Another month passed and Itachi settled further into his research, appropriating metal tacks he had found in the kitchen so he could design and hang more elaborate constructions: lines of succession, family trees, and timelines he carefully drew out himself.

After he had explored the library more and was fortunate enough to find several wells of colored ink, he allowed himself to add greater flourishes, color-coding subjects and adding borders and mixing inks to broaden his opportunities.

One of the great reliefs of working almost entirely alone was the freedom from pressure, that he could take an entire day rearranging pages, or walk around as long as he pleased with ink-stained hands with no students or professors around to comment on them.

There was no urgency to his work now but he could read as if there were, no longer held back by the anxiety of being tied to one subject forever but instead motivated by a simple desire to see more, to build and create and learn all there was for him to learn. The entire library was his to do with as he wished, to reorganize and maneuver to suit his needs.

It became more comfortable to him than his own bedroom.

Given that he had no need to adhere to a traditional work schedule, there were very few reasons for him to leave the library at all; he imported blankets and pillows from his own bedroom and slept instead on the library couches, pushing them together to give himself more space to sleep.

He became accustomed to taking several naps throughout the day as opposed to sleeping at night, his schedule ruled entirely by what he felt like doing. Which was, of course, working until he felt like sleeping, and sleeping until he felt like working.

Occasionally he'd be hit with a spell of melancholy, a few hours where he'd lie awake wondering what Sasuke or Shisui might be doing but it was hard to remain upset with so much to keep him busy, an unwritten schedule pulling him out of the dark moods that would seize him. He'd take a look around the library and remember there was still some purpose he might attend to before pulling himself up and returning to his work.

In the meantime, something had begun to change in Karin, a welcome injection of normalcy in their dinner meetings.

After enough refusals on his part she started to conserve her efforts, had slowly began to shed her jewels and gowns now that she seemed to have learned they would do her no good and really only served to make her look silly.

When they would inevitably meet in the kitchen she'd nod to him in acknowledgement and would greet him politely but said very little otherwise, would return to her reading once he began to cook his meals.

Though Itachi did not make a habit of it, he would sometimes scan the spines of her books out of some twisted curiosity and couldn't help but blame them for some of her ridiculous antics based off of the titles alone.

He watched in disgust as she read her way through Ravishing in Red and Nursing the Soldier's Heart and did his best to resist the urge to recommend her something better.

She did not, however, give up on him entirely and seemed only to be searching for more ways to insert herself into his life.

"How is your research going?" she had asked one night, giving him a shy, sweet smile he did not believe for a second.

Because he knew this was only a means to manipulate him, Itachi instead continued to eat, going on as if he hadn't heard her at all.

Karin leaned forward just the slightest bit, her slim fingers tracing circles on the rim of her glass. "I mean, it must be going well. You've been spending a lot of time in the library and seem happier since you started your project. Things are going pretty well, wouldn't you say?"

Things were going well, though he had no need to tell her that. Once dinner was over he planned to return to the library so he could edit what he had written the previous day. More importantly, he would have to decide if any major changes would be needed before he started to look into any mechanical errors.

"What are you studying now? It seems like you're always looking into something new," she tried, absentmindedly twirling a strand of red hair between her fingers.

Reaching for a pitcher on the table, Itachi poured himself another glass of water, thinking instead of how a nice wooden board to hang sheets of paper upon would make it significantly easier to read what he'd written previously.

If he could sit the board upright he need only look over at it, read a few lines, and then copy them onto clean paper as he corrected his errors.

"I went in the other day when you weren't there, and it looked like you had a lot finished… I mean, you've got all of those charts and graphs hung up on the walls. You've got beautiful handwriting, Itachi."

"You should stay away from my things," he replied flatly, not giving her any anger to latch onto.

He supposed her looking wasn't much of an inconvenience given she hadn't disturbed anything, and yet the temptation to admonish her was simply too strong.

"You're putting so much work into what you're doing; I'm just curious about it since you haven't told me all that much. If you wanted someone to look over what you've written or help you organize it…"

"I do not need any of your help."

She frowned but help her temper in, giving Itachi a pathetic urge to push her further, to see how long she would hold on before snapping at him.

He did not do this, however.

Aside from a painfully saccharine, "Itachi, would you make me your wife?" she did not say anything further to him that night but when he left the dining room that night he could hear her mutter, "What an asshole," when he was almost out of earshot.

He didn't bother trying to decide if he was supposed to overhear that or not.

.

.

.

Another month passed and soon their dinners became brief affairs Itachi found he was able to enjoy simply because it offered him a short bit of time away from his work, time where he could continue to think on his writing entirely in the abstract, the dining room a neutral space with few distractions.

There was, apparently, a limit to how many times Karin would attempt to carry on a conversation by herself before she simply stopped trying.

It became easy to forget her presence entirely when she wasn't badgering him or going out of her way to make him uncomfortable.

Even so, no matter how quiet or well-behaved she became there was always that question, that pointless request that he'd heard dozens of times in dozens ways: a gruff, direct, do you want to marry me or not?, or a frustrated, have you changed your mind yet?

Or, what he'd heard more recently, a low, sweet, if you've changed your mind, we could still get married, which wasn't a question exactly, but he did not hesitate to answer it as if it had been.

No matter how she phrased it, his response did not change.

.

.

.

Eventually a night came where at dinner Karin was neither excited or withdrawn but alert, looking up frequently as she ate, not at him but at the door to the dining room, watching as if she were expecting something. She made no attempts to draw him into conversation but her behavior was strange enough to garner Itachi's attention anyway.

He had heard the halls groaning but couldn't imagine why they would be when both of them were in the middle of a meal, unless she was planning to leave soon.

She offered no explanations and he asked for none, only watched her flat expression curl into a smile that grew wider and more mischievous as dinner went on, though she hadn't taken a single bite. More triumphant, it seemed, though he couldn't imagine why.

The mechanical grating echoed as the halls continued to arrange themselves, Karin's face still unusually pleased, a strange contrast to the docile, placid mood she'd been in recently.

Finally, a heavy pair of footsteps sounded from down the hallway, which was incredibly concerning because, as far as Itachi knew, there were only two people in the entire castle and the other was sitting across from him, grinning smugly as the footsteps came closer.

Whoever it was in the hallway began to beat on the wooden doors, hard enough to shake them. Itachi immediately looked to them, drawn not only by the person's activity but by the fact that there was another person at all.

Karin made no move to get up and the doors shook again, the person in the hallway sounding as though they were throwing their entire weight against them.

An angry male voice called from outside, "Open this goddamn door, you crazy bitch!"

Karin snickered and finally the doors flew open, a white-haired man with an enormous sword stumbling in, apparently caught off guard by the doors' sudden movement.

"The fuck is wrong with you?" the man snapped when he regained his balance, fidgeting with the straps that kept the gravity-defying sword on his back.

Karin gave a half-shrug, lifting her fork to take her first actual bite of the meal. "You probably needed the exercise; when was the last time your lazy ass actually had to walk somewhere?"

"Glad to see you're as peachy as ever, Karin."

"Yeah, and you're just as much of an ass."

Their visitor smiled, his mouth wide and full of inhuman teeth. "Heard you had a new victim."

"What I do is none of your business."

He snorted and walked over, his steps slow and lazy but Itachi didn't think it had anything to do with the giant sword, which the man detached and dropped to the floor with a single hand. He pulled out a chair across from Itachi and sat down, propping his feet up on the table. "Time's running out, Karin."

Karin glared at the soles of the man's feet but just shook her head, her lips twisted in disgust. "You don't need to tell me."

He turned to Itachi with a grin, his teeth eerily bright in the poorly-lit dining room. "Hey, kid. How're you likin' it here? Loving the quality time with your dream girl?"

Karin slammed her hand down on the table. "Suigetsu, get the hell out of my house."

"What, am I interrupting you two lovebirds?"

"No, you're pissing me off. Like you always do."

Suigetsu waved her off and dropped his feet, scooting forward in the chair. He leaned over the table and whispered conspiratorially at Itachi, "Tell me kiddo, how's it feel to be the luckiest man in the world?"

Itachi wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Who are you?"

Suigetsu snickered. "Oh, you know. I wear a lot of hats these days. I'm on my way to make a delivery; thought I'd visit my little friend and see if I'd be getting a wedding invitation any time soon."

"You'll be disappointed, then," Itachi replied, his tone flat.

"Ah, see, he's just as much fun as you are, Karin. A match made in the heavens, I think."

Karin, in a characteristic show of childishness, stuck her tongue out at Suigetsu.

Itachi looked to Suigetsu, knowing very little about him but assuming he did not feel any strong loyalty towards Karin if their exchanges were anything to go by. Therefore, he might be able to help Itachi in some way. "Do you know how I can get out of here?"

Suigetsu raised his eyebrows. "Yikes, you really hate to see that." He angled his head back towards Karin. "Woman, you really ought to be a better host. Maybe you'd stop scaring away all your suitors, huh?"

"I'm a fine host, you can kindly fuck off."

"Maybe go for a more feminine approach. Try looking less like a hag."

Itachi gave Karin a nervous once-over, finding the plain sweater and trousers she was wearing a very welcome change.

Suigetsu reached over the table and grabbed Karin's drinking glass, taking a long sip and then gesturing towards her with it. "Lemme give you some advice about what men like, okay? Dress a little bit less like a matron and try showing off a little skin, loosen up your morals some more. Make yourself available, yanno?"

Itachi immediately held his hands up to Karin, pleading. "Absolutely do not—!" to which she only rolled her eyes.

Suigetsu gave him a sad, pitying look and shook his head. "Karin, you got a backup plan?"

She tsked, pulling off her glasses and rubbing her eyes. "I'm working on it."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"You need anything?"

"I'm fine."

Suigetsu gave her a long look before saying, "I sure hope so," and standing up, swinging his giant sword onto his back.

Karin jerked her head up. "You're leaving already?"

"Like I said, I've got a delivery to make. Don't wanna draw too much attention to myself by being late, ya feel?"

Karin gave him a small nod. "Right. Of course"

Suigetsu gave her a small salute with two of his fingers. "Take care of yourself, Karin."

"I always do."

"I know." He winked at Itachi. "I haven't managed to find one myself but I'm almost certain there are worse things you could spend the rest of your life married to than Karin."

Karin was up in an instant, her chair squeaking as she pushed away from the table, shooting a rather obscene gesture at the back of Suigetsu's head. "I'm not a thing, you bastard!"

Suigetsu shrugged and waved over his shoulder as he walked over to the doors. "See you around, Karin."

Karin sat down with a frustrated sigh, pushing her plate out of the way and leaning forward on the table, resting her head in her hands.

Slowly, Itachi stood, bracing himself for her inevitable question but she didn't seem to notice.

He waited another moment and then she shifted towards him, red eyes looking him over with no comment.

"I am going to leave now," he announced.

Karin gave a lazy shrug and straightened up, dragging her plate back to her. "I'll see you around, then."

It might have been better if he had simply left without her permission, but the day had been strange enough with too few answers. "You have nothing more to say?"

Karin let out a low hum, studying her nails for a moment before glancing back up at him "I don't have to ask you every day, you know. Or at all. Maybe I'm not feeling it anymore." She continued to sit there, unbothered. Unusual behavior for her, to say the least.

Itachi frowned. "You've asked every night until now."

She let out a breathy laugh, leaning back in her chair. "Honestly my ego has taken a beating. I'll wait a little longer, see if I can't get by playing a long con."

"My answer will not change."

"Then I guess we're at an impasse, huh?" she said, her voice unusually calm.

Turning away from him, she grabbed a glass decanter on the table, pouring what seemed to be an unusually full glass of amber-colored wine and taking several long sips.

Itachi stayed and watched her.

For curiosity's sake, if anything.

She looked up at him and lowered the glass in her hand, saying, somewhat snarkily, "Dinner is over. You're more than welcome to leave."

"What was your friend talking about?"

Karin shrugged, unusually indifferent. "Who knows? I ignore most of what he says."

"You are planning something." Itachi wasn't entirely certain of what was happening, but he didn't bother framing it as a question.

She rolled the glass in her hand, sloshing her wine around a few times before downing all of it in a single gulp. "Guess I am."

"Why don't you marry him instead? I believe he would be willing."

"Can't." Karin said before leaning back in her chair and propping a knee against the table. "Wouldn't want to anyway," she added a few seconds later with a sour face. "Don't know if you noticed but he's not exactly human."

Finding her mood one he didn't care to endure any longer, Itachi only nodded and left without further comment, walking back to the library where he began to look over the gaps in his outline where he'd left off before dinner.

They were easy gaps to fill, a few references to older works he only needed to verify. Even so, his interest was muted.

A good deal was happening that he did not understand. Karin, for some reason, did not want to tell him about it. It'd been one of the first conversations she'd shown no interest in having, however, and Itachi couldn't shake the feeling that it went beyond the sour mood she had been in.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

A few notes!

First of all, my apologies for how long this took. Classes are back on and I wrestled a bit with the timeline in this chapter, so a section that originally went here is getting moved somewhere else and, well... there was a lot of fiddling involved!

Another reason why this took so long (and may continue to take longer to update) is that I've started working on another AU that I don't plan to publish until I've finished the whole thing. That'll also be Itachi/Karin, but an actual canon AU this time, taking place after the war is over, the only real change being that Itachi is alive. I don't want to say too much about it since I don't have too much planned out, but since I'm writing it all in one go it'll probably look very different from this, which is neither good or bad, just different.

I've got about 15k written there so far but it's going to need a lot of editing and I'm only a fraction of the way through what I want to write, so that probably won't be out for a while. But... well, if you're a fan of this super rare pair I can at least promise there will be content beyond this fic! And since it'll all be finished at once I'll be able to update that fic every few days, since all I'll need to do between updates is edit what's already written.

Again, for the fun of it, I'll remind everyone that the books Karin is reading are in fact real, though I can't attest to their quality myself.

ANYWAY, thanks to everyone for bearing with me and these irregular updates, and thanks to everyone leaving comments and kudos because I've been snowed in all weekend and they're all I've had to warm my heart.