I'm not sure how to describe the months that followed our kiss. Being with Itachi was sorta like...cuddling a lit stick of dynamite, if you want the truth.

Like I said, after the kiss we were definitely together, there was no question about that. In fact, I'm pretty sure that if we hadn't gotten together, the little weasel would have fried me under the pretense that I was leading him on. Or something like that. You know how Itachi can be sometimes.

We didn't actually agree to date, though. There was no popped question, no uncomfortable silence as one of us waited for the other's answer; it just came to be. One minute we're partners, the next minute we're an item. Confusing, right? Even I'm still trying to figure out exactly how that happened...

Now, being in a relationship (or whatever the hell you'd call it) didn't mean I was given any more leeway. Itachi still had the whole murderous sadist aura about him, and on more than one occasion I tried to press my luck and almost ended up on the pointy end of a kunai.

Now, what did change was Itachi's general attitude towards me. He wanted my attention all the time! Like, I would be sitting on the bed, reading a book and minding my own business, when Itachi pops into the room. Suddenly my book's gone and Itachi's snuggling into my side. Will I ever know if Chloe and Daniel find happiness?

Or there was the time I was cooking dinner in the kitchen with Deidara's help. I'll admit, the kid's annoying sometimes, but he actually knows how to make pretty good food. As the blonde was showing me the "proper" way to crack an egg, my partner walked into the room.

By now, you should know that those two were like water and oil, so Itachi's arrival wasn't exactly something for Deidara to smile about. I took a few steps back from where Deidara stood, fully prepared to take cover behind the counter should those two get into a fight. It wouldn't be the first time they've gone from civil to a cat fight in the blink of an eye.

Fortunately for both me and the kitchen, no battle broke out. Instead, Itachi calmly told Deidara that Sasori needed him immediately. You could practically see the guy melt at the mention of his partner. In seconds he was out of the room, and I was without a cook. "You're making dinner?" Itachi asked me.

"Yeah, kinda."

"Let me help, before you burn down the entire base." Note the overwhelming confidence my partner has in me.

In any case, Itachi started cooking (and by that, I mean once he stepped in I wasn't allowed to do anything but slice fruit) and an hour later we had a fairly nice meal made. Once we'd eaten and cleaned up, Itachi went to the living room and I ventured towards our room. On my way, I passed a rather irate Deidara. You could tell the guy was ticked, seeing as his hands were balled into fists and he was grumbling under his breath while trekking down the hall in a pretty stiff manner. "Lying weasel bastard, un."

"What's wrong?"

He stopped walking long enough to glare at me with sheer malice. "Your stupid partner lied about danna needing me, un!"

"Well, I'm sorry-wait, why didn't you just come back into the kitchen then?"

The kid's anger vanished at my question, and he actually blushed a little. He started mumbling and twiddling his thumbs then, and it was about five minutes before I got an actual answer out of him. "Well, we got into a fight, and then Sasori danna felt bad and wanted to show how sorry he was..."

After that the mumbling got so bad I couldn’t understand a word he said, but it didn’t really matter because by then I'd noticed how his ponytail had recently been redone, and there were a few hickeys showing that not even the collar of his cloak could hide. "Save it; I don't wanna know."

For the time being I'll ignore Deidara's forgiving nature and overactive libido, since we’re focusing on Itachi. Kami, I could go on for hours about how that blonde and redhead can’t keep it in their pants…

Anyway, I know that it sounds like my hellish life got worse when the weasel and I became more than just partners, but that’s really misleading. Much as his obsessive attitude bugged me, I was having the time of my life, due to a huge ego boost that came with our relationship.

You see, Itachi’s always been dominant since day one. I guess it comes with the territory of being a sadist or something. All the plans, all our procedures, everything that we did was done because Itachi willed it so. He knew the best course of action, and had the power to back up his strategies. It was the result of hours of training his brain and body, no doubt, but all that hard work had created a tragic flaw for my partner. He’d never had time for a real relationship, and as such didn’t have a clue what to do with his body around me. Leaving me in complete control.

It was pretty funny for a while. Itachi got so frustrated when we kissed, and for the longest time had no idea where to put his hands when we made out. Poor guy; he’s always been labeled as a genius, but had no idea how to perform the most basic physical acts of affection.

I tried to be patient and not laugh (more for the sake of saving my skin than protecting his pride) and taught him how to do “certain things” via hands on activities. He became a pretty good kisser after a while, and his hands finally learned where to go to keep both of us happy. Next came the fun part.

For the record, I never told you any of this. Not a word.

After kissing comes touching, right? Well that concept scared the living daylights out of my partner. The first time one of my fingers reached under his shirt, I got a knife in the kidney. Not one of my more pleasant memories, I’ll have you know.

Once I was bandaged and had him reasonably calm (by which I mean he’d put down his spare knife and didn’t look ready to flee the room at a moment’s notice) we got out of our shirts. Nothing too bad at the moment, seeing as we usually go around our room Hidan style. The tricky part was letting him know he could look and touch. Easier said than done.

I decided against beating around the bush and just grabbed his hand, since it didn’t seem like he was ever gonna move on his own. In retrospect that probably wasn’t the best idea, since Itachi’s kinda like a squirrel in the sense that sudden movement sets him off. Logic and similes aside, he didn’t freak out, so I went ahead with my plan, which was pretty simple; just get Itachi to touch me.

He was watching our hands, so I took a chance to observe his face. His normal emotionless expression was back in place, which was a pretty big turnoff, but in his eyes there was a hint of something else. Fear? Anxiety? I’m not too sure. In any case, once his icy cold fingers made contact with my torso, the calm exterior cracked ever so slightly, and he blushed.

I don’t care what anyone else says; there is nothing cuter than Itachi blushing.

I won’t go into the exact details of what happened next; we’ll just leave it at Itachi became less shy with the whole touching thing afterward. It was going pretty great for a while. Of course Kami, being a total bastard who loves to mess with me, decided to screw things up.

It started with Itachi trembling slightly. I didn’t think much of it; probably just a combination of nerves and not being used to physical contact. But then he kinda curled into himself as the shaking got worse. Now, I had cause for concern. “Itachi?”

His answer was to cover his mouth and cough violently, which freaked me out pretty badly. The guy’s never had so much as a cold in his entire life, and right then he sounded like he had the black lung or something. I scooted closer to him on the bed and pulled his hand away. I needed to know what was wrong, and as

long as his mouth was covered up, I wasn’t likely to get an answer. But I never even voiced my question.

When I pulled Itachi’s hand away, I’d looked down at the limb just for a second. That was when I noticed little flecks of blood on his palm. He wasn’t cut anywhere on his hand, so that left only one option. My partner was hacking up blood.

As if to confirm my suspicions not but a moment later another coughing fit broke out, and Itachi spewed a few drops of blood onto my hands. Something was wrong with my partner.