Archive of Our Own

A pencil, left behind on a wooden table.

Sasuke supposed that was where it had started.

He couldn't help but stare at it, the wooden grain, its chipped point. Yellow paint, useless pink eraser- the same as any other pencil in the world.

Earlier, Naruto had gotten up from his desk, his shoulder holding his phone to his ear as his hands had balanced a coffee mug and stacks of papers all at once.

Even earlier than that, Naruto's fingers had been wrapped around that pencil, fingertips pressed against that unassuming yellow paint, golden brows drawn together as he'd noted down whatever the medical records person was yapping about on that damn phone.

“Be right back,” Naruto had called over his shoulder as he'd stepped out of the emergency room, white coat still slung over the back of the charting PC chair.

Sakura had come in then, the shadows beneath her eyes a deep purple, fingers pale over a cup of some expensive indie iced coffee.

“Doctor Haruno,’ Sasuke said, jerking his chin over his shoulder, gaze never leaving the pencil. “Trauma patient just came in, blood pressure 60/40. I already started a fast drip. He's in resus.”

“Trauma? 60/40?’ Sakura had said, pausing in her steps. “Fucking kidding me… I literally just got here…”

“Nurse,’ the mother of one of the patients said, walking up to Sasuke's desk. “My son's IV has blood in it.”

“I'll be right there,” Sasuke said, giving the woman a forced smile. The mother was of a pediatric patient, and her cheeks had turned pink in an instant when Naruto had walked in. Pink cheeks, pupils blown as she'd explained how her son had been vomiting for the past three days.

She hadn't even noticed the tight way Naruto had said “Three days? And you only brought him in now?”

Sasuke had forced his face to remain as stoic as it always was as he rushed to jot down the orders Naruto had then proceeded to list out in his usual, rapid fire manner.

“You better actually write those down in the chart, Doctor Uzumaki,’ Sasuke said, feeling his lips pulling back into a smirk of their own accord as Naruto's cheeks had burned red, and the sound of his teeth gritting cut through the patient's gagging. “This institution doesn't approve of advance orders.”

“I'll write it,” Naruto had muttered.

Now, Naruto's pencil was burning in his scrub pocket as he fixed the child's IV line.

It was just a pencil.

People lost pens and pencils in the hospital all the time. The hospital was known as a place pens and pencils disappeared into the void.

Yet, later that night, he found himself laying in his room, staring up at where it rested in a cup on the bedside table.

Just a pencil.

After the pencil, there was the orange jacket left behind on the charting PC chair, left behind as if the chair was owned by one doctor on the unit and wasn't used by everyone, from doctors, to nurses, to interns, and passing phlebotomists.

Naruto had asked everyone in the ER if they'd seen it, scratching the back of his head. Sasuke had shook his head, and told him that as a doctor, he should be better at keeping track of his things.

Naruto cussed at him, and Sasuke his smirk behind his face mask, and twisted its loops behind his ears for good measure.

The orange jacket sat folded at the bottom of Sasuke's locker, the scent of sweat and hospital clinging to polyester.

Curled up in his bed, the soreness of a night shift at the ER settling into his bones, the duffel bag sitting by the door loomed larger than life itself. The bag’s blue material looked so innocent, its layers not showing even a hint of the stolen jacket hidden within.

Sasuke wasn't sure how this thing had begun, exactly.

Even if he were to track each and every memory he had of Naruto, he wouldn't have been able to pinpoint it.

Had it started back in high school, when they'd beaten each other bloody over who got to captain the football team?

Had it started when Itachi had sat them down, his stare so disappointed that both he and Naruto had fallen silent in an instant?

Or maybe it was in med school, when Naruto had whispered to him, away from where anyone could hear, that Sasuke didn't have to be a doctor if he didn't want to be one.

Konoha was small. It was inevitable they'd end up working at the same hospital- Konoha Provincial had over twice the salary for residents and nurses than the city's other hospitals, of which there were only two- and Naruto was in his second year of residency.

It was inevitable that a second year pediatrics resident would be assigned to the ER, and Konoha General was constantly understaffed, so it was inevitable that Sasuke would get floated out of his beautiful ICU to the absolute cesspit that the ER was.

In med school, Sasuke had looked up from his tear-streaked iPad and had felt the spark of something when he'd taken in the blue of Naruto's eyes. Not the start of a feeling, no- more the spark of realization of something that had simmered between them since they were children.

The spark had turned into burning when Naruto and Sakura had graduated, and he'd seen Naruto in his white coat for the first time. He'd been grinning, his profile handsome in the dim light of the bar, their cocktails already spilled across the table’s surface.

Sasuke had started working as a nurse in Konoha General after that, and had seen glimpses of Naruto in their intern years. Sasuke had never left the ICU in those days, and even with Naruto working in the same institution, it felt like they were in different cities. His world had been focused in on the steady five-note beeps of ventilators and the endless suctioning of traches.

Then Naruto had started residency, and all of a sudden their schedules were aligning, as if by magic. Naruto had started his first year, and Sasuke had found himself floated to NICU, their usual banter lowered to whispered, teasing exchanges.

Then Naruto had entered his second year, and Sasuke had been floated to the ER- and, unfortunately, Sasuke had found himself stuck there. Starting IV after IV, arguing with patients and their families over vaccines.

At least in the ER, he and Naruto actually got to talk, even if it was an endless endorsement of toddlers having diarrhea, kids vomiting, older children having both diarrhea and vomiting, and the occasional rash.

“Ooh,’ he heard Naruto say, leaning back in his seat at the Peds desk. “Stat cesarean section. Ob’s expedited it. Hey, Hinata, isn't it my turn to catch the babies this week?”

Sasuke felt his fingers tightened around his pen, and the cheap plastic began to creak in protest beneath his fingers.

Just keep charting, he reminded himself.

Doctor Hyuuga’s cheeks turned pink, and there was a starry-eyed look in her eyes as she looked up from her phone.

Their seats were too close. Sure, they had to manage to fit the seats of two residents at one tiny Peds desk, but her seat was still too close. Their arms brushed as Hinata typed a response on her phone, smiling all the while.

“Sure,’ she said, her screen turning black. “I'll handle things over here.”

“Doctor Haruno, I'll go pass these OR slips,” Sasuke said, grabbing the slips Sakura had just filled out right from under her pen. Sakura didn't look up as her pen began to write by itself against the plastic of the table. She didn't seem to notice that there was no longer paper underneath her hand.

“You don't have to do that,’ she said, not looking up. “I can just get one of the interns to do it.”

“Nah, I'll go,” Sasuke said, and fell into step right behind Naruto's retreating form.

“Sasuke?” Naruto asked as the security guards shut the ER doors behind them. “You’re heading to the OR?”

Sasuke held up the three OR slips and waved them, Sakura’s handwriting escaping the borders of each little box. “OR slips for Sakura’s DTOR.”

“Is that DTOR for that guy who got stabbed?’ Naruto asked as they jogged up the stairs. “Damn, what did he do?”

“According to the interns, his girlfriend’s husband found out about him,” Sasuke said, shrugging. Naruto shook his head, chuckling under his breath.

There was that too- that Doctor persona Naruto retreated behind at work, the one that made his voice deeper, and made him speak with an authority that was nothing like the Naruto he’d grown up with.

It was only when they were grabbing new face masks at the entrance of the OR complex that Sasuke had a realization.

Naruto had to catch babies from cesarean sections all the time- and, like everyone else in the hospital who had to go in and out of the OR, he always left behind a bag of extra scrubs and OR shoes in the dressing room.

If Sasuke played his cards right, he could-

No.

How had he gotten from a pencil to this?

In the dressing room, he pulled his scrub top over his head, pulling off the turtleneck he wore underneath right along with it. The air conditioning had his skin twitching the moment it was exposed, and his hiss must have been too loud, as he caught Naruto’s eyes in the mirror.

Naruto was already redressed in his OR scrubs, scrub cap tied on in that way that made his features lose any softness they might have had.

“What are you looking at, loser?” Sasuke muttered as he started pulling his OR scrubs on.

“Jeez, you always take so long getting dressed,” Naruto chuckled, and then his fingers were helping to pull down Sasuke’s top over his head.

Sasuke couldn’t look at the mirror, not with the way his skin tingled at the brief brush of Naruto’s knuckles against his skin, and the way his fingers smoothed out the hem.

Later, when he’d finished endorsing his patients and handed them over to Ino for the night shift, he made a small detour to the OR complex.

There was no one in the dressing room. It was only too easy to open Naruto’s orange backpack, pull out the used set of scrubs, stuff them in his bag, and walk away.

Naruto had packed an extra scrub set. He would be fine.

Even later, when he’d shoved Naruto’s jacket into the back of his closet, he pressed his forehead into his pillow and wondered what the hell he was doing.

In his hands was Naruto’s wadded up scrub top. He buried his nose into the fabric, took a deep breath, and let Naruto’s scent wash over him.

So lost was he in this that he failed to notice the camera that had been placed on the bookshelf, hidden behind rows of books, its red light covered by a small section of electric tape.

—-

“Doctor Uzumaki?” someone was asking.

Naruto’s eyes were fixed on Sasuke- his dark hair, the elegant shape of his eyelids as they lowered to read a chart, the shape of his fingers where the held his pen. In the ER’s harsh lighting, his mouth cast a shadow over his chin, and even that shadow was beautiful.

Was it really so wrong that in the chaos and exhaustion of his routine, he’d want to unwind by looking at something pretty?

“Yes, Moegi?” Naruto said to the intern hovering by the peds desk, her face screwed up in clear nervousness.

“We have a new patient,’ Moegi was saying, her voice trembling where they held the new patient’s triage sheet. “Akira, aged seven, female. She noted the onset of abdominal pain in the umbilical region-”

Naruto tuned her out, his mind already writing the order sheet as his eyes found Sasuke’s form again.

Sasuke was wearing his scrubs tucked in today. It highlighted the shape of his waist, just slender enough that if Naruto tried, he could probably cover the span of it with his fingers alone.

“...patient’s parents gave her a dose of loperamide, which alleviated the loose bowel movement for only three hours before it resumed again-”

“What was the abdominal pain like?’ Naruto asked. Sasuke bent over the table in lieu of lowering himself into his seat, the curve of his bottom making his gaze darken for a brief moment. “Sharp, cramping, burning?”

“Uh, cramping, doctor-”

“What color was her poop?”

“Uh,’ Moegi swallowed, her eyes glancing down at the triage sheet. “Light brown.”

“Anyone else in the family having the same symptoms?”

Moegi shook her head.

“Okay,’ Naruto said, taking the triage sheet out of her hand. He pulled out a order sheet and stapled them together, his eyes still fixed on Sasuke. “Write this down. Admit to OU…”

“Admit to OU…” Moegi repeated, her pen a blue over the order sheet.

“Diet as tolerated,’ Naruto continued, crossing his arms over his chest. Sasuke had straightened, and was reaching for a pair of clean gloves, the latex snapping over his skin. “Do you know how to calculate how much fluids we should be giving her? What’s her weight?”

“Um, fifteen kilos-”

“Okay, calculate her hydration rate. You said she had sunken eyelids and has been having diarrhea for three days, right?”

“Y-yes, Doctor Uzumaki. So we should g-give lactated ringer’s right?”

Naruto nodded. Sasuke was filling a syringe now, his dark eyes focusing as he pushed up the plunger.

There was always something about the way Sasuke did that that always made a shiver go through him.

He walked Moegi through what labs and imaging to order, what antiemetics to give, and almost placed his stamp and signature on a random part of the sheet before he realized what he was doing.

Ten patients came in during the first two hours of his shift. Hinata looked near the end of her rope, her stamp clacking away at the order sheet. Naruto had his ear stuck to the ER phone, and it was halfway through an argument with radiology that he caught sight of Sasuke holding a stack of charts to his chest.

The charts fell on the table with a dull thud, and then Sasuke’s pen was a blur over the charts, the shadows beneath his eyes stark over his lily-white skin.

Like a lotus that face was, whether snarling or smiling.

Shameful as it was, Naruto had found a way to unwind. He knew for a fact that Sasuke had not.

In fact, Naruto knew better than anyone. It was him, after all, who had taken advantage of Sasuke’s schedule to drive over to his apartment, use the copy he’d made of Sasuke’s copy, and had planted the tiny camera he’d purchased online into the bookshelf.

He’d even adjusted it until it gave him a perfect, focused view of where Sasuke curled up every night, blankets drawn tight around him, the soft sounds of his breathing never quite making it to the microphone.

Every night, he curled up in that bed after dropping his duffel bag on the floor, disappeared into the bathroom for twenty minutes, before emerging with miles of pale skin still damp from the shower exposed to Naruto’s gaze.

The shape of his waist and curve of his back was always lovely, the fine details of that beautiful skin lost in the grain of the camera. Naruto would watch as Sasuke would rub the towel over his hair, and then on the colder days turn on a blowdryer to warm his chilled skin.

Curled up in his bed, Sasuke's image on the screen of his phone never failed to make his muscles loosen.

Sasuke always overworked himself. Before this whole thing started, Naruto had already known that there was little Sasuke cared to do outside of work other than sleep and play the occasional video game.

The reality of it was sobering. Every end of shift, Sasuke did the exact same routine: toss his dirty scrubs to the floor, shower, and then toss the dirty scrubs in a basket. Then he'd either scroll on his phone for half an hour before passing out, or he'd play some game on his PC for an hour before passing out.

Work, sleep, doom scroll. No wonder Sasuke was the way he was- he was exhausted.

It only made Naruto's body itch to care for him.

Sure, Naruto had no room to talk, not with the way he himself ate ramen more often than what was good for kidneys, or with how he survived each shift with cups of over-sweetened iced coffee.

Naruto took note of what Sasuke brought for lunch each day, and whether his shifts allowed him to even eat said lunch.
Sasuke always brought the same meal: rice, vegetables, maybe a small protein portion to the side. Sasuke was always cooking the same things that he could meal prep at some point in the week and toss in the fridge. No variety. No fun.

More often than not, that bland, over-healthy meal went untouched.

There was a brief lull seven hours into his shift where every patient was in either radiology or laboratory limbo. It was during those lulls that Naruto would pretend to stare into the Peds PC, click his pen until Sakura glared at him from the General Surgery desk, and think about what he was going to do about Sasuke.

His obsession had toed past the point of no return the moment he'd bought that tiny camera. Naruto knew this, and he accepted it.

But his skin still itched for more from him. There was so much more Naruto craved that Sasuke couldn't give.

His undivided attention. The weight of that annoying as hell focus that had been born out of Sasuke's goddamned ego. His warmth by Naruto's side.

When Naruto closed his eyes, he saw it- Sasuke's eyes, soft with want. It should have been something too difficult to picture, but there was a thrill in conjuring up the image of it himself. How Sasuke's brows would relax, how his mouth would lose that tension it always held.

It was beautiful enough to imagine it. Naruto wondered how much more awe-inspiring it would be to see it in the flesh- if Sasuke was capable of such an expression, that was.

And if Sasuke would throw that expression at Naruto.

Beautiful. That was what Sasuke was.

There hadn't been a single moment growing up that Naruto could take his eyes off him. Not when he'd sworn he hated him. Not when they'd been in high school, brawling over who got to kick the ball into the goalie net. Not in college, when Naruto had seethed with jealousy over just how easily academics seemed to come to Sasuke, over the girls that hung all over him, their goddamn claws brushing against his petal-like skin.

This was a natural escalation, he supposed.

Sakura had warned him, once. In med school, she'd slammed her iPad down and snapped at him for always yapping about Sasuke.

Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke, Naruto, that's all you think about!

Sakura also always bemoaned that Naruto didn't listen to her more. Maybe she was right.

But for the meantime, it was so nice to curl up in bed and connect to the camera feed, and watch Sasuke come home.

In the grain of the camera, he watched Sasuke throw down his duffle bag. He watched as Sasuke's form turned into nothing but a sliver of pale skin as he moved out of the camera's bounds to rummage in his closet. Pale hands brought out a pair of shorts, and a weathered t-shirt that Sasuke liked to sleep in.

Sasuke tossed the clothes on the bed, and then his back turned still.

He turned around, and Naruto's heart stopped for a moment as his eyes met the camera lens, but then moved right past it.

Then Sasuke was rummaging through the closet again, and when he stepped back, in his hands-

Scrubs. Orange, a larger size than what Sasuke wore.

Then, the damning embroidery on the back:
PEDIATRICS.

Naruto could only watch as Sasuke closed his eyes and buried his nose into the orange scrubs, clutching it to his chest like a child wouldna stuffed animal.

For a few moments, Naruto didn't register anything but the sound of his own ears ringing.

Then, he heard himself whisper.

“Oh, sweetheart.”

—

It was rare that Sasuke was actually able to sit down and eat at the hospital, let alone with Naruto and Sakura in tow.

In fact, it was an occasion so rare that Sasuke had to look down at his hand and wonder if he hadn't been nicked by the propofol Dr. Nara had prepared earlier.

The ER had air-conditioning that was freezing enough to become a paradox, an incarnation of hell created from cold.

But the hospital's dingy, over-expensive cafeteria was the opposite. Sasuke had broken into a sweat just stepping into the doors, and as Naruto and Sakura all but ripped off their white coats, he wondered if some board member had decided to buy himself a yacht with the budget that should've gone into insulation.

“Ugh,’ Sakura said, making a face as they took in their options. “I can feel the hepatitis already.”

Sasuke sympathised. The hair sticking out of the spaghetti was the first thing he'd seen when they'd approached the counter.

“I'll have instant ramen,” Naruto said, shrugging.

“You know what, yeah, me too,” Sakura said, shaking her head.

“Two plain ramens, one spicy please!” Naruto chirped at the man behind the counter, who looked up from his magazine with a bored expression.

“You like spicy food now?” Sasuke asked, feeling himself smirk. “Careful. You've still got ten hours left in your shift. We wouldn't want a code brown, would we?”

“It's for you, asshole,’ Naruto grumbled. “You like spicy shit. That's what I get from trying to be a good friend.”

Sasuke snorted, but when their instant ramen was being served to them a few minutes later, it was him who finished his bowl first.

Was Naruto smirking behind his noodles? Idiot. Smirks didn't look good on him.

The thought was formed around his own tickling nape and dry mouth, the heat of the ramen seasoning still burning along the corners of his mouth.

Sasuke started dragging his spoon across the surface of the red broth.

Naruto was looking right at him. Eyes a clear blue in the fluorescent lighting, the same soppy smile on Naruto's face as the one Naruto had when he started talking about Ichiraku ramen.

“Is there something on my face?” Sasuke asked. His fingers tightened around the spoon, and he took a slow, deliberate sip of broth.

“Hmm,’ Naruto's lips pressed together, as if focusing very hard. “Just the spicy ramen you keep pretending you don't like.”

Sasuke scoffed, and set down the spoon. It landed in the bowl with a soft clink.

“Take a picture if you really want to keep staring like an idiot.”

Naruto's smile turned into a grin. “Are you daring me, Sasuke? I just might, you know.”

Some time later, Naruto was muttering something about wanting to buy an iced coffee. Sakura had gotten up at some point, her fingers flying over her phone to reply to whatever insanity had gone on in the gen surg side of the ER.

And Sasuke?

Sasuke was staring at the cup Naruto had left behind.

Cheap plastic, bits of crushed ice bobbing around in the soda Naruto had ordered. Just plain, translucent plastic, wetness gathered at its bottom, and the half-circle where the condensation broke at the rim, the same half circle Naruto's mouth had been.

His hand moved by itself.

It closed around the cup, wetness and cold tingling along beneath his fingers, and then Sasuke's mouth was closing around the same spot on the glass where Naruto sipped from.

Naruto's back was to the table, his attention on the bored cafeteria worker. Sakura was standing two tables away, eyes fixed on her phone.

Sasuke's lips popped off the rim.

If Sasuke sucked the plastic hard enough, he would almost be able to taste him.

—

The sight of Sasuke's face buried in Naruto's scrubs was burned into his memory.

Med school had been one of the most stressful- and traumatizing- experiences of Naruto's life. Weekends had his classmates turning to alcohol and pot to skim off the edge of intense expectations and novel-length textbook chapters they'd been expected to have memorized within days.

Naruto had never understood the pot, in all honesty. A good high, a loosening of the muscles. He hadn't felt the urge to take another hit.

He understood now, what made people crave after that first hit.

Naruto had watched it all in the blurred reflection of the glass cover of the cafeteria’s counter, Sasuke picking up his glass, finding the spot Naruto had drunk from, and the way his eyes had closed in pleasure.

Then, when Naruto had turned, there it was. Now that he knew what to look for, it was so obvious.

The tops of Sasuke's cheeks were dusted pink. Blooming like a rose petal, his mouth like a rose itself as Sasuke's white teeth had dragged over his lower lip.

Like a long, wet drag of opium.

It was the image of those pink-dusted cheeks that had Naruto shoving his key into the ignition later that night.

The sky, black above the street lamps, swallowed him in its ink. The dark sky, the dim orange streetlamps- all guiding his every movement, his breath.

It was too easy to park outside of Sasuke's place. Too easy to throw his hoodie up and bend his head so that his hair and face wouldn't be seen.

Easier still to shove the copy he'd made of Sasuke's house key into the door knob.

The lock opened with a click.

At first, there was only silent.

He'd been let into this particular house several times, had seen all the configurations the furniture had taken over the years.

Naruto knew which door led to the bedroom, which turn to make to the kitchen, and new that when he stepped out of the short hallway at the entrance and turned right, he'd come face to face with the sofa.

The door shut, the click snapping back into place with a soft sound. Sasuke's work shoes were in the shelf, nice and neat.

The entrance lamp was still on. Naruto gave its chain a soft tug, and the hallway turned dark.

There was only the sound of his own breath as he made his way to the living room. He turned the corner, and came face to face with the sofa.

The sofa, which held a pale figure with dark hair, cheek pillowed on an embroidered cushion.

Sasuke was laying on his side, an arm tucked under the throw pillow. His eyelashes cast long shadows over his cheeks, and the petals of his lips were parted, soft breaths leaving them.

He was laying in that way that made Sasuke's hip jut out, and in the darkness, the curve of Sasuke's waist was all he could see. The dip of it, the wrinkling of the white pajama top he wore gathering, revealing a sliver of the pale skin of his stomach.

Naruto's hands were moving before he could stop them.

The line of Sasuke's nose had been wrinkled by the press of the pillow, and a few strands of dark hair had fallen over his cheek, plastering over the parted lips.

The lips were a pale pink, plush enough to make Naruto's teeth itch to bite, and the space between them was more tempting than any ramen.

The tip of his finger had found its way to Sasuke's chin. After a moment's consideration, he pressed it between his lips.

Heat and moisture enveloped it at once, the lush lips curving over his finger.

The sharp edge of teeth dragged over his fingertip. He moved it, and felt the slick slide of the inside of Sasuke's lips passing over his knuckles.

Hot and sharp and soft all at once. It was impossible not to imagine opening those soft lips even further, the drool leaking out of the corners as Naruto pressed his cock between them.

Would Sasuke's eyes redden? Would he choke on it, and would those dark eyes fill with tears, looking up at Naruto full of accusation?

If Sasuke remained here, he'd wake up with an aching neck.

A soft sound left Sasuke's lips as Naruto worked a hand under his head and another below his knees. Sasuke was lighter than he looked, his head flopping to cuddle into Naruto's chest as he was picked up.

Really, Sasuke was too cute. How was it that Naruto was the only one who saw how adorable he truly was?

He placed Sasuke on the bed, taking care to adjust the pillow to cushion his neck, and pulled the covers over his shoulders. Sasuke let out another soft sound as he burrowed himself into the warmth, his face turning even slacker.

In the darkness of the bedroom, Sasuke's features were even softer.

It made his chest warm to see him like this with his own eyes, and not from the distant view of the camera.

With a final stroke of Sasuke's hair, Naruto stood, and took a glance around the room.

The bookshelf that faced the bed had a soft layer of dust over the books. The Sasuke he'd known all his life would have never let that happen, but that was before he'd been floated to the ER.

The PC was top of the line, more fitting for the corner of a NASA building than something for Sasuke to run the Sims 4 on for multiple hours a day. The mouse pad was black like the rest of the desk, and Sasuke had taken care to place the mouse right in its center. It would have been anal if it wasn't so adorable.

The closet and the hamper were neat, too. Sasuke's FIGS collection was in full display on the hangers, all his non-work clothes folded to the side. There wasn't really anywhere to put a camera there, so that was a no go.

He turned the door knob to the bathroom as gently as he could, and used his phone light to take a look around him.

A mirror that took up half the wall. The toilet, pristine and white, with a little cactus sitting in a pot on top of it. Cute.

A shelf above the toilet, holding three rolls of toilet paper, and above the shelf…

Naruto smiled. Perfect.

—--

Sasuke was not someone prone to jumping to conclusions.

In all honesty, when he woke up that morning to enjoy his rare day off, his first though wasn’t someone was in my house, nor was it someone’s watching me. It was more like: huh, that’s weird.

He wasn’t sure what it was that gave him that feeling. He sat in the kitchen, listening to the hiss of the coffee maker, and wondered what it was that had him so on edge.

Sasuke had slept well. He’d slept so deeply he’d actually woken up well rested for once, and wasn’t imagining arguments in his head where he finally snapped and started stabbing all the internal medicine attendings.

He moved into the living room, coffee in hand, and it was when he saw the mess of the throw pillows on the couch that he realized what felt so off: he had fallen asleep in the living room last night, hadn’t he?

As he stepped closer to the cough, taking in the grey wall of its upholstery, the proof stared at him right in the face: his phone was still on the coffee table.

Had he been so tired that he’d moved himself to bed and just didn’t remember? It was certainly possible.

With a sigh, he shook his head, grabbed his phone from the coffee table, and spent the rest of his morning doomscrolling.

The feeling didn’t go away the next few days. There was something off at his house, and figuring out what it was was beginning to make his head hurt.

In the meantime, he had a job to do, endless patients, and an endless number of doctors to receive orders from.

“Fully dilated?” came Naruto’s voice.

Sasuke’s hands stilled as he pulled back the syringe’s plunger. After a moment, he continued.

“Twenty-two weeks?’ Naruto was saying into the phone. His voice had lowered, his brows drawn together. “Fuck- Konan, those babies aren't viable. Did you explain it to the mother?”

Naruto’s fingers were drumming on the desk, his eyes far away. Off to the side, Hinata was writing orders on a chart, her eyes glancing at Naruto in between strokes of her pen.

“...I can’t intubate twenty-two weekers,’ Naruto said, his fingers coming up to rub between his brows. His voice had gone both high and tight all at once. “There’s no lungs to support. The babies won’t even have nostrils. Fuck. Okay, I’ll be there. Is the mother in the delivery room yet? BOW ruptured? …okay, I’ll be there in a few.”

Naruto put down the phone, screen down, and rubbed his eyes with both hands.

“Twenty-two weeks?” Hinata asked, her lips pulled back into a wince. Naruto nodded, grabbed his stethoscope off the back of the chair, and stood.

Sasuke bent his head, and re-capped his syringe.

Naruto was always tense after cases like that. He’d always go silent for a bit, eyes far away as he sipped at his coffee, his fingers never ceasing their clicking of his pen.

If he could only…

Sasuke wasn’t sure what it was he wanted to do for him. Asking Naruto to go out for ramen was too transparent, and Naruto was on a twenty-four hour duty that day, so baiting him into a League session was out of the question.

The airtag, nestled into the bottom of Sasuke’s duffel bag, burned even through layers of fabric and distance.

That was all Sasuke could do, wasn’t it? Just watch out for him, and make sure that idiot didn’t get into anything crazy during the drive home.

It was terrifying how easy it was to tape the airtag to the underside of Naruto’s car. It was even more terrifying how easy it was to make himself bend, slap the tape over it, and then walk away as if nothing had happened.

Later that night, the feeling returned.

Something was off. He sat up in his bed, blanket gathered around his hips, and looked around his bedroom.

Was someone watching him?
A look out the window proved that theory wrong. His room didn’t exactly have many spots for an intruder to hide in, either.

Everything was the same as it always had been. His PC, his rug, his bathroom door hanging ajar, and his bookshelf.

…his clean bookshelf.

Sasuke stood, frowning.

He hadn’t wiped down the shelf in a while. He’d been meaning to get around to it, hadn’t he? But he’d been exhausted lately, and most days it took all of his energy just to wash his plate after he was done with it. A simple wipe down of his shelf had been out of the question, even if the gathering dust was starting to make him feel antsy.

But there his shelf was, with not a speck of dust in sight.

Sasuke dragged a fingertip over the wood, and turned it over. Clean.

The back of his neck tingled.

Somehow, he still couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched.

—--

“Sasuke,’ Neji was saying from the Internal Medicine desk. Next to him, Sasuke was standing with his hand on his hip, his lips pursed together. His stethoscope was slung over one shoulder, the little Littman logo glaring against his black scrub pocket. “Has Mr. Hayashi’s blood pressure gone up at all?”

Sasuke shook his head. There was already purple shadows beneath his eyes, shadows Naruto wanted nothing more than to drag his thumbs over and wipe away.

“Still unappreciated,’ Sasuke said. “Want me to titrate the norepi up to ten cc?”

Neji winced, his pale finger tapping against the chart.

“...make it fifteen.”

Sasuke shrugged. “You got it.”

Sasuke walked away, and Naruto’s gaze followed the pale, elegant fingers as they pressed against the buttons of Mr. Hayashi’s infusion pump, its soft beeps disappearing among all the rest in the ER.

When Sasuke sat back down at his desk, Naruto grabbed the empty seat next to him.

“Wanna join the group order?’ Naruto asked, grinning as he waved his phone right at Sasuke’s impassive face. “We’re all getting iced coffee.”

Sasuke just grunted.

“Come on, I’ll treat you. Black, unsweetened, hot, right?”

Sasuke’s lips twitched. “Extra large, if you’re paying for it.”

His nape was pale, the skin almost translucent over bone as Sasuke bent his head over his chart. His pen made soft scratches into paper, and Naruto kept the corner of his eye on him as he tapped away at his phone to confirm their orders.

“Do you still do that hacking thing?” Naruto asked, and Sasuke’s pen stilled.

“Just because I figured you would be stupid enough to make your username ramen1010,’ Sasuke said, his voice even. “And your password your birthday doesn’t make me a hacker.”

“Nah, you totally do,’ Naruto said, grinning as he shoved his elbow into Sasuke’s waist. Sasuke, damn him, was able to jerk away just in time. “You got all the new wifi passwords back in college without breaking a sweat. Besides, Shisui told me he taught you some stuff on the down-low.”

“What’s the point of this conversation, Dr. Uzumaki?” Sasuke asked, raising his brows.

Fuck. It was so hot when Sasuke called him Doctor.

“I was just thinking, someone out there has definitely just got the Stranger Things secret ending on their hard drive-”

The pen almost fell out of Sasuke’s hand.

“Are you kidding me-’ Sasuke closed his eyes, and started shaking his head. “I need to do some actual work, Dr. Uzumaki. There’s no secret Stranger Things ending. You idiot.”

“But Sas-”

“Goodbye, Dr. Uzumaki.”

“Come on, Sas,’ Naruto was grinning as Sasuke turned his back to him. “You think it's possible? Like, do you think you could hack into one of the exec’s phones? You'd totally do it.”

Unable to help himself, he reached down and dragged his knuckles over the curve of Sasuke's spine. Sasuke's grip tightened around his pen.
“The only phone I'd hack into is yours,’ Sasuke said. “And I'll use your passwords to transfer money into my accounts as compensation for this conversation.”

Naruto started laughing then. Sasuke turned away, and as he did, and Naruto trailed his fingers over his waist.
“Alright, I better go earn more money for that transfer,” Naruto said.

Sasuke's cheeks were red.

Cute.

He was really so cute.

When Sasuke had turned back to his charting, Naruto slid off into the men's bathroom, locked himself inside a stall, and pulled out his burner iPhone.

After a moment, the airtag app glowed green, and showed Naruto the exact address of the airtag he'd found under his bumper- right there in the hospital parking lot.

Airtags now, huh?

His Sasuke was falling into the same trap Naruto was.

If Naruto didn't do something, they'd just dance around together in this strange game of theirs.

Sasuke didn't even know he'd been caught.

Naruto smiled to himself, pocketed his phone, and stepped out of the bathroom. His hand found the copy of Sasuke's house key in his pocket, and as he dragged his fingertip over the jagged edge, the memory of Sasuke's breathing returned to him, soft with slumber.

—-

The feeling of being watched was getting worse.

Sasuke, for the life of him, could not figure out why.

The feeling would pass over him in bed, where he would be doom scrolling instead of getting rest. The feeling would return when, on his day off, he booted up the Sims, and the feeling would be so intense he actually got up from his chair and looked around the room.

There was just something off.

The bookshelf loomed, mysterious in its cleanliness. The books were the same. The small cactus on the third shelf was the same.

A glance out the window, and then another one under his bed revealed no hiding intruders.

He stood in front of the coffee machine, the kitchen dim around him, and wondered just what the hell it was making his hair stand on end.

He wasn't someone who jumped to conclusions. Jumping to conclusions was about the worst thing someone in their field could do- Itachi had told him that over and over when Sasuke had been starting out as an RN.

Horses, Itachi said. Never zebras.

But his teeth itched, and his gut rolled.

There was no explanation for it.

Then again, he hadn't remembered getting up from the couch the other night and moving to bed.

There was no way that he had wiped down his bookshelf at the same time, right?

Sasuke had always been many things, but someone who cleaned in his sleep sounded like something Sakura or Itachi would do.

Then again, his shifts at the ER had been exhausting him to the point he'd neglected the bookshelf in the first place. If he could neglect it from exhaustion, it stood to reason he could have also cleaned it in his exhaustion.

His mind was going in circles, and he knew it.

Perhaps the feeling wasn't that of being watched. Perhaps it was dread, and the smidge of guilt that hadn't left him since he'd taped that airtag under Naruto's bumper.

A quick glance at his phone showed Naruto's car parked at his apartment building- which was the precise spot it was meant to be in. Naruto should have just gotten home from his shift.

There was a pang in his chest as the green glow of the app filled the dim kitchen.

Just watching Naruto was getting more difficult with each passing day.

There had always been something about Naruto that made Sasuke want to watch, that made him feel warm. There was always that lingering desire to feel Naruto's hands on him, that satisfaction when Naruto took the bait of every snipe Sasuke threw at him.

There was the sudden overwhelming desire to get in his car and drive to Naruto's apartment.

Sasuke shoved it down.

What would he even do there? What would he say?

Naruto had just gotten off a twenty-four shift, he was probably asleep, and Sasuke would just be disturbing him for no other reason than that he had the random, all- consuming desire to see him.

There was no other answer for it.

He'd shoved his little prizes in the back corner of the bottom shelf of his closet, behind the folded stacks of his jeans, where they were less likely to be seen.

Knees pressed against the cool wood grain of the floor, Sasuke shoved the jeans aside and pulled out the tote bag he'd shoved Naruto's jacket and scrubs into.

The jacket laid on top, folded as neat as Sasuke always folded everything. Orange polyester, the black piping along the zipper, the cotton lining-

Sasuke buried his nose in the fabric.

Naruto's scent had long faded by now, but he inhaled deep anyway, the cotton soft against his cheeks.

When he opened his eyes, his heart fluttering with want, it took in the other times inside the tote bag.

The fluttering of his heart turned to ice in an instant.

thought you might want something fresher ^_^ :)), the note said, an all-too familiar scrawl on the back of a torn prescription paper

And below the note, the scrubs in the tote bag were black, orange piping along the visible edge of the collar.

—-

Naruto's eyes were heavy and all of his bones ached with exhaustion, but Sasuke had just appeared in his camera feed, and so he stayed awake a bit longer.

Sasuke was kneeling, his form so frozen upon opening the tote bag that for a moment, Naruto thought that the feed had glitched out.

Then, the jacket Sasuke was clutching fell into his lap.

Naruto pulled up his screen brightness.

Sasuke had pulled out his phone. His fingers were shaking so hard Naruto thought that it would fall out of his hand.

After a moment, Naruto's own phone began to ring.

Baby Boy(Smiling Face With Heart-Shaped Eyes (Face Savouring Delicious Food )(Face Throwing A Kiss ) is calling...

Naruto clicked the speaker button.

“Sas? What's up?” Naruto asked. Sasuke's hand was shaking as it held his phone to his ear, turning blurry on Naruto's screen.

Only white noise was the response.

On Naruto's screen, Sasuke's eyes were fixed to the tote bag's opening.

“Did you butt dial me?’ Naruto asked, feeling a grin creep up on his face. “Sasuke Uchiha actually butt dialed me. I'm marking the day on my calendar.”

The white noise didn't change, but Sasuke's hand was shaking.

“Sas?’ Naruto let his voice lower to a whisper. “Are you alright?”

Sasuke's mouth opened, but no sound came out. His fingers, still clenching around Naruto's jacket, turned white at the knuckles.

“...you look scared, Sas,’ Naruto whispered, and Sasuke's trembling stopped. “Just take deep breaths, just like how I taught you in med school. In, then out. Come on, baby.”

Sasuke's mouth opened again.

Then, his chest rose, then lowered again.

"That's it,' Naruto wanted to swallow, but there was nothing there. "Just breathe for me, baby. Put down the jacket, and then go to sleep, alright? It's your day off. You could use the rest."

Click.

Sasuke had dropped the phone down on his lap.

For several long seconds, Sasuke just knelt there, staring.

Naruto was about to call him when Sasuke stood, the jacket still clutched to his chest, and crawled into bed.

—

It had actually been zebras.

Sasuke found the first camera balanced against the gap between two books on the fifth row on the bookshelf.

He found the second leaning against the little Precious Moments figurines on top of the bathroom cabinet, the ones that had been gathering dust since Itachi had gifted them to him, angled just the right way that Sasuke was sure it had a clear view of him in the shower.

He found the third camera in the kitchen, hidden on top of the refrigerator.

Sasuke sat on the couch, his heart slamming into his chest, his coffee running too hot in his veins.

He hadn't imagined it, had he?

He lifted the mug to his lips, the porcelain smooth and warm against his skin, and took a slip.

At least now he knew who had cleaned his bookshelf.

To think that this entire time, he'd been looking under beds and corners to search for his intruder.

Sasuke should've known better. He was the one who'd come up with the idea to buy that airtag himself, after all.

How was it that after all these years, Naruto could still find ways to surprise him?

He rubbed the back of his neck, the coffee sloshing in his mug.

It hadn't been exhaustion, and neither had it been paranoia.

His cheeks were burning.

Naruto had been here. The when wasn't the question- in fact there was no question. He had been here, in Sasuke's house. Watching him.

You look scared, Naruto had whispered, his voice so low that it had made Sasuke's neck tingle even despite the situation.

Naruto knew about the scrubs. Did he know about the airtag too?

The camera on the shelf faced the bed. Sasuke always changed there- had Naruto been watching him then too, when he was pulling off his clothes, eyes clinging to Sasuke's skin the same way Sasuke's eyes clung to Naruto's?

He felt his teeth drag over his lower lip.

The TV, the lamps, the bookshelves in the living room. Were there more cameras? Was Naruto watching him now?

Naruto wouldn't be going into work until the night shift that night- same as Sasuke. For now, they were both free.

Sasuke stood on weak legs, and gulped down the coffee to soothe his dry throat.

Where else?

Later at work, he was charting when a tan hand dropped a new chart on his desk, bearing the bright orange tag of the pediatric department.

“Hey,’ Naruto said, his grin handsome in the fluorescent lighting. “I’m done with patient Suzuki’s orders.”

Sasuke snapped his gaze away to look at Naruto's employee tag instead, the shiny plastic almost an ocular hazard beneath the light.

“Are you thinking of intubating?” Sasuke said, cursing the tightness of his voice, and fixing his eyes on the orders scrawled on the lines of the sheet. His heartbeat was thundering in his ears.

“If her O2 doesn't improve, then yeah,” Naruto said, shrugging.

“Alright. I'll talk to the parents,” Sasuke said, bending his head.

It wasn't until fingers closed around his wrist that he realized his pen was shuddering against the page. Little dots of black ink skidded across the page.

“Did you sleep well last night?” Naruto asked, a grown in his voice.

Sasuke's lips twitched.

“You tell me, Dr. Uzumaki. I'm sure you know better than I do.”

A beat of silence.

Then, Naruto was chuckling.

“Yeah, I guess I do,” Naruto said. The grin had returned to his voice.

The fingers around his wrist fell away, and when Sasuke mustered the courage to look up again, he found Naruto walking towards one of his patients’ beds, stethoscope looped in one hand.

He was wearing orange scrubs again today, the one with thinner material that moved in a delightful manner over his ass, and was taut over his shoulders.

When Sasuke glanced at the Peds desk, a familiar phone in an orange case was there, left face-down on the table.

His blood rushed like water in his ears. His own was still hovering over the chart.

When he came to next, the bathroom stall was locked, leaving him alone in the dim light with Naruto's phone.

1010 didn't work.

Sasuke tried it again, just to be sure.

Incorrect PIN entered

His teeth worried into his lip.

0723

The cartoon frogs of Naruto's wallpaper greeted him.

His heart was thundering in his chest again. He could feel it, the muscle pounding into bone, straining with effort.

What was he even looking for?

There was a note pinned to the home screen that just said one thing: 1733

Scrolling through the gallery didn't yield much other than pictures of food, selfies Naruto had taken with coworkers and some patients, and a blurry pictures of his own shoes that mist have been taken by accident.

There was an Instagram app, the Clinical Practice Guidelines app, the Medcalc app. Naruto was in peds, so of course he also had two calculator apps on top of Medcalc.

The Adobe acrobat app was also on his phone, left open to a random page of Nelson's pediatrics. Amazon, Uber eats, Ankidroid, and- Sasuke did a double take- Infinity Nikki.

He was sitting there on a cold toilet, the piss-scent of the bathroom his only company, and holding Naruto's phone.

Naruto was sure to have discovered it gone already.

What on earth was Sasuke even doing?

It was while he was pondering over the nausea rolling in his stomach that he realized something.

Medcalc, and two calculator apps?

Fingers trembling, he clicked open one of the calculators.

What was it that the pinned note had said? 1733?

Typing it into the calculator did nothing. When using several equations that equaled 1733 also did nothing, he closed the app and switched to the other one.

This time, when he wrote 1010 + 0723 and hit the equals sign, the calculator buttons disappeared.

At first, Sasuke wasn't sure what he was looking at. There were two folders hidden behind the fake calculator app, one labelled Camera Home and the other as Baby Boy.

Sasuke had a feeling he already knew what Camera Home was.

Opening it only confirmed his suspicions. The first thing he was was the dim view of his own bed, its sheets rumpled, a testament to Sasuke's fraught mind. He'd even forgotten to turn the lamp at his bedside off.

A swipe revealed a downward angle that looked down into his shower. Nothing interesting there.

Another swipe showed the couch. Sasuke squinted, and turned the phone over in his hands.

Even after the squinting and turning, Sasuke had no idea as to where that particular camera could have been placed.

The last camera feed showed the kitchen, looking right down the sink and the kitchen table.

He exited out of the Camera Home folder.

Teeth digging into his lip, he clicked on Baby Boy.

The millisecond it took for the images to load was an eternity.

Rows upon rows of thumbnails. Dark hair, pale skin. His own eyes, his own face.

Screenshots of the camera feed of Sasuke curled up in his bed. Saved photos from Sasuke's Instagram. Photos of Sasuke from Sakura's and Ino's Instagram's, the other people features in the original pictures cropped out.

Pictures of Sasuke charting on his desk at the ER, both from afar and some closer, focusing on his hands, his lips.

Pictures of Sasuke changing.

Sasuke's lip was beginning to turn sore.

His tongue darted out, licking the wound.

There was one where Sasuke had bent to lower his scrub pants and underwear down to his knees, his scrub top hiding his cock, but the shape of his naked thighs and hips unmistakable.

There was a small, red heart at the bottom.

Naruto had placed that picture in his favourites.

There was a photo of him in the shower, his head thrown back, a hand running through the wet strands of his hair. His lips were parted, water running over his body. His cock was nothing more than a smear of pink pixels, but it was clearly in sight. There was also a red heart at the bottom.

His mouth had turned dry.

Naruto had taken care to save these. He'd added them to his favourites, so he could view them again and again.

Sasuke's mind conjured up the image of Naruto, lounging in bed, his back propped up by pillows.

His orange pants, shoved down over spread knees. And between his naked thighs, Naruto's fist was stroking up and down, the squelch wet and obscene.

In his imagination, wetness coated the inside of Naruto's hand, and a pearl of white was gathering at the tip of his cock.

His other hand was holding his phone, blue eyes fixed on the image of Sasuke bending to lower his scrub pants down over his knees.

Sasuke's own cock let out a trickle of wetness, dampening his underwear.

The bathroom door opened, then shut.

Sasuke's heart leapt in his throat.

He didn't dare to even breath.

Rubber soles padded against tile .

“Lost my phone,” came Naruto's sigh.

The creak of a stall opening filled the room. Then, another creak as it shut.

“Wonder where it went,” Naruto said, his voice echoing against the walls.

Sasuke lifted his feet off the floor, and tucked them under him over the closed lid of the toilet.

“Did you grab it, Sas?” Naruto asked as he opened and closed yet another door. Searching for him, Sasuke realized.

Sasuke swallowed.

The click of the latch opening silenced Naruto's footsteps.

Sasuke stepped out, an air of nonchalance painted on his body as he brushed past Naruto's shoulders and the raised, blonde brows.

He set Naruto's phone down on the black granite counter, and their eyes met in the mirror.

Naruto had his arms crossed over his chest, a curious look in his eyes.

Sasuke let his lips pull back into a smile.

“You shouldn't leave your phone around,” Sasuke said, lowering his eyes to pump soap into his hands- watery, diluted, and might have been lavender scented once.

“Yeah, I shouldn't,’ Naruto said, leaning his body against one of the stall doors. “Good thing you found it for me.”

“Yeah, good thing,’ Sasuke said. His eyes found the phone, its screen dark and reflecting one of the white fluorescent lights overhead. “You know, you're right. I do look tired. I'm thinking I should take some Benadryl after I get off duty.”

“Benadryl,’ Naruto said, cocking his head. His lips pulled back into a smile, and was that a sparkle in his gaze? “Good idea. It'll knock you right out good. You need it- you look like you haven't slept in a year.”

Sasuke's lips were twitching again. “You think so?”

“Mmm,” Naruto's arms fell down to his sides. He stepped towards the mirror, and Sasuke's stomach made a flip as he looked behind Sasuke, almost touching, but not quite.

Naruto lifted a hand.

Sasuke watched as the tips of tan fingers brushed against the hem of his sleeve, and then over the thin material of the turtleneck he always wore under his scrub top.

“Yeah,’ Naruto whispered. Their eyes met in the mirror. “Look at those eye bags. If your fangirls saw those, they'd cry.”

“Fangirls? This isn't college anymore,” Sasuke chuckled. He turned off the faucet with a single twist of his hand.

Then, feeling a bit braver, his tongue darted out to wet his lips.

Naruto's eyes followed the movement in the mirror, his lips parting. His fingers were still touching the edge of Sasuke's sleeve.

“You don't like me looking tired, Dr. Uzumaki?”

He watched Naruto's throat bob.

Heat pressed against his side as Naruto pressed closer.

“You always look good,’ Naruto whispered, and a shiver went down Sasuke's spine. “Tired or not.”

The touch at his waist made his skin jump. Fingers first brushed against the curve of it, and then spread out, Naruto's hand flattening over him.

Sasuke watched himself swallow again, the movement all too clear in the mirror.

“Baby boy,’ Naruto's nose brushed over the curve of his neck, and Sasuke's eyes fluttered shut. “What were you really doing on my phone?”

“Nothing,” Sasuke managed to say. He turned his head, and their eyes met.

“Nothing?” Naruto asked, his gaze soft. The hand on Sasuke's waist was rubbing soothing circles into his skin, thumbs digging in.

“Nothing,” Sasuke said.

A moment passed, a moment where Naruto's breath was warm over his face, warm enough Sasuke could almost taste it.

Naruto was smiling. “Okay. Can I have it back?”

Sasuke's fingers groped for the phone, and then he was pressing into Naruto's chest.

“Don't just leave it around,” Sasuke whispered.

—-

Sasuke hadn't bothered to lock the front door.

The hallway of Sasuke's threshold was dark except for the glow of the lamp just past the corner, the lampshade peeking out behind the wall.

Naruto walked past it, his hood pulled low over his face.

Sasuke's door was ajar, the room within shrouded in inky darkness.

Naruto pulled his face mask higher, pulled his hood even lower, and slipped inside.

It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the darkness.

There was a half-empty glass of water on the bedside table. Next to it was the hot pink packaging of a discarded Benadryl wrapper. There was a pair of black scrubs in the hamper, and the room still carried the scent of Sasuke's Palmolive body wash.

On the bed was the most beautiful creature he'd ever seen.

Sasuke had fallen asleep with his knees curling up towards his chest, his fingers twisting into Naruto's jacket, the orange peeking out from behind the white quilt. He had fallen asleep in a black silk pajama top, one of the fancy ones Naruto knew Sasuke treated himself to buying whenever he was stressed.

Sasuke's lips were pale in the darkness, lush and full where they parted.

His thumb was reaching out to drag along the soft lower lip before he could stop himself, and when Sasuke didn't so much as twitch, he knew that the Benadryl had worked.

It wasn't a line he had crossed before.

His thumb pressed in deeper between the lips, and with a soft, wet pop, it had worked its way past Sasuke's teeth and found the slick tongue that rested behind.

It took everything in him not to groan at the heat of his mouth.

Naruto pulled his thumb out, shoved his mask down, and sucked it into his own mouth.

The taste of Sasuke's saliva had his brain skeetering to a stop in an instant.

He couldn't stop himself. Not anymore. That thin, fraying thread of control he'd been holding on to finally snapped.

Naruto placed his fingers on Sasuke's cheeks and eased his mouth open.

He bent his head, and licked his way into Sasuke's mouth.

The sound of smacking lips cut through the darkness.

Maybe he should have bitten that bullet and kissed Sasuke in the bathroom. But there was something so maddening in licking Sasuke's slack mouth, dragging his tongue over the edges of white teeth, and tasting Sasuke's tongue, its shape still even when prodded.

“Was this what you wanted, baby?” Naruto whispered against his lips.

No response came.

He let out a breath as he buried his nose into the crook of Sasuke's neck, smelled the herbal scent of his body wash, and felt the tickle of his hair, still damp from the shower.

“Don't mind me, then,’ Naruto whispered with a kiss to the corner of Sasuke's jaw. “Remember, you asked for it.”

He pushed the quilt down.

A wave of dizziness hit him when, instead of the matching black silk pants that came with Sasuke's pajama set, he found pale skin.

Sasuke wasn't wearing pants.

Naruto placed the palm of his hand flat on his hip, skin softer than silk, and pushed up the bottom of his shirt.

He wasn't wearing underwear, either.

Naruto's fingers trailed down that pale skin, over the curve of a hip down to a meaty inner thigh.

Sasuke's cock was pink and soft, just as pretty as the rest of him. He wrapped his fingers around it and gave it a soft squeeze.

Sasuke let out a soft mumble in his sleep, and then nuzzled his cheek into the pillow.

“So pretty,” Naruto sighed. He squeezed Sasuke's soft cock again, and began to pump it up and down.

It only took a single push to have Sasuke lying on his back, his face still turned on its side. He was making soft snores now- his poor baby was exhausted. He’d really needed that diphenhydramine.

Naruto plucked the packets of KY jelly he'd nicked from the ER stocks, ripped it open, and squeezed it into his hand.

Just like that, the slide of Sasuke's cock in his hand was smoother, turning harder and hotter in his palm.

Sasuke's brow was beginning to twitch, and a soft, shuddering moan breathed out of his lips.

“Yeah, bet that feels good,’ Naruto said. He was beginning to feel too hot in his hoodie, and so he tugged it off and tossed it to the floor, leaving him in his t-shirt. “Never saw you doing this, you know. You should think about it. Your cock looks so pretty when it's being stroked like this.”

“Ngghh?” was Sasuke's only response.

“Fuck,” Naruto let go of Sasuke's cock, now fully hard and with wetness beading at the tip, and grasped his hips.

Could he turn him over without waking him?

How far could he push without waking him?

He turned Sasuke over, as careful and gentle as he could, until he was lying on his stomach.

Naruto decided he didn't care if he woke him anymore. Not with the way the globes of Sasuke's ass were sitting there, so pretty and soft looking that it made his teeth itch with the urge to bite. Not when a cute little furl of pink was peeking out between those mounds of pale flesh, just begging to be licked.

That was the first thing he did- squeezed the cheeks hard in his grip to separate them, and bending to press his tongue against that pink hole.

It tasted as clean as the rest of him, the scent of body wash stronger here. Naruto groaned, nuzzled his nose into the pink skin, and took his fill.

The wet sound filled his ears with every press of tongue against the flesh. Sasuke's hole was fluttering under the wet presses of his tongue, and his ass was so damn soft in his hands he couldn't help but squeeze each handful over and over again.

Naruto leaned back, gathered his spit in his mouth, and spat right on it, just as he'd always dreamed about doing.

The glob of saliva landed right on Sasuke's hole, and glittered in the darkness as it trickled down his perineum.

His own cock was leaking so much that his boxers were turning damp. Naruto shoved them down and gathered up his boxers in a ball.

After staring at Sasuke's closed eyes and parted lips for a moment, he grinned, and shoved the wet spot in his boxers right between the parted lips, pressing until it was clasped firm between teeth.

After that, it was a simple matter of squeezing packets of KY jelly into his hand, parting those soft cheeks again, and pressing his fingers inside.

Between the laxness of sleep and the prods of Naruto's tongue, Sasuke took in two fingers without issue.

So, so soft and tight all at once. Naruto had to hold back the urge to just shove himself inside that adorable hole and squeezed out more KY jelly, stretching to make space for a third.

The third finger slid in, a tighter squeeze than the rest.

Sasuke's face was twitching now, and his brows were drawing together. His hips were moving, small, aborted attempts at movement- it was like his body was confused as to what it wanted to be doing.

“You asked for this, baby,’ Naruto said, giving himself a few strokes of his cock. It was angry and red now, pre-cum trickling translucent over the shaft. He squeezed more KY Jelly right on it, and let out a shuddering breath as he took in the sight of Sasuke's reddening rim stretched around his fingers.

“Ngggh!”

Hot, so hot, so tight.

Naruto was panting right into Sasuke's ear, his hand on Sasuke's navel as he pressed the last inch of himself inside.

He couldn't stop his hips from moving. They were thrusting in and out, thrusts that turned into slaps in the dark room.

Sasuke's face was moving, his mouth opening wider.

“Ah…?” Sasuke was squirming in his grasp, chest and belly pressed into the bed, pinned by Naruto's weight.

“You can wake up if you want, baby boy,” Naruto whispered, and then grinned as he poked out his tongue to drag over the shell of Sasuke's ear. “Come on. Wake up.”

—

Sasuke's dream was a confusing haze of colours and images. His chart under his hand, Ino's face transplanted onto an IV stand, and the memory of Naruto cornering him in the ER bathroom.

Something felt good. It felt delicious, sliding in and out of him, making his hips squirm. It was so deep he could feel it in his stomach, could feel his navel poking in and out.

“Come on. Wake up,” came Naruto's voice, their eyes meeting in the mirror.

Sasuke's eyes flew open.

It took several long seconds for his recollection to return to him.

The memory of drinking the Benadryl came first. Then, his last minute decision to leave off wearing his pajama bottoms or underwear.

There was something in his mouth, bitter and musky. Fabric?

A weight plastered on his back, hands pinning his wrists down. Hot breaths, panting right into his ear.

Hips slapping against his, something huge inside him moving in and out.

“Shhh,’ Naruto whispered before Sasuke could make a sound. “Isn't this what you wanted, baby?”

Sasuke couldn't speak around the fabric in his mouth. Naruto chuckled, and then a thrust hitting right against his prostate had Sasuke's eyes rolling back.

A sound left him, one that echoed right along the obscene noise of Naruto's thrusts.

“Fuck, baby, you're so tight,’ Naruto panted. “You're fluttering around me, I'm sorry, I can't control myself.”

Sasuke let out another muffled moan. The head of Naruto's cock was leaving hot little trails of wetness inside him as it fucked right into his prostate. Sasuke's hips were already twitching, warning him that he was going to come, and it was going to be soon.

“Mmmpf,” Sasuke tried to moan, but then his entire body was seizing. “Mmmmf…!”

He was coming, fuck, he was coming and Naruto was still thrusting, it was too much, too much-!

He collapsed, sinking into the sheets, his breath leaving him in little shudders.

“Oh, sweetheart,’ Naruto was pressing hot kisses into his shoulder as Sasuke's hips bucked into the bedding. “Good boy, come for me, baby.”

His cock was still squirting. Naruto's thrusting didn't stop, and he was starting to twitch with overstimulation.

He managed to spit the fabric out.

“S-stop-!’ Sasuke gasped out. “You idiot, I just came-!”

Naruto let go of his wrists, gripped down tight on Sasuke's hips, and gave several pointed thrusts.

It wasn't until the sound echoed off the walls that Sasuke realized he was screaming.

He'd just came, and his poor cock was soft, but pleasure was making his skin prickle and hips jump.

“Just a bit more,’ Naruto gasped. “Almost there-”

Sasuke held on for dear life as Naruto gave several hard thrusts, his teeth and hip bones rattling, then shoved himself deep inside.

Warmth filled him.

Sasuke sagged, boneless.

Naruto collapsed into his back, his nose pressing into Sasuke's nape.

“You're mine,’ Naruto whispered. “Mine, Sasuke. You understand that, right?”

Sasuke nodded.

“Say you're mine, baby.”

“I'm yours,” Sasuke whispered.

“All mine?”

“All yours,” Sasuke said.

He turned his head, and their eyes met, the blue of Naruto's gaze almost impossible to discern in the darkness.

This relationship, or whatever this was-

This strange little game of theirs…

Sasuke let Naruto wrap his arms around him, and he buried his face into Naruto's chest, taking in the scent of him.

Mine, was Sasuke's final thought before the medicine made his eyes flutter shut on their own again.