Disclaimer: I don't own these guys, no matter how much I love them.

Author's Note: Got the idea during one of the episodes of Kyou Kara Maou. I just started watching it and I gotta tell you, that show is fantastical.

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Our brothers and sisters are there with us from the dawn of our personal stories to the inevitable dusk. ~Susan Scarf Merrell

-/-/-/-

It wasn't an uncommon fear, thunderstorms. Especially the way they happened in Konoha, the thunder rattling windows and the winds howling in between buildings.

Itachi thinks he'll always remember the first time. The first time that Sasuke snuck in his bedroom door and did a kind of tip-toe run before bouncing onto his bed.

"Sasuke, wha-?"

Another flash of lightning illuminated the younger brother's pale face. "'M scared." Itachi didn't have to ask what he was afraid of when the next roll of thunder made him flinch. He just opened his arms and Sasuke jumped a little before burying his head in Itachi's chest.

"It's just thunder, Sasuke. It can't hurt you."

"It's loud! And-and scary!"

Itachi tried to think of a way to explain it. "Thunder is like…fireworks. You like fireworks, remember? Like the ones on New Years. But they're God's fireworks, so they're a little louder than the ones we get."

Another clap of thunder and Sasuke's shoulders hunched, his grip tightening in Itachi's shirt. Itachi ran his fingers through his brother's hair, knowing it soothed him. "You wanna stay here tonight? I promise I'll be right here the whole time. The lightning won't get you."

Sasuke didn't think twice, burrowing under the covers.

For years afterward, two people slept in Itachi's bed instead of one.

-/-/-/-

Itachi forced himself to pick up his feet when he walked, knowing that he'd stub his toe on something otherwise. His room hadn't been the cleanest since he'd joined ANBU. He stripped as he walked, making sure to leave the bloody clothes in the corner to wash tomorrow.

The hot spray of the shower did wonders for his headache and the tiredness that had been dragging his limbs down. Moving past his lethargy, he scrubbed at his hair and skin, hating the blood he saw on his hands, even though he'd been wearing gloves.

After he stepped out, toweled himself dry and dressed for bed, he slipped out of his room and into Sasuke's. It had been a few months since Sasuke had declared himself 'too old' to be afraid of something so childish as thunderstorms. But Itachi knew that the fear came anyways.

Sasuke was buried beneath his covers, only the slightest bit of mussed ebony hair peeking out. But the lump in the covers that was Itachi's little brother was shaking like a leaf. The elder Uchiha sat carefully on the edge of the bed, making sure he didn't jostle the bed too much in case Sasuke really was asleep. Itachi found Sasuke's shoulder and began rubbing soothing circles and the shaking slowly stopped.

I promise.

-/-/-/-

In Rain country, it could be assumed that it would rain a lot. And it did. But the rainstorms were nothing like the storms back home. The thunder and lightning didn't shake the foundations of the earth and rattle window panes. There was the occasional grumble, but no roars.

And on those rare nights that there was a thunderstorm, Itachi lay awake, listening to Kisame's breathing in the other bed, the thunder bellowing across the sky. He watched the rain drum on the window and was relaxed by the storm that shook the world.

He wandered the halls sometimes, his subconscious telling him to look for Sasuke's room, wanting to sit on the younger's bed for a silent comfort. He watched the door to his room, wishing that a little black shadow would slip in and crawl into his bed.

He wondered if it was storming in Konoha.

He wondered if Sasuke was lying awake, missing his big brother.

Itachi didn't fall asleep those nights.

I promise.

-/-/-/-

Irony loved Itachi. It was his silent servant, always there and never expected.

It's why he finds it horribly ironic that everything comes back to lightning in the end.

He knows the ending to this story, wished he didn't. He wishes he didn't know how much blood and sweat it took for Sasuke to learn the Chidori as it crackles, as the thunder dragon fills the sky.

He can only stand in wonder at it all, at when the gap between the brothers began to slowly widen, remembers when he returned to see his brother under the guise that he was searching for the Kyuubi.

And he watches and reacts as his little brother, no longer a child with wide, innocent eyes, flips and leaps and fights with confidence. He's as powerful and fleeting as the element he commands and he's as fierce as the thunderstorms of a past long-gone. Sasuke embodied the thunder that he used to be so terrified of.

And Itachi fights the storm in front of him, forcing back a proud smile. His little brother had grown up.

And then a sad thought decided to tack itself onto the end of that. His little brother had grown up without him.

I promise.

It's the first thing that fits into any slot in the years since the Uchiha Massacre; the fact that he can see this powerful young man (his baby brother) who he doesn't need to protect anymore, even though he feels he still should. He sees a young man that can make his own way in the world without the violent fear that was once there.

And he smiles one last time and apologizes, "Sorry Sasuke, this is it." because he promised he'd be there.