AN: This is the very definition of an idea that completely ran away from me. I set out to write a short, cute drabble on Naruto's freckles to get myself back in the swing of writing and then this just came pouring out. I am all question marks over it. Question marks and flaming cheeks. [Pt.1] of a b-day gift for dear harunamotokis (who brought up the freckle headcanon in the first place) and [pt.2] of a b-day gift for dear gabzilla-z.

Please do heed the rating appropriately as this contains smut. Happy reading!

When Naruto comes back to Konoha, he is weary to the bone and his skin is two shades darker with sand collected in the most uncomfortable places. He makes his way back to the apartment and opens the door but knows immediately that Hinata is not back from her mission yet. Disappointment dampens his spirits. He had hoped that his weeklong mission to Suna would put him on schedule with her return from her two week mission with Kiba and Shino.

He shakes his head to clear his mind and distracts himself by taking a quick shower before wandering into the kitchen for something to eat, but a week's absence from them both has left their fridge an empty and forlorn sight.

His stomach growls at this dismaying predicament but Naruto only grins, brightening with the prospect of surprising Hinata by stocking up on food. He makes a mental list of all her favourites as he steps out of the house, and heads toward the market with a hum and a friendly smile, sincerely glad to be back home.

Street vendors and grocers call out greetings to him, sending well wishes his way and to Hinata for him to pass on. He stops to exchange a brief conversation with many of them, offering help where and when he can. It is a long cry from the days when he used to be driven back, scorned and ridiculed for trying to buy anything from them. Those were empty days, hungry days, and the clawing in his stomach was only partially satisfied with food. The warm company, happy smiles, and loud greetings now fill him with a curling contentment. He holds no grudges. He has worked too hard, fought too many battles, loved too much to turn them away.

His trip leaves his arms laden with heavy bags as he heads home, the gold of the late afternoon sun stretching his shadow long down the road. Naruto instinctively feels a kind of warmth emanating from the apartment the moment as he comes down the road and he hurries, resisting the urge to swing the bags around his arms in excitement. He opens the door and he can smell Hinata's scent: lavender, fragrant from a shower and hanging light in the air.

"Welcome home," they call out in unison.

They are both startled into laughter and when Hinata steps down the hall to meet him, Naruto reaches her first and wraps an arm around to pull her in close, bags and all. He dips into her for a kiss long overdue and her hands slide up to cup his neck and run through his hair. They languidly deepen the kiss as they sink into one another, savouring the warmth, the softness, the sweetness. They linger like they have all the time in the world.

Leaving is always difficult, but there is nothing like returning to each other's embrace again.

Hinata pecks his lips once, twice, before stepping out of the circle of his arms to take some of his bags. She smiles in delight at the cinnamon rolls he picked up and Naruto hugs her close, basking in her happiness and laughing when the familiar telltale pink of her blush stains her cheeks. He follows her into the kitchen and she shares what she can of the border activity Team 8 was investigating while he tells her of Suna as they prepare and eat a late dinner together.

The sun sets among swaths of colour soaked clouds, painting the kitchen in a deep, rich light. They talk and laugh lightheartedly, but there is no mistaking the way Naruto brushes up against her, pins her against the counter. His hands always reach out to delve into her hair and brush her skin where he can. Hinata is no better, sneaking in kisses that become increasingly deeper and more involved, fingers trailing up his arms and across his chest. There is a promise and a slow aching burn that heats between them.

It's been two long weeks and finally, the night is theirs.

Hinata discovers them first and is immediately drawn as she straddles him, her bare skin shifting against his in delicious friction.

They dot his shoulders, sprinkle across his collarbones, and fade down his back and chest like stars of the night sky blinking awake as twilight fades. The skin beneath his freckles is dark, bordering on sunburned, and she thinks she can almost taste Suna's sand and heat beneath her tongue but no- he tastes of home.

There is so much more of him to explore and discover, even after so many years of watching him, admiring him, being with him. She bites and licks her way across his map of freckles, tracing constellations and finding new scars and new memories criss crossed between them, but Naruto is the one searching the sheets of the bed to grasp and tangling his fingers in her long hair, groaning her name over and over like a destination he is trying to get to as she leaves signs across his skin for him to follow.

He is so warm, hot beneath her lips. His heart beats in his chest and when pressed up so close to him, his heart feels like her own pounding under her skin, lighting sparks across her body. His hands run through her hair and down her bare back, slowly following the bumps of her spine one by one as if he is memorizing this new landscape he cannot see but only feel, with its rivers of silk smooth hair that slip teasingly between his venturesome fingers.

Hinata arches against him, gasping at his touch and Naruto immediately takes the opportunity to kiss and nibble her exposed neck and jumping pulse, grinning as her hands run up his arms in both an effort to find a somewhere to hold onto and to continue the task her mouth became distracted from. Her fingers eventually find their way to his hair, soft and almost silver in the moonlight. Her hands grip, and her eyes find his. He reaches up as she leans down and Hinata catches that smile that she loves so much with her lips.

Naruto was chuckling a little before at her disorientation but when Hinata licks his lower lip and opens her mouth to deepen the kiss and breathe him in, he is completely lost in her. She never holds anything back when she kisses, and he feels every bit of love and desire she has for him in that single action. She is at her most open to him then and he doesn't hesitate to respond in kind, eager to reciprocate the same yearning, the same vulnerability, the same intensity.

Naruto is never afraid to let himself go with her. She makes it easy, for him to fall in love. To light fires that burn his body up. To get his palms itching to cup her bare skin, impossibly soft and irresistibly warm.

But he never takes, never demands anything more than she is willing to impart. He only knows how to give, and he is humbled and inspired that she not only accepts him, cherishes him, loves him, but that she gives back in equal ferocity and fervour.

Hinata never takes, never demands anything from him either and that is what pushes him to give her parts of himself he didn't even know he had in him to give, pieces that he would not have trusted with anybody else. That he hardly trusts with himself.

Naruto gives her his heart and in her hands, he finds it beautiful.

He flips them over and doesn't do anything immediately, instead taking the time to slowly trail his eyes down her body in blatant appreciation before giving her a cheeky smile as she raises an eyebrow at him, the seemingly stern expression completely offset by the smile dancing on her lips. The moonlight catches her eyes, turning them a molten silver so bright they glimmer like lights of their own until she lowers her eyelids and they darken as she looks at his lips, still red from her kisses and curved in that devious smile.

"I was in the middle of something," Hinata points out, literally, with her long fingers reaching up to trace the freckles on his broad shoulders once more. They are a poor substitute for her mouth, and she licks her lips, still wanting to taste his skin that is something a little sweeter and headier than salty, tasting of heat and sun.

Naruto melts at her touch- he always does- but resolutely refuses to give his position away.

"You can't have all the fun," he murmurs, bending down to press feather soft kisses across her cheeks, forehead, chin, always purposefully missing her mouth and grinning at her groan of frustration. "I didn't know you'd like my freckles so much. You should see them in the summer."

"Is that a promise?" Hinata breathes, gasping as he rakes his teeth along the shell of her ear and tugs her earlobe in that way that always gets her humming. Her fingernails drag along the defined musculature of his shoulders and down his chest and across his abs, feeling him tense and surge to meet her hands like waves rushing out to kiss the shoreline.

"Only if you're willing to find them all," Naruto laughs, his hands tangling in the rivers of her ink dark hair that spill over the white sheets and his arms framing her beautiful face. He hardly knows himself where on his body he changes and where he stays constant but he knows Hinata will find them. She will find all the darker corners and dips that he never knew and she will kindle fires and make him vibrantly aware.

She hums in anticipation, her fingers already itching to explore every curve and plane of his body so she'd have the clearest map to find those elusive dark stars that only appear when the sun coaxes them from beneath his skin.

He is beautiful to her, always, but she knows that under the strong and steady beams of the sun is when he'd look the most magnificent, when she can see him ignite and glow from the inside out as she helps him reach his peak.

"And no cheating," Naruto adds, leaning down to so very gently peck her eyes that close just in time. She merely grins in response and trails her hands down lower, smoothing along his sides until she reaches the indents on his hips she knows will lead to where she wants to touch and taste the most.

"I would never," Hinata teases, and her eyes fly open when she feels him grip her wandering hands and bring them over her head to splay against the pillows. Naruto rocks his hips down onto her, the heat of his erection pressing against her abdomen and his name slips out of her in a drawn out moan, both a plea and encouragement.

"If you get tomorrow, I'll have tonight?" he asks, and she's wondering if he means the immediate tomorrow or the far-off promised tomorrow of a summer afternoon before she is completely distracted by the deep and insistent kiss he sweeps her up in. She opens herself immediately and tilts her head to press closer to him, tasting him as much as she can. Naruto breaks away and is back in the same breath, not yet done with savouring her lips.

Hinata trails after him when he breaks away again but he has other ideas. He plants open mouthed kisses slowly along her jaw and she sighs as he makes his way down her neck.

They both give, so much, always, that sometimes they tease, persuade, fight for who is in control and if that isn't some of the best sex they ever have.

But tonight Naruto is determined to make it about her. It rises up within him from time to time, a kind of incredulous disbelief that Hinata is still here with him, that she loves him and wants him. That she will not leave, no matter what his deepest fears and nightmares whisper.

The darkness magnifies and presses like a tumour in his mind and he always instinctively seeks her out to touch, to hold, to love because she has always been able to burn out that darkness within him until he sees nothing but light, bright as silver and just as warm.

It is as much for him as it is for her, because her pleasure and happiness has always been the most beautiful thing for him to witness.

He takes his time kissing his way down her body, admiring and appreciating her delicate collarbones, the swell of her chest, the stiffening points of her nipples, the soft and sensitive undersides of her breasts, the firm muscles of her stomach. He picks out all the specific spots he knows she responds best to and works his tongue and teeth in ways that has her breath hitching and her heart hammering.

"Naruto," Hinata whispers between gasps, rocking her hips against him, her body undulating under his caresses and he delights in playing her body like an instrument. He teases a nipple between his teeth, gently tugging and licking it in turns and she moans long and low in her throat, throwing her head back, her fingers gripping his hands tightly and her legs rising up against his sides to press her core against him. Naruto growls at the contact, his pulse jumping wildly, but he pulls himself back and presses feather light kisses down to her stomach. Hinata sighs then, and her grip relaxes as she tilts her head down to watch him.

His blue eyes burn in the dark, like the center of fires, ringed by the gold of his hair.

The simmering in her belly flares. Naruto can inflame her with just a look and she loves watching him want her, mark her, taste her. She is alive in that gaze, never ashamed or embarrassed.

Naruto's hands are not idle either and they slide from where they are laced together with her fingers down her outstretched arms, his large and calloused palms gliding over smooth skin and raising goosebumps in their wake. He can never get enough of her long fingers, her open hands, her small wrists, her shapely forearms, her strong biceps. Her hands are the most destructive parts of her but he knows them to be soothing, powerful, versatile. Very versatile.

Naruto is so caught up in just watching her that his tongue feels it before he realizes where he has ended up on her body, the stop he did not intend to make but could not have gone without. The thin ridge that sits just below her left breast, right under her heart, is the white of old scars. He brings his hands down to cradle her waist, his fingers rubbing circles where they rest.

He plants a kiss, gentle and soft and lingering on the innocuous scar, which looks no different than all the rest that are scattered throughout her body, tallies of all the times she has fallen and gotten back up. But as Hinata takes a long, slow inhale, his hands follow the dip of her stomach and he feels the pulse of her heart beating beneath his fingertips. Naruto stares at that particular mar on her pale skin, a reminder of everything he could have lost.

Fingers running lightly through his spiky hair draw his attention up again. Hinata looks at him with understanding, with patience, with just a touch of old pain from the memory of her close kiss with death. But she rakes her fingers over his scalp and exhales. Her heart races from the way he studies her so intensely, as if he is always trying to memorize precisely how she looks to him.

"I love you," Naruto breathes, eyes on her always.

He's said that to her dozens of times, hundreds, thousands it feels like, and not always with words, but he means it every single time; so much so that it always feels like he's saying it for the first time again and again and again. Hinata always says it the same way too and he knows her heart beats for him.

Naruto never thought loving could be this easy, this effortless, and he is determined to never take it for granted.

Hinata's lavender eyes crease into crescents and her cheeks lift as her lips curve in a smile. Her hand trails down to cup his whiskered cheek, her thumb brushing over his lower lip.

"I love you, always," she promises.

Naruto gazes at her a moment more, and his eyes darken until they remind her of oceans, deep and fathomless. He presses another kiss to her scar and his lips hover just over her skin a moment longer before making quick work down to her abdomen. He stops briefly to tease her bellybutton and this time there is no slow inhale and exhale but a sharp and unsteady intake of breath.

He slips further down still until his face is nestled between her thighs, his broad shoulders nudging her legs wide open for him. Hinata's face flushes in embarrassment but more in anticipation. Naruto's eyes sparkle up at her as he languidly leaves kisses along her inner thighs, inching closer and closer to the place where she wants his mouth most though always eluding her.

Her abdomen clenches as he shamelessly breathes her in, and she knows he can see how much that turns her on. Her cheeks become darker still in embarrassment and arousal but her eyes never leave his, her expression hiding nothing from him.

Naruto grins at her frustration and adjusts his hands so they support her hips, angling her pelvis for better access. Hinata huffs when he still will not bring his mouth to her.

"Naruto," she groans and her eyes shyly dart to the side once before meeting his again, her fingers unconsciously gripping his hair a little tighter. They are signs enough that she knows he can read but the plea wings out between her lips before she holds herself back. "Please, don't keep me waiting."

Naruto hums and her legs press around him, wanting to feel the vibration. "I would never," he teases, echoing her earlier words. "Comfortable?"

Hinata has both pillows behind her and the only discomfort she experiences is the slow burn in her belly that absolutely needs tending to. She nods and abruptly gasps, arching up in the same breath as he finally tastes her, licking her in one long, broad stroke.

Hinata's breaths become short, quick, and unsteady as she curls her head up to watch as he kisses and licks her gently, drawing out a moan that she can't let go of. She resists the urge to close her eyes and lie flat upon the pillows to just feel him. His blue eyes connect with hers and they burn, sparking with insatiable desire.

His licks press harder and his tongue flicks out to taste her more deeply as he responds to her verbal and physical reactions. Hinata's pupils are blown out, lighting her lavender eyes to bright silver and Naruto absolutely loves when he drives her, lights her from within until her eyes glow bright with passion and hunger.

Her hands pull his hair but Hinata knows he finds the slight pain pleasurable, more so in that she often can't help herself and he delights when she slips in her control. It sharpens his concentration and she gasps and sighs as his tongue and teeth work her, her legs jerking when he finds a particularly sensitive spot. Naruto's hands are hot as as they press onto her thighs, keeping them relatively in place and the pressure only heightens the sensations for her.

Something inside her slowly winds up tight, making her abdomen flex and tense, and that is the sign Naruto waits to feel before he brings his mouth up to suck at her clit as he presses a finger into her entrance. He moves gently at first, knowing that a slow and steady buildup is what Hinata needs and gradually increases his speed and pressure as she cries out broken moans in encouragement. He curls his finger and has to move his free arm over her hips to keep her pinned as she involuntarily bucks.

Hinata unlocks one of her hands from Naruto's hair to tangle instead with the fingers of his free hand, and she holds on tight as he adds another finger inside of her. His mouth and hand work in tandem, sucking harder, pumping deeper.

His eyes never leave hers and he watches her cheeks flush increasingly as he stokes that fire inside her more and more, sparking her, lighting her, igniting her-

-and she releases in pure euphoria, his name spilling out from her in an involuntary and unrestrained moan as waves of pleasure rush through her body. Naruto drinks in the sight of her, his gaze intense, searing, committing this moment in his mind to remember. It joins dozens of other similar memories but he treasures each and every single one of them.

They are all gifts from her, of her at her most exposed, her most uninhibited; of a private part of her soul bared for him to see.

He gentles his motions but continues to suck and curl his fingers within her as Hinata comes down from her high, prolonging her pleasure as much as he can. He withdraws as she eventually grounds herself and he gives a last long stroke of his tongue over her. Her hips weakly lift to meet him but there is little drive to her movement as her muscles relax and her limbs sprawl loosely over the bed.

Hinata allows herself to fully sink back into the pillows, a smile stretched across her flushed face, and she glows even as she struggles to catch her breath.

Naruto presses sweet kisses along her inner thigh as he sits up, and Hinata can't help but laugh breathlessly at his pleased expression. The slight smile on his face is light but his eyes that watch her still burn, and in their depths a shade of something wild, primal flickers red.

Levity dissipates like smoke as need and anticipation pool in Hinata's belly once more, a potent heat that makes her muscles tingle in an altogether different manner.

Naruto groans as he takes his cock and pumps himself lightly to take some of the edge off and Hinata watches hungrily, avidly. She wets her lips, wanting to taste him, but a look from him makes her pause. Not at this moment, he is saying, but she keeps her desire for him, for his taste simmering just beneath her skin for the next time. She doesn't look away as she pulls the bedside drawer open to withdraw a condom, scooting close when she feels the thin wrapper between her fingers.

Naruto's strokes becomes quicker, his pants more uncontrolled as she settles before him. Hinata glances up and his eyes are the wild sharp blue of storms. She swallows at his fixated gaze on her and he groans roughly at the sight.

She drops her gaze to his cock again and watches him for another delicious moment before her hand comes up to wrap around his base. Naruto lets go and she continues his strokes seamlessly, matching his previous pace. The moans rumbling from his chest and his heavy pants encourage her and she picks up speed, judging from past experience how hard she should grip and how fast she should go.

He is hot and smooth in her palm and Hinata feels a familiar tightening in her belly as she watches Naruto feel her hand. She loves that she can elicit this kind of reaction, this level of desire.

Hinata is startled when one of his hands comes to grasp her wrist, halting her movements. Naruto's breathing is ragged and it takes him several breaths and a conscious effort to collect cohesive thought before he tells her, "You are too good at this."

Hinata breathes his name and Naruto catches it on her tongue as he tilts her head back to kiss her. She responds eagerly, hungrily, and a kiss that was meant to take some of the edge off leaves them both aching for more.

"They say practice makes perfect," Hinata pants as he kisses her neck. Naruto bites at her pulse, feeling it jump wildly beneath his lips and his hands grip her hipbones with a pressure that has her moaning low in her throat.

"Good thing," Naruto groans as he works on leaving a mark at the crook of her neck, "we have all night then."

"This night- ah- and, every night," Hinata agrees, her words coming out in broken thoughts. She can hardly concentrate between his words and his teeth against her skin but she finds the condom wrapper lost in the sheets beside her once more and tears the corner open. She rolls it on him with practiced ease and her hands come up to grip his biceps as his arms wrap around her waist, lowering her down flush against the bed.

All the nights and all the days, for every hour is theirs for the taking. She's desired him since before she learned how to take courage and confidence in her sexuality and he- he has many years to catch up on. They are voraciously hungry for each other, always. And better: they love to savour.

Naruto guides himself into her, slowly, steadily, and he pants at the effort of his restraint but his eyes are always fixed on her expression, always reading for her pleasure and comfort. He knows she can still be too sensitive from her climax sometimes to go fast again and slows himself down until she is ready.

The knot in Hinata's stomach tightens further, the familiar fire simmering in her belly. She squeezes his free hand which is interlocked with hers against the bed- go ahead, I'm ready, I need you- and Naruto anchors himself to her as he surges the rest of the way in, burying himself fully inside her.

He groans her name, his voice low and utterly guttural, at the sensation of being tightly enveloped by her heat. Hinata moans his name back, long legs pressed tight around his waist, heels digging into the back of his thighs to bring him as close to her as she possibly can.

She is overwhelmed by how full he makes her. Her arms come up to drape over his shoulders and her nails dig across his back and drag when Naruto begins to pump slowly, shallowly. His hand runs up her stomach to her breast and he rubs, tweaks, pinches her nipple and she can't think anymore. After a few minutes of listening and feeling her respond with increasing eagerness, he picks up the pace of his thrusts as Hinata moans and arches up into his hand.

She is so sensitive to him and he absolutely works it. She vaguely thinks of all the long years she spent teaching herself that her sensitivity was not a burden but a gift, and wonders how it only takes him a night to show her the same thing.

Naruto pants at the crook at her neck as he pulls partially out and drives deeply back into her. He nips at her neck and then bites as he thrusts hard and Hinata's resulting moan that saturates the air, loud and shaky, almost wipes all semblance of control from his mind.

He tightly reigns himself back and prepares to slow down until her hands come sliding down his arms, gripping his biceps and holding on as he keeps his pace. Hinata brings them all the way down to lace with his hands as he moves to meet her, and he brings their locked fingers up by her head. They brace against each other, hold each other and he rises up so he can see her expression and meet her eyes.

They are bright silver, shining, and he sees the anticipation, the hunger, the love in one look. Hinata wraps her legs around him, angling her hips up and cries out in pure pleasure as he hits her most sensitive spot.

She clenches around him, her muscles fluttering, and that is the moment he waits to feel before he surrenders himself. His rhythm stutters as he rolls his hips and thrusts harder, deeper, faster. His grunts and groans mingle with her punctuated moans and cries and even in his haze of mounting pleasure, his eyes never leave hers.

Naruto drives powerfully into her and the knot inside her winds tighter, tighter, tighter before she completely unravels in a flood of electric ripples throughout her body. Hinata's mind blanks into white brilliance as she releases, his name spilling out from her like a sign left for him to follow, her core clenching and spasming around him. Naruto abandons any sort of pace and his hips jerk erratically, pumping deeply, and the sight of her bliss pulls him over the edge to join her, her name coming out in a rough, unsteady growl.

Hinata watches his eyes flash red, his whiskers darkening and thickening on his cheeks as he thrusts through their joined high. His climax is a wild beauty, a multitude of instincts within him pulled together and channelled in one pure emotion. He is powerful in his intensity but even now it is tempered with gentleness, and she is always caught breathless by his raw expression of love.

Naruto tumbles onto the bed beside her, pulling her close in the same motion. He chuckles hoarsely as their pulses race wildly with each other before gradually slowing down in found harmony. Hinata runs the pads of her fingers over his cheeks, feeling his whiskers smooth beneath her touch, watching his eyes return to the blue of summer skies.

Naruto waits until he catches his breath, until she returns fully to herself and is relaxed, boneless before he slips out. He pecks her lips sweetly, softly once, twice, and doesn't resist sneaking in a third kiss before he rolls out of bed and makes his way to the bathroom to dispose of the condom.

Hinata hums in hazy satisfaction as her gaze drifts from his figure to the window. She distractedly picks out familiar stars, bright against the velvet blue sky but doesn't have to wait long before she feels the bed dip and a muscled arm curling around her, pulling her towards the warmth of his body.

Hinata rolls over to look at him, tangling their legs together, and she can't help but smile with captivated wonder and love as he looks at her with the softest expression.

Naruto's eyes linger on hers for a long, quiet moment and he brings his hand up to brush his knuckles gently over her cheek.

"I see you," he whispers, voice low and rough. His fingers skim over her skin down her body until they rest lightly on the scar beneath her heart. He splays his hand and with her heart beating in time with his pulse, he can almost imagine her heart as his own drumming in his chest.

Hinata thinks of stars that guide people home as she kisses a trail of freckles from his shoulder, up his throat, and over his jaw. His smile is the softest, gentlest curve as she closes the last distance to his lips.

"I found you."