Acts of Affection
✩ Grooming, brushing, or tending to their hair.
Some mornings are worse than others.
It is bad enough that sometimes, Iruka must not only remind Itachi to eat the dinner he has prepared nightly, but lead Itachi to his chair, and present his utensils to him.
Itachi Uchiha doesn’t look like the high caliber shinobi of legend when it takes a full minute for his brain to process what is happening. Even his eating is methodical, with little enjoyment. It is an act of necessity, and at no point does he look like he’s sitting down and enjoying a meal that is fulfilling.
All the damage the shinobi system can do and then some is present in one ailing body, and the loss of his goal, to give his life away, added with the monotony of civilian life often leave Itachi stranded in Iruka’s doorways, and struggling with tasks he could do himself when he was in Akatsuki.
Iruka himself is no beautician, but he knows nasty hair when he sees it. The awkwardness of two full grown men sat naked in a bath didn’t last past the first one, and Itachi never struggled.
He sits still, and obedient as Iruka runs a rough brush down the length of his hair, still wet and gleaming from being freshly rinsed. Itachi’s like a shedding cat, and twice he’s had to peel the dead strands from the brush, and opt to set them aside than let them clog the drain.
Itachi might not be all there sometimes– but by the Sage, he’ll make sure the body is in a better state to keep him alive.