I revised this somewhat. It's essentially the same as before, but I think I polished it a bit...

Kisei: I know, I should be working on Forsaken... but I can't hepl it. My fingers just started typing without my brains permission!!!

I don't own Naruto, and any characters from it, or even the idea of SasuNaru x.x If I did though, I'd be very proud.

PLEASE REVIEW!

“Dreams”

I should know better by now. I should get it through my thick skull that this is wrong, all of it. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong! But no. I have to be an idiot, like everyone says I am. Like he says I am. I go along with it all day every day, and then into the night too. I don’t even know why I bother anymore. I can’t leave him though, any more than he can leave me. We’re stuck.

But maybe I don’t want to. Maybe I want to stay. Even if he’s messed up, he’s beautiful. I remember when we were still kids, every called him cute and the young girls fawned incessantly. Yes, I know the word incessantly. I’m not stupid. Now though, everyone stares at him in wordless awe and basks in his beauty. I think most of them feel privileged to breathe the same he does.

Idiots.

Just because his raven black hair shines ephemerally in the moonlight, and just because his deep obsidian eyes gaze out like bottomless pools of ink, and just because his ivory skin glistens when he’s been training all day and sweat plasters his hair to his face doesn’t mean he’s worth it.

He’s really not. His hair in the moonlight means pain, if not death, for anyone who sees it, even his lover. His eyes glare angrily at everything. His skin is rough and littered with scars. He’s rough, impatient, and rude with everyone. He ignores anyone weaker and hates anyone stronger than he is. Even to me, he’s cruel, rough, and bitter, but he still won’t show me how he hurts. Everyone knows why.

I see all of him every night, every inch of skin, every tensed muscle. His eyes always stare out blankly though, like doesn’t want to see me because he doesn’t care who I am. He won’t speak nicely even to fool me.

Twice he said something nice. Twice. Two times in all the years we’ve known each other he said something that wasn’t harsh or insulting. Usually he just doesn’t bother speaking at all. He told me once I was his closest friend. But then the bastard tried to kill me! So that other thing he said, he probably didn’t mean it. I bet he thought it’d be funny to see me torn up over him.

But I know he wouldn’t lie to me. He never lies, and he never breaks a promise. He’s intensely loyal in his own twisted way. So when he told me… when he whispered “I love you” in my ear, he told the truth, right? He never lies, why would he start then.

Even if he thought it was true then, he’s forgotten by now. He went right back to normal after that. Right now, he’s asleep beside me, perfectly normal, for him anyway. He looks unusually peaceful when he sleeps, unless he’s having a nightmare. He has them a lot. I can only see how much he hurts when he’s fast asleep in a bad dream. He’ll toss, turn, scream, cry, and writhe in pain all night if I let him. I can’t ignore it though, even when I want to. I always hold him softly, stroking his hair and whispering “It’ll be okay, Sasuke” as softly and soothingly as I can.

Once I wondered if he cried because he can’t tell me he loves me. Then I realized he doesn’t. He doesn’t love anyone. If he loved me, I wouldn’t feel like an empty faceless shell every night. Sometimes I think I could be anyone, but he chose me because he knew I’d never tell. No one will ever know.

I lie back down, beside him as a tear rolls down his cheek and falls onto his pillow. I close my eyes and wait for morning. I can’t sleep, but I don’t care.

He breathes in sharply and the covers move away from me; he’s woken up. I feel his weight shift on the bed and then his calloused fingers brush against my cheek so lightly I think it must be a dream.

A wet drop falls on my forehead, and warm air hits my face, even softer than his touch. “Hey, Naruto, I…” He pauses, slightly, like it hurts him to say. “I’m sorry, Naruto. I love you.”

He said it again.

Just like last time, he thinks I’m asleep, and if someone dropped a pen in the next room it’d drown out his words. So much emotion fills his voice that I’m not sure it’s really him. More drops of water fall on my face. I wonder why he would hover over my face crying like that.

I open my eyes, just to see if it’s really him. I must be dreaming this. In my dreams he always loves me, with all his heart. Now I know it’s not him. It can’t be because even though I can see and hear him, he’s smiling and he says “I love you, Naruto,” like I didn’t hear him before.

I know it’s not real, and I know it’s just a dream and it will end. I can’t help it though. I whisper so softly he must know I’m afraid of shattering the illusion, “I love you too, Sasuke.”

I wake up and the sunlight shines through the window, blinding me. I know it was a dream now. But when I turn my head he smiles, and I notice he has his arms wrapped around me. Then he kisses me, and it’s real, if only a slight peck.

I remember I fell asleep after I told him. It was real, not a dream. But I could be asleep now too. What if everything was a dream? What if this is a dream? But he seems to know what I’m thinking and pinches me hard. It hurts.

It’s real. Sasuke loves me, the way he always has in my dreams.