14)Pleasant Dreams

In which Kisame dreams and Itachi becomes an unwitting recipient to his partner's…affection

Kisame grinned at the tiny woman he'd just finished having sex with. It never ceased to amaze him that the one woman bold enough to have a relationship with was a civilian rather then a kunoichi. Ashi smiled back as she curled up next to him and Kisame fell into a peaceful sleep, something rarely afforded to a shinobi.

He was awake the moment she got out of bed, making a decent amount of noise so she wouldn't alarm him and trying to stay quiet enough not to wake him up. She wasn't the most beautiful but she certainly wasn't ugly, she was quite pretty in fact with her black hair and dark brown eyes and he didn't mind that she wasn't quite as slender or as lithe as other women. He propped himself up on his elbow and waited for Ashi to get out of the bathroom.

"Come to daddy." He said, lips curving into a sharp-toothed smile as she frowned. She hated it when he said that and he took every chance he could get to annoy her with it.

Crossing her arms, she stuck her tongue out at him and said, "You know I hate it when you say that Kisame."

"I know. But you deserve it." He said with a chuckle.

A look of confusion crossed Ashi's face. "For what?"

"For bragging about me of course." He said sternly.

She blushed fiercely and looked away, "Don't look like that Ashi-chan. Its good for my ego to have other women know that I'm a dynamite lover in bed…but just don't come crying to me when I get mobbed by a group of lusty women and carried off somewhere."

She gave him a snarky grin, "Yeah, you're a regular damsel in distress aren't ya?"

The two of them laughed at that.

"No seriously. C'mere. I sleep a lot better when you're curled up against me."

"What am I you're personal teddy bear?" She asked in mock indignation.

"Yup. Sure are and you're my favorite. Cause you're soft in all the right places Ashi."

Chuckling she crawled into bed and Kisame felt a pain stabbing at his heart. He knew that this was only a dream because Ashi had been killed a few weeks later while he was on a mission by her family, all because she was getting too close to him. Ashi's family were all ninja, but because of a medical defect Ashi had no choice but to remain a civilian. Kisame knew that he had to hold onto this dream for as long as he could.

Itachi was in a light sleep, the wind was whipping coldly at his back and he swore he could feel every stone and pebble through the mattress. What startled the Uchiha into complete awareness was when his partner wrapped his arm around him and pulled him close. Raising his head to wake him up, he then found his nose mashed into Kisame's chest and the Mist nin let out a contented growl.

Itachi had to be careful if he was going to extract himself away from Kisame's grip, one wrong move and Kisame might kill him reflexively. Inch by precious inch, he slowly slipped his body away but right when he had found an opening to get out, Kisame then proceeded to throw his leg around him, effectively boxing Itachi in.

This was undignified, this was beneath an Uchiha and a missing nin of his caliber, this…this was actually rather nice. Itachi rationalized that teammates would often share body heat in the cold. Yes. That was all they were doing, sharing body heat against the bitter cold of a late autumn night. They certainly weren't cuddling because cuddling was unseemly.

Later on when Kisame woke up in a flurry of startled words and tangled limbs, Itachi realized that he couldn't remember the last time he'd slept so soundly.