Work Text:
Naruto is going to kill Kiba. Murder even, in a fit of embarrassment.
“I hate you so much,” Naruto whines. “You can’t even believe it.” He’s sure the red Valentine’s day decorations hanging from the ceiling match the shade on his cheeks. They dangle precariously low from the ceiling of their homeroom class, brushing the top of his head if he sat up too straight. Naruto had offered to grab a ladder and hang them higher, but the girls on the holiday committee insisted the proximity was part of the ‘mood,’ of which he didn’t question once they promised to bake him cookies in consolation. “I can’t do that right now.”
“Why, too scared? It’s not much of a dare there, Na-ru-to, it’s more or less just a kick in your ass to finally tell the guy how you feel, good god,” Kiba laughs. He’s been laughing for the past hour. Naruto’s uncomfortableness is an easy pastime for Kiba, like sports or a game of CoD.
“It’s Valentine’s Day. This would be the WORST day for a love confession. Plus,” Naruto looks around conspiratorially, finding absolutely no one and nothing looking at them. “I don’t know if he’s gay.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Yes?”
“Didn’t you see the thing?” Kiba cackles.
“What thing?”
“A video of the game last week,” Kiba pulls his phone out and waves it around a little bit, trying to get Naruto to wrangle it out of his grasp. It works.
Naruto presses play. He immediately wishes he hadn’t.
It’s a video of the end of the Konoha high VS Suna soccer match last week. Naruto remembers it very vividly: the heat, the smell of mud and grass, the exhaustion of his muscles and the hoarseness of his voice. The stadium had wavered between cheers of support to exclamations of sheer rage, its pitch only matched by the shrill nagging of their coach. Konoha won, just barely. The score was 3-3, with a penalty shot that everything had hinged on- the entire stadium had waited with bated breath. Nationals depended on this. Naruto remembers watching with bated breath, sweat dripping past his headband directly into his burning eyeballs, but he couldn’t look away, would not look away. Sasuke had to make this shot.
He did, of course.
On Kiba’s filthy finger-print covered cracked phone screen, Naruto watches himself run to Sasuke, pick him up. Watches, disembodied, as Sasuke in the video- clad in white and blue and covered in mud, wrapped his legs easily around his waist as Naruto tackled them to the ground, watches Sasuke’s legs not release him. Watches himself bring his forehead against Sasuke’s, smashing their headbands together as they cradled each other's faces in their hands. Naruto remembers crying tears of happiness. They were going to Nationals. He remembers vividly the sound of Sasuke laughing. It was a sound he had never heard before, deep and musical, and the sound had exhilarated him more than the sweet taste of victory. But he doesn’t exactly remember doing all of…that.
Time froze in that little dirty phone screen, before the rest of the team dogpiled on top of them in victory, a screaming, churning, excitable mess.
“This is the gayest shit I’ve ever seen,” Naruto whispers, unaware he had been holding his breath. He feels his soul slowly escaping in the long exhale out his nose. “Oh my god. Dude.”
Kiba is howling with laughter next to him. “I know dude. It gets better every time I see it.”
“Every time you see it? You never told me! Who took this?”
“Shikamaru I think. Too good not to pass up.”
“And you never told me? That’s not cool!”
Kiba shrugs. “Eh, don’t get so worked up, we needed the ammunition to get you to realize that you’re both crazy about each other. So like, you don’t need to be a bitch about confessing to Sasuke. Obviously he did not object to all that.”
“I don’t know. He must have also just been caught up in…the moment,” Naruto says aloud, mostly for his own benefit. His eyes scan over Sasuke's desk, which is positively heaping with Valentine's day gifts of all sorts of shapes and sizes: small, handwritten notes in pink and white paper, store bought cheeky cards with celebrities or mascots on them, little bundled packages of candy wrapped with smart little bows.
Sasuke is, like most school days, ignoring him and yet simultaneously shooting him a passive aggressive side eye whenever their eyes meet. His short sleeve white button down shirt is crisp and tucked in, and the first three buttons at his clavicle are open, exposing a wide glimpse of pale throat and sharp collarbones, the sight miserably tantalizing. Naruto scowls. A small group of girls surround him from their class and others, each patiently waiting for her turn to present a little gift, to offer a tiny package of care and love and a winning smile. He can see him nodding as he accepts the presents, but Naruto knows him well enough to tell that he’s not really listening. Mechanically, he sets them down on his desk without inspection.
Naruto tears his eyes away. “Lot’s of sports dudes do gay shit in the uh… heat of the moment.”
Kiba kicked his chair hard. “Whatever. Dare still stands. Tell him how you feel today, or I’ll tell everyone your words are shit and you’ll owe us all dinner at Coco’s. Twice.”
Naruto does not have enough money to take himself to Coco’s once. Fuck.
“I really don’t know what to SAY, though.”
Kiba yawned widely, two lopsided canines sticking straight out. “Sure ya do. Just say you wanna kiss him or something. I dunno.”
Naruto considers Sakura’s turned back, her pink hair fanned out prettily across the back of her jaunty navy sailor collar. That should be okay, Naruto reasons to himself. A safe option. Sasuke’s probably good at kissing. Maybe he’s kissed loads of girls. Maybe he would just laugh at him and walk away. Maybe he would think he’s just joking. That wouldn't be the worst thing- to get his friends to shut up and at least get it all out in the open, right?
“Fine,” Naruto says, fishing a crumpled piece of scratch paper from the fathoms of his desk. He writes KISS ME in the neatest handwriting he can muster, before stuffing it deep into his pocket to dive into shark infested waters.
Naruto kicks the side of Sasuke’s desk hard enough to rattle the top layer of presents loose. They clatter to the floor to the horrified gasps of his admirers. Sasuke doesn’t pick them up. He does, however, look up at him with all of the warmth of a glacier suddenly struck by the titanic.
Sakura huffs and turns around with a scowl. “Naruto! What is wrong with you?”
“What do you want?” Sasuke asks, but it doesn’t sound like a question.
“Hey yo, Captain, meet me after school,” Naruto commands with as much cheery authority as he can summon. His sweating fingers twitch.
“Why would I do that, captain?”
“I have to talk to you about something.”
“What is it?”
Naruto has not anticipated questions. He had almost FEEL Kiba’s smug smirk boring into the back of his skull. “Um. We have to discuss our upcoming game. I don’t want to talk about it in front of everyone else.”
Sasuke’s eyes don’t leave his. Naruto can feel the heat rise back on his cheeks. “Where.”
“The gym.”
“Naruto, are you DONE? God you’re being so weird right now,” Sakura admonishes. “Are you okay? You look kinda crazy right now.”
“Sorry Sakura-chan!” Naruto gives her a sheepish smile as he steps backwards towards his desk. “Just tired. I’m done, I’m done I promise.”
The remaining four hours of the school day tick by agonizingly slow.
At 5 pm, Naruto begins his descent to the gym. Students have mostly filtered out of the halls, their voices in the courtyard fading out with the shadows of the early springtime sun. He hauls his bag over his shoulder. ‘It’s okay,’ he tells himself. ‘If my feelings for Sasuke were so evident even the most dense and crass of my friends can notice, then what really am I afraid of? What do I have to lose?’
Sasuke is waiting for him just inside the door. His back is turned.
“What are you doing here, pretty boy?” Naruto tosses out. He tried to lean nonchalantly against a chair and its aluminum legs squealed murderously on their way across the hardwood. He winces.
Sasuke’s eyes narrow as he turns around. “Are you looking for a fight?”
He coughs awkwardly, swallowing a foot sized lump. “Not right now. Yeah sorry, heh I uh…I was just trying to be funny I guess.”
“I can’t remember the last time you were.”
“Yeah yeah I know, big idiot over here,” Naruto hums, settling against the wall next to him. “You’re here late too? Don’t you have plans or anything? V-day or otherwise?”
Sasuke shrugs. “No. And I don’t really have reasons to go home.”
Naruto understands. It’s hard living alone with no family. They haven’t talked about it much in detail, but from what he has gleamed- him and Sasuke weren’t so different after all.
“I don’t really have shit to talk about regarding the team or the game or anything.”
Sasuke looks pleased at the honest admission. Naruto smiles in spite of himself. “I know. You’re a shit liar.”
“I just wanted to see you.”
“You wanted to see me,” Sasuke repeats. The afternoon breeze from the open windows feels good. The gym seems much larger like this: devoid of people and voices, just the bare curved edges of chairs and smooth wood finishes. “Why?’
“Yeah I had uh.. I guess, something to give you…” Naruto fumbles through the words. He produces a crumbled wad of notepaper. “I know it’s Valentine’s day and everything, and you’ve gotten a shit ton of stuff from like a billion people, but I was dared to just give you this today anyway.” He extends his hand.
Sasuke snatches it.
Sasuke furrows his brow as he reads. Nartuo resists the urge to slide his index finger in between the little crease. “This just says ‘kiss me’.”
Naruto swallows a big mouthful of spit. “Uh, yeah. That was uh, part of the I guess, dare.”
“A dare? As in, a joke?”
Naruto’s eyes went wide and round with fear. “No no no! Like, dared to do it because I wanted to do it, not because someone was making me pretend to do it to force me or something.”
“So you do or don’t want to kiss me?” Sasuke asks, and the line between his eyes gets deeper.
“I do,” Naruto emphasizes. “I do, and I have wanted to for.. A very long time.”
“Why?”
Naruto can hear his heartbeat thumping deep in his chest. He clears his throat. “Because I really like you.”
The look in Sasuke’s eyes is hesitant. He’s no stranger to love confessions, Naruto is sure, but the vulnerability on his face is startling, and very attractive.
“Yeah,” Naruto says softly. “I always have, since the moment I met you. Shit, I guess that’s years ago now, right?”
“You’ve liked me for years?”
Naruto presses it. “I really have, no lie. Do you like me too?”
“Yes,” Sasuke whispers. “For years too.”
Naruto lets his school bag slide to the floor. He hasn’t realized he’s been carrying it. This is too easy. If he hadn't been so excited, he would be suspicious. “That’s why I want to kiss you.”
“I thought you were going to kiss me already. When you know,” Sasuke trails off, staring poignantly at the polished floor. “After the game.”
“In front of everyone?” Naruto pretends to be scandalized, but he can’t help the happiness flowing through him. He has anticipated rejection. ‘Sasuke likes me,’ Naruto thinks elatedly. “It’s not that I didn’t want to. I would have, if I was confident you wouldn't slug me in the mouth or something. It was all such a blur.”
“I wouldn't have.”
Naruto reaches for Sasuke’s hand, tugging him gently to sit on the floor. Their knees touch on the floor floor as they sit face to face. “I wish I had known that then, shit,” Naruto chuckles. “Although maybe I wouldn’t have remembered. Kisses are supposed to be special.”
“I’ve never kissed anyone,” Sasuke admits.
“What?”
“You heard me,” he reiterates, and the edges of his ears are red. “I don’t mind trying it with you. If you really meant it.”
Naruto kissed two girls before. One when he was nine and they were playing truth or dare, and the other was at a house party sophomore year, after one wine cooler and winning a limbo dance that made his head spin. He didn’t remember her name, and this was much different anyway. He desperately wants to be good at this, to show Sasuke his admiration and affection as best he can.
“I can hardly believe that. You’re so popular. Everyone likes you.”
“Well, I don’t like them.”
“Lucky me then,” says Naruto, hesitantly reaching out with both hands. Sasuke swallows heavily, Adam's apple bobbing, but does not stop him. He sits, very still, as Naruto cradles his face in his hands.
Touching Sasuke with romantic intention is nothing like the grainy video. Up close, his face has dimensions he’s never noticed before: faint veins shadowing under his eyes, a tiny faded scar on the crest of his left cheekbone. He runs revenant fingers down the curves of his cheeks, runs the pad of his thumb across slightly parted lips. Sasuke’s eyes are closed and breath shallow.
“Hey, look at me,” he says, and Sasuke does. His eyes are a lot lighter up close, a deep shade of gray that reflects in the gym's warm overhead lights. It’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen in his 17 years of life.
Sasuke grips his forearms hesitantly.
“Tilt your head a little bit.”
“Okay,” he says, and he complies.
Infinity stretches between them, until Naruto finally musters the final push of courage to press his lips gently against Sasuke’s, sealing their mouths together. He pulls back slowly. “Was that okay?”
Sasuke’s cheeks are a faint shade of pink. His grip on Naruto’s wrists becomes tight. “Do that again.”
He does it, only parting his own lips this time. Hesitantly, he slips a tongue into Sasuke’s mouth, moving it slowly until he feels one against his own. Naruto groans quietly into Sasuke’s open mouth, so willing and sweet, and pulls his face closer, burying his fingers into thick black hair.
The soft moan Sasuke emits is positively divine. He decides he wants to hear it again, and again, for the rest of his life. It’s the hottest thing he’s ever heard. This is the hottest thing he’s ever done. Naruto couldn’t believe his luck.
Naruto’s ears are ringing as he reluctantly pulls away. Sasuke is breathing heavily. “Do it again.”
They could be making out for eternity or five minutes, Naruto has no idea. By the time they pull away again, their mouths are wet and a thin trail of saliva is leaking from the corner of Sasuke’s mouth. Impulsively, Naruto licks it away.
Sasuke moans again at that.
Warmth spreads through Naruto’s body like wildfire. Inspired, he pushes a handful of hair away from Sasuke’s face to kiss his jaw and cheek too.
Sasuke pulls on his hair, a motion that spreads the heat deeper across Naruto’s body, sharp enough to burn. “Ahh. Don’t stop.”
Naruto drags himself away long enough to grin wolfishly into those beautiful eyes. “I won’t,” he promises, and latches onto the exposed neck that’s been tormenting him for the past three years. He has to make Sasuke pay for that.
The response is immediate. Sasuke turns his head as he pulls them both to the floor, his legs falling apart without resistance. Naruto settles between them, bracing himself up by his elbows as he sucks experimentally at the juncture of his neck and shoulder. Sasuke’s nails dug into the meat of his back, the sensation electric. Naruto bites him gently in retaliation.
“Hey you two.”
They scramble apart as if electrocuted. Naruto’s knee bangs hard as he struggles to get up. Sasuke doesn’t fare any better.
Shikamaru is standing there, holding a basketball on one hip and an expression so bored it is as if he's used to watching this scene for the last one thousand years.
“I figured this is what y’all do after practice. The entire team was taking bets on it, actually.”
“Bets? Naruto chokes. His ears are burning. Sasuke’s straightening his shirt and staring defiantly back.
“Why do you think I took that video?”
Sasuke looks sharply between them. “What video?”
“The one of you two practically doing it at the end of the game,” replies Shikamaru with a smirk. “It was pretty obvious.”
“So?”
“So, nothing,” says Shikamaru, already walking away. He waves his hand as he does so. “But go find a room or something. You’ll give one of the girls a heart attack. Plus it’s late.”
Naruto turns to Sasuke and laughs. “Taking bets? I’m going to kill those guys.”
Sasuke is already retrieving his bag off the floor. “He’s right though. We should leave.”
“Yeah, yeah, okay,” says Naruto, but he sees the faint smile tugging at Sasuke’s lips. He grabs his bag and follows Sasuke out of the gym. They must have been there a long time; it’s already dusk outside, and the air is much cooler. He tugs on his jacket. Sasuke doesn’t.
“Aren’t you cold?”
“Not really,” Sasuke replies, and Naruto stares pointedly at the hickey on his neck as they walk.
“You might want to cover that up.”
Sasuke shot him a dirty look as he buttoned his shirt collar to the neck, a sight Naruto doubts anyone has seen before. Naruto laughs, offering his hand. Surprisingly, Sasuke takes it.
Naruto tugs him closer to his side, whispering conspiratorially. “Hey hey, can we do that again?”
“If you want to.”
Naruto isn’t insane. Of course he wants to. He’s absolutely certain it’s the only thing he will want for the next hundred years. “YES I do.”
Sasuke squeezes his hand before releasing it. “Fine. But in private next time.”
Naruto wrestles down the excitement that came with the insinuation. If they are uninterrupted- who knows what could happen? How far could they go? He can’t wait to find out.
“Yeah, next time, and the next time, and the next-”
“Shut up,” Sasuke interrupts, and he’s smiling. “Don’t make me regret it.”
“I would never.”