It began as a mutual curiosity at age fifteen.

If Naruto thought he was exhausted, he was lying to himself. He was too exhausted to think.

But boys will be boys and weird questions will come when they will come.

"What do you think a kiss feels like?"

In Bushybrow's defense, he was beyond exhausted too. But he usually was by the time he went to bed. And, admittedly, he was sharing with Naruto. That made it a little too awkward to just nod off and strange things could float detachedly through a person's numb mind.

Naruto was in hiding, though. He wanted to sleep, damn it! And in a bed. Yeah, he wanted to bring Sasuke home – he wanted it more than he wanted to breathe. But, at this point, he'd happily give up breathing just to close his eyes for a wink. And to do it somewhere comfortably.

At the time, running into Bushybrow had been like feeling that the kami were smiling down upon him. He could hide there without being found by the pervy sage, if only for a few hours!

Now he kind of felt that sleep was impossible, no matter what he did. The urge to cry was overwhelming but he choked it back… somehow. "It feels awkward as all hell and I wanted to kill the teme."

He could practically feel the tension freeze Lee's back against his. "Really?"

Then he remembered. That was just his first kiss. "I mean… uh… I don't know."

The tension released. "I see…"

The silence was stiff. He had to know. "Why do you ask?"

Tension returned. Lee sputtered. "N-no reason."

Some things were more interesting than sleep. Naruto wriggled around till he was facing Lee's back. "C'mon, Bushybrow, you can tell me."

"Good night, Naruto-kun."

"Tell me! C'mon, tell me! You wondering what it's like to kiss Sakura?"

"We have to be up extremely early tomorrow. We should rest now while we can."

"Stop sidestepping the question and answer me!"

"It has nothing to do with Sakura-kun!"

Naruto could practically see the depression Lee fell into. "Really? Then what do you care about kisses?"

"Forgive me, Naruto-kun. My sleep-deprived mind spoke before I could stop it. It means nothing, please have a good night's sleep."

His interest was piqued. Then Naruto grinned evilly. "Heh, lemme guess ~ you want to kiss me, don't you? I get it, it's because you know I'm a sexy beast… Hey, Bushybrow? Bushybrow?" He watched a bead of sweat travel down Lee's nape, maneuvering around goosebumps. The beautiful beast was practically shaking against him. Understanding was slow to dawn, but he blamed that on his exhausted self too. When it did come, he stopped breathing.

"I think…" Lee whispered into the cold, deep quiet, "that I should sleep on the floor. I, I need the endurance training."

Reality crashed down around his ears. He grabbed Lee's arm as he moved to get away. "I thought you liked Sakura!"

"I am very tired, Naruto-kun, please just let me sle-"

"You're gay?"

"I, I never said that…"

"But you are, aren't you?"

"YES!" Lee stopped. Then whimpered, "Yes".

Naruto gulped. "W-well, aside from that being a shocker, it's n-not all bad… I mean, you're still my friend and all. I still don't mind sharing the bed with you, so don't go into your 'endurance training' or whatever."

"W-wait, you don't mind?"

"You're still Bushybrow to me. Now it's just that most of the things you do makes more sense… Like how you're always putting your hands on your hips or your obsession with small, fluffy animals –"

"Squirrels can be dangerous!"

"And all those random articles of pink? Oh, oh! Your body." He blinked. "Wait, I didn't mean that in a perverted way…"

"What about my body?"

"Have you noticed that no matter how freakishly strong you get, you're always as scrawny as a twig?"

"I,I have a very high metabolism… a-and my family traits suggest that the Rocks w-were never able to build much of a muscle mass…"

"Yeah, sure, make all the excuses you want… Twiggy."

"My weight is a sensitive topic, Naruto-kun! What if I started talking about your – your – your… Umm…"

"Heh heh, you can't think of anytying, can ya? That's because I'm per-"

"Your voice."

Naruto growled. "What about my voice?"

"It's… W-well… What about your voice?"

"Hey, wait a second, we're totally off topic here!" And his eyes had sealed shut, never to open again. It honestly felt like someone had attached a lead weight to each individual eyelash. There was even a prickling discomfort. "You're gay."

"I… I do not want to talk about –"

"Why not? You never have a problem talking about anything else! I can't believe your own sexuality is making you so uncomfortable. You, the guy who wore a bikini to scare off enemy ninja and walked around the village on your hands! I never thought you could get uncomfortable."

"Well, those things are simple! But this is not, Naruto-kun, I could lose… I could lose everything that mattered to me."

"How's that? There's no law against gays in the Shinobi world!" Then he amended that, somewhere in the sole of his blistered foot. It was about the only place he could fathom to be thinking when the rest of him felt like shit on a stick. He didn't know for sure if there were or weren't any laws. But if there were, he'd make sure to remove them once he became hokage.

Once Sasuke was back in the village to watch him become hokage that was.

"It's not that."

"Then what is it?"

"… Gai-sensei said that I am a virile, young man, and, as a man, I must be attracted to strong, beautiful women."

"… So you took that as… I don't know… him saying that you were supposed to be straight?"

"Not just that! At another time he actually – he actually…" Lee shivered. "He said that it was shame on a shinobi to submit to the prowess of another man."

"… Wait… so you… You want to submit?"

"Naruto-kun, I do not even think you are entirely awake, we should not be having this conversation, I'm sorry I unloaded this on you –"

Naruto was insanely proud with himself. Eyes closed, conscious half gone, not even really thinking, and he had still managed to find what he was looking for first try!

Lee's lips tasted salty with a hint of copper. He was sweat and blood and tears on Naruto's mouth as he laid his lips against his. It never occurred to him to probe. He did vaguely wonder what Lee was thinking. Then he decided it must not matter because Lee moved against him, like a flow of water, and pushed so much closer it was like he was trying to crawl into his skin. His hands clutched at his shoulders as his lips moved hesitantly against his.

It felt… really, really good. And Naruto forgot, for a precious second, to think about hunting down Sasuke and dragging him back home, to think about Sakura and how heartbroken she was, to think about how much pressure was on him.

But that all returned when they separated. They were still so close that when Lee licked his lips, Naruto felt it, but they were so damn far away that Naruto actually felt kind of cold. He licked his lips too. "So, Bushybrow, what does a kiss feel like?"

"It feels… like velvet."

"And, uh… what did it taste like?" Because the last thing Naruto could somewhat remember before going into hiding was vomiting from over-exertion.

"I-it… tasted like ramen… and… something else. I can not name it, but it reminds me of a fire. It is like an aftershock of power."

Kyuubi? Lee could taste Kyuubi? But Kyuubi was as much a part of Naruto as sweat, blood, and tears were a part of Lee. He shouldn't be so surprised.

"I, I would like to kiss you again, Naruto-kun!"

"Tell you what? Wake me up with a good morning one, kay? I just want to sleep."

"A-alright, I shall do that."

"Go to sleep, Bushybrow."

"Y-YOSH! I shall sleep now!"

And then he was out. Like someone had flipped a switch. Naruto glared at him, envious of his ability to sleep when he couldn't. His eyelids eventually curtained his gaze and the nearby heartbeat of Lee was enough to lull him to sleep.

And he didn't think about Sakura.

Some hours before the rise of the sun, a jounin stole into Lee's apartment. Without touching the beautiful beast or even alerting him, he took Naruto out of the bed, careful to disconnect him from his human pillow, and left.

When Lee woke up, there was a note on the pillow Naruto had used.

Training.

That was all. But he smiled anyway. "Gai-sensei, if only I could tell you of the joy I feel right now!"

.

Author's Note: Ever gone through that stage where you realize that, given the chance, your favorite character could be a serious man-whore if you put him up to it? Because this isn't the half of it. Suddenly I'm considering, not only GaaLee and NaruLee, but NejiLee. I'm thinking about SaiLee too.

UUUUH, Lee, the love I want you to have!