Itachi smells like tea. Green tea, Kisame realizes as they crouch together in a hide, waiting for the enemy to come. The space is small, Kisame large. Itachi folds his body into whatever space is left, radiating heat like a live coal. Kisame's nose rests inches from Itachi's head, which smells strongly of green tea.

That little cup of tea, drunk so religiously in the morning every morning, gives him the smell. Even chased by hunter-nin, Itachi still manages to have that cup of tea every day, and the smell of green tea comes to mean both danger and safety. Safety, because it means Itachi is near. Danger, because it means Itachi is near.

Kisame knows Itachi's a double agent, a 'good' ninja by village standards, but that doesn't mean he's safe.

While in Kumo, it's black tea. An earthier spicier scent that seems more fitting for Itachi. For the first week he drinks it with this little twist of distaste in his mouth. He's almost seventeen by this point, but Itachi has always been oddly mature and childish in the space of the same moment. It's endearing for a killer. Or maybe Kisame's just gotten so used to Itachi by now that his motions and habits have became comfortably amusing. Almost enjoyable.

At some point, Kisame makes a habit of picking up odd kinds of tea he finds and slipping them into Itachi's pack. Itachi never comments, but on the odd morning his tea cup smells more fragrant, but green tea dominates his choice. Kisame buys tea by smell, so he smells his own on Itachi easily. It pleases him a bit when this happens.

Itachi switches to black coffee when he's nineteen. He leans in the corner of the room and brews it, eyes heavy with sleep after tossing and turning all night for the fifth in a row. Itachi comes back from a solo, gone a week, and Kisame almost guts him in the night because Itachi does not smell right. Coffee-a good smell, but not right for Itachi in Kisame's mind for many weeks.

The morning cup becomes all important. Itachi begins waking with clouded eyes and arthritic mind. He fumbles out his cup in painfully slow motions and then sits down to brew and drink. Kisame doesn't rush this. He eats or fixes breakfast and watches. Watches Itachi's hands warm back into life, his eyes come alive under the harsh stimulant. Itachi puts the cup away and is himself, but Kisame knows something else is going on. Something different.

Coffee becomes the mature smell of Uchiha Itachi. When he is twenty, he begins to change it again. Coffee has a stronger taste than tea, and it covers a multitude of evils. There is a little slip of paper, containing a mix of powder and herbs Itachi pours down into his coffee ever morning. He drinks if with a twist if distaste on his lips, but never sweetens it. Never once.

Itachi begins to smell of cloying scents. Herbs, caustic chemicals. Death and decay. Blood. When Itachi first coughs up a handful of bloody sputum in front of Kisame, he knows enough not to be alarmed or surprised by the development. When he smells the decay of Itachi's breath, he slips breath mints into Itachi's pack with the coffee. Its is only when he wakes to Itachi coughing himself awake that Kisame brews a cup of coffee for them both and they sit and talk of what it means to die.

A/N: Hey hey, on a totally unrelated note, I'm going to be posting a fic a day on my livejournal account this November, and I'm taking requests/prompts for that. There's a link on my profile with more information!