Thanks a lot to all those who have reviewed, favorited and put this into their alerts. I really appreciate it! Here is the 'darker' one-shot I promised you all, sorry for the delay~!
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Rating: T
Genre: General - Romance
Note: Sasuke and Karin are around 14 years old in this, and it takes place during their stay at Otogakure. The title was inspired by a Sophie Ellis-Bextor song, and the line underneath is a quote from it.
Summary: The pain is searing, so much so that Sasuke only notices Karin pulling down the zipper of her shirt when she's got it almost off.
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Under your touch
(I had a taste and now all I want is you)
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The cave is somber and filthy. There is an acrid and pasty stench spread like perfume across its walls, a sticky substance that forcefully made its way into their lungs with every breath they took. But the worst part of the rock den had to be its humidity. It clung to their clothes, misted Karin's lenses, so that all she could make out was the bright blur of the flame Kabuto had lit up.
He was trying to keep it ablaze with small branches, but neither of them moved a finger to help him—and neither did they try to scoot closer to the fire, despite how tempting its warmth was.
They were sitting against one of the furthest walls of the cavern. It was coldest there, and also the most damp—but he didn't seem to care, and the incessant dripping had deafened Karin's senses to everything but it.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
Sasuke's arm wouldn't stop bleeding no matter how tightly he wound the bandages around his maimed skin, and the puddle of blood that had pooled underneath it was seeping across the cracks of the ground and toward her. Karin could feel it on her fingertips—ropy and warm, like only fresh blood could be.
Sasuke should let Kabuto heal him, but Karin knew better than to ask. He did not like to let Kabuto touch him unless the situation was dire.
An almost severed arm seemed dire enough to Karin, but Sasuke did not share the sentiment, if his reticence was anything to go by.
Yet, Sasuke could not quite manage to conceal the pain he was in. It wasn't his expression that gave him away, no, he always had his visage under control, but his labored breathing and his teeth—they clattered spasmodically, until he set his jaw and bit on his tongue hard enough to draw blood.
Karin frowned and looked down at her own arm, wrapped in bandages covered in dirt and dark splatters of red. She flickers a look at Sasuke and makes up her mind. Undoes her bandages and throws her glasses aside.
"Sasuke, let me see."
Sasuke opens his eyes only to find Karin crawling toward him like a small rat, and instinctively pulls his arm back with a hiss when she makes to reach out for it. "Don't", he warns, eyes narrowed, but Karin is undeterred.
"Don't be stubborn, Sasuke!" she prods in a whisper, darting a fugitive look at Kabuto's back. "You can't keep bleeding like this. Now, let me see!"
She almost regrets it when she does.
Dry blood had formed a black, crusty cover around the cut, but it falls apart the moment she removes the bandages and blood comes gushing out like a suiton. Karin presses her fingers against it to try to quell the rush, but it slips through them as if it had a mind of its own.
Sasuke grimaces, Karin curses. She has to hold back an apology as she sticks her fingers into the wound, feeling around for tendon or muscle damage.
Sasuke draws in a breath, stifling a grunt, and Karin's eyes widen.
It was much worse than she had thought.
The sword had sliced bone.
"Shit."
"K—arin…?"
Karin pulls her fingers out, but warrants his unasked question no reply, mind whirling at a mile per hour. The amount of chakra that flowed through her arms would not be enough to heal a perforated bone—much less now, when she had used so much of it already.
There was only one option. One part of her anatomy that could supply Sasuke with the enough amount of chakra, if Kabuto's calculations were correct. The experiments on that area had only just begun, but Karin had nothing to risk and Sasuke an arm to lose.
She doesn't hesitate.
The pain is searing, so much so that Sasuke only notices Karin pulling down the zipper of her shirt when she's got it almost off.
"W—what are you…?"
"There's no time for explanations, Sasuke! If we waste any more, you'll end up losing that arm," Karin asserts, meeting his eyes albeit only briefly, hoping he will be too delirious to notice the way her cheeks are burning as she pulls down her fishnet undergarment and straightens, offering her upper chest to his mouth. "Come on, bite me!"
Sasuke hesitates, pointedly looking at her face. "What about… your arms…?"
Karin shook her head hard, annoyed and anxious and embarrassed all at once. "It'd be no good, now do it! Do you want to lose that arm!?"
No. No, of course he didn't, damn it. It was the arm he held Kusanagi with.
Dubiously, Sasuke allows his eyes to touch the pale skin lingering a breath away from his lips. Even despite the ill-lighted surroundings and the intolerable pain, he could still make out two bite-marks that had yet to scar tattooed across her collarbone, and it makes something in his stomach tighten with unease.
"Sasuke!" Karin urges, and Sasuke comes to himself only to notice his glare boiling on the back of Kabuto's skull. Without giving himself any more time to think, Sasuke grabs a hold of Karin's wrist with his good arm and pulls her closer, sinking his teeth on the tender skin at the bottom of her neck.
Karin bites back a grunt. He had bit too close to her clavicle. "W—wait, b—bite lo—lower…." She commands, barely registering what those words entailed, or the hand that comes to entangle on the back of Sasuke's raven hair, guiding him lower.
When she feels his lips ghosting on the upper skin of her right breast her eyes widen with realization—but soon enough her eyelids are shutting close as Sasuke bares his teeth once more, grazing the sensitive skin and then resolutely piercing through it.
He begins to suck almost immediately and a lot of things happen at once.
There is a sharp ache, as always, but it pales in comparison to the heat of Sasuke's mouth on her, to the sensation of her chakra entering his flow and mingling with his own, to the comforting pressure of his nails drawing crescent-moons into her palms.
Karin moans, subconsciously pulling on Sasuke's sweaty hair and pushing him further against herself.
Sasuke could feel the skin of his arm beginning to knit itself back together, the pain fading into a dull ache and then disappearing altogether as a completely different sensation took over, sending his senses into a frenzy. He feels himself being pushed more fully into her chest but he does not fight her and opens his mouth wider instead, carving a new set of lower teeth in the lower curve of her breast.
This was not his first time biting her; it was not his first time feeling her warm chakra running through his arms, down his torso—but it is the first time he feels it leaving a trail of footprints that seem to catch fire with every little sound she made, with every little brush of her skin against his.
Like wildfire, it seems to settle on his abdomen and spread lower, lower—until his mind goes blank and he feels intoxicated. By her spicy chakra, by the salty taste of her skin, the slight panting of her body—the touch of her fingers against his scalp as a moan reverberates at the back of her throat, her back arching.
He is alien to his limbs as his hand abandons her wrist and settles on her hipbone, his right arm regaining movement in order to wrap itself around her, his fingers resting against her naked shoulder-blade and pulling her more toward himself.
His eyes part open, in a daze, and for a moment all he can see is Karin's arched neck, the sculptured angle of her jawline—and then she is lowering her head, as if feeling the weight of his stare, and he is met with the alluring sight of Karin's half-lidded eyes, of her flushed cheeks.
Sa… su… ke her lips call without making a sound, before curving into a lightheaded smile. Her hair falls around them like a curtain of flames, and Sasuke sees it the clearest in the darkness.
The blaze of his veldfire reflected on her eyes, echoing through him like a feral call.
Karin licks her lower lip, and Sasuke feels the inexplicable urge to let it consume him.
To let Karin burn him out to his roots.
"…-kun, any more of that, and the girl will die."
Kabuto's unexpected intrusion grazes them like a bolt of lightning. Both teen's eyes enlarge with shock—they had completely forgotten Kabuto was there at all.
No, more than that—
Karin's face grows as red as her hair as she takes in the position she and Sasuke were in. She was kneeling in between his legs, hands tangled on his hair, and he was practically hugging her against himself, his face on her—
She sees Sasuke realize it at the same time she does, both promptly frozen in place.
And then Karin lets out an undignified yelp as she pushes Sasuke away, turning her naked back on Kabuto and blindly fumbling around for her glasses.
Sasuke, despite the slight panting, was a picture of outward calm as he coolly backtracked against the wall, resuming his previous position and letting the shadows engulf him whole.
The inside picture, however, was a whole different story.
His heart was still jamming against his ribcage and his cheeks felt unnaturally warm, his trousers uncomfortably tight. He takes in deep, calming breaths and curses inwardly, fisting his palms and berating himself for having lost control in such a shameful way.
And in front of the likes of Kabuto, no less. What was he thinking?
Karin's half-lidded eyes flash through his mind, uninvited and distressful, and Sasuke has to fight back the urge to look at her.
What the hell was that?
His agitated question remains unanswered however, as Kabuto clears his throat and goes back to tending the fire, making no attempt to conceal the mirth from his voice. "Sorry for ruining your fun, Sasuke-kun, but I'm afraid that had you taken any more of her chakra, Karin would've probably died."
Sasuke looks quizzical for a moment, and then recognition settles on his face. He darts a glance at his right arm, which was now healed, and then at Karin, only to find her on her fours, panting and catching her breath, a cold sweat running down her forehead and to the tip of her nose to then drip onto the ground.
Seeing Karin in such a state is enough to quell the effect the biting had had on him, and Sasuke scoots closer. "Karin, are you alright?"
"Yeah… just a little dizzy," Karin murmurs, giving him a tired look from above the brim of her moist glasses. Her shirt was back in place. "What about… your arm?"
Sasuke doesn't even need to check, but he flexes it for good measure, "As good as new." He closes his lips without voicing the thanks, Karin that had come forth, for once oddly self-conscious in front of this girl.
The words make him feel inadequate for some reason, even though this would not be his first time thanking her. It puzzles him, but at least he doesn't seem to be the only one feeling awkward, because some color returns to Karin's ashen cheeks and she looks away, dismissing his words with a nonchalant grunt.
"Heh, you two made quite the scene. I wonder what would have Orochimaru-sama thought, had he been here," Kabuto muses out loud, seemingly out of nowhere. "I wonder if he would have enjoyed the show, or…?" he lets his words fade into an obscure silence, but the sharp look he aims at Karin's back makes her shiver, and it widens his smirk as his eyes lay on Sasuke's own.
Sasuke glares, and meaningfully reaches out to lay a hand over his Kusanagi. "That is none of Orochimaru's business, Kabuto," he snarls coldly, and his glare darkens. Nor yours, that glare said. It steals a chuckle from Kabuto, who shrugs and throws another piece of wood to the fire.
Sasuke is glad the older boy is seemingly giving up, because at the back of his mind, he couldn't help but know Kabuto had been right.
They must have made quite the scene, indeed….
For the rest of the night, in the cave there is nothing but silence.
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It isn't until a day after their return to Orochimaru's lair that Sasuke and Karin see each other again. Their eyes meet for the briefest of moments before each returns their focus to their own task, exchanging an offhand greeting.
Things were to be back to normal, it seemed.
Or so Sasuke thought.
As they pass each other in the dark corridor, walking into opposite directions, the small hairs on his arms inexplicably stand on end, and Sasuke finds he's acutely aware of the warmth of Karin's skin as her hand brushes past his.
…That awareness never does quite fade.
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End.
The next one should be more lighthearted, and on the humorous side. As always, thanks a lot for reading, and if you have a few seconds, I would really love to hear your thoughts.
See you guys next time!