Dentes

November 20, 2005

“Naruto, wake up.”

Naruto heard the familiar voice, but refused to fully recognize it. He burrowed his face further into the pillow, his hands, both free now, clenching the sheets tighter about his shoulders. This morning was different then the others. He wasn’t waking up in a delusion, only cold, hard reality. His mind was already growing accustomed to the presence of this other man (no, vampire) and up to now, this fact depressed him more than anything else.

“Wake up.”

“Nng… What?” Naruto finally muttered. He could practically feel the other creeping closer, a hand approaching his shoulder to shake him awake. Naruto wasn’t in the mood for contact this morning, no matter how small.

Seemingly satisfied, Sasuke said, “I need to go into town tonight.” He paused, then added, “Now.”

Naruto was confused, and he opened his eyes to meet Sasuke‘s gaze. The vampire was keeping an uncharacteristically appropriate distance between the two of them. He was straddling the side of the bed, one leg bent towards his thigh, the other hanging loosely, while Naruto lay curled on the opposite end. Clearing his throat from the rasp that came with sleep, he asked, “Didn’t you just do that? I thought you said--”

Sasuke cut him off. “No, this is something different. I need to run to the store.” He leaned over the mattress, once again balancing himself on one arm. “Now,” he repeated, “before it closes.”

Despite the sour mood that he‘d been clinging to like a lifeline for the past several days, Naruto still found it in himself to make a semi-subtle jab at the enemy. “What, we out of milk? I told you to pick up a gallon--”

“Are you teasing me?” Sasuke cut him off once more, eyes alight with mischief, mouth drawing into a smirk.

Naruto rolled his eyes before shutting them once more. “No,” he muttered petulantly. “Go pick up your makeup or whatever the fuck it is you need.” Then he sneered what was probably his undoing. “I’ll be here when you get back.”

Tone dropping all traces of teasing, Sasuke asked, “Do you promise to behave while I’m gone?”

“’Behave’!?” Naruto squawked indignantly, eyes flying open as he jolted into a sitting position. “Just who the hell do you think you’re talking to!?”

“A man whose maturity level never breached that of a twelve-year-old,” Sasuke said matter-of-factly, reaching over to the bedside table and picking up the handcuffs he’d obviously removed prior to rousing Naruto from his sleep. “Hold still, I don’t want to chafe your wrist.”

“What the fuck!? Chafe my wrist? Do I look like a fucking girl to you, asshole!? Hey! Hey!”

The struggle was insultingly brief. Naruto kneed Sasuke’s hip, then under the ribcage, as the vampire vaulted himself so that he were position between his legs. Sasuke grappled for his wrists, and Naruto retaliated by running the palms of his hands up Sasuke’s arms before butting them into the hollow of the vampire’s throat, something that would have crushed a normal person’s windpipe. Not being a person, however, gave Sasuke an advantage. Shaking his head back, leaning to the left, he dove back in at an angle, crushing one of Naruto’s arms between their chests. Heaving heavily for breath, Naruto curled his hands in so his fingers hung like claws and he reached for Sasuke’s face. He felt a cold nose press into his palm, slid his hands up, blunt fingernails desperate to reach the painful prize--

Sasuke shook his head once more and, with both hands, caught the free wrist and slammed it into the backboard of the bed. Naruto hissed in pain, his entire arm freezing as sharp jolts of pain made his fingers feel like they were on fire. From there, Sasuke leaned back to grab his other hand until he had them both together. Pinning them there single-handedly, he scooped the cuffs up and circled them through the handlebars, and trapped Naruto’s wrists.

“Bastard!” Naruto hissed, yanking at his hands. “Let me the fuck up! I’m tired of being chained to your--to a god-damned bed!”

Naruto’s slip of the tongue didn’t go unnoticed by Sasuke, who smirked. He cupped one of Naruto’s cheeks, pressing one side of his face into the pillow. As Naruto threw a few more colorful profanities, Sasuke swept down to press a chaste kiss against the side of Naruto’s mouth.

“Why’d you even bother untying me from the bed in the first place!?” Naruto snapped, bucking his head underneath the cool gloved hand. “You honestly thought I’d just be a good little hostage and wait here for you!?”

Sasuke frowned gently, tapping his fingertips along Naruto’s hairline. “Something like that.”

“You fucking asshole!”

Sasuke rolled his eyes. “I won’t be gone as long this time,” he promised. “Anything in particular you’d like?”

“A stake. Not the meat, either.”

“Funny,” Sasuke said dryly. “Once I see that you’ve grown tired of your own obstinate behavior, I won’t have to do this,” he tapped Naruto’s cage wrists with the hand that was stroking his cheek, “every time I go out.”

“Fuck you right to hell,” Naruto said pointedly.

“Have it your way.” Sasuke knelt once more. Naruto twisted his head further into the pillow, aiming to hide away his mouth. But the vampire just kissed at the corner of his eye, a breathy chuckle causing goosebumps to rise along his neck, arms and legs. Then he was standing up and sweeping from the room with long, assured strides.

Click

Naruto was beginning to despise that sound.

November 21, 2005

Despite his promise not to be gone long, Sasuke didn’t arrive until shortly after midnight. Naruto, who’d been dozing out of sheer boredom, jolted to a fully awakened state at the soft sound of the heavy door sliding shut. “Hey!” he shouted after a minute of not hearing any footsteps trailing up the steps. Then, another possibility occurred to him. Maybe it wasn’t Sasuke? Maybe it was one of the construction workers, or a neighborhood kid here to vandalize the run down house. “Hey, up here!” As this point, Naruto would have been glad to see a serial killer. Criminals could be bribed. An obstinate vampire could not.

“I hear you, idiot,” came echoing from down the stairs. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

“Screw a minute!” Naruto snarled. “Get the fuck up here and untie me!”

Silence. Naruto heard floorboards squeak, but on the wrong floor. Sasuke sounded like he was heading to the kitchen. Even though Naruto’s stomach rumbled with hunger, the pins and needles in his arms rearranged his priorities quite nicely. “How about I tie you to the bed for a few hours, huh!? You’ve been gone for three hours, the least you could do is come unchain me!”

More silence. Naruto let his head fall back down to the pillow with a loud groan, resigning himself to a few more minutes of severely limited movement. Luckily it wasn’t long before Naruto heard footsteps coming up the staircase.

“Finally,” Naruto said as the door opened, revealing Sasuke with a Styrofoam container in one hand and a glass of what looked to be orange juice in the other. “Took you long enough.”

“You’ve been here for hours. You could have at least had the patience to wait a little while longer.” Sasuke set his load down on the side table before picking the key from his jacket pocket and unlocking Naruto’s hands.

“And you could at least tell me when you’re going to be gone for hours at a time before saying, ‘Oh, it’ll just be an hour’.”

Sasuke rolled his eyes, but did not respond. He pocketed the key and shifted back as Naruto drew up, cautiously rolling his shoulders, grimacing as they cracked loudly. “Here,” Sasuke said, picking up the container and handing it to Naruto along with a plastic form. “Lunch.”

Naruto opened the lid and saw inside of it a plain bed of white rice as well as another pile of grilled meat, this time chicken teriyaki.

“I got it from the mall,” Sasuke told him. “They were open surprisingly late.”

“It’s getting close to Christmas,” Naruto muttered as he speared some food on the prongs of his fork before shoving it into his mouth, his empty stomach growling in contentment. “They extend their hours,” he finished through a mouthful of food.

Sasuke nodded and sat beside Naruto on the bed, not watching him, just looking out the window. Naruto was glad for the lack of awkward gazing, and he finished the rest of his meal in silence. When he was done, he set the empty container on the table before asking, “So you were gone for hours just to pick me up some dinner at the food court?”

Sasuke shook his head. “I had some other things to pick up as well.” As Naruto picked up his glass to drain the rest of the orange juice, Sasuke’s hand drifted casually into his pocket. His hand came out with nothing in it that Naruto could see, but nevertheless he held it out to the blond to take.

“What is it?” Naruto asked, reaching a hand out. Sasuke dropped them into his palm soundlessly. “Well?”

“Vitamins,” Sasuke said lightly. “Are you done lunch?”

“Yeah, I’m done. What kind of vitamins?”

“The healthy kind. Do you think I’d give you something to hurt you?”

Naruto shrugged, refusing to answer. Instead he asked his own question. “Why’re you giving me these? I’m plenty healthy.”

“In light of recent events,” Sasuke said, voice stiffening, “I think you should take them.”

“What are they, vitamin D? For the sunlight deficiency? You could just take me outside for that.”

“You know I can’t be out in the sunlight.”

“Yeah, so? I can.”

Sasuke snorted. “Don’t be ridiculous,” he chided. “I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

“Well you could at least let me go out during the night.” Naruto spun the pills around in his palm idly, eyes tracing their dull curves and even duller blue color. “I want some fresh air. You can’t make that up with some vitamins.”

“Fresh air is highly over-rated,” Sasuke said coolly. “Who knows what kind of toxins pollute it outside. In this house it’s clean. Go on, breathe it in,” he finished sarcastically.

“I didn’t mean it was good for my health! I meant it--it’s just--what’s wrong with me going outside, anyway?”

“Nothing,” Sasuke said, enlightenment blooming in his eyes. “I’ll make you a promise. You take those vitamins when I give you them, and I’ll take you outside whenever you’d like.”

“Tell me what they are and I’ll take them,” Naruto countered.

“Take them and I’ll take you outside.”

“What is it with you!?” Naruto suddenly snapped. “What’s your deal? I just want to know what it is I’m eating before I eat it!”

“You seemed to have no qualms eating what I gave you before,” Sasuke said hauntingly. A small smirk graced his lips and he leered. “I could have laced that rice with a potent dose of an aphrodisiac.”

Naruto swallowed, a hand unconsciously reaching to press into his stomach.

Sasuke sighed. “I’d never do such a thing,” he assured him.

“Good to know,” Naruto replied dryly, nothing in his tone expressing any belief in Sasuke’s words. “If they’re so good for me, just tell me what they are.”

Sasuke glared at him, and Naruto stared back evenly. After a stalemate that lasted not even half a minute, Sasuke caved. “Fine. They’re B 12. Now will you take them?”

“B 12?” Naruto looked back down at the bills. “What’re they for?”

“A variety of things,” Sasuke said shortly. Naruto glanced back up at him. “But mostly for the replenishment of red blood cells.” He looked pointedly at Naruto‘s empty glass. “Do you need water to swallow them down?”

But Naruto wasn‘t deterred. “Blood cells, huh?” Naruto stopped rolling them in his palm and they fell still. “Might’ve been useful a day or two ago, but not now. I’m feeling better. Not dizzy at all.” Naruto held them out. “Here, I don’t need them.” When Sasuke made no point to take the vitamins back, Naruto frowned. “As touching as your creepy concern in, I’m cool now.”

“Just take them.”

Naruto frowned. Then, a new memory, Sasuke’s words “take those when I give you them”, bounced back into the forefront of his mind. “Wait, you said whenever you have them to me. Do you mean--?” The question went unasked, but it was clear as to what Naruto was inquiring about.

The vampire’s silence was more than enough of an answer.

Naruto threw the pills so fast that Sasuke actually blinked in shock as they hit his forehead and bounced onto the mattress. “Fuck you,” Naruto gritted, already making to slide off the bed. “Do I look like a blood bank to you?”

“Actually, yes. All humans are.” At the withering look Naruto sent him, Sasuke’s tone quickly took on a more pleading quality. “You were just complaining about my prolonged absences. I’ve been thinking it over. This way, I’d never have to leave you. And it’s not like I need much. Just a bit every day, every other day. If you take these,” here Sasuke picked up the discarded pills from the mattress and held them out to Naruto, “you’ll be fine.”

Naruto laughed without humor. He swatted Sasuke’s hand away, causing the pills to go flying. “If it comes to the choice of having my arms falling asleep or you sucking my blood like an over-sized leech, I’d take the numb arms any day.” Naruto shifted towards the edge of the mattress, fully intent on heading out of this room to do a bit of exploring. But before he could, a hand had threaded into the hair at the top of his head. The touch was gentle, and it made Naruto pause for a moment. What happened next, however, was anything but.

Sasuke shoved forward, gloves fingers still gripping tightly into bright blond locks, pushing Naruto’s head down. Crying out in alarm and indignation, Naruto’s hands were scrabbling at Sasuke’s wrists before his face even hit the pillow. Then there was cold, a heavy weight on it, pressing, pushing at the underside of his arm. His back arched, a cold body fitted itself over him, two legs coming to either side of his hips, holding him in place as a slender neck arched and--

“AHH!”

Two teeth, sharper and thicker than any dagger, sunk without hesitancy into the tender flesh of the underside of his arm, digging through the flannel shirt he wore, piercing flushed skin and sinking through muscles and tissue to draw out a deep swallow of crimson blood. Naruto’s breath came in pained gasps, his face contorted in agony, teeth biting into his lips to keep from screaming. It was much more painful than the bite he’d received on his forearm. That had been a piercing pain, followed by the sickening sucks. Now as Sasuke swallowed the blood through the tear in his shirt sleeve, it felt like he was draining a drop of blood from every vein in his arm. The paralyzing torture crippled his arm to the pillow. His fingers twitched, and once again, he felt the urge to vomit.

Sasuke didn’t stay long. After a long minute, he sharply unhinged his jaw. This time Naruto really did yelp in pain as the sharp incisors snagged on his skin, tearing it worse, a fresh gush of blood staining his skin. A rough tough wiped at the escaping fluids, drawing it between lips already painted brightly with blood.

Naruto shivered, his right arm, the one Sasuke still mouthed at, was on fire, and if given the chance he’d gladly have it chopped off.

The grip on his arm tightened momentarily, and dark memories of the last time he’d been drained of blood crept upon him. A warm body, muscles as hard as steel and hot as fire, insistent hands pushing, pushing--

Then the hands released him. Naruto crept forward on the bed, falling heavily onto his back, grasping his arm to his side with the opposite hand, gazing at the vampire with wide eyes. Sasuke’s lips, still dyed a bright red, gaped as he panted. His eyes were a bright red now, the comma-like dots circling about the pupil seeming to spin due to the dizziness that suddenly plagued his entire body.

Slowly, Sasuke rasped, “I didn’t mean to…” A tongue darted out, eyes fluttering shut as he licked his lips of the rest of Naruto’s blood. “You shouldn’t have made me angry.”

“Angry…” Naruto repeated in dumb disbelief. How Sasuke ever had the gall, the nerve…

“Leave,” Sasuke said, sitting heavily back down. A smear of blood remained on his chin, but instead of licking that off too, he instead swiped it off with the sleeve of his long-sleeve shirt. “I didn’t drink much, but still--”

Naruto didn’t bother to stay long enough to hear. The dizziness in his head was shock-induced, not blood loss, and it made his mind clear enough to stand on his own two feet. Sasuke didn’t look at him as Naruto left, and Naruto didn’t know if it was due to shame or the fear of the over-bearing lust that was undoubtedly threatening to once again override all other senses.

The door was open, and although the curiosity of what was downstairs had abandoned him, he still longed for new scenery. Anything to clear the shock and outrage from his mind. The staircase was broken into two sets, a small landing separating the two. Naruto paused there, back brushing the wall as his gaze was drawn up the stairs. He half-expected to see Sasuke there, staring down, eyes demanding he return lest he come to get him himself.

Naruto pushed himself from the wall, and felt his arm burn. Slowly, painfully, he drew the hand of his right arm into his pocket, attempting to stabilize it. To explain the pain, his brain applied the same logic as what a doctor would use to explain the pain of a shot. If they got lucky, they’d hit a vein near the skin. Other shots, however, struck muscle, and it would hurt the rest of the day. The agony in his arm was telling him that the vampire’s fangs had dug into muscle, and that no matter how fast the gash healed, the muscle would continue to hurt.

At the bottom of the stairs, Naruto came to what he figured was the living room. Sasuke had removed the sheets, revealing the threadbare furniture underneath. The toolbox was still by the grandfather clock, but it was closed now and the clock ticked the correct time.

Naruto didn’t waste much time on the living room. Instead, he traveled to the kitchen, dark save for an oil burner on the old, gutted stove. On the counter were several plastic bags, the words ‘THANK YOU’ printed in red ink several times down the front. Two were empty, but the other two were still full. Naruto peeled back the side of the plastic bag and peeked inside. A few cups of instant noodles. Some crackers. A box of oatmeal. A few bags with what looked to be fruit, but it was too dark to distinguish what types they were.

And next to these bags was a small bottle, the contents hidden but the name written out on a bright label. B 12. Naruto picked it up in his hand, spun it around, looking at it dully. His right arm hung heavily in its socket, his hand sliced with jagged jolts of pain every time it shifted. Slowly, carefully, he set the bottle down, and with one hand pressed down on the lid, twisting it, relying on the friction of the counter to help him open it. It opened, but resulted in the bottle falling to its side, dull blue pills sprinkling over the counter. The blond man stared at them for a few moments, not contemplating, just stall. Then, with a shaking hand, Naruto picked up two, and popped them into his mouth.

--

This night, like the one before it, was again different. Naruto woke up without being surprised by his surroundings, but there was something else, too. He saw something that he hadn’t noticed before.

The head of the key to the handcuffs was poking out of Sasuke’s back pocket.

It was out of pure luck that Naruto had even spotted it. From the rather translucent look of the curtains, Naruto could tell that the sun hadn’t set yet, but even the faintest illusion of light was enough to wake Naruto from his daze. The blond was finding it hard to sleep, like he had a bad case of jet lag. Sleep felt less like slumber and more like a mid-afternoon nap.

Sometime during the day, Sasuke had shifted down and slept in a position that conformed to the shape of Naruto’s body, his face pressed into the hollow of Naruto’s neck. The human’s chin lay an inch or so above the top of Sasuke’s head, and when his eyes opened, the second thing he noticed besides the curtains was that he could see down the plane of Sasuke’s bare back. His cheeks stung with heat. He knew, just knew, that if he were to run his palms along the skin there, he’d find familiar muscles, familiar planes of skin, that this back would be the exact same he’d memorized over the past few years.

He almost drew his eyes down, but a glint caught his eye. A smudged speck silver. Sasuke slept in a pair of corduroys, and from the pocket, the key winked dully like a sly ally.

Naruto thought, This is dangerous, this is stupid, if I do this now, if I don’t wait, just wait until he sleeps deeper, so he won’t wake up--

He might turn over.

Wait, just wait.

I’m not good with waiting.

I’m never good at waiting.

Wait just wait

Naruto stared hard at the tiny speck of freedom. His one free arm, the one that wasn’t tucked under his body, was still chained to Sasuke’s and was curled between their chests. To move either one would wake the vampire up, and he didn’t need Sasuke waking up to find out Naruto had discovered the location of the key.

It didn’t take much thinking time for Sasuke to combine what he knew of his boyfriend and what he knew of this Sasuke to figure out the vampire’s personality. Sasuke was a bold person, but he was bold because he was aware that he’d already covered all bases. He slept in the bedroom without fear because the thick curtains were firmly bolted to the floor, He left the house because he’d swaddled Naruto in warm blankets and provided him with a large fire, with both of the man’s hands trapped to the bed.

And Sasuke wasn’t changing the location of their hideout because he knew that no one would be able to track Naruto to this location. He knew this, and this was the first time he was admitting it. Sasuke was a sure person. It made him want to scream. Or cry.

But now, Sasuke was hiding they key on his person. For some reason unknown to Naruto, Sasuke didn’t like to let Naruto wake up chained when he could avoid it. That meant that he had to keep the key close, to avoid waking the blond up. A drawer would have been too obvious. The front pocket too easily accessible. But with the back pocket… the only way Naruto could have found it was if he were feeling Sasuke up, and at that point, there wouldn’t be a need for the handcuffs.

Except for this one spark of luck. The sheets had shifted down just enough. Naruto’s goal was in site.

And now,

wait, wait, just wait

now Naruto needed a plan.

He lay there waiting for a while. Eventually, Sasuke shifted in his sleep so that they were face-to-face, the vampire’s cool breath fanning out and across his face. Their close proximity made Naruto nervous, like any moment Sasuke’s blood red eyes would snap open like that of a demon in a dime-store quality horror movie. But he didn’t. Sasuke slept on for the next several hours. The alarm clock told Naruto that it was nearly eight ‘o’ clock. So far, Naruto had found himself waking up between nine and ten, and whenever he was, Sasuke was always awake before him. That meant…..

Naruto shifted his weight a bit and watched as Sasuke’s eyebrows furrowed inwards. The inevitable night had swallowed the rest of the light, swathing the room in darkness. But Naruto’s eyes, well-adjusted by now, could see faint outlines of everything in the room, and Sasuke’s face, so close to him, was as clear as a photograph.

Naruto moved again, and this time Sasuke mumbled something under his breath. He was waking up. Naruto’s chance was gone--

No, it was never a chance, I need to wait, to wait, until the middle of the day when he’s fast asleep, I can do it, he’ll keep that key there, he thinks he has his bases covered, he won’t move it, he won’t he won’t--

Pleasedon’t

“Naruto?” Sasuke mumbled without opening his eyes. “You’re awake?”

Naruto hummed, trying to force some grogginess into his voice like he himself had just woken up. “I couldn’t sleep.”

“Shut up,” Sasuke muttered. “You’ve been sleeping fine.”

“Fuck you, too,” Naruto retorted. Now that Sasuke was awake, he felt justified in scooting backwards and out of the cold arms. But Sasuke held steadfast.

“Stay,” Sasuke whispered. “Sleep for a little while longer.”

Naruto blinked. “Why? You’re up, aren’t you? Get me some breakfast, I’m hungry.”

A cool hand gripped his upper arm and pulled him back down, against Sasuke’s side. Naruto placed a hand on his chest, ready to shove himself away, when Sasuke’s words stopped him in his tracks. “If you agree to sleep for an hour or two more, I’ll take you outside.”

“Wha?” Naruto blurted before he could stop the less-than-articulate response from leaving his lips. He hadn’t expected Sasuke to bargain with him. Threaten him, sure, gag him and bind his ankles down, expected, but a deal? It was like a parent begging their children to sleep in just a few more hours on Christmas morning.

But isn’t that why I’m here, anyway? Because of a deal? How many days do I have left here, anyway?

Sasuke had begun to talk again. “It’s--” he paused to peek over his shoulder, “not even eight. Sleep in until nine and then, after breakfast, we’ll walk around outside.”

Naruto frowned. This seemed to be about the time Sasuke usually woke up, so what was his problem--

The cuffs.

The realization hit him with all the subtlety of an eighteen-wheeler.

He can’t take them off without me asleep.

Trying to looking more pissed off than awed at the realization, Naruto muttered a derisive “fine”. He made a show of shifting backwards on the bed, and surprisingly enough, Sasuke didn’t stop him. He settled deeper into the bed, shut his eyes, and said, “I wanna make a snowman.”

“Whatever you’d like,” Sasuke said. “Just sleep.”

Naruto found the request an easy one to follow. The way his nerves had spiked up, and how anticipation made his heart beat madly in his chest for a good hour, exhaustion was tugging him back into bed. It was dark outside, and his biological clock was telling him it was time for bed. He began to count in his head the days he’d been here--one, two--how many days it would be until he saw Sasuke again--thirty, twenty-nine--and before he knew it, he was fast asleep.

--

Naruto awoke to the blissful feeling of both of his arms curled up to his chest, wrists free from its metal restraints. When he cracked his eyes open, it was to see Sasuke sitting against the headboard. An oil lamp was burning on the bedside table providing extra light to illuminate the book on Sasuke’s lap. Upon hearing Naruto shift, Sasuke gently folded over the corner of the page and closed the book, sliding it on the table before turning bright brown eyes down.

They key, the key, he has the key

Sasuke’s impassive face turned to one of mild suspicion and Naruto’ heart stuttered in his chest as he contemplated a mind reading power Sasuke had yet to divulge to him.

“What’s wrong with you?” Sasuke asked, and Naruto realized too late why. Without his conscious consent, his eyes had drifted towards the vampire’s pants where he now knew lay the key to handcuffs. His mind was instantly alert, snapped harshly out of post-sleep weariness, coming up with any kind of excuse, plausible or ridiculous, and his eyes scanned along Sasuke thigh, landed on the hands folded across his lap, and--

“I just realized something,” Naruto lied quickly. “You wear your glove to bed.”

Sasuke blinked, suspicion instantly flitting away from his eyes. “And?”

“It’s just weird, is all,” Naruto said, propping himself up on his arms. “You won’t wear a shirt but you’ll wear your glove. It looks stupid. Does it hurt if you don’t cover it?”

“It minimizes the sensations, yes,” Sasuke replied. Sighing, he slid from the bed. “Do you want breakfast?”

“I want pancakes.”

Sasuke frowned at him, already sliding a navy colored dress shirt over his arms. “You’re so moody this morning because you want pancakes?”

“I get grumpy when I’m hungry.”

Sasuke snorted. “You’re always grumpy lately.” Not giving Naruto a chance to retort, he said, “Wait here.” And Naruto had, wondering around the room curiously for several minutes, avoiding the fireplace and mantle, choosing instead to trace the wooden carvings in the mahogany bureau. He pulled open the top drawer, saw inside of it several pairs of neatly folded slacks and shirts, snorted, and moved on down. Three drawers later he found a pile of jeans and a separate pile of long-sleeved shirts, thankfully with no buttons. Taking advantage of Sasuke’s current absence, he quickly shed his sleeping clothes and pulled on a pair of dark jeans and a flannel shirt, not unlike the one with bloody holes in it that Sasuke had thrown out earlier. He wasn’t surprised to find that they fit like a glove.

Fifteen minutes later, Sasuke had returned, a tray with a plate of pancakes and bacon, a tall glass of orange juice, a jug of syrup, no butter. Naruto ate it without fuss, wondered

what’s going--

how he got them to taste like this. They weren’t like the ones Sasuke and he made at home. They were missing something

something’s miss--

or had something added that made them taste so different.

And he wondered,

wandered

when the normalcy of it all would finally drive him to insanity.

November 22, 2005

“Take one step out of my line of sight and we’re going straight back.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it. C’mon, let’s go!”

“Put this on.”

“Christ, you pushy asshole…”

“It’s night time, you fool. It’s dark and it’s cold. Put it on.”

“I got it, I got it. No, I can put it on myself.”

Naruto wrestled out of Sasuke’s grip and slid his hands through the too-long sleeve of the leather coat Sasuke had leant him. The vampire was wearing a dark suede overcoat that fell to his ankles, while the one Naruto wore dipped to just above the back of his knees. Naruto grumbled about his companion’s flamboyant sense in fashion as he folded back the cuffs, only to be handed a pair of gloves not unlike the pair Sasuke wore. “Is this a joke?”

“Just put them on and stop being a baby,” Sasuke snapped, thrusting them into Naruto’s chest. “You aren’t like me yet. Your fingers will fall off.”

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Naruto chided angrily, nevertheless stuffing his hands through the gloves. He blinked, then snapped, “And what do you mean by ‘yet’!?”

“Are you ready yet?” Sasuke asked, redirecting Naruto’s attention to the door. “Or is there something else you’d like to argue about?”

Naruto bit his lip. As much as he’d like to, pushing Sasuke’s buttons wasn’t really in his favor right now, not when freedom was around five seconds from being unlocked. The blond man nodded his head.

Sighing, Sasuke turned around. “Remember the conditions,” Sasuke said. “Do not leave my sight. Do not run.”

“I got it, I got it.”

“If you do, you will not be coming back out.”

“Just open the fucking door.”

And Sasuke did. With his back turned to Naruto, the human couldn’t see what he was doing. He heard the faint jingling of keys, then heavy bolts being turned. He waited with bated breath. Never before had he gone this long without fresh air, without being outside. Even when he was in the hospital when he was a kid, he’d kicked up enough of a fuss until a nurse helped to wheel him to the roof, even for fifteen minutes.

But more importantly, it had been too long since Naruto had seen the sunshine. And if his captor had his way, he’d never be able to see it again.

While Naruto waited for the door to open, Naruto tried to remember the last time he’d been out during daylight hours. It had been the day Sasuke--bastard, s elfish bastard, what’s so great about Japan anyway, just watch some anime if you want to reconnect yourself with your heritage--had left for the airport. He’d been in the car, talking on the phone to Sasuke, before driving home. It had been cold that day, but if he sat still, let the light hit the skin, it was warm. So warm. And now, no matter how fierce the fire beneath the mantle, Naruto could not warm up. Some part of him, always, felt frozen to the bone.

The memory of that day shook loose a question from his mind that he’d forgotten to ask. “Hey?”

“Hm?” Sasuke muttered back distractedly. He seemed to be having trouble with one of the locks.

“That day--well, the night that you came, before that I got a phone call.” Sasuke’s hand stopped fumbling with the cold-swollen locks. Oh fuck. A bucket of ice dropped into Naruto’s stomach. “Was that you?”

“Yes,” Sasuke murmured. “That was me.”

Naruto tasted vomit in the back of his throat, and his heart thudded so fast his breath quickened. Sasuke must have noticed, for his head snapped back, eyes light with faint concern.

“It was Sasuke’s name on the Caller ID,” Naruto choked out, eyes wide, fear rooting his feet to the floor. “Did you--”

Did you kill him?

The question went unasked, but it had been a heavy thought In Naruto’s mind. He almost didn’t want to know. More importantly, he felt he would he physically incapable of exacting revenge if his lover were murdered.

Because that would be what Naruto would have to do. No matter how much he preached against grudges, against vengeance, he’d have to make a hypocrite of himself. Some way, somehow, he’d have to rip this monster limb from limb.

“I didn’t kill him, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Sasuke said slowly. Even though his tone sounded hesitant, Naruto knew it was because he was once again choosing his words carefully, like he always did when Naruto caught him off-guard. “I was at the airport. He left his bag at the table while he went to order a coffee, and I took the phone then.”

Naruto nodded shakily, swallowing back more questions he wasn’t sure he wanted the answers to--Why didn’t you kill him? Don’t you want him dead? Do you need him for something? Did you do it for me?

Sasuke turned his heavy gaze back to the stubborn contraption that construction workers had put over the door. “I want him dead, do not have me mistaken,” Sasuke said casually, the words sending unbidden chills racing up Naruto’s spine. “But I knew that if I killed a person--especially him--I’d never garner your forgiveness.” A heavy, rusty thunk came from the door. “And I’m not all too sure I’d deserve it.” Sasuke pocketed whatever he’d used to unlock the door before turning back to face Naruto. “However much I hate the fact that he got to you before I did, he kept you happy. He insured your safety. And for that, he has my gratitude.”

Naruto’s eyes narrowed into a glower. Sasuke was making it sound like Sasuke’d been his babysitter, his keeper, like a substitute for the years it took for the vampire to find him. Rather than hurl insults back, Naruto kept his voice as calm and even, although distinctly more deadly, than Sasuke’s had been. “I love him,” he said simply. He wanted to say more, but no words could accurately portray the anger filling Naruto to the brim. ‘I love him’, the only simple truth Naruto had to hang onto.

Sasuke stared blankly at him, and Naruto wondered if Sasuke would just lock that door up and send Naruto back to his room, back to the bed he’d spent so many hours just lying on. But Sasuke surprised him. He smiled knowingly, the expression small but still there, and curled his hand around the door know, pulling it open. “Shall we?”

Naruto watched as he opened the door, and it was like running a damp cloth over the grimy face of a photo frame. The scenery Naruto had stared at so longingly during the night was given clarity. And even though he barely saw two feet of it between the door frame and the door, even though he saw a dungy alleyway, boarded windows, overflowing trashcans--Naruto couldn’t make himself focus on the bad. He was a naturally optimistic person, and that trait had been oppressed so forcefully for so long that it came back full force now. All he saw was the quiet, black sky dotted with stars, the thick blanket of undisturbed white snow. The air smelled like ozone. A light breeze blew against his face, and as the force of it waned, Naruto found his body being pulled inevitably out the door like water spiraling down a drain.

He walked past Sasuke and onto the stoop, looking around for the first time. White, black, and gray. Barely any color except for him and the vampire who was closing the door behind him. White streets, black skies, gray buildings. And to Naruto it was gorgeous, looking to him very much like a picture on the front of a Hallmark card.

He padded down the steps, grinning at the sounds of the snow crunching beneath his boots. The smooth expanse of it had been deceiving. What looked like a foot was really just a few inches, but it was still enough to make Naruto grin. As much as he hated the cold, he loved the snow. He’d never be able to move South and lose this stuff.

Slowly, he began to walk down the street, not wanting to miss anything. The gentle crunch crunch coming from somewhere behind him told him that Sasuke was keeping to his word of keeping a close eye on him. He breathed in deeply, evenly. Despite the grimy look of the abandoned city in which they currently resided, the snow had frozen everything over, and he could detect even the faintest rank scent in the air. Only clean, beautiful, unblemished snow.

Naruto peeled off one of his gloves. Sasuke made a noise of protest behind him, but Naruto ignored it in favor of scraping off a handful of snow from a house stoop’s railing. He gripped it tightly in-between his clench fingers, feeling the cold seep into his boned, enjoying the feeling. Despite how cold he’d felt these past few days, how his blood seemed to refuse to thaw out until after hours of his blood being drained, this was a different type of chill, one he could better relate to. He’d been in the snow, played in the snow, walked through the snow, hundreds of times before. This was one of the precious few things he’d encountered over the past week that tied him back to reality, back to home.

In order to keep his thoughts from veering back to Sasuke, probably nearly suicidal in worry and in anger and in confusion, away from the fact that Christmas was coming, away from home and light and the sun, Naruto refocused on several questions he’d been meaning to ask the vampire, but had never gotten the chance to ask.

“I’ve still got a few questions for you,” Naruto said to the man stalking him from behind.

“Hm?”

“You said that I’m some… some sorta reincarnation of your dead boyfriend or whatever.”

There was a heavy sigh, and Naruto watched his own breath cloud up before his face. “That’s an odd way of putting it, but yes,” Sasuke said.

“Well, if that’s true, why is my Sasuke here?” Naruto asked, struggling to find a way to word his questions, and inwardly enjoying the sound of a slightly louder gush of footprints from behind him at the words ’my Sasuke’. “How could he be reincarnated if you’re still alive.”

“Hmm… how about this? For every question of yours, I get to ask one myself.”

Naruto racked his brain for anything he wouldn’t want the vampire to know. Not coming up with anything, he agreed. “Fine.

There was a short pause. “’Alive’,” Sasuke repeated Naruto‘s word from earlier, like it was a word he hadn’t heard up to this point and wasn‘t quite sure of its meaning. Sasuke stopped walking. When Naruto turned to look at him, he thought there was something off about the older man. It was obvious, he knew, and yet he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. “That’s a very loose word where I’m concerned. I move, I breathe, I think, I feel emotions…. But there’s something in me, I feel, that’s missing, something I had while I was human. And whatever that thing is, is what I think carries on to become reincarnated.”

“What, like a soul?” Naruto asked, and it sounded foolish even to him.

“I don’t know.” That was when Naruto noticed what was so off. Sasuke was breathing, he could see it from here. The night was breezeless, yet the fringes of Sasuke‘s bangs, the rest of his hair swept into a short ponytail, wavered slightly at Sasuke‘s breath. Breath that created no fog, like Naruto‘s was doing. He‘s cold to the core, Naruto realized numbly. For some reason, this scared him more than the fangs, even though they‘d punctured him several times too many. What must that feel like? If he can feel pain, he must feel the cold… what must that be like?

“What about my question?”

“Huh?” Naruto said, then shook his head. “Oh. What do you want to know?”

“I know that you’ve been going to college… but what for?”

“Photography. But I don’t know… I’ve always been into the arts, but since the beginning of the semester I’ve been thinking of changing it.”

“To?”

“Architecture. I like to create things, and I like unpredictability. I like that I can’t design something perfectly because the materials needed will always change your plans. That, and I’ve always been able to move things around in my head. Like a puzzle, or something. I can turn it around without forgetting what the other sides look like.”

While he was talking, Naruto began to walk slowly across the street, scuffing up snow with the toes of his boots to watch tiny clumps of snow skitter across the rest. He slid his glove back on and bent down to scoop up a handful of snow. Quickly he compressed it between his palms to form a tight ball, and then turned around. There was a cornucopia of graffiti dressing the building across from him, and he made a target out of a neon orange ‘O’. Flinging the snowball, it landed dead center, making it look like a giant doughnut.

Sasuke was silent for a long time. He didn’t look contemplative, Naruto thought, only smug. Again. As Naruto packed a second snowball, a dream came back to him, a photograph, of a single-roomed flat, scrubbed wooden floors, a work bench, a canvas of schematics--

The snowball dropped from his hand.

Sasuke chuckled darkly, coming to stand beside Naruto and scooping up his own handful of snow. His voice was light as he asked, “Do you have another question?” He scrunched up the snow into a ball, pitched it, and they watched it collide in the exact same spot as Naruto’s.

Ignoring his own embarrassment, Naruto asked, “How old are you?”

“Physically, I’m in my early twenties. Twenty-three or twenty-four, I believe.”

“I didn’t mean physically, dickwad,” Naruto snapped. He threw another snowball, and was dismayed to find that it was slightly off-center then the previous throw.

As Sasuke formed his second snowball, he spoke. “I was born in the land known to you as Japan. I can’t recall the exact year that I was born, but it was in the early 1600’s.”

What?

Sasuke threw his snowball and instead of landing in the center, it hit where Naruto’s second shot had landed. “I believe that you call it the Edo period?” The way he was spouting this information so carelessly floored Naruto completely. No longer was he able to layer the vampire’s words with a careless blanket of indifference. The existence of the paranormal was finally catching up to him, and Sasuke’s words rang with such a truth that Naruto was left with no choice but to believe him.

Naruto had no response to that. Shakily, he formed another snowball and threw it. His aim was weak from shock, and it landed far from the target.

“My turn,” Sasuke stated. He eyed the handful of snow he’d just scooped into his palm as he asked, “Do you hate me?”

Again, Naruto was stunned. Here the blond was asking such invasive questions, and Sasuke was asking simple, blank ones with enough of an underlying meaning to make Naruto feel extremely uncomfortable.

It was a good question, Naruto thought. Thus far, Naruto hated nearly everything the vampire had done. Kidnapped him, drank his blood without consent, nearly raped him on several occasions, and yet--

They look the same.

Naruto’s heart had a bad case of tunnel vision. He loved someone, and he loved him with every fiber of his being, so much that it was dangerous. He was blind to everything else. And it ached, not even being able to hear his voice, see his face, and before him was an exact replica of that man. They were so similar. Their looks, their voice, their way of talking, their attitudes--

Naruto discovered the answer himself at the exact moments the words came from his mouth. “No. I don’t hate you.”

This time it was Sasuke who took the brunt of the shock. He stared at the unthrown snowball in his hand, twirling it in his fingers. Naruto knew there was no warmth in Sasuke’s hand to melt it.

“You look surprised,” Naruto noted.

Slowly, Sasuke said, “I know that you don’t hate me. You can’t.” His eyes drifted from his hand to Naruto’s eyes. “It’s because I look like him, isn’t it?”

Naruto nodded stiffly, shoving his hands into his pocket to hide the way they shook. An unexplainable wave of guilt bubbled and frothed in his stomach.

“I wasn’t surprised that you don’t hate me,” Sasuke explained. “Just that you were willing to admit it.” Sasuke broke their gazes, turned on his heel slightly, and threw the snowball. For the third time, it landed squarely over Naruto’s, far from the center of the ‘O’.

Naruto swallowed. “You were supposed to aim for the center of the ‘O‘,” he said thickly, trying to force scorn into his voice. It sounded weak and meager too the version he’d created in his head.

Sasuke looked at him, and Naruto wished he hadn’t. Instead of the gaze repelling him, it seemed to be drawing him closer, like an invisible fishing wire. “That’s because I wasn’t aiming for the target.”

The silence that stretched after that wasn’t awkward. It buzzed heavily with excitement, with innuendo, with a deep double-meaning Naruto wasn’t ready to poke at with a twelve-foot pole.

Naruto cleared his throat, thought, He’s four-hundred years old, I want to go home, what must if eel like to be that cold, but said none of those things. “I’m ready to go back.”

Sasuke nodded, not asking for an explanation. He waited for Naruto to walk by him before following, both of their footstep quiet as they retraced the grooves in the snow back to the abandoned house.

--

The fire was still crackling when Naruto woke up at ten ‘o’ clock in the morning.

Naruto didn’t know what woke him up. When he lay down next to Sasuke on the bed a few hours ago, exhausted to the point where it hurt to talk, he was sure that he’d sleep straight through the day. But he was wrong. Like a bolt of lightning had struck him, Naruto woke up with a start.

Sasuke hadn’t entwined their bodies yet. Based off his experiences with his lover, Naruto figured Sasuke wouldn’t cuddle up to him for a few hours yet, once he’d sunk deep enough into sleep. Their arms were close together between their bodies, the handcuffs that had terrified Naruto so badly before now seeming even more frightening, like they’d snap at him if he even attempted to remove them.

Only a few hours ago, Sasuke had asked Naruto if he hated him.

Using more stealth than he ever thought possible for him, Naruto slowly sat up, not moving his bound arm so much as a centimeter.

And Naruto had replied in the negative.

Slowly, he sat up in an awkward way, reached around, and barely brushed the tips of his fingers along the seat of Sasuke’s pants, feeling for the seam of the pockets.

But that did not mean Naruto loved him.

It was there. Colder than Sasuke’s skin, colder than the snow he’d waded through the day before, the head of the key.

Naruto’s heart had tunnel vision.

He pried it out slowly, so slowly. Naruto counted the seconds by, and he reached one-hundred and ninety before they key came free. Another fifty as he slowly, slowly drew his arms back to him, and a full five minutes as Naruto slowly slid the head of the tiny key into the hole on his side of the handcuffs. Slowly, oh so slowly. The clink it made was deafening, then the inevitable cranking as Naruto loosed the cuff until it came free.

Like he’d just found himself capable of walking on water, Naruto drew his hand back and looked at it in wonder.

Home.

There were tears rolling slowly down his face, but for once Naruto didn’t mind them. He barely even noticed them.

His heart rocketed to the door, but his body was slow with caution, with surprise, with anxiety. Carefully not to lift his weight from the bed, he shifted towards the end of the mattress. Swung his feet to the floor. Sasuke was facing him. Put the keys on the mattress. Don’t wake up. Don’t wake up. Don’t wake up. Please. Please.

Then he was standing. Away from the immobile vampire. On his own two feet. The floor creaked, so he was careful across the floor. But by the time he reached the doorway, it was like everything in his mind exploded. His stomach soared. He couldn’t tell if he wanted to laugh or to cry.

And Sasuke slept soundly, breath making not a sound, as Naruto fled down the stairs.