His mind drifted.
This did not feel unusual; more normal, simple and right than anything else he'd ever felt before.
It was more like before that moment, he had not been aware that he had been drifting, and this sudden awareness of anything put an anchor on his mind.
Slowly, facts about who he was started to mingle in with the otherwise perfect feeling of lightness. His name was Uchiha Sasuke. This year, he was sixteen. He should be getting up; Kakashi-sensei expected him in at eight, and he intended to keep the appointment, whether the teacher was there or, as usual, two hours late.
Today was not one of those days that Sasuke relished the thought of getting up. Knowing when to push his body and when to stop, the heir decided that just this once, he'd let himself wake up slowly, rather than forcing his eyes open and slinging his legs over the side of the bed like he usually did.
Sasuke let awareness return slowly to his body.
He became aware of a steady, officious beeping. Damnit. It seemed that his faulty fire alarm had decided to throw another hissy fit. He'd have to remove the batteries again.
He became aware of the weight of his own body, and the yielding mattress under him.
He became aware of his whole body, from the slight chill that had collected in his room overnight, to the needle in his right arm.
Huh?
Sasuke's eyes flew open, or rather, meant to. Only on his second flustered attempt to see did his eyelids finally obey him, and yield up what he had been dreading to see. The white, uncaring ceiling of a hospital.
But what had happened? He had gone to bed, casual as you'd like, after yet another day of training. Unless – there was something wrong with the ramen he'd shared with Naruto. He didn't really believe it was possible, but he'd always found the blonde's favourite restaurant rather dodgy-looking.
Slowly, Sasuke's eyes roved down to the rest of his body, and suffered for it, still sensitive to the light coming in the open window. Yes, there really was a needle in his arm. A neatly placed butterfly clip and a piece of transparent tape over that. Refusing to freak out, and fairly sure someone would come in and tell him what had happened, Sasuke's eyes roved up the path of the tubing, until it became blocked from view behind a head of black hair.
With a start, Sasuke sat up, then stared with a combination of confusion, horror, and rage at who was slumped forward from his uncomfortable-looking hospital chair and resting his head on the side of the bed, fast asleep
Battle cry coming out in a breathy rasp, Sasuke tugged the drip tube out from underneath his brother's head and wrapped it around his neck, pulling with an inhuman strength that came with inhuman anger.
Itachi jumped, hands scrabbling at his neck as he realised what was happening. The elder Uchiha looked up at the snarling face of his brother, dark eyes reminiscent of a kicked puppy. He flailed out, taken completely by surprise, hand mashing the panel of buttons on the side of the bed.
Yakushi Kabuto, newly appointed doctor, responded to the emergency assistance call from Uchiha Sasuke's private room with a mixture of trepidation and excitement. It seemed amazing that the boy might be awake finally, but it was also a possibility that something had gone wrong, and that was why Itachi had pressed the button that he knew was only for real emergencies.
A wry thought entered his mind as he stood stock still in the doorway to the room. 'Does this count?'
None of his extensive training could have prepared Kabuto of the sight of the supposedly infallible Itachi recoiling with horror away from his brother's hospital bed like he had just been bitten, and the occupant of the bed, a person Kabuto had only seen with eyes shut in a pale face and body almost too still, clawing and screaming bloody murder, bent double, his conveniently folding bed having apparently folded in on him.
At any other point in time, this would have been comical.
"What in the name of…!" Unable to finish his sentence, Kabuto let the end trail off as he dropped his clipboard and hurried over to the bed to try and get it off Sasuke.
The pale, thin boy looked up as he drew near, and glared with malice at the young doctor.
"You!"
Taken aback, Kabuto followed the elder Uchiha's lead, and recoiled.
"How long as he been like this?"
Itachi shook his head slowly, dark eyes still focused on his brother, who continued to hiss.
"I only woke up when he tried to kill me."
Never a good sign.
Kabuto clapped a comforting hand down on the brother's shoulder, forcing his thought patterns into the realms of sense again.
"Do you mind holding him still for me? I think that it would be best if Sasuke-kun went back to sleep for a while."
Itachi dumbly nodded, and then dutifully leant forward and held his younger brother down with the apparent ease of a person that isn't quite aware of what he was doing at the time.
Kabuto sidestepped the jounin and pinched a nerve in the side of Sasuke's neck. The cursing ended, and the coma patient's head and arms flopped. The doctor pressed the button that would unfold the bed, then uncomfortably gestured for Itachi to help him as his unconscious brother stayed exactly as he was placed, folded limply in half, head on his knees.
When the room had regained some sense of order, Kabuto called a nurse to deal with the needle that had been forcibly dragged from Sasuke's wrist, then led his numb brother slowly outside, and into his office for a seat.
Once again, the doctor found himself with nothing to say, and no training to back himself up with. In the end, he just dropped the formality, and stood behind Itachi's chair, massaging the seated Uchiha's shoulders. His mouth opened, shut, then opened again.
"I can honestly say that your brother is a very unique patient."
A grunt in reply.
"Do you want to call your parents?"
The muscles in Itachi's shoulders went from like blocks of wood to lumps of ice, and he massaged harder.
"I suppose I should," came the reluctant, quiet reply.
Kabuto crossed to his desk, then pushed the phone to his friend, and sat down, turning to stare out the window, and pretend he wasn't intensely curious and eavesdropping with all his might.
Itachi picked up the receiver and dialed.
"Hello? Mother? It's me."
A pause, where he could hear a faint reply.
"I'm fine, the apartment's very comfortable, thank you. And you?"
Itachi seemed to listen for about a second, then blurted out: "Sasuke's awake."
Silence from the other end, and Itachi repeated that one, simple fact, as though it only just occurred to him.
"Sasuke's awake."