Chapter 11

Don't own!

A/N: I can't even begin to apologize… So I'm just going to drop this here… -runs away-

But first! A short (like seriously) recap!

Naruto's boat sinks. He meets Chidori and finds an island which happens to be Sasuke's personal vaca-spot. They are attracted to one another completely, but why? And what's Sasuke's secret? Then… Sex. And now -drum roll- Here it is!

Chapter 11: To be what?!

The next morning Sasuke awoke, feeling content. Pleasant warmth radiated from his torso, comfortable and safe. Peeling his eyes open, he trailed his gaze down to the man cuddled against his side. Naruto, with his arm draped lazily over his chest, glowed in the rays of sun shining from the wide sun roof in the middle of the ceiling. The sight sent flurries of temptation through Sasuke's body, their flames licking at his skin with a pounding rhythm. He wanted nothing more than to rake his fingers lightly over the taut flesh and succumb to the intensity of the passion he'd felt the night before. Despite this, Sasuke found himself moving away from his desires, untangling himself from Naruto's limbs, tripping ungracefully over the sheet as he pressed himself against the adjacent wall.

He shouldn't be this attached. He shouldn't be attached at all to this man that he'd not even known for two full days. He had no clue as to where the man had come from, where he was headed, if he… had anyone. Sasuke let out a shaky breath as he ran a hand through his hair, brushing the sleep ridden tendrils from his face. They fell back right afterwards but he paid them no mind as he made his way to the bathroom, clothing himself in sweats and a light gray V-necked shirt.

As he entered the open space, he saw the evidence of what they had shared last night. Their clothes were strewn every which way on the tiled floor wet from the splashes of water that must have licked their way over the rim of the tub from their vigorous activities. Sasuke lazily dropped to all fours gathering the clothes and wiping them along the floor in a half-arsed attempt to dry the remaining puddles of water he hadn't noticed the night before. He dumped then in a pile to be cleaned at some unknown later date, and then looked back at the mess.

Sand clumped here and there and left grit between his toes, which he didn't mind having gotten used to the feeling after spending so much time here at his beach, but everything else. Everything else was evidence. Evidence that he'd truly let himself go last night, that he'd finally given himself over to his desires, that he disobeyed his father's wishes once again. Each splash of water screamed insult, the pile of clothing yelled their disdain. With a grimace, Sasuke rolled his pants up this time as he sunk to the floor. With meticulous motions he cleaned the room as if to wipe away his own warring state, and sever all emotional ties with his previous actions. He scrubbed between the cracks and crevices, even taking the time to sweep away what was left of the sand.

Two hours later, he stood in the middle of the bathroom looking over his handiwork, his emotional state was nowhere near settled and his knees were stiff in the worst way. He gathered his cleaning supplies, which had slowly made their way into the bathroom during his due frenzy, and deposited them into the hall closet, each facing outward and set back in its original place.

He walked a bit further down his hall and stood by his bedroom door. Naruto was still asleep, his limbs cast about him unattractively, but even so it was artful in the way the sun reflected from his skin, leaving golden brightness behind. The drool flowing sluggishly from the corner of Naruto's mouth shimmering in the early afternoon sun and Sasuke knew he was in deep shit.

Sasuke was engaged to be married. At the end of his two week vacation he would be shuttled off to fittings, and forced to choose flowers arrangements and invitations and silverware and whatever else came with that day. He was meant to be happy and in love with a woman called Karin, a short fiery thing, filled to her pure red eye with lust for Sasuke. Irritatingly enough she wormed her way into his parent's heart with her tough attitude and rowdy temper, but mostly it was the money and old name. She was shrewd in her knowledge of leaving no stone unturned and could catch leaks as if it were a sixth sense. Sasuke's father told him once that despite her fluctuating personality she was would make a good Uchiha, good being one of the highest compliments Fugaku could say about another being.

He stalked silently to the kitchen and pulled the receiver of the phone from its curved resting place and dialed a number he knew all too well.

"Little brother," came a quiet greeting. He heard Hinata mumble something in the background and Itachi telling her to go back to sleep before he replied to the greeting.

"Tachi," he replied, reverting back to his old nickname in the turmoil of his distress. He mentally kicked himself at that.

"You fucked him, didn't you?" Despite the structure of his brother's words, it came out as more of a statement, so Sasuke didn't reply to the overly vulgar question.

Sasuke heard a soft put upon sigh from across the line, a tactic to show Sasuke how truly troubling he was being with this call, but Sasuke knew Itachi cared if only shown by the fact he'd even answered the phone in the first place.

"What do you want?" Itachi asked, his tone even and cold. The question was loaded with meaning. What did Sasuke want?

"Not this," Sasuke answered curtly.

"Then fix it," came short reply.

"Hn." He knew that, he just didn't know how.

There was silence for all of three minutes as the two Uchiha's thought. Sasuke about how he was going to get out of this wedding, not for Naruto, but for himself. He didn't want it from the start.

"You like him," Itachi told Sasuke.

"Hn. But it's not because of him."

"I know."

"Hn." Sasuke responded.

"She's asking for you."

Sasuke nearly flinched. Nearly. But it was not so because Uchiha's don't flinch.

"She would," came Sasuke's clipped reply; talking to his older brother always brought out his petulant self.

"You didn't tell her you were leaving." Again it was not a question, just a useless statement to emphasize the flaws in Sasuke's escape. He said nothing in return.

"He doesn't know?" This time it was a question.

"It wasn't supposed to happen, Tachi."

"You couldn't control yourself." There was the barest hint of surprise in his brother's last statement.

"Precisely my dilemma."

"You should tell him. Perhaps he can help."

Sasuke caught himself before he could question just how Naruto could help, but then realized Itachi knew something Sasuke didn't.

Sasuke's demand came with no inflection only monotonous coldness worthy of any Uchiha, "Tell me what you know."

So Itachi did.

888

When Naruto awoke, it was to the soft pecks of Chidori's beak against his nose. He roused slowly with a mild stretch careful of the raven's perch on his chest. The soreness of his muscles brought his mind back to the night before, when everything was right and hot and wet. He hadn't had sex that good since – since ever really; his last lay being a clumsy drunken mess after one too many shots once upon a time in a bar bathroom. Shoving that unpleasant thought from his mind, he drifted into the memories of pale skin and rough thrusts, of splashing water and murmured expletives.

With a smile and a slow yawn he made to sit up slowly, but was further hindered by the raven.

"I have to pee," he told the bird, his face serious even as his lips twitched with humor at the fact that he was making excuses to a bird of all creatures. Chidori merely stared, and kept its' place on top of Naruto's stomach.

"Fine," Naruto told the bird, as if the raven would understand. "But if I pee in the bed you're cleaning it up."

Chidori pecked him solidly at his neck in response.

"Ow, geez. Fine, but I'd still blame you."

Naruto settled back, deep into the mattress and soaked up the sun's heat from the window above. The sky was clear, not but a few tropical birds fluttering by. The rays lit his skin causing a cast of golden glow, and the aches receded as he stayed immobile. A low murmur came from the direction of the kitchen and his ears tuned into the words automatically, but Chidori squawked and pecked his chest. Naruto opened his eyes, not entirely sure when he'd closed them, brow furrowed in question. The rave pointed his beak left, then right as if to tell him "No."

Confused, he listened for the murmur once more, and once again Chidori squawked and pecked at him rudely. With a shake of his head, the raven flapped his great wings, his feather's ruffling drowning out any sound from the other room. With a shrug Naruto gave up wondering why the bird had woken him in the first place only to make sure he didn't eavesdrop. Naruto went to pet the bird's soft head, it was delightfully fluffy; the tendrils were a soft down that caressed his fingers in return. The bird, if one could call it so, made a cooing noise, a strange guttural sound of pleasure and bit lightly, almost playfully, at his fingers.

A moment later Naruto was met with a soft "Hn" sound and an intense stare that could be called jealous.

"It's strange," he heard the soft comment pour from Sasuke's lips. The sound seemingly curled around Naruto's body and sent shivers down his spine, which was weird because the words themselves weren't in anyway meant to cause such excitement or any excitement really.

"What is?" Naruto asked, his finger still being gnawed softly by Chidori's beak.

"The last time Chidori bit someone, there was blood dripping from his feathers and the top of my coworker's finger had mysteriously disappeared," Sasuke replied, a slow smirk making its way onto his face at the horrified expression crossing over Naruto's.

Naruto yanked his hand away from the raven's beak and was met with an indignant caw for his actions.

A deep chuckle resonated from the surrounding walls and caused yet another shiver to run down Naruto's spine. The sound was absolutely sinful.

Naruto's gaze met Sasuke's and they remained that way for a few moments, Naruto splayed atop sun-warmed sheets, and Sasuke leaning languidly on the door frame, but Naruto noticed a slight tension, an irate thing just below the surface of Sasuke's well-placed mask.

"What's wrong, teme?" Naruto asked quietly, the insult was said almost tenderly.

The tension surfaced, and it was evident in the most obvious ways which was strange of itself because Naruto didn't take Sasuke for one to have so little control over his body. It was the immediate fixing of posture, from lazy to uncomfortably straight, and the smirk that slipped from Sasuke's face leaving a tight line in its wake. Sasuke looked to have forced himself not to look away from those intense blue eyes that seemed to be taking everything in even the tiniest details that made up Sasuke's being. Sasuke immediately retreated to the living called for Naruto to follow him once he was dressed.

Naruto's eyes followed Sasuke until he could no longer see him from the angle of the doorway. He met Chidori's eyes, which was the only warning the raven got before he was sitting up fully. He quickly grabbed a pair of sweats and a loose tee, Sasuke's of course, and relieved himself in the bathroom. The tidiness of the room gave him pause, it was almost as if last night never happened, the clothes were gone, the sand was gone, and the filth that they'd left in the bathtub itself had disappeared. Everything was left too bright, too sparkling, and too pristine. For some reason this struck him with a small pang of an entirely too potent emotion.

When he walked into the living room, Sasuke gestured for him to sit on the sofa before him.

Naruto let out a nervous chuckle as his left hand reached up to scratch the back of his neck in a decidedly nervous way. "Is this the part where you tell me last night meant nothing, and I'm to get my clothes and leave?" Another nervous chuckle escaped his lips in anticipation of a response, but all he got in return was a blank stare.

Sasuke brought his hands to steeple in front of him, mulling over his words carefully, and thought of how to phrase his next statement. He wasn't one to beat around the bush and it wasn't like Naruto had anywhere to escape to. "No," he finally decided upon. Very elegant. "That's the problem," he added.

"Uhm, okay." They sat in silence, Naruto fidgeting under the intensity of Sasuke's glare, a default expression that came with the Uchiha name.

This was harder than Sasuke had once believed, but he remained true to form by finally telling Naruto rather bluntly, "I'm arranged to be married in three weeks."

End of Chapter

Hopefully -crosses fingers- this will suffice as apology enough? Yes? No? Maybe?

Sorry… -escapes-

Until next time, lovelies! Thanks for sticking through!