A.N.: The author regrets nothing, although she really should. Seriously, I completely lost control of these two by the end of the chapter, but I liked it enough to keep the bits where they're a bit OOC, so please forgive me and enjoy this for what it is.

"It really shouldn't be this hard to decide," Kisame thought to himself. "Really it shouldn't."

The swordsman sighed as he leaned back against an oak tree and stared up into the canopy of the forest around him, wondering how in god's name things had gotten so complicated. All right, so he liked Itachi. Really, really liked Itachi. Liked Itachi to the point where he was unwittingly putting himself at risk to protect his partner with alarming frequency. And apparently Itachi returned that sentiment, even going so far as to suggest a relationship (ok, the r-word had been brought up in reference to what Itachi wasn't demanding, but he still brought it up in the first place!) before he directly stated that he wanted sex with Kisame. So why not give it a shot? What was keeping Kisame from taking the plunge and seeing where things could go?

A great number of things, if you wanted the honest truth. The biggest issue to Kisame was the fact that anything he started with Itachi would almost certain have a short lifespan before its inevitable expiration date. Rogue ninjas didn't live very long once they abandoned their villages, that was fact; ignoring the outlier that was Kakuzu, Kisame himself was already on the upper end of the life expectancy for someone in their line of work. Without fail, every rogue ninja would eventually encounter a situation that they couldn't get out of, if the group or organization they were allied with didn't decide to dispose of them first. Supposing that the swordsman somehow managed to avoid both these fates, Kisame's own body would soon become unable to keep up with the speed and skills of younger ninjas, and he'd have to retire to a position of handling the logistics of illicit missions, rather than doing the work himself. Frankly, the shark would rather fall on his own sword than meet such a fate.

But suppose that Kisame ignored all of that, and decided a relationship with Itachi was worth however little time they had. What if choosing to date his partner was itself a course of action destined for failure? Kisame had never had anything close to a serious relationship back in his home village of Kirigakure, mostly due to his physical attributes frightening off any potential partners. The vast majority of the time, he settled for one-night stands with hired sex workers because it was easiest course of action in his line of work, since for the right price, the men and women he sought out could ignore his blue skin and hair. What Itachi would want (and honestly, what he'd want) would be something completely different: an actual relationship, with dates and anniversaries and affection. And if that went south, their entire partnership could fall into jeopardy.

Kisame rose to his feet and took hold of Samehada, which had been leaning against the tree beside him while he rested. When you laid out even a few of the problems like that, it was painfully obvious that a lot of things could go wrong, should Kisame decide to pursue anything with the Uchiha. Really, logic dictated that he should give up while he could, turn Itachi down, and try to have things return to normal between them (or as normal as they ever got when Kisame and Itachi were involved). And yet…

There was something about Itachi that drew him in. Kisame knew that was a terrible excuse; it was a horrendously cliché phrase that sad old women with twenty cats would put in their romance novels when they couldn't come up with an actual concrete reason for two characters being attracted to one another. And for many years, he'd written off anyone that defended their relationships with that statement. Yet thinking about Itachi, the best words to describe his attraction was that Itachi somehow managed to pull him in without even trying. Everything about the Uchiha was enticing, from his looks to his fighting to the way he spoke and carried himself in the presence of others. Why else would Kisame be so obsessed with looking after his partner? Why else was he so willing to work with a ninja so many years younger than him? And most importantly, why else had Itachi become the centerpiece of his fantasies whenever he wanted to jack off?

"Kisame?"

The shark turned around to see his partner standing a few feet away, manila folder in hand. Itachi knew to keep his distance when Kisame was training; get too close when Samehada was being swung around, and you were more likely than not to lose a limb. But at the moment, Kisame's weapon wasn't in use, and the two of them had more important things to worry about than a possible maiming; namely, the folder in Itachi's hand. Kisame's stomach sank at the sight; he and Itachi had barely had a week to recover, and Pein was already sending them out again? "Please tell me there's nothing in that folder about drug cartels."

Itachi shook his head and, upon realizing that Samehada was not in imminent danger of colliding with his ribcage, walked closer to hand Kisame the folder. "We're being sent on a reconnaissance mission. There's a possible lead on the seven-tailed beast."

Kisame took the folder and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. If he had a nickel for every time the Akatsuki got a well-meaning but completely bogus tip on the location of a tailed beast, he could've used the funds to flee the country and retire in luxury ages ago. Nine times out of ten, these recon missions were a complete and utter waste of time, but the Akatsuki members still had to investigate each and every one of them, on the off chance that one of them actually panned out. At least they were easy to do, if a bit boring. "All right, when do we leave?"

"Pein wants us to leave by tomorrow afternoon, if possible."

"Tch, 'if possible'? The guy's being pretty generous."

"Perhaps he's still concerned that you'll, what was it? 'Stick your fist down his throat and pull out his stomach through his mouth if he ever sends us on a suicide mission like that again,' I believe?"

"You were thinking it too, but I actually had the balls to say it." Itachi shook his head and turned to go back to the base, presumably to start packing for the mission. Reconnaissance missions might have been easy, but they could take weeks and would require several changes of clothing, even if they stopped to wash their clothes when they could. But before Itachi could take three steps, Kisame was speaking again. "Itachi."

The Uchiha stopped and turned halfway around to look at his partner. "Hn?"

"I swear I'm still thinking about what you said. Just give me a little more time, ok?"

Itachi nodded and turned back around without a word, leaving Kisame to his thoughts. Not that that was very helpful to the swordsman at this point. Kisame groaned to himself once Itachi was out of sight. "Why did you have to push him for an answer? Life was simpler before you had answers. You didn't wake up with a hard-on for your partner before you had answers," he grumbled. It was with a shake of his head and a sigh that Kisame set aside the folder and resumed his exercises, chastising himself all the while.

-n-

The first week of their assignment, which consisted of trekking to Wave Country along the most boring dirt road in all of creation, was mercifully free of any danger. Not a single ninja accosted them on the way there, and no one they encountered along their journey recognized either Itachi or Kisame. They stuck to older forest paths as best they could, hunting for food and taking shelter wherever they could to save money, and no matter what kind of cave or clearing they ended up in, their hideaways were also free of any danger too. However, the trip was still horrendously awful for the pair of ninjas for one simple reason: it was wet. Incredibly wet. Cruelly, utterly, unforgivingly wet. Every single day that Itachi and Kisame had to travel, rain poured down from the heavens in absolute buckets, occasionally lightening up to a slight drizzle for a bit (if they were lucky). The first few days were manageable; ninjas were expected to be able to handle inclement weather, after all. By day five, the two were getting a bit annoyed at the weather, but they were still holding up. However, by day seven the both of them were sick and tired of being soaking wet, and Kisame, for his part, had had enough.

The shark stumbled as his foot went into a deceptively deep puddle, drenching his already soaked leg up to his knee. "God damnit!"

He pulled his foot free and spun around to look at Itachi. The poor Uchiha looked so small, drenched from head to toe with his soaked clothing clinging to his slight frame, and despite what was obviously an incredibly uncomfortable situation, he was bravely trying (and failing miserably) not to shiver from the cold. Kisame took a minute to consider their state of affairs, and made an executive decision right there in the middle of the road. "Fuck it. We're stopping somewhere until this rain quits."

Under normal circumstances Itachi would have been the voice of reason and pointed out that Sir Leader was expecting the pair of them to reach their destination in just a few more days, and the rain didn't appear likely to stop anytime soon. However, he was soaked to the bone, freezing, exhausted, and overall much less willing or able to put up with the elements than Kisame, so he didn't utter a single protest at Kisame's suggestion. The pair of them kept walking for another hour, until they reached a village that was just big enough to have an inn and a few restaurants. Kisame quickly paid for the room (the clerk frowned at their sopping wet currency as it dripped onto the front desk, but seemed to understand), and the two of them immediately made their way to a room at the very back of the inn.

Itachi quickly dropped his bag and ducked into the bathroom as soon as they were through the door. Moments later, Kisame could hear the sound of the shower going; his partner was probably trying to warm up, and the shark wasn't about to protest. Instead, he peeled his clothes off and hung them up by the radiator as he dried himself off with the comforter from one of the beds. He reached for his bag, prepared to pull out another outfit, and then swore when he realized that everything he had packed was soaked through as well. Mother Nature could be a mean bitch when she wanted to be.

Kisame looked over by the door where Itachi had dropped his bag, which now had a small puddle forming underneath it. Great, they were both without dry clothes for now. Shaking his head, Kisame dumped out both bags, strung up one of Itachi's outfits beside his on the radiator, and then spread out the rest of their clothing to dry on the desk tucked into the corner of the room. It wasn't ideal, but at least they were sheltered now and were free from being absolutely waterlogged for the first time in ages. With nothing else to do, Kisame stretched out on the bed underneath a comforter and attempted to dry out the pages of their now incredibly soggy mission report.

Itachi emerged from the bathroom a bit later in a cloud of steam, one towel wrapped around his head and another around his waist. He stepped out and reached down towards his bag, only to discover that it had been emptied. He looked around the room until he noticed his clothes hanging by the radiator, and turned his head towards Kisame with a surprised look on his face. "Did you…"

"Everything's soaking wet," Kisame grumbled. "Even the mission report. And we can't go back out for food in soaking wet clothes, because every respectable store or restaurant around here would kick us out. Give it another fifteen, twenty minutes for our clothes to dry, and we'll grab something to eat."

"Thank you," Itachi replied as he took a seat on the bed opposite Kisame.

"Don't mention it," Kisame said as he got up from the bed. "I'm gonna shower now, ok?"

"…Ok…"

Kisame noticed the odd lilt in Itachi's voice but didn't comment on it as he stepped into the bathroom. It was only after he'd shut the door and turned on the shower that he realized he'd walked to the bathroom completely naked, not ten feet from his partner. "Oh crap."

-n-

Half an hour later, Kisame and Itachi were both reasonably dry and very hungry, so they left their room at the inn and tracked down a restaurant just a block away. Kisame ordered more food than their budget might have allowed for, but at this point the two of them were too tired and hungry to care. Pein could be the one to discuss budget issues with Kakuzu, since at the end of the day this was all his doing (why yes, the pair of them were still quite angry about the whole "nearly murdered by a drug cartel" incident, but that was quite beside the point. Really.)

Their waitress brought them plates full of shish kabobs a bit later, and both of them eagerly dug in. Kisame gruffly asked her to keep the food coming, and Itachi shot her an apologetic look as she scurried away towards the kitchen, looking as though she honestly feared that the shark-like man would lunge for her next. "So, what are the odds that the rain stops by tomorrow?" Kisame asked through a mouthful of food.

Itachi shrugged as he nibbled on his own food. Hungry as he may be, the Uchiha still had proper table manners. "I'd assume we'll be here for another day, maybe two."

Kisame rolled his eyes; great, more wasting time on an already time-wasting assignment. "Perfect. How good are you at charades?"

Itachi shot him a look, clearly taking offense at the mere suggestion that he'd engage in childish games like that, but before he could make any comment their waitress returned with more food. Kisame quickly exchanged his empty plate for the woman's full one, and began to eat the fresh shish kabobs (albeit with a bit less gusto than before). Itachi shook his head; he'd barely gotten halfway through his first plate at that point. Kisame was quick to notice this, and pointed towards Itachi's plate with a skewer in his hand. "Eat."

"I am."

"That's not eating, that's picking. Seriously, the food's paid for and this is the best we'll eat for weeks, so just-"

"Why do you care about me?"

Kisame blinked at his partner, who currently had his eyes fixed on his plate. "Huh?"

Itachi glanced up, carefully observing his partner's face. "The way you always fret over me; why? I haven't had anyone worry about me this way since I was a small child. In fact, I'm quite certain that there was a rumor going around during my time in ANBU that I'd gut anyone with my katana if I heard them fussing over me."

"Really? Because you seem more like the, 'set everything on fire to destroy all the evidence' type to me."

Itachi chose to ignore that comment. "But then I met you, and suddenly I have someone in my life who's worrying about what I eat, when I sleep, everything. Why is that, Kisame?"

Kisame set down his kebob and thought for a minute before answering. "I've been thinking about that. Honestly? A big part of it is because when we first met, you seemed so fragile. Like I'd heard that I'd be working with someone who'd wiped out a super powerful clan from Konohagakure, and I was expecting someone a bit more…"

"Imposing?" Itachi suggested.

"Pretty much, yeah. Honestly, I thought you'd last maybe a week before something killed you and I'd have to get a different partner. No offense to you, it wasn't the first time Pein had hyped up a potential partner and then said partner ended up smeared all over the road before we were done with our first assignment. But surprise surprise, you were incredibly competent and really good at not getting yourself killed, so I started to like you. I guess I just wanted to keep you around for a bit, that's all."

"I see," Itachi murmured as he took another bite.

"Does it bother you?"

"The worrying?"

"Yeah, what else?"

Itachi shook his head. "It's a nice change of pace, working with someone that cares about you."

Kisame smirked; although his partner was trying to be nonchalant, he was clearly uncomfortable talking about things like this so openly. "Well, aren't you just the sweetest."

Itachi rolled his eyes at the sickly sweet voice, taking a moment to finish off the kebob he was currently eating. "I like having you around too."

"Is this the part where you tell me how much you worry about me too?" Kisame asked, still smirking.

Itachi shook his head and reached for another kebob. "There's no reason to worry. I'm more than capable of keeping the both of us safe."

Kisame blinked in surprise at the Uchiha's answer. "Wow."

"Hn?"

"That was…pretty cocky."

"It's not cocky if I can back up the claim," Itachi asserted, taking another nibble of his food. "I won't let anything happen to you." That statement was followed by Itachi's cheeks turning slightly pink.

"Also being pretty forward here."

Itachi gave Kisame a look that started out as exasperation and morphed into something bordering amusement. "Being subtle and hoping you'd pick up on cues certainly didn't work. Being direct seems to produce better results."

Kisame snorted and shook his head. He couldn't help it; the way that Itachi was simultaneously so sincere and clinically straightforward was just endearing enough not to be frustrating. Kisame had briefly wondered if Itachi would act like a blushing virgin around him, once the Uchiha's feelings were revealed, but if anything putting the truth out there had given Itachi even more confidence around his partner, and given him more incentive to be as forward with Kisame as he could without making things awkward (though he'd yet to completely halt his blushing when being so forward).

Kisame would be lying if he said that it didn't turn him on a bit.

The swordsman's line of thinking was interrupted as he noticed that Itachi had finally managed to eat everything on his plate, which prompted Kisame to move a kebob from his plate to Itachi's. "Seriously, eat."

Itachi nodded and reached for the food, gently brushing Kisame's fingers with his own. Neither man said anything, and Itachi slowly withdrew his hand a moment later. Afterwards, Kisame wondered if he should've done something. He wasn't entirely sure what that something might be, but their interaction just felt…incomplete.

-n-

The rain had all but stopped by the following evening, and Itachi and Kisame were forced to depart from their warm, dry hotel room before the weather had a chance to turn unpleasant once again. The rest of the trip to their destination was mostly free from rain, but the air was still damp (and somewhat chilly, now that they were travelling to a higher altitude). If Kisame was being honest, it sucked.

Reaching their destination didn't improve things either. Of course their lead turned out to be a dead end, and of course every shred of information they attempted to scrape together after losing their lead was flimsy at best and produced no tangible results. It turned out to be two weeks of time-wasting interrogations, searches in low-lighting as they browsed through books with tiny print, and sleeping in cramped, dingy quarters. Oh, and by the time they finally left to get back to their base, it started raining again.

Rather than try to tough out the weather for another week, Kisame and Itachi unanimously decided to call it quits on day three and take shelter in an inn. It was cheap and a bit musty, but at least the pair of them would be able to dry themselves out here. "Why the hell do you have to be a wanted criminal in Fire Country?" Kisame grumbled as he whipped off his shirt and flung it in the approximate direction of the room's radiator. "Seriously, Fire Country is perfectly dry and sunny around this time of year. We could be sunning ourselves right now, Itachi. In the sun. Do you even remember what that looks like?"

Itachi had gone into the bathroom at some point during Kisame's grumbling and was now tossing his own clothes out into the main room, likely hoping that Kisame would be kind enough to hang them up to dry. "You're wanted in Wave Country," he countered as the shower turned on in the background. "Yet here we are."

"Yeah, but it's been years since I pissed off anyone important around here," Kisame stated, scooping up his partner's clothes to lay out to dry by his own. "Your murders are still pretty fresh in everyone's minds, you know? I walk around and avoid the wrong people in the wrong places, and no one bats an eye. Plus, if anyone remembers anything about me, it's that people who get on my bad side tend to lose a limb or three." Kisame thought he heard a soft chuckle through the door, making him smirk to himself. "Hey, I'm going to order some dinner for us. Any preferences?"

"Hn."

Kisame took that as a sign that he was allowed to order whatever he wanted, and quickly set about doing so. The menus tucked into the bedside table came from a variety of restaurants, but the only one that really stuck out to Kisame was a local ramen vendor that guaranteed that hot food would be delivered in under thirty minutes, or it was free. He grabbed the phone from the table nearby and quickly placed a call, ordering about half the items on the menu (hey, walking in freezing cold rain worked up an appetite!)

Twenty minutes later, Kisame was spreading out a dozen cartons of food on his bed, and Itachi was just stepping out of the shower and toweling off his hair. He gave the food cartons a long stare, before glancing up towards Kisame with a small frown on his face. "It's not like I can't eat all this," Kisame stated with a shrug.

"Kakuzu is going to kill you."

Kisame probably could've taken the easy way out and claimed that Pein was actually going to have to deal with the banker, since Kisame had already decided to fob off everything expenditure-wise about this mission onto their leader, but instead found himself saying, "Well it's a good thing I've got you to keep me safe, isn't it?"

Itachi blushed slightly and quickly stepped past the shark to check on his clothing. "Don't tempt fate."

"What? Afraid to take on our dear sweet banker?" Kisame snickered. "He's gotten much more mellow since he started fucking Hidan, you know."

"I'll take your word for it." Itachi picked up a pair of pants that were mostly dry and pulled them on before walking to the bed and selecting a box of noodles and a container of beef broth. He dumped the noodles in and walked back across the room, taking a seat on the desk since there was no table to sit at.

Kisame decided to let the matter drop. Instead, he picked up a nearby carton of food and tossed it to Itachi, who just barely managed to catch it with one hand. "Here. Got those for you."

Itachi picked open the top of the container and looked inside, before glancing up and quirking a brow at his partner. "Steamed vegetables."

Kisame shrugged. "You need to eat them more."

"Kisame-"

"Look, it's like you said, being subtle didn't get us anywhere," Kisame stated, sitting up a little straighter on his bed. For some reason, the shark's posture always improved whenever he felt an obligation to defend himself, or found himself in close proximity to Itachi. "You know I worry about you, I know I worry about you, so here's me worrying about you. Eat veggies, avoid getting scurvy, live another day, blah blah blah."

"…I was actually wondering if this was your way of keeping that extra container of grilled chicken to yourself."

"Oh. Well. That, ah, may have been part of my motive…" Itachi gave his partner a thoroughly unimpressed look. "But my intentions were mostly good!" Even less impressed. "Really Itachi, would I lie to you?" Now the look was something bordering on pity. "Oh fuck you, here's the chicken."

Itachi smirked as Kisame hurled the chicken at his head, managing to catch it again with one hand. Kisame went back to his food as Itachi dumped the chicken and the vegetables together on top of his noodles. They ate in comfortable silence for a while, the only sound being the pitter patter of rain on the inn's rather thin roof. Itachi suddenly chuckled and smiled to himself, staring into the container of steamed vegetables sitting beside him. "What?" Kisame asked.

Itachi stayed quiet for a moment, and Kisame wondered if his question was about to be blow off. Then Itachi's eyes moved towards his food, and he began slowly stirring the noodles with his chopsticks. "There aren't any watercress in this mix."

"Uh, yeah, I asked them not to give us any."

"I'm allergic to watercress."

"Yeah, I know, it was in your file. Kind of the whole reason I told them to leave it out." Itachi chuckled at this, confusing Kisame further. "Not really sure what's funny about the idea of you going into anaphylactic shock here, Itachi."

Itachi shook his head, still smiling. "I had a lover in Konoha. One night, when we were eating dinner, he tried to serve me stir fry with watercress in it. I'd told him a dozen times about the allergy, but…"

"So?"

"We'd been together for six months," Itachi explained, going back to staring at his noodles, "but he couldn't even remember that I was deathly allergic to something. And here you are, when we're not even dating, and you go out of your way to make sure whatever we have is safe for me to eat." He glanced towards Kisame, and if the shark didn't know his partner as well as he did, he'd almost call the look shy. "You're actually sweet sometimes. Think of what our enemies would say if they knew about this."

"Well now I've got to slip some watercress into your food tomorrow," Kisame stated, though the smirk on his face gave away the lie. "Can't have anyone thinking I've gone soft."

It was probably only through sheer Uchiha stubbornness that Itachi resisted the urge to roll his eyes right then. "Kisame, no one who's ever seen you would think you're soft."

Kisame grinned, pointed teeth gleaming in the rapidly dwindling twilight. "Good. Rough life like ours, you have to stay pretty hard."

It was around the time that Itachi began choking on his noodles that Kisame realized what he'd just said, and how certain people might misconstrue that statement. "Crap, I didn't mean it like that! Don't get me wrong, you're definitely attractive, and I'm a normal healthy guy, but given that we're still trying to, you know, and then there's-"

"Why are you still talking?" Itachi mumbled, head buried in one hand while the other clenched around his food for dear life.

"Right. Shutting up now."

There were a few minutes of awkward silence, before Kisame cleared his throat and stood up. "I have to…you know…" he vaguely motioned towards the door.

"Hn."

Kisame walked towards the door, deciding that maybe a little time away from his partner might be in their best interest (specifically his own, after that embarrassing torrent of word vomit). He'd opened the door and had one foot outside of the room, when Itachi spoke again and stopped him mid-step. "Kisame?"

The shark looked over his shoulder. "Yeah?"

Itachi's face was completely devoid of emotion as he looked straight into Kisame's eyes. "I'm glad I haven't made you go soft."

And then Kisame was out the door and down the hall with the slam of a door and a few hurried steps, cursing whatever gods existed for sticking him with such a cheeky bastard for a partner. Itachi, for his part, smirked to himself and went back to eating his dinner, his cheeks red as cherries now.

-n-

The rain never truly stopped, but it did let up enough that delaying their trip home any longer simply wouldn't be excusable. Itachi and Kisame both trudged along in soggy misery for another week before they finally made it back to the base, dropped a sopping wet mission report on Pein's desk, and finally made it back to their rooms.

"I'm sick of being wet," Kisame stated as he stepped into the room. The two of them had managed to break free of the rain a little while ago, so at least their clothing was only damp and not completely drenched this time. "Our next assignment better be in a desert."

Itachi ignored his partner's complaints and walked towards his dresser. He quickly peeled off his damp clothing and selected a dry outfit from within, no doubt hating the cold and damp as much as Kisame (though not wanting to admit it out loud).

The shark (somewhat creepily) watched as Itachi got changed, thinking. Finally, when his partner was completely dressed and moving further into the room, he spoke again. "Itachi."

"Hn?"

"That mission was a complete and utter waste of time."

"Hn."

"I'm serious. And you know what? Most of these missions that Pein sticks us with are," Kisame went on, peeling out of his own wet clothes before he began rummaging through his own dresser. "We fight, we come home, we do recon, we come home, we nearly get ourselves killed on a pretty regular basis, and we come home. That's our life."

"Kisame?"

"I like you," he blurted out, hastily tugging on a dry pair of pants. "And you like me. Do you have any idea how rare that is in our line of work? We could have something. And maybe it'll be short-lived, maybe it'll fizzle out, but by god, at least our lives might suck a little less if we had each other."

"Kisame-"

"Like, have you realized how much more enjoyable camping in a cave would be if we could cuddle up together? How taking a break to make out in the middle of our research might have made that mission more bearable? Itachi," Kisame went on, putting two hands on his partner's shoulders and leaning in close, face utterly serious, "there was a perfectly good bathroom counter in that last hotel room that we could have had sex on." Ok, that last part was probably a bit much, but apparently being blunt and direct was their thing now, so Kisame was hoping his partner would just roll with it.

For someone who was being rather bluntly propositioned, Itachi remained surprisingly calm and impassive. "To be clear, are you saying you want a relationship?"

"Yes, damn it, so can-"

Kisame had erroneously expected Itachi to be rather calm and restrained about their getting together, perhaps needing a few dates and a bit of gentle prodding from the shark before their relationship progressed to the physical level. That notion went flying out the window, never to be seen or heard from again, sometime between when Itachi launched himself at Kisame, kissing the older man passionately and wrapping his legs around Kisame's waist, and when Itachi's hand found its way to the fly of Kisame's pants and began fumbling with the zipper there.

Kisame quickly made the decision to move Itachi to the desk at the foot of his bed and set the Uchiha down there, lips working frantically against Itachi's as he slid one hand down the weasel's back to cup his ass and the other slipped around the front to grope Itachi through his zipper. "Fucking pants," he muttered as he managed to undo the fly and slipped free of Itachi's legs just long enough to slide Itachi's pants and underwear down and off. At that point he fused his lips against Itachi's and wrapped his hands around Itachi's waist to pull him closer, growling into the kiss.

Itachi, for his part, had managed to get Kisame's pants undone and jerked them down to mid-thigh, allowing him to slide his hands down the shark's abs, around his hips and over his ass before finally slipping forward to lightly wrap around Kisame's dick.

Kisame managed to pull his mouth away from Itachi and immediately moved down to bite at Itachi's neck. Normally he'd ask his sex partners if they were ok with him leaving some rather shark-like dental impressions on their skin, but normally his partners didn't skip straight to third base before you could say "handjob," so he figured he was allowed to take certain liberties tonight.

Plus, given the way that Itachi whimpered and jerked in his arms when he bit down, trying to drag Kisame closer and bite at his ear, the swordsman had a pretty good feeling that his partner was ok with this.

Kisame scraped his teeth over the soft skin of Itachi's neck, licking with his tongue as his lips sucked a mark into his partner's neck. There was going to be at least one hickey on his partner tomorrow; the possibility of getting to leave even more on him sent a fresh spike of arousal through Kisame.

Itachi, meanwhile, had curled his delicate fingers around Kisame's cock and was stroking up and down, giving Kisame the best handjob he'd had in a good long while. The shark growled and slid his own hand down Itachi's stomach, fingers gently ghosting over abs (which Kisame fully intended to come back to and explore with his tongue at a later date) before curling around Itachi's cock and firmly stroking. Itachi panted and pulled Kisame back into another bruising kiss, his hand speeding up in response to Kisame's actions.

Neither of them lasted long after that, and a few minutes (and some intense kissing) later both men were coming in spurts all over Itachi's shirt. Afterwards, panting, sweating, and coming down from a couple of frankly amazing orgasms, Itachi was burrowing into Kisame's chest, arms loosely wrapped around the shark's shoulders, while Kisame pulled Itachi closer and nuzzled the top of his partner's head. Kisame had always been rather affectionate after sex, and it was nice to find that Itachi was the same way. He thought about grabbing Itachi's pants and boxers off the floor and handing them back, wanting to be a gentleman, but quickly discarded the idea when he realized how revolting the idea of Itachi wearing clothes right now seemed to him. Instead, he simply held his partner against his chest, hands gently sliding down Itachi's back. They stayed that way for several minutes in total silence; and then…

"Kisame?"

"Hm?"

Itachi titled his head up to look his partner in the eye. "There is absolutely no way that countertop would have been able to support my weight."

Kisame paused, processing Itachi's words. "What about our bathroom counter here?"

Judging from the way that Itachi began kissing him then, Kisame decided that at the very least, it was worth trying to find out.