Erm... sorry, I have massive writer's block...
Merry Xmas everyone!
Randomness: Disturbed, "Voices"
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Suit Square
Kabuto opened the door to the sound of Tsume's laughter.
His head ached terribly. How many details and questions did the State need to know for a divorce? It was ridiculous.
But the first step had been taken, and that was worth a headache. He took his coat off and hung it on a wall hook, his eyes alighting on the heavy boots that stood next to the children's shoes on the mat.
Kabuto smiled slightly. So Sasuke had really come.
Tsume laughed again in the living room, and Kabuto moved through the grayish gloom of the cool corridor to the room's door.
Sasuke was sitting cross-legged on the couch, absorbed in a book. The pale light from the window glanced off his dark hair and his eyes were half-lidded, red gleaming across the room. His pale skin was traced with shadow, the dips of his collarbone and jawline darkened in the half-light. His slender form was relaxed, one hand holding open the book while the other rubbed at the back of his slim white neck.
Tsume and Aki were peering around the room, looking into each corner and crevice interestedly. A few empty plates stood at the foot of the couch, and the stereo was on, radio playing softly.
Sasuke noticed Kabuto first, glancing up and hiding a smile. He closed his book but stayed where he was.
Aki and Tsume both looked up then, and Tsume called, "Daddy!"
Aki grinned and ran to Kabuto, hugging him. "I won the first round of the treasure hunt, Dad!"
Tsume pouted. "Be quiet Aki."
Kabuto smiled at them and chuckled. "I'm sure you'll win soon too, Tsume."
He looked up from the happy face of his daughter and beckoned to Sasuke. The teen made a face and got up, his legs unfolding gracefully from their position. He dropped the book on the couch cushions and walked over to the others. Tsume immediately latched onto him, and he picked her up easily, balancing her on one slim hip. His jeans were loose and rode low, the sharp contours of his abdomen and hipbones disappearing beneath the too-wide waistline.
Tsume tugged at the teen's black turtleneck and grinned at Kabuto. "Tsume and Aki have been playing Sasuke's treasure hunting game!"
Kabuto raised an eyebrow. "Where's Chouji?"
"He had some kind of test," Sasuke muttered.
Aki puffed himself up and stated importantly, "Yeah, he had a political science exam!"
"Aha." Kabuto nodded.
Sasuke gestured towards the kitchen. "There's still rice and tuna left."
"Oh good, I'll go help myself."
Sasuke followed him into the kitchen, the children happily back at the 'treasure hunt'. Kabuto peered into the pot on the stove and spooned some rice-with-tuna into a bowl, setting it into the microwave and starting the machine. He turned around, his eyes settling on the teen in the doorway.
Sasuke's eyes were shadowed and his form was shifting minutely all the time; he was nervous. "If you go upstairs, don't be shocked. Tayuya was here today. She trashed the bedroom."
Kabuto frowned. "Were you there?"
The dark head shook form side to side. "Chouji told me." Red-swirling eyes darted to meet Kabuto's and the kid grimaced slightly, wanting to ask but at the same time ashamed of his need to know.
Kabuto took pity on him and half-smiled. "It went fine. A few more weeks and it'll be through."
The teen nodded and the microwave pinged open.
°
Sasuke was downstairs with the children—it seemed they had found whatever the hunt consisted of, and the teen was restarting the game.
Kabuto had gone up to change and to inspect the damage. He glanced into the children's room first.
Their bedroom was at the back of the upper story. It was decorated in green and blue and the kids' toys lay everywhere, action figures and puzzles and memory cards. The beds were casually messy—nothing was out of place.
The bathroom was a different story. The shower curtain had been ripped off the bar and lay in a crumpled plastic heap on the white-tiled floor. The golden wood of the cupboards was stained with a mess of spilled perfume and shampoo and other toiletries, and the puddles of cream and soap also spread over the tiles. The faucet was dripping, the sound loud in the otherwise silent, darkened room.
Kabuto shook his head slightly and made a mental note to call the cleaning lady to come in an extra time tomorrow morning. He turned in the bath doorway and crossed the narrow corridor to his own room. The door was half-closed, and he pushed it open with a good measure of trepidation.
The balcony door was slid open completely and the icy wind was blowing in, slicing through Kabuto's sweater. Tayuya had ravaged both the wardrobe and the dresser, and thrown the sheets and blankets out onto the wet concrete of the balcony. The pink bottle of perfume was gone from the bedside table, and Kabuto didn't see any of his wife's clothes among those lying in heaps on the carpet.
"Hn."
Kabuto turned around. Sasuke was standing at the room's entrance, looking disgusted.
The man moved towards him and kissed the shell of a pale, perfect ear. Sasuke shivered involuntarily. Kabuto pulled him out on the balcony.
It was freezing cold. The sky was darkening, the clouds solidifying into a gray that was almost dark enough to be called black. The suburban street was empty.
Sasuke leaned into him very slightly and Kabuto kissed him again. The door closed behind them as he pushed him back inside, the clear translucent skin cold and shivering beneath him touch.
The bed felt strange with the covers and pillows still lying on the balcony, but Kabuto didn't really care and he doubted that Sasuke did, either. He buried his hands in thick silky black hair and kissed him deeply, grinding his hips down into the teen's slim pelvis.
Sasuke's mouth was hot and welcoming against his, his tongue flicking softly against Kabuto's. Cold slender hands fumbled with Kabuto's sweater, pushing it up clumsily and sliding over his chest, caressing. The teen was panting into the kiss by now, his hips pushing back against Kabuto's.
Kabuto groaned under his breath and broke the kiss, supporting himself on an elbow, and reaching down between their bodies to undo Sasuke's pants. The teen bucked his hips, his eyes glazed and his cheeks flushed lightly.
Kabuto's erection was aching and confined in his pants, his body too hot and sensitive. Sasuke's skin was smooth against his, their chests sliding against each other and slim hands kneading the muscles of Kabuto's back.
Kabuto finally got the pants open and slipped his hand inside them, meeting hot bare skin. Sasuke groaned and arched, his hands burying themselves in Kabuto's hair. He wriggled around, using his hips and the bed to get the pants below his knees and slip one foot out of them, and quickly wrapped himself around Kabuto's hips, thighs spread and offering.
Kabuto gasped, hurriedly unzipping his pants and pushing down his boxers. Sasuke hissed a curse and told him to hurry, hips and heat thrusting desperately against Kabuto's groin.
Kabuto watched, aching with need, as Sasuke wet a finger in his mouth and reached down behind himself, wincing slightly as he stretched himself minimally. It seemed to take an eternity before Sasuke whispered, "Fuck me, hard,"
Kabuto thrust and sheathed himself fully in tight hot heaven, groaning as his shaft forced the taut passage to widen around him very quickly. Sasuke let out a choked sob and his hands dug into Kabuto's shoulders. "Move!"
Kabuto wanted to wait for the teen to adjust, but the note of raw need in his voice broke his control and he followed the fiery heat in his body, pounding into Sasuke with no control, panting, groaning with each thrust. The teen's eyes closed tightly with each slam of Kabuto's hips, a small gasped whimper escaping perfect lips, before opening wide and starkly spinning red, a breathless moan shivering into the bedroom as Kabuto pulled out.
The room no longer seemed cold, the half torn down sheet below them rustling with their movements. Sasuke's panting grew faster and more desperate, and he stiffened, biting his lip—his back arched taut, and hot bliss clamped down on Kabuto's cock—Sasuke let out a shaky breath and came hot and helpless over their abdomens.
Kabuto snarled and thrust again, his climax a crash of pleasure and satisfaction that nearly knocked him unconscious. He supported himself on his elbows above the gasping teen, shivering away the last waves of his orgasm.
Sasuke moved first, grumbling about Kabuto's weight. He got off the bed and pulled up his pants. "The kids." he muttered, and disappeared.
Kabuto watched him go before standing as well and randomly picking a few pieces of clothing out of the mess on the floor.
°
Sasuke hadn't told Kabuto about Naruto's injury, and he though it strange that he was wondering why. He basically never talked about his friends with Kabuto, why should he do it about Naruto?
He watched the client clamber into the backseat, where he was lying stretched out and half-naked. The guy went about his business and Sasuke faked the usual moans and gasps, his eyes on the lights of the dashboard. There was a picture of a small girl in a frilly dress hanging from the rearview mirror. She looked a lot like Tsume, actually.
The client finished, payed Sasuke, and let him out.
The parking lot was fullish, cars continuously coming and going and very few spaces left. Sasuke crunched his way out of the car-lit gloom and onto Whore, making his way back to the Konoha.
The long snake of gleaming cars, lights flashing and blinking against the clothing of the whores and the wet concrete—the rain was coming intermittently, drizzling for short times every now and then—were dismal under the dark cloud-covered sky. The apartment building's lights were on behind curtains, beacons in the darkness above the misama of bright garish light and filth.
Sasuke lit a cigarette and watched one of the junkies chat up a worried-looking businessman.
It started drizzling lightly just as he was taking the first drag, the cold drops pattering onto his coat. He grimaced and walked a bit faster.
... Kabuto was actually going through with the divorce. Sasuke let the smoke unfurl into a rain-broken cloud and felt the red swirls loosen their grip on his eyes, the pressure easing as he grew calm. It was good news.
And he and—Haku, was it?--would try to fix Naruto. Help him. Something like that. God knew he deserved it.
He reached the Konoha, where Kiba and Shino were asleep. The two of them had returned from begging soon after the others had come back from the hospital—Sasuke had still been at Kabuto's—and it seemed as though they'd gone ballistic and worried about the blonde kid.
The group had been bouncing theories about how Naruto had been hurt back and forth when Sasuke had returned, and he had wondered whether to tell them that the kid'd been raped. He'd decided against it, it would only have made everyone suspect Gaara, which would have made Naruto angry...
Sasuke was getting way too nice.
Ino was changing on her nest of blankets. In the cold she usually wore a thick jacket underneath one of those lingerie corsets that accentuated her slender figure. Her jeans were tight and looked almost painful to wear, and her red boots gleamed in the pink neon light. She twisted her hair into a bun and secured it with a simple pin, grinning hello at Sasuke.
He nodded back and finished his cigarette. Gai was standing expectantly on the curb, but it seemed as though everyone else had a customer.
Ino finished tightening her corset and called, "Can I have a cig?"
Sasuke threw her one and they settled down on his mattress to a slow quiet smoke.
And tomorrow, he'd go to Slum Street.
°
Haku waited at the Slum bus stop, smoking his last cigarette and wishing he'd have dressed in an extra layer. The slush caught in the street drains was half-frozen and it was even too cold to smell the usual stink of greasy food, filth and unwashed bodies.
He glanced down the street to where the crack that led to Zabuza's brothel was. Zabuza had allowed him to go out for a few hours only, and he hoped that he could make it back by then. They were having a lot of smooth times just now, and he didn't want to ruin it. It had been a while since he'd had a bruise that wasn't from sex, and it felt nice, almost like a normal relationship.
But if Naruto needed help, then he'd gladly sacrifice all that stupid normality crap. Naruto was worth way more than a few bruises, and Naruto had also done more than get bruises in Haku's defense before.
When the blonde kid, scrawny and too pretty for his own good, had shown up first in front of Jiraiya's brothel as the newest addition to the white-haired man's vast collection of lost, half-dead sex workers, Haku had liked him on sight. They'd taken to waiting on the curb together, not really talking but comfortable in the knowledge that they were something like friends.
Sort of, at least. They were both too jaded to trust the feeling much, but they felt more secure around each other than around the other whores, which was a blessing.
Haku still hadn't understood what Naruto had done to get Jiraiya to let him go. It must have been something big, because Naruto was quite a star on Slum, almost Haku's equal when it came to the piles of chips they laid in front of their respective owners every night. And Haku was elite in his own right.
But either way, Naruto had made it out and onto Whore, something truly enviable. Haku had better things to do than be jealous of a friend about their workplace, though. He wouldn't want to leave Slum even if he were able to—Zabuza was what didn't let him, and Zabuza was what made him not want to leave.
"Hey," a cold voice murmured from his right. A bus trundled off down the street in a burst of exhaust and groaning machinery.
Haku looked up and into black eyes that were traced with stark red designs. He smiled. "Hey."
The other teen nodded and glanced around them. The hut was empty, and Slum was pretty dead at this time of the day, only a couple of old grandmas pushing their shopping carts to get to the store on Heer Street.
The other kid—Sasuke, right...?--was a study in perfection, the kind of chiseled and slender beauty that made anyone's heart throb. His sharp contours and pale smooth skin, the stark contrast of his dark hair and clothes—it all combined to make him look even more exotic and flawless.
"So..." Sasuke muttered, taking out a cigarette and lighting it using a peculiar little ritual that looked like it had been perfected over years of practice.
Haku started. "Oh, right. Well, I was sitting in the Red Sand Bar the other day," he beckoned for Sasuke to follow him, "And was talking with the cook there about Naruto's new life and all when he suddenly looked shocked and said that he was the Sandman's uncle. We talked about that for a bit, and last night I went back and asked him whether he knew where Gaara could be, since he's seemingly disappeared again—the siblings told him(the cook) that he's not at home or at work, so..."
"And did he tell you where?"
"He gave me some places where we could look. They're all pretty seedy, but I guess it's worth a try."
"How do you know we can even trust this cook person?"
"Oh, Yasha-chan is the sweetest guy ever. He takes care of anyone who needs help, he did it for Naruto too—he only wants to help, and he's not a liar. Don't worry."
Sasuke grunted behind him, and Haku just shrugged.
They stopped at a cigarette machine so Haku could get new cigarettes, and continued down the gloomy winding length of Slum. "The first place is a sort of bar-club-restaurant thing that's a bit farther into the slummy part here." Haku turned right into a pathetic dingy excuse for an alley. The houses on either side towered over the narrow street, and filth encrusted the pavement.
Haku lit a cigarette and glanced over at Sasuke. The other kid was studying their surroundings with veiled distaste and bland disinterest. He could be really unpleasant, it seemed.
Red-swirled eyes met Haku's. "What brand is that?"
It took Haku a bit to figure out what he was talking about. "Oh, they're the cheapest long ones you can get. Evgenia or something like that." He glanced down at his cigarette.
Sasuke nodded.
°
Ugh. This was more than seedy, this was disgusting.
The bar was called the Grim Reaper, and it looked like everyone inside was awaiting the place's namesake with joy. The dim, smoke-choked room was half-full, shady figures leaning on the greasy neon-lit bar and downing shot after shot of cheap-looking liquor.
Sasuke wrinkled his nose and followed Haku to the bar, where the beautiful teen spoke softly with the bartender and a few small chips changed hands. The bartender, a heavyset, unshaven man with no teeth, glared at both of them ferociously before leading them through a small door with a massive lock and into a back room that was very different from the main one.
Haku murmured into Sasuke's ear, his breath shivering down the teen's neck—the guy was too pretty, dammit!--, "This place has a back room that serves as a shicha bar, but they charge entrance."
Sasuke nodded. It wasn't a surprise, either; shicha bars were illegal for some obscure reason, and usually flourished in slum places like these.
The room was lit dimly in an orange-red, the light warm and glowing on the embroidered couches and stools that stood against the walls. Men and women were sitting and murmuring in low voices in the gloom, and the place reeked of the too-sweet tobacco that was smoldering on the pipes.
Haku sat down on a couch and muttered into Sasuke's ear, "Hey, I don't know what he looks like. You check it out."
Sasuke nodded and glanced around. Big fat guy, no... praying mantis guy, no... woman, no...
"It doesn't look like he's here," he said.
Haku sighed and stood just as the door opened. A tall slender form filled the doorway and cold eyes scanned the room, resting on Sasuke.
Sasuke looked up into teal ice and said, "Oh. There he is."
And now what? This was the Sandman and who knew whether he was in a good mood... who knew whether he was ever in a good mood?
Haku glanced at the man in the doorway and back down at Sasuke. "That's him?"
Sasuke nodded. Gaara had noticed him, but he was waiting in the door, expectant.
Haku sat back down and beckoned for Gaara to sit. The redhead raised an eyebrow, his face otherwise immobile, and obliged, sitting on a stool across from them. His body moved, muscles bunching and tensing, with absolutely feline grace, dangerously aware and alert.
Sasuke spoke in the dim smoky air. "Naruto really needs to see you."
Both Haku and Sasuke started as the redhead's eyes narrowed and flashed.
There was silence, aside from the soft conversations around them, and Haku murmured, "He's not doing well and he thinks you... are disgusted by him."
Gaara's eyes narrowed further. He rubbed viciously at his forehead, where a pale scar gleamed in the reddish gloom.
The fat bartender appeared and set a pipe down on the table between them. He vanished just as quickly as he had come and Sasuke wondered how much he knew about Gaara.
Haku helped himself to the pipe. Sasuke envied the beautiful kid's calm, but then maybe Slum gave you some experiences that made the Sandman seem like Santa Claus. He looked up.
Gaara was watching both of them, tense. He murmured, cold and terse, "Where is he?"
Sasuke gave him hospital and room number.
Haku blew out a cloud of mango-scented smoke. "He's feeling guilty about a lot of things that aren't his fault, and he really needs you to... uh, you know."
"Be... a boyfriend... sort of... thing." Sasuke managed. This was unreal. He was telling the Sandman to be a better boyfriend to his best friend.
Gaara's lips thinned and his eyes got colder.
"Well, we'll be going then." Haku muttered, and pulled Sasuke to his feet.
They hurried out of the bar, through the dark front room, and into the icy filth of the alley.
Both of them simultaneously and hurriedly lit a cigarette. They smoked in tense silence.
"Do you think that helped?"
Sasuke shrugged. "No idea."
Haku sighed and nodded. His dark liquid eyes brightened. "Well, we know where to find him now!"
Sasuke looked at him incredulously. "We just told the Sandman that he has to be nicer to his boyfriend, and you're glad we know where to find him?"
Haku winced. "Oh. Right." He waved a nonchalant hand and asked, "Hungry?"
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Okay, okay. This was kinda bad an choppy, but it's a chapter. I think the birthday will be in two chaps, and then the story will be OVER. Yeah.
And, though I know I'm an evil slacker, I will be starting a new fic. If anyone here likes Avatar The Last Airbender as well as the pairing ZukoSokka... keep your eyes peeled. I dunno whether it'll be soon, but it WILL happen.
Please review!!!