Text [Itachi x Reader]

Chapter 1 - Pictures

Silently sitting at the very back of the library, you turned your cheek away from the people and customers behind you. It had been a long time since you were able to come back to your favorite spot, mainly because school exams had been keeping you away and locked up in a classroom. Except, you also blamed it on the few choice upperclassmen who thought that they could get a one-night stand with you. They always hung out right by the library, so you often chose to avoid the place as much as possible now, even if it was the only place where your favorite spot was.

But it was fine now. You're safe. You're in your own space and no one could take it away from you. You were settled down in this dark corner with a book you had read since childhood. A picture book. You still read it, because it reminded you of your mother. She was so happy when you had gotten into your dream university, that was practically across the country.

You closed your eyes, and reminisced when she'd hold you in her arms as you sat in her lap, her long silky hair tied up in a bun, telling you fairytales of faraway lands.

"Excuse me?"

A voice jarred you awake from your thoughts. Annoyed, you scowled in the shadows and turned around to face the person who had called out.

"What?" you growled, a little more abrasively than you would have liked.

"Do you happen to know where the computers are?"

The person standing in front of you was a handsome young man with dark, mysterious eyes.  His long black hair was tied up in a low ponytail. He was wearing simple clothes. He seemed a bit older than you but not by very much. Maybe he was a university student too. You stared at him for a few seconds, as if he had just spoken a foreign language.

"The what?" you questioned dumbly.

"The computers."

"Of course I do. Any person who doesn't needs their head checked. They're literally right there!"

Your voice crackled a bit with lightning. You usually didn't have such a sharp tongue, but your patience was running low, if you even had any to begin with for today. The young man followed your pointed finger that indicated the computer section of the library.

He dipped his head, courteously saying, "Thank you."

Then he walked away.

You turned away back to the shade of the corner, sighing stiffly, and returning to the vibrant colors on the page of the picture book. Slowly, your eyelids began to droop and your head dropped down, leaning against the nearby wall. The image of Mother's soft eyes were burned in your mind. You closed your eyes, hoping to go to the land of dreams.

...//

"[Name], do you know about the princess of the kingdom of Tong?"

You shook your head, eyes large and filled with childlike innocence as you looked at your mother's face. She smiled gently and began to tell the tale.

"In the kingdom of Tong, there was a very beautiful and kind princess. She was loved by everyone. But then two brothers, princes of another nation, wanted to marry her. They both loved her very much. They fought over her for eternities. And the argument soon began a war. This is one of the reasons why the princess never left Tong, because Tong is the kingdom where they store every person's sorrows. She had the most sorrow of them all."

"How did the war end?"

"There was one knight from the kingdom of Yoroi, where they train all the knights. He put an end to the war."

Her mother smoothed out the crinkles of her long skirt.

"Shall we stop here tonight?"

You nodded.

"Hey," your mother suddenly called.

Curiously, you glanced at her.

"Hey. Hey. Hey!"

"Hey!"

"Huh?"

Your eyes reopened and felt your neck ache from craning too much. Rubbing side of it, you looked to see who had called out. It was the same dark-eyed man who had asked you where the computers were.

"You..." you murmured.

"The librarian asked me to wake you up. They're closing in three minutes," he quickly and quietly explained to you.

Three minutes? That must mean it's already 4:57...

You nodded and reached for your belongings. He watched you pack and stand up. The two of you exited the building together.

Your feet stopped abruptly in their tracks. On instinct, your [color] eyes scanned the popular area of the upperclassmen. No one was there. You breathed a sigh of relief. The man standing next to you glanced at your sudden strange behavior with a questioning glance.

He was about to leave when you caught his attention.

"Um," you began politely. "I'm sorry for earlier. I shouldn't have spoken so harshly."

The young handsome man gave her a small smile, shook his head a little and raised a hand to dismiss the subject. You figured that it was his way of saying, "It's fine."

Then, he pointed to your book bag.

"Do you go to school around here?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah. It's the university a few blocks from here," you answered.

You were a bit incredulous. A hot guy talking to you in a civilized manner? It was almost unheard of, quite frankly.

"Oh?" the handsome man smiled again. "I'm transferring there in the new semester. I trust that I'll be seeing you then?"

For the first time in a long while, your throat closed with words. Your airway felt constricted and you felt like you could get lost in those dark eyes of his. But your reaction only made you even more incredulous. And this time, to yourself.

What am I doing? Getting excited about seeing a stranger?

"Maybe," you said, lips pursing together in a certain mysterious mannerism.

He nodded and said his good-byes.

And as the handsome young man with long black hair and dark eyes walked away, you could feel yourself getting lost again.

That was when you realized, that you hadn't even learned his name.

"What's your name!?" you suddenly blurted out.

He was already a good ten feet away when you shouted your burning question at him. You thought that you could already detect a smile on his lips, bigger this time.

"Itachi," he told her. "Itachi Uchiha."

Itachi seemed to pause, as if waiting for her to offer her name back.

"I'm [Name]!" you called. "[Name] Shizuki!"

"I'll be seeing you then, [Name]."

Your heart pounded as his figure grew smaller and smaller down the sidewalk. It felt like it was in your throat. Itachi. Itachi Uchiha. Itachi. He said your name so smoothly and clearly, with no hesitation. Your heart squeezed inside your ribcage.

You weren't looking for a man at the moment. You knew this very well. But something about Itachi attracted you to the point that it made you giddy. The image of his dark eyes burned into your mind.

Almost too excitedly, you hurried away from the library.

From a ways off, Itachi turned his head back, something he rarely did. A smile tugged at his lips as he caught a glimpse of the girl he had just met walking briskly away in the opposite direction. Her [color] hair whipped in the wind like silk. Her hands were a bit small and arms slender. But her personality certainly sparkled.

He gave away and let his mouth form a quiet smile.

She's an interesting one. I want to see if she'll be different from the others...