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Shards of ice blew along a frozen gust of wind with each breathy gasp that rattled along the windows of the treetop ANBU fort. Fifty feet up in an artificially grown Hashirama tree, the structure swayed slightly, but had held steady for the last one-hundred years, anyway. The door banked off the wall when Shisui lost grip of it through his thrice-mittened hand. He gave a small wave, allowing the icicles clinging to the wool to drip to the hardwood floor.
“For fucks sake, close the door,” Sakura groused, tugging the open sides of her standard issue coat close around her. She leaned over and held her hands over the top of the wood stove at the end of the room.
“Yeah, yeah,” he muttered, muffled by the scarf wrapped around the bottom half of his face. Water sluiced off of his outerwear as he hung it against the wall. Small puddles formed on top of the doormat around the edges of his winter boots. “I know why I’m here at the edge of the world. Why are you?”
Sakura huffed and picked up a pair of binoculars on the windowsill. “I volunteered. Got tired of seeing everyone else shack up, I ‘spose. I don’t have any family left, I figured I might as well come out here… to the edge of the world. So that those that do…”
He threw his damp shirt over the footboard and ran a hand through his short curls. She didn’t look, she swore she didn’t, even as the muscles rippled down with every minute movement of his arm while he settled in from the cold. She swore she didn’t trace the paths of the water droplets down his spine with her eyes. She wished she could have sworn she looked away entirely when he began to remove his wet pants as well, leaving only a pair of black skin-tight boxers on a very shapely…
“Stop staring, or I’ll take you up on your offer.” There was a tease in his remark, a hidden smirk that made her want to splash him with the now cold cup of tea in her hands. Although then it would also run down the smooth skin, devoid of scars, and slip around the contours of his lower back.
“What’s there to stare at? This deer is more interesting.”
“What kind of deer?”
“Female, she has a fawn on her. They’re looking for a place to bed down.”
There was a rustling of fabric behind her, the slam of a foot on wood, followed by a string of profanities. That was better, much better than fantasizing about Shisui Uchiha, of all people.
He was quiet now, not a single footstep behind her, even the teapot on the woodstove was quiet when he poured himself a mug. “I’m sorry about your parents, by the way. I heard, but never…”
She held up her pointer finger toward the doe and fawn in the window. “They found a spot in the old equipment shed.”
He picked up the extra binoculars and watched as the deer settled into the half-demolished building tucked away in a small copse of trees.
“And don’t worry about it. We weren’t ever that serious, anyway. Sleeping together a few times, and a few dates does not a relationship make. Besides, it’s been years.”
The corner of his mouth ticked down his tightened jaw as he nodded. “I always felt like it was one.”
The lie of a shrug came naturally from the months of practice that had followed his absence. The ‘No, Sensei, I don’t want you to fight him,’ the ‘It wasn’t a real relationship, Naruto,’ or the ‘It was a friends with benefits only, Ino. I’m not mad he left without a word.’
“You weren’t expecting me out here, were you?” he finally asked quietly, as though the question had weighed on his mind from the moment she walked in the door of the fort last week.
“Now he understands. No, I wasn’t. I have no hard feelings toward you, though.”
“I’d understand if you did. If nothing was explained—”
“I don’t.”
He held his hands up in surrender. Empty footsteps echoed across the floor when he rolled himself into the bottom bunk. Most of his night had been spent checking on the other ten ANBU operatives hidden throughout this section of the border. Cotton sheets slid against the coarse wool blankets and his smooth skin when his shirt quietly hit the floor. She could close her eyes and still feel the warmth of his arms, the cologne at the base of his throat. When she first arrived at the fort, she had wondered if he wore the same, it shouldn’t’ve been a surprise that he didn’t wear any on duty. No, he was far too careful.
Rolling onto his side, he stared at her attempts to watch the family of deer from the window. “Come to bed. You look just as tired as I feel.”
“Someone needs to keep watch.” She would never admit she waited for him last night, like she had in the days and weeks after he left. The doe kicked at a pile of sawdust on the ground, hollowing out the center for a place to sleep inside the shed.
There was a rustle behind her as carefully sounded footsteps crossed the room. Years ago, he had startled her so badly once that she had spilled hot coffee all over her legs, he purposely made sound now. The warmth of his chest melted the chill of the air through the scant space between them. He sighed, his hot breath disturbed the small curls at the nape of her neck.
The weight of his forehead pressed against the back of her head. “Come to bed. It doesn’t have to be with me, but you need the sleep.”
“Shisui—”
“I know, you don’t have to say it. I’m sorry.”
Calluses along the edge of his thumb and palm of his hand rasped against her bare skin beneath her shirt. He thumbed the top of her belt against her hip bone, and she closed her eyes to focus on his warmth.
“Are you really trying to seduce me during a mission?”
“It’s not a seduction, it’s an invitation. An open invitation.”
When his lips grazed the side of her neck, the shell of her ear, her pulse, she sighed. Unbidden her fingers laced themselves into his hair. He knew her too well, had studied her every reaction far too closely the few times they slept together.
A yawn dared to escape that she quickly stifled with a stretched arm over her mouth. “Somebody has to keep watch.”
“Nobody has tried to cross that border in over thirty years. Besides, I have crows in the forest.”
He sucked gently against her pulse, then nipped against the back of her shoulder. The brief encouragement of her hand in his hair spurred him on to dragging the hem of her shirt up her body, stopping to tease the bottom edge of her sports bra before removing her shirt. Rough thumbs grazed the top of the fabric covering her erect nipples as the cold assaulted her body. Even the chill in the air couldn’t stifle the heat from behind her. As long as she had known him, he had always ran hot.
Goosebumps ran up her arms and down her sides with every glancing pass of his fingers. Condensation from his breath chilled against the crook of her neck, soothing the sting of his bite. She wondered if he could feel her heart racing in her chest, if he could feel the strength of her pulse beating against his lips. Or if he noticed how close her thighs had moved together in an effort to relieve the ache he was causing. When he played against the inside of the waistband of her pants, she wanted to float away. She wanted to let him set her on fire so she could fall and tumble through the air in specks of ash.
“We really shouldn’t,” she weakly protested, turning around in his arms. Toying with the drawstring of his sweatpants, she began to walk him back toward his bunk. The gray fabric left very little to the imagination to cover his rising interest, she thought about grinding herself down on him, just to see what he would do. Toy with him like a cat and a string. Maybe then it would alleviate the aged resentment she felt in his absence. Maybe it would reassert her control over the situation.
He gently cupped her chin in his fist and kissed her. All thoughts of teasing him went out the window. He was too gentle, stealing her breath with every sweep of his lips against hers. Featherlight touches drew her in closer in a silent apology until his hand was locked in her hair. The other dared dip lower beneath the waistband of her pants to caress the uppermost curve of her ass. When the back of his knees hit his bunk, he stopped and dropped his forehead against hers. “I am sorry for leaving things the way I did. It wasn’t my intention.”
Sakura sighed. “It’s what happened. Though, having Itachi show up in my apartment the day after you left to cover for you was probably not your best move.”
He huffed a shell of a laugh, dipping down to kiss her one more time. “He has always had problems expressing emotions. It might be better if I showed you how I feel.”
“How you feel?” Cold air from the drafty window invaded the space between them as she began to pull away from his warmth. She raised her eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest. “Present tense.”
“Present tense. I still have feelings. For you.”
She was beginning to regret not splashing the cold tea in his face. “You don’t need to actually say anything to seduce me, you know. I’m kind of a sure thing. Half naked, standing here. Alone. At the edge of the world. You don’t need to try and say pretty things to get my pants off.”
His brows furrowed, his hands stilled on her bared hips. “Sakura,” he started, then paused. The low gravel in his voice sent shivers down her spine, no less potent a drug than it was then. “You’re right. But I want to.”
“Shisui…” She didn’t want this—his emotions. She had too many of her own to deal with. Lifting her hand from his hip, she reached down and cupped his cock through his pants.
He grunted, his hips moving against her hand in search of relief. Rough fingertips gripped her ass hard enough to leave bruises the next day, she relished in the temptation of bearing his mark and of belonging to someone, even for a brief time. When he opened his eyes and gazed into hers, he reminded her of the darkest night in the desert when the stars danced above their heads in the summer heat against such a clear velvet backdrop. She wished she could have been one of the stars in his eyes.
Without warning, he switched their position. Roughly unbuttoning her pants, he finally yielded to the wordless plea she was so desperately making. No feelings, no emotions. Not for them. No words needed to be expressed as they sought their pleasure.
It was in this moment where she shoved any thought of emotion or relationship with Shisui that she realized her clothes were completely off. Dissociating, maybe. He had stopped again, brushing his thumb against her cheek.
“Where do you go in that mind of yours?” he asked almost to himself.
She locked her thighs around his hips and flipped them over. “Less talk, more action.” She hoped that the smirk she flashed him came out as flirty rather than as desperate as it felt. The fire from the stove across the room was burning low, sending the shadows even higher against the walls.
Shisui shook his head, holding on to her hips, and grinding her down on his still-clothed cock. “This what you want?”
Though she gasped out, she wasn’t sure she liked his hollow tone. The repeated action sent a shudder down her spine. When he rolled a nipple between his finger and thumb, a ripple of pleasure shot straight to her core. She could feel the damp spot growing on top of his pants as he continued to dry hump her from below.
“Alright, but we do this my way,” he said, breaking the silence between them, and redirecting her focus to his face.
Before her brain could keep up with her body, her back was against the sheets. He hovered over her, shoving his sweatpants below his cock. Released from its confines, it bounced against her abdomen.
“Put your hands above your head. Grab the slats, don’t let go.”
For all the command he put behind his words, his hands were tender. She wanted to see what he would do with the verbal restraint and followed his command.
He kissed the side of her neck with a whispered, “Good girl,” at her easy compliance. His lips were soft against her skin as he traced her clavicle to her sternum, sparking the nerve endings with every touch against her skin.
Sakura couldn’t stop her mind from wandering, only for him to redirect it with a gentle nip to her breast.
“Eyes on me,” he reminded. His thumb began to circle her clit slowly, far too gently.
When he finally began to stretch her with his fingers, she felt like kicking him. From the smirk on his face, it was like he could read her mind. Lifting off of her, he kissed the inside of her knee.
In one smooth thrust, he fully sheathed himself. Her back arched to meet him, to beg him to move faster. It was too slow, reminiscent of that last night. The night she thought she would bear her soul to him. Pour her heart out over the rumpled pillows and twisted blankets. Break the one rule they had set: no feelings.
His body surrounded her, jarring her into action. Her own body betrayed her, responding to his far too well. It moved on its own. A hidden smile flashed across his face when her legs locked around his back. She could feel the muscles on the sides of his hips quake and ripple with each movement against her inner thighs.
He was too gentle. Too loving. She wanted him to stop. She wanted him to continue. She wanted to say that she still loved him. Though she had never told him that the first time. She wanted him to say that he loved her. That she wasn’t alone in this. Even out here.
Beads of sweat formed on her upper chest, matching the drop on his brow. She flicked her tongue out against the side of his neck, then sucked against his pulse. A low groan was her reward, sending a spasm of need that rocked her to her core.
Every thrust sent her higher. She was lost in the moment, in a haze of fog where every breath was shared between them. For the first time, she broke the rule. She lifted her hands from the slats above her head and threw them around his neck.
“Finally,” he grunted. Mirroring her action, he interlaced his fingers in her hair.
The tender look in his eyes as he pulled back sent her over the edge. It catapulted her from a small fort in the middle of nowhere to the sky. She was made of starlight, bursting and erupting over and over again. Nothing but an internal fire in his eyes, burning beneath him, matching his own flame.
He gasped out, burying the sound with his lips on hers in a desperate bid to quell the noise and share the quiet moment. A renewed flood of heat filled her as his hand grasped her ass to bring her closer. He rocked slowly, his free hand tracing the path of a tear she didn’t know had fallen.
Pulling out, he wrapped the tangled covers over them and tucked her underneath his arm. “I broke the rule,” he admitted quietly. “I fell in love with you.”