Severus sat up in bed, not entirely sure why. The clock on the side table only said 3:13, so it couldn't have been time to get up yet. His questions were answered when he heard a whimpering sound coming from the room across from his, though it took him a second to remember that there was another person sharing his quarters with him. When he did, he immediately jumped his feet and hurried to the next room, barely remembering to grab his wand on the way out.
It had been three days since Naruto had appeared on the floor of his quarters, and those three days had been the best Severus had had in a long time. A very long time. When he had woken up on the first day after Naruto arrived, and he had forgotten Naruto was there. Therefore when he had found him making breakfast in the kitchen on the first morning there, he had tried to stun him. Luckily, Naruto had danced out of the way and took the accidental attack in stride. For the rest of the day, Naruto helped him out in his potions lab. The second and third day had been entirely different. The second day he and Naruto went shopping for clothing, but Naruto had refused to even touch the robes Severus pointed out. He had called them ' as ugly as Lee's spandex covered ass' and had then proceeded to mutter darkly in Japanese. Severus had gotten out of there before Malkin decided to castrate him with a rusty spoon. On the third morning, Severus had woken up to Naruto tying him up with some strange type of wire, and he had then been taken on an all day picnic. After he had stopped trying to hex Naruto's nether regions off once he was free, it was actually quite a nice day. During all that time, Naruto had not once showed any negative emotion, and Severus could not read any more off of him. He had thought that Naruto might slip in his sleep or something, but the sounds he was making were making it seem like he was being killed.
Severus cursed when he stubbed his toe on the doorframe on the way out, but didn't let that deter him. He slammed open the door to Naruto's room and quickly scanned for intruders, and finding none, turned his attention to the bed. Naruto was curled up in a ball on his side, the sheets fisted in his grasp. His brow was scrunched up and soaked with sweat, and small whimpering noises mixed with words poured from his lips. Severus hesitantly walked closer, and started to be able to make out what was coming from Naruto's mouth. "No, please no. 'm sorry, didn' mean ta! Stop! I be good, me promise! No! Please! No!" The last word was said in a shout, and a few tears leaked from the corners of Naruto's eyes. Severus couldn't stop himself and leapt forward, shaking Naruto's shoulders and calling out his name.
Naruto was scared. He was younger, and was running through an ally in the Red-light district with some stolen food when he had accidently stepped on a man's foot. Before he could react, the man had ripped him off the ground by his collar and threw him into a wall, making him drop his bread. The man bared his teeth at him and drunkenly slurred, " Ya think ya can jus' step on ma shoes anytime ya wan's ta, huh Demon boy. Ya owe me some compenshashion nows, Little Fox brat! " The man pinned Naruto's arm down with his foot, and fumbled to get his pants off with his free hands. He reached down to drag Naruto into a kneeling position, completely ignoring his apologies and pleas for mercy. He gripped himself in his hand, and thrust inside of Naruto's mouth. His moan was cut short, however, to be replaced with a shout of pain. Naruto had done the one thing scared, threatened animals would do: he bit down. Hard. The next thing Naruto knew, the man had yanked him up by his shirt collar and was shaking him by his neck. He wouldn't stop! His world started to blur around him, and he could hear someone calling his name. He had to stop the shaking! He had to! Half-way between sleep and consciousness, Naruto's reflexes took over for him completely. Before he could even register his surroundings, he had whoever was shaking him on the ground with a hand around their neck. It took a few seconds for Naruto to be fully aware, but when he did, he jerked his hand back and wound up straddling the person he had pinned. Naruto gripped his hand, and blue eyes stared horrified into glazed black ones.
Severus's face was bright red and his eyes were barely able to focus. There were already bruises forming around his throat in the shape of Naruto's hand and raspy breaths left his lips. His hair spread around his face in a dark halo, and his hands lay limply by his sides. His eyes finally focused on Naruto's watery blue, and watched in dazed fascination as his lips trembled as he spoke. " Severus, I'm sorry. I-I didn't know it was you! I would never-could never- I-I." He cut himself off with a sob and raised his arms to cover his face with his hands, seemingly forgetting for the moment that he was straddling Severus.
Normally Severus would be furious by now, and sneering at such a display of emotion. But most of that was a show put on for the students anyway, and the small part of him that usually would have sneered was stomped down in concern as to what caused Naruto to have such a reaction. With the furious part, well, strangulation was something minor compared to some of the torture he had gone through as a Death Eater, so he wasn't that angry. Besides, from the way Naruto was crying his heart out on his lap , he couldn't force himself to be angry anyway. He slowly lifted his hand from the floor and set it gently on top of Naruto's head to ruffle his hair, completely unaware of what it meant for Naruto. He was thus confused when Naruto abruptly stopped crying, a red -rimmed, watery blue eye peeking out from behind calloused tan fingers to peer wide-eyed at him.
The only people who had ever ruffled Naruto's hair were his truly precious people, and even then it was an extremely rare occurrence. Jiji had done it once when he was a young kid when he had successfully pulled his first prank, and so had Old-Man Ichiraku when Naruto had told him his ramen was the first good thing he had ever eaten. Iruka had done it when Naruto had finally got that stupid Henge down, followed by Kakashi after he had managed to get a really good hit on him in a spar. Tsunade did it one day when he was declared healed after a really bad mission ending, and the last person to had done it was his Papa when he met him while fighting Pain a few years ago. (Yes, Naruto knew that calling his Dad "Papa" was childish, but he had been calling whoever was his father that since he was young. At least he hadn't actually vocalized the name when he had actually met his father, and had stuck to the traditional "Dad".) Sasuke had poked his forehead before when he had sleepily called him Aniki after Sasuke had woken him from a nap, and in a lot of ways that was way more special than a head ruffle considering who and where it originated from. Anyway, for Naruto such a gesture of affection and comfort meant the world to him, and he wasn't entirely sure he should be letting a man he had just met a few days ago perform such a precious action. But it felt so nice and comforting, Naruto ignored the voices inside his head screaming at him to stop and let his body relax as he slumped forward so he was practically laying on Severus.
For a minute before they subsided, his head was a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions. 'What was wrong with him, Damn it! He was a ninja, for Kami's sake; he had more control of his emotions than this, and he should be strong enough to push back his tears! He wasn't supposed to be cuddling up to a man he had only met a few days ago, slight crush be damned! He was able to easily go toe-to-toe with several s-class nin at once, and had the capability to take down a god, for fucks sake. He was supposed to have better control of his emotions than this. He was only this comfortable with Sasuke, and that was only after being best friends with him for about seven years.' But with Sasuke so busy training and his friends not his friends anymore, he was a bit starved for physical affection and was willing to take it from where he could get it. The only real physical affection he got now a days was when Iruka would take time to come by and make him dinner, and even then he would be lucky if Iruka gave him a pat on the arm. But if Severus went in for a forehead poke or kiss, all bets were off; Severus would lose a finger! The only people allowed to do those two incredibly special actions were his Oba-chan and his Aniki! (Kami, he sounded childish).
Severus tensed for a second when Naruto draped himself on his chest, but forced himself to relax when he felt Naruto sigh and let his entire body get heavy on top of Severus. He resisted the urge to buck Naruto off of him, and instead gently put his hand on the back of Naruto's head, focusing on making his breathing steady. Soon enough, the small hitches in Naruto's breathing faded away and he laid on Severus in silence. They stayed like that for the rest of the night, not one of them speaking a word to the other. They were too afraid to break the moment.