Chapter Text
When Sasuke turned 20, Ino decided to take him on an adventure of the most embarrassing kind. The second he heard that, the word adventure leave Ino’s lips, he knew it was going to be hell; Sakura had herded him into the passenger seat of Ino’s car, saying new experiences were good for him, and then they were off. Sasuke had a good guess for where they were going; it was where Ino had been trying to get him to go to forever. A sex shop.
“Welcome,” said Ino brightly, opening the door for Sasuke and then shoving him forcefully inside. A bell had jingled, alerting the store of their presence, which only made him want to hide. Everything was a burning pink like his face and the lights were far too bright it seemed. There were signs on every rack, with innuendos worse than Kiba’s. He had looked around, trying to find escape routes. A back door, or maybe the vents? Desperate times call for desperate measures.
He ended up getting dragged around the store, wondering why anyone visited this shop or why in god’s name someone would require a giant inflatable dick costume. “Stop asking me so many questions,” Ino had snipped at him, “I’m not a guru, I’m a fucking lesbian, what do I know about dick?”
Fair enough.
She’d forced him to buy something, though. It was his birthday, after all, and she wouldn’t get off his ass, telling him to be a little bit of a whore for once. This was a joke, but it didn’t stop the nervous-looking lady next to them from giving them the side-eye. Sasuke returned it; they were both standing in front of a wall of dildos after all so he wasn’t sure why anyone felt the need to get on their high horse.
Eventually, he let her get him something, if only just to get her to stop talking. “That’s the real birthday gift,” he told her as they left the store, “getting you to shut the fuck up for once in your life.” Ino had slapped him over the head with the paper bag.
It took him a full week of his purchase just sitting in his sock drawer for him to even dare pull it out, and then once he did, he was pretty sure he was about to do one of the dumbest things Sasuke Uchiha could ever be caught doing. But, the day had been dreary and cold, work had mind-numbingly boring and the night was young. What better time to engage in some stupid shit?
So engage in said stupid shit he would. Sasuke sat in the center of his big bed, blanket rolled up to the end and stared at the red rope he’d bought. It was curled in loops before him, like a venomous snake, waiting for the fatal moment to strike.
What had compelled him to buy bondage rope, he couldn’t pinpoint. It had seemed the least threatening of all the things Ino had shoved in his purely perturbed face at the store, but now sitting with it, it seemed more complicated than he’d been prepared for. At least with other toys, they were simple. Stick this in there, click this button, but tying someone up required some skill.
“What are you going to do with that, dumbass?” Ino had asked him. “Do you even know how to use it?” Sasuke had just shoved it farther down into his bag with a fierce scowl. “I’m just asking the obvious question!” she yelped. “Unless the rumors are true, and you’re a freak.”
Those rumors, actually, were not true whatsoever. Where had they even started from? Someone in Freshman year of college took one look at Sasuke, who’s dark and brooding and good with his hands, and decided that he was a fuck machine. That he was just dicking people down left and right. That he was, in fact, more likely than not, a freak.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. All that kinky sex? Non-existent. Sasuke had only had sex once before, and it was some brainless drunken hook up the summer after senior year of high school. He hated to remember it, and the foolish reason he’d chose to do it. He had desperately wanted the attention of someone else, and when he didn’t get it, reached for any kind of attention at all.
Before that, he’d only kissed one other person, which only barely counted because it was some rando from a different school. It’d been at a back room of a party Sasuke wasn’t supposed to be at. It’d been long and wet and gross and it was behind him now, so that was that.
Kakashi had been the person to give him “the talk” in the absence of his father, which mostly consisted of him telling Sasuke that the internet is a great resource for him. He didn’t even bother telling Sasuke the typical “don’t get a girl pregnant”; by age 13, they were both pretty sure that that was never going to happen.
Sasuke felt so estranged from sex, even though he didn’t want to be. His fingers crept up the bed to curl in the rope. Intimacy was deeply difficult for him, he knew that, but the knowing didn’t seem to help. Some part of inside him was stuck. It most likely had to do with trust; sex would require him to be open, and Sasuke was closed off like a quarantine.
He has to get over it someday, but that was a lonely sentiment, as it seemed like everyone else had already gotten over it. Yeah. Everyone else was having sex. His friends were having it, and his classmates. Sasuke’s hands tightened. Naruto, especially, was having it. A lot of it, it seemed to Sasuke. With everyone but him
And Naruto, unfortunately, was the only one he wanted. The only one he had ever wanted, really. Since before Kakashi had had the talk, before he was really 100% sure what sex even was, it had only been Naruto. 6th grade. That had been the start. And now, he was about to be a Sophomore in college. So… Seven years? Seven years of falling deeper in love with Naruto and getting nothing but friendship with no end in sight. It was bittersweet in entirety, but tonight the bitter prevailed, filling his mouth.
In some ways, he realized, Ino was right, the few times he’d let her talk to him about his “infatuation”. Naruto was probably not going to fuck him anytime soon, so he might as well just fuck himself, huh?
Sasuke opened his laptop on his crossed legs. It took a moment for it to light up, and for a few seconds, Sasuke had to stare shamefully into the dusty screen for what he was about to do.
What he was about to do? Open an incognito window and Google “rope bondage tutorial.” Fuck, he could just die right here, but he pressed onward regardless. There were a lot of sites that popped up, the first being Wikihow, which he would not stoop to. He clicked on a different link, which took him to a black and red website with the worst graphic design he’d seen in years, but he scrolled down anyway, ignoring all the little quips and innuendos. It was like a recipe where you had to scroll through someone’s whole life story to get to the actual information at the end. Except kinky.
When he did finally get there, he tilted his head at the images. This… didn’t look that hard, actually. For one fateful year in 5th grade, Sasuke had been a boy scout, and while he’d absolutely hated it, he got pretty good at tying knots.
He had to choose which one to pursue. He could tie his hands, but he was concerned about his ability to get back out. He could tie his feet, but… Well, frankly, feet are kind of gross. Sasuke sighed, flipping through the different tutorials until he got to one that caught his eye.
It was about how to tie someone to a bed. Sasuke knew the old “handcuffed to the headboard”, but this was different. The ropes tied tight around someone’s thighs, one to either side of the bed so they wouldn’t be able to close their legs. Sasuke’s face went nearly as red as his rope. This was… This was a straight shot up his alley.
His fingers traced underneath the sentences carefully, not wanting to miss a word and end up in an unintended bind. Sasuke fed the rope under his mattress, all the way across until he had two ends ready for tying on either side.
He picked up the right one, and wrapped it around his mid-thigh, just like the directions said. A minute of twisting and pulling, and he had done it perfectly. Sasuke couldn’t feel the rope’s texture through his pants, but it didn’t cut into his skin. It was kind of comfortable, even. Being tied down.
Next was the other thigh which was a little more complicated but still not too difficult. Then, it was done. He pulled on the remaining ends of the rope and stared intently down at his legs being pried apart. He didn’t stop until his body began to feel tight and his legs were fully open, and then let the rest of him fall back onto his pillows, looking up at the ceiling.
Sasuke’s fingers played with the ends of the rope. It felt good. His face burned. It felt really good, even. He tried to bring his legs back together, but it was no use. He was bound. The rest of his body was beginning to feel hot, too. He hadn’t expected this; this was supposed to be something stupid, not something he liked. But he did like it, and was trying to figure out why.
Anxiety was filling him suddenly. That deep feeling of brushing against something he wanted, and then being afraid of not being able to do anything to get it. He breathed once, in and out, and then carefully backtracked. It untangled easier than he expected, and he was free.
Sasuke had no idea what to do with this experience. He’d never felt close to himself in that way before. He sat up, thought, and laid back down. While, yes, it had freaked him out momentarily, Sasuke knew himself as someone who nearly never stops stepping up to the plate, ready to beat the shit out of the things that scared him.
He didn’t even have to look at the tutorial this time; he knew it by heart already and soon was tied up again.
Maybe he did know the reason he liked it. Maybe it was the helplessness of it all, the kind he still had control over. Sasuke always had to control everything about himself, he had to, and this bind could unravel at a moment's notice if needed.
On the flip side of the comfort of control, there were rarely times where he cut loose, and never concerning sex. He absolutely hated letting people take care of him, after all. But like this, he could play pretend, pretend that there was nothing he could do. Someone could just have their way with him, do whatever they wanted without Sasuke’s stupid mental blocks ruining it.
His arms went over his face as heat suddenly filled him. He knew who he wanted that to be, too.
Sasuke’s mind began to wander, legs pulling against the rope and then going still. He wondered what Naruto would do, if he walked in and saw Sasuke like this. Would he laugh? Maybe. Probably. But what if he decided he liked it as much as Sasuke did? What if he just happened to take advantage of Sasuke, all powerless as he was? He could strip Sasuke until he was forced to bare it all, forced to pour himself out and Naruto could drink him down.
Thinking like this was supposed to be illegal with a capital I, but Sasuke wasn’t very good at not doing it. It could be an ordinary conversation, with Naruto laughing and smiling like usual, but Sasuke was thinking about him with nothing on. His arms pressed around his face harder as if to squeeze the thoughts to death; it wasn’t working. Yes, Sasuke felt alienated from sex, but he realized it was never that way with Naruto. Above bondage, above kinks, above anything else; nothing turned him on more than the thought of Naruto’s touch.
Sasuke untied his legs, retied, untied again, getting it off his mind. Then he tied his thighs together, his knees, his ankles, holding himself together one by one, and yet, he hadn’t felt so free in such a long time.
Yes, the heat inside of him was aching for Naruto to be here with him, but doing this all alone in his warm bedroom on a rainy night felt powerful.
Ino had stared at him in surprise the next time he saw her. “You… want to go back?” she asked, slowly. He shrugged, as if it was no big deal. Ino’s expression widened into a grin. “I knew it, I knew you were a freak.”
Well, maybe he was starting to be.
…
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Oh my god, it so clearly does matter, what’s gotten into you this time?”
This argument was a frequent one when it came to Sasuke and Naruto. Naruto always turning to stare blatantly whenever Sasuke said “don’t look now” was a close second, and Sasuke’s habit of blaring music so loud he couldn’t hear Naruto knock on his door was third, but this one. This was truly the crown jewel.
It always began the same way: Sasuke had a tendency to curl into himself when he was wounded. He wanted to protect the cut before anyone could dig any deeper. Because of this, he also had the tendency to blow off people’s worries about him, telling them he was fine when nothing could be farther from the truth. First step of having feelings? Hide them as deep down as you possibly can and then some, into the trash compactor of the soul.
Sasuke, this evening, was actually doing an absolutely shit job at throwing away his feelings. He couldn’t help it; it just kept bubbling to the surface. He was pissed off as all hell, and while he was trying to remain stoic, this sour lemon look kept creeping onto his face. His eyebrows would narrow, his teeth would grind, and soon enough he was the picture of someone one word away from going positively apeshit.
It was currently driving Naruto absolutely up a wall, and had been for the entire time they’d been together. They’d gotten coffee in the morning, a Sunday tradition, and then Naruto had insisted on coming back over because he was worried. He hated it when Sasuke did this, but not everybody could be bumbling emotional idiots, red-stained sleeves from the hearts they wore on them.
Naruto stood on the other side of Sasuke’s kitchen counter, staring at Sasuke’s profile with his arms folded tight. “It does matter,” he said again, like he hadn’t many times already. “I swear, you’re doing this just to annoy me. Talk to me, Sas.”
Sasuke only shrugged. One of the bulbs in the light fixture overhead was flickering slightly; enough to be noticeable, but not yet annoying. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said lightly, to which Naruto only growled in response.
“Stop it,” Naruto insisted. “Your coffee order this morning was longer than any conversation we’ve had all day.”
“Maybe,” Sasuke responded thoughtfully, “I just don’t really want to talk to you, Naruto.” He turned away from the same dish he’d been scrubbing in the sink for a full five minutes to offer Naruto a smile so cold it almost shattered. “Maybe just the sight of your face right now makes me want to wander into traffic.”
“Why are you like this? Your mixed signals are worse than Ino’s. First, everything’s fine, you’re at your normal level of bitchy, and then all of a sudden some alarm in you goes off and, oh, now it’s time to be a dick to Naruto . Will you just tell me what’s wrong? I didn’t drive all the way over here to get insulted all night.”
“You didn’t? I thought that little masochist in you was coming out.”
“ Sasukeeeeeeee .” It was long and drawn out, a hiss. “Tell me right now.” That was it, that was Naruto’s voice when he was at the end of his very long rope with Sasuke. If Sasuke was silent past here, this fight would probably turn into a very real one.
They bickered often, very often, but truly fought rarely. It ruined both of them whenever they did; they’d probably mope around for a day or two and then call a truce just to get the horrible weight of feeling alone in the world off their chests.
The longest they had ever gone without speaking was four whole days. Four excruciatingly long days, with none of Naruto’s bright smiles or him texting Sasuke stupid memes in the middle of the night. Four days may not seem so extensive to someone else, but for them, it was different. Time was different, measured in the minutes separated and together. Naruto had likened losing Sasuke to losing a limb, and Sasuke, while embarrassed by that, was inclined to agree.
Sasuke was now realizing he was exhausted of this back and forth game, and his stubbornness was weakening to it.
“Seriously, I-”
“Tenten’s party. Yesterday. You were supposed to meet me there, and you completely forgot.”
Naruto faltered. “What?”
“Yeah. You said you would go with me, like you always do, but for some reason,” Sasuke got out, “you just… forgot. I wonder why.”
And there it was. The root of the problem.
It wasn’t really about the party. Well, it was in part, because Naruto not coming was such a blow to his pride. Sasuke thought Tenten was acceptable as an acquaintance, but he didn’t know her like Naruto did. And Naruto had said to him: “Come on, Sasuke, you never get out. Just come to this party. It’ll be fun, I promise.”
Turns out, it wasn’t fucking fun. He hadn’t known a single other person except for Lee, and he wouldn’t be caught dead in the same room as Lee and tequila. Sasuke had waited. For an hour. That might not be a long time in someone else’s eyes, but with Sasuke’s pride? He’d be happier with a gun to his head.
The room had been hot, filled with noise and people and smoke, but Sasuke had felt so alone. More alone than he’d felt in a long, long time. And at Naruto’s hands of all people. Afterward, he’d left, called Karin over and let her rile him up, but in-between, on his drive home, he’d just felt deeply sad.
He’d felt desperate and lonely, two of his least favorite emotions, but it wasn’t about the party, really. No, it was about her. The root of the problem.
See, whenever Naruto started dating someone new, he’d fall in headfirst and deep, an abyssal descent. That’s just the way he is , Sakura would tell him, you know he doesn’t do anything halfway. That may be true, but that didn’t mean Sasuke ever got used to it. Being abandoned for a couple weeks every time some dumb, pretty, new person waltzed into Naruto’s life. It made Sasuke feel like he’d come second in a competition he didn’t know he had entered. It just… hurt.
And that’s what Naruto had been doing. His girlfriend. Instead of attending the party that he’d made Sasuke go to.
She was cute, Sasuke could admit, in a stupid annoying way. She was always fluttering around Naruto whenever they were together, hanging off his arm. She didn’t like Sasuke, though, he could just tell. She thought he was a threat. That was fine, and flattering almost, as the feeling was mutual, but knowing Naruto was off having a great time with someone who couldn’t be bothered to even meet his eye? Disconcerting.
“I…” Naruto looked slightly lost, all animosity gone from his voice. “That was yesterday?”
“Did I stutter?”
“No, I just… You’re right, I completely forgot.”
“I know ,” Sasuke snapped, finally feeling a flash of heat through his ice. “You always do this. You find some girl, and then forget about the rest of your life for a solid month. Forgive me for being sick of waiting for you to bless me with just a little bit of your time and respect. Someday, you’ll be in my shoes. You’ll be waiting for me to give a shit about you, and it’s just not going to happen.”
Naruto, stared at him, wide-eyed, as Sasuke wrapped up his rant by taking a deep breath in, having spent the previous one dictating every harsh word with precision. He wanted to hurt Naruto a little bit, make him feel as mean and embarrassed as Sasuke was feeling.
There was a long pause, eye contact buzzing with tension. Naruto was thinking, which tended to take him forever. Finally, he opened his mouth.
“Are you jealous?”
Oh. Ohhhhhhhhhhh.
If there were three words that would make shit hit the fan, it was those.
“ Jealous ?” His voice almost cracked as the word left him in an arching slash at Naruto. “You think I’m jealous? You think you’re important enough to me to get me worked up over you? What, you think I just fucking knit and wait for you to get back when you’re gone? You know what, Naruto, get fucked!”
“Holy shit!” Naruto said, throwing his hands up in front of him for protection with a look of real fear on his face. “I’m going to be honest, I think I inadvertently escalated this conversation much higher than initially intended!”
“You have no idea ,” Sasuke hissed, turning to get in Naruto’s face, “how hard it is to care about a dumb hoe with the attention span of a fruit fly and a brain the size of a lego block. As your best friend, I morally can’t let you act like this.”
Silence. Naruto’s eyes were headlights now, huge and shining.
“What did you just call me?”
“I called you a dumb hoe.”
“No, after that.”
Sasuke just let out an exasperated sigh. “What are you talking about?”
“You called me your best friend.” Sasuke mouth opened to defend this, and then paused. Fuck. Guess he had. “You’ve never called me your best friend before.”
“Are you- Are you crying ?”
“Come here.” Naruto was taking long steps to round the counter, and Sasuke backed up to the sink, crowding against it in fear.
“Don’t you dare-” Naruto picked him up like he weighed absolutely nothing into the warmest hug Sasuke had ever experienced. He squeaked, wriggling in Naruto’s grasp, but Naruto held tight around his waist, spinning around.
“You’ve never said it before!” he said, absolute glee in his voice. “You’ve never said that I’m your best friend!”
“Put me the fuck down!”
“No!” Naruto was nearly squeezing the life out of Sasuke, making Sasuke give up on escape to try and just breath. His arms wrapped around Naruto’s shoulders, just trying to keep them from crashing to the ground as his feet hovered above it. He huffed, face pressed to Naruto’s neck. He was still pissed, royally pissed, but the ice was melting against Naruto’s heat.
It took another minute before Naruto put him down, but even then, he hovered close. Sasuke had been right; Naruto had teared up a little. “What’s gotten into me ? What’s gotten into you ,” Sasuke grumbled, one of his hands on Naruto’s chest, pushing him away but only lightly.
“We’ve been best friends for years and years, but you never wanted to admit it,” Naruto said with a huge smile he couldn’t seem to erase. “And I’m sorry about the party, about it all, I didn’t mean to distract from that,” he said, making Sasuke’s eyes widen in surprise that he’d actually listened, “but hearing that from you just kind of… blows everything else out of the water.”
Sasuke had no idea that was so important to Naruto. He wasn’t the type to say things; Sasuke was more likely to show his devotion than give some grand speech, but apparently, Naruto had been waiting a long time to confirm something that Sasuke thought had been a given.
They stared at each other, much closer than they were before, than they should be. What would Naruto’s girlfriend say if she could see this? It hadn’t slipped Sasuke’s notice that Naruto hadn’t brought up his girlfriend at all. Maybe Sasuke had managed to capture his full attention, after all.
“I’m still mad,” was all he said, to which Naruto sighed.
“Course you are. You wouldn’t be Sasuke if anything were ever so easy.” Naruto backed off, finally, and Sasuke could breathe again. “Well, you can be mad at me, I deserve it. But when you’re done, I’m still going to be here. I am,” he tacked on, “your best friend, after all.”
“Stop saying that, it’s embarrassing.”
“I can’t, it’s too good.”
Sasuke did his very, very best not to smile and turned back to scrubbing his dishes, trying to find his anger again and failing. Damn it. No one could make him more livid than Naruto could, but no one could make him happy like this either.
“Sas?” He grunted in response. “About me abandoning you, though… I don’t mean to. I just take you for granted sometimes. Because, you know, the girlfriends, they come and go, but you’re always going to be with me.”
Sasuke had absolutely nothing to say in response to that. He didn’t trust himself to not spill right then and there, to say the three words always ready on his tongue. Instead, he just gave Naruto a small nod of agreement, and then scoffed, scrubbing away, remembering.
“Jealous.” He sent Naruto a glare. “Like hell I am.”
“Yeah, just remind me to, like, never ever say that to you in the future.”
…
“Come on, Sasuke, it’s my birthday!”
“Absolutely not.” He sat squeezed between Kiba and Shikamaru with Karin on his lap, his voice coming out muffled from behind her red hair.
Sakura had insisted that for her 22nd birthday, she wanted to do karaoke. “You know, we get a room and food and everyone can sing badly together. How does that sound?” To Sasuke? Not very fun.
If there was one thing that Sasuke didn’t do besides wear orange or turn off read receipts, it was sing. It just was something he didn’t do ; there were too many opportunities to look stupid, and he’d fallen out of practice. His mother had told him when he was young that he had a sweet voice and that he should sing more, but without her around to sing with him, he’d long forgotten his love for it.
That wasn’t nearly enough, however, to make him miss out on Sakura’s party, which would have been an unforgivable and punishable offense. Instead, he went with her early to pin streamers and balloons to the bright red walls, and listening to her talk about all of the songs she wanted to sing, forced to reassure her it would go perfectly.
Even with purchasing the biggest room, there was barely enough space for all of them. First, it was just supposed to be Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto, and Ino. But then, of course, Naruto blabbed to Lee (who invited himself, Neji and Tenten) and Karin (who invited herself, Juugo and Suigetsu). After that, simply everybody had to be invited, and now there was a grand total of 19 people all stuffed in odd places around two small vinyl couches.
It had been going well so far. It was awkward at first; no one wanted to get made fun of for their bad voices or dance moves, but after a few nostalgic songs started to play, everyone was getting into it. Turns out, Ino had planned an entire routine to I Kissed A Girl and Choji could rap faster than anyone Sasuke had ever seen. Sakura had started them off with Fergalicious, Gaara brought them back to seventh grade Welcome To The Black Parade, and Sai performed all of Bohemian Rhapsody completely deadpan, and that had everyone laughing on the floor. So, it was going well. Until, of course, the microphone inevitably turned to Sasuke.
“It’s her birthday!” insisted Karin, elbowing him sharply in the stomach. “Can’t you at the very least do that for her?” Sasuke only glared at her which only made her elbow dig in harder. “What a bad sport.” He didn’t know why she was pointing it out; it was a well-known fact that Sasuke was a horrible sport.
“You should give it a try, Sasuke! It really is fun,” Tenten told him, and then caught his gaze. “Nevermind.”
“I have a way to solve this,” Naruto suddenly said, standing up from his place on the floor. He streched, and had this sly look on his face which was almost as obvious as his ugly neon t-shirt. “If Sasuke won’t sing, I’ll just have to take his place.”
“Boo, don’t try to save his ass,” someone called.
“Oh, I’m not going to save him,” said Naruto lightly, catching the microphone Choji tossed to him. “I’m going to serenade him.”
Oh, no. Naruto wiggled his eyebrows at Sasuke, daring him to get up and take Naruto’s spot. He was in an impossible position; Sasuke didn’t sing, he just didn’t , but whatever Naruto was about to do was probably going to be mortifying. Karin hopped off his lap with glee, so he didn’t even have a barricade for protection from Naruto.
“Sakura, if you would do the honors.” He whispered in her ear, making her snicker, and then type the number of the song into the keypad by the screen.
The second the song started Sasuke wished he would have just stood up. Everyone around him let out a loud cheer for Naruto, which he waved away to make room for himself.
“ You are ,” he began, pointing at Sasuke like a lethal bow and arrow, “ my fire. My one, desire .”
Of course it was fucking Backstreet Boys. Everyone knew Sasuke couldn’t stand boy bands, because he thought they were dumb, but Naruto knew the truth.
Sasuke hated boy bands because when he’d been young and impressionable and didn’t know he was gay yet, he get the biggest secret crushes on them (usually the blonde one). Meaning, he convinced himself he just “really, really liked their music”. How absolutely horrifying, and Naruto was punishing him for it.
He showed absolutely no signs of stopping, clutching the microphone in one hand and letting the other hover, still calling Sasuke out.
“ Believe, when I say, ” he continued, “ I want it that way. ” As he did, he winked, like Sasuke knew exactly what “that way” meant. He instantly went red, and Naruto had probably known that that was going to happen, too.
When the chorus came around, Naruto turned the microphone to the crowd and was met with a resounding cry of “ TELL ME WHY! ” Sasuke just put his head in his hands, trying to let his hair draw the curtain on this scene.
When he looked up, Naruto was suddenly much closer, the cord connected to the microphone sliding through his fingers as he moved. He dropped to his knees before Sasuke, now at eye level, gaining catcalls as he did that only served to make him more obnoxious. “ Am I ,” he asked, “ your fire ?” He grabbed one of Sasuke’s hands, pressing it to his own chest and looking at him pleadingly. “ Your one desire? ”
Sasuke’s eyes widened and he tugged his hand back, making Naruto laugh and mess up the lyrics. Sakura grabbed the other mic and continued, this time directed towards Ino as she reached out her hand to her girlfriend. Ino took it, pulled from her seat, and grabbed Kiba’s hand, too, pulling him up with her. He grabbed Hinata who grabbed Neji.
That’s all it took to get everybody dancing and yelling the lyrics together. Naruto used Sasuke’s slight distraction to pull him up with their friends, spinning him around and then pulling him close.
“Come on,” he said, barely audible above the racket. “Can’t you loosen up, just this once?” Sasuke almost didn’t hear it, with how focused he was on Naruto’s hand on the small of his back. He was nodding before he could think twice, and then he was dancing, for the first time in years.
It was an awkward beat to dance to, not fast enough for reckless jumping, but everyone was making do anyway. He bumped shoulders with Temari and Juugo in the cramped room, but his attention was pinpointed on Naruto. It felt like they were alone. Naruto was smiling with approval, and Sasuke was just basking in it.
This felt fitting, somehow. His crush on Naruto made him feel just as stupid as this song. It ended too soon. Afterward, everyone was laughing and pushing each other, but separating, too. Sasuke held onto Naruto for as long as he could before it would have been weird to keep doing so. He might have imagined it, but Naruto seemed to feel the same way.
When they returned to their seats, they sat next to each other. Sasuke’s face wasn’t red anymore, but with his body pressed close to Naruto, he burned for the rest of the night.