sheets and fist rubbing its way into Naruto's eye with an amused smile that broke his previous cockiness. "And it looks like you were. We'll get breakfast first and explore later."
The blonde's stomach rumbled its assent and he agreed with it. Sasuke just shook his head, slumping against the doorjamb.
"What are you waiting for? Let's go. I'm starved.", said Naruto. Sasuke swung forward took a few steps then stopped and looked back.
"Nice fashion statement, Naruto."
The spring breeze rippled through the blonde's nightshirt.
"I just thought I'd bring some whimsy into this old town.", Naruto smirked.
"Just get dressed." And a few decibels lower an affectionate, "Idiot."
The blonde turned to leave.
"Wait."
Walking fast, Sasuke grabbed his elbow. And pressed his lips to Naruto.
They stood for second, but the dawning revelation had all the warmth of the creation of life bursting over earth. Naruto stepped back, looking warily at the other man.
'So, last night won't get swept under a rug or something?' , looked Naruto.
"Go and get dressed.", Sasuke said, his eyes yelling back 'No' all the way. And the blonde, only after intense studying of that 'no' for any cracks or breaks, turned back inside to shrug into a light orange sweatshirt and jeans.
They relaxed a little over coffee when the duo got to town. Naruto fiddled with his cruller, wishing it were Sasuke's hand. He took a bite and wiped the buttermilk crumbs from his lips. Sasuke stared from the chair across from him, a donut and cup of coffee at his hands.
"So…", the blonde started.
Sasuke nodded in a show for him to continue, making Naruto search for something to say. He couldn't leave things hanging. They had a relationship to build.
"I…um…" He fumbled for conversation. Naruto would have had something except Sasuke kept looking over and licking the coffee from his lips and slowly sinking his teeth into that donut, leaving bits of clear glaze over his lips. And, oh, Sasuke would probably look the same way if that glaze was Naruto's-
"I found this diary yesterday!", blurted out the blonde. Sasuke swallowed his bite of donut with a gulp of coffee.
"Well, whose was it?", he asked, wiping the glaze on a napkin.
"Erm…it was."
Sasuke had finished off by licking the sugar off his fingers.
"Sakura. The chick that owned the room we went through yesterday. Found it in there too. She thinks that a disease did the murders. Hey, looks like you might not be a serial killer after all."
"That's interesting. Even though there's probably no relation between my family and theirs. And the jury has already been out on this one. Said it was a murder. Too many clues for it not to be, but not enough to incriminate anyone."
The last crumbs were wiped from Sasuke's lips and the last dregs of coffee drained. He shot a look at the blonde who was sitting done for a while now.
"You ready to go?" Sasuke asked.
Eyeing the jelly donut glistening in the show window, Naruto is patted his stomach ruefully. Too full to fit anything.
The blonde sighed. "Mmm…done. Maybe we could stop back in for lunch. Anyway, what are we going to do today?"
"Donuts for lunch? Ugh. Why don't you just hook the fat and sugar straight to your veins. Oh, but you couldn't get the red lake and toxic dies then, huh." He shook his head at Naruto. "Anyways…we're going to be looking at that attic room that you wouldn't explore last night."
"Aw, come on. The house again." Put-upon sigh. " Man I'm getting tired of poking through that old thing. Especially after last night. And today. It's like all we ever talk about."
Sasuke held the clear glass door for the blonde. As the other man passed, Sasuke breathed into the pink ear poking through Naruto's blonde hair.
"You promised me." Each moist puff of breath behind the vowels in that sentence tickled the nape of Naruto's neck if it could have reached it. But it couldn't so that delicious sensuality residing in the blonde's mind was the only thing tickling his neck.
Naruto shivered, still unsure why Sasuke affected him to that extent. He wanted to say love or lust, but it appeared without the affection shrouded in both. Maybe hunger would fit. The same way a snake's flickering tongue looked on nature shows as it set to swallow a mouse whole. Tongue winding around it in a warped rocking caress. The slow penetration of sharp fangs into a soft warm body. The act of devouring embodied some sexuality given its graphic carnality.
Of course, Naruto couldn't go with Sasuke after that display and told him so. Not in so many words, and with no mention of the threatening look in Sasuke's eyes.
"I just, you know, want to explore something else today."
Sasuke loomed up, menacingly, causing the blonde to falter and step a few paces back.
Naruto raised up his hands in defense. "Man, Sasuke. It's like you're crazy or something."
"Crazy? I just feel very passionate about my work. I think if one had a life passion, one should be able to feel crazy about it." The other man shot back. Black eyes glinting.
Naruto glanced around the street. It was deserted as far as he knew, with no one in sight in case Sasuke threw a fit. Except, the blonde had his fill of fits and settled for shrugging it off.
"Fine, fine." Naruto muttered, thinking to rest his hand on Sasuke's back, but pulling back to shove his hands in his pockets. "We'll go indulge your obsession."
The word must have caught something deep in the other man, because Sasuke paused, mid-step.
"I really am acting a little obsessed?" He brought up a hand to brush through his black bangs.
"Yeah." The blonde finally got to pet Sasuke's arm till he pulled away. "Sasuke?"
"Do you know, Naruto, I could use a little breather today."
The look in his eyes held onto Naruto's blue ones and pulled then along with him as Sasuke turned away. Naruto may have needed, and took, a breather yesterday, but he couldn't let the other man go now. Some pestering instinct screamed for him to keep Sasuke.
That just scared him enough to chase the other man away with shaky, tanned hands.
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I think there's a chapter or two left in this, guys. If you spot something off in the chapters- misspelled words, grammatical errors, plot holes- notify me in a review.
Besides, reviews are like the love juice that keeps the gears between my imagination and fingers all greased up and popping out these bad babies.
Ask me what that just meant and I'd have to tell you I have no clue.
Either way...
love and whips, moonlit flower.
