[log] What is in(on) Your Head, Darling Cousin? Who: Itachi and Shisui When: July 11th, Evening Where: Shisui’s Room What: Itachi returns from a long game to some surprises, and a cousinly chat ends badly. Open or Closed: Closed Observable:
*
After a month of a Game, Itachi was tired. The game itself hadn’t been that hard, but he hadn’t dared sleep much, thanks to his very creepy companion that kept making comments about tasting organs. Itachi had been going all day, every day since the game had started, playing everything from tag with knock-out darts to obstacle courses to hide and seek. Evidently this had been to honor the child of a high ranking politician. Itachi was just glad no one had tried to kill him.
While all he wanted to do was drop dead, Itachi headed from the transport up to the third floor. He needed to check in with Shisui and make sure he was okay. Itachi’s head ached. His back too, but he didn’t know how long the ride had been. Itachi yawned hugely and walked up to Shisui’s door. He didn’t bother to knock. He just tried the door, then translocated inside, hitting the floor and rolling to avoid traps.
Itachi ended up crouched by Shisui’s bed, and happily crawled onto the bed.
Shisui was heavily asleep when Itachi came in. He had since given up trying to manage his ears, and instead just let them flop where he wanted to. It wasn’t that uncomfortable, in the end.
When something set off the mental triggers and crawled into his bed, Shisui bolted up wide awake, ears pricked and hand going for a kunai. But then he saw it was Itachi. Itachi. His cousin.
Abandoning all pretenses of dignity, Shisui launched himself at Itachi, not realizing that the ears might throw his cousin off as he hugged him and tried to take over his lap.
“What is on your head??” Itachi hissed, pushing Shisui back and reaching up to touch the sides of Shisui’s head. He found the other had very soft, huge ears attached to his head. They were at least as big as Itachi’s hands. They felt like they were very firmly attached too, and very warm.
“Ears?” Itachi hissed, too tired to be really alarmed. The Sharingan gave him very good look at them, but they looked very alien shoved on his cousin’s curly head.
“What did you do to get ears?” Itachi asked, giving them a gentle tug.
Said ears flicked down annoyance, and Shisui gave Itachi a very annoyed look. “Let go and I’ll tell you.” And, ignoring any chance that Itachi would have willingly let go, Shisui shoved his hands away and shoved his head under his chin, hugging him tight.
Itachi rocked back a little and shifted so he could better support his cousin’s affection. “How about I let go when you tell me?” Itachi suggested, smoothing his hands over Shisui’s head and flattening the enormous ears. “I leave you for a month, and what kind of trouble have you gotten into now?”
Shisui seemed mostly all right, though. Ears, yes, but he seemed physically all right and still in one piece.
As tempting as it was to bite Itachi, Shisui decided that maybe he should be happy with just clinging. Curling his legs around Itachi, he sat in his lap and relaxed a little. “The scientists had fun giving people ears. Just for the hell of it. ‘S not everyone, and some people got tails instead,” He got preoccupied with nuzzling Itachi and absorbing the scent, as his hands crawled up to play in Itachi’s hair.
“You sure you didn’t do anything?” Itachi asked, letting his arms drop around Shisui’s shoulders. He was very glad to see Shisui. He’d missed his cousin, and after all the drama with his death and Shisui’s injuries, it was nice to just be with his cousin, who seemed perfectly functional and healed. Discounting ridiculous ears, of course.
“Missed you, idiot.” Itachi smiled and leaned his forehead to Shisui’s.
Shisui shook his head, because he hadn’t really done anything, and grinned happily as Itachi touched him. It could have been regression, but he just nuzzled Itachi and slid his hands up his cousin’s hair.
And jerked, before drawing back to see the top of Itachi’s head.
Itachi yanked back in the same time Shisui did, pushing Shisui away. He wasn’t sure what Shisui had touched, but it didn’t feel normal. As he jerked, the ache in his head worsened--like a muscle strain. Itachi didn’t know why he’d have muscle strain on his head.
“Stay still,” Shisui muttered, gently searching for... Ah. “Hah, you have ears. Cat ears,” He drew one finger over an ear to see what it would do. To get that high, he had to straddle Itachi’s lap with his knees, but that was okay. It just ached on his hip, but it was functional.
“I have what?” Itachi hissed as he reached up and touched where Shisui’s hands were. His eyes got larger. They were definitely attached to his head. They were also very sensitive. Itachi pushed Shisui’s hands away and twitched them. He wasn’t sure how, but, if he didn’t think about it, he could move them. It ached, but they moved. Itachi frowned deeply.
When had he gotten those?
“Cat ears...” Itachi pinned his ears.
“Yeah. They’re small...” Shisui sat back down and looked at Itachi, before reaching up and shooing Itachi’s hands away so he could get at the ears. Gently, gently massaging them and touching them and petting them--like he would do with a cat. The anatomy was a little amazing on those things, and Shisui tried to feel where the muscles were on Itachi’s head that allowed them to move.
“Ow--stop, they’re sore.” Itachi pushed against Shisui’s chest but leaned his head towards Shisui. It felt all right--just hurt a little but it was almost too much for the very sensitive ears. Itachi wondered if they would always be like that, or if that would fade as he got used to them.
How long would he have these things anyway?
“Sorry...” Shisui let go, but cupped Itachi’s face gently and leaned into him again, mostly to affirm that he was actually there and not a dream. Or anything else, and maybe he was just a little desperate. A little wired. Something. He let go of Itachi’s face, and immediately wanted to touch the ears again. So he grabbed Itachi’s hand, because that was the best alternative.
“I thought you would be sleepy,” Itachi protested, linking his fingers into Shisui’s and sighing. Itachi poked his nose into Shisui’s and yawned. “Or did I wake you up too fast?”
Shisui caught Itachi’s hand with the other one, and turned it over in his hands, the pads of his fingers seeking out the callouses and ridges. “That. And I’m happy to see you~ But that thing too, ‘cuz I had a genjutsu alarm set up and now I’m pretty much wired on adrenaline.”
“Well, I’m tired.” Itachi leaned into Shisui and returned the favor by pressing his face into Shisui’s neck. His ear pressed against Shisui’s neck and twitched. He did like the scrape of Shisui’s calloused fingers over his palm. Itachi shifted his head and sighed. “So I guess I should go to my room so I can sleep if you’re going to be bouncing like this.”
Shisui grimaced and clenched Itachi’s hand, burying his face into Itachi’s hair. “No, you’re staying here. I’ll keep still. Please?” He leaned into Itachi, trying to press him back to the bed, and a noise that could have been a whine sounded. “Please?”
“Shisui. You cannot be still. I’ve known you for thirteen years, and you are never still...until you died. Then you were still,” Itachi murmured. He sighed and let Shisui pull him. “I’ll stay, but don’t pinch my ears anymore. I’ll pinch yours back.”
“Then you should be able to sleep with it,” Shisui groused and ignored the death comment. “I wasn’t pinching your ears, I was just feeling.” He sighed and got Itachi onto his back, so he could lay down on top of him. He wasn’t that much smaller or shorter than Itachi, but it felt like it. Flicking his ears up gave him a height advantage, though.
“We never really got to do anything for your birthday.” It was sad, because missing Itachi getting old was a tragedy.
“Ow! Off!” Itachi pushed Shisui off and rolled over, grimacing. He rubbed his lower back and sighed. “You can make me a cake or whatever you want. Dango,” Itachi suggested. “You missed my last two birthdays anyway. It’s not that important, Shisui.”
Itachi rubbed the sore line of his spine and then froze. “Shisui. Do you just have ears?”
“Fine--fine, damn, what did you do to fuck up your back?” Shisui flopped onto his side and then shifted closer. “All the more reason to keep up,” He leaned forward, and gave Itachi a wide-eyed look, ears twitching down slightly. “...Yeah?” What was up with him? He wiggled closer, eyebrows furrowing.
“Hold on...” Itachi rolled out of bed and hurried towards the bathroom. He closed his eyes and flipped on the light, slowly cracking his eyes open to save them. What he saw was his face--grey eyes, dark hair, large eyes. He looked hesitantly up at the cat ears stuck jauntily on top of his head. They were white, black, and orange, which made him feel oddly better. They weren’t as big as Shisui’s, only a little longer than Itachi’s palms. They twitched when he moved them, and he realized he was hearing much better with them.
Now for the fun part. Itachi grimaced at his reflection, then turned around. He edged his pants down, not really wanting to see what was there, but knowing it would be there no matter what he did.
Sure enough, just below the two dimples of his hips, was a stubby little cat tail.
Shisui followed Itachi anyway, because you didn’t listen to cousins when they told you to wait, obviously. He gave it a few seconds before he followed--Itachi could have closed the door if he didn’t want Shisui coming in.
He stopped.
Giggled, and covered his mouth with a hand. It didn’t help as he broke down and leaned to get a better look. “At least it’s not a bunny tail,” Do not laugh, do not... Shisui snorted and knew that he was going to get smacked at this rate.
“I have a tail,” Itachi hissed, completely indignant. He shot Shisui a glare as if this were his fault personally and his tail wagged back and forth in an irritated circle. Itachi doubled his glare, as if the tail’s erratic movements were also Shisui’s fault.
Oh, that was too--Shisui cracked up, leaning on the door for support.
It wasn’t closed. Shisui slipped back, fell onto the floor and half wailed, but he was too busy cracking up and mocking Itachi to care about knocking his head. “Ow-ow i-it’s so little Itachi!” Another round of giggles as he realized what that could also be taken for. His mind was since in the gutter, and it had just started swimming in the sewer.
“Will you shut up!” Itachi hissed, whirling to face his cousin. He could feel the little tail twitching irately. Itachi twisted his lips into a snarl and resisted the urge to stomp his foot. Itachi stalked past Shisui. He was going to bed, thank you.
Itachi sat down on the bed and kicked off his pants.
Shisui finally stopped snickering and got up to pad after Itachi, adjusting the nightshirt irony of ironies, it had a stylized lion he was wearing so it wouldn’t choke him. “I still love you even if it’s small~” He managed to keep his mirth to a wide grin as he flopped onto the bed beside Itachi, remembering just in time to be careful.
A thought occurred to Itachi. “Shisui, you had better be talking about my tail.” Itachi adjusted the waistband of his boxers to allow for his tail. He felt like they were going to slide off, and he was glad it was dark.
Another smothered giggle, and Shisui leaned against Itachi, before glancing down at the tail. “...Either you can hold still and trust me to make a cut your boxers without poking you in the ass, or you can give me them and I’ll fix them. Or you can. It just looks stupid like that.”
“Or I could just sleep in the nude and you could find somewhere else to sleep,” Itachi shot back, glaring.
“Like I would care! I’d just follow you. You’re the one aching for sleep, not me,” Shisui rolled his eyes. “Your pants are going to fall off unless you make a hole for the tail. Or you can just keep it in.” He shifted closer anyway. Whatever, he would just cling to Itachi regardless of clothing status.
“I’m going to strangle you with my boxers.” Itachi scooted away from Shisui and then dove under the covers. He rolled himself up in them and glared at Shisui. His covers. It didn’t matter that he had a tail.
“Fine, be that way,” Shisui stared at him, made a face, and then pounced on the pile that was Itachi, arms and legs on either side that kept him from actually touching Itachi, and then he flopped down on top. Hah. He would squirm under soon enough.
“Shisui. I am sore and tired. Get off.” Itachi growled. “And I was coming to be nice and loving, but you’re being mean. Go away.”
“I’ll let you sleep if you let me in,” Shisui poked at the blankets to crawl in with him. Despite the teasing tone of his voice, his ears had gone down and back on his head--please don’t make him sleep alone? Please? He would be good.
Itachi glared for a few more minutes, then sighed deeply and opened the covers. “Fine.” Really, he’d like to feel safe. He still missing his cousin--two years without him had really been tougher than Itachi realized. Now, Itachi felt like a glutton as he invited all the touch and affection Shisui could muster.
He did not squeak happily, it was just a random noise. Shisui crawled in and proceeded to curl himself around Itachi, a leg sliding through his, arm around his back and nose under Itachi’s cheek. That would only last for so long, because Shisui liked breathing, but. It meant he was close to Itachi.
Itachi pushed Shisui away, arranging them in a less claustrophobic position. He rolled his cousin over and leaned up against his back, which felt better.
A sigh. “You ruin my fun,” Because he wanted to be as close as possible, while Itachi was just taking over, but whatever. He could do this too. Fine. It wasn’t horrible, he just wanted to face Itachi.
“I don’t want to be smothered,” Itachi protested. He sighed and pushed on Shisui, rolling over to put more weight on him. “I don’t want to be that close to you. It’s not cold enough for that, and we’re really too old for this...”
“Okay, okay,” Shisui let himself be manhandled, and sighed. They were, but he... he craved the contact with Itachi. “I guess relying on touches is a shitty coping mechanism,” It was, but it was better than others. In a sense. “Do we have to work on my addiction to clinging now, though?”
“I don’t know. I think the rumor is we’re dating. We can’t do much about that now,” Itachi sighed and pressed his face into the back of Shisui’s neck. He was getting too used to this. What was he going to do when he went back?
“I don’t want to go back.”
“...Pff, let them think it,” It was funny, but not true, though they were close, but not quite like that. Shisui closed his eyes, and his mirth faded.
He didn’t reply for a time.
“If you don’t want to, then you don’t. You know that I’m not going back,” Well, there was his one theory, but there was no way to test that.
...Unless... No, Shisui wouldn’t think of that now, not in his bed with Itachi here, close. He didn’t know how that would be taken.
“I have to.” Things would go badly if he didn’t. Horribly. Itachi pulled Shisui closer and flipped the covers over their head. There. Now they were in complete darkness and nothing mattered. No one could see them. No one would say anything. “I have to go back and fix things, Shisui.”
Itachi’s arms tightened around his cousin, and he refused to cry. He’d been gone only a month, and he’d missed Shisui so much. How would he manage a lifetime without him? It had seemed easy a few months ago, but now...
Now he didn’t think he could let go.
“...Ita. Tell me about the weeks I got back from my mission in the Mist. When you were eleven. Tell me about them or show me with genjutsu.” Shisui had thoughts, but he needed to talk to Izumo and Zaku, and other people from the same universe but from different timelines.
“Do you know how long ago that was?” Itachi sighed again and thought back. Happy days. Warmer days. Itachi closed his eyes and tried to see things from his eleven year-olds self’s eyes.
“You started putting up more traps. I got stuck in one and mother was angry with you because it was poisoned. You were jumpier too. I had to stop trying to sneak up on you, because you kept scaring my when you pulled out kunai.” It had been, Itachi knew now, the beginning of the end. Shisui had been okay until that point, but after that, slowly, by inches, he’d slid downhill. Itachi hadn’t realized for another year what was going on, but, looking back, he’d always counted that as the turning point.
“Five years ago, your point of view,” Shisui murmured, and considered Itachi’s words. Looked at him carefully. “You don’t remember me ever trying to change things, talking about losing an eye,telling you anything from your future...” The other stuff, it didn’t matter as much, not in this context Mist had scared the ever living shit out of him, and something must have gone wrong on the last phase of it, when he was supposed to take control of that man and make him not do that, forget that it even existed.
“No. Shisui, I don’t think you can change what happens. Things...” Itachi sighed. “I don’t think there was another way to fix things.” he wished there was. He thought there must be, but why hadn’t they found it? Why hadn’t they discovered this genius plan that would save them from all the pain? All the death?
“Maybe...you can go back and save your Itachi, but I don’t think you can change what happened to me,” Itachi murmured. He was doomed. Bets to accept that and not to hope.
“No, shut... Okay. That’s the thing. That’s it, Itachi. There’s no changing things when we go back,” Shisui turned to look at Itachi. “For both you and Izumo, I’m dead. You’re both...ahead on the timeline. Whatever. But I’m planning to change things, so why aren’t your memories different?” Itachi had to get this. “Tell me the options of what that means, Itachi.”
Itachi sighed. “It means, either you didn’t change anything because you can’t remember this place when you go back, or if you do change things, you create an alternate timeline. Like Osaki’s Time Manipulation Theory. Maybe you’ll wake up and dismiss this all as a bad dream. Or maybe you never go back. Maybe I’ll go back and I won’t have had a Shsiui in my past. Maybe you vanish from the timeline, but none of us know it yet because you were pulled in after us....”
Itachi shook his head. “It doesn’t mean anything, Shisui. It could mean anything. Ask one of the Scientists or Gin Charlie. Maybe they know why.”
Shisui deflated, but he nodded. Considered.
“I want to get into the head of someone who’s going home. It doesn’t matter where. Maybe a non-fighter, no one who can sense me, and a human.” Easier to get into their minds.
Itachi tensed. “No.”
“Why not? At the least it would answer the question.” Shisui knew why, but... if he was careful about using his mangekyou, if he didn’t try to control too many, he thought it would be okay.
“No. Don’t use it, okay? Don’t try anything different or weird with it.” He could rememebr very clearly what Shisui had been like at the end. He didn’t want to deal with that again. Itachi curled into a tighter ball around his cousin.
“We’ll find another way to figure it out.”
Shisui sighed. “We can ask Gin Charlie, go from him,” He promised nothing. “You’ve eclipsed, hidden, and outreached me, dear cousin.” And there was so little to be done about it. Itachi had been a rising star at eleven, it was just harder to accept the sudden change from that to five years later. He vaguely wondered how he’d gotten from considering different ways to view their situation to the fact that Itachi, now, was a better ninja and knew more and simply was better than Shisui.
“No. The only reason I cast a shadow is your sun shines on me and made me grow.” Itachi whispered. The only reason he was anything was Shisui. Everything he was, good and bad, he had drawn from his cousin.
“Knowing just isn’t worth the risk of losing you again.” What backlash would happen if Shisui tried to hang onto a mind that was flying through dimensions? Maybe he was being paranoid, but he wanted Shisui to not use the mangekyou at all.
“Do you want to turn around?” Itachi asked softly.
“I’m a sun from your past, and I’m making a shadow I’ll never see,” But if Itachi could take him, then maybe they could coexist. Shisui leaned his head back and breathed. “I’m younger, more versatile, my mind isn’t as polluted...” But if that went bad... Reaching, he held Itachi’s hand in his own.
Kissed the fingers. “Yes. Do you want me to?” Another kiss, and Shisui linked their fingers and put it against his face. “What was... am... will I be... like? Your Shisui, the future one who fucked up. You tell me he’s crazy, and he made you kill him, but what was crazy? Losing him? What was I then?” All Shisui knew were panic attacks, crawling paranoia that would drive him to set up the worst traps and sleep under beds and in closets. His future self was worse, but how much?
“Shisui, roll over.” Itachi didn’t want to answer the other questions. He knew why Shisui wanted to change these things. He felt terrible for telling him what had happened. It didn’t help anything.
“Are you scared to die?” Itachi asked.
A careful movement, and Shisui did. His ears were pinned back far, showing confusion and distress, but his face was carefully blank the ears were so ridiculous, but he still forgot about them. He pressed his face into Itachi’s chest, and he didn’t know how to answer.
“I... I think I’m more afraid of what’s to come than the end, now.” That was the most honest answer Shisui could come up with.
Itachi shifted and slid his hand up Shisui’s back. He splayed it between Shisui’s shoulderblades, which were young and sharp. Thin. He remembered them being more covered. Less bare and fragile. Itachi dipped his head to press it to the top of Shisui’s head. Always, Shisui smelled like himself. Like home and safety.
Not madness.
“It wasn’t really bad until the last few weeks,” Itachi admitted. “You didn’t always know who you were or where you were...” Itachi didn’t want to say much. He didn’t want to scare Shisui, who now seemed so much more like a child. A tiny, fragile being more like Sasuke than Shisui.
“Before that,” Itachi lied. “You were okay.”
If Shisui looked at Itachi, his eyes would be too wide, so he didn’t. “...How... in the given moment, then, how lucid was I?” He fisted his hands against Itachi’s sides, and breathed.
“I’ve had panic and paranoia attacks,” Shisui’s voice was too neutral. What had happened to his tongue? His tongue of tarnished silver? “Do they get worse with time?”
“It...wasn’t that often. You always knew who I was,” Itachi lied again. he realized Shisui didn’t need to know this. He did not need to hear this. No one needed to know how they would end when they ended as Shisui did. Itachi rubbed his hand up to Shisui’s neck.
Itachi nodded because he’d already admitted that. “They did. It...seemed a lot worse to me than it was, because I wasn’t sure what was happening. It was manageable. I think I was the only one who really noticed.” Someone else must have known. That was why Danzou had made his move. Itachi breathed out, ears twitching against the sheets.
A nod. Shisui thought he could trust Itachi to tell the truth, if only because he didn’t want him returning to that. Becoming it. “Oh. You... nothing ever happened in... public?” His hands snuck up to touch Itachi’s hair, to play in it, just...something.
“Once or twice...” Itachi admitted. He tugged Shisui’s ear. “Nothing too bad.” Another lie. Itachi closed his eyes. Sleep. If they slept, then he wouldn’t have to deal with Shisui’s questions.
“Mm,” Shisui’s ear flicked under Itachi’s touch, and he jumped. Whined slightly, and then sighed. “...Even if I didn’t use it, would I still go crazy? I still have it. I have used it. Maybe it would take more time...” Time that he didn’t have, because if Shisui went home, he would die.What if the theory that you forgot everything was right, and then he died at sixteen and--
In the middle of the dark bedroom, with the person he loved most, it finally hit Shisui that he was going to die in two short years of things didn’t change. His hands went tense in Itachi’s hair, and he crushed his face against the other.
No going back now, no unlearning the learned.
“No. I don’t think you will...” Though Itachi had thought there was some weakness in Shisui’s brain--some tendency towards madness that had helped all of this along in the end. Itachi paused as Shisui tensed, and tried to draw Shisui closer.
“It wasn’t so bad. We could have found a way to fix it. We just didn’t have time.” Another lie. It felt flimsy, but maybe Shisui would buy it. Maybe his faith stretched that far.
Shisui didn’t say anything, just shook his head. Itachi was too optimistic, maybe he wanted to smooth things over for him. It didn’t matter. He was doomed.
Placing his head in the crook of Itachi’s neck, Shisui stared at nothing and he didn’t cry. Didn’t whimper. Didn’t react.
Itachi waited for a response. When he got none, he ran a thumb over the inside of Shisui’s long ears, trying to distract him from whatever he was thinking of. “Shi, What are you thinking about?” Itachi asked softly, unnerved by Shisui’s sudden quiet. He should never have said anything. He should have left Shisui in the dark.
Shisui jumped slightly as Itachi touched his ear, and then shrugged. “Things.” He rotated his ear so Itachi could touch his ear, because it was nice and distracting. He closed his eyes and tried not to speak again. He had the chance of admitting that he was scared of the fact that he had two years. Then it would hit that he would be miserable and insane, and...
Stop. Shisui went still and tried not to think.
“Bad things.” Itachi knew that much. The word fondling came to mind as he rubbed at the base of Shisui’s ears, trying to calm him down or put him to sleep. Itachi ran his fingers up and down.
“What you need to do, Shi, is stay here.” Because here, no one would kill him. They could bring him back, and Shisui would be happy. He could live. He could make a difference here somehow, instead of fading into obscurity, with only his killer to treasure his memory.
A nod. Shisui kept still for a long time, and he even had started drifting off when he spoke. “I don’t....... nevermind.” Because beggars couldn’t be choosers. Live short or forever. His choice. His ears half-trembled under Itachi’s touch, and he whisked them away to pin them back so he couldn’t get to them.
“You know, I always wondering about the things you never told me, Nii-san. All the things...” Itachi closed his eyes, knowing this was a low blow. What else could he do? What could he say? He needed to know what Shisui was moping about. Itachi smoothed his hands over Shisui’s ears, then just rubbed around the base of one.
Wincing, Shisui drew back and looked up at Itachi. “Maybe it’s nothing that matters. Those probably didn’t matter either.” Back to curl into him, because he didn’t want to meet Itachi’s gaze.
“I never do make you happy, do I?” Itachi let his hand drop behind Shisui’s head. He leaned his forehead against Shisui’s and sighed. Was he always this way? Didn’t they used to be happy?
Those words made Shisui grab Itachi’s hair--not enough to hurt--and dragged himself up to look at Itachi. “Shut up Itachi. I’m thinking about my own bloody mortality. It’ll pass, and then I’ll be the cousin you always had until I’m not.”
Itachi winced. He turned his head to the pull, getting half his bangs in his face. He knew that Shisui’s thoughts were his fault. He’d brought it up. He hadn’t kept things light. It was his fault, and he didn’t know how to fix it right now. He didn’t know how to make his very presence stop being a reminder of what was to come.
“You were never afraid to die before.” Now Shisui was scared and desperate, and that was what had lead to all of that. That was when he had decided they had one way out and they had no more choices. That was when Shisui did stupid things disguised as genius.
“How much time did I have to think about that between the insanity and... the end?” Shisui asked with a scowl, and let Itachi go. “I’ve had months to know that it will happen and I’ll be some kind of crazy at the end. Now I just have details. Let me work through it, Itachi. Just...” He leaned his forehead to Itachi’s, and sighed.
“You’ll change it.” Itachi had no idea if it was possible. He didn’t think it was. He didn’t want Shisui to change it in some ways. Would he start a war rather than die? Would he do that? If he was frightened enough of madness and death? What would Itachi do if he had it to do over again?
Not knowing what else to say, Itachi didn’t say anything else.
Shisui sat up. Looked at Itachi. “Stay here and then you’ll change it. Itachi, that doesn’t make sense. Haven’t said that I’m going back at all.” He grimaced, but didn’t pull farther away.
Itachi set up, his eyes going red. He knew Shisui was still about his equal in genjutsu. The only advantage Itachi had was he had dealt with Shisui’s stronger genjutsu. Itachi caught his cousin around the back of his neck, hands twisting into signs behind Shisui’s head.
“Go to sleep.” Itachi muttered the words to set the genjutsu right before he added in the distraction that might keep Shisui from deflecting the genjutsu. He kissed him, right on the lips, aware that his lips were rough and chapped, and Shisui’s were almost burning.
What happened to objects that were moving that had no control? Bad things, obviously. When Itachi kissed him, Shisui did the natural thing and flickered, because of shock and a small inkling of panic. But, as Itachi had wanted, he fell asleep.
In the middle of a flicker.
The point of being aware in a flicker was to defy various laws of physics in one moment, so Shisui could go fast and through objects. It was translocation, but he had to be aware at all times lest accidents happened. Accidents like re-forming in mid-flicker, but still going at the same speed you had been. So Shisui was a near-invisible streak of human moving fast. The failure of the flicker had reduced his speed from going as fast as sound, but when he hit the wall...
Things cracked, and he bounced off of it and hit the floor.
At least Shisui was asleep.
Itachi jumped to his feet as soon as Shisui ran into the wall. He scrambled to his cousin’s side, checking for any life threatening injuries. It didn’t look like he had any, but things were broken, and Itachi had possibly done the worst thing yet.
Itachi sighed as he felt Shisui’s broken collarbone, which needed to be set. The bloody nose was hopefully not from head trauma, and the ribs...
Itachi left Shisui on the floor and ran to get a medic.