Comfort and Fear

He knew the minute he touched the doorknob that something was off. Not in the way he was used to, when the air would freeze along his skin, icing its way down into his lungs. It wasn't that knowing you’d taken one step too far, the trap was sprung, and fighting your way out was the only way to see the coming morning. Something was off, but not in a way that made him, in some underwater corner of his mind, fear for his life.

Rather, Naruto found the feeling comforting. Comforting in an awful sort of way. Not that he didn’t want it, but he knew what this premonition meant. Knew that what he wanted would never come out of it. And yet, it wrapped him in warmth. Knowing, needing warmth. His fingers tightened around the handle, and with a sigh, he pushed opened the door.

It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness greeting him. He knew, though, that he adapted far faster to the change in lighting now than he had when he was a genin, faster even than a few months ago. Missions were an endless encouragement for adaptation. The prospect of death was an even better one, one that his body took to more naturally than the idea of pursuing the title of hokage, of protecting Konoha.

Shaking the weariness from his limbs, Naruto stepped into his apartment and softly shut the door behind him. He breathed out, his gaze catching the dark outline over by the kitchen. He didn’t let it linger there though, and instead, turned to lock the door. Three bolts in total, for no other reason than that it would buy time.

He knew the other was aware of him, and knew that he too had taken notice and understood. Naruto was simply choosing not to acknowledge the intruder at the moment. After tossing a set of scrolls into the nearest chair, which really wasn’t a chair so much as the remnants of one, Naruto began pulling off the military-green vest. That he carefully rolled up and placed on the table.
Automatically, his hands reached up and started to undo the knot holding his head-protector in place. From the corner of his eyes, he caught the subtle shift of movement as the figure took a half-step forward then stopped. All without a sound, but there was no mistaking the move. Though his eyes couldn’t pick up color, they could determine the gradient changes in the blackness surrounding him. The figure was just a shade too dark to be called a part of the scenery. The movements of his fingers slowed. Stopped. Left the emblem of who he was pressed against his skin.

“You could at least say hello, jackass…” he muttered.

Another shift of black against black. Naruto’s fingers twitched as he lowered his arms back by his sides, instinct telling them to grab the nearest weapon, emotion ordering them to still against all else.

“Shut up,” Uchiha Sasuke growled from the darkness.

There was an edge to the prodigy’s voice. Something Naruto wasn’t used to hearing. Something sinister, corroding. All chained together with that irritating arrogance.

“Fuck you, Sasuke,” Naruto bit back. His fingers flexed, drawing the skin taunt over his palms. Despite his own confidence, he couldn’t dispel the unease pulling itself out of the shadows surrounding Sasuke and coiling around him with the slow ease of a constrictor.

He stepped towards the missing nin. Naruto figured it was better to throw himself into whatever it was that was going to happen rather than waiting for it to suffocate him.

“I told you,” Sasuke snarled, “to shut up.”

It was then, when that first foot fell by Sasuke’s side, that he felt it. That cool, winter’s thrill of disquiet freezing along his skin. Confusingly twisting together now with his previous comfort - Sasuke had been waiting for him there after all - into pinprick bright icicles of pain.

“And if I don’t?” Naruto questioned, his voice lowering with every word. Almost afraid.

There was a rough expulsion of air next to him. Not an incredulous huff, but a sound buried beneath the unspoken threat that Sasuke’s presence radiated. Do it, and die trying to pick up the pieces.
The Uchiha heir shifted closer, his left hip brushing against Naruto’s. The blond shivered when lips skimmed along his neck, teeth grazed absently against his skin. And then that voice, predatory and cold, rushed into his ear, “Just don’t.”

Nothing further spilled from the prodigy’s mouth. For a brief moment, they stood there unmoving. While fear – though whether it was from what he knew Sasuke was capable of or from the thought of the dark-haired teen leaving him standing there he wasn't sure – kept him firmly in place, Naruto was certain that Sasuke was merely waiting. Enjoying the game that he had started, wanting to see just how far his former teammate would pressure him.

Though Naruto had a tendency to be rash in most, if not all, of his actions, he had developed the keen understanding of when it simply was enough. Not that he always listened. But tonight, something was wrong. And he had had the misfortune of already testing his brashness against Sasuke, a disaster that still sat as a silvered-pink reminder against his collarbone.

“What are you doing here?” Naruto hissed quietly. “Why risk coming into Konoha?” It was unlike Sasuke to act in such a jeopardizing manner. At least when it came to him. Always urging discretion when it came to their actions. God only knew what would happen if others were to get wind of their relations. But, that was part of the thrill too.

Naruto felt Sasuke shift beside him, pressing himself closer to the blond. Yet, he said nothing, only breathed out heavily against the base of his neck. With a whisper of caution, Naruto craned his head to the side only to find that he could see nothing but black hair. It carried an odd scent on it. Something like the coppery tang of fresh blood and the sweetness of the woods in spring. Though there was that singular element to it too, one that marked those midnight locks as Sasuke and Sasuke alone. Warm and bittersweet.

“Shut...up” the Uchiha heir whispered maliciously.

Naruto gave a solid huff out, watched as the air sent those dark strands scattering. He didn’t want to obey, and Sasuke damn well knew it. There was a low rumble from the missing nin, one that Naruto could feel vibrating down his spine.

“You are such a fucking asshole, Sasuke…”. Where he had been willing to comply only minutes before, the blond found his former teammate’s insistence on control maddening. It was enough to kill all reason, all that hard-learned logic, and bury it six-feet under. Right next to the memory of a closed-off, anything-you-do-I’ll-do-better friend.

Beside him, Naruto could hear the soft chuckle pouring over Sasuke’s lips, washing out over his neck, his cheek, until lips dammed the sound against his own. He hated it when Sasuke did this. And unfortunately, loved it just as much. Naruto growled quietly, letting the sound reverberate within the confines of their kiss.

And that was where the niceties ended. With a rough push against Naruto’s mouth, hands snaking around the other boy’s forearms and clamping down tight, Sasuke forced the blond back against the wall. Waited a moment to top off his kiss, then ended the affair with a sharp nip down on Naruto’s lower lip. “What part of shut the hell up did you not understand, dobe?”

A smirk slid over the prodigy’s mouth, proud and unrelenting. Sasuke shifted his gaze from the bright blues staring fiercely back down towards Naruto’s mouth. There was something undeniably erotic about the flow of blood. It was smooth, slick and alive. So damnably vibrant against the pale skin the blond sported. With a slow flicker of his tongue, Sasuke followed the red stream to its source. Upon hitting it, he sucked on the wound until Naruto cried out quietly in pain.

“I heard you, dammit! Now stop doing that!” he muttered heatedly. Again, Naruto was overcome with the icy thrill of dominance being so unabashedly radiated by his former teammate. Not that he hadn’t encountered this will to control before in Sasuke. It was just that, tonight, the feeling was…uncompromising.

Rather than respond with another curt “Shut up” or any variation of the theme, Sasuke twisted his fingers around Naruto’s skin, forcing the flesh to contort unnaturally against the flow of its design. With absent delight, the Uchiha heir smiled to himself as the pain wound its way up from Naruto’s arms and out into the open as a surprised gasp. He held the position for a moment, letting the blond’s body adjust, and then just as quickly, Sasuke wrenched those captive limbs back behind Naruto’s head.

“Turn around…” he murmured, predatory intent swimming merrily within his tone.

Naruto glanced up and noted with a flare of bewilderment the look darkening Sasuke’s stare. It was a familiar thing lurking there behind his eyes, and yet it was harsh. Demanding. And for the first time that evening, everything made perfect sense. With one final look deep into the prodigy’s gaze, Naruto began to twist his body around.

Seconds after turning his back to Sasuke, the blond could feel the pressure of his former teammate as he pressed up against his body. Again, hard like all of his actions had been so far. There was a desperation to them, though. Quietly treading beneath the arrogance and the domineering will. He could feel it, trembling gently, as Sasuke’s hands slipped down along his arms, over his shoulders, and found their way hastily to the belt securing his pants around his waist.

There was no fumbling, like he had anticipated, however. Only the smooth release of the metal hook and the sudden decrease of pressure around his hips with the sudden slack. When fingers met the tender flesh of his stomach, Naruto shivered. Despite the warmth of Sasuke’s body, his hands were surprisingly cold. But even that didn’t seem to deter the youngest of the Uchiha clan.
Without hesitation, Sasuke plunged his hands beneath the waistline of his pants and ran the palms of his hands over Naruto’s cock. The blond gave a long hiss as the cold hit the most sensitive area of his body. Even through his boxers it was damn near unbearable.

“Sasuke,” Naruto whispered angrily, “warm your fucking hands before doing this!”

“You don’t seem to mind that much, dobe,” Sasuke replied, teasing his fingers along the steadily hardening appendage. “Doesn’t matter anyway. I don’t intend on doing that.”

Adding emphasis to his last point, the Uchiha heir ground his hips into Naruto’s back. His intent was readily apparent, stiff and pitiless. Sasuke withdrew his hands only to hook his thumbs onto the edges of Naruto’s blue-grey pants. They sat there for a moment, teasing harmlessly along the material. Back and forth with no real purpose other than to torment the blond as much as possible. Always with the possibilities. That was the thing about Sasuke - so much promise. He could never rightly tell how the teen was going to use it.

Or that was what he would normally think when faced against him. Tonight, however, the purpose was all too evident. No further proof needed when Sasuke stopped the aimlessly roving of his fingers and tugged the rugged material, boxers included, from around his waist down to his knees.

Naruto was expecting the dark-haired boy to satisfy his wants immediately. Swift, harsh and blind, just like everything else this evening. But, he was surprised to find the prodigy’s lips spilling dragonfly-light kisses down the back of his neck. Hot and needing, they blistered upon his skin for all their softness, searing all that was Sasuke into his very flesh. Naruto felt the blood rushing to his groin, almost as scalding in its flow as Sasuke’s kisses.

It was during this time that Naruto began to lose all sense of what had actually allowed him to remain so docile under Sasuke’s desire. Sex was like that though. It caused him to forget all sorts of things. Like their very first time when he failed to recall that Sasuke was wanted by Konoha as a missing nin. Not just wanted, but as protocol tended to demand in that sort of situation, wanted him dead. And as an elite ninja of Konoha, it should have been his duty to see that through. Instead, he had ended up completely nude, wrapped in the arms of one who was supposedly the enemy.

And now it was happening again. Naruto moaned when Sasuke’s hands once again slid down past his hips, and fingers shamelessly closed in around the head of his member. Of all the places… “Bastard,” Naruto moaned again.

“I’ve been called worse,” Sasuke murmured teasingly into the blond’s ear. He then gave the lobe a light nip before moving his mouth lower, teeth nipping with each little pause down Naruto’s neck. He slid his hand down his former teammate’s shaft, gave a few halting pumps, then pulled off completely. Sasuke loved the stifled groan of disappointed need.

The Uchiha heir moved his hands lower, urging the blond to widen his stance just a little more. And with each step Naruto gave way, Sasuke pressed himself against him with firm precision. Moment by moment, a little further until it was perfect. With an amused grin toying about his mouth, Sasuke pressed his left hand against Naruto’s lower back, urging the teen to bend over. Stopped the forceful movements of his groin before he entered Naruto, and waited with maddening patience.

The blond whimpered plaintively. All around it was an upsetting situation. He could feel Sasuke situated right behind him, pausing perfectly on the edge of that final push. Exasperated, Naruto expelled a heavy breath of air. That was another thing about Sasuke: when it came to them, they were constantly sitting on the precipice. And Naruto knew that they could very easily turn around, together, to firmer ground, but they never did. Absently, he couldn’t help but think that Sasuke liked knowing he could fall at any moment. Just one false step in the wrong direction.
With an irritating grace, the prodigy trailed his left hand up from Naruto’s lower back and settled it between his shoulder blades. The fingers splayed out against the dark blue fabric of his shirt, each digit issuing forth its own force upon his body. Pressuring him to remain precisely where he was. He gave a light thrust forward, pressing the head of his cock against Naruto’s opening.

“Dammit, Sasuke, do this or get the fuck off of me!” Naruto growled crossly, his words seeming to echo around him.
Immediately, he could feel his former teammate back away. Not far enough to warrant pulling his hand off of Naruto’s back, but just enough so that what was once evident was no longer such. The blond groaned with frustration.

“Say it,” the prodigy commanded coldly.

“Say what, jackass?”

Naruto heard the light huff of air fly from Sasuke’s lips and knew that his former teammate was smirking. Once more, he could feel the tip of Sasuke’s cock pressing against him. Harder this time. And then he was aware that the dark-haired teen was leaning over him, his stomach resting lightly over his back, and the increasing pressure of Sasuke’s hand as the weight of his body shifted, forcing his limb, and inadvertently Naruto, to bear more of him. “Say that you need this.”

But Sasuke didn’t give him the time to respond. With a quick thrust of his hips, the Uchiha heir forced himself inside. He made no other movements. Waited quietly, the heat of his breath trickling out hot against Naruto’s neck. “Say that you won’t live without me.”

There was a sharp intake of air, rushing cold against his teeth, when he began to pull his length out again. Sasuke grinned at the pleasure coursing through his figure. “Tell me that I’m your god,” he whispered with menacing affection into Naruto’s ear.

“Sasuke…”

“Say it!” As he growled, Sasuke rammed himself back inside. It was ruthless, a callous shove of power that was both painful and gratifying. Naruto jerked forward, unable to say anything. A low hiss of displeasure slithered past Sasuke’s lips. “Naruto!”
Again, the blond was overcome with the last images of Sasuke’s eyes. Black with some essence that was all together fitting with the prodigy he had come to know, and yet beneath that…something that was consuming him. Naruto was drawn out of his thoughts when Sasuke ground his hips back against his ass, sliding himself out and then forcing himself back in with uninhibited brutality.
“Naruto!”

Yet another thing about the prodigy: he didn’t let you forget about him. Always found some fucking way to make sure you thought about him, remembered him. And Naruto almost hated this. At least at this moment, he found himself bordering on pure loathing for the dark-haired boy behind him. Not because of his demands, but because he managed to make it all feel so damn good.

“You are my god, you fucking jackass…” Naruto spit out as his body trembled with the shock of pleasure.

Once said, Naruto knew it could not be taken back, and his cheeks burned a furious shade of red at the betrayal. It was humiliating in a way that he had never experienced that state of being before. There was, however, one consolation. The statement seemed to silence whatever demon was pulling the strings of Sasuke’s soul.
Behind him, the prodigy had quieted down, though Naruto could still feel the ferocity of his thoughts with every thrust of Sasuke’s hips. However, there was a more defined rhythm to his actions, growing steadily faster with every passing minute. No longer caught up in the staccato-step system of one jolting shove of flesh into flesh. Every now and then though, the blond tensed up as Sasuke pulled back, halted as some ominous thought caught his attention, and then shoved his cock back into him. Luckily for him, those moments were dying out.

Still, Naruto let the Uchiha heir do as he would. The night had been full enough as it was. Between returning from his latest mission to forcing that God-awful confession from his lips, he was exhausted with himself. Was exhausted even more with the dark-haired boy pressed against his back, becoming part of him even as he remained miles of thought-line away. It never could play out simply between them.

And there was that ever annoying fact that he liked it. Loved the way Sasuke’s breath fell in airy pulses against his skin. Needing him. Knowing him. Loved the way the teen forced acknowledgement from him, in every callous word, in every brush of their lips, in every rough jolt of his hips. Sasuke may have had the tendency to leave him bruised and broken, but never dead. And always wanting more.

With a stifled moan, lips kissing the wall before him to muffle the sound, Naruto knew the affair was at its end. It always struck him as funny – though never in the moment – how readable Sasuke could be. Even after this horrifying situation, his former teammate could not escape the subtle tell-tale signs of his on-coming release. There were the usual ones, the sharpening of his breath, the heat steaming from his skin, the tightening of his muscles, and the quickening, hardening thrusts.

But then there were the signs that spoke of Sasuke alone. His fingers would tighten on whatever flesh they happened to be gripping, but it was only the middle and index fingers that would do so. And Sasuke had an odd way of pursing his lips together lightly into a soft-‘o’ shape while he shut his eyes. Naruto found that impossibly cute, if such a word could be used to describe the boy. Made him want to run his fingers over Sasuke’s mouth, trace the shape, and then kiss it into oblivion. Only this time he couldn’t. He could only imagine that this was what Sasuke looked like as he rocked himself in and out of his body in that ever increasing rhythm.

And when he came, Sasuke made the softest of sounds. He wasn’t loud at all, and surprisingly, neither was Naruto. It didn’t surprise him that the Uchiha heir wasn’t noisy in his love-making – though this was more of an all-out fuck rather than any act of love. The sound was a quiet acknowledgement of release, somewhere between a grunt and a moan with a strong puff of air that would always rush past his ears.

Naruto knew he would have been the complete opposite. Openly voicing his delight throughout the entire act had it been within reason to do so. But that wasn’t their situation, and over time, he had learned to control the noises that filtered past his consciousness. Not that it managed to stifle them completely, for at the end, when that final spasm of pleasure spun its way through his system, he always called out the other boy's name.

There was one other thing Sasuke had always done. Shortly after finishing, he would press himself as close as possible to Naruto, sweat-slicked and satisfied. His breathing was always ragged, and there was an affectionate reluctance to withdraw himself completely from Naruto’s warmth. He would lie there, still buried to the hilt, his eyes closed. And hesitantly, he would place his lips beneath the blond’s ear, leaving them there for a few solid seconds before sliding himself out and away completely.

Tonight, though, Sasuke quickly pulled himself out of Naruto and stalked off towards the bathroom, sweat-slicked and satisfied. For a few minutes, the blond simple remained where he was, the remnants of his encounter still hot against his ass. Still bruising into his skin.

When his breath steadied itself, Naruto grabbed the edges of his pants and boxers and drew them up around his waist. However, he didn’t bother to buckle the material back into place, and instead slipped as quietly as possible into his room. There was still the residue of fear hiding amongst his thoughts, and it was making him proceed with unnecessary stealth in his own apartment. Hated the thought of disturbing Sasuke, though he doubted the teen could hear him moving over the running water of the shower.

His hands shook as he pulled the clean clothes from his dresser. Quietly, Naruto cursed at his limbs, willing them to stop through sheer will. It worked - to a point. Though steadier, they still trembled slightly as he undressed and pulled on the T-shirt and baggy pajama bottoms. He didn’t quite understand what had happened, but he knew all too well the way that look in Sasuke’s eyes made him feel.

The door to the bathroom clicked open. Hurriedly, Naruto pulled those troubling thoughts from the forefront of his mind, threw a smile over his lips. He looked up as Sasuke stepped out from behind the door, damp towel wrapped haphazardly around his waist, stabs of black hair dripping water onto his cheeks. Though he caught it only for a second, the blond knew the pink highlighting the prodigy’s cheekbones wasn’t solely from the hot water. Sasuke’s eyes told him as much.

With a deep breath to steel himself against his own train of thinking, Naruto took a few steps forward. “Do you want something to eat?” he asked, then laughed as his hand began to nervously run back and forth through his hair. “Though I only have ramen. Big surprise, huh? You hate that shit…”

“Ramen’s fine,” Sasuke murmured.

“Okay…”

Ready to escape into the kitchen, Naruto straightened himself up and began to slide past the unmoving figure of Uchiha Sasuke. It was a tight squeeze, trying to slip past the other’s body when it was standing there, looming in the doorway to his bedroom. Just as he was almost through, he felt rough hands grab his arm and pull back.

Without a word, Sasuke drew the smaller boy against him and wrapped his arms tightly around his body. Naruto could feel the heat of his breath, the wetness of his hair as the heir to the Uchiha clan settled his head against the top of his own. “Why…why did you let me do that to you?” Sasuke choked out.

Naruto had never heard someone so utterly broken by their own actions. Even at his worst, Sasuke had never apologized. There was always some reason, and even now, Naruto felt that there was something more behind this. But, when those words fell from Sasuke’s mouth, there was nothing but self-loathing and desperation filling them.

And the answer the blond wanted to give was not something he could easily say. Far different from admitting that his former teammate was his god. Naruto slowly wound his arms around Sasuke’s torso, not caring as the cooling water sent a wave of goosebumps over his entire body. Wanted, needed to have him close. “Because,” he whispered into Sasuke’s shoulder, “I was certain I would lose you if I didn’t.”