Disclaimer: Naruto is not ours. Thankfully.

Warning: Please see Chapter 1 for full warnings.

Rating: R

Chapter Summary: Itachi and Sasuke have a conversation over tea. Itachi is not happy.

Notes: This is the day after The Dinner Party.

Etc: Don't drink the tea.

Moments

By: Hana J and Ninjacat

Chapter 2: Kitchen Conversations

Itachi knew, almost at any given moment of the day, exactly where his family could be found in their household. His hearing and perception were unrivaled. He knew, for instance, that his mother was still dozing in her bed, even though it was well into the morning, and he knew that his father was not home. Most likely, still at their cousins' house, sleeping in one of the many guest bedrooms as he usually tended to do after a dinner party.

Sasuke, however, was not home either. This struck him as far more unusual. He could not hear his brother anywhere in the house, and saw no traces the boy had even slept in his bed the previous night. He remembered seeing glimpses of Sasuke throughout the evening, although eventually he had slipped away entirely and Itachi had assumed he'd just come home. But he was wrong. He didn't like that.

Itachi sat silent and alone at the table of the family's kitchen, calmly drinking his tea and wondering. He wasn't used to the silence.

Sasuke had woken up in Obito's room while the other man was dressing for his mission. He had watched him appreciatively for a while before slipping out of bed and putting on his pants, nicking the boxers due to the fact that they were still messy from the night before. Luckily, Obito had let him borrow a shirt and he tucked his own clothes, still dirty, under his arm and left the house at a run. He was running because he had smacked Obito in the ass rather hard on his way out, though later he would regret the running because it made his body, still sore, ache in specific, not nice places.

When passing one of the guest rooms in the hallway he saw his Father slumped over the bed and breathed a sigh of relief. The only person he had to worry about was Mother. Itachi, even if he knew, couldn't punish him.

Sasuke slipped into the house quietly, shutting the door with a soft click and moving towards his bedroom. A shower would be very nice right about now. He shucked his clothes onto the floor, making a mental note to give Obito his shirt back (another excuse to see him, of course) and turned on the hot water. The shower was quick, ten minutes at the most, and Sasuke, feeling a whole lot cleaner, moved back into his room, towel wrapped around his waist. Staring into the mirror he grimaced at the marks on his hips. Faint yellow and ugly green-blue fingerprints outlined his hipbones and bite marks, red pockets of color, dotted along his shoulders and neck. He tugged on some clean clothes, thankful that most of the marks would be covered.

Hungry, Sasuke moved into the kitchen, stretching the kinks out of his shoulders and back and froze in the entranceway, arm held above his head.

"Morning, Sasuke," Itachi murmured quietly, peering up from his tea to glance at his little brother as he came in. On first glance, everything seemed all right, although Sasuke's skin seemed a little off color and the sound of his footsteps trailing into the kitchen seemed different, off by a single step. He sipped his tea idly before setting it down and pouring a second cup, inviting Sasuke to sit down.

"You look tired," he continued, not meeting the younger man's gaze. "Where did you run off to last night?"

"Good morning, Itachi," Sasuke chirped, sitting down with a loud exhale but carefully pulling out his chair so the legs wouldn't scrape on the floor. He didn't want to accidentally wake Mother.

Sasuke accepted the cup gratefully, slurping it quietly. "Thank you, brother," he said, automatically falling into the slightly stiffer, formal speech that his family normally conversed in. He coughed, the tea hot on his tongue, and fanned the cup, glancing up at Itachi through the corner of his eye.

"Hmm…shouldn't I be asking you that considering you left halfway through, leaving me to fend off all our relatives alone?"

Sasuke took another sip of the tea, ducking his head to hide the anger in his eyes, even if he couldn't keep it out of his voice. He didn't want Itachi to know how much it hurt to be left alone, listening to them talk of Itachi's achievements while he sat and watched and felt more and more isolated, like he could never compare or keep up, which, for the most part, was probably true anyway.

But at least last night wasn't a total waste. A smirk twitched the corners of his mouth upward as he thought of Obito.

Itachi inclined his head quietly to the side, regarding Sasuke carefully. He had a tendency to slip back and forth from formality to something a lot less controlled. His anger was thinly veiled; many of his emotions were far too easy to read. His eyes dropped to his tea as he drank again, enjoying the almost pleasant burn of it. There was a headache brewing in the back of his mind, although he was barely ready to admit to it. The tea helped. Sasuke did not.

"It's really not any of your concern," Itachi said gently. "You shouldn't worry about it. What could be so terrible about our relatives anyway?" He chuckled softly, ignoring his own inward twitch at the words. There was something particularly intolerable about hearing a drunk man boast endlessly about him when, Itachi believed, there were far more important things that could be discussed. Such things were a waste of time.

Itachi was, however, rather surprised at the pull of curiosity within him at the way Sasuke cleverly dodged giving him a proper answer. He looked back up at his little brother expectantly.

Sasuke caught Itachi's glance and raised his eyebrows. "What?"

Sasuke looked back down at his tea, hating the way Itachi's eyes always felt so scrutinizing and hating the way he could never stand up to him when he could easily ignore everyone else. He set the cup down, leaning back in the chair and wincing at the sudden pressure on his backside. He grinned up at Itachi. "You were avoiding the question," he said, feeling sly. "I noticed Shisui was absent as well."

Sasuke knew Itachi went off with him because it was well known that they were best friends and something around Sasuke's heart clenched at the thought that Itachi would rather spend time with Shisui than him.

Itachi did not pause or stiffen or anything of the sort. He continued to meet Sasuke's gaze unblinkingly before lifting his tea to his lips and drinking from it. Flawless. He set the glass down after a moment and smiled at Sasuke as though he were confused. "Was he?" he asked, sounding genuinely curious, and then nodded. "Of course. I almost forgot. You and I are similar in many ways, Sasuke. Shisui and I got a little tired of our relatives as well. We went for a walk," he said. He wasn't stupid, he understood perfectly what his brother was getting at.

"And there," Itachi continued after a moment, finger trailing on the rim of his teacup, "you have my answer. Now where were you, little brother? At least I managed to come home early enough to sleep in my own bed last night." He smiled. Itachi was generally curious about a great deal of things; his brothers' whereabouts were not usually one of them. His headache threatened more insistently.

Sasuke stared at his brother, anger simmering beneath his skin. He wasn't dumb and it felt like spiders were crawling over his neck and down his spine the more Itachi talked in that condescending tone. He tilted his head, mocking.

His tone was light, despite the bluntness of his words. "I got fucked by one of your coworkers. Do you want the gritty details as well?"

Itachi narrowed his eyes very suddenly. Ice crawled uneasily down his spine as he met his brother's gaze and he set his cup down. Too quickly. Too hard. The soft sound it made against the wooden tabletop was almost inaudible, but he heard it. He knew Sasuke heard it too, and he almost clenched his teeth in annoyance.

"Sasuke...is this some kind of joke?"

He didn't like it at all.

Sasuke felt twisted satisfaction burn in his belly as Itachi's teacup hit the table, the sound ringing in his ears. He leaned forward onto the table, his finger touching the rim of Itachi's cup. He looked up, staring straight into his eyes. "Do you think I'm joking, brother?"

Itachi stared at him bitterly for a long moment, his fingers flexing on the tabletop. This was ridiculous. He shouldn't be reacting like this. What did it matter if Sasuke did? It wasn't his business, and it certainly didn't warrant the reaction he was giving. He wondered if that was Sasuke's intent, to get a rise out of him.

"You must be," Itachi whispered coldly, "Because I cannot believe you would do such a thing, I would have thought you'd had more respect for yourself and your name than to allow yourself to be used in such a way." He hesitated. "You are joking."

Sasuke felt guilt rope around him at Itachi's words, but not enough to make him care. His smile was all teeth as he moved his finger from the cup and ran it down the back of Itachi's palm. It had been a long time since Itachi had let him touch him voluntarily, ever since he turned twelve Itachi had avoided his touch but now it appeared that Itachi's disbelief over the matter had made him slack with shock.

"I do have respect," he said quietly. He looked up, feeling something dark and heavy like lead clog his lungs, making it hard to breathe when he caught Itachi's eye. He pushed past the feeling, and moved his finger back onto Itachi's cup, circling the rim. "I didn't sully our name, if that is what you think." He grinned, viciously. "I kept it in the family."

Itachi almost smacked Sasuke's hand away in disgust. How dare he touch him after admitting such a thing? Cold anger burned in his stomach and something he couldn't quite define tingled unpleasantly in his fingertips. Had he truly understood so little about his younger brother? He had never seen this coming.

Itachi regarded Sasuke's pale hands ghosting his before he glanced up once again to meet his brother's dark eyes; such a mirror of his and yet so completely different. "Who was it?" he demanded, forcing the anger from his voice. He refused to be ruled by his emotions. "Who, Sasuke?"

He wasn't entirely sure why he needed to know.

Sasuke shivered slightly at Itachi's emotionless voice, concentrating on the fact that Itachi had actually repeated himself, something he never did. He wished Itachi would pay full attention to him like this, like he was now, all the time. He just wished Itachi, when doing so, wouldn't look at him like he was.

"I don't think it is any of your business," he said smoothly. He looked up once more, leaning back in his chair and then getting up, scooting the chair back under the table. "If you hadn't left," he added, stopping in the kitchen's entrance way. "Then I wouldn't have needed someone to occupy my time."

Sasuke left, not looking back to see the expression that ghosted over Itachi's face.