[The words, all of them, are spoken with malice at the end of a hammer. Laurent exposing the raw and hurting center of his two truths is so savage even he can tell that injury isn't meant for him. It's self-inflicted, a knife turned the other way around, tearing the fragile air between them. So Sasuke is the guardian of these two secrets; perhaps he won't be the only one to ever know or learn about Laurent, but it won't come willingly off his own tongue.

His cheek is sore when touched, throat working around a swallow at that pretend affection. There's anger in him, growing hot and sooty, but Sasuke doesn't chase it — and with the Shadow far from his mind, it is easier to retain control. He climbs out of the bath as if obeying the order, but his movements are unhurried, economical as he dresses, pulling on trousers and shoes first. His upper body remains wet and bare to the winter cold.]

'I'll soon learn'. What are you going to do? [Prowling closer, he looms above Laurent's perch.] If you're going to continue telling others what you know about me, to use it against me as you suspected I'd do to you, then you should know I've endured that all before. I don't care if people hate me.

[He can sense it better now — that he is attracted to Laurent. That is what he's feeling. The moment in the bath, skin to skin, had cemented it in a way he might have once repressed. Everything about Laurent feels sensual, and brutal, and somehow volatile; it's no wonder. Yet it's not something he can act on when the space between them is so littered with glass.]

I know what happened in your past. Your uncle raped you. [A common enough occurrence in the shinobi world; he isn't stupid.] What you feel toward your brother's killer is complicated, but I understand that too. Do you want me to suffer for this?

If it's violence you mean to return, do it now. Then we'll be even.