Stockholm Syndrom

A/N: Long time no update. Sorry about that, and this is short but I felt I owe it to you guys to give you something. It's a little short but enjoy anyway.

I watch Itachi's eyes study me, trying to see something. A lie? Is he waiting for me to say that I was just kidding and hit him in the shoulder and tell him that I got him? Cause that's not gonna happen.

For a while we sat and stared at each other in silence. Itachi's eyes studying my own. His eyebrow twitches slightly like it usually does when he is either concentrating on something or is very confused. It's hard to tell which one it is at the moment, but I'm leaning more toward the very confused one.

Finally, my brother asks, "Are you kidding?"

I look at him innocently, "About what? What are you thinking of?"

"Didn't you say that-" Itachi stops, brows kniting together. I stop myself from laughing at the aborably cute, confused face that my elder brother adoned. He looks like he wants to ask and yet at the same time would rather not be embarrested in front of me. "Uhhh..." Itachi looks away, his face in full concentration mode.

"Aniki, I'm kidding. I know what you're talking about. And no, I'm not pulling your leg. I love you." I tell him. "As more then a brother."

Somewhere off in the world:

A homophobe just killed themself.

Back with Sasuke and Itachi:

Itachi's face grows unreadable. He stands up and walks around his room, muttering under his breath about what to do at a time like this and wondering if he's dreaming.

I scoot off the bed and stand up, watching my brother. He didn't seem to notice that I moved. "You're not dreaming." I tell him. My brother doesn't seem to hear me. Was his hesitance a good or a bad thing? I'm leaning more toward bad but my brother is the second most unpredictable person in the world. The first is Naruto. Hands down.

"Why me?" Itachi finally asks, turning to look at me. "Out of everyone in the world, Sasuke, why me?"

I step closer to my brother, happy to see that he isn't hesitant about me being closer to him. "Because, Itachi, you're so nice to me, and you love me and you are always there for me. You lost 2 years of your life in silence because you loved me more then you cared about your own well being."

My brother's thin eyebrows furrow together. "Sasuke... is it because I was quiet for you? Anyone would do that for someone that they love. I understand if you feel like you need to pay me back for that but there really isn't a reason to-"

"Itachi," I laugh, somehow finding this funny. "I loved you long before this, trust me. I'm just letting you know now because these last few months seem to of really knocked something loose in my head. I mean, isn't it stupid of me to think not just my brother, but my straight brother would love me more then just a brother." I laugh thickly.

"Sasuke... don't cry..."

I blink dumbly, noticeing the tears trailing down of my cheeks. When did I start to cry? Oh my god, this is so totally lame of me. I just want to crawl into a hole and die.

Hurriedly, I brush the tears away, trying to hide my embarressment and failing while doing so. "Oh my god, look at me. Wow, I'm a real wuss, huh, Itachi? I can't believe I got dust in my eye! Can you believ-"

My brother pulls me to his chest. He holds me tightly and runs his long fingers through my scalp slowly. "Don't cry, Sasuke," he whispers, "Just because I'm not sure what I think about this, doesn't mean I love you any less. Shhh... don't cry."

I blink away some tears and snuggle a little into my brother's chest. "Itachi..." I breath, closing my eyes.

"Give me some time." Itachi says finally. I look up at him questionally, pulling back slightly. Itachi continues, "If your crush hasn't gone away in a few days, then... I don't know. We'll do something about it. Who knows. But, don't treat me any differnet and I wont for you." He smiles lightly and hugs me tighter.

I want to tell him that this crush was not going to go away, that it was going to stay, but then again I don't want to rush my brother nor do I want to ruin that fact that he's taking a few days to think this over. Plus, he wants us to be the same all the while. That has got to be a good sign, right?

Itachi pulls the car out of the driveway. Sakura sits in the passenger seat while Naruto and I sit in the back. We all buckle our seatbelts as I ask, "So Sakura, what said you got to sit up front again? Refresh my memory."

She looks back at me and grins like a sneaky cat. "I'm older then both of you. Therefore, I get to sit up front."

"No fair! I'm taller then you, Sakura!" Naruto exclaims. I slap the back of his head.

"Idiot, I'm taller then you. So either way we cut it, you aren't gonna get to sit in the front seat unless either Sakura or I give it to you volentarialy so sucks to be you." I stick my tongue out at him as Sakura laughs and slaps me a high five.

My brother glances at us with review mirror and shakes his head, a small smile on his lips. It's been about 2 days since I came out to my brother and everything went as we planned. Normal. We didn't speak to each other differently, we didn't look at each other differently. Itachi certantly hasn't forgotten his brotherly duties.

So, Naruto, Sakura, Itachi, Kisame-who we are going to pick up as of right now- and I are all going to the mall to pick up gifts for Christmas which is a real blow because Christmas is still like 2 months away. Itachi said that he always got his presents early so that he didn't have to do anything last minute. Which really sucks because when he's finally got our presents, he watches us like a hawk making sure we don't decide to indulge ourselves and accidently get ourselves the gift he got us.

A few years ago I did that and he scowled at me all the way till Christmas Eve when he finally found something else for me. It was not a fun experience for me and I would appreciate it if that occurence were to never happen again. Which by the way, he scowled at me for 3 whole months. It really sucked.

We pull up into Kisame's driveway and Itachi honks the horn. His tall friend emerges from the house and heads right for the passenger seat. To avoid conflict with the overbareing best friend of Itachi Uchiha she leaps out of the passenger side and into the back next to Naruto who grinned at her like this was his birthday.

It goes without saying that he got a good purple welt on his arm from her fist and bitched and complained all the way to the mall. This is the last time I wll ever let the two of them sit in a confined space next to one another.

A/N: Let me know what you think! Rate, review and have a nice day!