The Akatsuki's Shadow

Tobi

A movement on your bed behind you stirred you from your slumber. Turning your body with lazily efforts and half open eyes you saw a silhoutte of a figure.

When did I get in my room..?

The difficulty of seeing their face was due to the fact your room was pitch black, only a faint light from the moon outside your window bled upon their being, showing the outline of hazy lighting. The darkness of the sky outside told you its no where near time to awake for the next day so your thoughts spun to if something was wrong. But until they spoke, laying a hand on your cheek to brush the stray hair aside you knew who it was.

"Can I stay in here with you?" His voice was quiet and unlike his usual chirpy positive attitude.

It took you a few moments to register the words said for you felt your body was still in a dream state. To your best ability you rolled your body so your back faced the wall and pulled yourself back creating space, he took this action as acceptance to his issue so he shuffled into bed with you. Keeping one eye open with all the strength possible you looked at his being as your eyes adjusted to the room. His exterior shuffled close to you, Tobi is always the type that would grip you into a tight squeeze but his actions seemed unusual. It was almost as if he felt he couldn't or in fact he shouldn't. So you raised your arm to lift the bedding over him more, tucking him in as you rested your head aside his shoulder and an arm wrapping around his. You felt his chest raise and lower at a calm steady pace. It wasn't long until you drifted back into a deep slumber and so did he, the comfort aided you both. You had only wished you were awake enough to talk to him, giving more of a sense of reassurance however something did tell you now wasn't the time to question his feelings or reasons. Your dream state brought you to the memories of when you had nightmares and you would wake up to Tobi curled on the corner of your bed. This time it was your turn to comfort him in his time of need.

As time went by through the night your sleep was disturbed once more, this time it was a vice grip around your waist by none other than Tobi himself. It became tighter and tighter by the minute as you gasped for air.

"Tobi...wake up" you wheezed out trying to pry his interlaced fingers off your stomach.

To no avail to called out again, "Tobi!" you nudged him with your elbow to knock him out of his trance of dream state once more. He flinched, eye wide open and pulled back himself immediately.

"Tobi is so sorry, Tobi didn't mean to..".

He stood holding onto his arm tugging at his sleeve. Rolling over to face him you noticed it was still early hours of the morning but clearly you both were awake enough this time to talk. You ushered him back to the bed and guided him to face you, you saw that his mask was a tad askew showing a part of his scarred cheek, as you went to adjust it for him you noticed a tear. This fact surprised you and you looked at him sympathetically.

Giving him a warm filled hug in bed you quietly and reassuringly spoke, "You can always come to me whenever you need it, I'm all ears should you wish to talk to me about it too and it's not a problem if you don't want to either".

He hesitantly returned the hug, but when he did you felt the emotions pour in. Truly feeling helpless and unsure how to help him you just stayed as his emotional crutch until he spoke.

"Tobi lost a lot of in his life; friends, family, hope. Tobi only fear it will happen again". His words saddened you, understanding fully that all the Akatsuki members have had their fare share of despair and sadness. You never could imagine Tobi, the one happy go lucky member to experience such things too.

"Will [Y/N]-chan always stay with the Akatsuki?" this question surprised you, just what was he thinking? That you'd get tired and leave? Hell no! These people took you in as your own and you would never dream of vanquishing your feelings towards them.