Kisame tried his best to hold himself together. He opened the door, revealing the two police officers.

- Are you Hoshigaki- san?

- Yes.

- Can we come in?

Kisame moved to the side and let them in his apartment. He wouldn't show them where Itachi was, even if they killed him. He had to think of something to stop them.

- Let's sit, we have some questions.

The police officers sat on his kitchen table, waiting for him to do the same. He obeyed.

- So, straight forward, do you know Itachi Uchiha?

- Yes.

Kisame was trying hard to not show any emotion on his face. They were not going to break him.

- Okay, and do you know where he is?

- No.

- Are you sure?

- Yes, sir.

The officer which asked the questions looked at him in the eyes. He still seemed suspicious, despite his attempts not to.

- We have to check your apartment. We have an order.

- Shit. - Kisame thought.

The two men stood up. His apartment was small. There was a narrow kitchen, combined with some space for the couch and a mini coffee table. The other rooms were just the bathroom and the bedroom. His palms were sweating. He had to stop them right now.

One of them aimed for the bedroom's door handle.

- No, stop!

The police officers immediately pinned their eyes on him. Would he finally confess? They wanted to be over with this so much.

- My girlfriend is sleeping there.

The officers were stunned. What the fuck was this guy doing?

They pressed the door handle, but realized it was locked.

- Please officer, I don't want you to see my girlfriend naked.

- Listen, boy. He have to check the whole apartment. I don't care if your girlfriend is naked.

Kisame moved in front of them. No, they were not coming in no matter what.

- I understand you have an order, but I'm asking you understand me too.

- What is your girlfriend's name?

- I am not obligated to answer questions which are not connected to the particular case you are here for without a lawyer.

- Oh god, this boy... Go wake her up and tell her to get dressed!

- She will get mad, officer.

- You are crawling on my nerves, you know?

One of the officer's phone ringed. The conversation was short, with only "yes" and "no" coming from his side.

- We have to go.

Kisame felt a huge relief. He could breathe now. He didn't know who called, but it unintentionally saved him.

- We will come again, kid. Make sure there are no sleeping girlfriends the next time.

When they left, he locked the door behind them. He couldn't believe everything went by that easily. Next time it surely won't be. He came back to Itachi who was still sleeping. Kisame sighed, relieved that the officers didn't wake him up. The raven's calm breathing helped him relax from the stressful police enterance. He stayed there for a while, until he felt the sleep overtaking his own body too.

^^^

Itachi woke up alone. He felt surprisingly better. The long sleep had helped ease the pain. He got up and slowly entered the kitchen, streching his stiff muscles.

- Good morning!

Kisame was cooking something. He absolutely loved to cook. Itachi's vision was still a bit blurry and he couldn't identify what exactly he was making. Kisame left the pan and got closer to the raven.

- How do you feel? Is your head better?

The big boy gave him a smile and brushed a piece of hair away from Itachi's face.

- Yes, I'm okay.

- Happy to hear that.

Getting back to his main task, he told Itachi to sit and wait for the food to be ready. After a couple of minutes, he came with a plate of eggs with some bacon on the side. Itachi was nowhere near hungry.

- I know what you are thinking. Don't even try to refuse. I'll not let you move until you finish this.

- But...

- You heard me. You need to eat. Do you want to save Sasuke or not?

Itachi sighed. Kisame was probably right. He remembered how as a kid, his mother used to do the same. He never had a good relationship with food and she was awlays pushing him to eat just a little more, just for her. Thinking of this distant memory made his heart shrink again. She was never coming back.

Kisame could see how sad and empty Itachi was. His eyes were a bit puffy from the crying and his face was still too pale, like someone sucked the life out of it. Kisame couldn't imagine what would have happened if Itachi knew about the uninvited guests a couple of hours ago.

The raven slowly lifted the fork and started eating his breakfast. Kisame couldn't take his eyes off of him. Even in this state, he thought that Itachi was the most georgeus human being on earth. He watched him patiently as he ate, until Itachi stopped and looked at him too.

- I can't eat more.

Kisame glimpsed at the half full plate, then back to the raven. He could see that it definitely wasn't enough, but he knew how stubborn Itachi was too.

- It's okay.

They stayed silent for a while. Kisame was trying to figure out how to tell Itachi that they needed to get out of here as soon as possible. He didn't know when the police could come again, but he didn't plan to find out either. He looked at the window. The weather was still bad, even though it was in the middle of the day. He had nowhere to go too, which was leaving him in a really complicated situation. He got up and got closer to the raven, putting his hand on Itachi's porcelain cheek. The smaller boy closed his eyes, feeling the warmth from Kisame's big palm. He always felt safe around Kisame. His presence and his touch were always able to soften the raven's occupied mind.

- Itachi... I can't watch you suffer anymore. When you are hurt, I'm hurt too. Please, tell me what happened so I can try to help you.

Kisame was scared of Itachi's reaction. He didn't want to push him, but he needed to know. His hand was still on his cheek, moving his thumb up and down. Itachi looked at him with his big onyx eyes, making Kisame's body shudder.

- Some strange people broke into our house. They had masks, I couldn't see their faces. I couldn't do anything, they killed mum and dad in front of me and took Sasuke with them. I was just staying.. like a rock... like a useless rock, who...

- Don't blame yourself.

- I am trained for defense, Kisame! I am fucking trained... and yet, I just watched everything happen. I let my parents get killed, I let these people to manipulate Sasuke, I let them take him away... I am nothing more than a failure.

Kisame's heart was breaking under Itachi's words. A failure was the last thing he resembled.

- This is not a single percent your fault. You never had a real situation like this, of course you are going to be scared, of course it would be much harder. Your parents were trained too, right? Then why do you take all the burden on yourself? There are countless things that could have made the outcome different, but it is how it is, right? You can't fight with the past, Itachi. What is done is done, now we need to focus on the future and most importantly, finding Sasuke.

Itachi's eyes watered again. It seemed like Kisame's words achieved the opposite effect of what he wanted. He gently wiped the first roling tear down Itachi's face.

- Don't cry, 'Tachi...

Itachi's black eyes shined like diamonds under the tears. He hated it. He hated crying, yet he was doing it again. Itachi was disgusted with himself. He realized how weak he actually was and that pissed him off.

Kisame was still stroking the raven's cheek. He lookead at the smaller boy with watered eyes too. They didn't have more time to waste, they had to move.

- Itachi, we have to go somewhere else. The police is looking for you and there is a possibility that they can come here. We can go book a hotel or something, but we can't stay here any longer.

The raven took a few seconds to assimilate the information. He was so immersed in his crippling thoughts that he completely forgot how to think straight and logical. He was disappointed with himself once again.

Itachi just nodded and Kisame traced his hand down to the other's neck.

- Don't torture your beautiful head anymore, everything is going to be okay.

Kisame wanted to tell him how he was able to feel every drop of his pain, how he could die if Itachi wasn't by his side, how tremendously loved him, but he couldn't. He knew he will never win Itachi's heart.