mirageflicker (mirageflicker) wrote in strangergamesrp, @ 2012-12-05 20:08:00 |
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Entry tags: | closed, log, uchiha itachi, uchiha shisui |
Rotting Mothers and Bathtime
Who: Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Shisui
When: November 13th
Where: Itachi and Shisui’s room
What: Shisui gets freaked out by the television. Itachi gives him a bath. Their happy times are ruined (as always), and Itachi is left alone again.
Warnings: Angst. Bitty!Shi, naked!bitty!Shi.
Open or Closed: Closed
Observable: No
There was nothing wrong with the TV. Shisui liked it a little, actually, though it took him a while to understand that the colors moving around were people. After that, he started liking TV less.
Feeling sleepy, Shisui had settled into a corner of the couch to watch it. Someone who was green had the control, and didn’t look ready to change anything. The game, unlike what he’d seen before, was violent. The TV kept focusing in on when a player would get blown up or a leg cut off. It was just like that when a woman’s torso was cleaved down the center.
Shisui went very still and quiet as the innards spilled out. She kept screaming, and he could see her ribs, all the intestine, muscle, meat, and an unknown organ.
The smell filled his nostrils, and Shisui felt damp. He jumped out of the couch and twisted, trying to see the blood on his body. He couldn’t find it, but his skin felt tacky. He couldn’t tell where the smell was coming from.
Shisui ran. It was blindly, at first, but then he realized he wanted Itachi. He went running jerkily for Itachi’s room, intending to latch onto Itachi’s leg.
Itachi had been reading, but the sound of small, running feet urged him to the door. Normally, the doors kept sound out very well, but Itachi kept the door cracked if Shisui was off exploring, just in case the boy needed to come in quickly. Itachi nudged open the door as Shisui came barrelling towards him. Itachi quickly glanced to see what was coming after the boy, intent on sweeping him inside and out of danger if anything were after him.
Startled that there wasn’t anything, but Shisui was distressed, Itachi didn’t make a move to keep Shisui from latching onto his leg.
Shisui wrapped his arms around Itachi’s leg and buried his face into Itachi’s hip. He wasn’t crying, but he was disturbed by what he’d seen. Still smelled. “There’s blood,” He whined, pressing closer.
Itachi stepped back into the room, taking his leech with him. “Where’s blood?” Itachi asked, trying to pry Shisui off and check him over for blood.
Shisui continued to cling to Itachi’s pants, but took a step back and looked up at him with an open mouth. He half pointed out the door, then tried to push his face into Itachi’s hip. “Everywhere.”
“Was there a fight?” Itachi asked as he knelt down and ran his hands through Shisui’s hair. He couldn’t see or smell any blood on the boy. He hadn’t heard a fight, but that didn’t mean there hadn’t been one. Blood could come from one blow.
“On the TV,” Shisui said, and sniffed. Wiped at his nose. “Her guts came out. Smells nasty.” He didn’t know that his memory of the smell was tainted by decay and the rain; he’d never smelled bowels at the moment they were exposed.
Since Itachi knew the TV didn’t project smells, he assumed this was something that Shisui had seen in his short life. Itachi held his hands out to Shisui in a silent offer to pick the boy up. “Should we burn some incense?”
Shisui eyed the hands, then stretched up to let himself be held. He nodded. “She’s dead, now, like Mama. I want vanilla and ocean.” Those were clean.
“But people don’t stay dead here,” Itachi said as he hefted the little boy up. He had to admit some kind of guilty pleasure in carting Shisui around like this. He wondered how twisted a mindset someone could get growing up here and gave Shisui a squeeze. Now that he was used to his smaller cousin, he had grown very attached. Things were slightly less complicated with him.
Slightly.
Itachi fished the incense out of his drawer, humming to himself as he did so.
“She’s not dead either.” With the squeeze, Shisui gave an unhappy noise and wriggled down, pushing at Itachi’s hands. He still had issues with being picked up. Once he hit the ground, he rubbed at his arms for a second, then turned and jumped into Itachi’s bed.
“Shisui, I’m starting to think you don’t like me,” Itachi sighed as he got out the incense. He pulled out some matches and set the burner up on the chest of drawers.
“Do you want to light it?” How could an Uchiha resist fire?
With those words, Shisui wrinkled his nose, didn’t say anything, and got up to attach himself to Itachi’s legs again. He nodded and reached up with his right hand, left still fisted in Itachi’s pants, and grabbed the matchbox.
“Don’t burn yourself. Or me,” Itachi instructed, but otherwise he would let Shisui do what he wanted with the matches. So far he hadn’t tried to set Itachi on fire.
He knew how to light matches. Shisui did it easily, then stood on the tips of his toes to light the blue and white sticks respectively. He took a deep breath, hoping the smell of death would be drowned out, and blew on the match to put it out, then left the burnt stick on the chest.
Then he was back to clinging to Itachi. “Her guts and ribs were all out,” Shisui said again, looking up at him.
Itachi sighed and sat down, pushing Shisui away enough that he wouldn’t take the boy down with him. “She’ll be okay, Shisui. They’ll put her back together again.” Itachi thought he’d like to stab whoever had let Shisui see that. Maybe Shisui had been hiding, but Itachi thought it more likely the person simply hadn’t cared.
Shisui sat--fell, really--and grabbed for Itachi’s pant cuff, playing with it for a few seconds before mumbling something incoherently negative.
“It’s not nice to see people get hurt, is it?” Itachi tugged at Shisui’s pants leg. At five, Itachi had been already thrust into the Academy. People were training him to kill. It didn’t mean he liked it, until he had decided he liked it too much. If you hurt people first, they wouldn’t hurt you.
Shisui shook his head. Ignored the touches for a time, then touched Itachi’s foot. “No one put Mama back together. I waited, too. Crows just ate her.” And him, a little, since he smelled like her. His breath pulled oddly, and he pressed forward into Itachi’s leg.
“I know.” The stories of Shisui’s mother’s death had never touched Itachi much. From Itachi’s young view, she’d been the non-clanner who had taken Shisui away from him. If she’d been alive, she would have tried to take Shisui away with her, and Itachi would have been alone. Itachi knew he should have been sad, but he’d always been mostly glad she’d been dead.
He’d never gotten the story quite like this before.
Shisui looked up at Itachi, startled, and it changed to fury in an instant. “You’re lying!” A shriek. “You said you would, would be there and wouldn’t be, leaving me alone, but you know, you left Mama and me there--liar!” With that, he smashed a fist into Itachi’s knee and wailed.
Itachi caught Shisui’s hands, startled. The fist was too small to hurt, but he hadn’t expected Shisui to yell at him. “Don’t hit.” The admonishment came out automatically, and Itachi pushed Shisui away from him.
“What did I promise, Shisui?” Itachi asked, hoping for some kind of logic, even twisting five year-old logic.
Shisui scampered to the bed, then looked at Itachi warily. “Said, said, you said...” He held onto the frame. “If’ya knew, you’d be there, so you said you didn’t know but you did!” He wanted to go to Itachi, but Itachi didn’t want him now. Not after he’d hit.
The more upset Shisui became, the less certain Itachi became he understood what the boy said. He’d been able to parrot Shisui’s accent pretty well as a child, but it had never been this bad. Even when Shisui was five they couldn’t understand each other. “I know she died, Shisui. I know now. I didn’t know then. I wouldn’t lie to you.”
The wary look made Itachi hurt. It made the him tired in the same way Shisui’s paranoia made him tired. Maybe Shisui had been crazy from the start.
Itachi kicked that thought away and held out a hand.
Shisui didn’t really get it, but when the hand was offered, he promptly went to Itachi and sat in his lap, then put his head down. “I don’t get it.” He leaned in anyway, and reached to play with Itachi’s hair. “I tried to put it back in, but it kept sliding out, Itachi. You know that?”
“It’s time magic. It’s hard to explain,” Itachi offered, settling the boy in his lap in such a way Shisui wouldn’t feel he was being held, but would feel secure. Maybe safe. He let Shisui’s damp fingers tug at his hair, wary of little snatching hands.
“I didn’t know that.” Shisui hadn’t shared those details with his cousin.
“Everything’s hard,” He grumbled, then buried his head into Itachi’s chest, making a small whining noise. Nodded.
“The crows were supposed to take her away. They just ate her eyeballs, and it smelled.” He burrowed closer. “She didn’t wake up. I tried to make her, but she never ever did.” Shisui petted Itachi’s hair like a cat, with a rather heavy hand, but he didn’t grab.
Itachi returned the favor by running a hand over Shisui curls. They were dirty and crunched a little from the leftover soap, but short of holding Shisui under water, getting him to bathe and not just cause mini-tsunamis in the tub was difficult.
Shisui went quiet for a few minutes, then looked up at Itachi, tugging on his shirt. “I need to get this off, it feels weird.” A pause. “....I’ll take a bath if you use the lemon thingie.” The strange mix of the two scents had finally driven out the smell of rot, but he felt dirty.
“Okay.” Itachi kissed the top of Shisui’s head. “I’ll use the lemon soap. Do you want the squid too?” Bath toys were a wonderful thing. They were also very distracting.
Shisui nodded, because the squid was squishy, then wrapped his arms around Itachi’s neck, to be lifted.
“One, two...” Itachi shifted his feet under them. “Three.” They went up on three and Itachi held Shisui close. He hefted the boy up onto his hip and walked them to the bathroom, glad to leave the talk of rotting mothers behind.
Itachi bent over to put Shisui down. “Get the squid.”
Shisui wiggled his toes, then stripped his shirt off as he walked to the sink. He ducked under it and pulled out a floppy, gel-like squid, and shook it at Itachi. Smiled for a moment, then rubbed at his skin and moved to take his pants off.
Itachi smiled and turned on the water. He held his hand under the stream until he was sure it wasn’t too hot and moved to get soap. “Do you want bubbles too?” Itachi asked as he got a washcloth.
Shisui nodded, and climbed in the water anyway, plopping the squid in to let it float. “Bubbles, bubbles!”
Itachi grabbed the bubble bath and perched on the edge of the tub. He measured out a generous dollop of soap and dropped it in by the faucet, created an instant and quickly growing pile of bubbles. Someone had suggested the bubbles as a way to get Shisui into the bath.
“Are you going to wash your hair this time?” Itachi asked.
Shisui grinned at the bubbles, looked at Itachi, and leaned forward to get his hair soapy and wet. See, it would be clean!
“That’s not the hair soap, Shisui.” Still, Itachi scooped up a handful and put it on Shisui’s head. “You are very bad at washing.” Itachi grinned.
Shisui latched onto Itachi’s wrist and giggled a little, not really caring that he was bad. “I never wash,” Except Itachi had made him, and he used to get in the ocean.
“I noticed!” Itachi ruffled Shisui’s damp curls. “You’d think you’d use any excuse to get into water, but you act like a cat afraid to get her feet wet whenever I mention a bath.”
Shisui shook his head. “I’m a shark! Sharks can’t stay in tubs!” And with that, he reached up and bit Itachi on the wrist. Not hard enough to bleed, but enough to leave a slight mark that would fade within minutes.
Itachi jumped when Shisui bit him. He almost yanked his hand away, but the bite wasn’t hard--not mean, which was more important than how hard it had been.
“You’re too little to be a shark. You don’t have gills,” Itachi pointed out as he sat down beside the tub.
“No, I’m a small one. A nurse shark! They have weird gills!” Shisui puffed his cheeks up at Itachi, and then reached forward to leave a handprint.
“You’re bathing, not me,” Itachi diverted the hands and leaned back. “Nurse shark don’t have teeth.”
“I would bite you hard if I was a big shark,” Shisui decided, returned to the water, and threw a squid at Itachi’s chest.
Itachi caught the squid easily and tossed it onto Shisui’s head. “You’re very mean.” Itachi propped his arms on the side of the tub and watched Shisui lazily.
Shisui giggled and held onto the squid, then sank into the water. Grabbed the nearest shampoo--Itachi’s--and made to pour it on his head.
“No!” Itachi grabbed for the bottle. “You’ll get it in your eyes.” Which would be Itachi’s fault, and Shisui would no doubt be terribly upset and never bathe again.
Shisui blinked and made a nasty face at Itachi, before going to sulk at the other end of the tub. Fine.
Itachi leaned over and drizzled enough shampoo into Shisui’s hair and capped the bottle.
Shisui splashed some water at Itachi’s sleeve, but moved to scrub the shampoo into his own hair, edging further away from Itachi.
Itachi leaned his head on his arm and just watched. Shisui could sulk all he wanted. Itachi would let Shisui either get tired of it.
Eventually, Shisui came back to the faucet and shoved his head under, letting the water rinse the soap off. Stupid Itachi.
Itachi let a hand drift down into the water. Shisui could keep playing with the water. The tub wasn’t about to run over.
Once he felt clean enough, Shisui pulled the plug, turned the faucet off, and held onto Itachi’s hand, not looking her in the eye.
Itachi curled his fingers around Shisui’s hand, looking at the boy but not saying anything.
Once the water drained, Shisui crawled out and tried to crawl into Itachi’s lap.
“Wet!” Itachi protested, but he let the slippery child crawl into his lap. Itachi then grinned, took a huge breath, and blew a raspberry on Shisui’s shoulder.
“Hey!” Shisui pushed at Itachi, then laughed loudly and wriggled away from the offending action.
Itachi struggled to keep a hold, rolled Shisui, then blew and even louder raspeberry on Shisui’s stomach.
Shisui wailed and laughed at the same time, then tried to claw his way away from Itachi, giggling as he twisted around.
Shisui slipped out, and Itachi dropped across the floor, grabbing for the boy’s ankles.
As his ankles were caught, Shisui kicked back, trying to kick Itachi in the face. Playfully, but it would hurt.
Itachi sat back up and slid Shisui across the tile floor, avoided the kick, then tickled his side.
This action inspired sharp, heavy giggles, and Shisui gasped for air. He tried to curl up to defend himself, but he couldn’t! Noooo!
Itachi scooped Shisui back up into his lap and blew another raspberry on the boy.
“No!” Screeching, Shisui flailed and tried to bite Itachi. Again.
Itachi let Shisui grab his upper forearm between his teeth, and only loosened his hold as he rested his cheek on Shisui’s shoulder. “I’ll bite you back.”
Shisui eyed Itachi to see if he was serious, then put a light pressure on his arm. Would he?
Itachi pressed his lips to Shisui’s shoulder and waited.
Suddenly, Shisui nipped Itachi’s arm, then tried to wrench himself away with a scream. “No!”
“Yes!” Itachi spun the boy around, gave him a huge kiss on the forehead, then jumped over Shisui and dashed away into the bedroom.
Shisui did not, in fact, chase Itachi. He fell over, made a bad face, then went for a towel.
One minute later, Shisui bounded out and went after Itachi’s head with the towel, intending to smother him. In fun, of course!
Itachi had been thinking Shisui was done playing, or Itachi had been too rough. Itachi lay on the bed and wondered if he should check on Shisui--then Shisui was there and flailing a towel at his head.
Itachi fell off the bed.
Cackling, Shisui clamoured on top of Itachi and tried to wrap his head in the towel, wrapping his arms and the towel around his head.
Itachi waved his arms around, then grabbed Shisui under his arms. He lifted the boy as high as he could.
Shisui twisted his legs up to his stomach, and considered kicking, before trying to pull at Itachi’s hands to writhe away.
Itachi rolled up, head still covered in a towel, then set Shisui down on the floor to drag the towel off of his head.
Shisui promptly ran and hid under the opposite bed, carefully shimmying backwards towards the wall, grin plastered on his face.
Itachi got the towel off his head, then pretended to make a search for Shisui. he looked in the bathroom. He check the larger weapon locker, then he started going through drawers.
Shisui indulged in a few snickers as he heard Itachi walking around, then went quiet. He couldn’t give himself away!
Itachi pretended not to hear the snickers. After a moment of walking in circles, Itachi suddenly leapt up. He attached himself to the ceiling with chakra and silently crawls above the bed Shisui was hiding under, waiting.
Shisui gave it thirty seconds, then crawled forward. Poked a hand out, waited, then slowly brought his whole body out, creeping forward.
Itachi swung down from the ceiling, carefully dropping onto his hands behind Shisui before rising to his feet and trying to sneak up behind the boy.
It wasn’t Itachi’s fault that he was caught, but his surroundings. The floorboards under the carpet (and Itachi) shifted and creaked, and Shisui caught the noise, used to paying a lot of attention to the sounds around him. It was hard to hear a human voice over rushing water! Without thinking, he bolted forward, trying to jump on Itachi’s bed.
Itachi dashed forward and caught Shisui mid leap. He in turn tossed the boy in the air for some added fun, easily catching Shisui as he came down (Shisui had dried off a bit by now, and chakra in Iatchi’s hands made certain he wouldn’t drop his friend).
Shisui squealed as he went up, twisted, then looked at Itachi with wide eyes, before going limp and flopping over backwards. Hah.
Itachi had developed many techniques for dealing with a limp child. Since Shisui was mostly bone and angles, Itachi tucked the boy under his arm and went to grab a T-shirt for Shisui. “Playing dead, huh?”
Shisui nodded. Remembered that he wasn’t supposed to move, snickered, and let his head and arms hang down. “I’m a spirit.” Would he be able to flicker from here? Maybe. He tried pulling his chakra tight, and then...
He flickered and fell next to Itachi’s feet, but it wasn’t a long fall. Shisui grinned up at Itachi, pleased with himself.
Itachi grinned just as widely as Shisui. “Excellent!” Itachi crouched down and poked Shisui’s in the forehead, still grinning as wide as he could.
“One day, you’re going to be the fastest, aren’t you?”
Shisui crowed, then nodded vigorously, glad for the praise. “Yeah, so fast I’ll fly!” Could he jump on Itachi and into his arms? They would see.
“You’d have to grow wings to fly,” Itachi admonished, just in case Shisui should think to go flickering off any buildings. Itachi easily caught the boy up when he jump, standing and propped Shisui on his hip. “Let’s get you some clothes.”
“No I don’t, I just have to go fast enough!” His Mama had flown over the water. Shisui made a face, but settled against Itachi.
For now.
“Humor me. If you start trying to fly before you’re ready, it will really hurt.” Itachi opened a drawer and pulled out one of his T-shirts. Maybe he could get Shisui to nap after this.
Shisui thought about it, nodded, then wriggled down to let Itachi pull the t-shirt over his head.
Itachi popped the shirt over Shisui’s head, helping the boy find the arm holes.
Shisui giggled once his head popped out, and puffed his cheeks at Itachi, before trying to run for the bed. No pants!
Itachi let Shisui scamper. The shirt was big enough pants didn’t matter, not that Shisui hadn’t just spent almost twenty minutes running around naked. Kids and clothes didn’t mix that well--who knew?
“You’d probably be happy being a nudist as long as it was warm enough,” Itachi observed with a smile.
Shisui smiled and nodded at Itachi, though he wasn’t entirely sure what was being said. He glanced around the room, and wondered if Itachi would yell if he climbed on top of the weapons locker. Only one way to find out! Shisui charged for it, trying to jump on top and stick his hands to it.
Itachi watched Shisui try to turn the room into a jungle gym and wondered if he should take Shisui out to climb some trees. Telling Shisui to be careful would probably only egg him on. Itachi sat down close enough to catch Shisui if he fell and hurt himself.
Shisui looked out from his vantage point, then looked down at Itachi. “Hey, how do I stick my feet to the wall?” He’d been doing it forever with his hands, but it was hard with his feet!
“Like you do it with your hands, but with your feet,” Itachi instructed as he sat down on his bed.”Can you put chakra in your feet?”
A shake of the head, then he hesitated. “It’s hard! Can’t get it to do anything.” It just stayed there, making his foot warm and tingly. If he didn’t concentrate, it went away.
“You need better chakra control. You’ll be able to do it when you’re older,” Itachi promised. Shisui actually had terrific chakra for a five year-old.
Shisui sighed, flopped onto his back, and stuck his feet to the wall, focusing. The chakra he wanted pooled there, and he imagined his feet sticking as he pulled back. No luck.
A knock came on the door, and Shisui glanced sharply before jumping down, making to hide.
Itachi stood and watched Shisui scamper, then went to the door. He drew a kunai and cracked the door open. A Drone stood on the other side of the door, holding a note and wearing a medic’s badge. Itachi took the note and read it.
Uchiha Shisui’s body has been successfully restored. Please return the defective body to the infirmary.
The Drone bowed and waited, obviously not going to leave until it had the “defective body.” Itachi turned and looked at the room for Shisui, mouth dry. “Shisui.” The word came out sticky.
Said boy had ducked behind the bed, and was carefully listening. All he heard was the rustle of paper, and then Itachi’s voice. He lifted his eyes above the headboard, eyeing Itachi. “What?”
Itachi smiled. “You need to go visit the doctors for a little bit, okay?” Itachi stepped closer to Shisui, suddenly struck with a thought. Would they have to kill Shisui is transfer his soul to the new body? What would happen to Shisui’s body now?
A blank look. It took him a few long seconds to recognize the word, and it seemed out of place. “I don’t wanna,” Shisui said, but it was unsure. He didn’t think he knew it, the word, but it dragged up weird thoughts, like Itachi.
“I know, but it’ll be okay. I promise,” Itachi lied as he walked towards Shisui and offered his hands. “Just for a little bit, okay?”
Shisui frowned, but took Itachi’s hands. Eyed the drone, and didn’t really want to do this. “Are you coming with me?” He wanted Itachi to come. His hands caught two of Itachi’s fingers and twisted tight around them.
Itachi didn’t want to. He didn’t want to go with Shisui. He didn’t want to know what would happen. He didn’t want to see it. He didn’t.
“Okay.” But how was he supposed to make Shisui face this alone? “Up?”
Itachi looked sad. Angry. A mix of the two, and loneliness, so Shisui nodded and held his arms up. When he was safely up, he tucked his face into the crook of Itachi’s neck and hummed a lullaby, all with dark tones but a constant movement.
Itachi pressed a kiss to Shisui’s forehead and nodded to the Drone. He followed it out and started humming back to Shisui. He knew the lullabye. Shisui was filled with strange songs and phrases. Itachi held Shisui close as they stepped into the elevator.
When they reached the infirmary, Itachi stopped humming. He followed the Drone into the infirmary, arms tightening around Shisui for a moment before he remembered not to hold too tightly. The Drone led them down to small room and bowed, motioning Itachi into the room. Itachi nodded and carefully opened the door before walking inside.
An older woman waited for them. There were two beds. One was off behind a curtained partition, and Itachi wondered if it were empty, or if it held Shisui’s body. His new body.
The lady doctor smiled. “Hello Shisui. Are you ready for your check-up?”
Shisui scowled at the infirmary, and then gripped Itachi tighter and shook his head. He wasn’t.
Itachi walked to the bed and sat down. He didn’t say anything to the woman, but stared at her. He didn’t like this. She had better not scare Shisui. Not scare his child.
She smiled. “You just need one shot, Shisui. Just a little pinch,” the woman promised as she drew close her table of medical supplies. She even had a numbing cream Itachi knew would work, so she wasn’t lying.
“It’s okay.” Itachi gave Shisui a bounce, certain he was lying. This would not be okay.
Shisui didn’t want it. “Like a senbon?” He directed this question at Itachi, blinking up at him with wide eyes. Glanced at the table, decided that it was, and made a face before wiggling down. “No poison.” He wanted to go back.
“No poison,” Itachi promised. “Come on, Shisui.” Itachi hauled the boy back into his lap. “Just hold out your arm. It’ll be over in a second.” Soon. Quickly.
Get it done.
Shisui gave Itachi a mean look, but held out his arm and turned his face into the other’s chest silently. When the woman murmured something comforting as the needle pricked, he didn’t react. Just stayed quiet and sullen.
Itachi gave Shisui a squeeze and kissed the top of his damp head. He’d just had a bath. What a waste. Couldn’t they have waited for him to get dirty before giving him a new body? Itachi choked on a laugh. His face felt wet. “It’s okay, love. Little fish.”
Shisui looked up at Itachi to protest, but he was crying. So he reached up and rubbed at Itachi’s cheek.
Here (not to be remembered when he woke up) Shisui crooned a series of notes, a mish-mash of lullabies, until he fell asleep against Itachi’s chest.
As Shisui went limp, the lady-doctor pressed a button and called in a crew from outside. The hustled in, and Itachi slowly put the limp body down, not checking for a pulse or breathing. He didn’t want to know.
“The procedure should take under and hour if you want to wait outside,” The doctor pronounced cheerfully as the medics swarmed Shisui like flies. Itachi shook his head.
“I have something to do.” And he didn’t want to be here. He didn’t want to see this. He wiped the tears from his eyes and walked out.