An extra long sexy chapter just for you.
Chapter 6
Nothing ventured, nothing gained. And venture belongs to the adventurous.
Naruto didn't even turn on all of the lights at the pool. He said he liked it better like this—dim and calm. This way it made it seem different from his work environment. Apparently, he often came here at night to swim and it helped him relax.
Well Sasuke didn't feel relaxed at all. The strong smell of chlorine made him feel sick to his stomach.
"What are you waiting for? Get changed."
Naruto put down his stuff on one of the benches with his towel. He just wore his swimming trunks—the sporty square cut kind. He was skinny but so fit and his skin was that beautiful pale gold shade all over, and he had those really sexy defined hip bones that formed a V shape.
"Sasuke why are you staring at me?"
"I don't have any swimming trunks," he said.
Naruto rolled his eyes. "I assume you don't have any of those either?" He motioned at the swimming goggles on his head.
"No."
"Luckily for you I have extras."
Naruto went back to the dressing room. While he was gone Sasuke shifted from one foot to the other uneasily. They had got in with Naruto's key, and then he had punched in the code to deactivate the security system. They were completely alone here. As he looked at the water, he frowned. He crossed his arms over his chest, feeling a bit cold even though it was warm in here. Was he crazy, or was the water turning red all over? He closed his eyes and opened them again, and the water wasn't red. He was crazy.
"There." Naruto came back and threw goggles and swimming trunks at him. "Don't worry, they're clean. And I'll make sure to wash them after you use them, too."
Sasuke debated asking him why he was being so weirdly and unnecessarily mean all the time, but decided that sounded a bit too whiny for his style. So instead he said, "Of course. Homosexuality is contagious." He almost winked at him. But that would be too much. So he refrained.
He started getting changed, and Naruto looked really annoyed and turned around.
Sasuke wasn't self-conscious or anything but he was kind of glad Naruto didn't look. It was just that… because of these past few months he had become really skinny, and it didn't look too good. Before getting his powers back—he still didn't know what the hell they were, but he couldn't deny that his body was slowly getting better thanks to them—he hadn't been eating properly, hadn't been sleeping, hadn't been… Well, hadn't been feeling alive. Not really.
He jumped in the water where it reached up to his chest.
"I thought you were afraid," said Naruto mockingly, before sitting at the edge of the pool. He sat at the beginning of one of the areas designated for swimming laps, separated by those white floating things.
But Sasuke wasn't in the mood for jokes. "I'm not afraid if I can stand on my feet and see the bottom. It's the deeper section that's a bit trickier."
Just looking towards it made him shiver. He crossed his arms and rubbed them for warmth.
"You can't swim like that, you know." Naruto pointed his chin toward him. "Not the best technique."
"That's hilarious. So… are you even going to try to help me, or am I just wasting my time?"
"Do you mind if I swim a few laps first? Then I'm all yours."
"Okay."
Naruto fastened the goggles and then pushed himself in the water gracefully. Sasuke observed his technique. His movements looked really easy and effortless, and he moved so fast. It really was quite something to watch someone that excelled in their sport. He wondered if it was the same for beginners watching him doing rock climbing, and making it all the way to the top of the most difficult walls—like the forty feet high one, with all the overhangs and boulders and the tricky part on top where you had almost no holds.
He suddenly wished he was at the familiar Brooklyn climbing gym instead of here. What was he doing here, anyway?
Right. Making Naruto feel better.
What a joke. Naruto seemed fine to him. He was swimming his tenth lap already. Was he even planning to stop eventually, or would he just swim all night and let Sasuke watch how great at swimming he was?
It kind of looked like fun, actually. And it wasn't like Sasuke didn't know how. He knew how. He'd had that class—granted, it had been just one class, and it had resulted in his almost drowning like a complete idiot. But the almost drowning part had been after learning how to swim. The basic technique, anyway—the crawl swimming stroke, or something. With the face in the water and the arms alternately pushing under the water and the feet kicking. The one that looked stupid if you didn't know how, but that looked really neat and elegant when Naruto did it.
After watching Naruto do ten laps, Sasuke reckoned he should try it. Might as well. He was here now. And he had the stupid uncomfortable swimming trunks on, and those goggles and everything. Okay, so maybe he felt really cold, and terrified, and his chest hurt because of the whole anxiety thing. Suigetsu had said he should take prescribed medication for his anxiety. But Sasuke didn't think they'd have any reaper-repellent ones. So…
Okay. Let's do this. It's just water, anyway. No big deal. Water and chlorine. More chlorine than water, according to the smell. Well, on the plus side, it couldn't be blood if it smelled so strongly of chlorine, right? It wouldn't make any sense. So surely he wouldn't have any weird visions. It had only happened once, and he had developed an irrational fear because of it. But it was stupid, and he was mature enough to acknowledge that.
So he went to place himself two rows away from where Naruto was swimming. And he kicked himself off the floor and started swimming, just like that.
It wasn't that difficult, really. He had learned it once and his body still remembered. It wasn't nearly as graceful—or fast—as Naruto's technique, but it didn't matter. He was just trying to overcome his fear. He didn't need Naruto for that. He could do it by himself. Easy.
He swam two, then three laps. Every time he got to the deepest part of the water he felt scared. The fear was there, and it was eating his insides, and he hated feeling weak and vulnerable like this, but he couldn't help it.
But nothing happened. He couldn't see much anyway. It was pretty dark. Even if his brain decided to hallucinate the water turning red, it probably wouldn't make much of a difference. After he finished his third lap he paused, holding the edge of the pool to rest for a bit. His cardio was pretty good; he wasn't physically tired. It was all in his head.
He realized he couldn't see Naruto anymore. At the same time, hands grabbed his ankles and pulled, hard. He couldn't even make a noise of surprise; he was already in the water. His goggles weren't even on right now, so he opened his eyes and they burned. Also he swallowed water. When he swam back up he coughed violently and of course Naruto was just right next to him, laughing.
"You should've seen your face!"
Sasuke hated him right now.
But oh, look at that, he was laughing—quite heartedly at that, too—so he supposed there was progress. A depressed person didn't laugh much, right?
"I'm glad one of us is having fun," Sasuke said when he managed to breathe again. His lungs still burned, though. So did his eyes.
Ass.
His heart was beating quite fast, too. Naruto had scared him, obviously, but he wouldn't admit it.
"Your technique was really bad," Naruto said, still smiling. "Like, I'm sorry, but it was really bad. Worst than some of my kids. And they're not very good. I mean, they're getting better, obviously, cause I'm their teacher, but—"
"You don't sound sorry. And what are you talking about? You weren't even looking. You were swimming…"
"Nah." Naruto shook his head. Sasuke was holding on to the edge of the pool again, but Naruto was just treading water calmly. He almost didn't need to make any movements at all. "I stopped and watched you as soon as you started swimming. That's what I do when I teach. I can swim if my kids are watching me—so they can look at the technique. But when they're swimming, I have to watch them to make sure they're okay."
"I'm not a kid."
"I know." His voice softened. He moved away to give Sasuke his space to swim. "Try again. Don't kick so much with your legs. And keep your arms closer to your body. Go over there and back, and then I'll give you my feedback."
"Great. Can't wait."
"Is that sarcasm?"
"No."
"How do I know that's not sarcasm again?"
"You don't."
He kicked himself off the edge and started swimming. He felt really annoyed and self-conscious now, like he could feel Naruto's eyes watching his every movement. He did try to kick less and keep his arms closer and all that. He wasn't too sure if it was working. But he tried, anyway. He tried to go slowly, too. No need to rush it.
Like with rock climbing, when kids tried to go too fast to show off to the others, it always got messy, and their technique sucked, and they got stuck quickly enough.
It was always better to go slow at first.
As usual Sasuke's chest tightened when he got to the deepest part of the water again. His heart started beating faster. And he felt… cold. He tried to just focus on swimming, on reaching the other side. He was almost there, anyway. Nothing would happen.
He saw red—he didn't want to say blood, because he knew it wasn't real. He was almost expecting it by now. It was just his stupid brain playing tricks again. No big deal. There was no red, it was all in his head, and if he could just ignore it, and be stronger than that, then maybe—
Hands closed in on his ankles again. But this time it wasn't Naruto, and they pulled him deeper, much deeper, all the way down, until his ears hurt and felt like they were going to burst. The hands didn't even feel like skin. They were colder than ice, and they had claws. Sasuke was so scared that he was becoming paralyzed. He took off the stupid goggles because he felt like he couldn't see anything. When he looked down he saw that the hands were black. Like black shadows trying to grab at him and pull him down even more. Instead of the bottom of the pool he saw a large circle, thick and dark red. But somehow as he looked it was like he could see through it—like it became translucent.
And he saw a hundred more of those black shadowy creatures, all huddled together in a world of ice and snow, waiting for him. And beyond them was dark smoke rising in the starless sky, curling up like a snake. Hell. The shadows were grabbing at him, trying to pull him down there. His feet were almost touching the red circle. He would go through to the other side, and this time his body wouldn't stay behind. What if there was no going back? What did they want with him this time? What would they do to him?
He could hear their moans, inhuman and distorted. It made Sasuke's blood run cold. Why couldn't he free himself from their grasp? Why couldn't he be stronger? Deidara had dismissed them so easily.
Then he felt a hand—a warm touch, unlike those cold black shadows—on his arm, and he was being pulled back up.
Naruto helped him out of the water, and they climbed out the pool together. Sasuke was crawling away from the water, and he coughed and coughed until his lungs hurt so much that he thought he would die. He curled up on himself and he couldn't stop trembling. He put a hand in his hair, hiding his face with his arm.
Sitting next to him, Naruto was watching him, confused.
"What the fuck happened? You can't have gotten to the bottom of the pool that quickly. That's impossible. It's like something pulled you down. But I didn't see anything."
Sasuke couldn't move right now, let alone talk. He just couldn't stop trembling, his heart thumping inside his chest like crazy. He could still hear those moans in his head.
Those creatures, whatever they were. They were in pain. They were… angry. Frustrated. Desperate. Mad.
Naruto touched his neck and Sasuke winced at first, because he wasn't expecting it. But then he found himself wishing that Naruto would keep his hand there, because it was warm, and it felt nice.
"Relax. I just wanted to check something… Your heart's beating really fast. Are you having a panic attack, or something? Sasuke… you need to calm down."
"N-No shit." His teeth started chattering. He tried to stop it but it was uncontrollable.
"Do you want me to call an ambulance or something?"
"No! No… I hate stupid hospitals."
"Yeah, I get it. Me too." He slid his hand to Sasuke's shoulder, and squeezed it, like he was awkwardly trying to comfort him or something. But then he seemed to think better of it and pulled his hand away.
Sasuke wished he had kept his hand there.
"You're really cold. Do you want to go to the showers?"
"Y-Yeah, okay."
"Can you stand?"
"Yeah." He wasn't sure, though. But he tried. He turned around and pushed himself off that rough indoor pool floor. He was pretty sure he scraped his knee on that stupid floor just now. But that was the least of his worries. He managed to stand on his shaky legs, and he followed Naruto to the shower room.
He didn't look back at that stupid pool. That had been enough for today. At least he had tried…
Well, he had put himself in a vulnerable situation, that was for sure. Deidara would be proud. Sasuke stood under one of the showers, turning the tap for the hot water at maximum. Naruto was looking at him worriedly.
"That's too hot, Sasuke, your skin's getting all red."
"I don't care. I'm fucking cold."
"That's enough. Stop it. Get out of there."
Naruto bent over and turned off the water. He threw a towel at Sasuke and they went to the dressing room. But they didn't get changed yet. They just sat. Naruto hadn't turned on the lights here, either. He'd just flicked on the ones in the shower room. They could still see, but it was dark. And really quiet. They just heard some drops of water still leaking from the tap in the next room.
"You're really skinny," Naruto said.
Sasuke tried to control his trembling, so it wouldn't show through his voice. "Must be my demon genes. Maybe all those professional runway models have demon genes, too. Who knows?"
"Seriously though. I can see your ribs. It's kind of gross."
Well that was harsh. Sasuke clutched the towel tighter around himself, like that would make a difference.
"Was it always like that?" Naruto asked. "Or just recently?"
"Just recently. But I was getting better…"
"You'll get better," Naruto said firmly.
"You don't know that."
"Do you want to come to the coffee shop with me?"
"What?"
"The coffee shop I work at. They open 24/7. I've got the night shift tonight. But there's hardly ever anyone. I'll make you a latte. I make the best lattes. Seriously. And I'll make you eat something."
"Naruto, I'm not actually anorexic. You know that, right? You don't have to make me eat something."
"Well I want to. You're coming with me. The end."
"Okay… it's my day off tomorrow anyway. But… don't you have school?"
Naruto waved a dismissive hand. Then he went to one of the stalls to get changed, and pulled the curtain. "It's okay. I'll sleep through it tomorrow morning. No big deal. My teachers like me better when I'm asleep, anyway. Apparently my friends throw stuff at me and I don't even wake up, and they think it's hilarious."
"Charming." Sasuke went to another stall to get changed, too. "What about tomorrow afternoon? Will you stay awake for your classes, or?"
"Actually I think me and my friends are skipping for band practice."
"You're in a band?"
Sasuke had thrown on his skinny jeans and thin long sleeve shirt, and now he was zipping up his jacket.
"Yeah." Naruto was done, too. He got out of the stall and he finished lacing his converse shoes. "But we just do covers so far."
"Like old school Linkin Park?" Sasuke smiled. He put on his boots and they were ready.
"That wasn't cool of you guys to barge in like that."
"Oh, stop it. You were good anyway. No need to be all shy about it."
They walked out of the sports center side by side, the mostly empty corridors echoing with their steps. Some of the gyms were open at night for people who wanted to work on the machines, but the pool area was supposed to be closed, so Naruto locked up behind them.
"I'd like to hear your band one day," Sasuke added.
"Maybe one day."
Naruto led them outside and they hit the sidewalk. The night was chilly and kind of depressing; moonless, and cloudy. It had been raining, too. As a car drove by too close to the sidewalk, Sasuke got muddy water all over his boots. Damn it.
Stupid car driver being inconsiderate.
"What's it called?" he asked. "The coffee shop."
"Espress. Lame name, I know."
"It's okay. The tattoo shop I work at is called Love Needles, so…"
"You work at a tattoo shop?"
Sasuke was amused. "You really don't know anything about me, do you?"
"Well, you never tell me."
"You never ask," he replied.
"You don't know anything about me either," Naruto countered without looking at him. He walked quite fast, but Sasuke kept up without a problem. He liked walking fast, actually.
"I know you love Itachi more than anything. It's pretty obvious. And I know you're very prideful, and you're someone that always tries really hard to be strong." It was sort of just coming out. Sasuke didn't even have to think before saying it. "You don't let people in easily. You're afraid to trust people, maybe. You're afraid to trust me."
"Well, I—"
"And I know you're a were—I mean, a fox spirit."
Naruto glared at him. "You were gonna say werefox."
"No."
"Liar."
"Well it's Deidara's fault. He kept going on about werefoxes, and werewolves, and stuff."
"So he told you. I figured he might know about that."
"Really?"
"Yeah. He kept calling me little fox."
"Oh yeah. I forgot about that. I thought he was just giving you a nickname, or something."
"Mom said we're very rare, and that we might be the longest line of fox spirits in the world. We have some really old journals that date back to the eleventh century."
"That's impressive."
"Yeah," Naruto smiled, "one of my ancestors fought in the Crusades. Not with the Europeans. He was trying to defend Jerusalem."
"So you read all the journals?"
He shrugged. "Sometimes I didn't feel like it. Not all my ancestors were very good writers. But my mother made me read them. You know how mothers are when they really want you to do something…" Then he looked at Sasuke and made a face. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay," he said. "I'm not going to cry. Don't worry. I'm pretty much over it by now. It's not all bad. I've got Suigetsu. And I've got Suigetsu's parents. They were good foster parents—by far the best ones I've had. Even though now they think I'm really weird."
"Why?"
Sasuke scratched his hair. Another car drove by, but this time he stepped to the side so he wouldn't get splashed. He almost bumped in Naruto in the process, though.
"Sorry," he said quickly, clearing his throat. "Uh, yeah, they think I'm weird because I decided not to go to college, basically."
"I don't think that's weird. College isn't for everyone. Did they even go?"
"Suigetsu's mom, yes. But his dad didn't go."
"So there."
"I think they're a bit weirded out by the gay stuff, too."
"Really? Why?"
"I don't know. You tell me. You seem weirded out by it too."
"I'm not. Not really…"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Naruto didn't answer that.
Well, this conversation was getting nowhere.
They reached Lexington Avenue, with all its tall, trendy buildings and Sasuke tried to find this 'Espress' place. As he followed Naruto he saw that it was actually really small, located on the ground floor of a glass building with 'for lease' signs in some of the upper windows.
Inside it smelled strongly of coffee. They didn't seem to have much food except for pastries in little glass displays. The place was decorated in earthy tones of beige and browns, and it was cozy enough. Some dark brown and pale green couches furnished one corner. Also they had a few plants near the entrance, but they looked like they hadn't been watered in a while. It was really bothering Sasuke, but he tried not to be too obsessive compulsive about it.
Other than that, the stuff covering the walls and stacking the shelves seemed to be oriental-inspired. Wall scrolls, fake cherry blossom flowers in vases, hand made fans—they looked hand made, anyway—and a small Buddha statue and a Chinese calendar. Sasuke also saw a clear bowl full of marbles on the counter.
Some people had eclectic taste.
"Hey Naruto," said the guy standing behind the counter. His laptop sat next to the cash register, and he was clearly doing something non-work related. As they approached Sasuke craned his neck and recognized the game Star Craft. Heart of the Swarm. Or as Suigetsu preferred to say, 'Heart of the Swoaaaarm' He said you had to say it with the Zerg accent.
"Hey," Naruto said back, before lazily introducing them. "Shikamaru. Sasuke."
"Oh, so this is the guy you told me about." Shikamaru nodded in understanding, tucking his hair behind his ears. He had very messy and wavy shoulder-length hair, and a few piercings in his ears.
"Your brother's biological brother," Shikamaru added.
"Ew," Naruto said, grabbing a nearby chair and sitting on it sideways, one arm wrapped around the back. "When you say it like that it sounds like Sasuke and I are brothers."
"Why would that be a bad thing?" Shikamaru asked. He yawned, and scratched the back of his neck. "Man, I'm tired. I hate this job sometimes."
He was getting paid to play Star Craft instead of working. It didn't seem that bad, really.
"I don't know," Naruto shrugged, "but it would definitely be weird being related to Sasuke."
"He doesn't really like me much," Sasuke explained.
"Oh, well, Naruto can be a bit wild," Shikamaru said as he shut down his laptop and unplugged the charger. "You know, I mean like a wild animal. You have to tame him first."
That reminded Sasuke of something. Orochimaru's t-shirt. And he wanted to laugh. Shit… Now it all made sense. But he couldn't really talk about that in front of Naruto's colleague.
"Shut up and make me a coffee," Naruto said.
"Make it yourself."
Naruto checked his phone. "Eleven fifty. Ten minutes before my shift. So I'm like a customer." He looked around the store. "And I'm your only customer, so you should be nicer." He balanced the chair on its back legs, holding the table with one hand. "And a latte for Sasuke. No, wait, I'll do it myself. My lattes are better than yours."
Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Make up your damn mind."
Naruto jumped to his feet and the chair fell. "Oops," he said.
He went to make the coffee, manning the espresso machine. Shikamaru shoved his laptop in a worn leather strap bag and hoisted in on his shoulder.
"Well, good night boys, have fun. It was nice meeting you, Sasuke, I guess… You're just like Itachi though. You don't talk much. Oh well, that's okay." He pushed the glass door with one hand, and the chilly night wind stormed in. "Naruto talks too much, so maybe you guys can balance each other out."
And he left. Sasuke picked up the chair Naruto had left on the floor and then he just stared at him, arching an eyebrow.
"So. You talk too much?"
"I don't know why he said that."
"You don't talk much to me."
"Maybe because I don't want to."
"Why'd you bring me here, then?"
Silence filled the room. Well, not exactly; top forty radio music filled the room, with its annoying, obnoxious, repetitive auto-tuned… He wasn't even sure those could be called lyrics.
Naruto spun on his heel to turn up the volume of the sound system. "I love that song," he said as a new one started playing.
"You've got to be kidding."
Big blue eyes stared at him in disbelief. "It's so good. You don't like it? Pharrell even got nominated at the Oscars for that song."
"I know," Sasuke said, "Suigetsu made me watch the whole damn thing. And okay," he amended, "that one's not so bad, I guess. But most pop songs are crap."
"They wouldn't be 'popular' songs if they were crap, Sasuke. They're good for dancing in clubs, at least most of them are."
"Are you serious? They're terrible for dancing. I've got such good music I could make you listen to. You'd change your mind. I'm sure of it. You'd never want to listen to pop stuff again."
"We'll have to listen to your music some time, then."
Naruto brought the two large white mugs to the corner of the shop so they could sit on those couches. The wooden blinds were shut, so it made for a surprisingly intimate setting.
They sat in front of each other, setting their mugs down on the pale wood table. Sasuke didn't want to try it yet. He didn't want to burn his tongue.
He glanced around the room once more. He noticed they didn't even have a door for the back store, just bright turquoise beaded curtains. Naruto followed his glance.
"The owner, he's kind of strange. He's really obsessed with Japan. In fact, he's there right now, on vacation. He only dates Japanese girls. It's a very strict rule of his. And he says when he goes there he has to stay at least one month, otherwise it's pointless."
Sasuke tilted his head. "Why?"
"He says Japanese girls are really shy, so it takes time before they let you sleep with them. But when they do, it's really worth it. His words, not mine."
"Huh." Well, that didn't really explain the Chinese calendar, or the Buddha statue. But whatever.
Naruto had taken off his jacket before, and he just wore a small v-neck white tee over his gray jeans.
"Don't you have a uniform?"
"Yeah but I don't feel like wearing it," Naruto shrugged.
Sasuke felt a bit overdressed, so he took off his jacket, too, and tossed it aside on the couch. He crossed his arms, then uncrossed them. He didn't know what to do with his stupid hands. Why did he feel so self-conscious around Naruto?
I can see your ribs. It's kind of gross.
Yeah, well, maybe that was it.
And great. Now he was cold.
Naruto seemed to notice. "The heating doesn't really work, so you can keep your jacket if you want. Some dude was supposed to come and fix it, but he never showed."
"I'm fine," Sasuke said.
At least I know it's not the Hellish hallucinations type of cold, it's just the shitty building and defective heating type of cold.
"So do you ever have customers, or—?"
"Sometimes. Hey, Sasuke, I wanted to ask you something. Who's Temari?"
Immediately Naruto's face became a bit flushed. He tried to act all casual, and he picked up his coffee to take a few sips, but he was clearly embarrassed for letting that slip.
"How do you even know about her? Did you check my phone or something?"
"No, um, it was Itachi. He checked your phone. He was wondering if she was your girlfriend."
"Liar. Itachi wouldn't do that. You checked my phone. When? Saturday?"
"I, um… it just sort of… fell out of your pocket, and—"
Sasuke leaned forward on the couch without really realizing it. Naruto had a guilty look on his face.
"You checked my phone when I was passed out? What the fuck."
"So is she a girl you're dating, or something?"
"You moron. You already know I'm gay."
"Well, exactly." Naruto took another sip of latte. He had some white on his lips, but then he licked them clean. "It's not nice to lead her on, Sasuke."
"She's an agent. Or so she says, anyway. She was just interested in some of my ideas, so I'm meeting her soon for lunch."
"What ideas?"
"For a story. A screenplay."
Naruto's eyes seemed to light up. But Sasuke thought maybe he was just imagining things.
"You're a writer? That's so cool."
"Well, no, I'm not—" Sasuke interrupted himself as some customers walked in.
He had almost forgotten where they were. Naruto got to his feet and dragged himself to the front counter so he could make them some to-go coffees. Sasuke grabbed his mug and tried his latte carefully while he waited. Hey, it wasn't bad. He caught himself feeling kind of annoyed with the customers. Almost as if he had been enjoying his conversation with Naruto.
Those people also grabbed some cookies and brownies to go, and then they left. While he was at it, Naruto put some more cookies in a plate and brought it to their table in the corner.
"I made those myself, so you better at least try one."
"Okay," said Sasuke, amused. "Do you get all the profits, at least, if you make them yourself?"
Naruto shrugged. "No. I don't care about that. And they sell much better than those other things we get in frozen batches."
"Yeah, no shit."
"So you're not a writer, then?" Naruto asked, grabbing a cookie.
"Well, that's not something you can get money for—not enough to make a living anyway. Except for rare cases. Everyone knows that. It's not… Like, I'm not one of those idiots who think they'll write that novel in their mid-thirties or early forties, and sell millions and then write a gajillion stupid sequels and get rich while Hollywood makes movies out of it with teenagers who can't act." Sasuke caught his breath. Wow, that was a lot of words.
Naruto let out a brief laugh. "Well, you've clearly thought about it."
Sasuke grabbed a cookie and took a bite to be polite, but he was surprised. This was really good. Maple and nuts, with some dark chocolate…
"Hey, you like it." Naruto smiled.
Sasuke didn't deny it.
"Anyway," he said, "yes, to answer your question, I've thought about it. And I realized I'd really like it if one of my stories got turned into a movie. But I'd have to have full control over everything, you know? Well, maybe not everything, but," he shrugged, "at least I want to write it. Every scene description, every dialogue. That's why I got into screenwriting."
"That's so cool. I've always admired people who can write. I used to read a lot. I'm in a phase where I don't read much lately, but I used to read all the books in my dad's collection. And he bought new ones all the time, too. Maybe that's why I don't read anymore. He's not around to buy them. But I guess I'm just giving myself excuses. Anyway… I saw you looking at my books when you came over."
"So those weren't Itachi's?"
"What? No. Itachi just reads boring stuff. Marketing stuff. Finance, PR… And sometimes he reads biographies…" Naruto paused, and drank some coffee. Then he looked up at Sasuke again. He really had a glint in those blue eyes that hadn't been there before. Like maybe he was enjoying this, too. This was unexpected.
"So what do you write about?"
"No. No way. I'm not telling you that. Even Suigetsu doesn't know that. It's my turn to ask questions, anyway."
Naruto played with his necklace, the one he always kept hidden under his shirt.
"What do you want to know?"
"You stole my friend's clothes." Sasuke wanted to laugh. Naruto's eyes got all wide and guilty, like a deer caught in headlights. "Orochimaru's clothes. He's one of the bartenders at Laid-Back. But you already knew that. Don't get me wrong, those looked really good on you. But you should probably still return them."
Naruto swallowed. "I will."
"Okay. Good."
"I had no choice, okay?" Naruto said defensively, shifting in his seat. "They were the only clothes I found."
"After you sneaked in and transformed back."
"Yeah…" Naruto's cheeks and ears were turning red. He scratched his hair, then flipped his bangs to the side. Some blond strands just fell right back in his eyes.
"I knew there was some kind of dog following me!"
"M'not a dog," Naruto muttered.
Sasuke just smiled.
Some more customers walked in. Damn it. Annoying people. Intruding like that.
And they were staying, too. At least, they were decent enough to sit at the opposite side of the coffee shop, following the well known social rule that you should always sit as far away as possible from other people in a public place.
Right? Sasuke really hated it when people sat close to him for no reason when there were plenty other free seats. Annoying.
Naruto gave them their cappuccinos, and then he came back to sit with Sasuke. But his eyes lingered on the customers. Sasuke followed his gaze. One girl, one boy; both looked young. They looked alike, actually. Dark hair, light eyes, fair skin. Maybe they were siblings. The girl kept glancing at Naruto across the room, and then quickly and shyly looking away. Wow. Subtle.
"What is it?" Sasuke asked when Naruto seemed a bit uneasy.
"I'm getting a strange vibe from them," he whispered so they wouldn't hear. "I don't know. They have weird… eyes."
"Okay…"
"Whatever. It's not important."
But clearly it was bothering him, because he became a lot less talkative after that. Sasuke was kind of disappointed. Great, now he felt depressed.
He wondered why. Seriously, he thought as he drank his latte, why was he depressed all of a sudden?
Maybe because Naruto kept looking at that girl. And she kept looking at Naruto, before going back to her hushed conversation with her twin or whoever that boy was.
Nah. Couldn't be that. He was probably just tired.
"So," he cleared his throat, "you never answered my question earlier."
"What question?"
"Why did you bring me here?"
"I didn't want to leave you alone after what happened at the pool." Naruto said, and his voice was surprisingly soft.
"I left you alone on Saturday night."
Naruto settled back in his couch, and sighed. "Yeah, but, I didn't exactly give you a choice. I just locked myself up in my bedroom. I thought I wanted to be alone, but that was bullshit. I just ended up crying all night," Naruto admitted, "and I couldn't sleep anyway."
Well, Sasuke didn't really know what to say after that.
He saw that Naruto was playing with his necklace again. It seemed to be some nervous thing he did. He was glancing toward that girl again.
Sasuke felt really annoyed. Plus a One Direction song was on the radio, so that didn't help.
"She keeps staring at me," Naruto whispered, turning around.
"Well maybe if you stop staring at her she'll stop staring at you."
"You're right…"
"Can I see?"
"What?"
"Your necklace."
"Oh, that." He took it out of his shirt. It had three pendants; a black feather, a silver wing, and a blue tear shaped gem thingy.
"It's cute."
"Thanks. It was my mom's. I found it in some old box of stuff she kept. I never really saw her wearing any jewelry. Wasn't really her thing. But she kept this one for some reason. Maybe my dad gave it to her when they were younger, or something. So I thought I'd start wearing it." He shrugged, and slid it back under his shirt.
"It looks good on you."
"Thanks." Naruto brought up his ankle on his knee, and he dropped a hand on his converse shoe, fiddling with the worn laces. "You know," he said, looking up, "you're kinda nice. When you want to be."
"Well, I can't exactly be mean when you're telling me about your dead mom's necklace, can I? Even half-demons have a conscience, you know."
He wondered for a moment if he had been pushing his luck. But Naruto laughed.
"I guess."
"And I could tell you the same thing, by the way."
Naruto seemed really thoughtful for a moment, and then he parted his lips to say something—and Sasuke could tell it would be important—but then that girl ruined everything.
Curse you and your bad timing, strange eyed girl.
She had a shy smile plastered on her annoyingly pretty face, and long dark hair with bangs, and she was thin but with enormous breasts. The kind of girl a straight guy would totally go for. Any straight guy. Or even a gay guy, if he was drunk and felt like experimenting.
Not Sasuke, though. No matter how drunk. Because he loathed her and her bad timing.
"Hi! I'm Hinata."
Nobody cares.
"Hey," Naruto said kindly. "What's up?"
Hinata took out something from her enormous shiny black purse. Looked like a CV. Her boy alter-ego was waiting for her at the door. He looked like he was fascinated by the view on Lexington Avenue. Cars and buildings. Wonderful stuff.
"I was just wondering if you're looking for people to work here. I'm looking for a part-time job."
"Well, not really, to tell you the truth. Things are pretty quiet, as you can see." Hinata looked really disappointed. So Naruto hurriedly took the CV she was handing him. "But I can still take this, you know, just in case people suddenly stop going to Starbucks."
She brightened up. "Okay," she said, "well, call me if anything comes up. Or, you know," she blushed, "you can call me, if you want to."
Oh, wow. More subtlety from our friend Hinata.
"Bye, then," she waved a hand awkwardly and she rushed over to her male look-alike. And they left.
Naruto dropped the CV on the table and shrugged. "She didn't even laugh at my Starbucks joke."
"So are you going to call her?"
Naruto lifted his chin. "What's it to you?"
"Nothing," he said evenly.
There was a silence.
"What were you going to tell me? Just before she came over."
"I, um, I forgot."
He hadn't forgotten. He just didn't want to say it now. Damn it.
What was it? Sasuke really wanted to know. He would have to ask Deidara if his demon powers might possibly involve mind reading. That would be convenient.
Probably not, eh? Vampires could read minds in some versions. Why couldn't he be a vampire instead?
Naruto was probably into that, too. Sasuke had seen the Vampire Chronicles series in his living room among the other books, and Naruto had said that he read all of his dad's collection, so—
"It probably wasn't important," Naruto said dismissively.
Sasuke grabbed his jacket and got up, stretching his legs.
"I should probably go, and let you work, I guess."
"Oh, yeah, cause I've got so much work to do."
"You should really water those plants."
"Huh?"
"Never mind."
Naruto followed him to the door and watched him put on his jacket. "I, um… Thank you. For tonight."
"What for? Almost dying? Again." Really though…
"I'm not stupid. I know what you were trying to do."
"Oh. I wasn't really—"
"I know Itachi called you."
"Oh." Busted.
"So… thank you."
"Well did it work?"
"Yeah, kinda, I guess. If the roles had been reversed back there, I could've done the same for you, I think."
Sasuke swallowed hard, and he felt all tense all of a sudden. He could tell that for Naruto it was the same. It wasn't easy for them to talk about it. But Naruto was trying, which was something.
"Yeah," Sasuke said in a weak voice.
"So, um, good night, then."
And Naruto offered his hand.
"A handshake, really? What was this, a job interview? I thought you told that poor girl there was no opening."
Naruto gave a nervous laugh. He still held his hand up awkwardly.
"Well, I don't really know what else to…"
"Me neither," Sasuke admitted, "I'm not really good with those things."
"No, you're really not," Naruto said, "remember last time? You kissed me."
"It was very out of character. I'm sorry about that. I don't usually kiss people that don't want to be kissed by me. So… I don't suppose you'd want to do that again. Handshake it is, then."
Sasuke shook his hand. But it wasn't much of a handshake. Their hands sort of just… touched. And then their fingers laced together.
Naruto gave another one of those short, nervous laughs. Sasuke thought Naruto's voice was the sexiest.
"What are you doing?" Naruto asked, and their eyes met. Those blue eyes.
"I don't know. What are you doing?"
Sasuke felt extremely nervous, and excited, and… sort of warm and prickly all over. Like electricity was going through his body. It was so intense that he forgot to breathe for a moment.
"I don't know," Naruto whispered.
They were still holding hands. With his other hand Naruto pushed Sasuke's chest, and made him step back until he came to a stop. Naruto pressed him against those wooden blinds that covered the windows, and there was a rattling sound. Then Naruto kissed him. His lips were so hesitant, but desperate. And it was the sweetest thing. Sasuke felt desire rising up through him like an unstoppable fire and he couldn't stop himself from moaning and grabbing Naruto and kissing him hard and deep.
Sasuke's arms curled around Naruto's thin waist, flushing their bodies together. Naruto leaned into it and kissed back and it was amazing. Naruto was kissing him like this was the thing he wanted most in the world. Sasuke didn't even want to think. He had never expected…
Naruto leaned his hips into him, and Sasuke tilted his head back. "Fuck…"
And Naruto kissed his neck. He unzipped his jacket. Sasuke grabbed Naruto's hair and brought him into another rough kiss. Naruto threw his arms around his neck and pressed himself even closer, if possible…
Shit.
Sasuke smiled through the kiss and ran his hands all over Naruto's body as their tongues touched heatedly. His hand crawled up under Naruto's shirt and felt his hot skin, so soft… He slid his hand from the hem of his low rise jeans and all the way up his back. The curve of his spine… Damn.
Naruto was a good kisser… He knew when to pull back and let him breathe and he knew when to come back for more. Sasuke was so turned on right now. It had been a while since…
"Oh my God…"
"I know right?" Naruto whispered back before kissing him again. "Did you say out of character?" he laughed softly between kisses.
And suddenly the door opened.
They both stopped and pulled away from each other. Naruto looked at the customer with those comical, wide shocked eyes he did.
Well fuck, Sasuke thought as he looked at the forty-something trench coat wearing man. And the award for worst timing ever goes to... Sorry Hinata, the winner is trench coat guy.
"We're closed!" Naruto exclaimed.
"But the sign says 24/7…" the man whined.
"We're closed!" Naruto said loudly. "Just go to Starbucks like everybody else! Leave! Now!"
Naruto grabbed the glass door, and as soon as the man stepped out, he slammed it shut, almost right in the man's face. With shaky hands he reached in his pocket and took out his keys, before locking the door.
He looked at Sasuke.
Sasuke couldn't stop laughing.
After only a short moment of hesitation Naruto started laughing, too. He couldn't stop either, and he came closer and fell into Sasuke's arms again. They sort of just held each other for a moment, and laughed, and it felt amazing. Sasuke forgot about everything else.
And then they kissed again, and it was softer, but still deep and powerful, like they wanted more, always more. Sasuke realized his heart was beating so fast. Or was it Naruto's? Probably both… Shit, this was intense.
"I thought you hated me," he whispered in Naruto's ear.
Naruto kissed his neck. "I thought I hated you."
Sasuke tangled his fingers through Naruto's hair, making it all messy. "You said I was gross."
"You're not."
Naruto pressed himself closer and held him so tight for a moment, like he was something precious and never to be lost. But then he suddenly pulled away. His hand lingered at Sasuke's hip for a moment, fiddling with his belt loop. But then he pulled away completely. Something had happened just now. A shadow had crossed his eyes.
Sasuke felt a pang in his chest. "What is it? What are you thinking?"
"Nothing." He shook his head. He crossed his arms against his chest. He averted his gaze. Damn it. He was putting walls around himself again. But why?
"Did I do something wrong?"
"No."
"Naruto, please…" He didn't like to beg. But he didn't care about acting all cool and composed. Not right now. Not after this.
"I can't… this shouldn't have… We shouldn't have… I mean, I can't. I'm sorry. Um… I can't explain it."
"You can't explain it?"
"No."
"So you just want me to leave."
He made a face. "I'm sorry."
Wow. Okay. That was… rough.
"But the sign says 24/7," Sasuke tried.
But he merely got a smile.
"And I was never a big Starbucks fan."
"I'm sorry."
"Stop saying you're sorry. If you want me to leave, I'll leave. But I am pissed, okay? Just so you know. You can't just do that to a guy. Without explaining."
"I don't want to talk about it," he said stubbornly.
"Fine."
"Good."
Sasuke felt a pang in his chest, and it hurt, and it was so frustrating. Maybe Naruto was just one of those guys who had weird gay fantasies sometimes but would never want to actually go through with it. And he would just date girls and be unhappy and ignore everything else for the rest of his life.
He said lame stuff when Sasuke walked out the door. "Be careful, okay? Take care. Sleep well."
Like that would make up for it.
It didn't.