Man is significant strictly for his ability of becoming an individual, and it is those who he or she considers of higher intelligence that signify something greater than man itself. Man-Woman-and the easily identified Kings.
Xxx-xxX
From where he's lying, he feels like Sasuke.
It might be a good thing that he's experiencing his brother first hand and not the simple observations he makes from the small touches or pokes, nor the fantasies in the dreams that have seemed to increase in quantity. He doesn't sleep often, he realizes, not until he's at the point of exhaustion and even then a restless sleep does not do anything to change his weariness; now he moves in slow, delicate strokes like the fingers that trail down his sides, and he didn't think Shisui could ever be this much like him.
Itachi feels small and uncertain towards the rough, beautiful hands with their blunt, unoriginal shapes and outlines that are so much like his own. He asked Sasuke (a thing his brother probably does not remember because Itachi always makes sure his best conversations are at night) if their hands were the same, but Itachi was almost sure he was asleep and managed to convince himself the simple 'No. Yours are nicer, Nii-san.' was only because Sasuke had yet to fall asleep until the few strokes past midnight when Itachi filled him with promises of the words he didn't say at any other time. Itachi was starting to notice that Sasuke stayed up until those hours- that Sasuke would wait until he got home from his missions on the times he had to go to them and that Sasuke always seemed to be the destination he was walking towards.
Itachi doesn't think Shisui has very nice hands- they're fumbling in broken traces of the curves of his hips, and they're more mechanical than anything else. Robotic, almost, and Sasuke's hands are better. Maybe it's because Sasuke is a child (even if Itachi was an adult two years before Sasuke's last birthday, even if Fugaku gave scornful glances at his infancy, even if Mikoto was running out of excuses for her son and they all ran circles around him like he was a king, like the crown was dishonor to his bloodline and it was right on top his head) and is filled only with the unbroken self-confidence of men below the age of twelve (Itachi remembers he is fourteen, and though the first years are stored in Mikoto's apron all the rest of them are in Sasuke's palm like gumdrops; if not lacking in both color and sweetness, for they are bitter and old and grayed with the premature silver hairs of them both). Sasuke does not second guess grabbing a hand to hold, only ever doubting himself in the aim of his throw and as of that Itachi has expected only to be faulty so he will have to be shown again in the company of his father or Itachi or factors of average day life that he is severely lacking to the point of obnoxiously tedious failures.
Clever mistakes, sins of wit they are, the Uchiha clan, and his cousin rises above him like the owner of it all. Itachi thinks he hates him.
He feels young, younger than he's felt since he was four, staring at the ceiling tiles and almost smiling at the possibility of being caught. That's what's in it for Shisui, the danger or the effeminacy of Itachi, he does not know; but what's in it for him is all the thoughts disappearing with every strike, every thrust, every moan, every count of a speckle on the tile.
He stares at them the whole time.
Xxx-xxX
-(be burning with) be entirely possessed by (a desire or emotion)- (1) Mikoto knows exactly what Itachi has done by the uncharacteristic disheveled look of him, but he was only ever amounting up to less than the sins she committed (birth of Itachi, birth of gods- men never wanted to have to bow down to someone and Itachi slowly pressures them with his hand and his eyes and the aim of his throw that is so, so much better than his brother's, as any wind current will weather the mountains and erode them into fine ash and dust that will settle beneath it) and so she gives him a sad smile and continues walking towards the kitchen.
Itachi thinks Mikoto is the only one who ever is able to see him in the places no one else would- as a mother, the factors are highly likely just as Sasuke will only come to her with his tears and Fugaku will understand that his wife loves their children more than he, but for Itachi it is both a curse and a blessing. But if Mikoto still has the energy to piece together false smiles, Itachi won't worry himself for now.
Itachi goes into his room, and Sasuke is waiting for him on the bed.
Xxx-xxX
Like a normal brother would, Itachi frowns at Sasuke with his eyes betraying the direction of his lips, and Sasuke plays the part he's morphed himself into and smiles whole-heartedly. It looks strangely like his mouth is breaking his face, how it spreads over the skin, and he thinks it's much safer to frown (that's why Fugaku is in an unbreakable one and Itachi is finally taking after his father).
"Nii-san, 'Kaa-san said you didn't have any missions today."
Itachi lowers himself into his chair, slow and delicate strokes, like a painting he will one day show to Sasuke. Itachi wants him to see all of his art, every fine line and every color, and it is the second time that night he feels the childish entrapment he pushed aside so long ago. Innocence- waving runny, colorful paper in a mother's face held in sticky thumbs (he wondered when Sasuke became his mother, when his little brother took such a spot of importance in his chest, and it is aching and pumping at the sight of him with the most earnest heartbeat he has ever held). "Okaa-san may have access to some of the regular files, but only ANBU can view the higher-class." Itachi wouldn't have ever before viewed Shisui as high class. He's learning something new today, like a child beyond the chalk board, and the eraser is no longer hovering in view.
Sasuke nods agreeably, "Nii-san, can I sleep with you tonight?"
"No, Sasuke. I'm sorry. Maybe another time." Sasuke catches the similarity in between the words, but Itachi is getting too tired to come up with something clever. He is exhausted over the exhaustion he has felt for days, moon over moon and now it is almost full in the sky, highlighting all that is Sasuke and carefully shadowing Itachi- playing all of their rules and roles in order, a nature that bends to their will and Itachi wonders when they have become gods.
"But this isn't training or practicing shuriken, Nii-san, because I finished throwing those yesterday and 'Tou-san (2) says I can start with three tomorrow. Can I stay?"
Itachi shakes his head and leans forwards to poke Sasuke's forehead, before stopping halfway and all but collapsing against the back of his desk chair. Sasuke paws at his pant leg worriedly, the type of innocent Itachi feels today as he is unconcerned that his brother might not be able to handle himself if that thin layer of cloth was not there over Sasuke's fingers. Itachi asks himself when he must be shielded from Sasuke. How far has it gotten that Itachi is thanking thread and needle?
"Your Nii-san hasn't been able to sleep well, Sasuke."
"So then I can help! Nii-san, if I'm there it'll-," His voice is frightened and panicky, as if it was life or death over sleeping in Itachi's bed for a night. One more night, and the next Sasuke would ask him again but it cannot be eternal. Sasuke will grow out of loving his brother just as Itachi grew out of loving his parents, and if something cannot last longer than the night has been to him it is not worth it in the end. Itachi is finished with things that don't last; Shisui's orgasm and Sasuke's concern, because it is not enough.
Itachi cuts him off. "No, Sasuke. Go back to your room. Okaa-san and Otou-san wouldn't like it if you were sleeping here, and you need to learn to be on your own. Go." He politely avoids telling his brother that Sasuke is the exact reason he cannot get to sleep.
How his brother haunts his dreams, and Itachi can only wonder whether he haunts Sasuke's. But Sasuke has not lost sleep, because he has his innocence, and enough to tell him it's just brotherly affection.
Itachi has felt innocent all night, childish and longing and the hand that snakes to his waistband tells him that too. Just brotherly affection, the fingers pulling his pants to his thighs, and soon he is lost.
Chalky scribbles, over the sheets.
-Circles are the main feature of our human lives, because that is what we run in.-
AN: Oh my holy mother of Christ god, I updated willingly! This chapter was so fun to write, because I totally wanted seme!Shisui and uke!Itachi, and hardly anyone really writes that! I've been planning it since, what, the beginning of the second chapter or something?, and I finally get to write it! I hope it wasn't too sudden to ya'll, but it has been building since the first chapter if you didn't notice. A lot of people use Itachi going to Shisui to forget Sasuke, and I built off that luverly plot. DAYYUM, I'm SO PROUD OF MYSELF! –babbles gibberish- I deserve a frickin' hug. Or better yet, REVIEWS.
I don't own Microsoft WordPerfect12's Oxford University Press dictionary, therefore I don't own their definition of the word 'burn'. Told ya' that'd be worming it's way back in. There's just so many different meanings to the word.
Sasuke, in the anime, kind of has a sort of casual way of speech, or at least how he uses the words 'mother' and 'father', because he never says 'Okaa-sama' or 'Otou-sama', instead using 'Kaa-san and 'Tou-san. So I put that in there, and though I never paid attention to what Itachi called his parents I simply figured he'd reverse that and go for a slightly more formal, less attached or loving way of saying mom and dad. So I put him calling them 'Okaa-san' and 'Otou-san'. Not as polite as he could get, but still polite, and so it doesn't fade into the 'worshipping' category, just formal enough to be detached.
REVIEW PLEASE!!!
(And Gaara will stop…masturbating everywhere in the Sabaku household. Honestly, it's getting to be a real problem and you want Temari and Kankuro to be happy, don't you? Think of the Suna maids! Think of them when you look at that review button!)