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

Summary: Sasuke has spent three years trying to figure out how to live on his own. Maybe it's time to try something different. WIP. Future SNS, updates once a month. Canonverse. Rating may change!

A/N: more fic! good night/morning friends

Day 7 prompt - hurt and comfort!

sunflowers for the skeptical

Chapter 7: the water left unboiled

It's a hot, hot night. Sasuke's legs are sweaty in the sheets, and Naruto's aren't much better—

They've forgone clothes, tonight. There's no need. There's no need.

The moon is high and shining through the window, alight on Naruto's body, alight on Naruto's skin. Sasuke wants to be the light in the air—Sasuke wants to be the moon, wants to press himself to Naruto's naked body and tangle them both until they'll never untwist—

Naruto sits up, and Sasuke kneels on the bed. Naruto's teeth run over his lip. His teeth run over Sasuke's—he breathes out, and Sasuke breathes him in, their legs tangled together, their mouths tangled together, Sasuke melts against the bedsheets and Naruto crawls over him, pressing him down, promising everything, giving him everything—

Naruto's lips are hot on his skin, and they trail down, down, down, down…

Something jerks Sasuke awake. The room is cold. The room is real. Sasuke blinks up through the dark and Naruto's sitting up, gasping for air. His eyes are wide and panicked, hurt and unseeing. Sasuke sits up with him, and Naruto flinches at being seen.

"Sorry," he says quickly, scrambling out of the bed. His legs are shaking. His hands are shaking. "Sorry, I didn't mean to—I'm gonna get some water."

He leaves the room, and Sasuke breathes in before he follows. Naruto makes it to halfway down the hall before he remembers where he is. Who he's with.

Naruto's hand gets stuck in his hair, and he stops. Turns around. Sasuke continues to walk.

"Think you're special or something, moron?" Sasuke asks, his voice low. Muttering. Naruto lets out a breath that isn't a laugh, and Sasuke moves over to the stove.

They've bought milk. They've bought dried leaves for tea. One of these will be warm enough to bring the life back to Naruto's eyes.

"Did—you had a nightmare too?" Naruto asks, and he's a step behind. The moon stretches his shadow all through the floor, up the wall. His feet are bare. His clothes are thin. The air around them is vulnerable, and for once, Sasuke doesn't want to lie.

"No," he answers. "Not particularly."

"Damn," Naruto sighs. "Trade you."

Sasuke gives him a glance.

"You'd never make that trade."

Naruto's mouth stretches into a small, lopsided smile.

"I'd never make that trade," he agrees, and it's quiet. Small. Honest and admitting. Sasuke hears it and stares Naruto in the eyes, something in him searching for Naruto to acknowledge who he is. Who Sasuke knows he is.

"What'd you dream about? If it was good," Naruto asks, and Sasuke's going to drop this pot. "Get my mind off—y'know."

Sasuke clatters the tin onto the counter.

"None of your business," he replies, and it's far too defensive. Far too quick. Naruto's head tilts and it's already too late, Sasuke grabs the goddamn tea—

"Yeah?" Naruto asks, and it's almost a laugh. Damn it, it's almost a laugh.

The smile isn't meeting his eyes.

"You want to know the intimacies of my subconscious mind?" Sasuke mutters. "Use your imagination."

"Intimacies," Naruto huffs, and the smile is a little closer. A little further. "You make it sound like it was sex or something."

He snorts out a laugh with no heart to it, and Sasuke is the worst ninja to have ever been trained. He's the worst liar to ever have lived. Naruto's laugh cuts off and Sasuke's tension is written in every bit of his body—

"No way," Naruto breathes, and Sasuke tries to hit him with a wooden spoon. Naruto laughs and yelps and dodges and Sasuke hates himself because he's back, Naruto's back, the ghosts are gone from Naruto's eyes and the light of his smile had replaced them all—

"You can shut the fuck up," Sasuke tells him, but Naruto is already laughing.

"No way!" he says, and he's yelling now. He's standing now. He's up in Sasuke's face and fuck this boiling water, Sasuke's out of here, Sasuke's going to run away into the night and never return—

"Who?!" Naruto yells, jumping over the back of the couch to cut him off. "You gotta tell me. Come on!"

"Fuck you," Sasuke growls, and Naruto is incredulous. He's breathless. He's laughing and normal and just as himself as he'd been in Sasuke's mind, Naruto's mouth stretches and all Sasuke can think about is the way it'd felt on his skin—

He tackles Naruto to the ground.

It's not smooth. It's not particularly easy. Naruto expects the motion and tries to dodge, tries to take Sasuke down instead, but this isn't a training ground, this is a house, Naruto trips on the couch and Sasuke hits his back on the coffee table and they collapse in a pathetic, scrambling mess.

Naruto gives up halfway to the ground. Sasuke gave up long ago.

"Can't imagine you kissing somebody," Naruto breathes out, and it's a tease. It's a tease and a jab and something in Naruto laughs as soon as the words leave his mouth—and then he's laughing harder, with his hand over his face. Over his mouth. He rolls over, and Sasuke asks him if he's lost his mind.

"No, I'm—y'know what, yeah," Naruto says, standing. "I have. Wanna spar outside or something? Feel like I've got something to—get out of my system."

Naruto bounces on his feet, and Sasuke raises an eyebrow—but he obliges.

He has something to get out of his system, too.

He fights a bit viciously. He fights a bit desperately. He feels that same ache in himself that he had whenever he'd seen Naruto, whenever he'd been away—that clambouring to fight him. Touch him. Be close to him. It was the only way they could, and Naruto had always answered in kind—

Tonight is no different.

There's a communication in their blows—a language of mutual understanding. The night is cold, but Sasuke is burning, burning hot.

Naruto may as well be a match.

Sasuke's hands are familiar to him. An old friend, An intimate knowledge. Sasuke pushes forwards and Naruto pushes back, greeting him with his hands, with his feet, with the crash of his back to the floor and the tumble of them together, Sasuke's mind spirals as his body does the same—

For a moment, they're in bed, for a moment, they're together. Naruto straddles Sasuke and the collar of his shirt is pulled tight, pulled up, pinned to the ground—

Naruto buckles, and Sasuke stops.

"Sorry," Naruto says, and he isn't looking at Sasuke. "I think I'm—"

He breaks away. He's running a hand through his hair and wishing Sasuke wouldn't look at him, but Sasuke isn't kind. Sasuke isn't indulgent. Sasuke is hard and cold and demanding. He looks at Naruto, and Naruto's shoulders fall.

"Just—you died, okay?" Naruto says, and his arms are open. His arms are hopeless. His arms are tired and golden—

"You died, and I didn't. At the valley. When we—"

His voice breaks. It spins him around, it turns him away, Naruto cuts his voice off, cuts his breath off, he's practiced at controlling himself, practiced at shutting himself down—

Sasuke understands. It's unthinkable. To anyone else, their fights would be a win—but to them, it would be the greatest, greatest failure. Naruto was to die with Sasuke or not at all.

And Sasuke?

Sasuke moves to stand beside him.

"Trade you," he offers, and Naruto's head jerks up. It's the break he needs. It shocks the smile back to Naruto's face—surprises him into a laugh, into turning away and wiping at a face that thinks it might be raining.

"Ass," he laughs, and the bottom of his palm comes away wet. "You—god."

Sasuke watches him for a moment longer. Naruto controls his breath. Controls his eyes. Blinks up at the sky and breathes in, breathes in, breathes just a bit slower…

"Your subconscious is dumber than mine," Sasuke tells him. "If anyone, that would have happened to me."

"I don't want to think about that either!" Naruto says, and he's frantic—

"You don't have to," Sasuke said. "You wouldn't let it happen. Either of them."

Naruto breathes in and out, and Sasuke sits against the trunk of a tree. Naruto follows his lead. Their sweat sticks the dirt to them, but that's nothing new. They're unused to clean lives, anyway.

"I—" Naruto says, but the rest of his words fail him. Sasuke knows. His words fail him all the time.

"I used to dream of your death," Sasuke offers, as if this will give him any sort of comfort, "all the time. The first time we were at the valley. I thought I killed you then, for a minute."

He'd never been so sick.

Naruto stares at him.

"The sharingan has photographic memory," Sasuke offers, and Naruto is stricken. "It's not particularly kind."

Sasuke doesn't know why he thinks that will help. Maybe it's just honest. Maybe it's just the same. Maybe it's just another way they work together, breathe together, live together…Sasuke doesn't know. Naruto's mouth opens and closes, and he's taking a moment to think about every time Sasuke's eyes have been red. He's taking a moment to think about all that they've seen.

"Memorize this," he demands, and Sasuke blinks.

"What?"

"Memorize this," Naruto says again. "The—just—something good. Something better than this. Some—the tea. Shit, is the water still on the stove?"

"I turned it off," Sasuke snorts, as Naruto leaps to his feet. It pulls him to stand, too, though. "What am I to memorize?"

"I—just—this!" Naruto says, insistent as they step back through the garden, "just like—living. Not fighting. Here. Right?"

He turns back, as if waiting. Sasuke steps up onto their makeshift deck.

"What," he deadpans, opening their back door, "so that my twisted mind can dream of killing you here?"

Naruto turns back, and something in his smile is changed.

There's a glint in his eye.

"I mean, judging by today," Naruto says, and Sasuke's whole body is drenched with regret, "wouldn't it be kissing me?"

Sasuke kicks Naruto's ass through the door.

A/N: that's all for today! see you soon!

- Kinomi