At precisely 6 o' clock in the morning, Itachi's alarm began blaring the most annoyingly chipper ringtone on his phone (which was why it was so good at waking him up). His hand slid out from beneath the warm covers of his bed and fumbled around the nightstand before finally wrapping itself around the phone and shutting it off. He yawned and stretched his limbs slowly before opening his eyes and staring at the ceiling. Itachi knew that he needed to get up; at the very least, he needed to shower and brush his teeth before breakfast, but he also had to make notes for English class that he hadn't compiled last night before he went to sleep. Yet at the same time, his bed was so perfectly warm and cozy on a winter morning like this, and surely he could spare just another five minutes before he had to get up…

With a sigh of resignation, Itachi sat up and peeled the covers off of himself, shivering as the cool air of his room hit him full force. He couldn't risk sleeping in, especially since he hadn't even asked his parents if he could go over to Sasori's house tonight. Itachi needed to seem completely and utterly on top of things like he always did, so neither parent would have any objection to his taking a night off. And unfortunately, part of being on top of things meant having to leave the comfort of his incredibly warm and comfy bed. With these somewhat depressing thoughts to motivate him, the Uchiha sleepily stumbled his way into his private bathroom to shower, stripping along the way.

In order to keep up with the demands of his life, Itachi had mastered a certain multi-tasking system for his morning routine after careful years of trial and error. His uniform would be set out with clean underwear and socks while the water was warming up in his shower. Once the water was at the optimum temperature, Itachi would hop in with his toothbrush, wash his hair, and then scrub himself down with a bar of soap and brush his teeth while the shampoo/conditioner mix was soaking into his hair. His hair would then be rinsed, and while it was in a towel he'd dry off the rest of him and get dressed. Next it was time to jot down his English notes, and once that task was completed he'd blow-dry his hair to the point of being slightly damp instead of sopping wet. By this point, it was 6:45 in the morning.

Looking at the clock on his phone, Itachi stuffed his books into his bag and exited his room, hurrying down the stairs for breakfast. The brief pick-me-up he'd gotten from the shower was quickly wearing off; he'd need some coffee to get through the rest of the day. Fortunately for him, both he and his father were terrible caffeine addicts, and Mikoto always had a pot brewing for the two of them.

Itachi walked into the kitchen and was greeted by the delicious smell of bacon that was pleasantly sizzling in his mother's favorite skillet. He walked into the kitchen and dropped his bookbag on the hardwood floor with a rather audible 'thump!' before taking his seat at the table beside his father, who currently had his nose buried in his tablet and was scrolling very rapidly through something. Probably notes from a meeting, Itachi decided, or else some news company's report on a competitor. Either way, it was not something Itachi was particularly interested in investigating this early.

Mikoto had either heard her son come into the room or set down his bag, because a moment later she was hurrying over to give Itachi a cup of coffee and a small plate of bacon. "Morning honey," she said with a bright smile. "Sleep well?"

"Hn," Itachi grunted as he pulled his coffee closer and began dumping spoonfuls of sugar into the cup. Mikoto didn't mind, having spent years dealing with Itachi's aversion to mornings before his coffee, and immediately spun around to go back to her stove, intent on making the rest of her family's breakfast. The woman was an absolute goddess in the kitchen, and delighted in using her cooking powers to feed her husband and sons. "I'm making omelets today; you boys want bacon and cheese like usual?"

"Hn," came twin grunts from the table, one from Itachi and one from Fugaku.

Mikoto rolled her eyes but dumped the whisked up eggs into her skillet before adding the meat and cheese. Cooking their omelets in bacon grease might not be the healthiest choice in the world, but at least it would be tasty. "Where's Sasuke?" she wondered, looking over her shoulder to the empty spot at the edge of the table near where she usually sat.

"I'm sure he'll be down soon," Fugaku said, eyes still glued to his tablet. Itachi didn't say anything, but instead took out his phone and shot Sasuke a quick text threatening to eat his younger brother's omelet if the teen didn't come downstairs soon. Minutes later, the rest of the Uchiha family heard the distinct thumping sound of Sasuke rushing down the stairs, bursting into the room to ask, "Are there still omelets?!"

"Not so loud, Sasuke," Fugaku grumbled. Itachi also frowned at his brother's actions; Sasuke had inherited his mother's morning person attitude and had no doubt been wide awake for nearly an hour. Likely, the only thing that consistently prevented him from beating Itachi to breakfast was his inability to organize his personal items and have everything gathered up for school by the time the others had crawled out of bed to find breakfast.

Itachi was broken out of his musings by the sight and smell of a delicious omelet that was placed in front of him, followed by his father receiving one of his own. "I'll make yours now, Sasuke," Mikoto promised with a smile. "I just didn't want it to get cold waiting for you. Honestly, I'll never understand what you spend all morning doing in your room…"

Fugaku grunted, presumably agreeing with his wife's scolding, but the effect was somewhat ruined by the fact that his cheeks were stuffed full of bacon and omelet. Itachi ate his in a slightly more dignified manner, though no less quickly than his father. By the time his younger brother was being served (at 7:10, Itachi noted) he was done with breakfast. At this point he'd normally bid his family farewell and dart out the door, but today he still had something to do. "Father?"

"Hm?"

"Sasori invited me over tonight. I've already made accommodations for my weekend assignments, and I don't have any club activities to worry about-"

"Honey, it's fine," Mikoto cut in. "Your father and I were just discussing how hard you've been working; a break would be good for you. Isn't that right?"

Fugaku nodded as he took another sip of his coffee. "Be safe, don't do anything reckless, have your phone on you."

Itachi nodded; it was the same speech that his half-asleep father gave him every time he requested to go to a friend's house. Perhaps it seemed a bit curt, but the speech that wide-awake-at-dinner Fugaku would give him was much worse than what drowsy-during-breakfast Fugaku could muster up. That speech was always full of lines about being responsible and acting like a good role-model for Sasuke, so Itachi had learned over the years to make requests in the morning when Mikoto was likely to have quick enough reflexes to grant him permission before Fugaku could even think to protest (never mind form a lengthy lecture). With that, he said a quick goodbye to his parents, grabbed his bag, ruffled Sasuke's hair, and was out the door before another word could be said on the matter.

With traffic the way it was at this hour, Itachi made it to school by 7:45. This gave him fifteen minutes to get to his locker, work his way to his first period class (advanced German), and get settled in at his desk. He pulled out a notebook and an audio recorder; the last half of the class was immersive, so he liked to have a recording of the spoken German that he could review later and practice himself. It was difficult, but at least the teacher made things fun. He'd be here for fifty minutes, and then it was off to history, English, economics, lunch, calculus for an extended period, and finally chemistry to finish out his day, broken up by nothing but a few ten minute breaks between courses. Exhausting, but necessary for the high school junior if he wanted to get into the most competitive senior courses next year.

Itachi's musings were abruptly interrupted by his phone beeping; apparently he'd gotten a text, and thank god it had happened before class. Itachi didn't want to imagine how the teacher would react if his phone had dared to go off during the middle of a class lecture. He quickly silenced it, and then checked the message. To his surprise, it was from Kisame. "Thanks for yesterday again. I think it really helped me."

Itachi paused, a bit surprised by the text. Honestly, even though Kisame had asked for his number, he'd half-expected the jock to completely forget about him until their next tutoring session unless Kisame needed some emergency help with an essay. He glanced up at the clock; two minutes to the start of class. That was enough time to send a message of his own, and he quickly texted back, "You're welcome. Good luck this weekend." After that, he pocketed his phone and adjusted his notebook again, wanting to look prepared when his instructor arrived.

-n-

By lunchtime, Itachi was in dire need of another cup of coffee. Fortunately for him, the school seemed to understand that the only thing keeping their students upright was caffeine, and had installed vending machines that dispensed tea and canned coffee in the cafeteria. The lines were always long; some students even chose to forgo waiting in the lunch lines so they would have a better chance of getting their beverage of choice before it ran out.

Fortunately for Itachi, his economics classroom was very close to the cafeteria, and he was usually able to get to the cafeteria fast enough that he was one of the first in line for a drink. Today was no different; he'd managed to get a can of coffee as well as a basket of chicken nuggets by the time he arrived at his usual table, sitting with Shisui and a few of his cousin's friends.

They were nice enough people, but Itachi was usually so worn out by this point in his day that all he wanted was half an hour of peace to eat and just not think. The boys were good-natured about this, and typically left Itachi to his own thoughts while they ate and chatted about whatever happened to be going on in their lives at that point.

However, as Itachi nibbled on the chicken nuggets and sipped at his coffee (not an incredibly tasty combination, but it did the job), he briefly wondered if Kisame might have sent him another message. He glanced up to make sure there weren't any lunch monitors looking his way (there weren't; one was talking with another student about something in the student's textbook that was on the table, the other was in line for tea). Once he was sure the coast was clear, he pulled out his phone to check, assuming that he was just being silly for expecting any more texts.

Surprising him once again, Kisame had sent him two more texts. One came immediately after Itachi's last message, simply stating, "Thanks, we'll need it." The next one had been sent just ten minutes ago, and read, "Please tell me you can help with algebra too!"

Itachi quirked a brow and replied, "What's the problem?"

There was a pause as Itachi waited for Kisame to receive his message. Then, there was a small icon in the bottom of his screen indicating that Kisame was typing. At last, he received the jock's reply. "2-x/2+x = x^2 - 5. Solve for x. HOW?!"

Itachi felt a slight smile tugging at his lips; there was something that he found rather funny about the mighty football player being brought low by a simple algebra problem. Then again, at least Kisame had the guts to ask for help when he didn't understand something, so Itachi probably needed to reign in his delight at the jock's suffering. Carefully, he began typing a series of texts to help Kisame solve the problem. It would have gone a lot faster if he was actually there, but given that the pair of them were at completely separate schools, texting would have to do.

Itachi ended up spending most of his lunch helping Kisame with his math, and was startled to hear the bell ring to signal the end of the period. He chugged the rest of his coffee and sent Kisame a quick text to let him know that lunch was over so he wouldn't be able to help the jock anymore. After that, his phone went right back into his pocket, his tray was dumped, and Itachi was on his way to calculus.

-n-

3 o' clock finally rolled around, and Itachi was completely done with the day by the time the final bell rang. He grabbed a few books out of his locker, stopped by his German teacher's classroom to pick up a few supplemental readings that the man had offered him earlier in the week, and then shuffled his way out of the school with the rest of the student body. Eventually he managed to get to his car, but then had to wait for a good fifteen minutes while the rest of the parking lot cleared out. 200 juniors and seniors took a while to make their way out of the two tiny exits their parking lot had, and trying to make your way off campus in the middle of the rush was just asking for someone to accidentally rear-end your vehicle.

While waiting in the car, Itachi turned on his radio and pulled out his phone. Kisame hadn't texted him again, so Itachi assumed that the jock had managed to survive algebra. Putting that thought aside, Itachi turned his attention to his friends and shot Deidara a text. "School's out, I'll head over soon."

"Bring milkshakes! Sasori wants chocolate and I want strawberry!" The reply was almost instantaneous; Deidara must have the day off. Also, given the short amount of time between Itachi's text and Deidara's request, Itachi had to wonder if Deidara had actually checked whether or not Sasori even wanted a milkshake, never mind one of the chocolate variety. Besides, who even asked for a milkshake in the middle of January?

Nevertheless, Itachi found himself sending a reply to Deidara promising that he would bring milkshakes with him when he arrived. He switched over to an internet window and then and searched for a nearby drive-thru that sold milkshakes; he really didn't want to have to find a diner, go in, and ask for a couple of milkshakes to go. By the time he located a fast food restaurant that was still selling milkshakes in the dead of winter, the parking lot had cleared out enough for him to be able to leave.

-n-

Thirty minutes later and Itachi had arrived at Sasori's apartment building with a tray of milkshakes carefully balanced on top of his school bag. He parked in the complex's guest lot and then extracted his bag and milkshakes from the car. He winced as the wind caught him square in the face; with his hands full, he couldn't pull up his scarf for protection. Thus Itachi ended up awkwardly fast walking towards Sasori's building, trying to get out of the cold as quickly as he could without sending their beverages toppling to the pavement below.

Another of the building's tenants was fortunately walking out the front door when Itachi was coming in, and she was kind enough to hold the door for him. He thanked her and quickly hurried inside, breathing a sigh of relief when he came in contact with a wave of heat coming out of a nearby air vent. Now free from the danger of frostbite, Itachi shuffled down the linoleum-covered hallway at a leisurely pace and gently pressed the elevator button with his elbow. After that, it was a quick ride up to the fourth floor, down another hallway (this one at least had carpet), and then he was at the door for Sasori's apartment. Itachi took a minute to adjust his cargo, realized there was no way to free either hand without losing control of the shakes, and then knocked on the door with his foot.

He heard a muffled voice from within, followed by footsteps padding over the hardwood floor that he knew covered all of Sasori's apartment. Then there was a metallic click as the door was unlocked, and suddenly the door opened. Deidara had answered today, and he greeted Itachi with a wide smile. "Milkshakes!" Itachi rolled his eyes and handed the drinks to Deidara; once his arms were free, he followed his friend inside and quickly dropped his bag near the doorway.

Deidara's outfit quickly confirmed Itachi's earlier suspicions that his friend had had the day off. Deidara's shoulder-length blond hair was completely down, whereas on work days he had it pulled up into a half-ponytail. The tall blond was wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt that had flour spots in several places that his apron didn't quite cover; given how heavenly the kitchen smelled, he must have been cooking. Oh, and the fluffy pink bunny slippers he was currently padding around in were a good indicator that Deidara hadn't set foot outside of the house all day either.

Deidara shuffled into the kitchen, where Itachi could see a few loaves of banana bread cooling on the counter. The blond set down the milkshakes and then turned to give Itachi a hug. "Hey, un! How's it going?"

Itachi hugged him back and shrugged before plucking his milkshake out of the carrier. "All right. Where's Sasori?"

"In the living room, un. Go on ahead; I have one more loaf in the oven I have to check on, un," Deidara explained as he grabbed a bright blue oven mitt off the top of the stove. "Can you take him his milkshake?"

Itachi agreed and grabbed the chocolate milkshake in his free hand, leaving one behind for Deidara. He walked through the short entryway of the apartment, nearly tripping over several plastic bags lying in the middle of the hallway; Sasori and Deidara must have recently made a trip to a craft store. He finally got past these obstacles and entered the living room, where he found Sasori curled up on the massive sectional couch that the pair of roommates had set up in front of the TV.

Sasori was currently buried under several large, fluffy blankets, and all that was sticking out was his shock of messy red hair and a single sweater-wearing arm that was holding the remote for the TV. He glanced to the side upon hearing Itachi walk into the room and smiled at his friend. "Hey Itachi."

"Hey," Itachi replied as he made his way across the room and gave Sasori his milkshake and a small hug. It had been something that Deidara introduced when he burst into their lives: greeting and bidding your friends farewell with a hug. Itachi didn't do it with any of his friends outside of this small group, but he had to admit, he truly enjoyed these brief moments of contact with his friends. "So, did you actually want a chocolate milkshake?"

Sasori rolled his eyes as Itachi took a seat on the couch beside him, burrowing under another blanket. "Deidara's been baking all day, and it made the apartment sweltering. I told him to open a window or something, but he said it would just drive up our heating bill. I think you just happened to text him at a point when milkshakes seemed like a good idea for cooling off to him." Itachi nodded; that sounded like something Deidara would do. "So, Itachi; what do you feel like doing? We're up for anything."

That was the great thing about being with Sasori and Deidara. They were so willing to do whatever Itachi felt like, especially after a long week at school. Sometimes they'd watch bad movies, sometimes they'd play games together, and sometimes they'd put on some random talk show in the background while the three of them just chatted about completely mundane topics. It was the most relaxing part of Itachi's week, and definitely something that he never planned to take for granted. "Is there a show tonight?"

Sasori thought for a moment, and then called out, "Deidara?"

"Yeah?!"

"Is the show this week or next?"

"Next, un! They've still got to repair the stage after they tore out the rotten wood, un!"

"Well, that answers that," Sasori stated bluntly. "And if you don't mind, I think Deidara wants to stay in tonight."

"The bunny slippers led me to that conclusion," Itachi deadpanned.

"Not exactly built for inclement weather, are they?"

"Neither is Deidara."

"Point taken. Hm, there's a Dracula movie marathon on later, but they just added a few more of those murder mystery shows to Vulu, and Deidara loves those…"

"I could go for mindless drama," Itachi suggested as he grabbed a nearby pillow and flopped over onto his side, burrowing into the couch. Already he could feel himself melting into the cushions, and when he tugged a blanket down from the back of the couch to cover him, it was absolute bliss. Why did he ever leave this apartment?

"Excellent." Sasori used the remote to change the input on the TV and then grabbed a nearby controller for their console, turning on the device and quickly pulling up their streaming app. "Hopefully there are at least a few episodes that Deidara hasn't already watched a dozen times; he's so horrible at spoilers."

"But at least we're never stuck watching a bad episode," Itachi countered.

"You know, sometimes I'd actually like to see those supposedly bad episodes instead of just taking his word for it," Sasori stated huffily. "Oh well."

"What's with all the banana bread?" Itachi asked, changed the subject. "Is it for an event, or…?"

Sasori gave his friend a pointed look. "Or are we allowed to stuff ourselves silly on it, you mean." Itachi couldn't even attempt to look guilty, making Sasori smirk. "Knew it. As far as I know, Deidara just noticed that we had a few bananas that were spoiling, and he went a bit overboard with cooking afterwards. And considering how badly he's been monopolizing the kitchen today, I damn well better get at least one loaf-"

"Not until they're done cooling, un!" Deidara snapped as he stuck his head out of the kitchen doorway. He'd removed his apron and was brushing off a bit of flour from his clothes as he walked into the room; his last loaf must have finished cooking. "Otherwise it'll fall apart in your fingers, un!"

"I know," Sasori said. "You've been lecturing me all day about it." Itachi couldn't say that he was surprised; as long as he'd known Sasori, the redhead had had a slight issue of digging into homemade food as soon as he could get his hands on it, which sometimes ended with him eating undercooked bacon or soupy-soft cookies. Probably why Sasori didn't seem too upset about Deidara's scolding.

Seeing that Deidara was coming into the living room, Sasori smiled and loosened the blankets around him, holding a flap open for the blond. "Are you done for now?"

"Yeah," Deidara answered as he kicked off his slippers and burrowed into the blankets next to Sasori, pulling the flap back around the two of them. "Give it twenty minutes and we can eat." Sasori smiled and gently kissed Deidara on the forehead, making the blond smile and tilt his head up for a proper kiss on the lips.

Oh right, that was why Itachi still went home sometimes. Because staying here would mean be constantly exposed to a pair of lovebirds that were sickeningly adorable enough to induce vomiting in someone with a weaker stomach than he. But at least with Deidara present, their fun could begin.

The three of them spent hours on the couch watching TV together, only getting up once in a while for food or drinks. They talked a little bit during the more mundane episodes, and Deidara was even willing (albeit grudgingly) to let them watch an episode that he swore up and down was the worst one in the entire season.

At some point, Deidara turned the volume on the TV down to a dull murmur, and Itachi's eyes began to droop. He knew that Sasori and Deidara wouldn't mind him sleeping over; he did it so often that Sasori now made jokes about an Itachi-shaped depression in the couch. After making sure the alarm was set on his phone to get him up at a reasonable hour, Itachi tucked himself in and drifted off to sleep, completely and utterly relaxed.