Little Partner
"We're going the wrong way," he said sedately for the fourth time as he examined his nails with a bored expression. His partner stopped. He stopped, looking up. "I'm just saying the facts." He waited patiently for Kisame to come up with a retort and control his temper. Kisame crumpled the map and dropped it at Itachi' feet. He did not appreciate his partner's existence at the moment. It had been like this ever since their brawl. He truly did not understand his partner. For one evening he had been bearable, pleasant, gushy even. The next morning he was intolerably aloof, more demanding and bossy than ever, and extremely contradictive. The worst part was Itachi had been right. Every time. Confidentially, this was Kisame's punishment for lack of understanding and Itachi was very pleased to see he'd finally caused him to reach a breaking point. He looked at the sky. "It's going to rain soon," he announced. Kisame tightened his fists. His calm partner turned abruptly and began walking in the other direction. "Don't forget the map." Kisame wanted to run Samehada through something. Something short and obnoxious.
As Itachi had stated, they had been, indeed, going the wrong way, and as Itachi had predicted, the grey sky began to sprinkle, then pour on them as they reached the next village. "I imagine leader's message is late as well," he said idly, glaring at the sky and clutching his arms. He despised rain. He also despised leader's ridiculous assignment methods. They had not been given full instructions for this assassination, oh no, leader had to turn a simple cut and run into a wild goose chase across the country in which they were given clues at check points (delivered via Deidara's clay pigeons) that led to their next check point and supposedly eventually to their "client". They didn't even know who they were killing yet. The whole concept was tremendously inconvenient and overall stupid. But leader was leader. They were supposed to wait at the gate now, so they stood on opposite sides, Itachi getting more and more vexed at life in general and Kisame puzzling over the emotional state of his partner. It seemed to be that of a teenage girl's, which bothered him immensely because it made him feel a very specific emotion he could not describe. Itachi took turns glaring at the sky and at the horizon as he wondered if clay birds could fly in rainstorms. He glanced at his partner, seemingly unphased by the rain and glaring as well, but in thought not irritation. He was almost, well, cute standing there with a hand at his chin, brows furrowed, and eyes scouring the mud for answers. In fact, he was rather adorable, especially with his hair flattened by the rain. Suddenly he looked up and caught Itachi staring at him. Itachi looked like a stray cat. Kisame rolled a shoulder a bit as he weighed his feelings. He should just ignore him in return for earlier aggression, but he reasoned it wasn't Itachi's fault he had been consistently correct or that he had been born a bossy, commanding, and subject to grudge-holding person (for he figured he must have committed some crime against Itachi in order to evoke his wrath like this.) That's just how he was. And had he not said that night before all this that he liked him? He trusted Itachi and assumed, since underneath all the vengeance there was some, if little, companion-like affection, it was all right to give in. He peered trough the torrents as he said heavily,
"You don't like rain do you?" He expected a smart response but all he got was a,
"No. Not at all. It's an Uchiha thing." Kisame unsnapped his robes in the front.
"Come here. You can hide out in here until it's over. It will be a lot warmer." Itachi seemed to freeze for a moment, then scurried across the gateway and into Kisame's arms. He snapped the robe back up and pulled his hat down a bit to cover them both. "Better, little partner?" Itachi's heart was racing. He fought down a blush as a strong arm pressed him to the dry and surprisingly warm retreat of Kisame's slowly rising and falling chest. He buried his head into the space between his arms. Kisame blinked, shocked at their closeness, but only for a moment. He grinned. Then looked down as a familiar voice murmured indignantly,
"I'm not little."