[fic] Stumble and Fall
Title: Stumble and Fall
Characters: Hana, Madara
Pairings: implied past Itachi/Hana
Genre: Angst
Rating: K+
Summary: Madara visits Hana to inform her of Itachi's death.
He knocks twice. The door is opened almost immediately and a young woman stands in the doorway, a large grey dog at her feet.
“I have news of him,” he says.
She looks at him evenly for a moment before nodding.
“He said you would show up,” she replies. “Come in.”
She waits for him to enter first. He wonders briefly if this is simply good manners or an unwillingness to turn her back on him.
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Inside, she shows him to the living room.
“Would you like tea?” she asks politely. He nods and she disappears off to the kitchen.
When she's gone, he glances around the room. It's sparsely decorated but manages to feel lived-in all the same. A few shelves contain medical texts and he's interested to realise that some appear to be on the human eye.
The dog that was at the door has been joined by a slightly darker pair and all three come over to inspect him warily. He allows them to sniff him as he ponders their owner. He may have never paid much attention to the Inuzuka but he does realise that having three dogs is quite rare for them.
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At that moment, she returns and sets down a tray on the table. He watches her pour the tea quietly and thinks that for an Inuzuka, she is surprisingly like an Uchiha in some ways.
The dogs sprawl around her as she sits down, folding her legs underneath her.
She hands him a cup and they sip their tea in silence for a while.
“So, he's got himself killed then?” she questions abruptly, interrupting the lull. There's something almost bitter in her voice.
“Oh yes, Itachi-kun went happily to his death,” he replies in a sing-song voice.
“He was such an idiot. Never thought that he might have something to live for,” she remarks, seemingly idly.
He eyes her with carefully disguised curiosity at that but nearly doesn't catch her gaze flicking to her stomach briefly. How had he managed to miss that? He'd thought that he'd known Itachi better than anyone else. Obviously it hadn't been well enough if this had got past him.
However, Itachi had almost requested his presence here. Had he not realised that the girl was pregnant? If he had, why had he told him about her?
He notices that she seems to be waiting for a response and decides to consider it further some other time.
“A misguided fool,” he says, nodding in agreement.
------------------------------------
When she returns from putting the tea cups away, he's gone. In his place is a variety of Uchiha clan patches with a note pinned to them. It reads 'for the child'.
She sits down abruptly, shivering, and places a hand over her belly protectively. No good can come of him knowing about the child she carries. While Itachi had rarely mentioned him, he had always emphasised how dangerous he was and how careful you had to be around him. Letting slip, however she'd managed it, that you would give birth to the next generation of Uchiha was the height of carelessness.
Outside the window, Madara smiles. It is not a nice expression. A child of Itachi's could be very useful indeed in the right hands. Already he is reworking his plans to accommodate this new, but not entirely unwelcome, development. As he prepares to teleport away, he starts whistling.
Characters: Hana, Madara
Pairings: implied past Itachi/Hana
Genre: Angst
Rating: K+
Summary: Madara visits Hana to inform her of Itachi's death.
He knocks twice. The door is opened almost immediately and a young woman stands in the doorway, a large grey dog at her feet.
“I have news of him,” he says.
She looks at him evenly for a moment before nodding.
“He said you would show up,” she replies. “Come in.”
She waits for him to enter first. He wonders briefly if this is simply good manners or an unwillingness to turn her back on him.
-------------------------------
Inside, she shows him to the living room.
“Would you like tea?” she asks politely. He nods and she disappears off to the kitchen.
When she's gone, he glances around the room. It's sparsely decorated but manages to feel lived-in all the same. A few shelves contain medical texts and he's interested to realise that some appear to be on the human eye.
The dog that was at the door has been joined by a slightly darker pair and all three come over to inspect him warily. He allows them to sniff him as he ponders their owner. He may have never paid much attention to the Inuzuka but he does realise that having three dogs is quite rare for them.
-----------------------------------
At that moment, she returns and sets down a tray on the table. He watches her pour the tea quietly and thinks that for an Inuzuka, she is surprisingly like an Uchiha in some ways.
The dogs sprawl around her as she sits down, folding her legs underneath her.
She hands him a cup and they sip their tea in silence for a while.
“So, he's got himself killed then?” she questions abruptly, interrupting the lull. There's something almost bitter in her voice.
“Oh yes, Itachi-kun went happily to his death,” he replies in a sing-song voice.
“He was such an idiot. Never thought that he might have something to live for,” she remarks, seemingly idly.
He eyes her with carefully disguised curiosity at that but nearly doesn't catch her gaze flicking to her stomach briefly. How had he managed to miss that? He'd thought that he'd known Itachi better than anyone else. Obviously it hadn't been well enough if this had got past him.
However, Itachi had almost requested his presence here. Had he not realised that the girl was pregnant? If he had, why had he told him about her?
He notices that she seems to be waiting for a response and decides to consider it further some other time.
“A misguided fool,” he says, nodding in agreement.
------------------------------------
When she returns from putting the tea cups away, he's gone. In his place is a variety of Uchiha clan patches with a note pinned to them. It reads 'for the child'.
She sits down abruptly, shivering, and places a hand over her belly protectively. No good can come of him knowing about the child she carries. While Itachi had rarely mentioned him, he had always emphasised how dangerous he was and how careful you had to be around him. Letting slip, however she'd managed it, that you would give birth to the next generation of Uchiha was the height of carelessness.
Outside the window, Madara smiles. It is not a nice expression. A child of Itachi's could be very useful indeed in the right hands. Already he is reworking his plans to accommodate this new, but not entirely unwelcome, development. As he prepares to teleport away, he starts whistling.