So...t'would seem that I owe y'all an explanation...so here it is: I said (on my outdated profile page) that I would try to upload this chapter sometime in January after I got back from my vacation. Well, I got sick, jet-lag was a thing and I basically hibernated for all of January. And then snow and ice was a thing, family arguments were a thing and now I have school, three jobs and homework up to my eyeballs. Needless to say, I'm a very busy person. But, I had some free time this week and made it a point to update something.
Okay, moment of truth - whenever I thought about this chapter, I didn't get very far. I knew what I wanted/needed to happen but I had no idea how to work my jumbled mess of ideas into something plausible, believable, realistic - take your pick. But recently, I came face to face with the inspiration behind this story and it gave me new life. So the inspiration magically came to me, I waited until I had time to write it, sat back and planned what I needed to do and got it done. I hope you enjoy!
Deidara shrugged and turned the handle to open the door. "I don't. But unlike you, Itachi, I know how to give people a second chance."
Itachi screwed his eyes shut and forced himself to concentrate on the words of his accounting text. "If the exchange rate for the merchant was B1 = $0.28 on May 31, 2001, Sunagakure had a foreign currency transaction loss of $10,200 [B1,020,000 X ($0.28 - $0.27) = $10,200] during the year ended May 31, 2001, on the loan payable to the Konohagakure bank."
Sasori's just toying with him. He's manipulating him just like he did last October and Deidara's too naïve to realize it.
And just like that, Itachi couldn't recall the information he'd just read less than a minute ago. "If the exchange rate for the merchant was B1 = $0.28 on May 31, 2001, Sunagakure had a foreign currency transaction loss of $10,200 [B1,020,000 X ($0.28 - $0.27)…"
Out of the 10,000 or so students attending this university, he had to choose Sasori. Surely there are other people in that art club who would treat him better than that.
"…If the exchange rate for the merchant was B1 = $0.28 on May 31, 2001, Sunagakure had a foreign currency transaction loss of $10,200 [B1,020,000 X 0.30 = B1,020,000 is equal to the carrying amount, in Konoha currency, of Konoha's investment on May 31, 2000 [(B500,000 + B600,000 + B2,300,000) X 0.30 = B1,020,000…"
"That's not right…" Itachi whispered as he realized that he skipped to the first part of the paragraph and read the last part of the sentence twice. Closing his eyes, he leaned back in his chair and released a heavy sigh. What did it matter if Deidara hung out with Sasori again? Sasori would toy with his feelings, lead Deidara on and within a few weeks, Deidara would be curled up in his bed cursing himself for falling for Sasori's act a second time. Itachi tried to warn him and Deidara didn't want to listen. Therefore, Itachi couldn't be held responsible for whatever came of this new friendship between them.
But if he didn't have a problem with it, why couldn't he just let it go and move on with his life? He had plenty of things to do that would benefit him in the long run. And worrying about his roommate's social life wasn't one of them.
"But unlike you, Itachi, I know how to give people a second chance." Deidara had said before he left the room.
That, Itachi decided is where he had the issue. Not only was Deidara repeating actions from the past that left him heartbroken, but he had also made a personal jab about Itachi's reaction to the events following Valentine's Day. Where does he get off blaming me for something that he did? He's the one who kissed me without making sure that I felt the same way about him or even shared the same sexual orientation for that matter! It should be up to me to decide whether or not to give him a second chance, not the other way around. If he wants to martyr himself then so be it.
Leaning forward once more, he pushed the right side of his bangs behind his ear and began to read again. "...If the exchange rate for the merchant was B1 = $0.28 on May 31, 2001, Sunagakure had a foreign currency transaction loss of $10,200 [B1,020,000 X ($0.28 - $0.27) = $10,200] during the year ended May 31, 2001, on the loan payable ($0.28 - $0.27) = $10,200] during the year ended May 31, 2001…"
Something wasn't right. Didn't I just read that sentence? Knitting his brow, he continued to read on and found that he had in fact reread the same line over again. "This is pointless." He sighed.
Just then, his phone vibrated behind him to alert him to a new text message from Kisame. 'can you help me with my stats hw? You said that you would on tuesday and im kinda busy this weekend and wanted to know if we could get it out of the way before then.'
Itachi frowned and opened up his messages to reply back. 'I'm sorry, Kisame, but I'm busy at the moment.' He began to type when he glanced at his open textbook. As much as he wanted to read that chapter today, it was obvious that he wasn't going to get very far. 'When are you free to work on it?'
'nows a good time for me if its a good time for you'
'Now works for me. Meet you in the library in 10 minutes or so.' Itachi responded back and moved to grab wallet and room key. Once he had both items, he picked up his phone and noticed a new text message from Kisame that was longer than the simple "okay" that he was expecting.
'can we do this in my room? i cant concentrate very well the library.'
First Deidara insisted that Sasori had changed for the better and now Kisame insisted on studying in a rowdy apartment where his roommates were most likely playing video games in the room next door or blaring loud music in another room less than five feet away. 'I'd rather do this in the library where it's quiet, if that's alright with you.'
'my roommates arent home right now. its quiet here.'
Itachi pursed his lips. 'Fine. What building do you live in?' He asked. Although he felt like Kisame's apartment would be more distracting than the library would (and why Kisame felt he couldn't concentrate in the library, Itachi didn't know and didn't care to ask either) but gave in to his ridiculous request as he was tired of arguing with people his own age.
'university hall'
Itachi nodded and pushed his phone into the back pocket of his jeans. Although he wasn't familiar with the building itself, he was familiar with the general area where the on-campus apartments were located. And with that, he put on his black fleece jacket and made his way to the other end of the campus.
About a quarter of the way into his journey, he realized that he wouldn't be able to enter another dormitory without residing in said building and texted Kisame to ask if he would let him in.
'sure thing'
And true to his word, Kisame was standing by the glass double doors when Itachi arrived.
"Cold?" He chuckled.
Itachi nodded. "Yes, so I would appreciate it if you stepped to the side and allowed me to come in."
"Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning…" Kisame grumbled yet his smile did not falter. "Thanks for coming over on such short notice. You see, I've got a million things to do this weekend and thought it'd be a good idea to get this assignment out of the way before I forgot about it, you know?"
Itachi wrung his hands together in an effort to warm them up now that he was inside. "I do know."
Kisame was quiet for a few seconds before saying "That's right, I'm talking to the kid who actually reads the text book. And more than once!" He laughed.
Itachi wordlessly followed him up the stairs.
"A lot of people like taking the elevator but the stairs aren't bad. It's an easy way to exercise without really even trying."
Must you narrate everything you do? You're an athlete. I figured you'd rather take the stairs. I don't need you to give me a play-by-play.
"Is everything alright? You seem kinda quiet today. Not that you're usually really talkative, but you seem...well...less talkative today for some reason. Is everything alright?"
"Everything's fine."
"If you were in the middle of something, you could have told me. I could've Googled how to figure this shit out."
Then why didn't you? Why do you insist on pulling me away from my studies just because you're too busy daydreaming during class to properly pay attention to what the teacher is demonstrating on the board? It's math for God's sake, you are given examples for a reason. Itachi thought bitterly. But then again, if Kisame's math notes were as bad as the ones he took in Philosophy, Itachi could see why he would need extra help understanding the material. "It's fine. I'm here now so there's no sense in going back to my building."
"Okay." He shrugged.
It did not escape Itachi's notice that Kisame occasionally glanced at him from over his shoulder but did not say anything until they reached his room. It's about time he got the hint.
"Here it is! Home sweet home!" Kisame announced, gesturing for Itachi to walk right in.
Upon first class, Kisame's apartment didn't look much different from Itachi's dorm room. Same carpets. Same walls. The furniture in the living room was different which was a given seeing as he and Deidara only had two beds, desks, night tables, bookshelves and dressers in their room.
Kisame brushed past him and padded over to the coffee table which was littered with papers. "Feel free to make yourself at home but don't eat anything in the fridge without asking first. Zabuza gets pissed if anyone touches his shit. And believe me, you do not want to go there!"
"I'm fine." He said and removed his jacket.
"You can throw that on one of the chairs if you want." Kisame said, gesturing to one of the four chairs surrounding the dining table. If Itachi had a choice, he would've preferred to help Kisame at the dining table where he could sit in a chair as opposed to sitting on the floor at the coffee table. But if sitting on the floor helped Kisame to focus better, Itachi wouldn't utter a word otherwise. Especially if it meant returning to his room sooner.
But did he really want that?
Kisame leaned back against the sofa with a chuckle. "Man, you should've seen it, one time, Kushimaru took one of his soda's and Zabuza—"
"What you working on?" Itachi asked, taking a seat next to Kisame on the floor.
Kisame blinked a few times. "Statistics…? Isn't that what you said you were going to help me with?"
"I mean what are you currently studying in statistics." He sighed and plucked a typed assignment sheet out from underneath Kisame's statistics text.
"Um…linear regressions, scatter plots, correlations and coefficients and stuff like that."
"And this is your assignment sheet?"
Kisame nodded. "Yeah."
"How far have you gotten on it so far?"
Kisame inhaled and glanced down at the chicken scratch adoring his notebook paper. "Uh…I did the first part, but I'm not sure if I plotted the regression line correctly or not…"
"Okay."
"And that kinda messed me up on the other questions…" He sheepishly admitted.
Itachi nodded to show Kisame that he was listening and quickly skimmed the assignment sheet. It appeared that Kisame was only required to complete two problems with four to five questions each. Easy. But if you couldn't even plot a linear regression line correctly, it would in fact skew the data needed to complete the follow-up questions. "This isn't hard, Kisame. In fact, you can complete all of this on your graphing calculator."
"I know that but I'm not really sure which buttons to press…"
The calculator does everything for you and you're not even sure how to use it? Itachi thought bitterly.
"Are you okay? You seem a little off today."
"I'm fine." Itachi quickly uttered before Kisame could ask him anything else that would extend this tutoring session for any longer than it needed to be. "Let's start with problem number five."
"Question five? I didn't get that far yet."
"Question five in your book."
"But I don't need to do question five. It's a suggested problem." Kisame pointed out.
Itachi screwed his eyes shut and forced himself to reign in his patience. "I know that. I'm intend to work through as many suggested problems as it takes until you can grasp the concept needed to complete the required problems because I will not be accused of plagiarism."
Kisame held his hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay. Calm down. I get it. But how would you be accused of plagiarism? You're not even in my class."
"I'm not taking any chances."
"But you helped me out in philo101 so how is this any different?"
Breathe in. Breathe out. "That was different because in introduction to philosophy, I forced you to read and comprehend the content in the text book on your own so that you could apply it to the quizzes, tests, and midterm paper. I also encouraged you to take better notes in class so that you could use that information to better your grade. If I helped you work out a required homework problem, you're showing me that you know how to follow instructions. You're not thinking for yourself. And if the professor sees that you're acing your homework yet failing your tests she or he might become suspicious and question how you were able to do well on your homework yet perform so miserably on your tests."
As Itachi spoke, Kisame's eyebrows drew closer together, the warmth exuded from his eyes vanished and his smile gradually diminished, leaving him looking confused and hurt.
Maybe I was too harsh just now. Itachi briefly thought to himself. But it was the truth and if he didn't inform Kisame in the beginning, how would Kisame ever see it for himself?
"Question number five?" He asked.
Itachi nodded. "Yeah."
Kisame unceremoniously flipped through the chapter until he reached the practice problems in question. "Found it. So you want me to work through this problem first?"
"Hm-hm. Let me know when you're not sure what to do next and I'll help you through it."
"Kay."
When Kisame told him that he didn't grasp the lecture on Tuesday, Itachi took that to mean that he didn't even know where to begin. But Kisame knew what he was doing. He knew how to create a scatter plot (though to be perfectly honest, most third graders knew how to do that much), he knew which buttons to press if Itachi pushed him hard enough and by the time they had finished the suggested problem, Kisame felt ready to return back to the required problem.
"Oh, so I just plot a and b on the graph and that's my correlation? Or…am I not supposed to ask you that?"
"That's correct. And I'll only tell if you what you're doing is correct or incorrect. I won't walk you through this one." Itachi answered.
"Okay…"
Itachi watched Kisame work through the rest of the first problem and stopped him if he made any mathematical errors that were differed from what Itachi himself got as he worked the problem alongside him.
"So…" Kisame spoke as he drew the scatter plot for the second problem, "wanna tell me why you were so mad when you came in earlier? If you didn't want to help me, you didn't have to. I just thought that, you know, since you helped me out with philo, you wouldn't mind helping me out in stats. Or if you were busy, we could've met up some other time, you know?"
His golden irises glanced up to meet Itachi's, causing him to turn away. "It's nothing."
"It didn't feel like nothing. You were pissed off when you got here."
"It doesn't have anything to do with you." Itachi quietly admitted, ashamed by his lack of emotional control as of late. Grief? No. He wouldn't think about Shisui now. That would only make things worse.
"I may have been misdirecting my frustration towards you. I'm sorry."
"Fight with your roommate?"
How could be possibly…?!
Apparently the look of mortification was enough for Kisame to continue his train of thought. "I haven't seen you guys together much lately. I usually see the two of you having lunch or dinner together or just walking around campus you know?"
"I told you that Deidara and I have different schedules this semester." Itachi grit out.
"So what were you so angry about when you got here if doesn't have anything to do with me or Deidara?"
Itachi replaced the lid on his calculator and slid it into the messenger bag he'd brought along with him. "Nothing. I've just been stressed out lately is all."
"I can believe it what with all the homework you do all the time!" He laughed.
Itachi forced a half smile. "Well it looks like you've finally gotten a grasp on the subject matter so I think I'll take my leave."
"But you just got here! At least stay for a few minutes and hang out or something! Can't your homework wait until Sunday night or something?"
Itachi shook his head. His homework could technically wait until twenty minutes before class since he completed the readings way ahead of time. The little interaction he had shared with Kisame over the past half an hour was strained. What could he possibly gain from spending more time with someone whom he couldn't even hold a decent conversation with?
Without another word, he turned on his heel to leave when something grabbed his wrist. "Hold on," Kisame said as he gradually rose to a stand, "there's something you're not telling me because I can see it in your eyes. Something's bothering you and I have a feeling it has to do with Deidara's new red-headed friend."
"It's nothing, Kisame. I'm just stressed out." He wasn't lying. If Deidara wanted to get himself caught up with Sasori again, Itachi wouldn't stop him.
At least, that's what he tried to convince himself of.
"The Itachi Uchiha I know doesn't stress out over homework assignments he did three months in advance." Kisame stated and released his hold on Itachi's wrist. "Is this about Shisui?"
"What?"
Kisame averted his gaze to the floor and scratched the back of his head. "I worded that badly um...I dunno...you're different...this semester…I—"
"I'm different?!"
"Well no, I didn't mean it like that I—" Kisame stuttered.
"If your cousin—your best friend—died a week after you finally made up after a semester of animosity towards each other in a car accident, wouldn't you be different too, Kisame?"
"Itachi, I didn't mean it like that!"
"And if...when you got back to school, everybody you've ever met on campus approaches you to tell you how 'sorry they are' or how 'he could never hold down his drink' like they know what happened. Like they know Shisui like I do!" Itachi said and clenched his hands into fists to keep them from shaking.
"Itachi, calm down, I didn't mean it like that! I'm sorry! Just please, calm down, I won't bring it up again, I swear—"
"First it was my family. Is it so much to ask for a little bit of space? All I want to do is move on and act like nothing happened but my mother kept tiptoeing around me like I'd fall to pieces at any moment, my father kept shoving the reality of it all back in my face and my brother thought it was a joke!"
"I didn't know, Itachi, I swear—"
"Then it was Sasori who had the audacity to approach me to offer his condolences like I even cared for his pity after what he did and then to ask about Deidara? Unbelievable."
"Wait, what does Sasori have to do with all of this?"
"And just when I thought everyone was done feeling sorry for me, I run into Shisui's so called friends who wrote off his death as a matter of him not being able to 'hold down his liquor'!" Itachi seethed. His voice had since started to shake as he tried to blink back the hot tears that threatened to spill over. "If they were really Shisui's friends, they would've known better. They would've attended the funeral. They would've taken this more seriously. But they didn't."
"I'm sorry to hear that, Itachi, I really am." Kisame whispered.
"And then Deidara," Itachi hissed, "I admit that my encounter with Shisui's friends rattled me a bit and I was relieved to have Deidara take my mind off things for a bit until I was ready to talk about it but to kiss me as if that would make things better!?"
And just like that, the dam started to crumble. All of those emotions Itachi had worked so hard to repress over the past two months started to spill over along with his resolve. And just as quickly as it was happening, Kisame was working to collect the pieces by gently taking his hand and leading him into the bedroom before he could protest or flee back to his own dormitory.
Once inside, Kisame sat on his bed and pulled Itachi down to sit beside him.
"I'm sorry." Itachi sniffled and wiped his nose on his sleeve. He didn't care that he'd had to wash his shirt later. He didn't care that Kisame was bearing witness to his collapse. As soon as Kisame uttered Shisui's name, everything he had been working so hard to keep hidden from the word just started tumbling out.
"Don't be. I'm the idiot who brought this up. I should be the one apologizing." He said with a heavy sigh. "Last semester, I thought we were starting to become friends, you know? Then this semester it was as if we'd just met for the first time, like we were total strangers. And I'm not very good at expressing how I feel without sounding like a complete asshole but I was genuinely concerned about you, Itachi. I really was. That's why every time I saw you around campus, I asked if you wanted to hang out because I wanted to see what you were like when you weren't trying to shove the just war theories down my throat in that stuffy old library you seem to call home."
At this, the right corner of Itachi's mouth quirked in what could be construed as a smile.
"But like I said, you were differe—I mean...more distant this semester. And I admit, I thought that maybe you and Deidara were arguing about him wanting to keep the lights on when you wanted to go to sleep or some stupid shit like that, you know? I didn't think that it was all of this...why didn't you tell someone?"
"Who would I tell, Kisame? Answer me that. Who would I tell?"
"You could've told me. I would've listened to you as carefully as I'm doing right now."
The rims of Itachi's eyes burned with tears and his stomach was coiling tighter than a boa constrictor suffocating its prey. The way he saw it, he had two options: take his bag and run back to the safety of his dorm room and try to forget what just happened in the last five minutes, or try to recover what was left of his dignity. After all, the damage had already been done. Kisame had seen him unravel so there was no point is trying to forget what just happened. All he could do now was attempt to smooth things over.
"Before you go on, I have a few questions." Kisame said as Itachi opened his mouth to speak.
After a moment of careful consideration, Itachi obliged "Go on."
"God where do I even start?" He murmured. "Okay. What exactly happened with Deidara? Was he your boyfriend or something?"
Tactless. "No, he was not."
"Then why did he kiss you? What did you say? And when did this happen?"
There's still time to back-out. You don't have to do this. He doesn't need to know. Itachi thought to himself. But Kisame had seen him break down completely and didn't look like he was going to let Itachi leave without providing an explanation. "Valentine's Day. It happened on Valentine's Day." Itachi began and explained his run-in with Fu and Torune, what they had said, what Itachi saw when he returned back to the room, how he and Deidara had shared chocolate on Deidara's bed before Deidara asked him why he was so upset earlier, the kiss, and how he and his roommate were barely talking to each other now.
"Wow." Kisame breathed when Itachi finished. "And all this time I thought you read textbooks in the library all day and all night. I never thought that you of all people would be wrapped up in so much drama but then again, my freshman year of college was full of drama too…" He mused.
"It's not like I wanted for any of this to happen." Itachi muttered.
"I'm sure you didn't but that's what happens when you get to college. It's unavoidable."
Itachi shook his head. "No. It could've been avoided if I didn't lower my guard around him. If I didn't tell him about what Fu and Torune said that day. All of this could've been avoided if I would've been thinking straight."
"Maybe, but you have to remember that you're still grieving over your cousin. Grief has a way of making people do weird things, you know?"
"I wish Deidara had the sense to know that." He muttered.
Kisame glanced at the ceiling. "I don't know the kid that well to be honest with you, but from what I've seen, he's a little bit 'out there,' you know what I'm saying? He strikes me as the type to act first and think later but based on what you've told me about, his heart was in the right place."
"How could you say that? Kisame, he took advantage of me in a vulnerable state and you're telling me that his heart was in the 'right place'?"
"Before you go off on me again, hear me out please," Kisame said, "he took your mind off of those douchebags didn't he?"
Itachi nodded but refused to meet Kisame's eyes.
"And he made you feel better afterwards right?"
He nodded again.
"Sure, he kissed you, but maybe he got the wrong message…"
"The wrong message? Are you trying to say that I led him on or something? Because the last time I checked being an unbiased human being couldn't be construed as leading somebody on, Kisame."
"That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that maybe Deidara thought that you were interested in him or something. I mean, the kid thought that Shisui and you were dating…"
"Shisui was my cousin!"
"So you've said, but I also thought that the two of you were dating too so I can kinda see where Deidara's coming from."
"But he never once asked me if I was homosexual or not. In fact, he seems to have appointed himself as the local authority concerning homosexuality."
"What makes you think that?"
"He told me that he thinks that I'm homosexual and swears that he's right." When Kisame didn't say anything, Itachi continued with a curt chuckle. "He actually thinks that you're homosexual and since I have no problem spending so much time around you that I must be homosexual too!"
Although Itachi thought that Deidara's logic was ludicrous, he didn't find it to be as hilarious as Kisame seemed to. Across from him, the upperclassman was holding an arm over his stomach and guffawing so loudly that Itachi wouldn't be surprised if the residents across the hall came knocking at his door to complain about the noise.
"That kid's something else, I tell you…" Kisame finally spoke a few minutes later and wiped the corners of his eyes. "But I gotta give the kid some credit, he's sharper than most people I know."
Itachi blinked a few times. "What do you mean by that?"
"Well it's just…" Kisame started to say before chuckling some more, "a lot of people around here see two hundred and sixty-eight pounds of testosterone when they see me. You wouldn't believe how many girls attend our swim meets just to stare and get all giddy when I look their way. Or how many chicks ask me to be their date to homecoming and prom. That's all anybody ever thinks of when they see me. The muscle-y athlete who should have girls wrapped around his finger at all times."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm not gay if that's what you're thinking."
Itachi breathed a sigh of relief.
"I'm bi."
Oh my~!
I'm curious now to see what y'all think of Kisame's perspective on things~~~
A few notes:
1. I actually researched some accounting jargon so that stuff is kinda legit.
2. I also dug up my old statistics notes and tried to re-familiarize myself with it for the purpose of this chapter. So that's pretty legit too...(I even took the lesson from the exact date which Kisame's last class was...which explains the simplicity of the material. But we can't expect Kisame to get to the super hard stuff until a bit later in the semester now can we?
3. For anyone who's curious, this chapter takes place on Friday, February 26th, 2016. There's no rhyme or reason why that is. I chose to set the story in 2015 and we've since moved into 2016. It was Valentine's Day 3 chapters ago so I'm just moving on ahead as I see fit. No real world correlations (as far as the dates go)...it just is what it is...I just thought y'all would like to keep an idea of when these things occur~ ;)
Umm...so like I said, I'm a super busy person now and I don't have time to update my work all too often anymore. I might update the next chapter sooner rather than later since I was on a roll tonight but I won't give you a time-frame as to when you can expect that to happen because I probably won't meet that deadline so...yeah.
Until next time~!
Sasori33-001