Place your bets! Because it's about to get heated!
****To The Secret Sal: This is not the dark gift in which I spoke of the other day. This is simply another riveting chapter of Parallel Lines~ ;)))
****To Absolute Anarchy: Grab some popcorn - you gonna need it! ;)
While he was helping Miru run various posters through the laminating machine, Kisame started to regret skipping his appointment with the lawyer if 6 missed calls, 4 voicemail messages, and 8 angry text messages from Itachi's kid brother was anything to go by.
When he returned home to a quiet apartment at half past eight he was positive that certain death awaited him. If Itachi had set up the appointment with the lawyer, Kisame wouldn't have been so worried. The older Uchiha had told him time and time again that he could talk to him about anything without fear of being kicked out.
But said Uchiha was currently in the hospital and couldn't help Kisame here. Unless he already warded Sasuke off. That would explain the eerie silence blanketing the room.
"Dodged the bullet on that one." Kisame said. No sooner had he released the breath he'd been holding that he sucked it back in when he heard the clicking of tumblers behind him.
"What the hell was that?" Sasuke hissed. "You had one job – one. Job. Meet with Kakashi to settle your property problem and you blew it off!"
Kisame held his hands up in defense and took a step forward. "I know, and I'm sorry, a friend needed help and—"
"What do you think this is? Some sort of doctor's appointment you can cancel on a whim? Pay a fee and move on with your life? Well guess what? It's not, okay? The world doesn't work that way." He fumed.
"I was helping out a friend—" Kisame attempted to argue before Sasuke dove back in.
"No! That's not good enough!" Sasuke roared, taking a step closer to Kisame with every word until they were back up against the couches. "If your 'friend' was dying on the side of the road in the middle of no where without cell phone service for you to call an ambulance, fine, I'll take it. But that wasn't the case because if it was, you would've mentioned it in your lame ass text message or better yet – called me to explain the situation!"
"Look, kid, I'm sorry! I-I-I wasn't thinking clearly. She was upset and I just figured—"
"Just figured what exactly? That Kakashi would go home after waiting thirty minutes for you? That I'd happily reschedule in hopes that this meeting doesn't conflict with a baby shower or something more important than moving back to the garage you used to live in? If so, you're an even bigger dumbass than I thought."
Kisame turned and ran a hand through his hair. He already punched Sasuke in the face once and that was on accident. If he punched him a second time, this time on purpose, Itachi would really evict him. And then he'd have no chance of moving back into Suikazan's. If I did punch the little snot, I'm sure he'll see to it that I never set foot within a hundred miles of Suikazan's and sue me for breaking his nose or something. Sighing to regain his composure, he turned to face Sasuke once more. "I'm sorry. Okay? I'm sorry. I made a stupid mistake and it won't happen again. I promise."
On a normal day, Sasuke's eyes were very narrow. A characteristic of his mother's Asian roots, Kisame always thought. The same for Itachi. But in this moment, they were slits darkened by his deeply furrowed brow. "Do you know what I had to go through to make this happen? Kakashi doesn't just take on cases from random people off the street. He's the kind of guy who picks and chooses what cases he takes because he's just that good at what he does. He's the kind of guy I'd want arguing my case if I had problems dealing with an estate because he's done it literally thousands of times before!"
"If want, I can pay you for going to such lengths—"
Sasuke chuckled darkly. "Like you have the kind of money that would pay for the services of someone like Kakashi."
Now it was Kisame's turn to narrow his eyes. "Then how was I going to afford all of this if it's so expensive? You told me that you had everything taken care of. Why would you go out of your way to hire someone who charges more than I can afford?" He asked, feeling his face grow hot. "And if you're going to make a jab at what I do for a living, save it – you're not the one who agreed to be my roommate so you have no room to comment."
"First of all, I told you I had it covered because I did. If you would've let me do what I needed to do, you wouldn't have had to worry about anything. But instead you go off and do this!"
"Then find me a lawyer whose services I can afford so I can pay you for all the trouble you're going to!" Kisame cried.
"Not gonna happen. I worked this hard to set you up with Kakashi, and despite you messing up your first meeting with him, I'm going to make sure that you see through this until the very end."
"Why?" The older man demanded. "I don't understand. If having this Kakashi guy work with me is so much trouble why not find me somebody else? Somebody I can actually afford!"
"I already told you: Kakashi is the best there is." He ground out and strolled into the kitchen like it was a done deal.
But it wasn't. "You know what?" Kisame started, stalking after the younger Uchiha. "You are one of the most disrespectful brats I have ever had the displeasure of knowing and trust me – I've come across a lot in my life time. We're not done here! You and I haven't come to a conclusion on anything and you're more concerned with…" he glanced to see what it was that Sasuke had grabbed from the refrigerator… "making a salad?! Unbelievable."
"I'm sorry, but you're the disrespectful one here. Did you honestly think I was going to be okay with you texting me," Sasuke pulled out his phone, "and I quote 'can we call of the meeting with the lavyer tonight something came up sorry'? Did you honestly think that was smart?"
Kisame grit his teeth. "I know you think you're better than me because you went to college and law school but that is no excuse for you to constantly take jabs at my intelligence you little…"
"I dare you to finish that sentence. In fact, why don't you go ahead and punch me in the face again? I'm sure Itachi will solve your housing dilemma in the blink of an eye."
Kisame clenched his fists and screwed his eyes shut. As much as he wanted to take Sasuke up on that offer, he knew the consequences would be bad. Itachi would evict him in the blink of an eye and Sasuke would probably rob him blind in a court room one week from now. In fact, he'd probably underestimate the strength of his rage and render Sasuke brain dead. Not only would Kisame be out on his ass with no money to his name – he'd be in jail with a record. A record that would follow him around for the rest of his life and prevent him from having any kind of idealistic future.
While he considered this, Sasuke quietly sliced a plump red tomato and regarded Kisame from the corner of his eye. When it was apparent that Kisame wasn't going to take him up on his offer, he slipped a slice into his mouth and said "Thought so."
Clenching his right arm, Kisame turned on his heel and walked to the island that separated the kitchen from the living room. "I know what you're trying to do." He murmured and looked over his shoulder. "And I'm not falling for it. And because I'm going to try to be the bigger person here, I'm going to say this again: I'm sorry for tonight. But let me set one thing straight with you: Itachi is the one who gave me the chance to live here. He's also the one who encouraged me to pursue my auto mechanics accreditation. He's given me a thousand chances – way more than anyone's ever given me before and way more than I probably deserve. And I'm not going to take advantage of that." He said. "So if you want to retract your offer and let me find a lawyer myself – fine. It's going to take a lot more than that to get rid of me. I'm Itachi's roommate and if you don't like it, you're going to have to take it up with him because I'm not going anywhere."
The look he received in response wasn't quite the face of embarrassment or shock Kisame was hoping for. Sasuke's eyes were dead. Unreadable. "When was the last time you saw Itachi?"
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Answer. The damn. Question."
"Last Thursday, why?"
Sasuke shook his head and returned to his cutting. "Despite all your big talk, you're still an ignorant dumbass."
In a matter of seconds, Kisame was behind him, drawing back his arm to throw the first punch.
Oh boy. I think the major question here is: How is Itachi going to react?
By the way, I purposefully misspelled the things in Kisame's text message Sasuke read aloud~ did anyone catch that? ;)
My plans for chapter 41 are in place but I don't know how quickly I'm going to update it (this kind of craft takes time you know - that, and I'm busy -_-) But I'm thinking it'll be a Kisame chapter whenever I get around to it. Itachi's sick and receiving treatment. There isn't much his point of view can contribute at the moment.
****To The Secret Sal: In case you didn't read my wonderfully necessary bolded note in the beginning of the chapter, I shall repeat myself: this is not the dark gift I mentioned a few days ago~ ;)
****To Ketoprak: 1) Thank you for the review! Oh! I made me glow for the rest of the day (and to a lesser extent it made me want to update faster but alas, time constraints and you can't rush this kind of thing even if the chapters are all so very short in length... 2) Did you say...Kisame, punch, and Sasuke in the same sentence? What a coincidence that he would end up doing just that again in this chapter~! haha! 3) I love your short summaries of the characters' personalities. I especially liked the "we-are-cool-and-i-won't-pry" X'D Loved it! And I try to keep the characters canon. It can be hard since I don't immerse myself in the manga/anime as much anymore to perfectly nail their mannerisms but I hope what I've written is passable. I know that in the canon Kisame isn't fond of liars and hasn't really been shown to have a temper like this, but I think being called dumb/stupid by a "little snot" like Sasuke would piss anyone off if done often enough. (come to think of it, the squad with Miru on it in the canon called him dumb and look how they ended up: dead!) *shifty eyes*
Until next time~!
Sasori33-001