Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or any of its associated characters!

Summary: Sasuke is tired. Sasuke is hungry. Sasuke is...well, hunting, now. Vampire AU, SNS, will be explicit. Two years later...it's done! New chapter will be up every day until the fic is finished!

A/N: I can't take credit for the name in this chapter! We were brainstorming names for my original work a while ago, and the lovely nixrose (over on ao3) suggested this one. It was just too good to pass up! I'll let you go onto the fic before I spoil anything else...

Bite Me

Chapter 7: Dia(bolical)

"Sorry," Sasuke said again, hovering awkwardly in the doorway of Naruto's bedroom. He'd been just starting to wake up just as Naruto had started to doze off, so their sleep had been...

"No—" Naruto said, mid-yawn, "ah—no, don't worry, I screw up my sleep schedule all the time. You can stay here as long as you want—I get off work around five, 'kay?"

"I don't think I've asked," Sasuke said, looking as if he was caught somewhere halfway between wanting to follow Naruto into the hall and not wanting to be set on fire. "What do you do?"

"Mmph," Naruto said, ripping the toast out of his mouth, "I'm a pet groomer. Kinda. I own a little place; we're linked to the shelter beside us."

"Oh," Sasuke said, and something in his voice made Naruto turn around.

"What?" Naruto said, going back to him.

"That sounds…nice."

Naruto's smile widened.

"You're a softie. A real softie. Bet you're the softest vampire arou—ow, hey, hey, don't pull!" Naruto dissolved into laughter as Sasuke gave his ear one last yank.

"And for the record," he said, walking backwards so he could point his toast at Sasuke, "it sounds all cute and fun until there's four cats and they all need a bath. You think I lose a lot of blood with you? You've got nothing."

Naruto only caught a glance of Sasuke's laughing smile before he ducked it behind away. The way he moved totally gave him away though.

"Okay," Naruto said, grabbing his stuff and dodging the spider that scuttled out from under his bag. "Make yourself at home! Or don't. You might wanna wait out the sun—they said it might rain around—can you go out in the rain?"

"It's better, but not great," Sasuke called down the hall. "Stop stalling and text me your questions, slacker."

"Asshole! Bye!"

The door shut.

Sasuke slept until well in the afternoon.

It was likely good for him, in the end. He still hadn't fully adapted to a nighttime schedule—not completely, no matter how biased his body was towards it. He'd almost managed it when he'd had his last job, but since then...being too tired to eat, or too hungry to sleep...wanting a regular, normal, human life and spending half his day unable to even exist alongside them...

Sasuke sighed and sat up, rubbing at his eyes.

At least he had his new job, now, as odd as it was. And Naruto was understanding. More than understanding—Naruto was downright empathetic. Sasuke wondered if he was this way with everyone.

Sasuke's eyes flickered to the end of the bed—where Naruto had bared his neck, falling back—and ducked his head away with a small laugh.

Maybe with some exceptions.

But Sasuke had been on the receiving end of Naruto's hospitality this entire time—and aside from one particularly drunken night, Sasuke had done little beyond saving Naruto from the odd puddle or stairwell to repay him.

That would change.

...As soon as he came up with something he could do for Naruto, that would change. As soon as he figured something he coulddo—with his scattered knowledge and water vapour memories, Sasuke was a man of little skill. And no resources to make up for it—if he at least had enough extra money, he could quite literally pay Naruto back, but he'd been spending it nearly as quickly as he'd earned it so far…

He sighed.

What did he know how to do? What would Naruto even want him to do? He said he'd be back at five, which was in a few hours...and Sasuke could, in theory, make it back to his own place and be out of Naruto's hair…

Somehow, it was an option Sasuke didn't even want to consider.

Which left him here, needing a reason to still be here. A reason better than the sun still being up—Naruto would see right through that. A reason that wasn't just—just the relief and contentment and stupid hope for the future Naruto made him feel. If Naruto didn't already know that, Sasuke certainly wasn't going to enlighten him.

He shuffled over to the doorway, peeking out into the hall.

Hm.

Naruto had mentioned he hated to clean...

Naruto came home to the smell of...food? No way. Sasuke didn't—

"Oh my god," he said, freezing right in his doorway, "you—did you—what did I do to deserve this?!"

"Other than repeatedly save my life?" Sasuke asked, not looking up. "Nothing at all, I suppose."

Naruto laughed, tossing his stuff on the floor and his shoes to the side as he kicked his door shut.

"I love what you did with the blinds," Naruto said, bouncing over to the blanket that'd been really wedged in there— "Real avant-garde stuff."

"Mm," Sasuke said, sounding like he was holding in a laugh, "I'm afraid I didn't get around to dusting those."

Naruto spun around—

"You dusted?!" he yelled, sliding back to Sasuke. "Is there anything you didn't do?"

Sasuke's smile stretched a little wider, but he only met Naruto's eyes for a second.

"Wash the sheets. You need a new scrub for the bathroom, by the way."

"You—you cleaned my fucking bathroom?!"

"You certainly weren't going to."

"Wh—you—hey! I clean the toilet!" Naruto moved around the counter to be on the same side as Sasuke. "...Okay, I probably wasn't gonna scrub the shower or whatever any time soon. I really hate that stuff."

Sasuke's lips twitched.

"I didn't mind it," he said, and Naruto—

"Oh yeah, okay," he laughed, "now I know you've gotta be something supernatural."

Sasuke huffed and rolled his eyes, and Naruto darted around the counter.

"No, but seriously," he said, ducking behind Sasuke's shoulder, "if you—I thought you said you had no, y'know, memory of—all this?"

Naruto gestured vaguely to—to what looked like some sort of stew, fuck that smelled good—

Sasuke glanced back at him.

"I don't," he said quietly. "But I have...loose knowledge. I have...the information," he said, letting out a frustrated breath, "without the memory."

"Oh," Naruto said softly, "so like—"

"So I know how to cook rice," he said, gesturing towards the pot. "I know it's annoying to have too much water and even more annoying to have too little. I know this would be better with mushrooms and onions and other vegetables you neglected to buy—"

"I know I need to go shopping, man, come on—"

"—but I don't know how I know any of it."

Naruto crossed his arms over the counter beside Sasuke, and breathed out. That...Sasuke was handling this surprisingly good. Or, well, Naruto guessed he'd probably come to terms with it by now, but…

"Like the memory without the memory, huh?"

Sasuke glanced at him, but looked away as he nodded.

"Can I—um," Naruto slid a little closer, "can I ask what else you remem—or, well, not remember, but you know what I—I'm sorry, I'm phrasing this all wrong again—"

"Moron," Sasuke cut him off, "it's fine."

There was a pause. Sasuke turned to the cabinets, flipping through the—oh.

"Bowls are on the right," Naruto said, "if that's what you…"

Sasuke promptly pulled a bowl out.

"They're guesses," Sasuke replied, "based on what I know. Some are easier than others—like English is my first language."

"Okay—yeah. That one makes sense." Naruto shuffled against the counter. "Any—what else?"

Sasuke carefully lowered the food into the bowl, swiping at stray bits of rice as if it was something he'd done plenty of times before—

"I know my name. My first name—I know it's annoying for it to be mispronounced and for strangers to call me by it. I know I...tend to think abbreviations sound stupid. I know enough to know it's my name."

"So...no nicknames? Can't call you Sas?"

Sasuke met his hesitant smile with a look, but it softened after only a moment. It was a painful, terrifying something that Sasuke was going through. Naruto knew that.

"I know too many last names to know which one is mine."

Naruto breathed in, opening his mouth—

"I know what to say when someone comes back through the door and dinner's ready," Sasuke said, cutting off whatever Naruto had to say as he turned to him, holding out the bowl—

"Welcome home, Naruto."

Naruto's heart stuttered and stopped.

"Oh," he said, breathing out and then in, looking down and back up, smile faltering and then coming back three times as wide—

"I see a cat made it to your face."

Naruto laughed, taking the bowl from Sasuke.

"Yeah," he said, shifting around to the other side of the counter—the one higher up, meant to be a bar that Naruto never really used, "yeah, we got a new girl today who kicked my ass. She just got in off the street and has all this matted fur—it's rough. We're not trying to tackle that yet but we had to get some meds in her quick—she's a cute little asshole though. All black with this little white smudge on the tip of her ear."

Sasuke snorted. Naruto's grin widened.

"I think you'd like her."

Sasuke leaned over the counter, eyebrow raised.

"Given our shared tendency to bite you? Eat your dinner."

"Death glare me into submission, whack at my face, be generally nocturnal—y'know, the works. Did you try this yet?"

"That last one was you. I could have slept just fine—and I tried it and spat it out, yes," Sasuke said, scanning him. "I'm not sure I would trust my taste buds."

Naruto laughed.

"I'm the least picky person alive. You're good," he said, pulling the steaming bowl closer.

Sasuke leaned back against his fridge, watching him.

"Don't indulge my ego if it's terrible. It's my first attempt."

Naruto rolled his goddamn eyes.

"What, you're gonna sit here and pretend this whole room doesn't smell amazing?" he said, fanning a hand through the steam. "Okay, sure thing, Dracula. It's gonna taste like shit."

Sasuke snorted, and Naruto blew all over his food.

"You could just wait for it to cool," he offered—

"No the fuck I can't," Naruto told him. "Gimmie a spoon or something."

"You're going to burn your tongue," Sasuke warned—

"Don't care!" Naruto said, snatching the spoon Sasuke passed to him. And yeah, it was hot as hell, and yeah, he had to reel back and fan his mouth and Sasuke totally laughed at him, but it was good and Naruto was hungry—

"You're an idiot," Sasuke told him.

"Maybe if you cooked worse I'd be smarter," Naruto said, making the exact same mistake again— "ah—fuck—"

"Moron," Sasuke sighed, pulling Naruto's bowl away. "I said not to indulge my ego."

Naruto swallowed.

"I'm not," Naruto told him, "I'm—gimmie—no, you know what, I'm probably lying, so you should totally just keep cooking for me to prove it. Y'know, just to make sure—"

Sasuke snorted and looked away, but Naruto caught the smile on his face. He yanked the bowl back to himself, and Sasuke backed off.

"You groom pets off the street?" he asked, turning back to the sink.

"Oh—yeah, sometimes, yeah," Naruto said, in between bites, "not all of them, but like—the shelter is basically part of us too, we're always working together. And our foster network still needs us, too—everybody's gotta get presentable before they get adopted and all that."

"And did you manage? It looks like she put up quite the fight."

Naruto laughed into the bowl, pointing his fork at Sasuke.

"That's enough outta you," he said, smiling. "We did good. It was rough, but we did pretty good. More to do, though."

Sasuke watched him for a moment longer.

"Do they sting?"

Naruto scrubbed at the sides of the bowl with his spoon.

"The cuts? Like a bitch, yeah." He laughed. "The ones on my hand are the worst 'cause I keep bugging them. Nothing too deep though, it's okay."

"...Give me your hand."

Naruto blinked.

"My hand? Like this?"

"Yes," Sasuke said as Naruto propped himself up to reach over the counter, "I want to see if I can heal you."

"Heal…?"

Sasuke licked his thumb and swiped it across one of the several scratches on Naruto's palm.

"Oh," Naruto said, freezing in place. That was right—there was never any mark when Sasuke bit him. It could just be part of the whole vampire bite thing, although Sasuke's neck seemed to be an exception, so maybe…

"No," Sasuke said, frowning, "I can't tell. Probably not."

"Well, no, hang on," Naruto said, slipping off his stool to come back around, "it probably needs more. You've got your whole mouth on it when you're biting me."

Sasuke turned to face him, leaning against the counter.

"You want me to slobber all over you?"

Naruto laughed.

"I work with dogs, Sasuke," he told him. "Getting slobbered on is my comfort zone."

Sasuke snorted, shaking his head as he turned away.

"But I guess you're more cat than a dog, huh?" Naruto teased, and Sasuke turned back.

"Very funny," he said.

Naruto's grin widened.

"Stalking your prey and everything," he said, tilting his head. "Come on."

Sasuke moved closer.

"You and that pose," he said, eyes flickering red and dark and red and dark—

"You seem to like it," Naruto said, shifting his body so Sasuke could press right to it if he just moved a little closer, "plus, I owe you some dinner, don't I?"

Sasuke snorted. Naruto felt the breath.

"With the amount of debt I've wracked up," he said softly, "I'm not sure you'll owe me anything at all for a very long time."

Naruto laughed.

"Sasuke," he said, turning to actually face him, "you scrubbed my bathroom. You have no idea how much I hate doing that. Bite my neck already and see if you can get my face in the aftermath. I've got some scratches on my shoulder too, actually…"

"And your hand," Sasuke said, catching it to scan it with worried, hungry eyes—that weird dichotomy that Naruto was growing more and more familiar with…

"I told you she was a menace," Naruto said, throwing Sasuke a smile. "I think we're gonna call her Dia. For Diabolical."

"I'm liking her more and more. Take your shirt off."

"Take my—?"

"Your shirt, moron, I'm not going to lick you through it."

"O-oh," Naruto stuttered, obeying nonetheless. He hadn't realized Sasuke was gonna actually—maybe he should have. Yeah. Uh—but this was fine. It wasn't—it wasn't like they were—like they were gonna hook up or something; Sasuke needed to do this to survive and he hated every second of it, so—

"That, uh, good?" he asked, balling his shirt up in his hands.

Sasuke's cool fingers traced the sting along his shoulder. It was weird how much colder he felt when he hadn't eaten in a while.

"You weren't kidding, were you?"

"Yeah, I, uh," Naruto let out a quick, nervous laugh, "nobody else wanted to try to carry her."

"Looking at you," Sasuke said, "I can't blame them."

Naruto laughed again.

"So, uh—"

Sasuke's hand pulled away.

"I'm not going to do it if you're this nervous about it," he said, crossing his arms. His eyes flickered back to their usual, stubborn dark, and Naruto wondered if Sasuke knew how well he actually had that under control.

"Oh," Naruto said, "oh—that's not—I'm not—I mean, I'm—okay," he let out a breath, "it's not you. It's more how I—how I, um, reacted. Last time. I don't—sorry, I mean—"

Naruto trailed off, awkwardly staring at the microwave. He was about as smooth as his goddamn cheese grater.

"Naruto," Sasuke cut him off. "I know enough about physical cravings to understand the difference between bodily reaction and genuine feeling."

Oh. But that wasn't...it wasn't…

"Okay."

Was it?

"So long as you don't bite my dick or anything," Naruto continued quickly, deflecting from the way his breathing had paused and then started again, faster than before—

"I believe you have access to your choice of knives behind you," Sasuke deadpanned, "and I am less than inclined to have one at my throat again."

Naruto couldn't help but laugh.

"I threaten to stab you one time…"

"Tends to be a thing a man remembers," Sasuke said. "Alright?"

"Yeah," Naruto said, ducking his head. "Let's see those vampire powers in action."

He tilted his head and shot Sasuke a smile, forcing his body to relax again. He'd deal with—with whatever was going on in his head later. Later, when Sasuke wasn't around and wouldn't take it the total wrong way. For now…

Sasuke put his hands on Naruto's waist, and his mouth on his neck.

Ugh.

Naruto breathed out and stubbornly kept his eyes open. He only clenched the counter behind him for the support. He was only dizzy because of the blood loss, not the heat of Sasuke's mouth. Not the way he kept pressing closer—fuck, he was already completely confused again—

"Hey," he said quickly, if only to save himself, "try now."

Sasuke moved back, starting with the hand that Naruto obediently lifted up. He could feel the soft scratch of Sasuke's fangs, still out but not biting—one finger in Sasuke's mouth, and then two, and then he pulled back to Naruto's palm as his eyes faded to midnight—

"Did it work?" Naruto asked, breathless.

Sasuke wiped Naruto's hand with his thumb, frowning as he turned it over.

"I think...it did."

Naruto shuffled closer to peer over Sasuke's shoulder—Sasuke responded by holding up Naruto's own hand to his face and—sure enough—

"Whoa," Naruto breathed, staring at his smooth skin, "whoa, Sasuke! This is so cool!"

He grabbed at his hand as Sasuke let go, pulling at the skin. There wasn't even a mark—not even the pale scar of a recently healed wound.

"You can heal people!"

Sasuke leaned against the counter, smiling softly.

"I'm sure there are limitations," he said, but Naruto only shook his head.

"This is so cool! Come on—this is cool." he said, turning to Sasuke, pointing his finger in his face— "You have to give me this one—say it. Say this is cool."

Sasuke snatched his hand out of the air.

"This is cool," he mocked, and it made Naruto laugh. Sasuke's eyes flickered to his shoulder, though, and up to his cheek a couple times—

"Are those wounds? Tattoos? I don't know if they will count."

Naruto blinked.

"What? Oh—like my—" He held his hand up to his face, picking at the marks. "No. Or, well—I don't actually know. I've had them for as long as I remember—with my, um, well, you called it a tattoo, too. On my stomach."

Sasuke stared at him, feeling that question in his throat again—

"You don't remember…?"

Naruto shook his head.

"No—no. I don't think it was anything bad, I think I'd remember if something like…happened. I don't know. I might've been born with them for all I know. I don't have any baby pictures or anything."

Sasuke continued to stare, brow furrowed.

"Anyway—it doesn't matter. Why'd you ask?"

Sasuke seemed to shake himself a little.

"Just—if they would disappear…"

"Oh," Naruto said, ducking his head to poke at them a bit harder. "I don't—I mean, I guess I...or...well, if I…"

Sasuke snorted.

"You don't know."

Naruto ducked his head.

"Sorry. I've had them for so long, I don't…I mean, maybe they would, I—"

"Naruto," Sasuke said. "You don't have to decide right this second. Your shoulder?"

"Oh, please, it's stinging like hell," Naruto said quickly, laughing. His shirt had rubbed the cuts just enough to get them to really start burning when he'd pulled it off—

"...How are you feeling?"

Naruto grinned.

"Not bad. A little light-headed. Just do a little one?"

As if to accentuate the point, Naruto leaned his head to the side. Sasuke's eyes flashed to a burning red, but he didn't move.

"Are you sure?" he asked, his fangs poking out through his lips—

"Little one. I'll shove you away if you're there too long."

Sasuke moved closer. Naruto tilted his head, closing his eyes as he felt Sasuke's breath…

He barely felt the pressure, this time. It was only Sasuke's mouth, hot and wet, and then the trace of his fangs along his skin, down to his shoulder—Naruto's eyes flickered open, low and half-lidded, as Sasuke kissed along his skin…

Wait, no. Nope. Nope, nope, nope—Naruto reeled his mind back to himself and stared at the goddamn wall. This again. This again. He had to stop doing this, he kept making this into so much more than it actually was—

"There," Sasuke said, wiping at his mouth as he pulled back. "I think I got them all."

Naruto glanced at his shoulder, pressing his fingers to where the stinging had been.

"This is so cool," he breathed, staring at the places on his shoulder that used to be all scratched up. He couldn't even feel where they'd been anymore. He couldn't even see a line, or a scab, or anything…

"So you've said," Sasuke said, shaking his head. "Is the sun down yet?"

Naruto laughed.

"Already tired of me?" he teased, grabbing his shirt back. "Nope, you've got another few hours. I'll check before you go. Wanna watch a movie or something?"

"...If I get to choose."

"Aw, so no Twilight?"

Sasuke shoved him into the counter.

A/N: Dia(bolical) was all nixrose! Such a fun name, thank you so much for letting me use it!

I'm loving all the speculation about Sasuke. I hope you're excited with where everything's going - thank you all so much for the love!

See you tomorrow,

- Kinomi