Hey guys! This chapter is up a little later than I wanted, but things have been a bit hectic. I hope you enjoy though! This is the first chapter in Suna! I have the next chapter written already, so I just need to finish editing it and then it will be up!

Warnings: Incest, yaoi

A Family Affair

Chapter Four

"I missed you today."

Sasuke rolled over onto his back in bed and smiled against his phone, Itachi's voice making him feel more at home than his own room. "I'm sorry, I wanted to get my weekend assignments early so I could get them done before we leave tomorrow," he explained, then after a moment added, "I missed you, too."

"I guess I'll forgive you then," Itachi said jokingly, "After all, mom would be upset with you if you didn't get your work done."

"You're telling me," Sasuke groaned, remembering earlier. "As soon as I got home she was asking every five minutes if I was sure I'd gotten everything. She wouldn't believe me until I let her go through each assignment herself!"

Itachi laughed, "I don't miss that."

"I definitely won't either," Sasuke lamented. "Graduation can't come fast enough."

"I haven't asked, but do you have any thoughts on what you'd like to do to celebrate when that comes?"

"Heh, no, but thanks for being the only one to ask. Mom just keeps going on about colleges. I keep telling her I'm not sure I'm even going to do that, but you know her... She has her own idea of what I need to do with my life."

"So what do you want to do?" Itachi asked.

The question made him pause. What did he want to do?

Sasuke was quiet for a moment as he thought about it, but he just ended up sighing and picking at a loose string on his blanket. "I don't know. I just...want the chance to do what I want, whatever that ends up being, instead of trying to…"

He stopped himself, hesitating, wondering if he should say it. If he could.

It wasn't that he didn't want to, more that he wasn't sure he was ready to admit it all out loud. That he didn't feel good enough, that he'd overheard more than his fair share of their parents arguments about how he could apply himself more, regardless of the fact that Sasuke thought he was doing the best he could.

"Trying to what?"

Sasuke stared at a spot across his room, his fist clenching and unclenching unconsciously against his leg.

"...To be like you," Sasuke whispered finally.

"Sasuke…" Itachi's voice was soft and he sounded like he wanted to say something else, but he didn't, so Sasuke kept talking, letting it out in a rush.

"They won't stop comparing me to you, Itachi. My grades, the classes I take, the fact that I couldn't get through school quick enough. I mean, I know they're proud of you. You're great, after all, and I'm just-"

"Sasuke," Itachi interrupted, his voice more firm. "Please don't do that to yourself. Don't ever compare yourself to anyone. You're incredible, and smart, and-and amazing, truly, and the last thing I ever want is for you to think that you're not good enough. Because it's just not true…"

Sasuke bit his lip. His hand itched to hold his brother's as his throat constricted with emotion from the unexpected admission. It wasn't the first time Itachi had said something like that; he'd made a point to tell him when they were younger, but now it meant more. It was more, because they were more.

"You're more than good enough for me," Itachi said, affection clear in his tone. "You always have been."

"I… Thank you."

Sasuke pulled his blanket up to his chin and smiled to himself, savoring the feeling that those words gave him. He felt seen, felt heard, felt like he always had with Itachi before he'd stopped coming around. Whole, complete and not wishing for something more. From himself or anyone else.

"Are you packed for tomorrow?" Itachi's voice broke into Sasuke's thoughts. "I thought I'd pick you up around four."

Sasuke looked around his room, squinting in the dim light that came from the lamp on his desk across the room. The bag he was packing was open on the desk and he had clothes strewn everywhere between there and his closet. He hadn't been able to figure out what he should bring yet. He wasn't really the type to dress up unless he had to, and up until now he'd never really had a reason to even care.

Naruto had just been Naruto, after all.

This though...

"Uh, yeah," Sasuke muttered. "Totally packed and ready to go."

"That's good to hear; I have to admit I'm kind of surprised that you are."

"Hey, give me a break! I'm perfectly capable of getting packed on time," Sasuke exclaimed, but then hummed when he saw an opening. "Buuut just so I don't upstage you, why don't you tell me what you're bringing so I have enough time to repack if I need to."

"Ah, of course, well I have to admit that I'm not packed yet," Sasuke could hear the amusement in Itachi's voice and knew his brother was enjoying his suffering. "So I wouldn't worry about it too much, Sasuke."

Well that hadn't been helpful.

"How can I not worry though?" Sasuke argued. "This is… We're going away together, Itachi. For a whole weekend!"

"I know, I was the one who asked you, remember?"

"Ha ha ha, wipe that smirk off your face already," Sasuke rolled his eyes. "This is just...big is all. Special, and I just want to make sure I don't mess this up."

"How could you possibly mess this up?" Itachi sounded skeptical, but Sasuke's mind raced with possibilities.

"I could do something stupid, I could say something stupid, or what if we get into an argument? Or, what if...I-I don't know," Sasuke huffed out a sigh and ran a hand through his hair. "Besides...I mean," he paused, trying to decide if he should even say it, but it had been on his mind too much today to just stay silent about it. "I don't even know what we are."

"Okay, well, first of all, it's not like we haven't known each other for, you know, your entire life, so I don't think there's anything at this point that you could say or do that I'd find particularly strange," Itachi said with a laugh.

"I...guess that's a fair point," Sasuke conceded.

"Exactly, and so what if we argue? It doesn't have to be the end of our trip; we'll just talk it out and move on."

Sasuke sighed, "Okay, that's reasonable…"

Of course his logical brain hadn't been considering that. No, instead it had been panicking that Itachi would strand him in some strange town because they disagreed over something ridiculous, like ice cream flavors. Which he had to remind himself now, that they wouldn't do anyway because they both like the same one, mint chocolate chip.

Stupid brain, he chided himself.

"And the last one is the easiest of them all," Itachi said and Sasuke held his breath, waiting for his answer. "What do you want us to be, Sasuke?

"Woah, wait," Sasuke shook his head and pushed himself into a sitting position. "Why is it up to me? What do you want us to be?"

"Hold on," Itachi muttered to himself. After a second, Sasuke heard his phone beep and he pulled it away from his ear to see Itachi trying to video call him. He clicked accept and smiled when his brother's face brightened his screen.

"Are you living in a cave, Sasuke?" Itachi's eyes were searching for him in the darkness. "Why is it so dark?"

Sasuke reached over and fumbled to turn on the lamp on his bedside table, and when he turned back to his phone he stuck his tongue out at Itachi. "Well you could have warned me before you just decided to video chat."

"Well, I figured this conversation was best done face to face, so," Itachi shrugged, "This works well enough."

"Okay then...what are we?" he asked again, but couldn't look at Itachi. He felt childish about the whole thing almost, but, well, he wanted to know. Yeah, Itachi was his brother, he'd always be that, but this was beyond that. And he wanted to put some kind of name to it. Make some kind of sense of it.

"It's not that I don't want to answer, Sasuke. Or even that I don't already have an answer, but I told you when this started between us that I want you to tell me what you want from me, from this, from us," Itachi gestured vaguely between the two of them as he continued. "I hope at this point you know well enough how I feel about you, so for me personally, I'll happily put whatever label you want on us. Because I just want to be with you, regardless of what we are."

Glancing at his video feed in the corner of the screen, Sasuke was suddenly unhappy that he'd turned his light on because he could see the beginnings of the blush that had crept up his neck at Itachi's words.

"Well… I mean, I want… Ugh, it's stupid," Sasuke muttered to himself. He glanced at Itachi and then groaned and squeezed his eyes shut. "You know, this actually would have been a lot easier without you staring at me."

He peeked an eye open and was unsurprised to see Itachi failing horribly not to smile at his despair. "I'm sure, but then I would've missed watching you die of absolute embarrassment. And what would my life be like without that?"

Sasuke stuck his tongue out at Itachi again, but took a deep breath and said slowly, "I want...you...to be...my...boyfriend," then quickly followed with, "Is that weird? After saying it outloud, I feel that it's weird."

Itachi laughed loudly and the sound startled Sasuke so much that he dropped his phone. When he picked it back up, Itachi had covered his mouth, but was nearly rolling with laughter.

"Okay, okay, it's not that funny," Sasuke pouted. He hadn't realized that Itachi wouldn't take him seriously about this.

Itachi's phone shook slightly as he shook a hand at the screen, but he managed to calm himself enough to say, "No, no, I'm sorry. It wasn't what you said, it was just, when you said that it's weird, I couldn't help but think, "that's where you draw the line?" Because let's be honest here, what could be any weirder than hooking up with your brother?"

Sasuke pressed his lips together tightly, fighting the urge…

"C'mon, you can admit that it's a - Itachi held his forefinger and thumb up an inch apart from each other - little funny."

The smile Sasuke was fighting broke over his lips and he laughed, quickly covering his mouth so he wouldn't wake their parents. He had to look away from his phone as his shoulders shook with laughter so he didn't see Itachi's self-satisfied smile.

"I wish you were here with me," Itachi finally said when Sasuke looked back at him, pressing his fingers over his lips to stop himself from laughing again.

"Me too," he whispered back and then looked at the time. "I think I'm gonna lay down now, so you should too. Then," Sasuke tilted his head to the side and smiled, "It'll almost be like I'm there."

Together, they both got under their covers and got comfortable. They laid there watching each other for a few moments before Sasuke said, "You know, I have half a mind to have you read me a bedtime story. I like listening to your voice when I go to sleep."

Itachi smiled and said, "Well, if you give me a minute, I can pull up the ebook I've been reading. Could be boring though, it's a historical fantasy novel that I'm halfway through, so you're gonna be totally lost."

"Boring is great for sleeping, Itachi," Sasuke said with a clear "duh" in his voice as he yawned.

"Okay," Itachi said with a chuckle. He watched Sasuke fondly for a long moment and then quietly added, "By the way, it's not weird to me and I'd love to be your boyfriend."

His heart fluttered happily and Sasuke grinned, trying not to hide his face like a child in front of their crush. "Hush and read me your boring book."

Sakura was waiting for Sasuke outside the next morning, much to his surprise. He hadn't been expecting to see her for a while once she'd found out he was breaking up with Naruto. She wouldn't want to seem like she was picking sides, after all. Especially not his, since he'd been the one doing the breaking.

"Woah," she said, looking at him suspiciously when he came down the driveway to meet her. "You look happy. Like, ridiculously happy."

"Uh, thanks? I am," Sasuke said, trying not to smile as the thought came back to him once again this morning that Itachi was his boyfriend.

"Mm," Sakura shook her head and looked him up and down. "I don't like it. Go back inside - she waved her hands at him to go away - find my moody Sasuke and bring him back, you imposter!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes at her and started off down the road, knowing Sakura wouldn't let him get too far.

"Seriously," she said, falling into step with him, "I don't think I've ever seen you this happy. It's kinda weird, but...maybe that break up did you some good?"

Sasuke looked down and counted his steps, trying not to feel guilty about the very obvious elephant Sakura just put between them.

"Have you talked with him?" he asked.

"I mean, a little?" Sakura said with a shrug. "I texted him late Wednesday night and then yesterday a few times too, but he hasn't said much. And don't worry," she added, holding up a hand when Sasuke opened his mouth, "I told him I heard from Ino what happened."

"How would-you know, nevermind," Sasuke stopped himself. Ino had an uncanny ability to know a lot of things, so Sasuke wouldn't have been surprised if she did know about the break up. "I wasn't going to ask about that anyway. I was just going to say that he was pretty quiet yesterday, too. He still sat next to me in our classes, which was, you know, fine and all, but I didn't think he would."

"That is kinda weird," Sakura confirmed.

"Maybe he's really taking the "friends" thing to heart. Why should it be weird between us anyway?"

"It shouldn't be, I agree…"

"But?" Sasuke asked at her pause.

"But c'mon, it's totally weird! I mean, you guys kissed and, and, well, if you had s-"

"Woah! Calm down. It was three days!"

"It's okay to have sex, Sasuke, geez, and he was your boyfriend, after all!" Sakura exclaimed, maybe a little more loudly than Sasuke would have liked.

"We didn't have sex!" he spat at her quietly. "The most we did was kiss, so get your mind out of the gutter!"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Fine, whatever. Anyway, you two kissed, and stuff!" she added quickly, sidestepping away when Sasuke reached over to smack her shoulder. "So yeah, it's gonna be weird! Once you cross that line with someone, it's just not the same."

"And you couldn't have told me that before?"

"Before what?" she asked incredulously. "I couldn't tell you before you agreed to date him because he didn't come and ask me for advice, so my hands were kinda tied, Sasuke. So did you want me to go get my time machine or something to go back and warn you?"

"Yeah, that'd be great actually, if you could," Sasuke said sarcastically, waving his hand at her dismissively as they stopped at the gates to the school, Sakura muttering beside him.

He'd done it yesterday too, out of habit; stopped and waited for Naruto like he - like they - used to do for years. Naruto had never come though and Sasuke had gone to class late yesterday, worried that something was wrong with Naruto, or that he had decided to skip school after their break up. When he'd gotten to class though, with his phone in his hand and half a worried message typed out, he'd been surprised, relieved, and yeah maybe hurt that Naruto had just gone to class without him.

Today though, Sasuke wasn't looking around and expecting Naruto to come running up to them like everything was normal. Well, not as much.

"So, what are you doing this weekend?" Sakura asked him, checking the time on her phone to make sure they had time to chit-chat before the bell. Since she didn't hold her phone in her hand, staring obsessively at the time, he knew they had a few minutes at least. "My parents said it's supposed to be nice this weekend, so they're gonna set up their new projector in the backyard. So, I didn't know if you wanted to come binge some movies or something?"

"Wish I could," Sasuke lied, "But I've actually got plans already."

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "What plans? With who?"

"Chill out, Suspicious. With my brother." Sakura's gaze softened, but was still surprised. "He's got this conference thing out of town this weekend and he asked if I wanted to come."

It was the story Itachi had suggested they tell their parents. Simple and believable. Their parents had bought it easily enough, and since Sakura looked impressed, Sasuke could only assume she did, too.

"That's cool," she said then shrugged. "Guess that explains why he wasn't here yesterday. Probably getting prepared, but I'm happy for you! You two are so close again, and I'm happy you have him back in your life."

"Me too," Sasuke said. He tried to make a mental note to ask Itachi why he hadn't been at work yesterday, since he hadn't made it seem like anything had been wrong when they'd talked last night.

"Raincheck on the backyard movies then," Sakura said as the bell rang. They headed inside together and then quickly went their separate ways.

"Mom, please!" Sasuke said, opening his backpack up at his mother's insistence. "I promise, everything is finished!"

"I trust you, honey," Mikoto said, still taking the papers Sasuke offered her. "I just want to double check that you didn't miss anything though! You won't have time to do it once your brother brings you home on Sunday."

Sasuke watched, withdrawn as she went through all his assignments due on Monday. She nodded and "mhm"ed as she went through them, pausing for an extra few seconds every now and then. Long enough for Sasuke's heart to jump into his throat as he thought, for sure, she'd noticed a whole new page that he'd completely neglected to do.

"Everything looks great, sweetie!" She handed the papers back to him with a smile.

Sasuke felt relieved. The last thing he wanted was to have to postpone their trip because their mom wanted him to do more homework.

"Okay mom, Itachi is going to be here any minute, so can I finish getting ready please?"

"I'm not stopping you," Mikoto said with a laugh, but she didn't leave. "Anyway, your father and I were discussing this trip-"

"Oh, here we go," Sasuke mouthed to himself as he put the last few things into his bag, his back to her.

"-and we think you should check out the college in Suna. We've heard really great things about it-"

"Mom," Sasuke groaned. "I've told you before, but I… I don't think I want to go to college."

Mikoto acted more or less like she hadn't heard him, "Oh dear, don't be silly! Your brother had a great time in college and he-"

"Graduated early. I know, I was there," Sasuke said.

"Were you? I can't remember, that was so long ago anyway," Mikoto said dismissively.

Sasuke tried not to hold onto the comment, like he tried not to hold onto all the ones before now. He took a deep breath and counted to three, his brother's words from last night coming back and encouraging him.

"Mom," he said sternly. "I'm not Itachi, and I'm never going to be. I'm - he shrugged - sorry, I guess, if that's disappointing to you. If I've disappointed you."

Mikoto frowned at him and opened her mouth to reply when the doorbell rang. Sasuke zipped his bag up and slung it over his shoulder saying, "That's Itachi, so I gotta go. I'll see you when I get back."

"Sasuke!" she called after him, but he was already down the hall and the last thing he wanted was to continue this conversation.

When Sasuke opened the front door and saw his brother he almost kissed him right there for getting him out of that awkward moment. "Remind me to kiss you later," he whispered as Itachi waved at their mother from the doorway.

Itachi raised an eyebrow but just said, "Noted."

He took Sasuke's bag and put it in the trunk, and once they were both in the car, Itachi grabbed Sasuke's hand and held it.

"Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," Sasuke said and then sighed, glancing at the house. "No, but it's fine. Nothing new, I guess…"

"Well, I'm not going to push you to talk about it, but if you decide you want to, then I'm here, okay?"

Sasuke smiled and squeezed Itachi's hand, already feeling a little better. "Okay," he agreed as he let Itachi's hand go so they could leave. Once they pulled out of the driveway, Itachi put his hand on Sasuke's leg, and that was where it stayed for the next two hours.

When they were at a rest stop, halfway to Suna, Sasuke saw a couple in the middle of the parking lot fighting very animatedly and a thought from the other day came back to him as he watched one of the people walk away, clearly unhappy.

"Can I ask you something, Itachi?" he asked as they were walking back to the car. "As your boyfriend?"

It was still kinda weird to say it, but he was happy when he saw the smile that spread across Itachi's face at the word. "Of course, whatever you waaa-on second thought-"

"No! You already said I could!" Sasuke cut him off as Itachi changed his mind when he saw the mischievous look on Sasuke's face.

Sasuke leaned against the driver side door so Itachi couldn't get back into the car. "I wanna know who you dated before me? If you're my boyfriend, then I feel I should know. You know who I dated, if you want to call it that, so it's only fair."

"Fine, fine," Itachi groaned. He rested against the hood of the car, accepting his fate. "If you really want to know-"

"I do!"

"-then shush, and I'll tell you about one of them," Itachi tapped the back of his hand against Sasuke's arm to quiet him. "His name was Deidara, he was from out of town and he'd been around for some school event. We were long distance for a few months and met up with each other a couple of times before I found out that he had a boyfriend back home. Courtesy of said boyfriend."

Sasuke hissed softly in sympathy and then said, "That sucks, I'm sorry." Itachi shrugged, seemingly unfazed. "Okay, so what about the other one?"

Without missing a beat, Itachi pushed himself away from the car and walked a few feet away, shaking his head. "Ah, no, that one I really don't want to talk about, Sasuke."

"C'mon!" he begged, walking over and pouting at Itachi. "It's not like I care who it was, I just want to know."

"But I care," Itachi replied. He wasn't really focusing on Sasuke and it troubled him to see his brother looking so flighty. "It ended badly, which is definitely an understatement, and I…" he stopped and shook his head before continuing, "I can still barely stand to look at him."

"Well, I'm really sorry about that," Sasuke said, "but you're really just making me want to know even more!" Itachi gave him a look that clearly meant that he shouldn't push it, so Sasuke backed off half-heartedly. "Okay, okay, if you really, really don't want to tell me, then it's okay. I understand."

"I don't," Itachi said, but he didn't go back to the car.

"Okay, that's fine. It's your business, after all."

Itachi sighed and then leveled a look at Sasuke. "You get the guilt thing from mom, just so you know."

"I'm aware," Sasuke said with a half smile.

Itachi smiled back, but it was short lived. "Fine. It was Kakashi."

"Like…" Sasuke tilted his head to the side. "My teacher Kakashi?"

"Mhm," Itachi nodded.

"Wow, okay, I'm not going to say that it's weird, but…" Sasuke nodded his head to say that it was totally weird. "When did you two...you know," he waved his hand vaguely in the air, "date?"

"A couple of years ago," Itachi said. "Shortly after I moved out. I was trying very hard at that point to distance myself from you. I'd hoped that dating someone would...get my mind off of you, I suppose."

"Then what happened?"

Now it wasn't playful curiosity that urged him to find out more. Sasuke had never really seen his brother as agitated as this before and it concerned him. His mind rushed with potential scenarios. Had Kakashi done something? Hurt him in some way? And how had Itachi been able to work in the same building with him all this time if he disliked him so much?

"Sasuke," Itachi warned, his voice low. "Please. I really don't want to answer that question."

Sasuke took a slight step back, not expecting that but he held his hands up in surrender and nodded, serious this time. Itachi's response had only made him more nervous about the situation, but he couldn't force Itachi to tell him something. It wasn't his place to do that; not as his brother or his boyfriend.

"It's okay, you don't have to," he said.

He went over and wrapped his arms around Itachi's waist, hugging him tightly, not caring if anyone came up and saw them. They were far enough outside of the village that they shouldn't know anyone here anyway.

"I'm sorry for pushing," he murmured against Itachi's neck when he laid his head on Itachi's shoulder.

Itachi hugged him back, holding him more tightly than he'd been expecting, but he could feel some of the tension in Itachi ease up as they stood there in their embrace. "It's okay, Sasuke."

He pressed a kiss to Itachi's neck and smiled when Itachi kissed his head in response.

"Let's get out of here."

Sasuke hadn't been sure what to expect when they got to Suna. He'd only heard a few things about it and that was mostly about the trade agreements with the village from school, so Sasuke was pleasantly surprised when Suna, more or less, reminded him of home. As long as home was kind of dry and desert-y, then yeah, definitely just like Konoha.

Itachi hadn't told him anything about their plans for their trip, including where they were going to stay, so Sasuke wasn't expecting to pull up to a one story house surrounded by trees that didn't seem to necessarily belong in the climate. There were other houses around, but they had plenty of privacy.

"Wow," Sasuke said when he got out of the car and grabbed his bag from the trunk.

"Not what you were expecting?"

"I mean, I was expecting a hotel."

Itachi just shrugged and headed up to the door. He looked around briefly before he grabbed a rock off the ground and flipped it over, revealing a secret bottom of the, now obviously, fake rock. He grabbed the key out and put the rock back before opening the door.

"Wow," Sasuke said again when they walked inside.

The ceilings were tall, at least eight or nine feet taller than either of them. The door opened up into the most open concept living/dining/kitchen area that Sasuke had ever seen that he thought his voice might echo through the whole house if he just stood in the right spot. He took off his shoes and walked around the living room section, sitting briefly on the couch to test its comfiness - it would do - before walking across to the fireplace. A TV was mounted on the wall, but Sasuke was looking at the generic pictures of different landscapes on the fireplace mantle.

"Does it even get cold enough around here to use this?" he wondered to himself, tapping his fingers on the mantle.

"In the winter, from what I read," Itachi said as he stopped next to him. He wrapped an arm around Sasuke's waist easily, comfortably, and just let his hand rest on Sasuke's hip for a moment.

"I guess it's a shame we're still a few months from that then," Sasuke said. He pulled away from Itachi, but grabbed his hand to lead him. "C'mon, I wanna see the rest of the house."

The kitchen was next. "Coffee, tea, oh hey, there's food too!" Sasuke commented as he looked through the cabinets and checked the fridge, which was fully stocked.

Next they headed down the hallway on the right to find a bathroom and bedroom. Sasuke put his bag on the bed and looked around the room with his hands on his hips.

"Not too bad. I think they really went in on this color scheme though. I didn't know there were so many shades of brown and orange."

"Grab your bag," Itachi said, nodding toward the bed.

"Why? Can't this be my…" he trailed off as the thought hit him and he grabbed his bag and followed Itachi to the other hallway on the left, which ended in one huge room.

"I thought this would be our room," Itachi said pointedly.

Sasuke dropped his bag on the floor immediately after stepping inside. There was a huge bed in the middle of the room against the wall, easily big enough to fit at least five people, and a couch at the end of the bed where another two could comfortably nap.

Hanging on the wall opposite the bed and couch was a massive TV with some more decorative pictures hanging around it. There were two doors in the room aside from the one that they'd come in. One, Sasuke could see because it was already open, went to a closet that looked like it could have been another bedroom on its own.

The other door, Sasuke found out when he opened it, went to the fanciest bathroom he'd ever seen in his life, and was pretty sure he'd ever see again. Even aside from the muted browns and greys of the tile, Sasuke could admit he was impressed. Keeping with the theme from this side of the house in general, there was a bathtub that could have doubled for a pool, a shower encased completely in glass with three - three! - showerheads and a double vanity sink.

"Holy fuck," Sasuke mouth at Itachi when he went back into the bedroom.

"Yeah, I figured this would be a little better for us," Itachi said. He was already unpacking, seemingly unimpressed by the well, uh, everything that this whole room was. "Or, by all means, if you're more comfortable with it, you can have your own room."

"No!" Sasuke said quickly, too quickly not to seem desperate. Itachi looked over at him and smirked. "I mean," he cleared his throat. Yeah, because that would make up for it. "No, it's fine. This is just fine."

"Hmm," Itachi hummed, walking over and putting his hands on Sasuke's hips, turning Sasuke around and guiding him backwards toward the bed. "I'd been hoping for something a little better than fine."

"Oh? And what were you expecting?"

Sasuke's knees hit the edge of the bed, but Itachi kept him up and balanced as he said, "Oh, I dunno. Some type of appreciation, I suppose. Maybe even a kiss?"

"Well, if you're going to beg me," Sasuke whispered, wrapping his arms around itachi's neck. His brother was still a couple of inches taller than him, so he had to raise up just slightly to match their lips together. The kiss was short, teasing, asking for more.

"If I remember correctly," Itachi said when Sasuke pulled away. "That was actually the kiss you owed me."

"Oh, you're right," Sasuke said, acting like he'd just remembered. He pulled out of Itachi's arms and turned to crawl on the bed, flopping on his back in the middle of it and looking back at Itachi askantly. "Then why don't I give you something even better to show my appreciation?"

For a moment, Itachi didn't respond, didn't move, didn't even look at him. Sasuke sat up and looked at Itachi with a concerned frown when he finally sat on the edge of the bed, leaning forward to hold his head in his hands.

"Is everything okay, Itachi?" Sasuke crawled closer and laid his hand on Itachi's back.

Itachi moved to take his bun down and run his hands through his hair, gripping fistfuls of the strands tightly and pulling as he shook his head.

"Itachi, what's wrong?" Sasuke asked, scooting close enough to press himself against his brother's side in what he hoped was a comforting way. "You can talk to me if something's bothering you."

Itachi let go of his hair and his arms fell down to rest against his legs. He whispered, so quietly that Sasuke almost couldn't hear him, "He wanted to be with you."

"...What?" Sasuke swallowed loudly as he asked, afraid he already knew the answer.

Itachi shook his head again, but he was completely unreadable through the curtain of dark hair that hung around him. "Kakashi," he answered. "That was what happened. He wanted to be with you, but I was close enough. Until I wasn't."

Sasuke rocked backward like he'd been slapped, his eyes widened as the realization set in. Kakashi had always played favorite's with him, letting him get away with things no one else could, but Sasuke just thought that was because he was at the top of his class and didn't really get into trouble. Not because...because...

"He… I…" Sasuke spluttered, trying to come up with a coherent response. He just ended up shaking his head instead.

"When I found out… When he told me to my face… You were just turning sixteen, and I...I couldn't…" Itachi paused and dug his nails into his palms as he clenched his fists. "I told him if he ever so much as looked at you wrong, then I'd kill him where he stood." Finally, Itachi looked at him. His hair hung in his face, but Sasuke could still clearly see the anger in his brother's gaze. It wasn't directed at him, rather the memory Sasuke was sure he must have been reliving as he spoke.

"As you can imagine," Itachi said, "We haven't really "talked" much since then."

"Yeah," Sasuke breathed. "No shit... How have you managed to work with him all this time?"

"Without being arrested for murder?" Itachi grinned slightly, sad and angry. "I couldn't tell you, honestly. I just knew that staying there would let me keep an eye on him. Let me keep him away from you as best I could."

Sasuke nodded. "You didn't have to tell me, Itachi," Sasuke finally said, reaching back out to rub his brother's back. "I let it go."

"Well, once you brought it up earlier, I couldn't let it go," Itachi admitted, hanging his head again. "And I didn't want that hanging over me-over us this weekend."

"I get that."

"I'm sorry," Itachi sighed.

"For what?" Sasuke asked.

Itachi laughed to himself and pushed his hair behind his ears. "I don't even know."

"Hey," Sasuke grabbed Itachi's hand in his and squeezed it, tugging him gently backward. Itachi went willingly, laying on his back. Sasuke fit himself against Itachi's side and laid his head on his brother's chest, wrapping his arm around Itachi's waist firmly. "Talk if you want to, if it'll make you feel better," he said, rubbing his thumb in little circles on Itachi's side.

"Just know that I'm here, and I'll always be here, Itachi."