When Love Fades

Chapter 27 - Old and new friends II

Naruto forced himself to take a deep breath as he stood outside the door to Itachi's apartment. Itachi won't actually kill me. Itachi won't actually kill me.

Of course, it didn't help that Naruto was remembering - with perfect clarity - his first meeting with Itachi, when he and Sasuke had just started dating. Sasuke had gone to get them some drinks and Itachi had 'casually' mentioned that as a medical student - he knew many ways to kill someone and make it look like death by natural causes. Itachi also was aware of ways to make someone impotent for life. It made Naruto revise his mantra.

Itachi won't actually kill me... but he might cut off my balls.

Naruto huffed a bit at his own imagination, then stiffened his spine and knocked firmly on Itachi's door. He was man enough to take whatever Itachi dished out. He'd known Sasuke had an over-protective brother when they started dating, and now it was time to pay the piper. The door opened after a brief moment.

"I was wondering how long you were going to stand there," Itachi said, his voice slightly amused as he stepped back and let Naruto inside.

Naruto handed Itachi a small bag of gourmet coffee beans. He had thought about bringing wine like he and Sasuke usually did the few times they'd been to Itachi's place before, but that had seemed odd, given the theme of possible castration for the evening.

Naruto didn't want to show up empty handed, either, though, so he had settled on good coffee. Itachi's coffee addiction was possibly even worse than Sasuke's, so Naruto knew that the gift would not go to waste no matter how annoyed Itachi was with him. Itachi looked at the bag as he accepted it, breathing in appreciatively as the rich aroma of the beans seeped through the paper bag.

"Thank you," Itachi's voice was controlled and polite, as always, as he walked to the small kitchen and set them on the counter. By the amazing smells that were coming from the stove behind him, he had already finished cooking dinner.

"You have a shoot in town?" Itachi asked conversationally, leaning casually against the kitchen counter while Naruto removed his shoes.

Naruto wished they'd just dive right in rather than pretending this was a normal dinner between them, but he would let Itachi set the rules for this. Especially since he still couldn't tell if Itachi was angry with him or not. It had taken him years to be able to read Sasuke, but Itachi had always been at a whole other level.

"Yeah. Well, maybe. There's some guy that Jiraiya's been wanting to do a story on, but I guess the guy doesn't like publicity. Or maybe he doesn't like people? Anyway, Jiraiya his hoping I'll be able to convince the guy to let us take pictures of him and his business. I'm meeting with him for lunch tomorrow. We'll see how it goes."

"Who is it?" Itachi asked, sounding honestly curious. Was that good sign that he wasn't planning on castrating him? Naruto hoped so.

Jiraiya said he couldn't tell me. I just have the address I am " supposed to meet him at tomorrow. Evidently the guy wants to see my reaction? I really have no idea."

Itachi raised an eyebrow. "That's... an interesting assignment for a photographer."

Naruto shrugged. "Yeah, it is a little weird. I guess I made a good impression on some architect that Jiraiya had been having trouble with, and I think this other guy knows him or something. He was willing to meet with me. But only me."

"Hm," Itachi walked over to the cupboard and brought out a bottle of wine. Naruto had finished taking off his shoes and went to wash his hands.

"Can I help with anything? Get out some hemlock, or something?" Naruto joked, unable to wait any longer to see how angry with him Itachi was.