Lamp oil

12. At midnight

Tobirama

It was a pleasant feeling, knowing Izuna was at my apartment, dozing off to sleep slowly while I was at work.

Wasn't it kind of romantic? That I was here, working, earning a shitload of money which enabled me to have him in my home without paying?

I closed my eyes against the weight of the staff in my hand. It was lit in both ends, and I twirled it in soft circles around my body. God, did I need it; knowing that Izuna was at my home to deal with what was in front of me. I couldn't even imagine what it would feel like, if I'd had to deal with it alone.

The chestnut man. I opened my eyes, watched them together. It was clear they weren't chatting each other up; they talked like two people who were used to each other's company. I shivered, thinking about the trip Madara had made. 

I kept performing, knowing Madara's eyes weren't on me anymore, but on someone else. Instead, I imagined Izuna's eyes on me; his kind, warm eyes and I felt it was different. Izuna watched with a mild curiosity, but I felt a warmth from him meaning he would like me equally even if I had been a simple business man, or even unemployed. With Madara, it had always been about me impressing him. If that came from Madara or me, I didn't know, and probably never would, but the mild demeanour of Izuna helped me. A lot.

After I finished the show, Madara and the chestnut man weren't there. I had no reason to stay. None at all.

I went home to Izuna.

Izuna was awake when I came home. He was lying down on the soft carpet in my bedroom, reading a book he'd found in my bookshelf. He turned as I entered.

"Hi", I said.

"I couldn't sleep", he said apologetically. I saw that my bed was unmade, the pillow and duvet messy as if he's tossed and turned in desperate attempts to fall asleep.

I went and sat beside him, hugged my knees to me.

"You're an adult. You're allowed to fall asleep whenever you want."

Izuna didn't smile at this. Instead, he looked down into the book and kept reading. He was already halfway, and he turned pages at an incredible speed. He was clearly much smarter than I was. 

But he was awfully subdued. I noticed he looked worried, his eyebrows furrowed. I didn't say anything for a while, just looked at him. After a while, he took an unused needle out of his pocket, poked a hole in his finger. He took out a little device, small enough to fit in his tiny palm, pushed a button to turn it on with a beep. He absorbed the blood on a little glass plate in the device, then waited.

"Shit", he said and reached into his pocket, fished out one of the syringes I had given him.

"How does it work?" I asked mildly. "I know the gist of it, but..."

He explained disorder patiently in a simplified way that made me understand he had a lot of knowledge about the subject. I listened, tried to learn this aspect of his life. When he was finished explaining, he turned to his book again, and we were quiet for a while as midnight came and went past us.

"Izuna..."

"Mmm?"

"Look at me." He did. "I notice something is wrong." I took his hand, braided out fingers together. He let me. It made me unexplainably happy. "Please, talk to me."

He sat up. On pure instinct, I took him into my embrace so that he was sitting with his back to me, one of my legs on either side of him, his back nuzzled cosily into my chest.