Author's note: This time it only took us fourteen chapters to reach this point :')

To my readers of Never Again: I am finally getting back into the groove of writing that fic, so I hope to have the next chapter out soon this time!

Thanks to the following reviewers: LunaticQuxxn; 666snoopy; Iraheta 127; solitare1; Richon

Warnings: Description of injuries; minor angst

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Kishimoto owns it.

I hope you'll like it!


Chapter 14

"Did you get the chance to practice some more with the crossbow?" Naruto questioned when they made their way to Sasuke's home.

"Yeah, Gaara and I went back to that field to practice," Sasuke confirmed and opened the door, kicking off his shoes.

He noticed Itachi's shoes were gone as well as his jacket, which meant he had already left to teach the younger children how to defend themselves from the undead. That was a small mercy, because Sasuke could easily imagine the faces Itachi would have pulled if he had seen Naruto following him into their house. Father was still here, because his shoes were still in their designated spot, but father was unlikely to make any remarks about Naruto's presence.

Naruto went in after him, removing his shoes as well. "Aw, so you managed to play nice then?" he teased as they ascended the stairs.

"What, you didn't trust us to do so?" Sasuke snorted, leading the blond to the bathroom.

"Hey, you never know," Naruto said good-naturedly. "Anything could have happened without me being there to be a buffer."

"Would you really have stopped Gaara if we got into a fight?" Sasuke asked sceptically, side-eyeing Naruto.

The other one grinned. "Depends on who would be right."

Sasuke shook his head and walked into the bathroom, going over to the cabinet to take out one of the longer towels. "The water pressure isn't the greatest, but it'll get you clean at least."

"Mah, at this point I'd be happy to wash myself in a puddle," Naruto riposted dryly. "I'd almost forgotten just how damn rank they smell if you have to kill a bunch of them."

"What, not a fan of eau de zombie anymore?" Sasuke snorted amused and placed the towel on the edge of the sink.

"In spite of what you might believe, I'm actually not that fond of rolling into zombie guts," Naruto smiled wryly.

"You wouldn't think that when seeing you on a run," Sasuke muttered underneath his breath before stating louder, "There's soap in that lower cabinet," he gestured at the cabinet in question underneath the sink, "and you can dump your clothes in the hamper. In the meantime you can borrow some of my clothes."

"Thanks, it's much appreciated," Naruto smiled and this time when he smiled it was genuine.

"I'll leave you to it then." Sasuke left the bathroom, picking up the sound of father's footsteps walking up the stairs.

Father came into view soon and paused at the second last step of the staircase; his eyes flicking towards to the bathroom where Naruto was stumbling around. His stumbling was quickly followed by some muted swearing, but father didn't comment on it.

"I need to attend a Board meeting," he told Sasuke. "I can't say how long that one will take."

"Anything to worry about?" Sasuke questioned and frowned.

"I don't think so." Father shook his head. "It's probably going to be a discussion about the medical supplies they brought in. We might discuss expanding the compound as well."

"I thought that idea was nixed a few weeks ago," Sasuke said bemused.

After all expanding the compound would bring with it a whole host of issues, most of them related to the undead wandering around.

Father rubbed his forehead and sighed, sounding peeved. "Yes, I thought so as well, but apparently that discussion is back on the table. Some members are insisting on expanding, even though that would come with a whole slew of complications."

"Good luck with that meeting," Sasuke said sympathetically.

He thought personally that expanding the compound would be too dangerous. The noise generated by the construction would definitely attract the dead and if they happened to be particularly unlucky, a massive group might even end up gathering near them. There was no way they could fight off entire herds without losing anybody while at the same time making the compound larger. Even if they cleared out the woods first, zombies would still be attracted to the noise and would end up trooping together after a while.

"Thanks," Father muttered, scowling before returning downstairs. A few seconds later the front door closed quietly behind him.

Left on his own – save for Naruto who was currently scrubbing off the gore and blood in the shower – Sasuke walked to his room, where he searched through his wardrobe in an attempt to find something that would fit Naruto. He wasn't that much shorter compared to Sasuke and his shoulders and arms were quite muscled; most likely from handling that crossbow so often because Sasuke's own shoulders and arms definitely ached after a full day of practice. Naruto was rather lithe, however, even more than Sasuke was.

Eventually he decided on taking out a white shirt and some dark sweatpants, which he assumed might fit Naruto. They were some of his oldest clothes and he couldn't remember the last time he had actually worn them, but they would serve a purpose again now at least.

He dumped the clothes on the bed for now and remembered to take out the necklace from his pocket, putting it on top of the clothes. It had only been a couple of days, but he had become somewhat used to having the necklace in his pocket; the firm edges somehow even comforting whenever he would run his thumb across the crystal. With Naruto back now, though, there was no reason for Sasuke to keep it any longer. It was time the necklace went back to its actual owner.

"All right, so I did try to keep the whole murder scene vibe to a minimum in your shower, but fair warning, I'm not sure I succeeded completely." Naruto's sheepish voice spoke up behind him.

"What's one murder scene more or less, right?" Sasuke said dryly and turned around. Naruto only wearing a towel around his waist was the first thing he noticed before his attention was instantly drawn towards the bleeding gash in Naruto's left side sticking out like a sore thumb and he inhaled sharply; worry spiking up immediately. "You got hurt!"

"Hm?" As if he hadn't even realised it Naruto glanced down; his mouth parting in an 'o'-shape when he spotted the gash in question. "Oh right, that one. Looks worse than it is, trust me. I've had worse than this."

That wasn't exactly as reassuring as Naruto probably thought it was. "Sit down," Sasuke ordered tersely and pointed at his bed. "I'll take a look at it and bandage you up. I think we still have enough supplies here to do that. Itachi refilled the first aid box a while ago, I'm sure."

"Nah, don't bother, man, I'm fine," Naruto tried to dismiss him, but Sasuke wasn't having any of that.

He crossed the room, snatched Naruto by his arm and dragged him to the bed where he pushed him down on it. The only reason probably why Naruto actually let him manhandle him was because he was too confused. Well, him being too confused was the best case scenario; the worst one being if he was actually going into shock from the blood loss. How long had he been bleeding? The entire trip back here? Or worse, before that even? Why hadn't he said something about this earlier?

"You got two choices: either I take care of it or Tsunade will," Sasuke threatened and narrowed his eyes. "Which one do you pick?"

Naruto glowered at him and pursed his lips before blowing out a huge sigh, filled with aggrievement. "Man, want to fill up your quote for the next year too? Fine, be my guest if that's the case. Waste your supplies, dude, if that makes you happy."

"Yes, I will be in fact quite happy if you're no longer bleeding out, imagine that," Sasuke retorted sarcastically, leaving the room in order to retrieve their first aid kit.

"The fuck? I'm not going to bleed out from a stupid gash like this, holy shit!" Naruto protested.

Sasuke ignored him, because it had become clear a while ago that Naruto could in no way be trusted to take care of himself. His twisted ankle a while ago had shown a glimpse of that detrimental tendency and this gash now proved it completely: Naruto was a hazard to himself and it was up to Sasuke to take care of his dumb arse in Gaara's absence. How the hell Gaara managed to deal with this level of idiocy was beyond him. For that matter, he had no idea how Naruto had managed to survive so long on the road while he was so shit at taking care of himself.

"Maybe not bleed out exactly," he acquiesced and walked back into his room, carrying the first aid kit. The box was a bit banged up, but it still contained all the necessary supplies after Itachi had refilled it a while ago. "It can, however, become infected and in the world we live in today, that means a certain death for you if that happens."

"You're just an absolute ray of sunshine, huh?" Naruto squinted up at him and was shockingly still seated on the bed. He had one hand clenched around the knot in the towel and his other hand cupped the gash in a futile attempt to put a stop to the bleeding. It clearly wasn't doing much, considering the thin streaks of red dripping between his fingers.

"That's called being realistic," Sasuke replied absentmindedly and took a seat next to him, popping back the lid of the box.

He rummaged through the content, hoping there was still some disinfectant left or that Itachi had remembered to refill the bottle. He found a large bandage first, which he placed next to him, adding some tissues to it that he encountered next. It took some shifting around of some tweezers and a bunch of smaller bandages before he managed to find a small bottle of disinfectant with a quarter of the liquid still left inside of it. He took a careful sniff from it after uncorking it. The sharp scent of the disinfectant was started to fade, but hopefully it would still work. Sasori had made it a while ago from some vodka Kiba and his group had retrieved from a half burnt down liquor store.

"What happened?" he inquired and poured some of the liquid on a tissue.

"Stupidity mainly," Naruto sighed putout.

Sasuke flicked up his eyes at him before he bent closer to the gash, studying it with a frown. It looked quite jagged, running diagonally from Naruto's navel to his side. It didn't appear to be horribly deep, nothing that actually would require Tsunade's expertise or Sakura's, but the cut still looked quite nasty and it could become infected if not treated correctly. Especially when taking into account that Naruto had been nearly drenched in zombie blood and gore when he had arrived, stuff that could have easily seeped into the cut and from there right into his bloodstream. That thought sent icy fingers scraping down his spine and his fingers tightened around the tissue.

"Stupidity is like walking into a wall and bruising yourself that way," he said and forced himself to sound nonchalant, even though he was feeling anything but nonchalant now. "Bleeding from your side and risking infection from zombie blood, though? Not what I would refer to as stupidity."

"The zombie blood didn't even get close to that cut, I'm not stupid," Naruto snorted and eyed the soaked tissue with a level of trepidation Sasuke didn't understand. "I covered it with some makeshift bandage that I made from a pillowcase and a sponge."

"So how did it happen? This might sting by the way," Sasuke warned and began carefully swiping at the edges of the gash, wiping away the blood while trying to keep the pressure as light as possible.

Naruto grimaced and looked away, sounding just the slightest bit strained when answered, "We were searching through the hospital and I was getting rid of some zombies while she collected the stuff from the other rooms. I landed into a bit of a scuffle, you could say, with two of those shitheads and they were pushing me further back into the corridor. Ow, fuck!"

"Sorry!" Sasuke apologised quickly and softened his touch again. The thought that Naruto had become cornered by zombies, though … This was exactly the reason why Sasuke hadn't wanted him to go on that run with just Sakura as backup. Just as he had feared, it had been way too risky and it could be considered a miracle that neither of them had been seriously injured.

He discarded the tissue – no longer white, but stained red – on the carpet for the time being and wettened a second one, rubbing it carefully but thoroughly over the cut once more.

Naruto tightened his jaw and then breathed out slowly, stretching out his bare legs, bracing his heels against the floor. There was a thin, whitish line running down his right calf; it looked like a scar.

"Right as I got rid of them, a third one showed up and tried to grab me through a busted window," he went on; a small furrow creasing his forehead. "I hadn't even noticed him before; he probably woke up while I was fighting off the others. Anyways, he tried to pull me through that window. Some shards of glass were still sticking to the frame and well," he waved half-heartedly down at the cut in his side, "one of those glass shards managed to nick me right in the side. Ripped myself away from it before it could get any deeper, but man, that shit hurt. Killed that zombie, got rid of some more and once we had the supplies we got the hell out of there."

He shrugged; the motion light and careful enough that it didn't dislodge Sasuke's touch. "It's as I said, simple stupidity, dude. Should have been paying a bit more attention, I suppose."

"I warned you it'd be dangerous," Sasuke couldn't help but point out. He wasn't feeling smug about it, though; to be honest he would have very much preferred being wrong this time.

"You're a dick when you think you're right," Naruto huffed, but he was smiling when Sasuke glanced at him.

"Only 'think'?" Sasuke repeated sceptically. "When you know full well I'm right?"

"So the run was an utter shitshow." Naruto rolled his eyes and huffed again. "Why is that a surprise still? It's not like our run went off without a single hitch back then."

"True, but I at least had your back," Sasuke retorted mildly. "Sakura has never been good in battle situations. It's one of the main reasons why she started working with Tsunade almost exclusively instead."

He threw the second soiled tissue on top of the first one and peeled open the bandage, staring at the gash before comparing the size of it with that of the bandage. It should be big enough to cover the cut hopefully. He had a linen bandage he could wrap around Naruto's waist just to on the safe side.

"Whatever, it worked out in the end," Naruto sighed. "We're still alive and in one piece, we got the supplies; all's well that ends well, I suppose."

"You'll be the hero of the compound for sure after this," Sasuke mumbled.

He hesitated for a couple of seconds before swiping another tissue from the box just to be certain. The cut had stopped bleeding for the most part now and he had managed to wipe off most of the blood.

Naruto's harsh snort nearly had the dark haired man jumping in surprise. "Yeah, right, didn't do it for that. Don't care about that."

"Why did you do it?" Sasuke asked and kept his gaze firmly on the cut still requiring some care. "I thought you had no interest in making friends other than Gaara?"

"I'm not," Naruto answered calmly. The reply came as easily as it had from the start. "I don't have any interest in making friends here, but I'm not an arsehole either. The compound needed those supplies and I was the only one who could drive in those conditions. Was an easy decision in that case. Gaara would have done the same if not for his leg. He might have insisted it was a stupid plan, but he's no dick either."

Sasuke covered the cut with the bandage, being careful not to put any of the sticky parts on the gash itself. He began unwrapping the linen bandage next. "I'm aware this is going to sound hypocritical coming from me," he started, "but what's wrong with making more friends? A lot of people here wouldn't mind being friends with you."

Kiba for example appeared particularly in awe of Naruto's abilities with foraging and hunting; he admired Gaara as well, but Gaara appeared to intimidate him more than Naruto did. Ino was interested mostly because of Naruto's and Gaara's standoffish nature. Sasuke had even spotted some other inhabitants of the compound eyeing the blond and even Gaara with some interest. In a non-apocalyptic world Sasuke had no trouble imagining Naruto being one of those people who just easily made friends wherever they went. He couldn't say the same of Gaara; the red haired man seemed to be the type to latch on to just a couple of people at most. Sasuke understood that; he was the same.

"Because people I care about have a higher rate of ending up dead," was Naruto's flat answer.

Sasuke looked up sharply and opened his mouth to refute that ridiculous notion, but the other one shook his head. "Don't even. I don't give a shit whether you think it's ridiculous, it's what tends to happen. Kankuro was the first one, then Temari-nee-san, old Honda-san, Jiraiya, my parents, even Gaara has had a few close calls. And I'm the one who keeps surviving unscathed," he said bitterly. His unfocused gaze was trained at the opposite wall.

"Everybody around me goes down or gets seriously hurt, but not me. Whoever is keeping me alive up there, while shitting on the rest, they've got a shit sense of humour. So there's no point in caring for someone when they'll probably wind up dead anyways."

"Gaara's not dead. I'm not dead," Sasuke said pointedly and began wrapping the bandage around Naruto's waist; the knobs of his spine brushed against Sasuke's hand every time he reached around him to grab the edge of the bandage.

"What's that supposed to mean, huh?" Naruto demanded suspiciously.

"That you're wrong for believing that bullshit. I'm not dead," Sasuke repeated and pressed a bandage clip onto the end of the cloth. He would have knotted the ends, but the bandage wasn't that long and he didn't want to add any unnecessary pressure against the wound.

"Who says I care about you?"

Those callous words were meant to hurt, to hit and sting and drive Sasuke away. At one point they might have succeeded. At one point they would have pissed off Sasuke badly, causing him to storm away, cursing out the other one and telling him to go fuck himself then if he thought that. He knew better now, though. Because that look in those blue eyes wasn't venomous, didn't contain any sadistic glee. Only pure exhaustion; the look of someone who had lost too much, had to try too much to keep clinging to what they had left and had become weary of trying to hold onto others.

Naruto deserved to have other people care about him – even when he had convinced himself that he only needed Gaara.

"Because if you didn't, you wouldn't have lent out your necklace to me," Sasuke said softly.

Naruto stiffened visibly; his lips thinning until they turned bloodless. The knuckles on the hand clutching the knot were turning white; his other hand remaining limply on his thigh.

"I didn't think much of it at first, because this was your inane way of telling me not to worry," Sasuke continued and on automatic pilot he gathered the used tissues, shoving them in the empty package of the bandage. He put the lid back on the first aid box. "Something both Gaara and Ino said got me thinking, though. Like Gaara pointed out, that necklace means a lot to you, coming from your mother. There's no way you would give away something that precious to just anybody, especially not when you wouldn't even let Suigetsu take a look at your dagger."

"Goddamn, he's still whining about that?" Naruto muttered and shook his head. "Dude was just a bit too excited about wanting to see it for my liking; thought he would run away with it or so. I'm not in the habit of putting on a show with my possessions."

"But you gave your necklace to me," Sasuke said.

Naruto looked away, hunching his shoulders. He had to be chilly by now because the bedroom was by no means comfortably warm, but he didn't make any move to pull on the clothes waiting for him nor did he acknowledge the necklace lying on top of them.

"You trust me with your mother's necklace, even though you had no idea I wouldn't end up losing it," Sasuke continued, bending down to put the first aid kit on the floor for now.

That earnt him a quiet snort. "Yeah, as if you're the type to lose stuff. I've seen you handle your katana; I knew you'd be careful with my necklace."

"You've always been this stubborn?" Sasuke questioned mildly.

He would wonder how Gaara dealt with that, but to be frank, the red haired man was equally, if not more stubborn.

"You've always been this fucking annoying?" Naruto shot back snidely and whipped his head around to glare at him. "I don't know what the hell you want from me, Sasuke!"

The outburst was loud, unexpected, bouncing back and forth between the walls like a never-ending echo. Blue eyes sparked with anger, cheeks flushed pink, and the free hand curled into a fist, ready to lash out any second now.

What did he want from Naruto? Sasuke stared at Naruto, whose chest was heaving, whose jaw was clenched with anger he was attempting to suppress. Offhandedly it occurred to Sasuke that this was the first time he saw Naruto angry. Well, the first time angry at him at least. Was he actually angry at Sasuke? Or just at the situation as a whole with Sasuke being a convenient target?

What did he want? It was a question he thought about carefully because whatever answer would leave his mouth next, it had the power to irrevocably change what he had with Naruto. It would change a lot of things and he questioned whether he was ready for that, ready for whatever the change would bring with it.

What did he want? For Naruto not to die. For him not to put himself into unnecessary danger. He wanted to keep him from getting hurt and not just because Gaara would kick his arse otherwise. He wanted to see what Naruto looked like when he was really smiling, an actual genuine smile; not one tainted with cynicism or just the barest hint of amusement. He wanted to know how he sounded when he laughed freely, wanted to know what made him thick, what made him get up every day despite the terrible losses he had suffered.

He wanted to know his favourite food, his favourite drink, his favourite place, what his hobbies had been before the world had turned into a hell. He wanted to hear more about his parents, more about the tough godfather who had raided a goddamn military facility of all things as if it had been nothing but a piece of cake. About Gaara's sister who had thought only of her little brother and his best friend, willing to place her life on the line for them.

He wanted more time with Naruto, time which wasn't wasted on dangerous runs or gunning down the dead. He wanted to be around Naruto, be with him, let himself be absorbed by that warm aura that still surrounded the younger man even with all the shit and horror that consumed their lives nowadays.

He wanted what he never thought he wanted to have, what he hadn't even considered for one single second, not even when girl after girl kept asking him out on dates, when green and blue and brown and black eyes would track him around the compound; the owners of them building up hope and courage in vain.

He wanted.

And a part of him, the part which had reduced Sasuke's 'Care for and absolutely protect at all costs' list to the bare minimum of just two people, was scared shitless of desiring all that. It was the same part reminding him that he hadn't known Naruto for that long, not really, not when he compared it to how long he had known the others. It was the part remaining awake at night, shooting up every time there was a suspicious noise; a sound that might indicate someone was going to hurt his family. The part that poisonously insisted that Naruto was right, that caring in this kind of world was nothing but a recipe for death and heartache and agony. The part that stated carrying for more than people other than father and his brother was stupid, senseless, nothing but a fast ticket to death.

Another part, however, the bigger part, the part that had him sitting on the bed now, brushing knees with Naruto, told him that time didn't really matter anymore. What did it matter that he hadn't known Naruto for years yet. If Lady Luck was willing, he would have many more years to get to know him better. What did it matter that Gaara had threatened him? The threat would only come into effect if Sasuke ever hurt Naruto and he wasn't planning on doing that. The bigger part reminded him that he and Naruto clicked, no matter how cheesy that sounded. He had never experienced that kind of connection with anyone before, the kind which had him gravitating towards someone naturally, that had him reading the other one so easily as if they had grown up together. A connection which had his blood singing with life, with joy that he feared he had lost the day his mother had been killed. A connection that had him looking forward to each new day, when before the routine of it all had become almost as deadly as the roaming zombies outside the walls.

That had had him trusting Naruto with his life even when the blond man hadn't entirely proven himself yet.

The type of connection his parents might have shared once, which had had mother looking at father with soft eyes even after an argument as if he was the only one in the world, which had had them finding peace in each other even when hell had raged outside.

He supposed he could say nothing. Keep quiet, keep the revelation to himself, urge Naruto to put on his clothes before leaving the house with him, find out if they needed his help with something. It would be so easy to keep quiet because there was no reason to rock the status quo, to potentially shatter the growing trust between the two of them. Easy to keep quiet and avoid setting off Gaara's protective instincts. No reason to do anything about this, especially when he hadn't thought about it before. An apocalypse, a zombie apocalypse, didn't seem like such a good time to start figuring himself out anew.

When would be a good time for that, though? In a year? In five years? Ten? Twenty? When zombies would finally stop wandering around and leave them be? That might not even happen in his lifetime, however long or short that would end up being. All they had was time nowadays. Time didn't mean anything anymore, had ceased to mean something the very second the first dead person had attacked the living.

Not saying anything wouldn't make it go away either. It would still be there, lingering in the back of his mind whenever he would look at Naruto or talk to him or hell, even be near him. It might disappear if he ignored it long enough. Die out, fade away just as slowly as it had grown. If he didn't feed it, if he didn't pay it any attention, eventually it should waste away, right? Wasn't that how it worked?

Did he want that to happen, though? Did he want it to waste away until it was as if it had never existed in the first place? Did he want to stop feeling like this, just on the off chance he might end up hurt? Wouldn't he come to regret it eventually if he never spoke up? He probably would, knowing himself. One day he would look back at today and curse himself for having been a coward, when he could have had everything.

Or nothing.

The unknowing, the uncertainty was worse, however. Better to know for sure, good or bad, than constantly wonder what could have been. The many ifs that could have occurred if he had just been brave for one moment.

The dead had shown everyone that getting second chances was a luxury nobody could expect to have any longer. He could keep quiet today and perhaps never get a chance again or he could lay it all out on the table and be honest.

He might have been a lot of things in his life – callous, cruel, a lone wolf, standoffish – but he had never once been a coward.

He wasn't planning to start being a coward today.

So he met Naruto's gaze, ignored the way his heartbeat quickened, locked their gazes together and said truthfully, "I want you."


AN2: We're finally making some progress in their relationship LOL

Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.

I hope to see you all back in the next chapter! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!

Cuddles

Melissa

P.S. For more information about my upcoming and posted stories, please visit my profile.