Warning: If you reached so far in this story, you don't need any more warnings.

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There is an American movie from the 90's called Sleepers. It's based on a novel of the same name, but Sasuke didn't read the novel. Frankly speaking, he only watched the movie because Sakura had wanted to watch it, and she had wanted to watch it because Brad Pitt was in it. Sometimes it felt like she was on a lifetime mission to watch every damn movie that Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp acted in, and two years of dating Sakura had left Sasuke rooted in the shame of realizing that he was probably now more familiar with their IMDB profiles than the lyrics of Sex Pistols.

But I digress.

Sleepers was a movie that left an impression on Sasuke. In the movie, Brad Pitt acts as the defense lawyer of his and his childhood friends' rapists, while scheming behind the scenes to make sure he loses the case. He ends up destroying his own career for the sake of revenge. Somehow, Sasuke could understand him. He would've certainly done the same if he had been in his position.

But what Itachi did, it was entirely different. What Itachi did was just crazy.

And that was the first thing that came out of Sasuke's mouth, after Itachi finally opened his door.

"Are you fucking crazy?"

Itachi looked astonished for a brief moment. Clearly, that wasn't the morning he had expected to wake up to. He wasn't even dressed, only wearing a silk robe tied around his – of course - silk pajama pants, with disheveled hair, looking like someone who had just gotten out of their Egyptian cotton bed sheets.

"How did you…?"

Sasuke didn't even allow him to finish before he slammed a photocopy of the two notes written in Chinese newspapers onto his chest.

"I wonder how many Feng Shui articles you cut and collected from newspapers," Sasuke said with bitter sarcasm. He tossed his shoes off and stepped inside his apartment without waiting for an invitation.

"Quite a lot, I admit," Itachi replied, still looking a bit confused as he eyed the photocopies as he closed the door. "But I was positive these old articles couldn't-"

"I called Megami," Sasuke interrupted him again. "She told me everything."

Itachi's eyes widened. Sasuke didn't know why he was so surprised. It had been incredibly easy to make Megami spill the whole truth, like streaming water splashing out of a faucet that had been closed for far too long.

She'd told him that her testimony had been previously rehearsed with Itachi in secret. She knew his questions, he knew her answers. She'd told him Itachi had contacted her first, way before Shizune had found her, and had given her an old piece of a Chinese newspaper to write notes from.

She'd told him Itachi had wanted Orochimaru dead.

"I don't understand…" Sasuke halted for a moment. His heart started beating faster, as if anticipating Itachi's answer to the question he had yet to vocalize. All the feelings that he had stocked under a thick shell of numbness for the past few weeks were threatening to creep out of the lock, and he feared he wouldn't be able to hold them back from now on.

But he wanted to know. He needed to know.

"Why?"

He almost had to force himself to look into Itachi's eyes, all the while trying to ignore the bubbling emotions inside him. There were many things going on inside his head, and it felt like he couldn't run away from his feelings this time, because otherwise, they would keep haunting him forever. It's not like he could lock them inside the shell of deadness again. Not after knowing what he knew now.

Itachi opened his mouth but seemed unable to utter a word, and, as if suddenly changing his mind, he closed it again. Sasuke was still waiting for an answer, so after a few seconds of silence, Itachi finally said:

"Orochimaru is a dangerous person, and should be locked away." He broke eye contact with Sasuke and crossed the living room toward the kitchen area, where he turned on the coffee machine. "Would you like some coffee?"

"Why didn't you just walk away from the case, then?" Sasuke insisted, watching Itachi's back as he worked on the coffee.

He had this persistent feeling that Itachi was avoiding saying something he had wanted to say.

"If I had done that…" Itachi paused a bit, as he grabbed two mugs from the small wall cabinet over the counter, "My father would have replaced me as Orochimaru's legal attorney, and he would have made the judges hammer out a deal of 10 years, perhaps even less. How would you like your coffee?"

Sasuke clenched his teeth. Seeing Itachi acting so casually after everything that had happened irritated him. He knew the older man was skillfully avoiding replying to the questions with compromising answers.

"So you destroyed not only your career, but you also got a bartender out of his job because of your masturbatory altruism," he practically spat his words, unable to hide his sudden anger. "Aren't you a fucking saint."

Itachi lowered his head, staring at the marble of his kitchen's counter. His hands were still holding the mugs in a tense grip, as if suddenly forgetting what he was going to do with them. He let out a sigh, putting down the mugs and walked toward the coffee machine, keeping his back against Sasuke as he uttered:

"I would be lying if I said I wasn't expecting that outcome. But Oscar kindly collaborated with me fully knowing the possible consequences of his actions."

"That's another thing I don't get- what did he gain from all of this? How much did you pay him?"

The coffee machine beeped. Itachi placed the mugs under the double exit needles and clicked on the button to get them filled.

"I didn't have to pay him anything."

Again, he avoided answering the question. Sasuke had reached the pinnacle of his frustration.

He didn't understand what was wrong with Itachi (did he really believe himself to be some kind of vigilante?), but he was so angry right now that he simply wanted to get out of there. Itachi had not provided him the answers he was looking for. But then again, what answers was he looking for? Sasuke still didn't know. All he knew was that Itachi was being evasive. Sasuke wasn't convinced by his apparent philanthropy; on the contrary, he just found it obnoxiously narcissistic.

"You're fucking crazy," Sasuke proclaimed. Then he turned on his heels and prepared to leave, rejecting the offer for coffee.

Itachi halted him midway through his walk back to the door. "Wait, Sasuke!"

He almost sounded like he was pleading, surprisingly. Sasuke let out a deep sigh, turned around and with hasty steps, he skirted around the kitchen bar and violently snapped both mugs out of Itachi's hands. They splashed on the floor soundly, ceramic pieces and coffee spreading all over the floor's tiles. He couldn't care less about the damage. His frustration begot rage. Grabbing the collar of his robe, he slammed Itachi against the counter, making his head hit the wall cabinet, though not with a lot of force.

"Tell me why you did it," he hissed, his face only inches away from Itachi's, forcing him to look at his eyes. "Did Orochimaru also fuck you up and you wanted revenge? Did someone pay you big money to pull this off? You had to have had a reason, Itachi, so tell me the fucking truth! Tell me why!"

"Because I love you."

The words he uttered, Sasuke caught them in his throat, and he stared at him in bewilderment. He released his grip on him; the words that had left Itachi's mouth kept repeating inside his head, twirling in a jumble of thoughts and feelings he had been storing away for too long.

Itachi shied away from his stare, as if trying to hide his embarrassment. He was being honest, Sasuke realized with a pang of shock.

"Because I love you."

Was that really the reason why? The whole situation was beyond bizarre to him, and his head was in such an emotional mess that he could no longer think straight. Like his feelings were poured and mixed thoroughly into an emotional smoothie, and shaken into an otherworldly state of combustion. It was overwhelming and confounding at the same time. He was on the verge of some kind of emotional explosion.

Was this real? It was like he had just awoken into a crazy world. He didn't want this world. This was not the world he knew. Not the truth he believed in. It was not his truth. But the more he looked at Itachi, now standing defenseless, gazing at the floor uncomfortably, as if waiting for a hole to open up beneath his feet and swallow him whole – the more he realized that he was indeed telling the truth.

And that angered him so, so much.

This was not the truth he was looking for! What kind of reason was that? He loved him? Since when had they become so well acquainted with each other that Itachi felt he had the right to make such a bold statement? And what did he expect now, that Sasuke would feel eternally grateful to him for what he did? Did he expect that Sasuke should now feel like he owed him or something? For stealing his revenge from him?

"You love me…" Sasuke let out a dry laugh. He felt like he was going insane. Maybe he really was. "Fuck you Itachi! You had no right to do that!"

If he really loved him, he would've stayed the fuck out of his business! He had NO right to burst into his life, make him feel all those fucked up things he felt for him, then make him feel betrayed and THEN turn around and say this was all part of a plan for the love of him. He had no right to steal the credits of the trial from him and then try to transfer the weight of his actions to Sasuke's conscience.

Sasuke had never felt so powerless and pathetic. He hated this feeling. He hated that Itachi made him feel this way.

"You think your pathetic love confession will solve anything? You think that I'll take pity on your stupid sacrifice? Fuck you. I'm not going to thank you for taking away my dream."

Itachi stopped gazing at the floor and straightened his posture. He eyed Sasuke with an arched eyebrow and an unreadable expression.

"And what dream was that?"

"My dream of revenge!" Sasuke yelled.

He had always asked himself why his and Itachi's paths kept crossing each other. It was as if they were puppets of a narrative bigger than the reality he could grasp, the invisible strands controlling their movements extending further than the limits he could see. But he supposed now he knew who the puppet master was.

It had always been Itachi. This had always been his game. And Sasuke had no control.

"Your dream of revenge?"

Itachi's composure had changed. If a minute ago he seemed vulnerable, almost like a shy high-school student confessing his love awkwardly; now, he looked serious. His facial expression was colder than Sasuke had ever seen.

"Care to tell me how you would have accomplished that?" Slowly, he stepped closer to Sasuke, his bare feet carefully avoiding the broken ceramic pieces on the floor. "Do enlighten me, how would you with your amateur knowledge in law and that equally amateur lawyer of yours have successfully brought justice upon such a powerful man with decades of experience in evading judicial laws and, no offense," he stepped closer, dangerously shortening the hostile distance between them until his face stood mere inches apart from Sasuke's, "more intelligence than the two of you combined?"

"You conceited asshole..." Sasuke snarled, baring his teeth like an irate cat whose entire sense of security had been shattered by an invading predator. "We had evidence! It would've been a clean trial."

"Evidence that I gave you."

Itachi was dangerously close to him, Sasuke could even smell his breath. He fought the urge to pull his gaze away from Itachi's crushingly chilly eyes, glaring at him like he was some pathetic creature at the bottom of the food chain that had just dared to defy him.

"I could prove that Orochimaru was running a meth lab-"

"Only because I allowed you to."

Sasuke recoiled and his foot hit the structure of the kitchen bar behind him as his body instinctively tried to take a step back. He realized he couldn't back up any further to escape from Itachi's suffocating presence.

So Itachi meant that… even his emotions had been manipulated? At the trial?

"You know what would've happened if I had actually acted up to my responsibility of defending a client I had been paid for?" Itachi said. His voice was low, but each word that he spit out of his mouth burned Sasuke's ears. "I wouldn't even have let you reach the point where you so dramatically spilled out Orochimaru's prided formula to the sympathetic jury, before ripping apart your testimony, twisting your own truth and making you swallow it."

He took a step closer, and closed the gap between their bodies. Sasuke was unable to formulate a sentence as he felt his heart beat frenetically against Itachi's calm chest, his whole body heating up with emotions ready to explode.

"I would have wholly humiliated you, destroyed you and have made you lament the day you dared to testify against Orochimaru for the rest of your life," Itachi continued, words still cold as ice burning into Sasuke's ears. "And even if, by some mistake of mine, you'd tried to outsmart me and managed to pull out that meth recipe as your trump card... It would have been simple to have that recipe appear on an untraceable 2 channel thread only a few months before the trial began, and make it look like you had just read that on the internet."

Sasuke's eyes widened in shock. He wouldn't… he wouldn't have dared…

Itachi leaned forward and whispered in Sasuke's ear:

"I knew everything you were going to say before you even thought of saying it."

Sasuke was appalled. All the memories and emotions and truths resting at the bottom of his well were now vomiting into his mind, and ruminating in his throat like a horrible hangover from a dream that never was.

For all this time, he had searched for the truth. But the truth Itachi was showing him danced before him mockingly, in a bestial dance between gods and devils, singing and laughing together, devouring his pride and his dignity so cruelly.

But this wasn't over. Sasuke refused to give in to him. He was still desperately clinging to the lifebuoy of his narrative, and refused to be pulled down into Itachi's puppet world.

"Don't be so full of yourself, you windbag of pretentious jargon," Sasuke snapped. "I could've easily exposed our relationship and had you removed from the case, and you would've drowned in your own waters, Narcissus."

Itachi sighed and stepped away from Sasuke to casually fix the belt around his robe.

"It's true. But I knew you wouldn't."

Sasuke frowned. He felt some relief for the physical space Itachi allowed between them, but he was no less angered. "How could you be so sure?"

"You're too absorbed in your self-aggrandizing sense of justice and your obstinate heterosexual arrogance," Itachi said, still maintaining that obnoxious, unapologetic facial expression that only served to further irritate Sasuke. "You'd rather risk losing the trial than letting everyone know you had shamelessly allowed the defense lawyer to fuck your tight little ass willingly and loudly."

Itachi had been trying to push all his buttons and now he had finally succeeded. Blinded by rage, Sasuke threw a punch at him, but unfortunately for him, Itachi succeeded in deflecting the attack in time and Sasuke lost his balance and fell on all fours on the floor; one of the broken pieces of the mugs piercing his hand rather painfully. Itachi lowered himself and tried to help him get up but Sasuke dismissed his offered hand and violently pushed him back. He removed the ceramic fragment attached to his hand, now bloodied, as he got up on his own.

"You should disinfect that," Itachi said.

Sasuke glared at him. His rage hadn't subsided in the least, and now the humiliation of his failed attack was like pouring gasoline on top of it. Noticing the wine rack just under the bar, he removed an expensive-looking bottle probably made of grapes that had been harvested from some isolated vineyard in a mystical French valley with a fancy name and bottled since the beginning of the last century, smashed it in half on the wooden ends of the bar counter and poured the rest of the wine over the open wound on his hand. He tried not to grimace in pain when it stung, doing his best to impassively face a very weary Itachi.

"Now it's disinfected." And he threw the half-broken, expensive-looking bottle at a nearby wall with such force that it left a small, but visible, crack on the now rouge-stained overlay.

Itachi remained calm before Sasuke's wreckage show, but his facial expression betrayed him as Sasuke could see he was tense and apprehensive. Sasuke had assumed a dangerous form he hadn't seen before, and he was clearly a bit nervous of the younger man's unpredictable nature. Sasuke didn't know if he scared him, but he hoped he did.

A pregnant silence stretched between them, with the two men staring at each other uneasily as the air they breathed became denser. Neither of them had expected this outcome. As he finally started to calm himself down a bit, Sasuke conceded that he might have taken things too far, but he had neither the knowledge how nor the will to fix his mistakes. He ran out of arguments to justify his case, but he'd be damn if he ever admitted Itachi had a point. Whatever that point was.

Truthfully, he didn't exactly know what he was arguing for. Perhaps it was simply his defiant nature. If things didn't go exactly his way, then they went against him. It had always been him alone against the world.

But Itachi wasn't his enemy. Itachi had never been his enemy, yet he felt this immense anger… was he really angry at Itachi? Or was he just misdirecting his anger? Where were the haunting demons he wanted to crush so badly?

Oh right, they were no longer there. They were no longer there because Itachi took them away from him. He took them away and made him feel like he owed him something big.

Made him feel powerless.

Taking a deep breath, he made up his mind. He had to get away from Itachi and pretend like nothing had happened. That's how he knew how to deal with situations that were out of his control, and it had worked so far. It should work again. At least for now. He needed time to digest everything and come to terms with reality.

So in large steps, he left the kitchen area and crossed the living room, heading toward the door, anxious to get out of the apartment.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?"

Sasuke halted his steps. It was an understatement to say Itachi's suddenly angry voice surprised him. In fact, this might be the first time he'd heard Itachi pronouncing a curse word – if "hell" counts as a curse word, that is.

But Sasuke was not one to be told what to do and stay passive. He turned around, grabbing Itachi by his robe and pushed him against the wall. "What the fuck do you want to hear from me, Itachi? Haven't you had enough of humiliating me? What the hell do you want me to say?!"

He was practically screaming. At the same time, he felt like his energy was running out and he was getting exhausted. All that explosion of anger and emotions had taken its toll on his body and now he felt like their arguing was going nowhere.

But Itachi wasn't done.

"Humiliate you?" Itachi let out a small contemptuous laugh, and with impeccable grace he turned over Sasuke's grabbing arm in one skillful gesture and forced their positions to switch, nailing the younger boy against the wall, with an arm pressed against his throat to keep him there.

Sasuke took a while to register what had just happened. One second he was exerting his physical dominance against the Uchiha, and the next, he was trapped between the wall and Itachi's body. He tried to remove Itachi's choking arm from his throat by forcing his elbow to bend over, but the man had astonishing force.

"It's not only about you, Sasuke," Itachi enunciated. He spoke calmly, but his eyes were irate. He grabbed one of Sasuke's hands to stop him from trying to free himself and pressed his body against Sasuke's to restrain his leg movements, all the while maintaining a strong pressure against his throat. Sasuke was swept with an alarming realization of the intimate proximity between their bodies, and the unwanted sexual stimulation from their friction.

And then Itachi spoke again. "Stop drowning yourself in the pretense that there is a higher fundamental value in your life that is measured by the size of your pathetic ego, because there isn't. Your right to revenge, your right to study to become a lawyer, and every other right you think you have," he made a brief pause to force Sasuke's head up with the sheer force of his gripping arm muscles against the boy's throat, "they're worth only as much as those around you are willing to risk for you."

Sasuke tried to swallow, but Itachi's pressure on his throat was merciless, and his throat was starting to itch. He could breathe, but his current position was painfully uncomfortable and worse, humiliating. How could he, a reputedly skilled fighter, be so easily subdued by some stupid lawyer who should be in worse physical condition than him? It's ridiculous. Regardless, even if he had no choice but to accept this current position of his, it didn't mean he was willing to give in to Itachi yet.

"I don't owe you anything!" he yelled.

"Oh but you do," Itachi replied coldly, nudging his head to the right. "A bottle of Produttori del Barbaresco, in case you've forgotten."

Sasuke was confused for a moment. "What?"

"Produttori del Barbaresco," Itachi repeated, slowly, in case Sasuke had missed how to pronounce the complicated Italian name correctly. "Year 2008. It cost me around five thousand yen two years ago, but I can't confirm if this price maintains. Either way, I expect you to pay for a new one."

Sasuke frowned. Was he serious?

"What? I'd have to order it! I don't have money for that, you asshole!"

"You should've thought about that before you decided to break it. You see, Sasuke, I'm getting tired of your childish outbursts. It is about time for you to take responsibility for your actions. Also," he added, "I accept checks."

Itachi's tone of voice felt obnoxiously patronizing to Sasuke's ears and he was not having it. Frustrated by his failure in trying to free himself from Itachi's physical anchor on him, and by the irritating sexual friction Itachi was unconsciously causing on his body, a wave of testosterone-filled adrenaline took control of his will and Sasuke felt the imminent urge to fight for dominance. But no matter how he struggled, he couldn't find a way to free his trapped body, so he resorted to a different kind of strategy that was once taught to him by man's worst enemy, Tenten.

His free hand that has been trying without success to push Itachi's arm away from his throat, slid down between their pressing bodies and grabbed Itachi's crotch.

Maybe because he was a man himself, he couldn't bring himself to do it the 'Tenten way' and twist the man's balls into Dante's last circle of hell, so he just kept a threatening but not really painful grasp over Itachi's shaft, which was enough to make the Uchiha lose his control with eyes wide in surprise, whimpering slightly, and Sasuke took the opportunity to reverse their positions against the wall. He kept his grip over Itachi's crotch, and he felt it stiffening under his touch.

"Does it turn you on, Itachi?" he asked with a wicked smirk. He had his control over Itachi now, both physically and sexually, and Sasuke derived dark pleasure from it. "Treating me like a stupid child, saying that if it hadn't been for you and your higher character alone, Orochimaru would still be on the loose, because I am obviously too stupid and incompetent to deal with him, and that I couldn't do anything without your greatness?"

Itachi's hand grabbed Sasuke's wrist in a reflexive movement, but the more he tried to pull it off, the more Sasuke's fingers interlaced around his clothed shaft in a tight, threatening cinch. He swallowed dry, and almost jerked his body against the wall as he thought Sasuke was going to squeeze his delicate parts even harder, but Sasuke didn't exert any more pressure.

"Foolish… You're not stupid, Sasuke," Itachi said. He was trying hard to retain his signature expressionless look, but the tough friction against his genitals was making it difficult. "If you were, I wouldn't have bothered myself with the case, as it would've been a lost cause."

Sasuke frowned. Itachi suppressed a moan and gave up on his attempts to push Sasuke away from his genitals, but kept his firm clasp around Sasuke's wrist just in case.

"After all the bragging on how you won the trial…"

"You misunderstood me…" Itachi sighed. He loosened his hold around Sasuke's wrist. Either way, it didn't seem like Sasuke had any intention of castrating him in some sort of grotesque, tribal manner. "I didn't win the trial. We won. I would've never been able to pull off a convincing show if the main victim wasn't nearly as smart as you."

Sasuke remained still and silent, staring at him. Sighing again, Itachi felt like he should at least give his battered ego a bandage, although in the elder's opinion, this should've been obvious to Sasuke if the young man hadn't been so consumed with such negative self-worth qualms.

"Orochimaru knew of my skills. Naturally, had my intentions been too obvious, he would've been quick in firing me and replacing me by my father. I myself had no idea how the case would turn out, and I had to trust you to be smart enough to know how to work around my interrogation, and fight against me with the little clues I could afford to give you."

Sasuke would never admit it out loud, but this was really what he needed to hear from Itachi's mouth. Deep down, perhaps, he already knew that and he was just seeking confirmation from Itachi. It was indeed strange that the man that had earlier stolen his sense of self-validation and trashed it in front of him with such harsh words was now making him feel like he had regained it. That crushing feeling of powerlessness that had overwhelmed him earlier had subsided, and he felt like he was slowly rising from the ashes of lost dreams. Although, knowing Itachi, this feeling might just be temporary.

(Why he was basing his self-worth on Itachi's words, he did not know, and it did not matter for now.)

Another thing that was rising, less metaphorically and more physically, was his cock.

His hand was still holding Itachi's shaft over the silky robe hard, and he felt it stiffening more and more. Nevertheless, he didn't remove his hand. He didn't want to let him go.

"The little clues… you could've been more specific," Sasuke tried to keep the conversation going, although frankly, he was slowly losing interest in his mission (his mission? What was his mission again?) as his blood flow seemed to have changed its course and stopped irrigating his brain and started rushing down south. His mind was shamelessly becoming a shallow well of raunchy thoughts.

"Believe me, I couldn't. And I would ask you to remove your hand from my crotch so I could better explain everything you want to know about said little cues, but I suspect you are enjoying it rather too much."

Itachi adjusted himself under Sasuke's grip, causing more friction between his hot crotch and Sasuke's hot hand. Sasuke heard a barely contained, soft moan slipping out of Itachi's lips, and had to control himself to not latch onto him.

Yes, Itachi was right. Sasuke was enjoying the feeling of his hand over Itachi's clothed erection too much to want to stop now. He was far too aroused now to care about missing details, and his earlier anger had metamorphosed into an almost painful sexual desire.

He pulled himself closer to Itachi, their lips only mere inches apart, and he whispered with a wicked smile, "You're enjoying it too."

The hand over Itachi's erection squeezed a bit harder.

"I…" Itachi was about to utter something when Sasuke's hand started massaging his erection up and down, slowly, and his tongue just stopped cooperating.

Maybe it was because now, Itachi was finally deprived of his earlier display of dominance, and watching him succumb to submission under Sasuke's duress gave him the kicks; or maybe it was Itachi's delightful face of pleasure, sweat drops forming over the skin of his temples and moist lips opened, like an inviting entrance for Sasuke; whatever the reason, Sasuke was harder than he ever remembered to be.

He felt his own erection wanting to crawl out of his pants and right now, Sasuke felt like he had waited a century for this – he desperately wanted this.

"I hate you," he muttered, before his mouth attacked Itachi's lips.

Itachi responded with the same, almost violent, intensity. Like champagne bottles rolling around in a shaky high pressure room, it was as if they had suppressed their sexual desires for far too long and now they were ready to explode and paint the world in beautiful white colors.

Consuming his mouth like a ravaging beast, Sasuke quickly undressed Itachi, tossing his stupid silky robe away. His hand hastily slid under Itachi's underwear shorts, grabbing his hot erection and pulling it out. It felt so good under his touch; he groaned when Itachi forced his hand out to remove his sweater. Not wanting to waste any more time with stupid things called clothes, Sasuke proceeded to strip himself of his T-shirt and pants. His underwear slipped down along with the pants too, saving time. Itachi grabbed Sasuke's head by the nape and pulled him against himself for another aggressive kiss, his teeth nibbling the younger lips open as he was granted access to playfully explore the inside of Sasuke's mouth. Sasuke moaned softly into Itachi's throat when slender fingers circled around his nipple and gently squeezed it. Itachi's hand slid to touch his abdomen, causing his muscles to contract, and trailed down to grab his cock. Sasuke responded by rocking his hips against his partner, while he reached his right hand down between them to grab Itachi's erection again. Soon, they were jerking each other off and moaning loudly in a weird and wonderfully rhythmic fashion.

Jolts of pleasure were shooting over Sasuke's entire body, his hips rocking up and down as Itachi pumped him faster. As the orgasm built up, he felt not only his body, but also the ground shaking as well.

Wait, the ground was really shaking.

It was like the whole apartment had suddenly started swinging left and right. Itachi was the first to react, and he brusquely pulled him to a table conveniently positioned next to them, under which they squeezed themselves against each other, leaving their legs exposed to potential falling objects.

Still slightly stupefied, Sasuke heard some objects sitting on top of the table and on the shelves falling to the ground. It took him a few seconds to register that an earthquake was happening, and he wondered if it was going to be a big one. However, after about thirty seconds of an uncertain future, the earthquake waves began to slowly subside.

But wow, Itachi's apartment had shaken like a baby's crib. One of the perils of being a rich lawyer and wanting an apartment on the top floor with a nice view, Sasuke mused to himself.

And then he realized his situation. Or better yet, their naked situation.

What was he doing?

"I have to go," Sasuke uttered. The ground was still gasping from the last fading waves, but Sasuke was certain the earthquake was over.

Itachi went after him, and grabbed him by the arm when he was preparing to lean down to pick up his clothes.

"You want this," he said in such a solemn voice, it caused Sasuke to turn around in wonder.

He saw a stern expression cross Itachi's face, staring at him with brows knitted in frustration. Their erections were still rock hard, but Sasuke was now too consciously aware of his feelings and he was afraid of acting on his desires. Because if he did that, he would have to own up to it later.

That passion he had felt the last time he was in Itachi's apartment and they'd had sex, he hadn't forgotten it. He also hadn't forgotten the overwhelming feeling of betrayal and pain he had felt afterwards. It didn't matter if it was all an act, because it had still happened and he didn't want to experience it again. And really, how could he still believe in the honesty of Itachi's feelings, and trust him not to hurt him again? Itachi's presence in his life had proven to be nothing but dangerous and threatening to his very sense of identity. He had managed to break through Sasuke's security walls and expose his insecurities to the world like wide open wounds that Sasuke had spent years trying to close with layers of fake pride.

No, Sasuke wanted his old self back. Before Itachi had come into his life, everything had been great. He'd had girls, he'd had pride, he'd had an established identity. Now… he didn't know who he was anymore. He felt too exposed, too… vulnerable.

"This is a mistake. This is not who I am!" he practically screamed.

Okay, that came out a bit more dramatic than his usual self. Whatever. He located his underwear on the ground and started to dress himself hurriedly.

Itachi sighed. "How disappointing. How long are you planning on running away from yourself?"

Sasuke closed his eyes tight and took a deep breath. Yes, he had the habit of running away when he felt things were slipping out of his control, but the way Itachi just denounced him made him feel like a coward, and he was not going to let Itachi see him that way.

"I'm not running away from myself!" he tried to defend his dignity, although he knew he was not being convincing. "My business here is over."

"Oh? I assume, then, you no longer wish to know the answers for all your remaining questions about the newspaper notes."

Sasuke had forgotten about that. He still had a lot of questions he wanted answers for, answers that only Itachi could provide him, but he felt like Itachi was tempting him to stay with dangerous candies. Talking to him about serious topics while he was naked was a rather difficult task for Sasuke, and he realized that although Itachi's erection was dying, Sasuke was still very hard. He tried to focus back on the newspaper notes, but another glance at Itachi's beautiful naked form, and his mind went straight to the gutter.

"It's already 11 am. I would like to invite you for lunch, and I shall answer all your questions and attend to all your pertaining needs, as long as you promise not to break any more objects inside my house. However, if the idea of staying here frightens you so much," Itachi paused to tilt his head toward the entrance, "feel free to leave. I would only ask that before leaving, please give me your preferred contact details so I could send you the bill for the Produttori del Barbaresco that you owe me."

'The heck, what's with the Prodotori del Baruba- fuck it, he can't even pronounce that shit.

"Are you really expecting me to pay for that?"

"Yes."

And with that said, Itachi turned his back on him and bended over to pick his clothes up one by one, while a puzzled Sasuke remained frozen, staring at him. He couldn't believe Itachi was being so petty about a stupid wine bot- oh fuck.

That ass.

That god-given tight ass bending over right in front of him. His cock started throbbing, as if it had a magnet attached to its tip, and the opposite pole was inside Itachi's ass, and he was standing in the middle of an invisible magnetic field pressuring him to plug himself inside Itachi's gateway to Heaven and make the world go round.

Fuck. He wanted it bad.

Sasuke stood there staring as Itachi stood and walked toward his room, his mind solely focused on the tight, muscular ass and how the delicious buttocks slightly squeezed against each other as Itachi walked in relaxed steps, completely indifferent to how he was still so naked and how Sasuke was eating him with his eyes.

Fuck. Fuck Itachi.

What, no- well, yes he wanted it, but- damnit!

It was like there were two conflicting forces fighting each other inside his brain: his Reason, which kept bombarding him with "LEAVE" warnings, "ask Itachi about the newspaper notes by e-mail or something"; and his Cock, fighting strong with a fully equipped army of spermatozoids wanting to invade Itachi's ass. His Ego somewhat joined the fight too and sided with his Cock, urging him to stay so he could prove to Itachi that he was no coward and that he was definitely not afraid of him.

"Because I love you."

Wait, what is this? Why was he thinking about what Itachi had said to him earlier? Those words meant nothing, it was just Itachi spurting out something so that Sasuke would stop nagging him about more Why's. Seriously, how could Itachi say he loved him and then insult his intelligence and make him feel like a powerless, pathetic loser?

How could Itachi love him when he thought so low of him?

"You're not stupid, Sasuke."

Argh, stop thinking! Forget about it now. Concentrate on your existential dilemma, to stay or to leave?

Sasuke glanced at Itachi's room. He was still there.

(Was Itachi really telling the truth, when he'd said he loved him?)

Sasuke took a deep breath and made up his mind.

Turning on his heels, he walked toward Itachi's room in large steps. The door was open, and he found Itachi looking inside his closet with Emporio Armani boxer briefs already covering his buttocks. Itachi barely had time to turn around before Sasuke stepped in front of him, pulled the ironed shirt he was holding from his hands and tossed it to the floor.

"I'll accept your invitation to lunch. And you're going to answer all my questions, and attend to all my needs."

And to make sure Itachi perfectly understood Sasuke's interpretation of his own words, he slid his hand to grab one of Itachi's buttocks firmly and pulled their bodies together. "And I promise not break anything else."

Then he kissed his lips to seal the deal.

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