2.
/ stop stalling / make a name for yourself / boy you better put than pen to paper and charm your way out / if you talk you better walk you better back your shit up / with more than good hooks while you're all under the gun /
Sasuke awoke with a start at the sound of his office door closing, startled from his position where he had been curled up against the wall on the floor. Paperwork was spread around his feet and he hastily attempted to shuffle it together, glancing up at his sudden visitor with hazy eyes.
Itachi stood in the doorway, leaning against the frame with his arms folded and feet crossed casually at his ankles. Sasuke blinked a few times, glancing at the clock on the wall to confirm what he had been thinking.
"It's three am," he finally spoke, his voice slightly hoarse. He coughed to clear it, eyeing the paperwork that littered the floor around him. "How did you get in?"
"I never left," Itachi shrugged simply, shrugging as though it was normal to hang around businesses he didn't work for until the early hours. "My plane leaves in four hours. Have you thought about my offer?"
"I thought I made my decision absolutely clear."
"Mm," Itachi nodded, stepping inside the room and closing the door behind him. "You told me your selfish decision fuelled by your pride. Now let's hear the real answer- the one that only comes when you're asleep on your office floor at three am because you're so overwhelmed you have no choice but to stay."
"You're awfully sure of yourself," Sasuke replied crossly, gathering the paperwork together. Itachi was across the room in mere moments, kneeling down and collecting it together with him despite Sasuke's best efforts at pushing him away.
"Numbers?" Itachi commented, glancing over the papers in his hand. "Isn't this your accountant's job?"
An uneasy silence reigned, leaving Itachi to narrow his eyes sharply and prompt again.
"Don't tell me you sacked your accountant too? No wonder you're having trouble."
"He wasn't trustworthy," Sasuke argued, roughly snatching the papers from his brother's grasp. "I trust myself."
"Let me do it."
"You'll be my secretary and my accountant?" Sasuke asked sceptically, picking himself back up and clenching the papers so tightly they crumpled at the edges. "You really do think you're a superhero, don't you?"
"I handle stress a lot better than you do," Itachi noted, ignoring Sasuke's offended look. "You're trying to be secretary, accountant and chairman. Let me take over two thirds and we'll have a much more balanced business on our hands."
Sasuke seemed to think about it for a moment- progress, at least. Itachi waited patiently for an answer, still kneeling on the floor and glancing up at his brother with what Sasuke realised were horrifically tired eyes.
"Did you sleep?" He asked before he could stop himself. "You look terrible."
"I'll be fine." Itachi brushed the comment off, his gaze steady as Sasuke scrutinised him further before glancing away. "What do you say, Sasuke? A simple yes or no will do- if you say no I'm not going to give you any more chances."
"And if I say yes?" Sasuke murmured quietly, eyes averted to the wall, the floor, the window- anywhere but his brother's patient gaze.
"Then I'll start as soon as you tell me to."
Sasuke nodded in contemplation, passing the papers in his hands back to his brother almost sheepishly. "These are the latest figures," he spoke so quietly the words were almost lost. "You start right now."
He expected a protest- in fact, he hoped for one so he could project the anger he was feeling for accepting the help at his brother in a completely unfair way. Yet one didn't come. Itachi simply gave him a quick nod, gathering the papers and settling himself back against the wall to read them over.
"You have a desk," Sasuke pointed out as he lit a cigarette with a heavy sigh, sinking back into his chair and feeling more stressed than he had done previously. "This is my office, not yours. While you're working under me I'm going to treat you just like anybody else."
"I have a feeling you aren't going to let me smoke at that desk," Itachi replied, holding a hand out for what was presumably a cigarette without glancing up from his reading.
"No. The building is a no smoking premises."
"This room doesn't count?"
"I don't care if it does."
"Then why should I?"
Sasuke glared at him, flicking ash into the ashtray with hardened eyes. "There are company rules," he snapped. "I make the rules, therefore I can breach them."
"You should be setting an example," Itachi told him, withdrawing his hand when it became obvious his request was being ignored.
"Your start your secretarial job at eight am," Sasuke continued on sharply, ignoring the taunt. "Because you are working directly under me, you'll get breaks only when I'm free to cover you. If that means you eat at your desk and you don't smoke all day, so be it."
Itachi shrugged wordlessly, keeping his eyes on the paper in front of him. Sasuke frowned, confused why he wasn't getting the raise he was hoping from out of his brother. Uchiha Itachi was a patient man but even he had his limits- Sasuke just needed to find where the line lay.
"You finish at six," he soldiered on. "You'll dedicate three more hours to the accounting job alone and leave at nine. Otherwise you'll deal with it in the day in-between secretarial jobs. If you aren't finished, you stay here until you're done even if that means staying all night. Is that clear?"
"Crystal," Itachi murmured, seemingly either not listening or genuinely not pissed off about Sasuke's draconian rules. Sasuke blinked a few times, unsure of what to say to that- he'd been quite looking forward to arguing and perhaps having Itachi give his offer up and leave him in peace to save his pride, but it just hadn't happened.
"I'm not a pleasant person to work for," he prompted.
"Sometimes you aren't a pleasant person full stop," Itachi commented, finally glancing up. "I'm not going to shout at you and nor am I going to give you the satisfaction of fighting with your overbearing rules."
"I fucking hate you," Sasuke muttered, turning his attention back to his half-smoked cigarette.
"Of course you do."
"Don't patronise me you asshole. Get out of here and get on with your work."
"Didn't you say I started at eight?" Itachi noted, pulling himself to his feet.
Sasuke folded his arms across the desk, a smirk on his face. "I also said I'm not a pleasant person to work for," he reminded, causing Itachi to pause in the doorway. "I said you start now, so get to work."
Itachi simply regarded him dispassionately, giving a simple nod in response. "All right, Sasuke," he replied mildly, pulling the door open. "Whatever you wish."
-.-.-
Sasuke wasn't feeling guilty about his conduct towards his brother- if anything, he was remarkably angry with him for daring to still look completely at ease and almost refreshed when Sasuke had stalked out to his desk at ten am.
"Getting on alright?" He asked, perching himself on the edge of Itachi's desk.
"Fine," Itachi replied, giving him a cursory glance before turning his attention back to the computer screen. "Were you hoping I wouldn't be?"
"You are such a prick sometimes," Sasuke muttered, folding his arms and glaring down at the floor.
"Sasuke," Itachi murmured. "Please refresh your memory regarding the legal working requirements for your staff. I believe the rule is twenty minutes break for every six hours worked?"
"I'm not paying you," Sasuke replied simply. "So technically I can do whatever I want."
"Because you're not paying me, technically I can do anything I want," Itachi pointed out. "Maybe you should think about that before you continue to treat me like I'm hindering you."
"I just like watching you suffer," Sasuke replied simply, deciding brutal honestly was the best way to get his point across if he wasn't going to get a rise any other way from his far-too-patient brother.
"Is it payback?" Itachi questioned, raising an eyebrow. "For 'abandoning' you?" The scathing look he received in response told him all he needed to know. "I suspected as much. I'm not suffering, Sasuke- I'll gladly do anything to help you."
"Just get on with your work," Sasuke muttered before stalking back down the corridor, feeling a little shaken that Itachi had seen right through him without even trying. He was angry about his brother's sudden departure from his life six months earlier- unbearably, unspeakably so but he also possessed Uchiha genes that kept his lips firmly sealed, slamming the door to his office in a rage.
Itachi waited for the inevitable slam before sighing heavily, laying his arms across his desk and lowering his head to them. He stayed that way for only a moment, pulling his head up and glancing back at the monitor with weary eyes. He'd never give Sasuke the satisfaction of knowing he was working on only a few hours of uncomfortable sleep, spent curled up in a corner of the office canteen after work hours the night before. Banishing all visible traces of discomfort he settled his attention back on his work. It was going to be a long day.
-.-.-
Itachi barely glanced up at the coffee Sasuke begrudgingly placed on his desk around lunchtime, only finally paying attention to the other's presence when Sasuke hovered at his side and didn't leave. Sasuke eyed him suspiciously, cocking his head to the side slightly as he observed Itachi for a moment with his briefcase in hand.
"Take five minutes," he said quietly. "I'll cover."
"A whole five minutes?" Itachi replied, pushing himself away from the desk with what Sasuke felt, with a pang of satisfaction, was a little too much haste. "Should I thank you for your generosity?"
"It will be zero minutes if you keep that attitude," Sasuke snapped at him, pulling the chair Itachi had one hand on roughly from him and throwing himself down. "Get out of here before I change my mind. I'm counting- four minutes and fifty seconds left."
Once Itachi was gone Sasuke opened up his briefcase, sliding a piece of paper from it out onto the desk and picking up a pen to scrawl a quick note on it. He hid it underneath the already present paperwork and waited for his brother to reappear, feeling slightly irked he did so with fifteen seconds spare on the clock.
"You had time for a cigarette?" He observed, the scent of smoke permeating the air as Itachi re-took his place at the desk. "Didn't you eat?"
"You and I both know five minutes is barely long enough to eat," Itachi pointed out. His hands touched the papers in front of him so Sasuke vanished without another word, leaving the other to slowly pull the new piece of paper out and regard it curiously.
It was a printout for a reservation at a nearby hotel, with a simple message scrawled on it that read 'get some decent sleep tonight'. Itachi simply folded it and put it in his pocket, pretending not to notice Sasuke peering around the door in the corridor nearby.
Sasuke was a spiteful brat sometimes but that didn't mean he didn't adore his big brother unconditionally- a fact, Itachi noted, that served his brother well when Sasuke was acting like he despised the very earth he walked in. If Itachi had ever thought his distaste was real he would never lie back and take it but he needn't have worried- the packaged sandwich that appeared on his desk shortly after simply confirmed his feeling that his brother was throwing nothing more than a glorified tantrum.
-.-.-
Only when he had stepped over the threshold of the swish hotel Sasuke had booked him into did Itachi relax. The click of the door behind him was like a switch in his mind, turning off the day's work and allowing him a few precious moments to savour the quiet room without any other thoughts invading.
They filtered through after a moment regardless, leaving him kicking off his shoes with a sigh and simply dropping down onto the edge of the bed. He was so tired- it had been a long time since he'd pulled an eighteen hour day, and he momentarily contemplated the fact that he'd ever had the need to at all previously. He was only twenty eight and already working himself into a stress-induced early grave.
He lit a cigarette, laughing shortly as he did so. Perhaps it would be a nicotine-induced early grave instead, though both variations were a sobering idea. It didn't stop him enjoying the sensation as he inhaled, since it was one Sasuke had been depriving him of. He lay back on the bed and simply stared at the rising smoke, trying to just stop thinking for a moment.
He couldn't. He'd spent the three hours after six accounting as requested and had found some shocking figures. Sasuke had no idea what he was doing, that much was clear, though Itachi couldn't blame him. He was twenty three and in charge of a huge company bearing their family name practically overnight when their father had retired. He hadn't done so willingly, but their mother had ordered him to do so as he had been laid up in the hospital bed after experiencing a stress-related heart attack.
Itachi had flown out of the country two days later, aware he was probably walking the same path but unwilling to prevent it from happening. Work had been their father's life and now it was his- the sins of the father became the sins of the son's, after all. With him out of the picture Sasuke had been handed the torch, and he had promptly burnt himself on it. It was up to Itachi to gently pry the torch away and keep it lit while Sasuke insisted that he was fireproof.
Why had the burden fallen to his shoulders? He mentally span the question around in his mind as he finished the cigarette and forced himself off the bed to shower, despite the answer being a simple one. Their father had tried and failed with his gently-gently approach leaving Itachi the only other choice- not that he resented that, because he was more than happy to try.
By the time he had relaxed enough that he felt he could turn off and sleep it was approaching one am. He sighed and forced his eyes closed, knowing he was only making life more difficult for himself if he didn't sleep- he refused to let it be known to Sasuke but he really didn't function well lacking sleep, no matter what front he presented regarding the matter. A gentle smile tugged at his lips as he attempted to get comfortable on the hard mattress- Sasuke in his current mood would probably deprive him of sleep on purpose just to stoke a reaction from him if he ever knew.
Pride, Itachi decided as he slipped into slumber, ran through Uchiha veins as easily as blood and regularly bled over into everything they touched. That was just the way it worked.
-.-.-
Why did sleeping feel like blinking? Itachi clutched around almost blindly for the phone alarm under his pillow, clenching it tightly and forcing himself to sit up to the sound. Waking up never got any easier no matter how much he did it.
He got ready and out the hotel within ten minutes, stopping to buy breakfast on his way along with a simple black coffee- screw that calorie laden rubbish Sasuke existed on. The only thing available was croissants so croissants it was- not that he had a choice, but it was fortunate he wasn't fussy.
He savoured a cigarette on the steps of the office first, setting the still-hot coffee down next to him and running a hand through his bangs to lift them off of his face. He didn't turn at the sound of footsteps behind him, glancing over only as Sasuke seated himself down next to him.
"Morning," he greeted lightly. "Sleep well?"
"Like shit," Sasuke snorted, snatching Itachi's cigarette without any further word, inhaling once before handing it back.
"The hotel was nice," Itachi replied instead of encouraging him further. "Thank you."
"Don't get used to it. Find your own place to stay tonight."
"Sure," Itachi shrugged, flicking ash off his cigarette. "Could I request a break longer than five minutes today?"
Sasuke simply stood up and left the words hanging unanswered in the air, beckoning for Itachi to follow him to the door. The elder Uchiha did so without complaint, putting out the cigarette and entering to head straight for his desk without another word. He was technically ten minutes early but who was counting, really?
/ just for the record the weather today / is slightly sarcastic with a good chance of / a. indifference or b. disinterest / in what the critics say /
-.-.-
Author's Note: Apparently the idea wouldn't leave me alone, after all. It repeatedly beat me on the head until I worked on this some more, so here we are :) Song lyrics are Panic! At The Disco- London Beckoned Songs About Money Written By Machines. The song lyrics from chapter to chapter may vary in genre- I apologise in advance, but I listen to and am therefore influenced by a lot of different things.
There's some more to come soon- thank you for reading and hopefully you're enjoying it! I love writing Uchiha gen :)