Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, wish I did, but don't.

Kisame knows that Itachi is not perfect.

The Uchiha is violent, ruthless, and slightly temperamental. Despite this, however, Kisame knows that Itachi has worse flaws.

Kisame is the one that wakes up in the middle of the night to the sound of whimpers and thrashing from across the room. Those nights, every night, as it has recently become, he drags himself out of bed to wake his partner. Itachi always seems to freeze when he wakes up, just before he breaks down and clutches at Kisame for warmth, and Kisame has no other option than to oblige, staying up for hours to lull Itachi back to sleep with his body heat and the sound of his heartbeat.

Kisame is the one that goes on missions with Itachi, and has to stop when the boy suddenly goes off into his own world. Sometimes it takes hours for him to snap out of it, and during that time, he stops moving, stops responding, once in a while, he almost stops breathing. Kisame is forced to stop traveling, or escape from a fight, or whatever is going to on, to catch Itachi when he collapses, and keep him safe until he recovers.

Kisame is the one that Itachi turns to for everything, including the heartstopping revelation that he drops on Kisame one day, walking into the Akatsuki kitchen and sitting, turning Kisame's world upside-down with two words.

'I'm blind.'

Kisame is the one that guards Itachi whenever he collapses, fairly shrieking from the pain that his Sharingan causes as it shreads the blood vessels and the chakra veins inside his head.

Kisame is the one that is there for Itachi, and will be there until the day that one or both of them die.

Kisame knows that Itachi is not perfect, but he follows him anyway because Kisame knows that Itachi is the closest thing there is.

A/N: Ah, this is the first thing on my account that's going to stay there...I thought of this while being stuck in a car for fourteen hours on the way to Iowa. Anywho, I thought that since Itachi and Kisame were partners, they'd have to have at least a slight relationship...not necessarily ItaKisa...but friends or something. Right, if that didn't make any sense, feel free to ignore it. By the way, I'll be uploading a few other related one-shots.