A/N: You guys are amazing! I never thought that the next chapter was going to be so popular. I thought that you guys wouldn't like it since it's about Itachi's love being directed to someone else besides Sasuke. But instead, you guys seem to like it. Wow. That's all I can say to that. In the mean time, this chapter is when things start to go downhill. The first half was the upper and now this is the downer. Maybe you guys won't like this one. –shrugs- I'm just happy that you guys like my story at all.

I DO NOT OWN any of the Naruto characters or the story itself. You guys would know what I would do if I did…Sasuke…Itachi… Anyway! Thank you for those that have reviewed and please keep them coming. I love every single one of them and everyone of them inspires me! Criticism, questions, and trying-to-figure-out-what'll-happen-next babble is welcomed! Thank you and enjoy!

Ch. 15: Memories of a Loved One Pt 2

Memory Four: Not Yet

"Sasuke-sama! Sasuke-sama! Please come out."

"No!"

Being answered so harshly, the vampire maid becomes dishearten and then worried. What on earth is wrong with her young master? "Uh…"

"What's going on?"

Hearing that confused and yet velvety smooth voice, the maid nearly jumps from the sudden sound of it and turns to the side to see Itachi looking at her in wondering why she's in front of Sasuke's room."Oh, Itachi-sama!" she cries, grateful to see him. So grateful in fact that her fear of the superior, elder vampire prince is forgotten, but not the fact that she knows no one else who can get through to the younger prince but his brother. "Please, you're the only one who can get him out. Sasuke-sama hasn't been coming out of his room for the past week and if he doesn't drink some blood soon, I fear he'll starve."

"I don't WANT to drink that human blood! It's vulgar!" they hear Sasuke screaming from the other side of the door. This is surely a surprise to Itachi.

It's been over two months since Itachi and Shisui kissed and to the vampire prince, it's been bliss. He promised to come sneaking out of the castle to visit his human beloved and they would meet at the shack where they first officially met. But Itachi didn't come to him every night. He had to lower suspicion of what he's been doing sneaking off in the middle of the night and not returning till nearly dawn. If anyone were to find out that he's been seeing a human that either hasn't been killed, devoured, or turned, it would mean trouble to both him and his love. Another law of the vampire society is that you are not to mate with a human. You are to mate with a vampire and if you wish to mate with a human, that human must be turned first or suffer the consequences. Not to forget that Itachi is royalty and Shisui is a commoner, not the most acceptable pairing in their world and Itachi refuses to turn Shisui into a cold, heartless killer that he himself is. So the vampire prince's been seeing his human lover at least four times a week. Five times if he gets lucky. But during those four times, he hasn't been training Sasuke. In fact, his training duty seems to have fallen on Kakashi and Itachi hasn't been seeing his brother much of late. Not that he's ignoring his little brother. He's just been busy lately, going down this path of this secret love with Shisui. Kakashi doesn't seem to mind training the boy, but it never occurred to anyone how Sasuke would feel about this.

Now that Itachi realizes this, he hasn't been feeding his baby brother and Sasuke's bloodthirsty hunger happens at least once every week or two. He hasn't been donating his blood to Sasuke for the past eight weeks.

Itachi approaches the door and first tries to open the door. It's lock. Then he tries knocking. "Sasuke, it's me. Won't you let me in?" he asks.

"No! Especially not you!"

What the? Never before has Itachi ever received such a response like this from the boy. The young vampire prince would always speak so cheery and sweet when talking to him. But his answer right now was pure anger and unfriendly on so many levels. It sets the older prince off that it actually causes him to knock harder.

"Sasuke, what's gotten into you? Come on now. Open this door!" he demands a little harsher.

But then Sasuke screams, "No! Leave me the fuck alone, nii-san! I don't want to talk to you!"

The young boy just swore and he said he didn't want to talk to his older brother? If anyone who knew the complete depth of their close relationship, they would all be in gaping shock right now and wonder if Sasuke is sick or something. Itachi is the last person anyone would ever expect the boy to swear at, let alone be so cold to. Hearing those words, Itachi suddenly feels like something just jabbed him in the heart and twisted the blade. Like before, someone just splashed water on the robot but this time, it feels like someone shut the power off for the first time ever. Itachi had no idea what to do as he feels like something inside him is missing. Something important…

"We've tried everything, Itachi-sama," the maid said, not seeing the complete and utter shock the vampire heir is in right now. "But we can't get him out."

"I'm surprised. He's never this upset," he breathes, trying to say something to assure the maid that he's 'here'. As he forces the wheels in his brain to turn in his head, he looks at the maid and he has the deadest look the maid has ever seen him put on when talking to servants. He assures her, "But I'm sure that it won't last for long. He'll come out eventually. When he does, tell him to meet me in the garden. I need to speak with him."

"Are you going out again, Itachi-sama?"

Everyone knows that the prince goes out quite often during the week. They just don't know where and don't question it if they want to keep working in the castle, let alone staying alive.

"Yes. But I'll be back shortly."

"So your time here is only brief?" Shisui asks his distressed lover sitting on the large boulder not far from the shack besides him. Itachi doesn't even look up at him with his forehead pressed against his knees as they're folded in front of his chest. This is the position of Itachi stressed.

"Forgive me, but I know my little brother like the back of my hand. He can be impossible at times, but he won't disobey. He's not defiant like most kids his age."

"Vampire age wise, right?"

"Yes. Human children at the age of fourteen are not as childish as he usually is."

"Heh, heh, you're right. Sorry." And Shisui continues to let that friendly, light-hearted chuckle ring throughout the night. At the sound of it, the vampire prince looks up and becomes once again intrigue with how this human affects him so. He feels lighter than how he did when his brother told him to fuck off. Now he feels bad for looking so depressed when he came and having to cut the time they both have together. He looks down again but this time he doesn't hid his face behind his legs. He just looks to the side.

"It's alright," he mumbles softly.

Shisui stopped chuckling a while ago and as he looks at his lover now, a genuine smile graces his lips. He can see how confused and worried the vampire besides him looks. "You must really care about your little brother to look this concern about his new behavior."

Itachi brushes his hand through his hair, or his bangs since his hair is in his usual low pony tail, and he lets out a distress sigh. "I honestly don't know what's wrong with him and it worries me. Sasuke is like…out of this dark, cruel world we were born in, he was born with an innocence no one can ever hope to achieve; vampire or human. Like many young children, he believes that the adult world is a place of wonder and magic like those in the fairy tales mother or I used to read to him. However, he's entering that world all too quickly and I believe it was starting to scare him at first. I still remember when he started to mature, he was afraid to drink the blood of a human because he was afraid the taste of it would be too much for him and he wouldn't be able to control himself. But he has excellent control over that side of him. Not even I had that good of control over my blood lust. Knowing that, he gained back that incessant fascination with that world. But this world is not full of magic and wonder and I want to protect him from that before he loses the innocence I've come to love so much. He is everything I'm not and despite his desires to be like me, I refuse for him to be anything of the sort." Then a hand grasps his, the one in his hair. He looks at Shisui, since he's the only other person who could grab his hand, and the human leans closer to him till their foreheads are leaning against the other. Itachi felt lost and comforted when he sees those red eyes stare deep into his.

"Well I'm sure that whatever is going on with your brother right now, and even if it does have something to do with you, you guys will patch it up and move on," he says, consoling the distress vampire. "You speak so fondly of him and hearing how close you two are, unlike most siblings I've met, I'm sure you two won't hold grudges against each other for very long. You two care about each other too much to not forgive the other. Trust me, he'll be all smiles before you know it."

Feeling that first-timer nervousness, Itachi first looks down at the ground and mumbles, "Thank you, Shisui."

Then Shisui's hand releases his and pushes some of the vampire's bangs to the side behind his ear. He gains Itachi's attention back and then he kisses him. Showing no resistance, Itachi melts under the kiss and returns the affection. Shisui's hands travel down his body till they reach his waist and wrap around him, bringing him closer to deepen the kiss only slightly. Deepening the kiss set something off within Itachi. Rather it became purely desire or for a way for the vampire prince to relieve himself of this empty stress, it doesn't change the fact that Itachi wants more than just simple kisses this time. His hands cup Shisui's face and pulls him closer. He even breaks the kiss so that his tongue could force his lover's mouth open a little wider before darting in. Shisui becomes extremely surprise by the vampire's heir's eagerness and stops the kiss right there before it goes too far.

"Whoa, whoa there Itachi. Aren't you're getting a little too ahead of yourself here?" he asks, looking into those hazy, lustful onyx eyes.

But then Itachi pleads, his voice as soft as a whisper and full of desire, "Shisui, please, take me. Make me yours." He leans in for another kiss but Shisui holds him where he is and the prince becomes confused. Did he do something wrong?

Instead of giving him a rather hard, stern face, Shisui smiles at him like he's acting naively and says, "Not yet. Believe me, I want to. I want to be with you forever but the rules say that you must be of age to mate and you haven't hit that age yet. You got two more vampire years, right? And I'm a human. The rules say that you can't mate with a human, remember?"

"I am the next heir to the vampire throne," Itachi tries to tell him. "I can change it. I do not wish to destroy your soul to bring it into this dark, black world of mine."

"How long, I wonder, will that be before you can change the rules without any trouble?" He got Itachi there. Itachi pulls back, a slight trace of defeat on his beautiful features and that only causes Shisui to smile more warm-heartedly this time. He even cups the prince's face as he softly says with care and love, "Just be patient, Itachi. One day, when you are of age and either you do change the rules or I am a vampire, you and I will be together as one."

Hearing the truth of his words, Itachi nods, knowing that what Shisui said was true. "Yes." Shisui then kisses his lover's forehead before pulling him close to his chest. Engulfed and drunk on his warmth, Itachi leans against his chest in total ease. It always makes him wonder on how Shisui does it. Just a few simple words and his warm embrace and the vampire prince feels comforted and at ease.

"Hey, can I tell you something?" Shisui asks, suddenly.

"Hm? What is it?"

"Even though I just gave a really cool speech just now, I must admit that I don't believe in this whole 'one mate' thing."

Well that took Itachi off by surprise. He pushes himself away only slightly so that he could look up at Shisui in the face. "Why is that?" he asks.

The human explains, "Well, it kind of only limits a vampire to have only one soul mate for the rest of their existence, right? Only one person in this whole world that makes the other feel complete and is willing to love only that person for as long as they are on this earth. As romantic as it sounds, what if that person isn't your true love? What if you mated with the one person and as soon as you realize this, you can't mate with your true love because you already mated with someone else? And not only that. Say if you do find your one and only love and you're absolutely sure that person is meant to be with you, what if that person dies in battle or wasn't able to live past baby years? If you ask me, that's pretty depressing. If it were up to me, I would say don't give yourself up too soon. Like don't instantly mate with someone the moment you feel this fire of true love inside you. It's like making a fast and reckless decision as soon as it was given. I guess it's hard to explain, but why not make sure that person you think you're in love with is the person you will love for the rest of their lives before fully giving yourself to them? Otherwise, if that person dies before you do, then you'll be sad. What if that person who dies wants their mate to be happy with another after they die?"

Itachi couldn't believe what he's hearing. Never has he ever heard someone question how vampire searches and discovers their mates. It bewilders him that even Shisui of all people would question it. "There can be distractions," he answers, really not liking where Shisui is getting at.

"Anything can happen, love. If I were to die, I would want you to find someone you know will last and will never leave you no matter what. Would you want the same for me if you were to die?"

"I won't be killed so easily." Then Shisui gives him 'let's be serious, please' look. In a way, he's right. If you truly love someone, you would want nothing more than that person's happiness; even if that happiness isn't with you. That's what real love is and if Itachi doesn't want Shisui to be happy with another person, then that's just selfish and possessive. He's not selfish and possessive, right? So he answers, "I suppose."

Hearing what he likes to hear, Shisui leans Itachi's head back on his shoulder and holds the boy even closer in a loving embrace. "Good boy. I really do you know. I really do love you, Itachi and I will never betray you."

"And I love you. I love you too, Shisui forever."

Memory Five: Calling For You

'Where is that boy?' Itachi wonders, tapping his foot the grass. Right now, he's standing under the tall willow tree, the one that Sasuke fell off of one time, and he's starting to lose his patience. He told Sasuke to meet him in the garden two days ago and no once has the boy come to meet him! Not only was it making the vampire prince impatient, it made him even more worried about his little brother's sudden new behavior and his unexplainable anger towards him.

"You must be losing your touch, aniki, if you haven't sensed me yet."

Well that took him by surprise. Itachi backs away from the willow tree and looks up to see Sasuke sitting on one of the branches - looking at him with cold, narrow eyes, his arms crossed in front of his chest, and his back leaning against the trunk. Since when did he get up there? Itachi's been here shortly after he woke up and it wasn't that long after the sun set.

"Sasuke, how did you get up there without me knowing?" he asks, confused.

Unlike the usually happy, cheery voice Sasuke would use with him, the younger vampire sounds cold as he answers, "As I said, you must be losing your touch or I'm just getting better at sneaking around. But of course, you would know that if you've been training me instead of Kakashi." Hearing that sent guilty shivers through Itachi's body. So he's upset about that?

The surprising part of this whole thing is that Sasuke is able to leave people in the snowstorm, just like his brother. The really surprising part is that he's even able to do that to Itachi of all people! The Ice King!

The vampire heir tries to relax his nerves before trying to explain, "I've been busy, Sasuke. I would think you would understand that. Haven't you grown up at all?" He had to yell the last part since he has to raise his voice in order for his brother to hear him.

Sasuke's glare sharpens and he asks, "Is that why you wanted to speak to me? To give me a lecture?"

Hail was just added to the storm.

"No, that's not…" 'How come all of a sudden I'm so frustrated?' Itachi wonders before he starts losing his cool again. He takes in a deep breath and yells, "Just come down from there! I want to talk to you face to face."

"You can always come up here, aniki. The view's nice." Oh so now he's being stubborn? Seriously, what the heck is going on with him? He's never acted like this before.

"Sasuke, come down from that tree this instant!"

"No!"

Soon, very soon, Itachi might 'accidently' break the tree and that'll get Sasuke to come down. That or jump to another tree or the castle ceiling. Then the vampire prince is going to have an even harder time talking to his brother face to face. "You're acting like a child, Sasuke! I thought you wanted to grow up."

What Sasuke said next completely took Itachi off guard. "Well not anymore! If growing up means sneaking off to Kyuubi knows where and separating yourself from everyone who worries and cares about you, then I would rather stay as a child for the rest of my life! At least I won't worry anyone." Then with that, Sasuke looks to the side, away from his brother and he hugs his legs to his chest. Hearing all of this made Itachi surprised at first and now it just made him feel sadden and guilty. The guilt that he really is the reason why Sasuke's so upset as the boy's words stung sharper than any blade and sadness for causing the little boy so much distress. The last thing he ever wanted was to make the boy upset. But the sadness didn't last long since one of them needs to be the adult and work things out.

"Sasuke, I'm coming up." Even though he said that, Sasuke didn't acknowledge it. He didn't even move from his new position as Itachi took a great leap and only made it half way to the branch Sasuke's on. He grabs the trunk for a short moment before pushing him up the rest of the way. He lands on the branch effortlessly on his feet like a cat and he looks down at the young vampire boy that's refusing to look at him. Seeing this reaction causes the older brother to sigh. This is really starting to be a pain.

Itachi orders with his soothing, kind and gentle voice, "Sasuke, otouto, look at me." He doesn't. But his little fists do tighten on their hold on the air as he narrows his eyes to the point of starting to cry. The older vampire prince gets a little closer to the younger one and kneels down before him. His hand goes to the boy's face and he forces it to face him. "Look at me." Unable to avoid it anymore, and that he can't disobey his brother's order, Sasuke looks at him and Itachi truly does see those big onyx eyes already shinny and glossed with tears begging to leak out. The look killed the heir inside but right now, he can't afford to lose himself to his emotions. "Growing up doesn't necessary mean that you cut yourself off from your family. It depends on the person if he or she wishes to cut their ties with their family but I do not wish for that. However, I suppose what I am doing is similar but it's not the same."

"How is it different?" the boy asks, his voice a little pitchy. "You're growing distant from us and you don't even give us an explanation to why you're doing this. If you hate me so much, just say so!"

Did Itachi just hear him right? "Hate you?" he asks, confused and a little surprised. "Why on earth could you possibly think that I would hate you?"

"Because I've been nothing but a nuisance to you!" he bursts out, screaming. Tears begin to roll down his face now that he's unable to control it and he continues to scream. "I always cling to you, I always take up your time even when I know you're busy, and I refuse every blood offered to me except yours! Just call me a whiney little brat and leave since you want to go so badly! Just go!" The vampire heir couldn't take it anymore. Sasuke's screams, his tears, it's all too much. So what happens next is Itachi pulls the crying boy into his arms and holds him close to his chest in comfort, feeling that every tear Sasuke sheds is another sword penetrating his chest. And of course, Sasuke begins to struggle. "No!...Let me go!"

"Only if you want me to." That made Sasuke stop. His eyes widen in shock as Itachi's arms tighten their hold on him. Now the hug feels desperate and pleading, something Sasuke has never seen or felt from his brother. "You think that I want to leave but let me ask you, do you want me to?" For a moment, Sasuke didn't answer but when he did, it was a shake of the head. That brought some peace to Itachi's stressed mind and it loosens his hold. "You're not a nuisance to me. You never have been and never will. You are my baby brother and I will protect you and take care of you no matter what. How many times do I have to say that in order for you to believe me? I will never leave you, Sasuke."

"Liar," he mumbles, his voice muffled from his brother's chest. Instead of struggling, the boy grasps his brother's shirt and Itachi can feel more tears leaving the innocent eyes of his baby brother and seeping through his shirt. "You're going to be king one day and find a mate and then I'll be alone. You won't have time for me anymore."

Itachi tries to assure, "Even when that happens, I won't leave you behind, my beloved little brother. You and I are unique siblings. There are no others like us in the world. I'll always be there for you, even as an obstacle for you to overcome. Even if you do hate me."

Hearing that made Sasuke push his brother back to look at him face to face. What he sees on the heir's face is complete seriousness and truth to what he just said. On his own face is disbelief. "Hate you?" he asks.

A sad smile graces Itachi's lips as he says, "You hate me right now, don't you? From the way I've been acting and ignoring you, it only makes sense for you to hate me."

Quickly, Sasuke shakes his head and yells, "No! I can never hate you, nii-san. I told you before. I love you and…" Then he looks down at the branch they're both sitting on. This made Itachi confused as he can even see the boy's cheeks turning a deeper shade of red than they already are from crying. "I…I…" Now he's mumbling and he sounds nervous. Why would Sasuke have to be nervous about saying anything to his brother? Unless he thought he did something terribly wrong, but what could Sasuke possibly do wrong that has anything to do with what's happening right now?

Sasuke then gulps and he looks back at his brother with his onyx black eyes full of something that Itachi was unable to identify right away. What he does see accompanying that feeling is passion and the boy says, "Nii-san, I-"

Boom

Before the boy could share another word to his sibling, they both heard that faint 'boom' interrupting them. They both look towards the direction of the sound and not far from the castle, a little beyond the forest surrounding them, is the light of a fire and smoke rising up the night air. But Itachi knows that area. Where the fire burns is where Shisui's village should be. It didn't take long till both vampire princes, with their sensitive hearing, could hear the screams and cries of humans dying or running from their lives from whatever is attacking them.

'Shisui!'

Fear struck Itachi like a horde of flying, flaming arrows. He couldn't think rationally anymore, only the fact that his love is in danger and he need to get to him NOW! He became so focused on that and as he pushes himself off the branch, he didn't hear what Sasuke mumbled ever so softly. Then the boy notices that his brother jumped off the branch. Itachi lands on the grass with ease and then starts running to the edge so that he could jump off the garden wall and get to Shisui's village faster than running back into the castle to get to the front door.

"Nii-san!" But a small hand catching the edge of his shirt stops him. Itachi reluctantly stops running and looks down to see his young brother looking at him with that innocent fear and confusion of his. "Wh-where are you going?" he asks.

Itachi cannot waste any time. He knows that. Panic fills his entire being for his love's safety but if he intends to get there without his little brother getting another panic attack over him, he needs to assure the boy that everything is alright. Quickly, he kneels down to him and says, grasping the child's arms, "I'm sorry, Sasuke but I need to go somewhere right now."

"No!" the boy screams, shocking Itachi. Tears peek at his eyes again and this time, Sasuke tries as best as he can to grab Itachi's arms and pleads, "Don't go, please. I don't like this. Please don't go…" Seeing him like this, so fragile and on the edge of sobbing again, it always made Itachi want to comfort him and wipe those tears away, like he always does. But he needs to be with Shisui right now. Because if he doesn't, Shisui will…

Out of the explosion of feelings bursting out of Itachi right now, including the feeling of being torn in two, he hugs the boy. But before Sasuke could hug him back, he hears Itachi painfully tell him, "I must. I'll explain later but right now, I must go." Then he pulls away to see Sasuke's sweet face one more time.

"No, please! Don't leave me. You said…" the boy pleads again, tears already running down his face. Seeing them didn't make the feelings go away, but he'll be back. He just needs to assure Sasuke that right now.

Itachi's hands cup his brother's face and he directly tells him, "I'll come back. I promise." Then he lets go and before the boy could grab him again, he turns around and sprints into a run to get to his human lover. All the while, hearing his baby brother screaming for him.

"No, wait! Nii-san! Nii-san! NII-SAAAANN!"

"Itachi! Itachi! Itachi!"

Before he knew it, Itachi suddenly feels like he's falling. He opens his eyes right as he tumbles down from the mattress that's been lifted high up for him to fall off and he lands head first on the floor.

Bam

"Ow…" he moans, his voice muffled with the floor as his pillows and blanket start falling off and landing on top of him. He pushes himself up into a sitting position and the thing that hurts the most right now is his nose. The pain of his nose that smashed into the ground distracts him from reality as Sasuke drops the mattress and he looks almost just as stressed as he was yesterday.

"About time you woke up, you lazy ass!" he yells. Hearing him causes Itachi to look at the fuming vampire prince in gaping surprise. For the moment, Sasuke ignores that expression. "It's already late noon, sleeping beauty! Do you plan to sleep the day away? Especially when you're covered in yesterday's filth? That's disgusting! An-"

"Where am I?" Itachi interrupts. His interruption took Sasuke off guard. He was just about to answer first with a rude remark and then the answer but then he remembers that he brought Itachi into his room last night when the older vampire was asleep, or so Sasuke thought he was.

The stunned vampire prince gains back his composure and answers, "Look around, dumbass. You're in your room." He still went with the rude remark and then the answer bit. Hearing that, Itachi looks away from his brother and looks around. That's right. He is and what he saw then was just a dream…a dream of painful memories…

Itachi's satin eyes became distant and lost in thought as his face becomes a total blank and he says, "Of course." Hearing his now dead voice, it only made Sasuke even more surprise.

Since Itachi worked so hard yesterday, and that Naruto pleaded his protector to let him sleep, Sasuke allowed Itachi to rest as long as he did. When he thought it was enough, he came to see if Itachi was awake. He was surely surprised when he saw how troubled his brother's face was from in his sleep. His face wasn't all sweaty or really animated with the events of the dream, but the distress, the fear, and the sadness was clearly on his face. The younger looking vampire tried to wake him up nicely since he was always told that suddenly waking someone up from a nightmare is not good. But since Itachi is a different case, he decides to wake him up, after trying and failing the simple shake and scream his name, by lifting up the mattress and making the older vampire fall off the bed. It worked but what the heck did Itachi dream about that's making him act like this?

But yet again, it's not like an ex-human vampire hunter is going to tell him of all people what the dream was.

As Itachi continues to just sit there like a lifeless shell, Sasuke first straightens the mattress before walking over to his brother to gather the pillows and the blanket. His sudden closure causes the dark hair vampire to look up at him but only slightly with his empty eyes. Sasuke orders, "Hurry up and take a bath. You have work to do." Then he gets working on fixing the bed. Well that's nice of him.

Sluggishly, Itachi nods. "Right." Since the closest thing near to him is his counter, Itachi uses it to lift himself up and when he stood up, he notices two closed bottles. He doesn't say anything but he does stare at them. When Sasuke sees that he didn't move from the counter, he looks to see Itachi staring at the bottles.

"Even though I told them not to," Sasuke explains, "Suigetsu and Karin gave you some of their blood as 'sorry gifts' for what happened yesterday. When you're clean, drink it and that'll be your blood for the day. I'll be waiting outside so you can have some privacy but don't keep me waiting." And right on cue, Sasuke was done bed making and he walks pass his brother to the door.

"Sasuke," Itachi calls, stopping the prince right in front of the door. Sasuke looks over his shoulder to face him but his older brother's face is not facing him. He's still staring at the counter. "Have you…never mind. You may go."

Well that's a little annoying. "If you have something to say, spit it out!" Sasuke orders and being the 'slave' to him that he is, Itachi has to obey.

"Have you ever lost someone precious to you?"

The vampire teenager sure as hell didn't see that one coming. Hearing it made his eyes widen till all the whites of his eye surround his onyx pupils and his whole body to tense up. Silence fell upon them for a moment or two till the teenager answers, "Yeah. Ran off and died somewhere without knowing the full extent of how precious he was to me." Silence fills the room again but this time, it didn't last as long as the first one.

Itachi mumbles, lowering his face even more, "I see."

"Why you ask?"

"No reason." Itachi turns around to the bathroom, not once has his face been visible to Sasuke's view. "I won't be long," and then he's inside, leaving Sasuke to stare at the closed bathroom door. Thinking that he's gone, out of sight and out of hearing if he speaks softly enough, Sasuke leans his back against the front door and looks down at the ground before him; allowing his mind to wonder.

"Well I think that you should be nicer to your brother."

His thoughts turn to the words Naruto spoke to him last night.

"Look! I dislike the guy for what he did to you but what you're doing, especially on his first day, is pure torture…. If I were you, I would cherish the time I have with him until his friends decide to come in and crash the party. I may not be a genius but even I know that from our last encounter with that blonde hunter, that hunting group is not gonna give up on him. They'll be back and with the way you're treating him, he's gonna go crawling back to them or beg them for death. Either way, the outcome will be the same and I don't know if I can deal with that, or you."

"Shit," the vampire prince mumbles very softly. A hand besides him then tightens into a tight fist and his teeth clench together. "I really do hate it when that dope is right." Neither his fist nor his teeth relaxed but the reason why they're so tight goes from anger to a different emotion. His other hand, the one that's not rolled up into a fist, rises to his head and as his palm is pressed against his forehead and his fingers are lost in his hair. He grips his raven locks and his eyes appear to be in so much pain. The same guilt and pain that was on his face last night appears again on his face now, only more in depth because he has a feeling as to what Itachi was dreaming about and why he asked that question.

While behind the bathroom door, Itachi slightly does the same thing. He doesn't grit his teeth or folds his fist into a death grip. He leans against the door and his hand rises to his forehead in thought. His face is still blank for a moment before his lips curl up into a small smirk and a very light chuckle escapes his lips.

"Heh. I knew it."

And there you have it! How was it? Good? Bad? I wonder what Itachi's smirk means? Hehe… Got to wait and find out next chapter! Till then, see ya!