Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or any of its associated characters!
Summary: Naruto's a good fighter. He is. Sasuke just wishes he'd show it sometime. Show it differently. Maybe by avoiding a hit, once in a while. Written for snsmonth23 - day 19 prompt: fantasy AU. PWP, SNS.
A/N: Okay okay, hear me out. Every time I write a fantasy fic I get so wrapped up in plot and worldbuilding that by the time we get to the smut it's like fifty thousand words in. So this time I've just kind of. skipped to that. Enjoy?
the heat after battle
There's a wind in the glade, after the fight. A light breeze and sunny sky as if nothing at all had gone wrong. There's blood in the grass and the same all over them, and Naruto doesn't complain when Sasuke snatches him to safety. It's not a request.
It's a demand.
There's no time for a tent. No time for a shelter. There's enough of it here, anyway, between the rock. The residue of Naruto's magic sticks to his skin. Between his fingers. Under his clothes. It hums with a panic, and Sasuke feels it, too. There's enough stone to sit on and he shoves Naruto to it. Gets his things. Not his weapons. He's no healer, but he's better than the idiot would be.
He starts with the hands.
He ignores the amusement on Naruto's face. The stupid little smile. Roll of his eyes. He's fine. He always says it. But they have no real healer with them, and Naruto is a moron, and so it falls to Sasuke. Sasuke to—
Do this.
"You're an idiot," he snarls, for the millionth time. Naruto is a druid, and yes, he's well-suited to turning into a beast and barging into battle while Sasuke rains arrows from above, but that doesn't mean he has to do it. Idiot. Idiot. Naruto grins, and there's blood on his chin. Sasuke cleans it far more aggressively than usual.
"Pull your pants up," he snaps, and he needs more salve.
"Up?" Naruto asks—
"Up!"
He sits on the floor and gets to Naruto's legs. They're littered with wounds, too. He'd stepped on one of Sasuke's arrows. Dug a blade into his foot. Granted, it'd been the foot of a bear the size of a small home, but it wasn't that size now, and this is the size Sasuke has to deal with.
He glares at Naruto, and Naruto is at least starting to look a little sheepish, now. He always takes too long to get it through his thick skull.
"I don't mean to get scratched up," he grumbles, and obviously. Obviously. But that isn't good enough.
"Right," Sasuke snaps. "That is why you completely ignored the plan and dove straight into the enemy. Brilliant forward-thinking, really."
"They were targeting you!"
"And I was targeting them," Sasuke says. "You think a few bandits will be enough to kill me?"
"You think a couple bandits will be enough to kill me?" Naruto challenges, and Sasuke rolls his eyes. "Come on, Sasuke, it's all good. I'm okay. I know you have my back."
Sasuke's lips thin. He presses them together, tight. That wasn't the problem. Yes, Sasuke could defend. But it was the way Naruto defended that he took issue with.
"Right," he says quickly, and then he pulls back. Naruto's leg is still bleeding. It's bleeding right on the inside of his thigh, through his pants. "Pants. All the way off. Now."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Naruto huffs, and that bloodied rag is done away with, too. Sasuke ought to just have cut the pants off to begin with. "Once a prince, always a prince, huh?"
"Fuck off."
"I'm just sayin'," Naruto teases. "You know how to give an order."
"I was a prince for eight years of my life," Sasuke snaps. "I doubt I've retained any of it now."
"You have," Naruto says. "You've got the prissy-ass air of a prince."
"I think I'm doing quite well as a commoner considering the treatment I'm currently giving you," Sasuke points out, and Naruto's smile widens.
"Yeah. Thanks, 'ske," he says, and Sasuke nods. Good. There. He's almost finished. Sasuke knows how to stay—oriented, about these things. Even if the fear is deep-set within him. Even if it bothers him, angers him, every time Naruto fights someone on his behalf, Sasuke knows—Sasuke knows—
"I just don't understand why you always do it."
Damn it.
"Do what?"
"The last battle, you took a blade meant for me. It was poisoned."
"Yeah, but—"
"You vomited for two weeks."
"Sure, sure, but I was okay after that."
"That's not the point!"
"What's the point, then?"
"It should've been me. Why do you always—"
Sasuke hisses out a breath through his teeth, and Naruto—Naruto goes quiet.
"'Cause I…" he says, and he's looking somewhere at the floor. "I dunno. Sasuke. It's just always gonna happen. Okay? I can't promise not to do it again. I'm always gonna."
Sasuke's lips thin.
"Why."
Naruto shrugs. Sasuke grabs the next salve with a breath. He's resigned himself to these nonanswers, for now. He's been getting them for ages. One day he'll break Naruto, but today…
Today he has to keep himself focused. This wound needs a different salve. It's deeper. It could scar.
"You'll feel a tingle," he warns, and he keeps his eyes to himself. Naruto's underwear is thin. It leaves—little to the imagination.
"Oh," Naruto says. "Oh. Um."
"Yes," Sasuke says, ignoring the bulge. "That can be a side effect."
Naruto is silent. Naruto is bright red. Sasuke is bright red. Sasuke's hands are getting sweaty and unsteady and this is ridiculous, he's better than this, it's just—Naruto. It's just stupid golden Naruto in his muscles and eyes and brilliant little smile, and Sasuke can't—can't seem to control himself around him. He just—he just—
"Fuck," Naruto huffs, shifting. "Um. That's some strong stuff."
Sasuke's eyes slip.
They linger.
"It can be," he lies, and his mouth is dry. He needs to finish up here. He needs to be anywhere but on his knees. The salve can have an arousing effect, but it's—it's mild. It's incredibly mild. It is no reason for—no reason for this.
But it must be. Sasuke can't accept the alternative.
"Right. Sorry," Naruto says quickly, and Sasuke tends to the next wound.
"Don't be," Sasuke says. "It's nothing to do with me."
Naruto clears his throat and doesn't reply. Sasuke's gaze flicks up to him three times.
Naruto isn't looking at him in a single one.
"It's nothing to do with me," Sasuke says again, "right?"
"No, yeah, of course!" Naruto says quickly, bumping him. "It's not—sorry. Right. It's just the—just the stuff. Salve. Sorry."
He's flustered and unfocused. It's a new kind of flush on his skin. It brings out the blue of his eyes. Sasuke feels himself sigh at his own thoughts.
"There's a brothel in town," he offers, and he doesn't know why. Naruto's never seemed to be interested before, but—maybe. Some men were. Maybe. No?
"No," Naruto says, and Sasuke pretends he wasn't just looking up. "No, that's…that's okay."
Sasuke doesn't know what's gotten into him.
"Don't like the women there?"
Naruto laughs. Sasuke—Sasuke is done with this leg. Right? Yes. He turns past Naruto's erection on the way to the—to the next.
He could have turned the other way. He should have turned the other way. Damn it.
"I don't even know the women there," he says. "Um. Sorry. This is—d'you want me to get a blanket or something? Just to, uh—"
"I think that would make it worse," Sasuke mutters, and Naruto lets out a small, strained noise.
"Sorry," he says again. "I'm so sorry. It's—I really. Um."
He hides his face in his hands. It only puts that closer to Sasuke, too.
"Is it that humiliating to appear to be attracted to me?" Sasuke deadpans, and he's careful with his elbow. Careful with it. Any closer and it would hit. "Surely you can survive a few more minutes."
"No, it's not—I mean. I guess you're probably used to it," Naruto laughs a little. "I figured you'd be ready to gut me right now."
"What a healer I'd be then," Sasuke mutters. "What am I supposed to be used to?"
"Y'know. Um. People being attracted to you?"
Sasuke looks up. Naruto's breath hitches.
"I mean, it's—y'know," he says, and he's restless. He has nowhere to go. "You know how people get."
Sasuke's stopped healing entirely.
"I wasn't aware you agreed with them," he says, and Naruto's been—caught by something. He looks trapped. Something in Sasuke rears up.
"Well, I—I don't—"
"This salve has a mild arousal effect," he says. "Unless you have some sort of condition, I would not call this…mild."
He places a hand under each thigh, and sits between Naruto's legs. On purpose.
"It's not," Naruto says quietly. "Sorry, Sasuke, I'm sorry, I really—"
"You are. You're attracted to me," Sasuke says, bewildered. "Since when?"
"Since—come on, why does it matter?" Naruto says, and he's moving to stand. Sasuke grabs him by the thighs and pins him down.
He's not done being healed.
"It matters," Sasuke insists, and Naruto is stuck. Naruto is trapped here. Naruto is very, very aroused.
"I don't—"
"You do. Tell me."
Naruto looks terrified.
"What d'you want me to say?" he whispers. "You're my best friend."
"You feel this way for all of your friends?" Sasuke deadpans, pointedly looking down.
"No!"
"Then?"
"You—I just—two years ago, you tried to leave me behind, and you told me to stick to the things that were important to me and not let them go. And I haven't." Naruto swallows, searching Sasuke's eyes. "I haven't let you go."
He remembered. Naruto had followed him for a month before he'd finally given in. It had been just after another injury—serious, this time. An axe, meant for Sasuke's head. It chilled him to the bone. It chilled him even now.
"That's when you knew?" Sasuke asks, and Naruto nods. Sasuke feels himself pressing closer. Sasuke feels himself leaning in. "And you never said a word."
"Why would I?" Naruto, an idiot, asks. "You don't—I mean. You don't want—wait."
Sasuke puts a hand between Naruto's legs. He's still hard.
"Wait," Naruto breathes, and Sasuke is waiting. He's leaning in, he's pressing, but he's patient, he's waiting, he can wait for the words Naruto needs to hear— "Sasuke—"
"Yes?" Sasuke whispers, and that's the last thing he can say. Naruto kisses him with a question. With a hesitation. With all of the emotion that Sasuke could see in his eyes when a blow was headed his way. With all of the emotion Sasuke could feel when Naruto would take it, Naruto always took it, Sasuke had taken a hit for him once, when they were children, and Naruto had proceeded to spend his entire lifetime repaying the motion—
Sasuke is the one who feels in debt.
He breaks the kiss. He lowers his head. Naruto's underwear is thin and he groans as Sasuke presses his chest to it, as he lingers on purpose, slows on purposes, breathes out and in and looks up just to make sure he can see Naruto's face when he gives in—
"Please," Naruto whispers, and Sasuke's ego swells. It needs no other satiation. No other appeasing. Sasuke pulls Naruto's cock free and never let it be said that he leaves a job undone. That he leaves Naruto unsatisfied. Sasuke is thorough and comprehensive and he's memorized every bit of Naruto's face by now. He knows what pleasure can look like. He knows what pleasure can sound like.
He hasn't heard it all at once, like this, but he will be. Oh, he will be.
Sasuke's tongue swirls around the head of Naruto's cock, and he swipes his tongue down and up the shaft, if only to catch his breath again. Naruto makes it hard. Naruto makes it impossible. He puts his hands in Sasuke's hair and Sasuke groans, he can't help it, he takes Naruto in and Naruto wants him, Naruto needs him, it's taking all the strain in Naruto's body not to thrust up and Sasuke wants to tell him he can take it, he can take it—
Naruto cums hard, and Sasuke sees stars. Sasuke feels the euphoria like it's his own. The hazy aftermath, the unfocus to Naruto's eyes. If it wasn't for the throbbing between his legs, he would've believed he'd cum, too. Naruto breathes hard, and clutches him close. Sasuke presses their foreheads together. Leans to the side. Leans himself in. This warmth is ecstasy and Sasuke is already addicted. He straddles Naruto's thigh and Naruto holds him there, rocks him there, Sasuke's pleasure comes in waves and he breathes them into Naruto's mouth. Their kisses are broken, there kisses are desperate, Sasuke's orgasm builds quick and fast and hard—
He cums with a cry and collapses into Naruto's shoulder. Naruto mutters something he can't hear. He kisses it into Sasuke's skin. Sasuke thinks he knows. Sasuke thinks he can feel it.
He can't put it into words yet, but Naruto pulls back, and it's there. In the blue of his eyes. In the warmth of his hands. In the sound of his laughter. Sasuke clutches him close and says it back, too. Wordless. In motion. He'll say it over and over again.
He'll say it over and over again, until Naruto can hear him.
A/N: Aaaand more smut coming tomorrow. I had to sneak in a little bit in there at least! It's been a while since I've written a pwp. Hope you liked it!
See you tomorrow,
- Kinomi