Darkness be my light

MWA HAHAHAHAHAHA and you thought I had forgotten! Here is the next chapter for Darkness be my Light. Sorry for the long wait guys and thanks for all the comments so far they have been a real help :D Keep them coming and I'm thinking about having a drawing compition or a writing comp...maybe both. Writing or drawing a off-shoot to DBML with a theme of sorts....hmmm....The prize woudl probably be a drawing or a piece of writing of the winners choice

Still thinking it over though?

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I had sat at the far end of the table and watched him. Watch him eat ramen like nothing was wrong in the world. Maybe once it may have fooled me. But once you have seen something it’s hard to not notice it. Like missing a stain on a white sheet until someone pointed it out to you. It didn’t just go away, it stayed there and now you could see it.

He had insisted on going home…I couldn’t let him.

Maybe I should have seen it before, seen that sadness buried deep that festered. I sat there as he slept on my couch. He’d refused my bed. It wasn’t like I would be sleeping tonight.

I watched him like a humming bird caught in time. Usually full of energy and excitement, now sleeping; paused. But was that really a good description for him? He wasn’t happy, or excited, not on the inside. The sunshine was superficial, painted and plastic. Had he ever really be happy, or had it always been an act? Shaking my head I refused to believe that, no, some of it had to be real.

A whimper whispered through the air, pasting soft lips and caught my attention. I glanced back at the ball nestled on my bed. Musing mildly at how much he looked like a cat coiled loosely around a couch cushion. His nose buried against it stifling the sound that was now murmuring free.

Pushing away from my seat and knelt next to the couch, curiously. He had to be dreaming. Fingering tightening on the cushion a frown marring his brow in fear or confusion I couldn’t tell.

Reaching out a hand I touched his shoulder, seeming to draw another soft pleading sound from his lips. What was he dreaming about? My hand smoothed up to cup his cheek brushing it with the pad of my thumb and the frown eased, it didn’t disappear, but the gesture seemed to relax him a little. The sounds stopped, easing his grip on the cushion that had unwittingly become a comforter.

Subconsciously, I started tracing one of those whisker marks along his cheek. They were smooth. Funny, they didn’t look like they should be smooth. Smooth and warm beneath the callous pad of my thumb. I had always wondered what they had felt like, but never expected them to be perfectly soft like the rest of his skin beneath my wandering touch. I always considered them to be a little textured, raised like tiny thin scars than brushed his sun-kissed perfection.

In the back of my mind one words bubbled to the surface. Cute. They were cute. Little foxish whiskers that seemed to add to that wild nature of his. It was fitting. I didn't know what made me think that Naruto was cute, he was a Dobe sometimes. Acting rashly with that unusual aura of strength that flowed and danced beneath the surface, untamed. Just like the rest of him.

Wild, unbidden, free.

Nothing about him should have spoken 'cute' on any level. Maybe when we were younger. When everything seemed a little simpler. Even I had to admit that it had seemed simpler back then. Me with my life long quest for revenge. Some things just didn't click into place until you got older, until you started to understand...until you lived out your life and realized looking back. It had been tough, but lucky in a lot of ways.

But here I was, now sitting on the lip of my couch where Naruto lay coiled up in a protected fetal ball. Thinking about how adorable he really looked. Something hot tightened in my chest. It hurt, but it didn't. Sweet and sour. I wanted more of that feeling. That feeling I could only find it near him. Wanted to mine it and hoard it. Keep it alive when somewhere deep, I knew I couldn't keep it.

The feeling in my chest ached and I swallowed, dragging my hand away. Away from that warmth and that contained sunshine. Naruto whimpered then sighed, burrowing deeper into his cushion tightly, seeming a little more relaxed, but displeased I had drawn my hand away.

Someone had referred to us one as opposites. Two pieces that fit together. Like the sun and the moon. Kakashi had told me that once. Naruto was like the sun, bright and brilliant, something that lit the darkness that weighed down the day and shone rays of hope out. Opened the world up like morning light and made you believe things can always get better. I guess that made me the moon, dark, mysterious. Something that worked quietly and not so easy to see as the sun even though it was just as beautiful. It didn't brighten things like the sun, but it chased the darkness away with a more subtle touch...at least that is what Kakashi had said.

Stuffing my hands into my pockets and sighed and bowed my head. Black bangs falling into midnight eyes. Veiling them and their thoughtfully distant gaze.

The moon always wanted the sun...but no matter what, it couldn't catch it. They were too far away.


***


~Wake up~ Words whispered in my ear like silk sin and I groaned; it hurt. ~Time to wake up kit~

Cerulean eyes fluttered open meeting sun set red. Promises of midnight and sweet death glittered in thought eyes like lantern lights across the gloss of glass. Flickering and dancing in their depths forever moving, flits of sin and sensual promise moving in those phantom eyes.

Once upon a time my pulse might have thrummed, like an erratic drum of war. Announcing my own death. Fear would have laced my breath calling on my own ends; eyes closed shut not wanting to see the clash of fang or teeth that wished to will itself deep into flesh like a ripe fruit.

Now time was different. There were demons that I feared, that played their dance across my mind and haunted my thoughts. This demon was not one of those. This one I could touch if need be, it was easier to fight this demon off because...in the end...this one did bleed. Maybe just in my mind, maybe it was not real, but it did because I knew it could.

"Kyuubi?"

~What were you doing kit?~ There was anger in those words, tired smooth words that hissed near my ear with a threat of death. They were idle threats. The Kyuubi could no more follow through with my death than I could with its own. Too many years, too many fights. Chakra melted and molded to the point where one could not life without the other...but I knew what this demon wanted.

"I'm tired Fox." I muttered, my words sounding drawn out and slurred even on my own tongue. In here I was a projection of my own mind, in my mind I was tired. Tired of fighting, tired of hoping and wishing and waiting for things to maybe get better. Because tomorrow it would be better. Tomorrow never came...so even if on the outside, where I looked fine, physically I was. In here I couldn't hide the fact I was worn down.

~You die I die...I'm not going to die yet~

The words were low and calm but snapped from snarling lips without favor.

"If I want to die, you don't have any say in this Fox."

Claws lashed out from behind bars and I didn't bother moving. They strained and just kissed the soft skin of my cheek. I felt hot red trickle free, following the curve of her cheek to drip onto floor where water lapped at my feet.

~I won't let you kill me Brat! Just because you cannot handle your emotions. You pathetic human! I am not dying for your problems.~ That thin growl slithered free from bloodstained lips, hot breath snuffed out from between clenched fangs and gushed across my face, ruffling blond locks of already mussed hair.

"When the hell did you get any say? This is my body, you just happen to be taking up space in here too."

~I should kill you brat~

"Join the queue Kyuubi." I spat ferally, fists clenching at my side, a fine tremble whispering with a promise of violence beneath.

~I could make your life hell.~ The demon threatened bringing an unimpressed sound from my lips.

"Bit late for that...maybe if you had started a few years ago? No one cares and they like to make it openly obvious."

Red eyes came closer to the bars and fangs and crimson fur blazed into my view. The hot gaze narrowed tuning in into my soul until I could feel it burn in my gut. Willing fear into my body, but my body refused to fear something that could do nothing that had not already been done. I broke the gaze first peering down into dripping water at my feet. another crimson sphere falling into the black waters, coiling and curling until it fanned out in a petaled pink and faded. Hypnotic wishes beneath my eyes.

~You're wrong kit...~

It hurt that no one cared.

~...even if you have not noticed yet...~

People said they cared, but I couldn't really trust them. Could I?

~...He cares...~

Warmth kissed my cheek, across the small cut that had marred my cheek. Caressing it in light comforting spirals along the line of that single angry slice until it eased.

~...That Uchiha boy.~

"Sasuke?"


***


I paused a moment in the doorway, thinking I heard my name. Glancing across my shoulder at the sleeping bundle on the couch. I wasn't going to let him stand alone anymore...

"Goodnight Naruto."

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x.x done! Finally got the 6th chapter up....waiiiiii....I'm trying to keep up with study and writing my novel as well as this *falls over dead* Hope you like it!