An Indecent Affair

Chapter 29
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It was a minute past noon and a very annoyed Sasuke Uchiha was sitting behind a mountain of paperwork and scowling into the face of his silver, Cartier wristwatch. It wasn’t like Neji to be late and, if he hadn’t intended on coming in at all today then he would have had enough respect for his boss to at least call and say something. Sasuke checked his voicemail inbox for what was probably the hundredth time that day and anything that had nothing to do with his missing secretary was promptly deleted. Messages flagged as urgent were discarded the second he heard a voice he did not recognize because, in his mind, they could not be as important as finding out where the hell Neji Hyuuga was.

“Mr. Uchihca?” Sakura peered in timidly from behind his door and the vicious look he gave her made the young woman’s legs shake. “I finished… the spreadsheet… and sent it to you,” she stammered; awed yet intimidated by his commanding presence.

“Sakura, what did I tell you?” he said through a restrained growl, his grip on the receiver tight with the control he mustered to prevent throwing it at her pink head.

She nodded then dared to step closer. “Neji hasn’t called yet but -.”

Sasuke slammed the phone onto its base with so much force that the young woman visibly shook. How hard of hearing was she? He specifically asked not to be disturbed for any reason unless it had to do with Neji. No exceptions!

“Thank you for your assistance, Ms. Haruno. You may go now.”

The woman gasped at the cold dismissal and, for a moment, she feared she’d just lost her job, but when he curtly told her to go downstairs where he would call her if he needed her, her padded shoulders sagged with relief and she promptly complied, refusing to tempt fate with him in that mood.

She was such a nuisance and the only reason he entertained her presence today was because he really needed the help since Neji was nowhere to be found. He’d called him at home, which really was the extent of his efforts because, as far as he knew, the Hyuuga didn’t own a cellphone. He’d have to do something about that.

He tried to channel his concentration into his workload but ended up spending the majority of the next five minutes grinding his teeth in agitation. How the absence of one person could occupy his thoughts this much he didn’t know. All he knew was that he couldn’t get any work done under these conditions and he couldn’t even laugh at the irony because he used to be able to work just fine when he was by himself.

The man was like an addiction; he needed his fix, and it wouldn’t have been so bad if he at least knew where he was or what had happened to him.

He was loathe to admit it but he was actually worried about another human being, and Sasuke scoffed.

The devil must be in long-johns because hell just froze over.

With others, it was usually a mild concern. When Naruto tried to break away from the people who were bad influences in his life, Sasuke was concerned they wouldn’t let him go without a fight. When Fugaku passed away, he was concerned about his mother living alone, and, when Orochimaru was given rights to the portion of their father’s business, he was concerned they would lose the company.

With Neji, it was more of a paranoid over-protectiveness that made him want to toss the other man into a plastic bubble and keep him locked in the highest room in the tallest tower. It was like having to constantly watch a child that just learned how to walk and make sure he didn’t go near the stairway or try to pull the pretty, lace doily off the table with the expensive vase on it. Sasuke really didn’t need the stress and he tried not to think about it, but the more he told himself he didn’t care what Neji was doing right now, the more he imagined the other man bound and gagged in a cloth sack at the mercy of his abductor.

His paranoia evolved into a full panic.

He reached for his phone again, his stomach queasy and his fingers unsteady as he called through the switchboard to find out if Orochimaru was in his office. He was, but that did nothing to alleviate his anxiety. Who was to say the bastard hadn’t done something to Neji then made an appearance to concrete his alibi?

Sasuke’s body became coated in a sheen of cold sweat at the possibility. He wouldn’t put it past that snake to try something so devious.

The young man rose from his chair; the important documents on his desk that demanded his attention of little consequence. The temptation to confront his step-father and beat the ever-loving shit out of him rose exponentially, whether he was guilty of the things he wanted to accuse him of or not, Sasuke was just looking for any excuse to shove his fist down his throat.

With car keys in hand, the hostile executive abandoned his post and walked with purpose towards the ground floor car park, tossing back curt grunts to his employee’s polite greetings. Sasuke swore to God, if he found even the tiniest hint that there had been some sort of struggle at the Hyuuga’s home he was going to brutally murder his step-father in ice-cold blood. With Neji’s apartment complex as his destination, Sasuke barely fit his key into the ignition before his cellphone rang snapping him out of his vengeful thoughts and, had he not been expecting a certain call, he would have ignored it.

Sasuke wrenched the phone it from its case, nearly dropping it as he fumbled with the electronic object. His disappointment was clear in his voice when he saw it was his brother’s number and greeted him none too cordially.

“Come to my office, Sasuke. I want to talk to you.”

He was brief and Itachi didn’t even give his sibling the opportunity to acknowledge or reject their impromptu meeting before hanging up. But wait? He had returned from his Washington trip already? How long ago had he got back? He’d been so preoccupied with his AWOL lover that he hadn’t even noticed.

Sasuke trudged his way back into the building and up to his brother’s secluded office, sulking all the way. He did feel somewhat remorseful that he hadn’t been paying as much attention to the person that also played an important role in his life, and, as much as he cared about Neji, he could not let their relationship stagnate the one he had with Itachi.

Sasuke didn’t knock, there was no need since his brother was expecting him and he was surprised to find that his two boy toys were nowhere around. He assumed they would have been all over him once he was back. It had been almost a whole day he’d gone without sex after all.

“Sit,” Itachi said once Sasuke stepped into the room and, despite the brusqueness of the command, his tone was soft and calm, which meant Sasuke was in no immediate trouble. The other man obeyed rather begrudgingly. He hated when his brother ordered him around as if he were one of his pets but he said nothing as he watched the overworked manager juggle a telephone call, his e-mail and a stack of folders twice as high as the pile on Sasuke’s desk.

Just watching Itachi made him want to take a vacation.

Many times he’d offered to stay late to help the other man with his workload and, on each occasion, Itachi would refuse, telling him he had his own department to worry about. Sasuke knew why he was doing this, why he volunteered most of the responsibility and worked himself to the brink of exhaustion everyday. He was punishing himself for the mistakes he’d made in the past and their resulting consequences in the present. He had assigned for himself this personal hell on earth and Sasuke felt cheated out of his own retribution. He wanted to share that guilt because he was just as much to blame, but Itachi took his sins and added them to his own. He did whatever he could to prevent the suffering of those he cared about and since Sasuke was the only family he had left he had to protect him.

Itachi pointed towards the printer after clearing a file from his inbox and the other man noticed that his nails were clean, completely devoid of their usual black coat. He, no doubt, removed the polish for the sake of professionalism and it was only then that he took careful notice of his brother’s well-groomed appearance. He had recognized something was different about him when he first came into the office but he couldn’t place his finger on it until now. His hair was slick with gel, not a strand out of place, and the bangs that usually hung loosely on either side of his face were pulled back with the rest into a tight pony tail. He also wasn’t wearing any themed contact lenses today and, for a moment, Sasuke had almost forgotten what his natural eye colour was. From where he stood he could see that he was dressed in a pair of black slacks, belted over a crisp, dark grey silk shirt and, as he leaned forward to check a date on the tabletop calendar, he noticed the heavy jacket and simple patterned tie strewn across the back of his chair.

Sasuke knew Itachi disliked wearing such restrictive types of clothing as much as he did but he couldn’t help feeling like some kind of slob in his dark jeans, blood red tank and leather boots. In comparison, Itachi appeared the sane one; kempt, industrious and sophisticated, and Sasuke hated seeing him like this.

He looked down at the nine-paged manuscript he retrieved from the printer and realized it was the minutes from the meeting Itachi had been to. His brother would not have summoned him all the way over here just for this. If it was about what transpired in Washington then he would have easily forwarded the minutes himself or shared what he learned over the phone. Whatever it was he wanted to discuss was something he’d rather do face to face and Sasuke turned to see his weary, coal-black eyes focused on him now that he’d ended his telephone conversation and was ready to give him his full attention.

The younger male returned to his seat and placed the summary on the desk before him. Great! Just what he needed. More paper.

Itachi rose immediately, looking even more the principal about to mete out a long-winded lecture to the juvenile delinquent. “I don’t suppose Neji’s told you he’s being evicted?” he asked as he walked around his large table to sit on the surface in front of him.

That took Sasuke completely by surprise. It was so sudden and came right the fuck out of nowhere. Neji? Evicted? What was he talking about? Why didn’t Neji tell him? How did Itachi know? Where was Neji now?

His mouth worked to voice his queries but his mind was too much of a confused mess to cerebrate the functions necessary to form words. “No, he didn’t,” Sasuke said slowly. It wasn’t like his brother to play games the way Naruto did and he knew the other man wasn’t trying to pull his leg. He was just finding this very hard to comprehend even though it suddenly explained why he was unable to reach Hyuuga at his home number. Something suddenly clicked and his eyes flashed with betrayal. Why had Neji contacted Itachi first and not even bother to tell him?

Sasuke flexed his jaw as he glared up at his older sibling. “What else is he confiding in you?”

No one knew the inner workings of Sasuke Uchiha’s mind better than his own flesh and blood and Itachi could practically hear the gears turning inside his head. “It’s not what you think, little brother,” he tsked and freed the uppermost button of his constricting collar. “Neji has confided nothing in me and he doesn’t know that I know.” His cryptic reply was met with a blank stare and Itachi elaborated. “I made an arrangement with Neji’s landlord and asked him to break the lease as soon as possible,” and it wasn’t nearly as difficult as he thought it would be to sway the elderly proprietor. The apartment would be paid for up until the end of the year, whether he found a new tenant or not, and he had one less upstart breaking his rules to use as an example to the other lippy tenants.

“You did what?” Sasuke roared as thoughts of his boyfriend wandering the streets with nothing but the clothes on his back haunted his mind. Why it was suddenly snowing in those images when outside was blue and cloudless, he couldn’t say but could only attribute it to a hyper-active imagination. “Why the hell would you do that?”

“I was worried about him,” but his brother expected more than just that and Itachi’s mood became solemn even though his eyes remained stern. “Orochimaru has made Neji his new hobby.” He anticipated what the other man would ask next and quickly added, “I haven’t told you this because I knew you would do something reckless.” Sasuke’s jaw clapped shut and he allowed his brother to continue explaining the reason behind his actions. “I had someone follow him and they’ve reported that he’s been stalking Neji and, on a few occasions, has even entered his apartment when he wasn’t there. He’s also been keeping communications with Neji’s landlord but, as to the nature of those conversations, I do not know. I just found it too suspicious to take any risks and I was afraid he would try something while I was away.”

Sasuke reeled from the bombshell that was just dropped on him and he was overcome with so many different emotions he didn’t know which one felt strongest. He felt anger towards Orochimaru for persistently seeking Neji out and relief in knowing that Hyuuga was out of harm’s way. He was hopeful now that his brother was taking proactive steps to prevent Neji from falling into ‘his’ hands but felt useless because he played no part in Itachi’s scheme. There was a longing to take the Hyuuga into his arms; to hold him close and let him know he was prepared to give him whatever he asked but he also felt jilted as a lover that he did not come to him in his time of need.

Why hadn’t Neji told him?

“I’m surprised myself,” Itachi said with a slight shrug and it was only then that Sasuke realized he’d asked that out loud. “I had expected you two to be co-habitating by now, knowing how fast you work,” the elder Uchiha smirked. “But, Neji is rather self-reliant so I should have taken into consideration that he would try to work this out on his own.”

Sasuke got up so he could pace around the room like a caged cougar, venting his frustrations with heavy sighs and running agitated fingers through his hair in lieu of wrapping them around his lover’s neck.

Damn him! Why did he have to be so unlike the others? Why would he prefer to stay in that hole in the wall when Neji knew very well that he was prepared to welcome him into his home? Why did he constantly refuse his expensive gifts because he didn’t think he deserved them? Why was he willing to accept the physical expressions of his love but decline the material expressions of his love? Why did Neji think they had to be separate entities?

Sasuke stopped his traipsing. “How much longer does he have?” His question was directed to the carpeted floor while he remained in deep contemplation.

“We agreed to let him remain in the apartment no longer than a week,” Itachi said confidently, recalling the discussion he had just yesterday with Mr. McCartney. Sasuke merely nodded but gave no hint that he would say anything else. “If he insists on remaining this stubborn, why not let him rent the pool house?” the other man suggested. “He’ll be within reach but still paying his own way.”

He approved the idea with another bob of his head. “Don’t make any arrangements just yet. I want to see how long it takes him before he comes to me.”

Itachi frowned at the request but conceded. “Very well. But you have until the end of the week or I will ask him.” The dapper businessman pushed himself off the desk and returned to his rightful position behind it before giving a cautionary warning. “It is imperative he not find out about this.”

“I don't want to lie to him,” Sasuke said almost desperately. His hands were tied. He couldn’t afford to squander Neji’s trust.

“You don't want to tell him the truth either,” and Itachi was right. After Neji got over the initial disappointment, his peace of mind would be shattered. Orochimaru wouldn’t have to lay a finger on him to make his victim feel violated, Neji would forever be looking over his shoulder and that would put them back at square one. All he could do was hope the Hyuuga never asked about it or investigated the matter himself.

“Where is he now?” Sasuke rasped, and Itachi felt like a failure as he took in his baby brother’s crushed demeanor and the heavy sadness in his eyes that weighted down his slumped shoulders.

Itachi sighed, hating to see his brother so forlorn. “I asked Naruto to take him for the night and keep him company. The last time I spoke to him, they were with a friend,” but as to their location at the present moment, he was unaware. He’d been too busy blending into his schedule and getting rid of the workload that had been patiently awaiting his return.

His instructions had been explicit; Naruto was not to give Neji any reason to believe that he was in danger and he was not to spend the night in his apartment. If Orochimaru did attempt an abduction then Naruto would have been enough to scare him off, but he’d rather it not have to come to that and figured it would be best if Neji wasn’t around if ‘he’ showed up. The kid had a lot of charm and Itachi had faith he would be able to entice the Hyuuga away from his sanctuary at such an ungodly hour.

Sasuke didn’t put that much stock in his friend though and was more afraid he’d forget him in the backseat of the car with all the windows up. Neji wasn’t that ineffectual, but Naruto was that absent-minded.

Itachi could sense the other man’s apprehension so he gave him a brave smile and attempted to dispel his concerns. “Have faith, little brother.”

Have faith? Sasuke scoffed and bit into the corner of his lower lip to prevent himself from saying something particularly nasty regarding ‘faith’. Faith was as foreign a concept to him as those who blindly worshipped it. Faith required one to be wholly subservient and deferential, hoping for something to change yet doing nothing to affect that change. It was a textbook definition of insanity but these passive thinkers were left free to walk the streets and infect others with their mental illness.

“Hn,” was all he said. Itachi frowned and opened his mouth to say something further but he was interrupted by the bell of his telephone and Sasuke continued to pace while his brother engaged a panicked assistant manager.

If there was even a hair's breadth possibility that Neji was in safe hands then he would cling to that hope and allow his composure to settle, but it could not dispel the niggling anxiety at the back of his mind. Sasuke began to eavesdrop on his brother's half of the conversation when he noticed his tone becoming harsh and the slow grace which he used to place the phone back on the hook let him know that he was doing his best to keep his temper under control.

"If it's not one thing it's the next, hm?" his younger brother tried to inject a little humor into the tense environment but Itachi didn't laugh.

"There are reports of an auditor snooping around on the upper floors," he stated, while rising from his desk.

Sasuke blinked, his brother's habit of getting directly to the point rendering him almost speechless for the second time in less than an hour. "I didn't know we were being audited," he said after a lengthy pause. He was certain he would have received a memo if that was the case, but his brother's lack of preparation towards the news meant Itachi was just as clueless about it as he was.

The older male flashed his younger, more inexperienced sibling a look as if that was the most retarded thing he'd ever heard and disappointed that it came from the lips of an Uchiha. "It's a corporate spy," he growled, the 'you idiot' part went unsaid but was obviously implied.

Sasuke huffed but chose to ignore his brother's nasty attitude as he slipped back into the asphyxiating jacket and necktie. He was clearly in a bad mood; two flights, a board meeting and now someone with the stones enough to waltz into the company and try to steal ideas, all within a twenty-four hour period, was enough to put anybody's day in the crapper. Sasuke stepped back to give his brother space as he stormed past him, then, as an after-thought he turned to face the younger man. "Go back to your office, Sasuke," Itachi instructed. "If your department has already been informed then let them know it's a false alarm."

"What are you going to do?" Sasuke asked. Work was the last thing he wanted to be doing right now.

"I'm going to have her removed from the premises then have a little chat with security."

"You always get to have all the fun," Sasuke grumbled. "You get to play hide-and-seek with some chick then fire somebody's incompetent ass."

"This is not a game, Sasuke," he sighed irritably and hastily escorted his sullen brother out of the room but his expression soon softened when he noticed that even though his baby brother was trying to hide it, he was still somewhat worried about Neji. "Tell you what," Itachi smirked and lifted a hand to comb his fingers through his sibling's unruly hair. "After I find out who was responsible for letting the bitch in here, I'll let you give them the pink slip."

***

Sasuke loitered around the lower floors, completely disregarding Itachi's orders to return to his post and alert his staff that they were not going to be under assessment today. Instead, he much rather enjoyed watching everyone tip-toe around on eggshells, cautious of anyone looking over their shoulders or wary of making even the slightest mistake. If only everyone behave as if the big, bad auditor was here everyday then production was sure to soar one hundred percent.

Sasuke sighed and leaned against the smooth interior of the elevator as he waited for it reach the next floor. He was bored, a side effect of having nothing better to do, not wanting to do anything and trying to still his concerns. It had been almost two minutes since he last thought about Neji- one second- he last thought about the Hyuuga and in this distracted frame of mind he could not bring himself to concentrate on anything else. Work was negligible at this stage and he would have considered playing secret agent and hunting down the spy if he didn't risk running into a very irate Itachi and trying to explain to his brother why he wasn't doing as he was told was only going to earn him an earful and a slap against the back of the head.

How long had it been since he'd last thought about Neji now?

'About seven seconds.'

He tossed his head back and banged it twice against the wall.

This was driving him nuts! He had to try to get the Hyuuga off his mind somehow, but if only he was positively certain his lover was alright then maybe that would put him at some ease. He had tried contacting Naruto but his cell had been most likely turned off and he'd be damned if he called Gaara... well, he couldn't even call the bastard if he wanted to, he didn't have the number, but in his desperation he was actually wishing he did.

The lift stopped on his floor and Sasuke disembarked, intending to call it a day. There were only four working hours left anyway and why waste that time sitting at his desk doing nothing when he could be home doing nothing.

A suspicious feeling that something was not quite right gave him pause and Sasuke crinkled his brow as he stared mutely at the slightly ajar double doors. He was certain he'd closed them before heading over to meet Itachi. He was one of the few managers that didn't have an 'open-door' policy, but he primarily kept them shut as a deterrent to the pink-headed nuisance that worked downstairs.

Sasuke ground his teeth and gripped the door handle just as tightly. He swore to any god that still existed if Sakura was inside there he was going to-

Fortunately for them both, it wasn't the bane of his existence but the young woman rummaging around inside his cabinets was still just as unwelcome. Sasuke managed to close the door quietly behind him without alerting her, sealing her only means of exit. This was probably that corporate spy Itachi was looking for and, as he raked his eyes over her lean, well-dressed form, he couldn't blame the poor sap that was suckered in by her appearance and allowed her inside.

For a woman that height she was much too tall to be wearing four-inch heels but they gave prominence to two shapely calves that he couldn't bring himself to berate that fashion choice. Her legs, and what a lovely pair they were, he had to admit, were wrapped in stockings so sheer he believed they would rip if a gust of wind happened to blow against them the wrong way, and if that same gust just happened to toss up her thigh-length pleats so he could get even the tiniest up-skirt peek then he wouldn't complain. The matching beige jacket she wore covered far too much of her torso and gave no clue as to the shape of the rest of her body but if her gams were anything to go on then it was safe to say that Hugh Hefner would consider her for a center fold.

The young woman tilted her head to one side and Sasuke's gaze snapped to that motion, surprised that he actually managed to take his eyes off her legs. Her hair was piled high upon her head in a tight bun and, although her back was turned to him and he couldn't make out her features from that angle, he noticed the thin frames that clung to her face.

The mysterious woman fingered through another drawer with beautifully manicured fingers and, just as Sasuke was debating whether to blackmail her with a quick fuck on his desk in exchange for turning her over to the authorities (or worse, Itachi), he finally announced his presence before she was able to steal anything else.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

The tone and magnitude of his voice was like a sudden explosion in the middle of cemetery and had the exact effect he was going for as he startled the young woman and, caught red-handed, she dropped the manilla folder, spilling its contents onto the floor. Those same shoes that he was fantasizing about this very same moment, buckled beneath her as she spun around to face her aggressor and Sasuke grinned mischievously when she threw herself against the cabinet to break her fall. His arrogant grin waned when he was finally graced with her charming good-looks but her attractive features weren't the reason he now stood there, wide-eyed and slack-jawed. The girl was beautiful, but the unspoken cognizance between them and helpless fear in her eyes were all too familiar to him and he couldn't help but feel he'd seen her somewhere before.

A tiny sparkle at one plump, delectable earlobe brought his attention to a pair of large, diamond earrings and had the effect of a lightbulb switching on inside his head. Sasuke brought his hand up to his mouth in shocked disbelief and once the terror in those frightened, lavender eyes subsided into discomfort and uncertainty, Sasuke dropped his hand to his side.

"Neji?"

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