Naruto was twitching nervously in the passenger seat as he stared out at the forest flying by. Sai was once again driving, as he had done six weeks ago when he brought Naruto to the cabin for the first time. The forest looked different now, a patchy blanket of snow covering the rotting leaves on the ground. Winter had settled over the forest, cold and wet and miserable. At one point he had liked winter, liked the snow it brought, because that meant he could go sledding or build snowmen, and he loved that, playing outside, feeling the bite of frost on his nose. He was sure he had looked forward to Christmas too at some point, before too many stints in foster homes had ruined that for him. Iruka had mended that to the best of his ability, and a few months ago Naruto would have thought that this year would be better than ever. He had imagined bringing Sasuke back to celebrate with them, but now it looked to be a lonely Christmas that made him long for those where he was the one kid in the family who didn't get any presents because he was only the foster child and not a biological child.
He didn't know where Sai was driving them, didn't care to ask, was too anxious. All he knew was that he didn't feel ready in the slightest.
The rat shifter who was the cabin's designated medic kept trying out new varieties of the suppressants, increasing some of what he was adding to the cocktail and decreasing others parts, but they had yet to find a perfect one. He hadn't had any incidents with the beast in weeks, didn't feel it all, just a hollow coldness in his gut where it usually was an ever present presence. He didn't trust that feeling.
Being at the cabin was one thing. The beast had always responded to feelings, soaring to action when Naruto was angry or scared, but at the cabin there was little to be afraid of, so he feared that the moment he would truly test it it would come roaring back, driven wild by the captivity.
Sai had pulled Naruto out of bed that morning stating that they had a job. Naruto had tried to shove him away and go back to the blissful land of dreams where… okay, the dream had been pretty messed up so he wasn't sure he wanted to go back to that dream in particular, but he appreciated his sleep, and had no inclination to do anything Sai asked of him. Usually it entailed helping out around the cabin, and Naruto felt he had to. The councilman kept a roof over his head, fed him and supplied the suppressants that he depended on, he felt that doing chores were necessary to pay him back, however much it pained him to agree to anything Sai said.
Naruto had thought the job today would entail more physical labour, but Sai had said that they would be leaving the cabin altogether, that they had something to do outside the safety of tall walls, that Danzo had said they needed to test the effect of the suppressants out in the real world.
Naruto had only met Danzo, councilman and owner of the cabin, that one time almost two weeks ago. Apparently he was busy with his political work and didn't have the time to go out here, which made sense considering they were in the middle of nowhere. He still knew virtually nothing about the man and his reasoning for creating this place; Danzo had been more interested in Naruto, asking him enough questions to have his mind reeling by the end of it.
The job Sai and he was sent on would hopefully be over fast, they just needed to find a fey that was stuck in an abusive relationship, too scared of her mate to leave on her own, or possibly even detained against her will. Hopefully they would be able to get her out without even meeting the abusive bastard and bring her back to the cabin.
Naruto had never met a fey before, there were very few of them in America, they mostly kept to their old homelands in Europe, preferring vast forests devoid of people, having little need to ever travel from them. He had heard about them though, so he wasn't going in completely blind.
It took them an hour of driving through sludge before Sai pulled up outside a flower shop. Naruto peered over at him, wondering for a moment why Sai would have an urgent need for flowers, but Sai just left the car and headed towards the building, so there was little Naruto could do but follow.
He kept looking around at the deserted streets around them. They were in a small town, possibly one they had travelled through when they first came to the cabin, but Naruto couldn't be sure, he hadn't been paying much attention at the time. It was late enough that all the stores were closed apart from a Circle K across the street, but not late enough that people had gone to sleep. Lights were on in windows, the glare of TV screens clear in several of them. Did they know or even care that someone was in trouble so close by? Probably not, in his experience people tended to know but did nothing about it. It was easier to live in a world where there were no abusers, no bullying, no pain, even if it wasn't the truth. People wanted to be fooled.
Neither Sai nor him had any weapons with them, at least not as far Naruto knew, but from what he had gathered from Sai the husband in question was human, and he was pretty sure the two of them could take out a human, even without weapons. Even with the suppressants Naruto was still far stronger than any human being.
Even though he had spent too much time around him for the last weeks Naruto didn't actually have any idea just what Sai was. He showed none of the most common characteristics of any shifters Naruto had met. He clearly wasn't a fey, he wasn't nearly pretty enough for that, and he didn't smell of the herbs that witches always seemed to reek of. He was pale enough to pass as a ghoul, but had made no move to eat Naruto yet, so that wasn't it.
Naruto hadn't actually bothered to ask. Maybe the dick was just human, although judging by the other people he had seen around the cabin there didn't seem to be anyone there who was human. The majority of them were shifters. Several had the marks on their cheeks that Naruto had, marking them as feline shifters, and a couple smelled so foul they had to be dog shifters. He would occasionally see a wolf or a lynx wander around the compound, but for such a big cabin there were very few people around.
Sai didn't walk towards the glass door of the flower shop, he veered off to the side, heading towards an inconspicuous door to the side, pulling it open and heading inside. Naruto kept looking around himself as he walked in, silently wondering if the DPA had put a warrant on him yet. He wouldn't be surprised if they had; he had almost killed one of their best agents and was technically a rogue now.
Maybe he could turn himself in soon. They seemed to be getting closer to finding the perfect dosage of suppressants; he rarely got sick from the shots anymore. He would need to get the shots every other day for the rest of his life, but he could live with that. He would just have to get Danzo to organize something so he could get back and face the punishment he deserved. He still had no idea just what a Protos was, Danzo hadn't told him anything other than that he had met one like him before and together they had developed the suppressants that they were now trying to perfect with Naruto.
Naruto was no closer to knowing what he was, but he had the means to suppress that other side of him, and maybe that was enough. Right now he had someone to save though, and he found that it was nice to have something to do to take his mind off of himself. As he walked up the stairs he felt himself fall into the mind-set he had fallen into when he was working with Sasuke, determination to make the world a little bit better. Naruto felt that he owed Danzo for finding him and giving him the suppressants, and as far as paying back he felt that helping others was the best way to do it. It was why he had ended up a DPA agent in the first place, the craving to help others.
Sai stopped in front of a door on the fourth floor. There had been an apartment number there at one point, but now only the outline of it was left, the wood paler where the numbers had been, 402.
Naruto took a deep breath, steeling himself. Hopefully it would be an easy job. Get in, get the girl out and leave. It might be harder if the husband was home, but they could deal with him. Two of them and one of him. Naruto had killed numerous vampires, he could deal with a lone man easily enough, even while holding back, he was sure of it.
Sai cast a glance over his shoulder, and for once kept any teasing remarks about Naruto and Naruto's body parts or lack thereof to himself as he lifted a hand to the door and knocked twice.
They waited in silence, until the door opened just enough for a man to look out at them from behind the safety of a small chain. Any hope that the husband wasn't home was immediately crushed.
"What do you want?" the man said, blocking any view of the inside of the apartment with his body.
"We're here for your wife," Sai said in that flat voice of his, head tilting just a little to the side.
"I don't know what you are talking about, I have no wife," the man replied, eyes narrowing.
Naruto looked at him over Sai's head. It was weird how normal he looked. Somehow it seemed like a man who was capable of hurting someone he supposedly loved should look more… evil. With golden brown eyes, wavy hair and a face that looked handsome and would probably look stunning with a smile he was the kind of man that would attract most girls in a bar, and probably a few of the guys as well.
It was stupid wasn't it; this image that evil looked evil and good looked good? Naruto had hurt the one he loved as well, even if it hadn't been deliberate, and he was pretty sure he didn't look as much as a monster as he felt.
Sai took a step closer to the door. "Open the door."
The man moved to close the door in their face, but Sai's arm shot out before he could, latching onto the side of the door and yanking the chain clean off as he pulled it towards him, the man stumbling after before dropping the handle. He looked startled, having falsely believed that the chain would be enough to keep them out.
He had lived with a fey for years; he should know that there was more to people than it looked like. It was dangerous to assume that people you met were human with a human being's limitations.
The man was obviously too angry to think straight, because even though he had just seen Sai tear the door open without breaking a sweat he launched himself at him.
They might not have weapons with them, but Sai did not seem particularly bothered by that. He sidestepped enough that the man wasn't going right at him, and then made some move that had the man flying headfirst into the wall, leaving a nice dent in the plaster.
"Find the girl," Sai said as the man shook off bits of plaster from his hair, lips pulling back in fury as he made a move to go at Sai again. Naruto realised that Sai had been talking to him, so he quickly leapt past the man just as Sai grabbed his arm and twisted it up behind his back, shoving the man who was at least a head taller than him into the wall and keeping him there.
It was a small apartment, so after a detour by the combined kitchen/living room and the bathroom Naruto pushed open the remaining door and found the bedroom. A woman who barely looked over twenty was kneeling on the bed, hands lying in her lap, face streaked with tears.
Even like this, her hair dishevelled and her face red she was stunning. Delicately boned with big eyes and full lips. Naruto could see the attraction, although why someone would fall so hard for that beauty that they would go to the step of basically kidnapping her when she wanted to leave he would never understand. If you loved someone you should treasure them, not hit them or lock them up. If they wanted to leave you should let them, it was not your choice.
She blinked up at him, clearly having heard the commotion in the hallway, but she made no move to leave.
Naruto rushed over, stopping a few steps away from the bed as to not startle her. "Are you okay?" he asked, giving her a once over to check for any injuries. There was a fading bruise on her cheekbone and a bruise around her upper arm that looked too much like finger marks.
She didn't say anything, just made a whimpering sound, tilting her head back a little, her veil of silvery hair falling back and exposing the reason why the man had been able to keep a fey from leaving. Fey might not be fighters, but they had enough magic to defend themselves, but around her slender neck a rough iron collar rested, heavy, the skin around the edges rubbed raw from it. There were two slim metal rings around her wrists too he saw now. Iron was the one thing that cancelled out a fey's magic, the husband had used it to make sure she was completely helpless, her magic tapped out along with her energy, making her docile. It was a wonder she had been able to call for help at all. Naruto wasn't sure how Danzo had found out about her, but he was glad, because she needed to get out right now, before the man went too far. He wouldn't be the first abusive man to kill his wife.
"I'm going to get you out of here, okay?" Naruto said, stepping closer. Her eyes widened, like a doe ready to run from danger, so he stopped, hands held up with palms towards her.
There was a grunt and bang of broken furniture out in the hallway, which startled her, and she lost her balance, sagging to the side, unable to keep herself up, too tired.
Naruto rushed forward the last step and caught her before she fell, scooping her up in his arms. The iron bands were locked with padlocks, so he knew he wouldn't be able to get them off easily, so for now she would have to wear them, until they got somewhere safe from the bastard who had done this to her.
She whimpered, but was too tired to struggle, so when Naruto shifted her more safely into his arms she just pressed her face against his chest. She was short and slim, and seemed to weigh next to nothing, so it was easy to carry her towards the hallway.
He peered outside, seeing Sai studying a crack in the wall, a finger tracing it gently, as if he was seeing something Naruto didn't in it.
The husband was lying on the floor, and if not for the way his chest rose and fell Naruto would've been worried that Sai had outright killed him.
Sai didn't say anything, just looked up long enough to see that Naruto had the woman they had come for, and then he headed back in the direction of the car.
Not until he had the girl safely buckled up in the backseat did Naruto realise that he hadn't felt the beast flare in his gut a single time, not at the outrage of seeing the woman shackled up, nor when the man had tried to attack. It wasn't really a test, that would have entailed him having to fight he thought, but it was promising, and Naruto allowed himself a second to imagine going back to Sasuke, free of the beast that had plagued him for so long.
He wondered if he could salvage what they had had before, or if that was forever ruined.
The car ride was spent making sure the girl was still alive and not freaking out, and it felt like forever before they arrived back at the compound, the gate closing behind them.
Naruto walked into the cabin, carrying the fey woman in his arms again. She was weak still, but she looked calmer, as if she was starting to realise that she had been able to get away from the bastard and would be free from her shackles soon, or maybe she was just too exhausted to fight him.
She whimpered a little as Naruto shoved open the door of the cabin with an elbow. Sai had vanished as soon as the car stopped, telling Naruto to bring her down to the med bay for a check-up and to get the shackles off, letting her magic heal her.
The living room was empty as he walked past it, but someone came out of the kitchen when he got close to it. Naruto hadn't seen the man before, but that wasn't too uncommon, there seemed to be new people here every so often. The man in question looked tired, circles underneath his eyes and short brown hair dishevelled as if he hadn't looked in a mirror in a while. Not that Naruto was one to talk about messy hair, but still.
Naruto nodded towards the man who looked at him with bleary eyes that suddenly grew wide in surprise. Naruto thought at first it was because of the girl he was carrying, but the stranger looked at him, not the girl, mouth parting in shock, as if seeing Naruto was completely unexpected. Naruto had no idea why, he had lived here for weeks, and most of the other shifters didn't pay much attention to him at all.
The fey shifted in his arms, whimpering softly and Naruto reckoned that this wasn't the time to deal with weird strangers, so he just walked past, figuring he'd see the man around later. He still shot a glance over his shoulder as he pushed through the door to the basement. The other man wasn't gaping at him anymore, but he looked completely distraught. Naruto made a note to figure out what was up after he had taken the girl downstairs.
The water was just this side of scalding, but Sasuke liked the sting of it, and didn't move to adjust the temperature. Instead he stood there, letting it pelt at his back, probably turning his skin an angry red. His head was bowed as he braced against the tiles of the shower, some of the water finding a path across his scalp, saturating his hair, a tiny stream falling from a tendril right above his nose.
He let out a ragged sigh and pushed away from the wall, pushing back his hair and gently easing the temperature down to a more bearable one, his skin thanking him. Hot water wouldn't drown the feelings he was trying to get away from any more than lukewarm would.
He made quick work of washing his hair, rubbing his scalp a little too hard, trying to stop thinking for once. He was failing miserably. Everything in his apartment seemed to remind him of Naruto and he couldn't get away from the pain of being alone. The bed they'd shared, the couch where Naruto had curled up against him, demanding movie nights. The kitchen where they had cooked dinner, Naruto doing his best to burn everything and Sasuke there to stop him.
It made him think of Naruto's birthday when he had tried to ask Naruto to move in, but failed. Would Naruto have said yes? Would it have made a difference? This apartment had always felt cold, only Naruto bringing some life into it, and now that life was gone, leaving too much room.
Even the bathroom reminded him of Naruto. The orange toothbrush was still neatly placed in a cup next to Sasuke's blue, waiting for its owner to come back. There was a t-shirt hanging on the back of the door, a hole along the neckline betraying it as Naruto's. He had threatened to toss it out before, but Naruto always answered by pouting at him, claiming it was soft and comfy, and it never failed to make Sasuke shake his head and leave the t-shirt live a little while longer.
Now he let his fingers trail across the fabric every time he went into the room. It was soft, Naruto hadn't lied about that, and whenever Sasuke lifted it to his nose there was still a faint trace of Naruto's scent on it, but it had faded to almost nothing.
Sasuke's eyes stung, and it wasn't from shampoo. He squeezed them shut, shaking his head at himself. He was acting as if Naruto was dead, but he wasn't, he was just... Lost. He couldn't be dead, Sasuke wouldn't stand for that. The asshole was probably holed up somewhere, feeling real proud of himself for protecting Sasuke by leaving, when he should have realised that Sasuke had never felt safer than when he was with him, and that this hadn't changed in the slightest, even after what happened. Sasuke wasn't afraid of Naruto, he never would be.
Sasuke's hand fisted and he had to take a deep breath to steady himself before he sent that fist straight through the glass wall of the shower. When Naruto finally came back, tail between his legs, Sasuke was going to kick his ass for making him worry, but for now all he could do was to try and find him. He wasn't going to give up until he tracked him down and dragged him back home, however much he kicked and screaming. Naruto belonged with him. Partners worked their problems out together, Naruto should have brought Sasuke along with him.
He rinsed his hair, focusing on the mundane task of cleaning himself. He just wanted to get it over with so he could go back to his office and try to find the answers he was searching for. So far it had been nothing but dead-end after dead-end, but Sasuke had years of expertise dealing with that, it would take a lot more to put him off the hunt for Naruto.
No, Sasuke wouldn't stop before Naruto was back here, and then he was going to give him plenty of incentive to stick around. He'd shackle him to his bed and show him exactly what Naruto was missing out on when he left Sasuke.
Sasuke let out a sigh, leaning back against the tiled wall. Thinking about that just made him painfully aware that he hadn't had an orgasm for a while, not since… before. Having Naruto around had made him rather used to frequent releases. Naruto was never one to shy away from sex, waking Sasuke up with a mouth around his cock, or riding him slow and lazy after a shift, too tired for it but still needing it.
Sasuke had lost count of the number of times Naruto had slinked into the shower after him, always eager to take over washing his body, hands roaming freely as he pressed up against Sasuke's back, hot breath on his neck, a hard cock nestled against his ass as Naruto told him just how much he appreciated him, voice husky and low as he whispered against his ear.
Sasuke swallowed hard, fighting against himself for a moment before curling his hand around his cock, finding it half-hard already. Just thinking about Naruto made him like this, aching for him. God, he missed him. Missed waking up next to him, missed his smile, missed the edge of chaos he brought into Sasuke's life, the dirty socks on the living room floor and the milk spoiling after he forgot to put it back in the fridge. The constant toothpaste drops on the mirror and the blond hair clogging the shower drain. He missed turning around in the shower, pushing Naruto up against the tile, seeing him wince at the sudden coldness at his back, and then claiming Naruto's mouth for his, licking into it, pressing their bodies together, wet and warm, water spraying down over them as Sasuke turned him around, spread him open and fucking into him. The way Naruto would moan, the sound echoing in the shower stall, one arm bracing him against the wall, the other curving back to pull Sasuke impossibly closer, always wanting more, greedy for everything Sasuke gave him.
Sasuke came, the image of Naruto's face twisted into pure pleasure—lips red from gnawing on them, eyes glassy, cheeks dusted with red, making the markings across them stand out brighter—on his mind.
It didn't bring him the pleasant content feeling it usually would, it just left him feeling sick and hollow. He looked down on the white staining his hand, and the sight had him recoil in disgust at himself. He rubbed it off furiously, biting down on his lips, needing it gone, feeling disgusted that he had jerked off when Naruto was out there somewhere, probably alone, hurting and afraid.
He slid down the glass wall, still scrubbing, even though there was nothing but skin and water now. He gave up, bringing his arms up in front of his face, and screamed, the sound loud and sore in the empty room.
