A/N: Oh goodness! It's the last chapter! Whatever will I do with my life!? Gah! I'm going to go ahead and mention this chapter is pretty much NC-17, be warned.

Outside my house I leaned into him, kissing the soft corner of his mouth.

He didn't like the tease, lifting his hands to guide my chin where he wanted it, which was where he could easily bury his tongue between my lips.

Uneasily, I wrapped my arms around his waist, pulling his body close and letting myself truly experience the way he felt.

He felt like a fireplace on Christmas morning.

"Goodnight." He mumbled against my lips, sliding his hands down to my chest.

"Yeah, goodnight."

I let him go, something that grew harder each time.

The pain was somewhat alleviated by the soft smile and wiggle of fingers he left me with. Hopefully it could keep me for the night but I wouldn't count on it.

I'd become addicted to him.

Inside I was surprised to see Temari standing in the front hall, arms crossed and a knowing look in her eyes.

Behind her was Shikamaru, burying his face into his hand.

I knew I was busted.

"Is that it?" She teased, looking ready to jump out of her socks. She almost did when Shikamaru pinched her side. "What?"

"Can't you give him a break?" The lazy man sighed, rubbing his eyes. "It's bad enough you're spying on him through your window."

"What?" I felt my stomach churn.

"Spying is such a nasty word."

"Temari!"

"Enough!"

Both flinched at my outburst, that same shocked look on their faces.

I was just surprising everyone lately, wasn't I?

Well if you're going, go with a bang. Isn't that what Naruto always said?

"I think Naruto is a mermaid."

That stopped them in their place.

"What?" Temari balked, looking unsure of what else to say. "Did you say… mermaid?"

That's about when Shikamaru started snickering, drawing her immediate attention.

"What are you laughing at? Can't you see this is serious?"

I scowled; once again it was like I wasn't even in the room.

"Of course it's serious, only not why you think."

I didn't have time to watch my sister and her husband argue. For one I just wanted to go to bed and stare at the ceiling…

Maybe think about Naruto for a while.

"Wait Gaara." Shikamaru grabbed my arm, giving me good measure to shoot him a dirty look.

I felt like a rabid teenager at an intervention.

I disgusted myself.

"Why do you think he's a… you know…" He couldn't say the word with a straight face.

"Mermaid?" Temari tried, shifting awkwardly on her feet.

"Yeah, mermaid."

"I don't know." I freed my arm. I was lying; I knew exactly why I had my suspicions.

Fishing him (forgive the term) out of the ocean naked, his obsession with useless but pretty little things, living on a boat and building unrealistic connections with any creature from the ocean… he practically wrote them down on a list for me.

I could tell them that but then they'd press for more and what more could I tell them? That when he touched me it was like a spark of magic surged through my skin down to my toes? That his eyes were like a trench, overflowing with feelings and concepts I feared I'd never understand? That when I was around him… I never wanted the sun to come up on another day; that things were okay in a way they'd never been?

Yeah, I could tell them that.

Right.

"Gaara." I hated that voice he used; it was proof that he easily forgot that he was younger than me. "Do you think he is a mermaid because you feel like there is no other explanation for the way he showed up in your life and made it what you hadn't realized you wished it was?"

My heart was pounding; I'm sure my expression was just as startled as Temari's.

"I… He talks to fish!" I garbled out, unable to properly form words.

I never realized how well the brunette knew me, even after all these years of him trying to be my friend.

"Did you think that no one could ever just love you?"

"Shikamaru!" Temari chided, staring at him in adulation.

"Did you?"

I took a deep breath, trying to sort out the turmoil inside me.

I wanted Naruto behind me, fishing his hands into my shirt and holding me up.

In my heart he was.

"No. I didn't."

Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't cry.

I willed my sister, the tears already welling up in her big blues.

"But what if I'm right, what if he is a mermaid?" I hissed, feeling like a cornered rat.

"Honestly Gaara," Shikamaru rubbed the bridge of his nose like he was speaking to a lower life form. "At this point, would you even care if he was?"

I inhaled sharply, the comment nothing less than a slug to the gut.

I was out the door with their calls of questioning echoing in my wake.

.

.

.

As dark as it was the cove was easy to spot under the sliver of moon, however, finding my footing while climbing the rocks was an arduous task of its own. Eventually I was able to clamor over and make it to the boat, something inside giving me the courage to leap right onto it, no fear for the churning black wave s that grew angrier and angrier.

Just as my feet touched the deck lightning struck somewhere far off, lighting the world for me.

I took it as a sign.

Naruto was probably asleep before I made my mad leap but the crack of my landing must have woken him because when I crept in he was up, holding his ice cream scooper out in front of him like a knife.

"I warn you! I took judo as a child!" He balked, arm shaking horribly.

In the dark I must have been indistinguishable; I guess spending most of my nights wandering around in darkness paid off ultimately in my sight.

"Am I supposed to be intimidated?"

He gasped at the sound of my voice, standing quickly and guiding me further into the blackness.

"For fucks sake Gaara, I almost killed you!" He groaned, running his hands up my chest, not caring about what it did to me.

"With an ice cream scoop…"

I saw his pout in a flash of lightning.

Then he tackled me to the floor with no warning, the boat lurching beneath us in a way that made my gut sink.

"I'll scoop out your eyes how about that!?" He laughed, finding the tender skin beneath my eyes with his thumbs and settling them there.

Then he grew quiet, stroking my face gently.

"You feel so wonderful." He leaned down to kiss my eyelid; letting his lips linger a bit. "Why are you here? There's a storm rolling in."

"I don't want you to leave." I admitted, inhaling his musky scent.

"What?"

"You came with the storm… I just felt you'd leave with it… but I don't want you to leave."

Laughter like bells echoed through the rocking boat.

"Oh Gaara… I'm not going anywhere." He kissed me roughly, settling himself just atop my crotch.

I think he noticed it as much as I did by the way he slightly wiggled his hips.

"Ah, Naruto…" I exclaimed, letting him hold my hands above my head. I don't think I could fight him off if I tried, not with the way he kept rocking back and forth.

Every so often thunder would shake the foundation and the lightning would give a clear glimpse of the blonde above me who was slowly working away at my shirt. Other than that I was left alone with the sensation of those nimble fingers pushing their way across my belly.

"It's not like you could get rid of me if you wanted to."

In the dark he made both a threat and a promise, a promise that as long as I wanted him he'd be here… and a threat that if I ever took my confession back I'd end up at the bottom of the sea.

That was fine with me.

My shirt was tossed aside, the thought of it falling into the water disappearing as soon as his prickly teeth met my neck. I waited for him to bite me, to suck me dry and just consume me right then and there.

He only stripped free of his own shirt before his teeth went down over my body, right until they were chewing at my pant line.

"What are you doing Naruto?" I whispered, panting and already feeling the sweat gather on my brow.

"Haven't you ever done this before?" He teased, the sound of my zipper opening practically echoing around us.

"I'm not exactly the social butterfly." I gasped, unsure of his fumbling hands as they took my dick in their grasp. "What are you going to do?" I managed, tossing my head back to stare at the rain that slipped through the hole in the roofing across the room.

"I can stop." He murmured, lips brushing the sensitive head cruelly. "If you're scared."

"I don't feel fear." But it was a lie because I did know fear, I feared he was a mermaid, I feared my family would find me insane. Lastly, I feared he would leave…

"Then stop asking so many questions." With that as a final statement he went down, practically swallowing up my dick in his mouth.

I always wondered if he'd eat me… this wasn't what I had in mind.

The way he felt around me was like nothing I could describe, it put me in a trance and I nearly lost my mind when he started to suck.

"Oh god Naru-Naruto." I shuddered, throwing my hands down to curl into his hair. Each strike of lightning gave me just another glimpse of the scene occurring between my legs, like little teasers that sent surges of pleasure through my body at the sight even more so than the feel.

It was like I'd become a withering creature, tormented and calling out profanities and pleads for "More… ahhh… More." Meanwhile that look in the blondes eyes implied that he was having the time of his life watching the mess I was reduced to.

I'd never heard myself scream until he gave the head a rough suck.

I was finished.

"That's to be expected," Naruto chuckled, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Since it's your fist time and all."

I groaned and slammed the back of my head down into the wooden planks, my chest heaving with each struggled breath.

"But, this hardly seems fair at all." His voice came out like a purr, climbing right back on top of me and settling just below my exposed (now limp) dick. "You know I like things fair."

But it wasn't fair, I just spent myself only to have my sensitive prick being fondled and tugged right back to life.

"Naruto…"

"Gaara…" He hushed me, one hand working me back up while the other brushed a sweaty lock of hair from my face. "I really love you, you know that? You believe me don't you?" His voice had a softness to it that was promising; I'd believe anything he told me in that tone.

"Of course." I managed, biting at my lower lip.

The blonde stretched out and pressed his warm chest against my belly, the feel of my renewed erection pressed into his flesh leaving me dizzy.

"You've never been with anyone… have you?" He scraped his tongue along the shell of my ear midsentence. I only shook my head. "What about an awkward middle-school kiss? You know, with some girl behind a dumpster before you realized you liked blokes." A kiss pressed into my neck before he pulled back up, finally satisfied that I was hard enough.

"I'm not into… blokes." I confessed, letting him guide my hands to his boxers and tug them down to gather at his thighs.

"Fooled me."

Was it normal for us to have small talk while I touched him nervously, rubbing my thumb into his head?

He shuddered so thoroughly I was sure he'd break.

"It's just you."

He was standing on his knees then, hovering over me like some glistening deity in the little light we were blessed with. By now the rain came down in torrents on the roof and I was sure that if I wasn't so distracted at the time the rocking of the boat would have sickened me.

"You know what to say to make me feel special." He murmured, burying two fingers into his mouth.

"You are to me." I watched him suck those digits, compassion spilling freely from his eyes. Then that hand was behind him, inserting a finger slowly into himself. The scene was excruciating, the way he arched his back and tried so desperately to steady his breath.

He was beautiful, more beautiful than any century old mermaid frozen forever in an old painting.

"You're killing me, Gaara." He panted, removing his hand and grabbing my dick once more.

I couldn't respond because I experienced something incredible in that moment. Like burying a knife into a hot body I sank right in, a twisted look of pain and concentration on my mermaid's face.

"Ahhh, oh God, you feel so…" I gasped, letting him shift a bit until I was comfortably filling him. "This is… this… is…"

"Nothing…" Naruto panted, repositioning himself. "This is nothing." Then he jerked his body up, spitting me out before he slammed back down.

And that's how it went.

I gasped and moaned and made every other animalistic sound I hadn't known myself capable of while he bounced against me, faster and faster and faster. Every so often lightning would flash and it was something like watching a camera go off in spurts.

Each picture was a gift.

"Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah."

Flash.

"Aaaahhh, ah, ah."

Flash.

Naruto's voice.

"Ah, Ga, Ga, Gaara…"

Flash.

"Touch me Gaara."

I did as I was told, gripping his member and stroking it against the precum that leaked freely from the tip.

"Aaaah, yes, just like that." He coaxed, practically doing the work for me as he slammed against my upward thrusting hips. "Oh God, Gaara I'm gonna…"

His expression sent me spiraling into my orgasm, riding it out into his ass as I pumped him into his own.

We were reduced to a sticky mess curled up in a pile of blankets.

Even the sound of the storm could not ill my ease as the blonde curled up in my arms like he belonged there.

"I've never done that before." He murmured into my chest.

"You sure spoke as if-" He cut me off with a finger to my lips.

"I've never made love before."

That night we couldn't have left the boat if we wanted to, the storm so violent I don't know how we stayed tied to that miserable rock.

The constant rocking put us both to sleep.

That storm that I felt so threatened by at first lasted three long days. Three days of harassment on Temari's part to wear her old plastic parkas, three days of Kankuro sleeping on the couch because he was worried we'd screw like bunnies while he was out cold from his constant supply of alcohol… three days that we never were apart longer than it took to shower or use the toilet.

Best three days of my life.

At the first sight of sun we sat together on our pier, yes, our pier. We watched the water, calmer than I ever remember it being, knowing that the storm had long blown over.

And he was still here, my mermaid, holding my hand and smiling like the nymph he was.

Then, true to character, he gave me a wink and leapt into the grey water, his splash dampening my legs.

He didn't ask me to go in, by now he learned that it would never happen.

I guess I'm full of surprises.

The water was cold as it swallowed me, not surprising nor entirely unwelcome. When I rose for air he was looking at me like I'd grown a second head, a look I'd grown used to and learned to ignore.

Then he kissed me tenderly, a little 'thank you' in how his tongue moved against mine.

I was not surprised by the cool feel of a pearl wrap around my leg, the sensation slipping away as quickly as it came.

I didn't say anything because my mouth was busy.

.

.

.

Five minutes later I was screaming through mouthfuls of water, wishing to any god that existed for death to come quickly.

I experienced my first sting from a hardhead.

It took three people and a pair of tweezers to pry the spine from my thigh, although Naruto was plenty concerned for me the whole time, I swear I could still see a bit of mirth sparkling in his ocean eyes.

He must have found it painfully (very, very painfully) ironic, though I couldn't stay mad for long.

I just made a mental note never to go in the ocean again; though holding my loves hand, I knew it was a lie.

I knew I'd follow him anywhere.

You're probably upset that a great many things have been left unanswered, but let's be fair, you know as much as I do.

It's like Shikamaru once said, for those who believe there is more than enough proof; for those who don't, there will never be enough.

I think it's up to you to decide, though, that's just my opinion.

A/N: HOLY WOW! Is it over? Can it really be over? It IS! Well, if you're still reading this, KUDOS! I'm so glad to have had you as a viewer and every single review that this story has accumulated is absolute love!

I guess I'll make one final advertisement for my prompt blog, the link you can find listed on my profile. I offer a great variety of pairings from different fandoms so check out the approved list before submitting your prompt!

I love you all!