His head felt full to bursting with numbers and Madara was right on the edge of dropping his head to the desk in exhaustion when a familiar noise of disgust caught his attention. When he shifted his gaze up and over towards the window it was to see Tobirama with arms crossed and frown in place, glaring out through the glass pane as though the outside world had offered him some personal insult.
“It is absolutely pissing rain,” his companion growled. Madara blinked. He hadn’t even noticed the rain starting.
“And? What’s that got to do with anything? We still have several of these reports to get through so get your butt back over here and help me.”
“Hmph.”
Tobirama wandered over to the table and dropped down in to his seat without ever uncrossing his arms, mood obviously ruined by the rain although Madara couldn’t see why.
“What’s got your panties in a twist?” he asked bluntly.
“I’m sure you would love to hear about my ‘panties’,” Tobirama snapped back, a touch of color rising on his cheeks at his own comment. Leaning back in his chair, Madara smirked and didn’t bother to deny it.
When he’d asked the younger man out for dinner a few weeks ago it had shocked not only Tobirama himself but nearly everyone else in the village as well. Apparently he needed to work on his flirting skills since the common impression had been that they hated each other. People continued to stare at them in bemusement every time they went out on dates, letting their relationship progress as a snail’s pace.
Or rather, a snail’s pace for a shinobi. Civilians could take all the time they wanted to woo each other slowly without the threat of death the next time they had to leave home. Shinobi tended to jump right in to things despite Hashirama’s insistence that the village was a safe place. Perhaps some day they would all feel secure enough to take their time but until then old habits would die hard.
“Are you going to tell me what about the rain is making you so grumpy or am I just going to have to guess?” Madara lowered his head to the papers in front of him once more, making an effort not to seem too interested. It simply wouldn’t do for him to appear overly eager to baby a man who simply didn’t need it.
“I hate walking home in the rain. By the time I get home I’ll be soaked whether I walk or run and I only just cleaned those floors.”
“Really? That’s why you’re mad at the rain? Muddy floors?”
“What of it? I like cleanliness, so sue me.”
Madara closed his eyes and shook his head, a warm ball of fondness settled inside his stomach. How he had ever fallen in love with such a ridiculous man was beyond him and it was baffling how little he minded.
Instead of embarrassing both of them by voicing that particular thought, however, he raised his head once more and stared his companion down until Tobirama finally relented to meet his gaze.
“Stay over?” he suggested quietly. Across from him, Tobirama went still.
“For the night?”
“Yes.” Madara shrugged, deliberately casual. “If you’re so worried about the rain then why don’t you just stay here for the night? Surely it will by morning.”
Tobirama hummed, eyes darting away and back. “I’ll think about it,” he murmured noncommittally. Madara wasn’t fooled for a moment.
For the rest of the evening neither of them brought up the topic again. They focused their attention of the work they had intended to do, only finishing after the moon had risen fully from her slumber and no other sane souls were left awake.
By that time the rain had long since stopped falling from the sky.
Dating the younger brother of one’s best friend came with both cool perks and awful impediments. Cool perks included hanging out with both of them with minimal effort. Impediments included Hashirama glaring holes in the side of his head every time he so much as contemplated spending the night.
“That is my baby brother and I have a familial obligation to protect him from any person who wants to defile him,” Hashirama growled across the table in his best menacing voice. It wasn’t very menacing. Madara rolled his eyes and leaned back with crossed arms.
“You realize that he wasn’t a virgin even before we started dating?”
Clapping both hands over his ears, Hashirama made obnoxious noises to drown him out.
“La la la! I can’t hear you! Innocent baby brother!” Only once he was sure Madara had stopped talking did he lower his hands. “You’ve got to understand, Mads, that Tobi is all I have and I’ll never let anything hurt him. Even you. You’re my best friend in the whole world but he still comes first.”
“He comes first for me too,” Madara said quietly, a faint splash of red rising on both cheeks.
Neither of them noticed the profusely blushing man listening from the doorway. They were both too distracted when Hashirama squealed with happiness and leaped almost clear across the kitchen table to tackle his friend.
Madara squirmed and shouted and generally made his protests known but on the inside he was incredibly pleased to have finally earned Hashirama’s approval for his relationship with Tobirama. It truly meant the world to him, even if he would never say so.
–
Update just for you: still loving the natural curls.
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