When they reached the hotel room Kisame flopped down on his bed wearily. Man, that really HAD been a long journey. He could tell Itachi was worn out too, though it wasn’t really obvious. Of course, the fact that he hadn’t deactivated the Sharingan once since they arrived at the village probably added to it. Coupling this with the stress he had obviously been feeling earlier, and this made for one worn out Uchiha. Kisame watched him shuffle over to his bed slowly as though planning each step. He raised an eyebrow when his partner collapsed onto it with a relieved sigh. Any more of this “showing emotions” crap and he would start suspecting this was an imposter.  But there were other matters to attend to now.

                 “Ne….Itachi?”  Kisame waited for a moment for a response. He received none…well, unless his partner’s finger twitching counts. He figured Itachi was probably still pissed. The swordsman felt an overwhelming tide of guilt as he stared into his lover’s exhausted face. He knew that whatever Itachi was going through, the cruelness of what he had said earlier had made it worse. This made him curious as well, after all, it wasn’t like Itachi to care what he said. Usually the Uchiha would have just threatened him with the Mangekyo and that would be that. Kisame found he didn’t really like the idea of Itachi being so weak. So…he supposed he ought to apologize.

“Um…Itachi…may I give you a hug?” Kisame blinked once. That wasn’t what he wanted to say…

“Why?” The usual emotionless response lingered in the air, mingling a bit with curiosity. Kisame knew he couldn’t say it was for Itachi’s own good, even though both of them would probably know it.

“Because I feel kind of lonely over here without you? Please, ‘Tachi?” If anyone else had said this to Itachi (assuming they were stupid enough to dare to) it would have gotten them killed. However, Kisame knew instantly that he’d won by the way his partner shifted a bit and sighed.

“Yay!” In less than two seconds Kisame had bounded over and snuggled up to his partner, wrapping his arms tightly around the smaller man. Itachi stiffened slightly at first before relaxing and burrowing his head into Kisame’s chest. They relaxed like that for a moment before Itachi spoke.

“We need to make a plan.” Kisame wasn’t at all surprised by how cruel the Uchiha sounded, even with his voice muffled in the shark’s cloak.

“Right. So, what are our facts?”

Itachi gave a practically nonexistent smile as he felt his uneasiness disappear in the face of familiar territory.

“Our target is male, name is Katsuma Hatori. He is known to have stolen a scroll from leader during their last battle. Mission is successful when the scroll is retrieved and target is terminated. Target lives somewhere in this village.”

Kisame nodded, a look of pure concentration on his face as he committed this information to memory.

“Alright. So, tomorrow we set out for information gathering?”

Itachi nodded. “Correct.”

Kisame looked down at his partner, whose head was still nuzzling his heart. He sighed and made to stand up.

“No!” Kisame started at the yell and gazed in blank shock at the Uchiha. Itachi had a death grip on his arm and looked terrified for a very brief moment…before smoothing it over.

“I mean…can you stay? Please?”

Kisame’s stare intensified. So, not only was his lover displaying emotions OPENLY, he was also saying please?? That was like Kakuzu saying he didn’t care about money. When silence met his request, Itachi felt the need to elaborate.

“I only meant…at night you’re really quiet. Silent. And if I can’t hear you or feel you it’s like…you’re not even there. And I…don’t want that.” He explained gazing fixedly at the ground. Kisame sighed and sat back on the bed, wrapping his arms around his now shaking partner. Okay, so now he was REALLY worried.  He thought back on what Itachi had said, and noticed something odd about his statement. Both to tease, and to answer his small curiosity he asked:

“Why do you need to hold me then? Can’t you see me?”

He had never expected the whispered reply that turned his world upside down.

“No. No I can’t.”