Sehnsucht [Naruto Fanfiction]

Chapter 25 - Insomnia

Chapter 25 - Insomnia

Itachi woke with a start when he heard his front door open and felt the chakra seal break. Immediately, he sensed Hitori's presence, but he didn't move since she wasn't rushing to get to him. In fact, he could hear her feet scuffing against the floorboards and rolled over so that he could see her once she stepped in the doorway. There was just enough light in his room for him to see that she was in her pyjamas, a singlet and shorts, with messy hair. She must have been asleep, and he wondered what brought her here.

Without saying anything, she walked to the opposite side of his bed, hopped under the covers and snuggled in. Itachi lay still with his mouth open in shock and eyes wide.

"I can't sleep." She whined quietly, which didn't really explain why she was here, but he was too surprised to respond. Her eyes were closed, but she opened them widely to look at him after he stayed quiet. "Is it alright for me to stay?" Her tone became nervous.

He wasn't quite sure he could form words currently, so instead, he nodded in confirmation and watched as she smiled and closed her eyes. She looked content, and he smiled softly at the sight. She had mentioned before that she felt safe and slept well with him around, so he wasn't sure why he was so surprised. Probably just because she had crawled into his bed at midnight. He had never shared a bed with a woman before, platonic or otherwise. Sharing sleeping spaces on a mission was practically irrelevant. As comfortable as he was with Hitori, this was new territory, and he had a thought about whether this would be a regular occurrence. He had been tossing and turning most of the night, still tired but unable to settle after coming out of the hospital, and she probably sensed it and came around to check on him. He had been a little too drowsy to focus on what she was doing across the hall, but he gathered that she hadn't been asleep since he hadn't either.

As if on queue, she put a finger on his arm, and he felt her chakra flow through him in the form of a quick scan. It only took all of 10 seconds, and she pulled her hand back, satisfied with his condition. Although he was tired and needed to sleep, he was hyper-aware of where he was compared to Hitori in the bed. He would attempt to maintain a distance of at least a foot and a half between them, but he was worried that he would move in his sleep. It took him at least ten minutes to calm himself down so that he could try and go back to sleep, but he finally closed his eyes after she began snoring softly.

He had never bothered buying an alarm clock since his body worked like one. Being sick had put him off a little since he needed more rest. But he needed to get some work done at HQ, even if Hitori had brought him any reports he needed to do. She had been running around for him to help him out, and he was glad that she was willing to help, but she hadn't rested much since returning from her mission. Itachi had asked the old Commander to temporarily assign anything urgent after hours, and he was happy to fill in. But now that he was well enough, he wanted to get back to work. Being in the hospital and at home for over a week had made him stir crazy. So he would sleep until whenever his body decided to and then go to work.

Once he finally got to sleep, he stayed asleep until the morning light through his window woke him up. Noticing that he was incredibly warm, he carefully moved his head to look at where Hitori was and found they had both made their way to the middle of the bed. His 'foot and a half' had changed to a few inches while they slept. He flinched a bit in surprise, and it was enough for Hitori to stir.

She had been asleep on her stomach and lifted up to lean on her chin on her hands; she frowned, all without opening her eyes. After she finally opened them, it took her a minute to realise where she was. Frowning again, she appeared to remember that she came in last night and began to stretch. Now that she was up, he hopped out of bed and grabbed his clothes to get changed into. Glad that he had worn both pants and a shirt to bed, he headed to the bathroom since Hitori didn't seem to be moving, but her voice stopped him.