Sacred
There is a ring on his finger, but not because he is married.
The ring is red and sticky; it's the blood of the man he killed last.
And he knows that she sees it (feels it) when he grips her hand in the doorway, gently pushing her aside and not looking at her, looking past her, looking at a child half his size who clings to a teddy bear that has seen better nights.
And he knows that she will say nothing about it, only look down at her sticky finger and watch as the foreign substance drips downward slightly.
And he knows, when he sees the weariness in her old eyes, that she stayed up just for him—and, staring at Sasuke, he knows that the boy stayed up just for his mother, and knows that Sasuke is surprised to see him standing there, standing like a treasure in the front hall.
"Itachi," Mikoto says, and her voice is hoarse and her lips are chapped, and he realizes now that she had been crying earlier, because there is a slight tremor in her jaw when she utters his name.
He likes when she says his name. He likes that she says it as if she owns it, almost as if she were giving her own name to a passerby who dared to ask for it.
"Mother," He answers evenly, but it is not an answer, it is a challenge.
She shakes slightly, wanting to grab him where he is and inspect him for wounds, because that is the usual routine when he returns from a mission.
But he knows that tonight she will not grab him.
Tonight she will give him a soft smile and stand rooted to the wooden floorboards, directly over a stain in the floor, a stain that had once been a small pool of blood that oozed out of one of Sasuke's cuts.
The boy in question comes running, dropping his stuffed toy in a heap and going on and on in loud whispers about how his aniki is the strongest shinobi in existence.
"Is that blood? I think that's blood. It's not your blood, is it, Aniki? No, of course it's not your blood. It can't be your blood because you're the best! I've never seen you bleed, Aniki." Sasuke whispers excitably.
The three of them stand in the hall, as quietly as possible because all of them know that Fugaku is sleeping somewhere in the house, and because none of them want to be found out, since somehow this moment is sacred and not something that should be shared.
And Itachi bends down for a brief while, and he takes little Sasuke by the elbow, and instead of poking him in the forehead, he kisses him there.
And when he looks up and Mikoto's head is at an angle, waiting for an explanation about the gesture, he gives a rare smile and turns back to Sasuke.
"…So that you will never know pain, Otouto." He says softly, "So that you will never bleed as so many others have bled before you."
And then he stands, and he ruffles his brother's hair and walks in a silent stride to his bedroom, where he deposits his ANBU vest and forgets to wipe the blood off of his finger.
And it is quite some time later when Sasuke informs his mother that she and Itachi are married now, because they have matching rings of red.
Mikoto smiles and assures him that she loves Fugaku, and reminds him that Itachi is her son, and that such a partnership would be incestuous and forbidden.
Neither of them believe it.
Especially not the day after, when Itachi and Mikoto both still wear their rings.
(And definitely not when Fugaku asks about the blood on his wife's finger and she lies and says she sliced herself while chopping vegetables for her dear husband's dinner.)
And really-especially-definitely not, because Mikoto didn't prepare dinner that night.
Fin.
