Naruto reentered Sasuke's bedroom and closed the door behind himself. "Thanks," he said as he removed his jacket and sat back down on the bed. Sasuke was leaning against the headboard, watching him. "So what are you hiding in that room, anyways?"

Sasuke didn't answer.

"I didn't look, I swear," Naruto reassured him. "I just want to know what you're hiding." He gave Sasuke a little poke in the arm.

Sasuke slapped his hand away. "Stop being nosy, or you're never coming over again," he hissed.

"So you were planning to let me over again?" Naruto teased.

Sasuke just rolled his eyes. "If you must know, it was my brother's room. I haven't looked inside in ten years. I'm not about to try it today."

Naruto perked up at hearing this. "You have a brother? I thought you were an only child."

Sasuke shifted his weight forward and crossed his legs. "Look, Naruto. I'm not up for this conversation. What did you really come here to discuss?"

Naruto took the hint. "I can leave, if you want," he said.

"Just say what you came to say," Sasuke snapped. He was tired of them dancing around each other. "In the restaurant, you were about to tell me why you kissed me." Naruto fidgeted with the hem of his shirt.

After a long silence with no answer, Sasuke continued. "Are you experimenting or something?"

"No!" Naruto blurted. "I mean, I'm not really the type to do that."

Sasuke felt unsettled. Lots of girls had confessed their feelings for him over the years, but it always felt disingenuous. Naruto hadn't done anything like that, yet there was something real about the way he composed himself. He didn't try to make himself appear perfect, or carefully choose his words to always say the appropriate thing. He was obnoxious, sure. He was loud, too, and he had a bad habit of prying into other people's personal lives. Yet somehow Sasuke found his blatantly honest personality refreshing.

"I just thought it was what you wanted," Naruto continued.

What I wanted? Sasuke hadn't been the one to start the kissing, but he hadn't stopped the kissing either. The memory of Naruto's tongue curiously exploring his mouth drifted through his thoughts. At the very least, Naruto was attractive. He had to admit at least that much.

"Look, I'll just go," said Naruto. "I can stop bothering you." He shifted his weight, preparing to stand. "I guess I was just able to relate to you a lot, and maybe I got carried away."

Sasuke grabbed his wrist before he could get up. "It was," he blurted out before he could stop himself. "I mean, it wasn't, but maybe it is now." He didn't know what he was trying to accomplish at this point. He just knew that he could feel Naruto's pulse through his wrist. He knew that when Naruto was nervous, he dry swallowed a lot. He knew that Naruto had been making genuine efforts to get to know him, little by little. And he knew that unlike most of the girls who clamored over him, Naruto wasn't viewing him through rose tinted lenses or deluding himself about Sasuke's true nature.

Naruto paused, then sank back down to the bed. "Now?" he asked. "What you want?"

Sasuke struggled to find the right words. He had never been great at communicating with people, but this was a new tier of difficulty entirely. "I don't know what I'm trying to say," he admitted.

"Neither do I," Naruto offered.

Sasuke wasn't sure who kissed whom this time, but he found himself pulling Naruto close as their lips met, and he felt Naruto's body heave and deflate with a deep breath. He felt strong arms coil around his waist. Naruto nestled his face into his neck. His breath tickled. "Can I touch you?" Naruto asked. His voice was sultry, and reverberated throughout Sasuke's body. He felt his own heart beating at an incredible pace.

"If you want to," Sasuke answered.

Naruto nipped at the lobe of Sasuke's ear. "I want to," he whispered back.

All of Sasuke's thoughts melted away. All he could think about was the hand sliding underneath his shirt, tracing over the ridges of his spine. He reached a hand underneath Naruto's shirt as well. He felt a delicate trail of hair, a navel, a nipple. Naruto kissed him hungrily as inexperience gave way to desire. Whatever Sasuke's original inhibitions may have been, he couldn't bring himself to care anymore. Nothing but Naruto mattered in the heat of that moment.

Naruto retreated his hands and broke the kiss, and for a moment Sasuke wondered if Naruto was about to laugh the whole thing off and go home. But then he felt a tugging at the hem of his shirt. Quickly getting the hint, he raised his arms. Naruto tore the shirt off Sasuke and flung it across the room before peeling off his own. Sasuke shivered. Whether from a chill in the room or from Naruto's electric touch, he couldn't tell.

They continued on in this way for some time, but neither made an attempt to remove any more clothing. Sasuke didn't know what he had expected to happen when Naruto muscled his way into his house. He didn't know if all this making out was what Naruto had been after from the start, or if it had just happened naturally.

Sasuke's confusion melted into blithe indifference under Naruto's touch. He didn't care anymore. He just wanted to get closer to Naruto. He just wanted to see more of him. He slipped a hand up Naruto's thigh and found a bulge to match his own. Naruto gasped at the sudden contact, and grabbed Sasuke's forearm.

"Wait," he panted. "Just hang on a second."

Sasuke leaned in to plant a kiss on his bare chest. "We're both guys," he urged. He didn't care about secrecy or consequences anymore. "You know what it's like." He took hold of Naruto's wrist to guide his hand.

Naruto pull his arm back. "I said wait," he repeated breathlessly. "Just wait."

Sasuke froze. Did I get carried away? Sasuke retreated, scooting away to put some distance between them.

"It's fine," Naruto went on. "I just wasn't expecting all this." He motioned towards Sasuke's revealed upper body. "It's a lot to take in at once."

Sasuke leaned back against the headboard. The whole situation was still unbelievable. He'd just made out with Naruto, of all people. And not just that: he'd heard the whimper Naruto makes when his neck is bitten. He'd felt Naruto's manhood over his pants. He'd wanted Naruto. Only a week ago he would never have believed it was possible.

Naruto lay down on his stomach across Sasuke's lap and peered up at him. His tangled hair was a mess. "Shall we do something else?" He asked coyly.

"Like what?"

Naruto shrugged. "Something to get us out of the house, I guess." He pulled himself up to sit on his knees, straddling Sasuke.

Sasuke tentatively placed his hands on Naruto's hips. The weight of Naruto's body and the slight friction they created elicited the faintest of gasps from Sasuke.

"I saw that," Naruto teased with a smirk.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Hm?"

"That face," Naruto elaborated. "You made a great face just now." He rocked his hips a little more, and Sasuke couldn't help himself as he reached around to grope Naruto's ass.

Suddenly Naruto got off, rolled himself to the edge of the bed, and stood. "We always hang out in one of our bedrooms," he complained as he bent over to retrieve his t-shirt. Sasuke noticed the way the muscles in his back contracted as he stooped. "Let's go outside."

Sasuke blinked at him incredulously. He looked down at his own painfully rigid erection, then back to Naruto again.

The blond boy blushed and threw him his shirt. "Will you be okay?"

"Tsk." Sasuke pulled the shirt on and got to his feet. His jeans constricted tighter as he straightened his body.

"Your shirt's on inside out," Naruto commented.

"Whatever," Sasuke replied unoriginally as he beelined for the door. "Wait here for a second."

He removed his shirt as he briskly made his way down the hall to the bathroom, then firmly shut and locked the door behind himself. He leaned back against the door, which felt wet against his bare skin. He noticed the bathroom was still steamy from his shower earlier. The air was heavy with humidity and moisture still clung to the mirror. He realised that he'd forgotten to turn on the fan earlier, and crossed the small room to turn it on now. He used his arm to wipe the condensation from a spot on the mirror, and looked at himself. His hair was almost as messy as Naruto's and his face looked flushed. A tiny spot just above his collar had become discolored. He realised the little red and purple bruise was a hickey: his first one ever. He turned his shirt right side out to put it back on, and was relieved to find that the collar came just high enough to cover the mark. Sasuke undid the fly on his jeans to give himself some room. He'd never been so hard while wearing skinny jeans in all his life, and did not find it very comfortable. So here I am, he realised. About to jerk off in my own bathroom because of that idiot Naruto. He felt embarrassed being the one who'd wanted to go further, and being told by Naruto to wait had been downright mortifying. Suddenly he was the one making moves and not controlling himself. He knew he was out of excuses. Naruto hadn't kissed him unexpectedly or forced himself on him. In fact, Sasuke had actually brought Naruto to his bedroom of his own volition. He had even tried to guide Naruto's hand to the throbbing member that was now pushing against his underwear. Something is seriously wrong with me, he thought.

X X X

Sasuke sat in an old wooden chair on the back patio watching Naruto struggle with the swing. The seat was far too low to the ground, and he was having difficulty propelling himself without room to bend his knees and tuck his feet up underneath the seat when he swung backwards

The grass was overgrown, and spiderwebs had collected on everything over the dry summer. Even the chair Sasuke was sitting in had needed a wipedown after ten years of neglect. The Uchiha Estate had once been lavish, but now the paint was beginning to chip from the siding, and everything looked outdated and dusty. As much as he'd wanted to fix the place up, his lawyer had strongly recommended leaving things be until a final decision was made about the legal ownership of the property. Unfortunately, everything took a lot longer when psychiatric examinations were necessary before Itachi could even attend court. His lawyer has suggested getting authorization to sell the property and split the profits for the time being, but somehow that idea unsettled him. He would have the whole thing torn down before allowing some other family to live there, but that would require authorization as well. The thought of another mother and father sleeping in the master bedroom was unnerving. The new occupants would have to replace the bloodstained carpet and paint over the bloodstained walls. They would buy a new bed and make love in it, in what remained of the horrific crime scene. The blood would always be there, hidden between layers of colors and absorbed into the floorboards beneath a clean carpet.

"Do you need me to push you?" Sasuke joked, wanting to take his mind away from all that heartache.

"Shut up!" Naruto slammed his heels into the dirt and came to an abrupt stop. He made his way through the tall grass, climbed the rotting steps and laid down on the freshly swept porch deck.

The sun was still out, but it hung low in the sky. The house was situated atop a slope, so the westward facing patio offered a spectacular view of the sun setting behind Konohagakure each evening. Red tiled roofs turned a rusty orange color, and clouds tinted pink. Shades of red and orange emerged from the horizon and bled across the sky. "Is it beautiful?" Naruto suddenly asked, looking up at Sasuke. He was lying on his back with his hands tucked behind his head.

"Well just look at it," Sasuke told him. "Obviously."

Naruto turned his head back towards the scenery. "I can't see it very well," he admitted. "I'm partially color blind. I can only see a few colors, but you're looking at it, so it must be nice."

"That sucks," Sasuke responded.

"It does. There are companies that make corrective contact lenses for people like me, but they're crazy expensive," Naruto went on. "It wouldn't necessarily mean that I could see colors the same way other people do, but I would at least be able to distinguish them from each other better."

"Hn." If Naruto was looking for comforting words, he was searching in the wrong place.

"Will you tell me about your family?" he suddenly asked.

Sasuke groaned at the sudden change in topic. "I had a mom and a dad and an older brother," he explained. "Now I don't. Satisfied?"

"Relatives?"

"Why are you always prying?" Sasuke demanded angrily. He brought his knees to his chest. "Is it fun for you?"

Naruto sat up and shook his head. "I'm sorry," he apologized.

"You never had a family to lose," Sasuke spat. "You have no idea what it's like for me to live in this house, constantly reminded of the atrocities." He hadn't cried in years, but sometimes the sensation of being just about to cry came over him like this.

"I didn't mean to-"

"You don't understand anything," Sasuke continued. He slammed his feet onto the ground and stood up abruptly. "We're not alike," he spat as he took a fistful of blond hair into his grip. "You and I have nothing in common." They locked eyes. Sasuke had expected Naruto to shrink away, but he hadn't. He just sat there, staring back at Sasuke with blue eyes.

"I asked about your family," Naruto went on, "not about what happened to them." He carefully removed Sasuke's hand from his hair. "I bet your mom was beautiful," he added, lacing his fingers through Sasuke's. "I bet your dad was a hard worker, to be able to give you guys this huge house."

Sasuke could feel his own lip quivering.

"Something terrible happened; I know that but…" Naruto used his other hand to caress Sasuke's face. "I bet you have lots of happy memories, too,"

Sasuke smacked him hard across the face.