Work Text:
There was nothing Naruto loved more than the ocean first thing in the morning.
He loved the sound of the waves crashing against the shore, broken only by the distant call of seagulls, and the way the night sky slowly gave way to the pink along the horizon. The ocean was still dark when he paddled out, and the offshore wind combed the water into long, tidy lines, the waves rolling in one after the other, holding their shape perfectly.
It was a good day for it. No one else was out yet, still too early on a weekday, leaving just Naruto and the slow rise and fall of the sea beneath his surfboard. He sat up and waited, watching the horizon.
He smiled the moment he saw it thicken and lean.
“Hello there,” he whispered.
Naruto spun and started paddling, his arms burning as his heart drummed in his chest, the water pulling beneath him. There was one terrifying moment at the top, suspended and weightless, before he was up on his board and falling, flying down a wall of liquid glass.
It felt glorious. The board hummed beneath his feet, spray streaming off the nose in silver threads. The first rays of sunshine had just started pushing through the water, turning the whole wave to molten gold.
Time seemed to fade away, leaving nothing behind but light and speed. Naruto stretched out his hand, trailing his fingers along the inside of the wave and watching the water spit around them. That’s when he noticed the shadow.
It kept pace with him, a dark shape in the heart of the wave, and Naruto could clearly make out the long curve of Sasuke’s tail, deep blue streaked with splashes of red that looked even more vivid in the morning light.
When onyx eyes met his, Naruto couldn’t help but smile, especially when he noticed the way the merman’s lips twitched in response.
Sasuke rode the wave beside him like it was nothing, and for a few perfect seconds, they raced down the line together. Naruto laughed, loud and open, the sound lost to the roar of the water. Sasuke’s eyes flickered with amusement before he reached over, hooked a hand under the rail of the board, and tipped.
Naruto’s world flipped into churning white. He tumbled a few times before surfacing, spatting out a mouthful of seawater, the leash tugging at his ankle.
“Bastard!” He shouted at the water.
A few feet away, Sasuke bobbed up, a smirk on his face.
“Ten out of ten,” he announced. “Very graceful.”
“It was until you pushed me off,” Naruto said, hauling himself back onto his board, legs still dangling in the water. “You knew I was going to win.”
“Win what?” Sasuke swam closer. “It wasn’t a race.”
“But if it was—“
“I’d win,” Sasuke finished.
Naruto scoffed. “Well, you clearly have an advantage.”
Sasuke only smiled and dipped under the water, his tail trailing behind him.
Naruto never got tired of looking at it. The scales shifted between midnight blue and deep indigo as they caught the light, and the splashes of red glowed against it like embers underwater. His fins drifted behind him like silk, disappearing into the dark water for a moment before catching the light again. Naruto had seen it a hundred times, and it still took his breath away.
“You’re late, by the way,” Sasuke said once he resurfaced.
“Late?” Naruto huffed. “It’s six in the morning!”
“Oh, is it? Sorry, I must have forgotten my watch.”
Naruto rolled his eyes, but there was a smile tugging at his mouth. “I was up late studying last night.”
“Hn.”
“Cmon Sasukeee,” Naruto pouted. “Don’t be like that.”
Sasuke looked away, water dripping from his lashes, and when he spoke again his voice was quieter. “Did you bring any snacks?”
Naruto’s face split into a wide grin.
“Of course I did,” he said. “I’ll meet you in the cave?”
A small, real smile, softer than the smirk from before, appeared on Sasuke’s lips.
“Don’t take too long.”
Before Naruto could say anything else, Sasuke was already gone, nothing left behind but a ripple spreading across the water. Naruto watched the spot for another second, smiling to himself, before he finally turned his board toward shore.
[…]
The first time Sasuke took Naruto to the hidden cave, Naruto thought Sasuke was trying to kill him.
Which would be silly, given that Sasuke had already saved his life once. Why go through the trouble of drowning him when Naruto had almost done it all by himself?
But Sasuke had told him he would show him a special spot just a short swim away, and the next thing Naruto knew, he was being dragged under and through a dark slot in the reef that you’d never notice unless you were told.
Naruto swam and swam, trying to keep up with Sasuke’s pace as his lungs burned and his mind started going hazy. The tunnel was pitch black, and panic built in his chest. Sasuke noticed his struggle and pulled him along the rest of the way, up toward a bright, shimmering ceiling.
Naruto broke the surface with a gasp, hair plastered to his forehead. Sasuke surfaced beside him, completely unfazed.
“See?” He’d said. “Short.”
Short, his ass.
Naruto later learned there was another way in by land, along a path that started where the beach gave up, past all the driftwood, at a wall of rock that looked nothing out of the ordinary. But if you knew where to look, there was a slip between two leaning boulders, just big enough for Naruto to squeeze through if he held in his stomach.
He’d then follow the walls toward the distant dripping noise, until the rocks opened up around a pool. The water was a deep, startling blue, glowing against the dark stone like it was lit from underneath. A single shaft of sunlight fell through a hole in the ceiling and landed right in the middle of it.
The place had become a safe haven, somewhere they could meet away from prying eyes, where Sasuke didn’t have to hide. Over the last few months, meeting there a few times a week had become routine. They talked and showed each other bits of their worlds. Some days, Naruto still expected to wake up and realise it was all a dream.
Sasuke was waiting when he finally made it to the pool, swimming lazily.
“Took you long enough.”
“There were people around,” Naruto explained. “I wanted to make sure no one was paying attention.”
He dropped his backpack on the ledge and opened it to pull out a pack of seaweed crackers. Sasuke immediately perked up and swam to the edge. Naruto smiled as he tossed him the package.
“As promised.”
Sasuke didn’t think twice before tearing into it and eating a couple of crackers.
“I guess you’re forgiven for being late,” he mumbled.
“Aren’t you kind?” Naruto joked. “What would you like to do today?”
Sasuke pondered for a moment. “I want to watch more things on your weird mirror.”
Naruto chuckled. “It’s called a laptop.”
“Whatever,” Sasuke said, dismissing it. “No cartoons.”
“Oh, you wound me, Sasuke.”
Naruto pulled out his laptop and quickly flicked through the movies and shows he’d downloaded.
He settled on a teen movie, something silly and loud about a girl, a boy and the trials and tribulations of high school. He propped the laptop on a dry patch of the ledge, and Sasuke slid in close, folding his arms on the stone and resting his chin on them.
It had become a habit by now. Naruto had been showing Sasuke movies and shows for weeks, along with whatever else he could think of from the human world: music on his phone, videos of different places and cities lit up at night, the weird things people ate.
Sasuke was curious about all of it, but reserved. He never asked too many questions at once and always pretended he wasn’t impressed. But his eyes followed everything on the screen, and every so often he’d murmur a quiet hn at something that surprised him, like he was filing it away for later.
Naruto was supposed to be watching the movie too. But he’d seen it before, and it wasn’t even that good. Shortly after the opening scene, he’d stopped looking at the screen entirely. The glow of the laptop flickered over Sasuke’s face, and the light from the ceiling moved across his wet shoulders. His dark eyes were so focused that Naruto lost track of everything else. He watched the little crease between his eyebrows, the way his lips parted slightly when something happened that he didn’t expect.
“What are they doing?” Sasuke asked eventually, his eyebrows knitted together in confusion.
Naruto shook his head, bringing himself back to the moment, and glanced at the screen, where the protagonists were making out. “You mean the kissing?”
“I’ve seen people doing that at the beach,” Sasuke said. “Why do they do it?”
“Uh,” Naruto blinked a few times, heat crawling up his neck, “because it’s nice?”
Sasuke’s face twisted deeper in confusion. “Putting their mouths together and exchanging saliva is nice?”
“It does sound gross when you put it like that,” Naruto laughed awkwardly. “But kissing is… intimate, y’know? And your lips are sensitive, so it feels good.”
“Hn,” Sasuke narrowed his eyes. “That’s weird.”
“Don’t mermaids kiss?”
Sasuke shook his head, and it was Naruto’s turn to frown. So much for all the myths and legends about a mermaid’s kiss.
“Fair enough, I guess,” Naruto said, scratching his cheek. “But that’s what humans do when they like each other.”
Amongst other things, but Naruto didn’t really want to go there. Sasuke hummed, still unconvinced, and Naruto decided it was better to steer the conversation away from the dangerous topic.
“Well, if mermaids don’t kiss,” Naruto continued, “what do you do when you like someone?”
Sasuke shrugged. “You go swimming together. Give each other gifts.”
Naruto pressed his lips together, trying not to think about the fact that those were two things they’d been doing since they met. All Naruto did was show up with new things for Sasuke to try: food, clothes, trinkets, anything he thought Sasuke might enjoy. And in return, Sasuke constantly gave him things he’d found at the bottom of the ocean, like old gold coins Naruto was pretty sure belonged in a museum or the seashells now lining his desk back at his dorm.
They’d gone swimming together, too.
Not just in the mornings, when Sasuke chased after Naruto while he surfed, but also in isolated spots that only Sasuke knew how to reach. Parts of the sea covered in bright, colourful coral, completely untouched by humans.
Naruto would hold his breath for as long as he could, diving down to look at the fish and corals while Sasuke swam circles around him, showing off his tail.
His chest did something strange, and Naruto cleared his throat as if that would make the feeling go away. It was fine. They were friends, and that was what friends did. That was all it was. He told himself that firmly, and then tucked the thought away in the same place he’d been tucking away the warm flutter in his stomach for weeks, somewhere he didn’t have to look at it too closely. Not yet, at least.
Naruto turned his attention back to the movie, hoping the topic of kissing was over.
They settled back into their usual rhythm for the rest of the movie. Sasuke watched the screen with the same focus as before, occasionally making a face at something he didn’t understand or muttering a disappointing sound when one of the characters did something particularly stupid.
Naruto laughed at him a few times, explaining things when Sasuke asked and pretending not to notice how often his attention drifted away from the screen.
Once the credits began to scroll across the screen, Naruto reached over and closed the laptop.
“I have to go,” Naruto said hesitantly. “My shift starts in an hour or so.”
“Okay,” Sasuke replied quietly. “When will you be back?”
Naruto thought about it, going through his schedule in his head. “Maybe tomorrow?”
“Not tomorrow,” Sasuke said sternly. “There’s a storm coming. It’s dangerous.”
“Oh,” Naruto looked down at his hands.
Memories of water filling his lungs and darkness swirling at the edges of his vision crashed over him, a knot settling heavily in his chest. He’d thought that was it, until unfamiliar arms hoisted him back toward the surface, back to shore, where he woke up.
Naruto hadn’t been able to get back in the water for weeks, even though he’d shown up to the beach and sat in the sand every single day, waiting for something, anything that could explain how he’d survived.
He shook his head, pushing the memories away.
“Maybe in three days then,” he suggested instead. “I’ll be busy with uni before then.”
“School?” Sasuke tilted his head.
“Yup,” Naruto nodded. “The term is almost done, though. I’ll pick up more shifts at the cafe, but I should still have more free time to come visit.”
“Hn.”
Naruto smirked at the frown on Sasuke’s face. “Are you going to miss me?”
Sasuke swam away from the edge and flicked his tail, splashing water at Naruto.
“Hey!” Naruto protested, hunching over his things. “My laptop, bastard!”
“That’s what you get for being a moron,” Sasuke said with a shrug.
“I shouldn’t have taught you that word,” Naruto mumbled.
Sasuke’s eyes shone with amusement. “Three days,” he said.
“Three days,” Naruto agreed. “I’ll bring new snacks.”
“And more of the seaweed ones?” Sasuke asked quietly.
Naruto grinned. “And more of the seaweed ones.”
Sasuke’s lips twitched upward, and that same fluttering in Naruto’s stomach came back in full force. Sasuke was still stoic most of the time, but sometimes he gave Naruto a glimpse of his emotions, his eyes sparkling with innocent excitement or his lips twitching into a smile when he was pleased.
“I’ll see you then,” Naruto said, swinging his backpack over his shoulders as he tried to push the feeling away.
“See you, Naruto.”
Sasuke turned and swam away, his blue tail flicking above the water one more time and splashing Naruto again before he disappeared into the tunnel leading back to the ocean. The blond laughed and shook his head.
Three days.
[…]
Naruto was buzzing with excitement as the weekend finally rolled around.
He wished there was a way to stay in touch with Sasuke on the days they couldn't meet, especially with finals just around the corner. But it's not like Sasuke had a phone, or could write letters, or anything in that sense. Naruto had spent countless nights brainstorming ways to talk to Sasuke whenever uni or work got in the way, but he was yet to find a solution.
So he was determined to at least make the wait worth it. The day before, he'd gone to a specialty shop across town that sold imported goods, hoping to find new snacks Sasuke wouldn't have tried before. Naruto had learned that, unlike himself, Sasuke didn't have much of a sweet tooth, so he took it as a challenge to find something sweet that Sasuke would like just as much as the seaweed crackers.
He'd also downloaded three different movies and two seasons of a comedy show, and put together a whole new playlist. Maybe Sasuke would want to go swimming, the sky bright and clear after the storm, but if he didn't, Naruto had plans from A all the way through to Z.
He woke up as early as he reasonably could on a Saturday morning, quickly packed his things, and made his way to the beach. He’d go straight to the cave today, too excited to see Sasuke to surf first.
Naruto squeezed through the gap between the boulders, his backpack scraping against the stone, and followed the familiar path until he reached pool. Sasuke was already there, but he wasn't swimming lazily like usual, just floating near the middle, perfectly still, the light rippling across his shoulders.
"Hi," Naruto grinned, setting his backpack down.
"Hi," Sasuke said back quietly. This time, there was no teasing comment about Naruto being late or anything of the sort, which Naruto found odd. Sasuke just sank into the water until only his eyes were above the surface.
Naruto frowned, sensing something off in Sasuke's demeanour, but he tried not to read too much into it just yet.
“I brought a bunch of new snacks for you today,” he said excitedly, holding up the first package. “There's this churro chips thing? You probably don't know what churros are, hey?”
He let out a small laugh.
"It's a Spanish dessert, pretty popular everywhere. This is not the real thing of course, but I thought you might like it. But if you don't, I also brought this Australian chocolate biscuit that's meant to be really good? My roommate swears by it, and they have like a fifteen different flavours."
He gathered the packages into his arms and knelt at the edge of the pool. Sasuke swam closer, eyeing his options.
"I thought we could try a few different things," Naruto smiled. "But I did bring more seaweed crackers, before you complain."
Sasuke simply looked at him through his lashes, and the unusual quietness was starting to worry Naruto.
"Is everything okay?" he asked.
Sasuke nodded, and Naruto pressed his lips together.
“Okay…” he said, still unsure, but he knew better than to push Sasuke when he didn’t want to talk. “Well, what would you like to do today?"
Sasuke opened his mouth, but hesitated. There was a slight pink in his cheeks, and he pushed himself away from the edge. Naruto paused, puzzled. It wasn't like Sasuke to be shy. He always knew exactly what he wanted to do and had no problem asking for it.
Before Naruto could probe further, Sasuke disappeared under the water. Naruto's fingers twitched around the snacks, and he leaned over the pool, looking for him.
When Sasuke resurfaced a few seconds later, there was a new determination in his eyes.
"I want to try kissing," he said unceremoniously.
Naruto nearly dropped everything he was carrying.
"What?"
Sasuke remained unfazed. "Kissing," he repeated, as if Naruto hadn't heard him the first time. "I want to try it."
Naruto opened his mouth, completely at a loss for words. His heart had started pounding so hard he was sure Sasuke could hear it over the lapping of the water. Sasuke swam up to the edge and hauled himself onto the rocks, his tail still dangling in the pool. Naruto watched the water drip from his hair and trace its way down his chest, and his throat suddenly felt dry.
"You said people do it when they like each other," Sasuke clarified. "Don't we like each other?"
"O-of course," Naruto agreed, too quickly. His grip tightened around the snacks. "But we're friends."
Sasuke tilted his head. "Friends don't kiss?"
"Well…"
Naruto paused. He knew friends could kiss sometimes, sure, but he didn't know how to explain to Sasuke that the kind of kissing he was thinking about was normally reserved for couples, for people who were romantically involved.
But the real problem was that Naruto was pretty sure kissing Sasuke would send him into cardiac arrest. Because once it happened, there’d be no more pretending. No more lying to himself about the fact he’d had a crush on Sasuke since the day they met.
It had nothing to do with the fact that Sasuke had saved his life, either. It was that Sasuke was the most beautiful creature Naruto had ever laid eyes on, with dark eyes, pale skin, and a blue and red tail that gave way to scales along his arms and back that looked almost iridescent whenever the sunlight caught them.
And on top of that, Sasuke was smart, curious and earnest, even when he tried his hardest to hide it. He could bicker and tease all he wanted, but Naruto had seen the softness he kept underneath— the way he went quiet and careful around things he didn’t understand, how he kept the strangest human trinkets Naruto brought him and pretended he didn’t.
Sasuke seemed to have fallen straight out of a dream Naruto might have had once. Naruto had tried, he really had, but it had been impossible to stop the feeling from blooming inside his ribs, spreading a little further every day.
And now Sasuke was looking at him like it was a perfectly reasonable thing to ask, and maybe it was, to him. Maybe he didn’t fully understand what he was asking, or what a kiss meant to humans, or what it would mean to Naruto. And Naruto didn’t want to feel like he was taking advantage of that.
As the silence stretched and Naruto failed to find any words, Sasuke seemed to lose his nerve.
"We don't have to," he said quickly, hands moving to the edge to push himself back into the water.
But before he could, Naruto dropped everything to the ground and lunged forward, grabbing his wrist to stop him from moving away.
"No!" he blurted, and Sasuke looked back at him. "I mean, yes! We can— we can try kissing. If you're sure that’s what you want."
Well, Naruto had never been known for his self-control.
He swallowed the lump in his throat and slowly let go of Sasuke's wrist, his heart hammering. His eyes flickered down to Sasuke's lips, and he wet his own without thinking. They could do this.
Naruto had never said no to anything Sasuke wanted to do before, and he wasn't about to start now. And besides, he might never get this chance again. If this was the only opportunity he'd have to kiss Sasuke, he might as well take it.
"I'm sure," Sasuke said.
"Okay."
"Okay?"
"Yeah,” Naruto nodded. “Let's do it."
"Alright. How does it work?"
Sasuke looked at him expectantly, and Naruto's eyes went wide. "Oh, you want to do it now?"
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Is that an issue?"
"No, not at all," Naruto's voice came out high-pitched, and he cleared his throat, trying to stay cool. "We can totally kiss now."
"You're being weird," Sasuke narrowed his eyes.
A breathless laugh escaped him. Naruto was being weird? This whole situation was fucking weird.
"I'm not being weird," he said, trying to sound confident. "Okay, let's do this."
He pushed all the snacks that had fallen between them away from the edge before sitting next to Sasuke, his legs now in the pool by Sasuke's tail.
"So what do we do?" Sasuke asked, sounding a little nervous himself.
"Well, you'll need to close your eyes first."
"Why?"
"Because you can't kiss someone with your eyes open," Naruto explained. "That's weird."
"But—"
"Cmon, don't you trust me?" Naruto asked quietly.
Sasuke paused, a blush spreading across his face. He looked like he still wanted to argue, but ultimately decided to do as he was asked and closed his eyes.
Naruto stared at him, his hands suddenly shaky and his heart lodged somewhere in his throat. He was about to kiss Sasuke.
Which was fine. Totally cool. Sasuke wanted to kiss him. It was his idea. They weren't doing anything wrong.
Should Naruto touch him? God, he wanted to. He wanted to brush his fingers over Sasuke's cheek, down his neck, trace his collarbone before moving his hand to the back of his neck and pulling him closer. But maybe that would be too much.
Naruto closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to gather all of his courage to do this.
But he made the mistake of peeking just before committing, and seeing Sasuke in front of him, eyes closed and face expectant, made Naruto lose his nerve.
They shouldn't be doing this, not when Sasuke didn’t even understand what it meant. But he’d had already said yes. Not wanting to go back on his word, he leaned forward and quickly pressed their lips together in a barely-there peck before pulling away, his cheeks burning.
"There you go."
Sasuke opened his eyes, frowning. "That's it?"
"Well, that— that was a kiss," Naruto choked out, trying to keep himself calm.
"It wasn't like the one in the movie," Sasuke argued.
"Well, you see, in the movie—"
"Naruto," Sasuke cut him off. "Are you scared?"
Naruto scoffed. The nerve of the bastard.
"I'm not scared. Why would I be scared?"
"Prove it, then," Sasuke challenged. “Kiss me properly.”
Naruto exhaled shakily, trying to ignore the way something was doing loops in his stomach.
Okay, fine.
He could give Sasuke a proper kiss. He could totally, platonically kiss the merman he had a crush on. For science, you know.
Naruto ran his hands nervously up and down his sides, trying to calm himself down. What was his life?
"Okay," he whispered. "Okay, yeah."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow, looking skeptical. "You seem nervous."
"Shut up!" The blush spread all the way down to his neck. "Just close your eyes again."
Sasuke huffed, but obeyed. This time, Naruto brought his hand up and tucked a loose strand of Sasuke's dark hair behind his ear, his fingers lingering for just a second before his hand travelled down to the nape of Sasuke's neck. He noticed the way goosebumps broke across the merman's skin and brushed it off, telling himself it was just the cold air in the cave.
Naruto leaned in hesitantly, brushing his lips against Sasuke's experimentally before pressing them together for real this time. It felt as if the air stopped around them, and time with it.
Sasuke's lips were softer than Naruto had expected, and cool from the water at first, faintly salty, but they warmed quickly against his own. Naruto kept it slow, letting Sasuke get used to the feeling, and with every careful press he felt the tension in him ease a little more.
Sasuke let out a soft sound, and it gave Naruto the courage he needed. He kissed him more firmly, tugging gently at his bottom lip before letting go, kissing him deliberately now. But Sasuke stayed mostly still, and Naruto could feel the tension radiating off him.
He pulled back just an inch. "Try to mirror what I'm doing," he whispered. "Move your lips against mine."
Sasuke nodded slightly, and Naruto dove back in gently. This time, Sasuke hesitantly tried to match his movements. It was clumsy, and honestly a little awkward. Their noses bumped, and Naruto almost laughed, but then Sasuke tilted his head and tried again, tugging lightly at Naruto's bottom lip before kissing the corner of his mouth.
It felt surreal, the pressure of Sasuke's lips, how soft they were, finally being able to touch his skin. Sasuke's hand crept up from the rock to rest against Naruto's chest, fingers curling into his t-shirt like he needed something to hold on to.
Naruto's heart stuttered. He had imagined kissing Sasuke before, probably more times than he cared to admit, but he'd never imagined it would actually feel like this.
When Naruto tilted his head at a better angle, Sasuke followed, chasing the movement before he could think better of it, and the small, surprised hum he made went straight through him. Naruto's thumb brushed against Sasuke's cheek, and Sasuke leaned into it without thinking.
That tiny movement nearly ruined Naruto. He kissed him again, slower this time, giving Sasuke time to follow. Their lips moved together more naturally now, and Naruto felt himself relax into it. The nervous flutter in his stomach had turned into something warmer, spreading through his chest until he wasn't thinking about anything else.
Naruto lost himself in it. The feeling of Sasuke under his hands, the little sounds he was making, the way he kept leaning in for more as though he'd forgotten he was supposed to be unimpressed, how his fingers curled tighter against his t-shirt. Naruto wondered what Sasuke tasted like—
"Ow!" Naruto pulled back, wincing in pain. "What was that for?!"
Sasuke flushed a deep crimson, looking at him helplessly. "You— you tried putting your tongue in my mouth!"
"Yes! We were kissing!"
"You didn't tell me it involved tongue!" Sasuke replied, exasperated.
Which, fair. Sasuke hadn't even known what kissing was until a few days ago. Naruto shouldn't have expected him to know about French kissing.
"You didn't have to bite me," Naruto mumbled, pouting.
He made a movement to pull back, but Sasuke's hand tightened on his t-shirt, holding him in place.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I didn't mean to hurt you."
Naruto's gaze softened. "It's okay," he said, giving him a small smile. "I'm sorry too. I should have warned you."
Sasuke bit his bottom lip, hesitant for a second. "Can we try again?"
Naruto didn't even get the chance to answer before Sasuke was already leaning in, eyes fluttering shut, and Naruto's brain gave up on the idea of saying no.
"Okay," he breathed against his mouth. "Yeah. We can try again."
This time, Naruto kept his tongue to himself, and Sasuke was the one who moved first, a little clumsy but determined, pressing forward like he had something to prove. Naruto huffed a quiet laugh into the kiss, and he felt Sasuke's lips curve in response.
"Don't laugh at me," Sasuke muttered.
"I'm not, I swear,” Naruto cupped his jaw, thumb brushing the sharp line of his cheekbone. "You're just really cute when—”
"Shut up," Sasuke said, and kissed him again to make sure he did.
Sasuke was a quick learner. Naruto should have expected it, considering the way he picked up everything else, but it still caught him off guard how fast the clumsiness melted away. Within minutes, Sasuke was tilting his head at just the right angle, catching Naruto's bottom lip between his own, mirroring every little thing Naruto did and then doing it back with intent.
Every time Naruto thought he'd found his rhythm, Sasuke changed it, and Naruto could only hang on and follow. The hand on his chest slid up to his shoulder, then to the back of his neck, and Naruto shivered when cool fingers curled into his hair.
"Is this okay?" Sasuke asked, barely pulling away.
“Yeah,” Naruto said, a little hoarse. “More than okay.”
Sasuke smiled, and kissed him again.
Somewhere along the way, the kisses stopped being careful. They grew longer, deeper, with soft sounds swallowed between them and the occasional wet click of lips parting. Naruto's hand slid from Sasuke's jaw down to his waist, where skin turned to scales, smooth and cool under his palm, and Sasuke made a sound he'd never made before, low and a little breathless, that went straight down Naruto's spine.
Naruto pulled back just far enough to breathe, his forehead resting against Sasuke’s. “Hey,” he murmured. “Can I try something? Don’t bite me this time.”
Sasuke’s eyes flicked open, dazed and dark. “That depends on what it is.”
“The thing from before. Slowly. You can stop me whenever you want.”
Sasuke considered him for a moment, his thumb moving absently against the back of Naruto’s neck. Then he gave a small nod. “Okay.”
Naruto kissed him again, soft and slow, until Sasuke’s lips parted slightly. Only then did he sweep his tongue across Sasuke’s bottom lip, a barely-there touch, and felt Sasuke go still against him.
He waited. If Sasuke pulled away, that was fine. It would be more than fine.
But Sasuke didn’t pull away. Instead, he made a small, uncertain sound and tilted his head, opening to him, and Naruto’s pulse roared in his ears. He deepened the kiss carefully, tentatively, like he was testing the waters. Sasuke’s fingers tightened in his hair, and then, so hesitantly it nearly undid Naruto, Sasuke’s tongue touched his own.
It was a little too careful, as if Sasuke was determined not to hurt him a second time. But he was curious, and he followed Naruto’s lead the way he always did with new things, and soon the uncertainty began to melt into something warmer and far less careful.
Naruto had been wondering what Sasuke tasted like, and now he knew— like salt and something cool and sweet underneath, something that he couldn’t quite place. He chased it, eager to find out, and Sasuke let him, leaning back on his elbows on the rock, pulling Naruto along with him until Naruto was half over him, one knee on the stone, his legs no longer in the water at all.
The cave was dripping and echoing around them, but all Naruto could hear was Sasuke's quickening breaths. All he could feel was Sasuke's fingers tightening in his hair as if he never wanted him to stop. It was too good. It was too much. His head felt full of static, and a hungry, desperate warmth was coiling low in his stomach, the same one he'd been trying to ignore for months.
Which was how he realised, with a horrifying lurch, that he was getting very, very hard.
Naruto jerked back so fast he nearly fell over.
"Naruto?" Sasuke blinked up at him, lips kiss-swollen, hair wrecked, eyes dark and a little dazed. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing!" Naruto's voice cracked down the middle. "Nothing's wrong! I just— I need—"
His eyes darted around the cave in a frantic search for a solution. Hide it. Fix it. Maybe die. The pool glittered invitingly at his feet.
"I need to cool off!" he blurted.
And, with no further explanation, he threw himself into the water, fully clothed.
The cold water hit him like a slap. He sank, bubbles streaming from his mouth, and for a few seconds, everything was quiet. Then he kicked back to the surface and clung to the edge of the pool, keeping his lower half firmly beneath the water, his face burning hotter than ever before.
Sasuke sat up, his tail swishing in the water next to him, brows knitted with concern. "Did I hurt you again?"
"No! No, you didn't—" Naruto groaned and dropped his forehead against the stone. "You were great. That was great. It's just that humans get a little, uh. Excited. Sometimes. And it's, you know, a whole thing. A human body thing.”
"Excited," Sasuke repeated slowly.
"Please don't ask,” Naruto pleaded.
Sasuke paused, and Naruto could feel Sasuke's gaze on him, curious and far too perceptive. “Is it because of me?"
Naruto made a small, strangled noise and sank down until the water reached his nose.
This was it. This was how he died. Not in the middle of the ocean during a storm, but in a cave, drowning in his own humiliation while the most beautiful person he'd ever met watched him do it. His clothes were soaked. His phone was in his pocket, probably ruined. And his crush on Sasuke, which he'd been hiding for months, was now sitting out in the open in the most obvious way possible.
He was so fucking hopeless. Completely, embarrassingly hopeless.
Naruto closed his eyes, trying to calm himself down and lower his erratic heartbeat. He could fix this. Probably. People got through worse. Humans had survived plagues and wars, so Naruto could survive a very visible erection in front of a merman.
And Sasuke wasn’t laughing, or teasing him. He was just sitting there, waiting for an answer Naruto couldn’t give yet, not with his head still spinning and his lips still tingling. If he opened his mouth right now, it would all come pouring out, months of it, and he wasn’t ready.
He wanted Sasuke to know, but not like this, not as a panicked confession from a soaking wet idiot.
So they needed to move on. Right now, before he did something stupid like saying it.
"So!" Naruto said, a little too loudly, hauling himself out of the water and dripping all over the stone. He kept his back to Sasuke as he twisted the hem of his t-shirt. "Movie. We should watch a movie. I downloaded three."
There was a long pause behind him.
“A movie?”
"Or the comedy show! There's two whole seasons. Whatever you want."
Sasuke watched him for a long moment, and Naruto felt his gaze between his shoulder blades. He braced for the questions, for the is it because of me to come back around.
Instead, Sasuke only nodded.
"Fine," he said, sliding back into the water, “but no singing involved."
Naruto let out a breath he didn’t realise he was holding. "Deal."
He didn't turn around until he was sure his face had gone back to its usual colour. When he finally did, Sasuke was resting his chin on his folded arms at the edge of the pool, waiting.
Naruto crouched by his backpack and fished out the laptop. He set it on the dry ledge and pulled up the one of the movies, the action one, which he was pretty sure did not have any kissing scenes, and pressed play.
Sasuke was watching the laptop with great interest and not at all watching Naruto, which was a mercy. Naruto sat there, shoulders stiff, waiting for the teasing to start, and it never did. But he caught the corner of Sasuke’s mouth twitching, just once, and knew exactly what he was doing.
He was letting him off the hook.
Sasuke did it like it was no big deal, with no joshing comments. Naruto’s chest went tight and warm all at once, and he turned back to the screen before his face could give him away.
They ended up watching the full movie and then the first two episodes of the comedy show, Naruto sitting cross-legged on the ledge in his damp shorts, peeling the fabric of his t-shirt away from his skin every now and then.
At some point, they did start going through the snacks, since Naruto wouldn’t stop nagging Sasuke about it. Sasuke eyed the churro chips with deep suspicion, sniffed one, and bit it in half. He chewed in silence for a long moment.
"Well?" Naruto asked.
"It's sweet."
"Yeah, that's kind of the point."
"Hn,” Sasuke took another one. Then another one. "It's not terrible."
Naruto grinned. "Is that your way of saying you love it?"
"It's my way of saying it's not terrible."
He finished half the bag anyway while watching the screen, and shoved the chocolate biscuits aside with a disapproving frown after one bite. Naruto didn’t complain, given it meant more for him anyway.
Somewhere in the middle of the second episode, Sasuke frowned at the screen.
“What’s a group chat?” He asked. “And why are they all so afraid of it?”
“Oh, man,” Naruto straightened up, “okay, so you have all these people in one chat, right? One wrong message sent to the wrong person, and your entire week is ruined. Everyone sees it. There’s no taking it back,” he gestured at the laptop, a little too fired up about the subject, before pausing. “Actually, you can take it back now but sometimes it’s too late. People screenshot things, Sasuke.”
Sasuke stared at him, then back at the screen, where a character was frantically trying to leave a chat and failing. “Humans are strange,” he concluded.
Naruto chuckled. “You have no idea.”
“I’m starting to.”
Sasuke wasn’t up for a third episode, so they talked about nothing in particular after that. Whether fish could get seasick (Sasuke said that was a stupid question, and then admitted he'd never thought about it), about how Naruto’s roommate kept leaving his light on until three in the morning, how the storm had churned up so much sand that half the reef looked different now.
It was easy. So easy that, after a couple of hours, Naruto felt the knot in his chest loosen. Maybe they really could move past this and never speak of the kissing or Naruto’s reaction to it ever again.
Naruto’s clothes had mostly dried by the time he checked his watch and sighed.
"I should get going," he said, closing the laptop. "I've got a couple of projects to work on.”
"Hn."
"I'll come back tomorrow, though,” Naruto stuffed the laptop into his backpack, followed by the empty snack packets, then, after a moment of hesitation, the unopened chocolate biscuits. Sasuke clearly wasn't going to eat them. "If that’s okay. I'll bring more of the churro things."
“Okay.”
Naruto zipped up his bag and slung it over his shoulder.
“Well, I'll see you then.”
Sasuke didn’t say anything, so Naruto simply nodded and started walking away, his chest tight. He had only taken a few steps toward the cave entrance when Sasuke's voice stopped him.
“Naruto.”
He looked back. Sasuke hadn't moved from the edge of the pool, but he was watching him now, dark eyes unreadable.
"Come here for a second."
Naruto blinked. “What for?”
"Please."
Please. Sasuke almost never said please.
Naruto walked back toward the pool instantly, stopping just a couple of feet away. “What is it?"
"Closer."
"Sasuke—“
Sasuke disappeared beneath the surface in a flash of blue and red. A few bubbles rose, the ripples spreading out and settling.
Naruto frowned and crouched, leaning over the edge to look for him. "Sasuke?"
When there was no response, he leaned over further, trying to see through the dark blue water.
“Hello?”
Suddenly, Sasuke shot out of the water.
Naruto barely had time to react before Sasuke launched out of it in one smooth motion, hands braced against the stone on either side of Naruto's knees so he could press his lips against Naruto's.
It was nothing like the kisses from before. There was no teaching or testing in it. It was quick and certain, a little clumsy from the angle, with water running down Sasuke's face and dripping onto Naruto's chin.
Naruto's backpack slid off his shoulder and hit the ground with a thump.
He didn't care. He kissed him back, one hand finding Sasuke's cheek, thumb brushing away a drop of water, and he felt Sasuke let out a breath against his mouth that sounded a lot like relief.
When they finally parted, it was only by a few inches. Sasuke's lashes were wet and spiked, his cheeks flushed.
Neither of them said anything. Naruto's heart was beating so loudly he was certain the whole ocean could hear it. His face slowly broke into a grin.
“You…”
Sasuke raised an eyebrow.
“You just—“
"Don't ruin it,” Sasuke said.
"I wasn't going to!"
The corner of Sasuke's mouth twitched. “See you tomorrow.”
Naruto laughed a little breathlessly. “Yeah,” he stood, adjusting his backpack over this shoulder. “See you tomorrow.”
This time, when Naruto walked away, his chest felt lighter.
They’d talk about it eventually, he knew. About what it meant, and what else mermaids did when they liked someone, and what humans did when they’d had a crush on someone for months and been too much of a coward to say it. There were a hundred things to figure out, and Naruto didn’t even know where to start.
But all that mattered to him right now was that Sasuke had come back for a second kiss. Naruto didn’t dare put a name to what that meant, not yet, but for the first time in months the thought of it didn’t make him feel terrified, like he was standing on the edge of something completely alone.
Naruto’s lips still tingled with the memory of Sasuke’s mouth against his, setting off a warm feeling in his chest that spread all the way down to his toes. He pressed his fingers to his mouth as he walked, like he could keep the feeling there.
By the time he stepped out of the cave, he couldn’t stop smiling.
Tomorrow suddenly couldn’t come fast enough.