Archive of Our Own ^beta

'Why? I'm bored, Nara, that's why. This month has been approximately 75,000 years long and I'm bored and I want to dance.'

He'd call it whinging but when it came from Temari's mouth it just sounded mad and demanding. Dancing. Fuck, it had been an age since they'd last gone out together and when Temari got antsy like this the night always got messy. The good kind of messy, sure, it reliably was with her, but this was their script, they'd written the rules of their games so long ago that the snarky hell they gave each other was just second nature. He'd cave, of course, but he had to make her work for it. He looked to Neji for support and got nothing but a carefully blank stare, could feel Naruto twitching even without turning around to look at him. He'd get no back-up there, suspected Naruto had never turned down a night out in his life.

Kankurō waltzed into the room with timing so precise that he suspected it had been orchestrated, dumping his bag on the floor and pulling up a chair by Temari's side as he eyed them both. 

'What's the stand-off about?'

His dramatic sigh was drowned out by Temari's equally dramatic huff. He almost broke to laugh, schooled his expression as he watched her lips quirk with the same fight.

'We're all going out tonight and Shikamaru's just taking a while to get with the program.'

Neji smirked. For fuck sake.

'Excellent. Come on Shikamaru, a dark club, loud music, more booze than you can shake a gourd at. Don't fight it.'

Naruto was almost vibrating behind him. He kinda wanted to smack Kankurō in his stupid, grinning face. He also kinda wanted to go dancing. Okay, really wanted to go dancing, the more he contemplated it. Ugh. The stare Temari was giving him was far too knowing and he felt himself folding like a bad poker hand. Gods he really hadn't lasted long this time.

'Guess we're going out then.'

Neji's bright laughter rang out and Shikamaru's gaze flickered straight to him, warmth in his chest at how relaxed he'd become over the last couple of days here. Suna had always felt like an alien second home, coming here was like arriving on a whole other planet every single time, the polar opposite of Konoha, parched and barren and wide open. Hot in a way that forced you to reprioritise the things to pour your energy into. He always felt transported, he could breathe here. Expectations just seemed less encompassing, and yeah, his clan name had a long shadow but the scorching Suna sun chased it back, he always felt like Shikamaru first and a Nara second. When Neji offered to join him on this mission his brain had gone into overdrive at the thought of spending time here with him, sharing this place with him. Had wondered if Neji might feel it too. The lightness. He held Neji's gaze and couldn't have wiped the answering smile off his face if he'd tried. Seemed like Suna might just have this effect on people. Neji stood and squeezed his shoulder as he walked out of the room and for a moment Shikamaru forgot he had an audience, turned to watch him leave, besotted look still plastered across his face.

'An hour, Shikamaru. You have an hour to sort this…' 

A perfectly manicured hand waved in a broad circle in his general direction as he glanced back at her. 

'...mess out. I'd ask if you packed anything cool in that kit of yours but I fear the answer will just leave me disappointed.'

He could hear Naruto snicker behind him. Traitor. 

'It's always such a pleasure to spend time with you Temari, I dunno know why we don't do this more often.'

Kankurō propped his head on her shoulder and did a great job mimicking her shark-grin, and Shikamaru felt the burning desire to knock their heads together. Naruto was suddenly on his feet and dragging Shikamaru up by the back of his jacket.

'I could loan you a shirt or something?'

Why did he like these people?

'Oh fuck you too, I have clothes.'

Naruto's bark of laughter was echoed across the room and he was smiling again despite himself, the game well and truly lost to his inevitably mounting enthusiasm. 

'You're all buying me drinks tonight by way of apology, assholes.'

The headlock he found himself in a moment later had him stumbling, knuckles rubbing into his skull dragging a deeply undignified noise from his throat as Naruto hauled him across the room. Temari's voice rang out behind them as they shoved each other out the door.

'And no hitai-ate! We're not anyone's pet army tonight.'

The bite lacing her tone scraped over rough places in his gut, a tumble of scree knocking loose. If only it were that easy. The old itch in his veins made itself known, the urge to run, and hell, maybe she was right. Maybe a night out was exactly what they needed. Maybe she’d felt it in him the moment he’d walked through their door just like she always seemed to, a sixth-sense honed in their teenage years for seeing the things in him that he usually succeeded in keeping hidden. He shook his head in an effort to clear it, landed a light smack to Naruto's kidney as their scuffle tipped them out into the hallway.

'This'll be great. Let me know if you need that shirt.'

The smartass flashed him a grin and that was all the warning he got before Naruto was letting him go and bounding off down the hallway like an overexcited puppy who'd just heard the word walkies. Just watching him made Shikamaru tired, he had no idea how his team had survived in close quarters with him for so many years. 

He pushed open the door to his room and stripped out of his flak jacket and shirt as he walked towards the ensuite, the sound of the running shower reaching his ears. He'd kept his hands to himself all damn day and he just needed to get close, even for a short while. They weren't exactly being secretive, but they hadn't told anyone yet either, it just felt like a weird thing to launch into the middle of a convo especially when the couple of days they'd been here so far had been solid work. 

He tossed his hitai-ate onto the dresser, sandals kicked off easily, pants took a second longer and then he was crowding Neji under the warm water and pressing him up against the wall, kissing him deep and hungry, anchoring their bodies together. Neji broke from the kiss to drag in a choppy breath.

'How long do we have?'

He worked his way down Neji's throat, licked through the stream of water spilling over the ridge of his collarbones.

'An hour.'

The groan that shook through Neji's chest rumbled like an earthquake into his bones, aftershocks of arousal spiking in his blood. 

'An hour isn't long enough for what I want to do to you.'

Sometimes it slipped his mind that Neji fought with his own self-control to keep his distance too, the concept that someone wanted him that badly still foreign enough to take him by surprise. He skated his palms down Neji's sides, realigned their bodies so he could grind against his hip, wrapped his hand around Neji's hardening cock and hummed. He'd take whatever he could get, an hour was plenty.

'Well maybe you shouldn't have been so quick to abandon me to Temari's whims.'

He began stroking, licked Neji's answering moan from his lips with a soft growl.

'If I thought you actually didn't want to, oh fuck, Shikamaru…yeah, like that…'

The break in Neji's voice sent heat flooding down his spine, pooling beneath his navel as he worked a steady rhythm, thumb catching under the head of Neji's cock over and over again. 

'...I would have said something if I ...gods, yes…'

He slid his thumb through the slick pearls beading over the crown, groaned as Neji's words stumbled, basked in the way he could tear apart Neji's concentration with his touch, that he could be the cause of those velvety tones breaking into jagged splinters. He leant in to drop a kiss below his ear, let his lips linger there.

'I do want to, she has good ideas. Just want this too. And there's enough time for what I have in mind.'

He slowed his pace, kept the pressure of his heavy strokes tight as he scraped his teeth over the pounding pulse in Neji's throat. His own cock was aching where it pressed against Neji's hip and it was a hell of a temptation to just let Neji touch him when those clever fingers began to reach for him. He sucked in a shaking breath as he clutched at his willpower and grabbed Neji's hand, squeezed for a second before looping Neji's arm around his neck instead.

'Don't worry about me, just let me give you this. Just wanna make you feel good, make you come.'

He pressed a kiss to Neji's jaw, a smile, quickened his hand again.

'Besides, you love keeping me on edge.'

Neji's fingers massaged at his nape, other arm wrapping up over his shoulders to hold on, the soft hum of acquiescence bleeding into a heavy moan as he twisted his hand just right on the upstroke.

'Yeah, gods that's good, that's all I want, let me hear you.'

He braced his forearm against the tile by Neji's shoulder, tucked his face into his neck and let himself drown in the wrecked sounds spilling from Neji's lips, let his whole world narrow down to the way he worked Neji's cock, hips straining for him, breath panting loose for him. 

'Shikamaru.'

He would never get enough of hearing his name said like that, like he was the epicenter of Neji's ruination. He moaned against wet skin, changed up his grip enough to tear a strangled cry from Neji's lips, desperate now to feel him peak, rough and fast and yeah.

'Fuck, yeah, come on, come hard for me.'

Neji's head slammed back against the wall, back arching as he stripped his cock in tight, rough strokes, every harsh breath and tremble through powerful muscles directing his touch. His voice dropped into a growl as Neji clutched at him, fingers digging into his shoulders hard enough to bruise.

'That's it Neji, fuck, that's it.'

He leant back just enough to be able to watch, to drink it all in as Neji's eyes screwed shut and he came with a deep, clawing moan, spilling burning hot over Shikamaru's fist in long pulses. He stroked him through it, waited for the final shiver to twitch along his body and those moonstone eyes to flicker open again before he brought his hand to his lips and sucked his fingers into his mouth with a groan, salt and sunlight a sacrament on his tongue. Neji's grip on him had gone slack but was enough to pull him into a kiss, to lick the taste of himself from his mouth and Shikamaru was moaning into it, his own arousal still hot and demanding. 

'Kami, you know exactly how to touch me.'

He drew in a steady breath and hummed, tried to ease away from the razor edge of his need.

'I like to think I've been paying attention.'

Neji's soft laughter fell against his lips and he pressed back in to steal another kiss, eased his hips away from the sweet friction of Neji's body. 

'Are you sure I can't…?'

Fingers trailed down to rest below his navel and gods it would be so easy to say yes. He took another breath and tried to focus his attention to calming the hot flood of energy swirling in his core. He had nowhere near as much chakra control as Neji did when it came to this, but he could manage well enough these days.

'I'm sure. I want... fuck. Actually I desperately want to take you to bed, but…'

Neji hummed low in his chest, circled his fingertips over Shikamaru's pelvis and brushed their lips close.

'Mmm, yes. I can feel how badly you want more than that too though, the restraint, the delay. Maybe I should get out and let you find your balance…'

Neji's tongue swiped at his bottom lip before he sucked at it, pressed a deep, dirty kiss to his mouth.

'...it isn't just your willpower being tested.'

He slowly reversed their positions, pressed Shikamaru against the wall with a firm palm against his stomach. One more kiss and he was turning away to leave Shikamaru standing under the gradually cooling shower spray, heart still thrumming too fast in his chest. He closed his eyes and tilted his face up into the water, let the hammering cascade draw his attention, focused on calling his chakra through his tenketsu. He could feel the heat suffusing his body as the energy spun through him, the flow of his chakra taking on the heavier than usual sensation that came with harnessing sacral energy. It was like riding a wave that dissipated before it could peak, the swell of a tempestuous ocean growing calm in the eye of a storm, the potential of something wild just beyond his fingertips. 

Need still buzzed under his skin but it felt like the start of the dance again instead of the crescendo. He could handle that. 

By the time he turned off the taps and stepped from the shower Neji had slipped away back into his own room, probably for the best if they were actually going to make it out the door on time, his self-control was a precarious thing right now. He towelled off quickly and went in hunt of something to wear, glad that he'd gotten so used to Temari's particular style of letting off steam over the years that he always packed something that would pass at the kind of clubs she chose. 

Every time they did this he was gripped by the urge to thank Ino. Without her early intervention with his wardrobe during his teens he was sure he’d currently look like some tragic version of his Dad. Sometimes the pushy women in his life made things easier, and wow, yeah, okay maybe that said more about him than it did about them. The skintight black jeans were a mission to get on, a little easier without underwear even though that meant he'd definitely be on display all night, and well, that was kinda fine for the night he had in mind. He negotiated them up his thighs, over his hips, the rough drag of denim against his bare cock totally distracting and the tease of it felt so good as he adjusted himself, awareness sparking through his body making him feel a little drunk already. He carefully tugged the zipper up and flicked the button closed, smoothed his hands over his hips. 

He could still remember the first time Ino had dragged him out shopping, the way she’d mercilessly shoved him into a dressing room with skinny jeans that were surely never going to fit and shirts so soft he’d just wanted to stand there rubbing his face against them. That’s the idea, idiot. Soft fabric and denim at least two sizes smaller than you think you wear. It had turned out to be sage advice, and he’d rarely turned down her wisdom in that department in all the years since. The tee he tugged over his head tonight was her choice, deep forest green and a low vee neck that bared the sharp cut of his collarbones. The boots he was shoving his feet into were all him though, he could claim total credit for those at least. 

He spared a glance to his hitai-ate, still laying where he'd tossed it on the dresser. It always felt weird going out without it, a wordless kind of rebellion that whispered of freedom in the deep parts of his mind. Fuck he really didn't want to get caught up in that train of thought right now. He towelled the last of the dampness from his hair as he wandered over to the door adjoining his room to Neji's, nudged it open as he threw his towel in the general direction of his bed, tugged the tie from his wrist and tipped forward to wrangle his hair back into its usual messy topknot.

'Hey, no hitai-ate tonight by the way, Temari's orders.'

He stood back upright and zeroed in on Neji sitting on the edge of his bed, dressed head to toe in black and securing a pair of calf-high tabi boots, and all that heat simmering in his blood flared bright under his skin. Neji met his gaze and stood slowly, slowly, approached him with a flirtation in the sway of his hips that said he knew exactly how good he looked. Shikamaru let himself be greedy, let his eyes track him, linger. 

All that silky hair fell loose over one shoulder, a cloth band already secured at his brow and his hitai-ate now abandoned on the bed behind him. The top he wore folded in snug pleats around his body, left his arms bare right to the peaks of his shoulders and a tempting, pale vee of throat coaxing the eyes down down to where the wrap of cloth self-tied into a low belt at the apex of his hip. Soft pants flowed over his thighs before turning into a tight cling at his calves and disappearing into the tabis, the drape of the fabric showing off all that strength without restricting his movement. He'd still be able to fight dressed like this. Shikamaru bit off a groan at the idea, tried to stop himself following that thought to its ultimately filthy end. 

'And I'm supposed to keep my hands off you tonight how, exactly?'

Neji hummed in reply as he leant in and took Shikamaru's mouth in a slow, hot kiss, hands snaking underneath the back of his shirt to stroke along the base of his spine. 

'I was having the same thought...'

Hands drifted lower, a slow drag over denim until Neji was squeezing handfuls of his ass and drawing him up onto the balls of his feet.

'...you know how I feel about these jeans.'

Yeah. Yeah, he did. Neji bit at the swell of his bottom lip as he grinned, licked the laughter from his tongue and deepened their kiss. He fought against the urge to encourage the magnetic sway of their bodies, knew it would take so little to give in to the demand in his blood if he let the sparks under his skin catch against the heat he could feel gaining ground in Neji. 

'Come on, we should get going, they'll be waiting.'

Untangling from one another was agony but if they didn't get moving someone was gonna come looking for them. He turned to walk for the door, Neji's hand catching up to his as he reached for the handle, crowding him for a fast kiss before wrenching open the door himself and shoving them out into the hallway. Space opened up between them as they walked towards the front of the house where he could hear voices drifting in from the garden, the tone of Temari's needling, of Kankurō and Naruto rising to her bait. He grabbed for Neji's hand, one final squeeze, one last brief moment of contact before they were through the door, Neji latching it behind them. 

'Good lord, and I thought Naruto's t-shirt was tight. Did you get lost in the children's department?'

He couldn't help but laugh as her eyes roved over him, shamelessly ogling his ass with open appreciation, could feel Neji doing the same thing though admittedly with a little more discretion. 

'Hey, if you've got it flaunt it.'

He shrugged as they walked out into the street, held a hand up to Naruto for a high-five, the idiot's grin growing huge as he slapped Shikamaru's palm, white t-shirt straining at the seams as he moved. The guy gave off the air of dumb and pretty real well, all muscles and honeyed tan and sun-blonde hair, the sort of vibes you'd expect from a drop-out who spent his time surfing and partying rather than a shinobi. It was exactly that duality that'd always held Naruto's appeal in his opinion, the ability to surprise people who took him at face value only to be served up the suckerpunch of his big heart and unwavering loyalty alongside considerable ninja skills. 

'Gaara joining us?'

He'd swear Naruto flushed at the mention of his name, and yeah, that was a new development in an ongoing saga. Whatever was happening there seemed to get a little more complicated every time they came here, and the curiosity was killing him. He could guess at the shape of it all, the Sasukeness of the problem, but he needed details. Sometimes he felt like he'd fit right in at his Ma's sewing club, surrounded by gossipy old biddies. 

'He's meeting us there, he's been out at some boring work dinner thing.'

Naruto was toying with his hair, mussing the back of it, nervous. He could feel Neji noticing too and oh yeah, there was definitely a pin going in this topic for later. Temari's gaze flickered over and she grinned. 

'He definitely needs a night out, he's been forgetting to leave his title at the door lately. Well overdue for a little reminder that he's allowed to just be Gaara, too.'

She cast a loaded look at Naruto and the guy blushed spectacularly. Ugh. Killing him. 

The night streets of Suna buzzed with the kind of energy that always seemed to wake up like clockwork when the sun disappeared beneath the horizon. The heat of the day still simmering in everyone's blood, a touch of madness stirring up a fever, desire and recklessness and quick tempers. He liked it, a lush chaos calling him to open up and take a bite out of the strangeness of it all. 

Temari had told him once that the desert reduced people to their most vital parts, stripped them down and left them nowhere to hide, that the barrenness got inside you, showed you what was in your bones for better or worse. He could still see the first rays of dawn that had painted the buildings that morning if he let himself dip into the memory, the shadows licking up against the golden, piercing light, the sound of Temari's nails tapping over the deserted rooftop of her apartment where they'd been hidden away, young and stupid from a night of pilfered liquor and questionable coping mechanisms for their loneliness. Suna had gotten under his skin back then, an intruder that had left him unsettled and bare at first encounter but had gradually grown familiar, had gradually come to feel like home, comforting in the way it disarmed him every time he stepped foot onto its streets. 

His pulse always ran a little faster here.

They followed as Temari led them off the main road, wound her way through a maze of back streets, crowds thinning the longer they walked. Her laughter at something Neji said to her grabbed his attention and he met her amused gaze as she flung a quick glance over her shoulder, wondered what she saw in him that made her expression soften a little around the edges. She turned back to her quiet conversation and he let himself get distracted by the sway of Neji's hips, the way the warm breeze kept catching his loose hair around his shoulders, the tilt of his head as he followed Temari's gestures. His throat grew tight as he watched them, pressure that felt like fondness and need crowding tight until he had to force himself to swallow and take a deep breath. 

Suna will crack you open at the ribs, Shikamaru. She'll show you what's important, and it'll either make you stronger or break you. 

Temari had unlocked something in him all those years ago, her voice whispering truths in the back of his mind that echoed long after he would return to Konoha at the end of every trip, her presence in his life a kind of shamanic link to everything he kept buried. If Suna had stripped him bare then it had been Temari who'd shown him the strength in his bones. Watching her with Neji, watching them connect, it was like another part of his universe lining up and locking into place. An insistent pull like premonition had his fingers itching to reach out and tangle with Neji's, to hold on so tight that their grip on each other could conjure something more powerful than the threat he felt gathering out on the horizon, to draw Temari close too and shore up their defences.   

'Damn.'

He didn't think he'd ever heard Naruto sound so shell-shocked and it took him a second to shift the track of his thoughts. He followed that wide-eyed gaze over to where Gaara had come into view waiting by an unmarked doorway, dark jeans almost as tight as his own, black shirt buttoned like an afterthought, sleeves rolled over tanned forearms and wrists loaded up with brass and leather, piercing teal eyes rimmed in kohl. Damn, indeed. He was suddenly very, very glad that he didn't find the Hokage hot. No one needed that kind of distraction in the workplace. 

Temari reaching out to drag Gaara into a hug seemed to shatter the trance, blue eyes flicking away from green to look over and meet Shikamaru's raised eyebrow with a grin. He kept his questioning expression just long enough to watch colour flush scarred cheeks again before breaking into a laugh. He nudged Naruto's shoulder with his own as he walked past him, knew he wasn't the only one feeling the effects of Suna, the effects of a stumbling heart, brushed the back of his hand against Neji's as he stepped up alongside him. 

'A secret entrance, huh?'

The alley was empty but he could hear the white noise of pounding music and a crowd behind the door. If he hadn't already sensed the trouble brewing in Temari's tone when she'd announced the need for a night out then her answering smirk as she tugged Gaara to her side would have been all the confirmation he needed.

'There are perks to being the Kazekage that we'd be foolish to ignore.'

The wall of noise that crashed over them as she wrenched the heavy door open felt like a physical blow, the adrenaline rush that surged through him in its wake making his head spin. He reached out to hold the door, ushered the others inside and let thick shadows and sultry heat wrap around him as he followed them.

The labyrinthine hallway spat them out just a few paces from the crowded dancefloor, a mountain of a security guard poised to usher them towards the divide of a VIP curtain. Shikamaru brushed his fingers along the strands of beads as they walked through, droplets of copper and glass catching the strobing light and scattering it over them in rainfalls of colour. The club was cavernous, a converted warehouse space pulsing with light and crowded, shadows so heavy they could only have been thicker if he'd called them up himself. Everything was a palette of rich greens sinking into black, plants cascading down from high copper ledges like a man-made forest, deep couches lining walls, clusters of glowing bulbs like bursts of starlight in the dark. The huge oval of the bar held the demarcation between their plush booths and the rest of the club, two crystalline, smoky crescents lit from within, glowing amber beacons in the heart of the pulsing mass of shadow and bodies. Temari was already draped artfully over their side of it, an attendant lining up shot glasses and reaching for a threateningly violet liquor. She turned that shark-grin on them as she plucked a glass from the bar and raised it into the air.

'To friends.'

She slammed back the shot and smacked the glass down on the bar, her eyes flashing with challenge as he leant past her to retrieve one of the drinks, hanging one arm over her shoulder as he turned around to face the room. In the heartbeat that pulsed between the drum of the music a whisper had passed his lips, words he didn't realise he was going to say until they were out.

'To being no one's pet army.'

Her gaze didn't leave him as he downed the liquor, wild berries and cotton-candy burning on his tongue and calculating eyes boring into him. He felt the others move around them, take glasses of their own, Neji pausing to catch his eye before throwing the drink down and slowly wiping the corner of his mouth with a careful thumb. Shikamaru swallowed hard, aching to close the distance between them. Temari's quiet laugh startled him out of his sudden reverie, gods, how long was he staring, her shoulder a rough shove into his as she turned away.

'Another round, I think.

One more. 

Two. 

Three.  

The night began to swirl, edges softened by a jewel-hued intoxication, laughter flowing easy from their lips, sweat trickling down his spine and pulse syncing its rhythm to the pounding music. His friends spinning in and out of his orbit, the dancefloor calling him into its riptide current as songs bled one into the next. And Neji. Close, but never close enough. The brush of hands and grazing of bodies as they passed and long, burning glances through the anonymous crowd. 

He couldn't tear his eyes away as he watched Neji move with the rhythm, body swaying, twisting, cool water over jagged rocks, cresting hips and pale wrists and head thrown back, dark swathe of mahogany hair catching slick at his throat with sweat, soft lips parting on heavy breath, and gods, all Shikamaru wanted to do was drink deep, slake his thirst. He'd never seen him dance, had never seen him move like this outside their bed, wasn't sure what he'd been expecting tonight but this unabashed display of raw sensuality wasn't it. Urgency burned in his blood, desperation in his fingertips. He tried to remember why he couldn't touch him, why he shouldn't touch him, let the crowd carry him away before he reached out. 

As Neji slipped out of view the beat shifted again, a storm that broke and churned the wild places in him until he lost himself to it, felt his body like something made of muscle and lightning, moving under a power that teased through him, coaxed him open, let go let go let go, felt the lick and pulse of thick shadows, the deep, dark caress of energy singing out to him. His eyes shuttered and he breathed in a lungful of sultry air, ached to feel Neji's body against him instead of the press of strangers. 

A hand closed around his wrist and his eyes flew open, Temari's smirk greeting him as the song shifted and she swayed close, anchored his hand on her shoulder, jewelled fingers holding him there, body grazing him as she moved. Her painted lips shaped lyrics, an exaggerated flirtation in the arch of her eyebrow making him laugh as she rolled her hips and shimmied, played up to the song and tugged him along with her, the ridiculousness of it shaking some of the intensity loose from his bones, wicking the overwhelming heat from his blood. He drew her against his hip and wrapped his arm over her shoulders, enjoyed the trust of it, the easy intimacy that flowed between them as easy as breathing. She put on a show of grinding against him, her hand going to her mouth in faux shock as he grabbed her leg and hitched it up his thigh enough to make her tight skirt ride high. Her laughter tripped free and they stumbled into a hug as she regained her footing, the music picking up its pace, both of them shifting to stay with it, years of late nights letting off steam together in crowded clubs leaving them familiar with each other's wildness. 

The song slid into the next and she took his wrist again, dragging him along in her wake as she spun them towards the shallow end of the dancefloor, slipped from the sea of bodies and wove her way through to the edge of the bar, caught the eye of an attendant as she parted the curtain into their private retreat. She leant close to the bar and he didn't catch her order, distracted by his gaze landing on Neji lounging on a couch, arms spread out along the back of it, legs crossed at the knee. A chilled glass was pressed into his hand and he raised it to his lips without pausing to see what she'd given him. Soda bitten through with a bright flash of lime cool on his tongue and she was leaning close to his ear.

'So, how long have you and Neji been together?'

He almost choked on his drink.

'Come on Shikamaru, you look at him like he hung the stars, don't even think about trying to sell it to me as something casual, I know exactly what casual looks like on you and this isn’t it.’

No, he hadn't been planning on it. A breath somehow reached his lungs around the splutter of bubbles, eyes darting between her and where Neji was reclined watching the crowded bar, the heaving mass of the dancefloor beyond it, eyes catching his for just the barest moment before looking away again. They were being careful more out of habit than any real attempt at secrecy. And it wasn't that he'd been keeping it from her, not deliberately at least, but she hadn't been in town during his last visit here and this one had been hectic so far, but now that she had him cornered that felt like a poor excuse. She and him had been something he didn't have a name for for so many years, he trusted her completely, there was too much history between them for things to be any other way. It wasn't really a surprise that she'd guessed the extent of their closeness, if anyone was going to it was Temari, he just hoped she'd forgive him for leaving her in the dark. She smirked at him as he took another sip of his drink and he thought maybe she got it without his lousy explanation. 

'A couple of months.'

It felt like so much longer. How could his life have changed so dramatically in only a couple of months? Maybe coming alive just felt like this, growth after an age of dormancy so sudden and riotous that it left your head reeling. He smiled into his drink, rubbed his thumb through the condensation dripping down the side of the glass. The ache in his chest was incredible. Intense and overwhelming and so, so good. Temari hummed around a mouthful of soda, abandoned her glass back on the bar.

'Been waiting to see your grumpy ass fall in love with someone. This is nice. Though you should've told me, jerk. And I suspect you might need to actually hear this said out loud, you don't need to try and hide it here. Life is too fucking short not to celebrate the good stuff. We’ve got your back.’

He met her gaze again, teasing glint in her eyes going soft, some hesitation there as she took a moment to consider her next words instead of just flinging them at him.

'If you...if either of you ever need help, he'll give it to you. Sanctuary from an angry clan with notorious control issues, for instance. You've always been family, I know you know that, just don't forget what that means to us, how deep that runs. Whatever you need, it'll be given without question.'

She looked like she might kiss him and fight him in the same moment, all her fire directed right at him. Gods he loved her. Always had. For a woman more inclined to daggers than tenderness with most people, with him she was always just a perfect maelstrom of passion and gentleness, complex and loving and safe. Family. Amazing how such a simple word could be so loaded, how the people he'd gathered close to him felt like the truest sense of family he could imagine, more so than those bound to him by blood when he mused on it. She was right. Gaara would open his door to them, would protect them, and all they'd need to do is ask. And yeah, maybe he’d been a total idiot and hadn't come to the realization on his own, but now that he was there he could feel it in his bones, the undeniable truth of it.

'Just keep it in mind, yeah?'

He felt himself nodding, words stuck in his throat as he leant in to drop a lingering kiss to the corner of her mouth, a warmth deep in his chest at the knowledge that he had some truly remarkable people ready to fight for him if he needed it. She squeezed his shoulder for a long moment before spinning away for him, disappearing back into the swell of the dancefloor. He leant back against the bar, fished the lime wedge from his drink and sucked it between his lips, freed pearls of tart pulp with his teeth, let his eyes slip closed as he toyed with it. The heavy pounding music washed over him, tumbled him like so much flotsam, smoothed down the edges of his ribs and drew the spike of fear from him at the thought of the fight to come. All this time he'd been preparing for a battle and somehow he'd never fully grasped that they weren't alone in it at all.  

He could feel himself being watched, eyes opening to meet Neji's heavy gaze, fingers drawing the lime from his teeth and dropping it back into the glass, blindly sliding it across the bar. Maybe Temari was right about this too, maybe they didn't need to be so guarded here. He let himself stare, brought condensation-damp fingers to his lips and sucked at the tip of his thumb, chased the citrus sting there, watched as Neji's lips parted, body shifting ever so slightly. 

It was only a handful of paces to cross the room but it felt like he was wading through syrup, heat flaring in his veins as he closed the distance and drew up to the back of the couch, leant forward to rest his forearms by Neji's shoulder as he made room and dropped an arm back to his lap. It brought the pair of them close enough that it wouldn't take much more than a twitch of fingers to brush through his hair. Neji was watching him from the corner of his eyes now, face tilted just a fraction in his direction, the pause of anticipation that held in the scant space between them making Shikamaru's pulse race. He let his fingers unfurl, dipping into the fall of dark hair, reached to tuck it behind Neji's ear and leant in a little more, lips almost brushing the hinge of his jaw. Neji was holding his breath. Shikamaru almost wanted to do the same.

'Dance with me.'

Opal eyes met his fully as Neji turned to look at him, so close now that when his held breath shivered from him Shikamaru could feel it ghost across his lips. He wanted to kiss him so badly, felt almost feral with it. Neji seemed to share the wavelength, gaze flickering to his mouth for a stuttering moment, tongue darting out to wet his bottom lip, and fuck, Shikamaru burned.

'Dance with me.'

Another long beat of hesitation and then Neji was moving, wordlessly standing from the couch and walking towards the dancefloor, pausing at the border of their private quarter to look back at him.

'Come on then, Nara.'

The growl that clawed from his throat at the certainty in Neji's tone felt like it knocked something loose on its way up through his chest, his feet carrying him across the room on autopilot, Neji's hand catching his as he turned to part the curtain, led them out into the crowd. 

The beat dropped as they reached the heaving mass of bodies on the dancefloor, a deep, bone-rattling bass rumbling through his core and tugging him forward, a wailing synth sparking light along his spine. Neji turned back to him, hand still gripping his tight, pulled him close as he backed up deeper into the sea of life that swallowed them whole, pressed them closer. Their arms found each other, fearless, fearless and visible and fuck, his stomach lurched with the freefall, hands reaching to loop around Neji's neck, fingers in his hair. The music swirled around them, through them, drove their rhythm into a deep rolling sway of hips, Neji's thigh slipping between his like they'd done this a thousand times, easy, like they were afraid of nothing, easy, like there was not a thing in the world that could stand in the way of what they'd found in one another, easy easy easy. 

He brushed his cheek to Neji's, let the shape of familiar lyrics fall from his lips, sweet, needy words drowned out but the graze of his lips pressed their ghosts to Neji's skin undeterred. Hands stroked over his back, one slipping low to anchor at the base of his spine, the other dragging in a long, slow tease up up up, fingers wrapping around his bicep, and gods, he felt so wrapped up like this, the months of hiding shedding from them like snakeskin. 

Easy easy easy. 

Neji cinched their brows, lips so, so close, a soft smile curving his mouth and it would take so, so little to lean in. His pulse hammered in his throat as they shared breath and then Neji was closing the distance for them, lips grazing his in a drawn out tease before finally sinking into a kiss filled with so much shaking need it punched through his chest like an earthquake, nearly took his knees out from under him.

The song shifted, beat melting into something dirtier, their bodies mimicking it, grinding a little harder, looser, and fuck, if he hadn't already been growing hard against Neji's thigh then the moment their hips lined up and he felt the answering steel of Neji's cock brush his, well, that would have done it. He buried his groan into Neji's neck, a deep hum of agreement vibrating from Neji's chest into his own. 

They'd touched each other, moved with each other, more times than he could count but never like this, never where everyone could see them, where anyone that chose to look would see the familiar way they fit together that spoke of how intimately they knew this rhythm, their need bright and burning hot and utterly on display. It shook through him, the significance of this new line he'd hurtled them over, the way Neji had considered his request and answered with action just like he had all those nights ago when this very first began. His heart felt painful behind his ribs, the overwhelmingly sweet kind of ache that stoppered up his throat and made his lungs strain. Neji's hammering pulse called in echo beneath his lips as he dropped a kiss to his throat, let it linger, let it calm him even as it pushed him higher.

The deep breath he finally drew was thick, humid, laced with club smoke and the scent of Neji's heated skin, more intoxicating than anything else that had passed his lips tonight and he leant back, hands linked loose behind Neji's neck and hips still pressed tight, let his body dip into an arching curve, shoulders swaying with it. Neji's hand low on his back held their bodies secure, the other sought one of Shikamaru's and tugged it free to tangle their fingers, squeezing, letting go to trail over his wrist, along his arm, touch greedy and soft, unhurried, whispering over him. Shikamaru closed his eyes, let himself drift in it, far at sea with arousal dripping through his veins, body burning everywhere they touched. 

He lost track of the songs, music bleeding and blending and cascading over them, rocking them together, coaxing them through waves of pleasure that felt so much like late nights in bed together that he kept forgetting himself, moaning when Neji moved them just right, when hips dragged and fingers clutched and sweat beaded and ran down overheated skin. His body swayed, called out to the power in Neji's and offered up his own, Neji's hands on him an invitation, his arms around him fortress-strong but never caging him. It always felt like this. Balanced. When they fell they fell together, nothing lost and everything gained, everything given. 

Neji was drawing him back close, pulling him in tight, bodies dragging flush from chest to thighs, tangling, lips brushing his temple to drop shaking words there.

'Kami, I want you…'

A hand wrapped warm around the side of his neck, thumb tripping over his throat, forcing his head back a little.

'...this is... fuck.'

His whole body shivered as the trembling curse slipped from Neji's lips, and yeah, yeah. It was. He rocked their hips together in a slow, dirty grind, pressed in, bit at the lobe of Neji's ear.

'Then have me.'

Neji's groan scraped across his throat, lips chasing sweat, and Shikamaru could almost feel the exact moment the last threads of his self-control frayed apart. His lips found Neji's, hunger wild on his tongue as he licked into his mouth, drowning, drowning, hands gripping hard at his hips and pushing, moving them through the mass of strangers until they broke from the swell, broke from the kiss. 

Neji stumbled them through the dark, guided them through shadows pulsing through with colour in deep syrupy bursts, music thrumming, a dirty beat churning alongside the heat in his blood. He could feel the crowd brushing past him, limbs grazing as they wound an unsteady path, Neji's hands never leaving him and fuck he was dizzy, disoriented by the haze of the club, by the pounding desperation heavy in his core, and then Neji was pushing them through a doorway into a slightly less crowded space, the music dulling ever so slightly as the door swung shut behind them.

Fuck.

He was burning, burning.

Eyes almost catching on strangers in mirrors and the copper-flash of golden tiles and golden sinks glinting in dripping, amber lamp light, shadows thick even in here and he could feel them beckon him, beg him, his hands grabbing for Neji's hips even as Neji pulled him forward through the clusters of people, pushed him into an empty stall, locked the door and shoved him hard against it. He found Neji's mouth again, rough and messy, opened his thighs to get Neji between them and moaned too loud. Fuck fuck fuck. Lips at his cheek, his ear, hushing him just a little as he whined, whispering low as hands dipped to the waistband of his jeans and quick fingers popped the button and - 

'I'm going to suck your cock and you're going to save all those beautiful noises for when I have you in our bed later.'

Gods. He couldn't breathe.

'Neji…'

Fingers opening his pants and a kiss to the curve of his jaw. 

'I know. I know. '

He sounded wrecked. They both did. And then Neji was dropping to his knees on the dirty bathroom floor and Shikamaru felt the dizziness slam back into him like a fucking tsunami, vision whiting out as Neji closed kiss-swollen lips over the head of his aching cock and sucked. He buried a hand in Neji's hair and held on, reached above him to find the hook on the door and held on, Neji's fingers wrapping him in a hot, tight grip and stroking, mouth like molten fire around him, and fuck his legs were shaking. The moan that ripped from his throat shattered like broken glass around them and he was biting down on his lip to trap the next one behind his teeth. Neji squeezed at his thigh and he knew it was meant to be a warning but fuck, all he could think as those fingers dug in was harder, bruise me, take me apart.  

He fought to keep his hips still as Neji swallowed him down, drew back to plunge him deep again and again, wet and messy, pace designed to devastate him thorough and fast. Gods, for every way Shikamaru knew how to wreck Neji hard, the man knew the same in return. Love and need and a heady, ruinous desire, a language they'd been building stone by stone until it tumbled fluently from their fingertips like this. He felt it in every press of tongue and stroke of fingers, Neji's longing for him, an adoration that made him feel like he'd left the earth behind. His hand tightened in silky hair and Neji moaned around him, the sensation sending shivers right down to where his toes were curling in his boots. He dropped his gaze to watch as Neji moved over him, opal eyes flickering up as he shifted his grip to cup gently at Neji's cheek. Gods he was beautiful. Eyes burning with arousal, lips slick and stretched around him, colour flushed high on his cheekbones. He was panting hard, breath shaking from his windswept lungs over tidal waves of pleasure, Neji's name a sigh on his lips, his thumb tracing a slow sweep under long eyelashes as moonbright eyes dipped into crescents. Neji leant into his hand just a little, eyes eclipsing for a long heartbeat before meeting his gaze again, drawing back back back, lips dragging over the head of his cock as he let his hand take over entirely. He was releasing his clawing grip on Shikamaru's thigh, covering the hand still lingering on his cheek with one of his own and leaning further into the tender hold, lips seeking Shikamaru's lifeline, tipping his heart into a ragged stumble. Those eyes stayed locked tight on his, mouth parting around shaking breath just as Shikamaru gasped for air, and gods it was too much. Too much for his heart. 

'Neji…'

A smile curved the corner of Neji's mouth and then eyes were dipping, breaking their held gaze, lips closing back around his aching length, drawing him in, swallowing him down, tongue stroking, hand heavy at the root of him. He gripped tighter at the hook above his head, held on, his hand at Neji's cheek feathering over his jaw and throat to grasp his sweat-damp nape, fought the urge to sob as Neji worked him, heat beginning to blister and swirl thick below his navel. 

He felt the edge beneath him, a tip and slow motion fall, heavy, drowning waves plunging into the depths of him and surging out, out into a vast, fathomless ocean, shadow and diamond-tipped swell, slow, slow, everything turning hazy and shimmering around him, the moan that tore from his throat too loud but burned out by the ringing in his ears. Neji was coaxing him back through the fog, licking at him, tongue and lips a careful, sweet drag as they met cradling fingers, a strong hand at his hip holding on and holding him up. 

Gradually Neji rose to unsteady feet, tucking Shikamaru back into his pants as he pressed in to take his mouth in a filthy kiss, deep and dark and needy, swollen lips and salt-bright tongue an invocation. Fuck, it would take so little to keep going, his body still burning and every touch calling him to more. He pried his fingers loose from the hook above him, flexed out the cramp that had built in his hand as he wrapped one arm over Neji's shoulders, anchored them, blood flow returning to his fingers as they drifted down to map the steel length of Neji's cock through his pants, drank down the sound that shivered over his lips. Neji rocked into his hand as he stroked, dragged scorching kisses over Shikamaru's jaw, his throat, but as he began to work his fingers inside the waistband Neji's hand closed around his wrist, stilling him. Lips brushed the shell of his ear, sent shivers along his spine.

'I think perhaps it's my turn to wait now.'

Neji sounded destoyed, voice shivery, shot to ribbons from gods, from his cock down that beautiful throat. Fuck. 

'I would really, really like to return the favour.'

Please.

'Mmm.'

A pair of fingers ghosted over his bottom lip, pressed, and he drew them into his mouth, teeth catching, sucking them in a tease of what he so desperately wanted to drop to his knees and do. 

'Shikamaru.'

Neji eased his fingers free and took Shikamaru's mouth in another burning kiss, pulled back to lean their brows together, breath coming hot and hard between them.

'Are you sure?'

A smile curved Neji's lips as he brushed them over his jaw.

'About as sure as you were earlier tonight. But holding this… '

He took Shikamaru's hand and pressed it against his navel in invitation. A deep breath, focus, and he could feel the heavy current of chakra swirling there, thick and molten with desire. He heard himself echo Neji's quiet moan.

'...will be worth it.'

Hands stayed tangled there for long moments as Neji closed his eyes and sought his centre, an incredible thing to be wrapped up close in, slow inhale, held held held, slow exhale, again again again, a meditation, the calling of energy along ley lines, powerful, erotic. Shikamaru burned and burned and burned.  

Pale eyes flickered open on a sigh, lips brushing his in a kiss brimming with need that was now being reined in by Neji's iron will. Part of him wanted to push, to beg, knew that for all Neji's incomparable ability to find control when he set his mind to it he'd also give in to the hunger between them again if Shikamaru wanted it. He let his fingers dip beneath the waistband of Neji's pants, just a soft, stroking tease as he rocked his hips forward against the still-hard line of Neji's cock.

'Hmmm...not that in control yet then.'

Neji growled against the smirk shaping his mouth, bit at his lip, met his movements.

'In control enough not to fuck you here, though it's a close thing.'

He hummed as their sway found a little of the rhythm still pounding from the dancefloor, grappled for his own self-restraint. Fought the urge to push, to beg Neji to keep going, to fuck him here in a club bathroom, a fresh wave of adrenaline-spiked dizziness surging through him and he gasped for breath, brow furrowing. The stall walls suddenly felt paper-thin, but fuck, he didn't care. He didn't care, and it felt good. Laughter bubbled from his lips and the hint of concern that had begun to creep into Neji's expression smoothed out into easy warmth. 

He surged up to the balls of his feet, buried his hands in Neji's hair, cradled his skull and kissed him, kissed him, wild and overwhelmed and so utterly gone for this man he couldn't contain it. Neji's hands at his waist gripped hard, slid up to bracket his ribcage, held him so close, so tight, met him in the heat of their need, moved with him. Lips broke for ragged breath, brows cinching, eyes shuttering and cheeks dragging, the catch of mouths on kisses that couldn't quite stop. Neji's hands drifted to his pants and finished adjusting him from where he'd begun earlier, fingers lingering, thumb rubbing under the head of his half-hard cock before he zipped him up and fastened the button, chased the groan on his lips. An arm looped around his waist, moonstruck gaze met his hooded eyes.

'Shall we?'

He nodded, words stuck in his throat, and the door was clicking open. He draped an arm over Neji's shoulder, felt the squeeze of Neji's grip at his waist as they slipped from the stall. The bathroom was vast but crowded, an echo of the cavernous space of the club now that he was letting himself look properly. His gaze tripped over bodies and plants and gilt-framed mirrors, couches, snagged on the occasional knowing, hungry stare from a stranger as they wove their way towards the exit. It was a disjointed sensation, to be seen by so many people like this but knowing they were barely being noticed too. Anonymity that wasn't entirely.

Neji was shouldering them through the doorway and out into the club, the wall of noise sweeping them back into the sea of bodies, their grip on each other holding strong. He wrapped himself tight around Neji's shoulders, coaxed their movements, sought the rhythm, sought his mouth. Song melted into song melted into song, a current of rolling beat and sultry vocals, synths and guitars layered into a great tide of sound that rocked through them. Neji flowed with him, synced to his lead, bodies plastered together in their hypnotic, grinding sway, hands catching and dragging and stroking. They were as drunk on each other as they were on the atmosphere, on the liquor and desire in their blood, on the freedom they'd seized. 

Fearless. 

Shikamaru wanted to stay lost to it, to the heat and haze and Neji's arms, to stay here in this night as long as they could, but there were flames scorching under his skin and he'd been fully hard again almost before they'd left the bathroom, his head was swimming with it and he ached to get them home too. He licked at a bead of sweat trickling down Neji's throat, followed the path of it up to the sensitive skin behind his ear and pressed a kiss there, and then he was turning in his arms, pinning Neji's hands to his hips and weaving through the crowd. 

The sea of bodies tumbled them out by the bar and he clasped Neji's hand and led them back through to the private enclave, the air a couple of degrees cooler just from the lack of people. He took a deep breath, tried to clear the fog of arousal from his head enough to lean over the bar and order them a couple of drinks, soda and a shot of clear spirit and slices of dripping, scarlet citrus. The drinks slid across to them, the bartender turning away with a smile, and Shikamaru was stealing another fast kiss before they picked up their glasses and drank. They stayed close, Neji leaning back against the bar with Shikamaru pressed against his hip, bodies offset but still drawing up heat in one another, fingers hooked in belt loops and stroking down bare, sweaty arms. Like the moment they'd given themselves permission to touch they'd broken down a dam wall and couldn't hold back even a little, hands and lips and swaying hips magnetic, making up for lost time, for months of hiding. He rolled the edge of his glass along his lip, took another deep sip. The drink went down easy, the burn of liquor cooled by bright bubbles and a sweet burst of orange and the thought of licking the flavour from Neji's tongue was too much to resist, his glass finding its way blindly back to the bar as he chased a kiss into Neji's mouth. He hitched his leg up Neji's thigh, a strong hand slipping down to squeeze at the curve of his ass and keep him there as he sucked Neji's lip between his own, hips rocking, need burning hot between them the best kind of torture. A wolf whistle from over his shoulder announced Temari's arrival, Neji humming against his lips as their movements stuttered and stilled.

'Don't let me stop you, boys.'

She flashed them a wicked grin as she sidled up to the bar and picked up a menu to fan herself with and he stole another quick kiss before he turned his body just a little to face her, leg dragging down Neji's to steady both feet back on the floor. He smirked at her as she passed an appreciative gaze over the two of them, Neji's lips brushing his temple, hand still on his ass, fearless. Fingers stroking his cheek pulled his attention back, moonstone eyes flickering to Temari before settling back on him and he had just a heartbeat to register the challenge in the curve of those perfect lips before Neji was kissing him, deep and filthy and fuck, fuck, he felt high. Temari's laughter broke like crystal next to them and he grinned into the kiss, swallowed down the hum that shivered from Neji's lips. The kiss turned shallow, eased back, and as they both glanced over at her he almost thought she might applaud. 

'Better.'

The smile didn't leave her face even as she sipped at the drink which had appeared at her elbow.

'We were actually thinking of heading off soon.'

When Neji spoke it was in heavy, rumbling tones that vibrated straight into his chest and he had to bite back a moan. Now, we're heading off now. Temari fished a berry from her glass and sucked it between her lips as she watched them, popped it into her mouth with a satisfied hum.

'I bet.'

She gestured towards the corner of the room where Naruto and Gaara were reclining on a couch, deep in conversation. Fuck, he hadn't even noticed them there. 

'They'll stay as long as I do, and Kankurō went home with a deceptively sweet-looking girl an hour ago but promised he'd be home to cook us breakfast.'

She raised her glass at them before downing the rest of her drink.

'Enjoy the empty house.'

And then she was spinning away towards the dancefloor again, gods she must've been desperate for a night like this. Neji dropped a kiss to the hinge of his jaw.

'What do you think? Want to go and enjoy the empty house?'

The laugh he buried into Neji's neck turned into a groan as Neji sucked a soft bruise beneath his ear.

'Yeah, come on, let's get outta here.'

He unwound them and grabbed for Neji's hand, tugged him along towards the private exit, the security guard clearing the doorway for them to retreat down the twisting hall. They stumbled out into the alleyway and he couldn't help the sigh that escaped his lips as the temperature dropped. A breeze caught them as they walked up the street, almost cold against his sweat-damp skin even though he knew it was a warm night, the club had been like a damn sauna. He lifted his shirt to his chest, bared his stomach, his spine, to the night air, groaned as another gust licked across his skin and contemplated just ditching his tee altogether. Neji reached for him, clutched at his nape, his bare waist, growled against his lips.

'You have me so hard I can barely walk, take your shirt off and we won't make it home.'

The picture his brain conjured was a pretty one, the two of them breaking the silence of the empty streets with the noises they wouldn't be able to fight back, his palms getting scraped up by the rough brick walls of an abandoned alley, denim shoved down and digging into his spread thighs, boots skidding on gravel as Neji took him. Fuck.

'Mmm, don't tempt me.'

Another growl, a kiss that stole the air from his lungs, and then Neji was tangling their fingers and leading them through the dark streets. 

The night moved in and out of slumber around them as they slipped through back streets and crossed main roads, little pockets of humanity spilling out onto the sidewalk outside clubs, bars that overlooked the street with crowded balconies, night-food vendors with smoky carts and shoeless customers at the tail end of their night. And in between the bubbles of noise and colour breathed the deep quiet of the early hours, closed businesses and sleepy apartment blocks, a tabby cat out on a sneaky adventure mastering the art of a noiseless bell-collar, the chirrup of cicadas feeling the coming day. 

And through it all Neji's hand never left his.

They took one final turn away from the business district and onto their street, Gaara's home visible even from the end of it, the lush garden climbing over the fence and draping from the rooftop a sign of the luxury of the place, if the size of it hadn't been enough of a clue. He'd asked Temari what she thought of it when they first moved in and she'd shrugged, It's just stuff, it comes and goes, nice for now though, a sentiment shared by the three of them even if she were the most likely one to voice it. She always used to tell him that it did no good to get too attached to a situation, everything could change overnight. You had to hold on to the people you loved and make your home there, carry it with you. The material was, well, immaterial. He squeezed at Neji's fingers, ran his thumb over his knuckles, turned to kiss him long and slow.

They broke apart long enough to open the chakra locks guarding the front gates and disarm the secondary traps, resetting them as they stumbled down the garden path and up the front stairs. Unnecessary maybe, but the extra security felt like permission, like they could turn over every one of their senses to the moment, be entirely present with one another. 

He shouldered open the front door and Neji shut it behind them, hands pulling each other close again, the burn between them rippling in steady rolling waves of heat. He dipped his fingers into the waistband of Neji's pants, tugged him forward as he backed down the hall to their rooms, gaze locked, every step a slow sway of hips, another door opened and closed and then Neji was pulling his shirt over his head and grasping handfuls of his ass, lifting him up, legs over hips and lips seeking each other again. A slow walk to their bed as they shared breath, tongues dipping to stroke and catch, his hands disappearing into the loose fall of Neji's hair, tugging the strip of cloth free from his brow before pressing a kiss there too. Neji held him tight as he tipped them back onto the bed, pressed him down, a sultry roll of his hips against the cradle of his thighs that coaxed his breath free on a sigh. Lips against his throat, his neck, the curve of his ear, a whisper so soft it slipped beneath his bones.

'I want to take my time with you, make you ache…'

Fingers grazing his ribs, gripping at his waist, teeth finding the ridge of his collarbone as he shivered.

'This night has been a whirlwind, will you let me slow us down?'

He tugged that hot mouth back to his, moaned into the kiss as Neji rolled his hips down again, the hard length of his cock heavy in the crease of Shikamaru's thigh.

'Neji...gods...yeah, just, let me see you. Please.'

He hummed as he sucked at Shikamaru's lip, the sensation sparking like fireflies down his spine, all heat and beating wings. Neji rocked up to his knees, trailed fingers over him, patterns traced over the curves of muscle and ridges of scars, a thumb catching at a nipple making him groan, the scrape of nails over his stomach and softly feathering sweep of fingertips out out out to his waist, a helix spiralling back in to trip down over the band of his jeans. The button eased free and he could almost count the catch of every tooth of the zipper as it came apart, opened wide, his body arching into the contact when Neji's knuckles brushed over his granite length, his hands fisting in the sheets as soft fingertips circled the sensitive head, dragging through the slickness already beading there. 

Neji was slipping down from the bed, leaning in, stroking his tongue along the same path his fingertips had just travelled, a trail of fire as he licked at him, as he drew his cock between his lips for the second time that night. Save all those beautiful noises for when I have you in our bed later. And yeah, yeah. He didn't fight the moan, let it splinter from him loud and needy, let Neji hear exactly how he was wrecking him, the hum he got in response shivering deep into his core. Neji coaxed his hips up to tug his jeans down to his thighs, hands bracketing his hips, thumbs circling the peak of bones, dragging in to massage at the crease of his thighs, a hand cupping his balls as the blistering heat of his mouth swallowed down the length of him. He let his eyes drift shut as the exquisite torture tore him into threads, Neji's touch working loose knots that were buried deep, muscles tensing and relaxing in symphony, his breath coming in ribbons, Neji's name on his lips. Hands were slipping lower, dragging over his legs, bunching denim at his knees, mouth drawing back with one final swipe of slick tongue and Shikamaru was almost sobbing at the loss. A bruising kiss to his thigh and Neji began to work on his boots, tugging them free and pulling his jeans down down down, catching up the pile of fabric and discarding it somewhere behind him as he climbed to his feet. 

Shikamaru shifted up the bed a little, stretched out his legs and fought the urge to take himself in hand as Neji held his gaze and finally, finally, started to lose the clothing that he so desperately wanted him free of. A boot up on the edge of the bed, then the other, fastenings loosened, fingers dragging over the knot at his hip, working it free, long ties unwrapping from his waist and fabric opening up at his chest, falling from his shoulders, dropping away to the floor, baring all that pale skin to Shikamaru's hungry gaze. He gripped the bed again, saw Neji track the movement.

'Gods, Shikamaru… the way I want you. I thought perhaps with time it would become easier to manage, but it hasn't. You've had me burning for months.'

Fingers hooked in the edge of soft pants, eased them down just a little, a hand drifting to stroke himself through draping fabric that had done little to disguise the hard line of his cock all night. A tease. Shikamaru pressed his tongue into the corner of his parted lips, starving, watched as Neji's tongue flickered out to wet his own, the static between them pulsing. Fingers wandered back to his waistband and he pushed cloth down his hips, drew underwear over his cock and sent all the dark fabric slipping down his thighs, powerful legs shifting as he toed out of his boots and stepped out of the bundle of clothes. He stood watching for another suspended moment and then he was moving, crawling up the bed between Shikamaru's welcoming thighs, spreading him a little wider as he pressed their hips together and brushed the promise of a kiss across his lips. A roll of hips and Neji's cock was slipping through the slick drips of pre on his stomach, both of them moaning at the sensation.

'Fuck, Shikamaru.'

He let go of his iron grip on the sheets and clutched at Neji's arms where they bracketed his shoulders, claimed the kiss that still teased at his lips, moaned against Neji's tongue as it stroked into his mouth. The hours of grinding together on the dancefloor and steadily drinking had left his blood like syrup, thick and lusty, his body crackling with energy and desire, and spinning through it all the feeling of being free and so, so visible to the world, a more intoxicating drug than all the expensive liquor combined. 

As they rocked together, took each other higher, panting against desert-hot skin and catching kisses on hungry lips he felt waves of another need crashing over him, a longing to stay here in this space where they weren't afraid, where they could just be. He gasped through the tightness in his chest, moaned as Neji bit at his lip. Maybe they could carry this with them back to Konoha, maybe they wouldn't have to go back to hiding. 

He was so tired of hiding. 

Gentle fingers brushed loose hair away from his temple, trailed along his jaw, thumb tracing the curve of his bottom lip.

'Be here with me, stop running ahead. Just be here.'

His chest clenched, everything too tight, too full.

'I am, I just...need you. Need this.'

The clouds in Neji's eyes caught moonlight streaming through the windows, swirled silver and opaline lilac, a deep, seeking gaze that he could feel drinking him in and gods, for all the intimacy between them, their conversations and trust and the way they made love, it was the way Neji looked at him, the way Neji saw him that completely shook him apart . A connection that reached into his core. 

Neji kissed him, soft and shivery.

'I know.'

Yeah, you always do. It's what made this, made them, so incredible. Neji had found him. He'd buried his too-soft heart deep but Neji had found him, they'd found each other, kept finding each other every single damn day, kept breathing gentleness into each other like life-giving oxygen. 

Neji shifted away to retrieve oil, settled back between his thighs with slick fingers and a forearm braced by his shoulder, trailed his touch in brushstrokes over Shikamaru's throat, the sweep of collarbone, the peak of a nipple. A slow journey along ribs and the valleys between, the rise and fall of his lungs a rhythm coaxed deep and steady by the fall of Neji's breath against his neck, Neji's brow barely resting at his cheek. Fingers travelled in, down, a line to his navel, dipping and circling, lower, lower, knuckles skimming through dark hair, brushing the base of his cock. 

'Neji…'

Lips at his jaw and a deep, steady hum in reply as fingers tripped along the length of his aching cock, the hot glide of oil and pearls of dripping pre swirled over the swollen head, the groan that shook over his tongue tugged up from behind his navel. A gentle, tracing fingertip drew a line down his balls, back, back over skin so lit up and sensitive that every feather-light touch sent off fireworks in his blood, shivers that felt as ruinous as earthquakes through his nerves. And then Neji was circling his entrance and pressing in, in, one finger, two, slow and deep and steady, lips finding his again and swallowing down the moan that spilled between them. It was its own bliss, having Neji's fingers inside him like this, working him, even without the knowledge that they were building to more. Just this. Neji's body blanketing him, holding him, lips on his, messy sharing of breath, tongues stroking, fingers giving delicious friction, joining them, anchoring them. And gods he wanted more too, craved Neji deep inside him, filling him, but this right here, this was perfect.  

His eyes drifted shut, body rolling into Neji's touch, heat between them starting to bead sweat along his spine, his temples. A third finger and his breath shattering and Neji moaning so, so quietly against his lips, dizzy, gods he was dizzy. He could feel his gut drawing tight, realised he was repeating Neji's name on shaking breath, opened his eyes to find Neji's watching him, expression awestruck.

'Neji, please.'

He wasn't even sure what he was begging for exactly, just that he needed. Fingers dragged over his prostate and he almost howled, almost came, and then Neji was slipping free, shifting, seeking more oil, slicking himself and Shikamaru was pulling him close again as he guided his cock into the tight sheath of his body. He wrapped his arms around Neji's shoulders, his thighs around his hips, drew him in as they both moaned, long and gut-punched and shaking. Neji's hand found his cheek, held him with a touch so tender it beckoned his heart up into his throat, thumb a slow stroke over heated skin as their bodies settled flush, as they tried, failed, to catch their breath. He watched as Neji's lips parted, shaped the silhouettes of words that weren't coming, the ghost of a furrow passing between his brows, and fuck Neji was never tongue-tied, not in bed, not with him, words seemed to find him so easily when they were wrapped up in each other. Shikamaru was used to being rendered speechless by this man, by the tidal wave of feeling that submerged him months ago and was yet to let up, but Neji always seemed to be able to find an anchor to steady himself. Watching him lose his footing felt something like sharing breath underwater.

'Just kiss me, I've got you. I've got you.'

Neji blinked slowly, eyelashes glinting as he cleared the overwhelmed salt-sheen from those moonstruck orbs and kissed him, kissed him, deep and sweet and needy, their bodies finding a rhythm through it that kept them pressed tight. A rocking sway of hips sinking Neji deep over and over, the rolling friction of a blessed ocean tide, clutching hands gripping bruise-hard and stroking cloud-soft, lips and fractured breath and seeking tongues, he felt undone and remade in Neji's arms again and again and again. Words didn't pass Neji's lips but Shikamaru could hear every one of them regardless, love and desire and longing pressed into his burning core with every touch, and it was enough, it was more than enough.  

The room echoed with aching, breathy need, their names the only sounds that took form, the air thick, sultry, sweat-soaked sheets tangling their legs, Neji's hair a long curtain spilling over Shikamaru's shoulder holding the scent of the smoky club and somewhere beneath it the sandalwood and champaca of incense. Neji reached for his hand, tangled their fingers and squeezed, the rhythm between them starting to take on a wildness, a rough ocean swell, and he was drawing their joined hands between them, wrapping Shikamaru's cock in their entwined fingers and stroking. His head was spinning. Heat and heavy air and thundering pulse, Neji deep inside him, wrapped around him, mouth at his throat, at his lips, moaning, moaning, tremors shared like breath, hands clutching and holding and stroking and stroking and stroking and a cresting wave rising and rising and rising. He was crying out as his body locked up and loosened in pulses, heard the sweet, distant song of Neji sobbing his name against his neck, heat spilling deep inside him, vision plunging into velvet dark, shadow coaxing him out into vast, starlit night, warmth around him like an anchor, like wings, like safety. 

Like home.

He slowly became aware of Neji's body draped along his side, head sharing his pillow and legs still tangled, thumb circling over his heart, a gentle call back to earth after countless minutes lost to the freefall of their pleasure. His body was hazy, soft at the edges with the tendrils of their long night spun through with blissful afterglow, every muscle soaked with endorphins making him tremble a little as he stretched and finally opened his eyes, turned to meet Neji's gaze. A quiet smile and his turn to sweep Neji's hair away from his temple, to cup his cheek and draw him into a soft kiss, a gentle sharing of breath. He wanted to do this forever. Just this. Stay wrapped up in the man who'd become the centre of everything. He ran his thumb over Neji's bottom lip, traced the smile there. Neji's hand wandered over his chest, ribs, stomach, came to rest around the curve of his hip. 

'Are you tired?'

Neji just breathed deeply for a moment, considering.

'Mmm. Yes and no. I think perhaps I'm not ready for tonight to be over.'

Shikamaru hummed in reply, eased up to lean over him, coaxed Neji down onto his back, pressed him against the sheets and kissed him soft. 

'I want to show you something.'

Another kiss and he dragged himself away, stumbled a little on weak legs as he climbed to his feet and cleaned himself up with the towel he'd abandoned on the floor at the start of the night. He searched for underwear and pants that hadn't spent the night in a hot club, turned a lingering gaze to where Neji was watching him, still sprawled out beautiful and naked in their bed.

'Come on, trust me.'

The room was starting to lighten into pre-dawn grey, Neji's body painted in the last of the streaming moonlight from the open window as he left the bed and crossed the room, closed the distance between them, cinched their brows and dropped words against his lips before pressing them deep with a kiss.

'Always.'

His chest ached. 

Neji followed his lead, pants and bare feet, a pause to retrieve a haori where Shikamaru had left himself shirtless as he'd headed out their bedroom door. He found Neji's hand as he led them down the hallway and up the staircases to the roof, heard Neji gasp over his shoulder as they pushed through the door and out onto the rooftop. And yeah, yeah, it really was something.

They stepped out into the creeping dawn and Shikamaru closed the door quietly behind them as Neji's gaze took it all in, lips parted in astonishment. Green, green everywhere, a jungle, an oasis, plants spilling down from invisible ledges and draping over the floor, the soft mist of water from hidden sprinklers, big, glossy leaves dripping down onto ferns spreading like great feathered wings, everything damp and cool and cascading with life. Flowers blossomed through it all, jewels of citrine and scarlet and fuchsia in amongst the lush foliage, a stone pathway being swallowed by moss and lichen inviting them deeper, archways wrapped in the crawling hooks of creeper vines stretching a canopy over their heads that thinned towards the edge of the rooftop. Baubles of light glowed an amber haze along the path, led them towards a pavilion tucked amidst the stretching arms of rippling fronds, lanterns hanging in starbursts overhead, deep couches beckoning them to linger, to lose time here. He watched as Neji trailed fingers over the wet foliage, caressed the dripping petals of a magenta bloom the size of a dinner plate. It was magic here. She'd created magic here, and it took his breath away every time.

'It was all Temari wanted, when she was younger. Said if she ever got the chance she'd grow a jungle to hide in. Used to sit on her shitty concrete rooftop when we were kids, talk about it, drink stolen booze and make plans to have something better one day. A better life.'

He let himself reach out to where water had pooled in the cup of a heavy leaf, tipped it with grazing fingertips, watched as the plants below shivered under the delicate stream.

'I'm glad she finally got it. At least this much of it.'

Neji turned to him, slowly caught his fingers in a tangled hold.

'And what about you? What was the better life you dreamed of?'

He drew a deep breath, rubbed his thumb over Neji's knuckles, wasn't sure he had a proper answer. Back then he'd dreamed of something peaceful. A quiet home and someone by his side who loved him. Safety. He'd never been able to pin the vision down, details too grainy, all of it seeming so thoroughly out of his reach that it stubbornly refused to take form. Lately though...

'I want this. More of this. I want us.'

Neji drew his hand to his lips, pressed a gentle kiss there.

'You have us. What else?'

A soft smile, knowing, and Neji was leading them to the railing, drawing him closer as he leant a hip against the waist-high wall. 

'I'm not sure yet. Maybe something that wasn't, you know, dealing death for a paycheque. Guess I've been thinking that since I was a kid, really, but lately it just seems harder to ignore.'

He swallowed hard, shook his head, tried to clear it, thoughts spinning. He felt like he was made of crystal, translucent and faceted, a kaleidoscope of tripping light and feeling, complex and also so, so simple. 

'Suna always sends me off balance. In a good way, it's just, I don't know. Everything is always turned up to eleven here. And I'm tired of us hiding, and I think about us being safe, and how good it would be just waking up slow and knowing our lives were our own. And tonight has been amazing, I just…'

Fingers squeezed his, moonstone eyes watched him, gentle. His rambling voice splintered.

'I feel like I've always wanted so fucking much, but so fucking little at the same time, you know?'

Neji's lips stole away the broken shards from his mouth, the kiss burning away the slivers of old frustrations, fingers tangled tight, a hand cradling his jaw like he was breakable, precious, breath shared as brows leant together.

'Gods Shikamaru, I do. You know I do.'

He hummed, looped an arm around Neji's waist and rested their entwined hands on the top of the rail. The steady rise and fall of Neji's chest against his gave him a rhythm to chase and he found his body listening almost before he asked it to, lungs drawing deep, finding calm as he turned to glance out over silent streets. The first rays of golden morning light were painting the horizon, warm watercolour bleeding over the desert, over the city, the grey-blue night sinking back into alleyways and doorways, shadows curling back in on themselves, taking their rest. He took another deep breath, desert heat filling his lungs.

'Temari told me once that Suna has a way of splitting you open, of getting right into the depths of you and baring everything. That it could show you things, if you let it.'

Gold and pink exhaled over empty streets, gem-dust staining white brick, reaching for them.

'I feel like I've never been able to see the whole picture no matter how hard I try, but having you here, having you by my side…'

He tore his gaze from the fairytale in front of him, met Neji's knowing eyes, saw all the colours of sunrise swirling there, magic, promise and possibility. 

'...I feel like maybe I'm starting to work it out. Finally.'

Neji's lips curved, the smile so, so soft, morning light and love and trust and gods, yeah. Magic.  

Their lips found one another again, tender and sweet, slow, the shallow stroke of tongues as lips parted, welcomed, hands wandering just to touch, to be close. The sound of approaching feet and sparkling laughter broke their gentle worship, the heavy gate opening to tumble Temari through into the garden below them, heels hooked over her fingers and bare feet carrying her along the path to a beat still playing in her head. Her sharp gaze lifted to them, arms raising in a hallelujah as she blew them a kiss and disappeared into the house. Neji's arm wrapped tighter around his back, fingers stroking over his ribs, both of them unable to look away when Naruto paused as he shut the gate, eyes locked tight on Gaara's retreating figure for an agonizing heartbeat before decision seemed to grip him, driving him suddenly forward to pull Gaara back to him, the kiss fast but apparently enough to leave them both staggering, and then Gaara was slowly turning, slipping away and Naruto was glancing up at them and smiling, sun-bright . Shikamaru laughed under his breath. 

Family. 

He'd gathered them to him somewhere along the way, these people who saw something more valuable than a good tactician when they looked at him, and gods that meant something, meant everything. Maybe he didn't have the full picture of his future yet, but maybe the pieces he did have were enough for now. He exhaled long and slow, felt the smile tugging at his lips that came so easy these days. Love was one hell of a life raft, as it turned out. Neji pulled him a little closer, wrapped his arms around his waist and pressed a kiss to his temple. 

'Konoha can wait, let's stay here a while.'

He hummed and slouched enough to tuck his head into Neji's neck, didn't resist when the temptation to graze teeth and lips over Neji's collarbone took him. Yeah, that sounded good. They could steal a few more days for themselves, enjoy this. 

'Take a little Suna holiday, hmn?'

Neji's soft laughter shook through him, and Shikamaru burrowed closer.

'Why not? Perhaps I can take you out on a real date.'

His heart. 

Fuck.

He brushed his lips across Neji's throat, hands sinking into the soft hair at the nape of his neck.

'Yeah. Yeah, I'd like that.'

He leant back to catch Neji's gaze, colour blushing high along those sculpted cheekbones that he knew mirrored the heat in his own ridiculous face.

'You gonna kiss me now? Stop us standing here grinning like idiots?'

Neji turned them, pushed him up against the railing and leant in, bowed him backward as he crowded close, eyes full of clouds and sunrise, the deep hum that shivered from his lips tipping into their kiss as they sought each other. 

He let himself sink into it, let the ground slip away as strong arms wrapped around him, Neji's hands on his bare skin, holding him, holding him and finding him and welcoming him home.