Itachi glanced over at his partner, careful to not draw attention to the action. He retracted into his thoughts of first meeting the shark. Right away, he realized he had strange feelings for the other man, those that were completely foreign to him. He was unsure of what it meant for him, what he should do about it. Eventually he realized that what he was feeling was love. Non-platonic love and that scared him more than any of the opponents he faced. He quickly decided that Kisame was never to know how he felt because he wouldn't be able to handle the rejection he was sure would follow.

'How could someone like Kisame every even see someone like me that way? He could have any woman or man he wants. I could never compare to that.'

"Itachi-san. We're here," Kisame said, snapping Itachi out of his daydream.

He was right, there they were, outside the Akatsuki headquarters. Kisame pushed the door open and walked in with Itachi trailing not far behind. After reporting to the leader, they headed back to their shared room. With Kakuzu in charge of finances, and being located inside a mountain, there was no money or room for pair to have separate rooms.

Rubbing his temples, Itachi left to go take a shower. He reeked of stale blood and dried sweat. The mission had been to kill some crime boss who wasn't paying dues to Pein. It was tougher than expected because despite the crime lord's age and weight, he nor his men went down without a fight. Itachi's muscles ached but he knew he needed to leave some hot water for his blue-skinned partner so he snapped the handle to off and stepped out.

He reentered the room, a towel the only thing to cover himself with. Kisame brushed past him in the doorway, careful to avoid all contact with him. Itachi momentarily watched him walk down the hall towards the shower and frowned.

'I knew it, not even a glance. At best I'm a friend to him and nothing more. It's best to keep yourself at a distance so you can keep your shield up.'

Itachi quickly got dressed and crawled into bed. He laid down on his back and closed his eyes becoming lost in his own thoughts. The door quickly opened and closed but the noise was still not enough to bring Itachi back to the real world. Suddenly, a pair of lips were pressed against his own and his eye popped open.

Kisame pulled back a few inches, his breath hot on Itachi's own, before whispering "Happy birthday, Itachi-san."

Sorry for any spelling, or grammar mistakes! I wrote this really late and I can hardly see.

EDIT: I rewrote this a bit, most making it a little more concise, cleaning up some grammar things, etc.