Madara looked Naruto up and down, his expression assessing as if trying to make out whether or not the blond was serious. Naruto's shoulders were squared and his jaw was set; the defensive posture in Sasuke's body had lit a spark inside of him.

To his surprise the older man burst out laughing and Sasuke's eyes flew to his amused face no less wary than before, side stepping a little onto the paving stone behind him.

"Well in that case I owe Sasuke an apology." Madara said smoothly, walking towards Naruto and holding out his hand for the blond to shake, who took it politely. His eyebrows knitted together over his cornflower blue eyes.

"I am Madara Uchiha, Sasuke's Uncle and family guardian. And you are?"

"Naruto…" Said Naruto with a puzzled expression, "Naruto Uzumaki."

Madara turned back round to Sasuke who was still looking at him warily, his body language still stiff as if he expected Madara to resume yelling at him at any given moment.

"And you attend the same university as Sasuke?"

"Yes," Naruto said a little slowly, "His lateness is my fault, I said I'd take him home earlier but I overslept this morning."

Madara raised his eyebrows as if considering this information meticulously.

His eyes slipped to Sasuke whose silvered eyes were fixed somewhere over Naruto's shoulder not looking directly at him, he neither confirmed or denied the statement, his expression curiously blank.

Naruto opened his mouth to say something else when the sound of a door opening caught everyone's attention. A good-looking man with long dark hair walked down the stone steps holding two mugs in his hands, the acrid smell of coffee wafting down the garden and assailing Naruto's senses. The man looked at Sasuke standing with his back to him with an analytical expression and then to Naruto and curiously raised his eyebrow.

He handed one of the coffee mug's to Madara before tapping Sasuke on the back in a playful manner.

"You made it did you?" he said in slightly officious tones, he turned his head to look at Naruto. "And who is this you've brought with you?"

Sasuke started to open his mouth, his eyes moving from over Naruto's shoulders to Naruto's eyes. There was an expression in his dark irises that the blond could not quite make out.

"His boyfriend." Madara said simply, taking a sip of coffee; "He was just telling me how he dropped Sasuke off."

The tall dark-haired man raised one eyebrow at Naruto and he felt as if he was being scanned, every atom in his body assessed right down to his molecular structure. He looked at Sasuke again as if waiting for an explanation but none came, Sasuke was very stubbornly looking at the stone yellow pavers beneath his feet and did not seem to want to offer any further explanation.

"I see," he said easily as if someone had simply changed a lightbulb. "I'm Itachi."

"You're…you're brothers?" Naruto asked, his eyes moving from Itachi's high cheek bones to Sasuke's.

"Yes." It was Sasuke this time, with the first words he had said to Naruto since getting off the motorbike. His expression was impassive as he looked at the blond, it was like trying to communicate with a marble statue.

"I would normally invite you in for breakfast," Itachi said in apologetic tones looking at Naruto with his brown eyes, "But we have some urgent matters to discuss this morning."

His face the blond thought was more masculine than his brother's. Where as Sasuke's hair was almost a blue black his brother's was a very rich dark brown. His jaw squarer with a slightly more prominent nose and a thinner, less pouty mouth. He was ruggedly handsome and possessed very kind eyes. Sasuke's looks by contrast hung in the ethereal, there was beauty about his appearance which almost hung in a melancholic space; as if one expected him to be the hero in one of Shakespear's tragedies.

"You'll have to come over for dinner next week."

Sasuke's expression seemed frozen in place as Naruto opened his mouth and shut it again unable to formulate a coherent sentence.

Shit he had not thought this through. His eyes flew to Sasuke's face, who was very determinedly now looking over his right shoulder again.

"Yeah," he said drawing his face into an easy smile and putting both of his hands behind his head; "yeah that sounds great."

"I'll walk you to the gate, Naruto." It was Sasuke this time, likely coming to his senses and intervening before the blond got completely carried away and got down on bended knee.

Naruto gave both Madara and Itachi (who was still looking at him with x-ray vision) a casual wave. Following Sasuke down the winding garden path before disappearing behind a thick hedge.

"I am so so…" he began when he thought he was out of earshot of the other two but found himself interrupted by Sasuke grabbing his collar and yanking him forwards.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Sasuke hissed at him; looking like he was inches from gauging out Naruto's eyeballs. The blond despite everything found himself thinking how attractive Sasuke looked when he was furious, his pale skin flushed as the light fell through his blue-black hair, his grey eyes glittering.

"Look it was an accident." Naruto said holding up his hands as if in surrender. "I just came to give you your phone back, and you just looked… so…"

"If you ever tell anyone about what just happened…" Sasuke began, grinding the words out between his teeth; his face still tinged pink.

"Are you safe with him?" Naruto asked not particularly caring about the dark-haired man's threats and more concerned for his immediate wellbeing. He moved his fingers up to where Sasuke's grip was slowly tightening on his collar and pushing on his Adam's apple.

"Am I safe?" Sasuke looked at Naruto perplexed as if he just dropped out of the sky from a passing UFO. "Yes, I'm safe. Itachi's here now."

"Okay good." Naruto responded, putting his hands over Sasuke's, hoping to convince him not to throttle him to death on the front lawn.

There was a noise behind them and the colour abruptly drained out of Sasuke's face, Naruto knew what he was thinking – that Madara had come to check that Sasuke had not been lying to him in the previous exchange.

Without thinking he put his hands on either side of Sasuke's face and leant into kiss him in one glib movement. Sasuke's mouth was slightly open in surprise as Naruto covered his lips with his, his hands automatically loosening a little around the blond's collar. Naruto closed his eyes leaning into it and running his fingers into Sasuke's thick dark hair, there was no point in going half in, might as well make it look real whilst he was there.

Naruto was quite prepared to be pushed away or slapped in the face but neither things happened. The sound of footsteps behind them stopped, and then moved away. Naruto could feel the heat radiating from Sasuke's body as they stood together, he could smell a sharp sweet smell of citrus on Sasuke's skin and feel the softness of his mouth against his own, a hint of moisture against his lips from the dark-haired man's mouth.

They broke apart, Sasuke's face a climbing crimson as he stepped back from Naruto looking shocked. Naruto too was feeling a loss for words; his entire body was tingling and his heart was pumping hard and fast in his ears.

Taking the phone from Naruto there was a pause, and then Sasuke muttered, "I'll text you." Without another word or a backwards glance, he stepped back through the gate and vanished behind the hedge.

Kiba walked up behind Naruto as they were standing on the Rugby pitch waiting for the rest of the team to finish up. It was a typical drizzly September afternoon and there was mud all over Naruto's legs and feet. His legs and shoulders ached appreciatively after the training session – which usually indicated a job well done.

Kiba however took the opportunity to poke Naruto hard in the glutes from behind.

"What are you doing Kib?" Naruto asked, not bothering to turn around as his friend continued to pummel him in the rear.

"I want to know why a certain someone was giving my co-president a lift so bright and early in the morning."

"Why? Do you own him now?"

"I know you are pretty damn selective about who rides around on that hunk of metal with you."

"Hey, it's not a hunk of metal; it's a classic."

"You're putting my election campaign in jeopardy!" Kiba muttered, and slapped Naruto's right thigh hard enough to leave a hand print.

Naruto winced and rubbed the skin of his leg, turning to glare at his friend.

"You better not be wooing him."

Naruto blinked at him, watching as a drop of rain slid down his friend's face to drip off his chin.

"Woo? Have you lost your mind? Literally – did it fall out during practice?"

"Ha-ha very funny, I know you. You like a difficult chase. I don't want this campaign to be awkward."

Naruto pretended to look innocent before turning again to view the rest of the team finishing up.

"Look you menace," Kiba continued unperturbed, throwing his arms around Naruto's neck to put him in a headlock. "Keep it in your pants."

"I've not taken anything out of my pants you pervert." Naruto growled, grabbing at Kiba's arms to stop himself being manhandled into a noogie. "I just dropped him off at his house."

"Oh, so you're not seeing him again?" Kiba asked, his knuckles aggressively attacking Naruto's scalp as the blond tried to wrestle him off. He was broader than Naruto with heavily muscled shoulders and arms, he was using his body weight to his advantage right now trying to pin the blond in place.

"Look I said I'd go to dinner with him, but that's hardly a crime." Naruto all but exclaimed, wriggling with force out of the headlock as Kiba gave a triumphant cry.

"There, I knew it! I knew something was up!"

"Oh, fuck off you freak. I'm going for dinner, not to a brothel."

"That's even worse."

"Kiba!"

The whistle blew and the session ended, the players began to mingle back to the dressing rooms. Kiba was muttering under his breath as he walked next to Naruto, throwing him dirty side glances at every opportunity. Naruto simply rolled his eyes and put his hands behind his head.

In truth he had not expected to hear from Sasuke again after that disastrous drop off and had been somewhat taken back when an unknown number had flashed up on his phone the previous day.

Hey, this is Sasuke.

Naruto had nearly flung himself off his pile of physiology homework to answer the text, his fingers hovering over the reply button and then wondered if he was appearing too eager. In an attempt to play it off he had walked round his room several times before pressing send.

Hi! Good to hear from u, everything ok?

That seemed an alright text, Naruto conceded watching as the 'online' box appeared under Sasuke's name.

Fine.

The reply came, single word and curt. He should have known he would reply like that, any mention of not okay, or 'that was a bit awkward wasn't it' was likely to be shot down in nanoseconds in favour of keeping up the façade that he was supremely unbothered.

More dots appeared on the screen, Naruto put down his pen. There was no point in pretending he was in anyway shape or form interested in learning about renal clearance right at this moment, he had become distracted somewhere down the Loop Henle and doubted he was coming back for a while.

Is dinner good for you tomorrow evening?

Naruto raised his eyebrows, absently chewing on the end of his pen. So, he hadn't told his brother about the lie. He hadn't breathed a word of it to Shikamaru or Kiba, although Temari had given him a stern look last time she had been over and asked him a few questions about Sasuke as if he was under interrogation like: Did he look like he was eating enough? How was his degree going? Whilst Shikamaru had looked helplessly on.

Can do dinner, yh

He clicked send thinking it was highly likely that Sasuke was simply saving face in front of his brother, he could hardly blame him. Naruto without thinking very hard about it had kissed him full on the mouth in order to further enact this lie to whomever had been heading up the garden path.

He frowned, remembering again the expression on Sasuke's face when he had been confronted by Madara. He had looked like a child about to be hit. Naruto felt the scowl deepen on his face, his generous mouth turning down at the corners and looking intensely unhappy. What had that been about? Was that why Sasuke had looked so panicked at the idea of going home late? An image of him leaning against a wall in Ino's flat popped into his head, his silvery grey eyes looking for one moment into Naruto's unguarded, a look which had given the blond butterflies.

OK see you at 7

Sasuke's name promptly went offline and Naruto stared at his screen for several moments before putting the phone down. That was it, no banter, straight to the point. It was surgical even; a precision strike. He found himself laughing at the strangeness of the situation, he had been invited to dinner by a handsome stranger on the pretence of being his boyfriend. His Godmother would have had him over the coals for this one, Naruto was famous for getting himself into all sorts of mad scrapes at every opportunity presented.

"Okay," he muttered to himself taking the pen out of his mouth. "I guess we will see how this goes."

"So…" Kiba said between gritted teeth as he emerged from the shower, towel wrapped precariously around his mid-section. "Are you dressing up for this dinner or what? You're going like that?" He gave Naruto a disapproving look as the blond sat on the bench in a t-shirt and jeans.

"You mean going in clothes?" Naruto asked sarcastically frowning at Kiba. "No, I was going to go naked."

Kiba gave a derisive snort and towelled himself off, "You've got no sense of decorum, you can't just turn up like that all scruffy."

Naruto kneaded his eye sockets with the balls of his hands looking suddenly exhausted as Kiba eyed him critically up and down.

And this was how Naruto turned up at Sasuke's house on a crisp September evening dressed in one of Kiba's better shirts and wearing a pair of his chinos. He was holding a bottle of wine under his arm as he proceeded up the garden path, thinking how odd and surreal this whole experience had become. Sometimes it was a real pain to have your best friend from school get into the same University and same course as you, sometimes it was a boon. Naruto was unsure of which category he was currently inhabiting but felt he would find out soon enough.

Kiba hadn't been wrong to some extent about Naruto. The blond as a rule loved laughing, meeting new people and the exploration of new relationships. He had a bad habit of making ardent and passionate love to his fixation of the moment; becoming temporarily obsessed with them until they returned his affection, after which he would slowly lose interest.

In short, he enjoyed the chase - the trials and tribulations of courting, making someone fall in love with him was an art he had perfected and honed into a deadly skill. Not that Naruto wanted to make love to the whole world; it was just something that seemed to happen. He formed and kept friendships easily and found people were strangely attracted to him. Too attracted to him.

He rang the doorbell and tilted his head up, standing straight and flexing his jaw in a way Tsunade often had him do when he was slouching. There was a flicker of movement behind the stained glass and a hallway light being turned on before the door swung slowly open, and Sasuke Uchiha stood cool as a cucumber inside the hallway. His hair slightly tamed, his dark eyes scanning over Naruto appraisingly.

Sasuke wasn't sure why he found the fact that Naruto was standing there so surprising, he had invited the blond over and the blond had affirmed that he was going to turn up. He just hadn't expected the man to turn out so…so…respectable looking? Handsome? Like he had put some real effort into his appearance tonight.

Sasuke opened his mouth to say something but was distracted as the cat, seeing her chance to ambush the birds that nested in the hedge tried to dash past his feet. Sasuke pounced on her, bringing the disgruntled ball of fluff up to his face where she looked at him disapprovingly with her pea green eyes.

"Oh, hi." He said a little awkwardly and in a much more demure manner than he was accustomed to.

"Hey!" Naruto said back, grinning with his very white teeth. "Nice kitty."

Sasuke didn't know what else to say with a resentful tortoiseshell tabby held up to his face; he could feel the tips of his ears turning pink again so he turned and walked down the hallway, intimating for Naruto to follow after him.

He put the cat down, insinuating for Naruto to take his shoes off by the coat rack and watched the cat stalk off down the corridor with her tail held high.

"You didn't bring your bike?"

"Hmm, what?" Naruto asked from where he was trying to separate a pair of suede leather boots from his foot. "The Ducati? No, I wasn't sure if there was going to be alcohol involved. Speaking of which."

He thrust the bottle of white wine into Sasuke's hands as he stood up, smiling at him broadly with his cornflower blue eyes. Sasuke didn't quite know where to look, staring at Naruto was hard because it made him start to feel things he would rather ignore. He gazed down at the bottle of white wine in his hands and nodded a 'thanks'.

How had they gotten into this strange situation? And why was Naruto going along with it so easily? Why had he not told Itachi that Naruto was unavailable or transferring university to Alaska? That would have been much simpler.

Naruto was looking at him now with his head crooked to one side, regarding Sasuke in an unusually measured manner.

"What?" Sasuke found himself asking almost defensively as those blue eyes seemed to see right through him.

"I was just wondering if you'd heard from Kiba lately? He's getting a bit hot under the collar about running this campaign."

In all fairness Kiba had been remarkably restrained in communication for someone who gave Sasuke the impression he was practically chomping on the bit to get going. There had been some question about a meet up but Sasuke had forgotten the specifics in the whirlwind of assignments he had had this week.

Sasuke opened his mouth and then shut it again, Nartuo's warm smile became wider and Sasuke found his eyes tracing the line of his mouth, remembering the kiss behind the hedge and feeling the tips of his ears grow hot again.

"That's ok," Naruto interjected sensing that Sasuke had no idea what exactly it was Kiba was planning. "I've been instructed to deliver you a message anyway."

"What exactly have I signed up to?" He asked looking faintly concerned and determinedly not looking at the blond's mouth now.

Naruto looked at the floor, there was an amused smile on his face that highlighted the dimples in his cheeks "I don't know whether you've noticed Sasuke but you get a lot of attention."

"Do I?"

Naruto stared at him as if trying to determine whether or not he thought Sasuke was being sarcastic or not, he decided to go with the latter.

"Yes, you do. When you do things Sasuke people…notice. Kiba's idea is that as a team students will vote for you both."

Sasuke ran his hands through his hair again for the 90th time that evening and tried to flatten it down unsuccessfully at the back again.

"I'm hardly popular, Kiba's popular but I'm not. I don't mind him telling people that I'll vote for him, but I hardly see how that's going to change anything."

"Well, you'll see." Naruto said shrugging his shoulders, "I'm pretty sure half of the reason Kiba's doing it anyway is because he has a personal grudge again Neji."

"The one who is in my tutorials?"

"And there's that," Naruto said with a laugh, "pretty sure Kiba's going to ask you to do baseline reconnaissance work for him."

"I doubt Kiba could afford my fees." Sasuke said flatly.

"I'm sure Kiba would become your personal slave if you asked him to."

Sasuke inclined his head a little as if considering the proposition and the bottle slipped a little from his hands, Naruto made a move to support it. His hand covering Sasuke's who caught it deftly, his tanned cheeks suddenly a little rosier as he straightened up, neither of them moving from their positions.

This was the closest they'd been to each other since they'd kissed; Sasuke felt his pulse begin to rise as he looked back into Naruto's bright blue eyes and felt his heart turn somersaults into his mouth. The messy blonde hair with the strong jaw, his wide and generous mouth. For a moment Sasuke wanted to lean forward and touch Naruto – or allow himself to be touched by Naruto. The draw between them seemed magnetic.

He was staring at Sasuke as intensely as Sasuke was staring at him, as if he too were trying to slot the pieces of the puzzle together. What was this? He did not let himself feel like this about people – he had tried to push thoughts of Naruto to the back of his head all week. Fighting down images during lectures, in the middle of his tutorials, waiting at the bus stop, going grocery shopping, when he was lying in his bed alone at night…

He had not forgotten the kiss behind the hedge either or how Naruto had tasted against his mouth, like hot salt, carbolic soap and sea air on a summer's day.

"Your hair is different." Naruto said, Sasuke had indeed tried to flatten his hair several times today with only a modicum of success, it was still doing that slightly gravity defying thing at the back. Not that Naruto looked like he minded in the slightest. His voice sounded a little deeper and lower; huskier even.

Sasuke didn't reply; he didn't even trust himself to breathe. He inclined his head and wondered if it was just a figment of his imagination that Naruto moved a fraction of an inch forwards, his blue eyes fixed on Sasuke's face.

The kitchen door opened and Itachi stood there with a patient expression.

"Nice to see you Naruto." He said smiling at the blond who bounced up to him and shook his hand. "Delighted you could make it."

Sasuke marched into the kitchen and pushed the bottle of wine into Itachi's hands as he went to fetch the wine glasses.

He could hear the burble of them talking from the drawing room as he pulled out the glassware from the wooden cabinet it lived in, of course Naruto was good at making conversation he had watched him effortlessly navigate the room at that house party. Completely unperturbed as to whether he knew the people there or not.

Itachi had been remarkably restrained in asking Sasuke about Naruto, perhaps deciding that if Sasuke wanted to tell him about this sudden new introduction of a boyfriend he would do so on his own time. Sasuke had gone back and forth in his head about telling Itachi that it was a horrible misunderstanding. But this had fought with wanting to maintain his integrity and not have word get back to Madara that he had omitted the truth. He had felt it was just easier to allow the scenario to run.

He made his way back to the kitchen glasses in hand to find Naruto and Itachi deep in a conversation about bike engines, of all things. Sasuke made a disapproving expression at his brother, pushing a glass of wine towards Naruto with a scowl as he and Itachi made motorbike comparisons that flew over the top of his head.

"I was just telling Naruto we are having chicken tonight." Itachi said; accepting a glass from Sasuke. Then as if the thought had just occurred to him he said to his brother urgently: "He does eat chicken, doesn't he?"

"I…er…" Sasuke said not knowing how to respond. He supposed Naruto ate chicken? Unless he was deathly allergic of course? From behind Itachi, Naruto mimed two thumbs up enthusiastically.

"Yes, that's fine." He said quickly, taking a large gulp of wine and avoiding his brother's penetrating gaze.

He had a feeling this was going to be a long evening.

Naruto had a way of talking which seemed to put Itachi at ease, whether it was an innate talent or a learnt one the blond happily and animatedly engaged both brothers in conversation throughout dinner. Sasuke gleaned more information about Naruto over this exchange then he had done in the hours he had spent with him at the party.

Naruto had been brought up from a young age by his Godparents who lived a little way outside London to the north. He was an only child and had seemed to have spent a lot of his summers abroad with his Godfather backpacking across Europe and Asia until the age of fifteen when his Godmother had decided it was time for him to 'buckle down' as he called it and focus on his education. He had come onto the idea of doing medicine after he had been involved in a Dirt Bike racing accident and had broken both his leg and his collar bone.

"It was a bit of an odd place to get an epiphany." He had admitted over dessert, "When you're drugged up on morphine but I guess it all worked out."

He and Kiba had been best friends since childhood living within a ten-minute walking distance of each other since the two of them could remember. Kiba's parents owned a well sized agricultural Vetinary practice and what sounded like a small farm, a lot of Naruto's childhood stories seemed to revolve around catching animals either himself or Kiba had accidently let out and being chased around by his older sister Hana, for doing so.

Sasuke rested his face on his hand his head a little muzzy from the alcohol. He played with the stem of his now empty wine glass wondering at how idyllic Naruto's childhood sounded despite losing both of his parents at what sounded like a very early age. His own childhood had not been bad per say before his parents had… before they were out of the picture; but it did not seem to have been as lively or as colourful as Naruto's. Or perhaps it was just that the two of them were very dynamically different. Naruto was loud from the roots of his hair to the bottom of his feet, demanding attention and to be seen whereas Sasuke had always walked in the shadow of Itachi; perfectly content to simply fore fill the expectations laid out for him.

"Thank you for the wine," Itachi said smiling as Naruto poured out the last of the bottle into his glass. "I'll clean up, you two can head off."

"Oh; I can do the dishes." Naruto interjected immediately leaning forward to take the china out from under Itachi but he was stopped by the older man with a firm smile.

"I want to listen to something on the radio in the kitchen, you two go off."

Sasuke frowned at him, usually that meant Itachi was scanning for news for some sort of case he was working on.

Sasuke not quite knowing what else to do led Naruto towards the stairs and up to his bedroom, somewhat self-conscious as he propped the bedroom door open with a precariously balanced book. His bedroom was not a place where he often took guests, if he was in the habit of having a one-night stand with someone he was of the usual practice of going around theirs and never returning – it was easier that way. His bedroom was naturally very private, a space that was decidedly intimate.

"You listen to a lot of music." Was the first thing that rolled off Naruto's tongue pointing to the rows of vinyl that covered the opposite wall, Sasuke was looking at him almost perplexed, silver grey eyes wide, long lashes fringing his eyes like the wings of a dark bird.

"Uh, yeah." Was Sasuke's reply, he wasn't quite sure what to say. He sat down on his bed again disturbing his cat who meowed at him irately. He looked down at her trying to disguise the fact that he could feel a small amount of heat creep into his cheeks and stroked under the chin to placate her.

"What's the cat called?" Naruto asked, coming around to stand near Sasuke and holding his hand out for her to sniff.

"Cat." Sasuke said flatly as she looked up at this stranger unblinking and inspected the offered digits.

"Oh, you named her, did you?" Naruto asked looking down at Sasuke, his blue eyes glittering again.

"How did you guess?"

Naruto shrugged, "Clairvoyance."

"You should be locked up and studied then."

"Hmm," Naruto said taking a seat next to Sasuke on the bed and tickling Cat under her chin so she rubbed herself against his hand. "Depends on who is doing the locking up."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, picking Cat up from the bed and putting her on the floor so he could remove the pile of hair she had deposited over his clean bedspread. She flounced at him disgustedly and ran out of the room, dislodging the book in the door so that it closed shut with a finite snap.

"What message did Kiba give you?" Sasuke asked, conscious now that he and Naruto were alone in his bedroom together, but was intent on passing it off as if it didn't bother him in the slightest. Not when every part of his body seemed acutely aware of exactly where every molecule of Naruto was in relation to him at all times.

"Oh, he's planning a 'secret meeting' tomorrow afternoon to plan out campaign strategies." Naruto said yawning and raising his hands over his head. "He implored me to beg you to come."

Sasuke was not sure what made him say this, perhaps it was the wine going to his head.

"You're not doing a very good job of begging me." He quipped, arching his neck back slightly to look at Naruto with a small smile curving its way up the side of his mouth.

Naruto paused, his hands falling back to his side as he turned his head to look at Sasuke, seeming to take all of him in at once with his blue eyes.

"I'm sorry?" He asked his tone slightly lower again, hazily husky on the edge of each of the syllables.

Sasuke dropped his eyes for a moment looking at the floor before lifting them almost lazily back to Naruto's face. This was a dangerous game he was playing with this almost-stranger-pretend -boyfriend. He opened his mouth his voice languid this time.

"I'm waiting for you to beg me."

There was a look on Naruto's face that was fleeting, a sort of predatory look which made Sasuke's heart flutter in his chest. For a moment the blond didn't do anything, he just looked at the dark-haired man and Sasuke wondered whether or not he had lost his nerve; his blue eyes seemed suddenly almost indigo as the silence stretched between them. He was about to open his mouth to move the conversation on when Naruto suddenly lunged forward in one effortless fluid movement, grabbing both of Sasuke's wrists in his hands and pushed him back onto the mattress.

All of Naruto's chest and upper body was now hovering over him, he could feel the heat running through him like an electrical current, Naruto's legs either side of his as he looked up into the blond's face, his heart seeming to beat in his mouth. He could feel Naruto's strong grip pushing down on his wrists, a delicious dull pain that seemed to settle in his abdomen.

Slowly Naruto leant forward, choppy blond hair drifting across his impossibly blue eyes. Sasuke was struck again by the whisker like scars on his cheeks and felt his pulse race inside his body.

He put his mouth close to Sasuke's ear, so that his shoulder was just under the dark-haired man's nose, solid hardness against his body. And he closed his eyes, breathed in the smell of salt, soap and sea air again.

"Please. Come. Sasuke." Naruto said in low gravelly tones, his nose gently nuzzling the tragus of Sasuke's ear.

Sasuke felt goose bumps erupt over the entirety of his body and an odd hot sensation swirl about his abdomen, almost painful in its intensity. His mouth opened and a small 'Oh' escaped from between his lips, unbidden.

He could almost feel Naruto grin beside his ear before he sat back and relinquishing his grip on Sasuke's wrists as if nothing had happened.

"I'll tell Kiba you said yes then?" He shot the dark-haired man that lupine like grin as Sasuke sat back up, running a hand through his hair and willing his face to return to its normal colour.

"Hn."

Naruto gave a warm genuine laugh at that.

"Thank you for tonight." Sasuke said his tone suddenly solemn, "I know it was stupid…but this wasn't unpleasant."

"Wasn't unpleasant." Naruto raised his eyebrows and revealed his sharp canines again. "High praise indeed, I shall aim to be 'just tolerable' next time."

Sasuke felt the sides of his mouth curl upwards a little at this.

"I'll see you at ours tomorrow?"

Sasuke nodded as he led Naruto downstairs and the blond put on his shoes, he stuck his head back in the kitchen to say goodbye to Itachi who was standing next to the radio; arms crossed with a distant expression on his face, marigold dish gloves clasped in one hand.

They walked down the garden path together after Sasuke had hastily shut the door as Cat had come skidding down the hallway sensing her exit to freedom might be now or never.

He hesitated at the gate, Sasuke not quite knowing not to say but feeling a little odd about Naruto leaving. The memory of Naruto kissing him suddenly flooded his senses and for what felt like the millionth time that evening he felt his cheeks redden. He cleared his throat not knowing what to say, his hand perched awkwardly on the wrought iron, uncertain.

The blond leaned forward and Sasuke froze, his heart leaping to his ears again as Naruto simply bumped the tip of his nose against Sasuke's.

With a smile the blond broke away and gave the dark-haired man a final wave as he walked off towards the tube station. Sasuke felt his face turn crimson and detoured to take several laps around the garden until he the night air had sufficiently cooled him down.