Title:Foolish
Author:TinaMustDie

This is what I wish would happen. Sasgay coming to his senses and all.

I don't really understand how people can find Itachi attractive. I mean, kinda, in an I'm a bad ass serial killer way, but he's just not good looking to me.

Sasuke, little Sasuke, had him beat. Looking at his brother now, he thinks he's not so little anymore. He is tall, almost as tall as him, and disgustingly beautiful. People had said when they were younger that they looked incredibly alike. Itachi wonders if that was just wishful thinking on his family's part, because he must look mangy compared to the boy sitting next to him.

It wasn't even that Sasuke had defeated him. What confused the elder Uchiha to no end was the fact that he wasn't dead yet. Wounded, yes, but Sasuke had let him fall to the ground. Didn't make a move to kill him, hadn't taken advantage of his weak state. Just watched. Itachi lays on the ground now, breathing ragged, but painfully alive.

"I never really understood why you did it."

He is startled by Sasuke's voice. He sounds so calm. Almost at peace with the world.

"All these years, and I never stopped to think that maybe you were just insane," he says, face blank. "I never stepped back and looked at things rationally."

Itachi stays quiet. There's nothing he can say.

"You can stay bitter or get better. I stayed bitter. Love looked me in the face, and I just stayed bitter."

Sasuke turns and looks at him. Not his chin, not his robe, not the deep lines of his face. He looks him in the eye, unafraid. Itachi suddenly becomes acutely aware that there is nothing he can do to his brother, because Sasuke just doesn't care.

"Nobody looks you in the eye anymore, do they?"

It's not really a question. They both know the answer already.

"They're afraid. Of dying. Of being hurt. They have something to lose. I don't. I burned all my bridges, threw everything away. All for you, Itachi, all for you."

Sasuke's still calm, not full of the anger he'd come to expect, just acceptance.

"I've walked away from every good thing I ever had, and for what? I can't bring them back. Killing you won't change that."

He looks away, staring blankly at the battle torn field in front of him, posture laced with indifference.

"But still, I ran like a coward from a life I wasn't strong enough to live. So weak, because I couldn't leave the past behind, and just be somebody," his voice loses some of it's cool as the bitterness seeps in.

"And now look what I am. You."

Itachi would have to be deaf to miss the regret in his tone.

"I am a monster just like you. I've hurt so many people Itachi. People that loved me. And now I realize, that no matter what I do, I can never make things right again. I will always be a traitor. I am bitter and cold, and what have I done?"

Sasuke wants him to say something. He can't bring himself to do anything but stare.

"Even though you lost, you still win."

Sasuke faces him again, smiling in the saddest way, and he really can't stand it. This is not the person he's always known.

"But the difference between us, that redeeming little bit, is that I can look at you now and ask what the fuck is wrong with you?"he says, and from the look in his eyes, he knows his brother needs an answer.

Itachi won't give him one. He never has, and doesn't believe that there's a first time for everything.

"You have never loved anything Itachi, and you never will. You don't understand love, you don't understand being alive, and I know that now. It makes me regret all of this, because you know what? You're dead already."

Sasuke smiles his sad little smile, the one that won't ever go away, and leans towards him. He's surprised to feel lips brush against his forehead. The kiss is there and gone before he can really comprehend it, Sasuke straightening up, drinking in his brothers visage. Itachi knows he's committing it to memory. When his gaze falls on Itachi's sharingan, he grins, the one he himself used to give before poking him in the forehead as a child. His eyes, a beautiful gray (because they'd never been black like his), soften in sympathy.

"Foolish older brother."