Obito could do nothing but sit half curled up with his elbows on his thighs and his face buried in his hands. His eyes burned, his head throbbed painfully, he could no longer bear neither light nor sounds of any kind. It was only two in the afternoon and he already felt as if he hadn't slept in three days. He sat in a rigid plastic chair in the hospital corridor. Rin had finally managed to eat something after talking for more than an hour with a psychologist, now she was sitting next to him slowly sipping a fruit juice, however she couldn't take her big brown eyes off Yahiko who was planted in front to that glass.
No one could enter the intensive care room where Nagato was, if all of them had been a little late in opening that cursed door there probably wouldn't have been anything more for him to do. He had made cuts on his arms using the glass from the window that he had shattered, they weren't very deep but his previous weakness from malnutrition ended up doing the rest. For the moment they could only see it from a thick glass while remaining in the corridor. Yahiko was there misting it with his breath since they had arrived to stare at that miserable tangle of wires and tubes from which wine-colored strands came out, unable to find peace. He stood so close that sometimes his piercings jangled on the transparent surface. Rin had gone beside her placing her hands on his shoulders to propose to him too a session with the psychologist where she herself had been. Obito, from the chair from which he no longer had the strength to get up, she had seen him shake that head of living flame letting two tears flow from his eyes squeezed in a desperate expression.
Shisui sometimes went to him to offer him a coffee or something to eat, Yahiko accepted without moving from there.
Itachi also felt terribly responsible towards Nagato, now lying on a stretcher on the opposite side of the corridor from Obito. Until recently his electrocardiogram had been monitored constantly while now a nurse came by to check him from time to time. Obito had given Kisame his space, realizing immediately that there was something special in what he felt towards Itachi. Kisame didn't do anything in particular, yet the way he occasionally brushed his hand or his hair, the look on his face as he did it, and the fact that he purposely moved a chair to be next to him, all of this together it had something incomparable.
Obito had learned, through Kakuzu, what had happened in Susanoo's private room about a year earlier. The manager had told him about a tall, heavily muscled customer with distinctive dark blue crew-cut hair, who had done the hell to be alone with Itachi and then just talk. Just that evening he and Kisame had met again after so many years, from the day Madara disappeared, Obito immediately understood that Kisame was the client Kakuzu had told him about. Despite everything Obito felt relieved for Itachi, if it hadn't been for Kisame's closeness perhaps this time his heart, tried by all the pain he had to face since he was very young, might not even have been able to bear it.
If Kisame had unknowingly been Itachi's salvation that damned day, Rin had been towards him shortly after Madara's disappearance. Obito remembered perfectly that occasion when his phone unexpectedly rang. He was so devoured by anger and pain that he mistakenly considered himself happy that Madara hadn't returned home and for having made the decision not to see Naruto, Kiba and Kisame anymore; in particular he held the latter responsible for having distanced Madara from him.
Obito felt the victim of profound injustices at the time, Rin had abandoned him immediately after the accident in which he lost his parents, Madara and Kisame were deemed unable to understand him and he certainly didn't want to go out and have fun in the company of Kiba and Naruto . As a result, he ended up ignoring anyone who attempted to contact him either by phone or at home. He didn't even have the desire to get back in touch with Itachi and Sasuke, two people destroyed by pain at that moment were certainly not the best solution. Obito had never contacted Shisui either having poured his whole life and expectations of him on Madara, on the other hand he had been the only one to stay close to him during those difficult years. That's why he ended up feeling so deeply betrayed by him.
Madara, you were just trying to be happy, my closeness wasn't easy, now I understand. You too felt the need to get a life and that wouldn't have meant abandoning me, I hope one day you will be able to forgive me.
However at the time Obito didn't think so, the day he received the unexpected call from Rin he was still in the grip of a grudge. He had clung to his voice like a magnet, like putty: Rin was the first person to have consideration of him after that for everyone it was as if he were transparent, this had the contours of an authentic miracle for him. Rin's ringing voice had sounded like music played by angels through that handset, he had nothing but her now. The woman had offered him a simple coffee together. It could have meant all or nothing, yet he had found himself pouring, as he had done with Madara, the totality of his expectations on this appointment. Inside himself Obito knew very well that it was not right to entrust one's entire existence exclusively in the hands of a single person, however admitting this in that moment would have meant remaining totally alone.
When he saw her, he could see that Rin hadn't changed a bit, her good humor dragging on, the trill of her laughter silvery. She had just trimmed her shoulder length brown hair a bit, however this made her look even more youthful and genuine since she had known her. Rin had always found a way to look much less than her real age.
There hadn't been time to talk in that bar, that first date had only served to scrape off the rust that had accumulated during the years they hadn't seen each other. They had continued to hear from each other over the next two days when Rin literally knocked him off his feet by inviting him for a walk to the amusement park. Obito felt inadequate in that immense square crowded with families with children and teenagers, however he let himself be dragged by the girl's small hand.
Rin laughed, it was cold that evening, clouds of condensation swelled around her little mouth, made glittering by a transparent lip gloss perhaps with some small glitter inside, with every word. Obito at the beginning of him pulled his neck back a bit into the dark blue scarf by thrusting his hands into the pockets of his very elegant gray coat. But after a few minutes, that woman with a slim and slim physique had made him forget, after so many years, that his left eye had gone with his parents in a moment in the middle of a street, she grabbed his hands without notice if one of them was torn by scars.
Rin had made him forget the battered eyebrow and forehead that he artfully hid under the slightly tousled fringe of black hair, including the cut on his cheek for which there was no solution. Madara was gone as she guided him in the direction of the shooting gallery. Naruto and Kiba's evenings full of joy didn't matter anymore, he holding a rifle and she a gun that fired small rubber pellets. The call Sasuke received faded the colors along with the roar of the crawler's engine. Obito was laughing now for the first time in a long time as he downed empty soda cans.
I haven't laughed sincerely since you left me, Rin.
Now his life had returned, he saw it in those colored lights that surrounded him, cheering up that beautiful evening, he found it again in the clouds of steam that rose from the cotton candy machine and in the fragrance of the roasted chestnuts. She merged with the children's voices and the music that she found it hard to follow since, in the square, several songs were played at the same time. He had deluded himself that he would find in Madara his life, but now he realized that she had always been entirely there, that tiny body of hers was able to welcome her entirely.
The brain can only focus on one song at a time if you don't want to end up hearing just a big mess. But tonight there is nothing but you, Rin, you and my life are the same. You and I are the same.
He didn't care how wrong this way of thinking was as he won for her a fluffy white stuffed tiger with blue eyes. He didn't mind canceling himself into her eyes as he abruptly kissed her without saying anything. He had joined their lips so, as if all those years spent away from each other without him having ever received an explanation, had been worth less than a day; he eagerly sucked in the cherry aroma of the simple but integral lip gloss of her style and his persona. Kisame's concern, who had come to look for him and Madara at home two days before Christmas, while he cowardly hid behind the curtain, no longer mattered. He didn't consider at all the fact that he would end up pining forever wondering what happened to both of them as he pushed Rin against his car by tucking his hands under her smooth dark red velvet skirt. He didn't want an explanation as to why she had left him alone in such a difficult circumstance in his life, all these questions, which had crowded his mind over the years and from which no one had managed to distract him, had been erased in a second.
He had laid her completely naked on that same sofa where he had surprised Kisame and Madara only a few days before; now scattered on the parquet of her living room there weren't the envelopes of gifts that had escaped from the cousin's hands but their clothes thrown on the ground immediately after the door. Her first items, just inside the door, were her vermilion coat and fur beret in Rin's own color.
Obito rolled onto his back pulling Rin on top of her, he was exposing his scarred chest now but he had never given a damn if she was the one seeing them. He could fully enjoy her only if her rough skin was touched by her little hands, only now her sighs were free to go out without fear.
The woman's physique was rather androgynous, her breasts small with light pink nipples, Obito liked to touch them with the palms of his hands, feeling that sensation of pure silk that he had never felt anywhere else. Although she was thin she Rin she was still well proportioned, her slim waist, her round but small buttocks gave her a perfect hourglass shape in which Obito let his excited mind melt. Rin had sat on his lower abdomen and he had flinched just feeling the wetness of her increasing arousal. Obito felt a relentless fire raging around him as he rose to kiss and suck on the woman's tiny navel, the moan she sent out having the power to make him completely lose his mind. He sank his hot flesh into her without any scruples gliding as if he were melted butter. He had missed her so much that it was impossible to describe the feeling using only the words he had invented so far in all the dictionaries of the world.
Obito arched his head back as he felt Rin's tongue follow the veins that must have now swollen in spasm on his neck. He lifted her with each deep thrust of her pelvis enjoying the touch of the velvety skin of his buttocks. Obito slid his quivering hands following the curve of her waist as it widened around her hips as she wrapped her arms around his torso and leaned over him. Her small breasts were now resting at the base of his neck as she imprisoned him in an endless kiss following his cadenced and supple movements. Obito seemed to see the air trembling, the heat developed by their skin was so intense, he swirled up merging together.
Yes, Rin, you and I have always been one, I am nothing without you and I don't care to know if it's the same for you too.
The moment they were fully together Obito felt complete as if the accident had never taken anything away from him, Rin alone was able to fill the lack of parents, uncles and the eye. Also of the loss of the beauty that had characterized his young face.
The inferiority complexes towards Madara's appearance were canceled in that orgasm reached in unison without the need for waiting on the part of either of them. The faces of Kisame, Naruto and Kiba disappeared in that light that Rin seemed to emanate as she moaned and sighed above him with her big eyes closed. The past seemed to have been wiped away with a simple swipe of the sponge.
While they had remained embraced and cuddled on that sofa which had seen so many in a few days and covering their naked bodies which remained entangled with a soft plaid, Obito did not in the least pose the problem of people suffering because of him, he was only concerned with her and the time they had been apart.
"I'm sorry, Rin, forgive me for pulling you away from me," he murmured kissing her forehead.
Her eyes had become watery confessing all this, Obito was never in the slightest touched by the doubt that she might not be sincere. They had fallen asleep there, on that sofa, as serene as they both hadn't been for years.
Over the following days and weeks, however, Rin had realized that something was wrong, it hadn't been difficult for her to realize how Obito poured all of her energies on her, reaching the point of canceling himself. She had noticed it from the practically instantaneous speed with which she answered her messages and her calls as if she had the phone always at her fingertips waiting for nothing but her. He canceled appointments and commitments just to be together even for a few minutes. The fact that Obito had told her everything that had happened with Madara not long ago and seeing how he shifted the whole blame on Kisame had helped her understand how things really were, it seemed that Obito needed the exclusive attachment to a only person who then managed in a very possessive way. Unfortunately, any woman, even some of her familiar with her, would have taken advantage of this situation, feeling free to do as she pleases, always having a safe haven to return to in case things went wrong. But she really loved that man broken by life, that's why she had given all of herself so that he could regain confidence in her person by progressively re-establishing relationships first with Shisui and then with Sasuke and Itachi.
It had been a family marked by misfortunes in which Rin felt the need to spread his joy and positivity. Finding Madara and helping Itachi to carry on both his and his younger brother's lives, despite his obvious health problems, had quickly become one of his priorities driven by his natural and genuine empathy.
Impossible not to love her. The day Obito had announced to the whole family his desire to marry her she had been greeted by hugs and smiles, the only great regret that had cast some shadow on his immense joy was not having Madara present among the guests. Obito felt tremendously guilty towards both her and those of Naruto, Kiba and Kisame.
That evening at Susanoo in which Kisame had spoken to her asking who was the disconsolate dark haired sitting alone at the table, Rin had immediately realized who it was based on the descriptions given by her husband, that's why she had tried to favor an approach, albeit very slow and progressive between her husband and those friends who had never stopped thinking about him.
On that spring afternoon that started as an ordinary day and then turned into a great catastrophe, despite the extreme gesture made by Nagato, Rin in her innate optimism was able to see the keys to set things right among all the people who were now in that hospital. She gave a small smile placing a little hand on her husband's thigh.
I know that all of this, while terrible, didn't happen without a reason. Obito has changed and now the time is ripe for him to pick up his life where he left off. Itachi, Sasuke and Shisui will surely get something better from that life that has always betrayed them. Kisame is ready to become part of the family, he and Itachi already love each other even if perhaps they will need time to recognize each other. I'm sure Yahiko and Nagato, once they get out of here, will be brothers like they've never been. Madara, this is the family you've always dreamed of and that is ready to welcome you.