Two years later…

"I have noticed something about you lately, Father Sabaku." Lee exhaled slowly through his mouth, watching ice crystals form from his breath. Pleased with himself, he tucked his chin back into his scarf and stuffed his mittened hands into his admittedly too-thin spring jacket. He was wearing a sweater beneath it, and he also generated large amounts of heat on a regular basis anyway, so he had never bothered to get a thicker coat for the chillier winter days and nights.

Now, a shiver ran through him before he could contain it. His companion flicked a glance in his direction and he smiled pleasantly, holding up a hand to ward off the man from taking off his own jacket for him… again. It seemed to have happened a number of times over the years they had known each other.

Father Sabaku, Lee had learned, despite his lack of facial expressions and awkward bluntness, was a very kind man.

Father Sabaku slowly lowered his own hands back into the deep pockets of his cassock. The hem was frayed and Lee himself had stitched two of the buttons back on it at different occasions. It should have been threadbare, Lee had realized when Father Sabaku had told him just how old it was, yet it wasn't. It was aged, but still incredibly warm and… nice. The few times Lee had let himself take what Father Sabaku offered and wear the cassock, he had felt nearly invincible. As if, in some way more profound than physical, he was protected.

It was with some regret that Lee realized he would not get to wear the man's cassock tonight. Yet it was very cold and Father Sabaku was not as accustomed to the chill as Lee was. He had admitted, only a couple of months before, that he was used to warmer weather. Always places in the south.

Beneath that cassock, he most likely was wearing his burgundy duster. Lee would rather not take any chances though, remembering the one time Father Sabaku had only worn a thin black sweater instead.

"What is that?" Father Sabaku asked after they swallowed up three feet of distance. They were that much closer to Naruto and Hinata's apartment.

"You never complain!"

Father Sabaku looked at him with dull eyes, as if this epiphany of Lee's had never actually occurred to him before. "I see."

"I do not think you do," Lee countered slyly. "My presence always has a soothing quality to it!" He did not say it to brag, almost, he admitted to it sheepishly, and it was said in a way that Father Sabaku could dispute if he didn't agree with him. "People always open up to me. They know that I am always here to listen without judgment and that I can keep any and all secrets." He laughed softly. "It is almost as if people believe I am a confessional. You, however…" He reached out a mittened finger to wriggle it near the man's cheek. "You have never once spoken of any problem to me."

"I am a priest. The problems I have are between me and God."

"God did not create one man to talk to himself," Lee admonished. "Besides, you do so much as it is! Surely, talking to one other person just once, a gift to yourself on this holiday, could not be a sin."

"You seem adamant about this suddenly," Father Sabaku drawled, facing forward.

Lee butted their shoulders together. "It is because I was visiting my children and they told me that you do not speak often at all outside of church! As your friend, I would be honored to listen to what you have to – no." Lee's expressive brows drew together as he sought the appropriate words. "I would be honored to listen to what you want to say instead of what everyone must hear." He looked up into the night sky. The full moon hung high with hundreds of twinkling stars quilted into the dark blue expanse above him.

He closed one eye, tilted his head to the side, and stretched one hand out towards the moon. He closed his palm slowly, carefully, on seemingly nothing.

Father Sabaku's eyes narrowed. "What are you doing?"

"I am holding the moon in the palm of my hand. It is something one of the children showed me. It fits perfectly, actually, and I was very surprised when she told me of this…"

Father Sabaku looked down at his own hand. It was not gloved or mittened. The tips of his fingers were red, despite having been in his toasty pockets. Without much enthusiasm he copied Lee's actions.

For a moment, they stopped on the snowy sidewalk to hold the star in the cradle of their fingers.

"… My hand hurts," Father Sabaku said at last in a near-whisper, as if designing for Lee not to hear him. "It has been hurting for a very long time."

Lee frowned and retracted his hand, only to reach out towards Father Sabaku. "The one in the bandages, yes?" Seemingly a rhetorical question, he was already dragging the limb from Father Sabaku's other pocket, cradling it in both his hands as he carefully unwound the gauze.

He hissed in sympathetic pain at the mess of scar tissue and burns that met his gaze. There were two series of three-slash like marks on the back of his hand and he traced them gently. They looked fresh, possibly inflicted by a small animal with very long claws.

"Do you have any wounds from the time you saved me?" he asked lowly, humbled by this man and his sacrifices.

"I had to rip the demon from you." It was possibly the closest thing Lee would get to a "yes".

Lee sighed and lifted the hand to his lips. "You are truly the greatest man I know, to go through such pain for strangers. One day, I hope you can find happiness to match your sacrifices."

If he was aware of the fact that he had been holding onto the priest for far longer than what could be considered polite, he did not let on as he turned the hand this way and that, frowning and muttering at every new scar he found.

Father Sabaku's eyes were half-closed as he muttered, "This is atonement, Lee. Happiness is too much to ask for." He tugged his hand free and rewrapped it.

"Nonsense! I can not imagine you committing any crime against God terrible enough to warrant complete darkness." Lee's dark eyes glittered dangerously. "The next time you are hurt, come to me. I shall treat your wounds." There was a light flush to his face that had little to do with the cold.

Father Sabaku saw this. And he said nothing of it.

"I understand," was his only reply.

They came to an apartment complex and ascended to the third floor. Fifth door in, they knocked.

The door slammed open and a grinning blonde stood on the other side. Behind him, Hinata, his fiancé, was putting the finishing touches on a glowing, sparkling Christmas tree the likes of which to put to shame the orphanage's attempts at decoration. "Hey, guys! Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas, Naruto, Hinata!" Lee chirped in turn, bringing the blonde into a hug before slipping past him and embracing a beaming Hinata.

Father Sabaku offered his rare, small smile and clapped Naruto on the shoulder. "Merry Christmas."

~""~

It was three weeks after officially meeting the priest that Lee came to the ultimate and unchangeable conclusion that he was in love with Father Sabaku. It was his kindness, his small, nearly unnoticeable expressions of happiness and sorrow, his eyes that saw all, the warmth and smell of his cassock, his vindicating sermons…

The moment he had truly fallen for the priest, though, more than he had just fallen in love but loved Father Sabaku above near all else, was the moment Father Sabaku had stood in the dawn, red and orange and pink light catching his handsome features, and had given him his full support to join SNAP*.

SNAP, otherwise known as the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, had been just what Lee had been looking for when he had wanted to share his story and make sure that no one else became a victim like he had been.

He had told Father Sabaku about it before he had actually joined, having wanted his opinion above all others. The children hadn't known, or else he would have wanted their opinions as well.

Father Sabaku's exact words had been: "Do what you need to do, Lee. There is no position of power that exists either worldly or divinely that makes it okay to do what Bishop Shimura did to you. You're going to have enemies. But I will never be one of them."

Oh, yes.

That was the moment Lee's heart had leaped trustingly and eagerly into Father Sabaku's hands.

That was a secret, though. Lee wanted nothing more than to crow about his love for the redhead, and he would go so far as to completely ignore for the rest of his days the voices that called him filthy in his own mind if that was what it took.

That would not make it better, though. Because Father Sabaku was… well, a Father. He was a priest, a man of God. Though Lee had heard him huskily dispel the homophobia and racism that Bishop Shimura had darkened the cathedral with, that would not make it right for Lee to challenge his vows as a Holy man for the sake of his own selfish desires.

Lee was blending his own protein shake when there was a knock at his door. His small, two-room apartment – one bedroom and the living room and kitchen as the same space with a small, almost cupboard-like bathroom branching off from his room – was his first ever home away from the orphanage. He was used to cramped spaces and so saw nothing wrong with the fact that it took only five steps to quirk the knob and see who stood in the hallway.

He frowned in concern. "Father Sabaku, what happened?"

The man did not look well. His scarlet red hair was drenched and his skin ashen pale. The bags under his eyes looked heavier than ever and he was cradling his bandaged hand close to his chest where it shook as if caught in spasms of pain. He was leaning against the doorjamb, looking at Lee with bleary pale eyes. "You said to come whenever…" The priest's words drifted off, as if lost in another land as his gaze flickered down and away and up and back.

"Gosh…" was all Lee could think to say as he gently ushered the redhead in.

It was almost as if Father Sabaku was delirious or something.

Not having much furniture above what was absolutely needed and not actually needing many things himself, he sat the priest down on his bed, opting to ignore the single stool in his kitchen/living room. Father Sabaku sank back into the mattress with a small, tired sigh. His eyes flickered shut for but a moment before opening and watching Lee with no particular emotion or even recognition.

Lee took Father Sabaku's bandaged hand into his own. Unwinding the gauze, he made a horrendous discovery.

There were three twisting burns that began at the seams of where his fingers met his hand and ended at his inner elbow. They twisted and curved over his already mutilated flesh, like tendrils of flames, and oozed.

Lee looked up into Father Sabaku's face. Small beads of sweat dotted his forehead and Lee caringly wiped them away.

"It is alright, Father Sabaku. I will take care of you as best as I can!" He bit hard into his bottom lip.

Father Sabaku did so much to protect others… Had this been a particularly wicked demon, bent on not releasing its victim?

Lee went in search of aloe and other things.

When he came back, Father Sabaku had closed his eyes. His breathing was harsh, his uninjured hand clawing at his clerical collar and then ripping out the first three buttons of his cassock. The buttons 'pinged' against the floor, two in a row. The third either landed somewhere else on the bed or on the small rug beside it.

Lee rested his inner wrist against Father Sabaku's forehead. The priest shuddered.

"Gosh, you are running a fever!"

This changed some things.

This changed, actually, nothing.

Lee was still going to do his best to take care of Father Sabaku. If it was required of him to find the fountain of healing somewhere in the wide world through a hundred trials, he would. He was really that determined to help the priest.

"… Lee…" Father Sabaku called out. "Lee!"

"Ssshhh, sssshhhh. Yes, I am here. What is it?" He ran his hand down Father Sabaku's arm and grasped his unharmed hand in silent strength.

Bleary pale eyes focused on him, past him, through him. "It hurts."

He nodded seriously. "I know. I will do my best to make you comfortable."

Father Sabaku slowly released him, eyes rolling into the back of his head as he fought falling asleep for reasons Lee could not comprehend.

Some minutes later, he had rewrapped Father Sabaku's injured hand, released him from most of his clothing aside from his boxers, undershirt, and socks, had managed to flip him onto his front, and had garlic boiling in water as he massaged the priest's head, neck, and back.

He was attempting, valiantly at that, to ignore the fact that he was straddling the man's waist, so achingly close to the man he loved that he could feel his muscles beneath his hands, could catch the echo of his heartbeat, feel the heat of his body. He had to bite the inside of his check to stop himself from saying anything damaging.

I love you! was a good example.

Please forego your vows of celibacy to be my most special person was another.

I want you was possibly the most ridiculous thing he could say in such a position as theirs.

"Lee…" Father Sabaku's voice was drowsy, distant. So tired. "You've got to stop."

He paused, feeling a brief flash of horror. Had he been saying his desires out loud? Or, perhaps…

He glanced down at himself. Yes, he was hardening in his sweat pants, but, at this angle, he had been hoping Father Sabaku would not realize that. How terrible was he, to be aroused by an ill man? He could hear Bishop Shimura in the back of his head, calling him a whore.

He combated it with Neji's love for his boyfriend Shikamaru. They lusted after each other, and it was merely a factor in their affection for each other. It meant that their chemistry was good and that their love was insatiable.

He would like to think that his love was insatiable as well.

"I can't fall asleep," Father Sabaku grumbled. "You can't let me…" He twitched, as if wanting to enforce his words with action. His body was weak though, the burns causing havoc on his exhausted form. Lee pressed into a sensitive nerve and the priest jerked before going boneless, another groan escaping him.

Lee was flushed scarlet red. On one hand, he was bringing Father Sabaku pleasure and relief from his pain. On the other, he was enjoying this too much for it to be solely for Father Sabaku's case.

"Sleep will help you get better!" Lee cheered.

"Not me." Father Sabaku opened one eye to stare at him. "Stop." Lee did.

"I have to check on the water," he mumbled as his best excuse for obeying Father Sabaku when he obviously needed to rest. "Garlic water will aide you in battling your fever. It is something that the nuns used whenever one of us got sick. Or, at least, it was something they did when we had our own garden." He remembered when Bishop Shimura had stopped funding their small garden of herbs and vegetables. He and several other children had cried.

"It is good that you decided to bring that back," he commented lightly, able to speak without yelling from the kitchen. "It will give the children something to do."

He returned with a steaming cup of water. He had drained out the bulbs, wanting only the juices the water had absorbed. "Sip slowly."

Father Sabaku managed to fight his way onto his back and then into a sitting position with little assistance from Lee. He took the drink in his good hand that shook anyway and did as told. If he thought the remedy unpleasant in taste or smell, he said nothing of it and took small baby sips till the cup was half empty.

He handed it back to Lee, eyes drifting shut. "Thank you."

"All I want in the world is for you to get better!" He put the cup on the bedside table. It was an old, rickety thing, more of a hand-me-down from one of the other churchgoers. "I am not sure how long it will take for your fever to break, and I do not have any pain pills for your wounds. It would be best if you slept," he tried again, albeit with weak determination.

One eye dragged open to peer at him. "No sleep for me."

"You have to sleep at some point."

"Never."

"Never?"

Father Sabaku closed his eye. "I haven't slept since the day I was born."

"That is impossible! Everyone requires rest at some point or another – are you certain you haven't been taking micro-naps? It is when your body shuts itself down…"

"No, Lee." Father Sabaku breathed in deeply, released slowly, and Lee watched his chest inflate and deflate in absolute awe. "I can't sleep."

"How have you managed to live this long without rest?"

"Inheritance."

"Inheritance of what?" Lee asked innocently.

Father Sabaku turned his head into Lee's nap and vomited in answer.

"The Lord is my Shepherd," Father Sabaku whispered feverishly, sweat gleaming on his alabaster skin as his hands twitched over his abdomen and the muscles of his legs shivered noticeably enough for Lee to nervous. "I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name' sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: For thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
Thou annointest my head with oil; My cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever."

"Amen," Lee murmured, crossing himself. A third of his mind was fretting over what to do of the mess Father Sabaku had made of him and his clothes while every other cell in his body and every beat of his heart worried over the internal battle that seemed to have swept away the priest.

"Amen," Father Sabaku mimicked in a cracking, hoarse voice. He wheezed, as if his throat was incredibly dry.

Lee put his inner wrist to Father Sabaku's forehead again. It was as if Father Sabaku was burning in the fires of Hell, he was so hot!

Lee crossed the Father, praying for the soul of the man he loved. Something was not right here. Something was, indeed, terrible wrong.

"The light of God surrounds you,

The love of God enfolds you,

The power of God protects you,

The presence of God watches over you,

Wherever you are, God is.

And all is well."

"Please, Father Sabaku," he begged, "please be alright!"

"Don't let me fall asleep…" Father Sabaku slurred. "Don't let me…"

~""~

*SNAP is an actual organization. To find out more about it, visit snapnetwork at org. (Instead of at, though, use a period. Fanfiction at net is not link-friendly).

Just a little insert from their homepage: 'If you've been victimized by clergy, please know that you are not alone. You can get better. You can reach out to others who've been hurt just like you have. Together, we can heal one another.'