I don't know what it is about writing when I should be asleep, but once again this was written at around 03:00. Bit longer than the one before it and much more… structured than the previous drabble but I still have not edited it from when it was completed.
Music : Lyn, P5R - No More What Ifs
When Naruto opened the door, it was with half-hung reluctance.
It had been a long day of work, of constant meetings, of obsessive elders who hadn't liked the idea of him making their roles all but useless. He had gotten home late already, but a bird was sent to bring him back for an emergency, and now, after saving someone's life in surgery at the hospital past midnight, he was allowed to go back home and sleep.
He had to do it all again tomorrow, after all, and he needed his rest.
But the door had kept ringing and Naruto was half of his mind to answer the call and refuse to work for Kakashi any longer tomorrow.
When he saw who it was behind the door, barely visible in the pitch black darkness of early morning, he felt all remnants of fatigue leave him.
It wasn't what he saw that gave it away, funnily enough, but the smell and distinct feeling of being in her presence. Her face was covered, after all, and the black silhouette against an even blacker background left very little aside from her frame available to see, but there was no doubting it.
Fuck Kakashi, he was taking tomorrow off no matter what.
It didn't take long for him to reach out, grip her by the shoulders, and yank her into the warmth of his abode before slamming the door shut. Not a second later and she was pressed up against the back of the door that he had just closed and clinging onto him like he was a lifeline.
It wasn't like he was much better, to be honest. He already had the length of his head burrowed into her neck, smelling the smooth velvet of her hair as if it was the very air he breathed.
"Sasuke," he whispered, almost like a fervent and disbelieving prayer, almost as if just speaking the words out loud would make her disappear and him fall against the hard wooden door. It wouldn't be the first time he had dreamt about something similar, and gods forbid he needed to make sure that this was real before he shed any tears for nothing.
He felt a cold hand, so delicate yet so her reach out and grip him by the chin and pull him up and away from her neck, and he only saw her eyes- already grafted red, before her lips were upon him and he forgot about everything but the movement of their bodies together and how far he could push her against the door before it snapped.
Her legs tightened around his hips and arms slung slowly over his neck, almost testingly, before he had enough proof that this was real. No dream had ever gone this far, only the tsukiyomi could fabricate something this genuine.
Eventually, regrettably, they had to release for air and Naruto took the time to lean back- still holding her safely against the wall, so he could carefully move a hand up and away from where he had been holding her and to the curtains of her hair that left most of her face invisible.
He had to, he had to see.
When he saw the redness shining subtly beneath the dark abyss of her features, like a ruby in a mine, he felt the air catch in his chest but for once in his life he was not wary of those killing eyes.
Because unlike all of those times where they fought, she was not using her eyes as an advantage to hurt him. This time, it was to remember this moment with perfect memory, because everyone knew it was both a blessing and a curse to be given perfect photographic memory, and Sasuke had made more than enough memories with those eyes to remember all of her sins, so he would make this one of the good ones.
She obviously had the same thinking when he saw the edges of her pale mouth rise slightly in the darkness.
"I missed you." she spoke, and her voice was like magic against his ears and it took all his effort not to rush forward and take in her presence again.
"I missed you too," he breathed, just as quietly as before, still unbelieving despite the very apparent reminder that this was real- and apparently reading his thoughts, because she knew him so well, she squeezed her legs tighter around him to jog his mind back to reality.
He moved forward to kiss her again, to feel those god-given lips grace his own, and the joy that swelled in his stomach when she reciprocated with just as much passion almost made his legs fail on the spot and make them tumble down onto the doormat.
It was a long while -Naruto didn't care to measure it- before they finally released again and he slowly but surely let her legs unhook so she could find her own footing. It wasn't that it was uncomfortable, quite the contrary, but there was a certain amount of control that Sasuke liked to maintain in any given situation and despite her previous actions, they both knew that it had been a spur of the moment action and that if she wanted him to kiss her, she would rather grab him by the neck and pull him down to her level.
Naruto smiled as he remembered all the possibilities for teasing, for chastising, because if anything in their time apart, it seemed as he had grown more and the distance between them had increased.
She obviously sensed his joy and looked up inquisitively, raising an eyebrow at him even as his arms kept her securely in his embrace, before her sharp mind seemed to pick up on what he was thinking and she scowled.
It was such a common sight, and so Sasuke, that he laughed out loud and crushed her against his chest ever more, and he knew that everything would be alright when he felt her own smile twitch against his pectorals- at her own expense.
When she pulled back, she reached a hand up to cup his jaw before he could do anything to stop her, and he leaned into the contact as they hovered by the front door of his apartment.
"For a brief second there, you did not look amused," she commented slowly, and the smile dropped from his face slightly- though not completely- as she started to play with his hair as he leant forwards. "Do not tell me that the village is making you unhappy, again."
"You shouldn't blame the village," he sighed, looking away even as her red rubies followed him. "I've just had a long day."
He didn't want to, couldn't focus on anything else right now but her, and being reminded of his work and the exhaustion of before were merely blockades for him to cross now and worry about later.
His mind, already wandering, was pulled back to the person before him by a sharper than normal tug of his lengthened blonde mane. "I do not want the first thing I see on your face to be so… worrying."
If it wasn't so… -not shocking, but concerning, to hear something so blatant from Sasuke, who was infamous for remaining infallible, he would have ignored her questions and just worked his way back into her arms. But for her to ask something so direct, and to swallow her pride and normal facade to do so, not only defined how much she truly missed him but how much she would expect of him.
"Not tonight, Sasuke," he whispered again, almost defeated as he leant into her hands. "I'm just- it's just that I'm overworked right now and I'd rather just get through the day- to see you. I'm fine now."
She held him but he could feel the eyes still looking at him, judging him passively, before she sighed and leant back into him before- and unlike how he had joked about their height distance before, he let her hold embrace him.
"We will talk about this," she said, and it was more of an order than a promise in the way she said it, despite keeping a soft tone. "But you need sleep, now, and I am wary from travel."
Naruto had his mouth open to protest, to point out the blatant lie that she was tired (because both of them were so powerful that travel never troubled them any longer), but she squeezed his sides tighter and he felt the assurance in them, the worry and the order that he was going to go to bed for the benefit of his health, if not for his racing heart.
Because as before, the fatigue had vanished from him and all he could think about was spending every waking second with her.
"I… They cannot take me for tomorrow. I promise that I will spend time with you, no matter what they ask. Honestly, fuck them-" he finally returned, and he felt her smile from beneath him, which he effortlessly returned despite himself.
Just the feel of her alone, of her very presence in a room the same as his, was enough to key him up to the point that he craved just touching her, just feeling her against him. He had thought of this so often in their time apart, dreamt of it to the point that it tempted him just to go out and find her himself, damning his duty, that simply basking in her presence could keep him content for hours- days even.
"Sleeping usually requires moving to your bed, first." she interrupted, and he could just sense her smirk, and he sighed in resignation of her chastising before releasing her, slowly, and wrapping a hand around her own before moving off into the interior of his apartment, careful to keep her within reach.
"Do you want something, a drink?" he asked, because despite knowing that she would be alright from her travels, he needed to make sure that she was alright and not too hung up on his fatigue.
"A glass of water?"
He hummed, content to help her, and released her so that she could rid herself of her travel burdens whilst he prepared a glass for her, dancing around the island of his kitchen despite the still stark darkness of their environment.
He wouldn't be much of a shinobi, supposedly the strongest, if he couldn't dodge an obstacle in his own home, despite being fatigued.
When he turned back, the cold glass now in his hands, he just caught her struggling to take of her cloak- one handedly, and he felt a slowly raising pit in his stomach as she fumbled, looking up to him in the darkness with a slight scowl as he set the glass down at the island by their side.
"I can do it by myself." she uttered under her breath, shortly, and he smiled sadly before leaning back and grunting softly as he hit the surface, closing his eyes for a second too long.
Now, the fatigue caught him, and he could feel a sense of gratitude to Sasuke for noticing before him as the adrenaline fled from his system and he eyed her tiredly.
"I know," he said softly, and the tone of his voice caused her to pause in her struggles to look up, curiously, before softening herself.
"Don't look at me like that," she ordered, just as shortly as before, and he frowned and raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean?"
"It's the same look I give you every time I feel your arm, and I know it then because you tell me to stop at exactly the same time I do."
He flinched slightly, and she sighed before the piece of fabric that had been causing the trouble before finally seemed to give and slipped over her shoulder, distracting him momentarily by revealing some more of her skin- even in the darkness.
"There is nothing we can do for the past, but now, we can focus on the future and the present. Is it not you that usually says as much, and attempts to persuade me endlessly of optimistic philosophical ideas?"
"I'm sorry," he returned, because there wasn't really any other way he could answer, and it was more than an uncommon occurrence between them for this to happen. With their past, their story, it was impossible to run their lives as if it had never happened, but there always seemed to be a moment of twinged regret that ate them up every hour and then.
And when Naruto watched as Sasuke struggled to even undress herself, such a simple task with two arms, he couldn't help but reflect and wonder on things that could have been, on things he could have done better so as to make their lives easier.
But for every regret he had, he knew Sasuke had ten more, and so he smiled tiredly when she finished folding her clothes onto the surface before them and looked up at him, gracefully accepting the outstretched water.
They walked, her leading the way to his room, and before long- in a haze that was slowly encompassing his being more and more, he had hit the soft plush of his bed and the feeling was so distractingly nice that he almost didn't spot Sasuke putting the glass down on the bedside table and slipping directly next to him, now wearing enough for him to see her slither down the bed sheets perfectly.
He gripped her, holding her carefully against him as they found a comfortable position in the bed before he was reminded so much of what he missed, what she was and that was here, despite everything, wrapped up in his arms and reluctant to leave- that he sighed and leant down, the tired batting of his eyes brushing against her hair as she moved a pair of arms to wrap around his neck as she burrowed into the crease of his collarbone.
"I missed you so much…" he trailed off, and he felt the smile brush against his skin before she planted a soft kiss on the tip of his skin, as a thanks maybe but likely more because she was as happy about the situation as he was, and wanted to assure that he was there and responsive.
It still dulled Naruto to know that she reciprocated as much as he did, and that she felt all the urges he did about him. It was a hypnotising thought.
"I love you." he said suddenly, as his eyes closed and he turned in the bed to wrap into her, the exhaustion of the day slowly becoming too much.
"I know." she said, and chuckled when he groaned against her skin and his eyes flickered open slightly at her jesting, her refusal to reciprocate his words despite the fact that they both knew the answer to her emotions.
And before he succumbed to the pulls of sleep, the sweet bliss of losing consciousness in the arms of her now warm and familiar body, he could have sworn he heard her whispering her own declaration of love into the emptiness of the night.
AN: As mentioned in a previous chapter of a Fanfiction, this is one of the many stories that I began to write as a full length Fanfiction but instead appropriated into a oneshot.
Naruto x FemSasuke is one of my favourite pairings and it's a shame there isn't more content about them spread out, so I thought I'd contribute to the site myself rather than cry over the criminal lack of good romance Fanfics. :(
I'll probably come back and edit this for grammar mistakes one day when I'm feeling it, but until then, I'm afraid you're going to have to suffer through it by yourself.
No remorse.
Hope you enjoyed it.