Fic - Five Steps - [Naruto: NaruSasuNaru]
Fandom: Naruto
Pairing: Naruto/Sasuke/Naruto [no seme/uke]
Rating: ... Not sure. PG-13?
Warnings: Oddness. Started writing this a long time ago after a talk on sexuality that went along this premise: five steps to a good, lasting relationship. And carry out the steps in order - don't start from five! *grins* Anyway, found it recently and just managed to finish it. Ending seems a bit rushed to me, probably because it was. >_<;
Five Steps
Prologue:
in the beginning
It’s said that for every successful relationship, there has to be mutual giving on both sides. No relationship can ever be about just taking. That kind of selfish attitude can only lead to the death of love in all its forms. A relationship of any sort can survive only in the absence of care for oneself.
You have to stop expecting things to happen. You have to accept that you won’t be repaid for what you do. You have to know that it’s all you’ll get - nothing.
There are ways to make a relationship work, or so they’ll tell you. It’s possible to salvage a relationship in its doldrums, five steps to make things work out. At least, they’ll make you see why you’re better off alone. Or with someone else, anyone else. It doesn’t stop the hurting, but at the very least there’ll be cold logic to fall back on when you want to pretend it’s for the best.
No one can really tell you what to do when logic fails.
Step One:
knowledge
“You don’t know him, Naruto.”
It was true. No one could truly claim to understand the mind that lay behind that cold face. It wasn’t possible, even for Naruto, to appreciate the complexities of Sasuke’s life. Even someone who’d grown up shunned couldn’t possibly comprehend the difficulties he would have faced, difficulties of a different nature altogether. Some people likened them to each other, he knew. Others saw them as complete opposites. He thought the true measure lay somewhere in between. A sort of indistinct, vague greyness. Where some parts of their lives overlapped and they could, vaguely, guess at each other’s feelings. And where there were some parts that were so alien to the other as to be frightening.
Neither troubled to know the other in much detail. It wasn’t something that was important to the two of them. It was enough, really, to know that the other was there. A steady force in the turmoil and upheaval they seemed to face on a regular basis. A kind of comforting warmth in the midst of battle, a safe haven to which they could return. That was all that mattered, and anything beyond that wasn’t of importance.
Not really. Not at the time. Perhaps not even now.
Equally, it was impossible to say if he’d understood Naruto at all. It was more than probable he’d seen beyond the loud, annoying blonde to the true power that lay hidden beneath. To the sadness, maybe. And the determination. Whether he’d grasped the magnitude of any of those was anyone’s guess. And somehow, not knowing how much he knew made it all the worse.
Naruto hated feeling inferior to anyone. He always had. It was something that had grown in him, the fear and hatred of being considered weaker than someone else. From years of being despised and looked down on. It had condensed into a hard little knot of hatred at the base of his heart. That cast a fox-shaped shadow on his life.
Sasuke hated feeling inferior to anyone. He hadn’t always. He’d once been happy to be taught by his brother. Then he’d learned what it meant to live in the shadow of someone who would always be stronger. Would always be more feared. And he’d grown to hate that, had grown to hate feeling so useless. Years of anger and confusion condensed into a hard little knot of hatred at the base of his heart. That cast a cold gleam on his life.
Neither knew the other, and it really was a pity. They would have gotten on well if only they knew.
“I don’t, do I.”
Part Two:
trust
“Naruto, please, trust me!”
It couldn’t safely be said that either Naruto or Sasuke actually trusted each other completely. To a degree, yes. They could never have worked together as efficiently if they hadn’t trusted each other enough. But whether they ever reached the level that some team-mates do, of absolute, unconditional trust and devotion… that was another matter altogether.
There are those who believe in their team-mates completely. So completely, in fact, that they are willing to gamble their lives on that trust. Neither Sasuke nor Naruto could have been accused of that level of trust. Maybe it was because of the lives that they’d led. Maybe it was because of their childhoods. But by the time they’d become team-mates, trust was already something they’d learned not to give out.
Sasuke had given it to his brother. He’d received it back in pieces. Stamped on, smashed into rubble, ground into dust.
Naruto had never had anyone to give it to. So he’d trusted in himself and his abilities. And when they’d let him down time and again, when he’d found himself caught or when he’d been abused again, verbally, physically, he’d learned not to trust himself anymore.
It wasn’t really any wonder that they couldn’t learn to trust each other. Both had become jaded at far too young an age. It was a kind of painful withholding of trust that both desperately wanted to give.
But they were too scared to. They’d seen what Trust could do. How it could hurt.
It’s only human not to want to be hurt.
“Why should I?”
Part Three:
reliance
“You don’t have a choice but to depend on me to do this, Naruto.”
Maybe the real problems had started when the Hokage had decided to place the two boys on the same team. Sasuke and Naruto - neither was exactly the trusting sort, and neither knew how to let others do certain things. That had only been proven in the test Kakashi had set for the team. Neither could possibly have thought of working with the other, if Kakashi hadn’t explicitly stated later that what was important was team-work. And even then, it was only a desire not to fail himself that had motivated Sasuke to help Naruto.
Naruto knew that. He suffered under no delusions that Sasuke had been motivated by anything other than purely selfish reasons. Equally, Sasuke knew that Naruto was aware of the true nature of their dependence on each other. It was a dependence forged only because of mutual need.
Naruto would become the Hokage of the village. It was his dream, and in typical bull-headed fashion, he’d achieve it. He simply didn’t have the capability to believe he could fail, that enough people would hate him that he’d be denied the position despite having the skill. There would be those who would doubt his ability to take care of a village that had abused him, not realising that they were merely perpetuating the cycle of hatred.
And the cycle of hatred was something that Sasuke understood very well, though in another context. His brother was his reason for living, just as Naruto’s reason for living was his ambition. Sasuke would become powerful, much more than he was now, and he would do so for the sole purpose of being able to defeat his brother. So that he could kill the person who had destroyed his kin. So that he could himself destroy the last of that kin. It was a cycle that Sasuke had no choice but to fulfil. He would become the last Uchiha, the true survivor, and the blood of all his family would be on his hands.
Because he hadn’t been strong enough. Not then, not at the time. Just like Naruto wasn’t strong enough now, not enough to gain the attention of the village in general. Not enough to become Hokage, not enough to defeat Itachi. That was their true reliance on each other. Sasuke and Naruto knew they needed each other to improve. They spurred each other on to greater, better heights, heights they couldn’t have reached alone.
That was also the extent of their reliance. Neither was fool enough to believe the other could be trusted with their lives; or more importantly, their dreams.
“I don’t depend on anyone.”
Part Four:
commitment
“I chose you - I swore I’d get you out safely and I will.”
Maybe the problem was with Naruto and Sasuke themselves. It could be blamed on their childhoods, perhaps. Neither had had an easy one, and it would have been easy to blame the trauma they’d both suffered for the lack of social skill. It would have been easy to say that Naruto and Sasuke didn’t get along because neither of them wanted to commit to anything or anyone, because neither wanted to have to give their trust to someone they didn’t trust.
Because they couldn't trust anyone anymore, and you could perhaps say that was because of the lives they’d lived.
Naruto knew that was a lie. He knew that he didn’t trust simply because he didn’t want to. He knew himself to be capable of that emotion, but he refused to acknowledge it, because to acknowledge it would be to acknowledge the true depth of his feelings for Sasuke. Still, even while he pretended to hate Sasuke, even while he told himself that the only relationship he’d have with the bastard was a competitive one, he knew he was lying to himself.
Naruto was nothing if not honest with himself. He had an uncanny ability to understand the emotions of people, most of all his own. So he could tell himself that he hated Sasuke, and telling himself that enabled him to act accordingly. Yet his emotions stayed true and he knew he was really quite fond of that bastard. Fond enough of him to commit completely and utterly to the mission of bringing him back from Sound Village, back from Orochimaru’s grasp.
The others weren’t sure if Sasuke would want to come back. Naruto knew that Sasuke wouldn’t want to come back. Nonetheless, Naruto cared enough for Sasuke that he wouldn’t let Orochimaru take over his body. Sasuke was stronger than that, even if he wasn’t entirely aware of the fact himself.
Sasuke had suffered through so much that he thought this was the only way. He was the sort of person who was so focused on their goals that they’d use any means to achieve them. Naruto understood perfectly well that that was the reason Sasuke wouldn’t return to Konoha without a fight. At that particular moment, Sasuke thought the only chance he had of defeating Itachi was through Orochimaru.
Naruto had seen Sasuke’s strength while training with him. He was nowhere near Itachi’s level of power; and Naruto knew that well, having encountered Itachi so many times. But what Naruto could see, and Sasuke couldn’t, was that Sasuke had the potential to surpass Itachi, had the potential to defeat Itachi with his own strength - if only he would train and wait.
Wasn’t that the golden rule of ninjas? To be able to wait? It was the rule that Naruto clung to. He was so quick to move, so hyperactive and generally agitated all the time that no one would have thought that to be his life’s motto. But Naruto did know the rule, understood it in a way that few people could. So he’d wait, for Sasuke to learn, and for the village to accept him, and for the time to come when he could shed his masks and illusions. It was something he’d committed to, something he felt he could hold on to. A kind of bastion of support that he could rely on when it seemed his world was exploding in a whirlwind of chaos around him.
Sasuke never believed himself to be strong. He had felt Itachi’s power and knew that he was no match. Despite all his training, the long hours of hard work, the mastery of new techniques, Itachi had still been able to treat him as if he were nothing more than a mere child. He hadn’t even managed to kill Naruto, and that failure rankled. It had been more than a defeat. He’d lost his one chance to gain more power, the power he needed to fight Itachi. If Naruto had died, Sasuke thought he might not have gone to Orochimaru. Because surely, when he gained the mangekyou Sharingan, he’d have the strength he needed to fight his brother?
Somewhere in his heart, he knew that he was wrong. He still wouldn’t have been strong enough, and seeking out Orochimaru was nothing if not inevitable. He dismissed his callous treatment of Naruto out of hand; it wasn’t as if they had been friends. They had been… rivals, perhaps. They had pushed each other hard, but there had been no real affection between them. Naruto wasn’t someone important enough for him to remain in Konoha for. He wasn’t good enough for Sasuke to gain power, and that was all that mattered to Sasuke. Defeating his brother would have to be the top priority in his life, and he couldn’t risk having friendships. So he told himself that he missed nothing about Naruto. His bright grin or his shadowed eyes or his haunting strength or the feel of his body or the way his muscles went rigid when someone cursed him.
Sasuke never believed that Naruto could possibly become someone important enough for him to sacrifice everything he’d fought for up to this point. Somehow, not having the idiot around him had just magnified everything Naruto had been to him. And Sasuke knew now that he had been a complete fool.
His revenge wouldn’t be complete unless he were the one to execute it. He, with his own hands and his own mind and his own presence, had to kill Itachi. Not Orochimaru through his body. That kind of power wasn’t the kind of power that Sasuke needed. But he was here now and he couldn’t leave again. So he’d have to wait. Wait, and trust that Naruto would come for him, despite knowing his convictions. Trust that Naruto would come even if the Hokage forbade it, even if he was labelled a missing-nin and forbidden entry into Konoha again.
Sasuke didn’t know when his commitment to his revenge had turned into commitment to Naruto, but he found he didn’t care. The important thing was that he’d chosen Naruto; that he knew that Naruto had chosen him to be the one thing that he could rely on. The problem was in his knowledge that Naruto would come, most likely alone, and that there would be little chance for both of them to escape unharmed.
“Leave me and get yourself out, you damn fool.”
Part Five:
chemistry
“I do love you.”
And when everything was said and done, when all was over and peace of a sort was settling, it still didn’t matter. What they’d been through, what they’d once felt, the epiphanies they’d had, none of it mattered. None of it was allowed to matter. Because when it came down to it, Sasuke still needed to get his revenge and Naruto still needed to attain his dream and any kind of trust in or reliance on or commitment to each other would just have gotten in the way. It would have hampered their desires, and their desires were important enough to them that they could ignore everything they knew about each other.
So it wasn’t with any regret on either side that they continued as they had before. Training, pushing each other, being the extra factor they both needed to improve in leaps and bounds, leaving behind their peers.
It wasn’t with any regret that they met on the nights they didn’t have missions, clashing together in urgent need. That skin slid on skin and teeth found purchase. That they found that together, they managed to make each other complete if just for a moment, that they found that together, they managed to make each other live.
If just for a moment.
They knew all about each other now. And that knowledge was a small step towards the future. A future in which they both had attained their dreams. A future in which those dreams were reality and they would be free to pursue their new desire for each other. One desire tackled at a time. After all, they knew each other well enough to know the other would always be there. Maybe there was a kind of chemistry between them that was hard for anyone to miss, but that chemistry occurred on such a primal level that it wasn’t easily detectable. That was something that suited them both. If it hadn’t been as natural, their relationship could never have lasted. As it was, they would work their way forwards only after gaining their ambitions.
Small, baby steps.
It would be enough.
For now.
“No… you don’t.”
~fin
Pairing: Naruto/Sasuke/Naruto [no seme/uke]
Rating: ... Not sure. PG-13?
Warnings: Oddness. Started writing this a long time ago after a talk on sexuality that went along this premise: five steps to a good, lasting relationship. And carry out the steps in order - don't start from five! *grins* Anyway, found it recently and just managed to finish it. Ending seems a bit rushed to me, probably because it was. >_<;
Five Steps
Prologue:
in the beginning
It’s said that for every successful relationship, there has to be mutual giving on both sides. No relationship can ever be about just taking. That kind of selfish attitude can only lead to the death of love in all its forms. A relationship of any sort can survive only in the absence of care for oneself.
You have to stop expecting things to happen. You have to accept that you won’t be repaid for what you do. You have to know that it’s all you’ll get - nothing.
There are ways to make a relationship work, or so they’ll tell you. It’s possible to salvage a relationship in its doldrums, five steps to make things work out. At least, they’ll make you see why you’re better off alone. Or with someone else, anyone else. It doesn’t stop the hurting, but at the very least there’ll be cold logic to fall back on when you want to pretend it’s for the best.
No one can really tell you what to do when logic fails.
Step One:
knowledge
“You don’t know him, Naruto.”
It was true. No one could truly claim to understand the mind that lay behind that cold face. It wasn’t possible, even for Naruto, to appreciate the complexities of Sasuke’s life. Even someone who’d grown up shunned couldn’t possibly comprehend the difficulties he would have faced, difficulties of a different nature altogether. Some people likened them to each other, he knew. Others saw them as complete opposites. He thought the true measure lay somewhere in between. A sort of indistinct, vague greyness. Where some parts of their lives overlapped and they could, vaguely, guess at each other’s feelings. And where there were some parts that were so alien to the other as to be frightening.
Neither troubled to know the other in much detail. It wasn’t something that was important to the two of them. It was enough, really, to know that the other was there. A steady force in the turmoil and upheaval they seemed to face on a regular basis. A kind of comforting warmth in the midst of battle, a safe haven to which they could return. That was all that mattered, and anything beyond that wasn’t of importance.
Not really. Not at the time. Perhaps not even now.
Equally, it was impossible to say if he’d understood Naruto at all. It was more than probable he’d seen beyond the loud, annoying blonde to the true power that lay hidden beneath. To the sadness, maybe. And the determination. Whether he’d grasped the magnitude of any of those was anyone’s guess. And somehow, not knowing how much he knew made it all the worse.
Naruto hated feeling inferior to anyone. He always had. It was something that had grown in him, the fear and hatred of being considered weaker than someone else. From years of being despised and looked down on. It had condensed into a hard little knot of hatred at the base of his heart. That cast a fox-shaped shadow on his life.
Sasuke hated feeling inferior to anyone. He hadn’t always. He’d once been happy to be taught by his brother. Then he’d learned what it meant to live in the shadow of someone who would always be stronger. Would always be more feared. And he’d grown to hate that, had grown to hate feeling so useless. Years of anger and confusion condensed into a hard little knot of hatred at the base of his heart. That cast a cold gleam on his life.
Neither knew the other, and it really was a pity. They would have gotten on well if only they knew.
“I don’t, do I.”
Part Two:
trust
“Naruto, please, trust me!”
It couldn’t safely be said that either Naruto or Sasuke actually trusted each other completely. To a degree, yes. They could never have worked together as efficiently if they hadn’t trusted each other enough. But whether they ever reached the level that some team-mates do, of absolute, unconditional trust and devotion… that was another matter altogether.
There are those who believe in their team-mates completely. So completely, in fact, that they are willing to gamble their lives on that trust. Neither Sasuke nor Naruto could have been accused of that level of trust. Maybe it was because of the lives that they’d led. Maybe it was because of their childhoods. But by the time they’d become team-mates, trust was already something they’d learned not to give out.
Sasuke had given it to his brother. He’d received it back in pieces. Stamped on, smashed into rubble, ground into dust.
Naruto had never had anyone to give it to. So he’d trusted in himself and his abilities. And when they’d let him down time and again, when he’d found himself caught or when he’d been abused again, verbally, physically, he’d learned not to trust himself anymore.
It wasn’t really any wonder that they couldn’t learn to trust each other. Both had become jaded at far too young an age. It was a kind of painful withholding of trust that both desperately wanted to give.
But they were too scared to. They’d seen what Trust could do. How it could hurt.
It’s only human not to want to be hurt.
“Why should I?”
Part Three:
reliance
“You don’t have a choice but to depend on me to do this, Naruto.”
Maybe the real problems had started when the Hokage had decided to place the two boys on the same team. Sasuke and Naruto - neither was exactly the trusting sort, and neither knew how to let others do certain things. That had only been proven in the test Kakashi had set for the team. Neither could possibly have thought of working with the other, if Kakashi hadn’t explicitly stated later that what was important was team-work. And even then, it was only a desire not to fail himself that had motivated Sasuke to help Naruto.
Naruto knew that. He suffered under no delusions that Sasuke had been motivated by anything other than purely selfish reasons. Equally, Sasuke knew that Naruto was aware of the true nature of their dependence on each other. It was a dependence forged only because of mutual need.
Naruto would become the Hokage of the village. It was his dream, and in typical bull-headed fashion, he’d achieve it. He simply didn’t have the capability to believe he could fail, that enough people would hate him that he’d be denied the position despite having the skill. There would be those who would doubt his ability to take care of a village that had abused him, not realising that they were merely perpetuating the cycle of hatred.
And the cycle of hatred was something that Sasuke understood very well, though in another context. His brother was his reason for living, just as Naruto’s reason for living was his ambition. Sasuke would become powerful, much more than he was now, and he would do so for the sole purpose of being able to defeat his brother. So that he could kill the person who had destroyed his kin. So that he could himself destroy the last of that kin. It was a cycle that Sasuke had no choice but to fulfil. He would become the last Uchiha, the true survivor, and the blood of all his family would be on his hands.
Because he hadn’t been strong enough. Not then, not at the time. Just like Naruto wasn’t strong enough now, not enough to gain the attention of the village in general. Not enough to become Hokage, not enough to defeat Itachi. That was their true reliance on each other. Sasuke and Naruto knew they needed each other to improve. They spurred each other on to greater, better heights, heights they couldn’t have reached alone.
That was also the extent of their reliance. Neither was fool enough to believe the other could be trusted with their lives; or more importantly, their dreams.
“I don’t depend on anyone.”
Part Four:
commitment
“I chose you - I swore I’d get you out safely and I will.”
Maybe the problem was with Naruto and Sasuke themselves. It could be blamed on their childhoods, perhaps. Neither had had an easy one, and it would have been easy to blame the trauma they’d both suffered for the lack of social skill. It would have been easy to say that Naruto and Sasuke didn’t get along because neither of them wanted to commit to anything or anyone, because neither wanted to have to give their trust to someone they didn’t trust.
Because they couldn't trust anyone anymore, and you could perhaps say that was because of the lives they’d lived.
Naruto knew that was a lie. He knew that he didn’t trust simply because he didn’t want to. He knew himself to be capable of that emotion, but he refused to acknowledge it, because to acknowledge it would be to acknowledge the true depth of his feelings for Sasuke. Still, even while he pretended to hate Sasuke, even while he told himself that the only relationship he’d have with the bastard was a competitive one, he knew he was lying to himself.
Naruto was nothing if not honest with himself. He had an uncanny ability to understand the emotions of people, most of all his own. So he could tell himself that he hated Sasuke, and telling himself that enabled him to act accordingly. Yet his emotions stayed true and he knew he was really quite fond of that bastard. Fond enough of him to commit completely and utterly to the mission of bringing him back from Sound Village, back from Orochimaru’s grasp.
The others weren’t sure if Sasuke would want to come back. Naruto knew that Sasuke wouldn’t want to come back. Nonetheless, Naruto cared enough for Sasuke that he wouldn’t let Orochimaru take over his body. Sasuke was stronger than that, even if he wasn’t entirely aware of the fact himself.
Sasuke had suffered through so much that he thought this was the only way. He was the sort of person who was so focused on their goals that they’d use any means to achieve them. Naruto understood perfectly well that that was the reason Sasuke wouldn’t return to Konoha without a fight. At that particular moment, Sasuke thought the only chance he had of defeating Itachi was through Orochimaru.
Naruto had seen Sasuke’s strength while training with him. He was nowhere near Itachi’s level of power; and Naruto knew that well, having encountered Itachi so many times. But what Naruto could see, and Sasuke couldn’t, was that Sasuke had the potential to surpass Itachi, had the potential to defeat Itachi with his own strength - if only he would train and wait.
Wasn’t that the golden rule of ninjas? To be able to wait? It was the rule that Naruto clung to. He was so quick to move, so hyperactive and generally agitated all the time that no one would have thought that to be his life’s motto. But Naruto did know the rule, understood it in a way that few people could. So he’d wait, for Sasuke to learn, and for the village to accept him, and for the time to come when he could shed his masks and illusions. It was something he’d committed to, something he felt he could hold on to. A kind of bastion of support that he could rely on when it seemed his world was exploding in a whirlwind of chaos around him.
Sasuke never believed himself to be strong. He had felt Itachi’s power and knew that he was no match. Despite all his training, the long hours of hard work, the mastery of new techniques, Itachi had still been able to treat him as if he were nothing more than a mere child. He hadn’t even managed to kill Naruto, and that failure rankled. It had been more than a defeat. He’d lost his one chance to gain more power, the power he needed to fight Itachi. If Naruto had died, Sasuke thought he might not have gone to Orochimaru. Because surely, when he gained the mangekyou Sharingan, he’d have the strength he needed to fight his brother?
Somewhere in his heart, he knew that he was wrong. He still wouldn’t have been strong enough, and seeking out Orochimaru was nothing if not inevitable. He dismissed his callous treatment of Naruto out of hand; it wasn’t as if they had been friends. They had been… rivals, perhaps. They had pushed each other hard, but there had been no real affection between them. Naruto wasn’t someone important enough for him to remain in Konoha for. He wasn’t good enough for Sasuke to gain power, and that was all that mattered to Sasuke. Defeating his brother would have to be the top priority in his life, and he couldn’t risk having friendships. So he told himself that he missed nothing about Naruto. His bright grin or his shadowed eyes or his haunting strength or the feel of his body or the way his muscles went rigid when someone cursed him.
Sasuke never believed that Naruto could possibly become someone important enough for him to sacrifice everything he’d fought for up to this point. Somehow, not having the idiot around him had just magnified everything Naruto had been to him. And Sasuke knew now that he had been a complete fool.
His revenge wouldn’t be complete unless he were the one to execute it. He, with his own hands and his own mind and his own presence, had to kill Itachi. Not Orochimaru through his body. That kind of power wasn’t the kind of power that Sasuke needed. But he was here now and he couldn’t leave again. So he’d have to wait. Wait, and trust that Naruto would come for him, despite knowing his convictions. Trust that Naruto would come even if the Hokage forbade it, even if he was labelled a missing-nin and forbidden entry into Konoha again.
Sasuke didn’t know when his commitment to his revenge had turned into commitment to Naruto, but he found he didn’t care. The important thing was that he’d chosen Naruto; that he knew that Naruto had chosen him to be the one thing that he could rely on. The problem was in his knowledge that Naruto would come, most likely alone, and that there would be little chance for both of them to escape unharmed.
“Leave me and get yourself out, you damn fool.”
Part Five:
chemistry
“I do love you.”
And when everything was said and done, when all was over and peace of a sort was settling, it still didn’t matter. What they’d been through, what they’d once felt, the epiphanies they’d had, none of it mattered. None of it was allowed to matter. Because when it came down to it, Sasuke still needed to get his revenge and Naruto still needed to attain his dream and any kind of trust in or reliance on or commitment to each other would just have gotten in the way. It would have hampered their desires, and their desires were important enough to them that they could ignore everything they knew about each other.
So it wasn’t with any regret on either side that they continued as they had before. Training, pushing each other, being the extra factor they both needed to improve in leaps and bounds, leaving behind their peers.
It wasn’t with any regret that they met on the nights they didn’t have missions, clashing together in urgent need. That skin slid on skin and teeth found purchase. That they found that together, they managed to make each other complete if just for a moment, that they found that together, they managed to make each other live.
If just for a moment.
They knew all about each other now. And that knowledge was a small step towards the future. A future in which they both had attained their dreams. A future in which those dreams were reality and they would be free to pursue their new desire for each other. One desire tackled at a time. After all, they knew each other well enough to know the other would always be there. Maybe there was a kind of chemistry between them that was hard for anyone to miss, but that chemistry occurred on such a primal level that it wasn’t easily detectable. That was something that suited them both. If it hadn’t been as natural, their relationship could never have lasted. As it was, they would work their way forwards only after gaining their ambitions.
Small, baby steps.
It would be enough.
For now.
“No… you don’t.”
~fin