Notes: Slightly AU. I like Anko x Orochimaru. A lot. So, I wrote about it. Enjoy!

EYES

Sometimes, when Anko sat up at night, she could still feel his serpentine yellow eyes on her. Watching her; waiting for her to run out of her house in the middle of the night, doing whatever she could to drive the thoughts of him and his eyes out of her head.

Tonight was one of those nights for Anko. A restless spring night with nothing but yellow eyes looking at her whenever she shut her pale eyelids. And it wasn't just the eyes tonight, oh no. She could see him tonight. Black hair highlighted by the moonlight as he stood by her open window; a smirk playing on his lips as he watched her rise up out of bed and pad across the hardwood floors into his welcoming arms.

God damn him. Him and his yellow eyes. God damn everything about him!

Anko rolled over in her bed and put an arm over her eyes to block out the moonlight. For old times' sake, she glanced over to that familiar spot by her window. When she saw no one there, the was a familiar ache inside of her, and it most certainly was not the cursed seal acting up. She sighed fiercely and threw the covers off of her still sleepy body. Anko walked to her bedroom door and grabbed a jacket on her way down the stairs. She slipped on her shoes and slipped out the door into the chilly night.

She had no idea what she was doing. No matter what she did, she could never get the vision of his eyes out of her head once it was in there. She could almost hear his airy cackle as she wandered the empty streets of Konoha in the middle of the night. On her way, Anko stopped by his old flat in the heart of Konoha's business district. She looked up at the balcony wistfully, remembering all too well who used to wave down to her whenever she happened to be passing by. She looked down at the front stoop of the old building.

"What are you doing out so late, Anko-chan?"

Anko shivered and began to walk away. She felt someone staring at her. Before she even had the chance to turn around to look, she felt familiar arms around her waist. At that moment, Anko melted.

"What are you doing here?" she whispered. A familiar brush of cold lips against her ear said very little to the surprised elite shinobi.

"I can ask you the same thing," he whispered back. Anko leaned into the slim frame of the ninja behind her.

"I couldn't sleep…so I went for a walk," Anko said, finding that she had trouble speaking. She felt him smile darkly against her neck. She felt the cursed seal twinge. "Why are you here?"

"Would you believe me if I said I forgot something very important?"

"Not really," Anko admitted with a slight attitude, "Its not like you to be forgetful." An airy chuckle escaped into the night.

"Well, it took me years to realize that I had forgotten it," he explained simply, as if Anko were still a child. She clenched her jaw at his condescending tone of voice.

"I should kill you, you know. You're a wanted criminal."

"You couldn't kill me even if you wanted to, Anko-chan," he said. "Plus, I simply couldn't allow it to happen. Far too much to do, you know." Anko made a noise of disgust.

"So what did you forget?" she asked, growing even impatient with being held where she was. Anko felt bony hands slide up onto her shoulders. Slowly, she was turned to face the burning yellow eyes that had been haunting her sleepless nights for many long years.

"It's more like…something I forgot to do, Anko-chan," he said in a voice that Anko couldn't recognize. Her eyes never left his, even as he tipped his head so that he could bend down to kiss her.

Unlike the rest of his body, his lips were warm. They always had been. It was a wonderful contrast; being pleasantly cool everywhere below the neck. His kisses were nothing new to her. Except for this single one in the deserted streets of nighttime Konoha. There was something hidden under the smooth, tender flesh pressed against her lips; there was always something hidden within him, but this feeling…was pure. And for the man on the other end of her lips, that was something. Her hands instinctively reached up to cup his face. She ran her fingertips over his cheekbones and traced his jaw line. His arms snaked around to hold her closer to him.

It was a beautifully romantic, and, dare she say it, loving kiss from Orochimaru, the Legendary Sannin, the S-ranked criminal, the missing nin, the monster, her former sensei…

Her love.

Anko pulled back and sighed sadly against Orochimaru's lips.

"You forgot to make me even more miserable?" she asked in a reserved manner. Orochimaru embraced his former student and kissed her neck right above the cursed seal.

"I forgot to let you know that I loved you, Anko, despite everything I've ever done," he said against her neck. "Because since the night I realized that, your eyes haunted me. You haunted me. Waking and sleeping."

"Orochimaru, spare me," she whimpered into his hair. Orochimaru pulled away and looked at Anko, horror playing on his face. He released her and began to walk away. "I meant spare me from your speech and show me how much you love me." Orochimaru turned to face Anko, who was wearing a confident and dangerous smile like she used to. He smiled and came back to her, scooping her up in his arms and dashing to her flat.

The moment upon entering Anko's flat, shoes were discarded, as well as other pieces of clothing on the way up to her bedroom. In between bouts of fiery kisses that is.

That night, for the first time in years, Anko slept soundly, without being haunted by the yellow eyes that were sleeping just as soundly in her arms.