It was a plain yellow sticky note, held to the door by a single corner.
Whoever left it there hadn't bothered to press it the rest of the way down. Maybe they left in a hurry, or maybe they knew it was all the note would need.
Itachi absently stuck it further to the wood as he read it, then pulled it off slowly as he finished. He held it, with two fingers, by opposite corners, unwilling to have it roll up. A thing like this was insanely precious.
Silently he glanced at the clock, barely able to look away from the note. His dark eyes flicked quickly back down to it, drinking up the message as greedily as they had before. The note had been written in blue ink. Itachi noticed because he had been staring at it so long.
The door opened, forcing Itachi to step back, startled. A teen about his age looked in at him, his long blonde hair bouncing to hide his left eye. "Itachi, come on, un. We're not going to make it on-" The blonde cut off when he saw what Itachi was being distracted by. His face colored, and he turned frantically to escape the situation.
"Deidara," Itachi called, and the blonde froze. "We'll be late, un," he whined back pleadingly. Itachi ignored him, his eyes fixed on the paper. "What is this, Deidara?" he murmured.
Caught red-handed. He hadn't been fast enough. Deidara turned and clasped his hands in front of him. "Looks like a note to me, un," he said, admittingly.
The other nodded. "What is it for?"
Deidara's shoulders relaxed slightly. He shrugged. "It's a note, un. Read it," he remarked, and then shrugged again.
There was silence but for the ticking of the clock in the next room. After a minute Itachi felt it pull him out of his daze and back to the world.
"You can't tell me anything normally, can you, Dei?"
The blonde shook his head. Nothing. He could never say anything normally.
Understanding something from Itachi's silence, Deidara changed the subject. "We won't make it before the bell if we don't go now, un," he said, and then walked away from the door, twirling his keys. "I'll be waiting."
Itachi walked to the kitchen, laying the note gently on the counter. He would need to see it when he got home. He would miss it when he left. "I know," he whispered. "I know you've been waiting." He physically pushed himself away from the counter, flicking off lights as he ran. The door slammed shut behind him.
He needed to get to the car as fast as he could, so he could open the door and slide into the passenger's seat and repay a lifetime to a very special person who had, in his own words, loved him forever.