.

Moving Memories
8: Deluge

~ (^.^) (^.^) ~

Naruto woke with a killer headache and became overly aware of the throbbing pain that covered half of his back when he tried to stretch. The long gash that trailed from the middle of his back up to his right shoulder protested his movement harshly. When he tried to move in a way that wouldn't agitate the wound, the parallel gashes across his left shoulder then began their own protest. He groaned unhappily, but fought the pain anyway. He had to get out of bed somehow. Once up, he paused to breathe a bit of the pain away before carefully making his way to the bathroom. It dawned on him that Kankuro had dressed his wounds only when he saw the gauze in the mirror.

He went about his morning routine slowly, brushing his teeth and washing his face with caution. It's actually quite amazing how much a person uses their back and shoulder muscles in even the simplest of tasks. Recognizing that there was no way he'd be getting in the shower, Naruto opted to simply wet his hair a bit and comb into less of an unruly mess. He, honestly, didn't care to fight with his mane in such a delicate state though. Once satisfied with his general hygiene, he popped some pain pills and grabbed a fair amount to stash in his bag before returning to his room to dress himself.

When he reentered his room and nonchalantly glanced to his side, he was brought to a dead stop. How had he not seen that before? There was blood all over his wall, and he could only stare at it wide-eyed for a few long moments. It looked like someone had tried to clean it but gave up pretty quickly. Naruto stepped closer, wondering whose blood it was. His attacker's? His own? Kankuro's? He couldn't really remember much from the previous night, not that he'd been able to really see anything well enough in the first place, but he was pretty sure that no one had bled out all over his wall. He definitely didn't remember that, and he felt that would be something he'd commit to memory if he'd seen it happen at all.

A slight shift in his posture had his body yelling in disapproval again and he decided that he would have to make a stop at the hospital after classes and get a prescription for some real pain killers. He would also have to get a hold of Kankuro too. He had questions, lots of questions.

Gingerly, Naruto dressed himself. He decided on a light breakfast, just two untoasted pieces of bread, and sluggishly made his way to the university. The drive was absolutely miserable, since he couldn't sit back in his seat properly. Not to mention, every time he turned, his body flared up in pain. By the time he actually made it to the school, he'd already decided to take the bus home or something. Driving was simply no longer an option. Maybe he could recruit a friend to drive him and then he could offer to send them home in a cab. He hadn't decided for sure yet, but he absolutely wasn't getting back behind that wheel.

He had to be very wary of his movements because he really didn't want to alert his friends of his wounds by making them bleed through his shirt, as if the way he was walking wasn't alert enough in itself. As he hobbled along, he just could not bring himself to feel excited about his new classes on account of the fact that he felt down-right miserable. Had it not been for Kankuro, he may have already been a vampire himself, or even dead. He shuddered at the thought, but then wondered if that would really be so bad. Perhaps Sasuke would like him a little bit better that way. As a vampire, he meant, not dead. Although, Sasuke might like him dead too.

Naruto was as pleased as he could possibly manage to be to discover that he shared his first class of the day, English, with some familiar faces from the day before. He was not pleased, however, to discover that Sakura was the motherly type and she was studying to be a doctor.

'Well, fuck,' was the sole thought that passed through his head as soon as he saw the worried crease in her delicate brow line.

She started asking questions as soon as Naruto was within ear shot, and he had to be very cunning to keep up. In the end, she couldn't be satisfied unless he let her check him out at lunch. Thankfully, Naruto was spared any further arguing when the professor promptly started class. He'd never agreed to the pseudo physical, but he hadn't denied either. He noticed that Sakura and Ino trailed him all the way to his History class, but he didn't protest. He just hoped that it would make Sakura feel better. If letting her watch him like an overprotective dog would satisfy her for the moment—as if she would be able to protect him from whatever she thought had hurt him anyway—Naruto would just let it go, because he definitely wasn't going to tell her the truth and he hadn't come up with a real excuse yet.

As he entered his next class and watched Sakura and Ino change course to head to their own classes too, he sighed as he began to devise a plan for how to avoid them at lunch. He started up the steps of the lecture hall slowly, glancing around for any familiar faces. His gaze landed on a sight that he was more pleased than he thought he could possibly be in his state of health to see. There was Sasuke, sitting near the top of the classroom with no one occupying the space around him. Of course, Naruto made his way toward the man, and Sasuke watched his every move too. He watched Naruto approach, even watched him a few moments after he'd already sat down and carefully begun to retrieve his laptop from his bag. When Naruto didn't give him whatever it was that he wanted, though, he chose to look positively aghast instead.

When Naruto glanced up at Sasuke and saw that the man's face had scrunched up into an expression of disgust, he was totally flabbergasted. A few seconds ago, Sasuke had been sporting a totally different expression. Why the sudden change? Did he smell? He checked, and he didn't smell at all. Sasuke allowed Naruto to stay beside him without complaint, but he kept his face crumpled as if he were smelling an especially displeasing scent. He often looked over at Naruto and simply snorted softly in malcontent. Totally unaware of what had brought on such a strong reaction, Naruto became quickly annoyed.

"You don't have to be so rude," Naruto grumbled while the teacher droned on about something.

The only audible response Naruto received was another soft snort of discontentment. Sasuke had been reasonably fine the previous day, but now he was suddenly so dramatically displeased with Naruto, despite the fact that he had just been staring at Naruto like a kid looking at a man made of candy the entire time Naruto had approached him. Why was he acting so bipolar? Naruto just ignored Sasuke from then on, since the man was serving no purpose other than to piss Naruto off. He chose to focus, instead, on the task of not passing out cold. He sat still and stiff as a board, grimacing every time he had to move more than a mere centimeter.

Once class was dismissed, Sasuke quickly began to gather his things. Irritated even further by his eagerness to be away, Naruto couldn't help but throw one last angry comment at Sasuke before he went and disappeared.

"Y'know, you're an asshole," Naruto muttered.

He didn't say it loud enough so that anyone else could hear, but he knew Sasuke would pick it up. Or at least he hoped so. He figured better senses were probably one of the perks of being a vampire. Sasuke actually paused for a fleeting moment and glanced over at Naruto, his expression clearing to something that Naruto probably wouldn't have been able to read if he'd even been able to catch more than a momentary glimpse of it. As it was, just as Naruto noticed that Sasuke had even hesitated in his movement, he only looked up in time to just barely catch sight of the man's change in expression before Sasuke sharply turned away and left.

Naruto watched Sasuke's move gracefully through the throng of people attempting to exit the room. He weaved his way through the crowd effortlessly, somehow finding all the right spaces to slip through. Part of Naruto couldn't help but recognize how innately striking Sasuke could be, but another part of him simply wanted to throw something heavy at the back of Sasuke's head. Alas, all he could do was gather his things and go about his day.

When he finally exited the classroom, he decided that it would be safest to take the lesser known paths to the Student Union for lunch if he wanted to avoid Sakura. In fact, if he could manage to move his body fast enough, he could avoid going to the Student Union altogether. Encouraged to endure more discomfort as long as it meant avoiding Sakura's hassling, Naruto decided he would buy something small from one of the snack stands he always saw littering the campus and chow down on some bench somewhere. He decidedly rounded the corner of the building he was exiting to traverse the lesser-known paths of the university and separated from the already dissipating crowd.

The cacophony of babbling students slowly waned and was replaced by the serene sound of birds chirping. He smiled as he inhaled a deep breath and turned his face into the sun, and then a wretched sound interrupted his moment of peace. He turned toward the noise, pausing in his step as he vaguely recognized a figure standing beyond the obscuring brush. He raised up on his tiptoes and craned his neck to peer beyond the greenery to see the figure leaning heavily against the wall, doubled over, and obviously hurling. He opened his mouth to express his concern, but the person snapped their head up to met his gaze dead on and stopped the words cold in his throat. He realized that it was Sasuke only a split second before the man's body just... disappeared.

Naruto sighed, slumping and frowning, and some of his anger at Sasuke waned to be replaced with mild concern. Whether it be in anger or concern, Naruto decided that he just didn't have the time or energy to be worrying about Sasuke's odd behavior. It wasn't like he could really say that Sasuke's behavior was odd anyway. For all he knew, bipolar was Sasuke's norm. What was he really expecting anyway? For Sasuke to pick up on his strange fascination for the man and return the feelings promptly? That was just silly!

Once Naruto had food in him, he felt a lot better. He felt well enough to actually muster up genuine excitement for his Art class. This was real Art, the kind that you do art in. Naruto was absolutely stoked about that. At this point, he wasn't sure how he felt about sharing classes with Sasuke anymore, but there Sasuke happened to be anyway. He was sitting as close to the back of the class as possible and right beside a window. Naruto chose to avoid him this time. Today was just a bad day to want to be close to Sasuke.

It actually seemed like lingering was making Sasuke even less fond of Naruto, but Naruto needed the opposite to be happening. Or he at least needed Sasuke to keep up his previous level of tolerance. If he wanted his plan for Kiba and Gaara to work out, that is. Not that his or Sasuke's presence was really going to effect the success of that mission, but Naruto was convinced that getting Sasuke to play along would do some good somehow, somewhere. Naruto also chose to stay away because he just didn't feel inclined to endure Sasuke's dramatic reactions for another hour and a half. That made staying away all the more appealing.

Naruto ended up deciding somewhere during that hour and a half that he would have to talk to Sasuke soon and convince him to tag along on the mission. Kiba and Naruto didn't share any classes that day, but Naruto had run into him during the last few minutes or so of lunch. Kiba had mentioned Naruto's absence at their usual dining spot, but he hadn't seemed all that concerned. In fact, when Naruto had asked how the other responded to him ditching them, Kiba couldn't recall what their reactions had been at all. Almost as if he hadn't even been at lunch himself. It was obvious that Kiba was withdrawing back into himself and becoming purely miserable again. Their friends would start shooting Naruto concerned glances over the next few days as the desolation progressed in its domination of Kiba once more, and Naruto would just have to feign ignorance. It was already gonna be trouble enough to keep Sakura from practically ripping his clothes off in search of his wounds. He simply couldn't cover up Kiba's obvious depression too. Something needed to be done. It was imperative that Naruto spring his plan into action soon, and that meant talking to Sasuke.

The rest of the week and weekend passed painfully slow... literally. As expected, Kiba's ever-deepening misery became a topic of concern, and Naruto had to cunningly pretend he hadn't the slightest clue as to why Kiba was feeling so blue. The buzz among the group became so incessant that Naruto started to wonder if he was actually saving himself any grief by pretending to be clueless. It seemed like he was dealing with the same amount of fallout either way, but he still kept his lips sealed. The new reasoning for his silence became that it wasn't his place to talk about Kiba's issues. There was something to be thankful for in Kiba's worsening state though, and that was the fact that Sakura became sidetracked enough to not pester Naruto relentlessly about his wounds.

And, oh, his wounds were a whole other bag of hammers. They seemed to be getting more painful as time went on. He'd gone to the hospital and been awarded Vicodin and antibacterial cream, but taking the Vicodin made him feel invincible enough to sleep on his back. And sleeping on his back inevitably caused him to wake up in searing pain. You'd think that he'd have learned his lesson after night one, but he, somehow, managed to end up on his back somewhere in the night anyway, whether he went to sleep that way or not. In short, time was passing miserably.

To add to the bundle, Naruto had been trying to get a hold of Kankuro, but to no avail. He was conveniently gone when Naruto showed up at Kiba's, and Kiba's memory conveniently lapsed every time Naruto inquired about him too. It was infuriating, to say the least. While Kiba was busy pretending to have short-term memory loss and Kankuro was busy deftly avoiding him, Naruto was busy being confused as fuck. So this was how it would be then? This was just another secret that Naruto wasn't in on to add to the pile. It revolved around him, for fuck's sake. Did he not have a right to know what had happened? Did Kankuro think it was his secret to keep? Because it sure as hell wasn't! Naruto had a right to know who had attacked him and why. He had a right to know what had happened in his own home. Like why there was blood all over his wall, for example. Yet, here he was, as clueless as always.

As the week progressed and his frustrations reached a high, Naruto decided to avoid Sasuke in all of his classes. For one thing, his shitty attitude only made Naruto's already shitty attitude even shittier. If Sasuke didn't want to be next to Naruto, then why should Naruto force him to? Not to mention, Naruto was pretty sure that his best chances at being "close" to Sasuke didn't lie in forcing the guy to endure his presence unwillingly anyway. Sasuke would have to seek Naruto out himself, if he ever wanted to.

Sasuke wasn't seeking Naruto out though. He didn't seem at all concerned with Naruto's decision to give him space. That, honestly, annoyed Naruto severely, but he made no declaration of that fact. Just because he seemed to have developed some very, very strange crush on the bastard didn't mean that Sasuke was obligated to feel the same. Naruto already knew this, but that didn't make it any less annoying. And confusing too. Naruto had never been faced with unrequited whatever-this-feeling-for-Sasuke-was in his life before. He hadn't pursued many people at all, to be honest. When he did, though, he had never been turned down. People tended to like him, but Sasuke was doing just the opposite.

Naruto didn't even know what he wanted from Sasuke. Sure, he was trying to score, but score what? Did he really like Sasuke? Did he really, really like Sasuke? Or was he just using that as an excuse to shrug off the guilt of prying into Sasuke's personal life? Questions. Questions. Questions. They were fucking annoying. Fuck questions. Fuck everything complicated. Just fuck. It was more important to help Kiba out anyway, and that was a fairly simple plan. He would need Sasuke happy for that to happen, and if avoiding Sasuke made him happy enough to agree to the plan, then what the fuck ever.

It took some conniving, but Naruto eventually conned Deidara into spilling the beans about Sasuke's address. Naruto had been quite surprised to find that Sasuke only lived down the block and around the corner from him. How had he never known? Despite having the information, Naruto chose to let their second week of classes ride out in relative peace too. His wounds were getting slightly better. They'd at least stopped bleeding and causing him immeasurable pain. His attitude was also improving, even if Kankuro was still "missing" and Kiba was still "ignorant". Naruto decided to stop pestering Kiba about it though, because Kiba was getting more and more antisocial by the hour and Naruto didn't want to disregard his friend's pain. He could see that Gaara was stressing Kiba out more than ever and Naruto didn't want to be adding to the load, even if he did deserve answers.

He spent the next weekend hanging out with his new friends in one big group, a group that Kiba was predictably absent from, and easing back into a comfortable groove. It was Kiba's absence from that group and his growing inability to regain his own groove that pushed Naruto to decide that he could wait no longer to intervene. So it was on Wednesday of the third week that Naruto chose to finally approach Sasuke. It was a day on which he only had one class with Sasuke, and fortunately Sasuke seemed to be in a pretty good mood. He was talking happily with a cute girl and that was good, not that Sasuke looking so smitten with someone else made Naruto want to use the word "good". Sasuke did look content though, and that gave Naruto much better odds of getting a green light on the plan, even if he had to endure this bimbo moving in on his territory. Not that Naruto was saying that Sasuke was his or anything! Because Sasuke clearly wasn't... not at all... even if Naruto did kind of feel that way...

In any case, what happened next between the pair, Naruto had definitely not been prepared for.

~ (^.^) (^.^) ~

Sasuke opened his mouth wide, swiping his tongue across tan skin as he prepared to sink his fangs into the supple flesh beneath his lips. The young blonde let out an enthralled gasp, and then an uninvited voice rang out into the room.

"Sasuke!"

Sasuke snapped to attention, his head popping up and his eyes landing on the unexpected intruder. The territorial hiss that erupted from his throat was paired with a quieter, much less bestial one that just as effectively detailed his bed partner's disappointment. As he recognized the person standing at the foot of his bed, eyes wide with disbelief, Sasuke's muscles relaxed and his own eyes softened a tad—not that this particular intruder was welcomed at the moment, but Sasuke wasn't entirely opposed to their presence either. Had it been anyone else, Sasuke may have just ripped their head off. However, this wasn't just any intruder. Though he would never admit it out loud, this was, perhaps, the one person in the world that Sasuke was actually willing to stop and indulge in, even when he was in the middle of a rather erotic scene with a rather attractive blonde that he had been dying to sink his teeth into for far too long.

"What are you doing?!" Naruto went on to exclaim.

Good question. Women had never been Sasuke's type, but then he'd never really tried them out either. For some odd reason, he'd been drawn to new things lately. She'd been giving him eyes since the first day of school, and he could sense that she was like him. So he figured why not give her a try? Once he'd gotten her into his bed, he realized just how intriguing women's bodies were and he was shocked to find that it wasn't all that hard to react. So what was he doing? Discovering a whole new part of himself that he'd never even known. And, damn, it was exciting. He wasn't very well going to say that to Naruto though. Instead, he lifted his body away from the woman settled beneath him. His eyes flickered between his hand, which lay on top of the woman's bra that still covered her breasts, and Naruto's shocked orbs a few times to enhance the dramatic effect, wanting to make Naruto feel like a complete and total fool.

"I should think that's pretty obvious," Sasuke said at last.

"Wh… Wh… Wh…" Naruto stammered, the two letters never finding their missing syllables and coming out as soft whooshing sounds as his face crumpled into absolute confusion.

"What, dobe?" Sasuke asked, sounding positively bored.

"Don't call me that," Naruto said agitatedly.

"Alright… dobe…"

Naruto's eyes narrowed in distaste, distaste that was quickly overshadowed by shock at what he was seeing again.

"I… You… What…" He fell back to stammering.

"Did you come here just to blubber like an idiot? Because, in case you haven't noticed, you're interrupting a very private moment here," Sasuke interjected with a quirk of his brow.

"You were gonna bite her!" Naruto exclaimed, pointing a finger at the woman he'd seen Sasuke conversing happily with in class.

The woman narrowed her eyes at Naruto and scoffed. Naruto was shocked that she didn't feel inclined to run and disappear. Then again, she may not have actually known that Sasuke was a vampire who was just about to bite her and suck her blood. Just because Naruto knew didn't mean that everyone knew. No, she probably had no clue. Still, shouldn't she have some sort of instinct to flee from the greedy hands of such a predator? Her obvious desire to stay only made Naruto's mission of rescuing her more pertinent.

"Yes, yes, yes," Sasuke drawled in that bored tone again. "Yet another very obvious point that everyone is already quite aware of."

"You were gonna bite her!" Naruto repeated loudly, as if the words would sink in any minute and then Sasuke would be suddenly regretful.

Sasuke merely snorted with sarcastic laughter though. "That is what vampires do, dobe. They bite people," Sasuke said slowly, clearly meaning to antagonize the blond.

Had Naruto not been struck with such a clever retort, he would have looked earnestly to the woman, expecting her to show understanding and begin the flee for her life. And he would have seen her true reaction, an absolute lack of change in her demeanor. She still had no intention of fleeing. She knew very well what Sasuke was and she was not afraid. If anything, she was pissed off that Naruto had interrupted their good time. However, Naruto was struck with the come back of a genius and none of that stuff mattered to him.

"No," Naruto refuted quickly, "that's what leeches do."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes dangerously and Naruto thought that he heard another reproachful hiss, but he didn't see how Sasuke could have made the sound, unless he had mastered the art of ventriloquism. Sasuke only glared at Naruto, clenching and unclenching his jaw as he seethed. Naruto could tell that Sasuke was repeatedly retracting his unruly fangs, probably trying to drive the desire to bite from his mind. Naruto wanted to go on taunting Sasuke because he was just glad that something was breaking him out of that infuriatingly cool visage. Perhaps it would even be enough to spare this girl some serious trouble. But, at the same time, the connotation of the word "leech" was so heavily cruel that he couldn't make himself say it again. He remembered the look on Kiba's face when Gaara had used that term against Sasuke so many weeks ago, and he couldn't imagine how sharply Kiba would react if he heard Naruto doing the same. One taunt ended being all it took anyway.

"Rose," Sasuke said, his voice crisp but quiet, "I must beg your pardon."

He didn't look at the woman when she huffed loudly, but Naruto did. Was he hearing correctly? Was that a huff? Like one of Kiba's huffs? It sure was. How could she still be disappointed when she had just been relieved from the impending doom of a vampire bite? After a moment of indignation, Rose crawled from the bed and put on her shirt, for that was the only article of her clothing that was missing. In a last attempt to seemingly drive Sasuke into jealousy and earn a spot back in his bed, the girl paused in passing and caressed Naruto's face gently, appraising him with hungry eyes.

"Well, can't I at least have a bite off of this one, Sasuke?" she asked sensually. "He's so cute."

With those words, her upper lip revealed just the tips of her own dangerous fangs, and Naruto immediately felt like a total fool. She was no unsuspecting victim.

Sasuke closed his eyes in frustration before he snarled at Rose, "No. Leave."

She threw him a last dirty glance, but his eyes were still closed. Then, she marched off to the door, gliding faster than any normal person ought to move. Naruto watched her all the way. When she reached the door, she looked back at him ruefully before leaving.

Naruto turned back to Sasuke. "She's not human," he said apologetically.

He didn't really feel apologetic at all though. If anything, he felt triumphant. He was glad that Sasuke's bed was now empty and that he wasn't with that woman anymore. He attributed that to his weird crush on Sasuke, the crush he'd been pretty effectively ignoring. He faintly wondered why he still had that weird crush on Sasuke. Was it not plain and obvious that it made no sense at all? The crush, however, seemed to remain and Naruto was left feeling a bit giddy as a direct result of Rose's departure. If Sasuke picked up on that giddiness, though, then he didn't show it. He opened his eyes and shifted his position on his bed so that he sat lazily with his back against the headboard, looking dispassionately at the blond before him.

"You have a bad habit of stating the obvious, dobe," Sasuke said dully.

"Don't call me that," Naruto demanded, anger flaring up momentarily.

"Whatever you say, dobe. Your wish is my command," Sasuke said menacingly. "What do you want?"

Naruto remembered again why he had come in the first place. He sat down at the edge of Sasuke's bed, glad that it was now him occupying it, and another round of giddiness surged through him. Naruto watched Sasuke's eyes follow every movement that he made as he moved. The attention made Naruto almost blush. He'd kind of forgotten just how attractive Sasuke was up close like this, especially without a shirt. Having him watch Naruto so intently made Naruto feel extremely nervous, for it felt as if Sasuke could see right through Naruto and into his deepest desires. In truth, Naruto hadn't forgotten how Sasuke made him feel. He'd just purposely pushed it from his mind. He didn't want to be attracted to Sasuke when his personality was so absolutely repelling. Naruto tried to flush the blush from his cheeks, but that only served to deepen it. Sasuke was definitely picking up on that too because his lips curved up into a tiny smirk of arrogance.

"I've come to ask you a favor," Naruto began in a very business-like tone, pausing for acknowledgement.

Sasuke watched Naruto closely for a long moment, seemingly just for sport. Watching Naruto blush beneath his gaze was amusing to Sasuke, so he dragged the silence out painfully before answering. "I'm curious," he said quietly, permitting Naruto to continue.

"Will you accompany me on an outing this weekend?" Naruto asked slowly. "Please," he added as a hurried afterthought, as if being polite would have any effect on Sasuke.

"A date?" Sasuke questioned immediately, almost sharply.

"I suppose," Naruto answered quietly.

Hearing Sasuke say the word "date" in relation to Naruto himself made Naruto's blush deepen to no end. His heart beat a little faster and he was sure that Sasuke would pick it up. His lips trembled slightly and he saw Sasuke's eyes dart to the movement. His fingers twitched, and then Sasuke's eyes were snapping to take in that movement too. Then, Sasuke laughed a dark, goading laugh that mocked Naruto on the spot, a laugh that did not mesh with his behavior at all. Naruto had actually thought that Sasuke was appreciating him for a moment there. The look in his eyes as he studied Naruto's movement a moment ago was not critical. It was... intrigued. It certainly did not lead Naruto to believe that Sasuke would erupt into such offensive laughter, laughter that left Naruto feeling deeply annoyed.

"No thanks," Sasuke said as his laughter ebbed, much to Naruto's dismay.

"It's to benefit your friends, actually," Naruto began to argue.

"In that case, no fucking way," Sasuke added with disdain.

Naruto looked personally offended, but when it came to Kiba, it felt personal. "Kiba and Gaara are in a rough patch and they could use our help. Their relationship is kinda suffering, Sasuke," he said severely in the fashion of scolding a child.

"All the better," Sasuke said. He sneered dismissively.

"How can you say that?!" Naruto exclaimed.

"I can say it because it's the truth," Sasuke answered indifferently. "Their relationship isn't meant to be."

"But it is being and it's suffering too," Naruto argued.

"And I don't care if it does," Sasuke retorted matter-of-factly. Naruto huffed in exasperation and disbelief. How could Sasuke say such things?! Sasuke could read Naruto easily, and he sighed heavily before continuing to explain himself. "Very few humans mingle in my world, Naruto, and those that do either change or are claimed like Kiba. I do not believe in feeders. I won't treat humans as cattle. I value life a fair bit more than that."

The explanation was actually rather noble, so Naruto found it hard to refute. "But they're your friends, family," he said weakly, thinking himself that it was a feeble attempt and that Sasuke would think so too.

"And it's for that reason that I don't support them," Sasuke said plainly. "In this world, there are few fates for a feeder. They'll grow tired of being dined upon. If they don't grow tired, they'll be changed. If they aren't changed, they'll die. It's as simple as that. Does any of that sound pleasant to you? Tired, monstrous, or dead?" Sasuke paused, but Naruto knew it wasn't to await an answer. The answer to that was obvious. The way Sasuke said it, it didn't sound like a very healthy relationship, Naruto had to admit.

"Believe it or not, I do have feelings and I do feel them for those around me," Sasuke went on. "Gaara is tortured by his mistakes. He took in his father's teachings as much as I did. He sees that Kiba is suffering. I'm sorry that it took so many wasted years for them to understand, but I'm not sorry that it's happening now. It is as it should be."

Naruto regarded Sasuke for a long moment before speaking, not even really aware of what he was saying or why he was saying it but certain that it was true and the right thing to say.

"I think you're just afraid," Naruto said. Sasuke's expression morphed into one of appall, but he said nothing. "I think that… well… Gaara said it himself. You need someone as light as Kiba too. Where you're dark, cold, and empty... Kiba is warm, lively, bright. Kiba perfectly counteracts you, and maybe you're jealous that Gaara has that when you don't." Naruto spoke pensively, as if just discovering this news himself.

Sasuke's entire demeanor hardened significantly. "I've had that bright light you speak of, and it did nothing for me," he assured curtly.

"You don't wanna lose Kiba," Naruto pressed on. Sasuke began to clench and unclench his jaw repeatedly again. "He told me about your relationship. I know you're brothers. He's always brought you so much joy, hasn't he? What you wanted was always given to you through him, as small as it all seemed. It was always better than nothing, though, right? By association, you're uplifted by Kiba's spirit. You wanna protect him because he means so much to you."

"Enough," Sasuke growled. "You don't know what you're talking about. Kiba was never my light. Kiba was just another addition to the family, and he will be just another statistic in the books when he dies."

"Is that what you want?" Naruto asked. "You want him to die?"

"I'm the one fighting against that!" Sasuke snapped. "I'm the only one advocating against the fate that will, without a doubt, be brought on by Gaara, the guy who drinks human blood for pleasure."

Naruto was at a loss for words. That was a solid point. Sasuke did have Naruto there. Gaara was dangerous and there was no fighting that fact. In fact, Naruto wasn't sure where else he could even go with that point, so he went off on another tangent that he hoped to have better luck with... not that he knew what he was saying with this point either.

"When you look at Kiba, do you see your mother?" he asked daringly, not really considering how tender the territory he was stepping into could be. Sasuke didn't respond, probably cause of shock, but the way his body tensed was answer enough for Naruto. "You do, don't you? That's why you hate feeders. Because your own mother died as one."

Sasuke's eyes glinted dangerously. Naruto had no clue what he was talking about. He had no clue who had actually taken Sasuke's light so many years ago. He had no idea just how little Sasuke's mother or even Kiba had to do with it, not that they both didn't have something to do with it. Either way, Sasuke didn't want to hear Naruto prattle on about shit that he wasn't even qualified to speak of. At the same time, though, he couldn't quite bring himself to interrupt.

"You crave that connection, but you fear it more," Naruto conjectured. "You fear the chance of mishaps, slip ups, deadly mistakes. More than that though, you fear the love. Because if you were to embrace love, you'd be too close to loss. You don't think you can handle much more loss, do you?" Naruto asked. Perhaps, this would have nothing to do with convincing Sasuke to go on the "date", but Naruto wanted to follow up with it anyway.

"You've gone too far," Sasuke said stiffly, turning his head away. He had to admit it to himself though, Naruto had gotten somewhere with that.

"Actually, I don't think I've gone far enough," Naruto disagreed. "You're afraid, Sasuke, and so you watch your best friend and brother with a mixture of envy and terror. You don't know what the fuck to do with yourself, so you just go on about abominations and the natural order of things. Maybe it's time you look at things from a different point of view. I'll bet your support would be enough to grant Gaara a change of heart." Naruto was starting to get excited. It was all tying together now. He was making his point. "I'll bet your support would be the one thing that they needed to do it right. If you could just—"

"Shut up!" Sasuke suddenly snapped.

Naruto's breath caught in his throat for a long moment as he debated whether or not he should go on. Eventually, he just sighed and averted his eyes. He was aching to press on, but he decided better of it. Sasuke wasn't clenching his jaw any longer, so his fangs were likely bared and ready to attack. It'd be best not to antagonize him too much. He had only just left his life as a leech. Who was to say he wouldn't bite Naruto right then and there?

Naruto had started that whole pitch with no direction. Yet, he had ended it with some weird, new understanding. Sasuke was just scared. That was all. That was why he couldn't support Kiba and Gaara, and his mother, certainly, had a lot to do with that. Well, after what had happened to her, it wouldn't be easy to support your stepbrother, whom you had allegedly been very close to at one point, in offering himself up to the same dangers. Sasuke was afraid that Kiba would become his mother and maybe even that he himself would become his father. It was all so obvious to Naruto now. The name Ren popped up in his head and Naruto wondered where she came in, whoever she was. That was better left to another day though. Naruto wasn't sure that Sasuke would endure much more of this.

Naruto looked back over at Sasuke, who was silently trying to burn holes in his blanket with his glare. Even as Naruto watched Sasuke seethe, he felt closer to the man. Naruto knew that his words were right. He could feel the longing within Sasuke that Sasuke tried so hard to suppress. He could see the way that the memory of Sasuke's mother pained him, along with other memories that Naruto may have dredged up and just not yet been exposed to. He could see how there was so much more left yet to unsheathe, and he was eager to uncover it all, even if that was a selfish desire. He was eager to immerse Sasuke in his own stifling pain just so that Naruto could soothe it, just so that Sasuke would be forced to allow the blond to love him.

Was that what Naruto wanted? To love Sasuke? He didn't know. He did, however, know that he wanted to reach out and touch Sasuke, to comfort him. Before he knew it was even moving, his hand found its way to the pale skin of Sasuke's bare chest. When Sasuke's eyes snapped furiously to the contact, Naruto's followed. Naruto swallowed hard, an action he regretted immediately. He had learned that such actions during tense times near a vampire were reckless, only serving to further tempt them to pounce.

Naruto removed his hand very slowly from its position and tried very hard to keep from meeting Sasuke's eyes. Had he, though, he would have seen a suspicious lack of rage. Alas, Naruto was careful to avoid those eyes, lest they be a threatening shade of crimson. He wondered what the fuck he was thinking and admonished himself internally. How had he gotten so carried away that he thought it a decent idea to touch Sasuke like that? It was just stupid!

"I just want you to come with me on Saturday," Naruto said quietly, staring intently at the desk beside Sasuke's bed.

When he could no longer feel Sasuke's eyes on him, Naruto chanced a glance at the man's face. Sasuke was staring at his phone on the desk. Naruto reached for it impulsively, bringing it back to his body with a jerk when Sasuke hissed loudly at him. Naruto realized immediately, though, that Sasuke's lips revealed a lack of fangs. It was an empty hiss. Sasuke's eyes lacked any and every shade of red too. A tiny smile played at Naruto's lips. Sasuke was just acting.

"Y'know," Naruto began softly, "when I saw Gaara first bite Kiba, I thought he was a monster." Sasuke's eyes flitted to Naruto's. "I was wrong," Naruto said. "I was just looking at Gaara. He's just lost and struggling to find his way back to the rest of us, to humanity. And when I look at you, I see that too."

Sasuke snorted dismissively and averted his eyes again. "He's far from human," he said almost sadly. "I am too. We all are."

"But you can feel, can't you?" Naruto argued earnestly. "You can taste. You can perish, die. You can suffer and cry. That all sounds rather human to me."

"I don't expected you to understand," Sasuke said tightly. "You've never taken a life simply to quench a thirst. There's no humanity in that."

Naruto paused and then looked down at the phone in his hands, unlocking the screen and keying his number into the dial pad and clicking around to save it as a contact. "If you think you've found a bit of that humanity you claim to be lacking lingering long enough to endure a night out on the town with your friends," Naruto looked up and smiled softly. "—let me know," he finished, tossing the phone in Sasuke's lap and standing to take his leave.

"While you're at it, you should have a nice thought or two about your mom," Naruto added over his shoulder as he descended the steps from Sasuke's room. "Think about how much she must have loved your father to live such a painful life," he went on, raising his voice slightly as he crossed the apartment floor. "She must have been brave."

"Or else simply delusional," Sasuke added just as Naruto lifted his hand to the knob of the door.

Naruto paused and turned back to see Sasuke leaning across his dresser and over the banister to regard Naruto eagerly. The look in his eye was... cute. It was the look that a child gets when promised a play date with their best friend.

"You think?" Naruto asked. Sasuke nodded, leaning back to appear more casual. "Eh," Naruto said with a shrug of the shoulders, "I say we're all a bit delusional. Look at us, for example. You're convinced that you're a monster and I'm convinced that you'll accompany me out on a date. The question isn't how delusional we are though. The question is how delusional you really think your mom was."

"Well," Sasuke began, raising an interested brow at Naruto's sudden strike of wisdom, "I think she was downright delirious."

"Maybe," Naruto said, shrugging. "Maybe not."

"It's my opinion, isn't it?" Sasuke pointed out flatly.

"Yeah," Naruto agreed.

"So why are you questioning it? How can you tell me that what I think is wrong?" Sasuke asked. "Unless you're just calling me a liar."

"I don't think you're a liar," Naruto assured. Sasuke smirked in what seemed to be triumph, and Naruto answered with a triumphant smirk of his own, "You're just delusional."

Naruto grinned widely as he opened the door. A glance back in leaving revealed Sasuke's true intrigue. The mere smirk on Sasuke's face morphed into a more prominent smile, which caused Naruto chuckle with pleasure as he took his final leave. He sighed contentedly as he strolled away. That was most definitely a success, whether Sasuke chose to come on the double date or not. If anything, Naruto had wormed his way, at least, a centimeter into that tightly-sealed heart. He was sure of it now, Sasuke would seek him. He just needed time.

To be continued...

Author Note: Check the links section on my main profile page for the link to the layout for Sasuke's apartment.