And I return once more! This time, it's a surprise pairing with Sasuke in it. Hmm, I wonder who it could be! Read on and find out! Muahahaha!

To the readers of The Shackled Stallion….I am so super sorry for not updating that…I'll get right on it, I promise…um, once my lazy plot bunnies bring me something to work with…um…help is appreciated.

Disclaimer: Not Mine!

Rain

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Sasuke opened a bleary eye, wondering what had woken up. He lay still for a while, listening to the drumming of the rain on the rooftop and the sharp whistling of the wind. The storm. Was that what had woken him up?

No.

His bedmate was shivering, the tremors wracking his body. The brunette glared half-heartedly at the pathetic-looking form. A gust of wind caught his attention, and his transferred his glare to the open window.

They were experiencing the peak of summer, the sun an unforgiving flamethrower in the sky and the streets shimmering in the heat. The nights were no better. The air was flat and still, with the quiet sizzle of crickets too tired to chirp. His lover had taken to sleeping half-naked, sometimes completely in the buff, throwing his boxers at the opposite wall with a frustrated "To hell with this!" He was also the one who opened their windows in a fool's hope that a breeze might just be enticed into their room.

But tonight, he had warned him that there was going to be a storm, and as usual the idiot ignored him, throwing the shutters open and stripping as he made his way to bed. And now, here he was, shivering so much that the bed shook, while the storm blew icy gusts of air into their room.

Who had to fix the problem? No one else but the now-awake Uchiha Sasuke, that's who.

He closed the window and locked it for good measure, but he couldn't take his eyes from the inky darkness. How many times had he stood like this, forehead against the cool glass, staring out into the night while the rain pattered, echoing in his soul? Always, he thought of the same thing, wondering whether it was better to die, to give in to that welcoming darkness and to be free of his mock-existence. The monotonous rhythm the he had put up with, a life that was composed of endless days and nights, full of people who looked at him with unseeing eyes and saw only the outside, saw only the all-important Uchiha name and the red of his Sharingan and what he had made himself to be, the merciless, aloof avenger. They never knew, no one did, about the nights he spent in his cold, empty room with his hand over his chest, wishing that his life would just end, that someone would break the wall of impenetrable ice he had put up around his heart…

"…'suke…"

The sound of his name mumbled in a sleepy, yet needy voice broke his trance. Blinking the bygone shadows away, he looked back at the shivering lump and went back to bed, snagging the fallen blanket on the way. He settled back onto the pillows and his lover instantly turned to him, as it instinctively seeking his presence. Small hands caught at his shirt as a face burrowed into his chest, and he idly wondered why the idiot had finally stopped shaking. Shrugging, he pulled the blanket over the bare shoulders anyway.

A hand disentangled long enough to push the blanket off before returning to clutch at his body, Long legs pushed insistently between his and soon he was entangled within slender limbs. He sighed and reached over the naked back to grab the blanket again, this time pulling it over both of them. "It'll keep you warm, baka." He said, the gruffness of his voice contradicted by his gentle caress over the other's chin.

"Don't need it…I like this better…" came the drowsy reply, muffled by his shirt as the idiot pushed closer to press a soft kiss on his chest. "You keep me warm better than anything else…"

Sasuke smiled, burying his face in blond hair and pulling the lithe form as close as it could get in a clumsy parody of a hug. The ice of the past had given way long ago to this perpetual sunshine.

"You keep me warm too…Naruto."

- - - - - Author's Notes - - - - -

Surprise, surprise! Wasn't that a complete shock? A SasuNaru (cue the gasps)

(hits herself) like I'd write anything else. I'm hopeless.

Hope you all liked it!