sunshineverse | Freetime is Tea Time [OPEN]

Aah... It was him.

She blinked, tilting her head as she found herself looking towards the Uchiha Heir before she strode over to him. It was a little difficult, but she was curious and she wanted to see more of what Itachi was about -- why he insisted previously on helping her so much. She hardly saw him around anymore, but he was... Interesting.

"Mind if I join you, Itachi-san?" Adela addressed the polite question to him as she finally reached his side, her hands pocketed for the moment as she tried to meet his eye -- even if he was still so much taller than her.

From the times he'd met and spoken with her before, he had recognized her gait, knowing Adela-san was about to join him on his walk. He didnt slow down, simply let her catch up.

"Of course you can," he answers her, turning to her for a moment before his gaze is ahead of him once more. He'd yet to ask about her injury, and was going to leave that up to her to bring up on her own.

"Thanks," A small smile quirked at her lips as she settled to his pace, keeping up and looking around with him. She'd had her reasons for joining him, but for now it seemed fine to just walk. It seemed like he was on his way somewhere though, maybe this was a bad time...

Man, she didn't know. Did he even know about her eye? He'd likely heard about it, whether it was from Obito or Sasuke or Shisui... There was no point in bringing that up.

Somehow, through the crowd, she could smell the waft of fresh tea and blinked however, a little hesitant before finally asking, "What kind of tea is that? It smells really nice."

"A blend of chamomile, and Jasmine." Tasteful and good for him, considering how terribly he looked after his own health as it was. Enough to keep him working for years down the road, hopefully, yet not enough neglect he was going to keel over and have a heart attack.

He follows his tradition of not being fond of speaking to himself, and turns his attention fully to Adela.

"Mm, Adela-san, how has your training been going." If he has time, he could likely offer more, depending on what she needs help in.

"It's slowed down a little. I've been busy with missions, and I'm mostly working on re-adjusting after recovery," A sigh and she looked ahead, her cheerfulness fading as she thought about it again. It still bothered her so much, even if it was a month ago now...

"I'm working on getting back into full gear, hopefully back to where I was before I was injured and beyond."

"Ah, yes, your eye..." Only now does he seem fit to mention it. But while he'll show the expected amount of empathy, it'll be no more. She isn't a child, and he's sure she wouldn't appreciate being treated as if she was less capable.

Training and re-adjustment would aid her. Pity would not.

"I'll do what I can." he offers, again. At least for him, he'd been trained to fight blind since he was little. Their kekke genkai of such importance to them, an Uchiha had to find a way to be useful without it.

"Wait, really?" The offer caught her off guard and she slowed a little, blinking hard at him before she made to trot and catch up with him, "You'd train with me?"

That... Was what he was getting at, right? That was what it sounded like, and she wanted to be sure...

"I seem to have a bit of an extended stay here, and it would make good use of my time. to spend it with a friend." Much rather find things to be busy with, he thinks. There's always the prospect of napping now and then, but long ago it had been ingrained in him that was a thing lazy people did, and Uchiha Itachi was not lazy, oh no no.

".. When you put it like that, it means a lot. Thanks, Itachi-san... I really appreciate it," She was pink when she spoke, not meeting his eye but clearly smiling regardless. It did just genuinely makd her feel happy to have Itachi make that offer, and to know that he was good for it.

"When do you think we should start?"

Appropriate gift-giving had been something Sasuke had learned from Mikoto as a child, then reinforced later with observation during hospital shifts. If nothing else, Sasuke could put together a coherent and generally well-appreciated gift basket, and many of them started with a decent tea. Given Gai's personality, something calming would be badly needed during convalescence, and Sasuke's thoughts were sufficiently preoccupied with running down the list of potential interactions for the medications the man had been prescribed that he didn't spot Itachi until he had already turned the corner into the same street.

He ducked right back out of the street as soon as he did, though, hoping desperately that he hadn't been spotted. In the village, in a sea of faces not un-generously peppered with Uchiha faces, it was possible.

... if he ignored that Itachi probably knew his face perfectly well, it was possible.

Whatever the probability, Sasuke hurried down the side-street he'd entered: the last thing he wanted now was to meet his brother fresh off the failure of his first jounin mission.

((Haha i found out i can reply from my phone!!!!))

Oh, he saw. How Sasuke flitted into the corner of his vision for a brief instant, and was gone again, almost if he'd just imagined him. He didn't turn his head, nor change his course, allowing little brother to avoid him if he liked.

Was he back from a mission, or going on one?

Things Sasuke would surely answer himself with time, time Itachi would gladly give him.

Of course, for all the time that Itachi might be willing to give him, Sasuke still had to face the reality that they technically still lived in the same house. If he were the type to forgive himself errors he might have pointed out how infrequently Itachi actually slept in said house, but Sasuke had retreated home after checking through Gai's medical records a second time and without a single thought to what he might do if he ran into Itachi in an environment less conducive to vanishing.

So it was that when he opened the door, calling out a subdued I'm home from the doorway, it took a moment for him to register that Itachi's shoes were actually lined up in the hall.

It had been such a long time since he'd left his shoes at the door.

But if it wasn't them that gave away Itachi's current location, it was his voice, gentle as always, coming down the hall from the kitchen.

"Welcome home." he called, but there was no urgency in the tone, which, at this point, he was sure wasn't helping his younger brother's nerves.

His voice wouldn't be the only thing coming down the hall, as the scent of his tea was going to come down with it, perhaps trying to beckon Sasuke into the kitchen with him. He's got more than enough for several cups.

There was probably merit to the concept of luck as something that happened in streaks, Sasuke pondered as he contemplated Itachi's shoes with a certain amount of fatalistic dismay. It wasn't as if he could turn back around and escape, not after Itachi had already acknowledged his presence; that was something that reminded him that he needed to send a strongly-worded missive to Naruto for no reason other than that his absence had removed Sasuke's most convenient excuse for staying out of the house past a certain hour.

He had no other options. The Sasuke that leaned into the kitchen wore a considerably subdued version of his usual excitement to see Itachi at home. "I didn't expect you'd be home."

"I could say the same, concerning myself." It wasn't often he was, and he did usually make off for Shisui's before trying the main compound. But it was only a matter of time, and he couldn't put it off forever.

He hadn't even gone to check his room yet, which was likely still in the same pristine condition as a few months ago (sans dust, unless Mother had been stepping inside to tidy now and then).

"Tea?" He offers, carefully sitting down and taking a hold of his mug.

Instinct wanted to point out that if they were both in agreement about how rarely Itachi was home, perhaps he should be home more often -- but situation meant that Sasuke ended up murmuring a noncommittal hmm instead, eyes scanning the kitchen for signs of anything out of the ordinary that would explain his brother's presence. Nothing seemed strange except for Itachi himself and the fact that he apparently had enough tmie to be sitting around drinking tea.

And offering some to Sasuke.

"What?" Was his first response, accompanied by a blink of surprise. "I --"

Nothing short of apocalypse would make him turn down time Itachi was voluntarily spending with him, but it was a close call. "If you're not busy?"

Itachi had to strike a careful balance between his work and his clan household. Too much time at work, and responsibilities and expectations were thrust on Sasuke. Too much time in the compound and he would be hassled about when he was going to find a woman and settle down.

He surmised he only had a few short years before Fugaku thought about stepping down, or really training him on how to take over the Uchiha clan. That is, provided he isn't pulled from active duty for his heart condition.

"For now, I am free." For a few hours, before he tried to get some sleep before the next shift. He offers a faint smile Sasuke's way.

Let them enjoy the rare free time they both share.

"That's unusual," Sasuke said, a frown developing as he contemplated the various reasons why Itachi would be unexpectedly available. He couldn't see any injury from here and couldn't sense any major chakra disruption that might suggest something internal, though he would have had to be rude enough to activate the Sharingan in a non-combat situation to really check.

The frown stayed in place as Sasuke located his own mug from the rack by the sink, settling across from Itachi at the kitchen table. "Are you well?"

He knows it's unusual. But you can thank Obito for that, whose grown worried about him and taken him off missions. Not completely-- just...not outside Konoha. Not the spy work he's accustomed to.

"Mm, well enough." Though he knows that won't suffice for a proper answer when it comes to his little brother.

As Itachi doubtless expected, Sasuke's expression shifted out of awkward uncertainty into skepticism in the span of a second. Setting his mug down with a firm clink, Sasuke pushed to standing in order to peer critically at as much of his brother as he could see from this angle and without putting him in a hospital gown, mouth set in a stern medic-nin's line of disapproval.

"What exactly does enough mean, nii-san?" He fixed a demanding stare on Itachi's face, satisfied that he still hadn't seen any visible signs of injury. "And when was the last time you filled your prescriptions?"

Perhaps, in a way, he wanted this. To see just how focused Sasuke was on him, after his absence.

Itachi had ridiculous ways of showing that he wanted to be cared for. He was perfectly capable of taking his own medicines on time, and re-filling his own prescriptions, and monitoring himself for his flare-ups. Though he was busy, he had time for quick meals, he could plan out his sleep schedule around small naps instead of basically trying to stay permanently awake.

Yet, for all of his intelligence, wisdom, and capability, he did not.

"Before I left." he admits. Before he left originally. Which means by now, months ago. His excuse was that he was on missions, and he couldn't be taking pills every hour or so and expose himself to being taken advantage of.

Even though he could easily hide them in his drinks and food.

Before he left -- Sasuke's expression hardened immediately, lips drawing thin with disapproval. For all that he could be intractable in singing Itachi's praises to anyone else, he was perfectly comfortable scolding Itachi to his face when it came to things like this, especially given how firm the hospital had been about this exact situation.

"That's been months," he said, both hands firmly set on his hips in unconscious imitation of Mikoto's lecturing stance. "I knew there was something wrong when I saw you hadn't put in a request for a refill yet -- that means you've been out of them for how long now?"

There probably should have been more shame about looking into someone else's patients medical records, but as far as Sasuke was aware, family was fair game when it came to rifling files.

Months, yes, he knew. His gaze calculately lingers elsewhere, hands around his mug of tea as if that is his only security.

It wasn't surprising that Sasuke was watching his records.

"About six months." he admits, that's how long he's been without medication, and he thinks he'd been doing just fine, honestly. It isn't as if his spy work required a lot of stamina unless he was caught, and had to escape...

And a good spy was not caught.

"Six -- that's half a year," Sasuke exploded, hands slamming to the table in disbelief. "You've been skipping your medication for half a year?!"

This was, at least, a much easier topic to focus on than the subject of Sasuke's personal failures, but he might have preferred being cornered on his own shortcomings if it meant that he wasn't discovering his brother's apparent laissez-faire attitude towards his own health.

"If you were busy, why wouldn't you just ask me to pick them up for you?!"

By all means, anyone else would've flinched at Sasuke's sudden outburst. But Itachi was expecting it. Every movement, every inflection of his voice, even the way his teeth ground...he knew it would happen.

"You are not without your pre-occupations." he simply answers. Sasuke had things to do, too. And he was alive. And alright, as far as he saw. He didn't need to bother anyone else with medicine that he was...okay, without. So far.

"Those don't take priority when it comes to you!" Sasuke leaned forward as he spoke, trying to express with body language as much as his words the extent to which Itachi was gambling with his own health. Was it not important? How could his brother, who had always been so precisely right, manage to ignore something like this?

"I work at the hospital all the time, I could have gotten them whenever instead of --" He hunted for words, too angry to think before he spoke. "Instead of you messing up your health!"

It had been years since she'd seen Itachi regularly, but even when he was small he was fairly recognizable, and it wasn't as if she'd gone all the time in Uzushio without actually seeing him once. Or that he had much more to grow. Which is to say, she totally spotted him in the crowd and, lacking anything better to do, sped up and slid through the crowd until she caught up to him.

"Little Itachi~!" She beamed over at him. It doesn't matter if in fact he wasn't even little when she'd last seen him. She remembered him tiny, and so he was little Itachi. It was an arbitrary decision, but a decision all the same. "You've gotten taller, I think."

"Tall, but still little?" At almost six foot, he practically towered over the older woman. Ah, but some habits never die, like Obito's and Iruka's, so this was something he was going to have to deal with.

So many people had nicknames for him...

"A little taller, or a lot?", he humors her with a smal hum, halting for a moment to let another group pass without incident.

"You have a little face~" But really, it's as Itachi thought. She simply didn't want to call him anything else, and used grandfathered permission to do it without excessive sulking from the taller ninja.

She pinched her fingers in the air. "Mmm, only a little. Which is good, because if you'd zoomed right past me while I wasn't here to stop you I'd never forgive you."

A little face? With how much it had angled when he hit puberty? He could say hers was still smaller.

"I don't know what I'd do without your forgiveness." he jokes calmly, as he continues his walk.

It looked little to her, the reality of the situation wasn't important.

"You'd feel very guilty and have to explain yourself to Kushina-sensei." She nodded quickly, settling her hands behind her waist as she walked with him. "But that would be understandable because it would be really rude."

What a coincidence. Mika happened to be looking around the sweets shops for ideas and maybe pick up a bag of coffee beans when she spotted the Uchiha walking farther down the street. As they didn't see each other too often Mika had to slide on over and give Itachi a tap on the shoulder.

"Ne, Itachi-kun!"

He knew that blue flash of hair.

There was a slight tense at the touch, however, and he turned to greet Mika with a small smile. Still referring to him as -kun, it seems.

"Mika-san." he greets in return, and a nod, deciding to halt. She could likely be busy with her research, and has taken a spot of time out for him. He'll stay instead of making her walk with him.

Well, she couldn't go around saying "Itachi-chan" now.

"Oh! Got some tea there? I was out getting some coffee beans actually. Are you..busy?" Mika glanced about almost expecting someone to pull her away for something. It's not like she had all day to run about, these were a few precious hours. Best spent with people she liked.

Edited (changed date of interaction) 2014-11-11 00:53 (UTC)

Freetime is Tea Time [OPEN]

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You can't have tea without something sweet!

Re: You can't have tea without something sweet!

[casually back dating this to Oct 1st]