An Indecent Affair

Here is Chapter 10. Beta’d by the wonderful Chaos! Thank you muches! ^_^


Chapter 10
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Sasuke was always the first to arrive at his office; after all, it was his responsibility to unlock the doors for the rest of the staff. This was something he usually did around six in the morning so that the early-birds that liked to show up at seven-thirty to eight would be able to get their head-start on the day.

Immediately after, Sasuke would lock himself in his office and catch up on his sleep or use the opportunity to finish tasks he didn’t complete the day before, since there would be no interruptions, and the first ring of his telephone was always used as a cue to alert him that the business day had officially started and to venture out of his office to attend to his managerial duties.

There were some old files that, company policy stipulated, had to be culled and sent to Centralized Filing once they had turned eight years old, and after putting them away in a large, cardboard box, Sasuke went to take them downstairs to join the other bags and packages that were to be transported during the morning delivery and that was when he saw Neji, asleep at his desk. Sasuke froze in his tracks, not exactly sure what to make of this, but a tiny part of him was definitely pissed that Neji probably believed he was special enough to be able to sleep on the job, and Sasuke had to give himself a mental shake of the head to dispel that thought. Neji wasn’t like that. He was a very hard-worker, a dedicated employee who took his job very seriously and within those few days, Sasuke concluded that he was very professional from the way he spoke and carried himself while on the clock, but that didn’t stop him from almost scaring the poor guy half to death by slamming the box upon the desk with an explosive thud that echoed throughout the large room. Neji flew up from the table, his already messy hair falling in disarray around his shoulders and face, and his back hit the chair with so much force that it rolled back a few inches.

“Oops, sorry. Did I wake you?” Sasuke whispered, his tone artificially apologetic as if encouraging him to go back to sleep.

Neji struggled to snap out of his disorientation and reached out, like a blind man for the edge of the desk, and when he realized it was his hair that was the cause of his impaired vision he pulled it back with unsteady hands, and Sasuke frowned when he took in the boy’s pasty face. He looked unnaturally pale, and his listless strands of hair made him look like an onryo that one would usually find in a Japanese horror film, but it was his eyes that disturbed Sasuke the most of all. They were dull, and the light that reflected in them was hazy and weak, not like the sparkle he had grown quite used to. His eyes, which were already pallid by nature, no longer had the slight mauve tint and were practically colourless and the dark circles on his lower lids gave him a ghoul-like appearance.

“Sasuke I… no,” he stammered and blinked his bleary eyes until they focused on the man standing before him. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.” He dragged his chair closer to the desk, and that was when the Uchiha’s keen eyes noticed that his wrinkled, light-blue t-shirt was not tucked into his denims. While he was glad that Neji was finally becoming more comfortable with the ‘casual clothes’ rule, he knew the Hyuuga had more pride in his appearance than that.

“Neji, are you alright?” the raven-haired brunette asked, suddenly concerned about the other man’s state of being.

Neji shook his head and grimaced when he saw his reflection in the blank, computer monitor. “No--I mean, ‘Yes’… I-,” and he ran tired fingers through his hair again as if that would some how organize his thoughts. “My fiancée and I broke up last night and I didn’t get much sleep,” and the second those words left his mouth, he wished he could take them back. Sasuke didn’t need to hear that; it was none of his concern, and Neji was sure the Uchiha didn’t care about things like that, and he chastised himself because he knew better than to bring his personal life into the workplace.

Sasuke was silent, not entirely sure how he should respond to the news. On one hand, he was glad that Neji was single again, but on the other he knew he should offer some form of commiseration towards the other man. He didn’t want to come across as a heartless jerk, but Sasuke also didn’t want to pretend that he was sympathetic when he truly wasn’t, so instead, he played a more neutral card. “If she really was the one for you, then you’d still be together, right?” he said and took a seat on the desk. “There are plenty of other fish in the sea, so there’s no need for you to beat yourself up over one that got away, and trust me, if she was stupid enough to dump you, then she really doesn’t deserve you.”

Neji smiled weakly at his misunderstanding. Sasuke had it the other way around; he was the one that didn’t deserve Ten-Ten. “No, it was me who broke off our engagement.”

Sasuke paused as he tried to understand why Neji was the one that was depressed if he was the one that did the dumping. In all the previous relationships he had severed, he had always done it like a band-aid. Quick and painless! Sasuke never looked back and never gave himself time to regret letting a woman (or man) go because he never thought about them. They were a part of the past and should remain in the past. An ‘Oh’ was all he could manage because if he attempted to say anything else, he’d only wind up calling the already distressed man all manner of idiots. “Do you… want the day off or something?”

Neji shook his head furiously as if appalled by the very idea. “No, of course not.”

Sasuke grinned. “Good, because I wasn’t going to give it to you anyway,” and he got off the desk to heft the box again. “I guess I’ll just have to lighten your workload today. It’s Monday anyway,” and he sighed loudly, wishing someone could lighten his workload as well.

Neji shot up to his feet and Sasuke’s eyes snapped to him. “Sasuke, there’s really no need. I’m fine,” he said, pleading his case. “It’s just a break-up. I mean, people go through worse, and they still give one hundred percent. I promise I won’t let this affect my performance today. It’s just really hard losing her after all these years and knowing that it’s over, and I’ll never have a second chance, and then I couldn’t get any sleep, especially after Orochimaru showed up, and I tried to hypnotize myself an-”

“Orochimaru, what?”

Neji froze in mid-speech. He hadn’t realized that he had been rambling and that he had let that bit of information slip out. He had decided he wasn’t going to tell Sasuke about the encounter because Orochimaru hadn’t harmed him, and just mentioning Sasuke’s name seemed to scare him off, so he didn’t think it was a big deal; but it was a big deal, at least to Sasuke. “Umm…I saw him after… after leaving the restaurant, on my way ho--”

“What did he do?”

“N-Nothing,” and when Sasuke gave him a look like he clearly didn’t believe him, Neji swallowed and said, “Well…well, he raised his hand to my cheek, and he tried to kiss me--but he didn’t!” He quickly added when he saw Sasuke’s eyes widen and the fury burn within those dark orbs.

“That son-of-a-bitch,” Sasuke growled and threw the box to the floor before turning on his heel and heading towards the door.

Neji knew, without being told, where his anger was going to take him, and he dashed around the table to intercept him. “Sasuke, wait!” he said in a panicked voice, holding out his arms towards him like a wall.

“Get out of my way, Neji,” he warned because he would have reached out his hand to push him to one side, and Sasuke had to dig his fingernails in his palms to prevent himself from doing so.

“Sasuke, calm down; he didn’t hurt me.”

“He’s not to go anywhere near you,” he amended Neji’s sentence and went to step around him, but the other man cut him off again.

“But he won’t, not anymore.” Sasuke pivoted to the other side and was once again blocked by Neji. “I told him that he couldn’t touch me.”

Sasuke feinted to the left, and when Neji turned to face that direction, he darted to the right and bolted to the door. His hand gripped the doorknob, but before he could turn it, Neji slipped his body between the other man and the door, pressing his back flat against it, and spreading his arms wide. “Neji, move!” he snapped.

“No, Sasuke don’t!” and when he heard the knob turn and felt the door shift behind him from the other man’s great strength, he became desperate. “I told him he couldn’t touch me anymore because I belong to you, Sasuke, and after I said that he left me alone… He left, Sasuke. He won’t bother me anymore... so don’t do this, please.”

Sasuke stiffened and the grip he had on the knob slackened, causing it to spin back to its customary place. His furor melted into a near expressionless mask, and his eyes bore straight into Neji’s which stared back up at him, wide and fearful. The only sound in the room was the Hyuuga’s ragged breathing, and they were standing so close now that he could feel the warm puffs of air against his chin and neck. Neji wasn’t afraid of what Sasuke planned to do when he confronted his step-father, but he was more terrified of what Orochimaru might be capable of if he was provoked and decided to take out his anger on Neji because he went running to Sasuke like some tattle-tale. Sasuke stepped back and folded his arms over his chest, a little perturbed that Neji was protecting the man that had defiled him, but he was more intrigued by the fact that Neji had just confessed that he was now his. He didn’t become smug about it though. It was probably hard enough already for him to have to admit that out loud to Sasuke and even to himself. He didn’t need to have it rubbed all over his face. “As long as he didn’t hurt you, then… I guess it’s okay,” he finally said on a sigh. Neji peeled himself away from the door when the other man went back to retrieve his box, but before he left, he allayed the Hyuuga’s obvious suspicions by promising he was not going to confront Orochimaru behind his back.

Neji wanted to believe him, he really did, but he found it hard to trust that unpredictable character of his, and when Sasuke returned, he seemed neither enraged nor complacent; his mood was the same as when he left, and it offered no clues as to if he had met with Orochimaru at all. He went straight to his office without saying a word to Neji, and the Hyuuga imagined he locked himself in there to sulk because he’d been denied the pleasure of kicking his step-father’s bony ass.

It wasn’t until around lunch time when Sasuke emerged again and was looking for Neji to fetch him something to eat from a nearby diner, but he caught the boy asleep at his desk again in front of a half-eaten bologna sandwich, and Sasuke didn’t wake him this time. He didn’t have the heart to because this was the first time he actually looked at peace since he’d first seen him this morning. Sasuke plugged the cord out of the back of the phone (after eating the rest of the sandwich) and called Sakura from his line and told her not to come up for the remainder of the day. The girl was disheartened by this order but still glad to hear his voice none-the-less. Sasuke had no trouble working without his help, he’d been alone in this office without a secretary long before he even knew Neji existed, but he did miss being a nuisance towards him and ruffling his feathers. Itachi called him on his cell phone a few hours later to ask about Neji, and Sasuke told him to find someone else to dote on because he saw him first.

“Let’s not go through that again,” Itachi said with an agitated sigh, and Sasuke scoffed at his older brother, remembering the reason they had created the ‘no-sharing’ rule between them in the first place. “I just asked how he was doing. It’s not like I have any intentions of taking him away from you.”

“You couldn’t, even if you wanted to,” Sasuke pompously replied and took a seat on Neji’s desk to watch him while he slept.

“Oh? Is that a dare?” the other Uchiha asked, willing to take up the challenge.

“No… nothing like that,” Sasuke drawled and idly removed a light-blue, permanent marker from the pen holder on his desk. “He told me he belongs to me,” the younger sibling added and removed the cap to take a whiff of the toxic fumes before making a face and capping it again.

“He did?” and the disbelief was not hard to miss in his voice.

“Well, not blatantly,” Sasuke corrected himself and restlessly removed the cover from the marker again but made sure he didn’t make the same mistake by bringing it towards him. “Last night he ran into ‘You-Know-Who’, and when he tried to make a move on him, Neji told him he was mine; he backed off after that.”

The other line was silent for a period of time, and Sasuke almost thought that his brother had hung up. Itachi sighed through his nose and Sasuke cringed at the loud blast in his ear. “He’s quite an annoyance.”

“Uh huh,” and he sounded distracted since he was now doodling an abstract image upon Neji’s forehead.

Itachi had a few distractions of his own and he clicked his tongue against the back of his teeth when Naruto, again, begged for the phone to speak to Sasuke. “Go away,” he ordered in that soft, yet firm voice of his and Sasuke heard the blond start to whine in the background. “Gaara, please leave that alone,” Itachi sighed. There was a slight pause while the red head said something and Sasuke heard his brother’s breath hitch before it was accompanied by a faint ‘zipping’ sound. “I have to go now. Apparently, it’s Gaara’s feeding time.”

Sasuke chuckled at the hidden meaning and hung up without saying good-bye, primarily because his attentions were still focused on the symbol he was drawing on Neji’s skin, and when he pulled his hand away, he had to tilt his head to one side to admire it properly. It was a large, serif ‘X’ in the center of his forehead with two, horizontal ‘S’s stretched lengthways until they looked like vines. He wasn’t exactly sure what it was supposed to represent since it was drawn at random, but he had to admit that it was a pretty interesting symbol, and he actually contemplated getting it copyrighted.

Neji had slept through Sasuke’s art attack and remained out well after five o’ clock in the evening when everyone was getting ready to leave, and as much as Sasuke didn’t want to awaken him, he would be damned if he had to spend another minute in this God-forsaken office. After closing the windows, blinds, and then shutting off the air-conditioning units, he placed a light hand on the sleeping beauty’s shoulder and shook gently. He stirred and his eyelids fluttered. “Hey,” Sasuke said softly with a half-smile, and Neji snapped into consciousness and apologized profusely for falling asleep again. “It’s okay; I’ll just deduct the hours from your pay.” No one liked to hear something like that from their employer, and although Neji was obviously upset, he knew it was his own fault, so he apologized again before agreeing that it was only fair. Sasuke was once again awed by this boy’s humility because he could count, on his fingers and toes, other workers who would have complained and tried to find some way to blame it on something else, and if it was a case like Neji’s, their lack of sleep or just getting over a terrible break-up.

Neji sat up in his chair, ready to tackle whatever was thrown at him, but when he noticed that the office was dark and the curtains were drawn, he became a little unnerved and brought a questioning gaze to the other man.

“It’s after five,” Sasuke explained and tapped the digital sports watch he wore on his left wrist, and Neji’s eyes grew significantly wider. Had he been asleep for that long?

“Sasuke, I’m really sorry,” he was terribly ashamed now, and the contrite look on his face made Sasuke want to pity him. “I didn’t realize that I--”

“Neji, will you relax already!” he interrupted before he went into more ramblings.

“But I--”

“Shush!”

But, Sasuke--”

The Uchiha clapped his hands over his ears. “La la la la la. I don’t want to hear it.”

He couldn’t help but giggle at that, and Sasuke had stopped tuning him out just in time to hear the lilting sound, and he smiled back at the other man and let his arms drop to his sides. “Come on. I’ll give you a ride home.”

“That’s okay,” he said, turning down the offer. “I’m fully awake now, so I won’t miss my bus.”

“It’s got nothing to do with you being awake or not, or whether you miss your bus or not. I’m giving you a ride home, and that’s final.” Neji opened his mouth to protest and Sasuke silenced him with an upraised palm. “Just in case you forgot, let me remind you that I am Lord and Master of this domain and when you’re in this office, you do what I say.”

Neji stifled another chuckle and curtseyed. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

Sasuke enjoyed moments like this between them, and he assumed Neji did too because that lively sparkle was back in his eyes. They rode the elevator to the ground floor and greeted the guards that were now settling in for the night-shift. Neji followed him to the reserved parking area and wasn’t at all surprised to find that the vehicles that belonged to managers and supervisors were still there. They were probably going to be working late into the night, and Neji wondered if Sasuke ever felt guilty about leaving before everyone else since he practically owned the company, but he remembered that he didn’t even like being here, and it was then that he realized that the space next to Sasuke’s, that belonged to Itachi, was empty.

They got into a black Mercedes Benz, and Neji almost broke the handle off when he tried to pull it open, and Sasuke had to tell him that it had to be lifted and demonstrated by opening the one on the driver’s side. Neji had only seen cars like this on television or in the magazines and the closest he’d ever gotten to one was on the displays at this one car show he’d been to, but never in a million years would he have imagined getting the chance to ride in a luxury vehicle. He had some trouble closing it again and Sasuke had to lean over to get it for him, and that was when Neji realized he didn’t have on his seat-belt, nor did he put it on when he gunned the ignition and backed the car out of the driveway. “Sasuke, aren’t you going to buckle up?” Neji asked after slipping on his.

“Hn. Seatbelts are for children and old people who drive forty on the freeway.”

“But it’s illegal to drive without one.”

Sasuke said nothing and continued looking behind him while he reversed.

“You could go to jail.”

“Cops can’t see whether I’m wearing it through the tint,” and he tapped his knuckles against the window, and even though Neji could see through to the outside, he knew that it would appear pitch black for someone looking in, and he was sure that this was the kind of one-way tint that celebrities and world leaders used on their vehicles.

“And what if they see you through the windshield?” he insisted, trying to be difficult.

Sasuke just looked at him and grinned. “Then they’ll have to catch me first.”

Neji didn’t put it past the Uchiha that he would resist arrest, and he hoped that he wouldn’t wind up being the unwilling passenger in a high-speed chase, and when Sasuke saw the perturbed look on his face he slipped on the seat belt and grumbled as if Neji had just asked him to wear a shirt and tie.

Sasuke didn’t ask for directions, he just drove as if he already had a destination in mind, and Neji wondered if he had looked up his address on file, and it hurt him to know that he’d do the same thing Orochimaru did.

The Uchiha caught the distant expression on his face and guessed he was feeling despondent about his recent break-up, so to lighten the mood he turned on the radio to a pop-station. It wasn’t long before he wanted to rake his brains through his ears with a rusty fork, but he endured because he figured Neji liked this genre and besides, he wouldn’t like Sasuke’s brand of music anyway. That didn’t seem to work, so Sasuke attempted to interact with him instead, but he didn’t know what to say or talk about. Suddenly remembering he kept a secret stash of junk food in his car, he lifted the armrest compartment between them and freed a bag of M&M’s. He opened it with both hands and temporarily kept the car steady by pressing his knees against the steering wheel. “Here,” he said, offering the bag to the man next to him.

Neji thanked him and excavated a few with his fingers, and Sasuke took the bag to his head and poured nearly a third of its contents into his mouth. Neji was a little more refined and popped one into his mouth at a time, but when he went to bite it and almost chipped his tooth, he made a face.

“What’s wrong?” Sasuke asked when he spat it back into his hand and examined it.

“I don’t like the ones with the nuts,” he admitted sheepishly, but not wanting to appear ungrateful, he popped it back in and said, “But it’s okay. I usually just suck the chocolate off, anyway.”

Sasuke couldn’t stop grinning. “So you suck the nuts?”

“Yeah.”

“Clean?”

“Mm hmm,” and to demonstrate, Neji took the core of the candy from his mouth to show the other man that its entire coating had been removed and was now covered with a light glaze of his saliva.

“What about honey roasted nuts? You suck on those too?” Sasuke asked and took the wet seed from him and instead of throwing it out the window, like Neji half expected him to, he tossed it into his mouth.

“I…actually like honey roasted nuts,” he replied with an odd expression on his face that wasn’t quite disgust but wasn’t entirely stupor either.

“But you suck the sugar off them?”

Neji stopped to think about it, and he nodded slowly before putting another M&M into his mouth. “Yeah… sometimes… I guess.”

The other man stifled a laugh, and Neji thought he was having a bad cough. “So, you suck nuts?”

For the life of him, he couldn’t figure out why Sasuke found the way he ate (or didn’t eat) nuts so fascinating, and he furrowed his brow, completely overlooking any and all sexual innuendos. “I… guess I do,” he replied, and when he took the snack from his mouth, it was immediately confiscated and devoured by Sasuke yet again.

“I’ve got a couple of nuts you might like,” he said and returned the half-empty bag of candies to their hiding place because, for some reason, he found the ones from Neji’s mouth much more delectable.

“As long as they’re not walnuts,” Neji said with a shake of his head, already on his third sweet. “I don’t like those.”

“Nah! These ones are salted.”

“Those are fine too, as long as it’s not too much salt; I have a history of high blood pressure in my family,” Neji explained, “But I also like pistachios, if you have those.”

Sasuke chuckled and snatched the nut after Neji removed it. “Sorry, the nuts I have are not to be cracked.”

Neji was baffled now, and he went over every type of nut he knew, but all of his guesses were incorrect and Neji gave up, believing that Sasuke was lying and didn’t really have any nuts on him at all, and the Uchiha had to fight hard not to say anything to that because Neji had made it much too easy. “Sasuke, you’re going the wrong way,” his passenger said with a frown when he went straight at the intersection instead of turning right.

“I am?” he asked with surprise, but made no attempt to change his course.

“Yeah, my apartment’s the other way,” and he pointed in that direction through the window.

“Oh. I’m not going to your apartment.”

Neji’s heart skipped a beat and his stomach sank. “You-you’re not?”

“Nope!”

He tried to keep his voice steady as he asked the next question. “Then where are you taking me?”

“Along for the ride.”

Neji didn’t like that vague answer, but he knew better than to insist the Uchiha tell him exactly where they were going, and he hugged himself to offer comfort as images started to flash in his mind of Sasuke driving out to a deserted highway or a precarious cliff, then dragging him into the back seat or out of the car to rape him. He held his breath when the vehicle came to a halt, and Sasuke told him to get out just before he did the same, and when Neji lifted his head, he was surprised, not to mention relieved, to find that they had parked in front of a large building, littered with people going in and coming out. It was fairly active for this time of the day, but Neji was just glad that there were other people around to act as witnesses. “Where are we?” the Hyuuga inquired with curiosity as Sasuke opened his passenger door and removed his seat belt since he had made no movement to get out of the car.

“The N.R.A.” was his curt answer.

“The gun club?” he asked and took the hand Sasuke extended to him to help him to his feet.

“Oh. You’ve heard about it?” The Uchiha was surprised that he even knew what those abbreviations stood for since he appeared to have lived a sheltered life, but he supposed that it was only topics about sex that he lacked adequate knowledge. “Are you a member?”

Neji shook his head and smoothed out the wrinkles in his shirt while also wiping the stickiness from his fingers. “No, but my uncle is. Why did you bring me here?” and he immediately developed a hunch. “Sasuke, you didn’t bring me here to sign me up, did you? I don’t like guns. I don’t want a gun, and I already told you that Orochimaru--”

“Shh,” he silenced him with two long fingers pressed against his lips. “That was not my intention,” was his honest reply. “I come here on Monday evenings for practice, and as I said, I brought you along for the ride.”

Neji squinted and looked at him as if searching for some kind of indication that he was lying, but there was only sincerity in those dark eyes, and Neji couldn’t think of any reason why he shouldn’t at least go inside with him, especially since Sasuke was now practically dragging him across the parking lot by his elbow. And it was a good thing he maintained that hold on his arm because the second they got inside and Neji heard the gunshots blazing from the adjacent rooms, he wanted to run back into the car and roll up the windows and lock the doors. It wasn’t that he’d suffered some traumatic experience with a firearm before, it was just that Neji hated them, like one would hate cigarettes.

Sasuke released him so he could sign in with the receptionist and inform her that he’d brought along a friend. When she asked him what type of membership he wanted, Sasuke explained to her that he was just looking around. The woman nodded and told him he could go right in, and she would bring his ‘usuals’. Sasuke led Neji to a thick, iron door that was obviously bullet-proof. Inside was a large room, lined with solid walls just as cold and heavy as the door. Dividing the room were eight partitions and more than half of them were already occupied by skilled marksmen riddling holes in the cardboard targets on the far side of the wall. Some of them were your basic, circular bull’s eyes with red dots in the center, while others were shaped like humans with ‘hot-spots’ on their heads, chests and stomach.

Neji watched, as one woman in particular, who was probably old enough to be his own grandmother, shot three rounds into the crotch of her target, and the young man winced and felt his testicles tighten as she smirked almost demonically then reloaded her gun to aim for the crotch area again, and Sasuke chuckled when he noticed Neji’s face pale slightly at the gaping hole between the target’s legs.

“Here you go, Sasuke,” the receptionist said in her sweetest voice and handed him two guns she usually kept reserved for him every Monday along with two headphones and two plastic goggles. One of each for him and the others for his guest.

He thanked her before escorting Neji to an available stall, but while he practiced with first, one gun, then the other, Neji just stood at a distance, not wanting to get too close. He could tell the Uchiha was enjoying himself, he could also tell he took this hobby very seriously from the way his lips were pressed into a tight line and the way his eyes never seemed to blink as he aimed with such precision, and Neji believed it was the first time he ever saw the other man concentrate this hard on anything. He was very good too, and most of his shots hit their intended target, at least, Neji supposed they hit their intended target since Sasuke showed no signs of frustrations at having missed.

He remained very cool, very calm, as if he was the only one in the room, just him, his gun, and the target. His movements were fluid, yet controlled, and his fingers never faltered as he reloaded each clip or each individual bullet with astonishing speed, an affirmation that he’d been doing this for many years now. It was like watching a performance on stage, for truly, Sasuke had made this his art through his body’s movements and language. But this was only his dress rehearsal, a prelude of the deadly dance that one would have only seconds to admire before the final curtain fall, and if Neji didn’t have a reason to be afraid of him before, he did now. Sasuke said something, snapping him out of his reverie. “Huh?”

The younger man straightened and placed the gun gently on the table before turning around to face him. “I said we won’t be here too long; don’t worry.”

“No, it’s alright,” he insisted with a shake of his head, hoping he wasn’t ruining Sasuke’s practice by extinguishing the mood. “You just… have your fun with… what you’re doing over there.”

Sasuke chuckled. The way he spoke and the way he kept himself at such a distance was akin to a man with acrophobia admiring the view atop the Empire State Building. “C’mere,” and he beckoned the unnerved man closer with a crooked finger.

Neji took hesitant steps toward him, and Sasuke backed up a bit so they could share the narrow space.

“This is a Colt King Cobra,” he said, holding up a polished, steel, silver revolver with a black handle. He opened the barrel and removed one of the silver bullets with a bronzed tip. “Three-fifty-seven cartridge,” he explained before slipping it back in and giving the cylinder a playful spin. “Fairly heavy,” and to demonstrate he hefted the weapon a bit then spun it deftly with his fingers to firmly grasp it again, but with the barrel facing him and the grip pointing towards Neji. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

His pale, violet eyes stared rather stupidly at the proffered object, and when he didn’t take it, Sasuke grabbed one of his hands and wrapped his pale fingers around the handle. “Sasuke I don’t want to--” he began to protest as the assertive man turned him to face the target and lifted his arms to aim, but Neji stiffened when he didn’t move from behind him and kept his body framed with those powerful arms. “What are you doing?” he asked in a panicked voice and reared back one elbow, almost taking off Sasuke’s nose with it.

“Shit, Neji will you just relax?” he tsked after barely moving his face in time. He couldn’t blame him, though. Neji was still wary about physical contact, and even though he was only trying to teach him how to shoot, he hadn’t even realized that he had his chest flush against the other man’s back. Sasuke sighed heavily. He was going to have to be more diligent with his actions. “Look, I know this is too much for me to ask of you, but will you please just trust me? This isn’t some elaborate scheme of mine so I can cop a feel or take advantage of you. I really do understand why you’re uncomfortable, Neji, but when are you going to realize that I don’t want to hurt you?”

He opened his mouth to make his retort, but he really didn’t have a solid defense to counter with. They had been alone countless times since they started working together, and they were the only two people on that floor, so if Sasuke really did want to rape him, wouldn’t he have tried to by now? And it wouldn’t be a wise decision to make his advances here, in a public place, when he had the privacy of his own office where no one could rush to his aid or hear him scream. He really should try… No!... he had to try and trust him; after all, Sasuke had done so much for him already, and there was no way he could repay the Uchiha but to grant him this one favor. Neji turned very slowly and frowned as he allowed the other man to reclaim his position behind him, but the instructions the Uchiha gave him fell on deaf ears because his mind was more occupied with putting up warning flags. Their bodies were flush once again; chest to back and thigh to thigh, but there were no lewd protrusions prodding against him.

Sasuke’s hands were demonstrating how he should maintain a firm hold upon the grip, but his gestures were advisory and in no way did his fingers graze against his skin in light caresses. His low, deep voice and his warm breath tingled his ear as he lectured him and warned him about the dangers of using a firearm, but his tone was not seductive nor did his lips, even once, graze against the rim of his ear. Nothing in his manner was at all untoward and guilt overcame the Hyuuga that he had, once again, jumped to the wrong conclusions about this man, and that was when he finally allowed himself to become at ease.

But Sasuke was looking for warning flags of his own. Neji smelled good--too good--and he wondered what brands of soap and shampoo he used. The skin on his hands was unnaturally smooth for a male’s, and Sasuke wondered if he’d never washed a dish in his entire life. His soft hair felt like silken threads against his face and he wanted, if only for just a second, to run his fingers through it. Neji interrupted him when he accidentally referred to the trigger as the hammer, and Sasuke joked and said he was only testing him to see if he was paying attention, but it was he that was distracted, and Sasuke gave himself a mental kick in the ass to return his concentration. “Okay, now just pull the trigger,” he said and released Neji’s hands and took a step back to watch his protégé fire. Neji sighed with disappointment when he hit the wall, inches from the left of the mark. He tried many times after that, and Sasuke had to admire his determination for an activity he claimed he didn’t like, but it wasn’t as if Neji wanted to become as good a marksman as the Uchiha, he just wanted to hit the damned cardboard. Sasuke made it look so easy, and Neji assumed it was nothing but child’s play, but it was apparently a lot harder than it looked.

“I don’t understand this,” he muttered to himself after emptying the six-shooter and having no idea how to reload it himself, handed it back over to the other man who gave him a lesson on that too. Neji refused to take it again, but this time, inquired of the other gun that looked a bit more modern and ‘user-friendly’.

“Oh, this? This is a Smith and Wesson semi-automatic pistol,” he explained and put the revolver to one side to retrieve the blunt, silver handgun. “It’s lighter and more compact than most--easier to conceal. Same basic concept: firm hold on the grip, pull with trigger… here, try.”

Neji nodded and took the weapon, convinced that hitting the target would be easier this time around, but he underestimated the handgun, and his arms shuddered under the recoil.

Sasuke laughed at his wide-eyed expression. “Common beginner mistake, I know,” he chuckled, speaking from experience. “It’s small, but it’s got quite a bit of power,” and he took the pistol from him and placed it on the table so he could take Neji’s still shaking hands in his and soothe them with gentle massages of his thumbs. “You okay?”

“Uh… yeah,” he mumbled, a little ambivalent towards the attention and fighting the urge to pull away. “Do you…have a gun, Sasuke?” he asked, as a means to occupy his mind with something else than trying to find a hidden meaning to those touches when one wasn’t there.

“Had a gun,” he corrected and moved his fingers up to his wrists to stimulate the bones that almost shattered beneath the force of the blast. “Itachi had to take it from me when I pulled it on Orochimaru once.”

Neji watched him from behind his goggles but Sasuke’s head was down and he couldn’t tell what expression he had on his face. There was a tense silence between the two, and the grip Sasuke had on his wrists tightened slightly, and Neji could almost hear him say, ‘I should have killed him when I had the chance’. “Sasuke-”

“Let’s try again,” he interrupted and lifted his head to reveal that broad, roguish smile of his. They assumed their positions and Neji found that this time, he didn’t mind having the other man stand so close behind him. His body was a lot more relaxed, and Sasuke must have noticed it too because he didn’t release his hands this time. “Okay. Fire, and I’ll see what you’re doing wrong.”

He nodded in understanding and Sasuke opened his senses--watching, listening, feeling every move that Neji made, the muscles he used to pull the trigger, whether he squinted or kept his eyes opened just before firing. He noticed everything. “I see what your problem is… You lack hatred.”

“Hatred?” Neji echoed, not sure he’d heard him properly.

“Mmm-hmm,” he confirmed with a nod of his head, his cheek grazing against Neji’s hair, “You’re not looking at your target with hatred so you’re not really ‘aiming’ for it, you’re just ‘looking’ at it.”

“But it’s just a piece of cardboard.”

“That’s true, but what if this was a real situation, and you were being attacked by an animal or a person? If you’re afraid, it’s more likely that you will miss the target, and your fear will prevent you from shooting again. You’ve got to remain calm and remember that the most valuable thing you’ve got is your life, so it’s either you or them.” Sasuke tightened his hold on Neji’s hands and he could feel the warmth from those hands seeping into his skin, almost as if Sasuke was lending him his strength. “You can’t be empathetic either,” he continued and lifted Neji’s arms a little higher, trying to estimate, from his angle and at Neji’s shorter height, where the bull’s eye in the target’s head would be. “Allowing yourself to be mauled by a wild animal or another person is one of the dumbest things you could let happen when you’re armed. Even if you can’t shoot to kill, then you should at least shoot to immobilize your attacker. But in certain cases, it’s better to shoot to kill.”

Neji shook his head, suddenly losing his nerve. “I could never…I couldn’t--”

“That’s why you need hatred, Neji,” and he tightened his grip when he felt Neji’s own slacken around the gun. “For that split second before you pull the trigger, before you allow your empathy to spare your target, just imagine that it’s something you hate… someone you hate.”

Neji stiffened and his breath caught in his throat. He already knew where Sasuke was going with this. “Sasuke… don’t--”

“It can be anything you want it be, Neji. Anyone you want it to be. An annoying pop idol. The teacher that never gave you that A. Someone who lied to you. Someone who cheated on you. Someone who hurt you.” His voice was now so low that it was almost lost amongst the other gunshots echoing within the room, but Neji heard him clearly and his words had a hypnotic effect on his mind that encouraged his imagination to transform that cardboard cutout into someone else.

“Sasuke, no--” he breathed helplessly and his arms shook, and Sasuke felt them but he refused to let Neji go, made him keep his aim but did not force him to pull the trigger.

“It’s alright, Neji,” his voice was soothing now, pacifying his anxieties and allaying his consternations. “I won’t let him hurt you.”

He was suddenly afraid, and he didn’t know why. He knew the image was a fake; he knew it was just his mind playing tricks on him, was only Sasuke making him see what he wanted him to see, but it looked so real, he looked so real. That grin seemed so real.

Sasuke felt him press hard against him, as if he wanted to retreat, but he maintained his balance, keeping Neji there, trapping him within his arms and against his chest, with no where else to go and no escape, but only one way out. “Neji, let’s kill him together.”

There was a loud explosion. The release from the barrel seemed louder than before, and he was sure that it was the fire from someone else’s gun, but he felt the recoil even though it was not as painful with Sasuke absorbing most of it. He wanted to close his eyes. He didn’t want to see where that bullet struck. He almost wished that this time he’d missed, but it was a bull’s eye, and his imagination supplied the rest. Neji’s body felt cold, and his hands were clammy. When his hold slackened on the weapon this time, Sasuke let it fall to the table. He was shaking all over, and his breath labored to escape in haggard gasps. His knees felt weak, his stomach churned, and Neji dragged the goggles and headphones from his head, slammed them on the counter and staggered quickly towards a few chairs lined up on the adjacent wall.

Sasuke removed his gear as well and walked over to where the other man was now sitting with his head between his knees and his hair brushing the concrete floor. “You okay?” he asked, taking a seat and rubbing his palm in large circles against his back.

He only nodded twice, but the truth was that Neji was not okay. He’d just shot another human being. True, it was all in his mind. Orochimaru hadn’t just been standing there, but a part of him really wished he had been. A part of him was actually glad when he imagined his brains splattering all over the wall, and a part of him was actually relieved when he believed, for that one second, that he was really dead and that he’d really killed him. A very tiny part of him wanted to do it again.

“Is he all right?” the old woman asked after limping over to the two men, but Sasuke nodded and made up an excuse about low blood sugar and after giving a short list of prescription (and non-prescription) drugs he could try, she went back to castrating yet another target.

“Sasuke?”

“Hm?” he barely heard his muffled voice escape that long curtain of hair.

Neji lifted his head on a long inhale while combing his hair back at the same time with his fingers, and the Uchiha had to admit, it was one of the sexiest thing’s he’d seen in a very long time. “Thank you!”

He blinked, very surprised at his reaction to his particular brand of therapy, but Neji was a pretty intelligent man, and Sasuke knew he’d caught on to his ploy and knew why he made him go through something he found so traumatizing. And it worked. Sasuke gave him a playful punch against his shoulder and smiled as if to say, ‘Don’t mention it.’ “You okay?” he asked while absent-mindedly brushing a few of his wayward strands from his face, and he wondered how many times he’d said that for the day but knew it was probably a personal best.

“I’m feeling a little better actually,” he admitted half-heartedly, not quite pleased with the fact that the death of another person could bring him so much glee.

“But it’s not as fulfilling now as when you first pulled the trigger, right?” and when Neji nodded in his honesty, Sasuke scoffed in his aggravation as well. “Hn, now you know how I feel,” he admitted and wished his brother hadn’t confiscated his gun from in so he could take a second attempt on that man’s life. But Itachi was right, and he told him time and time again that he was far too short-tempered and belligerent, but he was also too stubborn to listen, but he would be damned if he allowed time to repeat itself, and he knew he would bring Hell on Earth if he had to just sit back and let those same events take place when he had the ability to change things this time around. He’d have to keep a closer eye on that man; he didn’t trust him, and his encounter with Hyuuga last night only proved it, but so help him, if he touched one hair on Neji’s head, even if he had to burn a police station to the ground to get access to a gun, he was going to shoot that man. And if his brother was foolish enough to stand in his way a second time, then he’d shoot him, too. Sasuke gave Neji a reassuring pat on the knee, and the Hyuuga mirrored his weak smile. He got to his feet, and helped the other man to his. He was still slightly unsteady but capable of walking just fine on his own.

“Come on, I’ll take you home now,” and he slipped an arm around Neji’s waist, offering himself for support which the other took graciously as he was led back outside towards Sasuke’s car.
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