Solace In a Nightingale

A probable one-shot on how Hyuga Neji and Uchiha Sasuke might have first kissed each other. Although Yaoi is not my forte, I have been gripped by enough senselessness and hopeless romanticism to type this out. This pair is simply magnetic!

Electricity seemed to crackle between them. The moon shuddered behind a cloud as a nightingale began to gurgle in a singsong voice ten metres away.

The boys were secluded.

Sasuke was staring at Neji, a quiet thought - or was it a raging murmur? - scurrying about on his lips. His eyes were trained, very intently, on the older Hyuga's pearl-like eyes, who was propped up against an oak tree.

Neji eventually deflected the gaze by looking at the purple-hued mushrooms blooming around Sasuke's sandals.

The lone nightingale was beginning to ascend in pitch, and it was becoming softer and softer. Still, Neji said nothing.

But he could feel something venerable in the air, like a soft, evasive choir.

The stars seemed to cast a sleepy spell on his unusually bright eyes, and his body felt light and heavy as metal, all at once. He struggled to free his kunai from the holster on his thigh, in order to sever a small portion of bandages to tie his arm with; the cut on his bicep was still oozing.

Sasuke was bleeding as well, although not seriously either. He held a dazed look in his normally sharp eyes, but they appeared to be clear of the fatigue of the late hour.

A rustling pulled Neji out of his reverie. Sasuke stood up from his seated position on the ground, his hands brimming with the lilac-coloured fungi they had been searching for, and stated, abruptly, "Here you go."

There was a pause.

"Thank you," said Neji quietly.

"We must get back to the village now," his companion returned. His dark hair suddenly stirred in the flurry of a breeze.

"You fought really well, you know that? Sasuke?" Neji said, before he could stop himself.

With a shudder, he willed stoicity to mask his face and harden the posture of vulnerability his mind seemed to endeavour to adopt. With practised confidence, his features did school. But the next second, his resolve floundered in uncertainty, for Sasuke flashed a grin at him. It was a goofy, bracing gesture, the unpredictability of it shining at him like a little boy's face.

Yellowed memories of his father and himself raced through Neji's brain.

An ancient conversation rekindled in his mind.

"You must live."

For what? He had thought.

Here, under the younger boy's gaze, he finally realised what it had meant.

He stepped forward, receiving the herbs in gratefulness and stowing them away. He wanted to do something. Anything.

Instead, he took the younger boy's shoulder, gave it a squeeze, and walked off in the general direction of home. Sasuke followed him.

Neji was surprised by a swift somersault over his head. His face tingled, and Sasuke landed in front of him, as if the ninja had been transposed before him like a ghost, and breathed heavily for moments. His eyes darted erratically.

Seconds after an entirely invisible ordeal raged in Neji's stomach, Sasuke's silent debate seemed to end in his eyes. The last remaining member of the Uchiha clan leaned forward to try to catch the older boy's lips with his own. Neji bent down slightly, his brain deadened by the silence, and instantly tasted the stain of battle. A wave of happiness broke over the two like water awash on a shore.

Neji closed his eyes, and held his drawstring bag awkwardly between them. Sasuke's breathing had not abated, and whooshed at him at unsteady intervals.

The nightingale began to sing again, chiming its spine-tingling tune, this time nearer to them. It was soft, and it was gratifying. Neji felt Sasuke shift against him, and allowed him to break the kiss.

Sasuke appeared flummoxed. To Neji's credit, he himself was composed to the very core.

They simply stared at each other, Sasuke fiddling with the zipper on his flak jacket, and Neji watching him wordlessly. When Sasuke caught himself, he looked as though he wanted to say something, yet a conditioned regard for propriety seemed to erect itself between his speech and the cool, stinging air.

Neji smiled encouragingly at him.

"So this was it."

The faraway tone in which Sasuke said it made Neji inwardly curious. He reached forth to brush Sasuke with his fingers, on the forehead, and was rewarded with a greater response than he had expected.

"Yes," Neji murmured, the corners of his lips twitching, "I...love you."

A small smile spread around the younger boy's face.