Inbred

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Chapter 24

The rays of the morning sun bore their way through the open window and washed the usually dark bedroom in it's dazzling glow. Sasuke saw the orange glow from behind his closed eyelids and grunted in annoyance at the light that shone on his face. He grabbed a nearby pillow and buried his head under it to, once again, be shrouded in darkness.

He wasn't ready to get up yet, he was feeling too lethargic.

His body was heavy and it seemed to hum in its content. His head felt like it weighed a ton, his breathing sounded louder than usual and he could feel every pulse of his heartbeat reverberate throughout him. The after-math of 'Morning-after-sex' had never been this potent on him before, but then again sex with Neji had never been that good before. Don't get him wrong, the sex had always been great, but this was mind-blowing. It was the night he had taken Neji's virginity and it had been very exciting.

He blindly reached out to the other side of the bed, searching for the other man but when his hand came back empty he pushed himself off the mattress, the pillow that adorned his head fell unnoticed to the ground. Neji wasn't in the bed with him.

He was surprised but soon became worried. Worried? ...Yeah, worried. He had hurt him pretty bad last night and he imagined that the boy would have wanted his first time to be special or whatever girly nonsense females fantasized their first time to be like, but instead it had been rough and very, very painful. Sasuke suddenly felt guilty as the image of Neji's anguished face flashed before his eyes and his guilt only increased when he spotted the drops of dried blood on his sheets.

He sighed and rolled over onto his back, throwing one arm over his eyes to block out the light of the sun. Why was he kicking himself in the pants about this? They had both enjoyed it after all. But he had wanted to awaken with the boy lying in his arms and it seemed to him that Neji was probably upset and had left sometime during the night.

He got up and headed for the bathroom but he stopped in the hallway when a delicious aroma wafted into his nostrils. Curious, he followed the odor down the hall and into the kitchen where he saw Neji busying himself in front of the stove while he hummed an unfamiliar tune and shook his hips to the beat that played in his head.

Sasuke approached him from behind to place large hands on his hips before nuzzling his lips against a soft neck.

"Good, morning," he mutters into a veil of silky, black hair.

"And good morning to you too." Neji cranes his neck to give Sasuke a kiss but stops before their lips make contact. "Eww, morning breath."

Sasuke laughs and tries to force a kiss out of him anyway while Neji playfully pulls away. "Yuck! Sasuke that's nasty, you reek."

He gives the chef a playful pinch on the ass before heading into the bathroom to wash up and the other man retaliates by hitting him on the shoulder with a spatula. After washing his face and brushing his teeth he notices Neji's toothbrush in the cup holder along with his and Naruto's. Sasuke laughed to himself. Neji had this thing where he didn't like to share Sasuke's toothbrush, Sasuke didn't mind at all if he did and even hid the boy's brush just to see what he would do, he ended up using his finger and not speaking to the Uchiha for the whole day.

He also spotted a few other brand-name toiletries that Neji used regularly and opening the medicine cabinet revealed a box of panty-shields and a bag of sanitary-napkins.

If Neji's things were here then that meant he had slipped away during the night and came back before Sasuke awoke. It also meant he planned on staying for a while.

When he returned to the kitchen Neji had already finished cooking and was setting the table. The apron he had on earlier was now hanging in its usual place on the pantry door and Sasuke had to stifle a laugh when he saw what the Hyuga was wearing. His ensemble consisted of a pair of white, cotton boxers, patterned with little blue swirls that Sasuke had given to him as a 'gift' and covering his upper body was another gift of Sasuke's that he bought from 'Victoria's Secrect'. It was a baby-pink blouse with short sleeves and a frilly hem. The top was manufactured for a woman's fit and it clung a little too tightly to his broad torso. The white, cursive writing read: 'Don't hate me because I'm beautiful; hate me because I'm a BITCH!' and the second Sasuke laid his eyes on it he thought it was perfect for Neji, and Neji loved it too.

Sasuke took a seat next to the boy and leaned over to give him a passionate kiss which he returned eagerly.

"Don't you guys ever use a room?"

The two love birds looked up to see Naruto standing in the hallway while rubbing his eyes rather sleepily and Neji got up to fix him a place at the table as well.

"Enjoy your midnight rendezvous?" Sasuke asked and leaned back in his chair to cross his arms over his chest.

"Yeah, yeah," came the mumbled reply as the blond made his way to the table to pull up a seat.

Sasuke was not going to let this rest, he was determined to meet this girl. It was fine anyway, last night Naruto had already told her he was going to bring her to meet Sasuke a few nights from now. The five days were almost up and it didn't seem as if his friend's opinion of her had wavered in the slightest. He'd just have to hope for the best. Hinata seemed eager enough to meet him and didn't mind at all, she also didn't seem to mind that Naruto was almost drunk out of his skull. He imagined she was used to alot of drunken people in her line of work, she got a good laugh when Naruto almost fell into the fountain.

Neji set a large breakfast plate in front of Naruto and the blond blinked twice then looked at it stupidly. "What's this?"

Sasuke leaned forward and pointed to each individual food item as he named them. "That's a 'Gunshot Omelette', those are chicken sausages, that's hummus, that's bacon and these are slices of toast; you can put butter and jam on them instead of eating them plain, you know."

"I know that," Naruto retorted with a sneer not finding Sasuke's sarcasm the least bit funny.

Sasuke shrugged then turned back to his own plate, "I wasn't sure you knew any other foods besides ramen and instant ramen."

Neji chuckled before muttering an 'Itidakimasu' and Naruto turned to glare at the other brunette. He saw the writing on the shirt and wanted to laugh but then he spotted the 'collar' around his neck and had to bite hard on his lip at the irony.

"Hey, Neji," he stifled the rude comment he wanted to make and instead decided on satisfying his curiosity. He didn't want to start another fight with the Hyuga especially after promising Sasuke he was going to try to get along.

Purple-eyes locked on him as Neji fed himself a small bite of the omelette. "Hm?"

"What does that ring say?" he asked and pointed at the piece of jewelry around his neck.

Neji's hand went automatically to the choker that he wasn't even aware he had on. "What this? Oh, um," he looked down towards his chest as if he could suddenly read what was engraved on the ring from that angle. "It says: 'Heaven's Wind'."

Naruto nodded. "Is that what Sasuke's says too?" but upon closer inspection the blond noticed that the Kanji, was different.

Sasuke shook his head, "Mine reads: "Earth's Fire."

"Eh? That doesn't make sense." He had expected it to be something like 'I Love You' or 'Together Forever'.

"Well it's a beautiful folk-story actually," and when he saw the teen's eyes light up at the concept of 'story-time' he chuckled inwardly and continued. "Once upon a time an angel fell in love with a human man but because she was ethereal she could not interact with him nor could the man acknowledge her presence. She was with him every day and watched him while he slept every night. God saw her pining after this man and His heart ached for His beloved daughter and although she meant so much to Him, He wanted her to be happy. So one night, He put her into a deep slumber and removed her winds of Heaven and filled her with the flames of Earth. The next morning she awoke, she looked into her reflection in a nearby stream and found that she was a human but all of her memories of her life in Heaven were gone. The man found her and he fell in love with her at first sight and they lived happily ever after."

The story touched the emotional blond and when the tale came to its end Naruto saw that Sasuke had Neji's hand in his and they were gazing deeply into each other's eyes. Naruto suddenly felt as if he were intruding during a very private moment.

"It's a cycle; much like the rings," Sasuke spoke up even as he kept his gaze locked with the other brunette. "The Winds feed the Flames which keep them burning and the Earth supports the Heavens and keeps it afloat. I am the Earth that supports Neji and Neji is the Wind that sustains me."

There was a choked sob and the two raven-haired men turned to look at Naruto who was rubbing at his eyes as tears streamed down his face.

"That's so beautiful!" he blubbered.

Sasuke rolled his eyes at his unnecessary outburst and Neji bit his lip to stop himself from laughing out loud. They ate in relative silence after that and Sasuke finished his meal first and got up to clear his place. Neji looked over at Naruto and the blond caught him staring in his direction.

"So, you know," he finally spoke.

Naruto was confused. "Know what?"

"About...me."

He seemed uncomfortable about breaching the subject and Naruto imagined it was something he didn't like to talk about. He wanted to ensure the man that his secret was safe with him, when he remembered something that Sasuke told him they did in Japan when someone wanted to make a promise or prove they were telling the truth.

Neji watched as he took up a serrated knife and stared in abject horror as the boy proceeded to stab himself in the palm of his hand. He didn't puncture too deep but it went in far enough to draw blood.

"I swear on this blood in my left hand that I will keep your sex a secret, Neji."

The Hyuga prodigy blushed and a small smile crept across his face, he was touched by what Naruto had just done for him. "I sincerely appreciate your gesture Naruto but your word would have been sufficient enough."

"Eh?"

"Only samurai's did that, dobe," Sasuke interjected as he slipped himself back into his seat then pointed at the hand that had the knife protruding from its palm. "And no one does that anymore."

"Oh!"

The room was silent for a while before Naruto finally spoke up. "Sasuke...it huuurts."

His friend got up to aid the idiot while Neji went to fetch some bandages from the first aid kit that hung in the kitchen.

"Hey, wait a minute?" Something suddenly dawned on Naruto and he squinted his eyes and took a closer look at Neji. "Sasuke? Aren't those the boxers I gave you?"