Thank you for giving this story a chance. I hope you enjoy reading it, because I really enjoyed writing it. I really wanted something lighthearted and this wouldn't leave me alone :)
Enjoy :)
Sasuke has a brother named Itachi
He doesn't see him often but he knows him by heart.
He has waist-length black hair that mother often braids to keep it from tangling, and long eyelashes that cast shadows over his cheeks whenever his eyes are closed.
Sasuke is both relieved and apprehensive of seeing those eyes closing.
Itachi is kind and trusting, but he often has that guilty look about him that just won't go away.
In the end, it always comes down to this: Sasuke loves his brother, with all his heart, as such it is only natural that he would take care of him.
Itachi disagrees.
About the last part of course.
Probably some older brother nonsense that deeply pained him. For Sasuke it never mattered, they weren't any other siblings, after all.
He is stubborn, his brother. But Fugaku and Mikoto and Sasuke himself are having none of it.
The deeper he falls into the illness, the less Itachi's opinion is taken into account.
Especially when it's about anything concerning Itachi himself.
As a child, Sasuke remembered his big brother always being so so tired.
He would be carried by mother or father, his skinny legs dangling lifelessly behind their backs.
"Your brother is not like other children Sasuke" Mother said, back then, because eventually, Sasuke complained and asked questions and why his Nii-san was always taken away and did someone hurt him? "Something in his body is misbehaving. It can be scary sometimes but you don't have to worry, Mom and Dad are working really hard to make it go away."
"Is he hurting really badly?"
Mikoto shook her head gently.
"We need to be really careful not to bring little bugs around him okay? He can't defend himself against them like you and I."
"Do you think I can help you save him too?"
"Would you like that?"
Sasuke never had anyone that was his to protect before.
"Nii-san ? Why do you sleep soo much?"
"I'm a little tired, otouto."
"Then why am I not always tired like you?"
"That's because you're really really strong."
Not before this day.
The days, months, years after that realization were hectic.
His chest welled with pride every time his brother reached a little milestone, and they held their collective breaths as he relearned to walk on wobbly legs.
It was baffling how something so simple could bring so much happiness.
And then it happened. The incessant coughing, so gruesome, more and more violent, with so much force it could break a rib. Little splatters of blood, their mother and father so stern and efficient (and how werethey not utterly afraid?) and his own crying and screaming and feeling useless.
There were so much episodes Sasuke felt that his chest could explode, being exposed to so much hope and then so much disappointment.
And Itachi, as soon as his body allowed him to feel, felt it.
Soon he was begging their parents and after days of thinking and reconsidering, they agreed it would be in Sasuke's best interest if he was not daily exposed to the toxic atmosphere surrounding his big brother's chronic illness, Sasuke was following Fugaku and Mikoto would stay with Itachi.
He never wanted Sasuke to suffer from seeing him like this again and tried to forbid him to visit whenever he was feeling down.
Really it was useless to try.
Soon, Sasuke was acquantained with the doctors and the therapists and the daily procedures. The few days he spent there, he wanted to make himself useful.
Itachi disagreed about that too.
He didn't want a caretaker, he wanted his brother, nothing more.
Sasuke remembers him looking both grateful and miserable. It did not suit him at all.
Sasuke didn't like seeing his brother miserable. Most of the time, though, Itachi welcomed him with a smile full of light.
Most of the time, it was in a sterilized environment. White walls, white sheets, clinical smell everywhere.
And most of the time, they were lucky, and his brother could breathe with his own nose and lungs and did not need artificial help.
Sasuke usually snuck in as much sweets as he could, the ones that would decay your teeth right on contact, the first time he did that, Itachi offered him a tomato in return (it is a special tomato, otouto, he said with a straight face).
They would snicker together (or Sasuke would snicker and Itachi would pretend to) and Sasuke would tell Itachi about his life, his friends, complain about his father, gloat about his grades.
Itachi would be proud, smile, poke his forehead. He would offer tales about Shisui, his best friend slash cousin that would visit sometimes.
Sasuke was not so fond of the character, not since a certain incident, but whatever.
Their parents hired private tutors, since Itachi had much time on his hands anyways, his free time was usually spent deteriorating his eyesight and learning things beyond Sasuke's comprehension.
And Sasuke wonders if Itachi would have been different, if he had seen more of the world behind these walls.
No, he decides.
You see, there was something about his brother that definitely didn't belong to the outside world.
During his better times, he was allowed out for a few would try to smother him with every mother-son activity she could think of. They would call each other and stop only when Itachi was too tired to speak more.
Meeting with his brother always ended the same way. Itachi would tell how better he felt (lies), how it was all over soon (lies lies). Itachi felt that he owed him and he would soon do the older brother things that circumstances didn't allow him yet. He would take care of Sasuke and he was sorry sorry sorry-
"You're an idiot." Sasuke would say and Itachi would look even more conflicted.
Sasuke would surrender, eventually. "Yeah, you'll take care of me, alright."
For his own sake Sasuke never believed it, but for Itachi's sake he pretended to anyways.
He is rather fond of his brother, after all.
And he knows, that every more day with him is a miracle.
Fugaku looks at him and says he is proud.
And then it happened again, one of those news that made you of afraid of even thinking of being happy because that's usually when everything starts going downhill.
But it was in spring and Itachi was going home.
Tbc….
Please review and you'll make me a very very happy person :)