[Firelight dances over them, though Naruto remains largely enveloped within the pocket of deep, grasping shadow cast by his friend’s figure. He doesn’t mind. There’s a space for him here, he thinks—if only Sasuke would let him stay. He’s reminded of his offer to room together in the Netherworld, and the brunet’s careful refusal. “It wouldn’t be a good idea,” Sasuke had said, gaze avoidant.
So what? thinks Naruto.]
I’ve been called lotsa stuff. “Weird” doesn’t bother me. Not when it’s with you.
[Despite everything that’s happened between them, Sasuke still doesn’t understand. No, that isn’t quite right. Despite everything that’s happened between them, Sasuke is still so afraid—afraid to believe that he doesn’t need to be alone anymore, to believe that the strength of their bond is ineffable, that Naruto will always be there for him. Even now in this foreign dimension, Sasuke continues to hold him at arm’s length. Some of it stems from wary self-preservation. Some of it stems from a heavy sense of guilt. Knowing this, Naruto told his best friend that overcast day on the shoreline he would wait. Wait until Sasuke was ready to believe. But the prospect of standing idly by until then while the young man suffers in silence is intolerable.]
No one else gets to decide what’s weird for us. Just you and me. And me? I say this is fine. Better than fine. It’s good. I feel good. [Blue eyes slide upward toward a pale profile, searching.] You’re allowed to feel good too, Sasuke. The future we’re working on…it’s not just for everybody else, ya know. You’re included. [Something dark—soft like velvet, forbidden yet honest—steals into the timber of his dry voice.] If you aren’t? I don’t want it.
[And Naruto burrows his face into Sasuke’s shoulder, breathing in the sharp musk of electrified metal and dusky smoke that belongs purely to his friend. It settles a voracious hunger inside him, one that he barely recognizes as human. But it doesn’t scare Naruto. How could anything he feels toward Sasuke scare him? Regardless of how undefined or amorphous or “weird” those feelings may be—Naruto accepts them without question. Where Sasuke is concerned, nothing is unnatural.]
no subject
[Firelight dances over them, though Naruto remains largely enveloped within the pocket of deep, grasping shadow cast by his friend’s figure. He doesn’t mind. There’s a space for him here, he thinks—if only Sasuke would let him stay. He’s reminded of his offer to room together in the Netherworld, and the brunet’s careful refusal. “It wouldn’t be a good idea,” Sasuke had said, gaze avoidant.
So what? thinks Naruto.]
I’ve been called lotsa stuff. “Weird” doesn’t bother me. Not when it’s with you.
[Despite everything that’s happened between them, Sasuke still doesn’t understand. No, that isn’t quite right. Despite everything that’s happened between them, Sasuke is still so afraid—afraid to believe that he doesn’t need to be alone anymore, to believe that the strength of their bond is ineffable, that Naruto will always be there for him. Even now in this foreign dimension, Sasuke continues to hold him at arm’s length. Some of it stems from wary self-preservation. Some of it stems from a heavy sense of guilt. Knowing this, Naruto told his best friend that overcast day on the shoreline he would wait. Wait until Sasuke was ready to believe. But the prospect of standing idly by until then while the young man suffers in silence is intolerable.]
No one else gets to decide what’s weird for us. Just you and me. And me? I say this is fine. Better than fine. It’s good. I feel good. [Blue eyes slide upward toward a pale profile, searching.] You’re allowed to feel good too, Sasuke. The future we’re working on…it’s not just for everybody else, ya know. You’re included. [Something dark—soft like velvet, forbidden yet honest—steals into the timber of his dry voice.] If you aren’t? I don’t want it.
[And Naruto burrows his face into Sasuke’s shoulder, breathing in the sharp musk of electrified metal and dusky smoke that belongs purely to his friend. It settles a voracious hunger inside him, one that he barely recognizes as human. But it doesn’t scare Naruto. How could anything he feels toward Sasuke scare him? Regardless of how undefined or amorphous or “weird” those feelings may be—Naruto accepts them without question. Where Sasuke is concerned, nothing is unnatural.]