A/N: Payment fic for serpents_tooth- threesomeeeee. NejiSasuNaru. Gleeeeee. ^___^ Oh, you KNOW you want it.

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"A Thousand Ways To Be Alone"

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"It was not for nothing he was fifteen years old." ~ The House of the Spirits; Isabel Allende

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Naruto's eyes are blue. A nice shade of it too. Neji likes to look at them sometimes (no one ever knows that he is, after all, because he can see anything he wants to). Those same eyes unsettle Sasuke, however. Because he's seen them when they aren't blue.

His eyes do some color-changing tricks of their own, but he can't imagine how he could look half so fucking terrifying as Naruto does with those dark streaks under his eyes and that brilliant, horrifying, fresh-blood crimson in them.

The first time Sasuke saw that color up close he nearly died of shock. And something small and animal and ancient in the back of his mind SCREAMED.

Then he remembered it was Naruto and recovered enough not to piss himself. But not much more than that.

Neji's never seen that red. He doesn't even know it exists.

Sasuke doesn't really want him to know, either.

Neji kissed Naruto at the training ground last week and Naruto kissed back. Sasuke saw and wasn't sure if he should be apathetic or jealous.

Neji is always very certain of his feelings. You have to be certain when you're alone. There are different kinds of "alone," though. Sasuke, for example, isn't lucky enough to be alone. Itachi's shadow is always with him. And Naruto has never been alone, not even for a second, because of what is sleeping in his heart.

Right now, the kind of alone they all are is the kind you get when you're together and not as closely so as you want to be.

Sasuke's on the left. Neji's on the right. Naruto's in the middle.

None of them are looking at each other.

Sasuke remembers, at the back of his mind, the time Naruto accidentally kissed him. Neji remembers kissing Naruto on purpose. Naruto remembers both kisses and tries not to blush. It works better for him than it does for the other two, who are both far paler than he is and growing pinker by the moment.

No one is speaking.

No one is speaking, but a lot of things are being said.

Sasuke notices that little cringe Naruto does when he's really nervous and the way Neji readjusts the wrap around his arms. Neji observes that same cringe of Naruto's and analyzes it for what it is, and sees the way Sasuke's eyes flicker erratically and analyzes that just as well. Naruto sees Sasuke's knuckles slowly whitening and Neji's flushed face.

And all three of them are violin-string tight from top to bottom, waiting to touch.

Because all three of them know that's what all three of them want, but all three of them think they're reading the other two wrong.

This is why Uzumaki Naruto is and always will be a godsend. Because he's an idiot and a ne'er-do-well and doesn't know anything at all about things like love or sex or any of that. Because he doesn't know it's not okay to want to kiss both of the people sitting beside him.

And because he doesn't know, he does. And because he's Naruto and they love him and (maybe, just a little, a lot more than they'd ever admit) each other, they both kiss back. And then they look at each other strangely for a moment, and Naruto kind of laughs, and then things kind of make sense.

Not really, but a little.

Naruto leans back a little, sprawling his legs over Neji's lap and leaning against Sasuke's shoulder. And if Sasuke and Neji's hands are a little closer than they need to be, no one is saying anything.

Perhaps it is an unexpected thing. Perhaps it is even the wrong thing.

But they are children and, for once, invincible.

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. : i shall not change, i shall not change, i shall not change : .