Sorry it took so long to update this...I had to work out a few details that would effect chapters later down the road. But I think it was well worth it seeing as I was able to crank out a 4,724 word chapter in the end! Cheers! *clink*
WITH FINALS WEEK, CAME mixed emotions for Itachi. For the majority of the semester, Itachi wished for silence and order, and patiently waited for the rare moments when it arrived. Sometimes, however, it never did.
"I thought you had class." Itachi stated when he discovered Deidara in the room on a Wednesday night in early October.
There were paper airplanes everywhere – on the artist's bed, on the floor, on Itachi's bed and under the bed, on the window sill, on his desk, and in the closet, but Deidara didn't seem to mind in the slightest as he shook his head. "Not tonight, yeah. The professor cancelled." And with that, he went back to his craft, which consisted of folding down the wings of a tiny blue airplane.
"Fine, but can you please contain the mess to your side?" Itachi sighed in exasperation and set down his bag by his desk.
"Mess? What mess, yeah?" He asked.
Itachi didn't respond, and instead made a point by plucking a red paper plane from the socket of his desk lamp.
"Oh." Deidara said, extending his hand to retrieve the paper model. "Sorry, yeah. But you have to admit, it's hard to control where paper airplanes fly off to!"
"Then wait until you're outside to fly them." Itachi replied.
"But then I have to grab my keys and my I.D. and what if I hit someone with one of them?"
The better question is, what if you hit me with one of them? "You can fly them in here." Itachi surrendered.
"Really, yeah!? Are you sure? You don't mind?" Deidara asked.
Itachi pulled a thick text book from his bag and pulled it open to a random page in the middle. "But if you hit me with one of them, you're done, do you understand?"
Deidara nodded. "I understand! Thanks, yeah!"
"No problem." Itachi muttered and immersed himself in his studies. He had a lot of reading to catch up on from when Deidara had made him sick, and tonight was the night he was planning to get it all done before the weekend until this happened. He glanced over at Deidara who was hunched over his desk, intently studying the diagrams on the page before him as he crafted little planes out of colored paper. I suppose no harm could come from making paper airplanes. Itachi decided, and let it be.
Or at least he thought it was harmless until he kept hearing the soft crinkling of airplane noses colliding the walls and window every five minutes. In the end, he endured twenty minutes of this when a stray plane nicked him in the left temple of his head.
"Sorry!" Deidara squeaked when Itachi whirled around to face him.
"I think that's enough for now, don't you think?" Itachi asked and that was the end of it.
By the end of the night, Deidara's half of the ceiling had been decorated with various air craft hanging from fishing line taped to the ceiling. At least he's recycling, I suppose.
And then there were times where Itachi was in a foul mood, be it from completing a difficult assignment weeks before it was even discussed in class only to find that it had been cut from the curriculum completely, or arguing with his cousin, or just wasting his time dealing with immature classmates who had no business pursuing a higher form of education based on their actions.
And through it all, Deidara would return back to their room late at night with a cheerful smile on his face and ask him how his day had been. And most of the time, all he received in response was a half-hearted shrug. And he seemed to be okay with that. "I understand if you don't want to talk about it, yeah. I think everyone has days like that at some point or another. But if you ever wanna talk about it, I'll listen." He once told him.
Itachi even found himself missing his tutoring sessions with Kisame when their philosophy final came around.
"What's this?" Itachi asked him that morning.
"Fifty dollars." Kisame answered. "Well, two twenty dollar bills and a ten dollar bill."
"For what?"
Kisame shrugged and smiled. "I know I'm not the best student, and you probably won't believe me when I say this, but I'm certainly not the worst student either. I may not get straight A's like you do, but somehow I've managed to stay afloat this far into the game."
Itachi nodded and wondered where exactly Kisame was planning to go with this.
"But this class," he said with a chuckle, "this class was going to be the death of me, and if it weren't for you, I would've failed and sent my GPA down the toilet, and my time on the swim team would've been done for."
Of course, because that's what's most important here. Itachi thought sarcastically.
"And when I first asked you to tutor me, I promised I'd pay you. Now, I don't think we ever established how much tutoring an idiot like me costs, but I hope that fifty is enough." He explained.
Itachi handed the money back to him. "Keep it."
"But I told you I would pay you for—"
"Thanks, but I don't need your money. Studying with you forced me to review concepts I didn't think I needed to review and cement them in my head when the time came to be tested on them." He answered and said in response to Kisame's blank stare "In short, you helped me to become a better student, and that, to me, is worth more than any amount of money."
At that, Kisame laughed and lightly punched Itachi in the shoulder, which hurt more than he was expecting it to. "Your devotion to your studies never ceases to amaze me." He mused.
"Alright, class, it is now twelve o'clock, which means it is time to pass out your Introduction to Philosophy final." The professor announced.
"Hey." Kisame whispered to Itachi, who raised a questioning brow. "You probably won't need it, but good luck anyways."
"Thanks. The same goes to you, Kisame."
"And keep in touch next semester! I might need your help with my statistics class!"
Itachi took a deep breath and shook his head. What was he thinking, admitting that he liked studying with this man? Of course it was bound to lead him to a similar predicament down the road. "Perhaps." He said under his breath. At least he had a little over a month to contrive of ways to weasel himself out of this predicament.
He only wished he could say the same about his dilemma concerning Shisui. In the thirteen days between his last final exam and Christmas day, Itachi had spent his time racking his brain for things he would say to Shisui when his family visited his cousin's for Christmas.
"Why are you ignoring me?" Maybe? That was certainly a good place to start, but was much too confrontational for his liking. If those were the first words out of his mouth, he could say good-bye to his speaking relationship with Shisui for good. But it wasn't Itachi's fault that Shisui was ignoring him! Hell, he didn't even remember why his cousin was ignoring him! Was it because of what happened on homecoming? If so, Itachi drove out of his way to save Shisui's drunken self from humiliation, acts of stupidity that would lead to serving time in jail, alcohol poisoning, drunk driving, and possibly death. How did driving him home safely warrant nearly two months of silence, Itachi wanted to know.
He also needed to take into account the possibility that Shisui would play dumb and act as if nothing was wrong between them. "I'm not ignoring you, I've just been busy." He'd say, even though he was obviously still upset with his cousin for keeping him out of harm's way.
And then it occurred to Itachi that Shisui might not even be present for their family's Christmas dinner just as he hadn't been during Thanksgiving. "Shisui a no-show again?" Sasuke would snicker in the presence of Shisui's parents.
"Oh, he made plans with friends again this weekend." His mother would sigh and hug her sister-in-law. "But he's twenty-one now and old enough to make his own decisions, so who are we to stop him?"
And through it all, Itachi would quietly steam over his aunt and uncle's ignorance, wondering how they could possibly allow their child to miss out on an important family tradition they've had since before they were born in favor of drinking to excess with their equally, if not more intoxicated peers?
"Good afternoon, Uncle Fugaku," Shisui greeted them at the door on Christmas Day, "Aunt Mikoto, and may I say that you look stunning this evening?"
"Oh Shisui!" She giggled. "Always the charmer, aren't you?"
"That's what people say." Shisui sighed and stepped back to allow them inside. "Sasuke." He nodded.
"I'm surprised you didn't ditch like you did on Thanksgiving." Sasuke muttered.
Shisui shrugged. "Nope, not this time! Mom said I had to participate for the most important family get together of the year." He said and diverted his attention to his older cousin. "Hey."
Itachi pursed his lips. "Hey."
"Listen, can I talk to you about something later?" Shisui asked him, leaning in close to his ear so nobody else could hear him. "After dinner."
After two months of silence, now he wanted to talk about things? "Sure." Itachi agreed. This was bound to be interesting.
"Shisui!" His mother, Megumi, called from the kitchen.
"Yeah, ma?" Shisui called back and headed in the direction of his mother's voice.
"Can you set the table? Dinner's almost ready!"
"Sure thing, ma!"
-8-8-8-
Throughout dinner, Itachi's mind worked overtime to consider all the things that Shisui could possibly want to say to him. Even as his mother and aunt enthused about the placemats and dinner set up, and his father and uncle discussed work, and Shisui sympathized with Sasuke's complaints of a two-week winter break in comparison to Shisui's month long break, Itachi ruminated over Shisui's proposal to chat. Shisui's demeanor seemed fine. He appeared to act like the Shisui Itachi knew before college started – easy going, charming, considerate, sympathetic to the underdog (or in this particular case, high school students with two week holiday breaks), and all around jovial instead of the cocky, invincible, pre-alcoholic, know-it-all party goer Itachi came to know this past fall.
"Is everything okay, Itachi?" Mikoto asked him. "You haven't said much all afternoon; is everything okay, sweetheart?"
Itachi nodded and tersely answered "Yeah. Everything's fine."
But Mikoto wasn't buying it. "I would have at least thought that you and Shisui would be talking about school or something since you guys haven't seen each other in a while."
"Nonsense!" Kagami disagreed. "Final exams are done and over with; there's no need to talk about them!" He joked light-heartedly. "Besides, they're not even in the same classes in school so there's nothing to talk about."
Mikoto sat silently for a few moments and spared a glance at her eldest son before relenting "I suppose you're right." She laughed and scooped up a spoonful of mashed potatoes from her plate. "It's been so long since I was at college that I guess I forgot how everything works, huh?"
"Ah, the joys of getting old, right, Mikoto?" Megumi, laughed.
Itachi had since stopped listening to the general conversation occurring all around him and tried to work out why Shisui wanted to talk with him now of all days. His pleasant demeanor was expected around their family. Of the two of them, Shisui was always the better liar, creating realistic stories and situations all the while masking his true feelings beneath the surface. If he was mad at Itachi, he wouldn't have a problem showing it. But in the face of his family, things were different. For all Itachi knew, Shisui could be scheming ways to cut ties with his cousin and let him know that he never wanted to be bothered by him again.
And over what? A stupid, drunken phone call Itachi took seriously almost two months ago?
"Phone call?" Shisui asked when Itachi confronted him about it after dinner like they agreed upon. "What phone call?"
They were currently in Shisui's room upstairs – Shisui claimed to have some old text books Itachi might find use in, giving them a scapegoat to retreat from the family festivities for a little bit while they talked.
"You called me, drunk, on the night of homecoming." Itachi seethed. "Or don't you remember that?"
Shisui scratched the back of his head. "That night was a little hazy for me, I can't remember much of it to be hon—"
"You called me to tell me how much you loved me."
"I was drunk!" Shisui cried.
"And when I asked what was wrong, you didn't give me an answer!"
"Because nothing was wrong!" Shisui explained, throwing his hands up in the air.
"Then why did you call me if nothing was wrong?" Itachi demanded.
"I admit it, Itachi: I. Was. Drunk."
"Which raised an immediately red flag in my mind because it was barely ten o'clock in the evening, Shisui, who gets as drunk as you were that quickly at night?!"
Shisui held up his hands in surrender. "I admit it, that wasn't my finest hour and I apologize. I was drunk, really drunk, and I must have accidentally dialed your number. I didn't mean it, and I'm sorry to worry you."
"And it took you until now to reach that conclusion? Shisui, you acted like I didn't exist for two months! You avoided me at the cafeteria, you wouldn't answer my calls or texts asking if you were alright – for all I knew, you could've died from alcohol poisoning!" Itachi fumed.
At this, Shisui bowed his head. "I know, and I'm sorry."
It was a little too late for apologies now, as Itachi's patience with him had finally reached its limit. "For some reason, I don't believe that you are, Shisui. If you were truly sorry, you would've have given me the silent treatment for two months when I did nothing wrong. The last time I checked, you were supposed to be grateful when someone, someone sober, drops everything they're doing to pick you up and take you home safely! Do you know how much work I wanted to get done that night? It was two days before midterms and I had tests to study for and papers to write and things to review, and then I had to deal with Deidara—"
"Wait, what happened with Deidara? You didn't tell me that story."
"Maybe I would have if you had wanted to talk to me, Shisui, but that wasn't an option because you were mad at me for acting like your mother and for treating you like an alcoholic!" Itachi yelled.
Shisui nodded. "You know what, Itachi? You're right. About everything." He said. "And I understand that you're mad, and you should be because I've been acting like a complete dick this whole time and shouldn't have ignored you for as long as I did."
"So talk." Itachi said.
From his backward position on the swivel chair, Shisui glanced up at his cousin and sighed. "Okay. I wasn't mad at you for the past month, to be honest with you."
"Then why didn't you talk to me, Shisui? Why did you—?"
"I wasn't talking to you because I was ashamed." He said. "Ashamed of my actions, and ashamed of myself."
Immediately, Itachi's anger melted away with his cousin's confession. He opened his mouth to urge him to continue when Shisui elaborated.
"I went to a party a week before Thanksgiving break and, well," Shisui explained, "I got really drunk."
"Really?" Itachi asked sarcastically.
"Yeah." Shisui sighed. "So drunk that I made a lot of bad decisions that day."
As Shisui described everything he could remember from the party he attended, Itachi found himself feeling around for Shisui's plush comforter and took a seat on the bed, never once tearing his gaze away from Shisui as he recounted several embarrassing acts Itachi was certain Shisui would never in his life partake in had he been sober. "And you were able to gather all of this from the pictures on your phone?" Itachi asked incredulously.
"That, and the scene I woke up to the next morning." Shisui shrugged. "So yeah. I was mad at you after homecoming, and contrary to what you may think, I didn't skip out on Thanksgiving at your parents' house because I was mad with you. I skipped out because I was so ashamed of myself."
"So let me get this straight, you skipped Thanksgiving dinner with my family in favor of getting completely trashed only a week later?" Itachi asked. "I don't understand. How can you be ashamed of what happened when you got drunk at a party a week prior, only to do the same at another party in order to avoid me?"
"That's the thing." Shisui said. "I didn't go to a party on Thanksgiving."
"But your parents said—"
"That's because I lied to them." He admitted. "I told them I was going to a party with friends because I knew that you would demand an explanation for why I was ignoring you, and at the time, I wasn't ready to give it because I was still licking my wounds."
"Then what were you doing if you weren't partying with your friends?"
"I went to a diner for dinner and drove around town until the mall opened for Black Friday and hung out there for a little bit, watching the masses fight over flat screen TVs and shit." He chuckled. "It was actually quite entertaining; you should've seen it. I managed to buy a pretty sick leather jacket for next to nothing as well!"
"You should've told me, Shisui."
"About what? Black Friday? I thought you knew about that." Shisui answered.
Itachi shook his head. "About the party. Despite my feelings regarding what happened on homecoming, I would've been there to help you."
Shisui shrugged. "But you would've been angry with me too, just like how you were angry with me all day today before now."
Itachi gave a half shrug before responding "Perhaps. But I would've pushed everything before that aside after hearing what happened to you."
"What did I ever do to deserve such a good cousin like you, Itachi?" Shisui asked with a small smile.
"You're like a brother to me, Shisui, you should know that. We may fight with one another, but at the end of the day, you and I are still family, and family sticks together through thick and thin." Itachi stated.
"So you aren't mad at me anymore? Even though I treated you like trash?"
"Why should I be mad at you when you learned a valuable lesson? I just hope you'll be more careful going forward. Deal?"
Shisui chuckled nervously. "About that. There's actually a party I was planning to attend on New Year's Eve."
"Shisui," Itachi protested, "haven't you learned your lesson already?"
"Boys!" Megumi called up the stairs. "Are you almost done up there? There's presents under the Christmas tree for both of you, remember!"
"Coming, ma!" Shisui called and rose from his chair. "That was a month ago, Itachi! And I did learn my lesson! I promise!"
"I wouldn't be so sure." Itachi rose to a stand and followed Shisui out the door. "I'm not sure if you're noticed this, but every party you attend entails mindless drinking, which you always seem to succumb to with very little persuasion."
"And I told you that I've learned my lesson, Itachi!" Shisui whispered as they descended down the stairs to reunite with the rest of the family. "While there will be alcohol present, I promise you that I've learned my lesson from last time and will drink with moderation."
"I don't know, Shisui…"
Shisui brought a gentle hand to rest on his cousin's shoulder. "Don't worry about it, Itachi; it'll be fine! I promise!"
Itachi opened his mouth to further dissuade them, but by then, they had reached the living room where everyone had gathered around the Christmas Tree, sorting out which presents were for whom.
"There you are, boys!" Kagami greeted them. "Just in time! Sit down, so we can get started!"
Mikoto leaned in close to Megumi and whispered "I think Kagami's more excited than the kids are, wouldn't you agree?"
Megumi shook her head and smiled fondly. "My husband's always had the heart of a child."
"What are you two talking about?" Kagami asked before turning his head back to the sea of presents lying before them. "You know what, never mind, let's just get on with it – youngest goes first?" He asked.
As per tradition, the family would take turns unwrapping one present at a time, starting with the youngest – Sasuke, followed by Itachi, Shisui, and so on until it was again, Sasuke's turn to unwrap another present. The cycle continued until everyone unwrapped all of their presents; at which point, they would pose for a family picture, and then spend the rest of the night sitting around chatting or indulging in their gifts.
Itachi watched as Sasuke quickly stripped a large box of its shiny blue gift wrap to reveal the expensive headphones he had been drooling and obsessing over the past several months. "But everybody at school has them!" He would always whine to seemingly deaf ears.
"Yes! Finally!" Sasuke cheered and went to work breaking them free of their confines so that he could try them out.
"Sasuke, Sasuke dear, why don't you wait to open them until everyone has opened their other presents?" Mikoto reminded him, ignoring the scowl she received in return. "It's your turn, now Itachi."
Unlike Sasuke, who immediately went for the biggest present of them all, Itachi opted to open whichever present was closest to him, which, in this case, was a small rectangular present wrapped in bright red wrapping paper and adorned with a simple black bow on the top. "To: My not-so-little-cousin Itachi, From: Your always-awesome-cousin Shisui" The sticker tag read.
"I see you didn't waste any time opening the best one here, huh Itachi?" Shisui commented.
Itachi smiled slightly and carefully peeled away the wrapping paper by the taped seams to reveal a framed picture of Shisui and himself when they were younger. In the picture stood a soaked four year old Itachi with puffy red eyes, swollen from crying, and choppy bangs sticking to his face while a seven year old Shisui, wearing a dry shirt and soaked shorts that stuck to his legs, attempted to force down his laughter.
Although Itachi remembered that day as if it were yesterday, he didn't remember his aunt taking his picture afterwards.
"Shisui, I'm scared." Itachi remembered telling his cousin as they stood at the foot of a creek in the woods behind Shisui's house.
"It's just water, Itachi, it's not like you're gonna drown or anything." Shisui said.
Itachi shook his head. "It's not that…what if I slip on one of the rocks?"
"You won't slip! It's easy! Look!" Shisui said and hopped from one rock to another until he had safely made it to the other side. "Look, I'll do it again!" He said and hopped from rock to rock until he had made it back to Itachi's side. "See? It's easy!"
"I don't think I can…"
Shisui put his hands on his hips and heaved a heavy sigh. "You're the one who wanted to explore the woods you know, and there's lots more to explore beyond this creek; you just have to cross it."
"I don't know…" Itachi mumbled.
Shisui knelt down on one knee and took Itachi's tiny hands into his own. "Don't worry about it, Itachi! It'll be fine! Trust me! You can do it!"
And with those few words of encouragement, Itachi found it within himself to trust his cousin and hop on the first rock. It was only when he heard Shisui cheering from behind him that he opened his eyes to find that he was still dry as he stood atop of the rock. "I did it, Shisui! I did it! Did you see me?"
"You bet I did! You only have a few more to go and you'll be over on the other side!" He encouraged him.
And with two more hops, Itachi found himself in the middle of the creak, halfway to the other side with Shisui continuing to cheer from behind. When he hopped onto the fifth rock however, he landed too close to the edge and lost his footing. Within seconds he had fallen backwards into the creek while the stream passed over him and Shisui's loud cheering morphed into muffled cries.
"Don't worry about it, Itachi! It'll be fine! Trust me! You can do it!" Shisui had said to him back then, and Itachi had trusted him only to find himself at least a foot under water at the bottom of a murky creek bed full of sharp rocks and mud.
"Well? Do you like it?" Shisui asked him. "I had to look through dozens of photo albums of us from when we were kids to find that picture, you know!"
The left corner of Itachi's mouth quirked upwards. "Yeah." He said. "Thank you."
Less than twenty minutes ago, Shisui had said the same thing to him; "Don't worry about it, Itachi; it'll be fine! I promise!" with regards to the party he was planning to attend next week.
"Shisui, it's your turn." Megumi prompted, but Shisui was way ahead of her and had already reached for a large rectangular box wrapped in "T.A.R.D.I.S. blue" wrapping paper as he referred to it.
Back when they were kids, Shisui's words always melted Itachi's worries away, even if whatever they were doing didn't go quite as expected, Itachi always felt a wave of comfort overcome him when Shisui promised that things would turn out okay.
"The Doctor Who series 1-7 boxed set?! Holy shi—zzballs that had to have cost you guys a fortune!" Shisui cried.
But no matter how Itachi looked at it, he couldn't bring himself to believe that everything would be as Shisui promised this time.
-8-8-8-
At 11:47pm on December 31st, Itachi was not ashamed to admit that he had spent the past two and a half hours reading his new Stephen King novel his parents gave him for Christmas in an effort to preoccupy himself from Shisui's party-going habits.
He wanted to believe that Shisui wouldn't make the same mistakes he claimed to have made before Thanksgiving break and even before then during homecoming, but a part of him couldn't force himself to believe that in a room surrounded by other drunken twenty-something year olds, Shisui would restrain himself and be sober enough to drive home safely, especially on a night such as New Year's Eve, which particularly worried Itachi.
"If you need me, don't hesitate to call." Itachi whispered to him as they embraced before his family returned home.
"Don't worry about it." Shisui whispered when they broke apart. "I'm telling you, I'll be fine."
"Itachi?" Mikoto said, appearing at Itachi's doorway.
Itachi jumped as he had gotten to a particularly suspenseful part of the story and was engrossed in his thoughts to hear her coming. "It's not midnight yet, is it?" He asked, bookmarking his page with his finger as he leaned over to check the time on his phone.
When he found that he still had ten minutes left before the start of the New Year, he glanced up at his mother for an explanation only to be confronted with tears streaming down her face.
"What's wrong? Did something happen?" He asked, laying his book on the nightstand, his bookmarked page immediately forgotten.
"Honey," she choked out, "that was Kagami. Shisui is dead."
[A/N]: While I have plans for what I want to happen within the next month (of the story, that is), I need to sit down and work out the details yet again *sigh* I don't think it will take long as I'm not planning on killing off another character any time soon, but I need the events that occur after Shisui's death to be perfect. That being said, I will try to update as soon as I get my shit together! Most of my frequent reviewers will find a shout-out of some sort below; I encourage you to not only respond to what I have said in your specific shout-out, but to tell me what you thought of the chapter as well ;)
****To Hikiri: In your May 31st review, you said "I might be wrong, but I sense some foreshadowing with [Shisui] too and I just feel like something really bad is gonna happen." And let me be the first to say that you, my friend, called it, and that I'm sorry it had to end this way for our golden boy, Shisui :( You also said in your June 9th review, "Just the patience but at the same time [Itachi] seems to have reached his last thread and is trying SO hard to remain calm." And Itachi has indeed reached his last thread in this chapter for sure! You also mentioned in your June 27th review that "you should have Deidara go to the Uchiha's place for Christmas" and while Deidara did not make an appearance in this chapter, you can count on him making an appearance in the next chapter or two for sure! ;)
****To Trucky: In your June 3rd review, you said "Now you make me worry about Shisui." And you were right to worry about him :(
****To Janshal: If I'm correct, this would make it the 3rd (and final :'( time that Shisui and Itachi have snapped at each other. And you were so excited to see Shisui in this chapter based on your July 17th review - I'm sorry to have killed off one of your favorite characters in this chapter :'(
****To JigokuShoujosRevenge: I hope you are satisfied with the answer I came up to in response to your July 12th review "Shisui is still avoiding Itachi?" I wasn't really gearing this chapter towards your review, but having Shisui royally fuck up while drinking (thus, changing his attitude towards Itachi picking him up at homecoming and also changing his motivation for ignoring him) wasn't in my plans at the time of your review. I hope you like what I put forth though! (Unless of course, you're upset that Shisui is dead. Then I can understand.)
****To The Secret Sal: Well, honey, Shisui's death has finally arrived :(
****To AbsoluteAnarchy: Don't worry honey, I'm sure that Shisui is in a better place, guessing which kinds of sweets (or pound cake lol!) Itachi is going to eat next-whoops! Wrong story! ;) (I did that on purpose to lighten the mood)
Until next time~
Sasori33-001