Hiya all! Sorry it's been so long, but life happened (Grr, life getting in the way of the important stuff). Anyway, this chapter is a perspective shift back to another two characters who need some more love. Enjoy!

Perhaps is was the novelty of having someone other than his father understand the real reason behind his insanity, but Itachi was really coming to like his new nurse. Kisame hadn't judged Itachi for what he had told him, and Itachi, in turn, tried to accept the big man. He swallowed the questions that threatened to break out of him, like why a buff, manly man like Kisame was babysitting a blind lunatic like Itachi when he could have any manor of buff, manly job that he wanted.

All the same, Kisame's presence had a calming effect on Itachi, and he was glad for it. In the weeks since he had become his personal caretaker, he spent at least ten hours of his daily twelve hour shift in the room with Itachi, who found himself opening up to him, something Itachi thought he would never be able to do. Kisame just felt so trustworthy that he couldn't not tell him. The days passed quickly now, but Itachi had regained his sense of time. Kisame coming into his room meant the beginning of a glorious new day; Kisame leaving meant the beginning of a lonely night. And so, the weeks passed, and Itachi found himself the happiest since his incarceration had begun.

Every day without fail, Itachi got up and dressed himself and sat at the table to await Kisame's arrival with breakfast. Though he would never admit it to his face, Itachi had started waking up early to make sure he was ready and waiting for Kisame. He felt like he was proving something by doing it, but he didn't quite know what. Still, he kept doing it, because it allowed him at least a little semblance of control.

"Good morning. What's for breakfast today?" Itachi asked one morning in a bored voice when he heard the door open, not even bothering to wait for Kisame to announce himself. He had memorized the sound of Kisame's footsteps a long time before.

"Whatever it is, it smells like an all-too-healthy gloop," Kisame replied as he closed the door behind him.

"Bah." Itachi made a face. "That's all they ever feed me. They're so afraid that I'll get fat from inactivity that they won't feed me anything remotely resembling real food."

"And what would you classify as 'real food'?"

"Oh, you know, McDonald's and stuff. I don't think I've tasted a good batch of French Fries for almost a decade."

That gave Kisame pause. "That's how long you've been here?"

Itachi signed. "God, I don't even know anymore. It's been so long, and I can't count the seasons in this little padded box. What's the date?"

"March 5, 2014."

"Huh." Itachi tilted his face up towards the ceiling he couldn't see and the sky beyond it that he would give anything to look upon again. "So I've just passed the eight year mark. Somehow, it seems like it should have been longer than that, and yet at the same time, too many years have passed."

"Are you… happy here?" Kisame asked cautiously.

"Happy?" Itachi echoed. "I don't know. I don't even know if I know what that is anymore. I've ceased to live, so I've ceased to care. This is simply the existence delegated to me for my sins until I meet my end."

A faint clicking sound assaulted Itachi's ears, as if Kisame was clutching the try so hard, the dishes were rattling against the platter. "Sins?"

"Well, what else would you call them?"

"Mistakes, perhaps, but certainly not sins!" This was accompanied by a crash, as if the platter was set done rather roughly in the table.

"Mistakes?" Itachi laughed harshly and without humor. "I'm in a psychotic ward! I wore a straight jacket when I first arrived so I couldn't hurt myself or anyone else! I blinded myself after a failed attack on a member of my family, Kisame; I think that counts as a sin!"

Without warning - and how a big man like Kisame could move so swiftly and quietly, Itachi didn't know - a pair of large, strong arms wrapped around Itachi, and he found himself melting into Kisame's embrace without much of a fight. Itachi had always been a tall man, but he was barely tall enough to rest his forehead against Kisame's shoulder.

"It wasn't your fault," he said in a low voice, the vibrations traveling to Itachi's skin where it connected with his. Another person might have seen Kisame's lips move, but this was the only physical representation of the words Itachi had. "You're not to blame."

"You can't promise me that," Itachi accused, the words muffled by Kisame's shirt. "You don't know what happened."

"No, but I do know you, and the person you are now would never hurt someone you cared about." Kisame soothingly stoked his hand up and down Itachi's back. "You're cynical and sarcastic and you've been hurt by the world, but you're a good person in your heart. That's why I know it isn't your fault."

A thick lump was forming in Itachi's throat, but he swallowed it down. "You know, this is the second time you've hugged me."

"You keeping track?"

"You wish." Itachi gave a delicate sniff. "It's just that the hospital rules don't allow prolonged full body contact between any of the staff and patients except when they're being restrained."

"You afraid of a little rule breaking?" Kisame teased, the smirk on his face evident in his voice.

"No, it's just… It's just…" Itachi allowed his fingers to tangle themselves in Kisame's shirt. "This is the first time someone's embraced me like this since before I came here."

Kisame stiffened a little. "Do you want me to stop?"

"No!" Itachi's fingers automatically tightened in their grasp, but he forced himself to loosen them with a deep breath. "You don't have to let go. I… I don't mind."

"You 'don't mind?'" Kisame gave a hearty chuckle and settled his arms more comfortably around Itachi. "You're just too embarrassed to admit that you're starved for human contact."

"Oh, stuff it," Itachi muttered, but he didn't pull away.

"Come here," Kisame said when no other reaction was forthcoming, and gently pulled Itachi backwards until they reached the couch, where he tugged gently until kitsch gave in and sand down next to him, curling up against his strong chest. "You want to tell me about it?"

Itachi hunched his shoulders in a vain attempt to protect himself from the question. "Yes… And then again, no. It's just been something I've been trying to forget for too long."

"But that's what's been hurting you, isn't it?" Kisame asked, brushing his hand soothingly down Itachi's back.

"It's not forgetting that's bringing the pain… It's remembering."

Kisame didn't reply to that in words, but gently combed his fingers through Itachi's long hair. Vaguely, Itachi realized that it had been a long time since it had been cut, since no sharp objects were allowed around him, and that its length had long since gone past his shoulders. He wondered why he had never noticed this before.

The silence, the only tangible thing to the blind man, grew obsessive and heavy. It pressed down on his shoulders and crushed the delicate organs inside his body with its weight, and even Kisame's comforting hand couldn't chase it away. The air in the room suddenly seemed so hot and stale, almost solid, and Itachi couldn't draw in a breath. He struggled to make his lungs work, pulse fluttering rapidly, until he couldn't take it anymore.

"I haven't seen the sun in eight years," he said heartbrokenly, his throat tightening around the words. "Or felt the wind, or smelled anything except chemical and damn hospital cleanliness. I want to leave, I want to go outside again… And yet, I wouldn't, even if given the chance."

"Why?"

The word, so often uttered by doctors who had sought clinical answers for their black and white problems, felt different when Kisame said it. Maybe it was his tone or something about his voice, or it could have been the way he was embracing Itachi. Whatever the reason was, Itachi felt like this was the one person he wanted to answer when asked the simple question, "why?"

"I don't deserve it," Itachi said softly, pressing his face into the material of Kisame's uniform in the hopes that the cloth would muffle some of his confession. "I hurt too many people. I let them down when they trusted me. My family, my parents, and…" He trailed off, unable to continue.

Kisame's hand gave Itachi's shoulder a comforting squeeze. "Who? Whose memory is hurting you?"

"Sasuke," he choked out, and a pain struck his chest as if a knife had just slipped through his ribs and pierced his heart. "My baby brother… Oh, God, Sasuke…"

"What happened?"

"I loved him so much," Itachi said, dry sobs starting to shake his body. "Our father never gave him enough attention, so he always looked to me as a replacement. He used to worship me… And I betrayed him! I wasn't thinking straight; I thought I was saving him from the horrors I had experienced, but I was just hurting him. He was coming home from school, and he came through the door and ran up to me to hug me, and I stood there waiting for him, and I had a knife hidden behind my back. He trusted me so much, and wrapped his arms around me and smiled, and then I pushed him to the ground and pulled out the knife. I'll never forget the look in his eyes when he saw that knife, love turning to abject terror. He started screaming and luckily our father managed to drag me off before I did any permanent damage, but it was too late. I was too far gone, and I couldn't take it anymore, and I…" Itachi touched the bandage covering his ruined eyes. "I took the coward's way out. I don't deserve to exist in the same universe as the people I hurt."

"Itachi…"

Itachi cut him off. "That's why I can't leave. I can't hurt anyone else ever again, and this is the only way to do it. The padded white room keeps the lunatic safe from the world… And the world safe from the lunatic."

Kisame was silent, and Itachi was suddenly afraid that he had driven away the only friend he had made since entering this hellhole by telling him the truth. But maybe that was his penance, to be alone here for the rest of his life. It was a necessary purgatory, if not an enjoyable one. Itachi leaned back from Kisame, putting deliberate distance in between them.

All of a sudden, the room's intercom crackled to life and spoke in a voice made harsh by the speaker, startling Itachi.

"Kisame, what's going on in there? The patient's heart rate is going out of control."

Damn! Itachi forgot about the heart rate monitor in his hospital bracelet that relayed information directly to a computer so his state of mind could be monitored at all times. The system had been used often when he first arrived, but this was the first time Itachi had been upset enough for it to go off in several years. He hunched down into himself as he prepared for Kisame to ask for backup, or a replacement, or to leave and never come back.

"We're all fine in here."

Itachi's head shot up as he heard Kisame calmly talk to the person on the other end of the speaker. He didn't want to leave?

"Are you sure? We can send someone in with a dose of sedatives if-"

"No!" Kisame interrupted, almost shouting, then took a deep breath to calm himself. "I have everything under control. There is no need for sedatives."

"Kisame?" The voice was filled with concern now. "You sure on that? No sedatives? That patient has a history of violent outbreaks."

"He was emotional, not violent," Kisame said in an authoritative tone, "but he's calmed down now. There is no need to sedate him."

The voice gave a tired sigh. "Well, it's your decision. You know where the buzzer is if you change your mind."

And with that, the intercom beeped one final time and was silent.

"I apologize for the interruption," Kisame said in a voice that was deeper than his normal tone.

"It's fine," Itachi murmured, letting his head fall forward.

"No, it's not!" Kisame's weight suddenly disappeared from the couch and he slammed his fist down on the table, making the dishes rattle and Itachi jump. "I don't know how much you know about mental health procedures, Itachi, but people who are locked up don't normally get a personal care assistant just to themselves, even if they are blind. I'm not your average nurse; I have a graduate degree in abnormal psychology, and I was hired directly by the head of the hospital to evaluate your mental capacity by spending extended amounts of time with you - why, I didn't understand at the time, but it makes sense now that you told me he's your father."

A swooping sensation filled Itachi's gut as his stomach choose that moment to fall through the floorboards and into the room below. "My father... hired you? To evaluate me?"

"He said he wanted an unbiased perspective, different from the doctors who have worked with you for years. I wasn't given any information about expect for your first name to prevent me from forming any opinions before I met you."

"Were all my other nurses … evaluators … as well?"

There was a sound of rustling cloth, as if Kisame was shaking his head back and forth. "No. Just me."

Itachi nodded, slowly rising from the couch. "So, what you're telling me is that everything you've told me before this has been a lie?"

"A lie?" Kisame sounded taken aback. "No, I never-"

"Really?" Itachi interrupted, his voice rising in volume. "Because what it sound like to me is everything you've done has been for the sake of evaluating my 'mental capacity', as you called it. Has it? Was any of it real, or was it all just a ploy to get close to me, to open up my mind so you could rifle through it? Because I-" Itachi suddenly clapped a hand over his mouth, preventing the words inside from escaping. Because I trusted you. Because I thought of you as a friend.

Itachi stumbled backwards until he tripped over his own feet, trying to get away from Kisame, but the big man just came after him and grabbed his arms, hauling Itachi to his feet again. "Itachi…"

"Don't touch me!" Itachi cried, anger spiking. "Don't-"

The rest of his sentence was cut off as Kisame slammed his hand over Itachi's mouth just in time to prevent the person calling in the intercom to hear him.

"Kisame, what's going on? He's spiking again! I've already sent people with the sedatives-"

"No! No sedatives!" Kisame almost growled. "I have everything under control. He's being emotional, not violent."

As if to counteract that statement, Itachi bit down fiercely on Kisame's hand, but Itachi's hard-handed assailant didn't even react to the pain.

"Kisame, if he's having problems, we need to sedate him for his own good-"

"Do I need to remind you that you are supposed to defer to my judgement when I'm with him? Sedating him at this point will only make things worse in the future."

There was a rough silence, then the voice on the intercom sighed. "Fine. But don't get arrogant, Kisame. Call for the sedatives if you can't deal with him."

The intercom fell silent again, and Kisame lifted his hand away from Itachi's mouth. "That hurt," he said reproachfully.

"Bastard!" Itachi threw a wild punch that glanced off Kisame's shoulder without doing any real damage. "Get the hell away from me!"

"Itachi, I know you're upset, but you need to calm down-"

"No! Don't tell me what to do!" Itachi backed up until his back hit the soft wall of his cell. "My god, I opened up to you, I trusted you, and you were one of them all along!"

Itachi felt hands grab his wrists, but he shook them off.

"I said, don't touch me!"

"Itachi!" Kisame seized both of Itachi's wrists and slammed them back into the wall, making a cage that trapped Itachi between him and the wall. "Would you just shut up and listen to me?"

"No!" Itachi tried to headbutt Kisame, but he easily moved out of the way of the blind attack. "I'm not listening to you anym-!"

There was suddenly something blocking Itachi's mouth from moving, and he thought Kisame had covered it with his hand again, then he realized that both of Kisame's hands were occupied keeping his own hand pinned to the wall, so what was silencing him was- oh, God, Kisame was kissing him!

When he first realized the creative way Kisame had shut him up, Itachi struggled, trying to get away, but Kisame held him fast. Itachi had been in the middle of talking when Kisame had kissed him, so his mouth had been open, which now gave Kisame free access to his tongue, meeting it with his own. When Itachi felt the possessiveness of Kisame's tongue rolling against his own, he lost all will to fight and grew boneless in Kisame's arms. Starved for human contact, indeed; Itachi was so drunk on the feeling of another human being intimately close to him that he couldn't remember what he had been angry about a moment before.

Kisame loosened his grasp on Itachi's wrists, and immediately Itachi let his arms slip around Kisame's neck. He couldn't help it; this was the first warm human contact offered to him since his imprisonment, and he had no choice but to obey his body and demand more, which Kisame gave, the corners of his lips turning up in a smile that Itachi could feel against his own mouth.

When they finally broke apart, Itachi was breathing hard, and he could hear Kisame's breath coming irregularly as well.

"What was that for?" Itachi tried to accuse, but the effect was ruined by his breathy tone and trembling limbs.

"I wanted to calm you down," Kisame said.

Anger spiked in Itachi again, but not as hard as before. "So you think you can predict everything about me now? Am I just a puppet to you?"

A hand slammed into the wall right next to Itachi's ear, and causing him to flinch. "For God's sake, Itachi, will you just shut up and listen to what I have to say?"

"Fine. Fine!" Itachi pushed away from the wall, following the soft barrier with his fingertips until he reached his bed, then he sat down on the edge of it and crossed his legs and arms. "You have my attention. Now tell me what you wanted to."

Itachi heard Kisame take several steps toward him, but he stopped before he reached the bed, something Itachi was grateful for.

"As I said before, I was hired to evaluate your mental capacity. I was brought in to spend time with a mentally unstable person with mood swings, sporadic fits and episodes of violence. And do you know what I've found since I got here?"

"Please, enlighten me," Itachi snapped.

"A stable man who has been wrongfully incarcerated for almost ten years."

A cold hand of fear clenched Itachi's heart. "Wh-what?"

"Itachi, you are as sane as any of those doctors out there who study you. The only difference is that they can pump you so full of chemicals that you can't think straight, so that gives them an edge over you."

Itachi started to tremble all over. "Want are you saying? I'm the lunatic here; I'm the crazy one! You're not making any sense! I have to be crazy…"

"You probably were at one point, but you're not anymore. Can you think back for me and tell me what it was like when you first arrived here?"

Itachi placed his hands over his sightless eyes as if that would gouge out the memory of his early time in the ward, but he answered in spite of himself. "I don't remember much at first except they tied me down and I screamed a lot. Then came all the drugs, and I remember begging my father to be taken off them. After that was like the beginning: restraints and lots of screaming."

"And then?" Kisame prompted.

"And then…" Itachi slowly lowered his hands, Kisame's logic dawning on him. "And then I lived normally for a long time, with my entire memory intact… And then you came."

"You aren't crazy, Itachi," Kisame said kindly. "And you haven't been for a long time."

"But I was?" Itachi asked fearfully. "At the beginning? I really was crazy, right?"

"Yes, but not as much as you might think. I believe you just had an abnormally strong case of PTSD that cause your sanity to snap temporarily, but by the time you would have recovered on your own, you were already in here and the doctors were pumping your veins full of their 'help'."

"Oh god." Itachi covered his mouth in shock. "You mean I've been in here this whole time, tricking myself into thinking that I was crazy?"

"This is going to sound awful… But yes, that's correct."

"No." Itachi started to shake his head violently back and forth. "I have to be crazy. Why else would I be in the padded white cell? The padded white cell is for the lunatic, to protect him from the world and the world from him. I have to be crazy!" He jumped up and tried to grab at Kisame, but he tripped and the other man caught him just before he fell. "Kisame, what color are the walls of this room?" He demanded.

"The walls? They're yellow."

Yellow. Yellow walls. This was not a padded white cell. This was not the holding place for a lunatic. Itachi wasn't crazy. A laugh bubbled up inside of him, and he couldn't help but let it escape, even as dry sobs started to rack his body.

"Itachi? Are you okay?" Kisame asked in concern as the body in his arms started to shake.

"I'm fine," Itachi replied. "I'm more than fine; I'm sane! It's just… in times like these, I wish I still possessed the ability to cry."

Strong arms folded around Itachi, and he sank into their embrace. "You don't have to cry. This is a happy thing, right?"

Itachi looked up at Kisame at that, even though he couldn't see his face. "Is it?"

"Yes it is, because you don't deserve to be here, and I'm going to get you out."

A flash of hope flew into Itachi's stomach like a swarm of butterflies. "Really? You can do that?"

"I won't stop until you're free," Kisame vowed. "No man deserves to have his freedom taken from him like this. You deserve to be able to stand outside and feel the sun in your face again."

Itachi was silent for a moment, letting the concept sink in. After all these years, he was going to be free again! Something else entered his mind, though, and he blushed a little as he thought about it. "Kisame?"

"Yes?"

"So, why did you… Why did you…"

"Why did I kiss you?"

Itachi felt his cheeks flame, and he could only nod.

"Well, I suppose… Because I wanted to. Did you not want me to?"

Itachi could clearly hear the self consciousness in Kisame's voice, and he shook head head vigorously. "No, I didn't mind. I just wanted to know what your… intentions were."

"My… intentions?" Kisame took in a deep breath of air and let it out in a big rush. "I suppose that was a promise, to make sure you get out of here."

"Just a promise?" Itachi asked, trying not to sound too dejected.

"For now," Kisame corrected himself, and Itachi felt his heart jump with hope. "But it shouldn't be anything more; they'd fire me and I'd never get the chance to get you out of here. But I can make you another promise, that it will mean something after you're free, if you want."

"I think… I'd like that," Itachi said, feeling a smile steal across his face.

"Well, then, I'll just have to make another one, won't I?" Kisame teased gently, then leaned down and pressed his lips against Itachi's. The kiss was unbearably sweet and bittersweet in its brevity, and when it was over Itachi wanted it to keep going on, but he knew it couldn't.

Kisame pulled back and lead Itachi to sit down at the table without a word, then sat down opposite him. "So, do you want your breakfast now?"

"The healthy shit? Of course not," Itachi replied, but there was a new gentleness to his sarcasm and blush that spoke of secrets.