Bite The Bullet

13

AN: I'm parading him around. Sue me.

Dedicated to: kawaiiChan1221 thanks for voting and adding this to your reading list(s)! This one's for you, and I hope you like this chapter and continue to support me! Look at all these exclamations! Yay! Bite! The! Bullet! Woooooaaahhhh -

I'm sorry.

__________

Sitting up abruptly and tearing off the duvet, I pant as if I ran a marathon and rub on my eyes with frustration in attempt to erase all signs of a nightmare. It takes me a good minute to gather my wits and lie back down, seeing as I had two more hours before I needed to get up and get ready for school, and no way was I planning on thinking about it.

Annoyingly, irritably, irkedly so, I do anyways.

I quietly trudge down the stairs in the dark, hands ahead of me to guide me as I make my way to the kitchen. On my way, I notice a mess of white on the couch and purse my lips to muffle the scream of surprise that would've otherwise erupted from my lips, before counting to ten and continuing towards my destination as noiselessly as ever and then some. Thankfully, Jiraiya doesn't stir when I look back as the kitchen door creaks open enough to allow me to slip in.

A hundred and seventy-nine heartbeats later, I'm on the school website on Jiraiya's laptop in incognito mode, searching for one particular thing – Itachi Uchiha's records.

There's more than I expected.

He's a legend and just a junior, as the first article says, and his achievements are unrivaled. Sedulous, hardworking and persistent, yet enigmatic, a natural and calm. He's considered as a polite and humble individual with little to no arrogance, and with all sense of the word, the ideal leader.

Bullshit.

Even though I met him two days ago, for fifteen minutes tops, I could firmly say that he was more than what he let on, and boy did he drop that act and twist it around like it was absolutely nothing to him, and despite that, despite the fact that I was notorious for handling myself well, I knew not to overestimate him. That would be my downfall.

As I make my way downstairs for the second time today, only this time adorning the school uniform and carrying books and homework instead of my pajamas and slippers, I pass by the living room fully intending to skip breakfast and get something from the vending machines at school.

I only rush out of there faster when Jiraiya asks who's been using his laptop without his knowledge.

I shiver slightly as I trudge down the ever familiar path to school, courtesy of a typical December morning in Konoha, before grumbling to myself for forgetting my scarf for the umpteenth time. I would let my hair down to keep any semblance of warmth in, but since it was slightly long, it was deemed a distraction so I had to keep it up. And it took me a while to put it in the single most perfect bun I've ever rolled in my entire life and a white headband to further elude it's perfection. So suffer I shall.

I reach the school fifty minutes early this time instead of the usual forty-thirty, due to the fast walk I initiated to not freeze to the death, and sigh in relief for the first time ever when I find Sasuke seated in the classroom. He seems to notice it, since his eyebrows raise and his smirk appears.

"One Friday and you're already happy to see me?"

I roll my eyes as I take my seat across from him and dump my stuff. "Don't put emotions that aren't there Saucey."

His smirk strains a little as he attempts not to drop it and lose what I assume is the opportunity to bug me, so I save us both the time and ask, "Did you get my message?"

"Yeah," his smirk leans towards a genuine smile, which kind of throws me off a little.

"So when some girl threatens to bury your brother, you smile?"

He rolls his eyes and I demand for him to stop it.

"It was nice to see him disoriented for once," Sasuke confesses as he leans is, now a full-blown grin brightening his face and lighting up his charcoal eyes. "What did you do to him?"

"I..."

"Kakashi's class."

Sasuke freezes. My jaw clenches.

"Been a while since I've seen him – wasn't he a middle school teacher?"

I'm purposely staring at my notebook on the desk, refusing to give him any attention, when a shadow huddles above me and a long, slender finger slides against the wood, tracing circles next to my notebook; not long before two large hands place themselves on Ino and Nori's side of the table.

"What do you want Itachi?" I distinctly hear Sasuke's choked question, surprise paints over my otherwise emotionless shield as I catch the unprecedented anger and fear laced around his brother's name as it falls from his lips, and I wonder for a moment if Itachi really was horrible.

"Now don't be rude Sasuke," Itachi's smooth voice chirps a little closer than I anticipated, making me shift uncomfortably. "You haven't formally introduced me to your friend."

He says the word 'friend' as if it were an anomaly, like he didn't quite believe it.

"What're you talking about?" Sasuke questions with confusion, I catch his gaze and watch his eyes harden as all notions of his frustration crumble as if it were never there. Suddenly, his relationship with his brother seems like it's none of my business.

Why was this happening in front of me, and neither were willing to take it elsewhere then?

Itachi turns to me as I notice from the corners of my eyes since I refuse to turn away from Sasuke, and he sighs as if this is all just one big nuisance to him and he wasn't the one to walk in here of his own free will. Or stay for that matter.

"Don't mind my foolish little brother," he says coolly, his breath fanning against my cheek so I'm aware he'd somehow managed to move closer faster than I could intercept, and judging by Sasuke's burning obsidian infernos that are now his eyes, he doesn't seem to like him at all. "It's a wonder how he managed to gain your favour at all."

"Careful," I interrupt what was evidently Sasuke releasing his boat of what I'm sure now isn't anger and fear, but infuriation and jealousy. So that gives me some insight as I finally face Itachi, who looks like he's hanging onto what I'm about to say, so I smile a saccharine smile, further garnering his curiosity, and say, "It sounds like the big bad wolf is terribly jealous."

His devilish smirk drops like hot potatoes. My smile threatens to split my face.

"What is it? Unfathomable why Red Riding Hood would always always always prefer her dear grandmother?"

I'm aware of Sasuke's unreadable expression, just as I'm basking at Itachi's clenched jaw.

"It's because you're horrible, and disguising yourself as something so blatantly obvious it's freaking insulting you're not , won't hide it."

"Kushina –"

"So put away your big teeth," I raise my hand to stop Sasuke from intervening, my tone so sweet it's sickening, and somewhere at the back of my head I wonder why I'm doing this. Getting in between their spat. "Take your big hands off this desk, avert your big eyes, before I shove off my hood and pull out my axe."

It's deadly quiet after my little speech, just as I expected to be, but it drew out until the air was choking with tension and anticipation and Sasuke was staring at Itachi and he in turn was studying me and I just wanted to run off and face Jiraiya instead. At least there I would know what was going to happen and how it would end and eventually long forgotten and forgiven.

It seems like forgiving and forgetting wasn't in their genetic make-up.

"Misson guavas is a success," I face Sasuke and nod, and I pretend like Itachi isn't even there and he still remains on his toes as if he's sure it was a matter of time until Itachi swung back. "I'm moving on to peaches, seeing as I couldn't care less anymore."

Itachi laughs.

I'm caught off guard. Sasuke's isn't surprised.

"Oh sweetheart, so you once cared for me?"

I stand up abruptly. "What?! No I –"

He catches my chin and I'm too stupefied by his proximity and disposition that screams masculinity and dominance to move away, fight back, that I just stand there like he's not inches from me. His smirk is horrifyingly dark and devilish, and there's a fire in his onyx eyes that burn with an emotion I don't want to decipher, and for one horribleHORRIBLE moment, I expect him to kiss me.

He does something equally worse.

"The moment you manage to lose my interest and drive me away, you say something that pulls me back and mesmerizes me."

".....huh?"

"Just kidding!" he exclaims with a chuckle, releasing me and walking off like nothing happened. I stand there absolutely stunned and can do nothing but watch his back as he retreats. He turns once and mouths something above Sasuke's head so he wouldn't know, before shutting the door for good.

I sit back down across from Sasuke after a few moments, and he neither says anything or shows a shred of emotion on his face, that I retreat back into my mind and helplessly replay Itachi's secret words –

"You never lost my interest."

__________

AN: Someone is stirring up some drama. Humour me – what do YOU think Itachi is going to do?

First published: July 2018