Chapter 14

Sasuke Uchiha stood panting in front of the lifeless form of his brother. He had won. He had won. So why did he feel like crying. He turned around, trying to feel the elation he thought he was going to feel at the moment of his revenge. He didn't hear the soft padding of bare feet next to Itachi. Nor did he hear the rustle of clothes as Itachi was slung over a shoulder. When he did look back, he glimpsed a slight figure, tottering under the weight of his older brother, disappear.

When Itachi felt himself being picked up, he was confused. Sasuke could easily sling him over his shoulder, but this person seemed like he or she was struggling. He also felt he was closer to the ground than he should have been. Still, he continued to pretend he was dead. It was easy. He just let his fatigue wash over him and the sickness he had suppressed with drugs for the past five years catch up with him. The hardest part was not coughing, but that was easy managed. He didn't have the strength to cough anymore. The person would get tired of carrying him sooner or later. Maybe he would be buried. He would just dig out of the shallow grave as soon as he was alone. It was no big deal. And then, he could work out his plan from there. His plan, to die at his brother's feet, had worked so far. It would have to work until the end.

He felt the person that was carrying him teleport somewhere and then gently lay him on the grass. Although his nose was overpowered by the scent of his own blood, he caught the scent of rain. Sure enough, it started to pour soon afterwards, bringing the scent of mint from the forest. He felt a gentle hand brushing his face. The person was probably a girl, then, taking pity on a dead man.

"Itachi?"

If he had been breathing, he would have stopped at that moment.

"Itachi?" the familiar voice called again. He didn't respond. He needed to convince her that he was dead.

"I know you're alive." Her response rattled him more than crying would have. He continued to lie on the ground, as if dead. A moment passed and he felt a cold hand slip into his own.

"I'll wait Itachi."

Day eased into night, but for Yani, the waiting game was nothing compared to the last months. She had found him. That was all that mattered. And if she needed to, she would wait forever.

As the hours passed, she never moved from her position. When she slept, she would relax in the position she was, her legs drawn up, and her head on her knees, her cold hand holding Itachi's equally cold hand. When she woke up, she would merely roll her shoulders, and continue waiting. But Itachi was aware that she wasn't eating, wasn't drinking, and was shivering violently.

Finally, on the morning of the third day, while Yani was shivering while sleeping, he picked her up gently and held her to him, working out the stiffness in her fingers. Her eyelids fluttered open, letting her green eyes focus on Itachi's neutral face. But the neutral-ness disappeared when she snuggled into his neck and smiled.

"See? You weren't dead." He didn't answer, but in his chest, next to the tearing pain of his mangled lungs and heart, he felt a completeness he hadn't felt in awhile. After he was done with her hands, she pulled away and turned, kneeling in front of him. "So?"

He laughed. The laugh turned into a cough, a terrible cough, one that sent blood pouring out of his mouth in quickened spurts with pieces of lung tissue mixed in. When Yani reached to heal is throat he pushed her hand away, coughing until he was done.

"Tell me your story, child." He shook his head.

"I'm not letting you perform the ritual on me." His voice was barely more than a rasp, but his smile was content. He brushed back her hair, clumsily.

"You can't see anymore, can you?"

"Barely. Just blotches of color." Yani inched closer.

"Tell me your story, child." She spoke again before he could respond. "Not for the ritual. Just the story. Just for the hell of it."

"It's a really long story." She smiled and inched closer.

"I have time."

He did his laughing cough again, this time ending with a beginning of a story. His story. The sun passed overhead as he told his life from the beginning, slowly, with many coughing fits to interrupt the flow. But she understood. She understood how he had been a child genius, youngest to join the ANBU, youngest to rise to such a high position so quickly. She understood the orders he received one night from the Hokage, to kill his entire village, which was threatening a coup d'état. She understood when he described his girlfriend's, whom he had hoped to marry, last moments as he held her in his arms, how she bled out slowly, happy that Itachi was with her. And most of all, she understood how, no matter how many other people he had killed, he could not kill his only brother, Sasuke, and that he had pushed his brother to hate him as retribution for his killing, how he wished that one day, he would die at his brother's feet. She understood.

"Then, when I was twenty-one," he continued, his breath gurgling, "I met a man in the deepest part of the woods next to the village." He chuckled darkly, which made him cough. "Well, not a man, I supposed. But he pointed a finger at me and said, "Take up thy heritage, my darkness, my son." I fainted after that, but when I woke up, he was gone." He looked at his hands, flexing his fingers. "It took me a while to figure out that it was really hard for me to die." Hearing a sharp intake of breath, he smiled at Yani. "I suppose you know then?" She nodded, eyes-wide.

"Son of Hades." He covered his eyes with the heel of his hands and took a deep breath.

"My first thought was "This is great. I know I won't die until I complete my mission. Until I can die at my brother's feet. I don't even have to breathe anymore." Later, much later, I realized why I had no use for my lungs. That was when I started to cough them up. I didn't know there was going to be pain until then."

"Eternal suffering." Itachi nodded and silence lapsed. He looked up when her fingers pulled a hand away from his face. "How long?"

"Five years," he answered without hesitation. There was another silence.

"Can you—" Both of them stopped when they realized they had spoken at the same time. Itachi smiled a hint of his old smile, "After you, my lady." Yani blushed, making Itachi raise his eyebrows.

"Can you…?" Yani drew up her knees looked sideways, towards the ground, embarrassed. Itachi couldn't help but cup a hand around her face, drawing her to her knees.

"Can I what?" he murmured, passing his thumb over her lips, which, once again, stained her cheeks red. She took a deep breath and looked at him straight in the eye, putting one of her hands on the large hand caressing her face. "Can you stay with me forever?" She lost her courage and broke eye contact. "Please?"

"No!" His exclamation made him cough again, the worst one so far, and he couldn't stop coughing until a couple minutes had passed. When he looked up, he saw Yani's eyes as black as obsidian. "Songbird, it's not that—"

"No, it's okay." Yani laughed shakily, "I've never been rejected before, that's it. But it's fine. It's because it hurts so much, right? You have no time to think about my silly—"

"Listen to me!" Yani stopped rambling. "Yani, yes, it hurts, but that's not the reason. The reason is that," his voice became quiet, "you have a chosen mate, right?"

"How did you—"

"I guessed from bits and pieces Kakashi told me. But the point is, I can't just sit back and watch you get married." His voice rose. "I'm sorry for being selfish, but I don't want to stick around and stay with you forever, just to see something I love taken away from me by the gods. Which is why I wanted to ask you, can you kill me? I… I don't think I can kill myself, but… but you're a god, right? So you can…" he trailed off when he saw Yani's eyes change to a hazel color. "What..."

"Did you say you loved me?"

And for the first time in his life, Itachi reddened. But when he nodded, Yani's eyes changed to a color he had never seen before. Stillness fell over the two facing each other.

"Why are we like awkward teenagers?" At that, Yani laughed, inching closer to Itachi again.

"You said that you could see colors, right Itachi?" When he nodded, her voice grew quiet. "Itachi, what color are my eyes?" He was puzzled, but somehow, he sensed how important the question was.

"I've never seen them with that color before. They're gold aren't they?" Itachi laughed weakly. "You must love me a lot, little bird."

Time stopped around them. Three raspy voices filled the clearing, speaking in unison, while Greek letters flashed in long, unbroken streaks in their little sphere. Itachi held Yani to him, protecting her, but she was strangely calm.

"Shhh…" she said, "listen."

"Listen, Keeper of the Wild

Right now, you are but a child

But engaged to marry, we decree

Who we think will best keep thee

He'll hate the song you sing at night

Take away your nightmared fright

If he cannot have you, he shall not cry

But rather choose, himself, to die

And though your wolves have lofty whims

They will all bow down to him

But most of all he'll know your blood

And eyes are gold when you're in love."

Time restarted again, and the forest slowly grew dark as the sun sank under the horizon. Yani turned to him with a grin.

"So can I marry you now?" He was too shocked to respond. His mind couldn't comprehend the fact that his little bird was really his. When he didn't respond, Yani got on her knees and leaned in so that her foreheads were touching. She licked the blood from the corner of his mouth. "Please?" He could feel the warmth radiate off her lips. He nodded dumbly, still too stunned to speak.

The earth shook slightly.

"Yes, yes." A dry voice said, one that seemed to resonate beneath the ground. "You may now fucking kiss the bride. Get on with it, son. You take way too long." And with those unceremonious words from the under-worldly priest, he leaned up and kissed her gently. And at that moment, he felt a cool sensation spread down through his body, starting from the top of his head. When it reached his eyes, he felt the coolness pool in his eye sockets, as it did when it reached his throat and lungs. But he was so enraptured by the taste of mint and chocolate, that he didn't take any notice of it. He licked her lips and slid his tongue into her mouth, easily dominating her and intensifying the taste.

But when they broke apart for air, Itachi noticed that his chest didn't hurt anymore. When he looked at Yani, her clear, distinct gold eyes startled him.

"Is it working?" Yani asked. "Hades said I could—" She was interrupted by another kiss, fiercer than the last one.

"Shhh…" he whispered against her lips, "Let me just look at you." He held her at arms length, his eyes slowly traveling over the lines of her body he had only known by touch. Yani blushed but didn't move out of his grasp. He brought his mouth to hers again. Gentler. Quieter. Stopping for a breath, his mouth skimmed over her collarbone, her jaw, and returned to her mouth. "Mine." He said against her lips. Then as a question. "Mine?"

"Yours." She responded, smiling, pressing her lips to his eyelids. "Both sides are yours. Everything is yours."

"Okay." Her tongue flickered to the tear running down his face. "It doesn't hurt anymore."

"I know. I don't hurt anymore either. I finally found you." She was crying.

"Okay," he said, "okay."